by Mia Fox
“Why are you running?”
The voice came out of nowhere and surprised Charlotte so much that she stumbled and fell, the blades of grass suddenly longer and nearly completely hiding her frame from view. Charlotte recovered and looked around, but saw nobody.
The laughter, now distinctly mischievous, returned on the wind.
“I’m right here,” a child’s voice sounded.
Charlotte sat very still, instinctively on guard. It seemed silly to worry. After all, she merely tumbled while running across a beautiful meadow, enjoying the beauty of nature on a spring day. Nonetheless, she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms hugging her legs, her eyes darting around to see if what she heard was real or imagined.
“Over heeere,” the voice came to her, now tinged with annoyance. And then, just a matter of a few feet away from where Charlotte sat, a small girl of perhaps eight or maybe nine, suddenly sat up.
Charlotte’s breath caught at now seeing the girl sitting nearly within reach of herself. The grass must have hidden her small frame from view just seconds earlier.
“It’s fun to watch people from in here.” The girl opened her arms to the meadow, and although she smiled sweetly, there was something in her eyes that reminded Charlotte of a naughty child she once babysat. She remembered how her ward would smile at her mother, promising to be good for Charlotte and the second her mother would leave the house, the girl would make Charlotte’s evening a living hell with non-stop demands and spoiled antics.
“Ha, that’s a good idea,” the girl said.
“What?” Charlotte asked, finding her voice for the first time.
“That story you just told. About the girl? Duh.”
The child suddenly turned her dark eyes away from Charlotte to stare at something in the distance -- something Charlotte couldn’t see.
They sat in silence. Charlotte cautiously watching the girl, whose eyes were now a pale blue, continued to stare at the trees that lined the meadow with a foreboding look. Suddenly, she whipped her head back toward Charlotte, her blonde hair, which was the same shade as Charlotte’s only it hung in curls as opposed to Charlotte’s stick straight locks, swinging around her face. “You won’t be able to see what I see unless you come closer.”
“That’s okay. I’m good here.”
Good girl. Relief washed over me.
Charlotte averted her eyes and tried to busy herself by attempting to weave small blades of grass together, picking the ones with miniature daisies and telling herself that nothing was amiss. She was just enjoying nature, letting the gentle breeze blow through her hair. Everything was fine.
“Ick, why are you playing with those things? Charlotte, put those down!”
Charlotte met the girl’s eyes, shocked at hearing her own name. Even more frightening to her was that the voice of the girl had suddenly sounded much like that of Charlotte’s mother. How she missed her parents, long ago having died in a car accident. But why did her mother’s voice sound angry?
The girl’s demeanor changed with the wind and now she simply delivered Charlotte a sweet smile and pointed to the daisies that Charlotte had collected and dropped in the folds of her skirt. When Charlotte glanced down, she saw a pile of worms, long and skinny, red bodies wriggling on top of each other. She jumped up immediately with a scream, shaking out her skirt.
The girl jumped as well and came to Charlotte, placing her arms around her and staring up into Charlotte’s horrified face. “What’s wrong? You look so scared. Here, have a pretty flower. You seem to like them,” she said and bent down to where Charlotte had dumped the worms on the ground.
“No!” Charlotte shouted.
The girl held out her hands, indicating that Charlotte should calm down and pointed to the ground. Charlotte followed her gaze and saw only a bunch of fragrant flowers by her feet. She looked back to the girl, who held out what she had picked up off the ground -- a daisy, which the girl now placed behind one ear. “Pretty, aren’t they?”
Charlotte didn’t answer, but instead turned the opposite direction and started to walk away. Until she heard the girl start to sob. “Please don’t go. Look, I’m hurt.”
She lies, Charlotte! But my thoughts were only unto myself.
The voice had manipulated back into that of a small girl and it did indeed sound sad. In spite of wanting to run, Charlotte turned back toward the girl, who was sitting in the same position Charlotte had been when she first happened upon her. The girl’s knees were pulled up to her chest. She stared forlornly down at her legs. “See? It really hurts.”
For the first time, Charlotte noticed the scratches and welts across the girl’s legs. Angry red lines like the worms, Charlotte thought to herself. “There are no worms,” the girl called out, again able to read her thoughts. Please help me get to the other side,” she indicated the trees at the opposite end of the meadow, and then looked up at the sky now distinctly darker than when Charlotte had arrived.
Charlotte continued to stand over the girl, not saying a word, not moving a muscle, until the girl started to really sob.
“Alright, it’s okay,” Charlotte spoke in a quiet voice and leaned down. She awkwardly pet the girl’s head and then gently stroked her hair until the child stopped crying.
“Thank you, Charlotte.”
“How do you know my name?”
The girl cocked her head to the side, rolled her eyes skyward, and gave Charlotte a look that could only be read as ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ when the sound of other children laughing erupted in the air around them. The girl held her hands up like a conductor readying a band. The laughter stopped and only the sound of leaves rustling through the distant trees could be heard.
“I don’t know how I know. But it’s a pretty name.” The girl put her arms around Charlotte’s waist and rested her head against Charlotte’s stomach.
Awkwardly, Charlotte placed her own arms around the girl and they stood in this mock hug for a moment until the girl finally broke free, now full of smiles again. “I don’t know my name, but you can call me Shadow.”
A chill ran up Charlotte’s body as she looked in the girl’s face, taking in her features -- ice blue eyes, fair skin, blonde hair so light it was practically white -- characteristics very much akin to Charlotte’s own.
“Do you want to hear a story?”
Before any sort of answer could be uttered, Shadow took Charlotte’s hand and just as suddenly, all feeling of dread and worry within Charlotte dissipated. She saw Phineas in her mind, smiling at her. She felt his strong arms around her and remembered that she felt surprisingly safe while she traveled through time with him. Trust him. The words assaulted Charlotte’s mind, jarring her out of the daydream. They were not my thoughts...they came from the Romani Realms. She had trusted Phineas. Not only with her life, but with Samantha’s as well. Falling for him resulted in her forsaking any warning that Samantha had uttered against him. And now, this entire trip into the Romani Realms, the place created by demon gypsies to hold souls captive, was due to Raven’s treachery and it was entirely possible that Phineas was involved.
“Did you like it?”
“What?” Charlotte asked in a daze.
“The story! Didn’t you see it? About that man and your friend?”
Charlotte nodded mechanically. Her eyes slightly glazed over, her breathing shallow.
“You must be tired now.” Shadow pulled on Charlotte’s hand, indicating she should sit.
Charlotte laid down and stared up at the sky, not taking any notice that it was now dark and threatening. “How old are you, Shadow?”
The girl paused for a moment as if trying to weigh up the correct answer. She furrowed her brow and performed calculations on her fingers, and then replied simply, “Eight.”
Charlotte smiled. Just as the beautiful daisies turned to worms and then back again to flowers, Charlotte’s emotions vacillated from fear of this little girl to a fierce desire to care for her. She felt incredible peace as
she closed her eyes.
Shadow sat down next to Charlotte and kept watch. The edges of the grassy meadow were starting to shift, the grass turning from vibrant green to a dry brown. As the breeze turned cold and stronger, the grass continued to dry up until the edges of the meadow were receding into a black, charred brush as if a forest fire was working its way from the outside in, moving closer to where Charlotte rested.
“It’s time to go, Charlotte.” Shadow stood up and pulled on Charlotte’s arm.
“Just a few more minutes, please.”
As much as I hated to admit it, the girl was right. Listen to her, Charlotte.
Looking out into the distance, Shadow could now see at least a quarter mile circumference of the meadow was now barren wasteland, the grass either dead or dying. Large pools of blackness, like pits of tar, started to spread closer to where Charlotte lay...oblivious to the changes around her.
The most disturbing of these was the emergence of mud covered hands and arms reaching out from the tar. The grass continued to die causing the meadow to recede at an accelerated pace. Black twigs now replaced every blade of grass with Charlotte and Shadow positioned on the only bit that still remained green.
A clawed hand reached up out of the tarry mud and grabbed around Shadow’s ankle, scratching a trail up her leg. The little girl stared impassively at the soul that was desperately trying to catch its breath, its face contorted in anguish as it tried to pull itself out of the abyss. The little girl merely shook her leg free as if kicking away a sand flea.
“Charlotte, I’d like to leave this place now. Let’s go for a walk.”
Charlotte stretched her arms over her head, narrowly missing being grabbed by another one of the lost souls.
“Okay,” she answered sleepily and pulled herself up to standing. “This place really is beautiful.” She looked out at the distant forest, not seeing any of the changes that had occurred to her surroundings.
Shadow followed Charlotte’s gaze, only her vision showed that the acres of meadow were covered by pools of tar, hands and arms protruding up around them at every step.
The little girl nodded in agreement.
Charlotte held out her hand, and when the little girl placed her own hand inside hers, Charlotte felt peace and walked with her toward the darkened forest.
* * *
Chapter Three
The most direct route to a destination is a straight line; and therefore, as I prepared to enter the Romani Realms, James and Phineas waited with me at the place where we last saw Charlotte -- Samantha’s gravestone. That is, before she surprised all of us and entered the Realms alone, armed only with the knowledge she gained from her possession of the Amulet of Pollox, the stone that gave her knowledge of the greatest minds from the past. Even I couldn’t simply enter the Romani Realms. I would need a guide, someone who had been there before and knew how to manipulate time to get there again. There was only one person who could get into the Romani Realms and still have the freedom to leave at will. Ironically, it was the same person who caused us so much strife. Raven.
“I felt the danger approaching Charlotte. She needs me. I’ll find her and bring her back,” I said more to calm my own nerves than to explain an obvious situation.
James reached out to touch my arm. “When you do find her...she may be different. The time travel, the opposing realms...”
I nodded, understanding his message. I had taken Charlotte and Samantha into another realm dimension once before. Without ever leaving the safety of my penthouse, the images of the past became so real that even our clothing seemed to change. The grinding of the time gears surrounded us and although we remained physically planted in the present, our minds traveled far back in time. We had seemingly gone back to London of the 19th century to meet a soothsayer. Madame Ruby showed Charlotte and Samantha the truth that their minds were closed off to, allowing Charlotte to see the destruction that Raven had wielded against innocents, while Phineas looked the other way and stood by her side. In my book, that meant he was equal in blame.
But the Romani Realms were different. There, nothing was as it appeared to be.
Sensing my growing nerves and resentment toward him, Phineas spoke, although his voice was barely above a whisper. “Maybe she won’t show. It’s not like she wants to help you. She’s got both Charlotte and Samantha.”
“But she doesn’t have Suki,” James said gravely.
“Yeah, somehow I doubt she’d give up the chance to get rid of me once and for all.”
James wrapped his arms around my waist and turned me toward him. I rested my head against his chest, inhaled his scent, and felt myself relax. I closed my eyes and reveled in the safety I felt while in his arms, knowing that I would need to recall these sensory pleasures when under distress.
“Come on, now,” James said suddenly as if knowing that my emotions were threatening to come tumbling out of me. “Tell me the most extraordinary thing about Charlotte and Samantha.”
I chuckled lightly, knowing that there wasn’t just one tale to tell. “They are extraordinary...exceptional. Appearing like ordinary high school girls, more interested in boys than school, and full of teenage bravado. But it didn’t take long to realize that they were meant to release me because each one possessed a special trait -- something far beyond the ordinary.”
The three of us stood silent as if each offering tribute to Charlotte and Samantha. Samantha had developed the rare talent for being able to sense a person’s true nature, to innately recognize whether someone is of pure intention. The power doesn’t come into play often, but when it does, it’s a force not to be toyed with for it becomes all-consuming. Samantha’s loyalty to Charlotte and her unselfish nature made her a perfect Releasor.
“Samantha never wished for anything to benefit solely herself. Instead, her last thought was to bring Charlotte to safety.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen to Charlotte,” Phineas said to me.
“I didn’t say that,” I answered a bit more coldly than I had intended. In my heart I knew that Raven would have kept attacking the girls until she achieved their demise, and yet having Charlotte fall for Phineas seemed to make it that much easier for her. I couldn’t help wondering and wishing what would have been had he never shown up.
Samantha didn’t trust him and I tended to agree. After all, Phineas had been given second life and turned into a demon gypsy from Raven’s powers. I knew that trusting him was a precarious state to be in, as it was unlikely his loyalties would shift away from Raven, and yet, here we were.
“Go on,” James urged, silently, speaking directly into my mind. In the last few days, he was speaking into my mind more frequently, insisting that we practice our non-verbal communication so that I could hear him once in the other realms. As my Shade, he was the only one able to get inside my head. At first it was a bit disconcerting, especially when he teased me, but now it offered comfort. “Talk about Charlotte...the happier times,” I heard him, although his voice was barely above a whisper on the wind. It worried me because I knew that if it were this quiet while I was right next to him, I may not be able to hear him at all once in the Romani Realms.
I shook my head, berating myself for my proper Southern values that had kept me from becoming intimate with James sooner. Eventually I succumbed to his charms, and I wasn’t the least bit disappointed, but I had fought the urge for so long that it didn’t give us much time together before we were to be forced apart and the only way for a Shade to really get inside a Genie’s head was to get into her heart first. There was still a part of me that was closed up to that sort of intimacy because I knew that my time with him was fleeting. Eventually, something would cause Charlotte and Samantha to use up their last wish and I would be returned to my bottle.
With both of them trapped inside the Romani Realms there was a high likelihood that they would need their remaining wishes. Samantha was basically dead in this present realm, while Charlotte would perhaps be caught in between forever.
I couldn’t fault either if they were to use their wishes. Regardless of how much James meant to me, I loved the girls as well and without a second thought, I would go back to being locked within my bottle if it meant giving them the life they had lived before.
“Talk to us,” James said, this time aloud, as if sensing that I was pulling away before even leaving. “Tell us about Charlotte.”
I thought of Charlotte’s striking Nordic looks. “You know what is the most remarkable thing about Charlotte? It’s not anything as superficial as her beauty. It’s her nature -- so sweet and trusting. And that memory of hers doesn’t miss a thing...any comment, observation, smell or sound -- she was special even before she got a hold of the Amulet of Pollox. It makes sense that she was the one to find it. I can’t think of anyone else who could put it to better use than someone with eidetic memory.”
Phineas shifted uneasily. It was that damned stone that had inadvertently been at the center of this debacle. Raven had been after the source of the power that would be gifted to one very special Releasor. Although she searched for it for centuries, it wasn’t until Charlotte had gone back in time with none other than Phineas when it was discovered. Waiting patiently as if it had a life of its own, the stone beckoned to her and when she came into possession of it, her already remarkable memory grew tenfold for now she held the memories of every Releasor of my past.
I smiled, thinking of Charlotte’s modesty. She used to think her gift was evidence of her being a nerd, complaining that she would rather have perfect fashion sense than a perfect memory of school lectures. In reality, her trademark jeans and tees made her beauty shine even more because the simplicity with how she dressed made one take notice of her amazing features. And as for that remarkable mind of hers, she only discovered her gift quite by accident having never made a connection between her perfect grades and her special talent. She had chalked up her exemplary school record to a slow social life, but when traveling to the past with Phineas, she stumbled upon the logarithms and remarkably remembered them, allowing her to transport herself to the Romani Realms in the hopes of bringing back Samantha.
