Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  Unlike then, she did not touch the floor from the beginning. She levitated, her hair swaying with no breeze, her white robe cascading down, nearly touching the floor. “The beast inside of you is strong,” she said, gazing out of the window, at the dusk-covered landscape before her. The entire room was lit in an eerie, orange glow. The day was dying, and I had never felt more confused.

  She turned to me, spinning without a sound, her hair seconds behind her. She gave me a smile, and I was hypnotized. This was where Kass got it from. This was what made her so appealing. Not her looks. Not her personality. Not her stupid insistence on always getting the last word.

  This.

  “But you are stronger,” she stated. “You are stronger than you know.”

  “I’ve only met one being who is stronger than Vexillion, and it’s not me,” I spoke through bared teeth, hating to bring up the boy. Suddenly, without warning, a wave of pacification swept over me, and I couldn’t recall a time in my life when I’d ever felt so calm, so assured, peaceful. “What are you?” I asked, though deep down, I knew already, as did Kass.

  The woman let out a short, quiet giggle. “This is not about me, Crixis.”

  “It’s about Kass.” I should’ve figured. The oh-so-special one.

  “This is not about Kass. I have done all I can for her. Now, I come for another reason.” She lifted a hand, gesturing to…to me? “This is about you.”

  I studied her, skeptical. “Why would you come here for me? Don’t you remember I tried to kill you?”

  “Yes,” she said swiftly. “I do remember. I know everything that you have done. I know every face of your victims, every soul you snuffed.”

  “Then you know I killed your husband and made your daughter’s life a living hell.” I didn’t want to be here, so I shrugged, trying to turn to go back into the real world, into David’s room. But there was no other room to go back to. I was fully in the past. The vision. Whatever this was supposed to be.

  “I do.”

  “Then I don’t see why you’d want to help me, or whatever you’re here for. And you know what else? I don’t care. I don’t need to listen to you. I need—”

  She cut in, knowing what I was about to say, “You do not need to kill right now.”

  “Don’t tell me what I need, Angel.”

  “So headstrong, so rash, and yet—” She tilted her head. “—there is a seed of good in you, yet.”

  “There is not.” I didn’t know why I felt the urge to argue, when clearly, she wasn’t having anything I said. I felt like Kass, when she sought to argue with me about the boy.

  “You might not see it, but it’s there. You have the capacity to do good.” Her heavenly expression turned stiff as she added, “You must try, otherwise the world is doomed.” Just as I was about to rebuke her, she carried on, “She will need you.”

  “Kass doesn’t need me.”

  Chuckling, she said, “I told you. This isn’t about Kass.”

  “Then who—”

  “You haven’t met her, yet. She will need you to guide her. Only one who has lived in darkness knows what it feels like. Kass has been through some awful things, many thanks to you, but she will never know how easy it is to give in to the evil inside.”

  I shook the plaster off my hand, not liking where this was going. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “I want you to try. I want you to be better than the animal you used to be. I want you to be worthy of her.”

  “You make it sound like…”

  “I told you then that I see the things that have been, things that are, and things that will be. Your journey for penance has begun.”

  How many times did I have to tell this woman that I didn’t want that? I opened my mouth to argue, to deny her and her claims of forgiveness and needing me to turn to the good side of the spectrum, but before I knew it, her hand rested on my face, her sparkling skin touching mine.

  “Time is running short. I’m needed elsewhere. You’re not my only charge.” She whispered, her tone low and velvety, “This, I think, will change your mind.”

  And then, before the room faded away, and I realized that it was not the dusk sunlight but the dawn’s, I heard a single noise. A noise that made me want to believe her, to repent just to know what the future held.

  The sound of a baby crying.

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Gabriel

  My rage was great. I hated the past. Did I even want to remember it all now? I didn’t know. I knew there had to be good memories, too, but right now, I was blinded by what the other me showed me. I was enraged. I wanted to hit something.

  My hands remained clenched as I followed him through the portal, into a living room. Small and quaint, full of barely-touched furniture, as if it were all recently-bought. The walls were mostly bare, save for a few scattered canvas pictures of scenery and forests.

  A girl stood near the window, watching the dreary outside rain with her arms crossed. Her back to us, I didn’t need her to turn around to know who she was. Kassie.

  Even though I was mad, I still wanted to go to her, to touch her. I wanted to forget my anger and be with her, as stupid as it sounded.

  But the other me spoke, “Wait for it.” His peculiar way of speaking was, for once, overtaken by a mostly modern phrase.

  And, just as he said, I felt someone walk through me, heading straight for Kassie. By the square of his shoulders and the tint of his skin, I knew who he was, too. The red-eyed Demon who had somehow wriggled his way into her heart.

  Jealousy didn’t even cover it.

  “Come on,” he said, touching her arm. “We can go rent a movie. Get your mind off it.”

  “No,” Kassie shrugged him off, slowly turning to face him. “I don’t feel like going out.”

  “Then I’ll pick something up. What do you want to see? What snacks do you want—pickles and ice cream?” He sounded playful, teasing, completely different than what I knew he sounded like.

  “That was one time, Crixis. One time.” She laughed. “I hate you for bringing that up every day.”

  Every day? So they spent all their time together, did they? I felt my skin start to sweat.

  I was shocked, though, as I moved closer after the other me insisted on it. Shocked because Kassie had a round belly. She was…pregnant? Pregnant with this Demon’s child? No. No, that…that wasn’t possible.

  And yet, I saw it with my own two eyes.

  I saw how friendly they were to each other, how the Demon’s eyes held no ill-will toward her anymore. Kassie looked, in spite of everything, relaxed and content.

  I hated it.

  I hated her, and I hated him. I hated them together. I hated that belly. Everything about this, I hated. I hated it all.

  And then, in a blink, we were no longer with them in the house. We were in a hospital, the room looking so very similar to the one I woke up in, though this one had a doctor and a nurse, along with Kassie and her spread legs. The Demon, Crixis, held onto her hand as she gave birth.

  After more labor, after the child was born, after it was cleaned and Kassie held onto it, she offered the tiny, crying babe to Crixis. And he took it, cradling it carefully, like he truly cared about it.

  My face twisted, and before I could control myself, I let loose a punch onto the nearby wall. I thought my fist would go through it, but instead, the vision around us cracked, splintered from the strength I had. Everything, Kassie and Crixis and the baby, everything was frozen around us. My field of view turned red, and it was hard to look at him, at the other me.

  “It’s not pretty, is it?” he asked me, eyes lingering on the hand that still rested on the splintered wall, cracked like a TV screen. “In fact, I’d call it downright disgusting. Wouldn’t you?”

  I followed his stare, finding that the skin on my fist had turned a smoky grey. The color, hardened skin, traveled up my arm at a slow, agonizing pace. The nails on my hand turned black and sharp. Was this what I was?

  “I would,�
� I agreed.

  The other me took a step nearer, the frozen room not bothering him in the slightest. “What if I told you that you have the power to change this?”

  “I’d ask you how,” I said.

  He gave me a look that read: finally, we’re getting somewhere. With a wave of his hand, the hospital room faded, and Kassie and Crixis were out of my sight, thankfully. I couldn’t stand to see either of them any longer.

  We stood outside of a building, in a cool, dreary city. With my skin turning grey, I hardly felt anything. Hardly heard the cars as they drove past, the people as they walked by, ignoring the three-story building that was nestled near others. Marble steps, stone columns; old architecture.

  The other me said, “There will be a choice in your near future. What happens after will depend on what you do here.” He waited a moment before saying, “Are you ready to see what needs to be done?”

  I nodded.

  In the end, my rage would blind me. And I was fine with that.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Michael

  Still no change in Gabriel’s condition. If he didn’t wake before I finished Kass, the Order would step in. Their doctors were discreet and better able to handle such a condition. The hospital hadn’t even run his blood through a tox-screening. If they had, they would’ve discovered that his coma was not natural in the least, and that, with the levels in his blood, he should have died.

  The Order would surely punish me for my mistake. I knew it, and I wouldn’t try to escape it. If there was one thing I was loyal to, it was the Order.

  That night, Kass stayed in bed, declaring she was sick.

  Liz played the part of a worrying mother well, even though she had told me numerous times that she never wanted kids. She fretted over dinner, telling Kass that if she didn’t feel well come tomorrow, she didn’t have to go to school. They’d all need to be in top shape to sniff out whatever supernatural was stalking the halls.

  I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I was so laser-focused on my mission the last week that I didn’t even say anything.

  Kass didn’t look too good. Her skin was pale, dotted with sweat. Her eyes had bags underneath them. She could barely walk straight.

  She’d probably stay home from school tomorrow, and as Liz took Max, I’d strike.

  Tomorrow, I’d end Kass once and for all.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Kass

  My head felt like stone, like it weighed a thousand pounds. I could barely lift it as my alarm rang. I tried hitting my clock, to shut the thing off, but my vision swayed as I sat up, so I just decided to yank the stupid thing out of the wall and throw it halfway across the room.

  Not an overreaction, right?

  A headache coursed through me, and I struggled to get to my feet. I wasn’t going to stay home today. I was going to school, and by God, I was going to catch that Skinwalker and make it wish it never came to this town.

  Last night, Liz explained how to purify it, should I encounter it. Whoever it crawled inside of was a goner. They were unable to be saved. If the Skinwalker had remained in the same body this whole time, the insides of the human were almost all gone by now. If this was anybody else’s life but mine, I would’ve asked what would happen if the Skinwalker had already jumped ship into another body that wouldn’t be at the school.

  But I knew better, because this was my life and odds were, I’d stumble across the thing when I was least expecting it. That’s how my life seemed to go.

  Long and gruesome story short, I had to catch the Skinwalker body suit-less. And, if it wouldn’t crawl out on its own, I had to beat its human body so bad that it couldn’t linger inside it.

  I was fit for that, wasn’t I?

  My feet drawing along the floor, I found an outfit in my closet and scurried as best I could to the bathroom. The first thing I did was open the medicine cabinet and find some anti-migraine pills, caffeine and other goodness loaded in those white things. I popped two of them, putting a hand under the running faucet and cupping some water. I brought it to my face and gulped it down, pills and all. I brushed my teeth, ran a comb through my rat’s nest of a head, threw on my clothes after applying some deodorant, and was out the door in less than five minutes.

  I did everything I could not to think about what Crixis told me yesterday. Me, loving Gabriel romantically? What a joke. Sure, I might’ve made out with him in the other world, but that was…that wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the same Gabriel. It was a fluke.

  Right?

  The more I thought about it, the more unsure I became, so I decided to just push it from my mind, for it didn’t matter too much anyways. Gabriel wasn’t here, and odds weren’t too good that he’d rejoin me anytime soon.

  At the top of the stairs, I paused to inhale, to calm my nerves and ready myself to pretend that I was fine.

  And then I went down.

  Liz and Max were in the kitchen, discussing the day’s plans. Neither one of them expected me to come down, apparently, nor did Michael, who walked in from the living room with a cup of tea in his hands.

  “Kass,” Michael spoke, his English accent thick, “you should be sleeping.”

  “No,” I said, standing tall and firm. “I’m fine. I’m going.”

  Liz moved closer, setting a hand on my back, comforting me as she said, “Max and I can handle it. Plus, there are other Council agents stationed at the school. Together, we’ll figure it out. I don’t want you to be put into danger when you’re not feeling one hundred percent.”

  I moved away from her, grabbing my backpack. For once, my stomach wasn’t hungry. It felt…bad, and eating was the last thing I wanted to do. I slipped on my shoes. “I’ll be in the car.” And then I left them, waiting not-so-patiently to be driven to school.

  Skinwalker, here I come.

  The ride to school was torturous. Every little bump in the road and my stomach threatened to heave. But if there’s one thing Michael and Koath always said I was, it was stubborn. And I was dead set on finding this Skinwalker.

  As Liz pulled into the parking lot and we all got out of the car, I happened to glance at Max, remembering that I never went to him yesterday to ask about his date with Claire. I made a mental note to do it as soon as the Skinwalker was taken care of. Then I could help Claire with her disappointment and Max with his over-enthusiasm.

  Ironically, that morning I managed to unlock my locker without messing up once. Funny, how when I felt like utter crap, I was able to do some things better than I did when I felt normal. I grabbed the textbooks of my first few classes and went to work.

  My headache was mostly gone, but the sick feeling in my stomach remained. Plus, I felt a little chilly, which was an odd thing to say in this humid, hot Carolinian air. The school was air conditioned, of course, but my skin was colder. I should’ve worn a hoodie.

  As I went to class, walked through the halls and as I sat in class, I studied everyone, even the teachers. I was alert as I could be, given the situation. I watched for their mannerisms, waited for anyone to start acting a little weird, but for the first three periods, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

  I went to physics, heading straight for the backroom, where Claire and I spent our time ‘tutoring.’ At one point, she actually did teach me, but now, we often spent the time chatting about stupid things. Like Max.

  After setting my books down and coming to the idea of the Skinwalker being inside Mr. Straum (I wasn’t a fan of him, anyway), the man himself poked his head through the door. “Class and I’ll be outside testing the trebuchets.” His beady eyes didn’t see the second person of our duo, so he asked, “Is Claire here today?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” I set a hand on my chin.

  “All right. Well, if she doesn’t show up, feel free to come outside and watch. Maybe you’ll actually learn something.” The way he said the last bit, as a fun little joke, made me roll my eyes, because I didn’t need to learn anything from this class. From any class, really.

&n
bsp; I nodded, which was enough to get him to leave me alone. Leaning back in the chair, I closed my eyes. Going through the school day, on constant alert, had to have been the most difficult thing I’d done in a long time. I set a hand on my stomach, feeling the sudden urge to vomit, and I sluggishly sat straight and opened my eyes, glancing to the clock.

  It’d been fifteen minutes, and Claire still wasn’t here.

  Claire was never late.

  I stood and went to the hall. It was empty and eerie, and I knew I should’ve at least faked a hall pass, but there wasn’t time. The urge to throw up subsided, and the need to find Claire took its place. I passed the guidance office as I wove my way through the halls, seeking Claire’s locker. Once I found it, my feet stumbled to a halt.

  Liz and the new, well-built principal were talking in front of it. It’s metal door hanging ajar, wide open, books on the floor around it. Liz spotted me instantly, motioning for me to come near. “Kass, there’s been a development, and I’m afraid—”

  “No,” I cut in, whispering, “it’s not Claire.”

  “Well it’s not looking good,” the principal spoke. “Another student reported her locker like this a few minutes ago. Her car’s not in the parking lot, but she’s not showing as absent. She was here today, but now no one can find her.”

  We all quieted as another student walked by. When we were once more alone, I said, “Excuse me from class. I know where she lives. I can check there.” Not sure if I could walk there, but I’d do my best.

  With a heavy sigh, the principal nodded. “Go.”

  “Let me get my things.” I met Liz’s amber eyes, and for a moment, something wordless passed between us. She thought Claire was the Skinwalker. She wasn’t. There was no way. This was just some huge misunderstanding. I spent way too much with Claire the last week. I would’ve known if something was off about her.

  Liz said nothing as I spun and returned to physics, to the teacher’s nook where my books were. I grabbed them, stuffed them in my locker, and walked out a nearby side door. I headed toward the road along the school’s exit lanes when I froze.