by Tess Adair
The hotel was fifteen minutes east of the river, so I started walking west. The night air was cool on my face and arms; if I’d been anyone else, I might have found it cold. I took in the sights as I walked, enjoying the shifting store-front lights playing out on the sidewalk ahead of me. A small tug at my heart reminded me that home was only a few hours further north, and if I wanted to, I could go. Except I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to keep myself.
Eventually I reached the river, and the very sight of it calmed me. Portland wasn’t home, but it was familiar enough to be comfortable.
With a quick glance around to be sure I was alone, I pulled out the pack and tapped it against my thigh. I’d taken up smoking in a blind rage against my father, though I still couldn’t say what exactly I’d hoped to accomplish. Maybe it was really myself I’d been raging against. Every time I did it, I wondered what I was doing to myself. Could demons even get cancer, or was that a terrestrials-only thing?
As I took my first drag, I noticed something funny on the surface of the water. Was it glowing? I was still high on the slope that led down to the bank, so I took a few steps further down it. A small spot about two feet wide was, indeed, glowing near the surface of the river. I couldn’t quite make it out through the ripples of current, but it looked like a big, golden circle. I kept walking until I stood nearly at the edge.
As I approached, I began to feel pleasantly warm, though I knew the night air was still cold. The sensation was familiar, and as I looked into the water, I realized the shape there was, too.
There, maybe a foot under the surface of the water, was the Choronzon Key. It looked gold, not bronze, under the water, but it still glowed inexplicably, like it had before. It had been a year since I’d seen it, but I recalled that meeting in perfect detail. As I gazed at it, my only conscious thought was a question—would it stay this time?
I felt a funny shift in the air. The warmth around me seemed to concentrate itself at my back, like someone had lit a fire right behind me. Then I felt a phantom pressure there, as if something was pushing against the thin fabric of my t-shirt. I reached my hand back automatically, feeling around to check if something had blown into me, but nothing was there. I brought my hand back down and took another drag off the cigarette, still gazing down at the Key in curiosity.
That was when it vanished. While I still staring right at it, it disappeared into thin air. I twirled around, as if I thought it had somehow jumped behind me.
Then something crashed into me. I fell to my knees, and the cigarette went flying.
Before I could even catch my breath, my back exploded in pain. Certain that I had somehow caught on fire, I dropped the rest of the way to the earth and rolled on my back, hoping to put out the flames. But the pain didn’t stop. After a moment, I realized that there was no warmth, no sound of flames licking at my flesh. There was no fire.
Still, the pain didn’t stop. I rolled back onto my stomach and reached back—this time, I could feel something. It felt like metal, but I couldn’t make out the shape. Warm to the touch, but not hot. As I touched it, it seemed to reduce in size. I reached around a little more and felt my t-shirt come clear away from my skin. Feeling along the edges, I realized…it had been burned. Something had burned through it, leaving a hole whose shape I couldn’t yet determine.
I touched the metal again. By now, it was much smaller than before—in fact, as I touched it, it seemed to…disappear.
What was happening? A moment after I felt it disappear, the pain receded. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. When I reached back again, my skin was sore to the touch and there seemed to be a ridge of scar tissue running through it, but it was skin. I breathed in and out, feeling my pulsing heartbeat begin to slow. I could feel the ground beneath me, and I pushed against it until I was sitting up on my knees. A light breeze pressed against the bare skin of my back where my shirt had burned away.
I looked around again to make sure I was still alone, then I delicately removed my shirt and placed it on the ground in front of me, back facing up. Small pieces of fabric fluttered away like flower petals—little shapes burned out in outline.
As I stared down at the pattern, I understood exactly what I was looking at—the shape of the Choronzon Key, a bit smaller than I’d seen it before. Though it was impossible, somehow I knew exactly what had happened: the Key had adhered itself to me—it had marked me. I knew something else, too: this was not the kind of mark you could simply remove. It stays with you. As long as it wants.
But why? And why me?
Starting to doubt that I would ever get any more answers, I shook the spare pieces from the shirt and pulled it back on over my head. Sure, it was only half the shirt it had been. But I didn’t have a lot of shirts, and it still covered my front well enough, so on it went.
I had barely made it to standing when I fell to my knees again.
This time, the Key gave me something other than pain.
It gave me images.
During the first sixty seconds of her forced servitude, Judith Li proved an adept follower. She kept pace with Logan down the hall, remaining completely silent, until Logan stopped her at the head of the stairs leading into the main hall.
“Li, please tell me honestly—is there any chance Amy will be out at another party in the woods somewhere tonight?”
Judith’s face remained serious and stricken as she shook her head.
“Are you kidding?” she eked out. “We were barely brave enough to sneak out to that party on Friday. Even if someone is throwing a weird-ass Monday-night rager somewhere, she wouldn’t go near it. She’ll be home with her parents all night.”
“Good thing it’s Monday, I guess,” Logan shrugged, before turning back to the stairs and practically jogging down them. Judith Li kept pace at her heels. As they reached the bottom, Logan came to a decision. “Still, it might be best if I take you back there. You can warn her and keep her safe, and, frankly, locking you up in her house might keep you safe, too.”
“You don’t need to keep me safe!” Judith cried. “I can help you! I can help you figure out who his next target is. Come on, you know I know this school better than you do.”
Logan allowed her head to nod, but something else had caught her attention and pulled her out of the moment. They were walking down the stairs, and she had automatically turned to the right…
And suddenly she remembered why Kurt had looked familiar—unplaceable but still familiar—when he’d come in for his session. She’d seen him before.
As her gaze roamed before her, taking in the entire entryway and the hallway full of lockers beyond, her mind filled in the scene with her memory from her first day there, now exactly one week past.
There he’d been—to her left, standing at his locker. She’d thought he looked out of his depth, uncomfortable in his own skin. Resentment poured out of him, flooding his direct surrounding area. His eyes when he saw that she could see him—so angry. Then he’d huffed and stumbled his way down the hall with his awkward splayfooted limp.
He’d walked up to a girl. He’d pushed a note into her hand. When she’d looked down at it, she’d looked startled and confused. Logan didn’t imagine that the note’s contents had resonated particularly well for her.
“Shit. I think I know who his next target might be,” said Logan. “Except I have no idea what her name is.” She did, however, hold a perfectly pristine image of the girl in her head. With her eyes trained squarely on the spot where she’d seen the girl, she allowed her memory to fill in the rest, clear as a picture. There she was, just as she had been. “Her locker is over there, number 730. I saw her around this time, maybe a little earlier. After classes. Black hair, a little longer than her shoulders, curled. Kind of golden skin—Latina, I think. She was wearing bright colors—a coral skirt and a green sweater. Uh, I believe the kids call the color mint green these days.”
“Yeah, I don’t really pay attention to what colors girls wear most of the time,” Ju
dith shrugged, her expression curious and a little suspicious. “How are you doing that? Do you have one of those photographic memories or something?”
It was Logan’s turn to shrug. She did, in fact, have a photographic memory, and she’d never been able to tell if that was a demon thing or a regular human thing. She still forgot things, obviously, and her father had messed with her memory so much that she had no real idea what her childhood memories should be like. Maybe the eidetic memory came from her demon lineage, maybe it didn’t. “I guess you can call it that,” she said, settling for the inadequate answer.
“Cool,” Judith nodded. “So you’re, like, a detective basically, right?”
“Sure,” said Logan, now growing impatient. “Miss Li, do you have any idea which student I’m describing to you?”
“Oh, sorry,” said Judith. “Uh, yeah, are you sure she’s Latina? We only got like four Latina girls.”
“Pretty sure,” answered Logan, considering. “Oh—she had—inside her locker, she had a cheerleader outfit. So she’s a cheerleader. Do they have practice this time of year?”
“I think they do it all year,” Judith answered. “If you’re really sure she’s Latina, then that’s gotta be Bianca Martinez. And she’s probably at practice right now, unless she pretended to have her period today or something.” She glanced up at the clock on the far wall, then tapped Logan on the arm and pointed her in that direction too. “5:03. Practice has been over for three minutes, so they’ll probably all be walking out to their cars pretty soon.”
“Good,” said Logan darkly, turning toward the parking lot.
Judith’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Are we gonna go wait in the parking lot for the monster?”
Logan turned to her sharply and spoke with command in her voice. “I will go wait in the parking lot. You will go home, back to Amy’s, where you will be safe.”
“What?” cried Judith, looking shocked and offended. “Come on! I helped you, can’t I stay? I mean—won’t I be safer with you anyway?”
Logan almost growled. She hated to admit it, but Li wasn’t wrong. “Damn. Fine, but you’re going to stay hidden at all times, understood?”
“Absolutely,” answered Judith, looking far too pleased by the entire situation.
With a shrug of resignation, Logan turned to the front of the building and started toward the doors. Judith followed close behind as they walked out into the now-fading sunlight.
While the parking lot was by no means full, there were at least fifteen cars left. Apart from the cars, there weren’t terribly many places to hide, or even to stand without looking conspicuous. After a moment, she sighed.
“I guess we’ll just go stand by my bike,” she said, taking a few steps in that direction. “We can pretend to be talking or something.”
“Huh,” said Judith from a few feet behind her. Logan stopped and turned, noting that her companion had frozen in place, staring back at the door behind them. With some irritation, she went back to Judith.
“What?”
“Oh, sorry, nothing,” said Judith, her confused gaze finally breaking away from the unmoving door behind them. “Sorry, I’ll follow you. I’m following.”
Logan’s eyes narrowed involuntarily in suspicion, but she charged forward. They traversed the length of the lot quickly. She felt an illogical sense of relief once she was standing next to her Ninja again: it was like she had escape back in her grasp. With a quick flick, she popped the seat up and pulled out her short battleax and sheath, which she strapped immediately to her back. Then she clicked the seat back down and leaned lightly against it, taking comfort in the solid pressure the bike provided.
“Face me, with your back to the building,” she instructed Judith. “I’ll tell you when I see her, and then you’ll verify her name.”
“I knew it was a good idea for me to come with you,” said Judith smugly as she moved into place.
“You should probably stay quiet for a while.”
Judith forced her face back into a serious expression and nodded solemnly. If circumstances had been any different, Logan might have found her earnest reverence amusing. It certainly made her easier to order around.
A few minutes passed in silence.
“Are you sure it was after 5:00 when you looked?”
“Uh, yeah,” said Judith nodding. The confusion that had clouded her face as she stared at the entryway door returned. “Is—is no one coming out? Still?”
“Not unless they’re invisible. And able to walk through walls.”
Judith’s face brightened with excitement again. “Is that a thing? Invisible people?”
“Judith. Focus.”
“Right, sorry. I’m focusing.”
“And you’re sure their practice ends at 5:00?”
With that, Judith’s excitement evaporated. “Oh. Um, well, it should. It definitely should. But…in soccer, we had a two-hour practice last week. So, uh, I guess…they could be doing that.”
Logan nodded. “So we may have to wait here an hour.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Judith looked a little downtrodden, as though she felt she were at fault for this.
Logan nodded again. “It’s okay.” When Judith’s gaze remained downcast, she added, “Well, I guess it’s good you came after all. Now I don’t have to wait alone.”
Judith Li’s face broke slowly into a smile so shy it almost seemed to be asking permission. Logan reached out to pat her lightly on the arm, twitching her wrist almost imperceptibly as she pulled it back. Judith didn’t notice.
Of course, they didn’t have much else to say to each other. And as it turned out, they did have another 37 minutes to wait. Each minute that passed grew progressively more painful. If Logan was being honest, it probably would have been less painful to wait alone. But she would never say it.
Finally, at the very top of minute 38, she spotted movement at the front of the building. As she observed, a few girls spilled out—some in their cheer outfits, some in street clothes. Logan didn’t recognize any in the group. Chatting and laughing, they dispersed slowly, trailing into different cars—most of them SUVs.
After a moment, three more girls came out—two were spiritedly clamoring away together, while the third girl trailed quietly behind them. Logan didn’t recognize the first two, but she did recognize the third.
“I see her. She’s the last one out, wearing a pink shirt and jean shorts. Look quickly.”
In a clear attempt to look casual, Judith pulled her face into a bland smile and twisted her head around briefly, then realigned it back to normal.
“Yeah, that’s Bianca.”
Logan nodded. She watched as Bianca fell a little further behind the other girls. She didn’t look nearly as carefree as they did; instead she looked morose and anxious. Somewhere in the parking lot, a car door slammed, and Bianca jumped at the sound, glancing all around her. Then she seemed to try and calm herself, holding a hand to her stomach and taking a slow breath, before walking forward again.
Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe Bianca had a reason to be afraid. Just like Violet had.
“Do you know what Bianca’s car looks like?” Logan asked, wondering which direction she might be headed in. She kept walking forward along the sidewalk.
“Uh, I don’t think she has a car.”
“Then how is she…” Logan let her words trail off as she watched Bianca step into the lot—but head toward the road, instead of the parked cars. Judith turned to see where she was looking.
“Oh yeah, I think she lives nearby. She usually walks home.”
Logan took a quick look at the sky to confirm what she already knew—that night was almost on them, and the last of the light was quickly disappearing beneath the tops of the trees. Bianca was walking home through the gathering dark.
She watched as Bianca turned onto the street and kept going. As soon as she reached the low line of bushes that would soon obscure her from view, Logan stood up straight and started after her.
; “Wait—what are you doing?” asked Judith in a panicked voice as she struggled to keep up.
“I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.”
Judith made a few stuttering noises but kept pace as Logan continued to tail the cheerleader.
“But—but—oh no. You know, it’s okay. It’s fine. Maybe if everyone at school starts talking about how I like to stalk Bianca Martinez, they’ll finally stop talking about the stupid flagpole.”
“It’s good to look on the bright side.”
Logan didn’t stop to check, but she had a feeling Judith was now shooting her a dirty look. It didn’t matter, of course. They had no other choice, unless Judith changed her mind about going home.
As they rounded the corner out of the parking lot, she couldn’t immediately locate Bianca in her field of vision, so she picked up the pace precipitously. Odds were that Bianca had simply turned down another street, but she needed to get her back in her sights as soon as possible. The light above was still fading, and it was impossible to say how long they had before the rekal showed up—provided they were right about its next target, of course.
After a few moments, she reached the first cross street and glanced down it, Judith jogging behind her to catch up. She paused at the turn and clocked Bianca about a block down. She breathed a short sigh of relief.
“Act normal,” she said, with a quick glance at Judith as she came astride her once more. “Try not to…breathe so heavily.”
“You’re so fast,” said Judith between gasps.
Logan nodded, acknowledging the statement, then took off again. She tried to go a little slower, but Bianca was still so far ahead of them. Yet even with that distance, she had a feeling that Bianca, paranoid as she had seemed in the parking lot, would notice their presence.
Sure enough, as soon as Judith snagged her sweatshirt on an overgrown bush, Bianca startled and made a point-face turn, taking them both in. Seeing them, she straightened her spine and kept walking…quite clearly a little faster than before.
