She took a deep breath. “It happened to me, too.”
“What? What did?”
“My sister…she disappeared. In the same spot. At the same gas station. I looked everywhere.” Her voice cracked on “everywhere” and she had to stop talking.
Nathan didn’t reply. She heard a stilted whispery sound as if he tried to say something, or several somethings, and it didn’t come out right.
“What?” he finally said. His strangled tone made it clear he’d heard exactly what she had said, so Emmy didn’t repeat it. “When?”
“Just now. Well, a few hours ago. I’ve been looking and looking…I didn’t want to stop looking.”
“Have you called the police?”
“No.”
“Jesus, Emmy. Why are you calling me? Call 9-1-1.”
It must have been the witch in her, because she hadn’t considered that. But anything seemed better than calling home.
“Okay. You’re right. I will.”
“Where are you?”
“At the gas station. Sitting in the car.”
“Stay there.”
Nathan hung up the phone. Emmy had the feeling he planned to “rescue” her, which she didn’t usually appreciate. She was not, never had been, and never would be the damsel in distress. But she had hardly ever felt less like the brave knight. She was a stupid little girl. A stupid little girl dark witch, and brought nothing to the world but destruction and pain. She felt so resolved to stay put, she wondered if Nathan had made it so. But she didn’t care either way. She picked her phone back up and called 9-1-1.
The police arrived first. One car, with a man and a woman, who both looked pretty young. An ambulance came behind them and the paramedics started poking at her even though she said she was fine. The police asked a lot of questions, and asked for her parents’ names and phone number. She guessed that meant the police would call her parents, and she liked that. She couldn’t do it herself. She didn’t have the courage. She couldn’t hear the pain in Dad’s voice, when he found out Evangeline had gone missing yet again. In danger, again. She couldn’t do that to him.
The paramedics claimed she suffered from heat exhaustion, and tried to take her away. Emmy flat-out refused. She said she wouldn’t go without her brother, who should arrive soon—a weird lie, and kind of gross, because she didn’t think of Nathan as a brother, but the lie tumbled out. She thought it would work better than saying she needed to wait for some random guy she hardly knew who may or may not have cast a spell on her making it impossible for her to leave anyway.
When Nathan arrived, the paramedics didn’t question him when he crawled into the back of the ambulance with Emmy. Nathan’s yellow green eyes became glassy and frozen when he saw Emmy on the stretcher.
“Before you freak out, I’m completely, absolutely fine,” Emmy said. “These people are crazy.”
“Your sister is fine,” the paramedic explained. “Just dehydrated from being in the heat. We want to monitor her for a while.”
Emmy cringed. If the stretcher and the IV didn’t freak him out, her claim to be his sister might, especially considering the fact his actual sister was not fine.
Nathan paused before speaking, but rolled with it. “Okay, thanks,” he said. “Can I ride with her?”
“Sure.”
Fortunately, the paramedics and policemen were Mundanes. They would have no idea Emmy and Nathan being brother and sister was as ridiculous as claiming a mouse and an elephant were brother and sister.
When the paramedics left Nathan and Emmy alone in the back, Nathan took her hand. She was glad she had called him. It felt good to have someone comfort her without being simultaneously devastated and furious with her. Dad would be too distracted about Evangeline to worry about her, which she guessed was fair. She resolved not to drop Nathan’s hand, even though his touch seemed to make the heat exhaustion worse. Her eyes felt so dry and hot, they might have turned to glass. She blinked at his blurry face.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“I didn’t even know you had a sister. I never thought to ask about your family. I saw you weren’t at risk, and didn’t worry about anybody else. Stupid of me.”
Emmy didn’t get that, but her head hurt so much and she felt foggy, so she didn’t question him.
“What is her date?”
“What?”
“Your sister’s date. On the solar calendar. How dark is she?”
“I don’t understand. Why are you asking me that right now? You want to know if she’s worth caring about? Worth using up any energy to find?”
“No, no, of course not,” he said. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t the right time…if you don’t know your own date, I’m sure you don’t know hers. I shouldn’t have asked.”
She wanted him to stop talking. No more confusing questions. No more reminders that he knew more than he let on. She squeezed his hand tighter, hoping to give him a clue as to what she wanted from him. Just to be there.
He got the hint because he didn’t say anything else, and stroked her palm with his thumb. He looked so sad. The word that came to her mind was eclipse. As a summer wizard, Emmy figured he was good at faking happiness. He could smile and laugh and joke around, but if he stayed still long enough, the clouds would roll back in.
For the first time, she noticed a shiny pattern of burn marks on the inside of his forearm and twisted under his sleeve, like a angry, red, distorted snake. She could tell he caught her looking, and Emmy pulled her eyes away, cheeks burning. He didn’t say anything though, and Emmy didn’t either.
“Where are your parents?” he asked. “I didn’t notice anyone else around.”
“I never called them. I couldn’t do it. But I think the police did. Evangeline has a different mother anyway. And she’s dead. We have the same Dad.”
Emmy didn’t know why she explained all of this, but Nathan nodded.
“Do you think your parents will come?”
“Of course. They’re my parents.” Emmy didn’t like the implication. He must think that because her parents were winter wizards, they must be assholes who didn’t care about their kids. Sure, they were assholes, but not that kind of assholes. “They’re good people,” she continued. “They love me. And they love Evangeline. Even my Mom.”
“I should leave before they come for you. I don’t want to leave…But I don’t think me being here will help anything.”
Emmy agreed, but didn’t like it.
“But I’m not going to leave leave,” he continued. “I’ll be around. I’m going to make this right. You don’t have to worry. It’s going to be okay.”
“Do you really believe that, or are you just saying it because that’s what people say?”
Nathan paused as if considering it. “No, I believe it,” he said finally. “I have to. You’ve gotta have hope, you know? That it’s all going to work out in the end. That’s what gives you the strength to make it there.”
But could it work out for both of them? Or, did he mean it would work out for the good guys? It all works out in the end for the hero. Not for the villain.
“That’s a nice idea,” she said.
When David finally decided to call Patrick and tell him to bring his brother and sisters to the hospital he saw he had a voicemail from the unknown caller he had ignored earlier. He planned on deleting it without listening, then the same number called again as he held his phone.
“Hello?”
“May I speak with David Vandergraff?”
“This is he.”
“This is Officer Yolanda Trevino with the Sugar Land Police Department. You’re the father of Evangeline and Emmy Vandergraff, correct?”
The panic ran through him like an electric current. This reminded him so much of the call he received last fall when his children were found, but this time, the news could only be bad.
“Yes, I am,” he said, his voice a
whispery croak.
Nathan kept his promise and stayed by her side until about three minutes before her family arrived in the ER. One nice thing about being a wizard was some awkward encounters could be avoided because Nathan could sense a Vandergraff coming from about a mile away.
Patrick came around the white curtain, which surprised Emmy. Even though Evangeline’s disappearance would devastate Dad, she still expected him to come for her—to gather her in his arms as he did when he found her in West Texas. Perhaps it was too late for that. She had pushed it too far this time and he wouldn’t forgive her. He had already been so angry at her for sneaking out, and now…she had destroyed everything.
Xavier followed behind Patrick, which surprised Emmy even more. The sight of her other brother made her stomach lurch. If she hurt anyone more than Dad, it was Xavier. Dad had plenty of people to love. For Xavier, the world began and ended with Evangeline.
She sat on the edge of the hard bed, discharge papers all ready, and shrunk at the sight of them. She thought they might yell at her, but they didn’t.
“Are you okay?” Patrick asked.
Emmy nodded.
“Was there a summer wizard here?” Xavier asked. Hearing Xavier talk always alarmed Emmy, and this time, the words crawled up her back like snakes. He spoke the words calmly, but they came so unexpectedly and so soaked in hate.
“No,” she said too quickly. “I don’t think so.”
Xavier stared her down, and she shrunk more. Had he always been so frightening? Her mouth felt dry and she appreciated Patrick’s presence. Xavier’s eyes looked different. They had always looked so empty, but not anymore. Instead of Evangeline’s disappearance causing him to shrink back more into his shell, it had brought him to life. His no-longer-empty eyes—so much like Dad’s—focused on her. She didn’t think he’d ever held eye contact with her so long.
“They said you can go?” Patrick asked, ignoring Xavier’s unexplained hunt for summer wizards.
Emmy nodded again.
“You’re sunburned,” Patrick said.
Emmy shrugged, feeling defensive, as if she needed to argue this fact.
“Come on,” Patrick said. He took her hand to pull her up. Emmy must have imagined any accusation. Patrick pulled her into a quick hug. She couldn’t remember that ever happening before.
She buried her face in his shoulder and didn’t want to let go. She felt herself shaking and hoped he couldn’t feel it too.
“Where’s Dad?” Emmy asked.
“Uh…let’s get out of here. And I’ll tell you.”
Emmy scrunched her nose at this evasion. She didn’t like the sound of it, but feared the answers too much to ask any questions. She grabbed her phone and discharge paperwork and followed her brothers out of the ER.
omeone slapped David in the face. The slap must not have satisfied the assailant, because then he was punched. When the pain exploded in his jaw, blood rushed back to his brain as well. He looked up and saw the face of his brother-in-law, Carson, right before he punched him again.
“Stop it, honey. That’s not helping anything.” That sensible woman’s voice had to be Jess, Carson’s wife.
For a split second, seeing his former best friend again made him smile, even though he had just punched him. But then he remembered the whole Oppenheimer family—Carson, Jess, and Amanda’s own parents—had turned their back on their family when they learned they were practicing magic. At least they finally reappeared when things got bad enough, but David should be the one doing the punching.
David must have slipped out of reality again, and he wanted to go back. Back to the nothing. But seeing Carson’s mean blue eyes, made him think of Amanda’s mean blue eyes. And that made him think of his children. All the people who needed him here in reality. For about the hundredth time, he wished he was a stronger man. A better man. But until then, he would have to fake it for the people he loved.
“David?” Jess asked. “Are you with us?”
“Yes.”
“See, punching helped,” Carson said.
“Where am I? Where are the kids? Amanda?”
“Oh, so now you care,” Carson said.
“Stop it,” Jess said. “He’s not himself.”
“I’m not so sure,” Carson said.
“What’s wrong with me?” David asked.
“I don’t know,” Jess said.
“I know,” Carson said. “He’s lost his mind. Just given up and gone like so many of his kind. Too weak to stay and fight like a man—bails when things get tough.”
“Perhaps, but can you imagine what it must be like? How would you feel if you were in his shoes? How would you feel if you lost me and one of your girls in the same day?”
This argument did quell Carson. “Don’t even say things like that.”
“Exactly. A reality too horrible to consider. But that’s his, so you are the one who needs to man up, and show a little compassion.”
It took David a moment to understand they were talking about him. As soon as the reality needled back in, he could swat it away like a buzzing fly.
“Lost?” David asked. “Amanda didn’t…?”
“No, no, I’m sorry,” Jess said. “I didn’t mean that. No one is lost. I…” Jess must have run out of things to say, mid-sentence. “It’s going to be okay,” she concluded, finally.
“Oh my God,” David said. Reality floated back in now in stronger waves and he tried to hang on, no matter how much it hurt. “Evangeline. I…what is wrong with me? Why do I keep forgetting? I need to go find her.”
The horror floated in now at full strength. Evangeline’s disappearance was made more frightening by the fact that he couldn’t keep hold of his mind long enough to do anything about it. He felt as if he had forgotten something important, but a hundred times worse. He had wanted to float out of reality the way Xavier did, and he had managed it. Now, he had to find his way back.
He grabbed Jess’s arm and must have done it too aggressively because Carson looked ready to punch him again. He backed away from her.
“Jess, please. You have to help me. What is this magic? Is it some kind of misdirection spell meant to confuse me? Or am I losing my mind?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. It could be either. It could be both.”
“How do I make it stop?”
Jess shook her head. Her deep brown eyes implored Carson. “You know more about this kind of magic.”
“Yes. A little too much,” Carson said. “There’s nothing that can be done.”
“I don’t believe you,” Jess said. “Think about your sister. Think about your Patrick and Emmy. There has to be something.”
“I don’t know any spell or anything, if that’s what you mean.” Carson looked David in the eye now. “Our parents taught us we have choices. Wizards always think they’re subject to forces outside of themselves they cannot control. And that’s true. But it’s not the only thing that’s true. Free will is a real thing. And sometimes the simplest magic is the strongest. If you want something bad enough, it can be so. But you have to be strong person to have a will strong enough to counteract other magic.”
David could tell Carson didn’t think he was up to the task, and he agreed with him. “So I can make it go away?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Be a man. The darkness can’t take you if you don’t let it. They need you. Be a husband. Be a father. Just do it.”
David’s head swam. He could feel the darkness polluting his brain, its own kind of cancer. He saw how easily it could make its way in. He only had to lose hope for a second, and he began to drown in it. He had never lost hope so thoroughly as he had today. And now he knew. One more second of lost hope and he would lose himself, and lose everything he loved along with it. If he almost slid into oblivion now, he knew he wouldn’t survive losing his talisman.
“Okay,” David said.
“Okay?” Carson asked.
“You’re right. I can do it. I have to do it
. Just point me in the right direction, please.”
“Go home,” Jess said.
Home. Right. But home wasn’t a place. Home was his family, and that wasn’t one single place he could go. He had to go back to the hospital to be with Amanda. He had to go to the forest to look for Evangeline. And he had to go back to his other children, and be there for them.
Jess seemed to read his mind. “The police are looking for Evangeline. The doctors are taking care of Amanda. For now, go home.”
David knew the Mundane police wouldn’t find Evangeline any more than they had found Julie. And the Mundane doctors couldn’t do whatever needed to be done. He was alone.
atrick thought he ought to stop believing in God. He didn’t know why his parents still did. God hated them. Maybe since Patrick was a fall wizard, and not inherently evil, God would spare him. But he didn’t care. He loved his family. And if God didn’t love them, he had no use for God. And God seemed to want to destroy them.
“Patrick, tell me what you know. I need to know there is hope. It’s important,” Dad said. He sat in the living room with Dad, Xavier, and Emmy. A way-too-small version of their family.
Patrick sighed. “I told you. I can’t tell you the future. I told you about my vision of Julie. That’s all I have, I’m sorry.”
“There has to be more. Please.”
Patrick stared at Julie’s bracelet on the table. Emmy had shown it to all of them, and none of them had any idea how it got in the truck. The only person left to ask was Mom.
Dad, Emmy, and Xavier all continued to stare at Patrick as he stared at the bracelet. Pleading in their eyes. Waiting to lap up whatever he had to say like water in the desert. All three of them wanting him to do something so badly at the same time gave off a tangible energy that made his stomach burn. He had a feeling of power over them, and he didn’t like the way that felt. He wanted them to turn away. Leave him alone. But the time for inaction had come and gone. He knew if he could do anything to help Evangeline and make them feel better, he should.
“I don’t know much. It’s not very helpful.”
Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two Page 11