Spells Like Teen Spirit

by Kate M. Williams

  “I’ll be right back,” I whispered, finding Mallory’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “Don’t move.” Telling an unconscious person not to move made one half of my brain giggle, and the other half tell it to shut up.

  I crept down the hall, and at the end, I got to what I thought must be the kitchen. My knee hit something and knocked it over, and I nearly jumped out of my skin at the metal clangs it made as it rolled across the floor. I bent down and touched the part of it that was nearest me. It was metal and round, like a cup. Lightweight and hollow, with paper wrapped around the outside. It was a soup can. I had knocked over a grocery bag full of empty soup cans. I was toeing the cans out of my way, when my foot hit something soft again, and now I wasted no time in figuring out what, or who, it was.

  I felt the soft fuzz of a buzzed head, and I could tell it was Ruby. She was slumped up against the wall, her legs sprawled out in front of her and the top half of her body curled in on itself so that one of her shoulders was almost touching the floor, and she was in the same state as Mallory. Breathing steadily and deeply, but 100 percent out.

  What had happened to them? I stood up quickly, and resumed feeling my way through the kitchen, and finally made it to what I assumed, by the presence of a couch, was the living room. I bumped around until I found the third person I was looking for. Cassandra was lying half on and half off the couch, like she’d been crawling on the floor when the spell had finally overtaken her, and she’d collapsed there.

  “Cassandra,” I whispered, frantically shaking her. “You have to wake up. We have to get out of here. They’re going to be back any minute.” Nothing. I looked around the room and could just barely make out the shapes of the furniture, and the front door. It wasn’t that far away, so maybe I could open it and drag her?

  I crawled to the door, not wanting to think about the decades of spilled soup lurking in the carpet, then felt up until I found the doorknob. I turned the knob and pulled, but of course nothing happened. I continued to feel upward, looking for a lock, but there was only a keyhole. A door that could only be opened from the inside with a key? Yeah, nothing creepy at all about that. I turned and crawled back to Cassandra, trying to mentally run through my options. I could drag them out one by one, physically, but that would take forever. Even if I could use my kinesis without triggering some sort of further attack from the Red Magic, that would also take forever, because I’d have to move as slowly as possible to keep from banging my friends’ heads on every doorway and corner we passed.

  The Red Magic in the house had overwhelmed all three of them, and there could only be one reason why it wasn’t overtaking me: the talisman. I reached down into my bra and pulled out the bear. Then I bit the head off, ripping the threads with my teeth, and shoved it into Cassandra’s pocket.

  As soon as I did, the static sounds around me got louder, and I could feel my face get heavier, that kind of artificial, I-could-sleep-here tired, like the time I accidentally took NyQuil first thing in the morning. I forced my eyes to open wider, and gave Cassandra a shake again, and this time she stirred.

  “Cass,” I hissed, “get up! Superfüd will be back in a minute.” She groaned and rolled onto her back, and then slid down to the floor.

  “Blooper dude?” she mumbled. I had forgotten that she didn’t know what the band’s name was tonight.

  “No…,” I started, then stopped myself from correcting her. “Blooper Dude” was a name that really captured what the band was all about. “Yes,” I said, “and they’re going to be here soon.” I stood up and pulled her to her feet, and then shook her again. “Come on, shake it off. Your mom is outside.”

  “What?” Cassandra said, her voice suddenly back to normal. “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m not,” I said. “I’ll tell you the whole story, but right now we have to get out of here, and fast. Ruby and Mallory are out cold, and I’m worried that if I use my kinesis to carry them out, that will trigger the house even more.”

  “I can just…,” she started to say, and all of a sudden, I saw a small flame flare up, momentarily lighting up the living room with glowing orange. I immediately slapped my hand over hers, extinguishing the flame and sending a searing pain through my palm.

  “No,” I said, but it was already clear that my fear had been right. The noise from the currents of Red Magic instantly got louder, progressing from a static buzz to a full-on shriek. Cassandra and I both clapped our hands over our ears, and I felt like I wanted to crawl right out of my skin. My eyeballs were bulging, I couldn’t keep my tongue in my mouth, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to jump up and down and do backflips or lie down and sleep for the rest of my life. I couldn’t do backflips, so sleep it would—

  “Stop it, Esme! Stop it!” My conscience in the form of Circe’s voice was yelling at me. “Go, leave now!” I grabbed Cassandra by the arm and started to pull her. Using my free hand, I raised my palm and said, “Luxikinesis.” A soft, glowing orb appeared, hovering about a foot in front of us. Since the alarm had already been triggered, I figured we should at least be able to see.

  I started to run, and Cassandra stumbled after me. In the kitchen, she caught sight of Ruby and was at her side in two steps, shaking her and calling her name. “She won’t wake up,” I said. “Just grab her and go.”

  Cassandra looked confused, no doubt the Red Magic messing with her mind and energy, but she nodded and leaned down, grabbing Ruby under her armpits. I stepped over them into the hall, and Cassandra followed, dragging Ruby on the ground behind her. When I found Mallory, I bent, scooped her up, and knocked soup cans out of the way as I pulled her down the hall. “Follow me,” I said to Cass, not sure if the words actually came out or if I just thought them, but she still managed to follow me, the little glowing orb hovering just above us.

  We made it back into the bedroom, and I sat Mallory down on the floor. I felt dizzy and out of breath, but stumbled over to the window and shoved the curtain aside. Cassandra was also breathing heavily, and she kept squinting, like she was trying to focus. “Are they going to be okay?” she asked.

  “I think so,” I said. “You were like that when I found you.”

  “How’d you wake me up?” she said.

  “A Red Magic talisman your mom gave me. Its head is in your pocket,” I said, and from the look Cassandra gave me, I might as well have told her that I’d used bananas from Mars. “I’ll explain outside,” I said. “Or she’ll explain outside, but we need to go.”

  She nodded, picked Ruby up, and then walked her over to the window and set her down gently right beneath it. With much less grace, I dragged Mallory over.

  “You go first,” Cassandra said, “and then maybe you can use your powers to pull them through from the other side.” I nodded, then put my hands on the windowsill and hoisted myself up and over. A gazelle I was not, and I landed on the ground outside with a thud, my dress stretched up behind me, the skirt caught on a snag of wood. I yanked it down, ripping the fabric and leaving a shred of pink behind me. The inside of my brain still felt like a tornado, but now that I was at least outside the house, it was easier to ignore the Red Magic noise. Cassandra appeared in the window, holding Ruby like a rag doll, and I was as careful as I could be as I lifted her with my kinesis and guided her out the window.

  It was a team effort, and Cassandra helped, placing Ruby’s arms on top of her body so that they didn’t bang on anything, and then holding on to Ruby’s feet so that they went right through the center. I kept my palms up and did my best to focus, and was grateful for the help, even though it felt kind of like we were two handlers and Ruby was our Thanksgiving parade balloon.

  As soon as she was through the window, I set her down on the grass, and Cassandra readied Mallory, doing the same to make sure that none of her limbs, and especially her head, hit or scraped the windowsill. Once we’d cleared the window, I set Mallory down next to Ruby, who was already st
arting to stir, though she still had her eyes closed like she was asleep. Cassandra jumped through the window quickly, landed quietly, and then shook her head and blinked her eyes.

  “We have to get away from this sound, or whatever it is,” she said, then stopped. “Wait, you said my mom’s here?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “They kidnapped us both and put us in a storage unit.”

  “Then where the heck is everybody?” she asked, bending down over Ruby. “Why are you a solo rescue mission?”

  “They’re shopping,” I said.

  “Now?” she said, sounding pissed. “I mean, come on. I know you guys are into clothes, but priorities, people!”

  “No,” I said, “not shopping like that. For ritual stuff. Your mom knows a ritual that will strip the band of their powers, so we want to do it tonight, and get this over with.” I ran down the driveway and looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of Brian’s car. Crap. I ran back to where Cassandra was bent over Mallory, and almost screamed when a dark blur tackled Cassandra. I raised my hands, ready to fling them off, when I realized that it was Circe, and that the tackle was actually a hug.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I’m just so happy to see you—to finally, really, truly see you.” She pulled back, and Cassandra seemed stunned. No doubt staring into a face that looked so much like hers was a shock. “But now we have to hurry! We need to get them someplace safe to wait for the spell to wear off,” Circe added. Cassandra nodded, and swallowed. “There are some bushes a few houses down, if we can get them there until Brian gets back…” Circe stopped, and we all froze, as we heard the sound of tires crunching in the driveway. Superfüd was home.

  And they were fighting.

  A car door slammed, and an angry voice carried through the night. “…trying to pay at Sonic with a five-hundred-dollar bill? They brought the freaking manager out, dude!”

  “Are you, or are you not, enjoying that cherry limeade?”

  “Yeah, it’s delicious, but that’s not the point.”

  “What is the point?”

  “The point is that, for the last two months, whenever any of us wants to do something fun, you get on this soapbox about lying low. But when you just have to have a Nerd Slush…”

  Circe, Cassandra, and I exchanged looks. The driveway as exit route was now out of the question, which meant we had to go away from the street, farther into their backyard, which meant still more time in the Red Magic. Cassandra caught my eye and nodded, and I held out my hands and scooped Ruby and Mallory up, lifting them each to a few feet off the ground. Mallory’s hair trailed down behind her, and they both looked like possessed children levitating off their beds. With Circe in front of us, leading the way, and Cassandra behind me, I kept my attention focused on the floating bodies in front of me, and it felt like we were making good progress. A small chain-link fence separated the backyard from the alley that ran behind all the houses, and once we got over that, it would be easy to get Ruby and Mallory back to Dion’s van.

  Ha, right. Wishful thinking.

  “Shut up, both of you!” A voice rose up over the two that were arguing. “It feels like someone was here.” In a split second, Superfüd’s backyard lit up like a stadium. In front of us, there was the fence, still very far away. Behind us, four black silhouettes against the light, staring straight at us.

  “You two, go!” Cassandra hissed. “I’ll distract them.” I nodded, and then Circe and I turned and ran, all the while zooming Ruby and Mallory along like they were on a zip line. We got to the back fence, and Circe jumped it neatly. I started to scramble over it, then heard something. A hiss, a crackle, a rush of air. I turned, and saw that Superfüd’s house had gone up in flames, the blinding bright lights of their backyard now tinted with a flickering orange. Cassandra stood there with her hands out.

  Oh no. This was a distraction all right, but not a subtle one. I quickly set Ruby and Mallory down in the alley, almost too roughly, and then ran back for Cassandra.

  I reached her in a few steps, and then grabbed her by the arm and started to yank her back toward the alley. “They ran away,” she crowed. “They just turned and ran away!”

  “Good,” I said, “because we need to get out of here.”

  The house, the grass, the clothes that hung on the clothesline were all on fire, and up and down the block, house lights were starting to come on and voices were beginning to shout.

  In the middle of it, Cassandra seemed to be having a grand old time. In fact, in the disco glow of the inferno, I could see that she was smiling. I had never seen her so happy. And then it hit me. She still had half of the talisman in her pocket. No wonder she was having so much fun. She was loving this chaos and destruction.

  I stuck my hand down into my bra, and started to feel around for the other half, but it was gone, probably having fallen out somewhere along the way. I panicked for a second, but then felt a wave of relief. Since I was no longer under the influence of Red Magic, I could trust my decisions again.

  “We have to leave,” I said, now yanking Cassandra with both my arms and my kinesis. “We won,” I said. “We got your mom and nobody got hurt. We will deal with them later.” Orange and yellow light danced across Cassandra’s face, and beads of sweat were starting to form on her forehead. I was sweating too, because it was hot. In the distance, I heard sirens wailing. Tonight was turning out to be quite the night for the Spring River fire department. “Cass,” I said, and then she nodded and we both started to run.

  We jumped the fence, and in the alley, Mallory and Ruby were where I had set them down, and Circe was crouching over them. Ruby was awake, but still groggy.

  “Oh my God,” Cassandra said, falling to her knees and throwing her arms around Ruby.

  Ruby hugged her back, but weakly. “Where are we?” she asked. “What happened? Why do I feel so awful?”

  “The house spelled you,” I said as Cassandra and Circe helped Ruby to her feet and started to pull her down the alley. I picked up Mallory and stayed close behind them.

  “You look familiar,” Ruby said, looking at Circe with a mixture of recognition and confusion.

  Cassandra cleared her throat. “Um, this is my mom,” she said. Ruby’s eyes widened, and then she looked back and forth between the two of them.

  “Nice to meet you,” Circe said, smiling at Ruby and instantly picking up on the fact that this was someone very important to her daughter.

  “So, we found you?” Ruby said, stumbling briefly as her foot hit a rock.

  “Not exactly,” I said. “But it’s still mission accomplished, and we’re going home. We have to get out of here while we still can.”

  “Where’s Ma—” Ruby started, and then gasped when she turned around and saw me with my hands out, and her partner floating next to me.

  “She’s just asleep,” Circe explained, quickly assuring Ruby and trying to keep her moving forward. “We just need to get her someplace safe so she can sleep it off.”

  I glanced back and saw nothing but shadows in the alley. Every second that Superfüd wasn’t in my sight made me more and more nervous. “We need everyone back from that Target run, now,” I said.

  The sound of sirens was growing louder and louder, and I could hear people shouting. I glanced up and down the alley, but still no sight of Superfüd. Maybe they were back at the house, trying to save their home with a garden hose on full blast. But no matter where they were, we couldn’t walk, or run, down the street with a girl floating in midair.

  Cassandra seemed to sense my worry. “Stay here,” she said. “I’ll go and get the van.”

  “No,” I said back, more forcefully than I had meant to. “We’re not splitting up again.”

  “Well, we can’t leave them here alone,” Cassandra said, gesturing to Ruby, Circe, and Mallory.

  “Then we’re all going together,” I ans
wered. “Slower, but stronger.”

  Cassandra hesitated, looked behind her, and then turned back to me and nodded.

  “I can walk,” Ruby said. “I’m fine.” Then she took a step forward and her knees buckled beneath her. Circe was quick and managed to grab Ruby before she hit the ground. My kinetic grip on Mallory momentarily slipped, and she gave a little snore as she dipped, before I hoisted her back up. “She’s always been a heavy sleeper,” Ruby said.

  I shifted Mallory so that I was carrying her upright, and together the five of us were moving as quickly as we could, just another group of teenagers (and one party mom) out having too much fun.

  We turned the corner, and Dion’s van was in sight. Fortunately, when they had arrived, Cassandra hadn’t parked too close to the house, but we could still see the flames. The street was dotted with people standing on their front porches and yelling about calling the fire department, and I hoped that none of them would notice that Mallory’s feet weren’t touching the ground. We didn’t have time to zap a bunch of brains right then.

  At the van, Cassandra pulled the door open, and she and Circe helped Ruby inside, and then turned to take Mallory from me. As I released my kinesis, I looked down the block. Superfüd were still nowhere in sight.

  “Cass,” I said, “I don’t like this.” Circe climbed into the back, and Cassandra shut the door behind her. Then I climbed in shotgun as Cass ran around to get behind the wheel. “Where are they?” I turned, craning my neck and squinting as I peered up and down the block, and there was no sign of them. “What are they doing?”

  Cassandra turned the key, and nothing happened. “Oh, come on,” she said. “Now is not that time. She banged her hand on the steering wheel and took a deep breath, then did a complicated routine of key turns and foot pumps that seemed just as religious as it did mechanical. I think Circe and I were also holding our breath, and we all exhaled as the van finally whined to life. Cassandra cranked the wheel and started to do a U-turn. The van had no power steering, and it felt like we were moving in slow motion. After one final reversal, we were finally facing the opposite direction, and Cassandra floored it. Ruby got up on her knees and leaned forward between our seats.