Mike’s mind drifted off to thoughts of his future with Emily. A few kids at the house with a picket fence. Cookouts with the neighbors. And, of course, helping children in need.
“You okay?” Emily waved her hand in front of Mike’s face.
Mike shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “Huh? Sorry. You got me thinking about some stuff there.”
“It’s alright. Are you done eating?”
Mike had a little bit of his baked potato left and a few green beans. “I’m good. Why don’t we kill this bottle and go to Tucker’s house?”
“I should call him a few more times before we leave. Give this guy one more chance.”
Emily pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans. She sent the call and put the phone up to her ear. Several moments went by then she abruptly said, “It’s Emily. Calling again. I’m going to come by your house if you don’t answer this time. Hello? I’ll see you in a little bit then.”
She ended the call and slid the phone into her back pocket, shrugging. “Not home again, as I’m sure you picked up on. Let me give us a refill.” Emily grabbed the red wine and poured each stemmed glass about three-quarters full. She shook the empty bottle around and set it back on the table.
Emily held her glass in the air, and Mike raised his, as well. She toasted, “To us. To getting this money and getting out of this town. To starting a new future together.”
The two glasses met with a ring in the middle of the table. Mike focused on a dying candle flame and took a drink. He downed half of the peppery red with notes of black cherry. The tannins had dried his tongue and mouth out, and Mike quenched his thirst with the glass of water.
They finished the wine and jumped into the Jeep. During the ride, they passed an energy drink back and forth so that they would remain sharp. The sugary liquid dried out Mike’s mouth even more and gave his tongue a leathery feel.
Mike’s nerves and the active ingredients in the energy drink conspired together to make his hands shake. He shifted around in the passenger seat, and his palms started to leak perspiration. The new wizard sensed dark energy. He hadn’t been trained in the subject yet, but his gut churned, trying to warn him of bad spirits.
They arrived at the tarot card reader’s house and pulled into the driveway. The garage door was still open, exposing Tucker’s red van. Mike opened the car door with a shaky hand and walked slowly up to the front door with Emily.
He knocked on the door. “Is that better? That wasn’t a cop knock, was it?” Mike stepped back and looked around the neighborhood of nice houses.
“That was good. Good job.”
Nobody came to the door, so Mike knocked louder. Still no answer. He peered into the window near the front door. The only room he could see was dark.
“Looks like we are going to have to go in. Are you ready?”
Mike had hoped she wouldn’t utter those words. “Does it matter?”
Chapter 23
EMILY LED THE WAY INTO the garage with Mike right on her heels. The hairs on his head tingled as her hand landed on the silver doorknob. She turned the knob and gave Mike a thumbs-up. As Emily pushed the door open, a foul smell rushed through the opening. Mike covered his nose and gagged.
They entered the house, and the malodor of sour cat piss and human waste only intensified with each step. Emily used the flashlight function on her phone and searched for a light switch. Mike ran his hands along the walls, looking for some electricity to guide the way.
Emily said, “Eureka. I found one.” She clicked the switch, and a dim light flickered on.
A long hallway appeared in front of them with doors to different rooms on the right and left. Emily guided the way with her phone, and she ducked into the first room on the right. Mike followed her in and found a light switch near the door well.
He flipped it on and the light exposed a dirty living room with old couches and chairs. A rectangular wooden coffee table sat in the middle of the room with more than ten cigar butt-filled ashtrays scattered on its surface. Mike’s heart kicked into overdrive, and his leathery tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He softly bit his tongue to release some saliva, but it wasn’t exactly a quenching waterfall.
Through all this Emily seemed so calm. Mike wondered how she could do it. Jealous thoughts crept into his head.
They went into a room across the hall, and here a different stench dominated. His olfactory senses detected the scent of Houlihan’s Square.
Panic unevenly jumped though his body like a drunk person on a pogo stick. Emily flipped the switch on the wall and screamed. She turned and buried her head into Mike’s chest. Behind her, Mike froze on the spot. He couldn’t shift his eyes away from the mangled body of Tucker McSeamus.
He had heard the stories about the victims’ bodies, but nothing had prepared him for the gruesome sight. Tucker sat in a leather recliner soaked in blood. All the flesh on his legs and arms had been stripped clean from the bloody bones. The murderer had left the tendons and connective tissue intact to keep the bones connected.
Tucker’s bloated face, stained with dried blood, appeared to be smiling. Mike patted Emily on the back. “It’s alright. He can’t do anything anymore.”
Emily broke away from Mike and searched around the room. “I can’t find that bag of money in here. It was in the basement last time I was here.” Emily’s phone beeped. “Shit. My battery is about to run out. I won’t be able to use the flashlight on my phone apps. Get out your phone.”
“Mine’s old as shit. I don’t even have that flashlight function on my phone.”
“Worthless,” she mumbled.
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing. Let’s get down to that basement before my battery dies.”
They frantically searched around the dark house for light switches and a door to the basement.
A booming howl came from the depths below. Emily grabbed Mike’s arm. “What was that?”
He could feel her pulse on his biceps. “I don’t know. It didn’t sound happy. That’s all I know.”
“Guess we found it.” Emily pointed at a door marked with an arrow pointing down.
Mike unsurely grabbed the glass knob and turned. He pushed.
“RA RA RA RA RA RA RA.”
He immediately let go of the knob and took a step back into Emily, who hooked her arms around him. His heart felt like it was going to leap through his ribcage and into Emily’s palm as something or someone snorted loudly from the basement. He wondered if whether he could use magic to calm the animal, or what he assumed to be an animal.
He tried to relax and find the current of magic that had ran throughout all of history. He opened up his soul and attempted to harness the steady wave. Emily broke the hug from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.
“We have to go down there. I’m glad I brought this now.”
Mike felt a piece of cold steel pressing against his forearm. He didn’t need any light to know that it was the gun. He snatched it with his other hand and flipped the safety off. Mike didn’t know if it was the stream of magic or just extra confidence because of the firearm, but his reluctant feet sprang into action.
But he stopped in his tracks again when the rabid barking erupted again. The disturbing sounds increased with each additional step, until Mike couldn’t see anything.
He turned around to grab Emily’s phone to get a better view.
Her flashlight died and her phone made the goodbye beeping melody.
The basement door slammed shut, cutting off the last trace of dim light from above, and effectively shot a lightning bolt of terror up and down Mike’s spine. Mike stood still, paralyzed in fear. His shaky hand pointed the gun in the area the growling was coming from. He sensed the wild beast getting closer, and pulled the trigger twice.
Silence.
A rush of relief hurtled through Mike’s body. He reached out for Emily, and the invisible predator erupted again. Mike accidently fired the gun again, out of fear. The rumbli
ng of the animal rose to a deafening racket.
Mike got to the bottom of the steps and swiped his hand over a patch of wall. Was that a light switch? He pushed up on the stubborn switch until he heard a distinct click. A small chandelier flashed into life. Mike pushed Emily behind him and put two hands on the gun.
Together, carefully, they moved around the room, making sure to leave no parts of it unexplored.
The basement had a stocked bar to the left and stacked cardboard boxes around the rest of the room. When Mike pushed a wall of boxes over, he exposed a silver animal cage with two strange animals inside. They looked like a beefier version of a coyote. Both beasts had wild yellow eyes and were foaming at the mouth.
Mike pressed the safety on the gun and put it in his pants pocket. Emily darted toward the far corner of the basement.
“Holy shit, there it is.”
Emily was pointing at a black duffle bag overflowing with cash. Mike joined her. They stuffed the loose bills into the case and tried to zip it up. They had to jam the loose money in as they went, closing it little by little, and finally sealing the bag up completely.
Mike backed up into the cage and heard a piece of metal hit the ground. Not thinking much of it, he turned around and noticed he’d knocked the loose lock out of place. Both animals sprang toward the door of the cage. Acting quickly, he dove toward the door, meeting it at the same time as the two rabid animals.
“RA, RA, RA, RA, RA.”
The enormous coyotes kept ramming into the door and snapping at Mike. He struggled to keep the door shut and grab the lock from the ground. Emily watched in horror with her hand covering her mouth.
One of the animals grabbed ahold of his hoodie and ripped a patch of fabric from the shoulder. The barking, growling and ramming continued until Mike positioned his body to put the lock back in place. A ferocious set of fangs tried desperately to get at Mike’s shaking hands.
He carefully slid the master lock into its slot. The click sounded so sweet and he wiped a layer of sweat from his forehead. The animals continued going berserk, almost moving the big cage from the constant bashing.
Mike backed away, grabbed the long strap to the bag and threw it over his shoulder. He stood up and felt the weight of the money bag. Emily led the way up the stairs and down the hallway. Mike suddenly stopped in front of the room where Tucker had died.
“Wait a sec. You don’t want this amulet, do you?” He pulled it out of his pocket. “I think it’s probably cursed. We got our money.” Mike tapped the bag.
“I don’t want it.”
Mike walked up to Tucker and tossed the amulet on his chest. “Hope it was worth dying for, buddy.”
The couple scrambled to get out of the spooky house. Mike threw the duffle bag of cash on the back seat and opened the passenger door. A fuzzy sensation circled around the left side of his chest, surrounding his heart.
He got into the car. “So that’s that. Are you sure the money isn’t counterfeit?”
“We’ll check it out when we get to my house. I need to grab a few things before we head to our new life in Pittsburgh.”
“We need to be very careful. It’s obvious that George got to that guy so he doesn’t seem scared to come after someone outside Houlihan’s Square. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid.”
“No. I think you might be right. We’ll just take a few bills into the house. I’ll grab what I need to get started, and we can go to your house and get whatever you need. We’ll be out of this town in an hour. Tops.”
“I don’t need anything. I only have a bunch of ratty clothes and nothing of value to bring.”
“Don’t you worry. We’ll get you some nice new clothes as soon as we get to the city. This is so exciting. A new life. I feel refreshed.”
They arrived at Emily’s house and parked on the street. Mike grabbed a handful of cash out of the bag and stuffed it into his side pocket. As they walked up to her door, Mike said, “Looks like there is a lot more than ten grand in that bag.”
A candle apple glow came over Emily’s face. “What? Oh. Maybe he was going to pay me out of this, and keep the rest for himself. That’s probably what it is. Doesn’t matter now. It’s all ours.”
She opened the door. Mike spilled some of the cash onto the dining room table.
“You check it out, and I’m going to get what I need so we can get out of here.”
She disappeared into the hallway, and Mike examined the bills. There were new hundred-dollar bills mixed with old ones. He found a few fifties in the stack, and the rest consisted of fives and tens. With no idea how to test the bills, he rubbed a few of them, trying to determine if they were too thin or thick.
Emily re-entered the room with a travel bag in each hand and dropped them on the floor.
“What do you think?”
“Looks real enough to me. I don’t really know what to look for, though.”
“When we get to a hotel, we can use my phone to look up counterfeit bills and compare them. I grabbed my car charger so it will have full juice by the time we get there. I just need a few more things and we can go. Why don’t you take those bags out to the car? Here.” She tossed him the keys and he snatched them out of mid-air.
“Alright.” Mike got up from the table and picked up her bags. He carried them to the front door and looked out the small window to make sure no one was waiting on him. He didn’t find any shady characters so he opened the door.
Mike scurried over to the Jeep and pressed the button to unlock the trunk. He popped the tailgate open and tossed the designer bags next to a spare tire. Before he could walk back to the door, Emily rushed out.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yeppers. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Emily took a few steps and turned around. She stared at the house for a few moments.
“You alright?”
“Yeah. I just wanted to take a mental snapshot so I don’t forget this part of my life. It wasn’t all bad living here.” She took a deep breath and walked to the Jeep. “Do you want to drive?”
“I haven’t driven in a while, so it’s probably best if you handle it for now. Maybe if you get tired.” Mike had never driven a car. Dirt bikes and ATVs, sure, but never a full-sized car on the road. He had wanted to, but no one had taken the time to teach him how to drive.
She tapped the black bag hanging near her hip. “I grabbed some Red Bulls so we can stay alert until we get there. I checked it out, and it should only take a little under two hours to get there.”
“Wow. I didn’t realize it was that close.”
They got out onto the highway, and a strange sensation circulated around Mike’s body. He thought about all the people that George had killed, and all that would suffer the same fate in the future. He kept coming back to the conversation about responsibility Alayna had given him. She had insisted it was Mike’s responsibility to defeat George for his mother and the people of Prince’s Mountain.
His thigh began to sweat, so he took the wad of cash from his side pants pocket and put it back into the duffle bag. A mixture of nervous energy and pure excitement fueled his body. He had long wanted to get out of Prince’s Mountain after his mother’s death, but he also felt a pull toward it.
Why was he given these special powers? Certainly not to run away the first chance he got. To use them for the betterment of society. Mike wanted to defeat George once and for all, but he feared he hadn’t received enough training yet.
He wondered if Alayna would follow him to the city. If she kept training him in the magical arts, he could come back and defeat George someday. Win-win, right?
He nervously chewed on his bottom lip, shredding through the top layers of skin, while his right leg bounced uncontrollably up and down. “Stop. I have to go back to Houlihan’s Circle.”
Chapter 24
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING about? Did you forget something there?” Emily asked.
Mike rocked back and forth in the passenger’s seat. “Sort of
. I never told you this, but George killed my mom. You know he killed my best friend, too. I’ve got to stop him. I don’t want more people to lose their mothers and best friends.”
“Mike, I think that is a noble mission, but how are you going to kill George?”
“I don’t exactly know. The gun doesn’t work, we know that. I just know I have to do it or I won’t be able to live with myself.”
Emily turned off the radio and shook her head. “We’re already heading north, and I’m not going to let you kill yourself. If you go back to those woods, you are going to die. You know that, right?”
“I’ve been pretty confused lately, but I’m certain that I need to do this. I might die, who knows? But I have to make an attempt.”
“Mike, where is this coming from? Why do you suddenly feel a responsibility to kill this murderer?”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve wanted to do this since I was ten years old. Ever since my uncle Ernie told me how my mom died.”
“That’s not something a ten-year-old should be hearing.”
Mike sat on his hands to keep them still. “I actually agree with you on that. But what’s done is done and can never be undone. Isn’t that how it goes?”
“I guess. I still think you are being rash. Why don’t you think about it for a few more minutes? There’s an exit in seven miles. If you really have to do this, I’ll take you back, but I think you’ve done enough by just getting out of the Prince. All we’ve been talking about is leaving so we don’t die in this town. Now you want to go back and die before we even leave.”
“Look. I don’t expect you to understand this. Hell, I don’t even understand it. Everything has been confusing lately, but this is one thing I am sure about. I have to do it.” Mike’s stomach tightened into a knot.
“Well keep thinking. We still have a few minutes to change your mind. I don’t feel right driving you to a certain death.”
Mike’s mind had been made. “I’ll walk back if I have to. I know this all sounds crazy and it is, but I can’t keep running from responsibility. I can’t. I won’t. Ever since I turned eighteen, I’ve been running. I’ve been running away from anything that’s hard to do. I’ve been taking the easy way out for three years. It’s time for me to face the music.”
Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 1-3 Page 56
