by Isla Jones
“Hello?” She’d been crying, Blake realised. “Hello? Who is this?”
Blake’s tongue darted over her chapped lips. She looked down at her dirty canvas shoes and whispered, “It’s me.”
Silence passed. It shouted from the speaker on the phone, and slammed into Blake’s ear canal. Her eardrum buzzed, reaching out for Rachel’s voice.
“Blake? Is that you?”
Blake nodded and thinned her lips, trying to prevent the choke whimper from chasing up her throat.
“Blake, are you there?”
Oh. Rachel couldn’t see her nod. Blake exhaled a hitched noise and said, “Yeah, sorry. I’m here.”
“Are you all right?” she asked. Blake’s eyes fluttered shut and her tense muscles relaxed. “I heard about … what happened. I need to know you’re ok, Blake. I know you. I know you wouldn’t … you couldn’t.”
“I’m alive,” was all she could say. “And, no, I didn’t do it. I found them.”
Blake gulped down a wad of saliva and stepped down the stairs to the grass. She wandered away from the house, not too far, but far enough that the feeder couldn’t hear her.
“Look, Rachel,” said Blake. “I don’t have long. I need something from you.”
“What do you need?”
“Meet me at the reservoir,” she said. “Can you do that?”
The echoed silence, akin to the hollow sound of a cave, oozed from the speaker.
“Yes,” said Rachel. “I can. When?”
“In an hour.”
“Ok, I’ll be there.”
Blake kicked the soil beneath her feet. “Do you remember when we were kids? And, we used to spend all our time down at the reservoir?”
Rachel’s careful, yet confused voice replied, “When we played pirates?”
“Yeah,” smiled Blake. “And we had that metal detector that we found in your grandpa’s shed.”
“We never found anything except bottle caps and, that one time, a belt buckle. I think I still have them around here, somewhere.”
A flutter ignited in her tummy. Was it a fleeting moment of joy, or a shadow of happiness? Was it nostalgia? Either way, she dismissed it and it died quickly.
“I need you to bring it with you,” said Blake.
“The metal detector?”
“Yeah.”
“Are we playing pirates again? Blake, I don’t think now is the best time.”
“We’re not playing games, Rachel,” she said. “You’ll see what I need it for when I meet you there. It’s really important, Rachel. A matter of life and death. For everyone, not just me.”
“I’ll bring it if you really need it, but I don’t see what use you can possibly need it for. My dad has been at the Sheriff’s office all day. Cops from out of town are helping the department search for you. If they knew I’d talked to you, or helped you—”
“Just bring it,” she said. “Please, Rachel. I can’t say much right now. Someone might be listening. Just trust me, ok?”
“Ok.”
Blake lolled her head back and squinted up at the cloudy sky. “And Rachel?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something else I need,” she said. “Something you won’t understand … But only you can do this for me. No one else.”
After a pause, Rachel said, “Whatever you need, Blake. I’ll do it.”
14
The Witch and the Puppets
Blake shoved her arms into the sleeves of the lilac cardigan. Abe had bought it for her at his favourite flea market in New Orleans. A sad smile slipped onto her face as the soft fabric washed over her skin. The t-shirt she wore showed beneath the parted lilac material; a logo of a band she didn’t listen to clashed with the rest of her mismatched outfit. Hunter had merely grabbed clothes at random, she assumed. Much like Jack would’ve done. But, Abe … He would have spent a while in her bedroom, coordinating her outfit to suit her activities. He never would’ve chosen a Nirvana t-shirt and bed socks to go with skinny blue jeans.
Slipping her feet into her laced brown boots, Blake gathered her limp hair and tied it into a bun. It wobbled atop her head as she grabbed the duffel bag and left what used to be a kitchen. Before she entered the living room, she heard them talk about her. Blake pressed her back against the wall and listened.
“And you just happened to be at the Prescott house when Blake was attacked?” Hunter’s voice spat through the wall like wisps of toxins.
Theodore took a moment to respond. When he did, his tone had softened, and Blake wondered if he could sense her eavesdropping. “She is too precious to my side—to our side—for me to allow her to roam free. You should have kept an eye on her, too.”
“Maybe I have been.” Blake shut her eyes and pictured Hunter squaring his shoulders. Peacocking, Abe called it. “But then, I didn’t know what she was.”
“It was then that she needed you.”
Hunter scoffed. “Well, she had you, didn’t she?”
“Do I detect envy, swamp-boy?” Theodore flattened his voice, and Blake could feel the burn of his eyes pierce through the wall. “If, in this battle, I am taken by the witch,” he said, “it will fall to you to ensure that Blake survives.”
“We all know,” said Hunter, “that none of us will survive.”
“You may accept that fate for yourself, but Blake’s life isn’t in your hands. All can be healed with souls.”
Blake frowned and inched closer to the doorway, just as Hunter said, “Souls?”
“The witch’s power is woven through the seams of her soul. Should Blake consume it, she will take the power and the influence of the witch as her own.”
Mattress springs creaked. It was Hunter, shifting around, before he asked, “How do we do that?”
“Consume the heart, consume the soul.” Theodore lowered his voice. “I tested it on her that night at the Prescott manor. I fed her pieces of her friend’s heart. Her wounds healed.”
Blake stormed around the wall. Hunter was on the mattress, finishing off her half-eaten sandwich, and Theodore stood by the murky windows, smiling at her. He had known, she realised, that she’d been listening.
“You did what?” Her trembling voice squeaked as she dropped the bag to the floor. It thudded against the creaky floorboards.
“His heart was there for the taking,” said Theodore. He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Zeke Prescott wasn’t in need of it anymore, but we are in need of you.”
Blake stared down at the bag. Bile stirred in her stomach, but she shut her eyes and swallowed. Theodore finding humour in her claim that she was a vegetarian suddenly made sense to her.
“I don’t want to think about that.” A shudder shook her body, and she opened her eyes to look at Hunter. His lip was quirked in a show of pity. “I know where the diadem is,” she said.
Hunter stood up. Theodore continued to stare at her, assessing her.
“Where?” It was Hunter. Pieces of her sandwich spat from his mouth.
Blake shuffled her boots against the floorboards. “At the reservoir.”
“The others will be here soon,” began Hunter. “We’ll wait—”
“We will leave now,” said Theodore. “We cannot risk the witch finding the diadem first.” He turned to face Hunter and added, “You may stay here, if you prefer. I will escort Blake to where she needs to go.”
“Hunter’s coming with us,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere without the two of you. I might need you both. Hunter, we’ll go to the bayou village after. Bethany doesn’t know we’re on the move, and we have that as an advantage. It won’t take long.”
Dimples shadowed his cheeks as he clenched his jaw. With a curt nod, Hunter fished his keys out of his pocket and swung them around his finger. “Let’s go, then.”
It took Blake and Hunter twenty minutes to reach the reservoir. They drove the motorbike through the swamp, but at a much slower pace than Theodore’s sprint. When Hunter turned off the ignition on the shore, Theodore was a
lready there, hands in his pockets, gaze fixed ahead at the murky water.
Blake hopped off the bike and treaded toward the foamy tide. The residue grazed over the nose of her boot.
“All right,” hollered Hunter. He perched himself on the seat, and stayed by the bike. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Here, somewhere.”
Hunter hit numbers on his ancient phone, texting the Wolves. Theodore appeared beside her, and stared down at her pensive profile.
She licked her lips and kept her gaze ahead. “You said I could feel it,” she began. “That when I welcome my pain, I’ll find the diadem. That’s what you said, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Since I saw my dads like that,” she paused and cleared her throat. “I’ve wanted to come here. It’s been my favourite part of town since I can remember.”
“You are drawn here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said. “I always come here when I’m … overwhelmed or sad, or even just to think, sometimes. And when I was a kid, Bethany, Rachel and me would come down here and look for treasure. I had to force them half the time. They didn’t like it as much as I did.”
“When I came to your town,” said Theodore, “I felt your presence, your magic. I was drawn to you. I could feel you in the air, traces of your energy.”
“It’s here that we met. It’s part of the reason I think the diadem is here.” Theodore cocked his head to the side. She explained, “You were drawn to me because I can get you home. And I’m drawn here because it’s a part of my home, too, isn’t it?”
“A very small part,” he said. “Generations passed. But, yes, my world is your world, too.”
“What’s it like?” she asked. “Your home, your world.”
“There are many lands,” he said. “Beneath the soil, above the earth. Forests that do not begin, nor end. Waters that have no depths, only abyss. My home is beneath, below. It is dark.”
“The elementals? Do they live underground, too?”
“They live in the forest,” he said. “And the fields, and the waters. They are all around, everywhere, yet nowhere. It makes for a challenging hunt.”
Blake glanced over her shoulder at Hunter. He spoke softly into his phone, but his eyes never strayed from Blake. She looked back at the water. “Can I come?” she asked. “If I survive all of this, can I come with you to that world?”
Theodore, his body aligned with her side, tucked his finger beneath her chin. With that simple touch, he guided her to face him. “You would want to leave the world you’ve known, and depart with a being that is foreign to you?”
Blake sighed, and his finger left her skin. “Even if I survive and stay here, I can’t talk myself out of this. I’ll go to prison, or some loony bin. I can’t hide in the cabin forever. That’s not a life.”
A smirk smeared across his face, and his blue eyes gleamed with malice. “Do you remember when I offered you my assistance, and allowed your life?” he asked. “But, at a price.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“That,” he said, “is the price. Your companionship on my journey home.”
“You wanted me to come with you?”
“I have contemplated it since the early meetings we shared,” he said and nodded.
Blake quirked her brow. “You need a travel snack,” she scoffed. “Why else would you want me to come with you.”
He laughed, and the malice in his eyes dimmed. He smiled down at her. “I do not feel like humans do,” he said. “I do not love you. It is not in my nature, nor my capabilities. However, that should not suggest that I am not fond of you.”
Blake frowned as he turned to face the body of water.
“Many humans have been and gone in my life since I first arrived on this plane. It is you I will remember in centuries to come, long after you are gone from both worlds.”
“Why me? I’m just …” she flopped her hands, “me.”
Theodore seemed to contemplate her question as his eyes swept over the lake. “I have many answers to many questions, and an eternity of knowledge,” he said. “But, that, I cannot say. I do not know the reason for the strange feelings within me, but I know that it is you who rouses them. Before you, I felt longing for my world.”
“And now?”
“I still yearn. Yet, I do not.”
“Maybe that’s why. I’m a piece of home.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed with a gentle smile. “I will know when we reach my world.” He paused and looked down at her slack expression. “They will welcome you,” he said. “Your elementals. You are one of them, and they will open their gates to you, if you choose.”
“Where will you go?”
“The darker place,” he said. “Darker than anywhere you’ve ever been before. A place you will not like.”
Blake kicked a pebble and watched it roll down to the foam. “Purgatory.”
He inclined his head. “I wish for you to accompany me to my world. But not to my realm. You will perish at the entrance. You may only live with your kind, and I with mine.” He added, “Though, we will be able to meet again, whenever we please, in the shared lands.”
Blake snorted and replied bitterly, “As prey and predator.”
“As friends,” he corrected. “Elementals are predators in their own right. Do not forget that I was summoned among them. Their kind, too, feasts on the souls of humans when the hunger strikes.” Blake looked up at him, her unspoken question swarming in her eyes. Theodore added, “It was how I healed you, but you already know that, don’t you? It’s not a hunger that consumes you, but the benefits are there.”
“Oi!” It was Hunter.
A blow of guilt struck her stomach as she realised she’d forgotten he was there. She turned to face him and blanched at the outrage swarming in his brown eyes.
“Want to tell me why she’s here?” He jerked his head toward the slope.
Blake whipped to the side and watched as Rachel pranced down the slope from the carpark. A wrapped metal detector was slung over her shoulder. Her face was scrunched up into a grimace as she glared down at the dirt offending her shoes.
“Rachel!” shouted Blake. Her boots skidded against the pebbles as she broke out into a sprint across the shore.
“B,” breathed Rachel. She grunted and adjusted the detector just as Blake slammed into her and threw her arms over her shoulders. Rachel gripped onto the detector and allowed Blake’s embrace.
“What the hell is she doing here?” bellowed Hunter. He stormed toward the girls, while Theodore remained by the water, observing with utter disinterest.
Blake untangled herself from her stiff friend. “I invited her,” she hollered back, but didn’t tear her gaze from Rachel. The coffee-skinned girl wore complete bafflement on her face, and glanced from the approaching Hunter to Blake.
“He’s all right,” assured Blake as she took the detector. “He’s helping me.”
“And him?” asked Rachel, looking over at Theodore.
“Uh, yeah, him as well,” she said. “Just … Maybe don’t get too close to him.”
Rachel’s brows shot up and her eyelids receded. “Blake, no offense, but what on earth have you gotten yourself into?”
Blake handed the detector to Hunter, avoiding his hard, narrowed eyes.
Rachel stepped closer and hissed in her face, “The cops are scouring the town for you, Blake. They’ve even been down to the bayous. If they haven’t already checked out the reservoir, they’re sure as hell on their way.” Her index finger jabbed at Hunter as she added, “And you want me to bring you silly toys for you and your Wolf. You’re hanging out with a gang member, Blake. Your parents are dead, and this is what you’re doing?”
Blake’s hands curled into fists at the mention of her dads, but she focused. Focused the pain on the diadem, focused her mind on her scheme. “It looks bad, I know,” said Blake. “But this ‘toy’ is going to help me—help all of us.”
“How? Will it find the killer under the pebbles? Will it bring back your dads—”
Hunter snapped, “You have no clue what you’re talking about.” He shot a glare at Blake. “Why did you invite her? She hasn’t got a part in this.”
“Because I needed that,” said Blake. She snatched the detector from his hands and strode down the shore. Rachel scurried to keep up.
“So, the cops are looking for me,” said Blake.
“They came by my house twice today, and thrice yesterday,” confirmed Rachel.
Blake flicked on the switch and hovered the detector above the pebbles. She began to sweep it over the shore, pebble by pebble, step by step. “What are they saying?”
“That you’re wanted for questioning,” she replied. “For a few cases.”
“Murders, you mean.”
“Yes. They didn’t say as much, but my father told me. He thinks you did it. Everyone does, Blake.”
“And you?” asked Blake, scouring the shore with the metal sensor. “Do you think I did it? Any of it?”
Rachel’s hesitation struck her. Blake stilled and looked at her best friend. “You do, don’t you?”
“I didn’t say that,” she whispered. “I just think … that maybe you’ve gotten yourself into trouble with the Wolves. I mean, you’re down here with one, right now. And some stranger.”
Blake traced her gaze to Theodore. He stood a few metres away and smiled as Blake met his gaze. She frowned and looked back down at the stones. “Not everything is how it looks,” said Blake. “And I didn’t get myself into anything—the trouble found me. Bethany found me.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means,” snapped Blake, “that she killed my dads, and her own parents, and Zeke, and her grandmother, and whoever else got in her way. It means that she isn’t like us, she isn’t human … Well, neither am I, but …”
Her voice trailed off into a silent whisper. Rachel’s furrowed brows and gleaming eyes cut her off. The concern and disbelief was palpable, Blake could taste it on the palette of her dry tongue.
