Restless

by Scott Prussing

  Cali gasped audibly. Leesa understood now why their three visitors seemed so unsubstantial. They were spirits—ghosts—not real people. A year ago, such a revelation would have surprised and shocked her, but after all she had experienced, she now took the woman’s declaration in stride.

  “That’s horrible,” Cali said.

  The woman sighed. “It really wasn’t so bad—we were finally free of the bastard. At last, we had found peace.” She shook her shadowy head sadly. “Until recently, that is.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Leesa said. “What happened? How can we help?”

  “Some power is disturbing our world,” the woman explained. “Those of us who are most recently deceased feel it the strongest. Something is weakening the barrier between our world and yours. The dead are becoming restless. I think someone is trying to pull the departed back into world of the living.”

  “We don’t want to go back,” the little boy said.

  “We hated our lives,” the girl said. “Death has been so much more peaceful.”

  Leesa awoke into darkness, the little girl’s last words echoing in her mind. A glance at the clock showed her it was only four o’clock in the morning.

  She remembered every detail of her dream. She wished she hadn’t awoken so soon, that the three ghosts had had time to more fully explain what was happening. Leesa wondered if the dream was a warning that the Necromancer was close to succeeding in his goal to break the seal between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She couldn’t know for sure, but she needed to report her dream to Dominic as soon as possible.

  She rolled over and closed her eyes, hoping that perhaps she would return to her dream. Either way, she was most assuredly going to call Dominic later in the morning.

  8. A CALL FROM CALI

  LEESA HAD JUST SWALLOWED the last spoonful of her cereal when her cell phone sounded. The ringtone—a snippet from Pink about how her critics didn’t like her jeans and didn’t get her hair—told her it was Cali on the line. Leesa wondered what was up with such an early call.

  Bradley looked up from his second bowl of cereal. Leesa was glad to see his appetite had still not diminished.

  “Let me guess,” he said. “With that ringtone, it has to be Cali, right?”

  Leesa grinned as she picked up the phone. “Yep. Pretty fitting for her, huh?”

  “That’s for sure.”

  Leesa put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Cali. What’s up?”

  Cali’s voice sounded even more excited than usual. “Lees, you got a few minutes? You won’t believe the dream I had last night! You were in it with me. I wanted to tell you before I forgot any of it.”

  The word “dream” pricked at Leesa’s ear. Had last night been some kind of special dream night? She was pretty sure her own dream would top anything Cali might have to tell her.

  “Yeah, I’ve got time. I just finished breakfast.”

  “Sorry to call so early, but I gotta be at work by nine. And like I said, I don’t want to forget anything.”

  “No problem. Go ahead, tell me. What was your dream about?”

  “You and I were up at UConn for some reason. We were walking around the campus.”

  At the mention of UConn, Leesa felt her heart rate spike. She decided she had better take this call in private, just in case, so she could talk freely. She gave Bradley a raised eyebrows look that said it was just Cali being Cali, then turned and headed for her room, closing the door behind her.

  “Go ahead,” she said now that she was alone.

  “They’ve got this really nice cemetery on the north side of the campus. It’s on a long hillside. I walked up to the top with a friend once when I was thinking about going to UConn. You get a great view of the school from up there. No buildings in the way to block the view, like on the other hills on campus.”

  Leesa sank heavily down onto her bed, sitting on the edge. She could not believe what she was hearing.

  “I’ve never been to UConn,” she said, trying to keep her voice even. “Is it an old cemetery like some of the ones around here, or a newer one?”

  “I don’t know how old it is for sure, but no older than the college, I don’t think. It’s not anything like some of those spooky old graveyards around here, like the one you dreamed about with zombies rising from their graves. Why do you want to know?”

  “No real reason. I’m just trying to picture it. It sounds pretty, with the hill and all.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty nice, I guess…for a cemetery, anyhow. It’s what happened while we were up near the top that made my dream so weird.”

  Leesa had a feeling she knew exactly what Cali was about to say—that they had some unexpected visitors. But how could that be?

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Three people seemed to show up out of nowhere. It was a mom and her two kids, I think.” Cali paused again. “The kids were pretty young. I have no idea what they were doing there at night. They all looked kind of weird, though.”

  Leesa could not believe what she was hearing. “Weird, how?” she managed to ask.

  “I don’t really know how to describe it. They looked sort of fuzzy or something. It was dark, so I couldn’t see them too clearly. ‘Fuzzy’ isn’t exactly right, but it’s the best word I can come up with.”

  Leesa was almost beyond being surprised now. She didn’t understand it, didn’t know how it happened, but somehow she and Cali had shared the same vision.

  “What did they say?” she asked.

  “That’s another thing that was really strange,” Cali replied. “It looked they were trying to talk to us—their mouths were moving a bunch—but I couldn’t hear anything they were saying. It’s like they had no voices, but they didn’t know it. Like I said, the whole thing was really weird.”

  “It’s pretty strange all right,” Leesa agreed. She made a quick decision not to tell Cali about having had the same dream, but that in hers she had heard every word the three people said—not until she talked to Dominic, at any rate.

  “Anyhow, I’ve got to scoot to work,” Cali said. “I just wanted to share the dream with you, so you’d know you’re not the only one who has weird dreams sometimes. Mine might not be magical like yours, but this one was pretty strange.”

  “Thanks for telling me about it,” Leesa said. She was not about to tell Cali that her dream might have been more magical than she thought. “Let me know if you have any more dreams like that one.”

  “I will. Gotta run. See you soon.” Cali disconnected the call.

  Leesa stared down at her phone for several moments, wondering what it all meant. She needed to call Dominic for sure now. But there was one thing she wanted to do first.

  She fired up her laptop and googled “triple homicide Connecticut.” The list of hits was disturbingly long. She was about to narrow her search when she saw a link that included “Storrs, Connecticut.” Storrs was the home of the UConn campus. She clicked the link.

  It took her to a newspaper article dated a little less than two years ago. Leesa remembered the woman in her dream mentioning being recently deceased. She began reading.

  By the second paragraph, Leesa knew she was reading about the people she had seen in her dream. A mother and her two children—a ten year old girl and an eight year old boy—had been shot by their father, who then shot himself. The man was a known alcoholic with a history of abusive violence. The article reported that the mother had worked as a secretary at UConn and was to be buried with her children in the campus cemetery. There was no mention of any funeral plans for the husband.

  At the very bottom of the page was a small picture of the three victims. It wasn’t very clear, but it was detailed enough for Leesa to recognize them as the images from her dream.

  She grabbed her phone and called Dominic.

  9. SCARY THOUGHTS

  LEESA AND DOMINIC SAT IN THE SUV, which was parked in front of Leesa’s apartment complex. Dominic had driven over as soon as he rec
eived her call, not wanting to waste any time hearing the details of what she had to say. When Leesa came outside, he had simply slid over into the passenger seat. With the windows down, the fresh, cool morning air flowed over them. Leesa could smell the sweet scent of a nearby morning glory hedge.

  As she recounted her dream, Dominic listened with the same look of relaxed concentration he usually bore whenever she told him something important. He nodded now and then and asked one or two questions to clarify a point, but for the most part he just let her tell the story in her own words. When she finished repeating the details of her dream, she told him about the results of her computer search.

  “I was going to tell you about the dream in any case,” she said. “But when I read the article about the murders, I knew I had to call you right away.”

  Dominic sat silently for a few moments, stroking his trim beard.

  “I was afraid of this,” he said finally.

  “Afraid of what? What do you think it all means?”

  “I think it means that the Necromancer is getting close to achieving his goal,” Dominic said solemnly. “I have had a feeling it might be so, and now your dream points to it as well.”

  Leesa shuddered. “How close do you think he is?”

  Dominic continued to absently stroke his beard. “I do not know. But your dream came to you unsummoned, so something in your magic must sense that our foe is getting dangerously close.”

  This was exactly what Leesa had been afraid to hear. She tried not to show it.

  “So, what do we do?”

  Dominic blew out a slow breath. “Right now, there is little we can do, other than to be extra vigilant. And to increase your practice so you will be as ready as possible for what is coming.”

  Normally, Leesa would have been thrilled to hear that Dominic was going to let her practice her magic more, but not this time—not when the reason was an impending threat from the Necromancer and the black waziri. She had known the day would come eventually—after all, this was why Dominic had imparted his magic to her in the first place, so that she might serve as his secret weapon. But she had hoped she would have much more time to master her powers. She was not ready for anything like this—she was nowhere near ready.

  “How can I be vigilant?” she asked. “I can’t sense when the black waziri or the Necromancer use their magic like you can.”

  “Monitor your technology for any reports concerning the dead returning to life,” Dominic instructed. “Bring to my attention any you deem relevant—like the incidents in Ohio and Massachusetts a few months back. I believe the Necromancer will slowly increase the magnitude of his efforts as he draws closer to breaking the seal. We must stop him before that happens.”

  The wizard’s expression turned grave. “If he succeeds in completely destroying the seal, even your modern militaries will have difficulty defeating the vast armies of the undead he will be able to unleash. Every person who has ever died will be at his disposal, save those whose bodies have completely deteriorated.”

  It took Leesa several moments to fully realize the import of Dominic’s words. She had no idea what the exact number of zombies would be, but the dead had to number in the billions. If the Necromancer controlled even a portion of them, he would be virtually unstoppable.

  “I’ll set alerts on my computer to flag any reports of zombies,” she said. “Most of the stories will probably be mistakes or pranks, but I’ll be on the lookout for anything that sounds like it could be real.” She paused for a bit, wondering if she should tell Dominic about Cali’s dream. Based on what Dominic had just told her, it suddenly seemed less important. Still, she should probably let him decide what was important and what was not.

  “There’s something else,” she said.

  Dominic raised one eyebrow. “Something else? Was there more to your dream? Some additional message from the three ghosts, perhaps?”

  “No, nothing like that. I told you everything about the dream. This is about Cali.”

  Dominic’s expression turned thoughtful. “What about Cali?”

  “She called me this morning and told me about a dream she had last night.” Leesa hesitated for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “It was almost exactly the same dream as mine. She and I were in a cemetery up at UConn, and we got approached by three ghosts—a mom and her two kids.”

  Dominic pursed his lips. He did not appear as surprised as Leesa thought he might, but that was often the way with the wizard. He could be difficult to read sometimes.

  “You said ‘almost exactly.’ What was different about Cali’s dream?”

  “She could see that the ghosts were talking, but unlike me, she couldn’t hear them. That’s the only real difference, as far as I could tell.”

  “Did you tell Cali what the spirits said?”

  Leesa shook her head. “I didn’t even tell her I had the same dream. I wasn’t sure if I should. I decided I’d better talk to you first.”

  “Good choice,” Dominic said. “Whenever you are unsure about something where magic is concerned, it is always best to be careful. I do not know if there is any reason not to tell Cali, but I want to think about it for a bit.”

  “What do you think it means?” Leesa asked. “That Cali and I had the same dream, I mean.”

  “I am not sure.” Dominic’s lips curved into a half smile. “Rather than guess, I think I will follow my own advice and be careful about sharing any conjectures.”

  Leesa was disappointed to hear that—she had been hoping Dominic would be able to explain the strange coincidence. He would tell her when he was ready and not before, she knew. But that did not mean she couldn’t try to pry a little something out of him.

  “Won’t you share even one little guess?” she asked.

  Dominic’s half-smile broadened into a full-fledged grin. “You are becoming as stubborn and persistent as a wizard,” he said.

  Leesa smiled. “Well, you have only yourself to blame for that. You’re the one who gave me magic, and you’re the one who’s training me.”

  “That I am.” Dominic gazed out the front windshield for a few moments before turning back to Leesa. “I will give you one thing, and no more. I believe it may have something to do with Destiratu. It can cause all kinds of unexpected things to happen with magic.”

  Leesa’s eyes widened. She had not been expecting that answer. Destiratu was something she had been hearing about almost since she first met Rave, but she still did not fully understand the thing. It was some sort of rare mingling of magical elements in the earth and the air that caused all kinds of side effects among magical beings. She didn’t think anyone fully understood Destiratu, not even Dominic. She was glad it usually happened only once every hundred years or so—and she would be even more glad when this one faded away. She had no idea when that might be, however. This current one had been building for more than nine months now.

  “When is this Destiratu thing going to end?” she asked. “It seems like it’s been going on forever. How long do they usually last?”

  “No one can predict when a Destiratu will come to an end,” Dominic replied. “This one is not even fully formed. It could get much worse before it gets better.”

  Oh, great, Leesa thought. That was so not what she wanted to hear.

  10. MIXING MAGIC

  “ARE YOU READY TO PRACTICE some magic?” Dominic asked.

  “You bet,” Leesa replied. She started up the SUV. “Where to?”

  “Let’s try somewhere new, to spread around any traces your magic might leave behind.” Dominic thought for a moment. “You have been to Sleeping Giant, right? Can we find the privacy we need there?”

  Leesa nodded, thinking about how large the park was.

  “For sure.”

  Sleeping Giant State Park held a fond spot in Leesa’s heart. It was the place where Rave had captured the one-fang vampire whose blood Professor Clerval had used to cure her mom. The huge park was a popular hiking spot, but there were many off-trail areas
that would provide plenty of privacy, especially with the foliage as thick as it was this time of year.

  “If a grafhym can hide away there for all these years” she said, “I’m sure we can find a nice secluded spot to practice.”

  “Sleeping Giant it is, then,” Dominic said.

  Leesa guided the SUV out of the complex and turned west on highway 66. They cruised through Meriden, passing within a couple blocks of her Aunt and Uncle’s house, then headed south on the picturesque, tree-lined Wilbur Cross Parkway.

  Dominic spent most of the thirty minute drive with his eyes half-closed in thought, so Leesa had no further chance to try to pry anymore information from him. In addition to the trip to the park to help her mom, she had been to Sleeping Giant a couple of times to hike with Cali and Stacie, so she knew the way. Even if she hadn’t, signs along the parkway alerted drivers to the proper exit.

  Figuring they would find a secluded spot more easily by avoiding the main parking area, Leesa pulled over to the shoulder of the road along the park’s border. For all she knew, she could be stopping very near to where her Uncle had parked the night they came here to help her mom. It had been pretty dark that night, and it had been raining besides, so there was really no way to tell for certain.

  As soon as the car stopped, Dominic opened his eyes. He looked out the window at the thick woods just a few feet from the side of the road and smiled.

  “I think this will do nicely,” he said.

  They got out of the car and walked a few steps along the edge of the trees until they came to a spot where the growth was a little less thick than elsewhere. Dominic turned and led the way into the woods.

  He moved carefully, pushing his way through the leafy underbrush and small saplings that grew beneath the larger trees. Anytime he had to bend a branch too far, he held it until Leesa could grab it so it wouldn’t snap back and whip against her.

  This section of the park was even wilder than Leesa had imagined. Low groundcover a foot or two high covered most of the forest floor, and the thin branches of saplings only slightly taller than she was formed a barrier she and Dominic sometimes had to pick their way through. High above, the thick green canopy blotted out most of the sky, allowing them to see only small patches of blue. With no breeze today, the air was still and warm despite the shade. The only sounds to reach their ears were the singing of birds and the rustlings of small animals hustling away through the underbrush.