“I don’t know,” she said with a frustrated sigh. “The higher echelon are all super destructive, like Angels and Dragons, but they’re all soul reapers. If it was one of them, then we’d have a school full of dead people, not lost.”
I shuddered. Soul reapers were the worst. I already knew about angels because of what happened with Seth, but I’d only gotten through half the entry on dragons before I had to stop and think about something happy. They are not like the fire-breathing dinosaurs in legends.
“Well, we should definitely see what Seth and Desmond think of your theory,” I said. “In the meantime, we need to at least try to save people.
“Yeah, whatever. What’s your next class, nerd boy?” Nai asked. Not because she cared. She just wanted to gloat over the fact that she had a free period after lunch. I glanced down at my schedule.
“Art.”
“Art? That’s kind of out of your limited jock brain scope, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah,” I said, squirming a little because I really had no artistic talent. “I was hoping that you would take it, but when you didn’t, I did because the artsy kids seemed like good candidates for being lost.”
Nai snorted. “You can probably go drop it since, you know, the whole damned school is lost.”
“I can’t drop a class!” I gasped.
“That’s what I thought,” she said with another snort. “Well, have fun showing off your stick figures.”
As it turned out, Nai was kind of right about dropping the class. There were way less lost kids in art than there had been in my morning classes. Theater was the same. But I decided to stick with them anyway. Both were things I’d never been interested in, but I was happy to try something new. Especially when I found out it was too late to try out for the football team. That kind of hurt, but at least I still had a chance to try out for basketball in the winter.
When we got home, Desmond was in the living room, but he wasn’t alone. A really gorgeous redheaded woman sat on the floor with her eyes closed and hands up like she was meditating. I knew I was staring because it took Nai’s gasp for me to realize that not only was the redhead sitting in the middle of a drawing of a pentagram, but her hands were glowing. Glowing!
“What the heck?” I scrambled backwards and jammed my shin on the coffee table.
“Aw crap, she’s gone,” the redhead muttered, giving me a dark look. “Try to be a little more careful next time you interrupt a séance, ‘kay?”
“Séance? I thought ghosts weren’t real?” Nai asked skeptically. “And what the hell are you?”
“You weren’t kidding,” the redhead said to Desmond with a wink. “She’s as charming as you described.” She turned back to us and smiled. “Hi, I’m Donna and we might as well get the full introductions out of the way before you jump to conclusions. I’m a witch.”
“Does that mean you fly on a broom or are you one of those dances around naked in the woods, hippie pagan types?” Nai asked.
“Hey, don’t knock naked dancing until you try it,” Donna replied with a wink. “I’m an Earth witch, so yes, I’m a pagan, but there’s a little more to it than tarot cards and crystals.”
“Um, hi Donna. I’m Jem.” I tried to act casual, since neither Desmond, nor Seth, who had just come in from the kitchen, seemed at all fazed by a witch in the living room. “So, uh… Does that mean you’re like, you know…”
“No, I don’t know. Spit it out, kiddo,” Donna said with a bemused smile that just made me more embarrassed than I already was.
“Donna is a mystic,” Seth said, taking pity on me. “Mystics are people gifted with a higher understanding of the cycle and can manipulate the magical energies herein. Not all mystics are witches and not all witches are mystics.”
“I see,” I said, but I was still somewhat confused. “So you’re not… you’re not a… you’re human?”
“Well, that’s complicated,” Donna said. “I’m a Nyx, which means I have one Discordant parent, but I’m also an exception.”
“Huh?”
“You were right,” Desmond said to Seth. “We should have started with the caretaker.”
“There are all kinds of mystics,” Seth explained. “Most are completely human, but they can use magic and are aware of what we are. They can be very useful in helping to identify and banish Discordant. Before Desmond showed up, I relied heavily on the Rosewood coven.”
“Speaking of,” said Donna, pulling out a phone. “You might as well meet Betty and Louise, because I was right. This place needs a cleansing.”
“A what?” I asked.
“A spiritual cleansing,” she said with a bright smile. “This house is over one hundred years old and has a lot of residual memories. Some of them good, but some, not so much.”
“I thought ghosts weren’t real?” I said.
“They’re not ghosts. Technically, they’re just energy that has manifested into patterns that mimic what happened when the person the energy came from was alive. I was trying to take a peek at them when you interrupted me.”
“Sorry.”
“No worries. I got the gist of what I was looking for.”
The cleansing was way less interesting than I thought it would be. I was half expecting the witches to pull out some crazy Ghostbusters equipment, but all they did was walk around waving sage smoke in all the corners, chanting something about clear skies. Nai kept muttering about hippies and new age crap, but Desmond shot her a dirty look and she shut up.
“That should do it,” Donna said as she snuffed out the sage in a small brass pot. “Any negativity you feel from now on can’t be blamed on ghosts.”
“So what happened to them?” I asked. I kind of understood the whole left over memory thing, but it was still weird.
“The residual energy was broken down and disbursed.”
“I still say there’s gotta be a way to harness residuals for clean energy,” Betty said with a frown.
“That’s kind of gross, Betty,” said Louise.
“And fracking isn’t?” she shot back.
“Hey, um…” For some reason, that had nothing to do with three really attractive women bickering in the living room, I was feeling extremely awkward about bringing up our problems. “Uh, that sage stuff. Does it clear all negative energy?”
“It can,” Donna said. “Why?”
“Well, there might be something really bad at our school.”
“How bad?” Desmond asked.
“Like, remember when we went to register and it felt like everything was off? Well, that was a million times worse today.”
“Yeah,” Nai added. “I actually almost threw up when we got there.”
“We brought back a lot of lost, but we barely made a dent. Maybe if you did a cleansing of the whole school, it could help.”
“It’s possible,” Betty shrugged. “But not exactly practical. Even if we could get into the school without raising suspicions, Chapman High is huge. It would take a whole day.”
“Before we get ahead of ourselves and start planning on breaking and entering, let’s try to eliminate some other factors,” Seth cut in, giving the witch a wary look. “You and Nai are brand new Guardians. It’s likely that you were overwhelmed because you aren’t used to the surges and fluctuations of emotional states yet. There are a few tricks you can use to turn down and fine-tune your receptors. Maybe we should work on that.”
“Or we can try an experiment with a control group,” Desmond suggested. Everyone, including Seth looked at him for an explanation. “The Five Penny has a pretty bad aura, but not everyone who walks through the door is lost,” he explained. “Seth, you and Bogie can both spot lost souls, so if we bring the kids in and they’re just as overwhelmed, then we’ll know it’s their receptors. If not, we’ll look into this a little more seriously.”
“You’re going to bring us to a bar?” I asked. I was kind of shocked, but kind of excited. Not that I wanted to do anything illegal, but I’d never been in a bar before.
“The law states that minors can accompany their legal guardians.”
“Do we get to drink?” Nai asked.
“I’m sure Bogie will be happy to add an umbrella to your soft drink if you ask nicely,” Seth said with a smirk.
They were right about the aura at the Five Penny. It was really kind of depressing and seemed like a lot of the people there were just down on their luck or really stressed out. But it was nothing like school. I looked over at Nai, whose smug look said she felt what I did.
“Well?” asked Desmond.
“Not the same,” Nai said. “No one here is lost and I don’t feel like I’m going to be sick.”
“That guy over there is pretty imbalanced though,” I added, pointing to a guy who was sitting by himself in a corner.
“His dame just broke it off with him,” Bogie explained. “Kinda his fault though. I ain’t too worried. He’s a regular.”
“I know him too,” Seth added, clearly unconcerned.
“Well, then this is disconcerting,” said Desmond. “Have you seen any Discordant today?”
“Uh-uh,” I said. “That’s the weird part. Nai had a theory that something big might be here.”
“It’s not a bad theory,” Desmond said. “We have a suspicion that there might be a wraith in the area. Though why it would be hanging around the high school is anyone’s guess.”
“A wraith? I didn’t see that one,” said Nai, pulling out her phone. I did the same. The entry on the wraith said it possessed people and made them say things that weren’t true to spread chaos.
“I don’t know,” I said. “This doesn’t sound exactly like what we felt. And the lost people didn’t seem possessed.”
“Actually, they wouldn’t,” Nai said, looking up at Desmond with wide eyes. “The wraith would only have to pop in long enough to plant the idea.”
“Yeah, but no one was lying or anything,” I reasoned.
“Weren’t they though? That girl that came up to us was totally lying about wanting to be on the welcome committee.”
“Okay… yeah… but what about…” I stopped. Nai was right. Not everyone was outright lying, but a lot of them were worried over pointless things like failing and it was only the first day of school. “Um… so how do we stop this thing?”
“Keep your eyes open,” Desmond said. “Try to see if you can piece together any similarities or someone that all of the kids might have had contact with.”
“Uh, Desmond,” Nai said with a sarcastic look. “It’s school. We all come into contact with the teachers and staff. It could be any of them.”
“You’re right. Or, it could be another student. Look for those who aren’t affected,” Desmond replied. “Oh and call me when the Discordant show up.”
“When?” I asked, “Not if?”
“If there are that many lost souls in that high of a concentration, it’s a matter of when, not if.”
* * *
The next day at school was just as bad. Even though Seth taught us a few ways to block out the regular emotional energies, we were still bombarded by lost souls. The only good news was that since Nai knew we were looking for the wraith, she was more interested in talking to the lost. Unfortunately, she was still doing things her way, which was earning her an even bigger reputation as a jerk than she had at our last school.
On Friday, there was a college fair for the seniors. Instead of going to classes, we were sent to the gym, where different schools had sent recruiters and there were people talking about scholarships. One by one, we were all called into the guidance office to talk about our future plans. You would think that with the prospects of going to college and getting out of Blackbird, everyone would be happy, but no. Like the last two days, everyone was lost.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re the freaking valedictorian. It’s not like you’re going to go to Blackbird U and live at home with mom and dad. You’ll get a free ride to Yale or Harvard, or something, and you know what you do there? Get yourself a hot rich boy who got in because of his money and can’t hang with the course load. You do his homework, he dates you. When it’s time to graduate and he wants to dump you for a hot trophy wife, get knocked up and settle out of court for an ass-load of cash. Bam! Problem solved.”
“Nai, what the crap is wrong with you?” I hissed as Deb, the smartest girl in our year stormed off. She had been freaking out about affording school after the guidance counselor told her what the good schools cost and had the misfortune of running into Nai before I could stop her. “That was horrible! I can’t believe you said that!”
“Jem, get your head out of your pious little ass and take a nice long look at Deb’s soul.”
I whipped my head around, trying to zoom in on Deb in the throng of students. Finally, I saw her, talking animatedly with the recruiter for a women-only school in upstate New York. Not only was her soul balanced, but there was a fierce determination to do everything in her power to not end up in a situation like the one Nai just laid out.
“Huh,” I said, smiling at my sis. “You did it. I’m impressed.”
“Oh stop being a suck up,” she snarled. “I’m the evil twin, remember?”
“How can I forget?” I rolled my eyes and scanned the room. Despite Deb’s new lease on life, the atmosphere in the gym was still oppressive. “Do you think this is normal?” I asked, indicating the bombardment of overtaxed souls that was hitting us. “I mean, even with a wraith this is…”
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying,” Nai said, chewing on her fingernail as she studied the crowd. “Everyone we saved yesterday is lost again today. This can’t all just be worries about college. There’s got to be something else. No town is this fucked up on its own.”
“Well, I guess we better do our job then. It’s not like we have to choose where we’re going to college.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Nai scowled and spit out the nail she had chewed clean off. It was kind of gross, but I let it go.
“We might as well split up.”
“Good idea. We can do more damage that way,” Nai quipped. The movie quote actually brought a rare smile to her face.
Honestly, I was just as disappointed about our college prospects as she was. Before we died, I was looking forward to a full athletic scholarship to a division one school. If Blackbird U even had a football team, they weren’t a big enough deal for anyone to care. But I couldn’t get too down. I mean, really, my job was way more important than football. At least, that’s what I keep trying to tell myself. Dang, it was hard to give up my dreams. But I pushed all thoughts of homecoming games and touchdowns out of my mind. There was no way I was going to be able to help the lost souls find their way if I was lost in my own problems.
I wandered over to the army recruitment table, which wasn’t getting many visitors. Even though all the materials displayed were hyping up the G.I. bill, it was hard to ignore the fact that we were likely about to go to war again. The handful of students who were talking to the recruiter were all lost though. Three guys and one girl, all of whom were ignoring the whole combat business and focusing on the free college tuition aspect. The recruiter was super slick about it too.
I peeked at his soul, shocked to find that he totally believed everything he was saying. He was completely balanced and actually seemed to enjoy military life. Even weirder, two of the kids who had been super lost had balanced out, taking a bunch of brochures and a business card as they walked away. I guess in a way it made sense. But I still made a mental note to check on them later since happiness seemed to be a temporary situation here.
“Jem Hawthorne, please report to the Guidance office. Jem Hawthorne, to the guidance office, please.”
It took me a second to realize they were talking about me. Hawthorne wasn’t my last name; it was Desmond’s. Neither Nai nor I could remember our last name anymore. Seth said that they did that so we wouldn’t be tempted to try and find our family. I thought that was kind of crappy, but I understood why they did it. If I
knew we had family members who were still alive, I would totally go find them, which would probably not end well since I’m dead.
Not dead. I had to remember that. Pete told us to think of it like the witness protection program. We were not to talk about anything that would make people realize who we were. Not like there was too much to worry about there. I’d never even heard of Blackbird until we came here. I doubt anyone who didn’t live in Blackbird had ever heard of it either.
When I got to the guidance office, my new senses went on high alert. The emotional turmoil that was coming out of the office was so thick that I could actually see what looked like tendrils of black smoke curling out from under the door. Seth told us that as Guardians, we had the ability to see a soul’s balance, but that he could see a way more detailed picture. If I were him, I wouldn’t want to see what was going on in that office because my own abilities told me it wasn’t good.
I considered running in the other direction, but as I contemplated my options, another student opened the door and came out. Like nearly everyone I had met today, she was lost, but she didn’t seem to notice anything was amiss in the guidance office, so I took my chances and went inside.
“Hawthorne?”
The woman behind the reception desk looked expectantly at me. She wasn’t the same one who had been there when we registered. She too didn’t seem to notice anything weird and surprisingly, she wasn’t lost. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I probed a little to see what made her so special, relaxing when I realized she was normal. Mrs. Dover was her name and she had worked at the school for thirty years. This was her last year and she was looking forward to spending her retirement with her husband and purebred poodles in Florida.
“I’m Jem Hawthorne,” I said, feeling a little guilty about peeking around in her personal life.
“Mr. Marsden will see you now.”
She pointed to a doorway in the back of the office and I cringed. All of the weird energy I was feeling was coming from that office. I hesitated. Whatever was in there, I wasn’t sure I wanted to face it alone. Mrs. Dover made a little impatient noise and I forced my legs forward.
Rise of the Discordant: The Complete Five Book Series Page 23
