by Cege Smith
At some point along the way—Ellie thought after the seventh shot—Jeffrey left the room, saying he was too old for such hijinks and that he would see them off in the morning. It was obvious to Ellie that no one really missed him.
“Let’s play truth or dare!” Lucy said. She laughed and rolled on her side, clapping her hands into the air above her.
It was finally Ellie’s turn to roll her eyes. “What are we, twelve? Geez, Lucy.”
“Spoken by someone who has never played it,” Lucy countered.
It annoyed Ellie how much Lucy seemed to know about her and her past. She didn’t know if it was just that way in the Afterlife or if Mikel had told her. Lucy glanced at Katie. “What about you?”
Katie snorted. “On possibly the last night of my life, I’m getting wasted and playing truth or dare. Sure, why not?”
“Excellent,” Lucy said smugly.
Ellie noticed that Lucy didn’t ask either one of the boys’ opinions, but guessed correctly, as neither boy protested, that they would do whatever Katie wanted them to do. She watched closely as Will whispered something in Katie’s ear and the blonde smiled shyly. Martin also watched through narrowed eyes.
“Ellie,” Lucy said, twirling one of her short curls around her finger. “You’re first. Truth or dare.”
“Why me?” Ellie said.
“Because you are the Guardian,” Lucy said, mimicking Jeffrey’s serious tone. “Everyone round here is supposed to bow down and worship you or something. So you’re first.”
“Fine,” Ellie said, annoyed. She felt like Lucy was throwing something in her face, but the alcohol was causing all her memories of the last hour to blur together. “Truth.”
“Booooring.” Katie sighed.
Ellie felt the heat rise up in her cheeks, but she didn’t change her answer. She was too old for that. She looked over at Lucy. “Truth,” she said again firmly.
“How old were you when you had your first kiss?” Lucy said.
Now Ellie started to squirm. Somehow she knew that Lucy would know if she was lying. The other three looked at her expectantly. Such a simple answer, and yet one that was loaded. There were so many logical and valid reasons why it had taken her so long to let a man get close to her, but they all felt stupid now. She felt like a complete lug head.
“I was nineteen,” she finally said.
“Whoa,” Will said, pulling a face. “Lucy said you’ve been here a long time. Were you born in like the 1800s?”
“No!” Ellie said. “I was just waiting for the right guy.”
“No such thing,” Lucy said with a grin and a wink. “Anyway, seems like things worked out all right in that department. Must be nice to have a handsome doctor on your arm these days.”
For the first time since before dinner, Ellie realized that she hadn’t checked on David. It felt like it had been hours since she had last seen him, and since he hadn’t come downstairs yet she thought he must be exhausted. She was glad then that she hadn’t disturbed him. Thinking about David made her simultaneously happy and anxious. His strange behavior earlier was completely unlike him. She hoped with some rest that he would come to his senses and that the next time she saw him he would be his old self.
Then Ellie felt the presence of someone else, although she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t describe the sensation, other than feeling a flash of heat waft across her skin. Mikel was nearby. She looked at Lucy and saw a similar recognition in the woman’s eyes. Lucy nodded toward the kitchen. “Hey, Ellie. Maybe that coffee would be good for the rest of us. Sober us up a bit. Do you want to see if you can scare up a few more coffee cups?”
Ellie reluctantly took the hint; Mikel wanted to see her. Murmuring a quick “I’ll be right back,” she got up and made her way to the door at the back of the library that exited right outside the kitchen. Her steps were a little bit awkward; the alcohol was taking full effect.
As soon as she stepped outside the door into the hallway, he was there beside her. Ellie took a step back and then his arm closed around her waist and his hand was on top of her mouth as he pressed her back against the wall.
“Shhh, dear. You don’t want to scare your guests now, do you?” Mikel whispered in her ear. His body was warm and too close and she struggled against him but he held her fast. She felt instantly sober. His green eyes bored into hers as he looked down at her. “I am going to take my hand away from your mouth now. But you will behave, right?”
Ellie nodded slowly. Mikel kept his word and dropped his hand, but he still held on to her.
“Let me go,” Ellie said softly. The proximity to Mikel was overwhelming her senses and it scared her. She needed to keep him at arm’s length.
“I don’t know why you are fighting me, Ellie. I have done nothing but be kind to you. Taken care of you.” Mikel tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.
The brush of his fingertips against the sensitive skin on her neck sent an electric bolt down her body. “Mikel, let me go,” she said more firmly. “If you want to talk, we can talk. But not like this.”
She saw a cloud cross his eyes and wondered if her unwillingness to bend to him had gone too far. He slowly unwound his arm from her waist and took a small step back. He was still in her space, but even the few inches of separation made Ellie feel better.
“It’s time,” he said.
“Time for what?”
“It’s time for you to fulfill your destiny, Ellie,” he said. “It’s time to become a Ripher.”
They were the same words that the Voice had said right before she was pitched into the waypoint. Ellie’s breath stopped. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Tsk, tsk, Ellie. Perhaps I have been too indulgent with you. I’ve given you a beautiful home, a wise teacher, and even a witch to do your dirty work. All’s you have to do is do what you were born to do. And you will.”
“I don’t even know how to do what you are asking me to do,” Ellie said. She found herself wishing for the mind-numbing effect of the alcohol again. She had no desire to explore this darker side of her gift any further, but she was certain that Mikel wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “I haven’t had enough time. You have to give me more time,” she pleaded.
“I gave you a witch,” Mikel said. His gaze held hers. “Besides, you’ve done it before. It’s just like riding a bicycle. You’ll remember quickly enough. Lucy will help you. In fact, she’s already set this evening up for you beautifully. You can just swoop in and take it.”
“How can I tell what I’m supposed to be looking for? Do they all have it?” Ellie was desperately trying to make it obvious that she needed more time. She needed time for her head to clear so that she could think. It was all happening too fast. And there was something more that she knew that she was missing, but it wouldn’t come to her.
“You’re the Ripher. You figure it out,” he smirked.
In that moment, Ellie hated him. “What if I don’t?”
Mikel leaned closer and Ellie didn’t have anywhere to go since her back was still against the wall. His face was inches away from hers. “Then you will never see David ever again.”
The glee in his voice was obvious. He wasn’t bluffing. She knew that she was left with really no choice at all. Mikel knew it. At that moment, Jeffrey stepped out of the kitchen holding a tray with four cups on it. Ellie thought he looked like he felt sorry for her.
“I believe you were looking for these, Ellie?”
Mikel stepped away from her and Ellie looked down at the floor. Then she took the tray from Jeffrey and turned back to the library. She wanted nothing more to do with either one of them. Once back inside the room, she watched the group in front of the fire as she poured the coffee into the cups. They were talking in low voices so she couldn’t hear the thread of the conversation. She brought the tray over to them and set it inside their small circle.
“What’s up, Ellie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Will said. The group cracked up at his joke. Ellie didn
’t join in.
“Nothing, I’m just starting to feel a bit tired.”
A hand touched her arm. “Everything go okay?” Lucy asked. She was looking over Ellie’s shoulder.
“I forgot where the cups were in the cupboard,” Ellie said. Mikel said that Lucy would help her, but how could she ask without making it obvious? “I swear Jeffrey said that we should only use one kind of cup for everyday use, but there were three different kinds in the cupboard so it took me awhile to figure out which one to take.” Ellie knew she was babbling something stupid and inane but it was like her mouth needed to talk so her brain couldn’t think about what she was about to do.
Lucy’s eyebrows were raised but she simply nodded. Then she looked down at her watch. “Yeah, you don’t want to tick anybody off by taking the wrong cups. Well, kids, I guess there’s no sense in waiting any longer. It’s midnight.”
Immediately the other three quieted down.
“So, Ellie. Are you going to push us back or what? I don’t want to die. I know I have a lot of unresolved business that I need to take care of,” Will said.
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” Katie said. Incredibly, the girl had tears in her eyes. “My parents are rich, but I guess that doesn’t mean much here.”
Ellie wasn’t sure what was more amusing in that moment, that Katie could become her next victim, or that the poor little rich girl had finally run into a situation that she couldn’t buy her way out of.
“I don’t know,” Ellie said slowly, sitting down with the group. She was grasping for straws, wondering what to do next. She glanced sideways at Lucy, who was cocking her head toward Martin. “When I was on the Other Side, I had a special talent where I could read auras. That usually told me what I need to know. But here, I need to get a bit more tangible.” Ellie’s mind raced as she tried to think what she had done with Jake. One thing was certain, touch was involved.
An idea was forming in her mind. “I’m going to ask each of you to take my hands and then I need a few minutes to concentrate. In your mind, I want you to picture what you have to go back to if I can send you back. Then, if I can help you, I will.” The lie came out almost too easily. Ellie saw hope in their faces and it made her heart ache. For one or all of them, she was about to become their executioner even if she wasn’t the one doing it herself.
She turned to Martin. Poor sweet silent Martin. “You go first, Martin.” She pushed herself up onto her knees and held out her hands. He watched her for a moment and didn’t say anything.
“Go on, Martin!” Katie pushed. “If this is how we get out of here, we gotta do it. Ellie’s not going to do anything to hurt us. She’s our Guardian, remember?”
Jeffrey’s story along with Lucy’s lies and intrigue had tied everything up into a neat little package. Ellie wondered if it was going to be like this with every person who came into the waypoint. She suspected that it would be, and the idea that this was her life now revolted her. As Martin set his hands into hers it pulled her back to the present.
“Truth or dare, huh?” Martin said. “I guess I’ll go with dare.”
She tried to smile to reassure Martin, but she was afraid that it came off as nothing but a sickly grin. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Ellie wrapped her fingers around Martin’s hands and took a deep breath. At first she felt nothing, but then suddenly, it was like she was seeing an X-ray of Martin’s body in her head. And there, deep within the layers of his brain, she saw something glow.
Sucking in a low gasp, she tightened her grip on his hands. Something inside of her took over, and she knew that Mikel and Lucy were right: a Ripher knew what to do. It was like a sliver of her energy slithered from her body into Martin’s through the shared connection of their hands and then it shot into Martin’s mind and pulled. She felt his resistance, but she wasn’t going to let go now. She didn’t think she could even if she wanted too. It was like her energy wrapped itself entirely around that little bit of pulsating energy and gave it a yank, and then suddenly it was free. It was back inside of her before she knew it, and deep within her body she felt that little piece of Martin now existed.
She opened her eyes and saw Martin’s wide unseeing eyes staring at her, a small line of blood running from his nose.
“Oh my god, Martin?” Katie shrieked. “Are you all right?”
“What the hell?” Will yelled at the same time as Ellie felt Martin’s grip go slack and slide out of hers. The man fell backwards and landed with a heavy thud on the floor.
“What did you do?” Katie screamed at her as she gathered Martin’s head into her lap.
Ellie’s body felt like it was humming and her mind was swimming, but this time she knew it wasn’t from the alcohol. She heard a few words that she didn’t understand being spoken to her left, and she knew that Lucy was casting some kind of spell. The whole world went quiet, and as Ellie’s eyes refocused, she saw that the reason it was quiet was because the small group in front of her had been frozen in place.
“Ellie, I’m…surprised,” Lucy said finally.
Pushing to her feet, Ellie made her way over to the couch and sat down, dropping her head in her hands. Even then, she couldn’t stop her mind from seeing two or three of the images in her mind.
“Ellie, you have to talk to me.” Lucy was on her hands and knees in front of Ellie then, with her cool hands on Ellie’s cheeks. “That was incredibly dangerous, what you just did. You’re too new. I don’t even know how you knew how to do that. Mikel said you were ignorant of the old ways.”
“What are you talking about?” Ellie moaned. “You are going to kill him now, aren’t you?”
Lucy looked over her shoulder at Martin lying on the floor. “No, I’m not, Ellie. Because you already did.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ellie stood over Martin’s body, staring down at him in disbelief. “I didn’t...I didn’t mean to. It was an accident”
“Well, you went after it with gusto, no doubt about it,” Lucy said. “That’s Ripher intuition in action.” There was a hitch in her voice that made Ellie glance at her.
That’s when she saw it. Lucy was afraid of her. “No one told me how this works. I didn’t even know I could do that. I’m scared out of my mind here. Shouldn’t someone be teaching me? Telling me what to do?” Ellie said. Her voice was shrill but she couldn’t help it.
“Hey, Ellie. It’s okay,” Lucy said, holding up her hands. “Thing is, nobody here can tell you that. It’d be like me trying to tell you how to use magic. We’re apples and oranges. I can only tell you what I know based on what I’ve seen and heard. I’ve never actually done what you are doing. I’m sorry.”
“And what am I doing?” Ellie choked.
“They don’t call your kind Riphers for nothing. Basically you rip out something of someone that doesn’t belong to you and you make it your own,” Lucy said.
Tears welled in the corners of Ellie’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “I didn’t ask to be like this. I never wanted to hurt Martin. But Mikel threatened to never let me see David again.”
Lucy tried to give her a hug but Ellie pushed her away. “Don’t. Just don’t. I feel like a sick and demented person. Now I’m a murderer too.”
Lucy’s eyes crept up over her shoulder and narrowed. Then she pushed up to her feet. “I don’t think you are supposed to be in here right now.”
Ellie turned and saw David standing there with a shocked expression on his face as he witnessed the scene in front of him.
“David!” Ellie jumped up and went to him. She grabbed his hand to try to get his eyes to lock on hers. “This isn’t what it looks like. Let’s go somewhere and I can explain.”
Although it was under her breath, Ellie still heard Lucy mutter, “Or it’s exactly what it looks like.”
Ellie tugged on David’s hand and pulled him out into the hallway and down to the foyer at the bottom of the stairs. Then she hugged him and was relieved when he put his arms around her an
d stroked her hair.
“David, I don’t know what’s happening to me,” she whispered against his shoulder. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“Ellie, what happened in there? What happened to that kid?” David asked, pulling away. “Does this have to do with Mikel?”
Ellie shook her head and refused to meet his eyes. “It’s hard to explain, David. Mikel threatened me and said that I had to do what he wanted me to do, otherwise he’d never let me see you again.”
Stepping back, David took Ellie by the shoulders and made her look him in the eye. “Elle, what did you do?”
This time when the tears came, she didn’t stop them. “I don’t know how to control it, David. When I touched him, I was able to see it. It’s touch that does it, just like with Jake.”
“What did you see, Ellie?” he asked, gently pulling it out of her.
“His ability. He was gifted, kind of like me.” Ellie stopped to think for a moment. The pulse inside of her was still there, and she knew what it was now. It was strange how she knew, but she did. “It wasn’t strong, but sometimes Martin could see what would happen before it happened. He had premonitions, but only in his dreams. If anything, I’d say that it was a latent ability. It was buried so deep inside his mind, he probably didn’t even know it was there.”
The dismay on David’s face said it all. She didn’t even need to ask what he was thinking about her statement. “How do you know that, Ellie?”
“Everyone keeps telling me that I’m a Ripher and that when the time came I would understand what that meant. And even you said that people like me are rare. Once I let it loose, it took over. But I can feel that ability that I took from him inside me now. I know everything about it, including how to use it if I wanted to. But I don’t. Lucy was supposed to help me, but I did it wrong. In the end, I hurt him.”
