The Bridge

by Rachel Lou

  “It’s good to see you again, Everett,” Sunny said. She hadn’t changed over the summer. Her black hair was a little longer and brushed against her shoulders. She still wore her signature pink-bowed headband and all six of her ear piercings.

  Everett counted out the seconds between his breaths. A slight panic was bubbling in his chest. “I was always looking for a friend who knew what I was going through. How ironic is it that my only friend is the one I was looking for?”

  Sunny sat on the other cushion. “I’ve always known you were a witch. I never knew if I could trust you with my secret. You were accepting of differences, but nobody is ever accepting of all differences.” Sunny graced Everett with a rare smile. “So why are you here?”

  “I met Jake at a bookstore and decided to get to know him. I was lonely, and I figured it would help to meet other witches.”

  “Now you’re friends with the three of us.” Jake looked up from the spell book and smiled.

  “What brew are you working on? It looks complex.” Everett kneeled next to Jake.

  The brew was a double-page spread in a small book and was printed by hand in black ink. The pages were torn at the edges and repaired with see-through tape. The brew was titled “Two-Way Bridge.” The ingredients took up half a page and consisted mostly of natural ingredients. The instructions took up the other page and a half.

  A bridge. They were summoning a bridge. A two-way bridge.

  “Amazing,” Everett said.

  The moral thing to do was report them to the Order. But the silent threats in their eyes would convince any witch to keep his mouth shut. These weren’t witches breaking the Law. They were hybrids.

  “Can’t you summon a bridge without a brew? You could use a focus to create the bridge boundary,” Everett said.

  “This is a two-way bridge, and none of us hybrids know how to summon a one-way bridge. It’s easier to do if you’re a pure witch,” Lena informed him, still texting.

  “Why do you want to access a two-way bridge? Are you trading souls with the afterlife?” Everett’s feigned confusion was near impossible to pull off when his heart was racing at a pace that made him sweat and tremble.

  “Buzz, get here now.”

  “You know Omar? The old witch who went missing? He got stuck In Between and we need to go in to get him out,” Lena said. “It’s a two-way trip.”

  In Between was the world between the living and the dead. When people died, their spirits went In Between, then onward to their designated afterlife. Some spirits got stuck In Between and stayed to become creatures of darkness—demons.

  “Only Bridge Masters can travel between worlds,” Everett said, hearing the obvious fear in his voice.

  They couldn’t know he was a Bridge Master. This had to be a coincidence, or Everett had overlooked something substantial in his interactions with Jake’s mother and Bryce.

  “We’re not making the bridging tonight. We’re getting the brew done, and then we’ll make the bridging after we get a Bridge Master to escort us in.”

  “I thought only they could cross the bridge.”

  Lena put her phone down and the screen immediately lit with a new text. She flipped the phone on its front so Everett couldn’t see the message. “Loophole. Other people can ‘ride’ a Bridge Master to the other side.”

  Keeping his voice level was a struggle. Everett said, “Bridge Masters are rare. How are you going to find one, let alone one who will break the Law?”

  “We’ll figure something out,” Sunny said.

  Everett looked over the ingredient list. He could summon a bridge out of salt and see if it automatically worked as a two-way bridge.

  “Do you have all the ingredients?” Everett said.

  “We should, but I want to familiarize myself with the instructions before I do anything. It took weeks to collect all the ingredients. I don’t want to screw up,” Jake said.

  Everett read the preparation instructions and found them within his range of ease. “I can do it. I’ve done a few brews already, and I know how to follow the instructions in spell books like this. The instructions are abnormal since they’re written choppily and don’t state the physical transition between steps, but I have good intuition.”

  Jake read the ingredients in order of use and Sunny put them in line. Lena double-checked the ingredients, and Everett read the instructions over until he had memorized a handful of the steps.

  Everett put the bowl closer to the lamp and pulled a cushion in front of it. He wiped the wooden mixing spoon on his shirt.

  The right thing to do was report the news of Omar’s location to Mr. Pendley or the Order. He could put the spoon down and leave, call his grandfather, and call Bryce to put Mr. Pendley on the line. He didn’t have to take the risk. He might be punished for breaking the Law and assisting others in creating a two-way bridge, but he might be pardoned if the Order successfully captured the hybrids.

  Sunny, Jake, and Lena sat in a semicircle around the ingredients, facing Everett and ready for his next instructions.

  Everett said, “I’ll do this best if you stay quiet and follow my directions as smoothly as you can. Sunny, can you give me the bottle of water? Lena, give me the wheat grass. Jake, grind the ant bodies. We’re going to need a good blend of dead bodies.”

  Chapter 25

  “I’D COME in, but you’re with three hybrids, so I’m going to wait in the front yard,” Buzz said.

  Everett grumbled and all three hybrids looked at him.

  “Do you need help?” Lena asked.

  “I’ve got it. My throat just feels a little dry.”

  “Can you sense any potential harm or is the atmosphere clear?” Everett said.

  “If you were in danger, I’d feel it. But I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  Everett didn’t breathe or swallow when he picked up the final ingredient: a living spider. Lena offered to do it, seeing the grossed-out expression on Everett’s face, but Everett saw Sunny’s amused smile and didn’t want to provide entertainment. His struggle to shake the spider out of the vial was narrated by Lena.

  “It appears the spider is putting up a final battle. It knows its fate. After seeing the other insects and animals get mixed into the brew, there is no denying this will be its resting place if it loses its fight.”

  Jake was watching Lena with his head propped on his fist. His expression was soft, and Everett understood it all too clearly. His parents had looked at each other with the same softness, completely enamored with each other’s quirks and habits.

  “Dig it out with your finger,” Sunny suggested, lips curled sweetly. “It won’t bite you.”

  “It will. If it doesn’t fight, it will lose and it will die,” Lena narrated in her sportscaster voice.

  “Is it necessary to put it in there? We could use another insect.” Jake’s eyes were still soft when he watched Everett’s cautious shaking of the vial.

  “Too much work. It has to be alive,” Sunny said.

  The brew needed a part of the living and dead world in order to touch upon both worlds. The dead creatures they had put in the brew were ants, pill bugs, centipedes, and a bird torn to pieces by nature’s decomposers or taken apart by Lena’s hand. Everett had almost vomited when he saw the ruined bird’s body. The living creatures included flies—which had been difficult to stick into the brew—worms, plants, and the spider that had created a safety web in the vial.

  “Who is going to blend it when it’s done?” Sunny asked.

  “Lena. Lena can do everything. She had no problem tearing that poor bird up,” Everett said.

  “I’m not heartless. It was already dead anyway, lying in the middle of the road. There’s a shit-ton of roadkill on the country road by Northleaf. I could have taken a deer or skunk or raccoon, but I took the easiest and cleanest thing.”

  “I wonder how they blended brews in the old days, before blenders and appliances,” Jake said.

  “They tore the bodies up as best they coul
d. The brews were lumpy and never fluid,” Everett said, recalling the introduction page in his grandfather’s spell book. Fluidity of brews wasn’t important for spell quality, but a fluid brew meant easier physical application.

  Sunny and Lena were intrigued. Jake was a little green. Everett just wanted the spider to fall out of the damn vial.

  “I can poke a stick in there.” Lena cocked a smile at Jake and Jake went through ten shades of red in a few seconds.

  Lena took the vial and poked her finger inside. Everett gaped and scrambled away on his hands and knees.

  Lena cackled madly and rubbed the spider onto the spoon then mixed it in the brew. “Do I say the chant now or when I blend it?”

  “The chant finalizes the preparation. I think we should wait for the blender,” Jake said.

  Lena tapped the excess brew off the spoon. She laid it horizontally across the bowl’s rim. “All done. When should I blend it?”

  “It shouldn’t matter. You can finalize it the day of the bridge summoning. I don’t think the brew can spoil, unless you put more ingredients in after you complete the chant,” Everett said.

  “Do we have a cover for this?” Lena asked.

  “I have a plastic wrap roll.” Jake took it out of the backpack.

  Sunny washed the spoon in the bathroom. Lena wrapped the entire bowl with three layers of plastic.

  Everett helped pack the empty vials and containers.

  “Hey, Everett, toss me my phone,” Lena said.

  Lena’s phone had a string of unread messages under the newest one, all from Bryce.

  Everett only saw one.

  Probably not a good idea.

  “Damn Bryce. If he’s so busy, why’s he texting so much?” Lena responded to the texts with one hand. She didn’t look concerned with Bryce’s comment. She noticed Everett watching her and paused, a skinny eyebrow cocked. He looked away.

  “Hey, Jake, why don’t you report Omar’s location to the Order?” Everett said.

  “It’s our fault he’s in there, so it’s our responsibility to get him out.”

  “How’d you get him in there?”

  Jake scratched his ear and stared into empty space.

  Sunny and Lena exchanged unreadable looks. Lena said, “You trust us, Everett, don’t you? We’re trusting you right now by letting you help us.”

  “Is there any paranormal residue?” Everett asked Buzz.

  “Not around this house.” Buzz sighed, and it was like a tiny gust of wind in Everett’s head.

  “If you trust me, you can tell me what happened. I won’t report you.”

  “If you trust us, you’ll wait until we find a Bridge Master to set this up for us.” Lena stacked the cushions and bound them with a large ribbon. “Sunny, help me get the bowl secured in my truck.”

  Everett helped Jake put the bags in their owners’ respective cars. Sunny had gotten a new car over the summer. Her father’s hand-me-down coupe had been traded for a new luxury crossover. Jake and Lena drove old truck models.

  “Your mother has that tattooed on her wrist,” Everett said in reference to the blue mark stenciled next to Jake’s license.

  “It’s a family mark passed down from my grandparents,” Jake said casually.

  “What’s your family name?”

  “Lars.” Jake closed his trunk. He went to lock the house.

  “Dude, let’s get pizza. I’m starving,” Lena said. “Everett, want to come?”

  “I have to get home. My grandfather doesn’t want me staying out late.”

  “You’re Gramps’s little boy. Maybe next time.” Lena stepped into her truck and started the engine. “I’ll get us a table. Pizza Shack, downtown Sundale, as always.” She zoomed to the stop sign and went through the intersection without fully stopping.

  “We’ll meet up later. It was nice seeing you again. You look healthier,” Sunny said.

  Everett was still thinking about what she meant when she left.

  Jake leaned against his car, his hand frozen on the door handle. “Everett, where’s your aura?”

  “My aura?”

  “I couldn’t see it before, and I can’t see it now.”

  “I have low endurance for spell casting, so I’m practicing by maintaining an ongoing aura block.”

  “That’s what I call A+ lying,” Buzz said.

  Aura blocks didn’t require a lot of energy to set up, and they required no conscious energy to stay in place, but Jake didn’t seem to know that.

  “You must rely on traditional spells a lot, then.” Jake opened his door.

  “Where are you? I can’t sense your presence,” Everett said.

  “I’m hiding in the bushes. I concealed myself because I don’t want Jake to see me. He’ll think you’re a wimp if he sees that your familiar is a jellyfish. He’ll also suspect that you aren’t a regular witch; familiars are only for special witches.”

  “I’m working on my endurance, so I try not to resort to brews.” Everett took his keys out of his bag and backed up to his car. “Let me know when you find a Bridge Master.”

  “I’ll text you.”

  After Jake left, Buzz came out of the bushes, floated through Everett’s window, and sat on the dashboard.

  “Does my voice break when I talk to you?” Buzz asked.

  “Sometimes it filters, but I can piece together what you say.”

  “Yay!” Buzz put his tentacles in the air and waved them.

  “You’re so cute.” Everett rubbed Buzz’s cap with a finger.

  “You know who else is cute? Bryce.”

  Everett’s pulse increased. Buzz laughed. “Shut up. Where was he anyway?”

  “The dojang. He taught a few other classes, and took his shirt off to show his abs to this girl who wanted to see them. You’ve got competition.”

  Everett gave Buzz a black look. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “She was a middle-school kid who ‘didn’t believe Bryce had a rockin’ body,’ which he does. But that’s not the key point. Bryce is having trouble hiding his paranormal nature. These random splotches of gray show on his hands and when he notices them, he gets frustrated.”

  “Has he shown paranormal habits?”

  “He tasted the air by sticking his tongue out. The kids laughed at him and he played it like a joke, but he was disappointed, and I think Ann knows Bryce isn’t human. She looked at Bryce like she knew Bryce’s problem. And Bryce looked at her like he was disappointed in himself, and he knew she’d be disappointed in him. What if Ann was mentoring him?”

  Everett rubbed his eyes. So much had happened today, and he didn’t want to think of it all at once.

  “There’s an even bigger kicker. I got seen.”

  Everett swore. Everything happened like an avalanche. “Someone saw you? Who? How? Aren’t you difficult to see?”

  “Bryce saw me. Before I left, he looked right at me. He looked shocked, and he rubbed his eyes like he couldn’t believe it. I hid in an equipment bag and left when the owner took it outside.”

  If Bryce could see through Buzz’s guise, were his powers strengthening?

  “Is he still growing into his paranormal nature?”

  “That’s what I was thinking. He’s going through a paranormal growth spurt, and it’s strengthening his powers. He might see right through my disguises now, depending on how strong he is.”

  “Can the other hybrids see you? Sunny, Jake, and Lena?”

  “I don’t know, but if they can, I’m either extremely weak, or they’re extremely strong. I think it’s the latter, though the former would be more helpful.”

  Chapter 26

  EVERETT DELETED and typed the text three times, wording it differently every time. He couldn’t settle on a tone. Impatience rolled through his gut, and he sent the newest version: Jake, come to the book shop today. I know someone who can open the bridge.

  Regardless of tone, it got the message across.

  His grandfather was blasting his way through a line o
f young teens who wore T-shirts with the logo of a magic card tournament. Days like this made Everett wonder why his grandfather didn’t purchase another register.

  The teens in line spoke vivaciously about the matches they had participated in, saying the complicated names of cards with the ease of familiarity. Everett counted ten of them in line and over twenty perusing the shelves. More were coming in. The shop was stuffy with body heat. The air tasted sticky because of the teens’ body odor.

  Everett went to his grandfather and grabbed the jar of salt in the desk that had replaced the salt packets. The packaging had been a waste of money and the jar was more consistent. The two teens at the front of the line were talking about a match one of them had won. They watched Everett reach behind the desk, their eyes sharp like a raven’s.

  Everett looked at them blankly and held the jar to his chest, covering the glass jar with his hands and shielding it from their sight.

  “Salt,” the taller one of the teens said.

  Everett peeked down at the jar. He looked at the teens.

  The one who was paying handed Everett’s grandfather a twenty-dollar bill. Her eyes didn’t leave Everett for a second.

  Everett walked away and heard whispers of witchcraft behind him. Of course a paranormal bookshop would have witches for shopkeepers. Everett rolled his eyes and tripped on the first step to the apartment. He spun and landed with his bottom on the step, arms protecting the jar against his chest.

  Several teens by the staircase were watching him.

  “Witchcraft,” one of them whispered.

  They were just obsessive card players. Not witches or paranormal creatures.

  Everett went up the stairs until the teens couldn’t see him. He shoved his fist in the jar, working it between the salt.

  “Dull the body odor.”

  He closed the jar and put it back in the desk. The air was more bearable to breathe, but it seemed to make the teenagers by the staircase sleepy.

  “Everett!” Mrs. Lars came in the shop with her dogs. “Jake told me you hung out with him last night.”

  The dogs stared down the teens near them. Their bodies vibrated with deep growls, their jaws trembling and exposing the tips of fangs. The teens backed away.