by Rowe, Brian
Another candle. These things are gonna be the end of me.
“What’s your name, son?”
“Uhh, Cameron.”
“Cameron? I’m Becka. It’s nice to meet you. Now I want you to close your eyes. And let’s begin.”
“OK.”
I closed my eyes, even though I wanted to be on alert throughout this whole experience. I had never been to a psychic before, and for all I knew, this woman could be a sick cougar just like Mrs. Gordon, waiting patiently for the right moment to grab me.
If she hypnotizes me, I’m gonna be really pissed.
“Take a few deep breaths,” she said. “Just relax, Cameron.”
I tried to do as she said, even though I could feel both my head and my stomach hurting, this near silence bringing forth the realization that I was getting further and further away from finding Liesel.
And I’m not getting any older, I thought. It’s funny. Everyone always comments on how they’re not getting any younger. I’m the opposite. I’m getting younger with each passing minute!
“Put your hands out for me, Cameron. I’m going to read your palms.”
“Oh. All right.”
I brought my hands to the center of the table and next to the giant orange candle. I tried not to look at the flame, but even with my eyes closed, I could see the remnants of the burning candle flickering against my face.
I felt the woman’s cold, clammy hands touch mine, and I instantly wanted to squirm in my chair. But I didn’t. I remained cool and calm. I knew this session probably wasn’t going to help me find Liesel, but I also knew there was a small chance it could. Liesel was magical, and so, arguably, was this woman. Maybe she’d drop a clue as to her whereabouts. One clue was all I needed.
“OK, Cameron… OK…”
“OK?”
“I’m sensing that you’re nervous,” she said. “Are you nervous right now?”
“Maybe a little. I’ve never been to a psychic before.”
“It’s all right. Just try to relax. Listen to the music. Focus on your breathing.”
So far, a lot of nothing, honey.
“Are you able to tell how old I am?” I asked.
“Please,” she responded. “Please let me ask the questions.”
“Oh… OK…”
“I sense you’re a lot older than you look.”
Didn’t I say that earlier? “Yeah, I am.”
“You look twelve or thirteen, but I sense that you’re in your late teens. Sixteen, seventeen maybe?”
“I’m eighteen,” I said.
“And I can sense you’ve come to me from a great distance.”
I shook my head and pursed my lips. “Not really. I’m fifteen, maybe twenty minutes away.”
She remained silent for another minute or so. “Hold on,” she said.
“OK.”
These silent moments are called filler, I thought. Every passing minute she makes a few more bucks. By the time she starts saying anything of wisdom, my thirty minutes are going to be up!
“You’ve lost somebody dear to you, recently,” she finally said.
“Yes. Yes, that’s right.”
“It’s a woman. She’s young.”
“Yes.”
“And she’s not dead. She’s alive. But she’s disappeared. And you can’t seem to find her.”
Bingo! “Yes, yes you’re absolutely right. Do you know where she is?”
“Shhh,” she said. “Keep quiet.”
I did. Another minute passed. I opened my eyes just a smidge to see her staring at her lap, her head shaking just a little to suggest she was receiving some or all of her psychic energies.
“She’s your loved one,” the psychic finally said.
“Yes.”
“She’s trying to speak to me…”
“What?”
“I can hear her.”
I opened my eyes and leaned forward, grasping the psychic’s arms. She pushed me back.
“Sit down, young man! And close your eyes! Do you want to hear this or don’t you?”
I tried not to scream in terror at her loud, booming voice as I fell back in my chair and kept my palms up.
“OK,” she said. “I can hear whispering… she’s trapped somewhere…”
“Where is she?” I asked. “How can she be trapped? She should be able to get away—”
“Shh… Let me ask the questions.”
“OK.”
I could hear the psychic breathing heavily, I hoped because she was receiving more messages from Liesel, and not because she was about fifty pounds overweight.
“She’s saying…” the psychic said. “She’s saying… she’s in a familiar place.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“Silence!”
“Sorry.”
“She says… she’s where she came from… where she used to be.”
I tried to make sense of what she was saying. If this psychic was for real, she was trying to tell me Liesel was no longer in Reno, but in some other city, maybe in some other realm?
“She wants you to ask questions,” the psychic said. “I’ll allow it.”
“OK.” I leaned forward. “Liesel, tell me, exactly where you are.”
The psychic hesitated for a moment, and then started shaking her head. “I’m losing her…”
“No. What?”
“I’m losing her, Cameron. She’s saying ‘in the mountains’… she’s saying ‘mountains’… she’s saying she can hear the water…”
Mountains? Water? What? That could be anywhere!
The flame on the candle before me started flickering. “No! Come on! Don’t let her go!”
“It’s not me, “ the psychic said. “Someone else is pushing through… I can hear her screaming.”
“Liesel! Tell me where you are and I will come find you!”
“She’s drifting… she’s fading… she’s—”
I opened my eyes fully, just in time to see the psychic’s head crash down against the table. She didn’t move for a few seconds.
“Uhh… Psychic Lady? Becka?”
She still didn’t move.
Oh, great. I killed her.
“Are you all right? Do I need to call someone—”
And then, out of nowhere, I heard the most heart-stopping, demonic laugh start erupting from the psychic’s mouth. She jerked her head up, her arms dropping below the table. The laugh slowly transitioned into a childish giggle.
Worst of all, her eyes were now full-on black.
“Oh my God…” I said. “Liesel… what—“
“To hell with Liesel!” the deep, manly, terrifying voice shouted. The demonic laugh returned.
“What have you done with Liesel?” The flame was flickering even faster.
“Your fiancée is fine, Cameron. She’s safe. And don’t worry. You’ll get to see her soon enough.” More laughing ensued.
“Who are you? Tell me who you are!”
“You’re about to find out, boy. I’m just letting the days play out. I’m gonna bring you to Liesel at the moment when it’ll be far too late for her to save you!” The loudest, most demonic laughing erupted from the psychic’s mouth.
“What do you want from me?”
The psychic stood up and towered over me. She had a chilling, enormous smile on her face that was the creepiest I’d ever seen. Her eyes looked ready to bulge out from their sockets. “I want you to suffer! Just the way I want her to suffer!”
I wanted to start crying. “Why? What did we do to you?”
“I’m not about to see Liesel be happy! She’s going to suffer, just how I have suffered! You, my friend, have zero chance of saving her! Because by the time you see her, it will be too late! There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you can do! So just sit back and get younger… and younger… and younger! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“You crazy bitch! Who are you?”
I jumped up on the table, knocking the candle over as I rolled down to my st
omach to start choking the psychic. She just kept on laughing.
“Tell me who you are!” I shouted.
“In due time, in due time! I’m coming for you, Cameron Martin! Hell is coming!”
“Tell me your name! Tell me!”
I saw the psychic blink, twice, to reveal her normal eyes. As I continued to choke her, her giggling, maniacal face turned to one of panic.
“Stop… please… I’m choking,” she said.
“Obviously!” I shouted.
“The voices… they’re gone… please… please stop…”
I didn’t fully believe her. I wasn’t about to let up.
“Oh God… my curtains,” she said.
I turned to my left. The candle had smashed against the curtains on the left side of the room, igniting them on fire.
“Oh shit!” I shouted, rolling off the psychic. She started coughing as she immediately jumped up to her feet and ran toward the back of the room.
She returned five seconds later with the fire extinguisher. She sprayed the fire out so quickly I figured this kind of thing had happened in her little psychic home before.
When the fire was out, she turned to me, hatred in her eyes, this time of the more normal human variety. “Get out of my house!” she shouted.
I was already one step ahead of her, racing for the front door before she had even completed her sentence.
I raced toward my car, turned on the ignition, and sped down McCarron Blvd, trying not to cry. I didn’t know where to go from here.
She’s coming for me, I thought. Hell’s coming for me, she said. But who is she? And what does she want with me?
I pulled up to Liesel’s apartment complex, but I didn’t get out of the car until well past midnight. I wasn’t sure if that evil witch of a woman would be waiting for me in the apartment. I was too scared to get out of the car. I was too scared to move.
I ended up sleeping in my car that night. I didn’t think things could possibly get any worse.
But I knew in my heart they would.
8. Eleven
I was happy to see daylight that next morning. The birds were chirping, and cars were racing past the complex behind me. Life was going on as normal in Reno; Hell hadn’t overtaken the world like that psychic had promised. I sat up, looked at my short, messy hair in the rearview mirror, and noticed how ridiculously young I looked. My lips were fuller, my nose was a tad smaller, and my skin was a bit darker. There was so much baby fat on my cheeks I wanted to start pinching them, but I managed to keep my hands away. I had more important things to do.
I couldn’t stop thinking about that psychic. I thought something unusual might happen at the encounter, but certainly nothing like that. When she started saying Liesel’s words, I didn’t think my day could become any stranger. But when she became the human microphone for the crazy woman who kidnapped Liesel, I decided that would be my first and last time I’d ever visit a sketchy Reno psychic.
I downed some water from a bottle I still had in my car, just as my cell phone vibrated on the passenger seat next to me. I spit up practically all the water as I leaned over and grabbed the phone. The missed call hadn’t been from Liesel, unfortunately.
The call was from Wesley.
I called him back hesitantly, and waited five long rings before he finally picked up. “Hello?” He sounded cheery.
“Wesley?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s Cam.”
“Cam?”
“Uh huh.”
Wesley laughed on the other end. “Yeah, sure it is, kid.”
“No, no, it’s me.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yeah it is!”
Wesley laughed again, this time so loud I moved the phone away from my ear. “If this is truly Cameron, answer me this question.”
“OK.”
“What did I give you when you were in the hospital last year?”
I didn’t hesitate. “You gave me a DVD which had a photo montage of the two of us, set to my favorite Coldplay song.”
Silence ensued for a moment. And then: “Cam…”
“What?”
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
“Nothing.”
“You sound like a little girl!”
“I know I do. Don’t worry, man. Anyway, I was just calling you because I had a missed call—”
“Oh my God! It’s happening again!”
I leaned up in my chair and stared at myself in the rearview mirror again. “What?”
“Cam.”
More silence. “OK, Wes, I’ve had a little setback.”
“Are you aging backward now?”
“I… well…”
“Are you?”
I took a deep breath. There was no sense in hiding it from him. What can he do, anyway? He lives in another state, for God’s sake. “Yes.”
“How old are you today?”
“Eleven. I think.”
“Eleven?”
“Yeah.”
“How did this happen?”
I really didn’t feel like going into the story, especially since Wesley and I weren’t on the best of terms at the moment.
“What do you care?” I asked. “Oh, right. You’re thinking this could be your second chance at an award-winning documentary, isn’t it?”
“Cam, no—”
“Wes, you made it plain and clear at Christmas. You have a whole new life in L.A. now. And anything to do with me has to only suit you and your needs—”
“Cam. I called you this morning to let you know that I had re-arranged my finals schedule so that I could come to Reno for your wedding and be your best man.”
The guy could take my breath away, he really could. To say this had been an unexpected response would have been an understatement. No matter how many times Wesley disappointed me, in our discussions, in his behavior, he always seemed to find his way back into my sometimes broken but forgiving heart.
“Wesley… are you serious? Or are you just saying that because you know I’m in trouble again?”
“Cam, I’ve been on an ego trip lately, I’ll admit it. It’s easy to lose yourself where I am. But I got to thinking this week how far we’d come as friends after everything that happened to you last year, and how quickly our friendship dissolved after I left for school, and you stayed in Reno. I knew things would never be the same, but I also didn’t know just how much of a jackass I’d become. It’s time for me to change that.”
“Wes—”
“And I’m gonna start by being the best man at your wedding.”
“Yeah, if I even have a wedding.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wes, the wedding’s not exactly at the top of my priority list right now. Not only am I going through this disease all over again, this time at a faster rate, but Liesel’s gone.”
“She’s gone?”
“She’s missing. And I have no idea how to find her.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“Six days.”
“Six days! And you’ve done nothing about it?”
I wanted to cry. Doing something about it was all I thought about from the moment I woke up and the moment I went to sleep. I didn’t even care about my condition so much at this point. All I wanted was for Liesel to be returned in one piece, still herself, still in her vibrant, magical condition.
“I can’t do anything about it, Wes, because I don’t look like me. I look like a little kid, and I can’t let this town find out about me again. I just can’t do it.”
“Nobody knows?”
“My sister knows. That’s it.”
“Oh my God. OK. Well, I’m actually off of school this week for Easter Vacation. I was going to spend most of my week working on my final film project, but I think—”
“Wesley! No!”
“What?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Please don’t feel like you need to help me.”
“But it’s the
right thing to do, Cam. You’re sick. You don’t have anyone to help you. You need me there.”
“I can’t do that to you.”
“I’m an hour flight away. Just shut the hell up, and let somebody else take care of you for a change. If you’re not gonna tell your parents, at least let me help you… with your disease… and with finding Liesel. Do you know how she went missing?”
“Somebody kidnapped her.”
“What? Who?”
“I’m not sure. It’s a girl. Our age, I think.”
“Really? Whoever she is, she’s going down.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but smile. “OK, Wes.”
“One other thing,” he said. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. I waited.
“What?”
“Would you mind if I brought my video camera along? You know, just to document a few things?”
I laughed. “I’ll see you when I see you, Wes.”
I tossed my phone on the passenger seat and brought my head down to the steering wheel. I wanted to go to sleep again, but I knew I was getting younger at every second. And the more time that passed, the closer I was to my demise.
Eleven more days. And then I’m history. And if I can’t find Liesel… it’s for real this time.
I pulled out of the parking lot and started speeding down South Virginia Street, even though at this point I could barely reach the pedal or see out the windshield. I knew this was it, the last day I could get away with driving, before another, less friendly, officer were to stop me, impound my car, and throw me into Juvenile Hall.
I had to be careful.
Anything could happen now.
---
I found myself driving around for most of the day, all in different places I had been to with Liesel, in hopes that I’d spot that giant brown van again. But the more I searched for it, the less confident I felt I would ever see it, today at least. I circled Idlewild Park three times but didn’t see anything suspicious—no odd car, no scary female figure in the distance burning her eyes into my soul.
I was feeling useless by the minute. I was like a little goldfish in the center of an ocean, with twenty-five salivating sharks surrounding me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like there was nobody I could turn to, and that there was no way I was going to make it through this rotten mess alive.
