Go for the Juggler

by Leanne Leeds

  Everyone buries the lead.

  We walked around the perimeter of the Magical Midway to ensure that Aidan’s crossing was made at a place that was the most out of sight from any humans that may arrive at the shelter unexpectedly. Aidan moved as if he’d been drugged. Devana and Gunther hauled him along as best they could, but it was painful to watch my friend in such a state.

  I felt responsible.

  Intellectually, I understood that Aidan Parker’s bloodline inheritance had absolutely nothing to do with me. There were partial paranormals in the human world, and since my home awakened them to this knowledge it was inevitable I would see things like this. It was just part of the gig. If I really thought about it, frankly, it’s not a surprise that a part-paranormal would be drawn to me without being aware why.

  But this was Aidan.

  Even though I knew him for a short period of time in my adult life, we bonded so well. I knew his fears and his hopes. I knew what he had wanted so much for his life. I knew how pragmatic he was, what a skeptic he could be. I never would’ve guessed this was where his life was headed.

  And when we walked him across the barrier, where his life was headed would dramatically change. I knew it.

  Fortuna, Mark, and Gunther knew precisely what they were getting into when Roland and I changed them from part-paranormal to full supernatural beings. They embrace the change willingly, even felt that transformation was completing them. They began their new lives sure of who they were meant to be.

  Aidan had no idea about any of this. Not only that, I would have to ask him to make a choice. A choice he couldn’t possibly fully understand.

  “This is good,” I said as we came to a stop behind the big top. The vast red and white canvas should shield us from any prying eyes.

  “Do we walk him across?” Gunther asked.

  “I guess you’ll have to,” I told him as I searched Aidan’s face. “Aidan? I don’t know if you’ll be able to hear me, but here’s the situation. This is a paranormal circus. I’m a witch. So are my parents. I’ve been told that you descended from witches. As soon as you step across this line that you can’t see, your powers will be uncovered completely. I can’t tell you what that’s gonna feel like.”

  “Charlotte, it will be… okay, I think,” Aidan murmured.

  “If you don’t want to be what you’re about to become, I can undo it,” I continued, my voice growing thick with emotion. “But you have to make the change before I can undo it. I’m so sorry, Aidan. I don’t think it’s going to be pleasant. But I can’t do anything about that.”

  “You knew… about… the waiter because you… saw it in my head,” Aidan choked out, his head lolling on his neck as Gunther and Devana continue to support his weight. “I can see… he thought I was cute… you sucked as… a wingman…”

  Despite my tears, I laughed.

  “I will do better… for you… promise.”

  I nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can to make this easier.”

  “Nothing about this… will be easy… that’s okay.”

  I nodded again and took four steps through the barrier to the Magical Midway grounds. Gunther and Devana held Aidan across from me just outside of the barrier, but I could see the energy of the Magical Midway coursing through him. It was like the bubble was reaching for him to pull him in.

  Maybe it was.

  “Pass Aidan to me.”

  I held out my arms as Gunther and Devana walked Aidan forward and delivered him into my outstretched arms. I was grateful for the super strength that the Magical Midway had bestowed on me, because when Aidan crossed the threshold his muscles convulsed like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. They were so tense I was afraid his bones would snap. It was horrifying to watch, more horrifying to feel as he vibrated against me.

  Even with my powers, it was a struggle to hold onto him.

  “Mom! Calm him down! Soothe him in whatever way you can! Mom, please!”

  The tension in my friend's muscles lessons some, but the choking gurgle that echoed from his open mouth continued relentlessly. His eyes were opened wide, and each pupil bounced independently in different directions.

  I could hear the dogs barking from the kennel as if they, too, could sense the power rushing through Aidan’s body. I struggled to hold Aidan upright. I didn’t want his first experience in the paranormal world to be one of humiliation and writhing in the dirt, but I couldn’t support him anymore. Gently laying him down, I shouted for a pillow or blanket.

  “It… will be over… soon…” Aidan choked out as I held his head in my lap. “You can tell… Devana… there will be no need to kill me today.”

  Devana’s eyes refused to meet mine when I glanced at her.

  “No one’s going to kill you, Aidan,” I told him as I brushed his dark hair from his eyes. “I’m not sure if you know yet, but I’m the most powerful witch on the planet. I definitely wasn’t gonna let anyone kill you.”

  “You can only… stop what you can see… and you’ve missed… things…”

  “Everyone misses things, Aidan. I did the best I could.”

  “We have to do… better,” he smiled as the tremors in his body slowed. “You have all the pieces that you need, now. I was the last… the piece that you needed to do what you need to do.”

  “What do I need to do?”

  “Right now? Help me up,” Aidan said as he sat upright and began brushing the dust off of his expensive designer jeans. “I certainly can’t greet my new world looking like this, now, can I?”

  I scrambled off the ground and reached out a hand to help Aidan. He clasped it tightly as I pulled him up. Once standing, he held fast and wouldn’t release me. I raised my head.

  “You don’t get to feel guilty for this,” my friend told me as he pulled me in closer. “I was always who I was. You don’t get to feel guilty for this. No matter what happens, no matter what path we take from here, I want you to promise me that you will never feel guilty for this.”

  “Aidan, come on,” I told him, rolling my eyes. I tried to pull my hand from his and to avoid making the promise he was trying to extract from me, but he held me firm. Admittedly, I had superpowers, and I could yank my hand out of his hand lickety-split, but I didn’t.

  “I mean it, Charlotte,” Aidan insisted, squeezing my hand.

  “Sure, sure, no guilt, whatever,” I told him. Finally, he released me from his grip, and I motioned for him to follow me. “We need to get you to Ms. Elkins.”

  “Yes, I know,” he said and began walking.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it was decided before this moment, so I know,” he told me and shrugged. “It’s happening, and so it’s done.”

  “I completely don’t get what the heck you’re talking about.”

  “You will.”

  “I thought you couldn’t see the future?”

  “I can’t, but I know you, Charlotte. There hasn’t been a mystery invented in this world or the paranormal one that you can’t unravel.”

  9

  “I have absolutely no idea what all this hubbub is about or why that guy was shaking, but I thought I was the main focus of the issue here?” Tiffany complained as we walked into my yurt.

  “It’s… awfully small, Charlotte,” Aidan said as he looked around the small pie-shaped section of the yurt. It was dark, and dingy, with a cot in the corner and a camping stove and the other. A towering stack of boxes marked clothes set toward the back served as my closet. At least that’s what we intended the police to think.

  “Follow me,” I told Aidan as I walked through the stack of boxes.

  “Oh wow, so it’s like the Harry Potter platform?”

  “Something like that,” I told him as I stuck my head out of the top box. “To the human police, they look like regular boxes. You just have to make sure when you’re leaving no humans are in here. Obviously,” I told him as I stuck my hand through the box and pointed at my face. “This could freak them out a little
bit.”

  “You all should go through,” Devana said. “I will stand to watch at the tent door. It will ensure you’re not seen entering.”

  I withdrew deeper into the tent. Uncle Phil, my mom, Aidan, Gunther, and Devana soon followed in after me. Tiffany suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of my face.

  “Why are you not listening to me?” she shouted, an icy breeze blowing across my nose. “I’m supposed to be a big deal here! You said you would help me! You don’t know who killed me, you don’t know how I’m supposed to move on, you don’t know anything!”

  “Now, that’s not exactly true, is it?” Aidan asked her. “You haven’t exactly been forthcoming with information to the Astleys, have you? If you aren’t honest, how are they supposed to help you?”

  “I don’t know you. Do I know you? No, I don’t. So that means you don’t know anything.”

  “You may not know me, Tiffany, but I do know you. At least, I know the actions of your life that solidified your path. The choices you made that led you to this place,” he told her sincerely.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” she told him as she crossed her arms. “I just got sent here by the judge, no one here knows anything about my life. I don’t know these people. I sure don’t know you. So can it.”

  “The dog that you kidnapped was not some sorority dog,” Aidan told her as his eyes grew slightly unfocused and his pupils dilated. “The dog was the service dog of a disabled college student that lived in that sorority, not some mascot. You humiliated an animal that spent his life in service to his master, an animal that was a gift from the girl’s brother. A gift to make her difficult life just a little bit better.”

  “You don’t know that. How could you possibly know that?” Tiffany gasped as she backed away from Aidan.

  “The closer my connection to someone, physical or emotional, the more of their book I can read,” Aidan said, his eyes returning to focus. “I have access now to everything that has ever happened in the world—as it was experienced, at least. But I need a spirit as a… bookmark, I guess? I can go a little ways out from that person, but not very far.”

  “Do you know who killed her?” I asked him.

  “I… I don’t really see information like that,” Aidan responded. His eyes became even more unfocused as he swayed on his feet. After a few moments, he shuddered. “I have to see it through someone, follow known threads. I can see it happening, I can feel his anger, I can hear her screams. But no one right now knows who killed her except for the murderer. So there are not many threads I can follow to discover his identity. If that makes any sense?”

  “So the more people that have information and the more connections, the more clear it is to you?”

  “Isn’t that what he just said?” Ethel Elkins snapped as she shuffled into the great room. “We have been waiting for you, young man. Nice of you to finally show up.”

  “I wasn’t aware, previously, that anyone was waiting on me, ma’am,” Aidan told her. “It wasn’t until I came close to the Magical Midway that I understood what the dreams meant.”

  “Some reader you are,” she harrumphed.

  “With all due respect, I wasn’t a reader then, ma’am. At least not that I knew,” Aidan pointed out.

  “Now don’t you get all sassy with me, young man! Remember, you’re just here to give us insight into the past. I’m the one that’s in charge of the future,” she told him as she pointed her bony finger. “Since the future’s the only thing we can all still screw up, that means I’m the only one in charge.”

  “With all due respect again, ma’am, it didn’t happen that way the last time, and now that I’ve arrived I don’t believe it will be happening this time, either,” Aidan said as he tilted his head and smiled at her kindly.

  “Last time what?” I asked, confused.

  “The last time the hands of fate got involved directly with the human and paranormal world,” Aidan told me.

  “Now she’s not ready to know about that!”

  “Again, with all due respect, ma’am—I am the reader of the past. It’s not your choice anymore what Charlotte will know of the past and what she will not. It’s mine,” Aidan responded firmly.

  The two stared at one another. Ethel Elkins mouth worked up and down like a fish trying to gasp for oxygen when it was out of the water. Finally, it snapped shut with a thud, and she nodded once.

  “Jeez, Aidan, you’ve just slipped right into a seat on this crazy little train, haven’t you?”

  “I guess you could say that,” Aidan laughed. “To be fair, my particular skill set in our little endeavor allows me to understand very quickly what’s happened and where we are right now. Ms. Elkins understands the past to an extent because of her age and what she’s lived through—”

  “Don’t you go talking to people about my age, young man! Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to talk about a woman’s age!”

  “Of course, ma’am,” Aidan nodded and turned back. “You are the most untouched by what has happened in the past, but that’s as it should be, Charlotte. Don’t let anyone criticize you for your lack of understanding. You are not beholden to the past,” he said. With a quick glance at the old woman, he leaned forward and whispered in my ear.

  “…or the future.”

  Gunther, who had been watching this exchange quietly, suddenly spoke up. “What does that mean, exactly? That she’s not beholden to the past or the future?”

  Ethel Elkins shot an angry look at Aidan.

  “Nothing prophesied must come to pass, Mr. Makepeace,” Aidan told him gently. “Nothing dictated by the past must be adhered to. Charlotte is, as she was meant to be, free to choose. Ms. Elkins and I can help her do that, but ultimately, it is the present and the choice that hold sway over us both.”

  Ethel Elkins crossed her arms and sighed loudly.

  “The past,” she sighed again. “Always so pompous and annoying and convinced of its own righteousness.”

  “But necessary,” Aidan smiled.

  “I’m working on that,” the old woman snapped back.

  Devana and Ethel Elkins retired again to the old woman’s room with the door closed. My mother returned to check on my father at the main house, and Gunther left with Tiffany to see if they could figure out the best course of action to help her move on.

  Aidan and I sat down on the sofa.

  “I feel like I should explain everything that’s gone on to you,” I began once we were alone. “But I suspect you know everything with your new power and all. It certainly seems like you’re a bit more in control of yourself than you were when you spotted Tiffany. Man, the look on your face…”

  “I am, quite in control,” he nodded. “Much is clear to me now. There’s no need to go over things from our human past, and as I got closer to the Magical Midway, I seemed to get closer to the truth of this new reality. What happens now? You said I had a choice to make?”

  “Well, we probably need to move the midway over to the Makepeace Circus so Roland and I can make you full-blooded if you’re sure that’s what you want to do. I take it you’re planning on staying in the paranormal world?”

  “I am, but if you are talking about turning me into a full witch, there is no need. I am a full witch.”

  I stared at Aidan in shock.

  “Wait, what? How?”

  “Did I ever tell you I was adopted?” Aidan asked. I shook my head no. “No, I guess I wouldn’t have. It wasn’t something I told a lot of people, especially since I was really struggling with the whole gay thing when we met. It would’ve been just one more thing I was uncomfortable with, I guess.”

  “I remember,” I told him. “And by the way, the night we went out on a ‘date’? I didn’t actually peek into the head of the waiter, dude. We had just met that night. So the wingman crack wasn’t really fair.”

  “I know, I was really just teasing you,” he laughed. “It seemed like an easy way to lighten up what was a really tense moment. I didn’t need psyc
hic power to tell you were struggling with it.”

  “I just remember how hard it was going from the regular world into this paranormal one,” I told him. “I didn’t want to do that to you. Or, I guess, it’s not exactly that. It’s that you clearly were unable to rationally think it through. But I had to do it to you, anyway.”

  “This is who I’ve always been, Charlotte. Now that I have this power, I understand that my parents knew I was a history reader. We aren’t born very often, only in times of great shifting. My mother knew it was likely the Witches' Council would have me killed as soon as they found out about my existence.”

  “They would have a baby killed?” I asked, shocked.

  “They would do almost anything to keep their power over other paranormals,” he responded. “They have grown corrupt over time, more corrupt and better at making people accept the reasoning of it. I can tell that just from reading my own parents motivations and seeing the threads of your own immediate history.”

  “So to protect you, your mom gave you up for adoption to someone in the human world?”

  “Not to someone,” Aidan said. “To someone she didn’t know. She didn’t know who I wound up with. It was a closed adoption, and though she could have worked to discover my whereabouts, she had a psychic block placed within her mind by her own mother so she wouldn’t remember any of the information she would have needed to find me.”

  “Wow. That’s crazy. Is your mother still alive?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I can only see before that moment. You’re the witch in charge of the present. Do you think she’s alive?”

  “Aidan, I never thought my power was all that big of a deal. I can just sense something from one person, and only if they’re screaming it in their head or I’m really concentrating. It hasn’t gotten any more vast since I became ringmaster, either,” I said.

  “Your power is much more vast than you give it credit for,” Aidan said as his fingers tapped my hand gently. “Your parents have done the same thing that my birth parents did, dissuading you from experiencing your magical side until it was time.”