Tyler frowned deeply at the thought of where the story was leading. “Where did you say you did the magic spells?”
P.J. smiled again, “You are the perceptive one, Tyler, I have to give you that. We performed the acts that the spells demanded in the woods, somewhere around where you now have your home. At a guess, I would say somewhere between where your home lies and where the school is.
“If my theory is correct and I fear that it most likely is, Mark may have cut his face on the very stone we used as our sacrificial altar. I can’t be certain, I know the stone he was injured with was considerably smaller than our makeshift altar. But I also know that the stone was gone when I went back to the woods a week later. We’re talking about a stone over four feet in length, mind you. It just couldn’t be found and I looked.
“And I should also add a few more facts to this tale, the blood required was to be virginal and again I remind you, that we had two more people with us on that little trip. Two young ladies that, like me, felt that it might be fun and even a little risqué, to perform the secret rites. They were Anita Van Der Graff and Susan Hailey. Oh, and Antoinette was there too.
“Yes, I thought you might well recognize the names, they are after all, the mothers of both you and Cassie Monroe.
“Alex moved away the very next day. His father had been in a car accident around the same time we were performing our magic spells. His mother showed the next day, coming in from California. They left almost as soon as she got into town. I don’t think he ever even really said goodbye. I remember going to his house a few days before school started and finding they’d moved. He and his mother and his little brother left Summitville, I never heard from him again.”
Tyler gave the author credit; he told a story almost as well as he wrote one. But the writer hadn’t finished his tale, not quite. “I have tried from time to time, to remember if anything strange happened on that day and most of the time, I say to myself that nothing did. But, from time to time, I could almost swear a wind picked up, a wind that was warm and sweet and smelled strongly of summer time. But, that doesn’t make any sense to me, no summer breeze has ever blown in Colorado on the last day of October.” He paused momentarily, reaching for the cigarettes that he had just sworn off of again. When he offered, Tyler took one as well. “At least no natural wind, which brings us back around to that damnable book and to the spells we cast that day, a very long time ago. And to Mark.
“I asked your mother once, some ten or eleven years ago now, when I had the pleasure of her company as she tried to sell me Tupperware, if she remembered that day. She said that she did not. And Cassie’s mother was an even bigger surprise to me, because when I had occasion to ask her if she remembered, she had not only forgotten about that Halloween day, she had forgotten about Alex Harris as well and the two of them had dated for some time, almost half a year as I recall.”
The author sighed heavily and pulled himself from the bittersweet past with an almost visible effort. “I miss those days, Tyler. The whole world seemed more colorful back then. I suspect growing up pulls the colors away from you, as the time runs past; I should do my best to avoid that if I were you.”
And then, P.J., who had seemed to age as he spoke of the events, grew back to himself and smiled as warmly as he almost always did and Tyler felt the spell of his story telling crumble away. “So, it would seem to me, my fine young friend, that we should find that book and see if we can help poor Mark out of any possible supernatural dilemma he might be in.” They divided the likely areas of the store and started to search.
3
Tony was in a foul mood again, frustrated and bitter at the lack of progress in his attempts to win Cassie’s heart. The girls he’d been dating hadn’t been working out. None seemed able to compare to the image he had planted in his mind of how perfect Cassie must surely be. The thought of her was enough to make him smile on a bad day, or make him scowl when he had thought all was right with the world. He tried his best to hide the feelings, but knew as well as the next person that it wasn’t working very well.
Now, just to add to his delight, he was on his way to Tyler’s and they were all going swimming. Today he was prepared, he had brought another person with him, Lisa. If he had to be miserable in the company of someone he loved who was inaccessible, by God, he wouldn’t be alone. He could watch as Tyler stared and squirmed and tried to relax around his sister. And squirm he would. If her suit were any skimpier, she could have been in a Playboy magazine as the centerfold. Petty? Yes, but he no longer cared.
Lisa, it seemed, was up to her old tricks again, leading the poor guy around with nothing more than a smile and he had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. They had gone off into the woods a few weeks back, on the night that school had ended and almost everyone had assumed that something was going to happen, but Tony knew better; she was leading him around because it was easy, it made her feel good and because she needed someone who would listen to all of her problems. Tyler always had time to listen to someone’s problems, even when he knew that he should avoid that person.
He had no doubt that Ty knew better than to see his sister, the anguish was visible even through the thin veneer of happiness that Tyler always wore. Tony wondered what it was about the male of the species that made them such gluttons for punishment and then decided it was most likely the lump of flesh that dangled between their legs.
He smiled wryly at the thought and Lisa looked over at him from where she sat in the passenger’s seat. He turned slightly and smiled at her. They each understood the others reason for going to Tyler’s pool and they understood without a single word having to pass between them; they were, after all, brother and sister. As often as not, they could guess what the other was thinking, though both would deny it vehemently.
Tony pulled to the curb in front of Ty’s home, puzzled by the large number of cars before the monster of a house. He and Lisa got out of the car and were walking towards it, when Tyler popped his head out the front door and waved them in.
Tyler was wearing his usual baggy cutoffs and a white tee shirt that had probably never been used before—he couldn’t have looked any more different from Tony if he’d tried. Tony was wearing the same swim suit he wore during the school year, something just slightly larger than a G-string. Like his sister, he wore burgundy, a color that was an excellent contrast to their matching tans. Both of them had well defined bodies and had no hesitation to flaunt them—Must be dressing up for the special guest, Tony thought with a guilty smile, poor sonuvabitch. Tony felt himself growing guilty about asking if Lisa could come along; Tyler didn’t deserve the pain that her presence would cause him.
Lisa smiled warmly at Tyler and Tony watched the way his entire body tensed with the desire to hold her in his arms. He was feeling worse about this by the second. “Tonio, Lisa, come on in! The others are all here. I figured we’d go ahead and make a full scale party of the day.” They followed their host and exchanged puzzled looks.
When they entered the pool room they showed their astonishment clearly; the entire room was festooned with streamers of paper and with balloons. All the way across the pool, from wall to wall, was a huge hand-painted banner, garishly colored, with the legend “HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA and TONY!!!!” written across it. Inside the room, along with the decorations, were easily two dozen classmates and their uncle Phil. flashbulbs exploded like blazing blue suns, leaving spots of darkness in their eyes, as they heard the triumphant cry of “Surprise!” escape from over a score of mouths. Tony looked stupidly at the assembled people and slowly grinned. Lisa, for her part, squealed with delight and threw her arms around Tyler, who, to his credit, managed not to break into a thousand anguished pieces at the contact.
Tony found himself in a better mood in next to no time. Tyler had managed a surprise party well in advance of the actual date for their birthday, but that was all right; they could wait the fourteen days for the family’s celebration.
Mark and Cassie where there and he
ld to each other like Siamese twins, but with the other females there he would manage. It was Tyler he felt for; the guy had set this whole thing up and after the initial hug, Lisa went about the room as if he didn’t even exist, flirting with the other guys and ignoring all that Tyler had done for them. Tyler however, never lost his smile, strained though it was. If he had felt justified, Tony would have torn her apart; but he knew that he himself was less than innocent in the game of using people.
Uncle Phil was as friendly as ever, but he looked tired, as if he hadn’t been sleeping properly for quite a while. It hurt Tony to see the man in pain. He had always been at least as much a parent as his real folks were.
Later, he promised himself, he would get to the root of what the problem was. For now he had important things to do, like showing Cassie that he didn’t care if she preferred Mark, keeping himself busy with every free female in the room.
Sadly, he realized that he was hurting Mark in the process of avoiding Cassie, but some things were simply unavoidable. He thought back to the times before he and Mark had become friends and shook his head to realize that he had been the source of so much grief for the guy. Perhaps in the future, if he really tried, he could avoid that kind of mistake. Perhaps.
He wondered idly where Patrick was. Normally he would be at any function that could be called a party and he’d be having a good time and getting almost as many laughs as his hyperactive brother. Today, he was nowhere to be seen. The party got into full swing a little over an hour later. Most everybody was in the pool and those that weren’t were trying to sneak a drink past the hawkish eyes of P.J. Sanderson. They never had a chance, as soon as they looked even slightly suspicious he was right there smiling politely, looking slightly apologetic and plucking the liquor out of their hands. Tyler explained to Mark and Tony as they finished a race across the small lake of a pool, that the only way to have the party was to have a chaperon; P.J. had volunteered. Tony noticed that P.J. was smoking again and KNEW something was definitely wrong, but whatever it was could wait at least a little while.
Cassie and Lisa had apparently gotten over any differences that they might have had and were surrounded by a gaggle of other bathing beauties, and some not so beautiful, Tony allowed, talking no doubt about the small herd of guys at the other side of the party. The guys, of course, were eagerly returning the gossip in their own way. Tyler ran about the room with a nervous energy, making sure that everything was perfect; except for the few disgruntled would-be drinkers, everyone was having a great time.
Everyone except for Tyler. He hid it well, but Tony had learned a few things about how Tyler worked on the inside since they had buried the hatchet. Mark had also noticed and looked less than pleased, to put it nicely. When Ty was on the other side of the pool, he got right to the point. “What’s with Lisa,” he asked, a puzzled frown on his effeminate face. “It’s like she’s trying to fuck with Ty’s mind. If she didn’t even know him, she’d be friendlier than she’s being.”
Tony looked back at him and shook his head. “I really don’t know,” he lied. “I guess she just doesn’t realize what she’s doing.”
Mark looked over at her again and his face grew slightly stormy. He sank under the water for a moment and came back up flinging his hair out of his eyes. Tony hadn’t noticed how long Mark’s hair had gotten until he saw him soaking wet; he didn’t like the look on Mark, it made him look almost pretty. The effect was unsettling.
Mark looked over at him again. After several moments of treading water and asked, “Look, do you mind if I talk to her? I want to see if she could go a little easier on him, at least tell him that she’s not interested.” Tony was silent for a minute, trying to decide if that would be a wise thing to do. Mark decided to press the point. “I just think Tyler deserves better. You know how he feels about her.” His words were half question and half demand.
Tony had to agree with Mark on that point and nodded his assent. Mark flashed his even white teeth and sank under the waters like a hungry shark. Tony watched, amused, as Mark moved quickly and quietly across the pool’s length. Cassie yelped as he went past her and Tony cracked a smile of his own. Mark talked to the girl they both felt so strongly for and she looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. They whispered for a few minutes, all the time with Tony watching intently, staring at Cassie’s angelic face, until finally, Cassie broke away from Mark and headed for Lisa. Mark shot across the pool’s bottom again, heading back in Tony’s direction.
He came out of the water, not even breathing hard from lack of oxygen and explained that Cassie was going to do the talking. Tony bit his tongue on the questions as to why; he already knew what had almost occurred between his sister and his friend, Lisa couldn’t keep something like that a secret from him. He smiled and watched as the two girls got out of the pool walking a safe distance from the rest of the group. When Tyler started in their direction, he was appalled. Tony thumped Mark lightly in the chest and pointed. “Yo, Mark. Red alert, man.”
“Oh shit. This ain’t gonna be pretty.”
A moment later, P.J. stood in front of Tyler and redirected their friend, heading in the opposite direction with him. They would have thought the action a coincidence if he hadn’t winked at them as he went past.
Lisa and Cassie spoke for several minutes, angry expressions changing to hurt, changing to anger again and finally transforming into smiles and laughter. They had no idea what she had said to Lisa, but whatever it was had worked. Lisa was moving across the room in a beeline for Tyler. A moment later, she walked outside with him, disappearing for a long time.
When they showed back up, Tyler looked confused and Lisa looked content. Mark and Tony looked at each other, sharing a puzzled “who the hell can say” look and went about their water sports.
4
Cassie and Lisa walked together through the woods behind Tyler’s house. As a result of Tony’s friendship and the odd times when he would bring Lisa along, they had started to become friends. Neither had really expected it to happen, not with what had almost happened between Mark and Lisa, but they had managed to do it just the same. They had a lot in common, aside from just being female and teens. They liked the same kind of music (Bowie was without a doubt, the best looking man either of them could think of in the music industry and both admitted to more than one sexual fantasy about him), they had similar tastes in movies and in books and of course, they agreed vehemently on men. The talk at the pool had helped to cement their friendship; they had finally gotten all of the walls between them torn asunder and could now begin to build a trusting relationship.
Cassie had hit the nail on the head when it came to observations about how Lisa felt about Tyler; she liked him more than just a lot and she wanted to see if they had any kind of chance at a relationship, but she also had a few problems with his looks. Cassie clarified that as well: he was twice as skinny as a beanpole and had more grease on his face than a pizza has cheese. It was only when she felt herself starting to take offense at the comment, that Lisa realized just how right Cassie was. She really did have feelings for him.
She took the advice that Cassie had to give; she dragged Tyler outside and told him how she felt, cautioning him that it would take her awhile to really sort everything out in her mind. Tyler nodded and said that she could take her time, his schedule was clear for about the next century or so. He made her laugh and that was a big boon. Now all she had to do was avoid the head games she had been playing on him and sort out her real feelings. That was what she was trying to do now, with Cassie along for support and advice. Cassie hadn’t said a word so far, she’d just been there. Lisa was grateful to her.
“Mark and Tony asked me what we’d talked about,” Cassie said startling Lisa half out of her swimsuit.
“What did you tell them?”
Cassie smiled maliciously and Lisa waited knowing in advance that it would likely be something about it being none of their damn business. “I told them exactly what my mother told me to tell g
uys who were too curious. ‘Girl stuff’. You should have seen the looks on their faces.”
Lisa chuckled at that one; she’d used it more than a few times herself. They continued in silence and Lisa decided that Cassie should go into psycho-analysis as a profession. Either that, or she could be a talk show host. Lisa looked over at the girl who was so different from her in appearance—slimmer and more athletic, with eyes and hair a thousand shades lighter and freckled skin as pale as cream, except where the summer sun had given a light bronze coating—and she wondered how it was that they could have so much in common. She decided at last that some things shouldn’t be questioned, some things should simply be.
5
Patrick sat in his room watching the two girls step out from the pool area, into the warm summer’s light and he admired the way their bodies shifted. He’d spent the last seven days practically locked in his room afraid that he might run across Mark if he left. Afraid that Mark might decide to remove the one witness to his crime.
He was startled by the sound of someone knocking on his door. He blushed at the yelp that escaped past his lips. After a few silent seconds, he called for his visitor to come in. It was Tony.
“Hey, Tony, what’s up?”
Tony frowned slightly, looking at the mess that his room had become. “I was gonna ask you the same thing, man. Where you been hiding yourself?”
He motioned for Tony to have a seat and after kicking a small pile of dirty clothes off of a chair, Tony did. “I’ve been feeling kinda weird, guy. I-” He didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t just blurt out that he’d seen Mark turn into a monster, Tony would be the very first one to say that he’d been tripping.
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