That morning I couldn’t eat. Lexie as promised delivered the information within hours. How she got it I didn’t really want to know. But she delivered on time and efficiently. The Evidence room was in the basement. The knife was sealed inside baggie 14 in box 1387 on aisle O shelf 3.
After my dad’s fall out with Bridget we were able to find a smaller but similar knife in the silverware drawer. It wasn’t a perfect match but it didn’t really matter. I cut my thumb to cover the blade. And dropped it into a plastic Ziploc bag.
If by some chance the cops ever checked the evidence baggie in box 1387 we’d be screwed. The good thing was they’d never be able to prove it…Hopefully.
Maddison was in charge of hacking into the police system and shutting down the camera’s surrounding the evidence room. Dawn, the other IT girl was one of the fallen. Only fifteen years old, she’d died at the hands of Lilith. Her older sister Candy as well.
I hadn’t really been able to mourn them. I’d missed their funerals, and I hadn’t been back to school since the shootings. I had a mountain of homework in my bedroom, and no desire to do it. It seemed unimportant on the larger scale. Graduating just didn’t seem to matter anymore either.
My dad had convinced the school to let me do home studies. But actually doing the studies hadn’t happened yet. I felt like a failure. I needed to get the knife and succeed at something against Lilith before I could move on to normal everyday life.
What was even scarier was that after everything that had happened. It was quiet. Too quiet. Lilith hadn’t sent any scary text messages or possessed any of my friends. It was as if she was waiting to see what I came up with. What I had planned. I knew the clock was ticking. The blood blade was our first step in the right direction.
“Miss O’Brien, can you please tell me exactly what you remember from the night of the shootings?”
I recited the incident back to the officer with dry words. I felt numb to it, like it was a bad movie I’d seen. Not something I’d actually been a part of.
In the middle of his next question something changed and I knew it was go time. A loud earth-shattering bang shook the blinds that covered the window. Outside the sirens of all the police cars started going off at once. Another bang went off farther away. Then another. A chorus of bombs surrounding the building.
The officer jumped from his seat and ran out the door leaving it open behind him.
“I’ll be back just wait here, I’m sure it’s nothing.” His ashen face said otherwise, and I bit down my smile.
What in the hell were they doing? I hadn’t actually thought they’d go pyro and try to blow up half the town.
“What do you think is happening?” I asked my dad with fake concern.
He stood up and went to the window to look out at the street. I jumped up to join him.
“Stupid kids.” An officer yelled from behind us.
I watched the station empty. Leaving only one secretary, and an officer to answer phones. The phones at every desk rang, adding to the chaos. The booming outside continued.
It was almost like fireworks. I glanced out the window and laughed when I saw two masked girls throw a two liter into the street. A loud band erupted as the chemicals inside combusted. It was a simple experiment that we’d learned in science.
Muriatic acid combined with baking soda. It could be extremely dangerous if you didn’t know what you were doing, but as long as no one was near it when it went off it was okay. It was a non-lethal and loud way of getting the cops attention. The girls doing it directly in front of the police station was pretty gutsy. Like thumbing their nose at the cops and screaming nah nah nah nah nah.
“Please tell me those aren’t those bad girls of Rhiannon’s?”
I stared at my dad and shook my head. “I don’t think so, if it is they sure as hell didn’t tell me.” I swallowed the lie and heard Liv sniffling from the doorway.
“Pacey.” She said on a sob.
My dad’s eyebrow went up in disbelief. “Seriously, Liv is actually crying? Whatever you girls are up to I don’t wanna know just get back here before those cops return or I’m not covering for either of you.”
I smiled. Was he really contributing to the delinquency of a minor?
“You realize you girls are crazy right?” He said.
I kissed his cheek and met Liv at the door.
“Whatever you do don’t get caught.” He said as we raced down the hallway.
When we got to the stairwell we slowed. Liv opened the door and checked her watch.
“We have exactly ten minutes starting now. We need to hurry.”
She handed me a pair of rubber gloves. Her own hands were covered in a thin dark leather. She was organized, which was a little frightening. I followed her down the three flights of stairs and stopped when I realized the lights had gone out. Liv pulled out two sets of goggle’s and handed one to me.
“What are these?”
Liv laughed. “Courtesy of Willow’s younger brothers. They got them one year for summer camp. The parents took them away when the boys got caught pulling pranks on the counselors. It’s for a onetime only use tonight, but they sure are sweet.”
Liv pulled her goggles on and slipped a card in front of a keyed entry door it clicked open and she disappeared inside.
The green hew of the night goggles was strange. I blinked a few times until my eyes adjusted. I reached for the closing door and I followed behind her. In her hands she held a kit full of small picks and narrow tools. When we got to the end of the long hall she stopped at a metal cage.
Inside was the evidence we needed. It only took her a minute to get the door open. She typed in a code on the inside keypad and we were home free. She held out the Ziploc covered knife and we walked inside the room.
Row after row of cardboard boxes lined the shelves from floor to ceiling. I looked for the right aisle. My heart was beating so hard inside my chest I thought I’d throw up from the sensation. Liv stopped at the aisle and we walked down it in search of the box. Liv pointed up and I held my hands out to help her reach. She stepped into my hands and lurched up grabbing it.
She pulled the box down and searched for the knife. I could feel the blade even before she found it. I started to speak, but Liv shook her head and pointed to the corner. I nodded and she held out the knife and pulled the other fake one from my grip. I removed it from the clear plastic bag.
She pulled a similar one from her own kit and put the fake knife inside free from the cheap Ziploc. I held the blood blade in my hand and felt it warm against my fingers. It was singing to me. Power rippled up my arms and I sighed softly. It was mine. Liv elbowed me and pointed to her watch. I shoved the blood blade inside my purse. I helped her up again to put the box back and we left.
I prayed they didn’t ask to look through my things. If they found the blade on me I didn’t know what I’d do. Liv paused at the metal cage and retyped the code. She swung the door open and motioned towards the other door. I ran down the hall and paused to wait for her. She removed the goggles and held out her hands for mine. I ripped them off and thrust them into the darkness. Liv pulled them from my grip and opened the door.
She stared at her watch when she closed it behind us.
“Three minutes.” She said with a smile.
I tried to return it but my face was frozen. We’d actually done it. Liv fixed my hair and patted me on the shoulder.
“You did pretty good for your first time P.” She pointed at my gloves and ran up the stairs two at the time. I took them off and threw them in a nearby trashcan.
When I got to the top I took a deep breath to steady my heavy breathing. I opened the door and returned alone to my father. He smiled when I walked through the door. I sat in the chair and rested my head on the desk in front of me.
It took a long time for the cops to get everything settled down. A total of thirty noise bombs were shot off during the twenty-minute attack. Some of the cops were laughing about it, while others were serio
usly ticked. By the time Officer Williams returned he looked exhausted. My father asked for a different appointment to come in and we left.
No one checked my bag or asked if I was involved. It was too easy, or maybe it was just a very good lesson in misdirection. Rhiannon and the other Bad Girls were a force of nature.
Chapter Nineteen
There be Witches
“I can’t believe you pulled it off.” Dean said.
He stared at the now clean blade in my hand. I smiled, knowing full well that it was all them and not me that had gotten it done.
“I didn’t even need to be there, Liv was amazing. If she wanted to she could be a master thief. No one would ever see her coming.” I said.
Rhi smiled smugly. She was right about what the Bad Girls were capable of. Lexie’s help was good to have but without all the other girls it never would have happened.
“You have no idea what we’ve gotten away with over the years Pacey. It would keep you up at night.”
I didn’t want to know, not really. But I was extremely glad I had them behind me.
“Thanks Rhi, you’ll tell the girls right?” I asked.
Rhi frowned. “It’d be better if you did, but yea I’ll let them know. They had a pretty good time anyways. The prank is going to go down in Union High history.”
Two days later we made plans to drive up to Concord. Wes had been staying in contact with Charlie and the boys. They’d set up a meeting for us with a witch they knew would help us. She was going to meet us the following morning at an ice cream shop.
Of all the places I could think of to meet a witch, over ice cream wasn’t one of them. Somehow I’d gotten it in my head that we’d meet her in some small stone cabin, or a forest surrounded by starlight, a big cauldron bubbling in the center of a pentagram.
Yes, my imagination was going a little overboard, but that’s what I saw when I thought of witches. Not an ice cream shop in the middle of the day. I thought of Hansel and Gretel, Harry Potter, and that movie The Craft. I didn’t in my wildest dreams imagine a completely normal meeting place in a town that was right out of Hallmark.
It took over three hours to get to Concord. We left early that morning and arrived just before noon. The sidewalks inside Concord were cobbled stone. Metal antique light fixtures were on each corner. Every business was painted cheerfully with colored flower boxes and window shutters. It was the perfect little town, quaint, and comforting.
We stopped in front of the ice cream shop and parked. We still had a half hour before Pillar arrived. Wes said we’d know her when we saw her. I glanced inside the ice cream shop and noticed the empty booths. Families walked down the streets together hand in hand. A small park at the corner was their destination.
Most of the children and parents had a strange almost yellow hazy glow shining around them. I squinted at their skin looking for the source of the light. What are they? A few of the men were surrounded by a grey haze. It was muddled and frothy like it was covered in dirt.
“Do you see that?” I whispered to Dean I motioned with my head towards the townspeople.
He shook his head not understanding. “What the people?”
“No, the light, it’s like their surrounded by their own little bubbles. It’s really weird.”
Dean stared at them, then at me. I could feel his gaze under my skin. I walked away and sighed. It must be another part of the second sight. The gift from Lilith that kept on giving.
“Pacey.” Dean whispered behind me.
I turned and watched him staring at an incoming car. Wes and Rhi were sitting on a bench just outside the ice cream shop. They both stood when the car parked next to Rhi’s vehicle.
A delicate girl with long hair rose gracefully from the car. She wore a long grey skirt and a slinky black tank top. She smiled when she saw me. Her blue eyes were large and owl like, rimmed with bright green light. The same light that encased her whole body enclosed the other people of her town.
“You must be Pacey.” Pillar said reaching out her hand when she was in front of me.
I held out my own. “Pillar right?” I asked.
Wes and Rhi introduced themselves, and lastly Dean. She paused and let her eyes roam over him. I was getting pretty used to it. He was nice to look at.
“So, shall we go inside.” She asked.
We followed behind her. Rhi stifled and laugh and I elbowed her in the side. I didn’t need her to tick off the only witch I knew that could possibly help us. Inside we each ordered and then took a seat at a booth. Wes grabbed an extra chair and Pillar sat in it slowly. Her body bowing with the elegance of a dancer.
“Alright, well we might as well get the pleasantries over with. I’m Pillar, and yes I am indeed a witch, and on occasion the other kind.”
Rhi’s face scrunched in confusion.
“The kind with a b.” Pillar said around a laugh. The rest of us joined in with her and the tension died out.
“You need travelling mirrors right?” She asked me.
I opened my mouth but didn’t know what to say. Luckily Wes answered for me.
“She does. She needs to get to the Otherside, safely, into Lilith’s Hall of Mirrors.” He explained.
Pillar nodded. “That’s what Kyle said. I have to warn you though. Mortals aren’t supposed to go there. Well not until death. You take the risk by going. Kyle seems to think you can survive it.” She inspected my face then glanced at my scars.
“She’s marked you as her adversary, believe it or not that actually helps. It leaves her touch on you like a fingerprint. That should help you get there. The mirrors however.”
She blew out a steadying breath. “They aren’t as easy to come by. It’s not the reflection itself, it’s the names to enchant them. Almost every soul on earth has been recycled in some manner. Either by death and reincarnation or rebirth. Almost all of us have been someone else at one time. Some of us more than others.”
“New souls are born too but it’s often the marked like you two.” She pointed to me and Dean. “That have been around a really long time. People call you old souls, and they aren’t wrong. The enchantment is like a passport. It requires your names, and I mean all of them in order to work. Most people don’t know all their names, which is why the mirrors never work. With you.” Pillar’s eyes landed on me.
“It’s a little easier. But just to be sure, you’ll have to drink this.” Pillar placed a vial of purple liquid on the table. I stared at the swirling liquid and swallowed hard.
“What does it do?” I asked.
She sat back in her seat and stared down at her long delicate fingers. “It gives you your names.”
“How?” Dean asked before I could.
Pillar smiled and studied him like he was a child. “It’s like a dream, she speaks the names as they are shown to her, and I write them down.” Pillar pulled out a pad of paper and pen.
I reached for the vial but Rhi stopped my hand. “Are there any side effects she should know about. You know warts, boils…being turned into a frog.”
I groaned at her insult. That was Rhi, strike first, and ask for forgiveness later. Pillars eyes narrowed. A pulse of heat wafted off her skin. We all sat back and breathed in a breath of surprise.
“The only affect, is remembering what one may not wish to remember. Not all lifetimes are happy, you take the good, with the bad, that is your choice.” Pillar’s voice vibrated in the room. The haunting tones powerful and warning.
I stared at the bottle then at my friends. Dean’s face was frozen in a grimace his eyes on the vial near my hand. Rhi was shaking her head. Wes was the only one who looked eager. He nodded at me once and gave me a half smile. I reached out took the vial twisted the top and swallowed it down.
“Pacey.” Dean and Rhi said together.
I shrugged and waited hoping that whatever happened wouldn’t hurt. My vision fogged and the ice cream shop disappeared. I was staring into a mirror, but the reflection wasn’t the same. I tilted my head and wa
tched the woman mimic me. Her eyes were identical but her hair was a warm rich honey. I smiled and watched her part her red lips and show her teeth. Eve. She whispered.
“Eve.” I said out loud.
The image in the mirror blurred and changed. Next I was an African women. Dark purple eyes and brown rich skin. Gold hoops rose on my neck. Marrah. She said with a husky voice. And my own voice followed behind her.
Three more images arose each one different and beautiful. I had blond hair, then brown, dark red. My name was Akima, Sorah, Leriatte. The image swirled. My face was tan and my eyes a rich purple, my name was Annah. Two more names rose out of the mirror and were spoken from my lips. Elizabeth and last Patience.
I stared at my own reflection for a long time. The scars were visible on my neck and my eyes were a bright purple.
“Patience.” I said at last.
My image turned to show me her naked back as she walked away. I stared at the image of my soul retreating until the fog moved from my vision and the ice cream shop snapped back into place. Four sets of eyes were staring at me in wonder.
Rhi glanced over at Pillar and said. “Do me next.”
We all broke into cheerful laughter. Pillar sat back as giggles rocked through her chest. For a moment we were all just a bunch of teenagers with a new friend. We weren’t hunting a demon, or running on borrowed time. We were free even if it was only for a moment.
Pillar suggested we go back to her house to complete the ritual for the mirrors. We were silent on the drive over. Flashes of my past lives kept crawling across my vision. I had Akima’s laugh, Eve’s blind ability to love, and Marrah’s unwavering belief in family. I was all of these women and none of them. Their souls carried along inside of me but unmistakable from my own.
I saw their lives in pieces, their triumphs and sorrows, loved ones gained and lost. They were all different yet somehow the same. We were sisters and daughters, lovers and wives. Some were even mothers and I felt older than I ever thought possible.
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