by K. C. RILEY
Jake had only been gone for a day, but a day seemed more like months. I needed to get him back. And fast.
My mind jumped down another rabbit hole.
What if Sister Clara and Mrs. Ellington were testing me to see if I would break and give into the venom? Sister Clara said taking it could be dangerous because I was a natural witch. The question was, how dangerous? No one was guarding it but an old napping raven. It kind of seemed like a no-brainer to just take it. And yet, I was back to not knowing who or what I could trust. Even the venom.
“I better get going,” I said, disappointed and cranky. I hadn’t eaten all day. And not because of magic classes, but because I was worried about Jake.
“Very good. Your regular classes will start tomorrow after lunch. Today was a sort of orientation.”
I smiled and nodded. “Got it. Thanks.”
It was already four in the afternoon. I stopped by the vending machine at my dorm’s kitchen and grabbed a sandwich. My phone beeped in the elevator on the way up to my room. It was Cassie.
Vye’s at five?
I gathered that she and Josie wanted to talk. But what more was there to say? Then again, there was a lot to say. On top of still feeling betrayed, I also felt guilty about not telling Cassie about her father and the note left by Jake.
Reluctantly, I texted her back.
Ok.
So we would meet. And then what? Hey Cassie, just wanted to let you know your dad tried to kill me, as in he shot me, and in return, I think Jake killed him. I’m not too sure, but here’s a map Jake left to what might be the remains of your dead father. Yeah. Real smooth.
I could still hear the gun going off in my head and, once again, felt like I was at the mercy of everyone and everything around me. Stepping out of the elevator, I unraveled my sandwich from the plastic wrap and took a bite. Peanut butter and jelly. I thought comfort food would help ground my stomach and my nerves. It didn’t. My mind spun in every direction about Cassie’s dad and what to tell her, until I finally made a decision.
I had to go find out for myself.
Inside my room, I quickly changed out of my uniform, grabbed my car keys, and Jake’s map to go only God knew where.
5
Jake’s map started at the edge of Old Crougar’s Bridge, a creepy overpass about fifteen minutes from school. Then again, everything was about fifteen minutes from school. I pulled over to the side of the road and got out. A murder of crows exploded into the air with high-pitched squawks when I slammed my car door shut. Maybe it was a warning to turn the heck around.
According to Jake’s map, there should have been a marking on a tree about thirty feet from the weathered bridge. There was.
I took a deep breath and stepped cautiously into the woods with my pepper spray in hand. Luckily, it was daylight and there was still plenty of it left. Enough to get in and out, I hoped.
I felt uneasy about being alone at night. Ever since getting shot, anyway. That, coupled with a justified overactive imagination, had me walking on eggshells not sure of what might jump out from behind a tree; a ghost, a vampire, a witch, or now, maybe even a Lycan. You’ve got to love Shadowick.
I followed Jake’s markers from one to the other—an X marked in the trees. My nerves began to crumble with each crunch of the forest floor underfoot, the memories from the night I was shot rushing through me.
It had been on the night of Zander’s party. I was on my way back to the dorms walking on the side of the road. In the dark. Alone. And pissed. Stupid, I know. The girls had already driven off and it was raining buckets on my head when someone called out from the wet abyss, Daughter of Cain. Witch.
Granted, I was instantly healed by an angel. But who does that? Just shoot another person because they're different? There was something beyond hateful about it. It was just plain evil.
There was one marker left to go as I held my hands under my arms to stop them from trembling. I hadn’t given any thought to what I would actually do at the final marker. What if Cassie’s dad was dead? Then what?
If I called the police they might think I had done it. And how was I supposed to tell them the truth?
I hugged my hands tighter around me when another text came through. Cassie and the others were expecting me at Vye’s. I hadn’t forgotten. But, it was too late to turn around.
I had been walking for almost half an hour when I came to the last marker, an old broken-down shack that looked more like an outhouse than a cabin. What on earth was it doing way out here?
My heart raced as I leaned over my knees and breathed deeper, slower.
Haunted by the flashbacks from that night, I took another deep breath and stood up. With an unsteady hand, I inched closer to the door. The sound of it creaking open crawled over my skin like ants.
Rays of sunlight cracked through the rotten boards in the roof. And the stench of urine and crap almost made me hurl.
On the floor in the shadows was a man in a tattered, soiled shirt lying next to a jug of water and what looked like a crumbled bag of stale bread. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive, not until he moaned and stared up at me with the same dull blue eyes, the same dark blonde hair, and the same birthmark from the photo I had seen of him. Cassie’s father, Mr. Johnson. The guy that shot me.
With dried, cracked lips he whispered while pushing himself off the ground. “Daughter of Cain.”
I couldn’t think, let alone move, paralyzed by the words and the sound of a chain dragging against the floor.
“Witch,” he said, growling like a mad dog.
I just stood there. Petrified. Powerless. Another dumb move. And another bad idea.
Mr. Johnson lunged forward and once again, I knew I was about to die.
“Witch!” he screamed.
Within an inch of me, the chain and collar at his neck snapped him back, choking him. It was the only thing keeping him from tearing me apart.
I was an idiot to have come out here by myself, and finally snapped out of it. I took off like a jackrabbit, my heart thumping like it would tear out of my chest.
What the hell was I thinking? This was all way out of my league. The Society. Being a witch. And Cassie’s dad. I thought I could face him, but I was wrong.
My phone rang as I tore through the woods. There was no way I was stopping to answer it.
I followed the markers until I was back inside of my car where I sat trying not to have a heart attack or hyperventilate. My phone beeped again. Cassie.
I guess this means you’re not coming.
Trembling hard, I could barely hold the phone in my hand to text her back. And so I did the next best thing. I drove straight to Vye’s to tell Cassie the truth about her dad. All of it.
Twenty minutes later, I was dashing through Vye’s front door.
“Hey, honey.” Vye had just set down two coffees in front of a customer when she placed her hand on her hip. “What are you doing here? And what’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She pursed her lips. “But you haven’t, right?”
“Cassie, Josie. I was supposed to meet them here.”
“Oh. Well, they left about twenty minutes ago. Something about getting ready for some big Halloween Party.”
Halloween? It hadn’t dawned on me until I looked around the place. There were witches, ghosts, and goblins on the walls, the windows, and hanging from the ceiling. Of course. I was the one that had helped her put them up a couple of weeks ago.
I looked at everything around me as though seeing it for the first time. Was I that out of it? I stared at the big bowl of candy at the front counter. How could I have forgotten it was Halloween? I stepped back outside to look up and down the street. The kids were all dressed up in costumes as they went trick-or-treating from store to store.
“Honey, are you okay? And you didn’t say a thing about my costume.”
It was only then that I realized she was dressed up like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. I was losing it. “You look great. Sorry.
I got to go.”
“Go where?”
“I need to catch up with Cassie. I’ll call you. Promise,” I said, racing out the door.
“All right. Well, you better.”
I knew I was under stress. A lot of it. But forgetting it was Halloween? I texted Cassie.
Sorry I missed you guys. Where are you?
Cassie soon texted back.
Last-minute Halloween Party...
839 Grover’s Ln.
Hope you can come.
I started my car, Lucy, and she backed up in a puff of black smoke. The people on the sidewalk stared at me and Lucy as though we were one big eyesore.
“Come on girl,” I said. “Not today.”
By the third time, she started back up and I was off. The address Cassie sent was about an hour away.
The drive over was intense.
All I could see was Mr. Johnson’s eyes peering through me like he could see the darkness inside. All I could feel was the putrid hate inside of him that wanted to completely rip it out. I had seen visions of the world ending because of me. What if it wasn’t just my imagination? What if there was some truth to it? The thought of being evil weighed on my shoulders. The story of Eve, Gadreel, and Adam that Sister Clara had shown me on the walls of Alexandria.
I had to get a grip. Me as the harbinger of the end of the world was all nonsense. It had to be. Both Sister Clara and Mrs. Ellington had said it themselves. I was supposed to be saving magic not ending it. And even that made no sense.
The sun was close to setting when I parked in front of a house dressed in spider webs and boarded windows. A reaper hovered over the porch, and pumpkins and tombstones were scattered in the front yard. Rolls of toilet tissue dangled and swung from the trees.
A bunch of teens dressed up in costumes ran in and out of the house chasing each other with drinks in their hands. One of them ran up to the car and splattered the windshield with some kind of green goo.
“Really?” I yelled, turning on my wipers to clean it. The guy had already taken off.
Pissed and still recovering from my PTSD encounter with Mr. Johnson, I got out of the car and headed up to the door as the music thumped from inside the house.
People raced around me screaming, yelling, and having a good time like I was completely invisible. Granted, I wasn’t in a costume. But still, it was weird not being seen.
It didn’t matter. I wasn’t there to party. I needed to find Cassie and tell her the truth, quickly.
Hoping she would meet me outside I texted her.
I’m here.
I waited for a second but didn’t get a response. With a deep breath, I followed Wonder Woman, a gorilla, and Beetlejuice inside of the house. The place was packed to the brim, people talking, taking shots, and dancing in the main room. I stretched up on my tippy-toes on the lookout for Cassie, Josie, or the boys. It was no use, though; I had no idea what their costumes were.
Pressed like a sandwich between Little Bo Peep, a banana, I think, and the Wicked Witch of the West, I tried texting Cassie again. But nothing. There was a bunch of cheering from the center of the room, however, that caught my attention. I pushed through the crowd to see Cassie and Josie dancing around each other while seductively swaying their hips.
I had no idea they could move like that. I pushed my way through until I was on the dance floor in front of them both.
The crowd kept cheering as Josie wrapped a sheer pink scarf around my neck enticing me to move my hips with them and the music. That was not happening.
Cassie smiled bewitchingly as she lured me closer to her with the curling of a finger. They were both dressed like hot belly dancers. Cassie wore a gold beaded bra along with golden sheer fabric and beads that swayed and hung low from her winding hips. Josie wore the same costume, except hers was red. Last-minute or not, it was clear that they had planned this thing together, both coming to the party and the costumes. Having fun. For a split second, I kind of felt left out. I had missed our nightly meetings hanging out in each other’s room when we were coordinating the Homecoming Ball. The sting of it all snapped me back to reality because how I felt didn’t matter. Cassie needed to know the truth about her dad.
I leaned into Cassie’s ear. “I need to talk to you.”
“Where’s your costume?” she asked.
“There’s no time,” I yelled over the music. “It’s important.”
Josie was still dragging that stupid fabric around my neck. And I was losing patience.
I grabbed Cassie’s hand and dragged her behind me until we were outside on the porch.
“Now, you want to talk? What’s with you?” Cassie asked as I let go of her hand.
“Look. I’m sorry about ditching you guys earlier. There was something I had to do.”
I was about to tell Cassie about her dad when the music poured onto the porch from someone opening the door. Josie.
“You know, I’m tired of being the third wheel between the two of you.”
There just wasn’t any time to argue about who was whose friend. Besides, holding on to all of these secrets was wearing me down.
“Cassie, your dad is here in Shadowick,” I said, plainly.
Cassie’s face paled.
I made sure no one else was around.
“He tried to kill me,” I continued. “It was when I first got here. The night you guys dropped me off after Zander’s party. Your dad, he shot me. He was going to kill me, but Jake stopped him and healed me. I didn’t remember any of it until a couple of weeks ago at the dance because Jake had swiped my memory.”
“What?”
“I wanted to tell you after the Homecoming Ball, but there was so much going on. And I knew how much you still loved your dad. And I wasn’t sure if Jake had actually killed him or not.”
I had never seen Cassie pissed before.
“You’ve been mad at us for keeping secrets we had to keep, but you’ve been keeping this to yourself the whole time?” The disappointment in Cassie’s voice pressed on me like a bag of bricks.
Clearly, I sucked at the whole friendship thing and probably could have handled it all a lot better. Okay, way better. Trying to explain everything was coming out all wrong. “But he didn’t kill him,” I quickly said like an idiot thinking that would make her feel better. “Your dad, he’s alive, chained up in the woods. Jake left a map.”
Josie, stood there with her jaw dropped open, not saying a word—a first for Josie.
The shock and confusion on Cassie’s face ripped through my core. Cassie was right. No matter how betrayed I had felt, after what I had done, I had no right to be mad at either of them.
6
Cassie and Josie followed behind me in Josie’s car.
What the blazes were we going to do? So she would find her dad shackled in the woods not dead, but alive, and out of his mind stewing in piss and shit.
Then what? I didn’t trust the police or Cassie’s aunt, Sheriff Johnson, and I sure as heck didn’t want to drag Aunt Vye into any more drama.
Sister Clara mentioned The Lycans of Anubis were protectors of magic and witches. Protection was exactly what I needed. There was only one Lycan I knew I could call. Alexei.
We all parked off to the side of the road and got out.
“Crougar’s Bridge?” Josie asked. “Are you insane? This place is haunted. No one ever comes here. Not even my crazy ass boyfriend.”
I glanced over at Cassie. She never said a word.
Peering into the dark forest, I swallowed hard. It looked way creepier now than it had earlier. “Well, we don’t have much choice. And you’re not helping.”
Josie shrugged.
I pulled out Jake’s map and highlighted the markings with a small flashlight I kept in the car. Something eerie rolled across the ground, some kind of fog. “What the?”
“Told you,” Josie said. “Haunted.”
“Still not helping. And it’s just fog.”
“Sure. Keep telling yourself that.”
“We need to go this way,” I said, trying to ignore her.
The sound of dried leaves and pine needles crunching underfoot was unsettling. Owls hooted while coyotes carried on like hyenas mocking us in the dark. None of it seemed to phase Cassie. I knew she was mad, but had she forgotten the part where I mentioned her dad shot me?
We came to another marking. The closer we got, the more my heart thumped in my chest.
“Are we almost—”
“Yes. We’re close,” I said cutting Josie off. I couldn’t help it. The hairs on my arms stood on end, the stress of fear close to pushing me out of my skin.
A few more yards and we had arrived. There was no light in the shack. Suddenly, as is if cued, the forest went dead silent.
“My dad’s in there?” It was the first thing Cassie had said since getting out of the car.
I shined my flashlight at the shed and nodded.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.
“Yes.” Cassie’s voice was cold and empty.
I pushed open the creaking door and pointed the flashlight toward the floor where her dad had been earlier.
The girls both gagged.
“It smells like shit in here.” Josie held her hand over her nose and mouth. “And I don’t see a thing. There’s no one here.”
The stench was just as unbearable as it had been earlier. And Josie was right. It looked like no one was there. We were about to take another step when Mr. Johnson leaped out from the dark.
All three of us screamed as we lunged back and grabbed onto each other as though that would somehow help.
The chain and collar was the only thing keeping Mr. Johnson from reaching us.
“Witches!” he yelled. “Prostitutes! Whores! You’ll all burn in hell for it!”
Before he could get the next word out, the wind unnaturally picked up in the room, the air swirling strong enough to lift Mr. Johnson off the ground. Cassie broke from our grip and stepped forward.
“Witches!” he cried out. “I told you. Witches!”
It was all happening so fast. I tried to pull Cassie back, but she turned to face me and I let her go. Her eyes had blackened over and she wasn’t herself. It was like she was in some kind of trance.