The Seal of Oblivion (4 page)

“Sorry,” Sakura said ducking down
to clean up the broken glass after putting the other glasses down.

“I…” Laqiya bent down to pick up
the fallen root beer. “It’s fine…”

“You okay?” Isis asked taking the
soda from her to put back in the fridge and get another.

“Yeah,” Laqiya said blinking out
her stupor. She turned her gaze away from Sakura.

“You’re so clumsy Sakura,” Adria
said bending down to help the said girl.

Laqiya looked at Isis, back to
Sakura, and then at Isis again.

“What?” Isis asked looking at
Sakura and back at Laqiya.

“Sakura has a power,” Laqiya said
slowly. “She was floating that glass.”

“Levitating,” Isis corrected and
then said, “I wonder if she knows.”

“She has to. She dropped it when
she saw me looking,” Laqiya said and then thought about earlier in the park
with Adria and the strange winds. Nightshield had given the girl a weird look
before. Was it possible…?

She started to ask Sakura and Adria
about the strange occurrences that had happened around the two that day, but
stopped when she saw a white dove standing outside of the glass doors. It was
looking in at them as if waiting patiently for one of them to come to the door
and let it in.

Laqiya took a step back. The bird
looked at her expectantly with its beady black eyes. She jumped back at the way
it cocked its head in the manner of a pigeon. Then she remembered doves were in
the pigeon family.

Isis followed Laqiya’s gaze to the
dove, and noticing the silence, Adria looked up. She sighed.

“You again?”
Adria asked.

“You know that bird?” Laqiya asked
not taking her eyes off the dove.

“Yeah, I’ve known it for years,”
Adria replied. “Let her in.”

“No,” Laqiya said too late, for
Isis had already opened the door. It flew inside, and Laqiya let out an ‘eep’
and bolted to the table. It landed to rest on Adria’s head.

“What is wrong with you?” Sakura
asked bluntly.

Isis giggled. “She’s afraid of
pigeons…”

“Dove’s not a pigeon,” Adria said
appearing to be holding back laughter.

“Doves are just white pigeons. Keep
that thing away from me!” Laqiya said in a raised voice.

Almost as though sensing her fear,
the bird flew to Laqiya, who ducked under the table to get away from her.

“Go away,” Laqiya yelled.

“Dove!”
Adria said going over to grab the bird.

It cooed, and Laqiya said from
under the table, “She doesn’t like that name.”

“When did you become the animal
psychic?” Sakura asked.

“My entire life.
Now put that thing in a cage or something!”

For the rest of the day, Laqiya
kept her distance from the bird, which seemed to enjoy bothering her. It wasn’t
until her mother put it out that she finally found relief from her fear. It
still hung around outside the house though, even as they settled down early in
the evening to watch horror movies with pizza and junk food.
 
But the point was, to Laqiya, it wasn’t in
the house. An hour or so later, Miss Robins came down the steps dressed in a
long black dress and a witch hat.

“Ma, you still don’t celebrate
Halloween… right?” Laqiya asked.

“No Laqiya,” the woman said
patiently.

“Where are you going?” Laqiya
asked.

“My parents invited you to their
masquerade party, didn’t they?” Sakura asked dryly.

“Your mother was quite eager to
have me come. But she’s a business woman. I suppose she wants to get on my good
side,” said Miss Robins.

“You actually dressed up?” Laqiya
asked raising an eyebrow.

“I couldn’t just turn them down.
Besides one masquerade party won’t change how I feel about Halloween,” Miss
Robins said with a shrug. “Okay girls stay inside. Sakura, your mother said
you’re allowed to stay until the party is over. She’ll send someone to come and
get you, and Adria just call your mother and let her know where you are.
Makicia and Malicia went to a Halloween party. They’ll be spending the night so
don’t expect them back. “

The girls nodded absently as the
suspense began to build in the movie capturing their attention.

“See you all later girls.”

“Bye,” the girls chorused.

No sooner than ten minutes later
did the doorbell ring. Laqiya got up, looked out the peephole, and then rolled her
eyes as she cracked the door ajar.

“Trick or Treat,” the children
chorused.

“Sorry, but we’re not
participating. Have a good night,” Laqiya said automatically as she shut the
door wondering if they had seen that the porch light wasn’t on. Then again there
were the lights along the pathway that came on every night.

She went back to the couch, telling
Isis to turn up the movie. Instead, Isis frowned and muted it completely.

“What is it Isis?” Sakura asked.

“Do you all hear that?” Isis asked.
“It sounds like someone’s throwing something, and its cracking.”

Laqiya paused and then said, “I
hear it too.”

A moment later, Laqiya gasped in
realization.
“Oh no they didn’t!”
she exclaimed as she
got up and went outside just in time to see the four children she had seen at
the door running away.

She went around to the garage door
and groaned.

“Ugh! Little brats,” she growled as
she went back into the house and sat down.

“What happened?” Adria asked.

“They egged the garage door.”

“Not surprising,” Adria sighed. “The
children around here do it all the time. They’re not going to be the last
children tricking tonight.”

To Laqiya’s dismay Adria had been
right. Not only had the garage door been egged again, but there was shaving
cream sprayed on and in the mail box, the word trick had been written on the
garage door with spray paint, someone managed to get a mouse in (which was
fortunately quickly taken care of by Nightshield) and there was tissue
decorating the trees.

“I hate Halloween,” Laqiya growled
at eight thirty or so.

“It will all be over soon, trick or
treating ends—
Does
this couch have a vibrator or
something in it?”

“No,” Laqiya said. “Why?”

“No. She’s right,” Isis said.
“Something is shaking…”

The ground abruptly began to shake
violently, and all four girls screamed as they fell off the couch.

“Earthquake!”
Sakura yelled crawling under the coffee table

Laqiya shook her head, a tingling
feeling similar to an electric shock making her hair stand on end and telling
her this wasn’t normal.

“This isn’t just an earthquake,”
she yelled.

Sakura looked at her in disbelief
asking, “
This
isn’t an earthquake?”

Laqiya nodded, stood on wobbly legs
and grabbed a flashlight from the entertainment center. “Come on.”

“Laqiya, wait!” Adria yelled going
to grab another flashlight.

“No! It’s Halloween. You can’t just
leave!” Sakura exclaimed.

“Isis, stay with Sakura so she
doesn’t have a conniption,” Laqiya yelled behind her as she went outside to
investigate.

“Who’s there?” Laqiya asked trying
to calm her nerves. She never knew their yard was so big and could be so dark,
even with the lights on the pathway. “You would think they’d have more street
lights around here…”

“Laqiya look!” Adria

Laqiya turned around, her
flashlight catching movement from behind one of the bushes.

“Stupid kids,” Adria said. “Stop it
or you’ll regret it. This isn’t a joke anymore. We don’t know what you did
but—”

Someone chuckled. Actually it
sounded like more than one person. It was unnerving, Laqiya thought. She never
knew chuckling could be that way.

“Little girl thinks she’s so great,
because she can make the wind blow,” smooth masculine voice said.

“Let’s make the kitties growl.
They’re so cute when they growl.”

“Did that sound totally wrong to
you?” Laqiya asked Adria.

“Oh yeah,” Adria said flashing the
light in the directions of the voices.

Laqiya screamed as what felt like a
water balloon thrown by a professional baseball pitcher hit her in the chest.
The water dripped down her front as she gasped trying to get her wind back.

“Laqiya are you alright?”

“Move out the way,” Laqiya managed
despite her lack of oxygen.

“What?” Adria said.

Laqiya pulled her down to duck what
this time looked like a tree branch and then stood up. She pushed her hands out
and one of their assailants flew back into the garage door. Laqiya heard a
frustrated groan.

“What’s going on?” Sakura’s panic
filled voiced said as she came outside with Isis, apparently having overcome
her previous fear.

“Get out the way!” Laqiya said flashing
her light on Sakura as she sensed an attack.

Three sharp twigs flew towards
Sakura and she put out her hand as though to stop them in mid-air. To Laqiya’s
surprise, they stopped and dropped harmlessly to the ground.

“Laqiya, what’s going on?” Sakura
asked turning to look at Laqiya as though she hadn’t done anything spectacular.

Laqiya started to answer and then
fire her own question until she saw the rocks on the way to hit the girl’s
head.

“Sakura!”
Laqiya yelled pointing to the rocks.

“Move!”
Isis yelled grabbing Sakura and jumping… on top of the house.

“How’d you do that?” Sakura yelped
nearly falling off the roof in her fright.

“Mind over matter,” Isis said.
“Literally.”

“Adria,” Laqiya screamed as she
headed towards her friend, sensing one of their attackers closing in on her. An
invisible force pushed her
,causing
her to fall
backwards.

“Darn it,” Laqiya said scrambling
clumsily to her feet as she tried to get to the girl and tripping twice along
way. It was too late though. One of the attackers and Adria disappeared.

“Laqiya,” Sakura screamed as one of
the attackers appeared on the roof in front of her. Laqiya looked around
finding Isis on the ground, struggling to get out of a bush.

Laqiya started in Sakura’s
direction only to be grabbed from behind.

“Nightshield!” she yelled
instinctively as though some part of her knew who to call as she struggled
against her attacker.
“Help Sakura!”

As Sakura fell off the roof,
Nightshield caught her in mid-air, landing gracefully next to Isis who was
struggling to get her bearings straight.

“You have a bad weakness little
girl,” the attacker whispered in her ear, and Laqiya used what was probably one
of the only useful things she learned from her absent father. She kicked
backwards, hoping to catch the man in the knee. She missed, but distracted the
man enough to pull out of his grip and cluster with Nightshield, Isis, and
Sakura.

“Where’s Adria!” she demanded.

“Come and get her,” both men said,
and Laqiya felt their presence disappear.

“Come on,” Laqiya said to everyone
and stormed ahead.

“What? Laqiya, Adria was just
kidnapped by a bunch of perverts. We have to call the police!” Sakura said.

“They aren’t normal perverts. The
police can’t do anything with them. I stand more of a chance by myself.”

“What do you mean not normal
perverts?!” Sakura asked.

“I mean they followed me!” Laqiya
said and before even Nightshield could catch her disappeared around the corner.

“Where’s she going?” Sakura
demanded in what sounded like an Asian accent.

“Just follow her,” Nightshield said
pulling her along.

Laqiya scowled, stopping in the
middle of the street when the breeze that led her in the right direction
stopped. She was so frustrated that she didn’t even freak out when Adria’s dove
perched itself on her shoulder. It nodded to the sidewalk. Someone had left
their hose on. The water coming out of it went down their driveway, but instead
of going with the natural tilt of the ground and down the drain to the right,
it went to the left.

“That’s it,” Laqiya muttered to
herself. “Let nature lead me.”

She got out the middle of the
street and ran down the sidewalk. The water led to a park with large rusty
black gates, chained and locked.

“Laqiya!”
Sakura shouted.

She, Isis, and Nightshield had
caught up to her.

“We have to get in there,” said
Laqiya.

Sakura pointed to a plaque on the
stone wall. “We can’t go in there. It’s a cemetery.”

“So?” asked Laqiya.

 
“So it’s Halloween. This is a cemetery. A
cemetery is where dead people are. This is worse than the dancing zombies in
that video by—”

“You don’t really believe that
stuff?” Laqiya asked rolling her eyes as she tugged on the lock. “We have to
get in here.”

“Maybe there’s an ax or hammer or
something in there,” said Isis.

“But the problem is we can’t get it
in.” Sakura then said again, “Now let’s go call the police.”

“And tell them what?” Laqiya asked.

Sakura didn’t reply.

“Move,” Isis said pushing everyone
out her way. Then she backed up, took a running jump and leapt effortlessly
over the gates of the building, landing neatly on her feet.

“I’ll be back,” she said.

“What power does she have?” Laqiya
asked Nightshield as Isis walked away.

“Mind.
It’s not just telekinesis and telepathy you know. She can physically do
anything her mind allows her to,” Nightshield explained.

“That’s it. What’s going on? Why is
this happening?” Sakura asked in a distinct accent, one Laqiya instantly
recognized.

“Do you speak Japanese or are part
Japanese or something?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Sakura. “How’d you
know?”

“You speak in an accent when you
get scared,” said Laqiya.