The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (7 page)

Scooping Jerry out of the bowl, I prepared my evil laugh and opened the door.

The cackle died on my lips.

A tall, lean young man with long black hair lounged against the porch railing, just outside the circle of porch light. I couldn’t see his face very well. His shirt, pants, and knee-length boots were all black as well as his magician’s cape with a huge twelve-inch collar. A live white pigeon perched on his shoulder.

The bird turned its head to the side and fixed me with a baleful stare that made the hair on my neck stand up.

Suddenly, I felt afraid. I leaned back and said loudly over my shoulder to the empty room, “Yes, Dad, I’ll be right there.”

The young man just watched me and I had a feeling he knew I was bluffing. He dipped his hand in his pocket, withdrew a coin, and began to flip it over his knuckles.

We stared at each other for several interminable seconds, and then he stepped into the light and I could see a smirk on his lips. His eyes were bright blue and rimmed with black eye shadow in a way that reminded me of Rafael.

“Here’s your candy,” I said, shoving a lollipop at him before deciding to slam the door in his face.

He was faster than I was. He blocked the door with his arm and was partially inside before he stated, rather than asked, “May I come in ...”

“No!” I swallowed. A wave of fear rushed through me. I tried to slam the door, but he kept his arm there, forcing it to remain open. I know I must have hurt him, but he didn’t even blink.

“Who is it, Sydney?”

I almost jumped out of my skin to hear Rafael’s voice coming from behind me. I whirled to see him casually stepping toward me from the living room. Ajax, his Doberman, prancing at his side.

The dark-haired stranger tensed.

The white pigeon made a squawking sound and ruffled its feathers.

Ajax growled.

Rafael locked gazes with the young man for what felt like an eternity and then, without a word, the stranger whirled on his heel and strode away into the darkness.

My knees suddenly felt weak and I would have collapsed if Rafael hadn’t caught my arm. He locked the door, half-carried me to the kitchen, and gently pushed me onto a chair.

“Who was that—” I began, but cut myself short upon spying Rafael’s appearance.

He was dressed in the oddest Halloween costume I’d ever seen. It was a creation of scarves and feathers artistically arranged over a silvery-glittered bodysuit of some kind. One sleeve was missing to draw attention to his well-muscled arm. His hair was standing on end in an almost two-foot radius from his head, interwoven with a fantastic array of feathers. Silver streaks adorned his eyes along with heavy black eyeliner. I couldn’t decide if he looked like he’d just stepped out of a masked ball or an over-the-top rock concert.

Ajax yawned and it was then that I noticed he sported glitter on his muzzle.

“He won’t come back,” Rafael was saying. “There is no need to worry.”

I just stared at them, but then suddenly frowned. A shiver ran down my spine. “How did you get in here?” I asked.

“I thought everyone had gone to the party, but then I saw the back door wide open and came in to make sure all was well,” he replied easily enough.

I began to nod, but then caught myself and insisted, “But I was home giving out candy!” I also knew quite well that I had closed and locked the back door.

“Were you? I hadn’t noticed.” He leaned against the kitchen table and looked down at me from under long, black lashes. “I was in the greenbelt. I just wanted to make sure the house was safe. We are neighbors, after all.”

My frown deepened. I knew he was lying. I was pretty sure he knew that I knew it too, but I didn’t want to press the fact. I was grateful that he had shown up when he did. Just thinking of that stranger gave me chills. “Who was he?” My voice caught a little.

“No one important,” he said. “He won’t come back here.”

There was a hard edge to his voice and I knew I wasn’t getting any more out of him.

At that moment, Jerry decided to wiggle out of my pocket and crawl across the kitchen table.

“I was just going to ask you how Jerry has fared of late.” Rafael’s handsome face broke into a charismatic smile as he held out a long finger and Jerry hopped onto it. Then he looked at me and added, “Forgive my rudeness, I meant to ask how you have been as well.”

I stared at him. Fared? Who talked like that? I found myself asking, “Where are you from?”

He didn’t reply immediately. He concentrated on gently petting Jerry’s head, smiling down at the mouse for several long moments before quietly asking, “May I know why you ask that?”

I suddenly felt nervous. “Well, it’s just the way you talk, you know. It’s just …”

“Yes?” He prompted gently, his eyes still focused on the mouse.

“Stilted. Odd. I mean, foreign. Kind of British, I guess.” It wasn’t true. I actually thought he kind of sounded like he was from a seventeenth century novel—though at the moment he looked a bit like a rock star crossed with an alien—but I couldn’t bring myself to say that.

“Ah, I see,” he replied, his alluring gray eyes studying mine carefully. “I’m from many places.”

I waited, expecting him to continue, but he didn’t.

Instead, he tickled Jerry under the chin, handed him back to me, and said, “I must be going then. Be well.”

As if he understood, Ajax dutifully wagged his tail stub at me. I followed Rafael toward the door, not really wanting to be alone in case that stranger
did
come back.

There was a knock and I jumped.

Rafael sent me warm smile of reassurance and opened the door.

Harmony stood on the porch, along with whom I had assumed were Zelphie and Marquis. They were all dressed in scarves and feathers of various colors with heavy makeup. All of them looked at Rafael in open concern.

“Everything is fine,” Rafael assured them quickly. He moved his fingers in several quick motions and they all visibly relaxed.

Zelphie turned her attention to me. “I’ve been remiss in introducing myself to you, child,” she said, her eyes crinkling with friendliness. “I beg your forgiveness.”

She was tall and thin, her eyes were the same gray as Rafael’s. In fact, she looked very much like him, but it could have been all the feathers, scarves, and silver eye shadow.

“This is Zelphie, my mother.” Rafael bowed a little at her before bowing in the same manner to Marquis. “And this is my father, Marquis.”

Marquis was different. I don’t know what it was about him that made my flesh crawl, but it did. He didn’t seem related to Rafael at all. He was smaller, almost delicate looking, with a wispy mustache and eyes that I didn’t trust.

“I’m Sydney,” I said, holding out my hand a bit uncomfortably.

They both stared at my hand for several seconds before understanding dawned in their eyes. They both hurried to shake it at once. The whole affair was very awkward.

“Then I must be going.” Rafael bowed at me a little and joined his family on the porch.

“It was nice meeting you,” I said, hanging on the door. I really didn’t want to be left alone.

I watched them walk across the street, through a small cloud of mist in the center of the road, and into their house before I closed the door, locked it, and turned off the porch light.

I was done with giving out candy.

I made a pass through the house and checked the locks on all the doors and windows. I nearly tripped over Tigger snoring in the hall. I shook my head. Some guard dog
he
was. Jerry offered more protection than he did.

I opened my bedroom door and flipped on the light. I jumped a little. There were wisps of mist in my room. Beads of moisture ran down the mirror. My room looked like a sauna. Why was it so humid all of a sudden? Frowning, I dumped Jerry in his cage.

There had been mist on the street as well. That was understandable; it was a cold, drizzly day. But I couldn’t brush off the fact that I was seeing mist in my room even though the window was closed.

Suddenly, I recalled the Stealth-Twig.

I flew to the kitchen, my heart pounding. I rewound the tape and started watching. There were tons of kids skipping on the street, all dressed in their costumes. I fast-forwarded it to where the stranger appeared.

He stood in front of the house, studying it for some time and staring almost directly into the camera for a good couple of minutes before moving toward the porch and outside of the camera’s view. Several minutes passed, when he was apparently tormenting me at the door, and then I saw him walking back into the view of the camera. He paused in the middle of the street, looking angry, making a disturbing chopping motion with his hand as the bird ruffled its feathers from its perch on his shoulder.

On tape, he looked vaguely familiar, but I didn’t know why. He was such a bizarre character that I was sure I had never seen him before. I watched him, searching my memory for any clue as to why I thought I knew him, when it happened.

He simply disappeared.

Where he had been drifted puffs of white mist.

Chapter Six - What Are They?

I rewound the tape and watched him disappear into thin air and a cloud of mist pop up at least a dozen times before Al and Betty came home. Grace had decided to stay the night with some friends.

My mind was screaming that what I was seeing on tape was impossible. Were they really vanishing? Or had they turned
into
clouds of mist?

Still in shock, I waited for Al to take off his costume. He had dressed up as General Patton, so it didn’t take long for him to remove the replica Purple Heart and row of medals pinned to his fatigues.

“Take a look at this tape.” I cleared my throat and shoved the screen his way as he sat down.

“Did we get something?” His eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands in anticipation.

I managed a grunt.

I sat across the table, watching his face as he viewed the video. When he got to the part where the stranger disappeared, he frowned. His thick brows burrowed into a trench as he rewound the tape several times.

I felt an ominous chill sweep through me.

“Well,” he finally said, leaning back and folding his arms. “This only means one thing!”

“What?” I croaked. My heart was pounding.

He got up, still frowning. “This camera is defective! It’s already dropping the signal. I can’t believe that they’d actually try to market this as top-rated spy equipment! From now on, I’m only buying equipment made in the U.S. of A!”

I watched him stalk to the living room, calling for Betty to look up the return policy on the Stealth-Twig, but I knew he was mistaken. There was nothing wrong with the camera.

The stranger had really disappeared.

I watched the video several more times before Al came back to pack it away. Apparently, he had to mail it the next morning to get his money back.

Escaping to my room and still in a daze, I sat down on the bed, listening to the soft squeaks of Jerry’s hamster wheel. Gradually, my numbness wore off and I grabbed my science notebook. Finding a blank page, I wrote down the question
What are they?
And underneath that, I jotted down
A cloud of mist appears after they disappear
.

That meant Harmony had disappeared in the greenbelt incident, as improbable as it sounded.

I brushed aside questions of my sanity and kept on writing.

They talk strangely because they aren’t human
was my next sentence.

Jerry began to run in earnest, making his cage vibrate and inch across the dresser. I watched his little feet zooming along and then a new thought struck me.

And then I wrote
They can talk to animals or read their minds.

That would definitely explain how Rafael had known Jerry’s name.

I shivered.

How many of them
were
there? Were they aliens? If they could disappear, what else could they do?

I eyed the list again. Using this logic, the fact that my room had been drenched in moisture meant that Rafael had materialized in my bedroom. He hadn’t needed a door.

I did panic then.

Stuffing my notebook into my backpack, I left my room and found Betty and Al.

“Anyone want to watch a movie?” I asked. My voice was a little high-pitched. I didn’t want to be alone.

Betty looked up and smiled. “Sure, honey.”

Since he had to work in the morning, Al declined. Telling us both good night, he went to bed.

I found some random movie on TV and sat next to Betty, but within the hour, she was snoring softly with her feet propped up on the coffee table.

I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up all night. Feeling a little guilty about not waking Betty up to go to bed, I got her a blanket and covered her up on the couch. I couldn’t bring myself to wake her up. I didn’t want to be alone.