Mandy's eyelids drooped. She slowly dragged her head up from the old wood table. "I'm going upstairs. I'm tired."
Chapter Seven
When Mandy awoke, she lay in bed thinking for a long time about the night before. When her mother used magic, it was always for the good of others. If Mom died to save another, it would be an act of heroism and kindness, not for selfish reasons. Mandy promised herself she wouldn't knowingly use her powers all day.
There was a knock on her bedroom door. "Come in!" she called.
Valerie entered her room clad in sneakers, a white V-neck T-shirt, and blue jogging pants. Her auburn hair was tied back in a taut ponytail.
"Oh, right, Val, we're going hiking this morning. I'm so sorry that I'm not ready."
"That's okay, Mandy. I'll just wait downstairs while you get ready. Unless you don't want to go…?"
Mandy didn't know if she wanted to go. She didn't know anything anymore. All she knew was that she needed to do whatever they expected of her. Whatever the in-crowd required to maintain her popularity. Anything necessary to retain the adulation of her followers and gain the admiration of strangers. Because that was what was important, right? Although she was tired, Mandy forced a smile. "Yeah, I'll be right down."
Mandy stared into the mirror above her walnut vanity table. Her hair was a knotty mess. Her eyes were red and puffy, making them appear smaller and sunken in. Acne had broken out on her chin overnight. It shouldn't have been a big deal. She was only going to the mountain with Valerie. But—what if she saw someone she knew on the ride there? Or on the hiking paths? Her reputation was at stake. Makeup and hair spray couldn't fix this disaster. There was just no other way.
Moments later, Mandy bounced into the kitchen with her glossy hair fixed in a neat ponytail. She didn't have much makeup on, but it wasn't necessary. Her flawless skin glowed. Her eyes sparkled brighter than her diamond studs.
"Hey, Val." Mandy took a seat at the large oak table next to her best friend. Valerie was eating a cinnamon-raisin bagel with cream cheese.
"Hey, Mandy, would you like a bagel too?" Sabrina asked.
"Sure, Mom, can I get some orange juice too?"
Sabrina opened up the refrigerator, poured a cup of juice, and placed it on the table in front of Mandy.
"You are so spoiled," Valerie said.
Sabrina laughed. "I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. That's because I love you." Sabrina bent down and kissed Mandy's temple. "It would be nice if she showed some appreciation once in a while."
"Oh, whatev, Mom. Give me a break. You know I appreciate you."
"Hey, Mom, would it be okay if I used your car to go to Pat's for band practice after work?" Brianna stood in the archway that separated the kitchen and entryway, wearing ripped jeans and a black polo shirt. The words "Bagel Bin" were embroidered in golden thread across the front of the oversized shirt. She slid a black baseball cap with the same golden words woven across the crown over her long, black hair.
"Sure, Bri. Would you like a bagel before work?"
Brianna laughed. "I'll have enough of those at work. Thanks, Mom. See you later." She slung her blue electric guitar over her shoulder and rushed out. Sabrina went outside to tend to her garden.
"So how was your night with Chad?" Valerie asked, and then took a bite of her bagel.
Mandy shrugged. "Eh, I'm not that sure about Chad anymore."
"What? Not sure about what?"
"I don't know. I don't think what we have is real."
"Are you kidding me? Chad is amazing, and he follows you around like a lost puppy dog. Your mother is right. You don't appreciate anything."
"Come on. Yes I do. Maybe I don't want someone drooling all over me. Besides, what's so great about Chad anyways?"
"Um, his dimples, muscles, smile, and athletic abilities, to name a few."
"But besides that?"
"What else is there?"
Mandy shrugged. "Let's get going."
The girls waved goodbye to Sabrina, who was clipping a rose bush, as they drove away in Valerie's gold sedan. Both girls were quiet as they drove to the periphery of town. Mandy felt uncomfortable in the silence. "Is something wrong, Val?"
"Nope."
"Why are you so quiet?"
"Just thinking." Valerie blasted the radio. Mandy watched out the window as trees whizzed by like blurs of green. Ten minutes later, Valerie parked next to their usual hiking path.
"It's a beautiful day." Mandy exited the car with pep in her step. She strode toward Rocky Ridge Mountain. The sun's golden rays embraced the majestic landform. A cool, refreshing breeze swept over the steep rocks. Mandy reached into her pocket and checked her phone. "No reception."
"There never is reception here."
"I know, but I check every time, hoping."
"I think Chad and Giselle will survive without you for a few hours."
"I hope so." Mandy hiked up the mountain with the ease of a carefree child. Valerie was a few strides behind her, breathing in strangled gasps.
"Val, are you okay? Should I slow down?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Valerie panted. She inhaled deeply, then coughed and wheezed.
Mandy laughed. "Yeah, sure you are," she said sarcastically and slowed her pace to match Valerie's. It felt like moving in slow motion.
"I don't get it, Mandy, how are you so freaking perfect?"
"Hmmm? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. I work out twice as hard as you and you're still in better shape than me. How do you do it?"
Mandy shrugged. "Good genetics, I guess."
"Apparently. Want to play hide and seek?"
Valerie nudged her, pointed to a large oak. "Put your head against the tree and count to ten."
"Come on, Val, are you serious?"
"Why not? We used to do it all the time when we were kids. Please? I really want to play."
"Okay, whatev. Go hide." Mandy leaned against the tree trunk. The bark scratched her forehead. She yelled out, "One Mississippi, two Mississippi…" Mandy could hear Valerie's giggle disappearing toward the east. "Three Mississippi, four Mississippi…"
A shrill, deafening cry sliced through the morning air. Mandy clutched her chest and whirled around. "Val! Val! Are you okay?"
Mandy's head swiveled to the right, and then it turned to the left. She was ready, alert. Acorns popped and twigs snapped beneath the rubber soles of her sneakers. "This isn't funny, Val. This isn't a game anymore. I'm worried about you. Please come out."
There was the sound of footsteps in the distance, followed by the splintering snap of tree branches. "Val?" Mandy leaped over a rock and left the trail behind. "Valerie!" She was shouting now.
If some jerk had her close friend, she would kill him. Break him in half with one flick of her wrist. She just needed to get there in time, before Valerie was hurt. Feet barely grazing the ground, Mandy walked through the woods, soundlessly.
She heard something. Breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Mandy peeked around a large tree that obstructed her view. Something darted down the tree. Without forethought, Mandy lunged. The culprit squirmed in her left hand. The cute, furry, brown creature watched her through wide eyes. Mandy shook her head. She placed the chipmunk back on the ground, and it scurried away.
She weaved her way between rocks, trees, and thorn bushes. A thorn snagged her jacket and ripped the thin fabric. Mandy gripped the offending branch and tossed it aside. Small drops of blood oozed from multiple points where thorns had broken the skin. Thin red lines slid down her palm and trailed toward her wrist. But her scratches seemed insignificant in these circumstances. All she could think of was Valerie.
Where was her friend? It seemed like it had been ages since Valerie had run off, and there was no sign of her anywhere. Overcome with frustration and terror, Mandy dropped to the ground, buried her face in her hands, and wept. Blood smeared on her cheek, mixing with her tears.
She heard it again. Air was pushing in, and then it was pushing out.
Her body snapped up in a split second. In. Out. In. Out. It was coming from the right. Behind a tree. Mandy jetted forward and popped around the tree. A waiting assailant swung a tree branch like a baseball bat at her face.
Mandy ducked and snatched the branch in one swift motion. The branch crumbled into smithereens, and she faced her attacker.
"Valerie? What is going on?"
Valerie's eyes were wide as she stared at the heap of sawdust on the ground. "I was attacked! A man lunged at me with a knife! I barely escaped! I'm so scared!"
"I'll kill him! Where did he go?"
"That way. Up the mountain."
"Let's go. We have to get him." Mandy grabbed Valerie's arm. The girls trudged shoulder-to-shoulder up the steep incline. "Thank heavens you're okay, Val. I was so worried." They turned the wooded corner and approached the apex of the mountain.
"Hey, Mandy, this is your favorite lookout point."
Mandy raised her eyebrows in question. "We are hunting down a predator, and you want to stop and enjoy the view?"
"Oh, I'm sure he's long gone by now."
"Valerie, you're acting so strange today."
"Well, excuse me! It's not every day I get attacked in the middle of the woods. Can we please just enjoy the view for a minute? That brush with death made me realize I need to appreciate the world around me. Life is so fragile."
Mandy shook her head. "You've lost your mind." She glanced anxiously in all directions. "Okay, it doesn't look like anyone has been here. We can stop for one minute. After that, we have to go where we have reception and call the cops."
Mandy stood five feet from the cliff, taking in the view. All of Montmorrow was below them, creating a picturesque vista. The houses seemed as if they could fit in her palm of her hand, the highways looked about the width of pencils, and the cars resembled colored ants darting about.
"Why don't you get closer, Mandy?"
"Because I'm not leaving your side when there's some psycho on the loose." Usually Mandy stood way too close to the edge and Valerie always stood back, watching with fear in her eyes. Mandy had often teased Valerie, lifting one leg and taunting, "One foot, one foot!" while her nervous friend covered her mouth in horror.
Today, Valerie marched closer and closer to the edge. She took a great big step forward. Then another. Valerie lifted her foot. Wind blew her hair in all directions. "Val, stop it. You're getting too close."
"What's the problem? You do it all the time. You get closer than this."
"That's different. I'm very sure of my footing."
"Oh, so you think you're better than me? Is that it?" Valerie took a half step forward. She burst into a fit of laughter.
"Cut it out. This isn't funny. I don't know if you having post-traumatic stress or something, but you're acting weird." Mandy jumped in front of her friend, blocking her from getting too close to the edge. Mandy's pink sneakers actually extended over the precipice, a three-thousand foot drop just below her heels.
Valerie wobbled forward and curled her fingers around Mandy's shoulders. "I'm trying to overcome my fear of heights, but I'm still scared. Do you mind if I hold onto you?"
"Sure." Mandy was quiet for a moment, thinking. Voicing what had just occurred to her, she said, "Hey, if you weren't unconscious, then why didn't you answer when I called your name?"
Valerie pressed both of her palms against Mandy's chest and pushed. Caught off guard, Mandy toppled over the edge.
The air whooshed by as her body began to descend, but it still took a moment for her to process what had just happened. Valerie had been her best friend since the second grade. Why would she want to kill Mandy?
Betrayal cut through her, right down to the center of her being. Anger rose in her like an adrenaline rush. Power burned through her veins fast as lightning. Mandy stopped falling in mid-air. She flew, arms outstretched like wings, back to the top of the mountain.
Her first glimpse of Valerie practically knocked her over again. The rotten traitor was smiling. Yes, smiling. A wide, blissful, disturbed smile.
Mandy thrust her entire body weight into her former friend. Valerie flew through the air as though she had been slammed by an eighteen-wheeler. The impact threw her about twenty feet until her back slammed against a tree, and she crumpled to the ground.
Valerie squinted, blinked a few times, rubbed her eyes, and gaped. "M-Mandy?"
Mandy's fist slammed into Valerie's face. Whimpering, the injured girl hugged her knees against her chest.
"You psycho! You want to kill me? Try it now!"
Valerie opened her mouth, but no sound escaped. Sweat dripped down her neck. Blood flowed down her lips and into her mouth.
"What did I ever to do you to deserve this? Tell me!" Mandy glared at her ex-BFF, her cheeks hot as fire, her hands on her hips.
Valerie squirmed on the ground, still in the fetal position. "I can't move. It feels like something is holding me down. I think I might be paralyzed."
"Tell me why you did this to me."
"It was an accident."
"Liar! Tell me!" Mandy focused all the power she had left and repeated the words. "Tell me!"
"I hate you!" Valerie screamed. "I absolutely detest you."
The fury in her voice was so strong that Mandy could see it. It was like a swarm of bats escaping from Valerie's navel. The bats enveloped Mandy and surrounded her in blackness. Their red eyes unblinking, their mouths opened to reveal razor-sharp teeth. She shook her head, blinked. The bats were gone. But their menace and malevolence would stay with her forever.
"I thought we were best friends."
Valerie snorted. "Not since fifth grade. I've only pretended to be your friend for all these years. I'm a pretty good actress, right? I should earn an award for this performance. Maybe then my mother would be proud of me, but probably not. She would probably still love you more than me."
"That's not true. Your mother loves you."
"No, she doesn't." Valerie said it with such conviction that Mandy had to wonder if it was the truth. "She tells me all the time that she doesn't. She's ashamed of me. I'm never good enough. And do you want to know the reason why?"
Mandy nodded. Her anger began to dissipate. She felt bad for Valerie. Then she remembered the wretch had just tried to murder her. Oh yeah, she was still ticked.
"You're the reason why. In fifth grade, you won that gymnastics competition that I had trained so hard for, and you didn't even like gymnastics! You stole that from me! My mother never forgave me for losing that competition."
"That was so many years ago."
"You knew how hard I trained! You should have let me win! You hated gymnastics."
"Valerie, I'm sorry."
"And then, year after year, it got worse and worse. You're head cheerleader. Every year you're the Spring Queen. You take everything! All I want is to bring home one crown, one first-place trophy so that my mother will think I'm valuable. So that she might love me. I knew there was only one way I would have a chance to get Spring Queen this year. I needed you gone.
"So what are you, anyways? Apparently you can fly, and you're stronger than a bodybuilder on steroids. Are you a witch or something?"
Mandy flinched at the word and broke eye contact with Valerie.
"You are! You're a witch! So all these years, while I put in all this hard work and effort, you wiggled your nose or something and beat me at everything! I could probably run circles around you if you didn't have these witch powers!"
Mandy's heart raced. In her anger, she had exposed her secret—her family's secret. If Valerie divulged this secret, Mandy's life would be ruined and her family would be at risk.
"Listen, I could set a spell on you. I can shrink you down to the size of a roach and keep you trapped in my bedroom drawer. I can make you ugly, nonathletic, and unpopular. If you tell anyone my secret, your hair will fall out, your teeth will turn black, and you will fail all of your classes."
"I won't tell anyone anything. Just please let me go. Don't
hurt me."
"Not one word." Mandy released the force that held Valerie down.
With her supernatural hearing, she could make out each footstep as Valerie fled down the mountain.
Under her breath Valerie muttered, "I'll get my revenge. Somehow I'll find a way."
Chapter Eight
Later that night, Mandy sat facing Logan Archer at his dining room table. She was having difficulty focusing on the science project while the intermittent image of Valerie's heinous expression tormented her mind.
"So the first step is coming up with a question and hypothesis. Here's a few I thought of. Can a black light detect invisible stains? Do vitamins effect the growth of flowers? Does music? Or would you rather do something else? What do you think?"
"Yeah, whatev," she said, not really paying attention to him.
Valerie had been her best friend since they'd joined the same team in Little League. After the games they would devour ice cream cones and go back to each other’s houses for sleepovers. Sometimes they would stay up all night, talking and laughing. Tears brimmed inside her eyes, and Logan's face blurred.
His forehead creased with worry and he leaned closer to his childhood friend. "Mandy, is everything okay? You can talk to me about anything. You know that." His tone was soft and gentle.
Her tears threatened to escape. Mandy knew she wouldn't look attractive with smeared makeup and puffy eyes. But with Logan, it didn't matter. He wouldn't mind if she didn't look beautiful. It was okay if she cried instead of smiled. In the past, he had always been there when she'd needed him. Even now, despite how she had distanced herself from him these past few years, he reached across the table and placed his hand on top of hers. Mandy let it all go. She broke down. Tears puddled on the oak surface of the table.
Logan moved his chair beside hers and hugged her. "What's wrong?"
"It's Valerie. She-she's not a good friend."
"I'm sorry, want to tell me what happened?"
Mandy shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it."
"I hate to see you hurting," Logan caressed her upper arm.
In Shadows of Magic Page 3
