Earth (25 page)

“Here, Steven, switch with me,” Jodi said,
opening her door.

“Why?” Steven asked as he got out.

“Because, of the three of us,” Jodi started
to explain as she climbed in back, “Michelle knows me best. We have
band together and everything, it’ll be less of a shock if she sees
me first when she wakes up.” I left the engine running for the heat
and the dome light. Steven and I sat up on our knees, looking over
the back of the seat to watch Jodi as she gently slapped Michelle
on the cheeks and tried to shake her awake. “Come on, honey, that’s
it, wake up.”

“What?” Michelle whispered almost too quietly
for us to hear. She took a deep breath and shook her head slowly,
letting her eyes flutter open and focus on Jodi’s smiling,
comforting face.

“Hey, Michelle, you okay?”

“Jodi?” Michelle’s face was a mask of
confusion. She rubbed her eyes and scooted back to sit up
straighter. “What’s going on?”

“We were gonna ask you the same thing,” Jodi
said, reaching out to pat her hand.

“Where are we? The movies?” She asked,
looking out the windows. “Did we go to the movies together?” Jodi
looked at me for a second while Michelle was distracted. I
shrugged, not wanting to say anything that might upset
Michelle.

“Michelle, do you not remember what happened
tonight?” Jodi asked carefully.

“Not really…” Michelle looked at each of us
in turn. “Um, I remember getting ready and leaving my house but…
but I don’t remember anything else.” Her voice grew stronger with
each confused word. “That’s not good. Did I hit my head or
something?”

“You mean you don’t remember anything after
leaving your house? Not even who you left with?” Jodi asked,
gripping her hand.

“No.”

“We saw you slip on the asphalt because it
was still wet and you hit your head. You feeling okay?” Jodi lied
easily. Both Steven and I were careful to keep our faces schooled
into looks of concern.

“Um, yeah, my head does kinda hurt actually.
Do you mind giving me a ride home?”

“Sure, no problem,” I said trying to keep my
voice light and easy. Steven and I sat down in our seats and I put
the car into gear to ease out of the parking lot.

We drove Michelle home and Jodi walked her to
her front door to make sure she got in safe and sound without
falling; she was still a little weak in the knees from shock. I
drove Steven home first and then dropped Jodi off. We decided that
we’d each tell our parents that the other wasn’t feeling well so we
left early not wanting to catch whatever it was. We all three
agreed it was best if we went home and got some rest and would deal
with this in the morning.

My body ached as it only could after
excessive exercise and not enough protein to feed the muscles. I
got undressed slowly, becoming painfully aware with each movement
of the injuries I had sustained and hadn’t noticed until now when
all the adrenaline had faded away. My face was covered in tiny
scratches that were red against my pale skin. I had apparently
twisted my ankle at some point, but not enough to make it swell and
I could still walk with an almost unnoticeable limp. The sleeves of
my sweatshirt were torn almost to ribbons, leaving the skin
underneath ragged and covered in welts. Getting dressed in the
morning was going to be a lot of fun. I prayed the redness in the
scratches on my face would fade enough by the morning that I could
cover the majority of them with make-up. I thanked God the interior
of my car had been dark enough to camouflage our faces from
Michelle. Hopefully she’d attribute any scratches she might have
herself to falling on asphalt.

Once I was finally in my sweatpants and an
oversized t-shirt and the brambles and tangles were brushed out of
my hair, I pulled the covers back on my bed and climbed inside. I
snuggled down against my pillows and pulled the covers up to my
chin, gazing out at the T.V. but not really seeing what was on. I
reached under the collar of my shirt and pulled out the pentagram,
clutching it tight in my palm, letting the metal bite into my skin.
It was comforting though, my talisman of protection. With it and
the covers of my bed, nothing could touch me.

Every time I closed my eyes, Michelle’s
terrified face would flash in my mind. I shuttered and stopped
trying to go to sleep; I opened my eyes and watched mindless late
night programming, allowing myself to fall asleep naturally rather
than forcing myself to.

In the morning, my mother peeked her head
inside my room to see if I was really there, having noticed my car
parked outside. I gave her the story of Jodi not feeling very well
last night so I came home. She was satisfied with my explanation
and withdrew her head, leaving me to pull the covers over my head
and steal a few more minutes of sleep before I decided it was time
to get up and deal with last night’s events.

I crept into the bathroom to get a shower,
not wanting my parents to hear me moving around before I could get
a good look at my face and the scratches that were there. I wasn’t
surprised to feel how sore my legs and back were when I slid out of
bed and stood up. I didn’t have to worry about walking softly to
keep from making noise; I had no choice but to walk carefully
thanks to the tightness in my legs and tenderness of my ankle.

I locked the bathroom door behind me and took
a few moments to examine my face in the mirror before turning the
shower on. Luckily the scratches had in fact faded and were already
healing. Most were close to the edges of my face so I could easily
hide them with make-up. I took a long hot shower, washing the dirt
from last night out of my hair and from underneath my fingernails
and letting the hot water soothe my aching back. I put my make-up
on in the bathroom, not wanting to risk being seen. I hardly ever
wear foundation or powder, so this was not something I enjoyed
applying.

My body was still achingly sore, all the
worse now for the restless night’s sleep, although the hot water
had eased some of the tension from my muscles. I got ready quickly
after blowing out my hair. I was meeting Steven and Jodi at the
café on Main St for breakfast, not wanting to deal with explaining
to the respective parents that Jodi or I were feeling better
already.

Not surprisingly, without me to pick them up,
I got to the restaurant before Jodi or Steven and was already
enjoying my second cup of coffee by the time they joined me. Steven
had borrowed his mother’s car to drive them. From the looks on
their faces and the dark circles under their eyes, their night was
just as bad as mine had been.

“Morning,” I said as they sat down, I didn’t
feel the need to add the “good” to it. They both just kind of
nodded at me, making noncommittal grunting noises. I had already
ordered coffee for them and the waitress came around to pour the
steaming liquid for them, refilling mine for the third time.

“The usual’s?” The waitress asked
politely.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” I said, not waiting
for Jodi or Steven to comment. They were both bent over their
coffee cups, totally oblivious to the waitress. She looked at them
for a moment before looking back to me. I smiled to her as politely
as I could; she nodded with a knowing look in her eye and turned to
walk away. Exhausted teenagers at ten o’clock on a Saturday morning
equals hangovers, everyone knows that.

“So, what are we gonna do?” Steven asked over
his cup, sooner than I expected either of them to speak.

“I’m not sure yet. With Michelle not
remembering anything, it makes it kinda hard to figure out who
we’re looking for,” I said with a sigh.

“Hey,” Jodi said, looking up from her coffee.
“How exactly did you get him to let go of her anyway? I wanted to
ask you last night but I forgot.”

“Oh, yeah, well it was bizarre, I’d never
done it before.” I paused to take a sip of my coffee. “Remember how
I pulled the pain out of your ankle?” They both nodded at me. “All
of a sudden, while I was telling him to let her go, my hands burned
with it. I just reached out and grabbed his arm and pushed it into
him. I think it actually burned him because he screamed and let go
of her and it smelled like a burn. And it felt really hot when I
did it.”

“Are you serious?” Steven asked, incredulity
in his voice.

“What?”

“You burned him by touching him?”

“Well no, I mean, I redirected Jodi’s pain
into him, so it wasn’t just touching him,” I explained
carefully.

“Oh, yeah, I get it,” he nodded,
satisfied.

“So do you think it left a mark?” Jodi
asked.

“I don’t know… maybe?”

“If it did, then we may be able to find the
guy,” she added.

“What, you want to go around to every guy we
see and roll up his sleeve and check for a burn mark?” I asked
sarcastically.

“No, but you know, you could at least rule
out Jensen,” Steven said.

“That’s true,” Jodi agreed, surprising me a
little.

“Didn’t think about that,” I said, glancing
out the window by our booth. The thought that I could clear
Jensen’s name made my stomach flutter. The waitress came by with
our plates stacked expertly in her arms and set them down in front
of us. She reached behind the counter next to us for a carafe of
coffee and refilled our cups without being asked. “Even still, I
don’t actually know it left a mark.”

“Dude, if you could smell it, you left a
mark. I’d understand if it just felt hot that maybe you didn’t, but
nothing smells like a burn.” Steven said knowingly and I couldn’t
really argue with a Fire Elemental about that.

“How am I going to explain wanting to see his
arm though?” I asked skeptically.

“Well,” Steven said as he cut into his French
toast. “Don’t. Just tell him you want to see his arm. If he
refuses, then he’s hiding something.” He shrugged as if it was the
simplest thing in the world.

“Seriously, Shay, why not? I mean, how
would
you explain it? Just tell him you want to see his arm.
If he asks why, just tell him to humor you,” Jodi agreed.

“Yeah, maybe.” I took a bite of my toast, not
really looking at anything. “So say we rule out Jensen. We still
have to figure out who the guy was. Any suggestions or
guesses?”

“Well, we determined that he does this ritual
on Friday’s right? So we have almost a whole week to figure out who
it is or at least where he’ll be this time.” Steven said around
another bite of bread.

“Yeah, I don’t really think he’d be stupid
enough to try a human sacrifice two nights in a row,” Jodi
commented.

“We can only hope, at least. I mean, if he
does, I have no idea where he’d go unless he went to one of the two
places he’s tried already,” I said, picking up my coffee cup and
cradling it in my hands to warm my fingers. I didn’t like the idea
of assuming he wouldn’t try something two days in a row since it
hadn’t stopped him with the animals, but all we could do would be
to stake out the two sites. That would mean splitting up and that
was something I just was not doing.

“Well, I really doubt he’d try Malibu again
since we found him,” Steven said, pointing at me with his fork.
“And I heard the cops are keeping a patrol cop stationed near his
place in Ojai.” That was new information for me.

“How do you know that?” I asked, setting my
cup down.

“We heard it on the radio on the way over,”
Jodi interjected. “They were letting people know that nothing
happened last night because everyone was worried there’d be another
ritual in the woods.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding.

“So you think he’ll try again next week?”
Jodi asked.

“Yeah, I think so. The question is, will he
try Thursday night or Friday?” I said.

“What do you mean Thursday?” Steven
asked.

“Well, remember I said he’s doing these
rituals at midnight so it’s technically the next day?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Friday is Halloween, right? So I’d be
willing to bet money he wouldn’t let Halloween pass by without
doing the ritual then. If he waits until midnight on Friday then
he’ll miss Halloween, but if he does it at midnight on Thursday
night then its Halloween.”

“Ooooh,” Jodi said, comprehension dawning on
her face.

“Dude, you should be a supernatural
detective,” Steven said without a hint of sarcasm. I snorted into
my coffee.

“If we figure out where he’ll be, it’s not
like we can’t stake out Thursday night. Then, if we’re wrong, we
can go back on Friday,” Jodi said a little more
enthusiastically.

We finished breakfast and spent the majority
of the day huddled together in the back room of Oak, Ash and Thorn
flipping through book after book, studying anything we could on
glamour spells, summonings and banishings. Deb had come over to
check on us more than once. We all knew she was trying to pry us
for information on what we were up to, but we all agreed to keep up
the pretense that we were just passing the time.

Fortunately, it wasn’t uncommon for us to
commandeer the library section of the store, so Deb couldn’t really
accuse us of acting out of character. We took notes on anything
that seemed interesting or promising or something we hadn’t already
known. We weren’t sure what we were going to do with the
information, but maybe after a couple of days of study we’d be
better armed than we had been last night.

“You guys sure I can’t help you find
anything?” Deb asked for the fourth time, standing over us, hands
on her hips.

“No, we’re not really looking for anything in
particular,” I lied, keeping my mind blank as she eyed me. I knew
Deb was psychic and had some empathetic abilities like me, but I
didn’t know just how strong and wasn’t going to risk her picking
the lie out of my head.

“But thank you,” Steven added, his own blank
smile on his face. Deb huffed and narrowed her eyes before turning
away from us at the sound of the chimes ringing at the front of the
store.