Crimson Echo (24 page)

“I want you to focus on school right now. That’s the most important thing.”

            I felt a sense of pride and togetherness as I volunteered to work at the flower shop to help get my parents back on their feet again. I knew this is what families were supposed to do for each other in times of strife, but I also knew that they wouldn’t put the burden of that on my shoulders. Since mom refused to let me help I would have to figure out some way of helping out all on my own.

“I’ll get dinner started soon and you can help me with that if you want to.” Mom said as she stared at her papers.
“Oh, did you hear the news? Schools canceled tomorrow because of the snow.”

“Really,” My voice sounded too excited by the thought of not having to see Kane for a few days. “I mean… that’s cool.”

“I thought you’d like that.” She gave me an understanding smile.

            The phone rang pulling me from the thought of sleeping late in the morning
and I hopped up from the table to answer the phone that hung on the kitchen wall.

“I’ll get it.” I said as I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey Tristan, it’s me Gabe. Can you talk?”

“Yeah, of course,” I whispered into the receiver and then turned toward mom. “It’s
Gabe, I’m going to take this upstairs.”

She nodded without looking up.

            After I made it up to my room and shut my door behind me, I took a deep breath and put the phone back up to my ear.

“Gabe, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What was all of that for?” He asked with a laugh.

“It was nothing.
Why did you call the house phone? You could’ve called my cell phone.”

“You’re lucky I even remembered your house number. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve used it?”

“
Did you find out anything about my necklace?” I asked, skipping right over all the small talk.

“Well, I did some snooping around and let me tell you
, it wasn’t easy to find information on your necklace because it’s so old. You can’t exactly find them in jewelry stores either.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that most likely your necklace was made hundreds of years ago. It must be an antique. There was another necklace that I found too, it was similar to yours, but with a sun instead of a moon. I’m thinking they were probably made around the same time.”

“What else did you
find?”

“I don’t know how much of this is actually true or not, so just take it with a grain of salt.” He warned.

“Okay, just tell me.” I practically yelled as the anticipation built.

“It’s rumored that these specific pendants were crafted by skilled sorcerers
hundreds of years ago, but the demand for them grew after the witch trials began. They were supposed to protect the person that wore them, but they ended up being known mostly as a symbol for two different covens of witches. The sun represented the Sol coven and the moon was for the Luna coven. The two were sworn enemies for many centuries and some still feel this way today.”

“
Why are they enemies?”

“I think it had to do with power.
” He murmured.

“So, do you think this means my birth parents were witches?”

“No, you don’t know where the necklace came from. You don’t know if it was passed down from generation to generation or if they simply picked it up at a swap meet
. I would imagine if they had been witches they would have passed down their magic to you, but anything is possible I suppose.”

“Well, what else did you find out?” I asked as I stared at the crescent moon pendent that hung around my neck
in the mirror.

“The only other thing I could find was a small entry in an old book. It seems that these witches had one mortal enemy in common and they are call
ed Seekers or in laymen’s terms witch hunters. These Seekers thought that witches were the devil incarnate and tried to get rid of as many as they could find.” He sounded bored by the whole thing. “Thousands of people suffered at the hands of these hunters, mostly innocent people, I’m sure. It all sounds like superstitious myths to me. I wouldn’t put too much faith in what I found.”

“I’m learning anything is possible lately.” I said as I thought of Kane and what I had seen earlier at Emporia.
“Gabe, can I ask you one more question?”

“Shoot.” His spirits perked up.

“What were you doing at the dance?”

“Oh, that?” He laughed nervously. “That was nothing.”

“It sure didn’t seem like nothing. I’ll never forget the look in your eyes that night. It was like you came out of nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly. You were trying to warn me about something weren’t you? Did you know what was going to happen that night?” I shuddered at the thought of Faith burning away on top of the pyre.

“I had no idea that something like that was going to happen.” He paused. “I had heard a customer say something earlier that day about vandalizing Emporia. I never thought it was going to go as far as it did. I got curious and thought I’d go see what they planned on doing and then I saw you getting out of the limo and I tried to stop you from going inside and when you refused to leave I got the heck out of there.”

“If you left than how do you know that something happened?” I realized that he knew more about that night than he should have. “I never told you anything about what happened that night.”

“My mom told me that some girl from the dance was found in a car not far from Emporia and her brakes had been cut.
It was all over the news. Wait a minute, are you trying to say I had something to do with it?” His tone was teetering on outrage.

“No, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I admitted, ashamed that I had almost accused Gabe of having something to do with Faith’s death.

“Are you sure everything is okay with you? You’re acting kind of strange.” He asked, concerned.

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s just been a long day.”

“Well, I’ve told you all I know about your necklace and if you’re done accusing me of anything else I should get some sleep, I have to be up early for school and work tomorrow.”

“Work,” I thought out loud. “Hey, do you think you could get me a job with you at
Yesterday’s Treasures
?”

“
I don’t know about Yesterday’s Treasures, but I might know someone who
is
hiring. I’ll see what I can do. I’m not making any promises though.”

“Fair enough, I gu
ess. I’ll talk to you later then?”

“Goodnight.” He said before hanging up the phone.

            The next morning I woke up bright and early with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I had already mentally made plans to visit Gabe again and see if there was any way he could help me out by finding me a job. I was at the point where I really didn’t care what the job was as long as it paid— I was even prepared to scrub toilets if I had to, but I hoped it wouldn’t come down to that.

            I rushed through my morning routine and kissed my mom on the cheek as
she stared at me curiously from the table and continued to sip her morning coffee.

“Gotta’ go, I’ll be back later.” I said over my shoulder as I headed for the door.

“Hold on a minute, get back here. Where are you going in such a hurry?” She asked concerned by how quickly I was trying to get out of the house.

“Mom, come on!” I turned around and walked back to the kitchen. “I’m going to see Gabe today. We’re going to hang out for a while.”

“Oh, that’s great. Tell him I said hi and that we miss him around here.”

“Okay mom, I will. I’ve got to go or I’ll be late.” I reminded her.

“Oh, right. Have a good time, I love you.” She called out after me. “Be careful, the roads may be slick.”

“Ditto.”
I yelled back and closed the front door behind me.

           I practically ran to my car. The cold air swirled around me, slapping at my face and I could see my breath in the air.  The ground was still covered in snow from the previous day and I wished for warm weather as my teeth chattered together. Thankfully it didn’t take long for my car to heat up. After I got the feeling back in my fingers, I put the car in reverse and eased out of the driveway.

            Most of the main streets and highways had already been sanded, so I was sure I could make it out to see Gabe in a little under an hour and a half, if I was lucky. To keep myself from thinking about my argument with Kane I cranked up the radio and sang along to every song that I knew— unfortunately for me, it didn’t help much.

            As I drove down the
empty highway I almost lost all self control. Kane’s name was already pulled up in my phone and my thumb was on the call button before I came to my senses and slammed it shut. The last thing I needed was to hear his voice— the only thing that could come from that conversation would be me forgiving him and I wasn’t ready to let go of the anger yet.

            The main focus of my day had to be on getting a job and I couldn’t let Kane worm his way back into my thoughts.
I knew if I allowed myself to call Kane I would turn around and head straight for him without a second thought. It seemed like the harder I tried to keep myself from thinking about Kane, the more I actually thought about him.

            I cracked the window and let the cool air seep into the cab as I tried to shake the memory of mine and Kane’s last conversation from my mind.
I hated winter, I always had, but the icy air that licked at my face somehow put everything back into perspective. I breathed in a gust of wind and let it burn deep down in my lungs.

            I found myself wondering what Gabe actually knew about witches and how the odd room at the back of Yesterday’s Treasures fit into all of it. He seemed so freaked out when he caught me behind the curtain and that made me think he knew more than he was willing to share, but I hoped after I spent the day with him he would open up about it.

            Finally, after more than an hour of going well under the speed limit I spotted the turn off and carefully merged into the left lane making sure not to hit any patches of ice on the way. I understood that Gabe didn’t want me to come back to
Yesterday’s Treasure
from the tone he took with me the last time I was there, but I was getting desperate and I knew he would forgive me eventually.

           
Once I had made it into the snow-filled parking lot, I sat in my car for nearly ten minutes debating whether or not it was a good idea to intrude on Gabe again. I couldn’t be sure if his nerves could handle me snooping around the antique store one more time. The lot had a fresh layer of snow over it and it didn’t appear that there had been any customers all day.

            After I gathered the last bit of courage I could muster up I sloshed through
the parking lot and opened the glass door. The bell dinged and I lingered near the front windows— more for Gabe’s sake than my own. The building appeared to be empty and then I saw Gabe come from behind the purple curtain with his face in a book.

“Welcome to
Yesterday’s Tr
… Oh, hey Tristan. What are you doing here?” He tried to act calm, but I could see the panic bubbling under his cool façade.

“I figured since school was cancelled today I would take you to lunch and we could catch up. Maybe we can check on that job you told me about?” I added hopeful.

“I think we can do that. I was about to close up anyways. I haven’t had one customer all day.”

“Perfect! What’s good around here?” I asked, eyeing him as he closed the place up.

“I know just the place to go.” He smiled wryly.

          That’s all Gabe offered about the restaurant and I decided to leave it at that as he rushed me out into the cold. I had to drive since he still hadn’t gotten his driver’s license yet and was still riding his red BMX bike everywhere he went— it didn’t seem to bother him either way though. I waited for him to lock up and then he followed me to my car.

“So, where to?”
I asked as Gabe buckled his seatbelt.

“Just drive, I’ll tell you when to turn.” He smirked and then fidgeted with the radio
, flipping between a rock and pop station.

            
We turned off of a long, winding dirt road, crossed an intersection and pulled into a tiny restaurant. The outside of the building was painted yellow and it had a very welcoming feel about it and I decided that it couldn’t be too bad. The large red flashing sign on the roof declared that we were at
Ruby’s Diner
and the windows were covered in large letters that let you know they had the best beer battered, catfish in town.

“This is it!” Gabe exclaimed like I hadn’t figured it out yet.

“This is it?” I repeated. “I’m not really a fish person.”

“You’re an unemployed person though, aren’t you?” He rolled his eyes and stepped out of the car.  

“Wait, I’m coming!” I yelled after him.