Five: Out of the Dark

by Anderson, Holli

  The reason it wasn’t a good idea to choose Halli for this foray into the soul-gazing abyss, was that her mind and her past were mysteries even to her. Her memories ended with an abrupt jolt. I hit a wall so hard that my head erupted in pain. Beyond the time Halli showed up in the Underground, there was nothing. Not nothing exactly—there was something there, I just couldn’t get to it. I pushed a little harder, which succeeded only in causing more pain to both of us. Whatever her past, she’d built a fortress around it.

  I broke the gaze. “Sorry, Hal. I didn’t mean to cause pain. I didn’t think about your amnesia inhibiting the process. Thanks for letting me practice on you. At least I know I can lock gazes, and that’s all I really needed to find out.”

  She rubbed her temples, eyes closed. “The mind is such an amazing mystery. To be honest, I thought about the amnesia aspect. I was kind of hoping you’d be able to break through and see into my past.”

  “Well, it’s obvious there is something there your mind doesn’t think you can handle. Maybe it’s best we just let it do its job of protecting you from whatever that is.” I lay down and covered my eyes with my forearm. “Thanks, Hal. You’re the best—really and truly the best.”

  She climbed into her sleeping bag. It rustled as she moved to a comfortable position. “Night, Paige. See you in the morning.” She started snoring so quickly, I had to stifle a laugh.

  The pale girl in the mirror stared at me with dark circles under her sunken eyes. I splashed cold water on my face. It didn’t help. I still looked like the walking dead.

  I wandered out into the common area of our home and plopped down into a chair next to Alec.

  “You look terrible,” he said.

  I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “Hey, look at the bright side, at least you’ll look the part of the drug-seeking waif in withdrawals today when you ask for more drugs.”

  “Great,” I muttered. I slumped down in my chair and rested my head against the back of it. “That’s the look every girl dreams of achieving—drug-seeking waif.”

  “Who’s a drug-seeking waif?” Seth asked as he and Johnathan joined us.

  “Apparently, I resemble one this morning,” I said with a yawn.

  “Not true, Paige,” Johnathan slapped Alec on the back of his head. “You look a little tired, is all. And still beautiful … always beautiful.” He reached out a hand like he was going to caress my face, and then dropped it to his side before the gesture was complete.

  “I’m going to go grab some breakfast. What do you want, I’ll get it for you,” Johnathan said, looking at me.

  “Oh, I really don’t feel like eating this morning. Thanks anyway, Johnathan.”

  “Are you sick?”

  “No, I’m just tired—not enough sleep last night.” The truth was I felt pretty yucky, and the yuckiness increased as the morning wore on. “I’m gonna go grab my stuff. Everyone make sure you have your channeling rods today—we may need them.”

  I barely made it to the bathroom before I started vomiting and then dry-heaving into the toilet. This is really not a good day to be sick, I thought. I rinsed my face and brushed my teeth again and actually felt a little better.

  The others were waiting when I returned to the common room. Halli had our lunches ready to go as had become her habit since we started going to school. She handed mine to me and hugged me, saying, “Please be careful, Paige. Call if you need me—I don’t want to miss the big fight.”

  “Don’t worry, Hal, not a single one of us wants to be in a big fight without you there. You’re one tough little imp.”

  “Shut up. I’m not an imp.” She tried to scowl. But it wasn’t very scowl-ish.

  On the way to school, the boys made me go over the plan three more times just to make sure we were all on the same page. Johnathan would be nearby. Alec and Seth would be out of sight but in close range, so they could be there quickly if needed.

  “I really don’t know why you guys are so worried. Everything’s going to go just as planned. They are fully expecting me to come for more—everyone does once they’ve tried it, right?”

  We went to our first hour classes as usual. Seth had learned that Mr. Davis’s free hour was during third period, so that’s when I was going to find someone to take me to his room. We didn’t want other students to be around just in case something went wrong.

  Brendon and Chari were already sitting in desks next to each other. I sat in the desk in front of Chari and turned to face them. “How’s it going, you two? How were the shakes last night?”

  They looked at each other and smiled. Brendon said, “It’s going good and the shakes at Lucky’s are always stellar, duh.”

  Chari laughed. “They were awesome. There are not many things better than having your own milkshake expert catering to you. I have never had so many peanut butter cups in a shake before.”

  The bell rang and Mrs. C. shushed the class. We were well into To Kill a Mockingbird and we had a quiz that day to get ready for the big test she would be giving in the next week. The quiz took up most of the class time because it was open book—and those always took longer as everyone flipped through the pages to find the answers.

  Just before the end of class, before the bell rang to dismiss, the school secretary came on the intercom and said, “Mrs. Christensen? Please send Chari Larsen and Brendon Becker to the office. Mr. Jorgenson wishes to see them.”

  The rustling of pages and whispering students gave way to dead silence as everyone turned to look at Brendon and Chari like they were about to take the long walk down Death Row. They looked at each other, Chari with big, round, frightened eyes. Brendon tried to act unconcerned as he shrugged his shoulders. They stood and walked to the door; Brendon grabbed Chari’s hand as they left.

  I stood to follow them, sat back down, then stood again. I didn’t know what to do. I flashed back to the way Mr. Jorgenson had acted yesterday. I had to do something. I ran from the room and all the way to Mr. Grewa’s class. If he would intervene, maybe I could forestall the inevitable clash between me and the principal. I’d rather confront him with only myself and my four friends around to see it.

  I slid to a stop at his desk, where he was talking with another student, and I waited impatiently for him to finish. When the student finally took his seat, I whispered, “Mr. Grewa, Mr. Jorgenson called Chari and Brendon out of class a few minutes ago. I’m really worried about his intentions—he was acting especially off-balance yesterday and he saw me with both of them. Could you go check on them? Please?”

  He dropped the pen he’d been holding and swallowed. “Of course, Sasha. You stay here, though—I’ll be right back.”

  The hands on the clock slowed to a near stop while he was gone. I sat at my desk and bounced my leg up and down so fast I’m sure it was a blur to anyone who looked at it. My stomach churned again—whether from whatever had caused my vomit-fest that morning, or from anxiety, I wasn’t sure—but I was sure glad I’d skipped breakfast.

  Mr. Grewa finally came stumbling through the door, “Sasha, let’s talk in the hallway.” He was out of breath and grunting.

  As I followed him into the hallway, I noticed the blazer he wore was smoking and singed. The anxiety I’d felt a moment before turned nearer to panic. “What happened?”

  “He … um … zapped me. I went to his office and before I could even say anything, he … he told me to sit. Chari and Brendon were in his office. They looked shaken up and Brendon’s nose was bleeding. I refused to sit and he … forced me down into a chair … somehow. Without touching me.

  “I started to ask him what was going on, but he pointed his finger at my mouth and uttered something—and then I couldn’t speak. He said, ‘You tell Sasha that I have her friends. I’m going to do something very special with them just for her. Tell her she should keep her nose out of my business or her brother is next.’ Then he zapped me … like electricity … all over …”

  My panic morphed into anger. “Stay here,” I command
ed. “Keep the other students in the classroom.”

  I stormed down the hall toward the office. The anger continued to build with each step I took—along with the anger, my magic was building up inside me, fighting for release. My fingertips started to emit flashes of blue energy; my waist-length blond hair stood on end, spreading out behind me. The lights in the ceiling flickered and then burst as I walked beneath them. As the anger and magic continued to build, the lights in front of me began to burst; then the lights further down the hall. I heard things exploding, and people screaming inside the classrooms I passed.

  I saw two people coming toward me down the hall, and realized it was Johnathan and Alec just in time to hold back on the blast I’d been about to release in their direction. Seth came out of a classroom on my right at the same time Johnathan and Alec reached me.

  “Paige! What is going on?” Johnathan asked.

  “Jorgenson—he has Brendon and Chari. I’m going to get them.” I kept moving.

  “Paige, wait,” Seth said from beside me. “You’re going the wrong way. I just saw them pass my class and turn down the weight room hall.”

  I wanted to scream in frustration. That meant they were headed for Mr. Davis’s room—and whatever lay beyond the secret door. I made an abrupt about-face and sprinted back to the hallway where Seth had seen them go.

  Seth, Alec and Johnathan proved in that moment what great friends they truly were. Not one of them tried to stop me or even slow me down; they didn’t say a word about needing a plan. They all just reached for their channeling rods and spread out beside me like a formidable advancing army.

  I reached the classroom door first and slammed it open. It wasn’t locked this time. There were about ten students in the room, all huddled in a corner, as far away from the mysterious door as they could get.

  “Get out,” Johnathan snarled.

  All but a few obeyed instantly—those few that hesitated were pulled along by one of the boys that played football with Alec and Seth. As he slipped past us he said to Seth, “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you—Jorgenson and Davis dragged Brendon and some girl in there. There’s been a lot of screaming coming from behind that door.”

  I didn’t think I could get any angrier or magically keyed-up, but I was wrong.

  Chari’s scream pierced my ears..

  “Leave her alone, you psycho!” Brendon yelled.

  I paused at the closed door and placed one sparking hand on the frame. The heavy wards reacted to my touch and sent a blast of electricity down my arm as my hand was pushed away. There were only two ways I knew of to get rid of a ward. One was to take the time to magically unravel it—which could take minutes or days and could result in a sudden explosion if one wrong move was made. The second was to blast through it and hope you—and those on the other side of the door that you didn’t want to hurt—were standing far enough away to avoid most of the blast and resulting shrapnel. This one would take considerable magical power to blast through. I didn’t think that would be a problem with the way I was glowing and sparking, with every hair on my head standing at attention.

  The problem with blasting a ward was some wards contained a death-curse element. Meaning, the person that tried to blast it died instantly when the magic combined. I counted on my intuition being right—the intuition that told me Jorgenson wanted me alive—and I would find no death-curse woven into the ward. That and the fact I hadn’t felt one. And I was almost sure I would have.

  I reached for my channeling rod and backed up, along with the boys, to the back of the room, as far from the door as we could get. “On three,” I said, aiming my rod at the door. “One … two … three!”

  We shot enough power at the door to demolish the Empire State Building. When the smoke cleared, the door was still shut tight. Jorgenson laughed from the other side.

  I strode to the door and pounded on it. “Jorgenson! Come out and face me instead of cowering behind your dark-magic wards!”

  “Oh, I think not, child. We’re going to take your little friends and portal on out of here. Good luck finding them before they’re permanently altered.” One would expect an evil laugh after an exclamation like that—but all that came out of his depraved mouth next was a surprised “Umph.”

  Someone tried to open the door from the other side. I realized it was Brendon when he said my name, “Sasha! Get help! He’s crazy, he’s …” I felt the familiar zip of a magical spell being cast and heard Brendon’s body crash into the door, then slide to the floor. Chari’s sobs sounded in my ears.

  There were a few seconds of scrambling and then a whoosh and a pop—the opening and closing of the portal, I assumed. I threw my channeling rod across the room and into a wall, leaving a big hole in the drywall where it hit. I pounded on the door again, then stopped—the wards were down. I opened my senses and felt for the ward again—not there. I looked with my sight opened to see if I could see anything like I had the time before—I saw the broken remnants of the ward, like severed blood vessels, spilling dark sticky blood where they lay. I closed my sight with a shudder and reached for the doorknob. It rattled in my hand, still locked the normal, human way, but the lock was an easy one for me and took me less than a second to pick.

  The boys followed me inside. There was the giant chemistry set, as we’d suspected. Alec drummed on the tanks and they sounded full to the top. “Paige, we’ll work on getting rid of this while you try to figure out where he took them.”

  I nodded. I heard police and fire sirens close by. That meant we needed to hurry; they would probably evacuate the school and I’m sure some of the kids would talk about my crazy electronics display. Unfortunately, none of us had yet been able to successfully form a portal, and really had no idea how they worked. So we’d have to figure out where we thought he’d taken them and get there the old-fashioned, non-magical human way.

  I found two clues as to where they’d gone. One was a wet clump of leaves that had possibly blown through the portal as the captors and their captives were whooshed through. The other was a stack of bones with meat still hanging off them. They were huge bones, like the size of a buffalo’s thigh bone.

  “Okay, Paige. We’re going to destroy this thing and evaporate what’s inside. Stand back,” Seth said.

  I watched as Alec and Seth cast an implosion spell. As soon as the tanks were sucked in upon themselves—before the liquid could spill to the ground—Johnathan threw an evaporation spell at it. The liquid disappeared in a cloud of quickly dissipating steam.

  It must not have dissipated completely, because the watermelon-charcoal smell wafted through the air and caused a strange sensation in my throat. I was shocked the smell didn’t make me want to puke, or run and hide or something. Instead, the smell caused an almost unbearable craving for more of the awful stuff that’d caused me so much terror. My body shook with tremors. A feeling of burning hunger started in my stomach and spread—up my throat, into my watering mouth, my nose, my head. Instant vertigo almost knocked me to my knees as the desire for the drug reached my brain. A prickling sensation touched every inch of my skin. It was insane to need something so strongly—to think I would die without it—and that something was a substance I despised with all the hatred my soul could muster. It was a supremely disorienting feeling. And it made me furious.

  I let out a scream of rage so loud it could probably be heard in Tacoma. I ran out into the far side of the classroom and slumped to the floor before I could pass out. The room spun around me and the feeling didn’t subside when I closed my eyes. I wrapped my arms around my head as tight as I could, and still the room spun. The need tore at me like a rabid beast. My whole body began to shake. Ice ran through my veins.

  Someone touched my shoulders. I lifted my head and opened my eyes. Seth was the one holding my shoulders; Alec knelt next to him. I peered beyond them and saw Johnathan pacing frantically, slinging desks out of his way. He stopped and looked into my eyes and I saw his fury—his irises were yellow-gold and appeared to gl
ow. But that part could have been the creation of my fractured state of mind.

  “Paige? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Seth asked.

  I tried to explain in stuttering gasps. “The smell … the drug, it … it … I hate it … but, I want it. The room … everything’s spinning. Seth, make it stop.”

  He sat next to me and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face in his strong chest and started to sob. I could feel Alec on my other side; he patted my back, trying so hard to comfort me. Still, Johnathan paced. I wanted him to comfort me, but even in the wrecked state I was in, I knew why he didn’t. He was so close to losing control. Low growls escaped his throat as he tossed the desks around.

  When the odor dissipated, my desire eased. Though not entirely—if someone had handed me a cup of Sentience at that moment, I would have poured it down my throat while at the same time wanting to throw it across the room.

  The room finally stopped spinning and the shakiness resolved. I raised my head from Seth’s shoulder so fast I almost whacked him in the chin. During my breakdown, I’d forgotten what we were doing there. “Holy crap! How long was I like that? We need to go find Chari and Brendon!” Alec and Seth jumped out of my way as I leaped up.

  “Just for a few minutes. But you’re right, we need to get out of here before they lock this place down,” Seth stood.

  “Okay, let’s go, then. I have an idea about where he might have taken them. Let’s get outside and I’ll tell you.” I searched the ground for my channeling rod.

  “Here,” Jonathan handed the specially carved rod to me. His eyes were almost back to their usual dark brown with gold flecks. My hand brushed his as I took it from him; he closed his eyes and jerked his hand away.

  Through grinding teeth I said, “Let’s go.”

  The explosion that had sent the Sentience-making contraption to the evil-magical-devices graveyard had caused the barely contained panic in the school to erupt into full-blown hysteria. There was no exit to the outside from Mr. Davis’s room and one look out into the hallway was enough to show us we weren’t leaving easily through there. Alec solved the problem by blasting a hole through the outside wall. I would have preferred he use a quieter spell under the circumstances, but it worked for our purposes.