Bell, Book, and Sandals
Page 30
I slid out of my convertible and straightened my black slacks. It had been a week since I had found out I was “special” and I was doing remarkably well. I still couldn’t control my powers and I didn’t know what I was going to tell my movie star boyfriend, (thank God he had left on a business trip due to his emergency) but I was feeling good. I was a witch and I could accept that. I was even beginning to think I could embrace it. I just needed to get my powers under control.
And for Ryan to understand.
Brushing those thoughts aside, I plastered a smile on my face as I headed through the staff parking lot behind the DenMark. I had work to do, work I was good at, and I wasn’t going to let the “what ifs” distract me.
I hurried, my heels clicking on the cement as I went. I knew Van would be waiting for me, eager to make a coffee run as soon as I got there. I should have stopped and got her a coffee on the way. Tomorrow, I swore to myself, tomorrow I would meet her with caffeine in hand.
A rustling sounded in the trees surrounding the parking lot. I glanced up, an uneasy feeling suddenly coming over me. I needed to get inside the hotel and I needed to do it fast. Picking up the pace, my heels like machine gun fire, I all but sprinted across the blacktop.
The rustling grew louder and the trees exploded in red. It filled the sky around me, blocking the sun and casting me into an unnatural shadow. The red screamed in shrill anguished cries and I realized it was birds. Hundreds of blood red birds had flown from the trees at the same time and were now circling over head.
Though I didn’t know what they were, I sensed the danger they brought. I peeled my eyes from the sky and double-timed it. The last thing I wanted to do was become bird food for these over grown parakeets.
Before I had taken even five steps, a small group of the birds swooped down and surrounded me, squawking at me in defiance.
A gasp of air escaped me as I started to panic. The birds circled around me, their sharp beaks only inches from my delicate skin. These were definitely not millet fed. You could tell by the looks in their eyes. Or was it the crimson stains on their talons?
I stepped back, hoping I wasn’t completely boxed in. They let me break through their ranks and I hurried in the opposite direction, running for the cover of the trees nearby.
The small cluster followed me, the breeze from their wings flowing over my back like ghostly fingers. They gathered behind but cleared a path for me to follow. I was being herded.
I turned around once I had reached the grass, facing the small pterodactyls flapping in front of me. “What are you? What do you want from me?” I screamed at them.
They squawked together, their cries turning into words. “We are the Byangorma,” they spoke, hatred in their eyes. “We must do what is asked of us.”
I stared at them. I didn’t know if I was terrified or speechless over the fact they answered me. I know I asked, but really, who thought they’d answer?
Finding my voice, I tried to keep my emotions in check. “What is it you have to do?”
Once again they answered together. “We must not let the Apex arise.”
“The Apex?” I asked. What in the world were they talking about? Had this new world come with a new language as well?
The birds remained silent on the subject. They swooped forward, driving me into the trees. One of the beaks tore into my shoulder, letting me know they meant business. I didn’t have a choice, I was forced to go where they wanted me to go.
I ran as fast as I could, my hand pressed to the hole in my shoulder. I didn’t know how bad it was. I didn’t want to know how bad it was. I couldn’t be thinking about that right now. I knew I was heading straight into a trap. And I couldn’t see any way to avoid it.
Stumbling into a clearing, I landed hard on my knees. Great, so much for my work clothes. Blood and grass stains? So not in this year.
The birds’ cries grew distant. I glanced up, realizing they had pulled back. Was I really spared from their attack, or were they only getting out of the way?
I rose slowly, my legs shaking from the adrenaline coursing through me. I glanced over at the blood staining the left side of my shirt. I needed help. And I needed the comfort of the DenMark. I turned and almost peed my pants. A woman was floating out of the trees. Long white hair trailed behind her as she came towards me. Her ancient wrinkled face snarled at me. I knew this wasn’t a normal old hag. For one, I could see right through her, and two, every inch of her was on fire.
I stepped back quickly. Even though she was a ghost of some sort, I knew those flames were very real. They could kill me if I got too close.
Snickering sounded from behind my back. I turned, afraid of what I might find. More old hags floated towards me. Once again, I was surrounded, this time by a bunch of old women who didn’t know how to moisturize. This day just kept getting worse.
They moved in closer, surrounding me in a small circle. I could feel the heat from their flames licking at my skin. I tried to stay as far from them as I could, which wasn’t very far at all. The air around me went stale as the heat pushed in on me. It clung to me, coating me like a second skin. These freaks were going to flash fry me alive.
I realized quickly that was not the case. I was going to suffocate long before I was cooked. Their flames were quickly consuming all the oxygen in the circle. I went lightheaded and the world swam before my eyes. I watched it tip on its head as the soft grass reached out to caress my cheek.
I stretched out a hand, fingers wrapping in the blades of grass, as I tried to focus my oxygen-deprived brain. The ground hadn’t moved. I did. I laid on the ground, looking up on the hags as I choked on the vacuum the clearing had become, realizing with perfect clarity I was dying.
I was alone with a bunch of ugly spinsters and I was pounding on death’s door. How tragically uncool was that? I couldn’t even have a proper death scene with someone sobbing over me, mourning the void I would leave behind in this world.
I would never get to say goodbye to my friends. I wouldn’t get a chance to tell Ryan who I really was. My future was being erased. I would never get the chance to become the witch I was meant to be.
Hold the phone. I was a witch. I could do something about it. I could stop it.
Taking my last bit of focus, I tried to save myself. I tried to shoot the blue light out like I had with the fanged attacker. I tried to form a red-eyed shadow to charge in and save the day.
But nothing happened.
I was a failure. I failed at being a fiancée. I failed at acting, and now, I failed at being a witch. And this time it would cost me my life.
I couldn’t die. I was only 23. I had so much life left to live. There was so much I still needed to experience. It was unfair to have that all ripped away from me by some crazy old biddies.
As they pressed in on me, their fire growing hotter, I used the last of my air to scream. It tore from me as if it had a life of its own; shaking the trees around us, driving the stupid red birds higher into the sky. I screamed long and hard. It was what was left of me. And I was going to make myself heard on the way out.
I stopped when I felt the air change around me. It was still thick with heat, but now something else was there as well. I could feel it brush against my arms, a tingling sensation of energy. It grew stronger around me. The taste of it coated my tongue. Even in my dying haze, I knew what it was.
Electricity.
Bolts of lightning shot down around me, striking the hags where they stood. They screamed in agony, their bodies thrown back from the force of the impact. The circle broke and I could breathe once again.
I gulped greedily, expanding my lungs with the oxygen I so badly needed. I flinched as a big fat rain drop struck me. I glanced up and blinked at the clouds rolling in. A storm was gathering over head and soon the few raindrops around me turned into a downpour.
The birds screamed over head and the
hags’ bodies sizzled around me, their flames snuffed out by the sudden rain storm.
I sat there watching the steam pour off those bodies before they faded away, completely gone from this world. They had come to kill me and, instead, I had killed them. Somehow, some way, I had survived the storm.
A shuddered sob racked my chest and I felt tear drops join the rain as I knelt in that clearing, soaked to the bone. I had done this. I had taken my first lives.
Twenty Five