“Ouch,” he said rubbing his arm. “I don’t know any more than that. She told us at the same time. She also made us swear an oath. You don’t break an oath to a dead person. It brings what you call bad juju,” he said, glaring at Ian.
“Well, look at the time. I think Molly and I are going to go do some training,” Ian said, trying to pull Molly’s tray away from her.
“What training? What are you talking about?” Molly looked completely confused as she followed after him.
“So, what would you like to do with the rest of the day?” Kennan asked, trying to change the subject.
“You are so not off of the hook for this buster. Just yesterday you promised no more secrets. I’m pretty sure you were there for that whole conversation. As to what I plan to do today, I’m going to go talk to Isadora and try and figure out what in the heck is going on in my noggin,” I said, getting up and taking my tray. I wasn’t as mad at Kennan as I had been the day before, but he’d once again kept something from me. I understood how he felt about oaths, though. He had sworn a few to me and I was glad to know that he would not break them.
As I reached for the tray return cart I was struck by a vision. My tray toppled to the floor along with my body.
**********
I was standing in an abandoned building. I knew this place well. I was standing inside the Lawndale Theater in Chicago. The place had been out of use for as long as I could remember. But there I stood, watching the same shady figure of a woman that had been in my previous vision. I looked around and noticed that there were three other figures wearing robes. From their sizes, I would guess them to be Guardians. They swayed back and forth in a circle chanting something. I was struck by the strangest sense of déjà vu.
I moved closer to see what was going on. I found a sight I had never wanted to see again.
“Pretty gruesome, huh?” Ren asked from behind me. I jumped and barely contained my scream.
“What are you doing here? This isn’t the dreaming,” I whispered harshly.
“No, but that poor Seer is about to be ripped from her body and tossed to this plane so I came to help her. I had the ability to see spaces with my eyes closed while I was alive. I just figured out I could still do it now. It comes in handy when you don’t have any real eyes left,” she said staring toward the stage as if she could see what was happening as easily as I could.
I shook off the feeling of nausea that swept through my body. I needed to be closer so that I could see what was going on. I needed to know what was being said. I moved silently through the old seats toward the stage. The Seer lying on the stage turned her eyes toward me in a quick glance before unleashing an unholy scream. It vibrated deep down in my soul. I knew I needed to stop this, but it was a solid vision. There was nothing that could be done. This was not an event that I could change.
“This sucks,” I said, frustrated.
“You’re telling me. At least you still have your eyes. Oh, and your life,” Ren griped.
“Seriously, if you are going to be haunting my visions, could you at least be a little nice? It isn’t like I want any of this to be happening, you know. Besides, you are distracting me. I need to figure out what is going on if I have any chance of stopping this. You do want to be free to move on, don’t you?” She just stared at me with a bored expression.
“Don’t be so emo,” she said before moving toward the stage.
Just as we reached the stage the Seer let out another cry. I noticed then that two of the Guardians were removing her eyes. I wanted to look away from the grotesque sight. I didn’t want that vision to haunt my dreams, but I knew without a doubt that every single detail was important. I had to know everything. I looked over to the blurry woman. I tried to focus on her but it was as though she had some sort of shield around her.
“You aren’t breaking into that fortress of solitude. Trust me, I’ve tried,” Ren practically shouted next to me.
“Would you shush? They might notice us,” I said, turning back to the Seer. Her spirit began to separate from her body. Ren rushed up to the stage and grabbed her hand.
“I got you,” she said to the girl.
“Where am I? What happened to me?” Her voice was filled with terror and confusion. It was all I could do not to wrap her in my arms tightly.
“Well, you are stuck in between planes while her mightiness over there tries to figure out what is going on.”
“Really, Ren. The girl just died. Could you at least show a little sympathy?” I said, turning away from the pair. It disturbed to me that talking to sightless gory people was becoming the norm.
“I’m dead. You don’t see me moping,” she muttered back.
“No, I just hear you annoying the crap out of me instead of helping me,” I said before turning my attention to the girl. Maybe she knew something that Ren didn’t. “Do you remember anything before the sacrifice? Did they say anything about why they were doing it?” I asked her, hoping for at least some answers.
“I just remember walking home from the library. I had to return some books on Druid sacrificial practices. My mom wanted me to study up on them. She said she’d seen something coming and didn’t want to go in blind. I still have no idea what she was babbling about because the books never sparked any sort of information in me. At any rate, I left the library and ‘bam.’ Someone side-swiped me into an alley and injected me with something. I don’t know what but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t yell for help. The first time I was able to yell was when you showed up. I could tell you were there somehow. So, I am stuck like this?” I was surprised at how well she had held it together. If I had been in her place I would have been freaking out. It seemed that Seers raised up to do this sort of thing were a tough lot.
“Unfortunately, it seems that you are. I am doing everything I can to figure it out, as is the Council. I am so sorry we couldn’t stop this from happening to you,” I said, giving up on the pretense and wrapping my arms around her cold form. The blood be damned, I needed to hug her.
“Gosh, emo, get it under control. You have a murder to solve. Can’t you figure out who that woman is?” Ren asked.
“No. No matter how much I push all I can see is a vague smoky outline of a woman. I don’t know who she is,” I said, stumped.
“Well, you better get going,” Ren said before pushing me from my vision. I really didn’t like that spook.
**********
As usual, I woke up surrounded by people. Kennan, Ian, and Conall all stood around me in a circle as Isadora kneeled down at my side. She wore a fluttery, lavender gown that I thought set her eyes off nicely.
I really needed to focus here.
“We need to talk,” I croaked before Kennan lifted me into his arms and carried me to Isadora’s office. I looked down at my arm and noticed it was wrapped in a blood soaked cloth.
“Conall, be a dear and fetch the medical kit would you?” Isadora said.
“Of course,” he said with a bow before sprinting Guardian speed down the corridor.
“Now, what pray tell has happened to you since we last saw one another?” Isadora asked.
“We need to get to the Lawndale Theater. I think there might be a dead Seer there,” I said before passing out against Kennan. My mind had apparently had enough for one day. Between the early morning wake up and everything else, I was well and truly done.
**********
CHAPTER NINE
When I finally came to, I was moving. I looked around, trying to gain my bearings, and found myself in the back of a van surrounded by Guardians. Kennan sat next to me propping my body up with his own.
I moved to sit up, causing a sharp pain to shoot up my arm. I looked down to find it wrapped in red-tinted gauze. I moved it gingerly, trying to see what had been done. From the feel of it I’d been stitched up. I couldn’t remember any of it.
“Where are we?”
“On our way to the theater,” Kennan muttered in my hair. “You really need to stop blocking me out,
Izzy.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. I think that it might be Ren messing with it. She was there again. Kennan, we can’t interfere in the sacrifice if it is still going on. Whoever this girl is, she has to die today,” I said sadly. As much as I wanted to change it, I knew the rules. It had been a solidified vision. For whatever reason, God had intended today to be her day to go. If I began messing with that, I would be a worse person than Xavier.
“What do you mean we can’t stop it?” The rage was building in his eyes.
I put my hand on his arm trying to get him to calm down and focus. He knew as well as I did that if it was a solid vision, neither of us had a choice. After a moment, he calmed himself enough for me to continue.
“I don’t begin to understand how this works, Kennan. But, I think that if she doesn’t die, then I would never have met her on the other plane and had that conversation. From what she said, her mom knows something about the rituals. The girl was leaving the library when she was taken. I think her mother knew, Kennan. So, we can’t stop her death, because if we do then I would never have known about her mom and that bare scrap of a clue,” I paused, thinking about it before adding, “I think.”
I was no scientist, but it sort of made sense. If she didn’t die, she couldn’t tell me that stuff. If we stopped her death, another reality might split off. I hadn’t seen enough episodes of Doctor Who to fully understand paradoxes. I needed to do more research.
“I know you’re right, but it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it,” his voice vibrated with anger.
“I’m not happy about it either, Kennan. I wish, more than anything, that I could save this girl. The best way I can help her now is to figure out what is going on and stop it so that her soul can be at rest.”
As the last words left my mouth, the car came to a rest outside the dilapidated theater. The Guardians unloaded and, as one, surrounded me. I wondered how often they had practiced this formation. I took them all in and noticed a familiar ninja suit in the pack of otherwise black clad Guardians. A chuckle rose out of me involuntarily. It was a horrible time to be laughing, but I couldn’t help myself. Ian turned and winked at me before we began moving inside the building.
“Remember guys, we can’t stop it. This has to play out,” I said with more authority than I felt I deserved. They all looked at me and nodded before continuing on.
We reached the interior and I was struck by the smell of old urine and the faint smell of extinguished candles. The place had obviously been used by a few squatters. We made our way up to the stage where the ruined body of the Seer lay abandoned. Tears welled in my eyes. Somehow, here in reality, it was so much worse. Seeing her die in the dreaming had not prepared me for the look of anguish that was left on her face.
I found myself feeling unnaturally angry about it all. The way they left her body lying there like so much trash. She had lived a life. She was someone’s daughter. Perhaps she was someone’s lover. Had she had a Guardian? What would happen to him? I stood staring down at her body with tears streaming down my cheeks.
“It never gets any easier,” Conall said from my elbow. I had not even noticed him in the group. “If it does, then you aren’t the person we need you to be,” he said moving away. I just loved cryptic statements. I looked to my left to find Kennan staring down at me. His face was strained with concern.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m mad. How could they just leave her here like this? I don’t understand what kind of person would do this to another one, Kennan. Whoever this is, whoever is doing this, I’m going to stop them. I don’t care if it takes me the next hundred years to find them, I will. This will not continue.”
I paused for a moment, trying to find my balance. These men expected me to be a leader. I had to get myself under control. I swallowed deeply before addressing the crowd.
“I need to know who she is. I want her address, her known associates, her mother’s name, any information you can give me about her.” I conjured every cop show I’d ever watched and spat out orders, feeling ridiculous the entire time.
“Look at you, Bossy Pants,” Ian whispered in my ear as he walked past. I was really grateful to have him there. Molly might want to kill him on a daily basis, but I was sure glad to have him around.
The Guardians set about making calls, trying to identify the girl and get a cleanup crew to gather the body for a proper burial. We were there for three hours before everything was complete and we had a name for the girl. Her name was Isabelle and she had just turned twenty-five two weeks prior to her death. I thought back to Ren’s file and remembered that she had also just turned twenty-five.
“How old have they all been?” I shouted to no one in particular.
“I believe they have all been twenty-five, Milady,” a Guardian I didn’t know answered.
“Just Izzy, if you don’t mind,” I muttered.
What was the link? There had to be some reason that only twenty-five-year-old Seers were being sacrificed. I felt as though I was missing all of the outer pieces of the puzzle. I had everything in the center but nothing on the periphery. Whatever it was, I would figure it out.
**********
“We are going to go to the mother’s house. Would you care to accompany us, Izzy?” Conall asked with a wink. At least I thought it was a wink. His only having the one eye kind of threw me off. For all I knew he could have been blinking.
“If it isn’t a problem for me to come along, I’d like to. I have a feeling her mom knows something that may help us.”
“Alright, we will take the extra car. Ian, are you coming or staying?” Conall asked.
“What do you think?” Ian asked, rushing over.
“Don’t you think the ninja suit was a bit much for this outing?” I whispered.
“A ninja suit is perfect for every occasion,” he replied indignantly.
“Maybe, if it wasn’t the quality of a cheap Halloween costume,” I said before stepping into the protection of Kennan’s arm.
We loaded into the car. Conall was in the driver’s seat and I couldn’t take such an open opportunity to annoy him for granted.
“You sure you’re allowed to drive there, one eye?” I asked as Kennan pulled me back against the seat.
“From what I hear you are not permitted to drive. Therefore, you have no room to talk,” he replied with a hint of laughter in his voice. I was glad I was finally breaking down that whole serious exterior a little. Yes, he had joked with me, but I think that had been more to annoy Kennan than anything else. He was more like Ian than I had originally thought.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just drive,” I groused, snuggling into Kennan’s side. It felt good to be in a car full of people I trusted. Well, a car with two people I trusted and one that I was not quite sure about.
We made our way to the other side of the city and pulled into a parking structure. As one, we exited the car and made our way into the towering building. Conall flashed some sort of badge to the doorman and we were let in with no fuss.
As we approached the elevators, I was struck by a paralyzing fear. It wasn’t something that happened every time I got in one. Normally, I was able to tone down the paranoia. But when I was worn, or tired, which I happened to be, it became harder to ignore. I reached out to grip Kennan’s hand tightly and closed my eyes in the process. Maybe if I envisioned wide open spaces, I would feel better.
“What’s going on?” Conall voice was laced with concern.
“She has a thing about tight spaces,” Kennan replied quickly, trying to get them to drop it. While Ian and Conall talked, Kennan bent his head to whisper in my ear. “If I could distract you, trust me I would.” He pulled back with a sly grin and I caught a flash of our last elevator ride together. Distraction indeed. Just as I let my mind fully submerge in the memory, the elevator came to a stop. We climbed out and headed to Isabelle’s apartment. Her mother was waiting for the news that no parent wanted.
“Come in,” we heard from beh
ind the door before we were even able to knock. “Don’t just stand out in the hallway, get in here,” she yelled again.
Conall opened the door and held it for us to get inside. Ian and Kennan entered on either side of me so that I became the filling in a Guardian sandwich. We arrived to find a simply decorated apartment and were greeted by a woman that could easily rival Isadora in class and eccentricity. She sat on a multicolored chair as though she had been waiting for us all afternoon.
“So it is done, I presume? And you must be Izzy. It is a pleasure to meet you, although I would have preferred happier circumstances. I am Eleanor,” she said, motioning for us to sit down. I must’ve had a shocked, or perhaps confused, expression on my face. I never could hide what I was feeling. “You seem disturbed by my lack of emotions.”
“Well, to be honest, I am a bit confused. Isabelle was your daughter, right?” I asked, staring at the woman.
“Yes. You see, I saw this day come weeks ago. I knew she was going to die. I knew there would be some sort of ritual. I had no more information than that. So, I’ve grieved silently for weeks. As my daughter went about her day to day activities, I sat in misery. I could not tell her because she had to stay true to her course. I have to live with that. So instead of focusing on her, I turned my focus toward helping you, Izzy. I recognized part of the ritual as one the Druids used to perform.”
“Isabelle told me something about some books she had returned to the library,” I said thoughtfully. Perhaps Eleanor would have the key to unlock this mystery. Hopefully, she could at least tell me about the ritual.
“You saw her? You spoke with my baby?” Eleanor gasped as a tear threatened to slide down her cheek. “But, you didn’t interfere did you?”
“No, I was having a vision of the ceremony. In it, she died, and once she was removed from this plane, I guess it made it so that I could talk to her. I am not really sure why or how. I just know that I talked to her,” I finished, feeling sick to my stomach. I didn’t want this woman to know that her daughter was stuck between planes unable to move on.
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