2 Deja Blue (15 page)

I pulled my bike up to the side of my house and glanced around the yard, looking into the wood
s
behind the house.
I counted at least seven small F
airies. I
also
noticed
that
Simon, from the Royal Guard, was in his human form and lingering amidst the trees too.
Good thing F
airies had that déjà-vu thing working in their favor and that
we
lived in the middle of nowhere. Some stranger standing in the woods would surely draw attention or make
any passer-by
suspicious.
My house was quiet, except for the television which was broadcasting some show on the Discovery channel. My parents were probably in the living room watching an episode
of
some fishing show
.
Ugh. More fish. What was
it
with me and fish lately?  I couldn’t stand them, and now I was swimming in deep troubled waters with
Mermaid
s!
I called out to
my parents
that I was home
, kicked off my shoes
,
and ran up the stairs to my bedroom two at a time. Safely in my room, I glanced out the window and saw th
ree F
airies on patrol on my window sill. You wouldn’t think three small
,
little F
airies could protect me, but in about a second, they could soda-pop fizz into their human-sized selves in the middle of
my room and probably
Kung
-Fu
the
crap
out of anyone who
might be after
me.
Trust me on this fact. Brennan and Anya
gave
me a demonstration to ease my mind when we returned home from Traverse City.
Once I saw them in
Kung Fu
a
ction, I felt pretty safe with F
airi
es lingering on my window sill.

I sat down on my bed and opened the envelope.
Inside it was a folded piece of white paper that looked like a letter. I opened it up and read
the
scripty
-
writing that looked like it was from another time
:

Ruby,

I’ve secured the items I told you about and hid them in the place we decided on. It has been there for several days, but I did not want to alert you to its presence, as I didn’t want to cause you undue worry. I have set up a meeting for tomorrow at noon. I’ve put the key in the ground near the flowers we used against
Sirrush
. You’ll know where.
Do
not unlock the
item
s
until tomorrow. Bring Jeremy to our usual spot.

See you at noon,

Brennan

Huh. Okay…I guess I’ve had something in
my closet for a few days now
and I didn’t even realize it was there. I looked over at
the small, white door with the glass doorknob tucked into the corner of my room. It seemed normal enough. I slowly walked over to it and pressed my ear up against it.
Nahhh
, I’m sure there’s nothing
alive
in there.
Brennan and his
Fairy
-babble.
He tells me stuff, without really telling me stuff
. I suppose some level of secrec
y was necessary…just in case…
well, I don’t know what for,
but
who knows who
or what else is
snooping around. I
just
wanted to pay off my debt to Celestine
as
quickly
as I could
. I didn’t need some other
“
person
”
messing it up for me. I guess Brennan was just being cautious.

Even though it was getting late, I wanted to get that key. I didn’t want to leave it out in the garden any longer than necessary.
I slowly crept back down the stairs, not wanting to alert my parents that I was going back outside. And
,
I definitely
didn’t
need Leo nosing around to
see
what I was doing. I looked down the hall towards his room and
,
through his half-open door, saw him sitting about four inches away from his computer screen
,
engrossed in
a
video game
.
Whew. He’s distracted.
A bomb could go off in the house and he wouldn’t notice it if he’s playing those stupid video games.

I turned the other direction, tip-toed past the living room
,
and headed out the back door to the garde
n.  I stepped out into the warm,
dark night and scanned the yard.
The cool g
rass felt good on my bare feet.
It al
most tickled as I walked through
the yard.
Ever
since Anya had placed those calming spells on me,
I noticed I felt even calmer when I was barefoot on the grass or dirt. Maybe my direct connection to the earth made the spell stronger?
Hmmm.
That’s something to think about I suppose.

Brennan had said
that
he put the key near the flowers we used against
Sirrush
. That would be the Moon Flowers. I saw the bright, white trumpet-like flower blooming all over the yard. Oh great. Which plant did he put it near? I felt frustration and sighed with irritation a
t
Brennan’
s lack of information yet again. I looked around carefully and
spotted something near one of the Moon plants.

Next to the garden swing
,
and
resting
just under the Moon plant, was the pair of my red Converse tennis shoes. The
y were the
very shoes I wore when we killed
Sirrush
. I never leave my shoes outside. I hardly ever wear shoes, unless I’m going somewhere. Brennan must have put them there to clue me into the location of the key. Smart thinking! My “ruby slippers,” showing me the way to Oz…
heh
heh
… I smiled at my own little
Wizard of Oz
joke.
I then
realized that was probably exactly what Brennan intended.

I walked over to the plant and knelt down on
the ground. I scanned the dirt
and started digging with my hands. Just under the soil I found a small, red velvet bag. I opened the bag and dumped its contents
into
my hand.

The
small
brass
skeleton key fell onto my palm.
I closed my hand around
the cold metal key,
carried it back u
pstairs
,
and crawled into my bed. Brennan told me not to open the closet until tomorrow morning. I stared at that little white door for what seemed like forever
,
and I kept
the key clutched in my hand under my pillow.
It
felt
like I was waiting for
a
monster to jump out at me.
How would I ever g
et
to sleep tonight?

Chapter 16

Well, I did manage a few hours of
sleep
after
all.
I called Jeremy
first thing in the
morning
and together, we worked
up the nerve to open the close
t
.
And now
,
here we are,
at the beginning of August, sweat dripping down our faces,
lugging a bunch of rocks in backpacks through the woods
. We were headed
to the beach to meet up with
Anya and Brennan
.
I thought about this whole mess and hoped it would be over soon.
I didn’t know what these rocks were going to do, other than perhaps be used as some kind of bribe for
Grobel
. I just hoped
that
keeping these rocks in my closet would serve as my payment to the
Mermaid
for saving my life.
We wound
our way
through the wood
s, down the
dirt
path
.
I kept my eyes
towards the ground, eyeing the F
airies
fluttering about. I was too pre
occupied to say much during the walk to the beach, so Jeremy sta
rted singing quietly to himself.
I winced and shook my head at the familiar melody
from
The Wiz
t
hat Michael Jackson made famous.

“Come on, ease on down
,
e
ase on down the road
Don't
you
carry nothing
t
hat might be a load
Come on, ease on down...ease on down th
e road!
Pick your left foot up w
hen your right one's d
own,
Come on legs keep
movin
', d
on't you lose no g
round
You just keep on
keepin
',o
n the road that you cho
ose;
Don't you give up
walkin
' c
ause you gave up shoes...”

I shoved his back as he sang,
but
he just kept singing. Ugh.
Like I don’t hear that
song
enough
from my mother in my own house!
Between
The Wiz
, the
Wizard of Oz
and her latest obsession with
Wicked
, n
ow I’ve got my best friend serenading me too.
“Hey,” he finally said as
I followed Jeremy out from behind the saf
e canopy of my tree-lined path
, “It’s
kinda
fitting though,
don
’
cha
think?”

“What is?” I answered.

“The
song.
Duh! Us easing down the road or…dirt path…
and
you wearing no shoes…” I glanced down towards my feet. Oops. He was right
.
I didn’t have my shoes on. Walking bare-foot is just so much more comfortable to me.
I hardly ever wear
shoes
when I come down to the lake.
It’s just
a
habit I guess.
As we headed down the grassy embankment towards our driftwood
meeting spot
on the beach, I finally looked out towards the water.

  There were four silhouettes on the beach. I picked out Anya right away.
She was standing in her halter dress, looking serene as always. And
,
of course, Brennan, wearing his Hawaiian blue board shorts (and no shirt)
stood there
with his
feet spread apart, arms folded over his puffed
-
out chest, looking
like a
tough-guy.
The third individual I recognized as Celestine. Her unique
beauty took my breath away. She stood between Anya and Brennan, with her white-blonde hair blowing in the breeze,
and
she looked absolutely breath-taking. She
was wearing
a pale-green sarong, wrapped around her and tied in a knot at her neck. The loose material clung on every curve,
and
flowed in the breeze ever so gently. I looked over at the fourt
h person standing in the circle. He
was
standing
across from Brennan.  A
lso shirtless,
he was
only wearing
,
what appeared to be
,
black cutoffs
.
He also stood
with his feet wide apart and his arms folded over his
tattooed
chest. He was an inch or two shorter than Brennan
,
but
much broader
. He was almost
stocky in his app
earance, but covered in muscles (and tattoos). His
sandy brown hair was cropped close to his face, and his features were hard and sharp. He would almost look attractive, if not for his large nose that appeared to be smashed…like
it had been broken
about six times.
He looked tough
and
mean.