Five: Out of the Dark

by Anderson, Holli

  Whew, I thought. That was close.

  The blanket covering the changeling dropped open during the pull back to the roof. I peered down at the wiggling creature in my arms and shuddered as I wrapped it tight again, doing my best to avoid having my fingers bitten off by the hideous creature. Its face was that of a hairless dog, with a long muzzle and razor-sharp teeth. Slathering drool dripped from its pronounced overbite. Small, squinty eyes the color of a white T-shirt after it’s been washed with a new, black towel, focused on my face. Its wrinkled skin had dark areas of rotting flesh. Of course, that was what the changeling really looked like. Only those with magical abilities could see through the camouflage placed by the Faeries. The human parents would have seen a passing replica of their kidnapped baby. I handed the bundle to Johnathan and wiped my hands on my pants.

  We retraced our steps and met the other three on the sidewalk below. The baby’s mother slammed the window shut.

  The binding spell on the Faerie wouldn’t last long without a continuous infusion of power—which was exhausting. So, our goal was to get her back to the Underground—to the pentacle—before the spell wore off. The boys bundled her into a large backpack and Alec carried her on his back. Johnathan handed the changeling back to me—lucky me—and we headed back toward the nearest boarded up stairway leading to the Underground. We knew where many of the stairways were. As we came upon new ones we would pry the boards away from the doorframes to gain entrance, but leave the boards on the doors so they looked undisturbed.

  When we dropped to the floor of the Underground, I gave the Faerie an extra dose of the binding spell, just to ensure she wouldn’t get loose before we arrived. There were few things as nasty as an irate Faerie. They were stronger than they looked and had some really powerful magic up their frilly sleeves.

  We made it back to our hideout without incident. Alec and Seth removed the Faerie from the backpack and laid her in the pentacle we’d prepared beforehand.

  “This one sure is a beauty,” Alec said.

  We’d discovered recently that he had a thing for Faeries, more so even than other sixteen year old, hormonal boys would have. They were beautiful creatures, and long known in folklore for their ability to draw men to them like cow manure draws flies. Alec ran his fingers through her silky yellow hair but stepped back out of the pentacle before Johnathan could yell at him. Another good reason to keep her bound until we could send her back to the Netherworld—Alec had almost been coerced into helping a Faerie escape a few days earlier. His will to combat her charms had been seriously weakened by her fluttering eyelashes and big alligator tears. He’d succumbed to her charm, and Seth and Halli had to hold him down while Johnathan and I sent her back and closed the gateway. Alec was totally embarrassed when the charm broke and he realized what had happened. Of course, we’d been reminding him about it on a regular basis since then.

  The wriggling changeling I carried grew heavier by the second, and as I leaned over to set it beside the Faerie in the pentacle, the blanket caught in my gear belt made from a discarded fanny pack. The changeling unrolled from the blanket and, chittering incessantly, did a sort of lightning-fast monkey crawl out of the circle of the pentacle.

  Standing beside me, Johnathan reached out to grab the horrid little creature before it skittered away. It clamped down on his hand like a needle-toothed vise.

  Johnathan let out a horrendous, bellowing scream. It must have really hurt. I’d never heard him do more than grunt when in pain before.

  I was locked in place, horror-stricken.

  Whipping out her channeling rod, Halli aimed it toward the creature’s clenched jaws, “Release,” she hissed.

  As soon as Johnathan’s hand was free, Halli followed her first spell with another.

  “Bind!” she shouted, as the power of her spell sent orange sparks flying from the tip of her rod.

  I dropped to the rubble-strewn floor next to where Johnathan lay writhing in pain, his injured hand grasped to his chest. “Johnathan! Oh, I’m so sorry! Let me see your hand.”

  “Send them back,” Johnathan spat through gritted teeth. “Now!”

  I scrambled to my feet. Seth grabbed the now-bound changeling and tossed it none too gently into the circle with the Faerie. I removed a stick pin from my belt and pricked my finger, drawing a drop of blood. I touched my finger to the circle’s border and closed my eyes.

  Sending my will into the circle, I muttered, “Close.” I completely forgot to make it sound magic-y.

  Nothing changed to the way the circle and its inhabitants looked, but I could feel the pressure of the force field surrounding them. I wondered briefly if I should remove the binding from the Faerie and ask her about the bite before sending her back, or at least try to get her name out of her so I could summon her again if I needed to. The twisted grimace on Johnathan’s face was too much for me to handle, though, and the sight of it wiped away my previous thoughts.

  I gestured for Seth, Alec, and Halli to gather around the circle. We held hands and concentrated on the sending spell we’d all learned by heart. I spoke the words, “Lacio expello locus exigo!”

  A hole opened up inside the circle, and we caught a small, terrifying glimpse of the Netherworld as the Faerie and her changeling seeped into the void between our world and theirs.

  As soon as the opening sealed shut, I broke the circle—which felt a lot like my ears popping—so it became just a drawing on the floor. I fell to my knees beside Johnathan once again and reached for his injured hand. I gasped at the sight. It was already swollen beyond recognition, red and mean-looking. The puncture wounds dripped with green pus and his whole hand was hot to the touch. The redness moved up his arm at an alarming rate.

  “Johnathan, this looks horrible. What was that thing?” I asked. “Halli, get me some warm water and soap.”

  “I’m not sure what it was, but I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well for me.” He closed his eyes. “I can feel the pain traveling through all my blood vessels, all my organs, my skin, my hair …” He swallowed back a groan.

  Halli rushed over with the soap and a bucket of water she’d warmed with a spell. I dumped about half the water over Johnathan’s hand to wash away some of the green goop pouring from the wound. I slathered it with soap and poured more water over it. Johnathan had broken out into a sweat and his skin was a sickly color of gray. I sent Halli to refill the bucket with clean water, and I stroked Johnathan’s forehead. Using the sleeve of my shirt, I mopped some of the perspiration from his face. His eyes were closed tight, his jaw clenched in pain.

  When Halli brought the bucket back over, I decided the best way to clean out the wounds was to plop his whole hand in the water and just soak it for a while. While his hand soaked, I scooted over, laid his head on my lap and continued to stroke his forehead and run my fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.

  I murmured softly to him, trying to soothe him and calm my own fears. “I’m so sorry. You’re going to be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you. It’s gonna be okay, you have to be okay.” I didn’t realize I was crying until several tears slid from my cheeks onto Johnathan’s face. He must have felt them land there as he forced his eyes open and tried a weak smile that was more of a grimace.

  “Nothin’ to be sorry about, Paige-girl. Not your fault … You’re so beautiful, Paige … so beautiful. I think I might be in love with you … so-o beautiful …” His eyes closed again and his breathing returned to normal. The painful contortion of his face finally relaxed, and he fell asleep.

  I, of course, was speechless. My mouth fell open, and I sat frozen in place. Did he just say he loves me? The pain must be causing him to lose his mind—he usually acts like I’m just another one of the guys. My frozen state was broken by Alec’s laughter.

  “Bahahahaha! You should see your face! I can’t believe you didn’t know he’s got it for you—he stares at you all the time when he thinks no one’s looking!” Alec sure got a big laugh out of my apparent naiveté.
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  I closed my mouth, cleared my throat and cast my eyes down to look upon Johnathan’s glorious face.

  “He’s delirious,” I said, without looking up, “He has no idea what he’s saying.” I touched his face again. “He’s burning up.”

  “Whatever. His fever’s just like a truth serum,” Alec teased. “John and Paige sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g …” the childish brat chanted.

  I really wanted to be mad at him, but it was hard when it was all I could do not to smile. “Shut up, Alice.” The new nickname didn’t seem to bother him one bit. “Johnathan is really sick. We need to figure out what that thing was and what we need to do to make him better. That was no normal changeling.”

  I let Johnathan’s hand soak for a good thirty minutes before I put antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it in clean bandages with supplies we’d found in our last batch of food from Joe’s garbage. I had Seth and Alec help me move Johnathan over to his sleeping bag, then I sat next to him.

  I moved my gaze down to look at the pentacle drawn on the floor.

  I shivered as the vision of the changeling biting Johnathan came to my mind. I gently touched his face and remembered his scream. I cursed myself for not questioning the Faerie before we sent her back to the Netherworld.

  I stayed awake all night just to make sure Johnathan continued to breathe.

  When he awoke the next afternoon, Johnathan seemed mostly normal except for a slightly swollen hand and a lingering low-grade fever. Either he didn’t remember what he’d said to me in the throes of agony and brain-frying high temperature, or he was pretending like he didn’t remember in order to save face. Either way, I was glad he didn’t mention it because I had no idea what I’d say if he did. I’d loved him almost since day one, but I wasn’t ready to reveal that to him. I’d already threatened to turn Alec into a toad if he said a word about Johnathan’s sick-bed ramblings. There are some advantages to being magical.

  We decided to forego our routine patrols until we were sure Johnathan was okay.

  ot a lot occurred during the week after the changeling incident. We patrolled as usual once we were sure Johnathan was okay. We did save a young girl, maybe eight years old, from a Troll that wouldn’t let her cross a bridge. Yes, Trolls did sometimes live under bridges, just like in fairy tales. Most fairy tales were based on true events. And, even though most humans were unaware of the dark and evil things out there, they were there, lurking just beyond their awareness—the chill that ran down one’s back, even in a warm room or on a hot summer day; the sudden feeling of fear after turning out the light that caused a person to run across the room and dive for the bed, for the safety of the covers; that strong sense of uneasiness that quickened one’s step when walking home after dark. In those times, when that feeling of being watched just wouldn’t go away—even in the safe confines of one’s own home, darkness and evil lurked close by.

  We’d begun perusing the local papers for anything that seemed out of sorts. Seth perked up, then waved a hand in the air as if signaling a teacher.

  “I’ve got something, you guys. Listen to this.” Seth cleared his throat. “’Suicide Rate at Edwards High School Skyrockets,’” he began. “’The Seattle School District reported today that there has been a sharp rise in suicides among adolescents attending Edwards High School. Edwards has a student body of just over 1,800 and is known for its strong academic focus and stellar sports programs. But, over the last three weeks, seven of its students, five boys and two girls, have killed themselves in violent manners, including gunshots to the head, jumping from an overpass, jumping in front of a train, and a wrist-slashing that was so deep it was almost an amputation of the hand.’”

  “Oh, wow,” Halli whispered.

  Seth grimaced, then continued. “’Principal Brand Jorgenson is clueless as to what could have brought this horror to his school. He said in a comment to the press: ‘The suicides of seven of our students is beyond tragic. We are all completely devastated. The school is taking this very seriously and the district has dispatched every available counselor to Edwards to speak with each student individually about the suicides and to assess each student for possible suicidal thoughts. We can find no connections between these seven students; they are of varying ages and our investigation has turned up nothing to link them to each other. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims.’”

  The rest of the article contained statistics on teen suicide, signs to watch for, and the numbers for local suicide prevention hotlines. We sat in stunned silence for a few minutes.

  “There is definitely something going on there,” Johnathan stated, breaking up our shared silence. “I think we should go take a look around that school.”

  “What are we going to look for?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. I just think we need to go there and check things out, see if we get any unusual feelings from the place. I think we should go now, but not all of us need to go.”

  “I’ll go with you,” I volunteered, then added, “why don’t the rest of you stay here and get some sleep? We’ll buzz you if we need help.” I know the others were probably thinking I volunteered only so I could be alone with Johnathan, and they were partly right. Okay, mostly right. But, I also cared about whether or not they got enough sleep, and we had walked a long way on patrol that evening. It was close to three a.m.

  Alec smirked knowingly, but before he could open his big mouth, Johnathan said, “That’s a good idea. Halli’s already asleep …”

  “No ’m not,” she mumbled from her curled-up position on top of her sleeping bag.

  “Okay, sorry. Halli is almost asleep, and you two look like you’re exhausted. Paige and I can handle this one. We won’t be long. Like I said, I just want to get a feel for the place.”

  Alec just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. “I know what you really want to get a feel for …” he said, a little under his breath. Then, he looked at me, smiled and winked.

  I started to reach for my channeling rod. I thought, toad. A big, ugly, green toad with warts all over its body. I had no idea whether or not it was possible to change someone into a toad, but I was willing to test it out on Alec. Johnathan stepped between us, however, and gave Alec a light smack to the side of his head.

  “Go to sleep, Alice. Put up the wards behind us. We’ll take them down when we get back.”

  My heart fluttered when he turned to me with a cute smile, dimple creased cheeks and full lips pulled across his snow white, slightly crooked teeth.

  Johnathan shook his head. “Let’s go, Paige.”

  My heart nearly beat out of my chest when he put his hand on the small of my back as we turned to go out the broken-down doorway of the condemned shop we were staying in that night. His hand felt so warm … and so right. I leaned in a little, so our sides touched. I’d never dared act upon my feelings for him. I was never sure how he felt about me. He was always nice and gentle, but had never really made any advances toward me. Unless you counted his confession of love after the changeling bit him. I didn’t think that counted, though. I still wasn’t sure if the hand to my back was just him being nice, or if it meant he really had feelings for me. I was just happy to be alone with him.

  We headed out toward Edwards High School, which was clear across the city from where we were. The walk would be very long, which made me smile. I almost cried when he moved his hand from my back to conjure up a star-bright so we could see our way to the nearest exit from the Underground.

  Johnathan extinguished the light just before we sneaked through the abandoned building at street level. For the first time since we’d met, he reached to hold my hand. My pulse quickened and my palms broke out in instant sweat. I looked down at my feet to make sure they were still in contact with the ground—it sure felt like I was floating. I could not keep the smile off my face as we walked hand in hand, fingers entwined, through the lamp-lit streets of Seattle. Butterflies sprang to life in my stomach. Johnathan stopped and loo
ked down at me.

  “Is this okay? That I hold your hand?”

  I swallowed. He bit at his bottom lip. Was he really so clueless as to think it might not be okay with me? I really did try to answer him verbally, but the words stuck in my throat, so I just smiled, nodded, and squeezed his hand tighter. He must have understood my voiceless reply because he let out a relieved breath and smiled back at me. Ooh. That smile did things to me. And the butterflies. His dimples were like a super-mega jolt of caffeine to those puppies.

  The warmth of his hand and how perfectly mine fit with his made me forget about the ache in my feet during the long walk. We actually talked about things other than fighting Demons and stuff.

  “What would you eat if you could have anything you wanted right now?” Johnathan asked.

  “Steak, and crab legs, and garlic mashed potatoes. What about you? What would you eat?”

  “Hmm … steak, definitely. I’m not so sure about crab legs, though. I’d have to go with fried shrimp, and a baked potato with tons of butter and sour cream.”

  We laughed about not being able to watch movies or use cell phones or other electronic gadgets because there was something about magical powers that seriously messed with newer technology.

  Before I knew it, we were standing in front of Edwards High School. The darkness was thicker around the school—most of the outside lighting was turned off, or just wasn’t working. Johnathan let go of my hand to fish his channeling rod out of his belt. I grabbed mine, too. We didn’t necessarily creep toward the school, but we did step carefully. The closer we drew, the more uneasy I started to feel. My stomach dropped when I looked over at the school’s marquee and saw a giant pile of flowers, posters, notes, and stuffed animals in a makeshift memorial to the students who had killed themselves.