“Because, of the three of us,” Jodi started to explain as she climbed in back, “Michelle knows me best. We have band together and everything, it’ll be less of a shock if she sees me first when she wakes up.” I left the engine running for the heat and the dome light. Steven and I sat up on our knees, looking over the back of the seat to watch Jodi as she gently slapped Michelle on the cheeks and tried to shake her awake. “Come on, honey, that’s it, wake up.”
“What?” Michelle whispered almost too quietly for us to hear. She took a deep breath and shook her head slowly, letting her eyes flutter open and focus on Jodi’s smiling, comforting face.
“Hey, Michelle, you okay?”
“Jodi?” Michelle’s face was a mask of confusion. She rubbed her eyes and scooted back to sit up straighter. “What’s going on?”
“We were gonna ask you the same thing,” Jodi said, reaching out to pat her hand.
“Where are we? The movies?” She asked, looking out the windows. “Did we go to the movies together?” Jodi looked at me for a second while Michelle was distracted. I shrugged, not wanting to say anything that might upset Michelle.
“Michelle, do you not remember what happened tonight?” Jodi asked carefully.
“Not really…” Michelle looked at each of us in turn. “Um, I remember getting ready and leaving my house but… but I don’t remember anything else.” Her voice grew stronger with each confused word. “That’s not good. Did I hit my head or something?”
“You mean you don’t remember anything after leaving your house? Not even who you left with?” Jodi asked, gripping her hand.
“No.”
“We saw you slip on the asphalt because it was still wet and you hit your head. You feeling okay?” Jodi lied easily. Both Steven and I were careful to keep our faces schooled into looks of concern.
“Um, yeah, my head does kinda hurt actually. Do you mind giving me a ride home?”
“Sure, no problem,” I said trying to keep my voice light and easy. Steven and I sat down in our seats and I put the car into gear to ease out of the parking lot.
We drove Michelle home and Jodi walked her to her front door to make sure she got in safe and sound without falling; she was still a little weak in the knees from shock. I drove Steven home first and then dropped Jodi off. We decided that we’d each tell our parents that the other wasn’t feeling well so we left early not wanting to catch whatever it was. We all three agreed it was best if we went home and got some rest and would deal with this in the morning.
My body ached as it only could after excessive exercise and not enough protein to feed the muscles. I got undressed slowly, becoming painfully aware with each movement of the injuries I had sustained and hadn’t noticed until now when all the adrenaline had faded away. My face was covered in tiny scratches that were red against my pale skin. I had apparently twisted my ankle at some point, but not enough to make it swell and I could still walk with an almost unnoticeable limp. The sleeves of my sweatshirt were torn almost to ribbons, leaving the skin underneath ragged and covered in welts. Getting dressed in the morning was going to be a lot of fun. I prayed the redness in the scratches on my face would fade enough by the morning that I could cover the majority of them with make-up. I thanked God the interior of my car had been dark enough to camouflage our faces from Michelle. Hopefully she’d attribute any scratches she might have herself to falling on asphalt.
Once I was finally in my sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt and the brambles and tangles were brushed out of my hair, I pulled the covers back on my bed and climbed inside. I snuggled down against my pillows and pulled the covers up to my chin, gazing out at the T.V. but not really seeing what was on. I reached under the collar of my shirt and pulled out the pentagram, clutching it tight in my palm, letting the metal bite into my skin. It was comforting though, my talisman of protection. With it and the covers of my bed, nothing could touch me.
Every time I closed my eyes, Michelle’s terrified face would flash in my mind. I shuttered and stopped trying to go to sleep; I opened my eyes and watched mindless late night programming, allowing myself to fall asleep naturally rather than forcing myself to.
In the morning, my mother peeked her head inside my room to see if I was really there, having noticed my car parked outside. I gave her the story of Jodi not feeling very well last night so I came home. She was satisfied with my explanation and withdrew her head, leaving me to pull the covers over my head and steal a few more minutes of sleep before I decided it was time to get up and deal with last night’s events.
I crept into the bathroom to get a shower, not wanting my parents to hear me moving around before I could get a good look at my face and the scratches that were there. I wasn’t surprised to feel how sore my legs and back were when I slid out of bed and stood up. I didn’t have to worry about walking softly to keep from making noise; I had no choice but to walk carefully thanks to the tightness in my legs and tenderness of my ankle.
I locked the bathroom door behind me and took a few moments to examine my face in the mirror before turning the shower on. Luckily the scratches had in fact faded and were already healing. Most were close to the edges of my face so I could easily hide them with make-up. I took a long hot shower, washing the dirt from last night out of my hair and from underneath my fingernails and letting the hot water soothe my aching back. I put my make-up on in the bathroom, not wanting to risk being seen. I hardly ever wear foundation or powder, so this was not something I enjoyed applying.
My body was still achingly sore, all the worse now for the restless night’s sleep, although the hot water had eased some of the tension from my muscles. I got ready quickly after blowing out my hair. I was meeting Steven and Jodi at the café on Main St for breakfast, not wanting to deal with explaining to the respective parents that Jodi or I were feeling better already.
Not surprisingly, without me to pick them up, I got to the restaurant before Jodi or Steven and was already enjoying my second cup of coffee by the time they joined me. Steven had borrowed his mother’s car to drive them. From the looks on their faces and the dark circles under their eyes, their night was just as bad as mine had been.
“Morning,” I said as they sat down, I didn’t feel the need to add the “good” to it. They both just kind of nodded at me, making noncommittal grunting noises. I had already ordered coffee for them and the waitress came around to pour the steaming liquid for them, refilling mine for the third time.
“The usual’s?” The waitress asked politely.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” I said, not waiting for Jodi or Steven to comment. They were both bent over their coffee cups, totally oblivious to the waitress. She looked at them for a moment before looking back to me. I smiled to her as politely as I could; she nodded with a knowing look in her eye and turned to walk away. Exhausted teenagers at ten o’clock on a Saturday morning equals hangovers, everyone knows that.
“So, what are we gonna do?” Steven asked over his cup, sooner than I expected either of them to speak.
“I’m not sure yet. With Michelle not remembering anything, it makes it kinda hard to figure out who we’re looking for,” I said with a sigh.
“Hey,” Jodi said, looking up from her coffee. “How exactly did you get him to let go of her anyway? I wanted to ask you last night but I forgot.”
“Oh, yeah, well it was bizarre, I’d never done it before.” I paused to take a sip of my coffee. “Remember how I pulled the pain out of your ankle?” They both nodded at me. “All of a sudden, while I was telling him to let her go, my hands burned with it. I just reached out and grabbed his arm and pushed it into him. I think it actually burned him because he screamed and let go of her and it smelled like a burn. And it felt really hot when I did it.”
“Are you serious?” Steven asked, incredulity in his voice.
“What?”
“You burned him by touching him?”
“Well no, I mean, I redirected Jodi’s pain into him, so it wasn’t just touching him,” I
explained carefully.
“Oh, yeah, I get it,” he nodded, satisfied.
“So do you think it left a mark?” Jodi asked.
“I don’t know… maybe?”
“If it did, then we may be able to find the guy,” she added.
“What, you want to go around to every guy we see and roll up his sleeve and check for a burn mark?” I asked sarcastically.
“No, but you know, you could at least rule out Jensen,” Steven said.
“That’s true,” Jodi agreed, surprising me a little.
“Didn’t think about that,” I said, glancing out the window by our booth. The thought that I could clear Jensen’s name made my stomach flutter. The waitress came by with our plates stacked expertly in her arms and set them down in front of us. She reached behind the counter next to us for a carafe of coffee and refilled our cups without being asked. “Even still, I don’t actually know it left a mark.”
“Dude, if you could smell it, you left a mark. I’d understand if it just felt hot that maybe you didn’t, but nothing smells like a burn.” Steven said knowingly and I couldn’t really argue with a Fire Elemental about that.
“How am I going to explain wanting to see his arm though?” I asked skeptically.
“Well,” Steven said as he cut into his French toast. “Don’t. Just tell him you want to see his arm. If he refuses, then he’s hiding something.” He shrugged as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
“Seriously, Shay, why not? I mean, how would you explain it? Just tell him you want to see his arm. If he asks why, just tell him to humor you,” Jodi agreed.
“Yeah, maybe.” I took a bite of my toast, not really looking at anything. “So say we rule out Jensen. We still have to figure out who the guy was. Any suggestions or guesses?”
“Well, we determined that he does this ritual on Friday’s right? So we have almost a whole week to figure out who it is or at least where he’ll be this time.” Steven said around another bite of bread.
“Yeah, I don’t really think he’d be stupid enough to try a human sacrifice two nights in a row,” Jodi commented.
“We can only hope, at least. I mean, if he does, I have no idea where he’d go unless he went to one of the two places he’s tried already,” I said, picking up my coffee cup and cradling it in my hands to warm my fingers. I didn’t like the idea of assuming he wouldn’t try something two days in a row since it hadn’t stopped him with the animals, but all we could do would be to stake out the two sites. That would mean splitting up and that was something I just was not doing.
“Well, I really doubt he’d try Malibu again since we found him,” Steven said, pointing at me with his fork. “And I heard the cops are keeping a patrol cop stationed near his place in Ojai.” That was new information for me.
“How do you know that?” I asked, setting my cup down.
“We heard it on the radio on the way over,” Jodi interjected. “They were letting people know that nothing happened last night because everyone was worried there’d be another ritual in the woods.”
“Oh,” I said, nodding.
“So you think he’ll try again next week?” Jodi asked.
“Yeah, I think so. The question is, will he try Thursday night or Friday?” I said.
“What do you mean Thursday?” Steven asked.
“Well, remember I said he’s doing these rituals at midnight so it’s technically the next day?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Friday is Halloween, right? So I’d be willing to bet money he wouldn’t let Halloween pass by without doing the ritual then. If he waits until midnight on Friday then he’ll miss Halloween, but if he does it at midnight on Thursday night then its Halloween.”
“Ooooh,” Jodi said, comprehension dawning on her face.
“Dude, you should be a supernatural detective,” Steven said without a hint of sarcasm. I snorted into my coffee.
“If we figure out where he’ll be, it’s not like we can’t stake out Thursday night. Then, if we’re wrong, we can go back on Friday,” Jodi said a little more enthusiastically.
We finished breakfast and spent the majority of the day huddled together in the back room of Oak, Ash and Thorn flipping through book after book, studying anything we could on glamour spells, summonings and banishings. Deb had come over to check on us more than once. We all knew she was trying to pry us for information on what we were up to, but we all agreed to keep up the pretense that we were just passing the time.
Fortunately, it wasn’t uncommon for us to commandeer the library section of the store, so Deb couldn’t really accuse us of acting out of character. We took notes on anything that seemed interesting or promising or something we hadn’t already known. We weren’t sure what we were going to do with the information, but maybe after a couple of days of study we’d be better armed than we had been last night.
“You guys sure I can’t help you find anything?” Deb asked for the fourth time, standing over us, hands on her hips.
“No, we’re not really looking for anything in particular,” I lied, keeping my mind blank as she eyed me. I knew Deb was psychic and had some empathetic abilities like me, but I didn’t know just how strong and wasn’t going to risk her picking the lie out of my head.
“But thank you,” Steven added, his own blank smile on his face. Deb huffed and narrowed her eyes before turning away from us at the sound of the chimes ringing at the front of the store.
“Can I help you?” Deb’s voice carried back to us.
“Just looking,” a familiar voice drew all of our attention. Steven nearly fell over at the sight of Ian at the front of the store.
“Oh my god,” Jodi whispered behind her hand. The white was showing all around her blue irises. I sat dumbfounded, blinking stupidly at him. He looked entirely out of place among the warm woods and sparkling crystals.
“Shay, look,” Steven said, nodding his head toward Ian unnecessarily.
“What?” I asked, not sure what else I was supposed to notice.
“He’s wearing short sleeves.”
“Oh jeez, you’re right,” I whispered. I set the book I had been reading on the floor and pushed myself up. I felt Jodi reaching to grab my leg to stop me, but I stepped out of her reach. Her nails caught on my jeans, but were unable to hold on.
“Shay!” Steven hissed at me, but I was already half way over to Ian. I reached out for him and, unlike Jensen, I felt something. He was one wound up nerve, snapping and angry, biting at my skin. But it wasn’t quite a signature; his nerves were overwhelming his normal aura. I pulled back from him just as he saw me.
“Hey,” I started lamely, but before I could say anything else he spun on his heel and hurried out the door.
“Do you know that boy?” Deb asked from my side.
“Kind of.”
“There’s something not quite right about him.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, but I had gotten close enough to him to see that the skin of both of his arms was perfect and smooth, not so much as a freckle marked him. My heart fell. I had to admit to myself that I was secretly hoping it was Ian this whole time just so it couldn’t be Jensen.
Later that evening, when I was back at home, my dad had the evening news on and they announced that schools would be reopened on Monday. Normally I would have groaned like any other teenager, but I was anxious to see Jensen and couldn’t think of a pretense to just show up at his doorstep today. I could pull off asking to see his arm for no reason if we were already near each other, but I couldn’t imagine just showing up at his house unannounced to do it. I’m clever, but I’m not that smooth. And now with Ian ruled out I was even more terrified of what I would see when I saw Jensen.
Monday morning I picked Steven and Jodi up for school, driving in a haze. I think I must’ve gotten a whole three hours sleep the night before. I kept dreaming about Michelle and the man I hoped wasn’t Jensen. Every time he was successful in striking either me or Michelle it woke me up and each time it
got harder to fall back asleep. I was anxious about seeing Jensen and my mind was having a very difficult time reconciling the sweet faced boy that kissed me in the dim light of his car with the twisted, possessed thing in the clearing in the woods. I knew it would be so easy if I saw the burn mark on his arm. We’d know who we were looking for and would have no trouble getting him, but I couldn’t help but hope that I’d look at his arm and see nothing but smooth, beautiful skin.
Steven and I split off from Jodi as she continued on her way to Chem. We walked into Home Ec and stopped dead in our tracks. The first two feet of the walls were stained and the first layers of paint were peeling away. The six tiny kitchens that lined the walls were taped off with caution tape and Mrs. Price was sitting behind her desk and looked like she was on the verge of tears. Steven and I shared a look and walked to the back of the class to take our usual seats. The tardy bell rang and Mrs. Price nearly fell out of her chair from jumping so high when the bell sounded.
Even all the way in the back we could hear her sniffle as she fought the wave of tears threatening to break. She stood, a little shaky on her tiny feet, and walked around to the front of her desk. It too had signs of water damage along the front and sides.
“Good morning, class,” she began in a quavering voice. “As you can see our beautiful kitchens have been damaged,” she made a sweeping motion with her hand to the room at large, “and because the school never understood why I wanted the ovens off of the floor and mounted in the walls, they too are damaged and we have been instructed that we cannot use them until they are repaired or replaced.” Her voice finally broke on the last word and she pulled a lace handkerchief out the pocket of her apron.
“And considering how much the repair or replacement of six ovens will cost, I doubt it will be before the end of the semester. And I did have such lovely plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas.” She was crying openly now and two girls at the front of the class rushed to her side, whispering soothing words of comfort as they helped her back to her chair. Steven and I looked at each other, not needing to speak; his face reflected the anger and worry I was feeling. You never really think of the small trivialities one person’s selfishness can cause and just how far it can reach.
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