by Lisa Beeson
Walking into the living room, I saw Jean-Baptiste’s massive bulk sitting on one of Cass’s dainty couches. It kind of looked like a normal-sized adult trying to sit on children’s furniture. It was pretty absurd looking, so I giggled, which caught his attention. He looked over at me, and one of his big smiles spread across his face. “You have a good rest, cher?”
I told him I did, and then Cass walked out of the kitchen, drinking a cup of what smelled like peppermint tea. I asked if I could have a snack, and she pointed to a basket of fruit on the coffee table. I grabbed an apple, and sat down next to Jean-Baptiste. Then, I looked over at Cass and asked, “So what’s the plan? Am I staying here with you?”
Cass taking a sip of her tea, sat down on the couch across from Jean-Baptiste and I. “You can stay here for a little while, but the fewer things that tie you to Ruby the safer she’ll be. We don’t want her implicated in your disappearance.”
No, I didn’t want Ruby tied to my disappearance and death. Not after everything she did for me.
“…A friend of mine told me of a man up in Toronto that will take you in and keep you safe.”
I had hoped that I could stay in New Orleans with them. “Is he legit? Will he really be able to keep me safe?” I asked. I then took a bite of my apple to hide the disappointment and uneasiness on my face. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.
“My friend vouched for him, and I had a vision about you in Canada, so…” she trailed off with a shrug.
Jean-Baptiste saw the uncertainty on my face. “We wouldn’t send you to someone we didn’t feel comfortable with, cher. If Cass saw you in Canada, then that’s where you should go.”
I nodded reluctantly, taking another bite of the apple.
The rest of the afternoon we sat and talked. Cass and Jean-Baptiste reminisced about the mischief and adventures that they and Ruby had gotten into when they were growing up, while I managed to finish off the entire bowl of fruit. It was nice to just sit back and talk about normal things.
Around seven o’clock we all declared that we were hungry, so we left Cass’s place and walked to one of Jean-Baptiste’s favorite restaurants. The food was delicious, the atmosphere was fun, and the company was good. Everything was going well. There was even a band playing that was lively and entertaining; it kept the mood light. After the bill was paid, we walked out into the beautifully temperate evening.
The sun had already set and the old fashioned street lights were on, bathing the streets in an orangey glow. We stayed away from the rowdy streets full of reveling tourists and kept to the quiet back streets.
Just as we passed an alley between two old homes, Jean-Baptiste and I froze and my scalp started to tingle. We both felt it – Shades. A whole bunch of them, too.
A few emerged from the shadows in the alley. And then a whole group of them came around the corner ahead of us. They dripped with menace as they walked towards us down the sidewalk.
Cass and Jean-Baptiste closed ranks around me. The Shades stopped walking when one of them held up his hand and came forward. I recognized him as the Sid Vicious-wannabe from the diner.
“What do you want with us, Phet?” Cass challenged. I saw that Jean-Baptiste was just as surprised as I was that she knew its name.
“We have no quarrel with you, Oracle. We’ll just take the girl with us and be on our way.”
Jean-Baptiste pushed me behind him to shield me. Cass stepped forward. “And what do you want this child for? She’s not some weak-willed addict you can possess. She is well protected, trust me.”
He gave her a depraved grin, and then looked over at me as I peeked out from behind Jean-Baptiste’s massive arm. “Nakhar was very interested in the little girl that affected and magnified the fear of a whole diner. It was very enjoyable for us, I assure you.” He leered at me in a way that made my skin crawl.
My mind was reeling. Holy crap, was that true? Did my fear affect everyone else in that diner? And who the heck is Nakhar? The way Phet said the name sounded like he had a wad of phlegm in the back of his throat.
“Well you can tell Nakhar, ‘too bad.’ The child will never be in his control. I can promise you that.” She said it pointedly, letting everyone know that she had seen that in my future. It made me feel better, but it pissed Phet off.
His confident leer quickly morphed into an ugly snarl. “We’ll see about that,” he spat out.
He made a motion with his hand and the Shades started moving towards us again, only quicker this time. Jean-Baptiste pushed me back as he charged the oncoming horde. He picked up one of the charging Shades, lifted it in the air and threw it into the alley like a rag doll.
He roared for us to run as he continued fighting back the Shades. Cass grabbed my hand and led me in the opposite direction of the melee. A couple of the Shades must have managed to get past Jean-Baptiste, because I could hear their footsteps following after us.
Cass and I ran as fast as we could as she led us down to Bourbon St., hoping to lose them in the crowd. Weaving through the people for a couple blocks, we then cut down Toulouse St. and found an empty alleyway. We stopped to catch our breaths.
Cass puffed out, “C’mon, we have to go back to my apartment.” She started off again, pulling my hand so I’d follow after her. We doubled back and snaked our way down different streets towards her apartment. My lungs were burning by the time we reached the back door of her building.
“We need to get you out of the city, so when we get up there you need to grab your stuff as quick as you can,” Cass instructed and I nodded.
As she fiddled with the stubborn lock on the door, I started thinking about how we just left Jean-Baptiste back there with all those Shades. “What about Jean-Baptiste? Is he going to be okay back there?” My chest was starting to constrict with concern for him.
She unlocked the door and shoved it open. “Don’t you worry about Jean-Baptiste. He can take care of himself, and he has a will as strong as a warhorse. They wouldn’t dare try to possess him.”
I nodded, and then ran up the stairs two at a time. We burst through the apartment door, and I ran straight to the spare room to get my bag. I slipped it over my shoulder and came back out to the living room.
Cass was frantically searching for something in the drawer of her desk. The apartment door flung open with a bang. Cass and I jumped at the loud noise, but we were happy to see that it was Jean-Baptiste. He sported some scrapes and a cut above his eye, but other than that he seemed okay.
As he came into the living room, I ran to him and hugged him tight. “I was so scared for you,” I breathed out.
He leaned down, wrapping his arms around me and lifting me off the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling safe in his massive arms.
“No need to worry about me, cher. Ain’t nothin’ alive that can take down the beast that is Jean-Baptiste Babineax.” We both laughed and he put me down.
Cass came over and placed a business card in my hand. “It’s sooner than I had hoped, but you need to go find him. He’ll help you learn how to harness and control your gifts. And don’t worry, he’s expecting you.” The card had the name Gordon Reinhold written in bold letters on it, and the address and phone number of his Toronto office underneath. On the top right corner was a symbol of a tree whose branches and roots were intertwined in a kind of Celtic knot, with the word ‘Pinnacle’ underneath.
Something about that image seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. My mind was too absorbed with what was going on to worry about it, so I just nodded and put the card in my bag. Cass and Jean-Baptiste started discussing how they were going to get me to the bus station without being seen. I walked over to one the windows that overlooked the street in front of the shop.
My scalp tingled as I saw some Shades walking down the street, about three buildings away. There weren’t as many as before, and a couple were limping, but they looked angry and determined. I waved my hand at Cass and Jean-Baptiste to get their attention, as I continued to watch the Shades
get closer. “Uh, guys! We need to leave now! They’re coming!”
They dashed over to the window to see for themselves, and after one look we rushed into action.
Cass and I ran to her car, which was parked out back. I jumped into the back seat and lay down out of sight under the blanket she had grabbed before leaving the apartment. Then, Cass started the car and began a circuitous route to the bus station.
Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste ran down to his truck parked out front, and tried to lead the Shades away in the opposite direction.
Cass made a call while she was driving through the city. “…Yeah, I’m going to need it now,” she said into the phone. There was a pause, which I assumed was the person on the other end talking. “…I know, but things have changed. I’ll be there in a minute.” She hung up the phone and told me that we had to make a quick stop.
I felt the car park a couple minutes later. She told me that she’d only be a moment, and to stay out of sight. I heard her exit the car, and waited for what seemed like hours, but was really only a couple minutes, according to Ruby’s watch.
Cass jumped back in the car and quickly drove the rest of the way to the station. When she pulled into the parking lot, she told me to go ahead and sit up. I pulled off the blanket and sat up, looking around. I scooted up between the two front seats.
Cass pulled into a parking spot near the front doors of the station. She handed me a small manila envelope. “That will get you across the border, but don’t head straight for Toronto. Hop around for a while to get them off your trail.”
Great, now I have Suits AND Shades coming after me. I nodded and put the envelope in my bag. Then I took out my hoodie, slipped it on, tucked my hair in, and pulled the hood up. As I put my back pack on, I looked towards the woman who had done so much for me, including put herself in danger. Had it really only been about 24 hours since I had a similar scene like this with her sister?
“Cass…” I began, but I didn’t know how to express everything I felt.
She gave me a tight lipped smile and nodded in understanding. “I know, baby…” she answered. Then she reached back and gave me an awkward hug from the front seat.
“Tell Jean-Baptiste I said goodbye,” I said as we pulled apart.
She promised that she would, and then looked me in the eyes to make sure I was paying attention. “You be smart now, and keep your guard up at all times,” she cautioned.
I nodded before I hopped out of the car and made my way inside. I managed a weird kind of speed walk through the station. I didn’t want to draw attention by running, but my adrenaline-high body wouldn’t let me walk at a normal pace.
I decided to get on the bus going to Shreveport, since it was leaving the earliest. I boarded the bus confidently flashed my pass at the driver, and found a seat towards the middle. When I sat down I decided to check out what was in the manila envelope Cass had given me.
Opening it up, I pulled out a passport. It looked pretty legit, with all the right signatures and stamps. And somehow they got a hold of my school ID photo from the fifth grade. They photoshopped it in a way that made it look like a passport photo. It said my name was Ariana Reyes, and that I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. I guess I could pull off being Latina. Hector’s birth parents were Columbian, and we had basically the same skin tone.
Putting the passport in the envelope in my bag, I sat back and tried to rest. My iPod was out of juice, so I couldn’t listen to music, but I put the ear buds in anyway so people would leave me alone. And now that I was calming down, it suddenly popped into my mind where I had seen that tree symbol with the word ‘Pinnacle’ before.
Back in January we had received a packet in the mail for a boarding school called Pinnacle Academy. That symbol was on the front of the brochure. It promised state-of-the-art facilities, and a one-on-one teaching atmosphere. Since the criteria for attending was so stringent, there were only a handful of students accepted at a time. The Academy had a year-round school schedule with two-week breaks every three months. I hadn’t wanted to get shipped off to some strange school I’d never heard of, away from my family and friends. So, I told my parents I wasn’t interested and we never gave it another thought.
Was the Pinnacle Academy actually a place for Progeny children? Was that what they meant by stringent criteria? Could I have circumvented this whole mess if I had just gone there in the first place? My head and my heart hurt just thinking about the possibility.
My mind and body were so tired that I slept all the way to Shreveport.
After Shreveport, I decided to go to Houston. I then zigzagged around Texas, sleeping on the overnight legs. When I got to Tyler, I figured the Shades lost my trail so I decided to pick up some things at the local Buy-Mart before I continued on towards Canada.
That’s when I went on one of their floor model computers and looked up the Savannah Tribune online. I wanted to see if there was anything in there about me. I saw an article about my disappearance and how the police suspected foul play, since there were witnesses saying that they saw a girl of my description running through the streets right before I disappeared. There was nothing about Ruby –so that was good. Then an article written two days later talked about how they had found my ‘remains’ in the same canal that I had been found in seven years earlier. That was very poetic in a macabre way, Ruby, I thought to myself.
Then I saw my own obituary, which confirmed that everyone back home thought that I was dead. It was a hard pill to swallow.
I thought it would be best to change my appearance, and I was lucky enough to find someone who could cut my hair. After that I decided to be on my way, and that’s when I ran into another Shade. He wasn’t one of the ones from New Orleans, but he was nasty nonetheless. It was when I was evading him that I saw your truck at the gas pump, and figured I could hitch a ride with you to make a fast getaway. And, now I’m here…..”
Chapter 13
Adam let out a long puff of air when Ari stopped talking.
It had taken her more than two hours to tell Adam the whole story. They had driven up I-30, around Little Rock, and an hour up I-40 before she had finished.
She didn’t talk like any kid he’d ever met before. Her thought processes and reasoning skills were more like that of a thirty year old, rather than a twelve year old. She was looking over at him nervously, watching his reaction to all that she had told him. He rubbed at the bristles growing on his jaw. “That’s quite a story, kid.” He looked straight ahead at the road in front of him as the sun dipped behind the tree line beside the highway.
“It’s all true. I can prove it… Can I use your phone?” Ari held out her hand impatiently, waiting for Adam to give her the okay to take it from the mount on his dash.
He looked down at her outstretched hand, and told her to hold on a moment. Pulling off at the next exit, he found a gas station and then eased up to the pump. After he turned off the engine, he took out his phone and handed it over to her.
She looked up her own obituary on the Savannah Tribune website, and then handed the phone back to Adam, making sure he saw the picture next to her old name.
Adam scanned over the obituary and looked closely at the picture. He looked over at Ari, who was staring at him intensely, and then back at the picture. There was no denying it, the faces were a perfect match. Her eyes were so distinct that there was no mistaking them.
Ari rummaged through her bag until she pulled out the manila envelope holding her fake passport. She took it out and handed it over to him. He turned on the overhead light in the truck, and examined the passport thoroughly. Even to him, it looked legit. Whoever made this, knew what they were doing.
He handed it back to her, then raked his hand through his hair. “All that proves is that you have some really connected friends that helped you fake your death. But all that stuff about Oracles, demi-gods, and evil spirit people….it’s pretty hard to believe, you have to admit.”
*****
How could she prove to him the e
xistence of things he couldn’t see? She could go into hyper speed, but she didn’t want to do that in front of a gas station full of people, and it took too much energy. She racked her brain trying think of some way to prove that everything she said was true.
Then she had it. She pulled out the necklace from under her shirt the blue jewel shimmering under the overhead light. She then took out the black velvet pouch that Cass had given her, holding the ring inside. Ari handed the pouch over to Adam, and then asked him to take out the ring.
Adam took the pouch and removed the ring, holding it up to the light. She made sure he had plenty of time to examine it. She took off the chain from around her neck and laid the blue jewel on her upturned hand. Then, holding out her left hand, she waited for him to place the ring on her palm.
As soon as the ring touched Ari’s hand the jewels illuminated with an inner glow, like she was a conductor of sorts. Adam blinked in surprise then took both jewels in his hands, and they immediately stopped glowing upon his touch. He examined both of them, scrutinizing every facet, looking for some sort of lighting source. Then he gave them back to her, causing them to glow once more.
“I don’t know how you’re doing that, but it still doesn’t prove that other stuff.” He shook his head, baffled by what he’d just seen. “But, it doesn’t matter. You’re still going to come with me so we can find out who these ‘Suits’ are, and then we’ll figure it out from there.”
Ari couldn’t believe that he still thought she was lying. What else could she do? She didn’t tell him her whole life story for nothing.
Then, it hit her. Maybe she could do what Cass did and try to read his thoughts. If she could then tell him what he was thinking then he’d have to believe her. When she thought about it, maybe that was what she was unconsciously trying to do to Mr. Ramsey back at the hospital, when she had put her hand on his face. What if she could have been able to do this the whole time?