Wish (13 page)

Except how did I justify all the things that didn’t have a
logical explanation?

      “Listen,” Cody said. ”You’ve been talking to yourself
for two days now. You’ve been sleeping in mom’s room and now you’re running
around a friggin forest, while the police are looking for you.” By the end of
his little speech he was shouting, but his anger didn’t mask his fear. His eyes
shone bright as if he might burst into tears at any minute.

      “Sleeping in her mom’s room, I totally get. I mean even
I missed my mom the first time I got my period. Of course, that was
sooo
long ago, I can barely remember.” Stevie glanced at me apologetically, but I
saw a glitter of satisfaction in her eyes. Ew. Trying to impress my brother
with her PERIOD.

“Don’t worry. Cody knows you’re a real woman,” I snapped.
Didn’t she realize how transparent she was? 

Stevie ignored me. ”But talking to yourself? Sydney, that’s
so not normal. And hiding from the police in a forest?” She wrinkled her nose
and looked around us. “You hate forests. Why would you be running around one?
And where the heck is Keith? I thought he was with you.”

      “I don’t know. He was here. I lost him somehow.” We all
glanced around us as if Keith would jump out of the bushes and shout hello.
“And I’m not hiding from the police in here. Um. I mean, not really. I came
here with Keith, to…”

      I tried to think of a rational reason. I didn’t want to
freak out Cody even more.

      “Are you and Keith hooking up?” Stevie demanded.

      “NO!” I yelled a little too loudly.

      Cody crossed his arms. “Are you doing drugs out here?”

      “I’m not doing drugs. God. I just came out here with
him to um look for some stuff. And I lost him and now we have to find him,” I
told them. “I might kill him when I find him. I wish he would appear right
now,” I shouted. I waited. Nothing. No stupid wish power.

      “What were you two looking for? I might kill you by the
way,” Cody said. “Nana is going to ground you for a month for this when she
finds out what you’ve done.”

      “Nana is just as lost as we are,” I yelled. “Did you
ever think of that? Our entire family is lost in the forest.”

      He stared me down without blinking until I looked away
out of habit. He glanced at Stevie. “She’s losing it. Take her back to the car.
I’ll go look for Keith myself and then we’re all leaving this place. It gives
me the creeps.”

“No,” Stevie and I said at the same time.

“You can’t leave us alone in this forest,” I added.

Cody looked back and forth at us and shook his head.

“Chicks.” He stepped in front of me. “Fine. I’ll take you
both to the clearing and then I’ll come back and find Keith. If I leave you two
in the woods, you’ll fall apart and be no use to anyone.”

He mumbled to himself and started walking; turning his head
to make sure we followed him. I wanted to tell him Mom was in the forest, in
trouble, but going home sounded really good, too.

Crap. I couldn’t leave my Mom in the friggin’ Institute in
whatever trouble Keith sensed she was in. I trusted him. He knew something.

I didn’t know how could to rationalize any of this to Cody.

“Um. We should look for Keith together. In case he needs us
or something.”

Cody didn’t answer, but picked up his pace. I wasn’t about to
run off by myself so I followed, but I tried to convince him to turn back. “Um.
He might want my help or something.”

“What the heck can you possibly do to help?”

What indeed. I shut up and fumed.

Stevie hurried behind me, her breath warm on my neck. I
glanced over my shoulder. “How did you guys even find us?”

      “I was watching the parking lot during Science class,”
she panted as she hurried to keep up in her boots. ”Like I always do. Mr.
Michaels is boring. Anyway, I saw you and Keith talking to Jenny and then you
ran to his car, and peeled out of the parking lot like you were being chased by
zombies. I knew something was up. I’d heard people talking about police being
at school and asking questions about Mike Cameron, so I thought that’s why you
were bolting. I stood up in the middle of his instructions for our quiz and
shouted that I was going to be sick. I ran out the door before he even knew
what happened.” She giggled. “Mr. Michaels was yelling at me as I took off down
the hall. But lucky for me, Cody was waiting right outside the front doors of
the school. I told him what happened and we jumped in his car and followed you
guys here. We pulled in just as you ran into the forest. Cody had to convince
me to follow. I wouldn’t let him leave me all alone.”

“What were you doing in front of the school?” I called up to
Cody. “You had class.” Cody Grant never cut classes. It was against his personal
code of ethics.

He didn’t look back. “I don’t know. I had a feeling something
was wrong…”  Cody stopped. I wanted to scream. All these stupid feelings
floating around.

“Here’s a path.” He held out his hand and pulled back a
branch and waited for me to pass. I stumbled past him and fell into the
clearing, dropping to my knees and hanging my head, breathing in the open air.

      Stevie walked up beside me and held out her hand and
pulled me up. “Hey Drama Queen. It’s over. You’re out of the woods. So to speak.”
She snorted and I only resisted stepping on her toe.

She glanced at Cody. “I swear the whole police force raced to
the school as we were leaving. I suspect you’re in some sort of trouble for
taking off. Did you and Keith have something to do with Mike going missing?”

      “What? Like we murdered him or something? I haven’t
even seen Mike since he came to the house. Actually, I didn’t even see him,
Cody did.” I brushed myself off and glared at Stevie.

      “Yeah. And I murdered him,” Cody interrupted. “Who the
heck knows what happened to Mike and who cares? You can talk to the police like
a normal human being instead of running away from them like you’re crazy.” Cody
raised an eyebrow at me and stared down Stevie.

“You’ve got some serious mental issues, Sydney. With the
history in our family it hardly surprises me but you seriously have to get
looked at. Seriously. The sooner, the better.” Cody tugged at his hair as if he
wanted to pull it from his head. “We are not losing another person in this
family to insanity, okay? You will not go crazy.” His voice cracked under the
weight of so much Cody emotion.

“I’m not crazy,” I said.

He gave me a dirty look. “I’m going to find Keith. I want you
two to wait right here. Do not move. Do not go anywhere. When I find him, we’re
taking you home.”

      “Wait,” I called.

Cody turned back.

      “It’s Mom, Code. She’s in there. In the forest. We came
to find her. She’s in trouble.”

Cody shook
his head. “A doctor, Sydney. You need a doctor.” He turned and slipped back
inside the woods.

      Stevie and I watched in silence as he disappeared.

      “You know, in his own way, I think he just told you he
cares,” Stevie said.

I continued to stare into the forest wondering what I should
do. “God. I hope my Mom is okay.” I had a bad, bad feeling of my own now.

      Stevie blinked her eyes at me and actually seemed a
little frightened of me. “You’re not going crazy are you, Sydney?”

      “God. No. I swear, Stevie, I’m not. There’s so much
that doesn’t make sense, but I’m not nuts.”

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “God. What’s
up with you and Keith? Is there something going on, I should know about? You
two have been doing googly eyes for a while now.”

“Stevie. Gross! We have not.” My face roasted up as quickly
as a marshmallow on a stick. “We’ve been looking for my Mom.” I rubbed at my
nose and gave her my dirtiest look.

She stared at me and then glanced purposely at the forest.
“In there?” She arched her eyebrows high. “You think your Mom is in there.
Riiiiiight….”

 “There’s a lot going on you don’t understand. Neither do I
for that matter. For now let’s just say that things have been. Well. Messed up.
God, I need to talk to Keith.”

What if he was right about my Mom and I was standing there
doing nothing.

      “Keith’s not going to save you, Sydney,” a deep male
voice piped up from behind us.

My hand went to my throat and I swiveled to see who had
spoken. My necklace pulsed against my neck. Warm. I looked around. There was no
one there, except Stevie.

“You hear that, Stevie?” I asked.

      “What do you think? Of course, I did.” Her eyebrows
furrowed together as she darted her head around, searching for the person who’d
spoken. “Who’s there? What the heck is going on here?”

Her panic was tangible. I reached for her, and when my
fingers touched hers, an image of Stevie crying, tucked into a fetal position
filled my brain. 

      I pulled away and the vision vanished. The hair on my
arms stood at attention and saluted me. I glanced at Stevie trying to stay in
the moment. I needed my wits about me. Stupid visions.

Jenny Truman stepped out of the bushes.

      In relief, I giggled.

“What the heck are you doing here? Yoga class?” Stevie
demanded.

      Jenny glared at Stevie and raised her hand in the air.
The air crackled a little and a puff of blue dust sprinkled from her fingers. Stevie
crumbled to the ground in a heap.

      I yelled and crouched down to make sure Stevie was
still breathing. Her eyes were closed but her chest rose and fell.

      I shook her. “Stevie?”

      “She won’t be waking up for a while,” the male voice
said.

      I glanced up. Jenny stared down at me, her eyes dark,
and her expression callous. “I haven’t hurt your little friend. I put her to
sleep.”

The deep voice growled out of Jenny’s mouth.

      I stood up slowly, not taking my eyes off her. “Wake
her up,” I demanded. “What’s wrong with your voice, Jenny? And what did you do
to Stevie?”

      Jenny opened her mouth and her lips moved, but her
voice sounded deep and evil. “Don’t worry about Stevie. She’s fine.”

      I stepped back, glancing at Stevie and then back at the
forest. More than anything, I wanted to see Keith, even Cody trotting out.

“You’re a witch?” My voice croaked with fear.

      “Why?” Jenny threw her head back and laughed. “Do I
seem different to you? She is no witch. Maybe rhymes with B, but not magical.
She’s got nasty thoughts inside her, this one.”

I shivered and stepped back. Jenny’s body stood in front of
me, no doubt about it, but it certainly wasn’t Jenny the obnoxious teenager I
knew and loathed talking. Someone or something had taken over her body and was
talking about Jenny in third person.

If this was an example of what I’d be dealing with in life as
a witch, I understood the family fondness for the Cuckoo’s nest completely.
Hello Funny Farm. Room for one, please.        

Jenny stepped towards me and reached out. I shrank back and
she lifted her hand flicking away some of her long blond hair dangling in her
eyes.

“Don’t touch me you body stealing creep.” I shouted. I
glanced down at Stevie glad she’d been put asleep. This would be too much for
her to handle. It was too much for me.

Anything seemed possible. Maybe Jenny was possessed by a
demon? Jenny chuckled but her black eyes fixed on my neck. My hand went up and
I gripped my necklace tight in my fingers. A rush of strength and bravery
coursed through me.

Jenny took a footstep backwards, her movements awkward, not
graceful or pretty. I glanced at her feet. She’d ditched the high heels. Her
feet were bare. Honestly, if it wasn’t so disturbing to see Jenny’s body moving
with clumsy male mannerisms and a deep voice that did nothing to compliment her
sundress, this whole thing might have amused me.

“I want your powers. And I will have them. You can make it
easy. Or. You can make it hard.”

“Who are you?” I demanded. “What are you?” I took a quick
breath. “I wish you would go away.”

My wishing power seemed to have halted.

Jenny giggled in a deep male voice. It sounded like death
coming out of her pretty mouth. I cursed myself for not watching more Buffy the
Vampire Slayer re-runs.

“Are you some sort of witch hater you awful wanna-be?” She
was after my powers. Jenny. Whatever she was.

Unfortunately I had no idea how to use them properly to make
her go away.

      Jenny’s lips stretched over her teeth in an
unattractive grin. “
Au contraire mon petite
. I love witches.” The deep
voice quivered. “I, my dear, am a Sentry. At your service.”

      My thoughts popped back to the book in my mother’s
room. Sentry? What had the book said about Sentry’s?

      “Someone who helps witches?” I remembered out loud.