by Jasmine Walt
“Really? Or are you just saying that?”
“I mean it. And anyway, ‘dating’ and ditching girl after girl only shows your attempt to cover up the fact that you were lonely and really wished to have someone to settle down with. You were trying to fill a void.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, Dr. Phil.” He smiled and said, “That is true, I guess.”
“I know,” I said with a smile.
He shrugged and buried his head in my chest, done sharing his feelings. We lounged around on the couch for a while before we went upstairs so Ethan could change.
“See ya later!” Ethan called through Sam’s closed door. No response came back. Puzzlement showed on his face, but he kept walking.
“You said you knew why Sam is in a bad mood.” Ethan looked sideways at me.
“Yeah. She has a huge crush on you.”
“What?” Ethan really had no idea. Typical guy. “N-no. No way. No she doesn’t. She’s like my sister.”
“Only to you. Trust me, she totally has it bad for you.”
“No way.” Baffled, he wrinkled his nose in disgust. “That’s…that’s kinda messed up.”
I shrugged. How could he not have noticed? In a way, I felt bad for her; it would suck no matter what to have the guy you like with someone else. It would be even worse to live with him and have to actually witness it happening.
“How do you know?” Ethan asked, putting on his shoes.
I shrugged. “I can feel it. She’s very possessive of you and doesn’t like me being here. I get a strong sense of jealousy and some other not very nice feelings coming from her.”
“You can sense all that just from being in the room with her?”
I nodded and sighed. “It’s one of my many talents. And I see the way she looks at you. She likes you, trust me.”
Ethan straightened up and put his hands on my butt. He pulled me to him, pressing his hips against mine. “It’s impressive, but I like your other talents much better.”
I bit my lip and leaned into him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “We’ll have to test those out later, won’t we?”
Ethan smiled, his brown eyes smoldering with desire. Suddenly, I didn’t want to go to the barn anymore.
“What did you want to take pictures of?” Ethan asked when we finally got to the barn.
“You’ll probably think this is crazy, but I thought that old dock would look cool.”
“You mean the one in the woods?” He looked towards the trails. I nodded. “Why is that crazy?”
“I don’t know, because I got attacked there, and it could harbor bad memories?”
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “You are so strange sometimes, Annie.” He pulled me close to him. “I love it.”
I got the camera from the car and debated bringing my dagger. What could it hurt? I’d rather be safe than sorry. Hand in hand, Ethan and I walked through the back pasture and onto the trail.
“How come you had to come back into the Order?” I asked quietly, not sure if this was sore subject or not. Leaves crunched under my feet.
“My dad, Sam, and Julia needed me. My dad had been working with his friend, Greg, while I was at college. But then Greg got killed by a demon. So I quit my job, sold my house, and moved back home.”
“So how did you guys end up in New York?”
“Through Order connections. There was an increase in magical energy in this area. And, as you know, that attracts a certain level of evil.”
“The magic…is that me?”
Ethan squeezed my hand. “Yes.”
I swallowed and shook my head, staring at the dry leaves under my feet. It unnerved me that the Order was watching me, no matter how indirectly it was. “But the binding spell,” I began.
“It must have started to fade. Your aunt wasn’t in good health before she died, was she?”
I shook my head. “I don’t really know too much, to be honest. But I know she got sick and died a short while later.” I sighed. “I feel like I should apologize or something.”
“Apologize? For what?”
“For making you come here,” I offered. “Though at the same time, I’m not sorry I met you.”
Ethan chuckled. “Never apologize for that.”
We reached the top of the hill that over looked the dock. I picked up the camera from around my neck and took a few pictures. Ethan started to descend towards the water. “You coming?” he asked.
“No,” I said as an odd feeling came over me. Something pulled me in the opposite direction. My eyelids grew heavy, and my feet moved on their own accord.
“Where are you going?” Ethan jogged to my side.
“I don’t know. I’m being pulled this way. I want to go this way.”
We carefully picked our way down and then up a ravine. Another small hill was left to climb before the forest leveled out. I stopped suddenly when I saw what was in front of us. “I’ve seen this before.”
“Have you been here before?”
“Never.”
“Then how did you see it?”
“In a dream.” I moved forward into the small, man-made clearing. “I bet I can even get us in without breaking a window.” I rooted around under fallen leaves until I found the key. I stuck in in the rusty lock.
“Annie, I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
But it was too late. I was already inside the big, white barn.
23
Ethan stepped into the barn, moving in front of me. He held his arms out and looked around, eyes darting from side to side of the barn. “Tell me about this dream.”
“I’ve seen the same ghost a few times over the last few weeks. After I saw him for the first time, I had a weird dream. I was seeing things through his eyes, and he came here.”
I looked around, fascinated that I actually was in the barn I had dreamed of. I snapped pictures as I went. We walked down a dirt aisle of stalls. Muted sunlight did its best to shine through the dusty four-pane windows. A room with a cement floor was at the end of the aisle, and a metal holding device was left rusting in a corner.
“I think this is a milking room.” I tapped a hanging part of the old metal, making it creak back and forth. “You know, for cows.”
There were three doors in this room: one that led outside, one to another room, and one that proved to lead only to a closet with a hot water heater. Door number two opened into what must have been an office. There was an overturned desk, and papers were scattered around. The window in this room had been broken, and as a result, the rain had not only washed away the ink on the papers, but it had left most of them curled and moldy.
I took a few pictures before I knelt down and shifted through the papers. At first, I found nothing of significance, like bills, vet papers, and ownership titles. A thought that wasn’t my own popped into my head again, and I was on my feet without realizing what I was doing.
“Can you help me move the desk?” I asked Ethan. It was oak and heavy. Under the protection of the sturdy wood was a collection of photographs. They were faded and yellowing, but their moments captured in time were still visible.
I flipped through them. A girl in a red-checkered tank top stood next to a large brown cow, holding a first place ribbon. A calf drinking milk from its mother was the next. The same girl from the first picture sat bareback on a black and white horse. I looked at the third photo and inhaled quickly.
“That’s him.” I held the photo closer to my face. The blonde boy was smiling back at me, with his arm around the girl in front of a pickup. He looked so happy and so healthy, not at all like the ghost that appeared to me a few weeks ago. No information had been written on the back. I carefully folded it and stuck it in my back pocket.
“I think we should go outside.” I reached for the door.
“Why?”
“I-I don’t know. I really want to go outside right now.”
“Don’t you want to check the hay loft first?” Ethan asked.
“No. There’s not
hing there.”
Ethan looked skeptical.
“Go look and meet me around the back,” I said and slipped out the door before he could protest. I needed out of that barn. Something was surrounding me, making me almost manic. The energy flowed through my veins, and my hands shook. I closed my eyes, shaking some of the energy from me. I felt slightly better when I stepped outside.
A crow cawed and took off, the flapping of its wings echoing on the now-silent forest. The breeze picked up, causing my hair to fly around like crazy. The tall weeds were bending in the wind. My brow furrowed. Was that…? I walked closer.
Yes, it was. Two faded doors led down to a root cellar. I stared at them, feeling dizzy. Part of me wanted to run away. The other part wanted to see what was down there. The latter part was louder, and I reached down, wrapping my fingers around the metal handle. Bits of rust flaked off against my skin. I pulled, but it didn’t budge. On further inspection, I saw it had been nailed shut. The crunch of breaking weeds made me snap up.
“Let me guess, you want to go down there?” Ethan asked.
“Of course, but it’s nailed shut.” I stepped aside and let Ethan yank the doors open.
The air that hit us was warm, like it had been trapped down there for years. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I went down the stairs. Ethan stayed close behind. Since neither of us had a flashlight, we stayed in the shallow pool of daylight cast down the narrow stairs. It was hard to see what was around me. The floor was dirt, at least that was obvious. Ethan let go of my hand to get something out of his pocket. There was a click, and suddenly, a tiny flame helped light up this dark place.
“Why do you have a lighter? You don’t smoke.” I was thankful for the light but curious at the same time.
“Habit. You never know when you might have to burn something or break into an old basement.” The fire flickered across his face and illuminated his smile. “Keep close,” he said.
Together, we explored. The red brick walls were covered in mildew and were crumbing apart. The farther away from the stairs we went, the thicker the air felt. I moved closer to Ethan, feeling disturbed.
I squinted in the dark. Something was familiar. The dirt floor…the red, brick walls… A bad feeling expeditiously took over.
This was the end. No one was coming for me. There was nothing I could do. I just wanted the pain to end.
“We need to go.” My voice faltered as nerves raced through my body.
“All right,” Ethan said but took a few more steps ahead.
“No, now. We need to get out of here.” My hands shook, and my breath came out in a ragged huff. Fear that wasn’t my own was threatening to take over. “I need out. I need out!”
Ethan took my trembling hand and led me up the stairs and away from the barn, not stopping until we were several yards away. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into the safety of his chest.
“Breathe,” he softly instructed. My body felt weak from shock. My heart beat a million miles an hour, and my knees threatened to buckle. Ethan gently pulled the band out of my ponytail. I began to relax as he ran his fingers through my hair. “What happened?”
I lifted my head to look him in the eyes. “That’s the basement from my dreams. And I don’t know, really, but suddenly I felt all this fear and panic. It took over.” I closed my eyes and took another deep breath, pushing the fear away as I exhaled. I felt almost like myself again.
“What exactly did you feel?”
“Hopelessness. I knew I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do to change that.”
I hoped Ethan understood. Explaining was the hardest part. I knew I was standing in an empty basement. I knew there were no current threats of danger. But I knew that at one point, someone had been down there, being tortured and God knew what else. Those intensely horrid feelings hung in the air, waiting to be absorbed by a rare type of mind.
“Do you think it was that boy?”
I lifted the camera strap over my head and set it on the ground. “Yes.” That was another thing that was hard to explain. I just knew. “I kept hearing the name Ryan.”
Ethan raised his eyebrows and sighed. He cupped his hand around my face and tilted my chin up to him. “Well, I think we—”
Before he could finish his thoughts, something jumped off the roof of the barn, soaring through the air and landing on Ethan’s back. Clawed hands grasped his shoulders and yanked him away from me. Ethan’s hands slipped off my face as he was shoved to the ground.
Horrified, I watched with wide eyes as my heart pounded in my throat. A cloaked figure turned its back to me, moving in on Ethan. In one graceful movement, Ethan kicked out, hitting the creature’s legs and knocking it to the ground.
In an instant, Ethan got to his feet and kicked the creature in the stomach. He brought his foot up, ready to smash it down on the thing’s face, when his face went tight with shock.
“Annie!” he shouted, but it was too late. Something grabbed a handful of my hair and jerked me back. My feet caught on themselves, and I tripped. As I fell, I saw the face of our attackers.
The bird-demons. Sunken-in eyes, leathery skin, and a nose shaped like a beak, long and sharp.
My breath left me, and time slowed down. The forlorn feeling came back, and I felt like I was going to die again. Everything was hopeless; there was no reason to even try.
Those feelings weren’t mine. I wasn’t going to die. I wasn’t going to give up.
I was going to fight.
Something flashed through me, and before I hit the ground, the dagger was in my hand. I rolled back, scrambling to my feet.
Another bird-demon closed in on Ethan and me, circling us. Ethan stepped close to me, keeping his back pressed to mine. He reached behind him, his fingers gracing my wrist. He had no weapons, and we were surrounded.
The flash of energy turned into a jolt, and I threw a hand out, sending a wave of energy at the nearest bird-demon. It hit it in the chest and sent it flying back, crashing into the side of the barn. My heart raced, and adrenaline pumped through my veins.
I set my face and raised the dagger, staring down the other two demons. They hissed and lurked closer, talons out, waiting to make a move. Ethan struck first, punching one of them so hard, it stumbled back a few steps.
The other rushed me. I held out the dagger but faltered. I closed my eyes in fear, and my wrist weakened. It came at me with inhuman speed, knocking me onto the ground so hard that I couldn’t breathe. The dagger fell from my grasp.
The demon crouched over me, staring into my eyes as if it were searching for something. It lowered its face to mine and ran the end of its beak along my cheek. Panicking, I thrashed under it. I wanted out, I needed out. Oh my God, it was going to kill me!
Its clawed hands pressed against my chest, and I couldn’t breathe. Madly, I slapped the ground in a desperate attempt to find the dagger. Just inches away from my face, the demon opened its beak and let out an ear-piercing screech.
I turned my head, spotting the dagger. Using my mind, I moved it close enough to grab it. My fingers wrapped around the hilt, and I brought my arm up, sending the pointy end into the demon’s stomach.
It screamed and hissed. Smoke billowed out of its empty eyes, choking me. I pushed the dagger in even further, sending sparks deep into the demon. The fire that started in its stomach swirled up, encasing it in flames. The fire pulsed, and with one final harrowing cry, the demon collapsed into a pile of charred skin and bone. I scrambled up, brushing demon ashes off of my clothes.
My heart raced, and I was a little disoriented. Killing the demon gave me a rush, and I wanted to do it again. The demon I had thrown into the barn was on its feet now and coming at me fast. I threw my hand in front of me, putting up a wall of telekinetic energy. The thing pushed against it, unable to break through. I held my ground, keeping my hand outstretched.
I turned my head, frantically looking for Ethan. He was several feet away, fighting off another demon. It swiped
its razor-sharp claws at Ethan’s face. He leaned back, out of its reach, and countered with a strike of his own. His fist collided with the side of the demon’s face, and the demon stumbled back.
“Ethan!” I yelled, holding the dagger. He quickly glanced up and extended his hand. I tossed it to him and turned back to the demon in front of me. I narrowed my eyes and sent it flying again.
Ethan rammed the blade into the demon’s chest. Thinking it would burst into flames, he turned to me.
“Annie—” he started. The demon in front of him screamed and, with the dagger still in its chest, launched itself on Ethan. Ethan put both hands on the dagger, sending the blade in even deeper and twisting it at the same time.
Nothing happened.
Taking advantage of his shock, the creature thrashed its talons across Ethan’s chest, tearing through his shirt and skin. It clawed at him again, this time ripping open a gash on his bicep. Anger boiled inside me, and I telekinetically threw the demon backwards. Its head cracked against a rock. Without thinking about what I was doing, I ran toward the demon and drove to the ground, wrapping both hands around the dagger. The hilt became red hot, and the demon burst into flames. I yanked the dagger from the demon’s sternum before it collapsed into a pile of ash. I was at Ethan’s side in two seconds.
“Oh, God.” I pressed my hand to his bleeding chest. “Ethan,” I stammered.
“It’s okay, Annie. I’ve had worse.” He cringed slightly at the pain.
“We need to get you back to the horse barn,” I stammered, afraid he was going to bleed to death.
Carefully, I removed his jacket and pushed the sleeve of his shirt up to inspect the gash on his left arm. It was about three inches long and missed his tattoo by a hair. I pushed his shirt up and looked at his chest. He was bleeding, but the claw marks hadn’t gone as deep, thank God.
Blood trickled down his arm, streaming past his elbow and down his fingers, dripping onto the muddy ground. The wound was deep. Fear for his wellbeing made me sick. I unzipped my jacket and threw it to the ground. I took off my shirt next, and even in pain, Ethan couldn’t help but comment on seeing me shirtless.