And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 13-1

Chapter 13

We rematerialized with a flash under my father’s hanging tree. It was my most vivid memory of the park, and the easiest to reach out and latch on to when I needed to pull myself forward.

“Good work,” Elka said. “I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance we’d make it here.”

“Fifty-fifty? Those are terrible odds.”

“Using my mind to see where you want to go is very powerful magic. There are not many who can do it, but you did it. I’m very proud. Do you see anybody?”

“Not yet.”

Elka pointed to a tree closer to the mystery spot. “I’m going to that tree over there to get a better view. If you see your mother, whistle for me.”

“How can you disappear so fast and confident?” I asked. “And don’t tell me it’s about your mind’s eye, or the fact you’re an old crone. It’s more than that and we both know it.”

Elka pressed her hand against my heart. “The secret is inside of you. It’s only your mind that blocks you. The dust was never important. It focused our energy, this is true, but it made us lazy as we relied more and more on it. Soon, we forgot that the power was always in us, not in the dust. The blood surging through your veins is more powerful than you can ever imagine. No matter what happens, remember that.”

In another instant Elka vanished. I saw a flash of purple light and her silhouette appeared in front of the tree she’d pointed out. Her magic was strong. The thought of gaining control of my powers like that one day exhilarated me.

I kneeled on the roots of the old oak tree, in the silence, waiting for something to happen. On a normal night, old Chuck Dixon would be here to shoo me away or gab away for a spell, but this was not a normal night. This was the night I could have used Chuck by my side. This was the kind of night the city could use somebody protecting the mystery spot. I guess that responsibility fell to me now.

I scanned the horizon for the white van, but it wasn’t the first car I saw. The sheriff’s police cruiser was parked across the street from the park. Strolling away from it was the sheriff, Duncan, and Big Jim Lewis. They were not dressed in their normal clothes, but black robes with a bright red, bloody dagger.

Behind them, a half-dozen cars drove up and lined the park. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Big Jim was opening a new lot in the middle of town. Every one of the cars sparkled like it was just driven off the lot.

People I talked to every day filed out of those cars: Martha, the sweet waitress who served my mother at Charlotte’s Diner, Mrs. Blick and her doddering husband Charles, and even Principal Anderson waddled out of his car and threw on a black robe. There were no pleasantries between them, only solemn acknowledgment as they walked toward the mystery spot.

These weren’t vile racists like Big Jim or Duncan. These people were nice to me. They treated me with kindness. More than that, they treated my mother with kindness, and now they were going to kill her. Martha, the woman fed my Mama every day, damn near every meal, and she was going to help slit her throat. Principal Anderson worked with me every day since before school started, and still he’s fine with killing my mother. For what? So they can open a portal to Hell to curry favor with some big, bad monster on the other side?

My heart leaped into my chest as I realized that even the people that I thought were friends, or at least allies, were nothing more than cultists bent on my destruction. I knew this town was filled with horrible people, but I had no idea they were “open a portal to Hell and plunge us all into darkness” horrible.

A limousine rounded the corner and city councilors Tom Seaver and George Wallace stepped out of it. I hadn’t seen them since they came to my school with Big Jim a couple days ago. In their robes, the men looked even more intimidating. I was frightened in a way I’d never been before. Their low guttural chants joined in with the others gathered around. Once the group of two dozen surrounded the mystery spot, the sheriff brought a walkie talkie to his mouth and spoke a few words into it.

Moments later, the white van pulled around a corner, hopped the curb, and drove onto the park grass. Seven sheriff’s cruisers sped into the square and blocked every intersection, flashing their lights as a warning for the whole town to stay away. Deputies filed out of their cars and drew their weapons.

The back door of the white van swung open and two of the Shadow Men, now dressed in the same robes as the rest, pulled a metal gurney out of the van. On the gurney, my mother struggled to break free from the leather restraints that bound her. She screamed bloody murder, but nobody listened. Nobody cared. She was nothing but a means to an end for them.

My mother would call me a damned fool for trying to save her. The odds against us succeeding were astronomical, but I had to try. They were going to bleed her dry, and I couldn’t lose both my parents to cultists. More than that, I couldn’t allow them to open a portal to Hell. No matter how little I cared about Chandler, even the worst of them didn’t deserve that fate.

I rushed forward, balled up my fists, and hoped that the element of surprise would work in my favor. I wasn’t two hundred feet from the cultists before a flash of purple light stole me away.

*

* * * *

ELKA REMATERIALIZED with me behind Dad’s hanging tree. She squeezed my shoulders tight as she hissed at me. “You’re gonna get yourself killed!”

I wanted to fight her, but I knew she was right. “Well, I don’t see you having a better plan.”

“That’s because you didn’t ask!”

“You’re right,” I sighed. “How do you want to play this, then?”

“I want you to run up to them and cause a distraction, a really big one. Make sure all eyes are on you. Then, duck.”

“That’s it? Cause a distraction and duck? How is that better than my plan?”

“Because I came up with it. I trusted you. Now, will you trust me?”

I wanted to argue, but I had no reason not to trust her. “Fine, but you’re gonna get me killed.”

“Maybe, but then you’d be in the same place you were a few minutes ago. Now go. And remember, make it a big distraction.”

I stomped away from Elka and toward the cultists. “Oh, I’ll make it huge.”

*