by P. G. Forte
“Mandy, just do it. Now!”
“But Cousin Lucy, you can ask her yourself,” Kate told her. “See? Here she comes.”
“Scout.” Marsha smiled warmly. “You made it. Good. Have you met my friends? This is Amanda and this—”
But she got no further because a red cloud of fury seized hold of Scout, and without warning she hauled off and hit her. Hard as she could. Right in the face.
The girls gasped in shock and Lucy cursed furiously as Scout stood paralyzed, unable to account for the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She stared in horrified confusion at Marsha, who had fallen back against the wall of the booth.
“Marsha! I’m so sorry,” Scout gasped. “I don’t know what happened. I just, just—”
Marsha stared right back at her. Stared almost through her it seemed, with piercing intensity, her initial expression of outraged anger changing almost immediately, first to one of dawning recognition, and then to rueful amusement. Improbably, she started to laugh. “Don’t worry about it.” Marsha rubbed her cheek. Her green eyes were alive with something close to malice. “That’s the thing about post-hypnotic suggestions, isn’t it? Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve got in your head ‘til it wakes up and socks you in the face.”
Oh, dear God. Scout felt her throat close up, just as it had in the attic the night before. Once again, a wave of nausea engulfed her. I remember...
It had taken her almost three weeks to come up with a plan to stop them. She’d had to research the procedures she would need to follow, and to buy all the necessary equipment. The candles. The incense. A tape recorder and a blank tape--so she could record and play back the instructions that would allow her to hypnotize herself.
She had chosen a day when she knew Lisa would be out. Concentrating on her breathing, she had counted backwards and imagined herself on an escalator. Moving downward. Flight after flight, deeper and deeper. Into the darkest reaches of her mind.
Around and down. Around and down. Her breathing slowing and deepening as she went. Her heart thudding in her ears. Her body growing increasingly heavy.
Around and down and down and...
She found herself in a large storeroom, cloaked in shadow, its dimensions impossible to ascertain. Full of crates and boxes, piled high and wide, as far as the eye could see.
It was not exactly what she had been expecting, but then, neither was the sprightly old man who came bustling out from between the stacks of boxes to help her.
Comprehension gleamed in his bright gray eyes. “Ahh, yes,” he told her. “I know just what you need.”
Patiently, she followed his instructions, until she had constructed the perfect protection. Confident that she was prepared for any future attacks, as she had begun to think of them, she headed back to the escalators, circling upward this time, through floor after floor after floor.
She had thought she was safe after that. Thought that they were sure to tire of the game, once it ceased to serve them. Once the maze she had constructed within her own mind, the mirrors and traps she had laid there, had succeeded in providing enough misinformation to foul all their plans.
But after that last argument with Lisa a new fear had surfaced.
What if they found out about Nick?
They could hypnotize her again, and maybe cause her to say or do all sorts of horrible things. Perhaps they already had. With a growing sense of paranoia, she considered her actions of late. Had there been anything unusual? Anything strange? Had she done anything lately that she wouldn’t normally have done?
Well, yeah, come to think of it, she’d slept with Glenn. Upon consideration, definitely not one of her better ideas. Still, she’d had her reasons, hadn’t she? And, much as she might like to have someone else to blame for that, she didn’t really think Lisa would have suggested it. But what about one of the others? Maybe. It was possible. Given everything else she’d learned about them – everything else they’d done to her – it was not all that farfetched.
Okay, this was war now.
She’d seen no other choice but to go back into her own subconscious and build new defenses. Her hands had been shaking so badly she could barely light the candles and the heliotrope incense. It had taken her a long, long time to calm her breathing, and even then she found herself descending at a frightening speed – down and down and down and down – into the very center of the earth, it seemed.
Even before she got there, she could smell the fear. So strong it all but smothered her. A sour, clinging scent, like stagnant water thick with decayed vegetation. The atmosphere reeked with it. When the wizened old man approached her this time, there was a look of deep concern on his face. Speaking softly, he gradually calmed her until she was able to step away from the rank cloud that surrounded her. She felt cleaner and infinitely more calm, although she could still see the roiling, seething mass her emotions had created, as it hovered in the darkness at the edge of her perception.
She left it there. Turning her attention away from the fear, she focused her thoughts on what she had come to do. She would need to discover the code words they had implanted into her subconscious, and construct some sort of armor that could protect her: both from their wrath and from any further prying they might seek to do. And she would need some way to deflect them. Some way to stop them if they even tried to hypnotize her again. A way to force them to keep their distance from her.
The first was the easiest. In fact, she almost couldn’t believe it when she’d searched their minds and found just a handful of names. That was it? That was all they had needed, all they had used to cause all this trouble? It was hard to believe that something so seemingly harmless could have such power. But armed with this knowledge, she knew she could construct a suitable deterrent.
To serve her second need, the old man produced a long cloak. Smoke, gray, soft as the fall of night. It hung to the floor, and the hood, when he had drawn it up over her head, was deep enough to cast even her face into shadow. It was made of a thick, cloudy substance. She felt as though she were clothed in fog. It distorted her perceptions, she noticed that right away, but just the tiniest bit, hardly enough to signify. Some things – things she’d barely noticed before – suddenly sprang into focus, while others receded. It felt warm and weightless on her shoulders as she allowed him to bind it securely around her.
The last thing she needed was some sort of reverse trigger. Like an early warning system, or an alarm. A way to retaliate if they ever again tried to get into her mind. But she was just so mad, and all she could think of was her own overwhelming desire to hit them. Hard. To hurt them the way they hurt her.
This time, it seemed to take forever to climb back to the surface. At almost every stop, she found herself wanting to wander off and explore her surroundings. The cloak, too, seemed to grow warmer and heavier as she went up. She wished she could take it off but it was fastened in some manner she did not understand, and she didn’t know how to undo it.
Finally, she managed to return to her room, and to her normal consciousness. She noticed that things still looked strange somehow, but she’d been nearly overcome with exhaustion and hadn’t had the energy to figure out what was different. She had barely enough energy to blow out the candles before she curled herself up into a ball on her bed. She was asleep almost instantly.
Over the course of the night, she seemed to pass from one strange dream into another. By morning the details of her dreams had blended with the events of the previous afternoon and they had all but dissipated from her memory. She’d overslept and had to rush to avoid being late for school. The day had passed in a pleasant haze of anticipation. She was meeting with Nick at his apartment that afternoon. Each time she thought of it her breath caught in her throat and tiny tremors of excitement rippled through her.
Today was the day they would become lovers. She was sure of it.
She supposed she’d seen Lisa and the others somewhere around, during the course of the school day. But she had taken no
notice. Later, she’d have no memory of having seen them at all.
For twenty years, she’d have no memory of any of it.
Back to Top
* * * *
Chapter Seven
* * * *
“I cannot believe you actually planned that!” Lucy seethed. The three women had gone back to Marsha’s booth, where she had ordered tea and sandwiches for them all. Along with an herbal compress for her cheek. But Scout and Lucy were both too angry to think of food.
“And I can’t believe you used one of those names for your own daughter!” Scout snarled back at her.
“Why wouldn’t I? I mean, the whole point was to pick names we really liked, so we’d remember them.”
“Well, then Lucy, I guess you should be very happy right about now, ‘cause I sure as hell remembered, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m freakin’ delirious, Scout. Can’t you tell? What the hell were you thinking? We were supposed to be friends back in high school, if you remember.”
“Oh, don’t even go there. I am so not the one at fault. And you damn well ought to know it.”
“Okay! Enough!” Marsha threw the compress on the table and glared until she had gotten their attention. “Calm down, you guys. There’s no permanent damage done. We’ll just re-hypnotize Scout to—”
“What?” They responded in unison, glaring right back at her.
Scout nearly choked on her outrage. “No fucking way!”
“Count me the fuck out of that!” Lucy sputtered.
“Oookay. Or else, I guess we could just be very careful who we introduce her to while she’s here.”
Lucy scowled. “See? There’s another good reason for you to leave town. I’m thinking today’s none too soon.”
“Yeah? Think again.”
Marsha sighed. “Okay, did I just miss something?”
“Scout’s got some stupid idea she might stay for a while,” Lucy complained, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest. “Like... forever, or something.”
Marsha looked thoughtful. “Interesting.”
“Why not? Scout asked, somewhat defiantly. “I have the house, don’t I? Unless Lisa comes back to claim it.”
Marsha’s face clouded. “Scout. You need to be realistic. Lisa’s not coming back.”
“You know, Marsha. I really have to wonder what makes you so sure about that.”
“Hello, ladies. Mind if I join you?” a woman’s deep voice interrupted.
Scout turned to see a rather large, imposing figure looming behind her.
Marsha beamed at the newcomer with what looked like a whole lot of relief. “Heather! Great to see you. Sit down. Please.”
“Oh, Marsha – ouch!” Heather winced as she deposited her tray on the table and sat herself behind it. “What’d you do to yourself?”
Marsha waved the question away. “Slight occupational hazard. Heather, meet Scout.”
Heather’s eyebrows rose. “Oh! Caroline’s stepdaughter, right? Nice to meet you, I’m sure.” She nodded briefly in Scout’s direction and then turned to Lucy. “And how’re you doing with everything?”
“Ohhh, just fantastic, Heather. Never better,” Lucy answered with forced cheerfulness. She raised her cup in a small salute before taking a tiny sip.
“Hmph! So I see.”
“Don’t mind her. She’s fine,” Marsha insisted firmly. “We all are. Anyway, what were we saying?” But before Scout could answer, she was interrupted again, this time by a young woman whose long red hair was arranged in dozens of tiny braids strung with beads.
“Mom?” She sounded deeply concerned as she came up behind Marsha. “Hey, what happened to your face?”
“It’s nothing, baby. Just an accident.” Marsha smiled fondly at her daughter. She turned to Lucy. “Do you remember any of the other names we used?”
Lucy grimaced. “Not really. But I think you’re probably okay this time.”
“I guess. I can always duck. Scout, this is my daughter Jasmine... .” She paused, while they all waited for a reaction that did not come. “And Jazz, this is an old friend of mine, Scout.”
“Hi.” The girl smiled, green eyes glowing in her honey-brown face. Scout returned the greeting with a smile of her own.
Jasmine turned back to Marsha. “Listen, Mom, I think there’s a problem.”
“What’s wrong, honey?”
“Well, Celeste was reading for Robyn, right? And, uh, she... well, she sorta dropped the cup. Accidentally.”
Marsha frowned. “So?”
“Yeah, well. You know. Kinda accidentally on purpose, I think?”
“Oh!” Marsha got quickly to her feet. “Oh, crap. Where are they now?”
“Well, Robyn is still inside. She’s just finishing her sandwiches. I don’t think she even noticed anything was weird.” She paused long enough to heave a dramatic sigh and roll her eyes. “You know what she’s like. Celeste would’ve had to hit her over the head with the cup to have gotten her attention, I think. But Celeste is in the back. And she won’t talk about it.”
Marsha nodded. “Okay. I’ll go take care of it.”
“What’s up?” Scout asked Lucy after they had gone. Lucy looked at her speculatively, and for a moment Scout didn’t think she was going to answer.
Finally, Lucy sighed and said, “Bad news for your housemate, I guess. One school of thought says, if you see something you don’t like in a tea cup, you can sometimes stop it from happening by breaking the cup, or stirring the leaves back up, or anything along those lines. Not that everybody agrees with that philosophy, of course, but I think Celeste does.”
Heather started slightly. “How’s that again?” she asked sharply.
“Well, you know, I guess it depends on whether or not you believe free will makes a difference or if you think the future’s immutable. You know Celeste, Heather, she’s definitely not into immutable.”
“You said one school of thought. Is this widely known?”
“I don’t think it’s a universal thing, but yeah, I’d say it’s pretty common knowledge.”
“Oh, give me a break,” Scout snapped. “Lucy, are you really gonna try and tell me you believe all this crap? You didn’t used to be so gullible.”
Lucy thrust her chin forward mutinously. “Yeah? And you used to be a lot more open-minded. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, won’t we?”
“Yeah.” Scout grabbed a sandwich from the plate in front of her. “I guess we will.” She took a big bite and chewed moodily.
Devil worship, Glenn had said, Blood sacrifices. Ritual killings. Stuff like that.
No. Not possible. Scout refused to consider the idea any further. Lucy might be a lot of things, not all of them nice, but that? No fucking way.
* * *
“Dad! Dad, quick. Take off your glasses!”
Nick smiled at his daughter, as she came running toward him with Mandy in tow. Puzzled, he removed his sunglasses and slipped them into his pocket.
Kate tugged at him until he crouched down next to her. Then she placed her head next to his. “Okay, Mandy. What do you think? Do I?”
Mandy squinted at the two of them. “I guess. I mean, they’re the same color and all.”
“What’s all this about, girls?” Dan asked.
“Oh, God, Daddy!” Mandy turned to him excitedly. “Wait until I tell you what happened! It was sooo weird. There was this lady? And she said she’s a friend of Mommy’s from—”
“Oh, and she knows you too, Dad,” Kate interrupted. “She said I have your eyes, and—”
“No, Kate. Let me tell it,” Mandy whined. “Okay. So. Dad. You’ll never guess. She hit Marsha! We were all just talking and all of a sudden she just hauls off and hits her. Right in the face! And Marsha hadn’t even said anything but hello!”
Kate giggled. “And then Cousin Lucy started cursing at her!”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Dan chuckled. “Anyone who knows Lucy and goes
around attacking her friends must be some kinda nut.”
“Oh, no,” Kate insisted. “She was way cool.” Her face creased. “Except for the hitting part, but you know, Marsha didn’t even seem to mind.”
“I know,” Mandy agreed. “Wasn’t that freaky? She was laughing and everything. But Mom sure wasn’t laughing. She was really mad about it.”
“Better find out who she was, Nick,” his cousin Joey said with a smile. “You’ll probably be investigating her homicide by tomorrow.”
“Oh, but I told you. You already know her,” Kate chimed in. “She has a really funny name. What was it again, Mandy?”
Mandy rolled her eyes. “God, Kate. Don’t you remember anything? It’s Scout.”
Nick felt everything inside go still as his world slid off its axis. He took a slow, deep breath. The ground beneath his feet began to tilt.
From another part of the galaxy, somewhere far, far away he heard Joey’s startled exclamation, “Oh, fuck.”
“Uncle Joey!” Mandy gasped. “You said that just like Mom!”
* * *
“Sorry about that,” Joey mumbled in apology as the three men watched the girls run off to get Kate’s bags.
Dan shook his head at his brother-in-law. “I don’t know about you sometimes, Joe. Who is this woman, anyway? An old girlfriend of yours?”
Joey shook his head glumly. “Not mine.”
Nick cleared his throat. He felt as though he’d been swallowing sawdust. “Listen. Guys, I’ve been thinking about this camping trip. I have a lot work right now and, the thing is, I’m not sure I should be taking the time off. I’m gonna have to cancel. You know, maybe take a rain check, or something.”
“Aw, man. That’s a shame. You work too hard, Nick.” Dan shook his head. “And I tell you, pal, you’re going to miss some great fishing.”
From the safety of his mirrored glasses, Nick hazarded a furtive glance at Joey’s face. His cousin’s mouth had dropped open. Joey stared at him, shaking his head in disgust.
“Oh, fuck!” he said again, just as Kate and Mandy got back with the bags.
