Oculus

by S. E. Akers

  And that bothered me terribly.

  Something else that had me stewing was my mentor’s mysterious “late night activities”. Come ten o’clock every evening, Tanner would escort me down to my bedroom, issued me a formal “good-night”, and then angled himself towards his door. I assumed he was turning in as well, or so I thought. I’d stood on the other side of my door waiting for the inevitable rattling of his lock for the first couple nights and found it strange that the telling “click” never came. And I was listening really hard for it too. My curiosity shifted into overdrive after a few more evenings of the same ruse. Yes, this was his house…and yes, he was entitled to his private-time, so why even pretend that you’re going to bed? That’s what I wanted to know. So, I made it my mission to find out. I happened to stumble upon a basic warning spell during my witch-studies that very next day. Now there’s some destiny for ya! It was a simple charm typically used to keep watch over your belongings. All you had to do was dab some milk thistle oil on what you wanted to monitor, set your command by the light of a gray candle, and ring a silver bell. A “ding” would chime in your head whenever the spelled item had been disturbed. So with the spell having landed in my lap as conveniently as it had, I turned right around before dinner that evening and enchanted the doorknob of his bedroom. An alert would chime in my head every time his knob received a twist. The only thing that remained was making sure he went into his room and closed the door, so I could get my warning when he left. That was way more awkward than hard. I had to have looked pretty ridiculous lingering the way I did — my eyes locked dead on him with a wide-smile beaming like the sun and then closing my door to the tune of an insanely slow creep. Just as soon as the next “ding” had sounded, I waited on the other side of the door—counting off enough time so I wouldn’t get caught—and then snuck out to follow him. After the lengths I’d gone, I wanted to be the one doing the “busting”. His path was the same night after night. He headed downstairs, winding the same number of levels with his torch in hand, and then SOMEHOW HE ALWAYS MANAGED TO DISAPPEAR. I wasn’t sure if it was my smarts or my stealth, but something was in need of some serious fine-tuning. Every attempt led me to the same floor — the exact spot where I had tracked him on the first night I’d arrived. My thwarted gaze fell to the elemental water symbol at my feet and then to the vacant niche standing before me. I knew the recessed surface had to be some sort of secret entrance, though I couldn’t figure out how it opened. The idea that there was someplace he hadn’t revealed disturbed me to no end. He’d shown me every other room. What was the big deal about that one? I couldn’t bring myself to ask him, nor did I want him knowing the lengths I’d gone to uncover his hush-hush comings and goings.

  Really, Shi? Charming his doorknob and stalking him in his own house? Oh, I planned on keeping a tight lid on that jar of crazy for as long as superhumanly possible. Those snakes were staying safely inside that cuckoo-can.

  Though all things considered, here was the worst of it: I absolutely wasn’t comfortable feeling this way. Insecure and uncertain. Suspicious and confused. That just wasn’t me. I’d hardly reached the point of ripping out my hair, but I figured it wouldn’t be long if I didn’t get a few answers to some of my nagging questions soon — the most important one being if he had any true feelings for me, other than strictly “mentory”. I had to know. Then again, I’d never felt this nervous about finding out something I was so keen on knowing at the same time. Being in emotional limbo was hard enough. I didn’t want to think about how far my heart would crash if my definitive answer came by way of a “kind” rejection. After all, he’d made the kiss-of-death remark last fall that I reminded him of his “sister”. The thought of that made me throw the covers over my head a time or two in a cringe. But that was in the beginning… Before Mexico… Before we really started to get to know each other. Seriously, who kisses their sister like that? Even to sober them up?

  He’d better know all those kissing country-cousin stories about West Virginians are just freakin’ jokes!

  It wasn’t long before I started toying with the idea of a little “clairvoyant intervention”. I had the perfect vehicle. Beatrix’s crystal ball was packed away in one of the boxes stacked in my room, even though I didn’t have the faintest idea about how to use one. I thought a test-run with my Magic 8 Ball App first might be wise. What better way to feel out my initial reaction to whatever answer would come with a harmless game? So I grabbed my phone, tapped on the fortune-telling app, and asked what my heart desired — too many times to count. Who knew a little blue triangle could be so freakin’ negative — ALL THE TIME! “My Reply is NO”… “Outlook Not So Good”… “Better Not Tell You Now”… I had stop to shaking the daggone thing before I ended up hurling it across the room. I would have taken a more ambiguous “Cannot Predict Now” or “Ask Again Later” over the constant stream of let downs that kept popping up. I even ran upstairs to catch a signal so I could check for any bug-fix updates. There wasn’t the first one…to my dismay.

  It has to be rigged, I huffed and shoved it straight into my pocket. Hearing a bad answer from a 99¢ game programed by some teen-techie in his upstairs bedroom was bad enough, but having the same news revealed via a mystical device with an undisputed track record? Yep… That nixed any real fortune-telling pretty daggone quick.

  Luckily my phone conversations with Katie kept most of my wits in check, offering me the perfect distraction by way of some BFF talk-time (and I definitely needed the estrogen-intervention). We chatted faithfully in the beginning, but then it seemed like no time had passed before our calls turned into every other day (through no fault of my own). Their frequency wasn’t the only thing dwindling. They were a heck of a lot shorter too. Sometimes I only got a text. I couldn’t get upset over it. Katie was settling into her new life and making new friends. Of course they were mostly Bethesda’s friends, which her cousin totally despised. But I was happy to hear she wasn’t sitting home alone in a big city with no one to hang out with. I just hoped they weren’t all witches. Apparently Katie was going out and getting to know Boston really well. She had seen the Red Sox play at Fenway, viewed the cityscape’s lights from the Skyway Observatory one night, and had gone on a whale-watching cruise at the New England Aquarium — something semi-educational, which I’ll admit had totally floored me. She’d even landed a part-time job at a jewelry store called, Geode ltd. Her most recent escapade turned out to be an overnight trip to Revere Beach with Bethesda and her covenmate, Cassie, that I’d just found out about this morning when I’d woken her up bright and early, hoping to catch her. And it totally explained why she hadn’t called me for the past two days, as well as the short & sweet brush-off text I’d received last night.

  So she was pooped, and I wasn’t as pissy anymore. Yeah, I was a little envious, but I couldn’t fault her for being busy. She was having a typical-teen summer — friends, fun, sun, and making money so the party could go on and on. Any books she happened to crack would be purely for pleasure, probably poolside. And here I was worried about her in my absence. My bosom friend wasn’t missing a single beat, ironically.

  An undeniable sadness washed over me knowing we weren’t doing it together, side-by-side and smiles blazing. That made missing her even worse.

  The time had finally come for me to officially start battling creatures. My stomach had more than a few jitters, but nothing a quick trip to the bathroom after lunch couldn’t take care of. My Glass Half-Full perspective: now I had plenty of room for dinner and two desserts.

  Tanner hadn’t made it down to the dungeon floor when I arrived, so I had nothing to do but wait. That just kicked up my butterflies again and hearing the creatures’ growls coming from their cells didn’t ease one flit of their flutter. It wasn’t too long before Silas came strolling down the hall, whistling. He was rolling a cumbersome wooden barrel on a hand-truck. The busy-beaver house steward parked it beside the chimera’s cell and lifted off its lid. As nervous as I felt, I was glad to have anothe
r body keeping me company (even his) and to see that I would be going in post-mealtime.

  “What’s on the menu today?” I posed. I still found it hard to grasp that they actually fed these thing’s bellies.

  “This is to keep you off it,” Silas corrected as he propped the lid against the wall.

  I peeked inside the barrel. It was filled to its brim with some sort of mashed-up herb. Whatever it was looked like fine, wet mulch. I’d already scooped up a handful and had taken a sniff when Silas whirled around and shouted for me to, “STOP!” That was the last thing I remembered. I woke up later that afternoon in my bed, my mouth dry and muscles aching all over. Tanner was sitting over on the chaise lounge all kicked back, relaxed, and browsing through a Barrett-Jackson car auction catalog.

  “What happened?” I asked groggily.

  “What always happens when little girls poke their noses into things they shouldn’t,” he scolded with a laugh. “That was layria bark. It’s an immobilizing herb.” He glanced at his watch. “You’ve been out for over two hours.”

  “What was it doing there?”

  “Oh, you mean housed in its barrel?” Tanner countered, amused. “Where it should have been?”

  I nodded sheepishly.

  “I had Silas bring it down to the dungeon,” he said. “It’s a precautionary measure . . . just in case your tussles get too intense.”

  I arched my brow. “To keep me from getting my butt whipped too hard?” Or dead, I shuddered quietly.

  “Yes. Since it has a high content of water, all I have to do is shoot a moist stream of it at them and down they fall like bricks. No touching required,” he grinned.

  I sat up further in bed. “Well then, why don’t you go and knock them all out, and I’ll grab the oculus?”

  Tanner shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. There isn’t a paralytic substance out there that will help you strip an immortal’s soul that easy. It causes their entire bodies to blackout — eyes and souls included. But it doesn’t last nearly as long on them. Ten? Maybe fifteen minutes tops, depending on the creature. They snap out of it immediately, like waking from a bad dream. It’s best to be good and gone when they do . . . and it’s very hard to come by. Be glad I managed to scrounge up what’s in that barrel. It only blooms during the winter in the most frigid temperatures, and there aren’t many sources left around the globe.”

  Despite the hefty size of the barrel, its rarity raised my brow. “Will that be enough . . . for the summer?”

  “I’m counting on it,” he stated confidently and rose to his feet. “So? Are you ready for another go?”

  Tanner having a magical sedative eased a lot of my previous worries. “Now I am,” I confirmed and threw my feet on the floor. I wobbled like a top on its last turn when I shot up. Tanner grabbed me before I hit the floor and yanked me towards him.

  “Maybe we just stick to lectures for the rest of the day?” he proposed, tossing my limp muscles a much-needed reprieve. “When it’s all out of your system?”

  “Agreed,” I grinned, now feeling the warmth from his manly brawn. “And I promise not to sabotage your schedule tomorrow.” I even held up my hand like a Girl Scout. Though he didn’t show it, I knew Mr. Grindstone Grey was bouncing off the walls, raring to go.

  As promised, the next afternoon I was completely conscious for my second “first” official beasty brawl (though still a bit edgy). And as I’d predicted, Tanner was eagerly waiting on me. My other cheerleader was there as well, sitting on the lid of the barrel that contained the layria bark, grinning.

  “Don’t worry, Silas. I don’t plan on making that mistake again,” I assured.

  Silas gave his brow a frivolous swipe. “Thank heavens for that.” He hopped off the barrel, dusted off his slacks, and then handed Tanner a leather pouch. “Here you are, Professor. I’ve already collected some for you. You are, as they say, good-to-go.”

  Tanner nodded to Silas and then turned to me. “How about you?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I announced and then started towards the chimera’s cell.

  My mentor grabbed my arm and guided me away from the door. “No, no. We won’t be seeking any rematches in there — Not yet.”

  “Then where?” I eyed the other doors. “The balegore or the imp?” I assumed it would be one of those two, because he still hadn’t revealed squat about Beasty Number Four or Five.

  “Neither,” Tanner replied and knelt beside the turn wheel sticking out of the floor. A few forceful spins was all it took for a cloud of steam to shoot out from under the hatch. The sizzling “hiss-s-s-s-s-s” it squealed couldn’t hold a candle to how ghostly the haze looked wafting around my mentor as he lifted it back. And his ominous expression didn’t help one damn bit.

  It was official. My butterflies had been replaced with a gut-churning case of the creepy-crawlies.

  With a gung-ho grin and a spirited stride, Tanner grabbed a torch off the wall and then motioned me down into the gloomy hole. “Follow me.”

  “Right behind you.” The only thrill fanning my smile was his offer to go in first. Facts were facts. Nothing good ever happened in a cave. And now I was about to descend into a hole within a cave? I cringed at the thought. There was a good reason “graves” held dead bodies and were dug underground — because that was where the GRAVEST CRAP went down.

  A metal ladder lay inside the shadowy hole. I slipped into the opening and planted the treads of my sneakers firmly on one of its rungs. Slowly I inched my way down, guided by the light glowing from Tanner’s torch. The air grew more humid the further I descended. I wasn’t sure which would hit the ground first: my feet or my falling-limper-by-the-second ponytail. My nostrils flared from the mustiness all around. The stench was undeniably moldy, but hands down I would take it over the balegore’s breath any given day.

  I hopped off the last rung, only to have my Asics land on the ground in a “squish”. I pried one of my shoes out of the mud and lifted it in the air, tilting it for a thorough inspection. Well, now it just looked like a boot.

  Yuck. So much for my “new” shoes. I honestly should have known better. Tanner was even worse than Bea when it came to wrecking my wardrobe. There was no swiping it off either, not for as far as my eyes could see. Like all the other chambers I’d ventured into, this one possessed a landscape unique to itself. It appeared to be a swamp. What little dry land surrounded the moss-dripping, marshy scene looked like a patchwork of more potential sludge. A dreary palette of fuzzy greens and dirty browns washed the wet & woodsy terrain while a gray mist hovered above the ground and extended over an eerie-looking lake. I’d never seen water as milky green or still before. Regurgitated pea soup came to mind. I gave my arms a brisk rub. The mere sight of the damp and earthy scene was enough to send you scrambling into a shower stall. It was that gross.

  “Should I watch out for alligators?” I asked, only I wasn’t teasing.

  Tanner grinned. “It’s funny you say that. Phin discovered this particular creature in a bayou not too far from New Orleans.”

  I grabbed his arm as he started to walk off. “Seriously, is it some kind of gator?”

  “No,” Tanner assured casually. “It doesn’t even have any teeth. That I do know, though I can’t be sure of anything else. Phin dropped it off the day before you arrived. This is actually the first one anyone’s ever come across. It hasn’t even been given a proper name.”

  I didn’t know what to think after hearing that. I certainly wasn’t as pumped as Mr. Discovery Channel seemed to be. I wanted to know what I was dealing with without any surprises — THIS TIME.

  Tanner turned and strolled towards the edge of the water. “Phin thought you might want the honor.”

  “How kind of the Emerald Talisman,” I replied with a sour roll.

  Tanner glanced back at me, his eyes twinkling. “I thought so as well.”

  I shook my head and followed him. “So what does this thing look like?” I questioned. “The Creature from the Black
Lagoon?”

  My mentor didn’t let out the first laugh, but I sensed his amusement. “Take my word . . . You’ll know it when you see it.”

  My feet came to a jarring halt. “That’s not very helpful.”

  “Part of your training is experiencing these things like you would out in the world,” Tanner explained, brushing off my glare. “I’ve purposely mimicked the environments where they were found. Telling you defeats the element of surprise.” He bent down and gathered up a few stones. “I suggest you start making some noise if you’re so keen on knowing.”

  He started hurling rocks into the water not a second later. Though from my anxious angle, he seemed to be enjoying their skips across the surface more than trying to kick-up anything supernatural.

  My arms folded into a flat cross. “So all you know is that it doesn’t have any teeth?”

  Tanner shot me a series of brisk nods, which drove my suspicions even crazier. I snatched up a handful of rocks in a huff. I was nervous enough, and his cavalier attitude wasn’t helping. I had so many questions, and that’s what the professor was here for after all — to “teach” me.

  I should have gotten his “full disclosure” declaration in writing.

  “Is it big?” I probed.

  Tanner shrugged his shoulders. “Yes.”

  “Does it have any special abilities?”

  “Not sure,” he lobbed back.

  I stared at the murky pool. “But it’s a water creature?”