“Hello, anyone there?” I asked, tentatively testing this new dream.
I was just matched with broken sobs. “Wow, what a sparkling conversationalist you are. Wouldn’t want to miss this,” I input with dripping sarcasm.
I was about to add more witty commentary since I was over these dreams already and just wanted to wake up. Then, my vision started to clear and I was able to make out a pale waning moon from the far window.
There were bars on it and I realized this was a prisoner. My sarcasm instantly dwindled and my compassion was in full force. I winced at the thought about my earlier comment now.
“Umm, I’m sorry. I am just really tired, even though that is no excuse for my rudeness. I am Noel,” I offered hoping to rectify my earlier comment.
It seemed like an eternity before the girl responded. She sat up and let out a strangled sob and an “I know,” before I saw who it was.
Sitting in front of me on a prison bed in the light of the moon was the girl from my visions. Her brown hair was tangled and her hazel eyes were puffy and filled with tears.
She was wearing simple blue scrubs and was huddled on a small bed with nothing but a pillow for comfort. The sad state she was in just sent a shiver through me and I was at a loss for words.
“It is bad that you are in here with me,” she choked out.
Pity swelled in my heart and I was instantly at her side to comfort her. I was surprised when she didn’t pull away and only leaned into me.
As with Jared and Boone, I was all too aware of the innate connection I seem to have with her. It was like I had always known her. This revelation just added to my ever growing massive pile of confusion that lingered in the back of my mind all the time lately.
“Why is that bad?” I asked curiously, trying to ignore the stench she was emitting.
“It means they caught you and we failed,” she said.
I was about to interject but she continued. “Autumn and I failed. We tried so hard to keep you safe. It wasn’t enough and now you are here.”
She was sobbing again and I was too stunned to form any sort of response. If I could trust Autumn, then who was the mole? I was back to square one and more confused than ever. Then something had occurred to me. Who was this woman? I knew she was tangled in this and that I felt I could trust her, but who was she?
“Who are you?” I blurted out with less grace than intended.
She flinched at the question.
“Maybe I should know but I just don’t. I’m sorry.” I added trying to ease the tension.
Then she straightened up and put out her hand, “Samara Maristolla, your sister.”
I returned the handshake and she slid something into my palm. It was still too dark and I couldn’t see what it was never mind the fact that I was too shocked to register anything else. All I could do was study her in the soft glow of the moon. That name again, Maristolla. This was my sister, whom I didn’t remember until just this moment.
This time when the dream started to pixilate, I was definitely not ready and all I could say is “Wait!” before the dust of my surroundings settled around me and I felt the steady noise of the highway thrumming to life beneath me.
I bolted straight up in the back seat wasting no time shouting “Sam!!!! Wait, we have to save Sam!”
Chapter 12: 1998
Everything I kept locked up tight either accidentally or on purpose was being released as if I was always the key. Memories flooded my mind like a film reel and tears sprang to life like crystal drops in my brilliant green eyes.
I saw Sam and me as children laying in our matching twin beds, giggling and looking up at the glow in the dark sky we hand arranged on our ceiling. We were wishing upon a star. We looked so happy and at peace. That memory faded to black and a new one cropped up.
We were eight and sitting in the library pretending to be doing homework. Instead, we were playing MASH and dreaming about the future. Her light brown hair was in braided pigtails and she was wearing the gold plaid dress that always brought out the fire in her hazel eyes.
All I heard through my haze was Autumn. “Boone, damn it, we have to pull over, NOW!”
He seemed to hesitate, his feelings warring with his desperation to keep going. Boone took one look at me then veered a hard right and slowed to a screeching halt. I thumped hard against my seat belt and a strangled “Oomph” escaped my startled lips.
Instantly it was Autumn who jumped into the back seat and wrapped her arms around me. She was back to herself and I took comfort enclosed in her arms as the past continued to flood back like rushing water over a broken damn.
Sam and I were laughing hysterically as we threw our very pissed off fluffy cat down the laundry shoot and onto a pile of dirty laundry. We ran down to recapture Smokey and raced back to go again, giggling all the way.
Sam and I hiding the hole we accidently made in the basement wall from our gymnastics escapades, and being sat in time out for an hour in separate corners as punishment.
Then it was me in the back yard cutting the grass around the deck with scissors as punishment for giving my sister a home haircut. She had only one pigtail and our mom was devastated.
I was somehow torn back to reality and my pleas by Boone who placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and looked into my tear strewn eyes.
It was Boone who finally spoke next in a somber tone. “Noel it isn’t that easy. We already made it halfway to Kansas City while you were asleep. PLI will be looking for us and trust me when I say they will capture and torture us if we give them the chance.”
“But they have Sam and they are torturing her!” I retorted back in a spiteful tone.
“That is because they want you, Nells honey,” Autumn said with visible tears in her blue eyes.
I was shocked to see that amount of compassion from her and winced at the thought of August. I had to tell her, even in this poorly timed discussion.
“Autumn, I know who leaked Intel. It isn’t what we thought though.”
This just earned a wary eye from Boone and Autumn both.
“Ok guys just hear me out,” I said as my voice trembled and I brushed the tears from my wet cheeks.
They nodded and I continued. “It is Autumn.”
I hurried to continue before she could get defensive. “Not intentionally though. Actually, it is August and he spelled you so you wouldn’t remember.”
A look of disbelief crossed her now splotchy face before she nodded for me to continue.
“He is fey and he used his powers to disguise himself from all of your detection spells. You never really had an amazing night with him, but likely spent the night spelled by him. He probably got all his Intel then, no one else the wiser.”
I waited for them to digest this before I was attacked with another big hug from Autumn.
“Nells, you are the best. I can’t believe you figured it out, but now it makes so much sense. Fey are tricky and manipulative beings. He probably dismantled my wards. Thank god he wasn’t after me, if I ate or drank anything; I would be bound to the fey courts. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it.”
Then she paused for a half beat before another thought occurred to her. “Why is August meddling in all this? He is already immortal.”
I was actually ready, relieved to know the answer to something this time. “He is moving to take over the goblin court. By aligning with a lower member of PLI, he has their backing to overthrow the current ruler. He and Wren are in this together and they have both Jared and Sam.”
Now it was Autumn’s turn to burst into tears. I consoled her as she lets out a few muffled sentences.
“Not good. Have to get you far away. Need to stay safe. Hide.”
I was chilled by her fear but had no intention of hiding and leaving them for dead. “No. We can’t. I’m going back, with or without you.”
Boone must have heard the truth in my now steady voice because a change crossed his rugged face. His own clear blue eyes met mine and he just n
odded.
Then, he looked at my hands and his eyes crinkled in confusion. “Your hands, they have sores from rope burn on them. Are you ok?” he asked with concern. I just shook it off and told him I was alright.
Then he pointed and asked, “Noel, what are you holding?”
All degrees of surprise crossed my face before I un-gripped my hand and released the object I forgot I was holding until now. A new interest took hold of me.
It was a tarot card, embellished at the corners. It was the ten of swords only upside down. The picture depicted a man with ten swords all gouged in his back. He looked to be in immense pain. I turned it over and all I saw was a name “property of Nan Day” amongst the flowery design covering it.
Just looking at the card brought on yet another poorly timed vision and I braced myself for what was sure to come next. My current location faded away and my eyes rolled back into the vision.
This time I was surprised. It was a vision of Samara and Autumn, only this time I was Sam, in the flesh. I was not here in third person, but an actually party to this particular vision.
I had access to the swirling mass of thoughts coursing through her mind, yet I couldn’t manipulate a thing. It was as if I was Sam on autopilot. Definitely creepy, but I didn’t have long to ponder it before things sped right along.
Sam 1998:
I brushed my messy hair from my damp face and trudged forward. Trying to wipe away my tears and straighten myself up, I reached our rendezvous point.
It was dusk and the cemetery felt cold and uninviting. Dampness lingered in the air and all I could think about was the many rotting corpses below the surface. There were hundreds of souls just waiting for the wrong person to wake them from their slumbers.
A shiver passed through me and I tried to shake off the creepy feelings I had. I needed to focus. Shaken or not, I knew I had to go through with this. I was the big sister, so the responsibility fell to me. I kept trying to reassure myself, but it still just felt like abandonment.
I made my way through the faded gravestones looking for the fresh pair of new graves. My black heels were hell on this dampened earth. They sunk every so often and caught me off balance. I murmured a curse and continued on until I found the real graves of Rita and Jason Maristolla.
The crunch of leaves behind me signaled company. I whirled around to find Autumn. Her blond hair was tied neatly back in a simple ponytail and she was still wearing the tastefully slim black dress from the funeral earlier. She was the only other person in this world I trusted with our lives. I wrapped my arms tightly around her in relief.
“I’m glad you made it. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to slip your tail.”
“Nothing a misdirect spell can’t fix,” she replied while pulling me down to meet the cool ground below.
Then she looked at me with a solemn look in her eyes. “In all seriousness Sam, are you sure you want to go through with this? We can find another way. I swear I will do everything in my powers to keep you and Noel safe.”
Determination was thick in my voice when I responded. “It has to be this way and you know it. There is no other way of protecting her.”
Several moments passed as we observed the matching headstones with newly dug burial plots in front of us. The real Maristolla’s were buried there, hopefully resting in peace, out of the reach of PLI.
“It just feels so wrong Sam. I can’t imagine a life without you here. Noel will never forgive you for leaving. If she is anything, she is stubborn.” Autumn finally said with a piercing look.
“I know. I also know Noel won’t forgive me. That is why we have to strip her powers and her memory. I know it sounds cruel, but I want her to have a normal happy life while she is free and safe from this world.” I informed her.
Autumn hesitated before responding. “You know she will never truly be free of this world? As long as you are alive and out there, she is a part of it. You may not like it, but you are a liability if you strip her powers and her memories. She can’t guard herself against any type of attack.”
I formed a heart in the fresh dirt above my mother’s and father’s graves before answering her. “I am going off grid for a while. It is the only way to slip PLI. I won’t have any contact with you or the rest for the group. For all intents and purposes, I no longer exist.”
Autumn was pulling her black pea coat tighter around her slim figure. Tears were forming in the corners of her crystal blue eyes and I knew she was wrestling with this. I hedged forward, wanting to continue the momentum.
“She will be safe with you. Change her name and move her to a stable urban community. Keep her close and she will be ok. Your magic is sufficient enough to keep her out of prying eyes. This means going deep under cover.”
I broke for a minute and then picked back up. “The best thing to do is for the two of you to hide in plain sight, drawing the least amount of attention to yourselves. Her safety means everything to me.”
“Ok. I trust you Sam. I will do this, but not just for you. I will do it for Noels’ safety. If she has to be stripped of her powers, then I am the only one I trust to do the job.”
I wanted to reiterate the fact that we would both be defecting from our group before we went any further. “I know you understand, but it still needs to be said. We will both be defecting. They can’t know you or Noel’s whereabouts any more than PLI. It is too dangerous. You and Noel will have to be as normal as you can manage on your own.”
A cool breeze rustled the leaves around us as if the decision was causing a stirring in the etheric around us. Solemn, I nodded to Autumn. It was almost dark and the moon was full in the nearly pitch-black starless sky.
Autumn pulled out her pack and began unpacking it. She was going to be draining a lot of power tonight and blessing the graves of the newly buried was a good omen for such a power draw. I sat quietly as I watched her chant in Latin and anoint each newly packed grave.
When she was finished, I heard Autumn speak. “Earth, I call forth your healing powers through death of one’s flesh and blood as passage,” she said before lighting the black candle and faced due west.
She pulled out a cloth doll, wrapped it in yellow yarn and tucked with pieces of ivy while burning a stick of incense.
“I bind thee Noel Maristolla to only earthly demands until such as to unbind thee.”
Then she buried the doll she had been holding between the graves and used a handful of the dirt to snuff out the flame of the candle.
“I thank the powers that blessed this ritual tonight. Merry part and merry meet again.”
Stunned that it was over so quickly, I asked “Is that all?”
Autumn was calm and peaceful when responding. “Earth magic is gentle and healing. It is all I can do from the grave site. The rest requires my home alter and a blood chalice.”
I shivered as the knowledge of what I was doing truly sank in. I was condemning myself for a life on the run and my sister to a life of mediocrity. Just then, the wind kicked up and dust swirled in the air in front of us. The cloth doll uncovered and the dust settled again. Autumn smiled and retrieved the doll.
“We should go before someone catches on. Powerful magic can leave a trace and I don’t want to be found when they come looking,” Autumn suggested.
“Let’s go our separate ways and reconvene at my apartment in one hour. Bring Noel and her bags. I suggest you bring yours as well. You won’t want to go back after the spell is complete,” she continued as she tightened her smile and reclaimed her bag.
“Ok and thanks. Thanks for everything Autumn. You are a true blessing to our family and we are forever in your debt,” I said humbly before turning to leave.
Paranoid about our plans, I took a taxi from a block away. I spent the ride observing the life I was voluntarily giving up. The trendy little trinket shops and culture driven coffee shops blink by. The tall sky scrapers looked almost endearing. The vibrant hued leaves clung to the shedding trees in my peripheral.
Th
e hustle and bustle of a busy modern city flashed in the rear view. Remorse settled deep inside me as I knew this had to be the only way. My sense of duty was bigger than my pride this time. I knew the loss of my sister would be life changing, but knowing she would be better off eased the loss.
I stopped two blocks down and walked to our small brownstone in Buck town. It was chilly and I began to wish I was dressed in a warmer coat. The wind from the nearby lake cut like a knife this time of year. When I reached our flat, I sighed in relief once inside the door. I wasted no time tearing off my coat and basking in the warmth.
I knocked on Noels door but was not surprised when all I got was a sniffling “go away” from her. I entered anyways. There was no time for trivial bickering now.
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