Mindy heard Raven talk to Air. Air wasn’t as clear as Earth. Sometimes Mindy could hardly hear her, but she knew that Raven was checking to make sure it was safe for her to go outside.
Mindy didn’t have much time. She felt glad when Raven held out a hand and said, “I think it’s safe enough.”
Mindy knew it was. Beast Jade had found a dark place to hide. Good Jade was hovering above the van, watching. She didn’t want an accident. Not on vacation. Everyone would be really mad if she did.
She put on her flip flops and hurried out of the van, her feet pitter-pattering along the gravel. She knew where beast Jade slept and avoided the area. Mindy did her business. She didn’t like the shadows in the forest, not just vampires, but the other things, too. They grew stronger every day.
~~ Raven ~~
Raven waited for her. Today Raven was patient.
When they returned to the van, Claire was outside. She had changed into her day clothes while Raven and Mindy were in the woods. Now she was stretching her legs and wandering around the van.
“What are you doing?” Raven asked. She had a comb in her hand and was pulling her long black hair into a pony tail. She hardly had to think about it. Jade always took a long time when she brushed Mindy’s hair.
“Looking at the footprints. Jade walked around the van a million times,” Claire said.
“I thought we could find Jade and then maybe figure out how to keep her from hurting us while we drive home. The vampires had their worst cases locked in the sheds. Maybe we could do the same with Jade.
“No,” Mindy said. She wanted to say more, to say that she knew what to do, how to bring the ‘real’ Jade back, how to get rid of the vampire creature. The words tangled in her mind and then were gone before she could speak them.
“Min, she’s our sister. I know she scared you last night, but we have to find her,” Raven knew that reasoning with Mindy was not easy at the best of times. Mindy could be incredibly stubborn and not as easy to bribe or punish as Claire.
Mindy ran to the passenger door of the van and opened it. She pulled herself up into the seat, opening the glove box. She found the map of Oregon. She tried to open it, but she became confused with the folds. With a soft cry of dismay, she handed the map to Raven and said, “Help.”
Raven stared at Mindy and the map. It was Claire who stepped up, “C’mon, Raven, let’s see what’s so important about the map.”
Raven could see that Claire was trying especially hard to be nice to Mindy. She hated the feeling of utter helplessness she felt. Maybe this was Mindy’s way of coping with the same feeling. “Okay, let’s sit down so that we can open it all the way.”
The three girls sat in a row. Raven in the middle with Claire and Mindy on either side. Mindy stared at the map for a long time. When Raven started to fold it up, Mindy grabbed her arm, “Nooooo.”
“Mindy, we need to find Jade now,” Raven closed her eyes and prayed for patience while opening the map back up. Mindy needed longer. Mom always told the girls to count to sixty while Mindy was trying something new. Jade was better at sitting quietly while Mindy tried to figure something out.
Raven tried to pretend to be Jade, to be that quiet presence that Mindy needed. She wished her sister were back, not in vampire form, but as her sister. Finally Mindy pointed to a town on the map. Bend, Oregon. Mindy said, “Here.”
“You want us to drive there?” Raven asked.
Mindy nodded.
“What about Jade?” Raven was torn. Bertha had said to put as much road between them and the vampires as possible and yesterday night they’d hardly gone far at all. If they stayed, Raven feared the rest of the vampires would catch up. A dozen vampires could tip the van, throw it over a cliff. Just because they couldn’t enter the vehicle didn’t mean they couldn’t find a way to murder the girls inside.
Claire leaned against Raven. Sometimes she was a teenager and sometimes a kid. At this moment, she was a kid. Claire said, “Are we really going to leave her?”
Mindy grabbed Raven’s hand, the hand that was holding the right side of the map. Her green eyes were clear and adamant. She said, “Yes. Save Jade. Bend.”
“Ask Water. I’ll ask Air. If they agree, we’ll go to Bend,” Raven folded the map, slowly and with an eye on Mindy. Sometimes it didn’t take long for the siren wail of a cry to get started. It would be easier for everyone if Mindy spent the next few days in a good mood.
Having said what she needed to say, Mindy seemed content. Claire closed her eyes. Water spoke. Raven looked up from the van into the sky. Air spoke.
They were going to Bend.
Mindy was still in pajamas while Raven still wore her pink sweats. After a quick change, they were in their jeans and ready for the road.
“Claire, can you do me a favor?” Raven asked as they got their luggage into the back.
Thinking that buckling Mindy in was what Raven was asking, Claire said, “Got it.”
“Thanks. Also, can you make notes as we leave. I need to know what roads we are coming out of so that we can return for Jade. Also, if you could record the important mile posts.” Raven didn’t trust her own memory. They had ended up on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere and lost Jade. She could just see them trying to return and discovering that they had no idea where they had been.
Raven couldn’t help herself from looking in the rear-view mirror. Not for the first few minutes. She felt guilty for abandoning Jade. She couldn’t help thinking that if the situation were reversed, Jade would be leading the hunt through the woods, trying to find Raven. Raven was letting Jade down. She was letting Mom down, too.
Mindy started singing one of the songs that she loved. The gravel road turned into a highway. Raven thought of Jade’s vampire teeth and scary eyes and felt a little sick. It was as if she had watched her sister die. Maybe she had. Raven was homesick. She wanted her own bed and for everyone to be safe.
Bertha called while they were on the road. She was at the airport about to catch the first flight. Claire spoke with her for a few minutes, carefully leaving out the part about Jade.
After she hung up, Raven said, “Why didn’t you tell her?”
Claire shrugged, “It’s not like she could do anything about it. Once she’s here we can tell her everything.”
Raven decided that sometimes Claire was old for her age.
Raven might be okay at driving the highways, especially since she was only doing forty-five in a sixty-mile zone, but when they reached Bend, she was in way over her head. Claire said, “So where do we go now?”
Raven snapped, “How should I know? I don’t even know how to drive in the city.”
“O....kay,” Claire said, “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the van.”
“Please stop talking,” Raven didn’t turn to look. Her hands were in a death grip on the wheel and she was focused on not hitting anyone or anything. She was lucky they lived out in the middle of nowhere and Mom let her drive sometimes on the old dirt driveway, but it still didn’t make up for her lack of experience with city driving.
From the back, Mindy piped up, “Turn right.”
Raven sighed heavily.
She turned right.
The whole trip to Bend was Mindy’s idea. Raven didn’t know why she listened, but Mindy seemed so certain of herself.
She followed Mindy’s directions back out of the city to a country church. It was nestled in the forest, a cute little white chapel that could have been a one-room schoolhouse a hundred years before. It was well-kept and painted white. The parking lot was tiny with maybe a few dozen places. The clock on the van dash read noon.
Mindy pointed to the church.
The parking lot was empty, so Raven pulled into the lot and parked near the church, shutting off the van.
Mindy pushed on her seatbelt until the catch released. She was much better at unbuckling than buckling. Claire pushed the door open, and they all climbed out.
Raven was going to ask, What next? but
Mindy was already opening the door to the back of the van. There was no good word to describe Raven’s feelings when Mindy pulled a small axe out of the back of the van. She held it by the blade, handing it to Raven. It was unsettling to say the least. Her sister was not allowed to handle sharp scissors, let alone axes. Not that she had ever hurt or even threatened anyone, but she wasn’t always thinking at one hundred percent efficiency. Mindy kept searching the back of the van.
“Uh, Mindy, what are you looking for?” Raven asked. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. The back of the van was a mess with duffel bags and suitcases pushed over the seat to fall onto the ground.
“Knife.”
“Here, let me.” Raven knew where Mom kept the food box. She hid a knife in one of the plastic kitchen containers that was really hard to open. Raven put the axe on top of one of the boxes. She searched until she found the knife.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” Raven asked.
Mindy pointed at Claire, and then she pointed at Raven and the axe.
“So we’re supposed to go in armed?” Claire asked as she took the knife and tried to think of a good place to put it.
“Flashlights,” Mindy said, so Raven grabbed the flashlights. Mindy nodded once.
While Raven locked up the van, Mindy found a big stick. It was about half her height. She swung it back and forth a few times and then turned to watch Raven as Raven locked the door.
They walked to the church together. Raven was glad that no one else was in the parking lot because it sure looked strange having three girls walking through the parking lot carrying flashlights and sharp objects.
Claire inched her way closer to Raven, “So you think Mindy knows what’s going on or are we going to scare some church lady half to death?”
Raven shrugged, “No idea. I’m going to be really embarrassed listening to her if this turns out to be some ‘Mindy’ fantasy.”
The church had a fence and a flight of stairs going down to a basement. They were set along the side of the church and invisible from the parking lot. Mindy led the way down the stairwell, her black hair a little tangled and stringy from sleeping in the van without brushing it this morning. Raven felt a twinge of guilt. She supposed now that Jade was gone, that kind of thing was her responsibility.
At the bottom of the stairwell was a door. Mindy pulled a stone out of the wall and carefully picked up the key inside before returning the stone. She handed the key to Raven.
Raven thrust the key in the lock before she could think too much about how Mindy knew it was there and what kind of trouble they would be in if caught, trespassing for sure.
The door creaked open. The air was cool and dusty. After a short landing, they discovered another staircase that went down. Raven turned on her flashlight and led the way. She and Claire decided to put Mindy between them for safety’s sake, so Claire took up the rear.
The stairs were endless and made of white stone. They would get to the end of the stairwell only to turn a corner and discover another flight of stairs. Their footsteps echoed on the stone. After the fourth turn and a new discovery of stairs, Claire said, “Maybe we should go back. We’ve already gone two stories down.”
Mindy took Claire’s hand. She said, “Down.”
Claire was about to jerk her hand away when she remembered that lump of sand that was her sister. She had nearly killed Mindy with her prank earlier. She could give her sister the benefit of the doubt here. Raven was watching her, a question in her eyes. Claire said, “I owe her. Let’s go down.”
After three more flights of stairs, the girls decided to rest at one of the turns. Mindy settled her stick on the stairs they had just come down. Raven gladly put the axe down on the landing. Her arms hurt. As they worked their way down, she had moved it back and forth from hand to hand as she grew tired.
“Mindy, do you know where we are?” Raven asked, flopping onto the floor with her back against the wall.
Mindy carefully lowered herself to the floor next to Raven. She shook her head.
“Why are we here then?” Claire didn’t really expect Mindy to answer. She didn’t think Mindy knew.
Mindy said, “Jade. Bottle.”
They rested several more times. Raven was beginning to think that there would be no end, and then suddenly the stairs stopped at a door. She reached for the handle, but Mindy grabbed her arm.
“What is it?” Raven asked.
“Axe,” Mindy said, pointing to Raven’s hand. Raven exchanged a secret smile with Claire who had rolled her eyes. Raven said, “Yes, I have the axe.”
Mindy mimed lifting it higher. Raven lifted it higher, then pushed the door open wide. Mindy’s flashlight reflected off a monster.
Raven screamed.
She swung the axe without thinking.
In front of her was a human-sized scorpion, its tail poised high above its body. Her arm had to extend completely over the scorpion’s creepy pinchers for the axe to bite into the tail. The scorpion grabbed for Raven with its pincher.
Mindy poked her stick at the pincher, distracting the scorpion from Raven while Raven hacked at the tail.
Claire called out from the back, “Watch out for the claw. Mindy, be careful.”
The axe struck hard, lopping through the tail while blood gushed from the scorpion. Instead of running away, it attacked. One of the pinchers pushed the girls back and Mindy dropped the flashlight. It rolled along the floor, throwing Raven and Mindy into the dark. Claire yelled, “Retreat.”
She grabbed Mindy’s arm and pulled her back just before the scorpion’s claw mashed closed in the air where she had been standing.
Raven yelled, “I need light! Claire!”
The scorpion glowed a bit in the dark, eerie blue light outlining its bulk. Raven shifted the axe, swinging down at the head while a pincher knocked her down. She struck her thigh on the stone stairs. The axe was still stuck in the scorpion. Raven couldn’t get it back.
She stumbled up the stairs, following Mindy and Claire. Claire was shining a light down, trying to help Raven find her way up. The scorpion thrashed back and forth, the axe lodged in its head screeching with a horrible sound.
Mindy snuck past Claire while Claire reached to help Raven. Just three steps above the scorpion, she brought the stick down on top of the axe. It pushed deeper into the scorpion. The creature made a sudden dodge forward, pinchers raised. Shrieking, Mindy stepped back, bumping her heel on the step and falling.
Raven screamed, “Mindy, get up here.”
Raven scrambled back down the stairs without a weapon. The scorpion reached for Mindy. If it got that pincher around her body, it would crush her. Raven leapt down the four stairs over Mindy and directly onto the scorpion. It was the single most disgusting thing she had ever done in her life. She fell forward and her hands and face were covered with scorpion goo.
The scorpion bucked and spun, throwing Raven down the corridor. Claire screamed her name. She climbed down the stairs, shining the flashlight at the scorpion. She could see Mindy and the scorpion, but not Raven.
Now that the scorpion was in light, Mindy grabbed her stick and lifting it high above her head, shoved it into the spurting hole where Raven had cut off the scorpion’s tale. Mindy shoved the stick in at an angle, putting her whole weight into it.
Raven grabbed her axe and putting her foot on the scorpion’s head, yanked the axe out. She brought it down on the scorpion again and again until it convulsed and died.
Raven found her own flashlight and wiped it off on her jeans. “Do we keep going?”
Mindy said, “Yes,”
Claire stared at her like she was crazy.
Raven waited. She said, “Claire, it has to be unanimous.”
“You mean because we’ll likely die down here?” Claire asked. She picked her way carefully down the stairs, her revulsion clear.
“We don’t know what other monsters we’ll find. If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to,” Raven said.
“Mindy, if we keep going, can we help Jade?” Claire asked.
Mindy pointed down the long hallway into the darkness, “Yes. There.”
Claire jumped over the scorpion’s dead body sounding braver than she felt when she said, “Then let’s go.”
Raven once again took the lead. No matter how many times she wiped her hands on her jeans, she felt gross. The axe handle was slippery and dripped scorpion goo. Her shirt was splattered in scorpion, and her shoes squelched every time she stepped. All in all, she felt miserable.
The corridor stopped at a wooden door. Raven hesitated.
“What? You don’t like the idea of fighting giant spiders?” Claire teased. Raven hated spiders passionately. The fact that they had just fought a giant cousin to spiders was a little too much to bear.
“Ewww. Don’t even go there,” Raven said. She stared at the door.
“Are we ever going to go through?” Claire tugged on a lock of Mindy’s hair, “Anything scary back there?”
Mindy pointed at the door, “Scary.”
Raven stood in the corridor. She stared at the door, trying to build up enough bravery to walk through. Claire shifted from foot to foot, sometimes looking back over her shoulder as if expecting the giant scorpion to return to life.
“I can’t do it.” Raven said the words quietly. She turned from the door heading back down the way they came, “Let’s go back and regroup.”
Claire turned in step beside her, “You killed a giant arachnid. That has to count for something. Maybe scary is relative.”
Raven turned to call for Mindy when she realized that Mindy had opened the door to “scary”, and it was too late to stop her…
~~ Mindy ~~
Bones were scary. They were people that once walked with Earth and now did not. Mindy shuddered as she stepped into the hall of bones. Raven was too scared to come through here. Mindy was the only one that knew where the Keeper’s bottle would be found, the one that could help Jade.
Mindy ignored Raven and Claire. They were angry that she opened the door. Mindy knew that much. She kept walking, breathing slowly in and out so that the ghosts in the darkness wouldn’t hear her.
A Time To Kill (Elemental Rage Book 1) Page 12
