Into the Shadows (24 page)

Torsten reached the group in the middle of the yard,
pounding on the arm of one of the agents. The agent flung his arm
back, striking Torsten in the face and throwing him to the
ground.

“Let go or I’ll shoot!” shouted a gruff voice.

Paivi looked up to see the gun pointed at her own
head.

“Paivi, I love you. Please do what the man says!”
Mrs. Anderson whispered into her ear. She released her grip on
Paivi.

“Take care of your brother.”

Paivi let go, her knees gave out and she collapsed
into the snow. The agents hurried Mrs. Anderson to join her husband
at the back of the van, waiting with its black doors open, ready to
swallow them. Her parents stepped in gingerly, unbalanced by their
handcuffed hands. Paivi looked up and down the street, wishing
someone, anyone, would magically appear and come to save them. She
was sobbing uncontrollably. The Cardinellis house next door was
dark. All of the other homes were brightly lit, and she could see
people standing in their windows, watching and doing nothing.
Slowly the people in each house, not wanting to be seen
eavesdropping, moved away from the windows and turned out their
lights. One by one they went dark, leaving Torsten and Paivi alone
in their pain on the front lawn.

The instant the van door slammed shut Paivi reacted
to the horrible pain burning through her, touching every inch of
her. It felt so much more powerful than the anger. She wailed so
loud it reverberated off of every house on the street. It came from
the deepest part of her soul, now damaged and torn. The vans pulled
away, disappearing in a glow of red taillights at the end of the
block. She took a deep breath and screamed, this time louder and
more tormented. She felt like she was going to explode, every inch
of her feeling so hot that her blood was boiling. She was sure she
would die. She heard the sounds of glass breaking and the rumbling
of an explosion. She opened her eyes, watching as the windows in
all of the houses on the street, save the Cardinellis and her own,
shattered, blowing out over the lawn as if each house had a bomb in
it, set for the same time.

Torsten was at her side.

“Did you do that?” Torsten was in awe.

She managed to find her feet with Torsten’s help.
Her green dress was torn, face bloodied and her beautifully coiffed
hair lie ragged around her face. Paivi’s corsage lay in the white
snow, crushed by the struggle. All that could be seen was a few of
the red petals and what remained of the crimson ribbon.

A light snow had begun to fall, brushing lightly on
Paivi’s bare shoulders.

“Paivi,” Torsten sniffed. “We should go inside. We
can’t stay out here.”

Paivi nodded and he guided her back to the front
steps and into the house as she numbly followed. She sat down on
the stairs, unable to go any further. Torsten left her there and
attempted to secure the damaged doors. He returned to find her
sitting, silently staring off into the distance. He wedged himself
in next to her on the steps.

“Paivi, what are we gonna do?”

She didn’t answer.

There was the sound of sirens in the distance.

“Paivi, please, I need you right now! You’ve got to
figure something out.”

“I don’t know what to do, Tor.” Paivi’s voice was
barely audible.

Torsten looked at her in anger.

“Mom and Dad are gone, Paivi. We’re all alone. We
have to do something. We can’t just sit here. And we can’t stay
here. This isn’t home anymore.”

She hid her face in her hands. It felt like someone
had put her head on upside down and backwards. She couldn’t, she
didn’t want to, wrap her head around the facts. Her parents were
gone. How was she supposed to know what to do next?

“Paivi!” Torsten pleaded.

“Torsten!” she screamed back. “I don’t know what to
do! How am I supposed to decide?”

Her voice echoed through the living room. Torsten
shrank back.

“Ahhhh!” she cried out in pain as her neck burned.
She grabbed at the necklace, which seemed to be the culprit. It
felt like scalding hot water was being poured on her neck and
chest. Paivi jumped up from the steps, dancing around, holding the
necklace away from her chest. It immediately began to cool.

Paivi noticed, while holding it in front of her that
the words on the back of the locket she had gotten from her parents
were moving. She looked at it again, unsure if her brain was
playing tricks on her after so much stress. It was no mistake — the
letters appeared to be floating, like fish in a fish bowl. Some
letters were right up against the surface, and some appeared to be
floating somewhere deeper in the locket.

“What are you doing?” Torsten jumped up, alarmed.
“What are you looking at?”

He stepped next to her, looking at the necklace.

“Whoa! Are those letters moving?”

“I think so.”

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know. It’s never done this before.”

Some of the letters floated closer to each other and
raced to the surface.

“YOU,” Paivi read the first word aloud.

“MUST,” Torsten read, still amazed.

“RUN.”

Paivi waited. The letters returned to floating
around aimlessly. Paivi shook the locket. They continued to float,
some of them bumped into each other.

“Well, where are we supposed to go?” shouted Paivi
in frustration.

The next two words popped up quickly.

DON’T SHOUT

“That necklace just told you off!” Torsten
laughed.

“Oh, shut up.”

The next words came more slowly.

YOU MUST GO TO FRIENDS

“But where please?” Paivi tried to control her voice
and be polite to the locket.

NORTH

“North?” Torsten started, confused.

“Oh, north, to Minnesota. That’s where Mom and Dad
talked about sending us, to Tim and Alissa’s in Duluth.”

“Paivi, how are we going to get to Duluth? Are we
really going to listen to a necklace?”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Do you happen to have any other
ideas? Besides, this appears to be more than just a necklace,” she
said, shaking the locket at him.

The words swirled around and returned to their
original position around the edge of the circle, displaying the
Gaelic saying once again.

Paivi’s mind was spinning. They had a plan. They had
to get to Duluth.

But how?

She started to pace back and froth across the living
room.

She topped and looked at Torsten.

“I don’t want to stay here tonight.”

“Me neither,” he agreed. “But where are we going to
go?”

“I know, I’m thinking. It said we have to go to
friends. Well, the only way we are going to get to Duluth is with
help from friends. But which friends?” She rubbed her temples with
her fingers. It did nothing to remove the dull ache.

“The Cardinellis aren’t home tonight. What other
friends are there?” Torsten asked, running his hands through is
hair.

Paivi thought for a moment. She didn’t have many
friends left. In fact, she could only think of two. There was
Christian, whom she only recently saw as a friend, because he
understood what she was going through. It wasn’t safe to go there,
though. What if he’d had a similar night? She now had her
answer.

“We can’t go to Christian’s, it wouldn’t be safe.
But we could go to Jason’s. I trust him. And his mom seemed like
she was on our side.”

“How far?”

“Three miles or so,” she estimated.

“And how are we going to get there?”

“We walk.”

Torsten made a face. “Walk three miles in the cold?
But it’s snowing!”

“Yeah, I got it, but neither of us can drive and our
bikes are somewhere in the shed. By the time we get them ready, we
could be at Jason’s.”

“I guess,” he conceded.

Paivi began pacing again, thinking aloud.

“We also have to try to get across town without
getting stopped. We’ll have to stick to the backyards.”

She stopped.

“Alright. Go fill up a backpack with what you need.
Take warm clothes, but only one backpack. We don’t want any ATC
agents we come across to think we look suspicious.”

They both ran up the stairs. Paivi darted into her
room. She grabbed her backpack off the floor, dumping its contents
out. She wouldn’t be needing her school books anymore. She changed
into warmer clothes, leaving the remnants of the once beautiful
dress in a heap on the floor.

If I ever come back, she thought, I’ll burn it. I
never want to remember this night.

Into the backpack went as many pants, sweaters,
t-shirts, underwear and socks she could stuff in. In the bathroom
she grabbed her toothbrush and a hairbrush. She ran back into her
room, remembering one last thing she wanted. From the pile of
jewelry that she had dumped out earlier on her dresser, she grabbed
the ornate box that had held the locket she still wore. For some
reason, she felt she couldn’t leave it.

Paivi met Torsten in the loft. They walked over to
the bookcase in silence.
1984
.
The Scarlet
Letter
.
Utopia
.
Heart of Darkness
. One by
one they pulled the books from their spots on the shelf, opening
them to reveal small bundles of money. They each put some in their
pockets and in their backpacks. They placed each book gently back
in its place.

They stopped in the family room one last time. Paivi
took a deep breath and looked around. Torsten was right. It didn’t
feel like home anymore. She picked up a picture frame that had been
knocked to the floor earlier. It was a photo of the family on their
last vacation. Those were better days, a beautiful, sunny day on
the beach. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. She shoved the frame
into her over-stuffed backpack.

“I think we’re ready,” Paivi put on her winter coat,
pulling up the hood. She wound a scarf around her head, covering
her nose and mouth.

“Aren’t we taking our EOS badges?” Torsten gestured
to the device on the kitchen counter where the badges were glowing
brightly in the dim light.

“If we can help it, we’ll never wear them again.
Let’s go.” Paivi opened the broken back door. “I don’t want anyone
to see us leave.”

Torsten shut the door as best he could and pulled up
his hood, tying it tight to keep the wind out. It was snowing
lightly — giant, fluffy flakes that floated through the air.

They set off through the backyards, disappearing
into the shadows.

Paivi wove Torsten through the maze of backyards and
alleys, avoiding the main streets until they reached downtown St.
Andrew. They needed to cross the river, unfortunately there were
only three bridges across and each of them was extremely busy,
being the only way over the Fox River for miles around. There was
also no chance of hiding in much of the downtown area. They would
be completely exposed. Paivi decided they should just act natural,
like they had full rights to be out walking around. This wouldn’t
have been true even if they weren’t subject to EOS rules, they were
still out past the city curfew.

They had some advantages, however. Paivi and Torsten
were both tall for their ages, and what with being bundled up,
their young faces were hidden. Also, downtown was also home to the
train station and the bus depot, and it wasn’t unusual for people
to be walking around that area so late at night.

Paivi took a deep breath as they began to cross the
bridge. Fat flakes landed on the cement in front of her, adding a
clean layer to the pavement. She glanced over the side of the
bridge, watching as the snow landed on the swirling water and
disappeared as it hit the surface.

Paivi jumped slightly as Torsten whispered her name.
She turned to the street and felt her heart drop into the pit of
her stomach. Through the snowflakes she could make out the front
end of a black car that was driving quite slow as it approached
them.

“Keep going,” Paivi hissed back at Torsten.

As the car pulled slowly towards them, she was
slightly relieved to see the car also had a white stripe and the
St. Andrew Police logo on the door, marking it as a police cruiser
instead of an ATC vehicle. The car reminded her of her father. She
thought back to how he used to give her rides in the police cruiser
when she was younger. She thought it was cool to sit behind the
bars back then. She pulled herself away from those thoughts — she
had to stay focused. The police were far from friends. They could
still ask to see identification, which neither of them had.

The police cruiser paused next to them, and the
young officer in the passenger seat caught Paivi’s eye. Not sure
what else to do, she nodded in a polite greeting. Behind the glass,
the officer did the same, and they picked up speed, driving up the
hill on the other side of the river and out of sight in the now
heavy snow.

Paivi sucked in the cold air, realizing she had been
holding her breath.

“That was close, Paivi,” Torsten whispered.

“It’s okay, we’ll be there soon.”

Paivi and Torsten trudged up the street, the bridge
behind them. They passed Al’s Café, Armand’s and Nora’s Dress Shop.
The holiday decorations glittered in the snow. Paivi shivered as
she surveyed the scene. She had loved this town. And this would be
the last time she would see it for a while. Maybe forever. Torsten
was right — St. Andrew wasn’t home any more. That had been made
that quite clear.

They had reached Jason’s neighborhood, however Paivi
wasn’t as familiar with the backyards and alleys, so they had to go
much slower. She wanted to avoid being seen by any of the
neighbors. Their efforts were hampered by the thick snow building
at their feet.

They finally made their way to Jason’s backyard,
parking themselves behind the shed. Paivi gave a great sigh of
relief and leaned up against the metal wall. They made it.