“Honey?” my mom called. “Colin and Lisa are with me. Can they come in?”
I closed my eyes. Inhaled. Exhaled. I had avoided my friends long enough. Sooner or later, I knew they’d come find me. I cleared my throat, pushed myself out of bed, and opened the door.
“Hey, guys.” They were both dressed in nice clothing as if they were on their way to church. Colin was wearing a button-up shirt, which made him look ten times dressier than I’d ever seen him, and Lisa had on a dark knee-length dress. A newspaper was tucked under her arm.
“How’re you doing, man?” Colin asked.
“Better,” I lied.
“You don’t look better,” Colin said. He swept past me into the room, followed by Lisa, who shut the door behind her. “There was nothing we could’ve done.” He poked at some of the stuff on my desk.
“Whatever.”
“We did everything we could,” Lisa said.
I reddened. Had they planned the speech before getting here? “What do you mean we did everything we could? We killed him. I killed him.”
Lisa scrunched up her face. “Don’t be stupid.”
“If he hadn’t pointed that gun at us, he wouldn’t have been shot.”
“Not by the cops, maybe,” Colin said, “but probably by the robbers.”
“No! That’s just it, Colin. He’d already beaten two of the robbers. He had the gun. He only put it down because the third guy had a knife on you.”
Lisa and Colin looked at each other with raised brows.
“It’s because we were there that he died.”
“I don’t believe that,” Lisa said flatly. “No. It’s not possible.”
“I’m the common denominator, guys. I’m the reason for all these deaths.”
“Oh yeah?” Colin asked. “And how exactly are you responsible for Mrs. Farnsworthy’s death?”
“She wasn’t standing behind her desk, right?” I widened my eyes at Lisa, waiting for a response.
She put her fists on her hips and leaned forward. “Yeah, so?”
“If she’d been standing behind her desk, she probably wouldn’t have been killed. And the reason she wasn’t standing behind her desk was because I said there was a rat hiding under her desk.”
“Oh God, Dean!” Lisa took a step back and looked up at the ceiling. “People believed you for about five minutes. After that, no one believed that stupid rat story. No one. Not the other students and certainly not Mrs. Farnsworthy.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “This curse doesn’t make me see death so I can stop it. It makes me bring death. I attract it. I’m a… I’m a harbinger of death. Come near me and you’re marked.” Colin shuffled back a step as I pointed a warning finger at him. “That’s right. Stay away. I’m like one of those guys who walks through the forest spray painting big red Xs on all the trees that are going to be chopped down.” When I finished, I was breathing so heavily you’d have thought I’d just run a marathon.
After a lengthy pause, Lisa said, “Wow.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I didn’t realize that the world revolved around you. That’s all. Impressive.” She turned to Colin. “Don’t you think that’s impressive?” She didn’t wait for his reply before turning back to me and adding, “Harbinger, eh? Yeah, that has a pretty good ring to it.”
“Shuddup,” I muttered.
“Oh, get over yourself, Dean. You’re no more the harbinger of death than Colin is the harbinger of intelligence.”
“Hey!” Colin said. “I’m right here, you know? I can hear you.”
Lisa grabbed my hand with both of hers. “You’re not doing this, Dean. It’s not you. Something is happening to you, not by you.” She kept my hand in hers for a few moments before releasing it and adding, “Now get dressed. We have a funeral to attend.”
I swallowed hard and asked, though I really didn’t want to know, “Whose funeral?”
“Mr. Vidmar’s dead,” Lisa said softly. “He died the same day we stopped in to see him.”
I lowered myself to the edge of my bed and dropped my head in my hands.
Lisa rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean it’s your fault!” she continued. “But this is important. We need to go to the funeral.”
“Show him the article,” Colin prodded.
I glanced up. “What article?”
“It’s his obituary.” Lisa opened the paper and smoothed it out beside me. She tapped the center of the page. “Here. Look who it says he’s survived by.”
The obituary was barely a paragraph long, and Mr. Vidmar’s brother’s name jumped out at me. “Dmitri.” The name gave me a chill as it rolled off my tongue.
“Dmitri,” Colin echoed. “That’s who Mr. Vidmar said we needed to talk to, remember?”
“You didn’t get any answers from Mr. Vidmar,” Lisa said. “But it sounds like his brother knows something.”
I sat motionless for a moment. Part embarrassed, part terrified, part relieved. “I’m sorry about my little freak-out there.”
“Hey,” Colin said, “don’t worry about it.” He walked over and put his arm around my shoulders and led me to my closet. “But you might actually want to keep that nickname. The Harbinger sounds freaking awesome!”
I smiled, and I didn’t have to force myself to either. It was good to have my friends nearby, and it was good to know they didn’t think I was a walking death trap. “I’m actually not having the visions anymore.”
Colin and Lisa looked at each other and then back at me.
“You’re not having the visions right now,” Lisa corrected. “That doesn’t mean they won’t come back.”
I sighed. I had avoided considering that possibility, but I knew she was right. If these visions came back, it would be nice to know if there was a way to stop them. Or maybe understand what I’d done to deserve them. Something, anything. If it was a curse, perhaps there was a way to get rid of it.
“Okay,” I said. “Help me find some clothes.”
***
To my surprise, my dad thought that going to the funeral was a brilliant idea and immediately agreed to drive us. “First step to recovery is acceptance,” he said. Acceptance was the last thought on my mind. Answers, that’s what I wanted. That was the only thing that would help. According to the obituary, the service was supposed to start at two. We told my dad we wanted to go a bit early so we could express our condolences before everyone else got there, so we arrived at the church just after one.
My dad offered to come in and sit with us, but given our true purpose, I thought that wouldn’t be the best idea. He told us to call him when we were ready to be picked up.
The church looked as though someone had thrown a cross on a newly condemned building and decided to call it a place of worship. There was a sign outside, but either the letters had been written upside down or the writing wasn’t in English. We walked up the narrow path and ducked through the doorway. A dozen or so pews lined either side of the chapel. Up front, a piano stood on one side of an elevated stage. On the other side, there was a human-sized box. Except for the man sitting in the front pew, staring at the casket, we were all alone.
I took a deep breath, prepared myself for the worst, and stepped into the aisle.
Chapter 18
Inside the chapel, the man turned in his seat and glanced questioningly down the aisle at us. He had close-cropped hair, the same color as Mr. Vidmar’s, and wore a white button-up shirt with a narrow black tie and a black leather jacket.
Colin nudged me forward. “Say something.”
We shuffled nervously to the front of the church.
I cleared my throat. “Dmitri Vidmar?”
Dark crescents marred the skin under his eyes and two days of stubble accented his pale skin. He stood as we neared, his eyes narrowing in scrutiny. “I wondered if you’d come,” he said. “You’re that kid who saved my brother.”
Saved his brother? My eyes flashed to the coffin at the front of the room. Obviously not. �
��I’m Dean, sir, Dean Curse. These are my friends, Lisa and Colin.”
Dmitri gestured to the pew behind him. “Have a seat.”
“We’re really sorry about your brother,” Lisa said as she slid into the pew. “He seemed like a nice man.”
“Thank you.” His gaze never left my face. “The nurses at the hospital told me you three visited him on the day he died.”
I nodded.
“I was out of the country.” He hung his head. “I was trying to get here before… I didn’t want him to be alone when he died.”
A brief silence passed. “He mentioned you,” Colin said finally.
Dmitri looked up and smiled. “Did he?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“I wish I had been there.” His gaze lingered on the coffin before turning back to me. “What did he say?”
“Sir.” My palms were wet and I wiped them off on my pants. “He said I should ask you to tell me about Preepyad.”
Dmitri blinked. “What?”
I glanced at Colin and Lisa, who both nodded in encouragement. “Pree-pi-yad,” I repeated slowly, trying to pronounce each syllable the way Mr. Vidmar had. “He said to ask you about it.”
“Why the heck would he say that?” his voice took on an angry edge and he shook his head. “Nothing good can come from talking about that. No. My brother’s dead, I won’t have the memory of him tarnished with that story or his association with those people.”
I cleared my throat. “Sir, when I helped your brother in the alley… um… he… well… he said—”
“I’m sure I can guess what my brother said to you,” Dmitri interrupted.
“You can?”
He nodded. “And I’m sorry. He wasn’t well.”
“He wasn’t?” Colin prodded.
Dmitri shifted in his seat and rubbed his palms on his jeans. “Listen, my brother was a good man. I’m grateful that you came to his aid. After everything my brother’s been through, all the time he spent with psychiatrists, all the injuries, all the suicide—” He caught himself midsentence and flushed, seemingly embarrassed that he’d let his words get away from himself.
“Sir,” I said, “what is it you think your brother said to me?”
“No doubt he told you that you were going to die.”
I gasped, and Dmitri looked confused. “Isn’t that what he said? He says it to a lot of people.”
“N… no, sir. He only said ‘glimpse.’”
“Glimpse?”
“That’s right.”
Dmitri looked thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”
“Completely sure, sir. Do you know what that means?”
Lisa and Colin leaned in.
“No,” Dmitri answered.
“No?” Colin rocked back in the pew.
“Colin, be quiet,” Lisa hushed.
“No, I won’t be quiet. We need some answers.” Colin turned back to Dmitri. “Sir, I’m sorry about your loss, but something’s happening to my friend here, and we’re pretty sure your brother cursed him in some way.”
“Cursed him?” Dmitri stood up and straightened his jacket. “Did you just say that my brother cursed your friend? Are you suggesting he was some kind of witch?”
“N… no, sir,” Lisa said. “Dean’s just been having some difficulties lately, and they seem to have started after your brother’s attack.”
Dmitri regarded us for a few moments as if trying to work out if we were being serious or not. “What kind of problems?”
“He’s seeing things,” Colin answered.
He shook his head. “Don’t tell me you three are part of that stupid cult too.”
“Cult?” Lisa stiffened. “What cult? We’re not part of any cult.”
“Cult, society, organization, whatever you want to call it. I shouldn’t be surprised that they would stoop to recruiting kids.” He turned to me and spoke through clenched teeth. “Let me guess. You have visions of people who have twenty-four hours to live, right?”
I gulped and managed a quick nod.
Dmitri’s face reddened. “You think this is some kind of joke?” he exploded. “Those Patronus psychos ruined my brother’s life! They’re the reason he’s dead. I couldn’t protect my brother from them when he was alive, but I am going to make sure he’s safe from them now.” He gestured furiously toward the door. “Get out. Now!”
Dmitri’s expression flicked between rage and grief, and I was pretty sure with one more word from any of us he’d have a meltdown. I nodded, grabbed Lisa and Colin by the arms, and pulled them out of the pew and down the aisle. “We didn’t mean any disrespect,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“Out!”
We rushed out of the church and didn’t stop running until we were around the corner.
“What a psycho!” Colin said once we were a safe distance.
“His brother just died,” Lisa said. “Give the guy a break.”
“A break?” Colin straightened up. “You’re nuts. He looked like he wanted us in caskets.” He unknotted his tie and threw it on the ground. “What a waste of time. We didn’t learn anything, and now an angry Russian probably wants us dead.”
“What do you mean we didn’t learn anything?” Lisa shook her head. “Weren’t you listening to him?” Lisa didn’t give him a chance to respond before continuing. “First”—she lifted a finger—“we know that there’s something called a Patronus Cult or Society or something like that. Second, Mr. Vidmar was locked up for some kind of mental illness, which I remember reading in his hospital records.” She paused and looked off to the right as if considering something, and then turned back to Colin and added, “And third, it sounds like Mr. Vidmar was seeing the same things as Dean. I think that’s pretty important stuff.”
“Why?” Colin demanded to know.
“Because, Colin, if you’re right and this is a curse, maybe someone gave it to Mr. Vidmar, and maybe the visions were the cause of his illness.”
“We learned something else too,” I added reluctantly. I didn’t really share Lisa’s excitement about our visit with Dmitri, and some of what we had learned was downright frightening. “I think Mr. Vidmar tried to commit suicide. You two heard him in there, didn’t you?” I wondered how many more screaming twisting faces I’d have to see before I went nuts too.
They nodded.
“He’s not you, Dean. That won’t happen to you.” Lisa placed her hand on my arm. “And at least now we have a place to start. Don’t you think so?”
“I’ll tell you what we need to do,” Colin said a little too enthusiastically. “We need to get rid of that curse and we need to do it quick.”
“Yeah,” Lisa sneered. “And how do you propose we do that?”
“Easy.” Colin turned to me. “Mr. Vidmar said he gave you the curse, right? So maybe that’s all you need to do. Just go find someone and give it to them. Just think it in your head, ‘I give you this curse,’ and that’s it!”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Lisa said.
Colin ignored her and added, “You said the guy whispered, ‘Glimpse,’ right?” He didn’t wait for me to respond. “So you should do that too.”
“And what if it’s like a cold, Colin?” Lisa said with a huff.
“What do you mean?”
“I can give you my cold by sneezing on you but I don’t lose mine.”
Colin chewed his lip for a moment, and then shook his head. “That’s not how curses work.”
“We don’t know for sure that it’s a curse—it might be something else entirely.”
While Colin and Lisa continued arguing, the horror of my situation set in. Like Mr. Vidmar, I’d slowly go crazy. I’d probably spend my life locked away in some padded room. And when I did get out, I’d be so nuts I might just try to kill myself too. My stomach flipped, and cold beads of sweat formed on my forehead.
I shoved past Colin and Lisa to the edge of the sidewalk and vomited in a bed of
daisies.
Chapter 19
Lisa offered me a Kleenex from her pocket and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder while Colin laced his fingers behind his head and paced along a section of the sidewalk. “Pull it together, Dean,” he said. “We can do this. In fact, we can do this right now.” He gestured down the street as I wiped my mouth. “There’s a group of people over there. Go grab one of them, concentrate on giving up the curse, and say, ‘Glimpse.’”
“You really think it’s going to be that easy?”
He shrugged. “Isn’t it worth a try?”
“And how exactly is he going to know that it worked?” Lisa asked.
“I guess he won’t have any more visions now, will he?”
“Great idea, Colin. You really thought that one through, didn’t you? And let’s say your little plan works. What then? Is it even fair to pass something like this to someone else?”
“It’s not like he had a choice in the matter. Why should he care if someone else does?”
“Stop it, guys,” I said. “Lisa, do you have another idea?” Part of me wanted to take Colin’s suggestion and run with it, but another part of me agreed that it wasn’t fair. If a drug dealer had walked by at that very moment, or some other criminal-type, I’d probably have tried. But if Lisa was right, if it could be like a cold or virus or something, then maybe I’d just be giving more people the same problem as me. That wouldn’t help anyone.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do.” She turned, shielded her eyes with the butt of her hand, and looked down the street. “We’re not far from the library. I think we should go there.”
“Why?” Colin said. “We’re out of school. We passed, remember?”
Lisa sighed and rolled her eyes. “So we can figure this out. There’s bound to be something in the library about that secret society. The library computers have different databases. You can search stuff on their computers that you can’t get without a subscription.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I remember my dad talking about that once. That’s where we should start. We find out how to get rid of this curse.” Lisa looked at me nervously, and I added, “Preferably without passing it on to someone else. Otherwise…” I started, reaching out for Colin.
Glimpse Page 9
