Phantom

by Laura DeLuca

  “A rock?” She teased. “Really, Lord Justyn, you shouldn’t have.”

  The innocent look faded and turned playfully conspirative. “Sometimes, Becca, things are more than what they appear. Something can seem a little rough around the edges.” He flipped over his little stone, revealing an inner cavern that sparkled with a layer of blue and white crystals. “But when you take the time to look a little closer, you might find something there that you never expected.”

  “It’s . . . it’s beautiful.”

  She accepted the gift hesitantly. She was almost afraid to touch it, worried that her clumsy hands would shatter its delicate perfection. It was surprisingly sturdy despite its fragile appearance. She ran her fingers along the shining crystals, and swore that the stone hummed with energy all its own.

  “It’s a geode,” Justyn explained. “The crystals promote healing and creativity, and offer protection.”

  “Is this your subtle way of telling me my acting needs work?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Well, it can’t hurt. But I was more concerned with keeping you safe, especially after what happened to Wendy.”

  It was only with great effort that Rebecca managed to keep the conversation light after the reference to Wendy’s accident. But she didn’t want the conversation to end badly when things were going so well, so she just played off her nervousness.

  “Make me a better actor and keep me from falling off the stage. That’s a tall order. You really believe this one little rock can do all that?”

  “There’s amazing power and beauty in everything in nature. You just need to take the time to look for it and understand it. Which brings to me my second gift.”

  “Wow, I feel like it’s my birthday.”

  “Well, Samhain, Halloween, is a special holiday at my house. It’s one of the most important and powerful days of the year for a Wiccan. My family always likes to exchange little gifts.”

  Rebecca was having visions of Justyn and two black clad parental figures standing in the middle of the cemetery, chanting strange invocations in an effort to raise the dead. He must have noticed the look on her face. He rolled his eyes again, good-naturedly, and handed her a small paperback.

  “This book will explain things. Wicca probably isn’t what you think it is. But Samhain is a day when the veil between worlds is the thinnest. I always feel my father’s spirit is close by on Samhain.”

  “Your father is . . . .” She paused, not wanting to sound rude.

  “On the other side,” Justyn finished. “I call it the Summerland. It’s a place where your soul waits to be reincarnated.”

  “I’m sorry about your father,” Rebecca said. “What happened to him?”

  Justyn shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, but she noticed he had to clear his throat before he spoke again. “Cancer. It was a long time ago, though. I was barely walking.”

  “So your mom raised you alone?”

  “Pretty much. She got married again a few years ago. Matt’s cool, but he doesn’t really understand me.”

  “I can’t imagine why. I mean—you’re such an open book.”

  Justyn rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, as long as my mother’s happy, it’s all the same to me. Matt gives me my space.”

  “Well, I’m going to make a point of reading this book over the weekend.” Rebecca promised. “I’m sure it will be . . . very enlightening. But right now, I really need to get home and get my costume together. Will you be coming to the dance tonight? Or will you be too busy exchanging Halloween gifts and communing with the dead?”

  “I’ll do my best to work it all into my schedule, but I can’t make any promises.”

  It didn’t seem right that she should feel so disappointed when she was going to the dance with someone else, but still she felt her hopes drop. “All right. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Have a good time with Tom.”

  It was hard to miss the hint of contempt in his voice when he spat Tom’s name in only barely contained disgust. Rebecca was relieved when she was able to slip away before he could take it any further. The last thing she wanted to talk about with Justyn was her date with Tom.

  Rebecca drove home, and immediately jumped into the shower. After she blow dried her hair, she rolled it in hot curlers. Then she fixed her makeup as she waited for the curls to set. It took her a few times to get the sparkling false eyelashes to stick, but when they finally did, she added glitter eye shadow and a deep pink blush. She didn’t normally wear much makeup, but for Halloween, which had always been one of her favorite holidays, she made an exception. Her own life was so boring, it was fun to pretend to be someone a little more exiting, or adventurous, or in this case magical. This year, Rebecca had chosen a wood fairy as her costume.

  After she was done with her makeup and removed the curlers, she used a sparkling lotion to cover her arms and legs in a very light, subtle shimmer before slipping into the costume. The flowing orange, gold and green gossamer top stopped just above her belly button. The matching skirt was a little shorter than she expected, but she had to admit, it was sexy. She completed the outfit with a pair of golden leg laces that tied just below her knees, a set of over-sized wings, and a ring of orange flowers that she placed on top of her hair. The whole ensemble was covered in a splattering of leaves, giving it an earthy, fall look. The colors complimented her olive skin tone, and overall, she was pleased with the final results. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to turn sideways to get her wings through the door.

  Rebecca was always the one oddball female who was done getting dressed way before she had to leave. She had at least another half hour before Tom would arrive to pick her up. On a spur of the moment, she picked up Justyn’s book, and looked at the cover.

  “Wicca Revealed,” she read aloud. “A glimpse into the peaceful life of pagans.”

  She opened up to the first chapter and found that just the first few lines enchanted her. She had known witchcraft wasn’t really a bunch of big-nosed women with warts who flew around on broomsticks. But she had never known much about the principles of the practice. She didn’t think it was anything more than casting spells and reading tarot cards. As she read the opening lines of the poetic “Wiccan Creed”, which beautifully summed up the basic philosophy behind the religion, she learned that not only was it not evil, it was actually beautiful. She finished the entire first chapter and was just about half way through the second when her cell phone rang.

  She stuck a piece of paper in the book to mark her page and picked the phone up off her desk. She noticed it said “unknown number” instead of a name, but she was worried Tom might be calling her to tell her that he had changed his mind about taking her to the dance after all. So she answered it on the second ring.

  “Hello.”

  “Don’t go to the dance with Tom tonight.”

  Rebecca just about dropped the phone when she heard the same garbled voice that had threatened her before, distorted by some of type of electronic gizmo. Even as her hand started to tremble she cursed the Internet for making it possible for some crazy person to obtain the device they were using to terrorize her.

  “Who is this?” Rebecca demanded. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  Instead of answering, the voice plagued her with a horrible tuneless verse. The same verse that the phantom sung not long before the chandelier was sent crashing down into an unsuspecting audience.

  “Listen to the demands I make,

  Do it for your lover’s sake.

  If you don’t there’s sure to be,

  Disaster, misfortune, a calamity!”

  The line went dead as soon as the last word was sung, leaving Rebecca to wonder if the Halloween dance could possibly go as well as she had hoped with such a horrible threat hanging over head.

  Chapter Twelve

  A horn was honking loudly and a little obnoxiously from her driveway. Rebecca peeked out her bedroom window and saw Tom’s truck. As she ran down the stairs, she resolved
not to think about the phone call. There was no point in letting it ruin her night. After all, what could possibly happen at a high school dance? There would be at least a dozen chaperones there. She would be fine.

  Rebecca had expected that Tom would at least be gentlemanly enough to get out of his car and knock on her door. Maybe it was for the best—if he didn’t come in, her father wouldn’t try to grill him about his intentions toward his daughter. In fact, her parents barely looked up as she slipped through the living room and out the door. They probably assumed she was going to the dance stag and riding with a group of girls, the way she normally did.

  When she first walked up to the truck, she couldn’t see Tom through the tinted windows. She wasn’t sure if he planned on getting out of the truck at all. She was just about to reach for the handle when the passenger side door suddenly flung open. Before Rebecca could guess whether she was supposed to climb in, Tom stumbled out and fell onto his knees in the pebbled driveway. He burst into snorts of laughter as he pulled himself back to his feet. Rebecca was too surprised to even think about helping him up from the ground.

  “Becca!” Tom shouted much louder than was necessary when she was standing only a few feet away. “Your captain has arrived!”

  She assumed the captain pun was a reference to his pirate costume, complete with curly black wig, phony beard, and swashbuckling sword. He even had a colorful stuffed parrot attached to his shoulder. It was a great costume and more than appropriate for the resident surfer. Tom would have looked great except for the fact that he was still having trouble standing.

  “What’s wrong with you, Tom?”

  Tom opened his mouth and scratched his fake hair like he was trying to think of an answer. But before he could, the horn blared again, and Jay’s head popped out of the window.

  “Dude, come on! We’re going to be late. What are you doing?”

  Tom rolled his eyes, reached for the door again, missed it, but somehow managed to maintain his wobbly footing. “Okay, okay.” He dismissed Jay with a wave of his hand. Then he turned to Rebecca and whispered confidentially. “Jay’s just mad because it’s his turn to be designated driver.”

  “You’re drunk?”

  Rebecca was a little shocked, even though she knew it was a common practice for a large majority of the kids to get trashed before the dances. She just hadn’t realized that Tom was one of them. She had expected more from him.

  “You, ho, ho, and a bottle of Captain Morgan.” Tom laughed again and used all fours to climb back into the truck. “Drunk. Crunk. Smashed. Hammered. Sauce money!”

  Rebecca seriously considered turning right around and stomping back into her house. She took a few seconds to process everything, and she finally told herself that it really wasn’t such a big deal. Tom would probably calm down once the effects of the alcohol wore off a little. She had been looking forward to the dance for too long to just walk away. At least Tom was responsible enough to have someone else drive when he was obviously impaired. So even though she was still annoyed, she squeezed into the cramped two-seater next to Tom.

  “You look purty, Becca,” Tom slurred.

  Rebecca fought the urge to roll her eyes as she put her folded fairy wings on her lap. Jay pulled out of the driveway almost before she had time to pull the door shut, and certainly before she had a chance to buckle her seat belt. His driving was reckless; she had to wonder if he had snuck a few drinks as well. Other than that, the point of Tom’s plastic sword was poking her in the back the whole way there. Luckily, it was only a ten-minute drive from her house to the school, and somehow they made it there in one piece. Rebecca’s legs were trembling as she slid back down onto solid ground, and she felt the urge to drop to her knees and kiss the concrete parking lot in gratitude for having survived the crazy joy ride.

  They waited for Jay as he pulled his costume out of the back of the truck. Rebecca watched curiously as he draped a large red and silver magnet around his shoulders. It wasn’t a real magnet, of course. It was made of Styrofoam. About a dozen little, yellow birds were attached to it with Velcro.

  “What are you supposed to be?” Rebecca asked as she strapped her wings back around her shoulders.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He appeared disappointed that she hadn’t figured it out. “I’m a chick magnet.”

  Rebecca couldn’t help but chuckle as the three of them walked towards the doors of the cafeteria where the dances were always held. There was a line leading to the entrance where the student council was checking IDs before allowing anyone in the building. Tom fumbled in his pocket to find his, and then dropped it at least ten times before he finally managed to hand it to the underclassman manning the door. It wasn’t a good start to the night, and Rebecca knew things were only going to go from bad to worse when Wendy came up behind them.

  “Well, well, Tom. You’ve really lowered your standards, haven’t you? Last year you came to the Halloween dance with me. This year you’ve resorted to traveling with geeks and freaks.” Tom stuck his tongue out at her even as Jay flipped the middle finger, but she was too busy glaring at Rebecca to notice. “What are you supposed to be anyway, Becca?”

  Rebecca sighed. The last thing she wanted was to start a word war with Wendy. “A wood fairy.”

  Wendy sneered. “A fairy? How cute. I hear that’s the most popular choice for kindergarteners this year.”

  Rebecca felt her face turn beet red. She certainly couldn’t think of any snappy comebacks, especially when Wendy was walking perfection in her sexy hippie costume. The short paisley print dress had a dramatic plunging neckline that showed off her figure to full advantage. Her straight blonde hair was parted down the center, and accented by large, dangling peace sign earrings. Hot pink, vinyl go-go boots completed the outfit, and even the healing cuts on her face didn’t take away from the stunning look. It really did make Rebecca’s costume seem childish in comparison.

  “Shut up, Wendy.” Tom draped his arm around Rebecca’s shoulders so heavily that she almost fell over under his weight. “Why you gotta be such a be-atch all the time. Leave Becca alone.”

  Tom started to drag her away, but he was slow, and Wendy was able to lean over and whisper a not so veiled threat. “It’s not over between us, Becca. I’m going to get you back for what you did.”

  Wendy stormed off in one direction, and Tom gratefully led her in another. They squeezed through the cafeteria doors and into a maze of flickering strobe lights, orange and black streamers, and fake spider webs. They were instantly blasted by the loud, blaring rock music, and even if Tom said something, she probably wouldn’t have been able to hear him.

  Somewhere along the way, they lost Jay in the crowd as they blended in on the dance floor. Tom was hardly coordinated enough to match even Rebecca’s pathetic attempts at dancing. Instead, he dragged her over to a dark corner where they sat silently for a few minutes while Rebecca watched the disco ball bathe the dancers in circlets of sparkling lights. Monster masks and creepy costumes swirled around and blended together until the scary faces started to look almost real. She wondered if somewhere among them the mysterious caller was lurking. The thought made her shudder.

  Rebecca tore her eyes away from the dizzying scene when Tom inched a little closer to her. He put one hand on her knee, a little awkwardly, and used the other to lift her face to meet his still slightly glazed eyes. Then he leaned down to kiss her.

  It was hardly romantic. Not at all the way she had dreamed her first real intimate kiss with Tom would be. He tasted of alcohol, and was almost rough as he forced his tongue into her mouth. It was so unlike the times he had gently brushed her lips when he was sober and more himself. Then he had been sweet and tender, not clumsy and awkward. Rebecca realized that she didn’t like Tom very much when he was drunk. When he clipped her lip with his teeth and she tasted the irony bitterness of blood in her mouth, she finally had to pull away.

  Tom pouted. “What’s wrong, Becca?”

  “You’re drunk.”

&
nbsp; “So what? Everybody’s drunk.”

  Rebecca crossed her arms and huffed. “Well, I’m not drunk. And I don’t really feel like making out with someone who is.”

  Tom sighed and put his head in his hands. He seemed a little more sober than he had been just seconds before. “I’m sorry. I guess I was trying a little too hard to be cool. But I really like you, Becca. And I . . . .” Tom paused and was quiet for a lot longer than he should have been. Then he suddenly groaned and clutched his stomach. “I . . . I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Rebecca didn’t have time to ask if he was all right. He jumped down from the table and flew across the dance floor, very nearly knocking over a few dancers in his haste. He ran toward the bathroom with his hand over his mouth and never looked back. Before long he was out of sight, and Rebecca found herself groaning as well. Her dream date had officially turned into a nightmare.