Catalyst (A Tethered Novel)

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

  The bell above the front door chimed, and Admer’s lips twisted into that odd smile of his once more. “What’s done is done. Don’t forget to grab that box before you come out.”

  He turned and walked to the front of the store. I stared into the space he’d just occupied, trying to piece together how I felt about him now. I couldn’t put my finger on it just yet, but there was something off about him. He was hiding something. I’d bet it was that he knew exactly why my mother had left.

  I got off work at four and headed straight home. Even though I hadn’t been doing anything strenuous while at work, I was still exhausted. Binks greeted me at the door when I walked in.

  Bending down, I scratched behind his ears. “Hey, buddy, did you have a good day?”

  I made my way to the kitchen to drop off my things and see what I had to make for dinner or whether it was a necessity to order takeout instead. Finding a frozen chicken pot pie—something which required virtually no amount of cooking—I decided it would suffice and headed to the living room to lie on the couch for a while and rest my eyes before cooking it.

  The last few days had taken a lot out of me—all the insane magick stuff, the partying, working, and being scared to death I was going mental. I curled up on the couch, tucking a throw pillow beneath my head, and pondered if I’d just been sleep-deprived and drunk when I’d seen that creature last night. Kace hadn’t seen it. And there hadn’t been enough time for it to scramble out of the room. I wondered if this was another spell Theo and his Hoodoo family had put on me again. Was that creature only something I could see? I closed my eyes. God, I hoped not.

  I must have fallen asleep, because what felt like moments later, I woke to the sound of my cell phone ringing from in the kitchen. Jumping off the couch, I raced to answer it, unbelieving I had zonked out on the couch so quickly. Kace’s name and number lit up my phone’s screen.

  “Hello?” I answered, and then shifted to glance at the clock by the back door—it was almost eight already!

  “Hey, sexy. I just wanted to see how you were doing,” he said. “I’ve got about another hour here and then I’m gonna head home to change before I come keep you company all night long, again.”

  I smiled at his words. “Sounds good.”

  “See you in a bit then.”

  “See ya.” I hung up and glanced back at the clock. I couldn’t believe I’d slept for nearly four hours on the couch. My stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten, and I headed to the fridge.

  Opening the freezer, I pulled out my chicken pot pie and began to read the back before placing it in the microwave. After cutting up a salad—which consisted solely of lettuce and a cucumber, because that was all I had—and heating up the chicken pot pie, I went to the living room to put in a movie and eat on the couch. Deciding on a romantic comedy I’d seen a million times, but still loved, I got settled and began my countdown until Kace arrived. I had no idea what we would actually get into tonight, but I knew one thing that was always on the table with him and I shivered from the anticipation of it.

  Halfway into the movie, I thought I heard the same scratching, click-clacking of long toenails against hardwood flooring from this morning. I muted the TV and gazed slowly around the room, searching for Binks. He was lying on the sideboard table behind the couch, curled into a little ball, sleeping. I glanced at my phone. It had been almost an hour since Kace called me, which meant he was just getting off work and the noise couldn’t be him messing with me.

  It sounded again, this time making me jump as it echoed through the silent house. I sat my food on the coffee table and stood, wondering what I should do. Should I walk around the house trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from? Or should I hide until Kace came and pray that, if it was the creature, it didn’t find me?

  At the sound of another cluster of clip-clapping—as if whatever it was had scurried from one place to another and then paused—I bolted from the living room and toward the foyer, deciding getting out of the house was the best option. Something hit me hard from behind, knocking me to the floor before I even made it two steps into the foyer. All the breath from my lungs left me in a loud whooshing noise, and I struggled to catch another gulp of air as the reality that something heavy was now on my back sunk in.

  On instinct, I pushed myself up from the floor and attempted to buck off whatever it was on me. I didn’t have much luck. Instead, I succeeded in flipping myself over, bringing me face-to-face with my attacker.

  It was the red creature made of nothing besides muscles—no skin, just red muscles—and it sat firmly on my chest now.

  I screamed and began thrashing around in an effort to get the creature off me. Pushing it away with my hands, I grimaced at the way it felt—slimy and sticky at the same time. Its lips twisted into a wicked smile almost as though it enjoyed my torment and palpable fear a little too much. Its solid black, beady eyes bored into me as it wrapped its slick, taloned hands around my neck. My mouth opened and closed as I struggled to catch the tiniest breath of air. My hands punched and clawed at the creature’s arms and its fingers, which had tightly wrapped themselves around my throat.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as the creature lowered its face to mine. With only mere inches between us, I could feel its hot breath and taste its rancidness on my tongue. Dark spots began to feather the edges of my vision. I was going to die. I was going to be suffocated. All because of some crazy power I didn’t even understand yet. Tears trickled from the corners of my eyes, their hot wetness making tracks down the sides of my face.

  “Open your eyes…” the creature hissed in a demonic-sounding voice.

  Shocked it could speak, my eyes snapped open. The creature smiled at me, and I thrashed about even more. Its hands released my throat just enough for me to greedily gulp a few breaths of air. My throat felt raw and my lungs shriveled and starved. I could smell the rotten stench of the creature’s breath now full-on. It turned my stomach instantly, making saliva pool in my mouth and nausea bubble within my gut.

  The creature lowered its lips closer to mine, and I clamped my mouth shut tightly on instinct. Words in a language I’d never heard before flowed from its lips in a steady rhythm as though it were singing. The air in the room changed, becoming thicker and hotter.

  And that was when I felt it.

  A tugging and pulling centered in my chest. It felt as though my soul was being ripped from within me.

  My mouth opened and smoky red and yellow ribbons flowed from within, straight into the creature’s mouth. I could taste sweetness on my tongue. I wanted to move, to fight to keep whatever it was taking from inside of me, but I was frozen, completely paralyzed, as it sat on my chest with greed swelling in its beady black eyes as it savored my essence. Hopelessness swam through me as I realized that was exactly what it was doing—taking not only my magick, but also my life directly from me.

  A loud growling caught my attention—Binks. I saw him leap at the creature’s shoulder, sinking his teeth and claws into its wet exterior. With the creature’s attention elsewhere, the ribbons flowed back inside of me, and I was released from the paralysis it had inflicted upon me. I took advantage of the moment. Bucking and thrashing, I knocked over a table against the wall closest to me and heard the vase that had sat on it smash to the ground as I threw the creature that was nearly half my size off me and darted toward the front door, the closest escape available.

  I gripped the cool metal knob in my hot hand at the exact moment Binks was thrown across the foyer and into the railing of the stairs. I watched as he bounced off and landed on the hardwood floor with a sickening thud.

  “Come to me,” the creature shouted at me in its demonic tone, crooking its sharp-nailed finger my way.

  I turned the knob and swung the door open as quickly as I could. Barreling down the steps, I paused for a split second to try my Jeep door. It was locked and I knew exac
tly where the keys were—resting on the kitchen counter. I darted down the driveway and out into the street barefoot, without knowing where I was going, but positive I couldn’t stay where I was. I hit the sidewalk and cut a left, heading toward the brushy woods, remembering the shortcut to Kace’s apartment he’d mentioned and praying I could find it.

  Glancing behind me, I spotted the creature a little ways back running after me. It avoided all streetlights and looked like nothing more than a fast-moving shadow, a shade or two darker than it should be, slipping through the night. I continued forward, my vision becoming blurred by tears as the reality of what was happening finally began to sink in.

  I was being chased by a freaking monster!

  My lungs burned with every inhale, and my throat felt like it was on fire. I nearly wept when I reached the over-walked pathway cut into the brush, because I knew I was now that much closer to Kace and I was positive he would know what to do.

  My breath burst in and out from my lungs in rapid succession as I leapt over fallen limbs and roots woven though the ground. The thicket seemed to be much darker than it had been the night before during Kace’s and my walk to the cliff party. My head pounded as I tried to remember where it was we had stopped and Kace had pointed out the way to his apartment complex. Rapid footfalls from behind me made me cry out in alarm. Glancing over my shoulder, I could clearly see the creature gaining on me, its shadowy figure growing closer with every inhale of my breath.

  Stubbing my toe on a protruding rock that jutted out from the ground, I cried out as I tumbled to the ground. Weeping, I pulled myself back up and ran as fast as I could. I cut to the right when I thought I should, leaving the beaten path to create my own in the direction I hoped would lead me to Kace. Low limbs stabbed at me from all angles, slowing me down more than I liked as they scratched at my clothes and intertwined with my hair. I could hear the rustle of bushes and tree branches breaking and bending behind me as the creature tried to catch up.

  A clearing in the distance fueled me to run faster. Harder. I pushed myself, grinding my feet into the dirt and leaf-covered ground to gain more leverage against gravity and propel myself faster. My heart nearly exploded from my chest when I realized the clearing was not to an apartment complex, but instead the dirt road that led to the cliff.

  I paused for a spilt-second, bracing my hands on my knees, while I struggled to catch my breath and figure out what I was going to do now. I’d obviously passed Kace’s apartment, and there was no way I was going to backtrack. The creature came out of the thicket at my right, cutting off any thoughts I had of taking the road and forcing me to go left. I sprinted away from it as fast as I could, but exhaustion was taking its toll. I was slowing down. My heart hammered in my chest harder, my throat ached and burned as well as my lungs, and the tip of my big toe was sore and bleeding.

  The possibility of not being able to get away from the creature hit me dead in the stomach the moment I broke out into the clearing of the cliff. This feeling intensified when I realized who was standing there, seemingly waiting for me.

  Theo stood behind the makeshift bar, holding something in his left hand. I came to a complete standstill the moment I noticed him. My body shook uncontrollably as I eyed him with my palms out. What the hell was I going to do now? I was trapped.

  Worse, I was going to die. He and that thing would make sure of it.

  Theo’s eyes left me and locked on the creature that had to be gaining on me now. I didn’t know what expression I expected to see when he glanced at it, maybe some sense of horror, but what I saw instead was nothing. No emotion crossed his face at the sight of the horrendous little goblin thing chasing after me. When Theo’s eyes finally returned to mine, the expression he wore seemed conflicted somehow.

  “Come to me…” the creature hissed, standing someplace behind me. “Let me taste you.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to judge how close the creature was. Not liking the short distance, I did the only thing I could—I bolted for the cliff.

  Running as fast as I could, I held my breath and began to prepare myself mentally for the free fall I was about to make, while praying there were no large rocks waiting at the bottom. My eyes locked with Theo’s. I noticed his eyes widen as realization of what I was about to do sunk in. How much I was willing to sacrifice in order to get away from the creature.

  I glanced over my shoulder one last time to make sure the creature was still behind me and took note of its murderous gleam reflected in its eyes as it too realized what I was about to do. Maybe I was crazy, maybe it was the exhaustion or shock from the events leading up to this moment, but whatever the reason…I smiled. I was about to win. The creature wouldn’t get me, my soul, or my magick tonight, and neither would Theo or his family, if this was their doing, or whoever had hired them.

  The edge of the cliff rushed up to greet me, and I didn’t stop, I didn’t hesitate as I leapt into the air and tossed my arms out to my sides while closing my eyes tightly. People survived intense falls like this all the time. In fact, some even did stunts like this for fun. With nothing beneath me and nothing above, I felt freer than I ever had before.

  “Nooo,” the creature hissed loudly into the night.

  My eyes remained closed as I waited to begin the decent downward toward the crashing waves below. I didn’t want to see if there were rocks waiting for me. I could feel the air brushing against me from all sides, but the sinking feeling, the weightlessness of free falling into nothingness I had expected, never came.

  Opening my eyes, I realized why.

  Theo stood at the edge of the cliff, which was only a few feet away from me still, with his right hand extended toward me. The reason I hadn’t felt the sensation of falling toward the choppy waters below was because I wasn’t falling at all…I was suspended in midair.

  My eyes locked with Theo’s. They were determined and focused. He lifted his hand, and I went with it as I was carried on the wind he’d created back to the edge of the cliff to stand beside him. Warmth pulsated through me. It wiped all thought from my mind. As soon as my feet touched the earth again, everything around Theo and me seemed to fade away as we were encased in a perfect orb of white.

  Theo’s eyes found mine. His hand was still raised before him even though I now stood at his side. Questions and fears swirled within the caramel color of his eyes, and I wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling, but mostly…what was happening and how he had done it. I was positive his expression of shock and utter confusion was mirrored on my own face.

  “What was once written, I now have changed,

  Something destined has now been rearranged.

  Hear my calling, answer my plea,

  Keep my darling daughter harm free.

  In her moment of future prophetic demise,

  I call to the power within me that lies,

  May a stranger await in the shadows at be,

  Let him wield a power that will save thee.

  Tethered together their souls shall see,

  An it harm none, so mote it be.”

  The words seemed to flow from everywhere and nowhere all at once. They were in my head and yet attached to the very wind. The voice was soft and pleasant to listen to, musical in all ways possible. I remained where I stood, my mind fumbling to wrap around the words and grasp their meaning. Where had they come from and who had spoken them? What did they mean?

  Without warning the whiteness that had encased Theo and me inside its sphere burst into tiny white butterflies, which fluttered away on the wind. I stared, stunned and dazed by the beauty of it all. Holding out my hand, a single butterfly, its wings paper thin and a brilliant shade of white, landed on the tip of my finger. I smiled as it clasped its wings together quickly, as though taking a break, and then fluttered away once more.

  I could still feel Theo’s eyes on me and I shifted to glance at him. He glared at me with a smoldering look that made my heart skip a beat or two and my stomach sink all the way to my toes.
/>
  “What the hell just happened? What did you do?” he growled in a low, rumbling tone through gritted teeth.

  “What did I do—what did you—?” I never got to finish my sentence. The red creature I’d forgotten lunged at me. Its claw-like fingers gripped my upper arm before I could dart away this time.

  I closed my eyes as I shrank away and let out a startled scream. Its grip was tight one minute and then gone the next. Flickering light lit the insides of my eyelids. Opening my eyes, I realized where the light came from—the creature had somehow burst into flames.

  I watched wide-eyed as it dropped to the ground and rolled around in agonizing pain. Its red flesh oozed from its bones and bubbled beside it along the ground. The screams and cries that stemmed from it pierced the night air around me and made the fine hairs along the back of my neck and across my arms stand on end.

  And then…the screams stopped.

  The creature turned to pure black ash before my eyes and was carried away by the nighttime ocean breeze, leaving nothing besides a scorched mark on the ground where it had been. Anyone who saw the spot would think some idiot had started a fire outside of the designated fire pit at some point and never give it a second thought.

  “Did I do that?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

  “No, root magick against one another…it’s a Hoodoo law.”

  Hoodoo law? Root magick? It was then that I noticed what Theo had been holding in his hand the entire time—roots. My pulse picked up pace as I shifted my eyes from the dirt-covered roots he held to his face.

  “But I’m not Hoodoo,” I insisted as my stomach muscles tightened. “I don’t even know what Hoodoo really is.”

  Theo glared at me. He gritted his teeth together and every vein in his neck popped out on display. “No, you’re not Hoodoo…but because of that spell, you’re tethered to me now, which means nothing Hoodoo can harm you.”

  And with that, Theo walked away, leaving me standing on the cliff, surrounded by darkness. My limbs trembled as adrenaline began to fade from my system, but my mind still swirled dizzily with his words, those of the spell I’d heard, and images I couldn’t begin to understand. Everything weaved its way through my mind, numbing me suddenly from the inside out.