The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl)

by Paige McKenzie

“Hang on. I want to show you something,” Lucio says.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “You’ll see,” he says as he leads me down another path.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Clementine

  We walk down a path that’s clearly used less often than the one we use to get to the playground. Overgrown with vines and loose rocks, I struggle to keep my balance.

  “Where are we going?” I ask.

  “You’re not good with surprises, are you?” Lucio quips back, clearly amused by the situation. It’s true, I’m not, but I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that, so I keep my mouth closed.

  “I’m disappointing him,” I say as I almost roll my ankle. The sun’s getting low, and it’s hard to see the ground through the thick shade of the jungle.

  “Nah,” Lucio says, trudging down the path with little trouble. He plays with the tattoo on his right pointer finger. He’s the kind of person who’s always moving.

  “It’ll get easier. Don’t forget, you’re descended from—”

  “Two of the most powerful luiseach families in history, blah, blah blah.” I cut him off before he can finish. Lucio grins as he glances back, and I smile back. “I’m still waiting for my genetics to kick in. It’s a pretty good argument for nurture versus nature.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, because I was raised by a regular human instead of those two powerful luiseach, maybe I didn’t inherit their powers after all.”

  “I don’t think that’s how it works.” Lucio suddenly stops at the bottom of the trail. He motions with his hands to something green in front of him.

  “An old tarp,” I say as I realize what it is.

  “It’s not the tarp, it’s what’s underneath,” he says and then just stands there, admiring the idea of whatever is covered by the tarp.

  “Soooo . . . are you going to show me what’s under the tarp?”

  “Oh yeah!” He jumps forward and yanks it off.

  “It’s an old motorcycle,” I respond, in a tone Lucio is clearly disappointed by.

  “It’s a 1967 Triumph Bonneville TT Special! She’s my pride and joy.” His grin is so wide that I can tell this is important for him, but I can’t really wrap my brain around why he’s showing me . . . her?

  “She?” I ask.

  “Clementine.”

  “Clementine?”

  “She’s a classic, so she needs a classic name.” Lucio beams. “What do you think?”

  His enthusiasm is infectious. “She’s great,” I grin.

  “Shall we take her for a spin?”

  “Really?”

  “You can’t come all the way to Mexico and not see some real Mexican culture. Plus, you deserve a break.” Lucio jumps on the motorcycle and kicks some part of it to start it. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. I’ve never been this close to a motorcycle before, let alone to a boy asking me to ride one with him. Lucio motions for me to get on behind him, and to my surprise, I do. Mom is going to kill me.

  I wrap my arms around him, and we lurch forward as he navigates the rocky path, but soon we’re on a dirt road and moving quickly. It’s a different road from where I came into Llevar la Luz with Aidan. We must be on the backside of the property.

  The sun sinks below the horizon as Lucio deftly maneuvers the pothole-filled road. It doesn’t take me long to feel completely safe as I hold onto him and watch the jungle pass by and finally fade into the distance behind us. Suddenly the Pacific Ocean comes into view in front of us, glowing as the sun sets above it. A tropical ocean breeze hits my face as we descend a hill toward what looks like a small coastal village twinkling in the distance.

  For the briefest moment I close my eyes and pretend I’m not a luiseach. I pretend I’m not a sixteen-year-old girl whose whole life seems to be predestined for her. I pretend I don’t have a responsibility to help lost spirits every day for the rest of my life. I pretend I’m on a journey to explore the far reaches of the Earth, and Lucio is my guide. I pretend I’ve been whisked away to a world that could only ever exist in my imagination. And for just a second I pretend Lucio is actually Nolan.

  He hits the brakes and we slide to a stop across the dirt road. I open my eyes and look around.

  “We’re here!” Lucio proclaims as I climb off the bike and he sets the kickstand. True to Lucio form, he doesn’t stop moving, and we’re already walking into town.

  “What’s this place called?” I ask.

  “I just call it the fishing village.” Lucio shrugs like he’s never given it much thought. We walk a couple of blocks into the town square, which seems to be bustling with energy as the locals go about their business. Small carts are set up throughout the square, selling a variety of things. Kids play in the fountain at the center.

  “I didn’t know places like this existed in real life.”

  “They do! Or at least this place does,” Lucio responds. “I come here sometimes when Aidan gets to be a little too serious for me. He doesn’t like it, but I think he knows I’d go stir-crazy if I never left Llevar la Luz. Not that this is technically leaving Llevar la Luz.”

  “What do you mean?

  “Llevar la Luz stretches way beyond the campus.”

  “You’re telling me Aidan owns this town?”

  “Not exactly. But let’s just say that a lot of this region is more or less attached to Llevar la Luz.” Lucio holds out his arms, then adds, “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.” He motions to one of the many picnic tables set up throughout the square, and I sit as he runs off.

  I notice the sound of music playing in the distance. It doesn’t take long for him to return with four small tacos and two bottles of orange soda.

  “You’re gonna love these.” He says as he hands me two fish tacos and takes the first bite of his. For a moment we sit in silence as we eat. The evening breeze blowing through town feels like heaven.

  “Amazing, right?” Lucio grins, and I nod in agreement. “Hey, let me ask you something. That girl I helped move on earlier. How’d you know it was a girl? I was the one who pulled her in. We weren’t working together, so how’d you know?”

  “Well . . .” I pause. “She just looked like a girl.”

  “What do you mean?” Lucio asks.

  “You don’t need me to explain what a girl looks like, do you Lucio?” I tease, flashing him my best eyebrow raise.

  “Are you telling me you can see the spirits when they’re close?”

  “Yes. Can’t you?”

  “No.” Lucio shakes his head. “I just see a ball of light.”

  “Really?”

  “I don’t think anyone’s ever seen them before.”

  I bite my lip. Why does it feel like my powers are different from everyone else’s?

  “That must be terrifying sometimes,” Lucio offers gently, seeing my discomfort.

  “I’ve had a couple of really gruesome ones,” I confess.

  “Can you see the darkness too?” Lucio asks, wide eyed.

  “What darkness?” For the first time since I arrived here I remember the shadowy man I saw at the Seattle airport. He was surrounded by darkness. Is that what Lucio means?

  “Aidan hasn’t told you about that yet?”

  “No.”

  Lucio presses his lips together, like he’s worried he’s said too much. “I’m sure it’s coming up in a future lesson.” He takes a drink of his orange soda, probably trying to buy himself a second to think of how to change the subject, but I’m not going to let him.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Darkness

  I wait patiently for Lucio to finish his drink. “Come on,” I say, mock-whining, like we’re five years old. “Give me a sneak peek of the lessons I’ve got coming to me.”

  Lucio shakes his head, but he’s grinning, so I know he’s about to give in.

  “Okay. But if Aidan asks how you know, don’t tell him it was me.”

  “No problem,” I promise. “I’ll just
say it was one of the dozens of other luiseach here at Llevar la Luz.”

  Lucio laughs. “Excellent.” His voice turns serious as he continues. “Aidan’s been teaching you to pull spirits toward you from miles away, helping them move on one at a time.”

  “Yes.”

  “Most spirits want to be found. It’s like they set off flare guns all across the world when they leave their bodies, just begging us to track them down and help them move on. But some spirits . . .” He trails off.

  What was it that Professor Jones said about spirits who lingered on Earth too long? Nolan would remember immediately, but I have to search my memory. Eventually I hear the professor’s scratchy old voice in my head: Even the friendliest of spirits is dangerous. Because it simply should not be here. It is a fish out of water. A hawk with broken wings. A horse with a broken leg.

  Do you know what they do to horses with broken legs, child?

  I didn’t actually know until Nolan told me sometime later. Horses with broken legs are killed because it’s the merciful thing to do.

  I don’t think dark spirits know about mercy.

  “Some spirits don’t want to move on,” I supply. “The ones who feel their lives were snuffed out too soon. Who think they have unfinished business.”

  “Exactly,” Lucio nods. “Earlier you got to that spirit before he could run and hide—”

  “Eddie Denfield,” I remember.

  “Right. But sometimes we don’t catch them in time. Spirits can hide from us.”

  “The opposite of spirits who do want to move on.”

  “Exactly. And when you’re tracking a particular spirit, you can feel when it starts hovering on the edge of going dark. You can feel the darkness closing in.”

  “What does it feel like?” My voice comes out like a whisper.

  “You know the peace you feel when you help a spirit move on? Imagine the exact opposite of that.”

  “No thank you,” I say, and Lucio laughs out loud. “So that’s what you’ve been doing since I got here? Tracking a spirit on the verge of going dark?”

  He nods. “It’s unusual, this close to the equator.”

  “Why?”

  “Something about the warm air kind of . . . I don’t know, makes them weaker, almost sluggish.”

  “So are all luiseach training facilities close to the equator?”

  Lucio grins wryly. “Not the ones that are dedicated to studying dark spirits.”

  “But this spirit, the one you’re tracking, it’s behaving strangely—stronger than it should be?”

  “I don’t know why.” Lucio runs his fingers over his closely cropped hair. “Maybe it’s the . . .”

  He doesn’t seem to know how to finish his sentence, so I decide to try another question: “What did you mean when you said it was one of our spirits?”

  “When did you hear that?” Lucio narrows his almost-black eyes.

  “My first night here. I haven’t exactly been sleeping soundly since I arrived.”

  “It’s just . . . I don’t know how much I’m supposed to tell you exactly.”

  “What’s one more off-book lesson?” I ask hopefully, but Lucio shakes his head slowly as he toys with his tattoo.

  “I can’t betray Aidan’s trust.”

  It’s hard to argue with a statement that honorable. “Aidan sure seems like he has a lot of secrets.” I take the last bite of my taco.

  “He does.”

  “Do you realize that I don’t even know which building his lab is in?”

  “I’m sure he’d tell you if you just asked.”

  I shrug. Finally, I say, “Do you ever think about giving it up?”

  “Giving what up?”

  “Luiseach-y-ness,” I say, not sure if there’s a luiseach word equivalent to humanity. “You know, becoming a normal person. Like Victoria did.”

  Well, sort of like Victoria did. I’m not sure I would call her normal exactly. But then, I wouldn’t have ever called myself normal, even long before I knew I was a luiseach. I never quite fit in with other kids my age, as evidenced by the fact that the T-shirt I’m wearing today is older than I am, dug up from a bin in the back of a vintage shop while everyone else I went to school with bought their shirts from Old Navy or H&M.

  “Are you crazy?” Lucio asks.

  Still thinking about my fashion sense, I shrug. “It’s entirely possible.”

  Lucio clearly isn’t thinking about clothes as he continues. “Giving up your powers doesn’t make you feel normal. It hurts. It’s like splitting in two.”

  “Splitting in two?” I echo, remembering that Victoria said Aidan required her to give up her powers in order to place Anna into our house back in Ridgemont, like what she gave up created some sort of power surge.

  “Anyway,” Lucio adds, “if the work Aidan’s doing in there turns out to be right, we’re not going to be helping spirits move on for that much longer.”

  “But then what would our job be? Isn’t that pretty much the point of being a luiseach—how else do we maintain the balance?” I imagine all the luiseach in the world finding themselves suddenly unemployed, forced to apply for normal jobs like normal people, trying to figure out how to put “exorcising demons” on the special skills section of their résumés.

  “What our job would be is kind of beside the point.”

  “Then what is the point?”

  “Aidan thinks we’re going extinct.” Lucio sounds almost matter-of-fact about it.

  Before I can ask What do you mean, extinct?!, the music around us gets suddenly louder. The kids playing around the fountain run to their parents, who are lining the sides of the street.

  “A parade!” Lucio grabs my hand and hops up, pulling me along beside him.

  There’s plenty of space by the side of the road to see the parade—if that’s what you want to call it. It’s more like a traveling party. A few dozen people dressed in bright clothing slowly walk down the street. Some dance, while others just walk and wave. A band composed of mostly trumpets and a large drum follow the group, providing the marching theme.

  “I knew this was coming up, but I didn’t know it was tonight,” Lucio shouts over the music and shouting spectators. Almost everyone in the parade has a brightly colored mask like the ones I’ve seen in pictures of Day of the Dead celebrations in Latin American history class. Traditionally Day of the Dead is a chance for family and friends to pray for and remember people who have died. I’m pretty sure it usually falls around Halloween. But I guess no one around here is going to let the time of year stop them.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  “A local celebration,” Lucio answers. I smile, suddenly so happy he brought me here. I shift my weight toward him, leaning comfortably on his arm.

  “There’s something else you should know about the darkness.” Lucio looks at me seriously.

  “What?” I shout back over the band.

  “It’s changing. Growing.” He pauses, taking a second to think. “Something has changed. I don’t think it’s just spirits fighting to stay on Earth and eventually turning dark. I think there’s something else going on.” As Lucio continues, the music of the parade fades into the background, and it feels like I can’t hear anything but the words coming out of Lucio’s mouth. “It’s organized somehow.”

  “Organized?” I echo. Then I realize the music actually has stopped. But the night doesn’t remain quiet for long. Before Lucio can tell me anything else about the darkness, a scream breaks through the silence. We both look over to see one of the trumpet players collapsed onto the street, clutching his chest. A few of the local women rush to try to help him.

  That’s when I see a dark, shadowy figure on the other side of the street, crouching on all fours. Its face lights up as a horrifying smile spreads across its face, revealing row after row of sharp white teeth. Whatever it is, it’s happy. I grab Lucio’s arm.

  “Look!” I point. Lucio squints.

  “What?”

  “Ca
n’t you see it?”

  “See what?”

  “I think it’s a demon!” It must be a demon. Only a demon would look that pleased at the sight of someone else suffering.

  “A demon?” Lucio echoes incredulously. “You can see it?” The commotion in the street grows as the man on the ground writhes in pain. A woman, probably his wife, wails in agony. But I force myself to look away because I don’t want to lose sight of the demon. I can see it more clearly now, as though my eyes had to adjust, the way they get used to seeing in a dark room. Suddenly it takes off, running toward a back alley.

  “Come on!” I grab Lucio’s arm and give chase.

  “I can’t see anything!” Lucio shouts as we cross the street, pushing our way through the crowd. As we pass the dying man, his spirit is released from his body. The demon may have killed this poor man, but he didn’t possess him, so at least I can help his spirit move on. I reach out and send it on its way.

  Instantly the body it left behind bursts into flames. The people around the fire run away in horror. Smoke fills the air so that it’s difficult to see even a few inches in front of me, but I don’t slow down.

  I saw where the demon was headed, and I’m determined to follow.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The Hunt

  The quaint fishing village I was romanticizing just a few minutes ago has turned dark and sinister as we enter the back alleys. Gone are the cute kids running around, the glowing lights, and the happy faces. The alleys are like a labyrinth of shadows and corridors as we give chase.

  “Where is it?” Lucio cries. “Can you still see it?”

  “There!” I point toward the creature as it ducks around a corner. We run after it, not pausing to consider whether chasing a nightmarish demon down a dark alley is actually a good idea. Or at least I’m not thinking about it; maybe Lucio is. But I doubt it. He’s not slowing down either.

  As we get closer, the demon comes into focus. It’s a dark color but not black, more like the color of dark, rusty water. It runs on all fours like a goat, complete with hooves, but it sprints along the cobblestone alleys with ease. A real goat would slip and slide across a surface like this.