by J. S. Bailey
“We’re going to try to be calm and figure this all out,” Randy said, though his face remained pale. “Kevin, do you feel like you’re under any kind of attack?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
Randy put a hand on his chin, deep in thought.
“It’s a sacrifice,” a thin voice said from the other side of the room.
Many heads turned as one. Frank the First was sitting up straight in his chair. “What did you say?” Frankie asked.
Frank the First spoke up louder this time. “It’s a sacrifice. Bobby and Randy were physically healed by someone whose ability came from one of the fallen. Since this Vincent’s ability was Satanic, it robbed the two of you of your spiritual gifts. It was the price you paid for being healed.”
Bobby’s skin prickled. “So the only way Kevin could restore my premonitions was if he gave up his gift of healing?” That’s not fair at all.
“That’s precisely what I’m saying.” The elderly Frank cast a sorrowful gaze across the room. “Kevin, I’m so sorry. You wouldn’t have known.”
Kevin made a strangled noise in his throat.
“So this means that Bobby’s gift is definitely restored?” A hopeful glint shined in Phil’s eyes.
“It would seem that way,” Frank said. “But only time will tell.”
EVEN THOUGH his emotions toward the woman who had birthed him were still too complicated for Bobby to describe, he allowed her to come home with him that night since she had nowhere else to go.
The short ride to the tiny rental house was fraught with awkwardness.
“You’ve certainly fallen in with an interesting lot,” Adrian said as Bobby pulled into his driveway.
“You promise you won’t tell anyone about them?”
“Of course I promise. That isn’t something you just proclaim to everyone you meet.”
Boy, have you got that right.
“You can sleep in my bed,” Bobby said as he unlocked the front door a minute later. “I’ll take the couch.”
Tears welled up in Adrian’s eyes when they crossed over the threshold into the living room. “Oh, honey, you don’t have to do that.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”
Adrian turned in a full circle, taking in the modest dwelling. “It’s a nice little place you’ve got here.”
“I’ve only been here a few days. I like it.”
“I like it, too.” She gave a humorless laugh. “This whole place would fit inside the kitchen in the house I shared with Yuri.”
Adrian had told him about the husband she’d left behind in Michigan. “It must have been a mansion.”
“It was. But you know what? It was just a building. Now this little house here? It could be a home.”
THE NEXT day Bobby helped Adrian track down her disintegrating Ford Escort, which had been towed away from the parking lot in which she’d left it prior to her being abducted.
“You drove that here all the way from Michigan?” Bobby asked as he stared at the giant patches of rust overtaking the flaking teal paint.
“It got me to where I needed to go.” Adrian smiled.
They arranged for the Escort to be taken to a garage for repair and then returned to Bobby’s house, and Bobby set about preparing lunch for the two of them. “I hope you like bagels,” Bobby said while Adrian sat at the card table, her brow furrowed in thought.
She jerked her head up. “Honey, you make whatever you like.”
So Bobby got out two bagels, divided them in half, and spread mayonnaise inside each one before stacking ham, turkey, roast beef, tomato, onion, and lettuce into them.
He set one in front of Adrian and sat down across from her.
“So what now?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Are you going back to Michigan?”
She pursed her lips. “There’s nothing for me there other than your two youngest siblings. I’m sure Yuri has already taken steps to divorce me.”
“Why did you marry him in the first place?”
Adrian took a bite of her bagel sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. “Because I thought he cared. And he did care, but not in the way I thought. I don’t think he loved me at all. He only wanted someone to control and to give him pleasure.”
Bobby’s face heated up in embarrassment.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Adrian said as she cast her gaze down at the table.
“No, no, that’s okay. You’re just being honest.”
“Boy, am I.” Adrian regarded him again with a tilted head. “I’m proud of you, Bobby. For helping set those people at the lodge free. And for not rejecting me even though I deserve it.”
Bobby nodded, unsure of what to say, so he just said, “Thanks.”
They consumed the remainder of their lunch in silence. Bobby opened his mouth to ask Adrian if she had anything in mind for the rest of the day but a surge of anxiety chased the words away.
The image of Adrian lying dead on the ground flashed through his mind.
His chest tightened.
His premonitions had indeed returned.
Adrian pushed back her plate and sighed. “Oh, what am I going to do? I can’t just leave now that I’ve found you.”
“You left the other ones.” Bobby’s voice sounded far away as if it belonged to someone else.
Her cheeks flushed pink. “They didn’t accept me.”
“Maybe they will when they’re older.”
“Oh, I hope you’re right.”
The sense of impending doom pulsed stronger in Bobby’s veins. Give me clarity, he prayed. I can’t save anyone if I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
The image of a park strewn with colorful banners, amusement rides, and booths of food flashed through his mind.
What’s that supposed to mean?
“I have an idea,” Adrian said.
“What’s that?”
“I’ll settle down for a while. Maybe a year or two. I’ll get a job and get my life in order. Then you and I can make the long trip back east to visit your siblings and see if…” A shadow passed over her face. “You know.”
Bobby’s stomach clenched into knots at the thought of a road trip of which the sole purpose was to befriend three unhappy teenagers he happened to be related to. “Is that a good idea?”
“I can’t just forget they exist. I owe them more than that.”
Bobby had to ask the one question he dreaded asking. “How could you have ever thought that abandoning four kids would be a good idea?”
Her jaw stiffened. “I don’t know.”
Even though he hated himself for it, tears burned in his eyes. “Do you know what it feels like to have been abandoned? To wonder if I was the one who drove you away? To be left out by my stepfamily and teased by people at school? It…it hurts.” More than words can ever describe.
“No,” Adrian said softly. “I don’t.”
There came a light rap on the door. Without another word, Bobby rose and pulled it open to find Phil and Carly waiting for him. “For you two to not like each other, you hang out with each other an awful lot,” Bobby said in a halfhearted attempt at a joke. “Where’s Allison?”
“At home praying for our safety,” Phil said as he stepped past Bobby, “and Randy and Lupe have gone on a day trip to the beach in an attempt to recover from all the garbage that’s been happening lately. Afternoon, Adrian.”
“Safety?” Bobby’s mouth felt dry.
“You know that the issue hasn’t been resolved with Thane,” Carly said, crossing her arms.
“I know.”
“Allison, Mom, and Roger’s wife think that the best thing to do right now in regard to him is to pray about it.” Carly paused. “And Phil and I think you need to go see him.”
“See Thane? In person?” The thought of confronting him made Bobby’s stomach turn.
“It’s to see if he can be helped. We don’t have the ability to sense if he has an aura. You do.”
&nb
sp; “I don’t want to do it,” Bobby said, but the Spirit within whispered, You must.
“Is there anything you do want to do?” Phil asked, his tone sour.
“I want to sleep for about a week.”
“You can do that when you’re retired.” Phil looked to Adrian. “Will you be okay staying here alone for a while?”
“If you don’t mind, I’d prefer staying with your wife. She was too kind to me, lending me some of her clothes last night.”
Phil smiled. “That’s Allison for you. You remember how to get there?”
Adrian tapped on her temple. “I’ve got a knack for directions. I visit a place once, it’s permanently recorded in here.”
Bobby didn’t mention that it had always been the same with him because he was instantly filled with alarm. “What, were you going to take my car? You’ll stay with them until we get back, right?”
“With Allison and the others? Of course.”
“You promise not to go anywhere else?”
“Sure. What’s the problem?”
Bobby looked her right in the eye. It would be pointless to sugarcoat something so serious. “Because my gut is telling me that if you break that promise, you’ll die.”
Adrian’s face paled. “I should just stay here, then?”
“You could.”
Phil’s eyes grew round. “This is definitely a premonition?”
Bobby nodded.
Carly bit her lip. “They say there’s safety in numbers.”
Adrian suddenly looked resolute. “Very well. I’ll stay with Allison until you get back from visiting this…person.”
“Thank you,” Bobby said, but he felt little relief.
BOBBY EXPECTED a defensive Thane to materialize inside Phil’s car as they rode over to Arbor Villa Nursing Home, but he remained conspicuously absent.
Dread gnawed at him when the sandy brick building where Thane lived came into view. A stone fountain spilled water into a pool out front, most likely attempting to create an inviting atmosphere for those arriving to visit their loved ones.
Bobby didn’t want to go in.
He went in anyway, Carly sticking close to his side. Phil brought up the rear.
The woman sitting at the front desk gave them a cheery smile. “You must be Bobby, Phil, and Carly. Nate’s been expecting you.”
Bobby exchanged a glance with Carly, whose face went white at the woman’s words.
This wasn’t good at all.
“Can we go on back, then?” Bobby asked, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray his fear.
“You go right ahead! Room 39 is just down that way.” She pointed, smiling. “I’m so glad to see he’s getting some visitors. The poor dear doesn’t seem to get them very often.”
Bobby swallowed, set his shoulders straight, and strode down the hallway, his shoes making a hollow-sounding clomp-clomp on the tile.
“You might start seeing things,” Carly whispered as they passed Room 21.
Bobby nodded, keeping his gaze fixed ahead of him. The door to Thane’s room seemed to draw toward him as if it and the hallway were moving and he was standing still.
The door was closed.
As he placed a hand upon the knob, a shadow reached out and touched his mind with an icy finger.
Be vigilant.
The moment before Bobby pushed the door open, Phil said, “I’ll go in first.”
Nodding, Bobby stepped aside. Carly grabbed his hand, squeezed it, and they entered the room together behind Phil.
The gray shadows danced thicker in Bobby’s mind than they ever had before.
The room appeared to be a single-person unit, judging from the sole bed occupying the space, and soothing paintings hung on the walls. Like the Domus bedroom in which he’d found Lily, the floor was tile.
It must have made for easier cleanup.
Phil planted his hands on his hips and let out an irritated sigh. “He’s probably hanging out with the other residents right now,” he said, eyeing the empty area by the room’s only window.
Carly’s expression tightened. “I guess we should wait for him. Not that I want to.”
“I don’t want to, either, but we have to find out if Bobby can help him or not.”
The shadows pulsed, thickened…
The window provided a view of a courtyard full of shrubs and blooming flowers. While Bobby watched, red letters appeared on the glass as if written by an invisible hand.
You don’t scare me, Servant.
Carly must have sensed that something wasn’t right. “What’s the matter?”
Bobby pointed at the window. “I think he’s here now.”
Carly and Phil turned. “Oh, crap.”
Phil reached for his gun.
“Don’t,” Bobby said, keeping his eyes on the window. “Are we all seeing the same thing?”
“You don’t scare me, Servant,” Carly said.
Bobby only felt marginal relief. “Good. Phil?”
“Same.”
The words vanished.
The shadows in Bobby’s head didn’t.
“So Thane,” Bobby said, wondering precisely where the man was sitting that very moment. “I thought you wanted to be my friend.”
No response.
“But now I know you just wanted to get me killed. It seems odd, though. You hoped Jack would kill me, but if you want the Servant to die so badly, why don’t you do it yourself?”
A man with bloodshot eyes materialized sitting in a motorized wheelchair three feet in front of Bobby, only Bobby knew he’d been there all along. Thane had simply used his ability to alter their perceptions, hiding him from view.
It jarred Bobby to see him in this condition when Thane had appeared to him as an able-bodied man. Thane’s hands were clenched into fists, not from anger but from the inability to move them. His arms were motionless like a pair of white twigs.
Bobby sensed a storm brewing inside of Thane. It was best to tread carefully.
“Do you see this?” Thane asked, his voice much thinner than that of his apparition. “I’m not even forty and have to live with the old and senile because of what happened to me.”
“Then why didn’t you have Graham bring Phil by to help you any of the times he visited?”
Thane’s eyes stared past Bobby at Phil. “I tried to plant the idea in Graham’s mind.”
“But you failed?”
“Graham failed. He didn’t want to bring anyone with him.” Thane’s voice grew colder with every word. “I was offered another way. My injury will be healed when the time is right.”
“When I’m dead without a replacement, presumably.”
“Bobby, don’t!” Carly hissed.
But Bobby felt emboldened. He was onto something here, if only he could put a finger on it. “Why make other people do your dirty work, though? When Randy was the Servant, you managed to fiddle around in Graham’s head and turned him into some kind of killing machine, and this time it seems like you nearly had Jack kill me. If you want to walk again and can only do that once you’ve killed the Servant, why haven’t you done it?”
The answer blossomed in Bobby’s mind like the light of a supernova. The remainder of his fear melted away from him. “If you can,” he said, “kill me now.”
Phil opened his mouth to object but Carly’s voice drowned out anything he might have said. “Bobby, stop! You know what will happen if you—”
“You don’t need to remind me.” He drilled Thane with a stare so intense it was sure to cut the man open. “You can’t do it, can you? If you could, I’d already be dead.”
“He hurt Graham,” Phil reminded him. He held his gun with the barrel aimed at the floor. Bobby hadn’t seen him remove it from its holster.
“Graham wasn’t under Caleb’s protection.” A grin spread across Bobby’s face. “I am.”
The terror in Carly’s eyes shined even brighter. “But if Graham wasn’t, we aren’t, either!”
“He’s not going to risk kill
ing someone here. He can’t just wish a body out of existence, and I don’t think he wants cops crawling all over the place, either.”
Thane’s face had turned a shade of crimson.
Bobby wasn’t finished. “Maybe you can’t really kill anyone. After all, Graham’s still alive. You just try to convince people that you can so they’re afraid of you.”
“Shut. Your. Mouth.”
“Kill me, Thane. Right now. Unless you’re too chicken to do it.”
“You’ll regret talking to me this way.” Yet despite Thane’s rage, Bobby did not drop dead.
“I knew it,” Bobby said, feeling so lighthearted he thought he might fly away. Carly and Phil were both gaping at him as if he had lost his mind. “Come on, guys. I’ve learned all I need to know.”
Carly clasped her hands together. “But Bobby…”
“It was nice knowing you, Thane. It’s too bad you weren’t able to do what you wanted with me.”
Bobby strode out of the room with his head held high, Phil and Carly at his heels.
“So we’ve learned that Thane has at least one weakness,” Phil said once they were outside. “To be honest, I’m surprised.”
“We’re not going to let the creep bother us anymore,” Bobby said. Right now keeping Adrian safe was the more pressing issue. The sooner he was reunited with her, the better he’d feel—now wasn’t that ironic?
Phil’s mouth tightened into a straight line. “He can still influence others to harm us. The man needs to be stopped before that happens.”
“I know.” But for as long as Bobby thought about it, he could think of no way short of ending Thane’s life to stop him.
WHEN THEY reached Phil’s Taurus, terror slammed into Bobby so unexpectedly that he doubled over gripping his stomach.
“Oh, no,” Carly whispered as she came to his side to help. “Bobby, what is it?”
“Adrian.” Fresh images of what may come tumbled through his head. “She’s leaving Phil’s house.”
“What? Why? She promised she wouldn’t go anywhere!”
“I don’t know. Phil, let me take the wheel.”
Phil handed Bobby the key without objection.
As Bobby pulled out onto the street, he sensed that Adrian was on the road somewhere but didn’t know if she’d taken Bobby’s car or if she rode with someone else.