by Cady Vance
I hopped off my bike and jogged over to him.
“Hi, Mr. Fisher.” I glanced at the kitchen window and hoped my mom wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Can I help you?”
“Hello, Holly,” he said. “I was hoping to catch your mother at home.”
“Oh,” I said, shuffling closer to the door. “Sorry. She’s off on one of her work trips.”
He crinkled his eyebrows together. “I thought she was getting back home today.”
Crap. My mind flitted to the conversation we’d had the day before. “Right. Turns out they needed her an extra day. So, she won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Do you know what time?” He scratched above his ear.
“I think it’ll be pretty late,” I said the first thing that popped into my head.
“Okay, maybe I’ll see her this weekend then,” he said, backing away. “Just let her know I stopped by, will you? Once she’s back from her work trip.” He paused, opened his mouth, closed it and then shook his head.
“Sure thing.” I watched him scratch his ear again, stride to his car and slide in. He cranked the engine, waved and backed out the short driveway.
This had officially become a problem.
Mom was sitting at the kitchen table, alert and wide-eyed, when I walked through the door. She leaned back and peered through the light yellow curtains dangling over the kitchen window.
“What did you tell him?” she asked, fidgeting with her knitting needles.
“That you’re away on a trip.” I dropped into the other rickety chair Mom had picked up at a quirky thrift shop in town, glancing at the cookie jar that had been empty for what seemed like forever. Mom used to keep it full of homemade snickerdoodles whenever she was home. My stomach grumbled at the memory. “He asked when you’d be back, and I told him tomorrow late. Then, he told me he wants to get together with you this weekend.”
She kept fidgeting and stared at an old hot chocolate stain on the white paint of the table. It was a remnant of the night we’d stayed up late watching a marathon of old 80’s teen movies. I wondered if she remembered telling me about all the places she’d been and how she hoped I’d see all of them someday. Although by other means, of course.
“You have to do something about this,” I said. “What if he stops by again?”
“Well, I just won’t answer the door again,” she said.
“He’s starting to get weird about it,” I said. “If he keeps stopping by, he’s going to wonder why you’re never here.”
She smiled, eyes clouding over. “It will be fine..”
I sighed and dropped my head into my hands. This day had really sucked so far. I felt like yelling or beating my head against the wall, but instead, I had to take care of Mom, talk Laura into risking her neck again, make dinner and get my mom into bed. All that and banish a really powerful spirit without encountering those shamans who had chased us down.
This was going to be one hell of a night.
***
In my room, I rustled through my dresser drawer for supplies, pushing aside a stack of old comic books. I only had a few black candles left, so I tossed all three into my bag just in case we needed more than one. Once I had everything I needed, I zipped my bag shut and headed outside, head down with determination, ignoring how my heart knocked against my ribcage like it knew I was headed straight into a storm and wanted out of me.
When I got to Laura’s house, I rode my bike up to her bedroom window and tapped my knuckles against the glass. In an instant, the window creaked open and Laura slithered out beside me, dressed in all black. Her red and blond strands spilled out from under a black knit hat like multi-colored streamers. I’d called her after the encounter with her dad at my house, and she’d decided it was best if I avoided another confrontation with him today, especially if I didn’t want him asking more questions. I didn’t know that had meant we needed to go goth.
“I think this is a terrible idea,” she hissed immediately, grabbing her vintage green bike where it leaned against the house. Though, it hadn’t been hard to convince her when I’d told her how freaked out Brent had been in the cafeteria.
“Like I said, if we see the SUV from yesterday, we’ll turn around and ride away,” I said. “But Brent said he’s seen zero black SUVs today, so the odds they’re staking out his house are pretty low.” And even if they were, I might get to ask them some questions this time.
“Yeah,” she said. “Since apparently they are summoning spirits all over town.”
“I told you that you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
She laughed. “Holly, no way in hell am I letting you walk into that alone. That doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it.”
“Come on then.” I hopped back onto my bike. “Let’s try to get this over with as quickly as possible.”
We cruised down the street. It seemed eerily ordinary compared to the fact we were on our way to confront a life-leaching spirit from Lower World. A chirping ice cream truck passed us on the opposite side of the road, and flickering TV screens cast blue and orange hues on the window blinds, no doubt projected there by kids engaged in normal after-school activities. Waves crashed on the rocky beach behind the mansions, the only sound other than the whirring of our bicycle wheels. When we got a couple houses away from Brent’s, we slowed and eyed the road in front of us.
Silent and still.
“There’s nothing there.” I rose off my seat and squinted down the empty street. “No cars parked on the road.”
“Do you think they could be sitting in someone’s driveway?” she asked, weaving her bike in a figure-eight pattern.
“Probably not.” I peered down the next long, curving driveway we passed. There were a couple of sports cars, but no SUV. “And even if they’d try that, the people in these houses would probably be pretty weirded out by a strange vehicle parked in their driveway.”
“True, true,” Laura said. “And the house across the road has a gate.”
We came to a stop at the end of Brent’s driveway, and I saw both Brent and Nathan waiting for us in front of the three-car garage. They were tossing a Frisbee back and forth, dressed in all black. “We good?”
Laura nodded and glanced around one more time. “Yeah.”
Clay lions squatted on pedestals at the entrance as we spun down the driveway. The white stucco mansion loomed over us. Balconies jutted from each upper-story window, and the rust-red tiled roof rose in steep mountain peaks like opulent castle turrets. My eyes raked over the house as Laura and I leaned our bikes against the garage door. I almost didn’t want to touch anything for fear I’d leave the tiniest speck of dirt.
I turned to Nathan, eyed his black ensemble and quirked a smile. “I didn’t know you were joining this party. And did I miss some kind of memo?” I pulled my backpack higher on my shoulder and glanced down meaningfully at my blue jeans and faded t-shirt.
Brent looked me over, his tan arms crossed over his broad, star-football-player chest. “Nathan and I thought we’d be stealthy.”
“In the middle of the day? In your own house?”
He shrugged. “Nathan told me about those guys who chased you, and we thought it’d be better to go into this a little incognito.”
I gave Nathan a sharp look. “It’s your house. And you realize that someone is going to notice a group of teenagers all dressed in black more so than a group dressed in normal clothes.”
“Okay, I see your point,” Nathan said. He flashed me that lopsided grin, and I had a hard time begrudging him for sharing the shaman info with Brent. Not when he smiled at me that way.
“Lesson one in being stealthy is never act stealthy. Like wearing all black or creeping around in the shadows. If you act like you’re doing nothing wrong then people don’t pay attention to you.”
Nathan’s smile widened, and Brent cocked his head to the side, the anxiety on his face lessening for just a moment.
“She used to sneak out all the time.” Laura looke
d down at her all black ensemble with a frown.
Nathan raised his eyebrows. “All the time?”
“I liked being out at night and Mom wasn’t too fond of it.” I glanced at the street again, anxious the shamans would come rushing down it at any moment. “Come on, let’s get this done.”
Everyone’s expression turned serious, and the lighthearted mood drifted away. It had been fun that moment when everything seemed halfway normal, but now I remembered why I was here in the first place. To banish a spirit. I turned around to look at the street again, just to make sure. Still empty.
“Yeah,” Brent said, “we need to go to my room.”
He led us around to the back of the house and to a door leading down into a lower level. He twisted a key in the lock and ushered us inside. The room opened up into a large lounge with a big-screen TV, a pool table and an impressive stereo system. It was a lot cleaner than I would have thought a seventeen-year-old guy’s hangout would be, but it did reek of old beer and sweaty socks. Brent grabbed the two beer cans sitting on the edge of the pool table and tossed them into the trash while I ran my finger along the massive DVD collection.
“Is this whole thing yours?” I asked when I spun around.
He nodded, leaning against the table and stuffing hands into his black cargo pants. “Yeah, but the…thing has only been in my room.”
He pointed to a closed door by a flight of stairs leading up to what I assumed was the rest of the house.
“Okay.” I swung my backpack around to the front. “You two have to stay out here, and Laura and I will take care of it.”
“What’s Laura doing here anyway?” Brent asked, sending a sideways glance to my friend.
She gave him a shy smile and turned red in the face, a reaction I hadn’t expected from her. Laura doesn’t usually blush. “I know how to help her.”
“This one is tougher than what I usually handle,” I said quickly, trying to take the attention off her since I could see how uncomfortable she was. “Laura doesn’t usually help.”
Brent seemed satisfied with my answer, opened his bedroom door and hit the light switch. This room was messy with football uniforms piled high in the corner and a bed hidden under dumbbells. Two empty pizza boxes battled for space on a mahogany desk in the corner, bread crumbs peppering his MacBook Pro.
“Can we stand here and watch?” he asked as he watched me march inside and sink to the floor.
“Actually, we need a little privacy to prepare.” I pushed aside a pair of sneakers and unzipped my backpack. “I’ll open the door in a little bit, though. Just don’t come in.” I paused, thinking of Kylie. “No matter what, do not come in this room. Okay?”
“Got it,” Nathan said, appearing behind Brent’s shoulder.
I nodded to Nathan and felt some kind of understanding pass between us as I stared into his green eyes. I felt my own face heat up, and I glanced away, embarrassed I could be distracted by a cute guy when I needed to concentrate on being strong. But I was glad he was here. No matter what, he’d keep Brent out of the room. He realized how dangerous this was.
Once Nathan pulled the door shut with a click, Laura and I spread out our supplies in the middle of the floor. We went through the motions of our anchor spell in record time. Halfway through our shaman song, I heard the door open. I glanced over my shoulder to see the guys peering in at us with wide eyes. Heat crept up my neck. I’d never had an audience like this before, but we were too far into the spell to ask them to go away.
Once we were bound and I felt that unbreakable link with Laura, I took a closer look at both of the runes carved into Brent’s floor. Laura squatted next to me, twirling her nose ring.
“You were right,” she whispered. “Two spirits. I can feel them, too. It’s cold in here.”
“Me too.” I wished I’d brought a sweatshirt.
“How do you want to do this?” she asked.
“I’m going to try to banish both of them.”
She stared down at the runes and shook her head. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Maybe we should both astral project and each take down one.”
“Do you guys need me to do something?” Nathan asked from the doorway.
“No,” Laura and I said in unison.
“I can’t be an anchor, or whatever, like you guys are talking about?” he asked.
“It doesn’t work that way. You have to be…well, it’s a long story.” I looked up at Laura and saw eagerness in her eyes. I didn’t like what I was about to say, but it was the best way to take care of this. “You take the weaker one, and then pull back to anchor me. Don’t stay.”
“Got it.” Laura grabbed her own sheathed dagger from her backpack, and even though she seemed totally game, I could see the smallest twitching of her fingers.
“Which of these was here first?” I asked, turning my attention to the open door where the guys were watching, expressions still a mixture of confusion and awe.
Brent pointed at the rune closest to the door.
I nodded to Laura. We both pricked our thumbs and dragged our blades across the runes, me taking the newer one, and Laura taking the older one. From what Brent had told me, the newer one was a lot stronger than the one who had come first.
After crossing out the runes’ power, Laura and I sat across from each other, black candle for the banishing spell sitting between us. We both sang the shaman song, dropping into our magic and pushing ourselves into the next realm. It felt like we were forcing our way through a wall of jell-o. I felt Nathan’s eyes on me, and I knew without looking he was smiling. And as my skin tingled and my hearing intensified, my heart seemed to throb at the mere thought of him watching me. I could picture the way his grin took over his face, the way his hair fell across his forehead, the way his shirt shifted over his muscles. He knew all this crazy stuff about me, and yet here he was, enjoying every minute of it. My skin sparked with the urge to stop the shaman song, stand up and experience the sensation of his arms around me…to feel his lips on mine.
I shook my head, opened my eyes and snapped my thoughts away from Nathan. Right now, I needed to focus on banishing spirits. The world around me was dark and smudged. I was in the Borderland, Laura with me. Her face was calm and expressionless even amongst the whirling shadows and icy breeze. I felt pride surge through me. Laura had never done this before, but looking at her, you’d never know. She radiated confidence, and I smelled no hint of fear in the room.
I gave her a nod before turning to take in our surroundings. Glancing from one foggy corner to another, I was surprised when I saw no trace of the spirits even though I could feel them. Watching us.
“Behind you,” Laura said in a soft whisper, clear and steady even though there was an undertone of uncertainty I could hear, only by knowing Laura so well and being bound to her by our shaman magic.
Her words sent a sudden gust of frost through the room. My hair rose from my shoulders and swirled around me like russet ribbons, and the round, fuzzy rug sitting next to me slid across the floor. The shaman supplies didn’t move an inch. Even the flame of our candle stayed strong and steady, as if there were no wind at all.
“Go,” I whispered back.
CHAPTER 9
Laura and I linked hands over the flame, and I looked over my shoulder. Two spirits hovered a few feet in the air, their tall, thin frames writhing and weaving like snakes. Their dark mouths were wide in silent screams, and in an instant, I knew our plan wouldn’t work. Not with two.
Something inside told me if we split our efforts, one would attack. The stronger one—the one whose body burned with black.
I glanced at Laura. Our eyes met, and understanding passed through our bond. Power surged through me, down my arm, and pooled where our hands met. My hair billowed around my cheeks, and Laura’s blond and red strands swirled like they were caught in a blender.
When I turned back, the spirits were rising higher off the ground, wind streaming out of their still-open mouths. Wintry air gusted toward
us. A trash can tumbled to the floor, papers and tissues streaming over the hardwood. Posters lining the wall ripped from their sticky-tack.
The guys yelled from outside of the room, but I forced myself to block out all sound other than the magic buzzing in my ears.
Laura and I squeezed hands.
“Get out!” We yelled in harmony, magic tumbling through and around us. It fused together and blasted the spirits. The floor rattled. Icy wind stung my eyes.
The spirits hissed and spun through the room, fighting against our power, but Laura and I yelled together again, and their bodies faded before our eyes. It was if their gray forms were being pushed through a wall of white, back into the darkness of the Borderland, until there were no more supernatural shadows in the room.
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” Laura said once we’d calmed our shaking nerves and pulled back into the real world, weaving carefully through murky shadows to get home.
Brent had a major mess to clean, but everyone had been left unharmed.
“Mom told me practice makes us better at it,” I said, sliding the parchment into my backpack. “But I think it was the two of us together that made it work.”
“So, are the ghosts gone?” Brent asked. He was still standing in the doorway staring at Laura like she was some sort of Goddess. Her normally straight hair fell in soft waves, and power shone off her tan skin. No surprise he couldn’t take his eyes off her. I looked up at Nathan, who winked at me, and I wondered if I looked any different to him. Then, I glanced away, down at the black wax clinging to the hardwood floor. Then, I met his eyes again, and the smile I saw in them told me he was at least more impressed than the time I’d fainted on him.
And then I remembered Brent had asked me a question.
“Yep, we just need to pack up our stuff.” I nodded at Laura. She got my message, stood and strode over to the two guys while I dug through my backpack.