by Jim Johnson
Bonita took a hand off the steering wheel and patted my leg. “You let me know when you want to have that talk with Abbie. I’ll go with you. Maybe the three of us can get together. I think having me there will help, you know, soften the blow.”
I stared at her. “You’d do that for me?”
She glanced at me and met my eyes and nodded before focusing back on the road. “Of course. I love you, you silly goose. And Abbie, by association.”
I nodded. “Things are still weird. Miss Chin showed up at some point, really pissed off…I can’t remember the details.” Which bothered me for reasons I couldn’t articulate.
She turned the car onto Windsor. We were just a couple blocks from Branchwood. Bonita added, “Besides, I’m nearly as weird as you are. I can explain some of my talents to her. I think we can get her to come around. How did she handle the early part of the meditation?”
I was distracted, thinking about Grandpa. “What? Oh, I guess... I guess she was all right. Confused, mostly.”
Bonita nodded. “Sounds a bit like Steven when we first started dating. He was a bit stand-offish about my skills and profession, but he gradually worked it out.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What changed his mind?”
She snorted and gave me a wicked look. “When I showed him that my healing hands had a whole lot of interesting uses.”
I caught the look of amusement in her eyes and managed a laugh. I’d never seen all these sides of Bonita before. I sighed, actually happy in spite of all that was going on. “You’re an awesome friend, Bonita. I’m lucky to have you here with me.”
She nodded and turned into Branchwood’s parking lot. “You’re a good friend, too, Rachel. Thanks for confiding in me. We all need friends to talk about things with that our significant others can’t really talk about.”
She found an empty space along the fence farthest from the nursing home. “Well, I guess this is where we get out?” She turned off the car and glanced at the building through the window, then back to me. “Would you like me to go with you?”
I bit my lip, and followed her gaze. It could be nothing, but then… I focused on her. “I shouldn’t ask you, but…I could really use your help.”
She smiled sidelong at me and opened her door. We got out of her car and started toward the main entrance. As we moved through the parking lot, Malcolm’s black Mustang roared into the parking lot and skidded to a halt near us. The gurgling engine shut off and then the driver’s door opened. Malcolm pulled himself up out of the car and gave us a nod.
I gave him a little wave. “Malcolm! I meant to call, but my cell phone died and I haven’t memorized your number.”
He shrugged inside his purple parka. “That’s all right. My grandma called me earlier and said that you’d stopped by for a visit. She told me about the new missing resident. I got here as soon as I could.” He glanced at Bonita. “What brings you two here?”
I gestured toward Bonita. “Malcolm, this is my best friend, Bonita. Bonita, Malcolm.”
They shook hands quickly. I sorta pushed them both toward the main entrance. Bonita said, “I’ve heard a lot about you, Malcolm. I hope your sister is okay.”
He shot me a look, but nodded. “She’s doing okay now that she’s home. Mom and dad are keeping an eye on her and we have her visiting a counselor. She’s young, you know, confused.” He shrugged. “We’ll work it out.”
He paused in front of the glass doors of the entrance. “Rachel, hang on. Why are you two here, and why are we rushing in?”
I turned to stare at him. “Do you remember that face we saw…in the stairwell? The glowing tunnel thing? We think he’s the one responsible for the deaths here. I think he knows who I am and I suspect he’s gonna go after my grandpa to get back at me. We’re going in to check up on grandpa.” I stared up into his wide brown eyes. “I could really use your help. How about it?”
He glanced at Bonita and then back to me. “Hell yeah, I’ll help.”
I caught the slightest hint of a bronze glow in his eyes. I nodded. “All right. Let’s do this.”
Chapter 49
MALCOLM LED THE WAY IN THROUGH the large automatic glass doors. The visitor’s desk and entrance were deserted.
I said, “I haven’t been to Branchwood at night before, but I assumed there’d be a night guard at the visitor’s desk.”
Malcolm focused on the empty desk. “There should be someone on duty around the clock.”
Bonita glanced down the two hallways stretching to either side of the visitor’s desk. “No one roaming the halls, either.”
A dull thump from somewhere in the depths of the nursing home sounded. I paused, craning my neck and extending my senses to try and hear. It sounded again, and this second one sent a chill down my spine. I rested a hand on Malcolm’s arm. “Did you hear that?”
He glanced at me with a frown as the thump sounded for the third time. “Is that the same…?”
I locked eyes with him and nodded. “Has to be. That son of a bitch. He’s already started.”
“Hey, chica. Care to clue me in here?” Bonita stood near the visitor’s desk, staring at me and Malcolm. “Did your Spidey-sense go off?”
I glanced at Malcolm. “Bonita’s okay. She knows about…” I gestured toward my crystal and then stuck a finger on my forehead. “The weird stuff, you know.”
He nodded, but shot me a look. I quickly focused on Bonita. “The first time Malcolm and I experienced…when we Awakened here, we were following a phenomenon that had a bass-like thumping sound accompanying it.”
Bonita’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Interesting. I haven’t had too many auditory elements to my workings.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, this one’s annoying as hell.” I started down the hallway toward my grandpa’s room. “Come on, let’s go check things out.”
Bonita reached out and grabbed a handful of my hoodie. “Hey, do you think that’s the best idea?”
I shook my head. “I have to, Bonita. This has to end now. I have to check on my grandpa and make sure he’s okay. He’s the only real family I’ve got left.”
I traded a look with her, and then she met my eyes and saw the conviction I tried to project. She let go of my arm and then nodded.
I led her and Malcolm down the hallway. Grandpa’s room was closer to the visitor’s desk than Malcolm’s grandmother’s room, so we knocked on his door first. No answer.
The bass sounded again, and then started to pulse, almost like a heartbeat, tempting us to come investigate.
I glanced at the two of them and knocked on Grandpa’s door again. Still no answer. “Screw this!” I said, and then tried the door lever. It was unlocked and opened with ease.
I pushed my way in, Bonita and Malcolm right behind me. Grandpa was asleep in his bed, though the vibes I was getting off him felt all wrong. I rushed to the side of his bed and switched on my inner Eye, and gasped at what my new sight showed me.
A thick gossamer-like strand of pure white stretched out of my grandpa’s body, stretching out toward and through the doorway and out into the hall. I suspected it stretched all the way to that stairwell too.
“Shit! Come on!” I pushed past Malcolm and Bonita back into the hallway, and followed Grandpa’s white thread of life down the hallway. Now that I had my Eye open and working, I saw several other threads stretching out from other rooms, all converging on the same hallway. I stared at Malcolm.
“I’m sure you can’t see this, but trust me when I say that everyone in the nursing home is in real trouble unless we can do something, fast.”
He stared at me and glanced at Bonita. “What’s going on?”
Bonita closed her eyes and whispered some quiet words in an incantation I remembered being from one of her meditation chants. She opened her eyes, and I could sense that she was using her inner Eye. She gasped as well.
“Oh, gods, Malcolm. I don’t care if you believe in all this stuff, but imagine everyone’s soul is a big white ribbon. Whe
n you die, that ribbon is cut and your soul goes to Heaven, or Hell, or whatever you happen to believe in. With me so far?”
He nodded. “Sure. What’s that have to do with what’s happening here?”
The bass thumping grew louder and faster, making it harder to hear and be heard. I raised my voice. “All the residents—their soul-ribbons, for lack of a better word, are being stretched out beyond their bodies and pulled toward the rift the Spinner made in that stairwell.”
Malcolm stared at me. “Who?”
I shook my head and yelled over the loud bass rhythm. “The Spinner. That’s what Miss Chin called him. He’s the guy in the glowing tunnel, the one that screwed with us that day we met.”
Malcolm clenched his fists. “That bastard wants to kill everyone, doesn’t he?”
I nodded. “I think I know where we need to go.”
“That stairwell, right?”
I nodded, then focused on Bonita. “I told you earlier I could use your help. And I still do. But Malcolm and I can’t ask you to come with us to that stairwell—it’s too dangerous.”
A mix of emotions passed over Bonita’s face. She said, “I can’t hope to understand even a tenth of what you two are capable of, but…” She stared at me and then sighed. “Go do what you need to do. I’ll try to get a headcount of the people affected here and then I’m going to call for help. If you somehow manage to save these people, they’re all going to need medical attention.”
I reached out and pulled her into a hug. “Thanks for everything, Bonita.”
She returned the hug and then separated. “Go, Rachel. Go save your grandpa.”
I nodded and then slapped Malcolm on the bicep. “Come on, hero. Your grandma’s caught up in this too.”
We hurried down the hallway, leaving Bonita behind. I glanced at Malcolm once we reached the entrance to the shorter corridor that led to the stairwell. “This is where it all began for us.”
He met my eyes. “I guess so.” He reached into his front pocket, then pulled his hand out. He had that ten-dollar bill crushed in his grip.
I stared at him with wide eyes. “I thought we decided to wait on that until we could control it.”
He stared at me. “I think we’re safer with it than not. And maybe we give that bastard a surprise.”
I didn’t have a good answer for that, though seeing the bill again made me quail inside. Something about it was very wrong, like it was tainted somehow. Evil.
Malcolm nodded down the hallway. “So, what now? Just straight on in?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I guess just be ready?” I held out a hand to keep him from moving ahead. “Hang on a minute.”
I clenched my crystal in my hands and closed my eyes, and concentrated to push myself into a calm, meditative state. It took only a moment for me to find the eye of the storm deep within me, a bubble of calm floating around a storm of noise and energy. I reached out and grasped a virtual double-handful of ley threads, and quickly wove them into a rough shield that I set up in front of us.
I focused on him and then gestured down the hall. “Come on.”
Chapter 50
WE FOLLOWED THE THICK STRANDS OF white life-threads stretching the length of the hallway, all leading toward that stairwell door. The bass thrumming deepened and changed in tempo as we approached, sounding too much like my heart when I was running hard or when Abbie got me right up close to the edge of ecstasy.
The Spinner was waiting for us.
We reached the edge of the doorframe. The strobing light visible through the window was a mix of colors, white and gold and blue, that flashed in time to the bass line. I glanced at Malcolm. “It’s like a rave in there.”
“Then it’s time to end this party.”
I winced and then stared at him. “Did you really just throw a one-liner out there?”
He shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do.”
I shook my head. “You watch way too many movies.” I took a deep breath as the bass started to level out. I could see the door shaking slightly in its frame. The glass pane set into the door flexed with every pulse.
“He’s in there, Malcolm. Waiting for us.”
He licked his lips, then nodded. “I’m about as ready as I’m gonna be.” He reached for the door handle.
I grabbed a handful of his sleeve. “Wait!”
His expression turned questioning. “What?”
I raised a hand in warning and then wrapped the other one around my crystal, and slitted my eyes against the strobe show. I took a few deep breaths and attempted to center myself, pulling what strength I could from within. I looked down to see the crystal glowing with its customary soft, silvery glow.
I focused on the ley shield I had constructed and adjusted it so that it stood in front of us. “I’ve made a sort of shield with my abilities. If you focus, you should be able to see it.”
Malcolm closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He opened his eyes and then reached out. His hand touched my ward shield. He jerked back, as if he had touched a live wire or an open flame.
He stared at me with wonder in his eyes. “How did you do that?”
I shrugged and focused my energies forward. If we were going to get attacked, it was going to be from whatever was in front of us in that stairwell.
“A little shielding technique I picked up.” I glanced at him, and sensed the mixed aura around him. His had a warm, bronze-ish cast to it. “If we survive tonight, maybe I can teach it to you. Or you can come with me to meet Miss Chin and we can learn it together.”
He looked confused. “Who?”
I could barely hear him over the bass thump. “Never mind.” I glanced at the stairwell door. “Let’s discuss it later.”
He snorted. “If there is a later.” He gestured for me to stand back. “I’ll get the door.”
I rolled my eyes again. “No, you step back. I’ll open the door. I’m the one with the shield, remember?”
The strobe light effect behind the door grew more intense. I stepped in front of him and moved my shield to protect both of us, and then I reached out and pulled the door open.
The same curtain of light was there, stretched out across the stairwell, filling it completely with rainbow pulses of light and that impossible bass thrum. The life-threads stretched out from the hallway and into the conduit, at least twenty, probably more. The Spinner had everyone in his clutches.
For a moment there was just the bass thump and the strobing light, and then there was a high-pitched scream of victory. The Spinner’s face took shape in the center of the strobing lights. Malcolm yelled from behind me and I sensed a surge of power from him. An arc of bronze-tinged blue fire shot over my right shoulder toward the Spinner’s face, splashing into the conduit, adding another color to the rainbow.
The Spinner flinched back from the sudden burst of energy, and then leered at us. A thousand tiny tentacles of yellow-gold energy burst out of the doorway and shattered my silvery shield. They darted past me and wrapped around Malcolm, and then reeled him in.
Malcolm cried out and tried to grab me, but I just missed his hand. He was pulled bodily into the conduit. His cry was soon muffled by the constant bass hum.
In the space of a heartbeat, Malcolm was gone. I was left alone, once again. “God dammit.”
I blinked at the strobing vortex and wisps of tentacles twitching to and fro, digging deep for strength and courage. This was it. There was literally no one left who could save Malcolm, Grandpa, and the others. My memory flashed to that question I had considered back at Miss Chin’s—it wasn’t ‘why me’ any more…it was ‘what now’?
The crystal on my chest was a glowing comfort; the ley threads and energies all around me were my companions now. I clenched my hands into fists, gathered the etheric energies, and then leaped into that writhing vortex.
My answer to ‘what now’ was that it was time to end this, once and for all.
Chapter 51
IT WAS THE STRANGEST FEELING
, JUMPING into a tunnel of coruscating light. For a moment I thought I was going to get bounced off, but the deep bass thrumming stopped as soon as I crossed the threshold of the Veil, and then I was through, piercing the Veil and soaring down and along the arcing path of the conduit built by the man I had encountered three times now.
The Spinner. I was sure I was going to see him for a fourth time. And this would be the last time, if I could do anything about it.
I don’t know how long I soared along that conduit, working toward a dark spot in the center, but just as abruptly as I had entered the twisting tube of blue and yellow-gold energies, I was vomited out of it and unceremoniously dumped out onto a gray-tinged parking lot that had tiny arcs of blue light flitting to and fro, forming the outlines of everything I saw, like an effect from a low-budget cyberpunk movie.
I shifted to my hands and knees and looked around in wonderment. Even having visited the Holding with Miss Chin, I wasn’t prepared for the return visit. I was kneeling outside a shadowy, full-size reproduction of Branchwood, right down to the landscaping and the sign outside. The parking lot was empty.
I was looking at a copy of the real world, only in grayscale with odd blue flecks of energy sprinkled over every surface. The sky was likewise washed-out gray, with tiny blue pinpricks for stars and a moon with a glow that had shifted on the blue scale. It was familiar, yet alien at the same time.
I sure as hell wasn’t in Virginia any more.
The other side of the conduit was behind me. I turned, surprised to see that this side of it consisted of white light with a yellow-gold tinge, and was as still as the surface of a pond on a quiet day—a huge departure from the storm I’d seen coming in. I focused my Eye on the conduit and saw that it was anchored in place—clearly the Spinner knew how to secure rifts in the Veil.
Just to be safe, I reached out through the Veil and dug into the ley grid back home, and pulled several threads together to form my own anchors on the rift. If the Spinner were to break off his anchors, I wanted to be able to get everyone back home, somehow.
