“Love to,” he said, clapping his hands. “Maybe I’ll have something to celebrate. Who knows?”
I smiled, getting an idea. I’d cast a spell that would ensure that Jordan got that chorus position. He was always trying so hard, going to audition after audition, and nothing was working out. Sybil told me that I could cast a spell as long as it didn’t directly benefit me. Jordan would be a perfect Guinea pig for my very first try at a spell.
Well, make that second try. The first spell seemed to work perfectly.
Maybe I was going to like this whole witch thing after all.
It was that day that I found out just how much I wasn’t going to like this witch thing. I had finished my classes when I got the call from Sybil.
“Yeah,” I said, balancing my phone between my shoulder and my ear. I was trying to juggle my books and another cup of coffee with my phone, and I wasn’t doing a good job of that.
“It’s Jordan,” she said, her voice sounding slightly panicky.
All at once, I was at attention. I dropped my cup of coffee and my books right where I stood and put my phone in my hand. “What about him?”
“He didn’t show up to his audition,” she said. “He’s missing.”
14
Missing? Missing? What was that supposed to mean? “Listen, slow down,” I said. “What do you mean, he’s missing?”
“I got the call from the director of that musical. He was very interested in Jordan, and wanted to hire him, but he needed to see him for that last casting call. He wanted to know why Jordan didn’t show up, and I had to admit that I didn’t know. I called Olive, and she said that she had spoken to Jordan just this morning, and that Jordan was excited for this audition. So, Lyra, I think that something happened to him. He wouldn’t just not show, would he?”
No, he wouldn’t. Olive was right, Jordan was absolutely excited about this audition. I hadn’t realized that this was a call-back. I hadn’t had the chance to cast my spell, as I had been busy all day with class work and trying to get my documentary subjects lined up, and I had forgotten to bring the book of spells with me to class. Not that I could have lugged that huge book with me, but Sybil had explained to me that I could shrink it down to where I could lug it around without a problem, and, when I needed it, I could make it large again. That fascinated me that I could do that, but I had forgotten to do all that this morning, and I missed my chance to put the spell on him.
“No, you’re right.” I realized that I was shaking. Maddy had warned me that if I refused my mother’s call to action, I would be faced with a tragedy with somebody that I loved. Would this be that tragedy?
“You need to find out where he is,” she said. “And do it quickly.”
“I will,” I said. “How do I do that?”
“Go home,” she said. “Go home, and get one of those crystals out of that box that Maddy showed you last night. There’s a crystal in there, it’s a vibrant pink. That’s the crystal that we use to divine something that we want to know. It will help you try to pinpoint what happened to him. It’s not always fool-proof though, just a fair warning.”
“What does that mean? Why wouldn’t it be fool-proof?”
“It just isn’t. Sometimes the magic on the other side is so powerful that you get blocked. That’s happened to me a few times. Hopefully it won’t happen to you. You need to do this, and you need to do this now. Because if you don’t…”
“How bad will it be? And how long do I have?”
“Not long. A couple of hours at the most. Please, Lyra, please hurry home and get that crystal and find out what’s going on with Jordan. Please.”
I nodded my head, although she couldn’t see that over the phone. “I’ll be there.”
I wondered how it was I was going to get home on time to get that spell book, and then get to where Jordan was within the time frame that Sybil had given me. I believed that time frame. I believed it because I had a feeling that Maddy was the one who told Sybil about how long I had to save Jordan.
My head hurt, and I knew that I had to ditch my documentary project and head right for the subway as soon as I could. Time was wasting, and I could almost feel it running down. A giant hour-glass suddenly appeared to me, right above my head, and the sands were running down from the top to the bottom.
I was frustrated to see that the hour glass didn’t seem to contain two hours worth of time. Rather, it appeared to contain just an hour’s worth, and that hour was ticking by quickly.
“Peter,” I shouted, hoping that he would appear out of nowhere to help me. “Help me. I need to get to Jordan and I need to do it quickly, but I’m it’s going to take me at least a half-hour to get home, and I don’t know where Jordan is right now. I don’t think that I can get to him in time. Please help me if you are around.”
To my relief, Peter did appear to me, right at that moment. I was standing on the street corner, and I saw him ambling towards me. He was dressed much more casually than he was the other day, for he wasn’t in a three-piece suit, but, rather, was dressed in tan slacks, a red sweater and wing-tipped shoes. He had a fedora on his head, because it was a cool day in late September, and a scarf around his neck. He looked like a particularly dapper professional man who was on his lunch break from some high-class investment banking firm.
I cocked my head, seeing that his eyes looked normal. They weren’t the purple color that I had come to know, but, rather, were the color of jade. Green with a hint of hazel around the iris, and his pupils didn’t look particularly large like they did before, either.
I opened my mouth and shut it again. He looked even more mesmerizing to me than he ever did, to tell the truth. “Peter,” I said, shaking my head. “You look…”
“Normal?” he asked, a hint of a smile curling around his raspberry red lips. His skin was still pale, but not as white as it was before. Rather, he just looked like he needed a few days in the sun, as opposed to looking like he was one of the undead. A beautiful version of the undead, of course, is what he looked like before, but now… he blended in perfectly with all the other people who were on the street.
“Yes, normal,” I said. “Now, we don’t have a moment to waste. Jordan is missing, and we have to find him. Sybil just called me, and she told me that I was going to have to get home and get a crystal that will divine where I can find him. The only thing is, I just had a vision of an hour-glass, and it seems like there’s not a ton of time to get to him. I need to know how I can somehow get home in the next minute or so. That’s the only way that I can get to Jordan on time.”
“Stop,” he said. “You need to know a few things before you get to Jordan.”
“We don’t have time for that,” I said. “I need to get my crystals, and I need to get them now.” Truth be told, I would have no earthly idea, no clue, about which crystal I was supposed to use and how I was supposed to use it. I only knew that I was supposed to get a crystal and do something with it. I was growing impatient with all these unanswered questions, but, really, the reason why these questions were unanswered was because of me. I refused to listen to my mother when she tried to explain everything to me, and now, here I was, left flat-footed and without any clue on how to do anything at all.
Thank god Peter was there with me to guide the way.
“Well,” I said to him, “how are we going to get to the apartment in the next, oh, five minutes or so?”
“That’s easy,” he said, grabbing my hand. “We need to go into this alley so that nobody can see us do this.”
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, following him into an alley. We ducked next to a trash can, and I almost screamed when a rat came scurrying out of that can and passed by us. “When I become a cat, that rat is a dead man,” I said. Then I looked at Peter. “That rat isn’t a human, is it? I mean, like a human who has shifted?” I realized that I now looked at the world in a completely different way. I was going to be able to shift into a cat, which told me that there might be other creatures in the world
who were also human shifters, so I should be careful about what I try to kill.
Peter shook his head. “No. There are no rat shifters. At least, none that I know about. It’s safe to say that this rat is just that – a rat.”
“Why aren’t there rat shifters?”
Peter shrugged. “Most people don’t necessarily want to become a rat. Rats don’t hold much advantage, not like cats and wolves do. Besides, people hate rats and are always trying to kill them. Why would a person become a creature that is so despised?”
“Good point.”
Once we got safely behind the trash can, I looked at Peter. “Now what?” I asked him.
“Hold onto my hand,” he said. “Now, this is only one way of getting somewhere in a hurry. When you get home, I need to show you all the other ways that you can transport.”
“I see. I have a magical broom or something like that, don’t I?”
“Something like that. Now, hold onto my hand.”
I grabbed his hand, which felt cold on my own. I held my breath, not knowing what to expect, and, then, all at once, the two of us shot up straight into the air. We ended up above the clouds, going at a rate faster than any jet plane. The sensation was the same as I got on a thrill amusement ride times about 100. My heart was in my stomach and I was feeling completely light-headed. I had no idea how nobody on the ground noticed the two us flying. At the moment, we were flying above the clouds, so we were protected that way. But when we first got off the ground, we had to have been seen by millions of people. Well, not necessarily millions, but thousands, because the sidewalks were filled with people just milling about.
In no time at all, I saw my apartment building, and we landed on the roof. “Peter,” I said. “That was a helluva lot of fun, but how did we get away with this? I mean, we shot up into the air during the middle of the day. There were thousands of people down there. How did we go unnoticed?”
“It’s very simple,” he said. “We went so fast on takeoff that nobody could have possibly noticed us. Then, when we got above the clouds, we were protected by the cover.”
“Gotcha.” The roof of my building was a recreational one – there was a pool there that was open only during the summertime, and was heavily populated during that season. There were also barbecuers, gazebos and tables and chairs. Also benches and even a putting green. Around the edge was a long sofa that surrounded a fire pit. Up above us were strings of lights that gave the entire area a festive atmosphere year-round. All around the roof were strategically placed couches, chairs and tables.
The upshot was that there usually were people sitting up on this rooftop. Grilling, socializing, playing games, reading books and just relaxing. Somehow, someway, there wasn’t anybody there when Peter and I landed. I shuddered to think if that wasn’t the case. We either got extremely lucky or there was some other kind of force at work that ensured that we would have a safe landing that wasn’t seen by anyone.
Indeed, a second after we landed, I met up with somebody I knew. Her name was Kara, and she lived on the floor below mine. “Lyra,” she said, coming up and giving me a hug. “Long time no see. I guess we keep missing each other, huh?”
“Yeah.” I liked this girl, but time was wasting, and I knew that she was a talker.
She glanced at Peter and gave me a smile and raised her eyebrows. “And who is this?”
“Peter, Kara, Kara, Peter.” I motioned from one to the other and back again, and the two shook hands.
“Nice to meet you,” Peter said with a little bow.
“And you,” she said with a giggle.
Just then, the hourglass appeared above my head again, and I felt a well of panic as I noticed that the sands in the upper part of the glass were almost out. No, no, no. There wasn’t time to go the apartment, get my crystals, find out where Jordan was, and get there. There was hardly time for me to run down the stairs to my apartment, let alone do anything else.
“Peter, we have to move. Now,” I whispered. “Kara, it’s good seeing you, but we are in a great hurry.”
“Oh, too bad,” she said, flipping her hair and giggling at Peter. “I would love to get to know your new friend, Lyra.”
“Later,” I said. I looked over at Peter. “Now.” Even as it was, I didn’t think that we’d make it. That hour glass that appeared looked like the top part was almost empty.
At that, the two of us went into the building and ran down the steps. My heart was in my throat and I was shaking as we got to my apartment door.
The hourglass appeared above my head, and it looked like we only had mere seconds. I blinked my eyes, trying not to cry. Jordan, I’m sorry, I tried. Was it possible that I lost my best friend? Because why – I was so stubborn that I made this happen? If I would have gone along with this, it wouldn’t have happened?
No matter, I had to try.
I opened up my apartment door, with the intention to dash right into Sybil’s room and get that little witch kit, and get a crystal, but it turns out there wasn’t a need for all of that. The first thing that I noticed was that the apartment was absolutely freezing. It was as if it were the middle of winter, which it wasn’t as it was only September, and the heat had gone off. The temperature was probably zero in there.
The second thing that I noticed was that Jordan was standing right in my living room with Olive.
At first, I felt a sense of absolute relief.
Then, when I looked at Olive, I knew.
She was possessed by a demon.
15
“Lyra,” Jordan screamed at me when I walked through the door.
I ignored him. My eyes were trained on Olive, who wasn’t Olive. I could see it in her eyes. I looked over at Jordan, who seemed as if he didn’t notice anything particularly wrong with her, but he did look terrified.
“Go,” I said to Jordan. “Now.”
“Thank god. I’m so late for my audition. Olive has been so weird for the past hour or so.” He shook his head. “Toodles.” At that, he ran out the door, leaving me to try to figure things out.
I stared at Olive-who-wasn’t-Olive, wondering what to do. Oh, crap, now what? Mom didn’t tell me how I was supposed to kill these demons. Stake through the heart? Holy water? What?
Peter was standing next to me, and he whispered. “Touch your necklace.”
I touched the Celtic Knot, and I suddenly knew exactly what I needed to do. It was as if there were instructions that appeared before me. Grab her throat. Flip her onto the floor. Once she is down, grab a chain of Celtic knots and wrap it around her throat and pull. Then go into the gloaming and get Olive out.
The Gloaming? What the hell was the Gloaming? All the other instructions were clear, even though I had a feeling that they weren’t going to be easy. Simple but not easy, as the saying goes. But what’s that business about the Gloaming?
I looked over at Peter, who was standing to the side and holding his nose. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “The smell of sulphur makes me want to vomit.”
“The smell of sulphur? I don’t understand?” I asked Peter. This was a demon from the Hell, but, yet, I didn’t smell sulphur. I wondered why.
“My sense of smell is keener than yours,” he said, giving me a tiny hint on who he was. What he was, I should say. “And, I’m sorry, Lyra, but you have to handle this one on your own.”
“What do you mean?” The demon was standing right in front of me, and I could read its thoughts. He was trying to figure out how to corner me, and I could sense his fear. He was afraid of me? That was a good sign. Yet, he was trying hard to figure out how he could take me, and, as he circled around behind me, I turned around with a start.
It was then that I noticed that Peter was no longer anywhere to be found.
Great. Just great. Some protector and mentor Peter turned out to be. I needed him, yet he was nowhere to be found.
I crouched into a defensive position, putting up my fists. The demon stood within inches of me, his arms outstretched, as if he was wa
nting to grab me and squeeze the life out of me. I had no clue how I was supposed to do everything that I needed to do, and it seemed weird to be fighting to the death with Olive anyhow. Yet, I knew that it had to be done.
The demon lunged at me, and I took a step backwards, and, to my surprise, I flew through the air. Cool. I landed on my feet three feet away from the creature, and then I kicked him.
He karate-chopped me, sending me flying through the air once more, only this time, I flew right into the China cabinet. I heard the sound of glass breaking, along with all the figurines that were in there crashing to the floor. Sybil’s not going to like this. The figurines that were in the China cabinet were things that she had bought from various places around the world. Russian dolls from her visit to Moscow, Geisha statues from her visit to Japan, tiny African elephants and giraffes from her visit to Kenya. All of it fragile and breakable, to my dismay. Why couldn’t she collect wooden stuff? No, she liked to collect these things made of China and clay, and, well, she was going to be missing all of it when she came home.
However, the China cabinet shattered to where there were pieces of wood lying around the floor. The pieces were pointed, which was perfect for a stake. I picked up one of the pieces, and the thing started to laugh.
“That will do nothing to me,” it said. “Go ahead and try.”
I lunged at that thing with my pointed stick, aiming right for the heart. I had no idea if I was killing Olive, because if I stopped the heart, wouldn’t she die? That put some doubt into my mind, and I wished, anew, that I had stuck around and listened to my mother. She was going to tell me all that I needed to know, but I had to get out of there and ignore her like an idiot. I was flying blind and I didn’t like that, to say the very least.
The demon took that stick before it could go into the heart and broke it right in two. Then he picked me up and put me over his head. With a might throw, I went flying across the room again. This time, I landed on the kitchen stove, seemingly at 100 MPH.
Lyra's Magic: Witches of Manhattan Book One Page 10