DoubleDown V (22 page)

Karen managed to free one arm and started beating at Derek’s back. When that proved ineffective, she tried scratching his face, but he caught her wrist and twisted it until she felt as if it were going to snap in two.  He yanked up her skirt and sent a questing hand under the waistband of her underwear.

Suddenly Karen’s body began radiating heat, more intense than any fever she’d ever had in her life. She shook so violently that Derek jiggled on top of her. Karen closed her eyes and felt all the energy that was building to critical mass inside of her suddenly leap out, like a bullet shot from a gun. She heard a strangled cry that was not her own, and Derek’s weight suddenly lifted off of her.

Opening her eyes and bolting to a crouch, she scanned her surroundings. It was still dark, but there was a flash and the air around her was suddenly aglow with tiny sparkling lights that hovered in the air like fireflies. For a moment, Karen was transfixed by these lights, staring at them as if hypnotized, but then a low moan broke the spell and turned her attention to the body lying a few feet away.

Derek was sprawled at the foot of a large granite tombstone bearing the name JOLLEY. He was unconscious but his torso and limbs seemed to be canted at odd angles. Blood dribbled from one nostril. She whirled around, looking for Bobby. She saw no sign of him, and figured when he saw his friend and co-conspirator flung through the air, he must have bolted.

Which is exactly what Karen should do. Searching frantically, she located her purse, her bracelet lying next to it.  She grabbed both and ran for the exit, the twinkling lights dying behind her. She didn’t stop running until she reached her car.

Penelope brought a steaming mug of tea into the living room. Karen huddled on the sofa, a blanket around her shoulders. Her face was streaked with tears and she was shivering as if she’d been caught out in a snowstorm in only a swimsuit.

“Drink this,” Penelope said, settling on the edge of the coffee table.

Karen sipped, then grimaced. “Tastes funky.”

“It’s got some special herbs in it that will help calm you.” Penelope nudged the cup back toward Karen. “I think you’re in a bit of shock.”

“I don’t even know why I came here.”

“You came because you had something traumatic happen to you and you needed a friend.”

Grimacing through another sip of the tea, Karen said, “No, what I need are the cops. I don’t know why I haven’t called them yet.”

She dug her iPhone out of her purse, but Penelope stopped her with a gentle touch. “And what are you going to tell them?”

“That Derek attacked me, tried to rape me.”

“Tried...didn’t succeed.”

“Only because I stopped him.”

“Stopped him how?”

“I’ve already told you.”

“I know, but what would you tell the police? That you used preternatural powers to toss him into a monument? I mean, you’re certainly not strong enough to physically throw him off, so how would you explain it?”

Karen paused, her finger hovering above the phone’s touch screen. “But...what about Derek? He looked seriously hurt, I can’t just leave him there.”

“Why not?”

Looking up at Penelope, Karen winced at the coldness she saw in the older woman’s eyes. “He could die.”

At first Penelope did not respond, then she lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug and said, “I believe the police make regular patrols of that cemetery after hours; I’m sure someone will find him. And live or die, I don’t think he’ll be much of a threat to you anymore.”

“But what about Bobby?”

Penelope’s posture went rigid. “What about him?”

“He’s still out there, he could be planning something else for me.”

“You really think Bobby was in on it?”

“I don’t know what else to think, the way he disappeared once Derek jumped me.”

“Maybe he was frightened and ran off.”

“Well, that doesn’t exactly speak well for him either.”

Silence settled between them for a moment, then Penelope sighed and said, “Maybe he
couldn’t
help you.”

Pausing with the tea cup halfway to her mouth, Karen frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Karen, I think it’s time I told you something. It may frighten and confuse you at first, but I just want you to remember that I’m your friend.”

A chill spread through Karen, and she found herself glancing toward the front door, thinking about bolting.

“Don’t be afraid,” Penelope said, sitting next to Karen and placing a hand on top of the girl’s. Lightly. “You trust me, don’t you?”

“Yes.” But she didn’t sound convincing to her own ears.

“I’ve been introducing you to a world of magick and wonder, but there are even deeper mysteries that we’ve yet to explore together.”

Karen was wondering about Penelope’s sexuality again, and whether or not this was a clumsy seduction attempt, when the librarian asked, “Where is the bracelet I gave you?”

It took Karen a moment to recover from the whiplash of this abrupt subject change. “It’s, um, in my purse.”

“Take it out and put it on.”

“Why? I don’t—”

“Please, just humor me.”

Uneasy but not feeling unsafe, Karen dug in her purse and pulled out the bracelet. Derek had torn it off her wrist, but she merely had to twine the ends back together. When she was done, she looked questioningly at Penelope.

But it was not Penelope who spoke. A voice behind her said, “Hello, Karen.”

Karen let out a yelp and bolted from the sofa, whirling around to face Bobby, who was standing near the door with his head hung like a dog who had just done something naughty and been reprimanded by its master. How had he gotten in? Karen hadn’t heard the door? Or had he been in the house all this while?

Glancing at Penelope for answers, she saw that the librarian’s face was calm and unsurprised. A million thoughts rushed through Karen’s mind. Was Penelope a part of this? Had she put something in that funky-tasting tea? Was there anyone Karen could truly trust?

“Karen, listen to me,” Penelope said. “There are some things we need to discuss.”

“What is he doing here?”

“Bobby didn’t have anything to do with Derek attacking you, I assure you. He came here to tell me you were in trouble.”

Karen laughed. “And he just happened to know where you lived? That’s ridiculous. You expect me to—”

“Bobby is my son.”

Karen had been inching toward the hallway that would lead toward the kitchen and the backdoor, but she froze at Penelope’s words.

“What? But that’s not possible, why wouldn’t you have mentioned that before now?”

Karen looked at Bobby, but his eyes remained fixed on the carpet.

“If you’ll sit back down,” Penelope said, “I’ll explain.”

“No, I don’t think I’ll be sitting. I want to know what kind of sick game you’ve been playing with me.”

“It’s not a game, dear. I didn’t tell you about Bobby because I was afraid if you found out too soon, you wouldn’t help me. I needed you to get to know Bobby first, before finding out about our situation. I needed you to care about him. Perhaps this was the wrong way to go about it, I don’t know.”

“What are you talking about?” Karen said. “You’re not making any sense.”

Penelope took a deep breath. “I was young when I had Bobby. My religious parents kicked me out. My boyfriend married me and we moved into a little apartment, but soon after Bobby was born Fredrick Jersey decided that he was too young for this adult thing so he bailed. I had to take care of myself and Bobby on my own while working toward a degree. The birth was not without complications, and they ended up having to perform a hysterectomy on me so that I could never have another child. The year was 1980.”

Karen frowned, looking at Bobby and shaking her head. “That’s impossible. That would make Bobby over 30 years old.”

“Yes, he would have been…if he had survived.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

Bobby finally looked up at her, and his eyes were glassy.  “I died when I was nineteen. It was stupid. I was in the park playing Frisbee with a girl I liked. She tossed it way over my head, and I went running after it into the street. I wasn’t watching where I was going, so I never saw the car. I heard tires squealing, felt the impact, and that was it. I died instantly.”

An uneasy laugh escaped Karen’s lips. “You two are insane if you expect me to believe that.”

“You already believe it,” Penelope said matter-of-factly. “Deep down on an instinctual level, you always knew there was something different about Bobby; you just couldn’t put your finger on what. Or you didn’t want to truly face it. But now it is all starting to make sense to you. Why no one else has ever seen him with you, why he has never allowed you to touch him.”

Karen wanted to laugh again, but her mind suddenly sifted through all her encounters with Bobby. It was true she had never touched him or been touched by him, but surely at some point she’d at least seen him pick something up, hold something....

But nothing came to mind.

At that moment Bobby stepped forward. Not around the sofa but
through it
. A small gasp escaped Karen, but she wasn’t as shocked as she felt she should have been. Because Penelope was right—deep down she knew.

“Why can I see him?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“People like us can see the dead.”

“People like us?”

“Yes, natural witches.”

“Then why don’t I see the dead everywhere I go?”

“Because you need a talisman to see a spirit.”

“Talisman, but I don’t have any—”

Karen paused midsentence and looked down at her wrist. At the bracelet the librarian had given her.

“I saved the hair from Bobby’s first haircut as a child. A lot of people do that. I took those fine strands and wove them into this jewelry. The bracelet you wear, the necklaces and bracelets I wear. It enables us to see him.”

Tears were beginning to form in the corners of Karen’s eyes. “But why? Why would you do this to me, this elaborate deception?”

Penelope did not speak for a moment, and Karen saw the older woman had tears of her own. “I think I can bring Bobby back.”

Now it was Karen who did not speak for a moment. Then simply, “What?”

“I believe it’s possible to restore Bobby to life. But I’m not strong enough to do it on my own. I believe you can help me achieve this; you’re more powerful than you realize. But I was afraid if I approached you directly you would say no, that the prospect of what I was suggesting would scare you off, so I wanted you to get to know Bobby first. Not as my ghost-child but as who he is. I wanted you to care about him, then you would see why—”

“Wait!” Karen’s mind had become a chaotic whirlpool of conflicting thoughts and emotions, but amidst the maelstrom a revelation surfaced. “You said no one had seen Bobby with me, but that’s not true. Jacoby saw us together tonight, even said that he knew Bobby and his mother.”

Penelope took a step toward Karen but stopped when Karen flinched. “Listen to me. Jacoby is not who you think he is. He was sent by my ex-coven to try to interfere, to keep you from helping me and Bobby.”

“Stop it!” Karen said, placing her hands over her ears and shaking her head. Was everyone she’d met these past months a fraud? “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

“Karen, you have to hear this.”

“No, I don’t. You’ve been lying to me since I met you, just using me.”

“The friendship that has developed between us is not a lie. The friendship you developed with my son is not a lie. I apologize for not telling you the truth, but I’m desperate to get my son back, to make him whole again.”

Karen looked from Penelope to Bobby, her friend, someone she thought she might be falling for, a boy who had died over a decade ago.

“I have to go.”

“Karen, please wait.”

“No, I can’t deal with this right now. Just please let me go.”

“You’re not a prisoner here. You can leave whenever you wish.”

“Then I wish now.”

Karen started toward the front door, giving a wide berth to Bobby. His face registered hurt, and that stung her a little, but it didn’t stop her from rushing out the door and down the walk to her car.

She locked herself inside and started the engine, wiping the tears from her cheeks. As she drove away, she realized that she’d almost forgotten about Derek and what he’d tried to do to her.

Somehow the betrayal perpetrated by Penelope and Bobby seemed an even worse violation.

*  *  *

On Wednesday, Karen returned to the library for her work-study. She didn’t want to—she didn’t want to be anywhere near Penelope—but she couldn’t afford to stay away any longer. Work-study was part of her financial aid, and if she didn’t get her hours in, she may find herself kicked out of school. She planned to see her advisor about switching jobs, but in the meantime this was it.

Besides, she needed to get out of her room. All Brittany had talked about for the past several days was Derek. He was in the Village Hospital, but as soon as he stabilized, he would be moved to Pennsylvania where his parents lived. Brittany visited at least two times a day.

He’d been in a coma since he was found in the Springwood Cemetery. Police theorized he’d been the victim of a brutal attack, although his wallet was found on him and full of money, so the motive was undetermined. The doctors seemed to think he was going to pull through, though a severe spinal injury meant he might never walk again.

All this Karen had learned from her roommate. Karen had little to say to Brittany about it. She couldn’t tell her what had really transpired, but the truth was that Karen had put Derek in the hospital, and the guilt ate at her.

But she would remind herself that he had tried to rape her, and she didn’t feel quite so guilty...which bizarrely only made her feel more guilty. But should she feel sorry for simply defending herself? Hadn’t Derek gotten what he deserved?