“Ditto,” Steven muttered from the backseat. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that most of the color from his face was gone and the lines in his jaw were so tight I could tell he was grinding his teeth. Jodi didn’t look much better.
“We need to calm down,” I said to the car at large. “Working ourselves up like this isn’t going to help us. It’ll probably hurt us actually, so we need to calm down.”
“Easier said than done,” Jodi said more than a little cynically.
“I know, but still we need to try.” I took my right hand off of the steering wheel completely and flexed my fingers back and forth trying to loosen them. Despite my efforts, we still kept silent racing down the highway, the ocean a black horizon meeting the deep blue sky of twilight out the passenger side windows. I turned the heater on a little higher as the windows started to frost over. We all had dressed warmly and darkly, all dark blue jeans and dark hooded sweatshirts, but the winter air was still chilling.
Finally, after what felt like far too long, I found the mile marker and parking lot I had been looking for. Down the highway there were two parking lots on either side of the road; one was used mostly by surfers and the other was for a campground that was completely deserted now. We parked in the surfer’s parking lot, facing the campground so we could watch and wait for whoever would be coming. We agreed they would probably park as far back away from the highway as possible to stay out of sight. I cut the engine and the lights and reached behind my seat for a couple of blankets. Without the heater, it was going to get cold inside the car fast. I handed one to Steven and stretched the other over the front seats for Jodi and me. We huddled down until we could just see over the dashboard so we wouldn’t be too obvious and settled into the long wait.
Full dark fell around us in a hush; past the windows you couldn’t see where the rocks ended and the ocean started. If it weren’t for the crashing, angry waves left over from the storm, you wouldn’t know it was out there. I rolled my head back and forth trying to loosen up my neck and shoulder muscles. Jodi was curled in her seat with the edge of the blanket up on her shoulders and clutched under her chin, leaving her head floating in the darkness. I glanced over my shoulder to check on Steven and nearly jumped in shock; he had fallen asleep curled up in the backseat!
“Are you serious!” I hissed at him, arching over my seat and reaching out to him to swat him on the hip. Jodi turned in her seat to see what was wrong and let her blue eyes go wide seeing Steven just start to wake up.
“Way to be a team player!” Her voice was louder than mine and made me jump again, but I managed to swat Steven again.
“Wake up! Wake up!” Two more swats and Steven came around fighting the blanket to sit up.
“Dude! I’m up, I’m up!” Steven said a little angrily.
“Shhhhh!” I put my finger to my mouth and shook my head at him. “Shut up! Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?” I glared at him ready to ball him out when Jodi taped me rapidly, almost hitting me.
“Look!” She had hunched back down in her seat, leaning towards the dashboard and pointing out the windshield. I turned around quickly and scooted down in my seat, peering over the steering wheel and drawing in my bottom lip to chew on it. A dark car had just turned into the campground parking lot across the highway from us, slowly rolling past the first few rows of parking spots.
“Guess that’s our cue?” Steven asked in a whisper just over my shoulder.
“Not yet, we don’t want to let them see us. Don’t know what he’ll do to the girl if he sees us coming for them,” I said, never taking my eyes off the red glow of the car’s taillights.
“We don’t want to lose them in the woods though,” Jodi whispered.
“Yeah, but… Oh, look!” I cut myself off. “He’s parking.” We watched intently; I was pretty sure all of us were holding our breath. We could hear the distant echo of two car doors slamming shut.
“Ok, come on,” I whispered again and opened my car door, Jodi following my lead, and Steven getting out behind her. I gently set the door against the car and leaned my body against it to close it as quietly as possible with Jodi copying everything I did. We each had a vial of water in each pocket and gripped our knives in our dominant hands. We dashed across the highway, head and shoulders hunched down, trying to hide in the open, and hurried through the parking lot to follow the two into the woods.
The girl’s giggles floated back to me on a cold wind that made me shiver with fresh goose bumps. Her voice sounded more familiar than just one dream would have made it, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. They were far enough into the woods to let us follow unnoticed. We stopped on the very edge of the asphalt before it became earthen floor and I turned and looked at Jodi and nodded.
She took a deep, steadying breath and reached out for my left hand. We turned and faced the woods, arms spread wide. Jodi closed her eyes and turned her face skyward. I closed my eyes to keep anything from distracting me, trusting Steven to keep a look out for anyone or thing. I was acting as Jodi’s anchor, keeping her physically and magically grounded as she called up the winds that were beginning to swirl around us, circling our ankles and dancing through our hair.
I felt her shiver and her energy shift, pulsing like a heartbeat and with every beat her energy grew stronger and wider. Just at the breaking point of losing control of her built up power, she released it in a gush of wind that raced through the trees, bushes, and fallen leaves. My hair blew away from my face and I had to concentrate on not losing my footing when the wind swirled back and pushed against me. We heard the music of the forest in the winds. Jodi came back to herself quicker than we would have done in a circle, but time was of the essence. Now with the sound cover of the wind playing through the forest we could move faster.
I nodded again to both of them and we stepped into the forest.
***
In our effort to be unseen and unheard, we had let them get farther away from us than I would have liked, but because of the noise from the wind I felt comfortable enough to hurry to catch up to them. After about thirty paces into the forest I could hear the girl’s giggling float back to me carried on the wind. My stomach flipped and I felt a cold sweat break out on the small of my back as I rode the wave of déjà vu. I concentrated on my breathing and on the noise of Steven and Jodi’s footsteps behind me and slightly to each side. I wasn’t alone, I had to remember that.
“Where are we going?” The girl’s voice sounded farther away than her giggles had led me to believe. I couldn’t hear the man’s response. I glanced over my shoulder at Steven and motioned with my hand to hurry. He relayed the message to Jodi and we started hiking faster. I was focusing on my breath, trying to keep it even, when I finally saw something pass between two trees just twenty feet ahead of us. I froze in my tracks and luckily both Jodi and Steven did the same. We were as silent as stone statues.
“Wait… I don’t- ack!” I heard the girl’s voice; she sounded frustrated, and maybe even a little scared. “Where did you go? Damnit! I tripped!” She whined and I strained my memory to remember where I’d heard that voice before.
Hey, Jodi’s yellow thoughts whispered in my mind as she leaned towards me, taking hold of my wrist. I turned at looked at Steven, holding out my arm to him, being careful to point my knife away from him. Steven took my arm, joining the channel Jodi had created. Doesn’t she sound like Michelle? Jodi asked.
Who? I asked turning confused eyes to her.
Oh my god! Yes! Oh my god, Terra! Steven’s terrified red-tinged words raced in my mind.
Who are you talking about?
Michelle! Tracy’s friend! Jodi thought at me, a little frustrated, but I could hear the fear overriding the frustration.
Oh my god…I whispered letting my mind race back to History and Michelle glaring at us for talking during the movie. I had never paid too much attention to Michelle, but even I could tell it was definitely Michelle’s voice that was echoing back to us. We turned as one back towa
rds Michelle’s pleading voice. She was lost and whoever brought her here didn’t seem to care.
We started towards her, but I felt all the hair on my arms stand on end in the prickling sensation of power reaching out towards me. I took a deep breath and forced as much energy as I could into all three of our shields, forcing the power back away from us. What was that? Jodi asked, not having let go yet. I didn’t want to distract myself by answering her, so I just shook my head, straining my eyes to search through the darkness.
“Hey! Are you seriously gonna leave me out here alone?” I was pretty sure I heard her stomp her foot in anger like a child; I had the image of her hands balled into fists at her sides and shook my head. I was risking the lives of my two best friends and my life for an idiotic brat.
Come on, I whispered into their minds and broke the channel by stepping forward. I knew that rush of power that had reached out to us was him looking for us. I had hoped he was enough of an amateur not to feel the magic in the wind Jodi had called up, but if he was already possessed he may have more power than I could expect.
“There you are,” Michelle said. I could hardly hear her anymore.
I turned towards the faint voice and hurried my pace again, thin branches catching on my clothes and scratching welts into my face as we went. Jodi had to stop twice to untangle her short hair from prickly twigs. I had pulled my hair up into a bun to avoid things like that, but Jodi’s bob was too short to pull back. I didn’t want to slow my pace but I was worried about being separated, so Steven and I slowed and finally turned to look back at Jodi and wait for her. Once Jodi was less than ten paces away from us, Steven turned to continue on and was just past me when I saw Jodi stumble and fall to the ground. All the air was pushed out of her as she hit the forest floor, keeping her from crying out. I started towards her to help her up when her eyes flew wide and she tried to scramble towards me frantically, but something caught her and dragged her farther away from me.
I gasped and lunged for her, hitting the ground in front of her but close enough to grab her wrist in both my hands. I swiveled around, bringing my legs forward and sitting back on my butt. I drove my heels into the ground and pulled with all my strength. Steven wasn’t as quick on my tail as I would have liked, but he ran past me and got to Jodi’s legs and stopped short, turning to look at me with a terrified look on his face. “Terra! It’s the roots of a tree!”
“What?”
“Her leg! A tree’s roots are wrapped around her ankle!” He was clawing at her leg frantically, tearing at her jeans, and I saw flecks of bark hit his face as he tried to peal it away from her.
“Get up here!” I nearly yelled at him, “Take her arms!” Steven crawled up to me and slid in between Jodi and me, scooting his body down to wrap his arms around her torso and drove his heels into the ground just as I had done. I let go of Jodi’s arms and she wrapped both arms around Steven’s neck, hanging on for dear life.
I slid towards her legs and, sure enough, a thick tree root caught her right leg, but it had broken free of the ground and was actually wrapped around her ankle like a shackle and was trying to pull her into the ground. I would have survived, being able to breathe in the ground, but Jodi couldn’t. I laid both hands on the tree root. A searing heat burned my palms, racing up my arms and causing my whole body to ache with the pain of the burn.
I am Terra, Earth Mother, hear me and obey! I invoked all the earth energy I had in my body and pumped it into my hands and down through the roots. Release us from your grasp! Another shocking wave of heat struck me through the tree, but I held on. Release us! Release us now! My voice echoed in a booming resonance through my mind and I felt Jodi and Steven gasp in shock as if they had felt my power.
The root trembled in my hands and in that perfect moment its grasp loosened and Jodi kicked free. Steven pulled with all his strength and they were out of the tree’s reach.
Jodi’s face was streaked with tears, but she wasn’t crying from fear, just pain, and was already regaining her composure. I pulled up her pant leg and saw an angry welt forming there. I placed my hands around her ankle and drew out the pain and pulled it into my hands. It seared my skin just as it had seared hers, but I held on to it, saddling it. The welt faded from her pale skin, leaving it unmarred, and she breathed a sigh of relief. We all stood and raced towards the girl’s voice. He knew we were here and was trying to stop us from reaching them—all pretenses were over.
I raced in the direction I knew they were going. We were getting closer; I could feel the air around us, though racing with Jodi’s wind, was getting thicker and a little harder to breathe. He was trying to keep us away. Just when I wasn’t sure we’d be able to breathe if we went much further, I heard Michelle say, “Um… what is this?” I knew they were inside his circle. He didn’t respond to her. Michelle giggled again, “Come on, tell me. What’re we doing here?” She had let her voice fall to a deeper octave trying to be coy and seductive.
We broke the tree line into the clearing we were racing towards. I had the sensation of breaking through the wall of a gentle waterfall pass over me. I looked around and saw Michelle’s back as she was being led by the hand towards a table laid with black cloth and lit candles. How they were staying lit in the gushing wind I didn’t know. Jodi and Steven hadn’t stepped into the clearing; I looked over my shoulder at them and saw that they were trying to push past an invisible wall, looking at me with terrified eyes. I looked back to Michelle and saw she was dangerously near the table. I couldn’t let her reach the table. Something inside me urged me beyond control and before I could stop myself I called out to her, “Michelle! Stop!”
Michelle turned to me, confusion plain on her face, but the man refused to turn and look at me. I tried to look at him, but my eyes seemed to slide past him, only able to focus on the table and trees behind him. I closed my eyes and shook my head trying to clear my vision. I knew that trick, having used it myself, but it didn’t stop me from trying to look at him anyway. He was reaching for the hooded cloak draped over the table. Swirling it with a flourish, he put it on, pulling the hood over his head.
“Shayna?” Michelle looked at me, confusion quickly being replaced by anger. I didn’t understand her reaction, but I ran towards her anyway. She finally saw the knife in my hand and screamed, backing up into the man, but he still didn’t turn. She ran around him to use him as a shield against me, putting herself in front of him. Michelle looked up into his face, opening her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her face was frozen in fear. I was able to focus on him long enough to see his free hand was raised above his head, gripping the same menacing knife I had seen in my dream.
“Michelle! Run to me!” I screamed at her, still running towards her. Michelle tried to jerk her hand away from him and dodged out of the way just in time for the knife to fly past her as he tried to plunge it into her. Michelle screamed wordlessly, tearing at his hand with her free hand. I finally got to her. But just as I too tried to strike with my knife he spun around to face me, pulling Michelle into his chest and wrapping his arm around her torso, pining her arms to her side and holding the point of the knife dangerously near her throat. I couldn’t see his face as the hood of his cloak cast a deep shadow.
“What do you want?” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. If he wanted Michelle dead, he could do it at any second.
He didn’t answer me but motioned towards Michelle and then to me with his chin. A trade. I had come into the circle willingly, idiot. “Fine, let her go,” I said, proud to hear my voice was steady, but he shook his head. He wasn’t going to give up his hostage that easily.
My palms ached with burning and something inside me clicked and I lunged towards them. Michelle screamed as I grabbed his forearm. I transferred the searing heat I had pulled out of Jodi’s leg into his arm, multiplying it with my own power, and he screamed, letting go of Michelle and stumbling backwards. I grabbed Michelle without thinking and raced away from him to the tree line, towards Jodi and Steven
.
We crashed through the trees and bushes and fallen leaves, stumbling and sliding downhill, desperate to get away. I never once let go of Michelle. Like breaking the surface of water after nearly drowning, the four of us fell down the last few feet of a hill and tumbled out onto the highway. I felt the grip of terror fall away from me as soon as we hit the asphalt. We scrambled as one and raced to the parking lot and into my car, tearing down the highway. I glanced in my rearview mirror to look at Michelle just as she fainted.
Chapter 14
“Ok, where are we going?” I asked over my shoulder, looking back and forth from Jodi to Steven. We had been driving for twenty minutes and were turning off the highway. I planned to cut through the farm fields to make our way to the freeway to get back into town quickly. “We can’t take her home like that.”
“Well, we need to find out who she was with, so we should keep her with us until she wakes up so we can talk to her,” Steven said, looking at me through the rearview mirror.
“Let’s go to the movie theater.” Jodi said.
“Why there?” I asked.
“Because it’s Friday night, that’s a normal place for us to have been. And it’s not a weird place to be parked in the middle of the night, so it’ll give us time to talk to her and calm her down.”
“Good point.” I nodded, glancing over my shoulder to change lanes to exit the freeway. We pulled into the movie theater parking lot just a few minutes later.
“Here, Steven, switch with me,” Jodi said, opening her door.
“Why?” Steven asked as he got out.
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