The Doorknob Society (The Doorknob Society Saga) (3 page)

I was surprised he kept smiling at me and chuckled again. “Whenever I get the chance and that seems to be a lot these days.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something else your dad is probably better off explaining.”

“He’s got a lot of explaining to do.” I narrowed my eyes and kept a watch on Dad as he spoke casually with the men who looked like they belonged in some classic, old black and white movie. “Why aren’t there cops or fire trucks all over the place?” I looked up and down the block shocked that the neighbors hadn’t congregated outside to watch the strange light show and chaos that had ensued.

“Dimensional shift... always happens with Old Kind battles.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but he seemed to think it was such an obvious explanation.

“Um, okay.”

“I better get going.” Slade stepped off the porch and I found myself standing as well.

I wouldn’t have minded if he wanted to stick around since he obviously knew what was going on whereas I knew nothing. I smiled, unsure of what to say to keep him there so I brilliantly said, “Sure, if you have too.”

He walked off with a wave and I watched him head down the block and turn the corner. Nice, good looking and way better off with a girl who wasn’t as broken as me. I shook my head not even wanting to think about it.

“I see you met Slade.”

I turned my head to see Dad walking across the lawn, the two men nowhere in sight. “What’s going on?”

Dad leaned over me and smiled. “Let’s go inside and talk.”

I followed him into the house and he closed the door behind us.

“What’s the last thing you remember that happened in Paris?” he asked as he walked down the hall toward the kitchen.

I entered behind him. The explosion— or whatever had shaken the house— had knocked over glasses and dishes shattering them. Dad grabbed the broom and started sweeping up.

The explosion and the image of the man in black rushing towards us in Paris projected clear in my mind and sent a shiver up my spine. “Running,” I answered feeling like we had finally stopped or had we?

“Let’s say we didn’t quite get away clean.” Dad picked up the dustpan and swept the last of the broken shards onto it. He dipped it into the trash and shook the last bits off.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve had enough of the crazies for one day; I want to hear it all. What’s going on?” Frustration crept into my voice. I didn’t want to sound nasty but I already had one parent lie to me and disappear in the middle of the night. And it scared me to death to think I’d lose another.

“We’re home, Chloe, or the closest thing vagabonds like us can call home. Everything that happened tonight has an explanation but I need to be sure that you’re ready to hear it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The stunt you pulled in Paris was dangerous and then I told you to stay in the house and you didn’t listen. You could have gotten hurt.”

“Maybe if I knew what was going on it would make it easier for me to listen. None of what happened today makes any sense and what about that guy you were fighting? He used your trick to disappear. I’ve never seen anyone able to do that trick but you.”

“Trick,” Dad sighed, leaning back against the kitchen counter. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. I knew he was searching for just the right words. “I always told you I’d teach you that trick someday. The thing is—it’s not a trick—it’s something much, much more than that. It’s time you learned, you need to know everything. That’s part of the reason I brought us home.”

I didn’t like the sound of that and so I kept silent.

“We’re not just here for a pit stop this time,”—he took a breath and then let me have it— “it’s time you went to a proper school.”

“Are you kidding me? You don’t mean—” I shook my head. He couldn’t do this to me. He just couldn’t. This night was crazy enough, I wasn’t even sure what had happened and now he lays this on me? I didn’t want to go to some regular school. I’d traveled with my family my whole life, I’d seen more of the world than most people and that’s the way I liked it.

“Yes, I do mean that it’s time you attended the Paladin Academy.”

“Dad, we talked about this and I told you that I don’t want to go to some stupid prep school just because it’s family tradition. I’m already enough of a freak as it is. And if you think you can do this to distract me from everything that happened tonight you’re crazy.”

Could this day get any worse? Shut up
, I warned myself since it just might. I’d been worried about this since the day Mom deserted us. I was always afraid Dad would decide it was time for us to settle down. I liked our life and all of its craziness; it also kept me from having to think about Mom.

“This isn’t debatable.”

“Just great.” I walked out of the room, Dad following me into the living room. I dropped down on the couch, deflated and wanting to argue but knowing it was useless. “Now are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Soon, but for the moment we both need a good night sleep. We can talk about this tomorrow.”

I didn’t know if Dad was just trying to avoid explaining what seemed impossible to explain or if he knew just how tired I really was. I could feel it in my bones like I had run a marathon or swam the English Channel.

“Is anyone else here?” I decided to give him the night and start fresh tomorrow.

“Nope, your grandparents are on one of their round-the-world trips again. No rest for the retired so it would seem. So the house is all ours.”

“Which room?” Since I was little I had slept in all five bedrooms in the house, never knowing which one I could call mine. If I was going to be here for a while, I hoped it wasn’t one of the smaller ones.

“Since we’ll be staying here while you attend school...”

I sneered at the comment and thought I still might be able to make him reconsider when we talked tomorrow.

“Hmmm, and you never know when your grandparents will be returning or if Uncle Archie will be visiting, so I think you need to have a room where you won’t be disturbed.” He grinned and it got wider by the minute.

I rolled my eyes and scrolled through my texts looking for a distraction. Nothing was going my way and nothing made sense anymore, but then it hadn’t for a while, and so I said, “Any room will do.”

“Alright then let’s see shall we?” And with that Dad walked from the room and headed for the stairs.

I reluctantly followed him up the flight of stairs. We didn’t stop at the second floor, we turned heading up to the third... the attic.

Why the attic? Curious, I continued after him and through the open door and came to a dead stop.

Dad stood in the middle of the attic. Gone were years of collected junk replaced with an old four poster bed and nightstand, two dressers sat off to the sides. I spun around in a circle amazed at the massive space. The only remnants of what it once contained were old luggage and traveling trunks that were tucked in a far corner.

“How?”

“Before your grandparents left we talked about you attending school. They cleaned it out for you. You need a proper room and you always loved this musty old place.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I smiled, not a sight he was used to lately.

“No worries, just remember this feeling of gratitude the next time I ground you,” he said with a laugh and headed for the door. “I got some people coming over to help us move in tomorrow. Sleep tight.”

Dad left me alone and I looked around my new room, my glance settling on my reflection in the full length mirror that sat to the right side of the bed. I pushed my blonde hair away from eyes and behind my ear, my fingers sliding over the multiple piercings I had gotten in the last two years. Dark mascara surrounded my blue eyes... my mom’s eyes as Dad always reminded.

I plopped down on the bed thinking about the last time I’d been in the attic. It had been right after Mom had left. I’d never seen it coming. We were always a happy family, my parents’ show tours taking us all over the world. Dad and Mom were a team and I was the tagalong kid who loved every minute of it. I’d spent more time in foreign countries then I had in the United States.

They always said we’d come back to Cape May for more than a visit one day and I would attend the Paladin Academy like they had. But then Dad had returned to our hotel room that fateful night and told me that Mom was gone and we had to leave. We came here to Cape May and my father and grandparents tried to keep me occupied so I couldn’t think about my mom leaving us, but it didn’t work. I snuck off to the attic every chance I got. I’d bury myself between the old trunks and cry for a mom that didn’t want me. I couldn’t understand why she had left. Had I done something wrong? Didn’t she love me anymore? I got no answers then when I was six and I still have no answers now at sixteen.

Dad never really explained what happened between him and Mom, and I got the feeling he had been as devastated as I had been that she left. We left eventually and returned to being the vagabonds we still are today, traveling from one show to the next from country to country. Never looking back, always ahead.

Dad had said it would be just like always. But it wasn’t without Mom and we both knew it. He told me she loved me and hadn’t wanted to leave me and that I shouldn’t blame her. But I didn’t believe him and I don’t think he believed it either.

It was another one of the Masters’ famous family secrets. We have lots of those; like why was it that our family went to a prestigious prep school that was nearly impossible to get into and that we really couldn’t afford or what exactly was it that most of our family did for a living? I mean I love Uncle Archie but it seemed to me that he had never had a job in his life. It’s not like we were rich or anything. Mom and Dad were always complaining about money.

I had too many thoughts racing through my mind and I collapsed onto the bed yanking my hoodie off and throwing it aside. I shoved my face into the pillow and closed my eyes letting sleep overtake me. The last image I saw before I feel asleep was of the man in black surrounded by crimson light in Paris. He was dangerous. I knew it and I had a feeling he wasn’t done with us yet.

Chapter 3

Status: My new reality is unreal.

I woke up to the sound of the ocean and smiled. No matter how crazy things were at the moment I loved being in my family’s house. I got up and looked out the large window that had a spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean and watched the waves break on the white sandy beaches and for just a moment I thought... maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad. At least I was in what was as close to a permanent home that I ever had, but then the universe, no doubt, would prove me wrong... it always did.

“Chloe, I’m getting our stuff out of the garage I could use some help and you have visitors.” Dad’s shout snapped me out of my musing.

I took one last look at the rough surf and hurried out the door and down the stairs.

I stopped briefly on the front porch, when from the corner of my eye I caught the old swing swaying in the breeze. An image of my parents curled up in it on warm summer nights came unbidden to me. I quickly looked away clearing it from my thoughts.

“Chloe!”

It was one of the few times in my life I remembered hating the sound of my own name. Spending so much time here as a kid, I’d gotten to know some of the neighbors over the years, one of them in particular—Valerie Hobson— and OMG if she isn’t annoying.

“Hi Val,” I said waving while paying more attention to my dad hoisting his duffle bag over his shoulder and wink as he headed into the house.

“I’ve heard you’ll be staying for the school year. I was so excited,” —her face pinched in a frown— “but then I heard you were going to Paladin Academy instead of my school.”

“You heard right, Val.”

“My parents applied for me to go to Paladin but they must have lost my application because we never heard from them,” Val said this as she made a clicking noise with her mouth, as if how dare they not accept her.

I smiled to myself. Score one for Paladin Academy. “I’m a legacy my parents went there.”

“Oh, that must be it then. I mean I’m sure you’re a great student and all but I’m top of my class and have been on the National Honor roll two years in a row. I even volunteer at the animal shelter.”

“Jeez, Val, I just don’t know how they didn’t accept you.”

“I know, right?”

I had learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with Val was to humor her; otherwise she’d drone on for hours on end. And I did not feel like spending a good portion of my first day home sitting and talking to Val Hobson about Val Hobson.

“I better start helping Dad before he gets mad,” I said, trying a subtle hint to get her to leave as I walked toward the garage. But Val followed right beside me, so close in fact I was afraid that if I stopped we’d collide. When I reached the detached garage, I got the dreadful feeling that I might be stuck with her for the rest of the day.

A jingling sound distracted me. At first, it sounded at a distance but then grew closer. I looked at the box I had picked up thinking I’d mistakenly grabbed a box of Christmas ornaments with bells but it was just a regular box we’d stored before our last trip.

I must be hearing things or it would be my luck that there was something wrong with my hearing. I shook my head as I turned around and slammed right into someone.

“Ow!” He yelped as we butted heads.

I stumbled for a second but was able to keep hold of the box.

“Sorry about that,” I said and gave the guy a cursory glance. He was slightly shorter than me with a shock of brown hair that stuck out in all directions. A pair of odd looking goggles with numerous attachments was pulled up on his head and was about the only thing attempting to control his hair. He wore well-worn leather gloves with the tips cut off. His clothes were just as strange as the odd objects he wore. Jeans and a t-shirt were the only normal pieces of clothing while a suit jacket and a vest with a pocket watch that dangled from a vest pocket more then stood out. However, it was the numerous keys and tools that hung from his belt jingling, the explanation for the earlier noise I’d heard that really caught my attention.