Brush With Death (2 page)

“W
hat are we
going to do?” I asked, throwing my hands in the air.  “She’s totally tossing
her life away, right?”

“We don’t know that,” Cal said.

“Aren’t you worried?” I asked.

“I’m worried about both of them,” Cal said.  “But mostly,
I’m worried about you.”

“Me?” I asked.  “Have you been listening?  Emma is dating
Simon. 
Simon.
  Don’t you find that, like, totally panic inducing?”

“Are you sure you’re worried about Emma and not just missing
your best friend?” Cal asked.  “She’s pretty tough and Simon isn’t all bad. 
But you and Emma haven’t spent this much time apart before.  Maybe that’s what
you’re actually worried about.”

I sighed.  Cal was right.  I mean, sure, I was worried about
my friend.  Simon had this whole lady-killer persona and he was totally old,
but I had to admit that more than anything, I was feeling hurt.  It was like
Emma had abandoned me for a shiny new toy. 
More like a rusty old piece of
junk.

“When did you get so smart?” I asked.

“I was born this way,” Cal said.  “I just try to tone it
down for the masses.”

I poked him in the ribs and we both started laughing.

“Thanks,” I said.  I tilted my head up to look into Cal’s
blue eyes and felt a magnetic pull that beckoned me to lose myself utterly and
completely in their azure depths.

“For what?” Cal said, raising one eyebrow.

“Making me laugh,” I said.  “I needed that.”

There was something else I needed. 
Kiss me.
  All I
had to do was think it and Cal’s lips were on mine.  That had been happening a
lot lately.  I’m not sure if it was a soul mate thing, but it was like Cal
could read my mind.  I just hoped he couldn’t read every thought that passed
through my head. 

That would be embarrassing.

*****

Eventually we had to pull apart.  School wouldn’t wait for
us.  No matter how great the kisses, school office staff just wouldn’t accept
making out with Cal as a valid excuse for tardiness.  I know this for a fact. 
Using kissing as a reason to be late for class?  That stunt almost landed me in
detention.  I was going to try using it as an alternative for gym credit, but
decided not to press my luck. 

I flipped down the visor mirror and fixed my hair while Cal
turned off his truck.  Ghosts, school, death, and taxes; some things were just
unavoidable.

Ugh, school.
  Things hadn’t been so bad after I
cleared my name and we helped turn in a gang of local drug dealers who were
making meth in a lab off Witchtrot Road.  For a while teachers treated us with
more respect and students were nicer.  That was actually kind of freaky at
first.  I’m used to being a total outsider that everyone at this school, except
my small group of friends, ignores. 

Well,
almost
everyone.  Freshman year I was in the
wrong place at the wrong time wearing my nonconformist Goth bling and caught
the attention of the J-team.  I’ve been on their radar ever since.  It’s not a
fun place to be. 

The J-team are bullies who enjoy tormenting other students,
especially those who are smaller and weaker than them.  The coups de grâce, the
true nail in my coffin?  The J-team hate anyone who dares to be different.  They
refuse to tolerate any student who shows a shred of individuality.  Dress, act,
talk, or (
gasp!
) think different and you are in for a world of hurt.  Yeah,
I do all of the above.  I’m different and proud of it.

I might as well have a target painted on my fabulously Goth
back.

The J-team, Jared Zempter and Jay Freeman, have gone out of
their way to make every year that I attend Wakefield High a living hell.  When
their football teammate, Dylan Jacobs, died a few months ago, they blamed me.  So.
Not. Fair. 

I definitely didn’t have anything to do with Dylan’s death,
though I did help his ghost find peace, but the J-team rarely listen to
reason.  They are convinced that since I wear black clothing I must be a witch,
so when Dylan died on a road with a legendary curse, they figured it was my
fault.  Personally, I think they just like tormenting me, but they managed to
convince the entire football team of my guilt.  That was not my finest moment. 
I almost peed myself. 
But we’ll keep that potential piece of gossip on the
down-low.

The J-team, with the help of their giganto jock friends,
kidnapped me and stuck me in a school supply closet.  Their brilliant plan?  To
convince me (
I think Jay was hoping for some torture, seriously the guy is
creepy with a capital C
) to use my supposed witchy powers to bring Dylan
back from the dead.  I do have some connection with the dead, but that’s my
little secret.  The J-team don’t know that I can smell spirits of the dead. 
I’ve helped lots of ghosts find their way into the light.  But resurrection? So
not in my job description.

Fortunately for me, my dung beetle spirit guide clued me in
on a way to contact Cal’s wolf spirit and my friends came to the rescue.  No
black magic zombie jock raising here.  That’s a very good thing.  Aside from
the obvious downside of a brain munching football player, I’m also sure that if
anyone in Wakefield ever managed to raise the dead it wouldn’t go unnoticed. 
The one thing that scares me more than being tortured by the J-team is facing
the wrath of the witches who I stole an amulet from last Halloween.

Well, that and flying monkeys.  It’s a thing.

Don’t get the wrong idea.  I’m not a thief.  If you had
asked me last year if I’d ever go on a road trip to Salem with a werewolf and
my BFF to steal a mythological amulet, I would have said you were cuckoo for Cocoa
Puffs crazy.  When I learned of the spirits unleashing on Samhain, the night of
Halloween, I tried to find a way to survive the spirit horde.  My friends
helped, but our research only turned up one thing that could protect my sanity
from the evil spirits who cross through the veil on Halloween: Nera’s amulet. 

In a strange twist of fate, or serendipity, the amulet was
sitting in an occult shop display case in Salem Village.  Salem isn’t far from
Wakefield, one reason why our histories are intertwined.  We managed to steal
the amulet in time to survive the spirit storm.  I should be pretty stoked
about that, but I feel mostly fear and guilt.

I’ve been having a recurring nightmare in which the Salem
witches who I stole it from come looking for their amulet.  Eventually they
find me, leaving behind them a wake of blood.  In the dream they kill everyone
I love.  Each time I wake up screaming, I vow to return Nera’s amulet before
anything can happen to my friends. 

My friends, of course, are against that idea.  They worry
that I won’t be able to face the spirit storm on Samhain without the amulet. 
Evil spirits may come for me, but I have other plans.  Emma has been helping me
create a map of local hot spots for evil spirit activity; places where tragic
deaths and murders have occurred in the past.

My plan is to arm myself with this knowledge and avoid areas
where the evil spirits, the ghosts I refer to as The Grays, tend to gather.  If
I can find a place to hide from The Grays, then my chances of surviving Samhain
are much better.  Of course, there’s more to my genius. 

Last Samhain, I felt the calming presence of a spirit who I
had helped to find the light.  I think he was trying to protect me from The
Grays.  Since then, I’ve helped more spirits find peace and my hope is that all
of the ghosts who I help will return to me on Samhain and defend me against
evil spirits.  I was already motivated to help spirits of the dead find their
way into the light, but now more than ever I am trying to help every ghost that
I encounter. 

I’m helping people who are trapped here on earth while
building an army.  The job keeps me busy.  It’s no wonder I’m behind on my
homework.  Guiding lost souls is not exactly a normal extracurricular activity,
but no one ever said my life was normal…or easy.

It was less difficult when I had Emma’s help.  She’s a total
research goddess.  My friend, Gordy’s new girlfriend, Katie, works at the
library and is also great at research, but she doesn’t know about my ghost
problem.  Gordy and Katie think I’m normal.  Well, not that being totally
addicted to anime and black clothing is normal, but they have no idea that I
can smell the dead. 

They also don’t know Calvin’s secret.  Gordy is a great
friend and I’m discovering that Katie is a total sweetheart, and less annoying
than I originally thought, but there are some things best left unsaid.  Cal is
responsible for the safety of his people.  One nervous slip of the tongue could
put his entire pack in danger.  That’s a risk we’re not yet ready to take. 

Maybe someday.  It would be nice to have the freedom to talk
to Gordy and Katie about our troubles.  With Emma too busy with her own drama,
I could really use the help.

I checked my reflection one last time and shrugged.  The
future was coming fast, way too fast.  I swear Chronos, the god of timekeeping,
was messing with me.  If I thought about how unprepared I was for Samhain, I’d
go crazy.  I need to build an army.  I have to find and help as many spirits
find peace as possible, before October 31
^st
.  Somehow, I also must
sneak into a witch’s occult shop and return Nera’s amulet to its rightful
owners.

But first, I have to survive high school.

I
wanted to
reach out and pull Yuki to my chest.  I wished with all my heart that I could
hold her close and shield her from the horrors of Wakefield High.  But then she
wouldn’t be the same girl that I loved.

Yuki has always been amazing.  We’ve been friends since
elementary school and even then, she was tiny and pale, like a fragile china
doll.  But she was also courageous and true to herself.  In the words of
Mahatma Ghandi, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from
an indomitable will.”

Yuki never followed fads or tried to fit in even though it
meant she was often left out, and always last to be picked for teams.  I think
the other kids at school, and in our neighborhood, were afraid of her.  Yuki
didn’t have any friends until she met me and Emma. 

Yuki also had the most terrible luck of anyone that I had
ever met.  She always sat in the broken chair, was given the textbook with
missing pages, and if there was a single patch of ice her feet would find it.  

I think what amazed me was her ability to brush it off and
move on.  Most kids would have cried or blamed someone else for their bad luck,
but Yuki would just smile and act like nothing ever happened.  I knew that I
had to get to know her.  She was the strongest most incredible person that I
had ever met, and she still is.

I don’t want to change Yuki, but lately the desire to wipe
away the frown lines, as she scrunched up her white powdered forehead, was almost
too strong to resist.  It is hard being in love with someone like Yuki, especially
for a guy with my upbringing.

Though I didn’t realize it until recently, I was raised by
werewolves.

My parents, and many of the other influential adults from my
childhood, are members of a werewolf pack.  If one member of our pack is in
danger, the others rush in to help defend that individual.  I am sure that this
has influenced the way I react when my friends are threatened.  Yuki and Emma may
be human, but they are part of my pack in all the ways that matter. I would lay
down my life to defend them.

But how do you protect those you love from their own
thoughts and emotions?  The short answer is; you don’t.  I can’t fight all of
Yuki’s battles for her.  In fact, she’d kick my furry butt if I tried.  And
deep down, I know that this problem between Emma and Yuki is about more than
who Emma chooses to date. 

Everything is changing, and Yuki doesn’t like change. 
Graduation is just around the corner, a looming specter carrying a sledgehammer
to smash the glass houses of our high school existence.  Wakefield High has not
been kind to Yuki, and though I’m sure she won’t be sentimental about the daily
abuse from other students, I’m also certain that she’s not ready for this
chapter in her life to end. 

I wonder if that is the reason why she hasn’t made any
post-high school plans.  Yuki is normally extremely proactive, almost
obsessively preparing for challenges in advance, but she’s the only one of our
friends who doesn’t have plans for after graduation.

Gordy will be going to film school to study computer
animation, Katie is enrolled in an early childhood education program, Emma has
been accepted to Tufts Veterinary School, and I will remain here in Maine to
watch over my pack with Simon, my werewolf lieutenant, at my side.  Although I
don’t wish to be separated from Yuki, I am concerned that she hasn’t yet voiced
an interest in her future.

Perhaps she still worries that there won’t be one.

Yuki faced possible death and insanity when the veil between
worlds thinned last Samhain.  While the rest of Wakefield bobbed for apples,
walked the hedge maze of horror, and went door to door trick-o’-treating for candy,
Yuki, Emma, Simon, and I turned my cabin into a bunker against an army of
hungry spirits.

We survived last Samhain together, but what will happen to
Yuki when we are all living apart?

“I
have to go,”
I said, grabbing my bag and car keys.  “I’m going to be late.”

“You could play hooky with a painfully handsome werewolf,”
Simon said, smirking and waggling his eyebrows.

“Why would I do that?” I said while adjusting my soy cream
colored scarf.  “I like school.  Well, the learning part, anyway.  Plus, I have
to keep perfect attendance between now and graduation.  I’m lucky they’re
letting me accept my diploma this year, considering all of the days I missed
after the accident.”

So much had changed since that night when Yuki and I had
sped off to Witchtrot Road in search of answers.  I felt a pang of regret that
we still weren’t talking to each other.  I love Yuki, but she is the most
bullheaded, dogged, pigheaded…gah!  Now she has me abusing the names of poor
innocent animals.

“You may be the only woman alive to turn me down so
cruelly,” he said, pseudo-gasping and grabbing at his chest.  “How shall I go
on living?”

“Oh my god, Simon,” I said.  I rolled my eyes at him, but a
treacherous smile reached my lips.  “You are such a drama queen.”

“King,” he said.

“Whatever,” I said, kissing him on the cheek.  I knew better
than to kiss Simon on the lips when I was in a hurry.  “I have to go.”

“Farewell, my queen,” he said, waving.  “Adieu!”

“See you after school,” I said, rushing for the cabin door.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said.

I could feel his eyes on my back, like scorching hot embers,
as I closed the door and walked across a bed of pine needles to my car.  My
cheeks warmed and my grin widened as I sat behind the wheel.  I knew Simon
would be the first thing I saw as I exited the building at the end of the
school day. 

We could catch up on kisses then.