Earth (19 page)

“I don’t know, honey,” she came around the
counter and hugged me tightly, “but I don’t want to pretend like
that’s not a possibility and then be wrong.” Just then the bells on
the door chimed as two older women came in and started browsing the
shelves. “Take the rest of the day off; don’t go back to school
ok?”

“I won’t.” I hugged her again and left the
warmth of the store. I turned the car on and sat there idling for a
few minutes to let it warm up. It bothered me that Deb had taken
the page, but I knew she was only trying to protect me. Luckily, I
had spent so much time studying the symbols they were practically
burned into my mind; I knew if I saw any of them again I would
remember them. And now I knew they were runes, so I had a place to
start. Once the interior of the car had warmed up enough that my
shoulders relaxed, I put the car in gear and took off, heading
straight for the bookstore.

I knew Oak, Ash and Thorn had plenty of books
on runes and sold a variety of the little stones, but I also knew
that Deb wouldn’t let me buy them after our little talk. I had
never given much thought to runes. They were primarily a Norse
system and my family was not Norse. I read Tarot and Medicine cards
occasionally because that’s what my mom read; these things are
usually passed down from generation to generation. But I knew that
the major bookstore chains, with their large Occult sections, sold
Tarot decks and instruction books, so it stood to reason they at
least sold books on runes.

Twenty minutes later and I was sitting
cross-legged on the floor in the Occult section, a few books
scattered around me and one in my lap. It turned out most of their
rune books were sold in a box with a pouch full of runes; you just
had to decide on what color combo you wanted.

The concept of reading the little stones
seemed simple enough, very similar to reading card systems, just
with fewer items. However that made interpretation and intuition
all the more important to the caster. I wasn’t interested in
telling the future right now. I wanted to know why just having the
symbols drawn out seemed to upset Deb so much. Eventually I had
read enough from different books to come to the conclusion that
there was a general consensus that if the caster has enough belief
they can charge the symbols to work like any spell would.

I sighed, realizing that the hourglass-like
symbol was for binding a prisoner, and the complex one Deb had
shown me was very popular among casters hoping to help soldiers
going into battle. But like any good thing in magic or religion,
these bastards had obviously meant to pervert it and use it for
their own evil desires. I bought a set of runes that were black
with silver inlaid in the symbols on the wood chips. They reminded
me of a black candle, which most people think is a bad thing, but
really it symbolizes light emerging from the dark. A very positive
thing when you stop to think about it.

As I was walking back out to my car, my phone
went off in my bag. I shuffled through the contents to find it.
Jodi had sent me a text message asking if I’d be there to pick them
up after school. I checked the time and realized the day had gotten
completely away from me; school was letting out in a half hour. I
responded with a yes and jumped in my car to get across town
quickly.

“Hey, dollface,” Steven said as he climbed
into the backseat.

“Hi,” Jodi said as she sat in front, pulling
the door closed behind her.

“Hey,” I responded and pulled away from the
curb as quickly as possible. “You guys hungry?” I asked, having
realized on my way over there that I had completely forgotten to
eat lunch.

“Actually, yeah,” Steven said as he leaned
forward to hear us over the engine. “Ever since we cast the other
night I’ve been ravenous.”

“Me too,” Jodi said, touching her
stomach.

“Yeah, it takes a lot of energy out of you,
especially if you don’t prepare beforehand and we didn’t, so it’s
only normal that your bodies are reacting to it. Kinda like
whiplash.”

“So why the day off? You rarely ditch,”
Steven asked. “I mean, you’re not sick.”

“No, but,” I slowed to a stop at a red light
and pulled back the sleeve of my sweater to show them the bruises
that had blossomed all over my wrist. They both gasped audibly,
shrinking back away from me for a second. Jodi grabbed my arm to
pull it closer to get a better look. I winced, but she didn’t
notice.

“Who did this?” she demanded angrily.

“I did.”

“What?” they said together.

“I had a dream last night and I had tried to
jump from a cliff to get away from something and it caught me to
try to pull me to safety and I woke up with that,” I nodded towards
my arm. “Anyway that’s not the most important part. I went to see
Deb today about what we saw in the scrying bowl –”

“Whoa! What?” Steven cut me off.

“I didn’t tell her it was in the scrying
bowl. I told her I had a dream and saw it.”

“Oh… Ok. Continue,” Steven said more calmly
now.

“Anyway, I wanted to know if she knew what
those symbols meant so we could figure out what’s going on.” I
pulled into a parking space outside of the dive café we liked on
Main St. and got out, not waiting on the other two to follow.

Once inside, I glanced around to make sure
there weren’t any eavesdroppers, but we were one of only three
tables, none of which were next to each other. We all ordered
quickly to get the waitress to stay away so I could finish. I told
them what I had learned from Deb and pulled out the book on runes I
had bought.

“So you think they’re using rune symbols to
create a binding on someone?” Jodi asked, flipping through the
pages of the book.

“Yeah, I do. I think the police are right and
they’re hoping to get someone and perform a human sacrifice. And I
think Deb thinks so too because she really didn’t like the fact
that I had sketched out the symbols we saw.” The waitress came
around with two cokes and a cup of coffee for me. I held the warm
cup in my hands, letting the heat relax my bones.

“Have you figured out why they’d want to
sacrifice a human?” Steven asked. He was examining the runes that
came with the book.

“No. I’ve never learned to read runes; I
imagine the answer is in the ones they drew. Or maybe the layout
they put them in,” I said, adding cream and sugar to my coffee.

“None of these look like what we saw though.
They’re all more simple than what they had drawn out,” Steven said,
looking up at me.

“That’s because they’re all a combination of
two or more runes. See, remember the sideways hourglass?” I reached
for the runes and laid out two, one with a drawing that looked like
an hourglass missing one flat edge and one that had a straight line
with a small diagonal slash mark on it. “If you were to draw these
two to make one design it would look like that and that’s the one
Deb said is for binding a prisoner.”

“Hmm, yeah, I see that,” Steven nodded
slowly, studying the runes.

“Great, so we know two out of nine, piece of
cake,” Jodi said sarcastically, putting the book down and pushing
it away from her.

We changed the subject when the food came;
animal slaughtering and human sacrifices aren’t exactly appetizing.
We agreed we would try to figure out the purpose of the spell.

“So, you realize of course, because you were
absent it gave us an excuse to start planning your birthday,”
Steven said, sounding very self-satisfied.

“Oh yesssss,” Jodi perked up at the new
topic. I just groaned.

“And you’ll be happy to know that a few
people are interested in helping. It should be quite the bash,”
Steven continued before taking a huge bite out of his burger.

“What other people?” I asked, a little
surprised.

“Well, Tracy for one,” Jodi answered, popping
a fry into her mouth. “Ever since that night you helped her with
Nick she’s your biggest fan. And of course that means her friends
want to help too.”

“Great,” I mumbled.

“Hey, we’re out there battling the
supernatural almost everyday. You can let us have a little mundane
fun once in a while,” Steven said around a mouthful of burger, Jodi
grimaced at the display.

“Who’s stopping you?” I asked.”

“Well, at least you’re going along willingly,
if not enthusiastically,” Jodi said. “So we’ve decided on a costume
party on Halloween since it’s actually on a weekend day this year.”
I wasn’t surprised at all.

I sighed and let them go on about the plans
for costumes and decorations, occasionally asking me what I’d like
rather than making the decision for me. I loved them for it, I
really did, but I couldn’t seem to get too excited about it. I just
couldn’t stop thinking about the black robed man and the sinister
knife that came too close to striking.

Chapter 11

In the magical world, the number three is
very powerful. You’ve seen it everywhere; it’s very predominate in
religion too (think of the Holy Trinity). Today was Wednesday. If
the second animal sacrifice finished after midnight on Saturday
night, then it would have been cast and sealed Sunday, which would
make today three days later. I had a horrible feeling about today,
especially after having yet another potentially close call with the
black robed man in my dream last night, but when I woke up I could
hear the storm raging outside. I climbed out of bed and shivered as
the warm covers slipped away from me. I grabbed my robe and pulled
it tightly around me before pulling the curtains away from the
window to look outside.

The trees in our backyard were whipping
around like some strange tribal dance. Rain pelted the window hard
enough to sound like stones thrown against it and the various
things that you end up leaving in the backyard were being rolled
around in the wind. I stared wide-eyed and a little confused. I
hadn’t sensed this coming. That really scared me. It was so cold
outside my breath was fogging up the windowpane.

“Crap… school’s gonna be a lot of fun,” I
muttered to myself, thinking of all the extra traffic there would
be.

I got ready as quickly as I could, pulling on
my black rain boots with white polka dots my dad had teased me over
getting, saying that I’d never need them. I also pulled on a beanie
hat all the way over my ears; no matter what you did today it
wouldn’t make a difference to your hair, so I might as well be
warm. After I was bundled up head to toe, I grabbed my backpack and
lunch from the fridge to leave.

“Hey, honey,” I heard my mom call from the
living room just as I touched the front door knob.

“Yeah?” I called back over my shoulder.

“You sure you want to go out in this?” she
asked, coming into view around the corner. “The news says
everything’s flooded.”

“Well I m –” I stopped short, coughing to
cover my slip. I had almost told her I missed yesterday so I had to
go, but she didn’t know that. “I’m Jodi and Steven’s ride, they’d
be stranded.”

“I don’t know…” she looked out the window by
the front door, worry lines creasing her face.

“If it’s too bad I’ll turn around and come
back, deal?”

“Ok, but you be really careful! You hear
me?”

“Yes, mom,” I said in the standard teenager
you’re-being-ridiculous tone. She smiled and gave me a hug and I
was out the door. Thank God for the rain boots; our front yard was
a small pond; even our front walk was underwater. I splashed over
to my car. Luckily, the water wasn’t up around the door so I was
able to get in without flooding the floorboards. Steven was waiting
at Jodi’s house for me as usual. They had both hidden inside until
I was right in front of her house so they could make a mad dash for
the car.

“Dude! What the hell?” Jodi asked.

“I didn’t know it was coming,” I said,
putting the car in gear and easing out into the road. I saw Jodi’s
look of horror out of the corner of my eye when I admitted to not
sensing such a violent storm. “But I had a thought.”

“What?” Jodi asked. Steven leaned in to
listen.

“Well, if the second ritual was finished
after midnight Saturday, then it was really Sunday when they did it
and that would make today three days later.”

“So?” Steven asked, not catching on.

“So, you think it’s the power of three?” Jodi
asked. I saw Steven’s face contort in the rearview mirror, as if
that was the most obvious thing in the world for him to have
missed.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, gripping the steering
wheel tightly as we turned onto a road with much higher water
levels. “Ugh! Sometimes I swear to God I hate California!” I said
loud and angrily.

“Dude, this never happens here,” Jodi said
confused.

“I know! So the stupid city makes the roads
dip down in the middle so the water collects rather than runs off.
The roads should come up in the middle so the water goes to the
gutter. Freaking idiots!” I had lost what little patience I had in
the morning; Jodi and Steven just stared ahead. At this rate I knew
we’d be getting out into two or three feet of water when we
parked.

I merged into the line of cars making their
way into the high school parking lot at less than a mile an hour
and just sighed. I had given up on getting to class on time when
the water level became high enough to be a river. We inched forward
with the other cars until finally coming around the corner on to
the side road that led to the parking lot. There were a lot of full
cars passing us on the other side with disgruntled drivers.

“Dude, look,” Steven said, pointing towards
the parking lot entrance, “they’re turning people away.” And sure
enough I saw a crossing guard and campus police with flashlights
forcing people to turn around in the driveway to leave.

“You don’t think they’re gonna make us park
somewhere else and walk farther in this crap, do you?” Jodi asked
sounding as angry as I was getting. I pulled into the driveway,
rolled my window down a little.