Vision of Serpents

by Vincent Morrone

  “I do need some space from Payne right now,” I said. “I promise at some point I’ll talk to him, but I’m not ready. I’m still angry. Even if he was drugged, he and I are still not in a good place. I also want you to keep it to yourself that your ability is returning. Don’t tell anyone in your family. Even Payne.”

  “Why?” Hunter asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I think it’s important. Dante knows about me and my abilities, thanks to your grandfather.”

  “I know,” Hunter said. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”

  “Seems like a lot of people are doing things that they normally wouldn’t do.”

  Hunter thought about that for a moment.

  “I’m going to go,” I said. “My uncle will have a cow if I’m not home soon, with Balthazar on the loose.”

  “Payne is worried sick about that,” Hunter said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”

  Hunter talked to Payne, and must have convinced him to give me space, because I barely saw him the rest of the week. Once in a while we’d pass in the hallways, but for the most part it was like he wasn’t in my life anymore. Except for that fact that I felt like my life had lost all meaning without him, he may as well have never existed.

  It was hard. I missed him. I constantly had to remember when I woke in the morning that I was mad at him. I would think to myself, maybe today would be the day I’ll talk to Payne. I wanted to talk so badly.

  But I wouldn’t. Every time I saw him, I got angry again. Every time I looked at his face, I saw Priscilla kissing him.

  Meanwhile, I was spending more and more time with Dante. He picked me up in the morning, drove me home in the afternoon and often spent time with me after school. Everyone in the family seemed to like having him around.

  Even Grandpa seemed to like him, and kept remarking how it was nice that I’d finally shown interest in someone who didn’t have a blowhard for a grandfather and a psychotic maniac for a father.

  Of course, everyone was still worried about Balthazar. No one had seen him since his escape, but a patrol car was parked outside the school almost every day. Uncle Mark still didn’t want me going out far from the house, even with Dante. So Dante kept coming by to try and cheer me up.

  After a couple of weeks, I felt like I was suffocating inside the house. Dante and I decided to go for a walk in the afternoon, promising Uncle Mark we wouldn’t go far. Dante followed me as I took the familiar path from my back gate through the woods, past the stream.

  “This is where I first met Payne,” I said. I looked down over the ridge, where I’d first seen Payne crash his dirt bike.

  “You know,” Dante said, “I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors by reminiscing about him. Not after what happened.”

  “I don’t know what happened,” I said. “Not a hundred percent. I know what I saw, but Payne hasn’t told me his side of the story. I’m going to have to talk to him, sooner or later. I just haven’t been able to deal with it yet.”

  Dante shook his head.

  “What?” I asked.

  “No,” Dante said. “You don’t want me to say anything.”

  “Yes,” I answered. “I do.”

  Dante slanted a look at me that told me he wasn’t buying it. I said it again.

  “Fine,” Dante said. “You want to know what I think? I think you don’t owe him anything. It don’t matter that he saved your life. You don’t have to forgive him or be with him if you don’t want to be.”

  “I know that,” I responded, defensively.

  “Do you?” Dante countered. “You and I have spending a right amount of time together, but your mind is still on Payne. Why is that?”

  “Because—look, Payne and I—”

  “Why is there still a Payne and you? Do you still consider yourself together?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. We’re sort of up in the air right now.”

  “Up in the air,” Dante repeated. “Well, isn’t that great. You know there are other guys out there besides Payne McKnight. We can’t all heal after getting our noses busted up, but some of us can be there for you.”

  “Dante,” I said.

  “No,” he interrupted. “You said you wanted to hear it, so here it is. Bristol, I want a shot. I want to be with you. I want to be with you and not have Payne between us.”

  Dante moved closer to me.

  “Bristol,” he continued. “I have feelings for you, and I’d like to show you how strong. I’ve never felt this way about a girl before.”

  I tried to step back.

  “Dante,” I said. “You don’t want to be with me. I’m not an easy girl to be with. I see ghosts all the time. I have visions without warning. I’m being stalked by these Shadow Creatures and by a flesh-and-blood Balthazar McKnight. Even if Payne and I were over, I don’t think I would be ready for a real relationship right away. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

  “Don’t do that,” Dante said as he came closer again. “Don’t say you can’t be with me for my own sake. If you don’t like me that way, I can take it. I’m a big boy, sugar. But don’t turn me away and pretend it’s for me.”

  He took another step closer.

  “I know about you,” Dante said. “I want you. That means all of you. The ghosts, the psychotics, the visions, even the shadow varmints that you’ve told me about. I can deal with them, but I want to do it with you. You’ve said yourself that Payne isn’t your boyfriend. So he hasn’t got a lock on you.”

  I stepped back again, felt my back come up against a tree and realized I couldn’t back up anymore. Dante came in close. I felt what he was feeling. He wanted to touch me—to kiss me.

  I remembered my first kiss with Payne. He backed me up against a tree, and I was afraid to kiss him because I was afraid of my own feelings.

  I’m still afraid of my feelings for Payne.

  Dante was inches from me, and all I could think of was Payne.

  I put my hand on Dante’s chest.

  “I’m not ready,” I said. “Dante, that’s the truth. I’m sorry.”

  Dante closed his eyes and I could feel his heart break. But he smiled when he stepped back.

  “I can be patient, sugar,” he said with a wink. “I can wait you out.”

  I started back to the house, thinking of my secret visions of Dante.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I bet.”

  Despite my rejection, Dante stayed by my side throughout the next week. This was probably a good thing, because the resentment between the Blackburn and McKnights was heating up fast.

  Bryan’s younger brother Ben, a sophomore, got an in-school- suspension for punching Chase’s younger brother Zander in the face. In retaliation, Solomon and Phoenix McKnight vandalized my Uncle John’s hardware store, and got arrested by Uncle Mark.

  After school, a bunch of us went down to the store to help my uncle clean up. It was located right on the corner: a brick building with a green sign bearing John’s name. I’d been inside a couple of times before, when Payne had worked there.

  Usually, just past the front door, there were rows of hammers, saws and plungers, and a bunch of big machines; I had no idea what those were called. The front of the store had a large desk with a register and a computer. The walls were covered in pictures of manly men doing manly things with a variety of equipment.

  Now, when I walked in with a group of my friends, all we could do was gasp.

  “Wow, they really made a mess in here,” Maggie said first.

  The front windows were shattered, and now boarded up. There was spray paint in dozens of colors on the walls, spelling or misspelling vulgarities directed towards all Blackburns. It looked like anything that could be knocked off the shelves had been. Most of it had either been picked up or swept into piles. Many of the larger machines had been broken and everything that could be smashed to smithereens had been.

  Not too long ago, I
thought that it might be possible for the McKnights and the Blackburns to get along. Looking at the destruction of my uncle’s store—a dear, sweet man who was always quick with a kind word and had actually hired a McKnight—all I could feel was anger and a deep profound sense of hopelessness.

  “Uncle John has a heart condition,” I said. “This was the last thing he needed.”

  In the back of the store, I spotted Payne talking with Bryan and his father. It looked like they had just finished carrying some large stacks of lumber that had been toppled over and piling them against the back wall, and were discussing what to do next. I was glad he was here, but I wasn’t ready to talk to him yet.

  “Let’s get to work,” Scarlett said. She grabbed a pair of brooms from the corner, handed one to me, and the other to Maggie. “You two start over here with the glass. Dante, why don’t you go see if you can give them a hand with those big machines? Ian, I heard you’re good with computers? Maybe you can help Bryan’s mom at the counter. I’m going to go talk to Bryan.”

  Scarlett walked through the store and grabbed Bryan’s hand, drawing him over to a corner. I was noticing more and more how Scarlett liked to give orders. She always did so in her sweet way, but she definitely liked to be in charge.

  However, since the glass needed to be swept up and it would keep me away from Payne, I didn’t argue. Maggie and I got to work.

  “Uh, listen, I need to ask you something,” Maggie said as we started to sweep glass pieces out of one corner and into a neat pile.

  “Shoot.”

  “I don’t want you to get upset with me. I know you and Payne are on the outs right now, but . . . ”

  “But what?” I asked. “Are you thinking about asking Payne out?”

  “No,” Maggie said. “Of course not—never. I was asked out by Toby McKnight.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “Why would I be upset? I like Toby. You’re going to look teeny tiny next to him, but so does everyone else.”

  “Yeah,” Maggie said with a sigh. “I know. His arms are bigger than my head.”

  I suppressed a giggle at the way she said that.

  “It’s just that,” Maggie continued, “considering how your family is fighting with his, I don’t want anything to come between us and—”

  “Maggie,” I interrupted, “I don’t have anything against Toby. My issues are just with Payne. I’m still friends with Hunter. We’ve been keeping our distance, but I still like most of the McKnights. So please, go out with Toby. And don’t forget to tell me all the juicy details.”

  “Deal,” Maggie said.

  I looked at Payne who saw me, gave me a sad smile, and just as quickly walked to the back of the store.

  With a sigh, I got back to work. Before long, everyone was doing their part. Maggie and I swept up the entire store; we filled two giant garbage pails with debris. Meanwhile, Dante and Payne managed to work together without incident, along with Toby and Archer. They picked up all of the heavy equipment, hauled whatever was broken out to the back, and put whatever was still working back into place.

  Up front, Ian had taken apart their computer system and wired in his own laptop to the hard drive to get them access to all of their files. Aunt Nora kissed him for his efforts, and Ian turned a pale shade of pink. Hunter came over and the pink flushed into a deep hue of red. Scarlett’s biggest contribution seemed to be to tell everyone else what to do and then drag Bryan off in the back for a good twenty minutes. When they returned, Bryan seemed flustered, but happy.

  At seven, Uncle John clapped his hands and told us all to wrap it up. He and Aunt Nora spent a few moments thanking everyone for their efforts. Afterwards, Uncle John came over to me, took my hand, and walked me outside.

  “You have good friends,” he told me. “They really helped. I’m sorry for the trouble you’re having with Payne. I’ve given him a hard time since he disappeared, but he’s a good man. You should give him another chance.”

  I watched as Dante came out of the store.

  “Unless,” Uncle John continued, following my gaze, “you’ve already moved on.”

  “No,” I said. “I haven’t. But keep that between us, please. Things are awkward right now.”

  Uncle John shrugged and gave me a kiss on the cheek as Dante came over.

  “I think everyone’s gone home,” Dante said. “Bryan and Payne are in there closing things up.”

  I looked over to the storefront and saw Payne coming out. He saw me standing with Dante, and I could see the sadness in his eyes, but the anger I’d been feeling for weeks was bubbling up into my chest.

  Payne could see it written on my face. He sighed and started to walk away.

  The store exploded. A giant boom rang out as flames blasted from the window, and shattered glass rained down onto the sidewalk.

  Payne was knocked to the ground by the shockwaves, while Uncle John screamed for his son.

  Dante grabbed my uncle before he could run into the blaze, but before anyone could stop Payne, he got up from the ground and ran inside the burning building.

  It seemed like he was in there forever. In the distance, as we waited, I heard the whine of sirens getting closer. Someone must have called the fire department. Just as Payne finally burst through the remains of the front door, carrying Bryan’s badly burned body, there was another, smaller explosion that knocked them both to the ground.

  Dante was by Payne’s side in an instant, using his jacket to extinguish Payne’s clothes, which had caught fire. For a few seconds, I lost sight of both of them as EMTs and firefighters swamped the scene.

  I tried to move forward, to see what had happened. I stopped when I saw Bryan’s ghost, looking down at his own body.

  - fourteen -

  Have You Met Bristol?

  Journal of Bristol Blackburn

  We buried Bryan today. It was a closed casket.

  It’s just wrong. Bryan was so sweet and caring. He always stood by my side. Everyone loved him.

  His parents were inconsolable. His brother Ben was so angry. He had always looked up to Bryan. Payne stood by Ben’s side, with his arm around the younger boy’s shoulder.

  Everyone paid their respects. There was a healthy amount of McKnights there besides Payne. Hunter was on her feet, on crutches. Ian helped her. Chase came. Toby was there with Maggie. Archer came in too, looking pale.

  There were others. Dante and Scarlett came together and sat behind me. Mrs. Bennett and several teachers showed up. Skyler came with her mom. Eric came in with them, although they couldn’t see him.

  Blasé even showed up. He passed by the casket and looked stunned. Then he glanced out at the rest of us. When he looked my way, his usual anger barely surfaced just before he faded.

  At this point, I don’t think anyone cared who was a McKnight or a Blackburn.

  I was angry and determined to get answers, but I needed help to find them. I needed to talk to someone who wasn’t caught up in all the Blackburn vs. McKnight drama—someone who I could trust to be honest. So, I went to see one of the most honest people I knew.

  “Thanks for seeing me,” I said, when the front door opened.

  “No problem,” Ian replied, as he showed Dante and me into his house.

  It was a two-story home, with blue siding on the outside. Inside, all I saw was full bookshelves. They had so many books. Some looked like fiction, but many were journals, biographies, and textbooks about history and science. The living room walls were covered, and the dining room had a dozen or so books spread out on the table, along with notebooks and a laptop. There was even a small pile of books at the bottom of the stairs; I thought was going to trip over those as Dante and I followed Ian upstairs.

  Ian’s room was the same as the rest of the house, and looked like the office of a really, really messy librarian. There were shelves of books of varying sizes and colors, plus large charts on one wall. The only neat area seemed to be dedicated to Star Trek.


  “I was surprised to get your call,” he said as we sat down. “What did you want to talk about?”

  I settled back and gave Dante a reassuring look.

  “Do you remember when Payne first started to work for Bryan’s dad?” I asked. “You said something about how family tensions were at an all-time low. I know Payne has told me that you’ve studied the history of our families. I want to know more about that.”

  “Okay,” Ian said as he thought about it. “You sure? It’s kinda weird.”

  “Bristol’s okay with weird,” Dante said. “Aren’t you, sugar?”

  Ian looked uncomfortable hearing my nickname.

  “Well,” Ian said. “You know that the families have never gotten along. I’ve talked to people from the town who have lived here a long time. Usually there’s a certain level of tension between the two families, but every once in a while, things calm down. People get along. Sometimes friendships are formed. Sometimes it’s more than just friendships.”

  Ian looked at me.

  “The thing is,” he continued, “everything usually explodes. The feud gets worse again as people rebuild their lives from the ruins.”

  Dante leaned forward. “Sounds like you’re saying that because every once in a while, when a McKnight and Blackburn couple doesn’t work out, it starts a major disaster. Breakups happen all the time, all over the place. Couples not working out is as common as flies landing on a pile of—”

  “I don’t think,” Ian cut Dante’s latest colloquialism off, “that you’re getting the full picture.”

  “What is the full picture?” I asked.

  “Okay,” Ian said. “You remember my talking about how tensions were low between the families? Bristol and Bryan were friendly with several McKnights. Bristol was dating Payne. Now look at what’s happened. Payne and Bristol are on the outs. Blasé killed himself, and many McKnights that don’t know her very well are blaming Bristol. Aunt Breanne has been sent off to recover after nearly killing herself. As each of these things occurred, the hostility has gotten worse and worse.