by Hahn, Chanda
Mina took a few steps back away from the boy. “It does matter, I’m in charge of protecting this and I need to know who you are and how you know about it.”
The young man looked at Mina warily and spoke, “I have no interest in the book or you.”
Mina’s mouth opened and closed in obvious shock. She had never been treated with such disinterest and disdain, granted maybe at school, but never from a perfect stranger. “You know about the Grimoire?”
“More than I want to,” his lip curled in contempt.
“Then you can help me?” Mina instantly forgot about the way he treated her, in hopes that he would be able to help her. He obviously knew the man with the wolf tattoo and about the family curse.
“I could but I won’t.” He raised his head and grinned in a know-it-all kind of way.
“Well that’s just rude,” Mina answered, putting her hands on her hips.
“No, rude is not saying thank you,” he snapped back.
Mina blinked taken aback. Was he being mean, because she didn’t she say thank you? “I’m sorry, you are right. Thank you for saving me.”
The boy looked only slightly appeased. “It doesn’t mean as much if I had to remind you to thank me.” He turned his head and his dark hair flew over his eyes in a rakish manner. He was remarkably good looking, dark somber grey eyes bore into Mina’s, his jaw bone looked to have been sculpted by Michelangelo himself. Mina began to fumble a bit and became very self-conscious. There were no words to describe him, everything that Mina could think of seemed pale in comparison.
“You won’t last a week.” The boy turned to her, his eyes boring into hers, studying her. “The first tale the Story throws your way will be the end of you.”
“I would if you helped me,” she countered.
He turned his back on her and began to walk away. Mina reached for his shoulder to touch him and he spun around on her angrily and one minute they were standing in the middle of the alley, the next he had her pinned against a brick wall, his hand around her neck.
“Don’t touch me!” He growled out between clenched teeth.
Mina knew she should be afraid but wasn’t. “Why won’t you help me?” Mina pleaded daring to stare him in the eyes.
“Can’t,” he looked away from her guiltily.
“Can’t, or won’t?” Mina argued.
“Both.” He let go of her and Mina slid down the wall to land on her knees in the dirt. “Can’t because you are in over your head, won’t because you’re a lost cause, so you are not worth the effort. Today proved that.” He stepped back and looked at Mina crouched in the dirt.
Tears fell freely down her cheeks. He was confirming her worst fears, but she had to, she had to survive. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m never wrong.” The boy answered kneeling down to look at her closely.
“You have to be, I have to break the curse. I have to finish the tales!”
“Why, what’s in it for you? What have they promised you that would make you so determined to break the curse and risk your life?”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t been promised anything! I need to see this through to protect my brother, Charlie. He’s too young; I won’t let him be the Story’s next victim.” Mina gritted it out, her fingers digging into the ground in anger.
This statement seemed to confuse the boy more, his eyes widened in disbelief but no other words or sounds came forth.
This was one of the first times in her life that Mina had ever felt this angry about something. She was usually the passive aggressive student, who avoided confrontation, but it was as if something in her broke. Something stirred deep within, a hidden reserve of strength and she was drawing on that now. “I will survive, I will be the Grimm to finish the tales and live, I will beat the Story.” Mina stood and looked heatedly in his eyes. “With or without your help.” With strength that Mina didn’t know she had, she pushed the boy in the chest so hard he stumbled backward but did not fall.
The boy stepped away from Mina, giving her room to pass. He cocked his head to the side and answered. “Well, maybe there is a chance for you after all.” A faint hint of a smile appeared at his lips.
“Leave me alone!” Mina yelled. She turned angrily and began to march down the road, biting her cheek to keep her from snapping out a heated reply. He was the rudest person she had ever met, and she actually believed she may hate him, and Mina never hated anyone. When Mina turned around to see if he was still there, the alley was empty. The boy had disappeared.
Mina ran the rest of the way home and burst through the door to find Nan sitting on her couch, eyes red from crying. Nan flew to Mina and grabbed her around the neck.
“You are alive. I’m so sorry; I should have never have left your side. I went outside to look for a sign with hours and as soon as I turned around the door, window, everything was gone. It was a brick wall.” Nan stepped back away from Mina and her hands went into overdrive as she explained what happened. “I went into the Pottery store and asked them about the building between them and the flower shop and they gave me a blank stare. Apparently there has never been a shop there, same with Rosie’s Flowers. Mina, they thought I was crazy, but I knew better. I knew that the building was there and it had eaten you!” She hiccupped with nervousness.
“Nan, I’m fine,” Mina consoled her best friend, getting her to sit on the couch once again.
“I waited. I waited on the sidewalk for hours but you never appeared. I searched the whole block and alley for you and I couldn’t find you. I didn’t know what to do but to come back and wait for you. I’m just glad your mom and brother weren’t here when I came back. I wouldn’t want to explain to them how you were eaten by a building.” Nan was speaking so fast and her hands waved faster and faster, a telltale sign of exactly how worried she had been. When she had a moment to settle down and catch her breath she pinned Mina down with a wary glance. “What did happen to you?”
“I found the Grimoire,” Mina smiled widely and pulled out the red spiral notebook to show Nan.
Nan frowned at the notebook. “That sure doesn’t look like a Grimoire, but then again, how am I supposed to know what one looks like?”
“It was in that building, I had to solve a few puzzles to find it and it was deep underground. But it was like it wanted me to find it. You wouldn’t believe it. When I did, it was in a glass chest and started out as a scroll, before it morphed into a smaller book, then a textbook, and now it’s this. I tell you it changed itself into this notebook to please me.” Mina went to the kitchen table and laid the notebook down on it.
“May I?” Nan asked pointing to the cover. When Mina nodded Nan gently opened the cover. “Okay.” She looked inside. “It's blank?”
“But it wasn't at first,” Mina pointed to the pages. “There were pictures and stories but then it erased itself when I took hold of it. What do you think it means?”
“That it's obviously not complete? The Grimm brothers never made it through all of the stories?” Nan asked.
“No, after someone dies it restarts with the next living heir. If they would have made it through them all then I wouldn’t be subjected to the same fate. Maybe that's what happens with the Grimoire. It starts over too.”
“Mina?” Nan asked worriedly flipping through the book. “What if there is no end?”
Chapter 13
“What if there is no end?” Those words haunted Mina all that night and the next day. She tossed and turned each night and woke up feeling drained and miserable. She asked if she could stay home from school on Monday but Sara firmly told her no.
Mina went through the motions of being in school, but her mind was a million miles elsewhere. It wasn’t until her advanced art class that Mina felt another trickle of dread. Something was wrong. People were whispering and pointing.
Looking up Mina was surprised to see a set of familiar grey eyes staring at her from across the room. It was the same boy who saved her in the alley. He looked away fro
m Mina to finish addressing their art teacher. Mr. Ames was delighted at having a new art student and nodded for him to take up an empty seat.
Unfortunately one of the only spots left was next to Mina. Usually because Mina was so inept at social conversation, she didn’t try and talk to anyone during art class so no one wanted to sit next to her. But lucky for her, advanced art class was less lecture and more practical study. In the class there were welders, sculptures, painters etc. The boy introduced as Jared, moved and sat down next to Mina with barely a flicker of acknowledgment.
The girls in the class were delighted about the obvious new student. Mina was less than thrilled. She ignored Jared, stood up and walked across the room to sit by one of the potter’s wheels. Mina loved how the feel of a pile of dirt could be manipulated and formed on a wheel into something useful and pretty. Mina picked up the clay and dropped it onto the center of the wheel and turned the power on. Getting her hands wet Mina slowly felt the pull of the clay and centered it on the wheel, once properly centered she began to form it.
“What are you making?” Jared asked coming over and sitting at the next empty potter’s wheel. He too, picked up a lump of red clay and began the process of centering the clay.
Mina was actually surprised at how deftly his hands moved over the clay. But still irritated from the other night, gritting her teeth, she ignored him.
“You know you can’t ignore me forever.” His hands moved as if they were in tune with the clay.
“Watch me,” Mina answered between clenched teeth.
“It wasn’t an impolite question. I’m trying to carry on a civil conversation with you.” Jared turned his head and focused on Mina instead of his piece on the wheel, which was very hard to do.
“There’s nothing civil about you and I would prefer to not carry on any conversation with you.” Mina grunted in protest as she took her eyes off of her piece to confront Jared. Her mound of clay became unbalanced and flopped over to the side.
“That’s too bad,” Jared consoled. “You should never let distractions get in the way of your goal, it leads to misfortune.”
“You want to know what I’m making,” Mina asked. “Here.” She stopped the wheel; hit the lopsided clump with her fist. “It’s an ashtray.” She scooped the piece up and threw it back into the clay bucket, and walked out of the classroom, stopping at the nearest bathroom to wash the red clay from her hands and nails.
What’s come over me? She asked herself. Mina didn’t bother returning to her art class, knowing that she had enough pieces finished to pass her for the quarter. Mr. Ames was pretty lenient when it came to art. He never felt that the artist should be stifled, so they were allowed to almost come and go as they pleased as long as they finished enough projects to pass.
Mina waited until the bell rang and practically flew toward Nan’s locker. “He’s here.”
Nan put her books away and looked at Mina. “Who’s here?”
“The boy from the alley.” Mina felt out of breath and rushed. She had told Nan about him in two short and stiff sentences over the weekend.
“No way!” Nan held up her phone to Mina. “Is this him? I’ve been getting all the updates and texts on him since he walked through the school doors. My, he is cute.” She leaned over and looked into her locker mirror and pressed her lips together to apply more gloss. Today she wore a Gleek T-shirt, bottle cap belt and her soft blonde hair flowed in waves. No matter what outfit or ensemble Nan wore she was always beautiful.
Mina thought for a second. “Yes, he is cute and if he wasn’t so rude you probably would like him.”
Nan and Mina walked toward the lunchroom and Mina was secretly relieved to see that she was not the center of attention. Nan pulled on Mina’s jacket to lead her over to their usual table but Mina froze when she saw that Jared was already sitting there as if he knew.
Mina pulled away from Nan and went and sat by Brody and his friends, who looked at her in surprise. Nan followed glumly and sat down too. Slightly disappointed she didn’t get to meet the new hot guy at school, but was quickly appeased when Justin from the water polo team started talking to her.
“I’m glad that you are okay.” Brody leaned over to Mina and whispered so only she could hear. “Because I’ve been worried about you. I waited for you and you never showed up. I’ve been tearing myself to pieces with worry.”
“Nothing to be worried about, see, I’m fine.” Mina gestured to her body, that she was in fact whole and in one piece.
Brody stared at her face and the faint outline of the bruise on her cheek. Her makeup had done a good job of covering up most of the yellowness but it had started to fade. Her hand flew to her cheek reflexively when she noticed his direct stare. “Does it hurt?” he asked.
“Not anymore. Like I told you I’m fine.”
“Is that why you didn’t come to school?”
“There would have been too many awkward questions. It was easier to stay home.
Brody nodded in understanding “What did you tell your mom?”
“Nothing yet. I have nothing new to tell her.”
Brody stiffened. Mina could tell that he was angry she hadn’t told her mother anything. “Why not?”
“It would make her worry.”
“She should be worried. You should be worried!” He spoke in a clipped manner.
“Brody, if you’re going to start this argument again, then I’ll leave.” Mina turned to get up.
“No, wait. I won’t bring it up again.” Brody reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” Brody’s face brightened into a huge smile.
She licked her lips nervously. “Thanks to you. I’m sorry for the way that I acted.”
“No.” Brody interrupted her. “I shouldn’t have pressured you into going to the police. I’m just glad you are okay. I’ve been worried sick since I had no way to call you and you didn’t come to school.”
Mina could feel Jared’s eyes studying her from across the lunchroom, so she continued to talk to Brody. For some reason this seemed to upset him more and she could see, even from a distance that he glowered. It was funny to see her and Nan’s usually empty table now filled with girls vying for the new student’s attention and boys trying to assess their competition. But Jared still managed to shoot her dark looks that made her skin crawl.
Lunch flew by and Mina was dismayed to find that Jared was in two more classes with her. How did he manage that when Nan couldn’t even get her schedule to follow Mina’s. Thankfully he didn’t try to start any more conversations with her, maybe it was because Mina kept glaring at him and holding up her textbook like it was the Great Wall of China between them.
It was during the last period of the day right before the bell rang and the students had free time that he finally spoke up again.
“You didn’t bring it did you?” he asked in a whisper.
“Bring what?” Mina kept her eyes glued to the sentence she was reading, even though she had already read it ten times. She had unsuccessfully been unable to study since he sat down.
“You know what. Tell me you brought it.” He actually looked a little panicked that she might not have it with her.
“No, I didn’t.” Mina glared at him. “I was almost attacked and killed because I had it; I’m not going to carry it around with me everywhere. I wouldn’t be safe.”
His face became stiff and his jaw clenched in anger. “You are not safe without it.”
“What do you care? I’m not supposed to live past the end of the week, remember. Your exact words.” Thankfully the bell rang and Mina stood up and stomped out of the classroom leaving an opened-mouth Jared in her wake. He called her name. The sound of her name leaving his mouth made Mina shiver. Shiver with what, she wasn’t sure.
She made a bee line for her locker and was actually hoping that Brody had forgiven her and was waiting for her by it; he was. Mina grinned and he reached over to grab her bag from her. A girl could really get used to this. Min
a was preoccupied and didn’t even notice when Brody drove right to her front door.
“How did you find out where I live?” she asked.
Brody nodded toward the Golden Palace and the Mural of articles with Mina’s face on them, the Wong’s way of advertising that they rented an apartment to a town hero. “I did my own investigation. So you live in a Chinese restaurant?” Brody asked, his cheeks dimpling with uncontained mirth.
Mina’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. “No, I live above a Chinese restaurant, big difference, believe me.” Mina laughed hesitantly at her own lame joke.
Brody leaned away from the car, hands in his pockets. “Either way, I’m jealous, I love Chinese food.”
“You should try their pot stickers sometime, they are to die for,” Mina answered casually.
“Sounds good, it’s a date then.” He walked to the Golden Palace, opened the door and motioned for her to go in before him.
Mina's head snapped quickly to Brody in shock. “I didn’t ask, er, I wasn’t implying that we should.” She stumbled on her words.
Brody smiled. “I know you didn’t. I did. I’m taking you out on a date. A real date, not just drive thru burgers.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” Mina felt as if her world was collapsing in on her. Could this be real, was this possible? She must be dreaming.
Brody paused at the entrance to the Golden Palace to study the crudely placed pictures and articles about Mina taped to the glass. Brody looked between the paper clippings, to Mina and back. “You know those pictures don’t do you justice.”
Mina pushed him further into the restaurant and away from the newspaper mural. Mrs. Wong waved excitedly and motioned for them to take a seat. Mina kept crossing and uncrossing her legs with nervousness. When Mrs. Wong brought them over some ice waters, Mina’s nerves were so strung out that she knocked over her ice water onto Brody’s lap.