I went through all the normal motions of getting ready for school before I left so my mom wouldn’t ask any questions and left the house at a quarter ‘til eight. Unfortunately, the store wouldn’t be open until ten so I had about two hours to kill. Ordinarily I would’ve gone to the bookstore, but it wouldn’t open until nine. I thought about waiting in the parking lot and getting another hour’s worth of sleep, but I didn’t want to be that creepy person sleeping in their car, so I went to a coffee shop in the same shopping center as the store. I indulged myself and got a chocolate flavored coffee and a pastry. Hey, a girl’s gotta eat. I took a table way in the back in a corner so I could look through my journal in privacy.
I took the first hour detailing my two very vivid dreams from last night. I wanted to make sure I recorded each of those nightmares because each time they were just a little different and last night’s was the worst yet. The scratch marks on my ankles had actually bled, I just hadn’t noticed until I got into the shower this morning and nearly screamed when the water hit the untended injuries. In the last hour I spent the time studying the symbols that had been on the altar. I was bothered by the fact that none of them were familiar to me. I turned the book around and examined them from all angles, but nothing came to mind.
Three cups of coffee and two pastries later and it was just a few minutes before ten. I settled up my bill and went to stand outside the front doors so I could be there as soon as Deb arrived. I knew Deb would be opening because she hated to close and it was one or the other as far as the owner was concerned. Finally, just a few seconds before ten I saw Deb’s very mundane four door sedan roll into her customary parking space. She saw me through the windshield and looked at me with a very worried, suspicious look on her face.
I met her at the trunk of her car to help her carry in some boxes she’d brought with her. “Mornin’ Deb,” I greeted her, trying to sound calm and normal.
“Morning, sweetie, thanks.” She sighed gratefully when I started taking things from her to carry. “What are you doing here? School’s not out today.” She didn’t say that last like a question; she knew better. I followed her to the front door and waited while she unlocked it and let me in. The heater was programmed to turn on about a half hour before the store opened, so it was blessedly warm inside. I shivered a little before following her to the back room.
“I’ve been having some issues and I needed to talk to you about them.” I handed her the boxes as she reached for them to store in the back.
“Where are the other two?” She asked, that same suspicious look crossing her face.
“At school probably. They don’t know I’m here.” I was keeping my voice even so she wouldn’t think I was up to anything.
“Something’s wrong.” Another statement instead of a question. I decided to be totally honest and nodded in agreement. “Ok, well, let’s chat.” We walked back out to the front so Deb could man the front counter in case any Tuesday morning shoppers came in. I pulled out my journal and set it on the counter, opening it to the page where I had sketched the evil pentagram. I looked up at Deb and saw a shadow cross her face. “What are you doing with something like that in your grimoire?” Her voice was just over a whisper.
“It was in a dream I had.” Ok, maybe not totally honest. “I have been having these dreams where I’m in the woods and something is chasing me, like an animal but it’s too… I dunno… determined to be just an animal and occasionally it almost catches me and I wake up with stuff like this.” I knelt down and pulled up one of my pant legs to show her my ankle. Deb leaned over the counter to get a better look and hissed at the sight of it. “I know! And then one night I saw black robed figures killing chickens over an altar that had this on it. And then last night…” I trailed off, realizing just then that I was on the verge of tears. I had been speaking very fast, almost slurring my words together.
“And then last night…” Deb prompted softly, taking one of my trembling hands in hers. Healing warmth started seeping into me.
“Well, when I’m running it’s like I’m trying to get to safety, like I know just a little farther and I’ll get to a place where it can’t get me.” Deb nodded encouragingly. My voice had finally broken and I took the moment I needed to catch my breath and gather the strength I needed to continue.
“And last night I broke through the trees in to this clearing and the guy that I saw kill the chickens was standing there with a knife, it looked like an athame, and he tried to kill me but I woke up before he could.” I finished in one dying breath.
“You’re leaving something out.” She narrowed her eyes at me, daring me to lie to her. I knew I couldn’t.
“Well, occasionally there’s this boy in the dream and he’s trying to help me get away from whatever’s chasing me. He was in my dream again last night.”
“And?” Deb pressed.
“Well, he helped get me to the clearing. He looked angry at the sight of the guy, but when I tried to run he wouldn’t let me go.”
It was one of those moments that froze and stretched on forever in silence that was so thick you wanted to scream just to make noise. Just as I was about to snap under the pressure to be quiet, Deb came back to herself with a sigh.
She looked suspicious again. I knew she wanted to ask who the boy was but, for some reason, she knew I wouldn’t tell her, so she just didn’t ask. “Do you trust this boy in your dreams?”
I thought about that for a moment. Jodi and Steven didn’t seem to. Was I being naïve or maybe just overly cynical? “Yes, I think I do,” I finally answered. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest.
“Good, then let’s talk about this rubbish.” She tapped the still open journal on the counter top. “You saw this in a dream?”
“Yes.” Stick to your lie; always stick to your lie.
“Fine. Well, it looks like runes,” Deb said, concentrating on the designs.
“What? Runes? But those aren’t evil. Hell, they don’t do anything but help people like tarot cards do,” I sounded exasperated.
“No, Shay, that’s not true,” Deb’s voice was distant. She was studying one symbol very carefully, the one that looked like a wheel with eight spokes to me.
“Are these satanic runes or something?” I asked.
“No, but that doesn’t mean someone isn’t trying to use them for that purpose.” I looked at her, confused. “Yes, you can use runes to cast to see the future, but they are very magical things. This one for example,” she pointed to the wheel, “this is called Aegishjalmur,” she paused at seeing my confused face. “Don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to pronounce it, just know what it’s for. It is used for protection in battle. And this one,” she pointed to one that looked like an hourglass lying on its side, “is for binding a prisoner.” Her face was grim. “This shouldn’t be in this book.” She flipped the page to see if there was anything on the back of it (it was blank) and, without preamble, she tore the page out.
“It’s that bad?” I asked.
“Yes. Listen, honey, if you’re dreaming about this and you’re waking up injured, then you shouldn’t take this lightly,” Deb sounded a little desperate.
“I’m not, that’s why I’m here. I’m just confused. Runes aren’t part of the black arts, why would they use it?”
“Oh, honey, these people have been taking good things and perverting them for their own needs for centuries. The inverted cross and pentagrams, you know that.” She put the torn page in her purse and turned to me. “Listen, I want you to be very careful with these dreams, don’t concentrate on them so much, you’re only lending them power over you.”
“Deb, you don’t think it’s really happening when I’m dreaming? I mean, I always wake up in my bed.”
“And always hurt!” She was definitely desperate now. “Shay, I don’t know if who you’re dreaming about are the same men in Ojai or if it’s just some horrible coincidence, but we can’t take this lightly. I’m going to be casting some protective shiel
ds on you and your house. You work on the ones you already have in place.”
“Ok, sure…” I had come for reassurance and now I was more scared than I had been last night. “Deb, do you think these are prophetic? I mean, do you think those symbols are for me?”
“I don’t know, honey,” she came around the counter and hugged me tightly, “but I don’t want to pretend like that’s not a possibility and then be wrong.” Just then the bells on the door chimed as two older women came in and started browsing the shelves. “Take the rest of the day off; don’t go back to school ok?”
“I won’t.” I hugged her again and left the warmth of the store. I turned the car on and sat there idling for a few minutes to let it warm up. It bothered me that Deb had taken the page, but I knew she was only trying to protect me. Luckily, I had spent so much time studying the symbols they were practically burned into my mind; I knew if I saw any of them again I would remember them. And now I knew they were runes, so I had a place to start. Once the interior of the car had warmed up enough that my shoulders relaxed, I put the car in gear and took off, heading straight for the bookstore.
I knew Oak, Ash and Thorn had plenty of books on runes and sold a variety of the little stones, but I also knew that Deb wouldn’t let me buy them after our little talk. I had never given much thought to runes. They were primarily a Norse system and my family was not Norse. I read Tarot and Medicine cards occasionally because that’s what my mom read; these things are usually passed down from generation to generation. But I knew that the major bookstore chains, with their large Occult sections, sold Tarot decks and instruction books, so it stood to reason they at least sold books on runes.
Twenty minutes later and I was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the Occult section, a few books scattered around me and one in my lap. It turned out most of their rune books were sold in a box with a pouch full of runes; you just had to decide on what color combo you wanted.
The concept of reading the little stones seemed simple enough, very similar to reading card systems, just with fewer items. However that made interpretation and intuition all the more important to the caster. I wasn’t interested in telling the future right now. I wanted to know why just having the symbols drawn out seemed to upset Deb so much. Eventually I had read enough from different books to come to the conclusion that there was a general consensus that if the caster has enough belief they can charge the symbols to work like any spell would.
I sighed, realizing that the hourglass-like symbol was for binding a prisoner, and the complex one Deb had shown me was very popular among casters hoping to help soldiers going into battle. But like any good thing in magic or religion, these bastards had obviously meant to pervert it and use it for their own evil desires. I bought a set of runes that were black with silver inlaid in the symbols on the wood chips. They reminded me of a black candle, which most people think is a bad thing, but really it symbolizes light emerging from the dark. A very positive thing when you stop to think about it.
As I was walking back out to my car, my phone went off in my bag. I shuffled through the contents to find it. Jodi had sent me a text message asking if I’d be there to pick them up after school. I checked the time and realized the day had gotten completely away from me; school was letting out in a half hour. I responded with a yes and jumped in my car to get across town quickly.
“Hey, dollface,” Steven said as he climbed into the backseat.
“Hi,” Jodi said as she sat in front, pulling the door closed behind her.
“Hey,” I responded and pulled away from the curb as quickly as possible. “You guys hungry?” I asked, having realized on my way over there that I had completely forgotten to eat lunch.
“Actually, yeah,” Steven said as he leaned forward to hear us over the engine. “Ever since we cast the other night I’ve been ravenous.”
“Me too,” Jodi said, touching her stomach.
“Yeah, it takes a lot of energy out of you, especially if you don’t prepare beforehand and we didn’t, so it’s only normal that your bodies are reacting to it. Kinda like whiplash.”
“So why the day off? You rarely ditch,” Steven asked. “I mean, you’re not sick.”
“No, but,” I slowed to a stop at a red light and pulled back the sleeve of my sweater to show them the bruises that had blossomed all over my wrist. They both gasped audibly, shrinking back away from me for a second. Jodi grabbed my arm to pull it closer to get a better look. I winced, but she didn’t notice.
“Who did this?” she demanded angrily.
“I did.”
“What?” they said together.
“I had a dream last night and I had tried to jump from a cliff to get away from something and it caught me to try to pull me to safety and I woke up with that,” I nodded towards my arm. “Anyway that’s not the most important part. I went to see Deb today about what we saw in the scrying bowl –”
“Whoa! What?” Steven cut me off.
“I didn’t tell her it was in the scrying bowl. I told her I had a dream and saw it.”
“Oh… Ok. Continue,” Steven said more calmly now.
“Anyway, I wanted to know if she knew what those symbols meant so we could figure out what’s going on.” I pulled into a parking space outside of the dive café we liked on Main St. and got out, not waiting on the other two to follow.
Once inside, I glanced around to make sure there weren’t any eavesdroppers, but we were one of only three tables, none of which were next to each other. We all ordered quickly to get the waitress to stay away so I could finish. I told them what I had learned from Deb and pulled out the book on runes I had bought.
“So you think they’re using rune symbols to create a binding on someone?” Jodi asked, flipping through the pages of the book.
“Yeah, I do. I think the police are right and they’re hoping to get someone and perform a human sacrifice. And I think Deb thinks so too because she really didn’t like the fact that I had sketched out the symbols we saw.” The waitress came around with two cokes and a cup of coffee for me. I held the warm cup in my hands, letting the heat relax my bones.
“Have you figured out why they’d want to sacrifice a human?” Steven asked. He was examining the runes that came with the book.
“No. I’ve never learned to read runes; I imagine the answer is in the ones they drew. Or maybe the layout they put them in,” I said, adding cream and sugar to my coffee.
“None of these look like what we saw though. They’re all more simple than what they had drawn out,” Steven said, looking up at me.
“That’s because they’re all a combination of two or more runes. See, remember the sideways hourglass?” I reached for the runes and laid out two, one with a drawing that looked like an hourglass missing one flat edge and one that had a straight line with a small diagonal slash mark on it. “If you were to draw these two to make one design it would look like that and that’s the one Deb said is for binding a prisoner.”
“Hmm, yeah, I see that,” Steven nodded slowly, studying the runes.
“Great, so we know two out of nine, piece of cake,” Jodi said sarcastically, putting the book down and pushing it away from her.
We changed the subject when the food came; animal slaughtering and human sacrifices aren’t exactly appetizing. We agreed we would try to figure out the purpose of the spell.
“So, you realize of course, because you were absent it gave us an excuse to start planning your birthday,” Steven said, sounding very self-satisfied.
“Oh yesssss,” Jodi perked up at the new topic. I just groaned.
“And you’ll be happy to know that a few people are interested in helping. It should be quite the bash,” Steven continued before taking a huge bite out of his burger.
“What other people?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Well, Tracy for one,” Jodi answered, popping a fry into her mouth. “Ever since that night you helped her with Nick she’s your biggest fan. And of course that means he
r friends want to help too.”
“Great,” I mumbled.
“Hey, we’re out there battling the supernatural almost everyday. You can let us have a little mundane fun once in a while,” Steven said around a mouthful of burger, Jodi grimaced at the display.
“Who’s stopping you?” I asked.”
“Well, at least you’re going along willingly, if not enthusiastically,” Jodi said. “So we’ve decided on a costume party on Halloween since it’s actually on a weekend day this year.” I wasn’t surprised at all.
I sighed and let them go on about the plans for costumes and decorations, occasionally asking me what I’d like rather than making the decision for me. I loved them for it, I really did, but I couldn’t seem to get too excited about it. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the black robed man and the sinister knife that came too close to striking.
Chapter 11
In the magical world, the number three is very powerful. You’ve seen it everywhere; it’s very predominate in religion too (think of the Holy Trinity). Today was Wednesday. If the second animal sacrifice finished after midnight on Saturday night, then it would have been cast and sealed Sunday, which would make today three days later. I had a horrible feeling about today, especially after having yet another potentially close call with the black robed man in my dream last night, but when I woke up I could hear the storm raging outside. I climbed out of bed and shivered as the warm covers slipped away from me. I grabbed my robe and pulled it tightly around me before pulling the curtains away from the window to look outside.
The trees in our backyard were whipping around like some strange tribal dance. Rain pelted the window hard enough to sound like stones thrown against it and the various things that you end up leaving in the backyard were being rolled around in the wind. I stared wide-eyed and a little confused. I hadn’t sensed this coming. That really scared me. It was so cold outside my breath was fogging up the windowpane.
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