by Natasha Deen
Game’s End
Game’s End
A Novel
Natasha Deen
Copyright © 2017 Natasha Deen
Great Plains Teen Fiction
(an imprint of Great Plains Publications)
233 Garfield Street
Winnipeg, MB R3G 2M1
www.greatplains.mb.ca
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or in any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Great Plains Publications, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5E 1E5.
Great Plains Publications gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for its publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund; the Canada Council for the Arts; the Province of Manitoba through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Book Publisher Marketing Assistance Program; and the Manitoba Arts Council.
Design & Typography by Relish New Brand Experience
Printed in Canada by Friesens
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Deen, Natasha, author Game’s end / Natasha Deen.
Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-927855-85-0 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-927855-86-7 (EPUB).-- ISBN 978-1-927855-87-4 (Kindle)
I. Title.
PS8607.E444G36 2017 jC813'.6 C2017-902881-2
C2017-902882-0
For Johanna Melaragno
Chapter One
When you grow up seeing the dead, you get used to the tragic ways a person can die and finding their souls trapped between planes. But if the soul in question is the mother who abandoned you at birth, things get a lot more complicated.
“Take a left turn, then we can head up Claxton,” I said to Craig as he, Nell, Serge, and I drove on the dark roads. The night ahead of us was typical of Dead Falls before the final winter snap. Cold and sharp, with a sky bereft of stars.
“Claxton’s closed,” he said. “A tree fell on the road and the crews are still clearing it up.”
“Let’s do Railroad Road, then.” I settled back in the seat.
Craig took the exit off Highway 63 to take us back to town. I pulled out my phone to text Dad and let him know I was with the gang and things were fine, but it was dead. Not surprising. With the supernatural energy created between me, Craig, and Serge, I was lucky my cell didn’t explode.
I pivoted to look at my soul-brother. “Can you text Dad and tell him we’ll be late?”
Serge nodded and, closing his eyes, reached one hand up to the ceiling.
Nell caught my smirk. “What?”
“He’s doing his holy-roller impression to get reception,” I whispered.
“He can hear you,” said Serge.
“When he’s up there, can he get the TV channels from the States?”
“I’m trying to concentrate,” he said. “Mocking me doesn’t help.”
Nell’s cell binged with his message. “Who’s mocking you, Casper? I’m just saying, if you can get satellite, can you beam in I Love Lucy? I miss that feisty redhead.” She turned her attention to me. “Do you really want to go left? Or are you just guessing?”
“Psychic magnetism is harder than it looks,” I said. “I have to channel my mother’s energy.”
“Channel harder,” she said. “I’m starved.”
“She never comes unless you’re in danger,” said Serge. “Maybe we should do something risky—”
“Like what? Throw me off a cliff and see if she tries to catch me? Anyway, she only shows up when someone’s trying to murder me.”
“I could murder a large poutine from Tin Shack—”
“Focus, Nell,” I said. “We’ll deal with your hunger later.”
“You could try—”
I felt her wicked grin.
“But they tell me I’m insatiable.”
I turned up the heat in the car. “The word you’re looking for is ‘incurable,’ which is followed by ‘should be institutionalized.’”
“Don’t be snarky with me just ’cause you have mommy issues—”
The radio flipped on. Static hissed, the creepy kind that meant my mother was near.
“Hey, there she is!” said Serge. “Talk to her.”
“Maggie, oh Maggie,” wept my mother.
I twisted the knobs, as though flipping from AM to FM would somehow make her more coherent. “Mom—”
Craig’s loud curse yanked my attention away from the radio to him, and then to the figure who stood in our path. A small child, dressed in a bright red coat, was in the middle of the overpass. Thick flakes swirled and, coupled with the glare of the headlights, made her look like a doll lost in the twist of a snow globe.
I leaned forward. “Wait a second…is that Rori—?”
“Rori?” Nell’s voice became sharp at the mention of the little girl we’d lost to a vengeful ghost. “Where?”
“Hold on!” Craig downshifted the engine and cranked the wheel. The car swung into a wide arc. Ice and snow spun the tires and sent us hurtling toward the steel girder that separated the road from a certain-death drop to the highway below.
I gripped the door handle and pressed myself into the chair.
Craig ripped free of his seatbelt, flung open the door, and rolled out. He shifted into his ferrier form—an enormous, dark creature with horns, talons, and a serpentine tail. Then he grabbed the car in his massive hands and lifted it over his head a split second before it would have crashed through the railing.
He hit the road hard. The car slammed forward and the airbag deployed, smashing into my face as the seatbelt held fast and dug its straps into my chest. We jerked left, then right, as Craig and the car rocked to a stop.
Nursing what was sure to be a broken nose and two black eyes, I batted the airbag out of my way. “Is everyone okay?”
Serge crawled into the driver’s seat. Using his supernatural abilities, he slipped his hand through the cracked dashboard and shut off the car. “What just happened?”
“There was a kid on the road,” I said. “I swear—it looked like Rori.”
“Seriously? Didn’t she just cross over?”
Craig set the car on the road and shifted back to his human form. “It looked like Rori because it was Rori. I know her energy. For her to come back so quickly—something’s wrong on the other side.” He cast an assessing gaze around the road. “Or on this one.”
“I don’t see her.” Serge stepped onto the highway, and the two of them walked to the spot where the child had been.
“Still think the supernatural life is exciting and glamorous?” I asked Nell.
She didn’t answer.
“Nell?”
No answer.
I turned. Her body was flopped to the side. Nell’s eyes were closed and her mouth hung open.
“Nell! Guys!” I fought with my seatbelt, then climbed over the centre console.
Craig was already opening the back door and using the flashlight app on his cell to illuminate the dark interior. We crouched over Nell. The wind swept into the car, sucking out the heat, and brought with it a fetid, rotting smell.
I held her shoulder, squeezed, and said her name, but she didn’t respond.
“Careful,” said Craig. “Don’t move her.” He unzipped her jacket and pushed it aside.
Serge put his hand on her chest. “Her heart’s okay. Strong.”
�
��I’ll take care of her,” said Craig. “Mags, get us to the hospital.”
I was already moving into the driver’s seat. After I shoved the airbag out of the way, I started the car. Or at least I tried to. “Serge.”
“Yeah?” He crawled into the seat next to me.
“Did you do something? I can’t start the engine.”
“Lemme see.” He slid one hand into the dashboard and, raising the other, wiggled his fingers.
The last time he’d done his holy-roller impression, I’d laughed. This time, I didn’t even crack a smile. If it helped him connect to his abilities, it helped us. I shot a worried glance into the backseat of the car. “Maybe Craig should fly her out.”
“How will he explain how he got her to the hospital without a vehicle?” Serge slid his hand from one side of the dash to the other. “Besides, she’s mortal. He can’t go lifting and moving her around. There!” The car roared to life.
I eased us back onto the road, listened to the swish of tires on the icy surface, and tried to find the sweet spot between speed and safety.
“Mags.”
Something in the way Craig spoke my name dulled my fear, though it remained sharp enough to cut through granite. “What?” I checked the rearview, but his face was lost in shadow.
“Pull over for a second.”
“Are you sure?”
“We might have a problem with the hospital plan. You need to see this.”
Serge and I glanced at each other, but I did as Craig suggested. I flipped on the interior lights, then peered over the headrest.
“Look,” said Craig. He lifted one of her lids.
Nell’s eyes were gone. The whites had turned into a liquid silver with hues of blue. Her pupils and iris were faceted and glittered like diamonds.
Chapter Two
“Is she—isn’t that what ghosts look like when they’re crossing over?” asked Serge.
“No, she’s not crossing over,” Craig said. “But she is on the other side.” He gently closed her eye. “The question is, why?” He seemed to be asking the question to himself, but he turned his attention back to us. “We can’t take her to the hospital. Mortals won’t be able to see what we see, but they’ll know something’s not normal. Her pupils will seem constricted and there’ll be rapid eye movement. If they misdiagnose her, it could be fatal.”
“What do we do?” Serge asked. He looked at Craig. “Can you heal her?”
“If she was infested with malevolent spirits, yes, but I’m not a doctor. I’m not allowed to do anything with mortals other than take them to the other side.”
“What about you, Serge?” I asked. “You helped Rori.”
“I started her heart. Electricity is my thing, but Nell doesn’t need a shock to her heart. What about her dad? He’s a doctor. Maybe if we tell him what’s going on—”
“It won’t work,” I told Serge. “Her dad’s pure scientist. We start talking about supernatural forces and he’ll think we’re high.”
“What if Craig shifted to his ferrier form to prove we’re telling the truth?”
“Then the doc’ll think he’s high.” I moved back into the driver’s seat. “Our best bet is to head to the hospital and hope she snaps out of it before we get there.”
“I don’t understand,” said Serge as he buckled his seatbelt. “Why would she be on the other side?”
“Rori was just here.” I pushed the speedometer higher and watched the road for black ice. “For sure, whatever’s going on with Nell has to do with Rori. They were close.”
“How can she be back so soon?” Serge frowned. “Doesn’t she get—I don’t know—get processed or something?”
“Or something,” said Craig. “Processed is a good word for it. She shouldn’t be back on this plane of existence so soon. Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it is. After we get Nell to the hospital, I want to come back and check out that patch of road. If her presence appeared there, there might be a clue—”
There was a guttural cry from the backseat. In the rearview mirror, Nell’s shadowy figure rose, clutched the sides of my seat, and began babbling in a language I couldn’t understand. She reached out, grabbed me by the shoulders, and held tight.
“Is she okay? Ow—god! Her nails! Should I pull over? What is she saying?”
Nell’s voice grew in volume and pitch, until she was shrieking. One final burst of words I couldn’t understand, one more squeeze of my arms that was hard enough to leave bruises, and she collapsed.
“Is she dead?” Serge craned his head toward the back.
Silence, then, “Nah, alive and kicking,” said Craig. “Just coming out of it.”
“What was she saying? Did anyone understand?” I decreased the car’s speed.
“Ancient Egyptian,” he said. “And she was talking to you.”
Trust Nell to bring me back a message from the other world and bring it back in a language I couldn’t comprehend. “What’s the message?”
“Beware the light. He comes in red.”
“Someone wake her up so I can punch her,” I said.
“Punch who?” Nell sounded groggy. “Someone get me food. I’m starving.”
“You’re lucky I don’t shove you out of the car. And PS, you need to trim those talons you call nails.”
“What did I do?”
“You had a visit to the other side, you came back with a message for me—” I turned onto Running Creek Road “—which you gave me in ancient Egyptian. Craig translated but it’s just as confusing in English.”
“I came back bringing a message from the other side?”
“Yeah.”
“It was probably from your sweatshirt,” she said, her voice still foggy. “It wants you to let it go to the great laundry room in the sky.”
“Ha ha.”
“Seriously. It wants to cross over to a land of needles and looms.”
“You’re a loom,” I muttered. “What happened to you?”
She leaned forward on the centre console. “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the Tin Shack.”
“To the hospital.”
“For me? I’m fine.”
“The jury’s still out on that,” I said.
Nell put her hand on my shoulder. “Honest,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“I’d still like to have you checked out.”
“Forget it, there are no cute doctors on call tonight.”
“Nell—”
“You’re worse than my mother. I’m fine. Besides—” She let go. “My dad’s a doctor. I promise I’ll ask him to give me a once-over.”
If there was one thing I could trust in this world, it was a promise from Nell. “What happened just now?”
She leaned back. “Craig screamed—”
“I didn’t scream—”
“Craig screamed a manly scream—”
“I can live with that.”
“The car rolled…” She faded into silence.
“Then? Nell?”
“Drop your pearls, Millicent, and give me a minute. It’s like trying to remember a dream.”
For a moment, the only sound was the swish of the tires on the road.
“I was in a field with the brightest, greenest grass I’ve ever seen. And a sky so blue it hurt my eyes. There was sun and warmth and clouds.” She made a soft sound. “And Rori was there, with her wolf. I feel like we talked for years, that I got an entire lifetime with her. I wish—I wish I could remember what she said because I know I asked her a bunch of stuff.”
“It sounds nice,” said Serge.
“It was. We talked about everything and then I didn’t feel sad anymore. Is that weird?”
“No,” he said. “I exploded once, and when I came back, it all felt better.”
“Me too, I feel
better. When I talked to her, I understood why she’d chosen to cross over. There are things she needs to do and she couldn’t do them on this plane. And it’s so peaceful there, and the love, it’s as thick as air. No, wait, that doesn’t make sense. But it does make sense. Love is like air and it’s so … so tangible … you can feel it, like a physical thing.”
“That does sound nice.” I felt happy for Nell, for the closure she got. Then I hurt for my mother, who’d died and now lived in torment.
“I remember she said she was watching out for me. And that things would get scary but I shouldn’t worry.”
I turned onto Tucker Avenue.
“Then she said she wanted you to know something, and she told me it. And then I woke up and told you.”
“Craig said—”
“No, wait,” said Nell. “It wasn’t Rori. She brought me to you and you gave me the message.”
“You who?” asked Serge.
“Mags.”
“You saw us?” Serge twisted in his seat to look at her. “Like out of body?”
“No, no, Maggie was there, on the other side.”
“Wait.” I glanced back at her. “I was here, driving the car, but I was also on the other side, giving you some message to give to me?”
“Yeah,” said Nell.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m done driving. Craig, take over before I run us off the road.” We exchanged spots and I seat-belted in next to Nell.
“Let’s go to the Tin Shack,” she said. “All this visiting other planes has got me starving. I want poutine.”
“Get back to me visiting you on the other side,” I said. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s possible.” Craig adjusted the rearview mirror so he could see me. “You’re a supernatural creature and your powers are expanding.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. You see the dead, don’t you? That’s as supernatural as it gets.”
“Everybody’s a comedian,” I muttered. “I meant about my powers expanding and me being able to be in two places at once.”
“Yes and yes. You had a vision of Rori before she died. If you’re able to have visions, you’re able to exist simultaneously in two places.”
