I blew out the candle and tried to think of a wish. To be safe. To stop running. To have a home. Stupid things that I should forget about wanting. The only home I’d get was a foster home if the system caught up with me, where I’d probably get beaten or worse.
I broke a tiny piece off the cake and put it in my mouth. Fifteen years old. No future, no life, but still very much alive. It was a small thing to celebrate but it was every little thing. I took another crumb making sure I had some of that pink frosting, so sweet it made me screw up my face. I wanted to eke every crumb of pleasure out of this tiny cake.
All told, it hadn’t been the worst of birthdays.
I’d eaten half the cupcake when a noise disturbed me. The sigils would only protect me from non-human threats. If the intruders were human, I’d be better off hiding. There wasn’t much in this room apart from the bed. Chances were they were human so I dived under the bed.
“Told you the lights were on,” a girl’s voice said.
A guy grunted. They sounded like a couple. Great.
“Hey, someone’s been here. There are some crazy marks on the floor. And they left some stuff here.”
My chalk? Damn. I needed that chalk. I needed my candle too. I didn’t have money to replace them. And I wanted that cupcake.
The two of them laughed and I knew they were messing with my things. The sensible thing to do would be to stay hidden under this bed until they left, but screw being sensible.
I jumped out from under the bed.
They weren’t much older than me but the guy was a lot heavier. Still, if I scared him off, they’d both run.
They weren’t trouble, just a couple of middle-class kids looking for a place to fool around. They had shiny hair and straight, white teeth. They looked like a couple from a teen drama. Prom queen and king.
“Get out of here. Scram!” I yelled.
I hoped that would scare them off but they laughed. I got into fighting stance, ready for any sudden moves they’d make.
“Weirdo,” the girl called me. “You get out.”
The guy walked toward me. He lunged but I jumped out of his way and his momentum drove him straight into the wall.
“What the hell, Bailey?” the girl called out. “She’s super-fast.”
I spun around, landing a kick to his head. The heavy thud of my foot against his face was really satisfying. I didn’t even kick him that hard but he whelped. Crybaby.
He rubbed his head. “Are you some freakin’ ninja or something?” he said.
I glared at him but he wouldn’t look at me. I was no ninja, I was just really good at fighting.
“Come on.” The girl put her arm around him. “Let’s leave the freak alone.”
She gave me a look of disgust as they walked out. I didn’t like to fight but I’d do what it took to protect what was mine.
They hadn’t moved anything. The cupcake had gotten a little bit squished but it was still good.
I checked the sigils. They hadn’t damaged them. I was still safe.
I sat back down in the circle and finished eating. I wished I had a book to read or something to fill in the time. There were hours before sunlight. I curled my arms around my knees and quietly sang a song to myself. It was a song we sang sometimes in the circus camp.
Until I ran away, I’d never been alone. There were people around me every minute of the day. Sometimes, I wondered how they were getting along without me—if Bones had someone else to look after his dogs, if Gladys needed someone to tell her when her stew got too salty, if Curly was able to put those poultices on the right part of his back without help. It did no good to think about it though. I could never go back. I could never even let them know where I was.
I must’ve dozed off. I woke up, curled on the floor. Get one damn year older and all your stamina left you. Then the wild panic hit me. I quickly sat up. Bad things happened when you fell asleep in the dark.
I blinked. The light had been on when I fell asleep. I suddenly remembered the comfort of that light. Now it’d gone out. Had I turned it out? But I wouldn’t have. Maybe the bulb had blown. A sliver of moonlight shone into the room so I wasn’t in total darkness.
I arranged the blankets I sat on.
Before I got settled again, the hairs on the nape of my neck prickled.
I spun on my butt. Something was there. Had those kids come back?
Red eyes shone in the darkness.
I froze. All of me froze except my heart. That pounded like a crazy thing.
Sure, I went all out to protect myself but I didn’t really believe in all that superstitious carny crap.
If I didn’t move, the eyes mightn’t see me. They might leave.
But the burning red eyes didn’t disappear. They stared at me, moving closer. I pulled the blankets to my chest and blinked again.
The smell of evil filled the room. A smell like someone’s breath a few hours after they’ve eaten a lot of garlic. Foul and putrid enough to make me gag.
Then a voice whispered in the darkness, like wind through the grass. I wasn’t sure if it was a real voice or a voice inside my head but I heard it all the same, calling my name. My real name.
I gulped. But I was safe in this circle. That thing was out there and I was in here.
I checked the sigils. Damn. Hell. Shit.
Some of the lines were blurred, some rubbed away.
When I’d slept, I must’ve rubbed against them.
The voice kept whispering my name and I had nothing to protect myself. My body trembled and the whispers began to penetrate my skin.
I couldn’t sit around waiting for it to skin me alive or whatever it wanted to do. I jumped up, scooping up my treasures with one hand, and bolted for the door.
My name echoed through the house then a laugh. “You can run but I know you now.”
I didn’t have time to cry and I didn’t have time to scream. I could only run. Run for my life.
Out the front door. But the whispers followed me. I was no safer out here than in the house.
I hurled myself into the street. Slap bang into a man. A human man but a man built like a brick shithouse. I tried to keep running but he grabbed me with solid arms that I couldn’t shake off.
As soon as his hands touched me, the whispers stopped.
NO MATTER HOW MUCH I struggled, I couldn’t get free of him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I knew better than to fall for those kinds of tricks. All that concern and caring was just a front. I bet he worked with whatever had been in that house. I kicked him in the shins but he barely flinched. He had to let go some time, though. He couldn’t just stand here in the street holding me. Sooner or later, he’d try to drag me away and then he’d have his guard down. I stopped struggling. No point wasting my energy on useless moves.
“Nothing’s wrong, mister. So just let me go home to my parents.”
He bent down to look me in the eye. “You look terrified.”
“You would too if some huge guy had his meaty paws planted on you.”
That didn’t make him loosen his grip.
“Tell me your address and I’ll take you home to your parents.”
I shook my head. “As if.”
He screwed up his eyes as though thinking. “I guess if I take you down to the station, you’ll kick up a huge stink.”
My gaze darted around, looking for the best way to get away from this.
As I searched the area, my grip on my treasures loosened. They dropped to the ground, the chalk shattering. I stared in horror. If I didn’t have the chalk, I had no protection from that thing at all. He knew my name. He’d come for me. That’s what he’d said and I had no reason to doubt him. I’d been as stupid as those children in that stupid fairytale, the ones who’d eaten the witch’s candy house.
“I guess the best thing to do is to take you home. You could do with a shower and a good square meal.”
I shook my head violently. “Let me go. I’ll go home.
I won’t be any bother.”
I gave him a good look. He wasn’t a demon, he was something worse. A cop. The close-cropped hair, the muscles, that particular brand of aftershave cops liked to use. I’d been around enough cops to pick it. He might promise a square meal but it’d be a square meal in a prison cell.
He put his hand around my wrist. That was a damn weird thing to do. But as he touched my skin, I knew he was one of the good guys. He had a strange goodness, not like the light other people had but something I’d never sensed before. All I knew was that he wouldn’t harm me.
“You’re half-starved. What’s going on? Trouble at home?”
Did this guy really think I’d spill my guts out to him? Not likely. Even if he was good, even if he was safe, I had secrets I didn’t want to share. Goodness didn’t stop a person being nosey and good didn’t necessarily mean doing the best for me.
“You’re not in trouble,” he said. “But I can’t let you go. Not without having someone responsible to hand you to. So, if you have no contact details, best you come with me. I can get you some new chalk.”
He used that voice that adults used when they want you to trust them. And one thing you learn young in the circus is never trust a cop.
But I didn’t mistrust this guy. If he stopped asking questions and just let me be, maybe I’d let him cook me a meal.
He let go of me, leaving me free to run, but when he did, the whispers started again. I held his hand as we walked to his place. It must’ve looked strange. I was far too old to be holding an adult’s hand, or far too young, depending on how you looked at it, but I couldn’t let go and have those whispers return.
When we got inside his house, he dropped my hand. I held my breath, waiting. Had that thing followed me? I counted to five and heard nothing then I exhaled.
“The shower’s through there,” he said.
“Shower, huh? You mean you want me to get in there and get naked so you can sell me to your buddies in the kiddie porn ring?”
The look of shock on his face meant that’s probably not what he had in mind.
“Is there a lock on the door?” I asked. “A proper lock not one of those flimsy bolts?”
The guy shook his head. “Only a flimsy bolt, I’m afraid. I’ve never had anyone that worried before.”
“Well, mister, how do I know I can trust you?”
“The name’s Buzz, by the way. And I’m planning on fixing us some dinner while you shower. It’s up to you. I won’t force you.”
But then he got some towels and set them on the sofa. Those towels were thicker and fluffier than I ever thought towels could be. I might be stupid but I had a few tricks I could use. I went into the bathroom. Just to be on the safe side, I stuffed one of those towels into the crack under the door just to make it difficult to open.
When I got out of the shower, the smell of cooking filled the house. Maybe I could escape while he was busy in the kitchen but my stomach wouldn’t let me run. It’d been way too long since I’d had a proper meal and it’d be easier to run with a full belly.
Buzz grinned at me. “I bet that feels better,” he said.
I had to nod.
“I’ve run out of tomato paste,” he said. “I’m just going to run down to the convenience store. The remote for the TV is on the coffee table if you want to make yourself at home.”
Huh? Was the guy a fool? What kind of idiot takes in a street kid then leaves them alone in their house? That was like buying a one-way ticket to ripped off town.
He grabbed his wallet and car keys. He really intended leaving me in his house alone.
Growing up in the circus, I’d never really thought about family much. There hadn’t been any other kids my age so I ran around as I liked. We all ate together and I hung around rehearsals most of the day trying to pick up as many skills as I could. I belonged to the circus and the circus belonged to me. That’s how I’d felt.
Then that all changed.
It’d been a rainy day and I’d been in Irene and Bob’s van playing. Irene had a bunch of sparkly jewels that she wore on stage. I was turning them to hit the sun so they made rainbows over the roof.
My games had been interrupted by Bob’s voice.
“Kick her out,” he’d hissed to Irene. “We’ve gotta get into town.”
“She’s fine here playing on her own,” Irene said.
My ears pricked up even though I kept playing with the jewels like I hadn’t heard a thing.
Bob snorted. “You think? You know what her family’s like. It’s okay for her to be here if we’re watching her but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. They’d take anything that wasn’t bolted down, that mob. You can’t trust them for a minute.”
His words hit me like a punch. My family? My family was the circus, I’d always thought. But Bob didn’t think so. When he said my family, he meant my Ma and Pa. They couldn’t be trusted. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. I knew what that meant. I was the apple. I couldn’t be trusted either.
Then I started noticing things. How the other men would get Pa to help with the odd jobs but they’d never leave him with the money. How the other women fidgeted a bit more when Ma was around. They talked to her different than they did to each other. There was something wrong with my family and that included me.
Now this stranger was going to leave me alone in his house. Sucker.
Except, was he? I could rob the place blind but he’d been kind to me so far. He had that food cooking away in the kitchen, too.
I walked into the kitchen and lifted the lid on the pot. Some kind of stew. I picked a bit of meat out of it, my stomach growling with hunger. Soon we’d be eating.
But the potatoes still sat in the sink, unpeeled. If he waited until he got home to put them on, it’d be hours before we ate and my stomach rumbled like an earthquake.
I couldn’t cook fancy but I sure knew how to peel potatoes. By the time Buzz got back, those potatoes were boiling away on the stove. Buzz looked at them and raised his eyebrows but didn’t say a word. Good thing too. I hated when people got all grateful for things.
We ate dinner then he said he’d get me some PJs if I wanted to stay the night.
I sized the guy up. So far, he’d been on the straight and narrow but I wasn’t so sure about sleeping here. No matter what my instincts said, my common sense said otherwise.
“I’ll just get going I think. Thanks for the food and all but I’ve got things to do.”
I thought he’d try to stop me but he didn’t. I lingered in the doorway, hoping he’d say something to change my mind. From the window, the first rays of sun lit up the streets. I could walk around for a while until the library opened.
When I opened the door though, that whisper rushed down the street, entangling my body like the tentacles of an octopus. It’d been waiting all this time.
I slammed the door shut and ran back inside. No matter what this man was like, he beat the hell out of risking my life on the streets with those glowing red eyes following me. I’d take my chances with him.
I COULDN’T EXPLAIN what it was or what it wanted. It wasn’t human, I knew that but how could I explain without looking like a freak?
Buzz grabbed some blankets and put them on the sofa.
“It’s not comfortable,” he said, “But you might get some sleep.”
Had he seen the places I’d slept? Even before I ran away, I didn’t exactly live in the lap of luxury.
“Chalk?” I asked.
Buzz nodded but he didn’t understand.
“I need it.”
“What do you do with the chalk?” he asked. He looked like he wanted to understand.
I knew other people didn’t use crazy sigils. If I told him, he’d think I was crazy and he’d throw me back out on the street. Lies were good. Any story that made me sound normal.
But I couldn’t think of anything.
“Do you do something with the chalk to make yourself feel safe?” he asked.
; I nodded. Maybe he would understand.
He moved around the kitchen, opening drawers.
“I don’t have any chalk here but if you drew on some sheets of paper, would that work?”
He didn’t just understand, he was going to help me?
“It would work,” I said.
He handed me some paper and a Sharpie. I drew the sigils on each of the sheets.
“This one goes in the north,” I said, holding up the first sigil. I expected him to laugh but I walked across the room to put the sheet in place.
“You know that’s north?” he asked.
“Of course. North is north, right?”
“Most people wouldn’t know that without using a compass or something.”
I screwed up my face. “They wouldn’t? But it’s like knowing left and right. You don’t need a compass to find your right hand.”
He didn’t answer but just got some tape to hold the paper in place. I went around the room. North, east, south, west.
“Well, I’m going to hit the sack. Call out if you need anything.”
I nodded. Buzz must work night shift to keep such crazy hours. Made sense if you were a cop.
I spread the blankets out on the sofa. With all the protection in place and the sun coming up, I’d be able to catch a bit of sleep.
As I snuggled down to sleep, I realized it was the first time I’d relaxed in a long time. Even if there were creepy things outside the house, I was safe in here. Safer than I’d ever been.
I didn’t think I’d sleep long but I didn’t wake up until Buzz came into the kitchen to fix his breakfast. I looked at the clock. I’d slept for eight hours.
When I sat up, Buzz asked me if I wanted something to eat.
I nodded my head. Yeah, I did.
“Do you want to talk about what scared you last night?” he asked.
“No.”
Maybe, if I tried to tell him, he’d understand. He’d understood about the sigils. Not many people would. But I didn’t want to talk about that thing out there. I had no idea what it was but it knew my name and it waited for me. If I never left Buzz’s house, it couldn’t get me.
I glanced over as he messed around in the kitchen. Was he likely to let me stay here forever? No prizes for guessing the answer to that. Taking me in and giving me a hot meal was charity enough. Having me sponge off him for the rest of forever probably wouldn’t cut it. Cops do things by the book, and the book in my case would say to turn me over to the authorities and get me in the system. The system was the last place I wanted to be.
Street Spells: Seven Urban Fantasy Shorts Page 17
