Jenny Plague-Bringer: (Jenny Pox #4)

by J. Bryan

  She opened a door to a cabinet where she kept her art supplies, and she reached all the way to the back of the bottom shelf. Even as she picked up the bottle, she cursed herself. It was empty, and she’d meant to buy another one, but it had slipped her mind.

  She gave it a shake anyway, but there was nothing inside. Jenny had started taking the prenatal vitamins about a month ago, despite knowing the baby was almost certainly not going to live. She wasn’t sure why she’d started doing it, and she tried not to think about it too much. Clearly, she wanted the baby to live, but it was useless to desire impossible things.

  Jenny heard the loud squeal of tires on pavement, following by an ear-shattering crash. She hid the pill bottle and walked out to the living room, where Seth was playing a Nintendo Wii game that involved racing and crashing big monster trucks.

  “You can take the boy out of South Carolina...” Jenny said.

  “Ha ha. You can drive Grave Digger if you want to race.”

  “I think I’ll pass. I have to run to the store.”

  He paused the game. “Why? What’s up?”

  “Nothing. I just have to get some cream and, uh, nutmeg. For the eggnog.”

  “Don’t worry about the eggnog. It’s Christmas Eve already, everything might be closed.”

  “No! I mean, it doesn’t really taste like Christmas without eggnog. My dad always had some.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Seth stood up.

  “You don’t have to.” It would be hard to buy prenatal vitamins without Seth noticing, Jenny thought.

  “It’s icy out there, and it’s almost dark, too.”

  “What do I care about the dark?” Jenny asked. “I almost feel bad for anyone who tries to attack me.”

  “Why would you feel bad for them?”

  “I said almost.” Jenny bundled up in a scarf, knit hat, coat, and gloves, and she grabbed her purse. “Do we need anything else?”

  “Wine. You keep forgetting to buy it. And bourbon for the eggnog, if you want to get lucky tonight.” He winked at her. “It could lower my inhibitions.”

  “Seth, you don’t have inhibitions.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I seem to remember you hooking up with some random blond girl at the festival in Charleston...”

  “Oh, come on, that was Ashleigh's fault. She was possessing Darcy, and she forced me to do that.”

  “It looked like you were suffering pretty badly. The way her boobs were in your face. Lots of pain involved there.”

  Seth sighed and rubbed his eyes. “You know Ashleigh was trying to drive us apart. First possessing Darcy and pretending to be your friend, then making me hook up with some random hottie and making sure you caught us—”

  “You did not just call her a ‘hottie.’”

  “That’s not what I meant...What happened, Jenny? Why are you in a bad mood tonight?”

  “Not a bad mood. Reflective, maybe. See you in fifteen minutes, if I don’t have to kill a mugger or anything.” Jenny walked out the front door and down the hall to the elevator. She hadn’t meant to bite Seth’s head off, it was more of a ruse to keep him from joining her. She was a little flushed and angry, though, thinking how she’d discovered Seth that night, his mouth open and eyes glazed as the other girl rode on top of him. Even if Ashleigh's wicked, loving touch had been involved, it still made Jenny angry sometimes.

  In the plush lobby, filled with the sound of old jazz, Jenny waved at the security guard at the front desk. As usual, he wore his burgundy-and-brass uniform coat and gave only a very slight nod as she passed.

  Then she was outside in the cold December night. A thick snow had fallen on Paris this year, blanketing the city in white and hanging icicles from trees and window ledges. Their apartment was located in Le Marais, a district full of centuries-old mansions that had mostly been converted into museums. There were also a number of cabarets and nightclubs, where Jenny had made Seth take her to a couple of drag shows.

  Her favorite corner shop was already closed, so Jenny had to continue on several blocks to the big Monoprix supermarket. The streets were mostly empty as a fresh flurry of snow tumbled down among the beautiful old buildings. Music played from a couple of bars she passed, but nearly every shop was closed. Jenny smiled, feeling for a moment that she had all of Paris to herself.

  Then she passed through glass doors into the Monoprix, where a crowd of last-minute shoppers were checking out before the store closed. Jenny automatically drew her arms close around herself, even though her gloves and coat ensured she wouldn’t touch anyone.

  She found the prenatals in the pharmacy area, and then paused in an aisle full of baby supplies. Bottles, diapers, pacifiers, little toys and pajamas and tiny pairs of socks. Her baby wouldn’t be needing any of this, she thought. Then she barely managed to stop herself from crying in front of everyone. The pregnancy seemed to make her emotions spiral out of control fast, for the stupidest reasons.

  She hurried to the check-out, then out the door.

  Jenny was halfway home before she remembered that she was supposed to buy eggnog ingredients. She cursed under her breath, then doubled back to the store.

  When she’d finished her second visit to the store, she walked down the narrow Rue Vieille du Temple alone, hearing her footsteps echo back from the masonry and closed windows above her. The walk back seemed somehow less pleasant. She was aware of being alone, of the sunken doorways and dark windows around her. She felt a twinge of childhood fear, the kind that fully believed monsters could be hiding in every shadow, waiting to snatch her with a clawed hand. She shivered.

  Her sense of fright only grew worse as she approached her apartment building, as if something evil and twisted waited for her inside. There was danger in the air, even though she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

  She waved to the security guy as she passed through the lobby, and he nodded once, very slightly, in return. Everything seemed normal.

  Her sense of dread grew worse as the rattling elevator carried her up to her floor. She could feel her heart beat in her chest as she inserted the key into the lock.

  Stop being paranoid, Jenny, she told herself. Then she opened the door.

  Seth was on the couch, but he was no longer playing the Wii. He faced a girl with deep red hair, almost black, and a long leather jacket who now sat beside him. Her back was to Jenny, but Jenny could see that they were gripping each other’s hands, and Seth’s eyes were closed. His eyes opened as Jenny stepped in through the front door.

  “Jenny!” Seth said, with a goofy smile on his face. Then he seemed to notice that he was holding hands with the other girl, and he disentangled himself and stood up. “This is Mariella.”

  Mariella turned toward Jenny, and a look of shock crossed the Italian girl’s face.

  “You!” Mariella said.

  “Me,” Jenny replied.

  “I’m confused.” She looked from Seth to Jenny. “You said you did not know him.”

  “Wait, you know each other? Now I’m confused,” Seth added.

  “It’s a confusing night,” Jenny said. “Strange things happen when you go out for eggnog. Looks like you two were having fun.”

  “She was reading my future,” Seth said.

  “Really? And?” Jenny asked.

  “We’re all in a lot of trouble,” Mariella said.

  “Yep. Especially Seth.” She walked into the kitchen to put away the groceries, and Seth followed her. She’d already tucked the vitamins into a coat pocket.

  “Where did you find her?” Jenny asked.

  “She came to the door. She said she’s had visions of meeting me in the future, and they led her here,” Seth whispered.

  “And you believed her?”

  “She knew things about me. She knew about my healing touch. I had to see what she wanted, or if she was a danger to us.”

  Jenny put the nutmeg in the spice cabinet, in front of the other nutmeg that was already there, and slammed the cabinet
door. She turned to face Seth. “So. She tells you she’s like us, and you think it’s a good idea to let her touch you? What if she was like Ashleigh and made you her little slave? Did you think of that?”

  “How could she do that when her power is seeing your future?” Seth asked.

  “Why did you trust her enough to take the risk?”

  “I...you...” Seth stared at her for a moment, clearly fumbling for an answer. Then he asked, “How do you already know her?”

  “She showed up at our front door one day, looking for you.”

  “She did? What do you know about her?” Seth whispered.

  “She’s a student here in Paris. Working towards degrees in art history and economics...and Google tells me that her family in Milan are crazy rich. Fashion, media, banking. Your parents would love her.”

  Seth scowled a little at that.

  “She wears gloves all the time, even when she doesn’t know I’m watching,” Jenny said. “She’s either like us, or she’s going to a lot of trouble to pretend she is.”

  “So you knew there was another one of us right here in Paris, and she knows where we live, and you never thought that was worth mentioning?” Seth asked.

  “Excuse me,” Mariella said. She stood at the edge of the kitchen, pointing back over her shoulder at the front door. “Should I be leaving now, or...?”

  “That might be a good idea,” Jenny said.

  “Wait,” Seth said. “I think you should stay for a minute.”

  “Do you?” Jenny asked him.

  “We should talk about this,” Seth said. “Figure out what the hell’s going on. Let’s have some wine.”

  “Sorry, forgot to buy any,” Jenny said. “Let’s go back to the living room. It’s getting crowded in here.”

  Seth and Jenny took the settee, while Mariella sat alone on the loveseat and brought out a golden pack of Fantasia cigarettes and a lighter.

  “You can’t smoke in here,” Jenny said. “You can smoke if you leave.”

  “I am sorry.” Mariella tucked the cigarettes back into her purse. She sat with her hands in her lap, her knees bouncing nervously in her tight designer jeans. She looked like nothing so much as a kid in trouble at school, waiting to see the principal. “Can I ask...why didn’t you tell me about him?”

  “About Seth?” Jenny asked.

  “Is that his name? Seth,” Mariella said, as if trying it on, and she smiled warmly. Jenny wanted to stab the girl with her own stiletto heel.

  “What do you expect me to do?” Jenny asked. “Some girl shows up at my door, so eager to meet my boyfriend she’s practically ripping her panties off, and what am I going to do? Introduce you to him?”

  “Oh.” Mariella’s face fell, and she looked at the floor. “He is your boyfriend.”

  “What did you think we were? Roommates?” Jenny asked.

  “I have not had time to think about it.” Mariella frowned deeply, which pouted out her lower lip. “This makes no sense to me.”

  “I know, he’s kind of goofy, but I stick with him anyway,” Jenny said.

  “Wait, somebody was ripping their panties off?” Seth asked.

  “Quiet.” Jenny knocked her knee against his leg, and she hoped it hurt. “Why did you come back, Mariella? Have you been stalking us?” She asked the question self-righteously, as if Jenny hadn’t stalked Mariella herself.

  “No, I wanted to see you,” Mariella told her.

  “Right. Why would you want to see me, after last time?”

  “What happened last time?” Seth asked.

  “It took time to work up the courage,” Mariella said. “But, I kept thinking...maybe she is like me, and scared. Maybe she has never met another person with strange powers, either. Maybe it frightens her, and so she is defensive.”

  “I’m not as scared as you think,” Jenny told her.

  “I thought...with who else can I talk about these things? I’ve never been able to talk with anyone. The priest, he told me I was making it all up, when I was a child. He told me never to speak of it.”

  Jenny folded her arms. “You’re saying you came here because you wanted to be...friends with me?”

  “Is that so strange?” Mariella gave a small shrug. “I thought, we have some things in common. We could talk about...shopping for gloves, perhaps? I know many fine places to buy gloves in Paris.”

  In spite of her angry mood, Jenny couldn’t help laughing. She quickly covered her smile, but the damage was done. Mariella had broken Jenny’s stern glare.

  “I am very sorry how this turned out,” Mariella said. “I did not know he was yours. You could have told me.”

  “I thought it was better to get rid of you,” Jenny said.

  Mariella looked hurt, her eyes shimmering.

  “You have to understand, though,” Seth told her. “We’ve met others like us—”

  “You’ve met others?” Mariella sat up. “Where? Can we speak to them?”

  “—but we aren’t very nice, as a group,” Seth continued. “I mean, we’re mostly psychopaths. Present company excluded, as far as I know.”

  “The ones who caused us the most trouble are already dead,” Jenny added, raising her eyebrows just a little.

  “What could the others do?” Mariella asked. “Do we all have different powers? Where do they come from?”

  “They’re all different,” Seth said. “We come in pairs. Opposites, like me and Jenny. Healing and plague. Love and fear.”

  “Then I must have an opposite somewhere,” Mariella said. “If I can see the future, then he would...what? See the past?”

  “That’s not very useful.” Seth snickered.

  “It could be, if there’s something in your past you want to hide,” Jenny said.

  “That’s a little more useful,” Seth conceded.

  “Would he be a boy?” Mariella asked. “How could I find him?”

  “Let’s go back to the sociopath-slash-psychopath thing,” Seth said. “If someone like that is out there, odds are you don’t want to meet him.”

  “Give me your hands again.” Mariella stood up and approached him with her palms out. “I need to see something.”

  Jenny watched as Mariella took his hands and closed her eyes. Seth sat there awkwardly, trying not to look at Mariella at all.

  “There are many possibilities,” Mariella said. “The future is always shifting and changing. But one thing I see clearly for Seth is the man who will hunt him down.”

  Jenny sat forward. Mariella might or might not be able to see the future...but if she could, it didn’t mean she was telling them the truth. Jenny thought of Ashleigh’s intricate, destructive little plots and tried to imagine what Mariella might be scheming.

  “I really don’t like the sound of ‘hunt me down,’” Seth said. “Like kill me?”

  “Take you. Kidnap you,” Mariella replied.

  “Who is this guy?” Seth asked.

  “He is older. Some gray hair.” Mariella’s already-closed eyes squinted, and she clutched Seth’s hands tighter, as if she were concentrating hard, or maybe trying to pass a kidney stone. “American. He has soldiers...influence...I think he has a touch like ours. I’m not certain of his power, but his eyes are...” Mariella’s eyes opened wide and she released Seth, hurrying back from him and shaking her head. “He has my eyes.”

  “Your opposite,” Seth said, and Jenny wanted to scowl at him. She wasn’t sure whether they should be helping the girl or not. “Sometimes we have the same eyes.”

  “Like yours.” Mariella stepped forward, looking at Seth, then at Jenny. “Blue. The same beautiful shade of blue...”

  “When is he coming?” Jenny asked.

  “I’m sorry?” Mariella shook her head as if she’d been momentarily hypnotized, looking into Jenny’s eyes. “When is who?”

  “The guy we were just talking about. The one who’s going to hunt Seth down? When is that going to happen? And where?” Jenny asked.

  “Right here,” Mariella said.
“Not far into the future.”

  “We can change that,” Seth said. “Right? We can pack up and move somewhere else, hide ourselves better.”

  “It is possible.” Mariella held out her hand, and Seth reluctantly took it again. This time, she gazed into his eyes instead of closing her own. Seth stared back. It made Jenny uncomfortable.

  “Where would you go?” Mariella asked.

  “The French Riviera might be nice,” Seth said.

  “That changes nothing,” Mariella told him, shaking her head.

  “I don’t know. England?” Seth suggested.

  “No. He finds you there.”

  “Eh...Berlin?”

  “Definitely not,” Mariella said quickly.

  “Italy?” Seth asked, and Jenny gave him a little scowl, which he didn’t notice.

  “No...no....Wherever you go, he finds you. This cannot be avoided.” She continued gazing at Seth, and continued holding his hand.

  Jenny felt suspicious. This would be the trick, convincing them that they had to move in order to be safe. Then the girl would conveniently know exactly where they needed to go. Jenny couldn’t imagine her motivation, but if it was a scam, that had to be her intent. Mariella would want the two of them to go somewhere with her, she suspected.

  “Then what do I do?” Seth asked. “Stock up on guns and ammo?”

  “That would likely lead to your death,” Mariella replied.

  “If anyone comes for Seth, I’ll just pox the shit out of them,” Jenny said, staring hard at Mariella. “Where am I in all of this?”

  Mariella closed her eyes, gripping Seth’s hand tight. Her brow furrowed. After a long minute, she sighed.

  “I can’t see you at all,” Mariella said. “Jenny...it’s like you’re not even there.”

  “Where am I?” Jenny asked. “Can you ask, um, future Seth?”