The Equinox

by K. K. Allen

  “Okay, so now what?” I ask as I look between Rose, Charlotte, and Arabella.

  “My sisters and I are going to look for Johnny. Maybe we can find him and bring him back before it gets dark,” Arabella says.

  “What happens when it gets dark?”

  “If the Equinox is going to strike, he’ll do it after dark. That’s when we need to be ready.” Charlotte says this while appearing distracted by another thought.

  I groan. “Ready for what?”

  Rose shakes her head, obviously conflicted. “I’m not sure exactly.”

  “How did you defeat Erebus a decade ago?” I ask, desperate to find an answer. This is all getting much too real.

  Rose frowns. “We didn’t defeat him, that’s why he’s still around. He just got what he wanted last time, so he went away for a while.”

  I tilt my head and shake it, confused. “What did he get?”

  “Our light attracts the Equinox. He gains his strength from our darkness, but the only way to darken an Enchanter completely is to drain our power and then kill us. A decade ago he got enough energy to thrive off of for quite some time—because he killed a direct descendant.” Rose’s tone is soft and muffled with sadness.

  Another completed puzzle emerges. The only other dead direct descend I know of is my Grandpa George. “No.” My voice cracks.

  Rose clenches her jaw. She doesn’t have to say a word for me to make this connection, but there it is, another part of the puzzle revealed. Erebus killed my grandfather. I want to ask Rose if the Equinox caused the fire to the house too but I hold back. These memories can’t be easy for her, especially at a time like this.

  This is the end of the conversation. Rose stays behind to chat with some members while Charlotte takes me back to the house. The car is still running as I hop out of the car. I turn around to face her.

  “I’m going to stay with Rose,” Charlotte speaks first. “Let me know when you’re ready to go to the carnival and I’ll come get you. Please do not go anywhere alone.” She shoots daggers at me with her eyes, waiting for me to focus on her and promise.

  I nod. “Okay, I will call you in a bit.”

  She gives me a forced smile and backs up down the drive.

  All I want to do when I get inside is wash away the salt that’s buried deep into my skin; a painful memory of my date with Johnny yesterday. The warm water feels good but I can’t scrub the memories away—not that I’d want to entirely. Our date yesterday was a dream—and then a nightmare. So then why did he have my pendant? And if he was the one that rescued me from the water, then why rip the chain from my neck and then keep it from me all this time? It troubles me because no excuse I come up with justifies the theft.

  Right now, none of that matters. I need to get to the carnival to be with the others—and calling Charlotte is the last thing on my priority list. I can make it to the event alone and she can stay with Rose.

  As I leave Summer Estates and lock up the back door, I notice that the sky is already starting to dim and hesitate just slightly. I look down at my bracelet and confidence begins to settle in.

  I start to move toward the sounds coming from the Summer Island Carnival, which are filled with screams of innocence and excitement. It isn’t until I’m halfway down the street that I get the feeling that I’m being watched. It hits me like a chill that soaks deep into my skin to the point of mistaking the cold for hot. I turn my head in all directions but my eyes catch nothing. I’m not turning around now.

  With my head held high I trudge forward through the sand with a tight grip on my sandals.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Even after participating in the set up of the carnival, I’m still surprised at the sight before me. I stand past the entrance where the tennis courts used to be, which are now covered with a two story haunted house; its lights flicker a multitude of bright colors. Screams, followed by a spatter of laughter, echo from inside its walls.

  The lazy river swimming pool is now a canoe ride where guests paddle their way through fun obstacles of raining beach balls and water gun sprays by their laughing peers.

  A long row of games wind around the exterior of the drive, parted every now and then with the food booths that Johnny and I set up. I frown at the memory, though I know at this point that everything will remind me of him.

  “Finally, I was getting worried about you,” Trisha approaches me from my side—so quietly I jump.

  Her eyes widen. “Are you okay?”

  I inhale deeply to help calm myself. “As okay as I can be.”

  Trisha looks around us and then lowers her head and her voice to speak to me. “Do you think he’s here?”

  For a second I assume she’s speaking about Johnny, but I know better. With all that’s gone on I almost forgot that Trisha is one of us and that she was at the meeting earlier.

  I sigh. “I don’t know. Rose seems to think he’ll be here. I guess we just wait and find out.”

  “And then what?” she asks. I can’t tell if her question is one filled with excitement or fear. With Trisha being so new to all of this, it’s very possible that she’s not privy to much information. She may not know about the evil serpent that attacked the town a decade ago, or the fact that Erebus is responsible for my grandfather’s death…

  With a glance down to my pendant I frown. “I suppose I’m protected, so he can’t possess me. That’s all I know.” Even as I say this I feel cold, and helpless, and I’m in no hurry to start my shift but Charlotte has already found me.

  She walks toward me, appearing furious as her short blonde hair bounces wildly toward me. There’s a fierce look on her face, and her blue eyes glow a touch of madness. “I said I would pick you up. I was about to go back to the house because I hadn’t heard from you. For once, can you just listen to the people who are trying to protect you?”

  Guilt sets in quickly, knowing that the sternness is not uncharacteristic for Charlotte—but I’m not used to her directing that sternness toward me. She has every right to be furious.

  “I didn’t want you to leave Rose. I’m fine. I’m here.” I say this quickly, hoping that it can dissolve some of her anger.

  She doesn’t back down. “You are so stubborn, Katrina. Just like your grandmother.” She let’s out a frustrated throaty noise, but I can sense she’s amused by this fact.

  “Rose is helping Roy out with one of the food booths, to cover for Johnny.”

  Roy. Maybe he knows where Johnny is, but before I can ask Charlotte about it, she’s shoving a walkie talkie into my hands.

  “Here,” she says. The earpiece of the device dangles lazily to its side. “Can you be a rover tonight? If anyone needs help with anything, just help them out. If you see anything—”

  “I know, I know. I turn into a ninja.”

  Charlotte gasps. “No! You call for help immediately. We’ll be right there and we’ll deal with this together.”

  For a second I want to cry. I’ve felt so numb all day, I could scream now just to feel something—anything.

  Charlotte sighs and wraps her arms around me. “Be safe, Kat. Rose and I won’t be too far from you, but it’s important that we spread out.”

  “I’ll stay with Kat,” Trisha offers eagerly.

  A smile tugs at my lips. I think it’s more for her safety than mine. I slip the earpiece onto my ear as a gesture that I’ve got it handled, and I tuck the little black box into my back pocket. Although Charlotte doesn’t look entirely convinced, she backs off and leaves us to continue our walk.

  Not even a second goes by. “So what happened between you and Johnny?” Trisha asks. Of course she wants the inside scoop, but I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to answer questions today. It’s too soon.

  “Nothing.” It’s my gut response but then I moan in frustration. “Everything—and then disaster. He’s gone. His phone is off. He left town.”

  Trisha nudges me gently. “I know all of that, but what happened between you two? I thought you two hated each
other.”

  “Things changed, I guess. We grew on each other. Turns out we share a lot of the same interests.”

  “And he’s hot,” Trisha says with a giggle.

  I give her a surprised glance. How she can joke and giggle at a time like this is beyond me.

  A flicker of light from above me kicks my senses into high gear. I look around and though the lights have returned to normal, something is off—I can feel it in my gut. I search the crowd for anything unusual but nothing suspicious stands out from where I’m standing.

  Still unsettled, Trisha follows me as I weave my way through the crowd and long lines until there’s a clearing near the entertainment stage. The band is setting up but I see an opportunity to get some height on the situation.

  I gesture for Trisha to follow me toward the back of the stage where a ladder sits, propped up against the main stage backdrop. “Spot me—hold the bottom. I’m going up to check things out.” I whisper this unnecessarily but Trisha reacts as if I’ve just given her the most important mission. Her eyes spread wide and she nods heavily.

  The rungs of the ladder are thick with grease but I try to ignore the grossness of it by pulling myself up, one step after the other until I reach the top. I poke my head over the edge of the thick fabric wall of the stage and see out over the crowd. From this height I can spy every inch of the park.

  “So why did he take your pendant?” Trisha calls up from the ground. She’s not letting this conversation rest. Is she jealous? She did always talk about how hot and complicated he was. Maybe on some secret level she was interested.

  “I don’t know,” I say over my shoulder. “There was no time to ask. We were on his boat and when I found the pendant I was so freaked out I swam home.” Now is not the time to talk about sea sprinkle and mermaid tails.

  “Why would you swim home?” Trisha’s voice expresses how I feel about myself right now. Shameful.

  I sigh. “Because—I thought he was the Equinox.”

  There’s a silence below me, and then…“Oh. Why?”

  Johnny is the furthest thing from the Equinox so it’s like a rake scraping my heart as I have to admit my mistake. “I just had this wild idea all along that whoever stole my pendant that night was trying to kill me—and who else would try to kill me but the Equinox?”

  As the sun lowers its curtain and the moon takes center stage, the lights of the carnival come to life. The crowd grows thicker and the voices carry more elation as guests wander around with their cotton candy and prize stuffed toy manatees.

  A shake of the ladder snaps me back to my mission. “Whoa.” I look down.

  Trisha holds up her hands. “Sorry!”

  I look around back out at the crowd to see if I can spot anything unusual but everything appears to be normal, except for the growing long line at the Haunted House—and then a bloodcurdling scream shakes the night.

  All of the hair on my neck rises as I turn toward the sound. That wasn’t an excited scream from the thrill of a ride. No—it’s a terrified scream of someone being injured. I can almost smell the blood.

  I see him. A boy about twelve years old is clutching his leg where a large shard of glass sticks out, its mean jagged edges are covered in blood. I gasp and fly down the ladder too quickly. Even my heightened senses can’t stop me from slipping on the overly greased rung and falling the rest of the way down. I crumple Trisha with a thud and I hear her moan. She rolls around the grass for a few seconds and I cringe.

  “I’m so sorry, Trisha.” I grab her arm where her pain radiates heat. Knowing I can’t leave her until I heal her. I press on the cord to my earpiece to speak into the microphone. “This is Kat, come in someone—anyone.”

  A crackle and a hiss later, I hear a voice. “Katrina, are you okay?”

  It’s Rose. I sigh. “Yes, I’m fine, but there’s a boy injured at the haunted house. Can you go to him?”

  “I’ll be right there.” Rose clicks off and I turn back to Trisha. “You’ll be okay. Do you know how to energy source?”

  She lays on her back and looks up into the sky but her eyes close again in pain.

  “Trisha, you need to open your eyes. You have to be open and accepting. Ask for the strength to heal you.”

  Trisha takes a few deep breaths and does as I say. After a few minutes I see her smile return to her face and I know she is feeling better.

  “Thanks Kat.”

  I can’t help but laugh. “Don’t thank me. I’m the one that fell on you. Do you have the strength to get up? I want to see if Rose needs help.”

  Trisha pulls herself up and groans. “Okay.” I help her the rest of the way until she’s on her feet and we begin jogging. Rose has already reached the boy by the time we arrive, and she ushers me to help carry him to the grass. We watch as she puts her hands to his injured leg and applies pressure as her right hand pulls the glass out of his upper thigh.

  The boy is numb to the pain, thanks to Rose, but she has to work extra hard to keep the blood from spilling out in bucketfuls. It’s difficult to watch, but I force myself to stomach the sight of blood. If Rose can do it, so can I.

  Charlotte appears by our side and begins to ask the boy a million questions. Apparently he was standing in the room of mirrors when one of the mirrors just cracked and shards of broken glass started flying. He was lucky enough to be facing away from the spray; small fragments of glass caught his face too, but nothing serious.

  I’m about to ask if there is anyone else in the room with him when I see three more bloody young bodies carried out by adults; their injuries appear to be more severe.

  “Oh no,” I mouth. I feel numb as I take in their wounds. Trisha takes off running toward them. Amid the chaos, a small feeling of pride bubbles in my chest as I realize that Trisha will be able to help these kids because I taught her how to heal.

  “Call 911,” Rose whispers just loud enough for me to hear.

  I look at her, confused. “Why, can’t we heal them?”

  “Kat, this is just the beginning. We can’t possibly heal everyone. Just call 911. We’ll help them as much as we can while we wait.”

  Just the beginning? My hands tremble as I speak into the mouthpiece. “Call 911, now. Some kids have been injured and they need an ambulance.” I unclick the button and then press it again. “At the haunted house.”

  A loud rumbling noise causes Rose and I to turn our heads back to the haunted house. Escaping one of the open windows on the top floor, is colorful arrangement of flickering lights, but that’s not all. A shadow crosses the path of the lights and another terrifying scream ricochets through the night, piercing the newly fallen night sky. My body is jolted to life, not only alerting my senses, but igniting the fire within me.

  Charlotte is already running toward the building, along with four other Enchanters. I’m pulled back by Rose who signals to my walkie talkie. “Who is trying to reach you?” She asks desperately.

  The earpiece dangles by my side. I didn’t realize that it came out of my ear. Rose must hear a frequency that I’m not tuned into at the moment. I stick the cord in my ear and wait for the voices to come. Another click sounds, followed by a hiss and some feedback. I wait anxiously for someone to speak but nothing comes.

  “Help!” The voice I’m hearing is coming through the speaker. He or she, I can’t tell, sounds distant but terrified, and then there’s another crackle. “We—garden maze—we can’t—”

  The walkie goes completely dead. I bang on it, I command it to turn back on but it’s done for. I yank it off and just start running.

  “Where are you going? Kat…” Rose is screaming at me. I’ve never heard her so terrified, but I can’t stop. The Enchanters have all been drawn to the haunted house, which means, no one is on the other side of the Island, where the garden maze is.

  As soon as I approach I know something is off. The white lights that once lit the large arched sign above the entrance are dim, but buzzing fervently. A blue glow that shines above the outside he
dges, seem to come from a deeper part of the maze.

  I tense and look over my shoulder. It’s as if the carnival guests have all gone silent. All game and ride activities come to a still, and a large dark cloud now hangs over Summer Island. This can’t be good.

  Feeling like I have nothing to lose, I begin to move through the maze. The moon’s glow casts shadows around me, as if providing nightlight for my private viewing. My path is formed by long, winding hedges that are dimly lit on either side by the branch lights. Every inch of the hedges are carefully sculpted, and the top of the hedges are rounded, obviously crafted to set up a whimsical environment. The patterns etched into the greenery create a 3D look throughout, and flowers of beautiful bright tones bloom before my eyes.

  The maze is seemingly a mile long with all of its twists, turns, and many dead ends. Each of the dead end points are creatively constructed and lively as tree branches move from left to right, up and down. Something pokes me from behind, and when I turn, a stick falls to the ground. Whipping my head around, I search the space around me for a sign as to where the stick fell from. With a squeeze of my necklace I force myself forward.

  I seem to be on a correct path since I continue through it for a while, but I begin to get frustrated at the very next dead end. All around me I hear faint echoes of laughter through the breeze, as if the trees find my journey humorous, their leaves blow softly in the wind.

  It’s almost too late when I see a large branch from another tree swing from left to right, this time with more force behind it. I stumble backwards to avoid my decapitation, and fall to the ground before searching my near space for another flying limb on the attack.

  When I jump to my feet and shake off the dirt that’s dusted my backside, I forge forward with determination. Whatever led me here will have to face me at some point. It might as well be now.

  Finally, I realize where the blue glow is coming from. I approach an opening in the path; an enchanting sight, despite the danger. It’s as if an entirely new world is opening up before me. The blue glow comes from the waterfall that spills effortlessly over a pool of fresh water as a butterfly circles above; the loud fluttering of its wings echo in my head.