Chapter 67: Pain's Plan
I was on full alert all day Wednesday, even at school, sure either the creature or Demitrius would show up. If not them, maybe something else would drop on me and blow my world wider open. Not that I was asking for trouble or anything. It's just I was so used to it by then it made me even more nervous when the whole day went by and nothing happened.
I'm sure my friends thought I was losing it.
It was getting so I was afraid to go to sleep, too. I wasn't having full-out nightmares like I did the night after the party, but I still felt exposed when I slept and woke up with the feeling I was all over the perimeter of town the night before, peeking in windows, digging through people's garbage and stogging down roadkill to fill the emptiness inside me.
So when I woke up to a sunny Thursday morning and the world still spun, I decided to try to put everything out of my mind and go back to normal. After all, there wasn't much I could do about the creature. Mom said she had it handled. And as for the Chosen of the Light, I figured she'd be doing some serious ass kicking in their direction if she hadn't already.
It was time to go back to being Syd, Alison's friend, Brad's girlfriend and all-around normal, goofy teenager.
Bliss.
I even made it downstairs in time to have French toast with Mom and Meira. With the sunlight streaming in, warming the room filled with the delicious smell of breakfast, it was like nothing bad ever happened or would again. I soaked up as much of the simple joy as I could, for once laughing and joking with my sister without an edge of angst against my mother to ruin it.
Imagine that.
Sassy joined us, his gourmet meal hand cut by my mother. Even he seemed lighthearted and less inclined to criticize every word coming out of my mouth.
So, by the time I was on my way to school, lovingly prepared Mom-lunch safe in my backpack, I felt pretty good. The best I felt in a long time. And I was determined as I set foot on the bottom step of the school entry that nothing-nothing-would get in the way of me being in a good headspace for the rest of the day.
Enter trouble, stage left.
Okay, not exactly trouble, per se. Just Pain, her blacked out eyes watching me as I climbed to the front door, a look of intensity on her face telling me something big was coming and I probably wouldn't like it.
I considered bypassing her, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings and figured whatever it was she wanted to tell me I had enough happy energy inside me to ward off the worst.
See, Pain loves secrets. And sharing them. With me, for some reason. It drives me nuts. It's like she and I are this little emo gushing group, only I never signed up on purpose. I worried it was a lifetime membership.
"Hi, Pain." I tried for light, but the Queen of Darkness wasn't in the mood. If she ever was.
"We have to talk." Her black taloned nails dug into my arm even through my coat as she dragged me just inside the doors and to our usual meeting nook. Out of the glorious, warm sunlight. Into the gloom and depression of the school.
How very fitting.
"What's up?" I tried not to sigh and gave her my attention.
"Something's going on in this town," she whispered. "Something nasty."
There it was again. Damn. In all the excitement I forgot to tell Mom about Pain. That would be corrected as soon as I arrived home.
I still had to head my friend off at the pass.
"If you say so," I said. "I'm not seeing it."
Pain nodded once. "That's all right," she said. "I know I have gifts beyond most mortals."
Sigh.
She went on. "I have a way for all of us to experience it. To see the truth of it."
Really? This was interesting. And probably joke worthy. But I let her keep going.
"A séance. At my house. Tonight."
Seriously? Was she kidding? I almost laughed. It was so hard not to. Every witch knew séances were totally useless. It took serious necromancy to speak to the dead, even the spirits hovering around trying to communicate. End of story.
My first impulse was to say no. Until Alison appeared at my elbow, eyes sparkling, but face perfectly straight.
"Did you tell her?" Okay, this was really mean, even for Alison. She was totally setting Pain up for ridicule. Maybe my Goth friend couldn't see it, but I did, clear as day, written all over the former cheerleader. For all I knew, this was Alison's dumb idea and she sucked Pain into it.
"Yes," Pain said. "She's with us."
Hang on a second. I was?
Alison turned her head just enough so Pain wouldn't see her wink at me.
Double sigh.
Pain gave me a grave nod before marching off to class, her heavy black boots clomping across the dirty tile. I spun on Alison as she started to giggle, both hands pressed to her mouth.
"Tell me this isn't some set up so you can humiliate her," I said, putting every ounce of my disapproval into it.
Alison sobered. She knew better than to cross me if I wasn't happy. I'd turned her ass in before when she tried to pull something over on our friends. She was learning, but it was a slow process after years of being a bitch. That kind of thing took a while to wear off.
"Oh, come on, Syd," she said, sparkle still there. "Pain is excited about this. I thought it might be fun, you know. She loves this stuff."
I hesitated. It's not like Pain would be able to raise anything. It was harmless that way, at least. But I still worried about hurting her.
"Everyone else is coming," Alison said, hands folded in front of her chest as she pleaded with me. "You'd be the only hold-out."
"Even Brad?" There was no way Mr. Football would go. Unless I went.
Triple sigh. I still had to deal with the boy mess.
"No," Alison said. "Not Brad."
Now why did that particular cryptic comment make me nervous?
Before I had a chance to ask what she meant, the bell rang and I was, yet again, late for class.
They worked on me all day, those so-called friends of mine. It was Simon who finally wore me down at lunch, his earnest face in mine, quite unaware he had chocolate pudding on his chin.
"We can't do it without you, Syd," he said. "We need you."
I was running out of sighs.
"Fine," I said, trying to ignore their cheers and the splotch of food on Simon's face.
It wasn't until my walk home that I realized I hadn't seen Brad all day. Guilt rippled through my stomach and made me queasy. I was such a bad girlfriend!
But when I tried to call him when I arrived home, there was no answer on his cell or at his house. Glum, I wondered if he finally had enough and this was his way of dumping me.
Meira was home and distracted me enough I was able to put Brad's absence out of my mind while I helped her with her homework.
"This is stupid," she said, pointing with her pencil at the spelling sheet she worked on. "All I have to do is..." She waved the end of the pencil like a wand and her dictionary opened. Words stood at attention on the page, lifting their ink free of the paper. They bowed to her one at a time before marching across the book and dropping onto her notebook, arranging themselves into neat lines of words.
I grinned at her. "You spelled 'enormous' wrong."
There was a soft 'eep!' of embarrassment from the page and the letters promptly rearranged themselves.
Meira smiled at me. "See? So much better." She patted the page with her fingertips. "Good words."
My sister always made me laugh.
"Syd?" She helped herself to her milk, feet swinging so her sneakers thudded softly against the legs of the chair.
"Meems?" I sent the letters marching back to the book, though they tended to herk and jerk like damaged marionettes as I struggled to control them. I caught the word "serious" glaring at me before it collapsed with a sigh in its original place.
"Is that thing going to hurt us?"
I was so startled by the question I slammed the book shut.
"No, Meems," I said. "Mom's taking care of it."
My sister took another sip, condensation sliding through her fingers as she clutched it with both hands. "I think she's afraid." Whispered. With her own fear inside the words.
Above all else, I did everything I could to protect my sister, at least emotionally. She had enough problems fitting in, forced to don a 'normal' disguise to hide her large amber eyes and red-tinged skin, not to mention the perky horns peeking out of her black curls. I knew that protectiveness made her act younger than she actually was, how we all as a collective encouraged the kids of the coven to stay kids as long as they could, knowing the power would age them soon enough.
"The whole family is on it," I said. "Including Uncle Frank and Sunny." Speaking of whom, I hadn't seen them since Beltane. Were they even sleeping at home? "So we don't have to worry, okay?"
She set down her glass and toyed with her pencil. "Okay," she said. Then, she smiled and hugged me.
I really hoped I didn't just lie to my sister.
Mom arrived home shortly after and Meira was back to her normal, happy self so I didn't bother mentioning it to her. In fact, she seemed pretty preoccupied, even ordering pizza for dinner. Not like her lately. She really loved to cook.
To my credit, I did try to talk to her about Pain and considered mentioning the séance just in case, but Mom was worlds away talking to other member of the coven pretty much non-stop so I gave up.
When Alison came to pick me up, all Mom said was, "Have a good time, honey," and a brief, distracted kiss on my way out the door.
***
