“Yeah, but it was just fun and games then. What if-“
“He might be in trouble Casper,” I turned to him. In the dark, his bright red hair shone like a beacon. “After I saw him get into the Sedan, I went by his house. There was no furniture, Cass. Like, none at all. And then, when he came over for dinner tonight-“
“Dinner?” Casper balked, “Why didn’t I get an invite?”
“Focus!” I thumped his freckly arm. He squirmed, rustling the bushes a little, but stopped talking. “At dinner, he said some things.”
One of those being that he wasn’t interested in me, but there’s no point in telling you that.
“What sort of things?” Casper inched closer, his mouth gaping open.
“He said his life wasn’t his own; like he couldn’t make his own decisions or something. I thought he was talking about Merrin, but now, piecing it all together- What if he’s in trouble? What if he’s involved in something he shouldn’t be and is in over his head?”
I twisted my locket around my fingers.
“What sort of stuff Cresta? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“That’s what I need to find out,” I answered, looking back at Mrs. Goolsby’s house. “I just- I need to make sure he’s okay.” I remembered what he told me earlier before he ran out. “He’s my friend.”
“It could be dangerous,” Casper said.
“I know,” I answered.
“That’s not gonna stop you, is it?”
“Not even a little,” I answered.
“And you expect me to go with you into the perilous unknown?” He crinkled his nose.
“You don’t have to. Like you said, it could be dangerous,” I answered.
“Is that gonna stop me?” He asked.
“Not even a little,” I answered.
“Cars drive on roads,” he said. “Let’s go.”
The black Sedan wasn’t idling tonight, but the windows were so dark that we couldn’t tell if anybody was in it. Not wanting to get caught, we snuck around the back and climbed the small white fence surrounding Mrs. Goolsby’s backyard. We tiptoed past the in ground pool, though why a geriatric window needed Olympic sized pool and neighboring hot tub was beyond me.
I’ll add that to my list of questions.
Luckily, Casper had spent last summer doing odd jobs for Mrs. Goolsby. Though, since she tended to pay him in nickels and always asked for ‘backrubs’, he’d probably debate you on how lucky he actually was. Still, he knew the layout of her house; including where she kept the key to the backdoor.
“Here it is, under the stupid plaster elf,” he said, lifting a creepy gnome stature and grabbing the key from underneath. He slid it in the backdoor, and opened it slowly.
We crept in to find something totally surprising.
I hadn’t been in Mrs. Goolsby’s house since last Fourth of July, when the church sponsored a street wide bb-q. But it seemed like a pretty standard ‘old lady’ house. There was furniture wrapped in plastic to preserve it’s ‘newness’, generic sunflower paintings on the walls, and pictures of family members that never seemed to actually visit in picture frames on the mantle. But now, making our way through the house, all of that seemed to be gone. In fact, everything was gone.
It was just like Owen’s house; no furniture in the living room, no beds in the bedrooms, no facilities in the kitchen or bathrooms. The house was completely empty, as though no one lived here at all.
“Cresta, “Casper whispered, his eyes wide. “What’s going on?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. I was half expecting the door to slam shut behind us and some phantom security system to start shouting intruder like in Owen’s house. But that was not the sound I heard.
As we passed a door on our second round through the kitchen, I heard the light sounds of conversation. I froze.
“Do you hear that?” I asked.
Casper just nodded. “Can you make it out?” He asked.
“I’ll be able to in a minute,” I answered, and grabbed the handle.
His eyes got wide with alert, but before he could say anything I had already pushed the door open. It opened into a long wooden staircase winding down into what was presumably a basement.
Though he looked like he wanted to stop me, Casper just followed as I stepped onto the stairs. Mercifully, they made no noise. As I inched further down, with Casper’s hands digging into my shoulders, the voices grew clearer. There were more than two and, surprisingly, all male. Where was Mrs. Goolsby?
The walls around the staircase were stone and looked much older than the rest of the house, like the house had been built around it or something. To top it off, the path was lit by torches that hung in casings carved into the stone; adding to the old world feel.
Casper’s breathing got heavier and the voices grew clearer as we neared the mouth of the staircase. One of them was Owen’s, but I didn’t recognize the rest. As we settled at the end of the stairs, I noticed a few things about the room. Though we still couldn’t see Owen or whoever he was talking to, I could see the area was at least partially filled with computer screens. One of them showcased binary information that shot by in lighting rounds of 011011011011.
The others showed similar numbers as well as surveillance shots of Crestview. There was Main Street, with the street lamps still shining. There was J’s General and Mr. Colburn with his coffee. And there, on the far one, was a darkened office was a bright red couch and a diploma on the wall. Was that Dr. Conyers’ office?
“You’re being dramatic,” one of the voices said.
Casper tensed behind me and I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
“I am not,” Owen’s voice said. He seemed tense. I pictured him pacing around the room. “It changed. I watched it change.”
“Maybe it didn’t,” a third voice added. “Maybe you were always reading it wrong.”
“I’m not some youngling,” Owen spit out. I could practically hear his teeth grinding. “I know what I’m doing. I can read just fine. Besides, it wasn’t stagnant like that. The lines moved. I held her hand and they moved!”
Her hand? Was he talking about Mrs. Goolsby?
“You need to calm down,” the first voice said. “We’re at a very sensitive point in things right now. You know that.”
“I will not calm down, Jiqui. She was in the house. She got into my phone, my encrypted phone. She’s asking questions and now, because things aren’t crappy enough already, her lines are changing,”
In his house, into his phone; he was talking about me. But what lines? I didn’t have any lines. And what did he mean by changing?
“Lines don’t just change,” Jiqui answered impatiently. “It takes time, effort, and a hell of a lot more energy than any of us are capable of expending at the present moment. You know that. Now do your job. Follow your instructions.”
“It’s hard to do that when the rules are changing,” Owen answered. “I did what you asked. For two years, I have sat here wasting away, and for what; to befriend her, to be some placeholder? I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
I looked at the stone wall hard, like maybe if I looked hard enough I might be able to see through it, to see him. Had Owen just said that he had been involved in whatever this was for two years, that the only reason he had ever looked twice at me in the first place was because of some stupid mission?
Casper noticed it too, because he tightened his grip on my shoulders, letting me know he was there. I pulled away. I didn’t need to be comforted right now. I needed to hear this.
“You are told what you need to know in order to complete your mission. That has always been the way of it. If you have a problem with that, take it up with the Masons.”
“You know that’s not what I’m saying,” Owen answered. “It’s just. I feel like I’m wasting time here. I’m supposed to be at my peak right now. Do you have any idea how out of practice I am? I had trouble convincing my teacher that a sheet of paper was my math homework
yesterday. How am I supposed to be of any use in that condition?”
I flashed back to yesterday, to Owen handing that smiley face over and pretending it was homework. Had Mr. Jacobs actually believed that?
“And this girl,” Owen continued.
“Cresta,” Jiqui commended.
“Cresta,” Owen said, though the tone in his voice made me think he’d rather not say my name. “I don’t see anything special about her.”
His words threw daggers into my heart. Not only did he not want to be with me, but he thought I was nothing; that I was ordinary.
“I mean, if she was really-“
“Stop,” Jiqui said. “She’s here.”
“What?” Owen answered.
Casper grabbed at me. “Come on!” He whispered. “We gotta-“
The door at the top of the stairs flew shut, the bolt locking it closed.
I turned up to look, but Casper didn’t. His eyes were fixed forward.
“Cress…”
I turned. Owen was standing in front of me. Beside him were two men. One was older with a buzz cut that made him look like he was in the military and long scar along his right cheek. The other was a little older than me with shaggy brown hair and kind eyes. Looking down though, I noticed that both his legs ended in stumps right past the knees. He had no prosthetics, but he was standing. Or, more aptly, he was floating. He was floating in midair in front of us.
“Owen,” I choked out. “What’s going on?”
“It’s okay Cress,” he said, and stretched his hand out in front of me. “It’ll be alright.”
He twisted his hand so that his fingers contorted in strange shapes, and then everything went dark.
Chapter 6
Killing Shirley Temple
THE DAY OUR house blew up, I woke up in my own bed, though I had no idea how I got there. The last thing I remembered, I was crouched on the steps of Mrs. Goolsby’s basement with Casper, listening to Owen argue about me with an old military guy and kid who could fly. You know the usual. But that was- How long ago was that? I must have passed out or fell asleep because one minute I was there and it was the middle of the night, and now I was back in my room with sunlight streaming through my blinds.
I twisted up in bed, still in my flannel PJs and Avengers tee. I might have been persuaded that the entire thing was a dream. I mean, I had been having pretty intense dreams lately and it’s not like floaty amputees and secret basement bunkers were part of my every day. Like I said, I might have been persuaded, expect that I had crouched in the wet bushes outside of Mrs. Goolsby’s and the ends of my PJs were still damp.
I pushed out of bed and raced downstairs. My head was a mess of jumbled and confusing thoughts, but one stood out stark and clear among them: Casper.
He had been beside me; right there when everything went down. Sure, Owen and those crazy guys might put me back in my bed, but they could be doing anything to Casper. They could have him strapped to a chair somewhere. They could be slicing into him with knives or pulling his toenails out with pliers. He could be-
He could be sitting downstairs, talking to my mother.
“I always thought sunflowers would look good here,” Casper said, pointing to the curtains on the kitchen window. “I know they’re probably a little cliché. But hell, clichés become clichés for a reason, right?”
He could be talking to my mother about floral patterns.
My mother rubbed her chin, seeming to take his suggestion really seriously. He was just sitting there. Everything was normal, absolutely everything. There wasn’t even a sorta weird breakfast like the other day to point to. Mom was nursing a cup of overly sweetened coffee and Casper was drawing bad imitations of anime characters on his napkin, waiting for me to get up. It was a normal Saturday. But-But why?
“Took you long enough,” Casper said, looking up from his scribble napkin.
“What?” I gaped.
“It’s almost noon. I was about to call the paramedics.”
“Noon?” I repeated, like he had started speaking in French or something. Why was he talking about what time it was? Why was he talking about anything other than what had happened last night?
“Yeah, noon,” he chuckled. “You got a headache or something?”
Mom circled the counter, her sugar laden coffee in hand. “Leave her alone. She had a rough night.”
Rough night?
Did she know? Had Casper told her and, if so, why were they both actually like nothing was going on?
“Finally told lover boy?” Casper smirked, finishing the shading on an anime character’s crescent shaped peak of hair. “I’m guessing he didn’t share your burning desires. Burning is the right word for it, right?”
Getting rejected by Owen, that’s what Mom meant by rough night. That seemed like a million years ago, and more than a little trivial now.
“You stop it!” Mom gave Casper a swat on the shoulder. “It doesn’t matter what he said, even though he obviously made the wrong decision. What matters is that Cresta was honest with herself. She did the right thing, just like I knew she would.”
Mom gave me a little wink and a smile.
Were they all insane? My absolutely embarrassing rejection at Owen’s hands was small potatoes in comparison to the secret he had been keeping all this time. He was- He was- Well, I wasn’t quite sure what he was, but it was certainly more important than my lack of a love life.
“Well I for one think it’s a good thing,” Casper said, holding up his finished work and showing it to my mom. It was horrible, but she smiled politely at him anyway. “Now you can move on. You can focus on better things, things that deserve your attention.” Finished with his napkin masterpiece, he turned his attention to his fingernails, coloring them a bright shade of ink pen blue. “I wasn’t gonna say anything, cause he’s my friend and all, but Owen’s an idiot. And not just because he doesn’t see how awesome you are.”
How awesome I am? I was still standing at the foot of the stairs, openmouthed and confused. I was not going to stand here and listen to this, not when there were so many better questions.
I marched toward Casper, wet pants and all, and grabbed him by the shoulder. Tugging him into the living room, I looked back at Mom. “Be right back.”
She took a swig of her coffee and didn’t seem to pay too much attention.
I pushed Casper into the living room. He stumbled a little and backed into our couch.
“What the hell dude?” Casper asked, straightened his glasses, and plopped down on the arm of the couch.
“Are you okay?” I settled in front of him and crossed my arms over the ‘A’ on my chest.
“I was doing all right until some lunatic girl threw me across her living room. How are you?” His feet dangled from where he sat. The untied laces of his Nikes brushed the floor.
“Be serious!” My shout was more of a whisper, since I wasn’t sure if Mom knew what was going on, but I could feel the scowl growing on my face. “After last night, I’m worried about you.”
He pushed at a few strands of red hair that threatened to spill over his glasses. “Last night? I mean, yeah, your car’s uncomfortable, but I’ll survive. It’s nothing for you to get all worked up about, girlie.”
“Not that,” I was ready to punch him. I found my arms stretched out. My hands loomed with exasperation. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“Okay,” he answered, scrunching his nose. “But I really don’t.”
“With Owen and Mrs. Goolsby,” I clarified through clenched teeth.
“Who’s Mrs. Goolsby? Is that the new substitute?” He chirped. His feet twirled carelessly like propellers over the floor.
“Mrs. Goolsby,the old lady from the house across the street.” My eyes narrowed.
“That’s Mrs. Carpenter,” he answered.
“No! The house next to hers. Why are you acting like this?”
“The house next to her is empty Cress,” he hopped down and walked toward me.
“Why would we break into an empty house? You’re not making any sense.”
“Because we saw Owen sneak in there. He was in the black car, remember? You thought he was a gigolo. And there was the buzz cut guy and the floating kid with no legs,” I wasn’t screaming yet, but my voice was definitely louder than it had been at the beginning of the conversation.
Casper’s hands were on my shoulders now. I hadn’t realized I was shaking until he steadied me. “Cress, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Is this a joke or something?”
What was this? I knew Casper. I didn’t think he was the type who would joke about something like this. But even if he was, there would be a tell; a gleam his eyes or the shadow of a smirk on his lips. He was serious now. He really didn’t know what I was talking about. And that, him looking at me like I was crazy, made me act-Well, crazy.
“You know what I’m talking about!” I pushed away from him. “Don’t look at me like that! You know who Mrs. Goolsby is. She’s a million years old and gives all the kids on the street apples for Halloween instead of candy. We were in her house.”
He just stared at me. His eyes were wide and more than a little concerned.
“We were!” Now I was screaming.
Mom pushed through the door, her coffee cup still in hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I’m not sure,” Casper said, and looked at my mom like I was three quarters of the way to insane.
“It’s-I-“I stuttered. How was I going to explain this? It’s not like ‘Casper is pretending the old woman whose house we broke into and were later accosted at last night’ rolls off the tongue.
I shook my head hard, like the motion might make things make sense.
Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More Page 363
