PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Allister Leeman.

  “She’ll come for you,” he hissed at my mother in the same horrid playful tone he had used with me on the phone. “In fact, she’s probably on her way right now.”

  “Die in a fire,” Mom said weakly, and then she spit at him. He wiped the spit off of his face with a handkerchief he pulled from his jacket pocket and smiled.

  “Interesting words for someone who’s survived not one, but two, explosions in her wasted lifetime.” He leaned in closer; so close that, as he spoke, his breath must have hit her in the face. “You gave your whole life to this girl. You walked away from your family, your future, everything you ever had, would have, or could have. And you did it all to keep her safe, to stop her from becoming what nature created her to be. Well she’s coming for you Ash. Or would you prefer Julie? After all, a good son in law abides his mother in law’s preferences. How does it feel to know that all of your hard work is for nothing; that, in the end, you’re the reason she’ll become the Bloodmoon? She’s coming for you, and I’m going to make sure that our girl is every bit as fabulous as fate intended her to be.”

  He whipped over, looking straight ahead, as though he could see us through the mirror. “Do you hear that, Cresta? Are you watching us now? I’m going to make it all right. I’m going to make it all better.”

  He looked over at my mother as a fiendish grin crept across his face. He knew he had me; that, no matter what he said or what threats he made, he still had my hands tied. He had my mother. He could lay his plans out on the table. He knew I would come anyway.

  He grabbed her hand and kissed it, sending a shudder up both my and my mother’s bodies. “Come and get her, baby. We’ll be waiting.”

  With that, the fog lifted and the mirror returned to normal.

  “Cresta, I’m sorry,” Owen said, his voice low.

  “Don’t be,” I said, clearing my throat. “She’s alive. That’s all that matters. When do we leave?”

  “I suppose it would be utter insanity for me to suggest we actually bring this up with a few of our superiors before we go marching of into what Allister Leeman already confirmed was a trap,” Merrin sighed, blowing out the candle and gathering the supplies.

  “They wouldn’t let me go if I told them what was going on,” I answered. “And Allister Leeman already told me that if he caught a whiff of any of them in the area, he’d kill her. I can’t take that chance. Besides, he’s not going to hurt me. He thinks we’ve got some sort of sicko destiny.”

  “I was more concerned about the safety of those of us who aren’t protected by a blanket doomsday prophecy,” Merrin said.

  “This is what’s happening. You’re either in or you’re out,” I said, brushing past her toward the door.

  “You’re the hottest girl I’ve ever hated,” Casper told her, following me.

  “Nice friends,” she scoffed at Owen, but tossed the supplies in the backpack and followed us anyway.

  “I think so,” Owen grinned as he left the supply closet and closed the door behind him.

  We had to travel through three rooms and down two flights of stairs to get to the holding garage. Owen said we needed a car if we were going to get out of here and, even though back in Crestview, I had never seen him take so much as a stick of gum without asking, he said he was going to steal one. Luckily, there was some sort of student body activity outside (perfect timing, as always, from the Girl in the Tower) and the place was pretty much deserted. We only had to bypass a couple of housekeepers, an errant professor, and a cook who I was sure was stealing an entire chicken and bringing it back to his room. Before I knew it, we were at the stairs, and then, the holding garage. The garage was underground, and must have run the entire length of Weathersby. Rows of cars lined as far as the eye could see. Vans, sport cars, pickup trucks , even motorcycles filled the huge space. There were vehicles of every kind, of every size and shape. But not of every color. In fact, all the vehicles, and there were thousands of them, were either white or black.

  “What’s with the chess board motif?” Casper asked, seemingly reading my mind.

  “White and black are more the absence of colors than actual colors themselves. They’re easier to shade,” Owen explained, and walked into the sea of automobiles.

  “What about this one?” I asked, pointing to the first car I saw; a black minivan.

  “Are we picking up the Brady Bunch along the way,” Casper joked. “What about something with a little more style? You guys are supposed to be spies, right? Where’s the James Bond collection?”

  “Ugh,” I loathe you,” Merrin shook her head disgustedly.

  “Love you too, hot stuff,” he winked back.

  “We don’t have time for this,” I said. “Whatever crap is keeping the entire student body busy will be over soon, and we need to be six different kinds of gone by then. So, I don’t care what kind of car we pick. I just want it picked.”

  “What about that one?” Casper pointed to a sleek black jewel of a sports car in the distance. It had white racing stripes and was the sort of thing you’d expect Vin Diesel to pop out of instants after it skidded to a stop in front of you.

  “That’s a Maserati,” Owen answered. “I think it’s also Echo’s personal ride.”

  “Well, “Casper smiled. “If we’re gonna do something wrong, we might as well do it the right way.”

  ***

  Minutes later, we were crammed into Owen’s sports car. Owen was in the driver’s seat with me beside him. Which left Casper and Merrin to share the cramped backseat; something I was sure neither of them was fond of. I didn’t see Owen pulled out a key, but he must have had one, because the engine started purring quietly, and then we were darting between the lanes of cars.

  “How are we going to get this thing out of here without getting caught?” I asked.

  “The only way we can,” Owen answered. “Through the front door.”

  I couldn’t believe it as we scaled up the driveway and up onto the front lawn. Like, in plain sight.

  “I know I’m not a super evolved extra special Breaker or anything,” Casper noted. “But this seems like a pretty messed up way not to get caught sneaking out.”

  “Right. Well, as you said, you are neither special, nor evolved,” Merrin said. She reached into the front seat and put a cold finger along the back of my neck. I bristled.

  “Don’t worry, you’re not my type. But if I’m going to do this, I’m going to need to draw on as much energy as possible, and you’re the only game in town, at the moment.”

  “Do what?” I asked, but looked at Owen instead of Merrin.

  “We’re gonna shade ourselves and the car,” he answered.

  “From the entire school,” I asked.

  “From the entire school,” he answered.

  “Ever done that before?”

  “Not exactly,” he fidgeted. “But we’re confident.”

  “Just sit still and pretend we’re not where we are,” Merrin said, tightening her grip around my neck. “I’m not here. You’re not here. None of us are here. We don’t exist. The car doesn’t exist. There is only the open air.”

  In the distance, beside the gates that led out of Weathersby, a bunch of people, the entire student body, circled in large groups. We were going to have to pass right by them.

  “Owen, I-“

  “Just believe it, Cresta. Believe we’re not here. They won’t see us, because there’s nothing to see.” He took my hand. “You can do it.”

  Merrin grabbed the back of my neck harder, pinching it between her fingers. “Ow!”

  “Sorry,” she said, her eyes flickering to Owen’s hand in mine. “My hand must have slipped.”

  Aside from the stinging in my neck, I now felt a different sensation. I felt breathless, like I had ran five miles uphill with a boulder on my back. I started panting. As we neared the crowd, a pressure started to build in my head, like I had drank a five gallon milkshake too fast and now had to deal with the world’s worst
ice cream headache.

  “We’re not here,” Merrin whispered again.

  To her credit, the crowds did not seem to see us. They were dressed in flowing black robes holding rocks over their heads for some reason.

  Breakers, gotta love the crazy.

  And there was Echo and Dahlia at the head of the largest circle. He spoke in muffled words and the circle repeated in kind. No one, it seemed, noticed the $90,000 sports car rolling slowly by them.

  “How in the world . . . ” I mused.

  “It’s what we do,” Owen smiled.

  Owen pressed a button near the roof and the gates of Weathersby opened as we neared them. No one noticed that either.

  “Who wants to dare me to moon them?” Casper grinned.

  The gates closed slowly behind us; quietly to us, invisibly to everyone else. There was no siren, no flashing lights. No one had seen us. It had worked. Weathersby was fading in the rearview mirror and, other than an aching head and a red spot at the back of my neck, I was no worse for the wear. This was going to work. I was going to-

  “What the hell?” Owen veered off of the road. He slammed into a ditch. I jerked forward and hit my head against the dashboard. “Is everybody okay?” He asked.

  “Drive much?” Casper asked shakily.

  “There was . . . something in the road,” Owen answered.

  I looked up. The headlights shone vibrantly against the sprawling woods that cut Weathersby off from the rest of the world, and illuminated exactly what it was that had gotten in our way.

  It wasn’t something. It was someone. Standing on front of our car, staring at us with white colorless eyes, was the Girl in the Tower

  She was different than I had remembered her. Watching her from a distance as she stood in her hidden tower, the girl was a force. Here though, standing in the middle of the road, staring at us unblinkingly, she was just-Well, just a girl. She was shorter than I expected, with a thin frame and arms and legs that were more twigs than actual appendages.

  “Owen, look at the eyes,” Merrin gasped. “She’s a seer.”

  Her eyes were empty. Where my irises were green, Merrin’s were almost black, and Owen’s were that electric blue that took my breath away on the daily, this girl’s irises were white. That is, if they were even there at all. It was possible, I supposed, that her eyes were just black specks swimming in twin oceans of white.

  “She’s Echo’s daughter,” I answered. “The Girl in the Tower.”

  I stepped out of the car and walked toward her. It was the first time I had actually been outside in days and the crisp night air felt prickly against my bare arms.

  “Cresta, no!” I heard Owen say and, like a flash, he was out of the car and beside me. “We don’t know what she wants,” he whispered.

  “She wants me here,” I said doubtlessly. “It’s why she left me those notes. It’s why she hid the key inside the floor board. She’s been guiding me. Haven’t you?”

  She tilted her head. Black bangs hung over her expressionless eyes. Her skin was so pale it hurt to look at her.

  “You are mistaken Cresta Karr,” she said in a voice so light I had to strain to hear it. “The key was not my doing. It waited years for you to find it.”

  I felt Casper at my side and, from the corner of my eye, saw Merrin beside Owen. “What does she want?” Merrin asked; close enough to Owen that I flinched just a little.

  “I don’t know,” he whispered back, before turning to the seer. “We just-“

  “You will be captured,” the Girl in the Tower said without blinking. In fact, in the entire time I had been watching her, I couldn’t remember her blinking once. “If you continue on this path, you will soon be captured. Cresta will be confined in a cell until she is no longer deemed a threat, and her mother will die. The rest of your fates will be less desirable.”

  “We have to go. I’m going to save my mom. I don’t care what you say,” I answered, sick of being told all the reasons this plan, or more aptly, lack of plan, wouldn’t work.

  “Your stubbornness on this matter is as admirable as it is predictable. It is also the variable which will lead to your downfall. On the other hand, if you bring me with you-“

  “You must be out of your mind,” Owen said.

  “That is an integral part of any seer’s identity, yes,” the Girl in the Tower answered.”Be that as it may, my presence will greatly increase your chances of survival.”

  “Survival?” Casper gulped.”Maybe we should, I don’t know, listen to her?”

  “No!” Merrin threw her hands. “She’s a seer; a seer, Owen! Do you have any idea what will happen to us if we steal a seer?”

  “I do,” the Girl in the Tower cocked her head again. “And it is much more lenient a future than the one you will endure if you do not take me with you. Now come. There isn’t much time before the others see through the rouse I’ve created and realize you’ve left the premises.”

  “Y-you’ve created?” Merrin stammered. “I thought I-“

  “Do not despair. You’re abilities are more than admirable, and they will prove useful in the road you’ve chosen to go down. But you are not up to these tasks alone.” The Girl in the Tower(who was out of the tower now, but I still didn’t know what to call her) had a way of speaking that sounded clumsy and foreign, even when compared to the rest of the Breakers. It was all too formal; no contractions. She used cannot instead of can’t, did not instead of didn’t. It was like she didn’t know how people actually talked; like she learned it from a book or an old movie or something.

  “None of you can,” she finished, looking directly at me. “But we must hurry. It will not be long before Papa and the others realize what we have done. They will come for me because of what I am.” She looked to me. “They will come for you because of what you might one day become.” Then she turned to Owen. “And they will come for you for the wrong reasons entirely.”

  She took a step forward and, looking at Casper, finished, “Rejoice, for you are of importance to no one.”

  “Yay me,” he mumbled.

  “You can’t seriously be considering this,” Merrin said to Owen, whose face had taken on a pensive tint.

  “She might be right,” Owen said, without looking at her. “This is dangerous. It could go very badly.It’d be good to have a seer in our pocket.”

  “As good as a noose around our necks. The Council of Masons will- If we take her with us, if we do this, then there’s no going back, not ever.”

  Owen turned to her, put a hand on her cheek and, with almost enough strength to keep the crack out of his voice, said, “Oh Merrin, there never was.” Blinking, he continued. “I say we take her.”

  “And I say we don’t,” Merrin answered.

  “No,” I said flatly. “This isn’t a vote. My mom, my future, my plan, my decision.” The Girl in the Tower looked at me, her pale vacant eyes shining in the moonlight. In so many ways, she had brought me here. Not to Weathersby, but here, outside of it. She guided me to her tower. She warned me about the phone call, and helped me escape. I didn’t know her reasoning, or even if I could trust her. But I knew, staring into her eyes, the decision I’d have to make. “She comes with us.”

  “Unbelievable!” Merrin answered. “You can’t just-“

  “She can Merrin, and she did,” Owen said, already walking back to the car. “Now you heard the seer. There isn’t much time. Let’s get a move on.”

  “I hate it when you use Americanized vernacular,” Merrin said, moping back toward the car.

  Casper was about to follow, but the Girl in the Tower grabbed his arm. He turned to her, his eyes narrowed. “Ya need something?”

  “I have waited for you. I have waited for so long.” Then she leaned onto the tips of her toes, and kissed him full on the mouth. “And now you are here,” she said. Pulling away from him, she got into the car.

  Casper looked at me with the same bewildered look he had worn for weeks now.“These people are so weird.”
/>   Chapter 17

  Angel At My Back

  Where are we going?” Casper asked from the backseat. We had been driving for an hour or so, but I still couldn’t tell Owen which direction to take. Allister Leeman told me that once I got out of Weathersby, he’d give me everything I’d need to find my mother. But, so far, all I had gotten was a ninety thousand dollar sports car stuffed beyond capacity with assorted Breakers, and a headache that threatened to split my skull into about a million pieces.

  “I don’t know,” I said for what felt like the hundredth time.

  “Is there maybe a Burger King on the way to ‘I don’t know’, ‘cause I’m starving,” Casper asked, looking out the window.

  “We had dinner an hour before we left. You’re hungry again?” Owen asked.

  “I was under the impression this car was a ‘no judgment’ zone.”

  The Girl in the Tower, pressed so tightly between Merrin and Casper that it was wonder the poor thing could ever move her arms, dug into her pocket, and pulled out a Hershey’s cookies and cream bar; which also happened to be Casper’s absolute favorite junk food. She handed it to him silently.

  “Thanks,” he said, grabbing the candy. “I’d ask how you knew, but I’m afraid you’d tell me.”

  “There is very little about you that I do not know,” she answered without looking at him.

  “Well look at that. You told me anyway,” he grimaced, biting into the chocolate.

  “Do you have any idea where we need to go?” I asked, looking at her through the rearview window. It wouldn’t be long before Echo and company figured out that we were gone, if they hadn’t already. And, when that happened, we needed to be well on our way toward my mother; not driving around aimlessly in what very well might be the wrong direction.

  “Mind the ring,” she answered.

  “I know,” I sighed. “I remember that from your note. I already minded the ring. That’s how we got this far in the first place.”

  “What is the phenomenon that occurs when a televised image is recirculated in order to save costs and stabilize revenue?”