by Lynne Ewing
When the plastic cover fell to the patio floor, her fingers released a metal hook inside. One click and the Tudor home was no longer safe from an intruder.
She paused, nerves on end, then as silently as she could she slid back the door and entered. A television played cartoons loudly somewhere in the house. She stole her way across the dark family room to the lit kitchen and peeked secretively inside.
A woman in pink slacks and a white sweater spooned ground coffee into a coffeepot. A young girl of about twelve with a bald head and swollen face stared into an open refrigerator. Behind her a thin boy in a wheelchair rolled to the table and spread peanut butter onto cut pieces of celery.
The girl took an apple, and as she closed the refrigerator door, their eyes met. “Tianna!” Her smile was huge. She dropped the apple and ran to her, arms spread wide.
Tianna stepped into the kitchen, baffled, and embraced the young girl.
“I knew you’d come back,” the girl said.
The boy grabbed the gear on his wheelchair. Its motor whirred and he twirled around, his smile crooked but his happiness showing through.
Then the woman shot a worried glance at Tianna, and her forehead wrinkled as if seeing her had brought on sudden distress. “Thank God you’re all right.”
Tianna blinked. “Mom?”
“Mom?” the girl repeated, and laughed.
The woman patiently hushed her. Then she turned to Tianna. “You can call me that if you want.” She put a cautionary finger to Tianna’s lips.
“But don’t say anything more.”
“Is the house bugged?” Tianna asked.
“I wish it were that simple,” the woman explained. “They can read minds.”
Her answer sent a chill through Tianna. “You know?”
“Now I do. I didn’t believe you, either, at first, but then they came here.” She looked at Tianna with mounting concern. “What happened? No, don’t tell me.” She shook her head. “If I know, they’ll find out. I can’t stop them from getting inside my head.”
“I don’t remember anything,” Tianna confessed. “I know I should know you, but I don’t.”
“They must have done something to you.” The woman didn’t act as if Tianna’s confession was strange at all. “I’m Mary, and this is Shannon.”
“You really don’t remember?” Shannon asked.
Tianna shook her head.
“And Todd.” Mary smiled lovingly at the boy.
“You didn’t forget me, did you?” Todd waved. “We played Monopoly.”
“Sorry.” Tianna shrugged.
“Sit down.” Mary pulled out a chair. “I’ll tell you everything I know, but it’s not a lot.” That look of fear shot across her face again. “I don’t think they’ll come back now, but if they do, run. Don’t worry about us. It’s you they want.”
“How do you know?” Tianna felt Shannon’s comforting hand on her arm.
“Because when they go into your mind to read,” Mary explained, “they leave a residue of themselves. I can’t say how I know, but I do.”
Tianna sat down. Her knees felt too weak to hold her any longer, and her fingers began trembling.
Shannon took her hand and squeezed it tightly. “We’re here for you, Tianna. We’re family now, just like Mary said.”
“You were an emergency placement—” Mary began.
“Placement?” Tianna asked.
“I’m a foster mother,” Mary explained.
“I have no home?” Tianna felt her heart drop, but it wasn’t as much of a shock as it should have been. Part of her had known she had been running for a long time. Still, she had hoped.
“I’m sorry,” Mary answered with true concern. “They called me two weeks ago and asked if I could take…” She stopped.
“What?” Tianna asked, wondering if there was something wrong with her.
Mary regarded her kindly. “The social worker wanted to know if there was any way I could handle a problem teen.”
Tianna waited for Mary to explain.
“She said you kept running away from your placement homes and she thought maybe I could make a difference because I had been so successful with others in the past.”
Tianna knew immediately that there was something Mary wasn’t saying. “So the kids and I went shopping and got everything for your room,” Mary continued. “We were excited to have one more in our home.”
That explained one mystery at least, Tianna thought. Now she knew why the decor and her style of clothes were so different.
“And then you arrived.” Mary brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen into her face.
“In a really bad mood,” Shannon added.
“Yeah.” Todd rolled his eyes.
“Sorry,” Tianna whispered.
“You had no clothes, no personal belongings,” Mary remarked. “You said everything had been stolen. So we went shopping. You have great taste, by the way.”
Tianna smiled.
“It seemed like everything was going to be fine,” Mary went on. “But then, you became nervous and kept checking the locks. That didn’t seem too odd, considering we live in L.A. Twice during the night on Sunday you woke me up but it was as if you were checking to make sure I was okay. I had been home-schooling you so I thought maybe it would help if you went to high school and made some friends.”
The coffeepot gurgled and the smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the room.
“Would you like a cup?” Mary asked as she stood and poured herself one.
Tianna shook her head.
Mary sat down and took a sip before she continued. “Monday morning I enrolled you in La Brea High, and then I took the kids over to the hospital for their treatments. When we got home, you were already waiting for us. You told me that the two guys who had been chasing you were back. I wanted to call the police, but you told me not to. You said the police department had never believed you before. I called them, anyway, of course.”
Tianna thought of the note in her shoe. “And they didn’t believe me this time, either, did they?”
“You told them the guys had big shining yellow eyes,” Shannon put in. “Nobody believed you. Not even me.”
“Me neither.” Todd shook his head.
“I felt sad that such an athletic and intelligent girl like you had lost touch with reality again. The social worker had told me that you had delusions. But then…” Mary looked at the children, and Tianna could feel their fear. “Tuesday night we found out it wasn’t a delusion at all. Everything you said was true.”
“How?” Tianna was worried now that Justin and Mason might come back and hurt them.
“You had gone to Planet Bang. Maybe I shouldn’t have let you, but you seemed to like this boy so much and I thought it would be helpful for you to get out with…”
“Normal kids,” Tianna finished the sentence for her.
Mary’s eyes looked sad as she nodded. “There was a horrible pounding on the front door.”
“Like someone was trying to break it down.” Shannon’s eyes widened.
“I thought something had happened to you,” Mary said. “I swung open the door and two boys a little older than you were standing on the porch. They were evil. I have no other explanation for the strange feeling they gave to the air around them. They looked at me, and I could feel them prowling inside my mind. They were trying to find you.”
“Their eyes were glowing yellow, too,” Todd said interrupting. “Just like you told the cops.”
Mary nodded. “They read my mind and ran off to Planet Bang to find you. We got in the car as quickly as we could and drove over to warn you.”
Todd made a noise imitating a jet plane.
“But you were gone when we got there,” Mary went on. “I didn’t tell the social worker or the police about the two boys. I knew they wouldn’t believe me, either. I barely believed it myself. I just prayed that you had gotten away. We would have run, too, but we couldn’t. Shannon and Todd needed to go to
Children’s Hospital for their treatments.”
“We all slept together in my room.” Todd made a face. “Shannon snores.”
“I do not,” she argued, and slapped at him playfully.
“You weren’t scared?” Tianna asked, and then felt foolish. It looked as if Shannon and Todd were facing death every day from other sources.
“Of course they weren’t as frightened as I was,” Mary said proudly. “They are extremely brave.”
Tianna looked at Mary. “Did they come back?”
She nodded. “The next day. I’m not sure why. When we came home, the front door was open and they had broken a vase in the upstairs hallway. Odd—why that vase?”
Tianna didn’t bother to explain that she had done it accidentally.
“They came back that night,” Mary continued. “They seemed angry that there was nothing new to dig from my mind. I was thinking that I should take the children to a hotel, but then I overheard the one with all the piercings say it was going to be over soon, so I decided to stay.”
“Do you know what the it was?”
Mary shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t have any idea. Although…”
“What?” Tianna leaned forward.
“It’s not based on anything. It’s more a feeling I had after they left my mind.”
Tianna nodded.
“They were trying to stop you from doing something, and if they could hold you off for just one more night, it would be too late for you to do anything.”
Tianna wondered what it could be. If only she had her memories. She stood and scraped back the chair. She liked Shannon and Todd and Mary. She wished they really were her family.
“Well, I’d better go.” Then she remembered the clothes upstairs. She needed something to wear to Planet Bang. It didn’t sound as if she was going to live long, anyway, so she might as well enjoy the little time she had, and more than anything she wanted that kiss from Michael.
“Can I take some of the clothes?” Tianna asked.
“Of course,” Mary answered. “They’re all yours. Take anything you need.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AN HOUR LATER Tianna was walking toward Planet Bang, wearing a sweater shell with sequins and an ankle-grazing skirt slit up the sides to the top of her thighs. She glanced at the waning moon and stopped. There was something important she had to do before the moon turned dark and it was in some way connected to Justin and Mason, but what? She stared at the sky as she continued, hoping the memory would come to her the way soccer and skateboarding had.
When she rounded the corner, the music grew louder. A neon sign throbbed pink, blue, green, and orange lights over the kids waiting to go inside. She recognized some of them. It seemed as if everyone had come with a friend or friends. Their heads turned and watched her as she walked to the end of the line.
She spread her hands through her hair and arched her back. As long as they were going to stare, she might as well give them a show. She twisted her body and stuck one long leg out from the slit in her skirt. Guys smiled back at her as she stretched her arms in a sexy pose. The girls mostly turned away, pretending they hadn’t been checking out their competition.
The music coming from inside excited her. She could hear kids whoop and stomp in time to the beat. She couldn’t wait to dance. She wanted that at least, especially if it meant dancing with Michael. She breathed out, trying to calm herself. If only…Life could be so perfect here. She tried not to think about Mason and Justin, but her eyes nervously scanned the nearby shadows anyway and she wished the line would move faster.
Finally it was her turn with the security guards. She handed her backpack to the first one. He smiled at her, and there was no doubt in her mind it was intended as a flirt. He couldn’t have been much older than she was. His hands went rapidly through her things.
“What are you doing?” he joked when he saw her underwear. “It looks like you carry your whole life in here.”
“I do,” she answered with a tilt of her head, then she took her bag and went inside.
She liked the feel of energy that was coming off the crowd. Lights flashed and shimmery clothes sparkled around the room. Girls wore full-on body glitter and some had diamond-sparkle tattoos on their faces and arms. She set her backpack on the floor in the corner near bags, sweaters, jackets, and shoes.
The music beat through her and she started to dance, her eyes searching for Michael. She found Michelle instead, leaning on crutches, her foot in a cast. She wore slacks with cutouts on the side that revealed the bare tan skin of her hips and thighs. Her hair was in ringlets clasped back with diamonds away from her face.
Tianna walked over to her. “Great outfit. I like your hair, too.”
Michelle jerked back and almost tripped.
Tianna caught her. “I’m sorry about your ankle.”
“Stay away from me,” Michelle warned, and hobbled away.
Tianna saw Corrine on the other side of the floor and waved. She wore a funky tiara with stars and only a little makeup. Tianna had started to push through the crowd toward her when a hand touched her back. She turned, hoping to stare up into Michael’s beautiful eyes, but instead Vanessa, Serena, and Jimena circled her.
“Hi,” Tianna said, and pushed through their circle. She had other plans for the night, and it didn’t include being with witches. She shoved into the crowd and started to dance.
Jimena twirled after her with a laugh.
“We overheard you talking to Corrine about Catty.” Jimena spoke above the music. She was wearing big hoop earrings and a sequined mesh dress with gold sandals.
Tianna knew she was lying. She couldn’t have overheard her talking to Corrine. They had been whispering, and Jimena and her friends had been too far away.
“So?” Tianna answered, wondering if she could get more information from them about Catty. She glided beside Jimena, hips touching hips, enjoying the way Jimena danced.
“We didn’t exactly hear you,” Serena confessed. “We found out another way.”
Tianna wondered who had spied on her. Derek hadn’t been around. The only other person would have been Corrine herself, but she seemed too frightened by them to say anything and Serena had been too far away to read her mind, or had she?
Suddenly Vanessa stepped in front of her. She wore a spaghetti-strapped red dress, with a red leather jacket over her shoulders.
“We’d like to know why you were asking about her,” Vanessa said. “That’s all.”
Tianna didn’t think they’d believe her if she did tell them why she had been asking about Catty. Besides, she had questions of her own. “I just wanted to hear what happened the night Catty disappeared.” She watched them closely to see if there was any reaction, and there definitely had been one in Vanessa’s eyes. “Maybe you should tell me.”
Vanessa stepped closer. “Is there a reason why it’s important to you?”
Jimena stopped dancing and stood beside her, arms folded over her chest with determination. “Something happened to our friend, and if you know anything, we’d like to hear it.”
Tianna stopped dancing and looked back at her. She didn’t like the strange way Serena was staring at her.
“Don’t believe everything you hear at school about us or Catty,” Serena warned. “We’re not witches, and we can’t cast spells.”
“Who said you could?” Tianna answered defensively.
“More than anything we want to get Catty back,” Vanessa put in. “We really miss her. If you know anything, please tell us.”
Her statement surprised Tianna. That didn’t sound as if they thought Catty was dead. She wondered if they knew their friend was trapped in another world. “Then tell me what happened that night.” Her eyes held a dare and she waited for Vanessa’s reply, but before she could answer, warm hands touched Tianna’s shoulder and pulled her away. She turned and looked up into Michael’s eyes.
His hands smoothed down her bare arms to her wrists, making a pleasant ache spread t
hrough her.
“I was hoping I’d find you.” He guided her deeper into the crowd away from Vanessa, Jimena, and Serena.
When he stopped, she lifted her hands over her head and started to dance, teasing him. Her hips moved sultry and slow, the beat of the song echoing her intense desire. He smiled as if he knew she was playing with him. Then his arms circled her waist. Sweet anticipation spread through her, and she brought her hands down slowly and entwined them around his neck.
“I’m glad you came,” he said at last.
“Me, too.” She inched closer until she could feel the movement of his leg against her thigh.
He bent down, his face close to hers. She liked the feel of his breath against her neck. She closed her eyes and let her lips rest on his cheek.
“Normally I don’t get into matchmaking,” he said into her ear.
She pulled back abruptly. “Excuse me?”
“I think you and Derek make a great couple.” He smiled at her as if he were embarrassed for being so bold. He seemed to sense her confusion. “I was hoping you’d give Derek another chance.”
“Did I ever give him a first one?” She glanced over Michael’s shoulder and saw Derek staring back at her.
“He’s got a big crush on you, and it did seem as if you liked him until Wednesday,” Michael explained. “What happened?”
“Derek?” She looked back into Michael’s beautiful eyes. Was that the only reason Michael had been so affectionate? For Derek? She felt heartsick.
“Did you talk to Tianna yet?” Vanessa suddenly stood next to them and started dancing, her body sinuous and easy.
Michael nodded.
“You and Derek are good together,” Vanessa added. She looked so sincere.
Tianna wished she’d smirk or give her the slightest reason to hate her. She wanted to, but she couldn’t. Vanessa was too genuine and good for anyone to dislike.
Someone tapped her shoulder. She slumped. She didn’t even need to look behind her to know who it was. She sadly watched as Michael pulled Vanessa close to him and they danced away.
