by J. S. Bailey
“Carly and Matt—Kaori’s predecessor—went to Safeway to pick up groceries and never came back. We tried calling them, and they didn’t answer.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“More than an hour. We went there to see what the holdup was and found Carly’s car, but no Carly or Matt.”
“We went inside and paged them,” Kaori added. “They weren’t there.”
Randy’s expression turned grim. “That doesn’t sound too good. No premonitions?”
Bobby shook his head. “Nope. I can’t make any sense of it. I mean, I guess they’ve been kidnapped, but I don’t understand why I wouldn’t have been forewarned about it.”
Randy rubbed his chin. “Hmm. Kidnapped but not in any danger? Sounds like they’re bait.”
“Not that again.”
They turned. Lupe had diverted her attention away from Ashley and was wrinkling her nose. “Thane must not be very…original? Because when he made Graham go all loco, Graham used me as bait, and now Thane must be using poor Carly as bait, and it just doesn’t seem creative. Like he’s run out of ideas.”
“It might not be creative,” Kaori said, “but it seems rather effective. Matt’s like my father. He’s my only living predecessor.” She clamped her mouth shut and swallowed. “Randy, we wondered if you could help us find them.”
Something like amazement glistened in Randy’s eyes. “You really are a Servant,” he said.
“Just as much as you once were,” Kaori said with a sorrowful smile. “What gave it away?”
“Nobody who’s lying would refer to a friend as a ‘predecessor’ in regular speech.”
“I could be a very good liar.”
Randy smirked. “Somehow I doubt you are.”
Kaori gave a soft, humorless laugh. “Do you have any idea of where Thane might have taken them?”
“Me? No. Bobby’s the one with the psychic circuitry in his brain.”
“I tried to find Phil that way,” Bobby said, remembering the pain it had caused him. “It…didn’t work.”
“Wonderful.”
“Has anyone been looking for him? I mean, I would have tried harder, but I had to help Bradley.”
“Frankie and Janet said they drove around to all of Phil’s favorite haunts earlier and found no sign of him. We told the police Phil might have been taken by the person who stabbed Allison.”
“And are they finally looking into that?”
“As best as they can, I’m sure.” Randy frowned. “I just hope Phil hasn’t been in an accident. If he went off the road somewhere…” He cleared his throat. “You mentioned that Thane has been healed.”
“I thought it was his apparition at first, but he wasn’t behaving like an apparition. And maybe he’s the one who nabbed Phil.”
“That would be convenient,” Kaori said. “Freeing our friends in one fell swoop.”
Randy fell silent, and Bobby got the sense he wasn’t telling him something. A log popped in the fireplace. Bobby jumped and hoped nobody noticed.
“If he isn’t living at that nursing home anymore,” Lupe said, “then he has a new…how do you say it…base. He could have bought a house or something.”
“Or illegally moved into a vacant one,” Randy added.
“It’s probably safe to say he isn’t staying in an apartment,” Bobby said. “He couldn’t alter that many people’s perceptions if Carly and Matt started making noise.”
“He’ll probably have an accomplice, too,” Kaori said. “One man couldn’t force two people to go with him, especially when one of them is Matt.” She paused. “Pardon my French, but Matt would’ve kicked his ass.”
“I do have one small confession to make,” Randy said. Bobby and Kaori looked at him, and Randy suddenly appeared uncomfortable. “The other night, Thane and a woman I don’t know showed up here at the house and attacked me. Well, the woman didn’t, but I wasn’t sure if she was even there or not. Lupe and I wondered if Thane had made us imagine both her and the attack, since I didn’t think he was any condition to attack people.”
“And you’re just telling us this now?” Bobby said.
Randy shrugged. “What could you have done about it? I didn’t even know where you were. But anyway.” Randy slid his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll see if Thane has bought a house under his own name. Seems a little farfetched, but it’s worth a shot.” He tapped at the screen for a minute or two, then said, “Huh. Our friend seems to be living in an apartment here in Autumn Ridge.”
“You really don’t think he’d be that foolish,” Kaori said.
“It’s right here on the screen.” Randy turned it for all to see. “But that doesn’t mean it’s where he’s taken our friends, if he’s actually the one who’s taken them. Thane has a history of using other people to carry out his work.”
“That was because he couldn’t do it on his own,” Bobby said. “This time he’s all better.”
“That’s right,” said a voice.
Ashley let out a whimper. Thane’s black-clad apparition had materialized beside her on the couch looking as content as a cat.
“Congratulations,” Randy said, his expression filling with controlled rage. “You must feel like a medical miracle.”
Thane shrugged. “Something like that.”
“The medical community would have a field day if they found out about you,” Randy went on. “I imagine they’d want to dissect and probe you until they found out what put you back together.”
Thane gave a dramatic eye roll. “If you want to scare me, you’ll have to try a little bit harder than that.”
“Where are you?” Bobby asked. “And where did you take Carly and Matt?”
“We’re all at my parents’ house,” Thane said without hesitation. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you right away. You’re welcome to drop on by whenever you’re ready, and when you do, your friends can go home free and unharmed. This goes for you, too, Miss Saito. I know what you are.”
Kaori’s jaw stiffened. “I’m sure you do.”
Thane smiled. “Take your time getting here. I’m sure the roads will be terrible.”
He disappeared. Little Ashley gaped at the space the apparition had occupied. “Aunt Lupe, was he a ghost?” she asked in her small voice.
Lupe glowered at the cushion as if it had done her wrong. “No. But hopefully he will be a ghost before too much longer.”
“Don’t say that,” Randy said sharply.
Lupe rose, the color apparent in her cheeks. “Why not? The only good Thane is a dead one, and I stand beside what I said.”
No one could argue about that. Not even Bobby.
LUPE LED Ashley from the room so Randy and the others could discuss their plan of action without further traumatizing her. The child was still quite young—Randy hoped that the passage of time would erase Ashley’s memories of these last few days, what with seeing Thane’s apparition twice and having her mother stabbed and her father vanish.
“Thane didn’t say anything about you two needing to go there alone,” Randy said to Bobby and Kaori, both of whom appeared itching to take action.
“What’s the point of you coming with us?” Bobby asked. “He’ll know you’re coming.”
“Because I’d kick myself if I let you go off alone and something happened to you,” Randy said.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“That’s my own decision.”
A scowl appeared on Bobby’s face, and he suddenly looked a deal older than twenty-one. “My premonitions don’t seem to be working right now. Thane could butcher you if you come with us. Shouldn’t you be thinking about what that would do to Lupe? You know, your wife?”
Bobby’s words sent an unexpected pang through his core. Randy thought of all the arguments he and Lupe had had these last couple of months, bickering about things both foolish and important, and shook his head. “She’d understand I helped you for the greater good.”
“Couldn’t Thane be list
ening to us right this second?” Kaori asked, making wary glances around the room.
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Bobby said. “There’s no point in hiding anything from him.”
“We could try wearing tinfoil hats,” Randy said.
Bobby and Kaori gave him withering looks.
“He said he’s at his parents’ house,” Kaori said. “Why don’t we figure out where that is?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Randy went back to the search on his phone. A few Bagdasarians lived scattered throughout the state, and since Thane likely would have mentioned if Bobby and Kaori needed to travel, he opted for the nearest one to Autumn Ridge. “There’s a John and Shirley Bagdasarian about an hour from here. Give me a sec, I’ll pull up the satellite view.”
He whistled when an aerial view of their sprawling residence appeared on the screen. “Take a look at this.”
He held his phone out, and Bobby and Kaori leaned in for a better look. “That looks like the place I saw when I tried meditating,” Bobby said. “You think we should try to sneak in and rescue Carly and Matt before anyone notices?”
“What’s the point?” Randy asked. “Thane can read our minds. We might as well walk right up to the front door and knock.”
Bobby’s expression sobered. “Then that’s what we’ll do. What do you think, Kaori?”
“It seems to me that inaction is the worst choice we could make right now.” Kaori lifted her gaze. “Let’s go.”
NAUSEA SWEPT through Bobby’s gut as he drove Kaori and Randy toward what might very well be their doom—a hard thing to determine when his ability to perceive misfortune had fled his mind.
He wondered if he was making a grave error by playing into Thane’s hands. He couldn’t trick the man since Thane could read into his very thoughts and anticipate all of Bobby’s actions in advance. When he’d met Thane in the nursing home the previous summer, Thane had been unable to harm Bobby using his thoughts, but now Thane was as able-bodied as he.
Nothing would be able to stop him.
Father, he prayed, is it better if we leave Carly and Matt to die?
Kaori rode in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, probably meditating. Bobby wished he could take the opportunity to do that. He wasn’t that afraid of dying, not anymore, at least; but it would probably hurt, and pain wasn’t on too many people’s lists of favorite things.
Not to mention the fact neither he nor Kaori had lined up replacements for themselves. Because if the death of a single Servant could ignite wars, what would happen if the world lost two of them?
The Spirit didn’t give him any verbal reply, but he did relax a bit. He would have to just trust that everything would end up okay in the end as it usually did. Kaori was right—he did have a decent track record. Nothing so far had indicated that Bobby wouldn’t win again.
But like with most of the battles he had fought, he couldn’t expect to come out of this one without any casualties.
The GPS on Randy’s phone instructed him to head north on Interstate 5. A salt truck with attached snowplow rumbled past them as he merged onto the highway. It became difficult to see as the snow continued to fall in the growing twilight. It swirled and danced and gusted, and started to cake on his wiper blades even though he had them on full blast.
“Take it easy there,” Randy said from the backseat as the speedometer crept past sixty. “There’s no point in causing an accident.”
Bobby dutifully reduced his speed to fifty: fifteen miles per hour below the posted speed limit. His teeth started chattering, and not just from the cold. Why did his calm have to wear off at the first sign of danger? “We’re still coming, Thane,” he said aloud. “It’s just going to take us a little while.”
“WOULD YOU like some more wine, dear?” asked Meryl, the Bagdasarians’ mostly-reticent housekeeper who had dutifully prepared a lavish meal for six: Carly and Matt, Thane and Mia, and Thane’s parents John and Shirley, who had introduced themselves to Carly and Matt upon their arrival as if nothing in the world were amiss.
“Yes, thank you,” Carly said, and hated Mia for it.
Prior to the start of the meal, Mia instructed everyone to get along well and be civil to each other, to savor all food and drink, and to most certainly not try to escape. So there Carly sat, along with everyone else, in what was proving to be the most awkward dinner party to which she’d ever been witness.
Meryl poured a second helping of high-end cabernet sauvignon into Carly’s empty glass before gliding out of the room. Carly hated to think of how much the wine had cost. Probably a normal person’s weekly salary. Everything in this house looked too expensive to touch—even the walls and ceilings were sculpted and molded and adorned with artwork unfamiliar to herself. She was sure her wine glass was made of crystal, and the china dishes on which their meal was served would have looked far safer behind glass in a museum.
Carly lifted the wine glass against her will and poured back a hearty sip. She could feel it buzzing in her veins like a magical potion. Carly did not consider herself a teetotaler, but she only partook of alcohol on special occasions, and even then she certainly didn’t drink this much all at once. Mia’s powers were going to give her a hangover if Carly didn’t find a way to break free of them.
“So, Carly,” Shirley said, acting the part of gracious host even though she was under Mia’s spell as well, “what is it that you do?”
Carly cleared her throat. Thane’s sixtyish mother was built like an aging supermodel. She wore a stylish black blouse and skirt and jewelry that probably cost as much as Carly’s parents’ house, and Carly couldn’t have felt any more out of place in the woman’s presence than if she’d been a toad.
“I counsel people who used to be possessed,” Carly said matter-of-factly even though she yearned with every atom of her being that she could force herself to shut up. “I help them work through some of their problems.”
“Isn’t that fascinating?” Shirley said, turning to her husband, who had already devoured an entire Cornish hen and a towering mound of mashed potatoes and gravy—he hadn’t yet started on the asparagus and hollandaise. “I didn’t know possession was real. Did you?”
John Bagdasarian shook his head and took a swig of his own wine. “It’s a strange world, Shirley,” he said once he’d swallowed, then hiccupped. “A strange world indeed.”
Mia sat at the head of the table, resting her chin on her hand. Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she observed the whole exchange. Carly wished she could throw her wine glass at the woman so it could wipe that evil little smirk off of her face, but she was no longer in control of her movements.
She wondered if this is what being possessed felt like. Mia had turned her and the others into puppets, and for what reason? Just to get some enjoyment from watching them? Had to be. She and Thane could just have easily shut her and Matt in some isolated room while they awaited Bobby and Kaori’s arrival.
Thane himself had leaned his head back in the tall dining room chair and closed his eyes in contentment. He was probably reading Carly’s thoughts right now and laughing inside like a madman.
Then Thane’s eyes snapped open. “I’m sure there are better things to discuss than demonic possession.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Mia asked. “You’re the one living in accord with a demon. It seems a most fascinating topic of discussion.”
Thane’s cheeks flushed. “If I am, then so are you.”
Mia laughed. “I already told you I’m not. My gift is my own. I don’t need demons to help me.”
“I used to drive demons out of people,” Matt said as he stabbed at a cooked carrot. “It was important work, but I can’t say I miss it. It takes a lot out of a man. Gave me nightmares, too.”
Thane glared at him, then at Mia. “Why don’t we talk about something else while we wait for our guests to arrive?”
“We could talk about you.” Mia flashed him a little smile. “About how humiliating it must have been to crap your
own pants for twenty years because you couldn’t control your bowels.”
Thane rose and started to lunge at her, but Mia just laughed and said, “Sit down.”
Thane sat.
“You know I’m just messing with you,” Mia went on. “That must have been a terrible thing to live through. I wouldn’t wish paralysis on anyone.”
“I saw him in the nursing home a few months ago,” Carly said. “He didn’t look very happy. I think he would have been better off staying with his parents. No offense to anyone,” she said, nodding toward the elder Bagdasarians.
“None taken, dear,” Shirley said. “And besides, it wasn’t our idea to put him away at Arbor Villa. It was Vance’s.”
Something clattered. Thane had picked up his fork and dropped it back onto his plate with a piece of asparagus still attached to it. “What do you mean, Vance gave you that idea?” he asked his mother. “You’re talking about the security man who works here?”
“He’s the groundskeeper, too, if you’ll remember,” Shirley said. “Your grandparents had just hired him on here when you had your accident. He told us it would be a burden on our family to have you cooped up at home. Arbor Villa has some of the best care for its residents in the state. He said you’d be in good hands.”
Thane’s face darkened to a dangerous hue. “And you just listened to him? What was he to you?”
“He was and always has been a huge help to our family,” Shirley said. “And he was right. It would have been too painful to keep you with us and watch you waste away in that wheelchair. It was better to put you out of sight to spare us the sorrow.”
“You’re—you’re lying. I’ve read your minds. I would have known about this before now.”
“She isn’t lying,” John said. “It’s funny, though. I hadn’t even remembered until now that Vance was the one who suggested we send you away.”
“Me neither,” Shirley said. She took a sip of wine and dabbed at her lips with a cloth napkin.
Thane’s hands clenched into fists. Apparently Mia’s command to remain civil didn’t apply to him. “Why would you even listen to someone like Vance? He’s just hired help. He’s nobody.”
