Falling Under (36 page)
“Oh, man … I could eat a pancake,” Ame agreed, shocking us all—I’d only ever seen her eat salad.
Half an hour later, we stormed Varnie’s front door in formal wear, carrying grocery bags of breakfast items. He came out of his room looking confused.
“Did I miss something?” He looked down at his shorts and tee. “Should I go put on a tie?”
“Please tell me you know how to cook,” Donny said to Varnie, and he laughed when he took the bag out of her hand. Varnie ate a lot of sandwiches.
Instead, I answered, “I know how to cook.”
“Riiight,” Donny said.
“No, really.”
It seemed odd to me too. Why would I know how to make pancakes? Were all demons fans of breakfast, or just me? But the knowledge was in my head, and so I put Donny and Ame on frying bacon, which might have been a mistake, Gabe on mixing batter, Varnie on setting the table, and I rolled up my sleeves and heated up the griddle.
Something happened in that kitchen as we worked around one another and tried to keep from spilling food on the girls in their pretty dresses. Donny kicked off her heels, making her look even hotter somehow. Ame chattered and giggled, unaware that Varnie stole awkward glances whenever possible, and that every time she laughed he smiled. Gabe and I played catch with a roll of paper towels in between my awesome flapjack flipping, and Donny kept telling us to knock it off. We all felt Theia’s absence—but at the same time, I felt a part of something. I had a place where I belonged.
We sat at the table like a family, passing things and joking. I ate until I was so full I thought the button on my pants would give way. Everything just tasted so good.
Ame sat back. “Jeez, I’m stuffed.”
“I don’t even want to think about all those dishes,” Donny said. “Hey, now that I believe in demons and magic spells, who’s going to tell me about little dish elves that come and clean your kitchen while you nap?”
“There is a class of fairy called Nibs that will do it, but they come with their own set of issues. It’s never worth the hassle of summoning them,” Varnie answered.
“I was totally kidding, but …” Donny eyed him suspiciously. “Wait, are you punking me? There really is no such thing as Nibs, is there?”
Varnie smiled noncommittally.
“Ame, is there such a thing as Nibs?”
Amelia bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I’ve never heard of them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
“Amnesia boy?”
I held up my hands. “Yeah, sorry. Amnesia.”
“You guys suck.” She pouted.
It was fun to get her worked up. Donny lived so close to the surface that a few well-chosen words could spin her into a frenzy. Of course, sometimes that was a curse too.
Gabe looked at the table in disgust. “I’d almost rather do another one of those séances than clean up this mess.”
Ame looked up. “We totally should. We haven’t been able to try for a few days.”
“I was kidding.” Gabe sat back in his chair. “I hate those. It’s creepy.”
Amelia ignored Gabe and blinked sweetly at Varnie. “What do you think, Varnie?”
Varnie, the poor sap, would have leapt from a bridge if she’d asked him to with those pretty eyes. Donny cocked her head to one side and looked at Amelia very intently, and then she slowly tilted her head and looked at Varnie, her eyes thinning into slits. “Hey, wait a minute—”
Gabe cut her off with a kiss. I was beginning to think the guy had more psychic powers than Ame and Varnie combined. He acted like he was just along for the ride most of the time, but he always seemed to know exactly what wasn’t being said. And how to handle Donny without making her … less Donny.
“We can do a locating séance, if you like, Miss Amelia. One more time couldn’t hurt.” Varnie blinked a few times, realizing he was acting like a pansy. At least I hoped he realized it. “
After
we clean up this mess.”
After
we clean up this mess.”
We all groaned. After dishes, we took our places around the table in the war room. That’s what Gabe had dubbed it to make it sound less freakish that we sat around a table chanting and looking into a crystal ball.
Next came quiet time. We all were supposed to quiet our minds. Mostly, we just tried to get serious and stop saying snarky things to one another—I don’t know if my mind ever quieted. Quiet time usually lasted about two minutes.
Soon Varnie spoke. “Everyone, please close your eyes, open your mind, and breathe deeply.”
I tried to relax. I was never comfortable in the room with the crystal ball. And I hated those cards. They just seemed ominous to me. Predictors of disaster.
“Let your mind go. Think of the dark night sky and a blanket of stars. Imagine all the pinpoints of light—find one that speaks to you and focus on it.” Varnie’s voice deepened as he spoke. No longer the female impersonator or the surfer dude, he acquired a resonance that seemed to come out only when he was working like this. He led us on a trip through a galaxy in our minds. As we went further into the night inside our heads, Theia’s necklace grew warmer on my skin.
“Everyone, please join hands. Once we have formed a circle, remember not to break it until I tell you.”
That was an important step. If we broke the circle, bad things could happen. Varnie never elaborated on what bad things—but we were already freaked out enough that we didn’t dare ask. “Bad things” was enough of a warning.
“I’m opening the channels,” Varnie said next, not to us, but to the spirit world. “To ask—”
The table started bouncing. We all opened our eyes and looked at one another.
“All right,” Varnie continued, his voice remaining calm. “Someone is already here, I take it.”
The table thumped harder. The ball in the middle wobbled off its base and rolled towards me. My first instinct was to catch it, but I stopped myself. Donny and I used our joined hands to buffer the globe, keeping it from falling off the table.
The deck of tarot cards on the sideboard began shuffling itself as if an invisible entity were handing them side to side. Donny whimpered a little, and then, one by one, the cards began flying through the air towards us like missiles. We ducked, but one hit me in the shoulder hard enough to tear my dress shirt.
Ame stood, her hair blowing like she was standing against a strong wind. Without letting go of Varnie and Gabe or breaking the circle, she glared at the cards. “Stop.” Her voice was calm but fierce, and the cards stopped their flight in midair. They just hung there. The invisible wind kept at her, but I think it might have been something she created, and not something aimed at her. It was like this weird energy that buffeted her, and consequently the rest of us.
Sweet, jokey Amelia looked like a goddess in a wind tunnel.
“I’m not enjoying this,” Donny whispered.
“Yeah, me neither.” Varnie cleared his throat. “We’re going to go ahead and—”
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by letters forming on the wall in red, as if someone were spray-painting the wall with blood.
HADENAs each letter appeared, my stomach dropped a little more.
Something began battering at the closed door and we all flinched with each bang.
“What the hell is going on?” Gabe asked.
Donny’s hand trembled in mine. “I think we should stop. This isn’t right.”
I agreed. We’d never experienced anything so strong—or dark—before.
“Don’t let go,” Varnie reminded us. “We need to close the channels.”
It was difficult to remain calm. The bloodred letters began to drip into elongated patterns, and the ramming against the door startled my heart with every bang. My muscles tensed, and I wanted to either hit something or hide under the table.
Amelia squeezed her eyes shut and the room exploded in a burst of white light. Like a flash of lightning, only warm as sunshine, the light seemed to illuminate every crevice where a shadow could hide. In that second of heat, the paint disappeared, the cards flew back to the sideboard, and the banging stopped.
Ame opened her eyes. “Whoa.”
“Yeah, Ame, whoa,” Gabe repeated.
A hush fell over the room. Our labored breathing was the only sound.
“Varnie,” she whispered, “what did I just do?”
“I’m not sure, but I wanna say you just averted an apocalypse, Miss Amelia.” His tone was dry, but his palm was not.
“Can we break the circle yet?” I was still scared, but I was also not enjoying holding wet hands with Varnie.
“You okay, babe?” Gabe asked Donny.
She was pale, really pale, and her lower lip trembled, but she didn’t speak. We all broke the circle and instantly crowded around her chair. She shivered uncontrollably.
“Donny, what is it?” Ame asked.
Donny tried to talk but seemed to hiccup each breath.
“Babe?” Gabe shook her gently. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
Her eyes were glassy and a little vacant. I shared a concerned look with Varnie.
She gasped on a huge breath. “I saw her,” she finally managed.
“Who?” Varnie asked.
“Theia! She was looking at me through the other side of a mirror. She looked so sad and then … and then all her skin shriveled up and she was this skeleton thing.” She shivered again, and Gabe drew her into his lap.
Theia.
“It was probably a trick,” Varnie said calmly. “Just like the noises and the message on the wall—tricks to scare us.”
Or maybe it wasn’t
, I wanted to shout. I shot out of my chair and left the room in an effort to keep from exploding with pent-up rage. I was so tired of feeling helpless. Everyone was in danger, and it was all my fault. The writing was on the wall—literally.
, I wanted to shout. I shot out of my chair and left the room in an effort to keep from exploding with pent-up rage. I was so tired of feeling helpless. Everyone was in danger, and it was all my fault. The writing was on the wall—literally.
And worst of all, I was jealous. I was pissed that Gabe could hold Donny when she was scared, and that Varnie could spend time with Amelia, even if she didn’t have a clue that he was into her. And that the girl of my dreams was out of my reach.
That night I woke up, still in my room, barely able to breathe. It felt like I was under the tire of a car. I couldn’t move, but I was acutely aware that I was awake and I was not alone. It was frightening, more frightening than my name in blood on the wall or even the ghastly faces in the tree bark. At least in the woods I could run.
I managed to blink until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was then that I realized Theia was kneeling on my chest. I’d seen that before, in the demonology book Varnie showed me. That was how the mare demon took her prey. In the pictures, she was sometimes a beautiful maiden and sometimes a hag. No drawings ever depicted her looking as forlorn as Theia.
She was crying silent tears and her lower lip trembled. She looked away from me, like she couldn’t bear for me to see her shame.
“I’m so very sorry,” she whispered.
I couldn’t speak or move. She was glowing a little—like she was edged in soft light.
“I don’t want to do this, Haden. God, please make me stop.”
And then she was gone, as if she had never been there.
And I wondered if she was already too far gone to save.
Theia sat in the corner of Haden’s room, as small as she could make herself. The shame of what she’d become made her sick.
She’d just needed a taste. She’d needed it so badly. She lost all reason, all sense of herself.
She squeezed her eyes to cut off the memory, but it stayed just as sharp in her head. It was easy to make excuses, to put her needs ahead of everyone else’s. Why shouldn’t she have what she wanted? Hadn’t she sacrificed everything? She didn’t kill him, after all. And if she wanted to, she could make him enjoy the experience—exquisite pleasure, torturous delight.
Theia covered her ears. No, that was Mara talking. Mara whispering those things in her head. What she’d done was wrong. She’d let the demon in her win that battle. Haden was lucky she’d been able to stop. They both were.
Mara had played this one well. Promising Theia she could go out, she could see Haden, but there was a penance for the privilege.
Never again.
Mara’s treacherous bargains meant that Theia lost, every time. She was waiting for Theia to make the mistake that would bring Haden back to Under forever. Theia would be stronger next time.
She had to be stronger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
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