CHAPTER 18
Everyone showed up on time; for Jonesy that was nothing short of a miracle, time management was not a priority. Scheming was (we all had our talents). As in now, scheming five seconds out the door.
Jade walked beside me on my left, absolutely mouth-watering in a pink hoodie, faded jeans with strategic holes, and pink high top All Star basketball shoes. Did she play, I had asked her at one point? No, she just thought they looked tight. And they did... on her. Her hair, which usually flowed around her face like dark water was pulled up in a ponytail, the end making a black sweep in the valley of her shoulders.
I casually held her hand, not fingers entwined but cupped around it fully. I loved feeling its smallness. One of the many things I liked about Jade, other than her utter coolness as a person, was how physically small she was. It didn't diminish her. She didn't have some complex about it. She knew who she was and that was very cool.
Jonesy had been talking the whole time since we left and I started tuning in, even with the distraction of Jade.
The bag full of gear rattled as he walked animatedly beside John, who was between us.
“Anyway, like I was saying, I snagged the can of Aqua Net a couple of weeks ago out of my mom's separator and the lighter...”
“How'd you manage the lighter?” John asked.
“My dad registered it for BBQ-ing,” Jonesy said automatically.
Lighters were like guns now. With the explosion of paranormals, there was also that small group within the paranormals, the fire-starters. Not a fully PC term, it was sorta like corpse-raiser. Any accelerant: lighters, matches, fuel, had to be registered like guns. Now that we had the Pyrokenetics, they could use anything like that as a deadly weapon. Some really talented ones didn't need anything. They were the weapon. And I thought being an AFTD was something. Starting fires would be the coolest! I told the Js that.
“No way,” John said automatically. “Think about the control and all the adults up your ass all the time. Ah... no, that would suck dude, big time.”
“I like it. I could think of about a million things to torch! Starting with the school!” Jonesy fist-pumped.
He had us grinning like fools.
Jonesy was busy outlining the plan but stopped midway with, “You're not gonna like, make something pop out of the ground, Caleb?”
I laughed. I got a picture of a Jack-in-the-Box, or, as it were, Jack-in-the-Coffin, a grin spreading across my face with the visual. “Nah, that's totally not the plan.” Jade squeezed my hand and I squeezed back.
John, all seriousness said, “But you just had that deal with your grandma at the cemetery.”
“Great-grandma.”
John shrugged, whoever.
“You didn't need blood? To like, put her back?” Jonesy asked before I could answer John.
“No. I've been thinking about that. Maybe it was coincidence the blood happened to be part of it last time. Gran rose without any of that.”
But a knot of unease had begun to build in my chest. What if... what if there was something special I needed to do to get a corpse back to rest? I mean, Tiff had been there and saved my ass yesterday, but what if she hadn't?
“Okay, so we don't have to worry about an accident?” John asked, placing stress on that last word.
Like potty-training, nice.
Jonesy hooted, “Accidental corpse-raising!”
“No, I don't having any corpse-raising plans today.”
Jade spoke up for the first time, “Why are we meeting them at the cemetery then? Why here?” Her opposite hand swept in the general direction of the cemetery that wasn't quite in view yet.
Jonesy rolled his eyes and I gave him the look.
“That's our turf. Caleb pulled the creep-out card there and they'll feel all, off-base. Plus,” he pointed to the side of his head and tapped his temple, “The Master,” clearly indicating himself, “needs a proper environment.”
John's eyebrows shot up. Usually, John was the brains of the operation. Jonesy was in his element, scheming.
It must have showed on our faces because Jonesy said, “Hey, I know that I'm not brilliant but I've got rockin' good ideas, and I'm rollin' with that program.” We laughed, there was no denying he had a program.
We crested the hill, the gates of the cemetery loomed, framing the cemetery beyond. I gave a little shudder, the sensory memory playing through my body like a discordant instrument. Jade looked a question at me and I shook my head. Hard thing to explain. Had to be there or in her case, not.
The weather hadn't improved, in fact, it looked like it was working up a head of steam, a late spring storm. The clouds boiled above our heads like giant pewter boulders.
John saw where I was looking and said, “Might rain.”
Jonesy shrugged. “We'll get Carson and Brett all lit up before the sky opens.”
I looked at my beat up watch, it was riding at four o'clock. Getting late but probably wouldn't be dark until almost nine.
“What time is it?” John asked.
“Time for the ass-clowns to show,” Jonesy muttered.
Jade covered her mouth, hiding a smile but Jonesy caught it, joining in.
And just like that, the duo in question rounded the hill behind us as if conjured. Their blond heads glowed in the dim light of an overcast sky. The two of them climbed the hill with determination, dual expressions of purpose... a bad one.
****
Carson and Brett stopped just in front of our group, Brett making a point of staring down Jade. I wondered if he had told Carson about the other night with his dad's meltdown and the gopher attack.
Ah-no.
The breeze had come up and it was windy. The great trees inside the cemetery stood sentinel, their sweeping branches moved by invisible puppet strings.
Jonesy came forward with his bag of goodies swinging into his legs as he did. Carson met him.
They stared at each other. “I've got this experiment all planned out for ya. Me and the guys tried it last year and it turned out cool.”
Even to me it sounded suspicious, but Carson looked interested. The only reason he'd be motivated to try something that was connected with the three of us (four, I guess, since Jade was starting to be part of the group), was a way to prove how much of a mondo-stud he was.
Typical.
Carson leaned forward, trying to scope what was in the bag. Jonesy pulled the bag back using a back and forth motion with his finger, no-oh.... not yet.
“Come on Carson, this is some kinda game, let's get outta here,” Brett said.
Jade and I were silent. We knew what had gone down and now I was feeling unsure about making Brett pay, but Carson...that was okay. The Js and I had decided that if Carson was taught a lesson, Brett would lay off too, following his lead. I liked it better because Carson just acted like an anus cause he could. He didn't have worries, the ass-hat.
“Nah, I want to see what Jonesy's got that's so special.”
“Let's take a walk,” Jonesy said.
We followed Jonesy with his bag of mayhem into the cemetery. As soon as I crossed the threshold, the buzzing of their voices rose to a fever-pitch, like the low droning of bees. That was with me trying to tune it out. I should have been able to hear the dead even further away. But there was something about actually being in the cemetery that seemed to make it resonate deeper.
I stalled a little and Jade slowed beside me, her eyes widening and I knew she was getting a little feedback.
She confirmed this when she whispered, “Are those the voices?”
I nodded.
“Is it like this all the time?”
“Not always, but this close to a big nest o' corpses, oh yeah.”
Everyone turned to look at us and we began to walk again. Jade and I stopped holding hands. She didn't need the overlap and I was straining for control. This was a bad place, I thought belatedly. This much dead were just impossible to ignore for me. Now that Jade wasn't touching me, it was a little better. She was lik
e a radio antenna, she amplified their signal. Kinda like Tiff. Interesting. But Jade wasn't AFTD. Something to consider.
Jonesy and Carson stood close with Jonesy taking out each item for the science experiment. It looked like a strange hodgepodge to me. Jade shared the same expression. But as I remember, when Jonesy pulled this on us, we had fallen for it. If I was guessing right, he had improved on his original idea.
Jonesy was all seriousness. The first clue that this whole thing was an absolute farce. He said to Carson, “You take this tube-thingey,” he pulled a bizarre, corrugated tube that looked like something Dad had put by the foundation of our house and Jonesy then pointed to Brett, “holds the other end, while you,” and he mimed depressing the small spray tip of the hairspray can, “spray this crap inside the tube.”
“Why is it duct taped on this side?” Carson asked.
Jonesy did a long, slow blink at Carson.
Wow, he had the IQ of a shovel.
“It's to keep the Aqua Net inside the tube, Carson.” Jonesy elaborated slowly.
Carson tried to save face. “I knew that,” he countered.
Right.
John sorta turned away and laughed into his hand, pretending to cough. Brett glared in his direction.
Brett asked the first smart question of the night, “What's the lighter for? How'd you get it?”
Jonesy smiled. “Swiped it from my dad.”
I was sorta drowning in the voices but making a colossal effort to quiet them. Gotta get through this. I just wanted these two to figure out that we weren't gonna be messed with, to leave us all alone.
Carson asked, “You guys did this, right?”
We all nodded, I gritted my teeth, get on with it.
Then, just to sweeten the deal I asked, “Scared?”
Carson lowered his chin like a bull before a red flag, fists clenching and said through gritted teeth, “We can do anything you ass-wipes can do.”
Resolute, his chin rose and he crossed his arms across his chest.
Going to plan.
Almost like it was choreographed, Jonesy motioned Brett over, handing the tube with the duct tape out to him. Carson stalked to Jonesy and tore the can of hairspray out of Jonesy's hand. The top spun off from the force and became a bright pink exclamation point on top of a grave marker. Nice. Jade watched with fascinated horror.
I sorta knew it wouldn't end well, but it was like the chocolate with the mystery stuff on the inside. I suspected it would taste bad but there might be something about it I liked.
Jonesy ignored Carson's crap and opened the palm that held the lighter. A ghost of a smile formed on Carson's lips. I wasn't liking that development. He shouldn't have been smiling.
He leaned forward and delicately plucked the lighter out of Jonesy's hand.
Jonesy backed away, a little uncertain. “So... Brett holds the duct tape end and you like,” he mimed depressing the sprayer gizmo again, “spray a bunch in there until that's all you can smell, then light the lighter just as you stop the stream.”
Brett had an expression on his face that might have been some sort of thought process.
John immediately saw the dilemma and took it in hand, seeing that the whole thing could go sideways.“Look, you guys, if you're chickenshit or something, you don't have to do it. We won't hold it against you,” John said, all sincere-like with a hand laying over his heart.
We all nodded our agreement that we would definitely not be inclined to spread crap about them in school. Riiiggghhhttt. I could see how John's cleverness was going to work this kink right out.
“No, we'll do it. I can't see any of you guys not saying anything.” Carson looked at each one of us, lingering on Jade longest. Who stared defiantly back at him.
“You just remember, we,” he included Brett in this, “have the goods on you, Hart. We know what you are, what you can do. We know who to call...”
“Ghostbusters?” Jonesy asked, eye alight.
We laughed, they glared.
Standing just inside the gate, with unspoken consensus, we moved over to a stand of fir trees, away from direct line-of-sight.
Avoid prying adult eyes at all costs.
Brett held the tube up. The black exterior looked very much like the old-fashioned accordions, with the duct tape end facing him, his hands circling it like a steering wheel. Carson readied the can, carefully facing the spray nozzle away from his face and sprayed into the tube.
Even from a few feet away I could see the mist and smell the God-awful cosmetic smell wafting around. How did women wear that? It meant something that you could set it on fire... ah, hello?
Carson positioned the lighter, depressing the ignite button just inside the tube. Exactly like what happened to us a year ago, there was a sucking noise. What I didn't remember was that nothing happened at first.
Then....
Flames burst out of the open end in an orange tangle, licking along the sides and traveling toward Brett's hands. Just before Brett dropped the tube, Carson leaned into the flames.
John and I had about exactly three seconds to exchange a look, what-the-hell?
But when we glanced back at Carson, we saw what the problem really was. The fire hovered like a lover, all around Carson's face but leaving him untouched.
Jonesy, never one for internal dialogue said, “What the hell is this?”
That about covered it.
Brett was backing up, backing away from Carson, who turned to us with an evil grin. Fire was still moving around his face in a wave. He held out his hand and a small flame swept down his arm, blue in its center, burning just above his palm.
“So, you were saying Hart? You want to go chew some glass? Sounds like a good plan to me.”
Beautiful, Carson the Comedian.
We stood speechless.
Holy hell.
I guess Carson had the fire thing goin' on and Jonesy, the Plan-Man, hadn't counted on this.
Zero contingency plan; nada, zilch, zip.
Shit.
Brett was well and far away from Carson with a stunned expression. A surprise ability apparently.
John stepped in, the voice of reason. “Listen, it was just a joke, you've been up Caleb's ass since forever and it was just a little payback. You don't need to torch us.”
John put his hands out like, just all fun-and-games here.
“I'm not gonna torch you guys... just him.”
And with that delightful objective, he did just that, putting his hand back, readying to throw the ball o' fire.
Everything happened in slow motion. I heard Jade gasp beside me and I gave her a hard shove to get her out of the literal line of fire.
Jonesy shrieked, “Hey!”
But it was John that shocked me, stepping right into Carson, the two of them colliding, the fire halting mid-throw. There was a crazy flame floating, suspended between myself and Carson. It moved neither backward or forward, but sputtering and flickering, trying to go out.
With a roar, Carson leaped forward trying to recapture the flame but John drop-tackled his ass and they both went down. Once John nailed Carson, the flame died out completely.
“Get off me Terran!” Carson roared, grabbing John by his frizzy mass of hair, pulling him off his legs by his scalp. Now that the fire was out, John had started to get up but Carson, typical jerk-off that he was, just had to get into with John.
“Hey! Let go!” John gave him an elbow to the nose and a spray of blood erupted. Carson howled and grabbed his nose, kicking John right in the kneecap. John went down holding his knee.
Well... damn.
I ran over to break it up before the whole world figured out that something was going on besides a practical joke.
And was interrupted by Jade's dad.
He appeared at the entrance of the cemetery, the wind lifting his sweating hair off his forehead. Fists clenched and breathing heavy, his chest rising and falling, swooping in great lungfuls of air. I was struck by how much he moved and looked
like Brett's dad; he was in a lot better shape.
His timing blew.
I swung my head in Jade's direction and, prone on her butt (oops, shoved harder than I meant) she gave me the I'm-caught-rabbit-stare.
He hollered, “Jade... what in the blue hell are you doin' hanging out with this pack of boys?” His face had flushed an alarming purple color as he began making his way toward us.
He scared me to death, a fine tremble coursed through my body. I called Jade over; she scrambled to her feet and ran. His momentum was carrying him, he was gonna put a hurt on us and I wasn't gonna let it be Jade.
My next move was as natural as breathing. Instantly remembering that Jade and I worked like complements, I grabbed her hand and flung out every bit of my power over the dead. Mr. Scary was wading through graves, his fists like great meaty hammers, coming to nail us.
Like a great flowing river, the power left my body: a vessel fully released of its contents.
I looked over at Jade and she was breathing rapidly. Her eyes so wide the whites showed, the startling green irises standing out, burning like emeralds on fire.
Like before, nothing happened, then... chaos reigned.
The graves in front of him burst upward, sod and dirt exploding in every direction. Hands followed; two, three, no... five graves shifting and opening to allow the dead to rise.
My dead.
Starting from my toes, the full flesh crawl climbed my body.
Jade was saying something real soft, “no, no, no.” I released her hand.
“I think I can take it from here,” I said, stepping away. So much for not raising the dead.
Like a freight train, Jade's dad hesitated at the junction, not sure what track to choose.
“What the hell is this?” He flung his arms wide, including the corpses.
Violence wasn't the only thing that Brett and Jade's fathers had in common. The smell of alcohol preceded him by a mile. Brother, what a loser.
I had a collection of corpses now standing. Their eyes vacant, waiting for direction, purpose. I stepped forward and they all swung their heads to me.
“Protect us from him.” I pointed a finger at Jade's dad.
Her dad wasn't drunk enough to not understand the potential for self-preservation.
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