“By the way, Lizzy is jealous that you got a boyfriend before her, a charming one at that. She’s been guy-hunting since a year now, but no luck,” she laughed.
“Hey Rashi. What’s up?” Derek came out.
“I was asking Alice here, about what you told Franny.” She gave Derek a playful punch and they both continued their conversation for a bit longer in Hindi.
“Anyway have fun on your trip,” she winked before retreating into the store again.
“What did you tell Franny?” Alice demanded.
“That I love you and..”
“And?”
“You love me back.”
“What?” Alice gaped. “You said what?”
“I didn’t lie now. Did I?” he stated. “We need to leave now. If we plan to get there today.”
.
CHAPTER 27
Stephanie shed a tear as she sat on the sofa. It was time to make one last call to Jane before she’d disappear from their life.
It was a near end experience with the tomb demons last night. It was a long night sitting with the guy she had met at the bar-Charles, talking. He wanted to lead her up to his room but she knew better than to follow him out. There was a birthday party and Steph easily fit in and earned a piece of the wine-bottle shaped cake. Stephanie worked to befriend most of the people in case the demons would pull her away. But still there was danger as she knew there were many more ways demons could get her without raising suspicion. They were waiting for orders. The tomb demons had left, all at once when it was near two. Diane must’ve convinced the queen but Steph didn’t take chances and stuck to Diane’s instructions to stay till morning. Besides if she was taken away this time no one could help her. In the morning she made sure she didn’t leave alone, tagging with the sleep deprived Charles from the bar. Luckily enough she slept almost through the past day (a schedule she had adopted to help carry out her mission at night time) and it didn’t affect her as much- and being scared she couldn’t afford a wink of sleep anyway. She dropped Charles on her way, departing with a half-hearted kiss, faking a promise to call him. Knowing that no one was following, she was drove back with great relief. Then she hesitantly went to sleep for a little while. Still the queen knew where she was at and before she sent them at her again she had to complete her mission and flee far away today.
She spoke to Jane and said she had some work to do. Kim and Kate spoke asking for their birthday gifts, she had packed them already. After a week of being missing Jane would inspect the place and collect those and other stuff she had kept. She’d leave her aunt and her sisters heartbroken but they’d learn to live and keep safe.
“Take care,” Steph’s voice trembled
“Are you alright honey?” Jane asked.
“Yeah just the cold.” Steph thought of exact words to say. “And Jane, I’m in the process of figuring something out for myself. You will get to know it soon. Just I need to know whether you trust me.”
There was a pause. Jane wanted to ask her what she meant but instead went on. “Yes I do. I trust your decision, whatever it may be. Just know that,” her voice turned sad.” I love you and I miss you, we all do. Please get everything out of the way in time to make it for Kim and Kate’s birthday.”
Please take care, Steph said in her mind. I love you all. I hate that I got to leave you. I don’t deserve a family.
All of a sudden Steph’s gaze darted towards the door “Uh, I got to go. Love you and um, take care. Tell the girls I love them a lot. Bye.”
“Love you too...”
Steph cut the call.
“Just go away”, she hollered at the door. “Don’t you dare come in.”
But the door unlocked and yanked right open, revealing a tall girl nearly her age. She had the darkest black hair and dark eyes that instantly met hers. “We’ve got to talk.”
“I don’t want to.”
“That’s just cruel. Considering that I saved your butt yesterday I thought you’d be really happy to see me.” As she stepped in and looked over her shoulder, the door shut again. “I was longing to be young again.”
“Go away!”
“You can’t talk to your Grandma Diane like that Stephanie”
Grandma sounded ridiculous, considering she was now the same age as Stephanie. But that was not what came in the way to shun the lady. “If you were my grandma where were you when I and mom were struggling on our way to being homeless? We spent a whole night freezing outside before we could afford a haunted shack; there was no help from you.”
“That would blow our cover. Rosalie knew about us, John told her. You know that.”
“I know why you are here. And let me tell you I’m not interested.”
“Join us Stephanie. What you plan to do is impossible.”
“You’re saying that for your cause oldie. How old are you by the way? 115?”
“116,” she said clearly impressed. “Too good for an inexperienced Grasp to guess that.”
Steph looked the other way in disgust.
“We can stay young forever. Lower your age whenever you feel like-party- hit on guys whenever you like. You just got to perform the ritual and help us with our work on kids,” she continued in a sweet syrupy voice as she circled Steph. A tempting evil scent rose all around. “You know that the girl is powerful, you can’t kill her even with her memory gone.”
“I believe you have something to do with that.” Steph said.
“The queen managed to wipe out the girl’s entire memory. I asked her if there is any way that can work on us. She ridiculed my question saying that it can’t. It could’ve helped me cope through a few things and maybe a memory wipe-out could help you too. The queen would like you to join. Let me tell you Summoners have a high position, and because you have been outside of Mortegrath all your life and had no participation in Grasp circles before, the queen forgives you for your ignorance. She gives you one last chance.”
“Who is she to give me a chance, huh?” Steph snapped, pointing a finger at Diane. “Let me make it clear, I hate the queen. And it doesn’t matter to me if she forgives me or not.”
“If you bury your selfish means and join us, we can fulfil our purposes.” Her voice grew tired and she plopped down on the sofa.
“Survival?” Steph chided.
“Survival and power and everything you desire. You might be able to do a part of art on your own- like the walk outside the window last night,” she smirked. “But you know you can’t get the complete benefit until you perform the ritual,” With a raise of her finger, Steph’s phone rose from the table and came on her palm. Steph eyed the table, wanting to send it flying towards Diane as she was busy observing the phone, but Diane was right, Steph couldn’t do it. Some of Grasp powers were got only after the ritual which she was never going to perform. Diane seemed oblivious to Steph’s unsuccessful attempt. “Nice phone. I think I might buy one like it.”
“What about freedom? You all are nothing but a bunch of worms at the queen’s feet. She’s a freak.” Steph blurted, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m not getting into this like dad.”
“Oh, no, your dad came on willingly. I told him to not marry a human but he was in love, which I couldn’t understand. I first thought he was trying to have a kid to help Grasp numbers. Grasp do that.”
“That’s sick!” Steph clasped both her hands over her mouth, feeling the urge to throw up.
“That is reality. I’m sorry if you were expecting fairy tales of our existence.” Diane got to her feet. “We work hard to make Grasp work, and it is our priority. We need to maintain our numbers so that we can sustain ourselves. Our numbers aren’t really up to the mark and we need all the members we can get, but unfortunately Grasp can’t be appointed- as soldiers are, to raise an army. We run through bloodline. And we keep it running.” She said with pride.
“How many kids have you had?”
“Two. John was my second.”
“Two in all those years?” Steph laughed.
“Didn’t have many guys coming your way, old lady?”
“Female Grasp are... Let’s say, less capable of reproducing. And while the men can still have children with humans, women can’t,” Diane paused. “And depend only on the male Grasp for their own. Even so there is still less chances of getting pregnant.”
“What happens if there’s a kid like me?” Steph asked, not bringing up the actual biological terms. She was curious to know why the queen wanted her to join if she didn’t possess the potential a total Grasp Summoner did. “Wouldn’t the Grasp strength lessen or something?”
Diane seemed happy with Steph’s involvement. “No. It doesn’t. Powers and abilities stay intact with inheritance, and look at you. You are a Summoner by birth. Too bad we couldn’t take you.”
“Where?”
“After the kid is born, Grasp have their arrangements to bring the kid to Mortegrath without suspicion. But everything is planned beforehand, and all consequences are considered before any action. But John...” She shook her head. “He was willing to grow old with Rosalie while she lived.”
“That is what marriage means.”
“For Grasp it means nothing. Probably a recent trend to get money for now. I married a rich old man- Paul. I tricked him into handing me all his wealth in ways you don’t have slightest idea.” She looked at her shirt and flower print short skirt, trying to show her point, then she seemed to remember something. “But we won’t be able to continue a lot with that. You know our main sources to get money don’t you? Haven’t you tried a hand at slots, cards, bets or perhaps lottery?”
Steph shook her head; she didn’t want to give more proof that she was Grasp.
She sighed, “John was good at the lottery. But the worse thing is we can’t attract too much attention. Attention is bad for us with our altering age and most of us don’t have any such source of legal identification. But with our numbers we are forced to adapt any means possible. You know Andy Tovern?”
“The greatest chess player who disappeared?” She recalled John’s favorite chess player.
“He didn’t disappear,” she corrected. “And his real name is Andy Frost. He was one of us, no wonder his win was always certain. He pushed his limit till he got old and before he could die he decided to become young again. He was the only one of us who came under the spotlight. He’s in France now and he’s your grandpa.”
Sometimes Steph did wonder that he had the same nose and eyes as dad but through the TV glass she couldn’t sense he was in all this too.
“I know you have every quality that is in our blood. You want to kill that girl, that’s our nature- we tend to not forgive. I would’ve helped you if it was someone else. Perhaps if it was Derek.”
“Don’t you dare touch him,” Steph tried to punch her, but her fist froze halfway. The lady laughed but Steph quickly landed a foot on her knee. She fell back and her palm cut by something sharp off the side of the sofa.
“I forgot you practice karate,” she remarked licking her palm, tasting the blood before the cut disappeared. “Too bad we got these human traits to deal with. We could be immortal otherwise,” she clucked before continuing. “That’s what happened to John. Cancer is bad shit.”
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Steph stated plainly.
“You have to join us.” She said. “You have no other place in the world to turn to. You can’t deny the fact you are one of us.”
“I won’t join you.”
“Do you know what would be your fate if they caught you? The tomb. You’d be sent there to face an eternity of torture.” She said. “You wouldn’t want to be doomed to that.”
“I’ll do anything but join you." Steph looked away. She would do whatever she had to, on her terms. She would never join, as she had promised her mom that. Disturbed, Steph went to the door and held it open. “You can’t force me or make me to. So it’s better you leave me alone and not waste my time.”
“You know our procedure mostly lies in uncertainty of who is going to die. It is just the fate of people- who are at wrong places at night.”
“You go and serve your queen.” Steph didn’t want any more talks.
The lady picked up her bag and stopped near Steph, “You know what you are doing puts your life in danger and it affects us too,” she looked into Steph’s eyes. “Too bad you are determined. Without guidance you sound more like a human than us. Children without guidance do go off the track. Take care and consider your decision once more.”
“Hmm,” Steph said looking the other way and slammed the door shut as soon as Diane as out.
Steph couldn’t waste more time thinking about the lady. She had to leave soon.
She draped the cloak on her arm. It would be stained with blood today at any cost. Her mission would be accomplished.
*****
There was however one pit stop to make. It was something she was putting off since the time she came there. Steph had made up her mind that she would do it on the day she’d leave Castle Pines, and the day had come. She was never going to come back here again.
Standing outside the church, Steph read the sign that had a saying different from one she had seen years ago. It said
Things that happen are for a reason.
Things that do not are for a reason too.
Steph tried to analyze its significance. She saw Alice’s picture- that happened for a reason that let her come here. Her mom died-she couldn’t see a reason for that. She escaped yesterday- that was for her to have another chance with her mission. The more she thought of it, the saying kept its balance being both right and wrong.
“If it’s not Rosalie’s daughter,” Father Mark stepped outside the gates. He had aged remarkably through the years. His hair that had not a hint of greying then now resembled snow. His clerical clothing made Steph take a step back.
“Stephanie.” She said with a nod, hoping he didn’t notice her reluctance.
“Right.” he stood a few feet away. “Look at you, you have grown up to look just like your mom. I’m sorry about her death; I would have come to the funeral but heard about it only the next week.”
“It’s okay. She kept some money aside for the church,” Steph extended her hand from where she was standing. He didn’t have a cross on him at the moment- she could feel that- but still memories of being around the church troubled her. “She’d help you raise funds for orphans every year. This is what she had had collected before she died.”
Rosalie was a frequent visitor to the church, and this particular church was her second home during her visit to Castle Pines.
Rosalie was a different person before John died. She was fun loving and kept away from practicing religion. She didn’t really care about praying at all, and John had declared himself an atheist which never had troubled her. They went into court marriage and later on kept all the holy things away.
It all started after John revealed he was Grasp and that Steph was too. Rosalie wanted to take the path to God and it didn’t take very long for her to realize that Steph was especially allergic to that path she wanted to follow.
She had tried pulling Steph to the church back in New York two days after John’s demise. The place was deserted giving it was a weekday. Steph was stubborn saying she wouldn’t go inside. John hadn’t told her, but the feeling she was experiencing as she neared the church was enough to let her know it wasn’t for her. There was a slight burning sensation that startled her as she went closer, not making her understand what she could explain to Rosalie. But Rosalie was stern that particular moment and pulled her further inside the gates. Steph screamed as she felt burns on her skin even though she was more than twenty steps away from the church doors. At one particular moment she stopped screaming and turned towards Rosalie “Mom, I’m not able to stand it. I am burning.” Rosalie must’ve seen a burn somewhere near Steph’s neck; she looked frightened before Steph collapsed in her arms.
Those hadn’t been common burns that would heal instantly. She had been admitted at
the hospital for a few days- which was a serious deal for Grasp- though she healed quicker than humans would have.
But that didn’t keep Rosalie from leaving Steph near the church gate during her visits. Before walking towards the place Steph dreaded, she’d say. “Please pray for acceptance, for purification of your soul. God will forgive you. I will pray for that too.” Steph would stand by watching all people- white and black, big and small entering. And it was cruel how she was not allowed to make it inside. It angered her and she never prayed for God to accept her.
“Why did you call me outside? You could’ve come in.” He took the envelope from her that contained the two hundred and seven dollars. “Do you still have problems with the church my child? I can clarify if you still have doubts about God’s existence.”
“If God doesn’t accept me, seems no point that I should accept him.”
“Whatever you say, He will always be with you.”
“I’ve got to get going,” Steph said walking away to her car. I don’t need anyone with me to kill Alice.
CHAPTER 28
Derek wasn’t troubled about Alice’s feelings for Lance, but was concerned about Anna. He knew that she loved him, perhaps a lot.
Back in high school, while they were best friends, Anna had confessed her love for him. Derek told her directly that he didn’t feel the same. It had affected their friendship which brought about an abrupt end to the movies, long drives to college and fun weekends. Two months after that, she was onto a new venture, Trey. But when Anna’s parents died, around graduation time, their friendship sparked back to life.
When Derek moved away after high school, there were a few Facebook postings, nothing more. Once, a few months ago, when he called Anna, he expected her to hang up, but she didn’t. Their calls and conversations went on for days and as soon as he could, he moved closer.
He realized how selfish he was being about his own feelings. Hurting Anna had not been his intention. She was crying. Though she said nothing, her feelings were obvious. He started saying about how there will be another guy out there for her and that he couldn’t keep her happy. She listened to everything, smiling despite the tears rolling down her cheeks. The guilt was too much for him to bear at that moment.
The Grasp of Nighttide Page 19