There was a flicker of recognition in her eyes, then it turned to rage. “Get away from me, devil!”
Devil? What on earth was a devil? Some Voodoo thing? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Even though we weren’t really facing each other, I was still petrified of what she could do to me in my sleep. Turner and Roberta had already proved their magic was powerful, I didn’t need any more examples.
“I said OUT!” she screamed and her whole body glowed a bright green.
My blood froze and I suddenly couldn’t take in air no matter how hard I tried. The bright string that kept us bound together flared up between us and…
SNAP!
Severed.
Everything blurred, twisted, exploded until…
SLAM!
I crash landed back into my body like a skydiver without a parachute.
Air came flooding through my lungs and I sucked it up in large gulps.
Instantly, Ryan was awake with his arms wrapped around me. “What happened? Are you okay?” He was all concern.
I fell into him, still breathing in as much air as I could, afraid it would somehow be sucked out of me again.
“I did that thingy,” I heaved. “That… astral thingy… get Jason.” I could barely speak. I was freezing and shaking uncontrollably. Ryan wrapped the comforter around me tightly before he left to get Jason.
In a few minutes the whole gang (minus George and Vianne; I didn’t want to wake them) was in Nancy’s bedroom surrounding me like a pack of mother hens. Jason sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his hands over my covered arms to generate some heat. I immediately started to feel better.
“You warm yet?” Jason asked.
“Yeah.” I took a deep steadying breath.
Ryan crawled on the bed behind me and wrapped his arms around the fluffy blanket that was me. I started to feel down right toasty.
“We have to be quiet, my parents are still sleeping,” Nancy whispered.
I told them everything.
Jason seemed the most interested in what I had to say. He asked me the specifics of how everything worked, but I wasn’t sure how everything worked, so I just told him what I saw.
“This is fascinating.” Jason said with animation.
“I was thinking, terrifying, but what do I know?” Nancy had her arms crossed and was looking at Jason angrily.
I liked them better when they were in “crush” mode instead of this…wait…they were at each other’s throats when they liked each other, but I tended to agree more with Nancy on this particular topic.
“In any case, I don’t think I can go back, she’ll be waiting for me next time,” I said, hoping to prevent Jason from even broaching that subject.
“I wonder if she ever took the experimental Age-pro. It would explain why she acts like Looney Mcloon Pants.” Bill seemed the most interested in the fact that Roberta and Turner knew Fortski and were directly involved in the creation of Age-pro.
“When I saw her she was pre-second or third face surgery, so she must have taken it later.” I wasn’t sure if Bill’s suspicions were true.
“Let’s assume that both of them took the experimentals, just for the simple fact that it gives us something to work with. If we know were dealing with brain damaged psychosis, we can better prepare for how to act.” Jason was trying to think strategically. “I should be getting the holo-footage sometime tomorrow, hopefully in the morning.”
“Eww,” Nancy chimed in.
“Eww or not, I can get it on the air and hopefully take Turner down.” Jason was ignoring Nancy’s jibes at this point.
“Do you think you can sleep?” Jason turned to me with concern. “It’s only one in the morning, you could squeeze out a few more hours of sleep before school.”
I couldn’t believe it was so early in the night and now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off, I was getting sleepy again.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said and opened up the covers for Ryan.
Nancy winked at me in approval and grabbed Bill’s hand. “Come on, Bill, let’s get back to bed. Night, Jason.” She gave Jason a satisfied smirk and left with Bill.
Jason stood up and shook his head. “They make a good couple.” His face was crestfallen and hurt.
I rolled my eyes. “You really are an idiot, Jason. Go to bed.”
Jason didn’t even hear me. He was lost in his own misery. “Night.” He left without another word.
Ryan snuggled in close behind me. “He really has no idea she likes him, does he?”
“Not a clue, no matter how many times I re-assure him. He just wants to be miserable.” I held onto Ryan’s arms and smiled contentedly.
He kissed the back of my head. “Good night.”
“Night,” I said and closed my eyes and I drifted off into blissful blackness.
When I awoke the sun’s rays poured into Nancy’s room like a friendly visitor. Everything always seemed more positive and hopeful during the day. Then I remembered I was meeting Turner and my good mood was sucked out of me. Not even the sunshine helped.
But…
…Waking up with Ryan next to me was definitely a plus.
Speaking of which… He opened his gorgeous brown eyes and gave me a sleepy smile. “Good morning.”
I couldn’t resist, I leaned over and kissed him. He gently held the back of my head and pulled me in closer. Here I go again. Breathe. Focus.
I drew back. “Behave.”
“You started it,” he said, smiling.
I wished he wouldn’t do that. He was ridiculously cute when he did that.
I grabbed a tank and jeans from Nancy’s closet and went into the bathroom to change. When I came back into the room Ryan was already dressed. (Nancy’s dad let Bill and Ryan borrow some of his casual clothes, jeans and t-shirt kind of stuff.) The pants were a little big on Ryan, but he’d look good in a potato sack, so there you go.
We went downstairs and joined George and Vianne for breakfast. Bill and Nancy joined us soon after, followed by a very peppy Jason.
“Morning everyone.” Jason exuded cheeriness.
“Did you? I mean, did it?” Vianne was a little leery of the topic of Jason’s digestion at the breakfast table.
Jason waved his hand in the negative. “No, not yet, I’m just pumped about what happens when we have it. This could be it. My lifelong dream of taking down Turner could actually happen today! I’m just a little excited.” Jason was simply beaming.
“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? What if the chip is broken, we are talking about your bowels.” Nancy smirked.
“Nancy,” George scolded, “Jason is our guest so treat him with some respect,” he finished authoritatively.
Nancy shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, just don’t want anyone to count their chickens before they’re hatched.” She eyed Jason with annoyed disdain.
“There’s nothing wrong with a positive attitude, you might want to try it sometime,” Jason retorted.
Nancy stood up in a huff and left the room. “Bill.”
Bill shoveled in the last of his breakfast and followed Nancy out of the room.
Nancy called out from the foyer, “Let’s get to school!”
I stuffed my eggs in my mouth. “Great breakfast, Vianne, thanks so much.” I stood up to join Nancy when Jason caught my arm.
“This meeting with Turner will be the perfect stall tactic. I need you to keep him busy until I can get the holo-footage on the air. Are you going to be okay with that?” Jason made sure our eyes met.
I nodded. “Yeah. He won’t hurt me. He just wants to talk,” I said, but didn’t believe a word of it. After last nights rendezvous with Roberta I wasn’t sure what Turner would do or say at our little meeting today. I tried not to think about it too much, otherwise my imagination would paralyze me.
“I don’t want her to go.” Ryan stood up beside me and grabbed my hand possessively.
I tried to give Ryan the most reassuring look I could muster. “I have to.
I told you yesterday don’t try and talk me out of it. I’m going.”
“We’ll see.” Nancy’s voice sounded from the other room.
I rolled my eyes and almost laughed. A lioness ‘til the end, even if I made it extremely difficult for her.
“I hate to be the bad guy, but you need to go. This thing will be ten times easier knowing that Turner will be occupied with you.” Jason looked genuinely sorry that he had to be the voice of reason in all this.
“I’m going. Don’t worry. Just do your thing and then do your thing,” I said and Ryan and I left.
George and Vianne walked us out and made sure we were all safe in Bill’s car before they went back into the house.
The ride over was somehow comforting. It was nice to be around the three people that I trusted and loved. I didn’t want to be all gloom and doom, but my meeting with Turner today was like a black cloud hanging over me and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever feel this warm and fuzzy with my friends again. We didn’t even talk about anything important. Mainly it was just Nancy trying to fool everyone that she had absolutely no interest in Jason Keroff whatsoever. But in the end even she admitted she was full of crap and then proceeded to ask us all our advice on what she should do.
Bill and Ryan went pretty silent on the topic and I fully admitted to being a complete idiot when it came to boys, so the conversation ended up with Nancy in a huff.
We arrived at school and to my great relief there wasn’t hide or hair of any news reporters.
“Looks like Turner’s making things easier on you. Show of good faith maybe?” Ryan sounded hopeful.
“Or he doesn’t want anyone watching.” Bill said what I was thinking.
“He doesn’t trust you,” Nancy said, agreeing with Bill.
I always said I wanted honesty, I guess I was getting it in spades now.
“Chelsan!” I heard Jill’s voice like fingernails on a chalkboard.
I knew her dad was dead, and I knew she had no clue, but as sad as that was I still couldn’t stand her. With her intense, bright green eyes filled with annoyance, she came running up to me in her designer clothes and bouncing black curls.
“Yes?” I said with as little emotion as possible.
“Don’t give me attitude, I like this less than you do.” Jill smiled at Bill kindly. “Hi, Bill.”
“Hey,” Bill said and actually reached down and grabbed Nancy’s hand. Looked like he wanted to play the same game Nancy was, but instead of trying to make Jill jealous, he was trying to subtly tell her to stay away.
Jill received the message right away. She turned back to me and snarled, “Daddy wants me to take you to Nancy’s after school. He says if you don’t come with me, Nancy’s parents will be charged with a Landscaping Code Violation.”
“What?!” Nancy was livid. “Your dad said he cleared that like ten years ago!”
“Well, paperwork gets lost, doesn’t it?” Jill was enjoying this.
Before things got out of hand I looked Jill in the eye. “Fine. I’ll meet you in the parking lot after class.”
Jill’s face showed her disappointment at the lack of a true fight, but she shrugged. “Be early. I don’t want anyone seeing us together.” She whirled around and was gone.
Bill seemed the most upset. “Turner is making sure you go.”
“I was always planning on going, it’s no big deal,” I said, trying to calm everyone down. I could tell Ryan was livid. I think they were all secretly thinking of a plan to stop me and now it was foiled. Turner really didn’t trust me. After everything we’d been through, I couldn’t blame him. And he used the one thing he knew I’d never put in danger: my friends. Nancy’s parents were practically adopting me and I’d die before I let any harm come to them.
The rest of the day seemed to fly by. I was really hoping I could savor these last few hours of freedom, but as always when you have some horrible thing to do, time goes by too fast.
I probably wasn’t walking away from this encounter, but as long as my friends were safe I was okay with that. I couldn’t help but think it would have been easier on everyone if Turner had succeeded in his plan that day at the trailer park and killed my mother and I both. But I didn’t want to think like that. I was here and I wasn’t going to give up. I was learning more and more about my powers each day, which on the one hand made me a force to be reckoned with, but on the other, made me a target. Only time would decide which one I would be today.
The last bell of the day rang like a harbinger of death.
Ryan was waiting for me outside the classroom. He had that look. That look that said, I’m not going to argue with you, but I don’t like it. He just took my hand and we started walking toward the parking lot.
“I have another job offer from one of the best companies in the world. One that Turner doesn’t have a stake in.” Ryan tried to lighten the mood. “I’m meeting with their VP at Nancy’s house. George seemed really excited when I called him, maybe the guy will like him and offer him a job there.”
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? For George.” I said with a smile of approval.
“Maybe,” Ryan replied slyly. “He deserves it after everything he’s done for you. For us.”
“Do you think you’ll take the job?” I asked. I was secretly hoping we could go to college together. If I made it that long. Ugggh! Stop!
“Naaah, but I always listen to their offers. It’ll be pretty boring, but at least I’ll get a free meal out of it.” He smiled.
“Well… be careful.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say I was so nervous about what was coming.
Ryan squeezed my hand and pulled it up to his lips, kissing it gently. “Nancy’s parents will just have to pay a fine. They’ll understand. You shouldn’t go.”
“I’m going. I’m just a little nervous is all.” As much as I wanted to agree with Ryan, I needed to get this over with.
We arrived at the parking lot and Jill was waiting there with her scowl of greeting.
“Let’s go.” Jill started walking away without waiting to see if I was following.
I turned and kissed Ryan. “Love you.”
Ryan kissed me back. “Love you.”
I couldn’t look at him anymore or I’d chicken out. And where was Bill and Nancy? They were probably tied up in class. I wanted to wait to say goodbye to them, but Jill was almost out of view. I ran after her like an idiot.
I caught up to Jill and walked next to her, hoping we wouldn’t have to talk. Just drop me off at Nancy’s and leave me alone. Maybe I’d see Nancy and Bill before Turner’s car came to pick me up.
Jill’s hover-car was a top of the line ridiculously expensive BMW. “Get in,” she barked.
I opened the door and slid into the car. I really didn’t want to fight with her, and thankfully it appeared she didn’t want to either. The interior of the car was to be expected, lots of expensive bells and whistles, including a holo-GPS and auto-pilot.
“Don’t touch anything.” Jill wanted to make sure I knew my place.
“Jill, just shut-up.” I tried to keep quiet, but she was so good at provoking me.
“I’ll make you ride in the trunk.” Jill’s eyes flared angrily.
“I’d like to see you try.” I gave her a look that suggested she should back off.
Jill grumbled something under her breath, turned on her car, and took off out of the parking lot. The way she was driving we’d be there in no time. Thank goodness.
The holo-GPS projected the three-dimensional map in the middle of the dashboard and led Jill to Nancy’s house.
“I could just tell you how to get there,” I said, and as soon as I did I knew I shouldn’t have.
“Yeah, right. Like I’d take directions from trailer trash. My dad warned me not to listen to anything you say. Most of all directions. He said you could lead me into a trap,” Jill smirked egotistically.
“A trap? What? Where I beat the crap out of you and steal your car?” Now that I said it, it so
unded like a good idea, in dreamland that is. But the more obvious point of Jill’s rant was Turner’s paranoia that I wouldn’t show up for this reunion.
“Exactly. Your seat is rigged to taser by the way, so don’t even think about trying anything.” Jill actually sounded scared so I wondered at the validity of her threat.
The Riser Saga Page 29