by J. S. Bailey
“What’s the plan now?” Kaori asked when Bobby and Carly seated themselves at the table.
“We’re checking into a motel and driving back to Oregon in the morning,” Carly said before Bobby could work the muscles in his mouth to speak.
“What?” he said to her, alarmed. “We can’t wait that long. If Thane survived, he might get back before us and start screwing with people again.”
“Good for him. You need to rest, and our friends can take care of themselves.”
“Just like your grandpa took care of himself, huh?”
Carly deflated for a moment, and Bobby immediately wished he hadn’t said anything. “I’m sorry,” he added, but the damage had already been done.
“I’m going to try to ignore what you just said and chalk it up to your fever incinerating your brain cells,” she said in a flat tone. “Now I’m going to order something to eat, and then we can get your prescription, and then we’re finding a place to lay our heads down for a few decent hours. Is that clear?”
AFTER BOBBY forced himself to finish a six-inch sub that felt like it was made of knives every time he went to swallow, they retrieved his medicine and checked in to Slumber Inn, a decaying two-story motel three blocks away from the drugstore. They lugged their suitcases up a creaking flight of stairs to units 27 and 28 at the far end of the building, and Bobby flopped into a twin-sized bed fully clothed, willing his medicine to take effect.
Matt, who’d volunteered to be his roommate, traipsed off to the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. Bobby had hoped to be asleep by the time he emerged, but of course sleep eluded him, even after Matt’s even breathing indicated he was off sawing logs.
Bobby’s fevered thoughts flitted from one thing to another. I shouldn’t have said that to Carly. It was rude. Should I still give her the necklace? Where did I put it, anyway? Maybe it’s still on my kitchen counter.
Then Caleb’s words right before Bobby’s departure: You were never meant to be together. In all the ensuing turmoil, Bobby had forgotten that his old roommate had imparted those ominous words. He still couldn’t figure out what Caleb had meant.
After what felt like hours, Bobby heaved himself out of bed and dragged himself into the bathroom to fill a paper cup of water to soothe his parched throat. Then he plucked his phone off the bedside table and went to check the time only to learn the battery was dead.
With a pang of regret, Bobby realized he’d forgotten to pack the charger, and he doubted that his companions’ smartphone chargers would be compatible with his ancient relic of a flip phone.
Oh well.
Feeling wide awake, Bobby tiptoed across the room past Matt’s bed and opened the motel room door with all the stealth he could muster, then slipped out into the chilly air.
His heart leapt into his throat when he saw a figure standing ten feet away from him leaning against the railing overlooking the parking lot, but he relaxed when he saw it was only Kaori. She turned her head at his approach. “I thought you were supposed to be resting.”
“Can’t sleep.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Kaori sighed.
Bobby leaned against the railing a good five feet from her and listened to traffic pass by on a nearby street. “When you started out,” he said, “did you feel like you didn’t have a clue?”
“I still feel that way from time to time. That happens to the best of us, too.”
“You seem to have a fairly positive outlook.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”
“I guess not. I just don’t see how people like us could have much of a positive outlook. My friend Phil…” He trailed off, not quite sure what he’d been about to say.
“Phil was a Servant, too?”
“Yeah, and he lost his best friend, and apparently he’s been miserable ever since.”
“You don’t have to be Phil. Be Bobby.”
“I didn’t lose a friend.”
“But you lost someone else. Someone close.”
Adrian Pollard’s tired face swam in his mind’s eye, followed by that of his father. “Something like that.”
Kaori turned away from him and contemplated the silent vehicles parked below them. “You’re allowed to be happy sometimes,” she said. “You seem the type who doesn’t permit yourself happiness.”
Bobby wanted to object but realized she was right. “Not to be a downer, but my life hasn’t exactly been a barrel of laughs.”
“Neither has anyone’s.”
“It would feel wrong to be happy after everything that’s happened.”
“There’s nothing wrong with finding joy amid the storm. I haven’t had an easy life either, you know—leaving home was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Ever since I helped bring about a drug bust when I was a kid, I knew I was destined to help people. I’ve failed to save people, too, but I just keep on going.”
“How could you possibly ‘find joy,’ then?”
Kaori bit her lip. “I just do. I get up in the morning and smile that I’m still alive. I also tend to watch a ridiculous amount of television any chance I get. There’s nothing wrong with a little escapism from time to time.”
“I can’t sit still long enough to watch a ridiculous amount of television.”
Kaori laughed. “Okay, then. What’s something that makes you happy?”
Bobby shrugged. “Saving people, I guess. But I can’t always save them in time. This past summer, I was going to cleanse a possessed healer. He’d been enslaved in this mountain lodge where rich sickos paid to torture kids for their own enjoyment, and Vincent—the healer—was forced to heal them so they’d be ready for the next customer. It was awful. I started to save Vincent, and then someone shot him and he died.”
“I’m sorry.”
When Kaori didn’t press for details, Bobby went on. “And then there was Adrian, my birth mother. I had a premonition. Told her not to go anywhere. She ignored me, and she got shot and died. How does a person live with that?”
“I’m sure you did your best,” Kaori said softly.
“Well, in those instances my best wasn’t good enough.” Bobby’s lip curled, and in that moment he hated himself more than anything he’d ever hated in his life.
After a brief silence, Kaori said, “Now tell me about the people you did save.”
So he told her about Randy, and about his coworker at the Stop-N-Eat, and about Phil and Randy again, and all the other odds and ends people his premonitions had helped over the years.
By the time he finished with everyone he could think of, Kaori’s eyes glistened with amusement. “I’d say that’s a fairly good track record,” she said.
“I guess.”
Kaori smiled and shook her head.
Bobby coughed a few times and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Not to change the subject, but I saw you looking at something that wasn’t there when you were in the sandwich shop.”
Kaori’s sigh sent a misty plume into the air. “It was Baba, my grandmother. But not really.”
“What does she say?”
Kaori’s jaw stiffened. “Critical things. She—it—always tries to make me feel bad about leaving home. My parents didn’t approve of me going off with Matt. They think he and I are lovers, which probably wouldn’t have bothered them so much if he wasn’t white and twice my age. What kinds of things do you see?”
“A pathetic doppelganger of myself. I hate it.”
“Now that’s interesting.”
“Yeah. A psychologist would have a field day with both of us.” Bobby shuffled his feet again. He really didn’t want to talk about his doppelganger right now. “Well, um, I guess I should try to get some sleep.”
“Good night, Bobby.”
“Good night.”
He returned to his motel room and the sound of Matt’s soft breathing and crawled back under the covers. He fell asleep within minutes.
AS CARLY drove them through the easte
rn Oregon wilderness, Bobby’s excitement grew and grew like a swelling balloon to the point he thought he might burst. He felt marginally better since rising that morning, his doppelganger had yet to make an appearance, and they would soon be home so Randy and everyone else could meet Kaori and Matt.
“Has anyone from home tried calling you recently?” Bobby asked as they passed through a town called Adel that was more of an intersection than anything else.
“Yeah, but I set it to silent and keep letting them go to voicemail. I haven’t checked any of them yesterday or today. I don’t feel like listening to my parents worry about me nonstop.”
“Let me see.” Bobby dug through her purse, which sat on the floor at his feet, and after several minutes of trying to navigate through her smartphone, found that she had thirty-three missed calls and twelve voicemails.
“How bad is it now?” Carly asked.
“I think the folks at home really want to talk to us,” Bobby said, feeling uneasy at the sight of missed calls from Carly’s parents, Randy, and even a couple from Phil earlier on the list. “Do you want me to check the voicemails?”
“Nah, we’ll be home in just a few hours. Then they’ll know we’re not dead somewhere.”
Bobby’s thumb hovered over the voicemail icon. Something in his gut told him that the folks at home weren’t just concerned for their safety, that something awful had happened and everyone was begging them to get back in time to fix it.
But Carly was right. They would be home soon. Nothing bad could have happened if Thane hadn’t even been in town, right? He was probably just worrying about nothing—something he’d been known to excel at.
What should I do? Bobby thought.
What you must, the Spirit replied.
Deciding it was for the best, Bobby slipped Carly’s phone back into her purse.
The sky grew dark, and as they neared Autumn Ridge around eight o’clock that evening, Bobby withdrew Carly’s phone once more (it had six additional missed calls). Ignoring the trepidation brewing in his gut, he dialed Randy’s cell phone number.
Randy picked up halfway through the first ring. “Carly? Where are you?”
“It’s Bobby, actually. Carly’s driving. We’ll be in Autumn Ridge in half an hour.”
“Thank the Lord.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
Bobby listened as Randy said something to someone in the background but couldn’t make out what he said. “Come to my house before you do anything else. We need to talk.”
“Um, okay. See you in a bit?”
Randy hung up without saying goodbye. Bobby stared at the phone as if it had done him wrong. Randy wasn’t the type to just hang up on a person. And “we need to talk”? That didn’t sound so great.
“Everything okay?” Kaori asked from the backseat.
“Yeah,” Bobby said, brushing a hand through his hair. “It’s all great.”
WHEN CARLY pulled into Randy’s driveway, the headlights illuminated not only Randy and Lupe’s vehicles, but those of Frankie and Janet Jovingo and Roger and Beverly Stilgoe as well. “It looks like they brought the whole crew over to welcome us back,” Carly said as she parked next to the Stilgoes’ BMW.
“Not the whole crew,” Bobby said. “I don’t see Phil’s Taurus.”
“Maybe he just isn’t here yet.”
The four of them piled out of the car and made their way up to the two-story house where lights glowed behind shaded windows.
“What should we say to them?” Kaori asked as Bobby strode up to the door and knocked.
“You don’t have to say anything. I’ve got this.”
The door swung open. Randy, wearing yet another black t-shirt and a black pair of jeans, blinked at Bobby and his entourage like they were extraterrestrial travelers who’d just arrived from Mars. “Please tell me it’s you and not just something that looks like you,” Randy said.
“I thought you were a psycho killer the night we met.”
“Okay, it’s you, then. Come in.”
Bobby entered the house first. Beverly and Janet sat side by side on a couch, and Frankie stood beside them with his arms folded and his face as stony as ever. Even Roger, a normally-jovial soul, looked discomfited on Bobby’s behalf.
All four stared at him as if he’d committed some grave crime.
“Where exactly have you been?” Frankie asked, his dark eyes boring holes into Bobby’s very being.
“We had to go get help,” Bobby said quickly. “With Thane making that ultimatum and Bradley needing cleansed, I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. So I found Kaori. She’s a Servant, too. She can help me. Oh, and by the way, Thane’s been healed. He isn’t paralyzed anymore, and he might be dead, but I’m not sure yet.”
Silence filled the room so thickly it felt like a smothering blanket. If anything, his admission made their stares even more accusing, and Bobby suddenly felt guilty—much guiltier than he had when he’d skipped town the other night.
“She has the gift of Ministry,” he said, dispelling the unnatural quiet. “I don’t know what all she does because we just met, but I’m sure she could tell you. Oh, and this is her predecessor, Matt. They met each other at the San Diego Comic-Con.”
“I thought you had this under control,” Kaori hissed at him.
“So did I,” Bobby whispered.
With a sigh, Kaori stepped forward. “It’s true that Bobby sought out help, and by what I assume to be divine intervention, he ran into me while I was trying to change a flat tire.”
More stony stares. Kaori went on, seemingly undeterred. “I always thought myself to be the only Servant. That’s what I was taught. But when Bobby walked up to me, a white aura filled our heads. I knew it meant he had to be someone special.”
“This is nonsense,” Frankie spat. “Bobby, while you were gone, Allison got stabbed in the chest, Phil went missing, and Father Preston was murdered by a gunman who bears a striking similarity to one Bradley Scholl, and the rest of us have been on full alert in case we get targeted as well. At first I’d assumed you’d gone away on Servant business, but now I’m inclined to believe you were shirking your duties and brought this woman along as a false alibi.”
Bobby wasn’t sure which of these bits of news he found more distressing. “Father Preston’s dead?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“And…and Allison?”
“She’s alive. The person who stabbed her also sounds almost like Bradley, based on the description, with small differences.”
“And Phil?” Bobby said weakly.
“We don’t have a clue where he is or what he might be doing. He disappeared the same day Allison was stabbed. We’ve reported it to the police but haven’t heard anything from them.”
A wave of dizziness washed over Bobby, and he sank into the nearest chair before he keeled over. If he’d stayed home, he would have had premonitions about his friends since he would have been in close enough proximity to save them. Thane must have implanted the idea in Bradley’s head to go after Bobby’s friends while Thane went to Ohio chasing after him.
And how had Thane known where to find Bobby? He hadn’t told anyone his destination.
Unless Thane had read Bobby’s thoughts right as he was leaving town. Why hadn’t Bobby thought of that?
“His phone,” Kaori said, jarring Bobby back to the present. “Is there a way to track his phone?”
“Whose phone?” Frankie asked, sending her a look of pure scorn.
“Your friend Phil’s. If he has a smartphone, the police should be able to track where it is.”
Randy and Frankie exchanged a glance. “I’m sure they can if they feel like it,” Randy said. “Bobby, we were hoping you could do your little trick again to see where he is.”
Bobby swallowed and nodded. “I can do that.”
Just as he closed his eyes and willed himself to relax, Frankie barked, “You’re all avoiding the key issue here.”
Bobby’s eyes snapped ope
n. If anything, Frankie’s anger had deepened, like he’d become Mount Vesuvius about to erupt. “What’s that?” Bobby asked, coming to his own defense.
“You and Carly stole my debit card, ran away, spent more than two thousand dollars—yes, I know about that because I’ve been checking my account—and brought back an imposter, all while the people you supposedly care about have been getting hurt.”
Bobby was on his feet with no memory of rising. “That’s not fair.”
“Oh, isn’t it? There is only one Servant: you. I find it more than disturbing that you’ve gone off and found someone to make a similar claim, especially a woman, whom you know cannot serve in that capacity.”
“With all due respect,” Kaori said coolly, “your notions are quaint. I’m not the first female Servant, and I won’t be the last.”
Frankie’s lip curled at her. “Very well. What happens if a Servant dies without a replacement?”
Kaori straightened her shoulders. “The disruption caused by his or her death enables the forces of darkness to increase in strength, and the first child born after that Servant’s death will become the new Servant when he or she comes of age.”
“The first male child, you mean,” Frankie corrected as he planted his hands on his hips.
“No, the first child. The late Servant’s predecessors will seek out the child under the Spirit’s guidance. It’s not known what will happen if there aren’t any predecessors.”
“She does have her facts right,” Roger said, eyeing Kaori with curiosity.
Frankie threw him a look of irritation. “It proves nothing. Bobby could have told her all that on the way here.”
Just then, Matt stepped forward, squaring his shoulders to match Kaori’s posture. “I was just as skeptical as you when we met Bobby. It doesn’t change the truth of things. He’s just like us.”
“Why not give them the benefit of the doubt?” Beverly said to Frankie. “What harm could they do in helping Bobby if he needs it?”
“Because they’re lying, and liars aren’t to be trusted.”
Bobby looked to Randy for help. “Can you back me up here?”