Firebird Alex (The Sedumen Chronicles Book 1)

by Orren Merton

  After a while the secretary came back and sat down. “Okay,” she began. “I asked the congregation receptionist and everyone in the office to let me know if anyone hears from Rabbi Hirsch. I’m sure you’ll hear from him soon.”

  “I really appreciate it,” I said. “I’m Alex, by the way.”

  “Hi, Alex, I’m Debbie. Great to meet you,” Debbie grinned, then returned to what she was focused on. I went back to my phone, seeing if any searches of today’s news would come up with any information on Rabbi Norman Hirsch. I couldn’t find anything.

  After a while I heard Debbie answer her personal phone. “Hello? Oh hey babe…” I assumed she was talking to her boyfriend, and I was slightly curious about her conversation. She looked maybe ten or more years older than me, and probably had more relationship experience than I did. But as much as I was curious to hear how a young woman talked to a guy she dating, it seemed rude, so I tuned out.

  After a while, I heard her sign off “Okay, nighty night!” and put her phone back in her purse. “I tell him not to call me here, but you know how it is,” she giggled.

  I looked up and saw that she was talking to me. “Actually, I don’t know how it is,” I shrugged. “I’ve never had a boyfriend. I don’t know how to talk to guys.”

  “Oh I don’t know,” Debbi smiled mischievously, “you seem to be doing just fine with Josh’s older brother….”

  “We just met a couple of weeks ago,” I said defensively. “We’re…we’re just friends.”

  “Well…even if you think that, I’ll bet he doesn’t,” Debbie winked. “Trust me, a girl knows things.”

  13

  I had returned to surfing the web on my phone, and the receptionist was doing her own thing, when two uniformed police officers stepped through the back office door. I pretended not to notice, but the minute I saw them, I felt nauseous. My head felt light, and my eyes started tearing up.

  PLEASE GOD NO! But I just knew it was about Rabbi Norm. It had to be.

  Debbi turned around and they spoke softly to her. As soon as she gasped and put her hand over her mouth I bolted up and practically ran to the reception desk.

  “My name is Alexandra Gold,” I said, trying hard to talk as my chin started trembling. “I’ve been staying with the rabbi for a couple of weeks…what happened?”

  Debbie turned to me with a look of horror and empathy.

  “I’m Officer Bradley,” one of the men began as he turned toward me and stepped closer to lean against the reception desk. “At two-thirty this afternoon, in the back alley of a strip mall in Lake Forest, the body of….”

  Officer Bradley kept talking, but I threw my hands over my mouth and nose as the tears streamed down my cheeks. Only ‘he’s dead’ kept repeating inside my mind. The kindest man I’d ever known, who Bat Mitzvah’d me, who counseled my mother, who had shown an interest in me when nobody else did, would never take another breath or see another sunset. And now, just like the other missing persons they never found—

  Wait—

  “They found him?”

  “I’m afraid so. As I said, the autopsy is forthcoming, but one eye witness who called 911 said he was mauled by something like a bear.”

  “A bear?” I practically shouted.

  “That’s the report,” Officer Bradley said. “I can’t believe it either. We’re checking with local zoos to see if there’s a bear missing or any other large predators that have escaped.”

  “Oh God…this can’t be happening…it’s not true…” I sobbed.

  “I’m so very sorry miss,” he said.

  I nodded, trying to cry silently. I felt like I could hardly stand. I folded my arms on the countertop and buried my head in them, my chest heaving with my sobs. I felt something nudge my arm. I looked up to see that Debbie, who was crying herself, had brought a box of tissues over to me. I tried to signal my thanks as I grabbed a handful of tissues, and buried my head again.

  “You said you were staying with him?” the officer asked me softly.

  I nodded.

  “His house is currently part of an investigation, and we’d rather…do you have somewhere else to go?”

  I lifted my head out of the cradle of my arms and nodded. “My late mother’s condo,” I whimpered.

  “Your mother is deceased? Are you over eighteen?”

  I nodded again. I tried to control my crying. “If you need to see my ID,” I sniffled as I pulled my wallet out of my pocket.

  “Thank you Miss—”

  I handed him my wallet.

  “Gold,” he said after he opened it to my California Identification Card.

  I dabbed my eyes some more. Back to Mom’s condo. Not only is my mom dead, but the closest thing I had to a father figure, a therapist, is dead now too. Why me? Why all at once? And poor…

  Oh God.

  “What about Rachel?”

  “When religious school ends, we’ll take her back into foster care,” the officer said.

  “You can’t,” I pleaded. “Let me take her with me. Let me take her to my condo, then we can figure out what to do. But don’t put her with strangers…please.”

  “It’s the last thing I want to do, believe me,” Officer Bradley said.

  “Officer, I promised her I’d be there for her. Please,” I begged.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Gold. There’s a process in—”

  “You can’t have her!” I said with a deep growl I’d never heard out of my throat before, and it scared the hell out of me. I could feel the heat in my eyes turning from tears to flames, and my hair getting hot. I immediately shut my eyes and desperately tried to control my breathing, trying to calm down. Is this how it starts, I wondered? Some horrible trauma awakens the demon inside me and I go on a murder spree? Oh God please, I begged, don’t let me become an evil demon now. I need to be here for Rachel.

  “Please…” I whispered. “I promised her I’d be here for her. Don’t take her away like this.” I tried to breathe as calmly as I could, imagining my hair remaining brown and not flaming out.

  “She’s been orphaned—twice now,” Debbie added. “I can’t imagine how horrible that would be for a child….”

  Officer Bradley sighed. “You can be there for her. Being in the system doesn’t mean she has to leave her friends behind. And we’ll try to get her into an adoptive home as fast as we can. Look—”

  I felt a surprisingly gentle hand softly press against my arm.

  “I can let you take her back to your condo for a couple hours. You two can have some time together, and then I’ll pick her up at nine tonight. How’s that?”

  The fire I could feel trying to push out of my eyeballs seemed to fade away. My hair felt cool. I opened my eyes and breathed out a long, slow sigh of relief.

  “Will that do?” Officer Bradley asked. “This is a terrible situation, and I want to be flexible with the rules for you two. But I don’t think breaking the rules entirely is going to help anyone. Does that make sense?”

  I nodded. I felt like I was in a trance as I slowly looked around the reception desk and reached for a piece of paper, and Debbi put a pen in my hand. I wrote down my address and phone number and gave it to Officer Bradley. He looked at the piece of paper and compared it to the address on my California ID card. He gave a quick nod and thanked me as he handed me back my wallet and put the piece of paper in his uniform pocket.

  The intercom beep sounded again, and the kids started pouring out of their classrooms.

  “Miss Gold, I am truly sorry,” Officer Bradley said as I began to turn away.

  I nodded to Officer Bradley, who was clearly trying to be compassionate. I just didn’t have it in me to smile.

  I slowly trudged back to the chairs and picked up Rachel’s backpack. I turned around and took a few steps toward the classrooms, but realized I had no idea what class she was in. So I just stood there as the parents and students walked around me.

  Soon I saw Rachel turn a corner and head toward me with an expectant, wo
rried expression. As soon as she saw me standing still in the middle of the hallway holding her backpack, my eyes red and cheeks crusty from all the tears, she stopped in her tracks. Her face curled into a sob as she slowly started walking toward me again. When she reached me the two of us embraced, standing and crying in the middle of the hallway. I opened my eyes and noticed those walking past us seemed uncomfortable, unsure if they should leave us be or try to comfort us. After a few moments I realized that with the police in the school reception area, everyone would soon know what had happened. It would be loud and chaotic and not good for either of us.

  “Let’s go,” I whispered.

  “Where?” Rachel sobbed.

  “My condo.”

  “Okay,” Rachel sniffed, and hand in hand we left B’nai David.

  14

  “We can either drive or walk to my condo,” I offered as we walked outside into the cool evening air. “I only live about six blocks away, but if you don’t want to walk I can call Jake. It’s kind of dark right now, so I’m sure Jake won’t mind driving us.”

  “I’d rather walk,” Rachel said.

  “So would I,” I answered. I held out my hand and she took it into her own, and we left the parking lot of B’nai David and started walking down Browning Avenue toward my mother’s condo in Old Tustin, hand in hand like sisters.

  “What will happen to me now?” Rachel whimpered.

  “I don’t know. The police want to take you into foster care in a couple of hours.”

  “Can you stop them?” Rachel asked.

  “How?” I sighed. “They’re the police department. I’m just one girl….” I lowered my head and I could feel the tears starting again.

  “You could go all firebird on them,” Rachel said haltingly between her sobs.

  I turned and snorted out a chuckle through my own heaving breath. “I don’t think that I could burn the whole police department down.”

  “I know,” she wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. “But I wish you could. I wish we both could.”

  “Well, if it were up to you, where would you go?” I asked, handing Rachel one of the tissues I had left from Debbie’s box and wiping my own eyes with the other one.

  Rachel thought for a moment. “I dunno. Maybe I’d ask Emma’s mom.”

  “Emma…?”

  “Emma Kelley, my best friend in school. She’s super nice, and so are her mom and dad. We were hanging out last Saturday.”

  “At my condo, we’ll give them a call, okay? Maybe we can figure out a way that you’ll never have to spend a night with strangers.”

  Rachel nodded. “I can’t believe Rabbi Norm is gone…”

  “Don’t call him Rabbi,” I released Rachel’s hand and rubbed her back. “He was your dad. As much your dad as anyone. And he loved you as much as any parent could love their child.”

  Rachel nodded and started crying again. I wondered, how long might I have stayed with them? Would I have become like another daughter to him? He said he and his late wife had started trying to have children twenty years ago. If it had worked, he might have had a real daughter my age. Maybe I could have filled that role for him, and he could have been like a human father to me?

  But it would never happen now. I started crying again too.

  We turned down one of the small side streets toward my condo.

  After walking a few more minutes with only our sniffles and heaving breaths to break the silence, Rachel spoke. “I miss my mom too. Every day.”

  “Me too,” I inhaled deeply. “Every day.”

  “Why is this happening?” Rachel whined, almost angrily.

  “I don’t know. But we’ll figure something out, I swear. And I won’t let you go,” I promised.

  “I wish you were my sister.”

  I leaned over as we were walking and kissed Rachel’s head. “If you want me to be, I will be.”

  There was a quick flash behind us that lit up the sidewalk under our feet. We turned to look behind us as we were walking. My eyes practically exploded out of my head when I saw a huge truck with a cab shell speed up, its lights turned off, driving half on the street and half on the sidewalk about ten feet behind us.

  What the hell? Was someone trying to run us down? Who tries to run down two young girls in the middle of Tustin when it’s not even fully dark yet? Was this some drunk idiot? Or could this have something to do with the rabbi?

  “Holy shit!” I screamed. I felt like a trap door opened in my stomach and my heart skipped a beat. I tried to catch my breath as I grabbed Rachel’s hand and started running. I tried to get my phone out of my pocket with my free hand. There was no way we were going to outrun a car. We dashed down a short residential street with a couple storefronts at the corner only about forty feet in front of us. There was a narrow alley behind the stores before the corner that looked like it would be too skinny for a wide truck like that. That seemed like our best chance.

  “Come on!” I yelled. I ran as fast as I could. Rachel couldn’t run as fast, she was almost an arms length away after only a couple of strides.

  “HELP!” she yelled. I turned around, picked her up, and kept running. She was heavier than I thought she’d be, and I stumbled, but didn’t fall, and kept running. The truck gained on us, getting closer and closer. By the time we reached the alley the truck was practically touching my legs.

  I turned into the alley, which was barely wider than Rachel and I standing side by side. I ran a couple of steps into it and put Rachel down. I was panting heavily, sweat mixing with dried tears on my face. I shook with fear. Rachel was crying and trembling so violently she almost couldn’t stand.

  The truck stopped right in front of the alley, blocking the way to the street.

  I grabbed Rachel’s hand and turned around to continue running. “Damnit!” I shouted. The alley dead-ended behind us in a tall office building. There was no other way out. We were trapped. My back felt cold, my hands clammy, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

  I got between Rachel and the truck. I started walking backward, toward the back wall of the alleyway pushing Rachel behind me. God please make this all be a nightmare and not real, I prayed. Please make this stop! Please make this end!

  A man climbed out of the driver’s side of the truck. He walked behind his truck to the cab door at the back and opened it. I saw the silhouettes of what looked like two animals jump out of the cab. The man entered the alley with one of the beasts on each side.

  I pulled out my phone, but my hands were shaking so badly I dropped it.

  “I’m scared,” Rachel sobbed.

  “Me too,” I whispered as we kept backing up. “Stay behind me.”

  It had become too dark to see the man or animals clearly, but the guy looked bald and medium height. The animals looked very large, almost like small bears, but hairless. Their eyes shone an unnatural dull red. They growled like angry dogs, but way deeper.

  I could feel the fire behind my eyes and the heat in my hair building. I didn’t try to stop it.

  “Stand back,” I told Rachel. She let go of my hand and took a few extra steps back.

  “It’s nothing personal, you understand,” the man shouted at me. “I normally don’t do kids. But your Jew priest was sniffing around, you know?”

  “Get away from us!” I shouted.

  The beasts kept stalking us. As they barred their teeth I could just make out that each had two rows of ultra-sharp teeth, more like a shark than a bear or dog. I thought I couldn’t get any more scared, but seeing those teeth, I did.

  “This won’t take long,” the man shouted as the animals kept stalking us. “Don’t fight it and it won’t hurt as much.”

  “Like hell!” I screamed. I could feel my eyes and hair ignite. The creatures stopped and turned to each other with something resembling surprise.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pen. I quickly concentrated on turning it back into a dagger. It did, instantly. I had no idea how to knife fight. These monsters looked
huge and strong and I was just a little girl with a dagger. But I didn’t want to die, and I clung to that dagger. It was the only hope I had of getting out of this.

  “Get back!” I yelled. I lunged with my right leg and swung the dagger wildly through the air.

  What happened next was something I’d never seen before in my life, or ever thought possible. The path of my swing left what seemed like a tear in the air, like someone had ripped the sky open.

  One of the beasts looked at me angrily and leaped at me. I tried to raise the dagger, but panic engulfed me and I stumbled. Before I could move its front paws knocked me over. Its cruel face right on top of mine, it snarled and dripped saliva onto my face. It was big, at least as big and heavy as a person, and it knocked the air out of my chest. I tried to move as I caught my breath, but I was pinned down.

  I shrieked. To my surprise, as I yelled, a spurt of flames streamed out of my mouth. It wasn’t a long jet of fire—it only reached about a foot or so in front of my face. But it was enough to touch the beast on top of me. As soon as it felt the flames it leaped off me and shook its head; it wasn’t burned but was clearly shocked. Honestly, I was shocked too.

  With the first creature off of me the other one closed in. Seeing the flames from my mouth gave me a jolt of confidence. Not enough to stop shaking, but enough to fight back. I sprang to my feet. I swung the dagger wildly and sliced its left cheek. It howled and turned its head away from me, but the claws of its right paw tore open my gut. I screamed in pain and stepped backward. I looked down at the massive rip across my entire stomach. I’d never seen so much blood in my life. I stared wide-eyed, still screaming. I tried to cover the huge gash across my middle with my left arm but the wound was too big. Blood poured out of me and soaked my arm, shirt, and pants. It felt like my entire stomach had exploded. The pain engulfed me. My breath gave out mid-scream. I couldn’t breathe or move or do anything. I fell backwards.

  This is it. I’m going to die. I’m going to be eaten by this thing, I panicked. My whole body shook violently with terror, which made me bleed even faster. Pain was shooting through me in waves from the gaping hole in my middle, while the rest of me went numb. I tried to catch a breath. I couldn’t. All I could do was shiver uncontrollably.