Shade and the Skinwalkers

by Marilyn Peake

  At that point, everything went back to normal: the sky, the stars, the desert. The flames raged on.

  I stood there watching Kai, the black bear and the strange woman. Suddenly, a number of animals stirred. Others stayed on the ground—completely still, eyes staring vacantly, apparently dead.

  The animals that had started moving raised themselves up on their legs. A couple of birds took flight, circling around the battle scene.

  Then there was a series of blurs, almost like time had speeded up. When the blurring ceased, there were humans in front of me.

  Kai looked at the woman with snakes on her clothing. She said, “This is Shade, my best friend. I’m way too tired. Can you explain...”

  The woman’s eyes lost their inky appearance. They turned to emerald green. She pushed the hood off the top of her head, revealing curly black hair. The snakes stopped moving on her cape. She said, “Is this the girl who moved into my house?”

  Kai said, “Yes.” Her thoughts seemed far away, confined to the land of grief. She lay down next to her mother who was frozen in bear form. She wrapped her arms around her neck, pushed her face into her fur and wept.

  The woman reached out her hand. Her nails had shrunk down to normal. They had a coat of pearlescent pink nail polish on them; they were no longer made of silver metal.

  I didn’t want to touch her bloodied hand. I grasped it anyway and shook it. If Kai trusted this woman, she should be OK. But how could she be? Only monsters would slice open an animal with their bare hand and rip out their heart.

  I excused myself. I went over to a pile of boulders and sat down. I heaved and puked. My head swam so badly, it felt like I had the flu.

  The woman approached me. She handed me a flask. She said, “Here. Drink this. It’s a potion. It will steady your nerves.”

  It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. I felt hypnotized. As though I had no other choice, I reached out my hand and grabbed the flask. I took a swig. It was bittersweet and tasted like strawberry juice with not quite enough sugar. My stomach calmed. The horror of the battle and the polar bear heart retreated into the back of my mind.

  The woman said, “I used to live in your house.”

  I asked, “Which house?”

  She said, “The trailer where you live now. I used to be Kai’s neighbor.”

  I tried to add this information to what I already knew. Was she the woman with the green thumb? I asked, “Are you the one who had a vegetable garden?”

  She smiled, all perky and normal and motherly. She said, “Yes, that’s me!”

  I studied her. I grilled her like a police detective. Well, maybe not a police detective. I don’t think I’d break anyone with my easy line of questioning. But I could not put two and two together in any kind of equation that made the woman pulling a heart out of a polar bear equal to this cheerful next-door neighbor.

  I said, “You had bright flowers and cacti? And rose bushes near our front steps?”

  Again she said, “Yes, that’s me!”

  I said, “I don’t get it. I’m sorry. I’m horrified. I don’t get it.”

  She said, “My name’s Brielle Morgan. I guess you’d call me Mrs. Morgan. I’m a wife and mom to four kids. I sense that you’ve become part of Kai’s world. That you’ve experienced enough of the magic and mysticism in this part of the world to know that strange things happen here.”

  Boy, was that ever a perfect example of the word understatement.

  I shook my head yes. I mean, if she needed me to answer more fully after what I’d just witnessed, I had no idea what she thought I needed to see before making up my mind that things were strange. Yes, things were definitely strange in this part of the world.

  She said, “Kai’s going to need your help. She’s going to need you as a friend to console her and help her through her grief. For a child, even for a teenager, losing a parent—especially in so violent a way—is one of the worst things that can possibly happen. The loss is devastating. It will haunt Kai for a long, long time. She’s a healer, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be able to heal herself without help.”

  I thought about how I’d lost my mom emotionally. She was physically present. She took me everywhere we moved. But she wasn’t emotionally available and when she used drugs and alcohol, she disappeared inside herself or passed out.

  Kai had a very different situation. She seemed close to her mom and then her mom was brutally murdered and taken away from her forever. That would be so much harder than what had happened to me. It was like I’d received a vaccine of neglect over the years that eventually hardened me and made me immune to it.

  Mrs. Morgan continued, “In addition to needing you as a friend, Kai’s going to need you as a fellow warrior. Skinwalkers have roamed our territory here for quite some time. Now they’re trying to take it away from us. They’ve started a war that we need to see through to the end. We need to defeat them. Are you up for this?”

  Oh my God, no. I wasn’t up for it. I just wanted to be a normal girl. I wanted my name to be Jane Smith or Mary Jane Smith. I wanted to be normal as apple pie. That’s all I wanted. I wanted to give up my identity as freakish Galactic Shade Griffin. I didn’t want the awkward fame or staring eyes that came from getting thrust into the limelight as a hero in my old hometown. And I certainly didn’t want all the pain or guilt that came from losing Annie and the other girls to kidnappers, even though we managed to rescue them. I didn’t want any of that.

  I wanted for me and Annie and Kai to be normal girls. Normal geek girls. I wanted us to have sleepovers where we ate pizza and watched superhero movies and played video games. I wanted that. I didn’t want Annie to have been kidnapped. I didn’t want her to have been depressed or catatonic or in need of electroshock treatment and hospitalization. I didn’t want Kai to have lost her mother or to have witnessed her murder. And I certainly didn’t want to go into battle against skinwalkers. I’d seen the sheer horror of that. I wanted to run away and hide.

  But what choice did I have? When destiny calls, can we really run away? Especially when other people’s lives are at stake.

  I asked Mrs. Morgan, “What happened to you after Kai’s mom was killed? What kind of power made you look the way you did and do the things you did? What happened to the sky?”

  She said, “Will you help Kai in battle?”

  I said, “Of course.”

  She looked at me with piercing green eyes, the reflections of tent fires flickering within. “I am a witch, combination blood witch and hedge witch. Those are the types of magic with which I’m both blessed and cursed. The ability to wield power is a double-edged sword. It won’t bring you eternal happiness. It will, however, give you the opportunity to make the world right. Unfortunately, the world is forever unraveling and falling apart. Whenever evil rears its ugly head, we’re called on to make things right again.”

  It sounded like a cult. Would there be any way out of this, or would I forever be part of it once I agreed to join?

  Finally, Mrs. Morgan answered my question about what I’d seen after Kai’s mom died. She said, “What happened tonight was extraordinary and, I have to admit, frightening for me. I’ve never had that much power flow through me before. Part of what you saw was glamouring by the faeries, but part of it was the result of raw power flowing through me and some of the others. I started out long ago with limited power. The hedge witch part of me used magic to grow flowers and plants.” She smiled. “I had a reputation for being quite a gardener.”

  I said, “I’ve seen pictures of what you did around my trailer. It was beautiful. I wish it was still there.”

  She said, “Thank you. Well, eventually, I brought my blood magic to bear on difficulties I encountered in the garden. It was all serendipity learning how to do that. It’s hard to grow plants in the desert. I planted roses in the front yard. I pricked my finger a whole bunch of times while trimming them and soon realized that the plants I touched afterward did exceptionally well. I moved those roses
right next to the front steps, so that I could prick my fingers before working on any of my other plants.”

  All I could think of was: Ewwww...

  Mrs. Morgan continued, “Little by little, I learned the stronger the emotion, the greater the power. I started forcing myself to experience raw emotion whenever I needed magical power. Today, the emotion I felt when Kai’s mom died was natural and endless. The intense grief and emotional devastation flowed through me. You saw the result.” She placed her hand on my arm. “The polar bear was already dead. I knew the shapeshifter. He would have gladly given me his heart so that I could wield enough blood magic to end the battle.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I looked over at Kai. She had completely collapsed, her arms wrapped around her mother, curled up into a fetal position by her side. I wondered how she’d ever let go.

  Mrs. Morgan said, “We’re going to need to have a funeral for everyone who died here, right now. The skinwalkers won’t come back for a while, not having lost so many of their own tonight.”

  I said, “Won’t they come back to take care of their dead?”

  She said, “Not the skinwalkers. They have no respect for death. A few may come back later to bury or cremate a friend, but that’s all. They’ll mostly stay away.”

  She left me to my thoughts.

  She walked over to Kai. She sat down on the ground and placed her hands on Kai’s shoulders. The snakes that had been still when she spoke to me started writhing around on her cape. She whispered something in Kai’s ear.

  Kai stood up, looking dazed.

  Mrs. Morgan shouted out across the desert: “It’s time!”

  The shapeshifters approached the animal bodies on the ground. Their clothes shimmered and gave the appearance of not quite being there. I realized they had probably been nude when they shifted back into their human forms. Their clothing was most likely nothing more than glamoured illusion.

  They lifted up small bodies, like those of the birds and rats, and carried them over to the burning tents. They tossed small animals into the flames. They dragged the heavier ones over to the edge of the inferno until they caught fire.

  I felt horrified and very sad. Bodies that had only recently been living, breathing creatures were being discarded and burned to ashes without any ceremony or final words pronounced over them. It was like dumping trash into a dumpster.

  I looked at the body of the bear that had been Kai’s mother. No one had moved her yet. I walked over to stand next to her, to kind of guard her. I planned to question anyone that approached to drag her off to be burned.

  It turned out that wasn’t necessary.

  About forty minutes later, after people had strained and sweated to move nearly half the bodies, Mrs. Morgan raised her arms into the air. The sky turned dark blue. Swirling colors replaced the stars. The moon’s light intensified to illuminate the desert landscape. Snakes crawled and hissed on the witch’s cape. Her eyes became inky wells.

  Lowering her arm, turning her hands until her palms faced upward, she chanted. Once again, her fingernails had turned into two-inch metal daggers. Suddenly, the polar bear heart appeared in her hands. Had it been somewhere in her sleeves? She rolled the heart into her open left hand. Using the nails on her right hand to slice it into ribbons, she then tossed the heart flesh onto the desert floor. Everywhere it landed, huge bushes grew, filled with flowers.

  The desert suddenly smelled of lilacs and roses and gardenias, and herbs like rosemary and thyme. The witch chanted. Then she raised her bloodied fingers with the metal daggers toward the heavens. She said, “Please accept our beloved friends and family who have died so valiantly in battle into the Summerland until such time as a human vessel becomes available for their reincarnation.”

  As soon as she dropped her arms at her side, people went over to the bushes to pick armfuls of flowers.

  Kai said, “Go with me. Help me send my mother off to the Otherworld in peace.”

  I had no idea what to do. I followed her lead. We picked as many flowers as we could possibly carry until our arms were overflowing with them. Returning to the black bear, Kai covered its form with flowers. She chose a couple of roses and put them in its paws. Then she sat down and chanted.

  I sat next to her. I breathed in the heavenly scent of flowers. I absorbed the spiritual rhythm of the chant and let it calm me. I let it give me hope that eventually things would be OK.

  As she’d done before, Mrs. Morgan shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, “It’s time!”

  Everyone turned and walked to the base of the plateau where Kai and I had watched the battle. We went along with them.

  The snakes crawling and hissing on her cape, the witch raised her arms and the entire battlefield ignited into flames.

  I gasped. My hand flew up to my mouth and covered it. I watched in shock.

  Kai began weeping.

  Then everything disappeared: the dead animal bodies, the burning tents, the flowers and the desert fire, everything.

  The crowd gathered up a few things and began to disperse.

  Kai said to me, “Come on. Let’s go. The funeral’s over.” She looked completely lost.

  I realized that the animals thrown into the tent fire must have been skinwalkers, those cremated with ceremony must have been the other shapeshifters.

  I asked Kai, “Did your aunt have her proper funeral ceremony?”

  Kai said, “Yes. Mrs. Morgan took care of that.”

  I said, “Kai, why don’t you come stay at my house for a while? Or I could stay with you at yours.” Then I thought better of it. “Was your mom’s boyfriend killed on the battlefield? Was he here when everything happened?”

  Kai said, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I expected him to lay low and not show up at my aunt’s funeral. I figured he’d be too afraid the shapeshifters would grab him for her murder. You see what we’re capable of, especially with help from the faeries and witches with whom we’re friendly.”

  Totally. That made sense.

  I said, “Kai, he could come after you, especially if he hears your mom’s dead and you’re alone in your house. Maybe you should come stay with me for a little while.”

  She said, “I need some time alone.”

  I said, “You’ll have that during the day when I go to school. Just stay with me tonight, see if it helps. I don’t feel right about leaving you alone tonight.”

  Kai handed me a set of keys. She said, “My truck’s here, remember? You want to drive us home?”

  I said, “I don’t know how to drive.”

  She took the keys back. She said, “OK, I’ll do it. It’ll help take my mind off everything...”

  As we set off for my house, I looked in the rearview mirror. The fires were still burning. Cars were pulling away, but some people were still hanging out.

  A few seconds later, the reflection of flickering fire in the mirror disappeared. I noticed because it was so sudden, like someone had flipped a switch and turned the lights out. I said, “Kai, the entire fire just went out. How’d they do that?”

  Kai said, “It’s probably not out. That’s how the faeries hide in plain sight. Sometimes they glamour in ways that people can see. Other times, they make everything invisible.”

  I said, “Wow. I wish I was a faerie. That would solve a whole lot of problems for me.”

  Kai said, “Yeah, you and me both.”

  I asked Kai if I could put on music.

  She said, “Sure. Just not anything too sad or depressing. Being an empath, music affects me a little too deeply sometimes.” She wiped away tears. “Hey, I have some audio books on my cell phone. How about we listen to something complicated, so I have to keep my mind on it and can’t think about too much of anything else?”

  I said, “Are you reading any books required for homeschooling?”

  Kai said, “Well, my mom was pretty lax about the stuff I read. I think she mostly kept me homeschooled so I wouldn’t go running my mouth at school about her boyfrien
d being a skinwalker or how he beat her up or my aunt being a shapeshifter. Big, dark family secrets she didn’t want getting out. But I pick up a homeschooling curriculum online every year and follow it the best I can. Right now, I’m reading Moby Dick.”

  I said, “Oh, wow, we could listen to the whaling sections. There’s nothing emotional there, except for your own possible reaction to some of the gory parts. Do you have it on audio?”

  Kai said, “No. But you could buy the eBook on my cell phone and read it to me. Then I’ll have an eBook copy for studying.”

  She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and tossed it to me. I purchased and downloaded Moby Dick. Then I ran my finger down the Table of Contents until I found Chapter 32: Cetology. Ah, yes, I remembered that from last year. The chapter in which Ishmael discusses the properties of whales. I skimmed the chapter until I got to this part:

  First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish. In his System of Nature, A.D. 1766, Linnaeus declares, ‘I hereby separate the whales from the fish.’ *[See footnote at end of book.]

  Kai wrinkled her forehead, apparently trying hard to concentrate on what I was reading to her. Man, I sure hoped she wouldn’t fall asleep. I guess if that started happening, I could switch to the juicy parts where Ishmael becomes obsessed with killing the whale.

  Finally, just as I was about to fall asleep myself from reading so many whale facts, we drove into the parking lot of our trailer park.

  Walking through the neighborhood that night was eerie. I’d become aware of the existence of creatures I’d never known existed. Shapeshifters. Skinwalkers. Witches that could do blood magic. Faeries.

  I thought about Annie and her faeries. I needed to talk to her. Let her know about the new type of faeries I’d seen. How real their world was. How they’re able to glamour our own view of the world.

  No one was outside. Winds whistled through the space between houses. Swings swayed in the breeze as though ghost children were riding them. The chains from which they hung squeaked and rattled.