Destiny's Dark Fantasy Boxed Set (Eight Book Bundle)

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  “Yeah, and I have the ghost-buster team here with me to take care of everything,” Jonesy said with confidence.

  Tiff and I sighed.

  “So, we're gonna go there and see.”

  “See what, Jonesy?” Jade asked.

  “I don't know... somethin', whatever.”

  “Well that clears things up a lot,” Sophie said.

  “Jonesy's consistent,” John said neutrally.

  Jonesy gave John a speculative look and continued, “It's a half-day but I'm thinking we have to wait until dark?”

  I was figuring Jonesy for a full dark, check-out-the-haunted-house kinda guy.

  “Hell yeah! This is the best part, it won't be dark until late, like ten, so we have plenty of time to rebel-rouse before.”

  “Rebel-rouse?” Tiff asked.

  “Rouse means 'to wake' and rebel, well... you gotta know what that means,” Jonesy said.

  A sneaking seed of suspicion started to take hold.

  “You're not thinking of some cemetery shit again?” I asked.

  “Who, me?” he asked, all innocence.

  Tiff's eyes narrowed into slits. “We don't need the spotlight, Jones. We need to stay underground.”

  She was right, even if her way with words was not real smooth.

  “That wasn't The Plan,” he paused. “But if something cool were to happen...” he spread his arms wide, what's the problem?

  The voice of reason spoke up. “Let's stick to checking out the old place and seeing what's in it; no cemeteries,” John finished.

  Jonesy looked embarrassed. Uh-oh, something was up.

  “Spill it,” Tiff said.

  “Well, there's something I forgot to mention,” he said, putting his thumb and index fingers almost together, a paper's width from touching.

  John spun his hand like a wheel, go on, and Jonesy finished with, “You gotta walk through the cemetery to get to the house.”

  “I knew it!” Sophie said, Jade making a face.

  Tiff and I looked at each other.

  “I guess it's okay. Carson and Brett don't know we're going,” I said slowly.

  I looked at Jonesy who would tell The World if he felt it would help The Cause, he shook his head; he hadn't said anything... yet.

  Tiff interjected with, “And it's a bonus your Gran isn't buried there. Wait, do you have any other relatives buried there?”

  “No, they're all at Scenic.”

  “Well thank God,” Sophie mumbled.

  “Okay, I'm in,” Tiff said, leaning back and crossing her feet at the ankles. “Can Bry come?”

  “Ah-huh...” I thought about that more. “He's not gonna kick my ass, is he?” Didn't want to set myself up for the fall and with my girlfriend as the audience.

  “Nah... he's over it.”

  “Is he the cute one?” Sophie asked.

  Jonesy glared at that. Interesting.

  “How should I know? He's my brother, gross.”

  The pulse clock chimed and we stood, separating our trash. The Js trailed behind as Jade and I walked to our next class.

  “What do you think you'll get out of Biology?” Jade asked. “It was kind of a cluster with the frog thing.”

  Yeah it was.

  “Maybe I softened him up, knowing stuff about flowers.”

  Jade's eyebrows shot up.

  I nodded. “Yeah, my mom makes me do gardening chores.”

  “That's why you knew about the plant names when I came over.” She smiled up at me.

  Huh, bonus point.

  “It beats cleaning toilets,” I said.

  “Yeah, that's a gross job. I'd rather learn about plants,” she said wistfully.

  She had the chores I hated and I had made a big deal out of it. Geez, Hart, good going.

  “This summer you can come over and we'll do gardening together. I bet my mom would love the help!”

  “Alright, cool!”

  We stopped in front of Biology. “Have fuuuunnn!” she teased.

  “Oh, yeah and monkeys will fly outta my butt!” I said.

  She giggled and I laid a kiss on her full mouth that felt like crushed velvet (sensory overload!).

  I entered the classroom thinking about the weekend stretched before me. Last week of school, a plan for creepy Friday the Thirteenth, a new dog and a hot girlfriend; life was rocking about now.

  CHAPTER 25

  I was splitting my time between the Js and Jade and it was a job. The guys wanted to hang at Jonesy's tonight. I called Jade and she told me it would be okay to see me Saturday night instead. I pulsed the Js and told them we were on for tonight. Mom asked what Jonesy's mom was having for supper. I didn't know, like it mattered? Knowing Jonesy, we'd forage in the pantry and come up with something good. Mom decided to make a pizza and send it with me.

  I jetted over to Jonesy's on Dad's old one-speed Schwinn. I was sure I'd hear about that from Jonesy, Caleb is outdated, Caleb is... blah, blah, blah.

  I didn't care, I loved the old stuff.

  The pizza dangled from the handle bars in a most undignified way. Mom had cut the pizza, so I was riding around with eight slices of homemade pizza. The bag swung and whacked. It thunked as I rode along, passing all the familiar milestones: 7-Eleven to my left, QFC Grocery to my right... there it was, Meridian Villa. My dad grew up there. The houses were just the next step older than my neighborhood. Jonesy's parents had actually bought the house that Jonesy's dad had lived in as a kid.

  Swinging my leg off the pedal and around to the other side as the bike slowed I came to a complete stop at the top of their circular driveway. I grabbed the bag of pizza and approached the front door, checking out the house. Jonesy's house was cooler than mine, it had a basement. Dad called those man-caves. The house was really flat looking and hugged the knoll it lounged on. Small windows that looked like eyes lined the point where the basement met the flower beds. Jonesy's dad, Bill, had a very small lawn. By the looks of it, barely within legal limits. Seemed like some dudes just had to have a lawn. Mom would have never allowed it at our house, not Eco-enough. Mom thought lawns were for outdoor sports fields, period. I loved the lawn. It was an emerald slash of green that anchored the flower beds. Jonesy's mom wasn't a garden-Nazi like my mom but she made it look nice.

  I climbed the three, broad, concrete steps, ringing the bell.

  Helen came to the door, grinning. “Hey Caleb! Long time no see!” Her impenetrable hair stood at stiff attention (and looked like a rat lived on top).

  Aqua Net Queen.

  I smiled back, she had Jonesy's grin exactly. “Hi, Mrs. Jones.”

  A frown appeared. “I mean... Helen,” I corrected.

  “That's better,” Helen said, ruffling my hair. Geez, no touchy!

  I ducked my head and threw over my shoulder, “My mom made some pizza.”

  “Good deal, we'll add it to mine.”

  Great, more pizza, happy Friday! I rounded the corner, walking down a long hallway painted McDonald's yellow. With such a neutral exterior, the yellow was a shocker. But Mrs. Jones (Helen), said with our gloomy Pacific Northwest days that she needed the sun inside her house.

  As I came down the hall I could hear the guys before I got to Jonesy's room.

  I opened the door, surveying the room. Jonesy sat on the floor, pulsing through his dedicated reader, John likewise absorbed. I walked over and sat on my haunches, they were looking at comics. We were nuts over the super hero comics. Especially now that some people's paranormal skills echoed what was once considered impossible.

  “Look at this dude... hell, to be him, huh?” Jonesy said to no one in particular.

  “You got that. I'm just a Null,” a disgruntled John said.

  “At least you're something, you ingrate,” Jonesy replied.

  “Hey, look at this.” I pointed to a spot behind the guy lifting the car off the person.

  We put our heads together, and saw a small boy in the background with big eyes, watching the rescue of... I think his br
other, from under the car. But, he had one finger on the bumper.

  “Is that kid doing it or the guy in the cape?”

  That was the $64,000,000 question.

  John studied it. “Hold on!” He leapt up and ran out of the room. In the distance I heard voices.

  “What's he doing?” I asked Jonesy.

  “I don't know,” he shrugged.

  John rushed back in with a funny looking thing with a black plastic stem and a round piece of glass on the top.

  “What's that?”

  “It's my mom's magnifying glass,” Jonesy said.

  “This will do the trick!” John said.

  We all bent forward again, the high resolution in the reader giving a sharper image as the convex shaped glass flowed over the top, expanding and defining.

  “Hell yeah!” Jonesy punched air.

  “Jonesy! Language!” Helen yelled a reprimand.

  “Sorry mom!” Jonesy yelled back.

  Jonesy repeated quietly, “Hell yeah!”

  John and I smiled.

  “Okay, so the kid is holding up part of the car? So what, it's a comic,” I said.

  “That's where you're wrong,” John replied with gravity.

  I looked a question at him.

  “You remember Alex?” John asked.

  “The bad piano player?”

  “Yeah,” he waved that opinion away impatiently. “He told me that there were hidden messages in the comics. That if we looked closely, we could find things in the images, the artwork, that when strung together means something.

  “Are you shitting me?”

  “No, would I?” John asked.

  We both looked at Jonesy.

  “What?” he asked, oblivious.

  We shook our heads. John wouldn’t make it up, too weird.

  “Alright, so what does it mean?” I asked.

  “Well, that's what we've been trying to decipher with just this months' worth of comics.”

  “What does Alex say it means?”

  “He thinks there are allies of the paranormals that have been shut down by the government and there's subtle messages in the comics that talk about what is going on, what they're doing. Maybe even where they might be located.”

  “And... Alex got this all from, what? He pulled it out of his ass?” Jonesy asked.

  I had a visual of Alex, who was such a nerd it hurt me to look at him, but he was truly smart. Maybe there was something to this.

  Jonesy turned off his DR. “That's for when we have more time. I have a plan.”

  Oh joy.

  John asked, “What now? I thought we were going to talk about the comic messages?”

  “Later. Besides, you've already agreed to this,” Jonesy said.

  “What?” I asked, impatient.

  “Let's figure out the hideaway. While there's no chicks around to ruin it,” Jonesy answered.

  “Jade wouldn't ruin it,” I defended.

  “She wouldn't mean to but, she still distracts you. She's like the 'shiny thing'. She moves and you follow.”

  I really couldn't argue with that. I looked at John for support.

  John just shook his head. “He's right Caleb, you're kinda gone on her.”

  “I'm here tonight though, aren't I?” I asked, indignant.

  “Yeah, but we're not getting together as much as we were. It's okay, I'm just sayin'.”

  “Okay. I want to find a place to have a safe zone. Somewhere we can go if the government gets wind of me,” I said.

  “That's what I'm talkin' about, Caleb,” Jonesy said like, duh.

  I still felt uncomfortable doing the zombie slave labor.

  “Come on Caleb, we need them,” Jonesy said, seeing my face.

  “Yeah, I have been thinking of a way for us to use the zombies and get them back without being noticed,” John said.

  I held up my hand. “Let's just wait and see if we even need to use them. Maybe we'll find a really cool place in the old dump and it will be perfect, without...”

  “Improvements,” John supplied.

  “Right.”

  “Let's go tonight, right now,” Jonesy said.

  “I gotta have some food first,” John said.

  Right on cue, my stomach did a huge rumble.

  “That's a sign,” Jonesy said.

  We walked out to the kitchen and plopped down in front of a huge thing that my parents called a breakfast bar. The Js and I pulled out the stools. Jonesy's mom poured us out three pops, Big Red. Helen believed sugar was a food group, that made me happy on a deep level.

  She put a plate in front of each of us with four slices. My mom's pizza was demolished during round one. Jonesy and I were okay after that but John had to have two more. Helen said she still had a whole pizza left.

  “I don't wanna walk, Caleb,” Jonesy said through a mound of food crammed into one side of his mouth.

  “Listen, mister, don't talk with your mouth full,” Helen said.

  “Sorry, mom,” Jonesy said, and smiled, the pizza guts showing through his teeth. Helen shook her head and started a load of dishes.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because, I think it will be fun to just watch you ride on that old bike of yours, I need a laugh.”

  John smiled.

  Helen said, “Jonesy, that is a perfectly adequate bike.”

  “Mom, have you looked at it? Really looked at it? It's pathetic. It's a one-speed.”

  “Those are classic instruments for the development of large motor skills,” she elaborated.

  “Huh?” Jonesy asked.

  “Mrs. Jones is talking about your butt,” John said.

  It was Helen's turn to grin.

  “Let me explain. There are no gears, right?”

  “Right,” Jonesy agreed.

  “So, it forces you to use the booty gear.”

  “Precisely, John, and I thank you for clarifying,” Helen replied.

  “You're just not gonna admit that it's not as cool as my Raleigh Scout, mom,” Jonesy stated.

  “Not on your life, big-for-your-britches.”

  John and I barked out an appreciative laugh. The DNA train wasn't far from the track with his smart-ass behavior.

  Jonesy glowered at his mom but she didn't even flinch; tough-as-nails, loved it.

  We grabbed our bikes, my tires the monsters of the group and were on our way. The old, abandoned dump was really close to Scenic Hill Cemetery so we parked our bikes there and walked over. It wouldn't be good for some observant adult to see a bunch of kids' bikes loitering in front of a dump.

  We looked up at the sign, “Kent Refuse, Authorized Personnel Only, Trespassing Prohibited, Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri: 10:00-4:00. Then, over the top of that was the haphazard lettering, Closed. Our gaze traveled to the top of the chain link fence where barbed wire swirled lazily in a spiral. That would take some doing.

  I turned to John. “What do ya think...”

  He pulled out two pair of gloves.

  Jonesy's eyebrows shot up. “Great! Good thinking,Terran!”

  John, always prepared.

  “You first,” I said to Jonesy.

  Jonesy grunted, threw on the gloves and climbed. Fine muscles bunched and moved in his forearms as he finessed his way up the links, John keeping an eye on the road for adults.

  “Hurry,” John said.

  “I am. Can it!”

  Finally, Jonesy got to the top and pushing down the barbed wire with one hand, straddled it in preparation for swinging his leg over to the other side.

  “Hey!” I yelled.

  “What? Kinda busy, ya moron.”

  “Why don't you stay awhile?”

  “Shut up Caleb, it's your turn next,” Jonesy said, giving a nervous look at his balls, millimeters above the barbs.

  Jonesy carefully swept his left leg over, securing a foothold on the opposite side. He removed one glove at a time with his teeth, throwing them one-handed over the top of the fence for John and I.

/>   I struggled the gloves on while Jonesy climbed down the other side. I got them on and stood facing Jonesy. Jonesy smiled and did an elaborate middle finger. John laughed.

  “Have fun with that, Hart.”

  A knot of anxiety was like a ball in my stomach. I was gonna do this.

  I was definitely not scared of heights.

  I took a deep breath and started to climb. It was pretty easy until I was just about to the top and my arms started to shake. Jonesy hadn't mentioned that part. Maybe it hadn't made him tired. He was shorter, but muscular.

  I used the same tramp-down-the-barbed wire technique as Jonesy, hovering precariously over the top in complete terror that my arm strength would give way just at that moment. But the threat of a testicle free life kept me stable. Swinging the other leg over the top, I hung there at the top of the other side, catching my breath.

  “Somebody needs to do some push-ups!” Jonesy sang.

  Jerk.

  I climbed down and stood by Jonesy on the right side of the fence.

  “I do push-ups.”

  Jonesy grunted, “Maybe do some more.”

  John was still staring at the road.

  “Let's get going,” Jonesy said through the fence.

  John sighed, looking one more time at the locked gate. “Just a sec,” he said, jogging over to the gate.

  “It's locked John, you're gonna have to climb,” Jonesy called out smugly.

  John stood staring at the gate, which was a huge chain link affair with a padlock the size of my fist.

  “It's got a numbered entry,” John called.

  Jonesy shrugged, so?

  “It's pre-pulse,” I explained.

  “Whatever. John, just climb, you're wasting time.”

  John started to spin the numbers on the lock, jerking it experimentally. Finally, after a minute of messing around with it and Jonesy grumbling, it opened, like magic.

  John looked over at us and grinned triumphantly. “I guess I'll just open the gate, and walk in,” he said.

  Oh brother.

  And he did; walking right in and right over to us.

  Jonesy had his hands on his hips. “What-the-hell, Terran? Why didn't you try that from the start?”

  “I didn't think about it until it was my turn to climb,” John tapped his head and continued, “Work smarter, not harder.”

  Nice.

  “Okay, smart-ass, go close the gate so adults don't check it out.”