The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl

by Paige McKenzie

  Another idea comes to me.

  I rip all the leads off my body.

  Everything begins beeping like mad. Footsteps pound down the hall. Latoya straightens and hisses at the doorway like a wild animal.

  She turns to me, her eyes glowing nuclear red. “You cannot stop him,” she growls in a man’s voice.

  And then she flings the door open, practically ripping it off its hinges, and runs away.

  CHAPTER 4

  Home Again

  You cannot stop him.

  Stop who?

  Home from the hospital, I lie in my comfy bed with my fleecy Star Trek blanket scrunched up to my chin. Lex Luthor, who is all black except for the white patches on his face and his chest, is a warm, purring puddle near my feet. Oscar naps on the carpet, thumping his tail. I’ve been sort of napping for the last hour but sort of not.

  This is the first time I’ve been in my room, in my house, since New Year’s, when I met Aidan for the first time and he almost immediately hauled me off to Llevar la Luz. He wanted me to go there to hone my luiseach skills, but just as importantly, he wanted to hide me from Helena, who was out looking for me so she could finish what she started sixteen years ago.

  I wish I could relax and just enjoy being here with Lex Luthor and Oscar and all my stuff, but I can’t.

  I burrow under my blanket even further. At least I don’t have to worry about the Latoya demon anymore. After receiving my distress text, Aidan somehow managed to get to the hospital in time to intercept her. She was driving out of the parking lot in a stolen minivan and about to mow down a couple of orderlies in an attempt to escape. Aidan exorcised the demon. And magically erased the orderlies’ memories of the event. And magically erased Latoya’s memories of the event too and convinced her that she needed to take the rest of the day off to recover from her very sudden, very bad headache. Like I said, he’s a super-big-deal luiseach.

  And while Aidan was busy with Latoya, Helena apparently went to the police station and dealt with Mrs. Ostricher’s demon.

  Yay, teamwork?

  Poor Mrs. Ostricher. She must have no clue why she is locked up in a holding cell. And how will she react when she learns about what she did? Have the police officers already told her? I hope the shock didn’t—doesn’t—give her a heart attack. I wonder if Aidan might be able to find her a good lawyer to defend her in court.

  Your honor, my client pleads not guilty by reason of demonic possession…

  Outside my window the sky is dark blue with twilight. My clothes feel warm and itchy against my skin, and it occurs to me that I’m still wearing the same jeans, T-shirt, and sweater I was wearing on Ashley’s and my road trip from Llevar la Luz… and this morning at Victoria’s… and this afternoon at the hospital. I seriously need to take a shower and change (and get a haircut to fix my fireballed frizzball… and, if Ashley had her druthers, put on some makeup or maybe even totally overhaul my look—less Salvation Army and retro, more H&M and current).

  But I am beyond exhausted. Like emotionally and physically wrung-out-like-a-wet-rag exhausted. Like I-could-close-my-eyes-and-sleep-for-the-next-decade exhausted.

  What is happening in Ridgemont? When I left here in January, things were bad—but not this bad.

  I peek over the edge of my blanket and peer around my room. At least nothing has changed in here. Everything is pink. Pepto-Bismol pink, to be exact. Pink shag carpet, pink rose wallpaper, even a pink light switch. (This was our landlord’s design concept, not mine.) Dr. Hoo, my beloved white taxidermied owl that matches Anna’s stuffed toy, perches on a shelf above my desk as though standing guard over my antique typewriter and glass unicorn figurines. I found him in an antique store just outside of Austin; he was so me that I couldn’t not buy him. As for the figurines, Mom has given me one every year for Christmas starting at age five, after my kindergarten teacher read The Last Unicorn to our class. On the floor my vintage clothes and prized Jane Austen collection spill out of my duffel bag, which still bares traces of the reddish dust that seemed to cover everything at Llevar la Luz. My stuffed animals Theodore Bear, Bear Brontë, Beary Grant, Giraffey, and Pupperoni are perched against the wall, neat as soldiers.

  Between my bedroom and Mom’s bedroom is the bathroom where Anna’s ghost first came to me. Her dad, possessed by a water demon, had killed her by drowning her.

  What is it that they say about silver linings? There really isn’t one here, except that Anna has become my friend—and my savior on more than one occasion.

  Suddenly all of this… this… insanity comes crashing down on me. I start to cry—quietly at first, then loudly with my whole body shaking uncontrollably. My life feels so… awful. Overwhelming. Only hours ago I met my biological mother for the first time since I was born, only to almost die at her hands—again. I tried to kill myself. I decided not to kill myself. I faced down a serpent-demon—three serpent-demons. I then faced down another demon at the hospital.

  Plus, a lovely old lady tried to burn down the mall.

  Plus, Helena and her “luiseach council,” whoever they are, may vote to execute me.

  Plus, there is that man in black I keep seeing.

  I didn’t sign up for any of this. Not for the first time, I wonder how I can un-luiseach myself, like Victoria did.

  Eventually my pity party sob session runs out of steam. I won’t be able to fix my sorry life or the sorry state of the world by holing up in my room and crying. I take a few deep yoga breaths and reach for a box of tissues—there isn’t one, so I swipe my yucky, drippy nose against the back of my sweater sleeve—and glance at the mint-green 1950s clock radio on my nightstand. It’s almost dinnertime, and I realize I’m starving—I don’t remember the last time I ate. A bag of potato chips at that rest stop in Idaho? I didn’t have anything at the hospital. It would be beyond awesome if Mom ordered in an extra-cheese and pepperoni pizza and we had a movie night, like we do every week. Did, rather, before I took off for Mexico with Aidan to become a super-luiseach who could save humanity. Ha.

  Where is everybody, anyway? Except for Oscar’s snoring and Lex Luthor’s purring, the house seems eerily still. After Aidan dispensed with the Latoya demon, he insisted on driving me home—once Dr. Kothari had discharged me, that is, with strict orders to rest for twenty-four hours. Nolan texted and said that he and Victoria had been discharged too and that he was going to head home to check in with his parents while Lucio drove Victoria to her house. I thought I heard Mom and Ashley downstairs earlier? (At the hospital Ashley showered me with presents from the gift shop: a pile of celebrity gossip magazines, candy, and a book called Endless Longing with a cover of a hunky, shirtless nineteenth-century guy who is just about to kiss a sweet, blushing nineteenth-century girl. “Because you like historical stuff,” was Ashley’s explanation.)

  I rise out of bed—Lex Luthor meows in annoyance at me for disturbing his cozy napping spot—and look around for my phone. I wonder if Nolan has texted.

  He has. Seven times.

  Are you all right?

  Is it okay if I come over?

  I miss you.

  Are you all right?

  I miss you.

  Can I come over?

  Okay, I’m coming over.

  A smile tugs at my lips. The thought of seeing Nolan and spending time with him—we did just officially become boyfriend-girlfriend today—lifts my mood. Is he already here? I glance out the window; beyond the tops of the pine trees I can see his big, beat-up navy blue Chrysler parked on the curb behind an old-fashioned black sedan, and my heart does a silly little happy dance. Maybe he’s downstairs with Mom and Ashley—and Aidan too, if he stuck around after dropping me off.

  I put on my fuzzy bunny slippers and poke my head out the door. I hear faint voices drifting up from downstairs. I proceed quietly down the steps. Oscar and Lex Luthor follow, thinking it’s their dinnertime too.

  As I near the first-floor landing I can hear the voices more clearly. They are coming from the living room—h
ushed, angry whispers. Who is arguing?

  I stop, press myself against the wall next to the framed poster of the Austin skyline, and listen.

  “Let me address your council. They need to understand that Sunshine is not the enemy. The darkness is—or more importantly, whoever has been organizing the darkness.” That’s Aidan.

  “She is making us weak. Her very existence has enabled the darkness to grow because she put an end to the birth of new luiseach, upset the balance. They are taking over. Just today in Ridgemont alone there was the old woman and the nurse at the hospital. And we have been receiving reports about similar incidents from all around the world. In addition, there is the climate issue.” That’s Helena.

  Wait… Helena is in my house? But how and why and when and… My hand moves to my back jeans pocket. Good, my knife is there, just in case she decides to pull any moves.

  Also, what climate issue? And then I remember hearing that news item at the hospital, about temperatures decreasing all over the world.

  “Our birth rates were declining decades, centuries before Sunshine was born. Besides, you see how powerful she is. You and I, we created something incredible. A miracle. She is going to save our kind, not destroy it.” Aidan again.

  “Excuse me!” That’s Mom. “I know I’m not one of you, and I don’t understand half of what you’re talking about. But lady, if you try to harm my daughter again, I will see to it that you… you… well, all I can say is, you’ll regret it! Honestly, what kind of mother are you? What kind of luiseach are you? I thought you people were supposed to be on the side of good. You should be in jail, not sitting in my living room sipping Earl Grey tea.”

  “Yeah, I’m with Mrs. Griffith on that.” That’s Lucio, who sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth, ready to drag Helena to jail himself… or worse. He’s here too?

  “Lucio, right?” That’s Mom again. “You can call me Kat. And by the way, thank you for looking after my daughter in Mexico.”

  “You were with Sunshine in Mexico?” That’s Nolan.

  “Um… yeah. Why do you want to know?” asks Lucio.

  “We haven’t officially met. I’m Nolan Foster. Sunshine’s boyfriend.”

  “Oh.”

  I never told Nolan that Lucio was at Llevar la Luz the whole time I was there. Or that Aidan is Lucio’s mentor too. Or that Lucio and I sort-of kissed while I was there, although I couldn’t go through with it because I loved him, not Lucio.

  I never told Lucio that I had a boyfriend either. My boyfriend-protector.

  But one difficult, awkward conversation at a time.

  I unpeel myself from the wall next to the Austin poster and trot down the last few steps. I suppose I need to be part of this “family” meeting, even though the subject at hand appears to be whether or not to eliminate me. Great. It seems like Aidan is winning the debate, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

  When I reach the first-floor landing a cool draft hits my face. The front door is open a crack, letting in the cold. Springtime in Ridgemont.

  I see a shadowy movement through the square glass pane.

  Who’s missing from this party? Victoria? Ashley?

  I tiptoe over to the door, trying to keep my footsteps quiet on the hardwood floor, and peer through the crack.

  There is no one there.

  No, someone is there. Or was.

  Goosebumps prickle my arms as I open the door further. An engine roars, tires squeal… and that vintage black sedan, the one that was parked in front of Nolan’s Chrysler, speeds away. It disappears around the corner, but before it does I catch a glimpse of the driver.

  He is wearing a black hat. One of those hats like you see in 1940s gangster movies.

  It’s him.

  CHAPTER 5

  The Man in Black

  I saw him again!” I shout as I run into the living room. Oscar follows at my heels, yipping and barking. Lex Luthor is at the front door, sniffing and hissing, his back arched like an upside-down U and his tail puffed up like a rabid raccoon’s.

  Everyone stops talking and stares at me. Helena sits stiffly on a plastic folding chair and sips tea from a chipped Texas Rangers mug (which is surreal in a time-warp way considering that neither the Rangers nor plastic folding chairs existed in the eighteenth century or nineteenth century or whenever she was born—luiseach do age but very, very slowly). Aidan towers next to her with his hand resting elegantly on the top of the mantel.

  Lucio is on the couch next to Mom. Nolan, who is wearing his gold wire-rimmed glasses, sits cross-legged on the floor with a notebook, pen, and map. The map. The map with the pentagram, the map that saved my life earlier today.

  Nolan and Lucio both leap to their feet when I enter the room. Mom also leaps to her feet. She is already reaching into the pockets of her ladybug and sunflower scrubs for a thermometer or stethoscope or whatever. “Why aren’t you in bed? Dr. Kothari was very clear. Twenty-four hours of—”

  “Saw who, Sunshine?” Aidan interrupts.

  “The man in black!” I blurt out.

  “What man in black? Clarify, please.”

  “He’s a… I’ve seen him a few times now, mostly from a distance. I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about him, but every time I tried, something came up and… anyway, this time he was at our front door. Our front door. Just now, right this second. I saw him through the little glass thingy. But when I opened the door he was driving away.”

  Aidan strides to the window and peers cautiously through the Venetian blinds. His jaw is clenched, and his shoulders are rigid with tension. “When and where did you see him previously, Sunshine?”

  “Well, the first time was in January at the Seattle Airport, when you and I traveled to Mexico. The second time was… in that village, the one near Llevar la Luz. When that demon was setting fire to everything.”

  “Wait. What demon? What fire?” Mom demands.

  “I’ll explain later, Mom. I saw him again this morning, Aidan. Just before I… when I fell into the…” I hesitate.

  Helena stands up abruptly. Tea sloshes out of her mug and onto her dress, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

  “What did he look like, exactly?” she asks me calmly. Not for the first time, I notice we are the same height and have the same mouth.

  I describe his long black coat and old-fashioned black hat. It’s weird speaking with Helena, acting like we’re on the same side; the last time we exchanged words she was just about to choke the life out of me, and even now she is trying to convince Aidan that I need to be put down like some dangerous animal.

  “But it’s not his outfit that made me notice him,” I continue. “He has this… I don’t know how to describe it… this aura of darkness about him. Like that creepy shadow around the moon…”

  “Penumbra,” Nolan speaks up.

  I point to Nolan and nod yes yes yes. “That! Penumbra! It’s really, really strong around this guy.”

  Nolan frowns, considering this. Then he gets down on all fours and begins scanning the map from right to left, his lips moving as though ticking off numbers. I stole this map from Aidan’s laboratory before leaving Llevar la Luz. Aidan had circled four locations and written a date next to each; the dates correspond with four mysterious luiseach deaths that took place four years apart starting in the year of my birth. But that was as far as Aidan got.

  I figured if anyone could detect a pattern, it was Nolan. And I was right. Somewhere in his brilliant Einstein mind he figured out that he had to rip the map in half and flip the right and left halves. Then he drew a pentagram on the map with his own blood (I’m sure he would have used a pen if he’d had one at the time), connecting the four locations and adding a fifth—Ridgemont.

  I was number five. I was supposed to die today.

  Helena takes a deep, shuddering breath.

  “Helena?” Aidan says.

  She says something, but her voice is so low that I don’t hear at first.

  “Who is it? Do you know him?
” I ask.

  She won’t look at me. “It’s Dubu,” she says quietly to Aidan.

  “Dubu?” Aidan barks. “But we thought he was—”

  “He’s not,” Helena cuts in.

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  Aidan clasps his hands behind his back and begins to pace around the living room. Helena watches him nervously.

  “Um, does anyone want to clue me in? Who is this Dubu person?” I ask.

  Aidan stops his pacing and fixes his milky green cat eyes on Helena. He looks furious… afraid… something. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

  “You’re certain Dubu is still alive?” Aidan says to her.

  Helena barely nods. Her cheeks are bright red.

  “So he is the one who’s responsible for all this? The one who has been organizing the darkness?”

  Helena nods again. “It’s the most plausible explanation.”

  “May I ask why you chose not to bring this up earlier?”

  “Who. Is. Dubu?!” I persist.

  Aidan walks over to the window again and gazes out at the empty street beyond the tall bushes and pine trees.

  “Dubu is a Markon,” he says finally.

  “A mark on what?” I ask.

  “Markon. M-A-R-K-O-N. A super-demon.”

  I gulp. A super-demon? Because regular old demons aren’t bad enough?

  “What is a… how can they… I mean, why didn’t you tell me about these Markons in Mexico, Aidan? You know, during my ‘How to Become a Luiseach in Ten Easy Steps’ seminars?”

  “I didn’t know about them either,” Lucio informs me.

  “We thought they were all dead. There were only three of them to begin with,” Aidan explains.

  “Why has Dubu been following her?” Helena tips her head in my direction. “What is he after?”

  “The fifth point on the pentagram,” Nolan says suddenly.