No one bothered to turn on the lights as it got darker, and soon a few candles on the mantle were the only source of light in the house. Paulina drank in the adventures with a touch of exhilarated victory in her eyes, as if she had been waiting her entire life for validation of the beliefs that she had always held unwavering faith in. Now that their story had been told, Paulina soaked in the deep magic, beauty, and peril of another world that lay just beyond the invisible fibers of her own—a world that Penny knew she had always wanted to belong to.
“It’s wonderful, Penny,” she said at long last, her voice husky and her eyes bright. “I can see why you looked so different to me when you came into the shop today. You’ve become the strong young woman I always hoped you would.”
Penny flashed a smile in her direction at this, but Paulina was still talking.
“All right, kid, let’s get down to brass tacks. I want to see if I’ve got this right―you came back because you need me to help you find Eden, yes?” she asked in a straightforward manner that made Penny feel very guilty.
“Yes, Ms. Fairfax, if it’s possible we’d like your help. It’s imperative we find Adrielle as soon as possible. I fear that things could turn very bad very quickly if we don’t,” Hector said cordially, but with a hint of urgency.
“Please, ‘Paulina’ is just fine,” Penny’s mother said with a smile, “and I don’t really know how much help I can be. Countless renowned scholars have devoted their lives to finding Eden and failed. Still, something seemed strangely familiar about the things you’ve told me―I feel like I’ve read about these Angels in a story somewhere, or perhaps I’d seen a drawing, or a map…or…something.
“Let me see that stone you were talking about, the one with the dots, as well as the translation of the poem, and give me some time to go over my books with them. I can’t help but feel that this is familiar.” Paulina squinted as if searching for a memory that was dancing just outside of her grasp.
Penny got the stone and papers out of her bag and gave it to her mother, who stood and went toward the stairs. Penny rose and trailed behind her.
“Hey, maybe I could help. I might recognize something too,” she offered, but Paulina shook her head morosely. Penny could see something was unsettled behind her eyes.
“No, Penny. Just let me work, please. I―I need time alone to think. Go ahead and make sure your friends are taken care of. Order pizza or something, just let me be for a while,” Paulina told her, looking and sounding very strange.
“B-but I just got here. Don’t you want to―”
“I’ll be back before you know it.” Paulina pecked Penny’s forehead, then went upstairs. Penny watched her go, understanding somewhere in her heart that her mother had not forgiven her for abandoning her.
“ANNETTE, DON’T MESS with that!” Penny said sharply when she entered her room to see Annette prodding at her smartphone with wonderment. Annette apologized sheepishly as she returned the phone to Penny, who switched it off.
“I’m sorry, this is all so exciting! Show me how to work that one! That thing Simon called the tevelision.” Annette pointed at the TV on the other side of the room and Penny rolled her eyes, but guessed that watching a movie might make her feel better.
She put in one of her favorite DVDs, and then lay down in the bed beside Annette to watch it. Penny fell asleep halfway through, the colorful images of rabbits with waistcoats, singing caterpillars, and grinning cats lulling her into an equally colorful dream. When she awoke in the morning, it was to find Annette had gone through several more films as well as a box of tissues.
“Oh, Penny. I’ve never seen anything so wonderful in my life!” Annette cried, her eyelashes still pearled with tears. “You need to bring these back with us, I want to watch them all! I want to see all the living painting ones first—those are my favorites—and then more like the story about that man who found his lover after all those years in that bar! Oh, but don’t bring the scary ones―that one frightened me so badly I had to turn it off…those poor people!” Annette shuddered as she pointed to Dawn of the Dead.
“Sure thing, Annette,” Penny croaked as she rubbed her eyes and rose from bed just as Annette was laying down to rest. Waking up that morning in her own bed after months of being away was like stirring from a long, bizarre dream. Penny was relieved Annette was there, or feared she might think she had imagined the last three seasons of her life.
Penny wandered downstairs in search of muffins and hot coffee to find Hector curled up on the floor hugging a pillow and Simon snoring on the couch above him. Penny, choosing not to disturb them, went to the kitchen and found her grandmother sitting at the table with a china cup of tea in her withered fingers. As Penny stepped inside and went to the counter to look through the fresh muffins, she could feel a pair of eyes following her.
“Good morning, Penelope,” she said without a hint of well-wishing in her voice, and Penny turned back and forced a smile.
“Morning, Patricia,” Penny said, knowing that using her grandmother’s first name would annoy her. She put the coffee on to start brewing and waited in silence, begging the coffee-maker to hurry up so she could leave her grandmother’s presence.
“It seems you’re enjoying being back home,” Patricia commented icily, taking a sip of tea and giving Penny a look as if to say she should feel guilty for such a thing.
“Very much, thanks,” Penny replied, monotone.
“And surely you’ve apologized to your mother, haven’t you? Or did you not have any idea what your disappearance has done to her?” Patricia began, raising her eyebrows in self-righteous fury. “You don’t have any idea, do you? You think just because she greeted you with a smile and warm embrace that it can erase all the months of grief that you put her through? You didn’t see her misery; you didn’t see the way she wasted away for the loss of you. They may think that you were kidnapped, but I had you pegged from the start, girl. There’s something strange between you and that teacher of yours―something unnatural. You’d be just the sort of snake who’d lead others to think you were hurt just to get away with―come back here! I wasn’t finished!”
Penny, with fresh coffee in hand, strolled out of the kitchen as if Patricia hadn’t spoken at all, determined not to listen.
“Ungrateful brat! It would do you well to open the Bible every now and then―start with The Prodigal Son!” Patricia screamed after Penny as she left.
Penny stayed in the sitting room until Hector and Simon awoke and began to get ready for the day. Paulina did not come downstairs until much later, and when she did it was only to get a bite of breakfast and return to her work, refusing help from Penny again. Paulina looked tired and more than just a little melancholy, and upon observing this Penny’s worry deepened.
WHEN THE DAMASK of evening rolled in Penny approached the kitchen, stopping short when she spotted Paulina and Hector inside.
“You can do that, can’t you?” Paulina was saying quietly to Hector with a sort of coy smile on her lips that made Penny twinge with a bizarre, uncomfortable form of jealously. Hector laughed awkwardly and shrugged.
“Of course, Ms. Fairfax. I’ll do whatever I can to―Penny! How long have you been there?” Hector stood suddenly, his face turning pink.
“Hey there, Pen.” Paulina stood and drifted over to Penny to ruffle her hair before leaving again.
Penny waited until her mother had gone before asking Hector what they had been talking about, to which he gave an indistinct answer that included a lot of odd hand gestures. Penny was about to challenge him when the doorbell rang. There was noise from the front door, and then footsteps pounded through the house, and someone swept into the kitchen.
Penny’s mind went blank.
“Penny. I don’t believe it.” The words seemed to echo in Penny’s mind after they were spoken and guilt engulfed her.
“Oh my God. Maddie. H-how did you…?” Penny stammered.
“My phone rang last night―I got a call from a ghost. At firs
t I thought it was a mistake or that I was imagining things, and that I really hadn’t heard your voice on the other end, but I somehow just had to check, just to see if maybe Penny wasn’t quite as kidnapped and murdered as we all thought she was. Lo and behold.” A tear slipped down the face of her shaking friend.
Everything about her had changed. Her skin, once so clear and rosy, was now sallow and poorly maintained, with a gray complexion. She had gained at least fifteen pounds and her once-stylish hair was pulled back in a ponytail that exposed dark roots.
“Maddie, please let me explain―” Penny began, but Madeline’s anger erupted.
“What is HE doing here?!” Maddie shot forward and grabbed Hector by the front of his shirt. “What did you do to her, you creep?”
“Miss Price!” Hector flinched as Maddie reared back to strike him, and Penny leapt forward to catch her fist.
“Maddie, please! Hector’s not what you think!” she cried, and Maddie suddenly released Hector to stare at Penny in horrified shock.
“Excuse me? Hector?!” she demanded, and in that moment Annette and Simon stepped into the kitchen looking concerned. At the sight of Annette in her Elydrian gown, Madeline’s already pale skin became white as paper and her jaw dropped. “Who the hell is this maniac?”
“I happen to be Penny’s best friend!” Annette spouted like an angry teapot and bustled over to Penny, catching her arm and facing Maddie with defiance. “Would you mind telling me who the heck you are and why you’re making such a fuss?”
Her words turned Madeline to stone for what seemed like a painful eternity before Penny got up the courage to touch her on the arm. Though this succeeded in unfreezing Madeline, it was also what made her charge from the room with her face in her hands. Penny ran after her, following her out the door and into the front yard.
“Maddie, wait! Please don’t go! You don’t understand!” Penny called after her, trying to catch up as Maddie made for the woods.
“Oh, yeah? What don’t I understand? The part about you tricking me into thinking you had died, or the part about you replacing me with Blondie McLimpid-Pools in there?” Madeline blustered, aimlessly plunging deeper into the woods as Penny fell into step beside her.
“I never intended for any of that to happen! You know I wouldn’t.”
“Then where were you, Penny? What were you doing with Professor Arlington while I was busy blaming myself for what happened to you? What was so important you couldn’t have called, at least, to let us know you weren’t dead?” Madeline shouted.
“I was…” Penny was at a loss for words that wouldn’t make her sound crazy or like a terrible liar. “I was lost somewhere―and in that place…there’s no way to call home, and I had no way to get back for months, and when I finally could I was too afraid to face what I’d left behind. Hec―I mean, Professor Arlington was the only friend I had there, and it’s only because of him that I was able to come back at all. Please Maddie, try to believe me. I wanted to see you and tell you everything, I just―I just couldn’t.”
“None of that makes sense!” Madeline’s anger didn’t fade, making way for another flood of tears. “Penny, don’t you get it? I died when you left me. For months all I could think about was that day…how you tried to tell me that Arlington had been doing something strange, and I didn’t believe you. I spent so much time blaming myself for not listening to you that everything else fell away. I haven’t been able to dance at all, not once. And now you show up out of nowhere, acting all la-di-dah and―”
Penny threw her arms around Madeline, reeling from the amount of pain she had put her through. Sobs filled the forest air along with the call of birds in the early twilight.
“I could never replace you, Maddie,” Penny said as she held her friend. “Please just come back and we can talk about it more.”
Madeline moved away from Penny, glowering as she wiped tears off her cheeks. “But he’ll be in there.”
“Hector? Maddie, he’s nothing like how you think―he never held me against my will; he’s only been helping me. He and I are working together, doing something very important. I promise you, I never would’ve stayed if it wasn’t vital, I do. Just give him another chance. I promise he won’t assign you a single essay.” Penny tugged on Madeline’s wrist. In spite of her glare, Madeline couldn’t help but laugh, a strangled sound through her stuffy nose. Slowly the girls made their way back to the house. Maddie stopped short when they reached the yard.
“I just—I just can’t do this. I must be crazy. I should be calling the cops, he’s probably brainwashed you. You didn’t see the papers, did you? He was suspected of murdering like―a bunch of people that night. Just look at this. Try to see sense.” Maddie opened her purse and pulled out a newspaper clipping that had been worn out from being read so many times.
The first things that caught Penny’s eye were the line of black-and-white photos on the front. She saw a picture that she recognized as one of her school photos, a picture of Simon beside her, as well as five men and another woman she did not recognize. Penny pulled Maddie toward the door as she read.
“’Horror Grips Twin Rivers, 6 Dead, 2 Missing?’” Penny read aloud, shocked.
Maddie paused again in the doorway to explain. “There was that girl they found all burned up in your house…the one who’d been mutilated. There were three more disfigured bodies like that discovered in Arlington’s house, and then the two more bodies discovered in the theater. The police couldn’t explain what had been done to those people. They said there were signs of forced entry on your house―that they were sure he’d kidnapped you and that he was probably responsible for all of the other people as well.”
Penny looked up from her reading. “He only did it to save my life. This was definitely not Hector, it must’ve been Deimos and Cyrus. They’re the ones who are responsible for this and―and so much more. They’re the ones we’ve been trying to stop. Those bodies found in my house and his—they were wraiths, I’m sure of it. Please, just come inside. I’ll explain everything to you.”
“E-excuse me, wraiths? You’d better start making sense Penny, or I really will call the cops,” Maddie stammered, still distrustful, but curious enough to give her a chance. They reentered the kitchen, where a tense Simon, Annette and Hector waited, looking as apprehensive as if Maddie and Penny were twin time bombs. Madeline glared over at Hector, making a noise of disgust.
“Hector, look at this,” Penny interrupted, handing the article clipping to him. Simon poked his nose over Hector’s shoulder to get a glimpse at the paper, gasped and wrenched it away.
“No!” Simon howled, collapsing into a chair as his hands began to shake uncontrollably. His complexion turned so pallid that Penny was sure he was about to faint dead away.
“What’s the matter, Simon?”
“God, someone help me. I’m going to be sick,” he squeaked, wobbling to his feet and rushing from the room. Everyone shared shocked glances, and Hector moved to pick the article back up from the table and began to scan its contents warily. He drew a sharp breath, then read aloud, “‘In addition to these findings, Twin Rivers police suspect the discovery of two dead men, Oliver Stout, 43, and Samson Carlisle, 40, at the community theater is linked to the incidences. Stout and Carlisle’s bodies were found together in the back room of the theater several hours after performing in a magic show that evening. Their colleague, Simon Shaw, 24, had been reported missing earlier that day.
“Police say Carlisle died of blood loss shortly after his legs had been cut away and taken from the scene, and Stout suffered a similar end after the crude removal of his spine. ‘We strongly believe that these horrific crimes are linked with the other five mutilation cases that occurred tonight, and that suspect…’” Hector’s voice broke here for a moment, “’…suspect Hector Arlington, 29, is most likely responsible and will be found.’”
“Those were Simon’s friends…how awful.” Annette clutched at her chest. “Who would have done such a thing?”
>
“Isn’t it obvious?” Penny looked down at the monochrome smiles that were all that remained of those who had been erased. “Deimos did this. He’s the one that gave Simon that wand to begin with, and the one that made the wraiths out of those people, the ones that attacked me and Hector the night before we first came to Elydria.”
“But that makes no sense. Why would he take a little detour to kill two people that have nothing to do with him?” Annette questioned while shrugging, and Penny already had her answer ready.
“Think about it, Annette. The article said not only had their legs and spine been removed, but they had been taken. Simon told me about them before, I don’t know why I didn’t see it. He said that their show had been just like real magic, that they performed tricks he could never figure out. It’s because they were using their gifts! Didn’t Della tell us that Nestor already had control of the legs and spine of Seival? Where do you think he got them?” Penny stamped her foot, and Hector fiddled with his glasses, looking doubtful.
“But of all the insane coincidences―”
“It’s not a coincidence at all,” Penny said with confidence. “You said yourself that the pieces of Seival are drawing nearer to each other by their own accord. You were living here, weren’t you Hector? Why’d their troupe pick an out of the way town like Twin Rivers to stop in? Because the pieces were drawing together, just as we suspected.”
“There’s still one problem with that. Do you think Deimos just bumped into them and took a lucky guess that they were carrying bits of Seival around in them?”
Annette brought up a solid point that stumped Penny for a moment, but as she squinted at the faces that she now recognized from Simon’s memories, something clicked.
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 31
