Limbo's Child (44 page)

“You!” Lucy pulled away and pushed herself tightly against the back wall as if hoping she could pass right through it.

“What did you see, Lucy?”

“It’s you!! You’re the longhaired woman!!” The vision had disappeared, but so had the friendly Amanda. Amanda pulled herself up to her full height and stood rigid.

“It’s not what you think, Lucy.”

“You’re the one that’s been chasing me!” Amanda was blocking the stairs down. Lucy began inching her way towards the staircase going up.

“I’ve been sent here to
protect
you, Lucy.”

“You LIED to me! You’re not even a lawyer, are you?!!” Lucy eyed the stairs.

“I may have lied about that, but everything else I said was true. My name really is Amanda Tipping and I really do care for you, Lucy. I would never hurt you or force you to do anything against your will.”

“You’re the one who’s been chasing Yo-yo!! You’re the one who scared him out into the street and caused our accident! You’re the one who killed my mother!!”

“
Yo-yo?
” Amanda seemed perplexed by this at first. Then a revelation dawned on her as she realized who Lucy must be speaking about.

“He’s
here?!
”

Lucy blanched in horror. She hadn’t meant to give up Yo-yo like that. She didn’t know that the longhaired woman didn’t know he was here. Now she had gotten them both into big trouble.

Amanda took a threatening step towards Lucy, but just then another voice called out.

“Lucy?!”

A door opened at the top of the stairs and the pretty, young doctor emerged.

“Lucy! We’ve been looking all over for you! Where have you been?” The doctor came down the stairs with a smile on her face, oblivious to what was unfolding between Lucy and Amanda. Amanda shot a quick, venomous look at Lucy then turned to face the doctor. Instantly, the nice Amanda was on display.

“We’re down here, Doctor. We just needed a space to have a little private…
chat
.” Amanda shot another cold-eyed look at Lucy and then positioned herself between Lucy and the doctor. “I’ve told Lucy the good news. Lucy will be coming to stay with me for a while.”

“I know. That’s what the nurses said,” the doctor replied a little incredulously, “Problem is, I didn’t sign off on it, and until I do, she’s still my patient.”

“It’s already been decided, Doctor. Lucy and I are going to leave this evening for Philadelphia. Trust me, she will be well taken care of.”

“Is that a fact?” The doctor folded her arms, and leaned to the side to try to get a direct look at Lucy, but Amanda stepped in between them.

“I just think it’s a little early,” the doctor said, “AND without my signature she’s not going anywhere.”

“The paperwork is all in order. I don’t need your signature,” Amanda responded coldly.

“Really?” the young doctor seemed annoyed. “I’d like to see the release form if you don’t mind.”

“Fine.” Amanda reached into her pocket and produced a folded paper.

The doctor snatched the paper from Amanda’s grasp, unfolded it and perused it. As her eyes darted over it you could see the displeasure on her face. “Harris signed this?!” she said at last, “He’s never even seen Lucy. He isn’t even in pediatrics!”

“It’s perfectly legal, I’m afraid,” Amanda said as she gingerly took the paper, refolded it and put it away. Lucy wondered what Amanda had done to Harris to get him to sign. Was it another smooth act like she pulled on her in the coffee shop? Or was it something worse?!

“I’m not standing for this,” Dr. Carfax went on.

“I’m afraid it’s not up to you, Dr. Carfax. It’s been arranged. Now if you don’t mind, we have to be going.” But nobody moved.

Dr. Carfax narrowed her eyes at Amanda and sent a sideward glance to Lucy. Lucy tried to shake her head “no” ever so slightly, desperate to send some signal to the doctor not to leave her alone with Amanda.

The doctor pushed her tongue in and out of her cheek a few times. Amanda didn’t even blink.

“I’m calling corporate,” the doctor eventually said as she pulled out her cell phone and began dialing.

“Please do,” Amanda said. She paced the small landing like a caged panther and looked at Lucy menacingly, as if she knew Lucy was to blame for Carfax’s stubbornness. Lucy could hear the phone ring on the other end of the line of Dr. Carfax’s mobile phone. A small glimmer of hope lit inside of Lucy. Amanda grimaced. The other side picked up and Lucy faintly heard someone on that end say “Hello?” The doctor turned her back to Amanda for a split second and was about to speak, but never got the chance.

“Doctor!!” Lucy tried to warn her, but it was too late.

Amanda spun around violently and delivered a savage backhand to the doctor’s face, her fist smashing through the phone and sending the pieces of plastic scattering everywhere in the process.

The doctor staggered but didn’t fall. Lucy gasped. Undaunted, Amanda grabbed the young doctor by her long hair and shoved her face first into the wall of the stairwell, breaking the drywall and the doctor’s nose with a hideous crunch. Lucy screamed. The doctor slumped to the landing floor, but she still wasn’t down yet. She struggled to get up before Amanda pummeled her one last time with an overhand punch to her left cheek. The doctor was finally unconscious.

Amanda winced and shook out the hand she had just punched the doctor with.

“Ouch. That was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.” She looked up at Lucy who had all her fingers in her mouth.

The nice Amanda was back. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Lucy,” she said, as if Lucy had just seen something mildly embarrassing, like Amanda’s bra strap was showing. “Are you okay?”

Lucy bolted up the stairs.

“Lucy, STOP!!” Amanda lunged over the fallen Carfax but missed Lucy’s ankles by mere inches.

“LUCY!!” Amanda called after her.
Good
Amanda or
bad
Amanda or WORSE Amanda, it didn’t matter. Whether lawyer or longhaired woman or witch or psychopath, Lucy didn’t care!! She was never going to stop!! Amanda struggled to get up over the doctor’s body. Lucy kicked off the slippers so her toes could grip the stairs better. Amanda’s high heels were slowing her down thankfully. Lucy’s heart was pounding, but she just kept going up and up. Three flights up she finally thought to start yanking on the doors, but they were all infuriatingly locked. DANG!

“LUCY!! COME BACK!!”

Lucy’s panic had been replaced by simple one-word imperatives. MOVE!! UP! RUN! DOORS!! GO!! KEEP MOVING!! Amanda was getting closer and still none of the doors were budging. Finally, a door pulled open several floors up, but Amanda was nearly on her.

“Aaaaaaaahh!!” Lucy screamed and slipped just past Amanda’s grip, but not before she had more flashes of that horrible, longhaired witch clawing her way after her. Lucy slammed the door in her face. From the sound of it, Amanda fell backwards and down the stairs. Lucy ran out into the hall. It was dark. There was plastic sheeting over everything and there was open framing everywhere. The whole floor must have been under renovations. The door behind her flew open and Lucy quickly squeaked past the open framing and under some plastic sheeting that was covering an unfinished counter.

The clack of Amanda’s elegant high heels came slowly down the hall. Lucy put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from breathing too hard.

“I know you’re here, Lucy.” The clacking footsteps continued. They walked past where Lucy was hiding. Lucy was shuddering, trying to keep her breath shallow and quiet.

“I didn’t want it to be this way.” The footsteps stopped, the shoes scraped as she turned around and slowly walked back in Lucy’s direction. “I was going to tell you everything, but I wanted to do it somewhere safe. Somewhere where I could help you to understand who you really are.”

Lucy’s mind was racing. What was she talking about?

“Didn’t you ever wonder why your mother left Pennsylvania for Texas, Lucy? Didn’t you ever wonder why your mother and your father never talked about their families? No uncles, no aunts, no cousins. It must have been lonely for you.” The shoes walked past Lucy, paused, and then walked back again. “Didn’t you ever wonder why she never talked about our family?”

“OUR Family?!” thought Lucy. Amanda continued as if reading her mind.

“That’s right, Lucy,
OUR
family. We are related, you and I – distantly – but we are family.”

Lucy felt sick. Was this true?!

“You knew your mother as Margaret Milller, but she was born Margarita Zephorah Candelaria Valda de Vasca y Hoffenstedter Holveda.”

Amanda spoke in an almost entirely different voice when she said this. She even rolled her “r’s” perfectly. Lucy could never do that in Spanish class.

“You were not born Lucy Claire Miller either. Your full birth name is Lucia Clarissa Francesca Estafania Zephorah Candelaria Valda de Vasca y Hoffenstedter Holveda Miller.”

Lucy struggled with the weight of that name. She had never seen her birth certificate come to think of it. Was any of this even
true?!

“We come from a very ancient family, Lucy.” The soles of the shoes scraped again and paced back up the hall. “We were the counselors and advisers to kings and queens and popes, Lucy. Nobles and men of great learning sought us out for our wisdom and guidance. We are a very special family.”

The shoes stopped.

“We have powers, Lucy, you and I. Powers that no mere mortal can understand.”

“Powers?!” thought Lucy.

“We can talk to the dead.”

The shoes took one step closer to the counter where Lucy was hiding.

“We can summon their spirits into the bodies of the deceased…” Another step forward. “…or the living.”

Lucy began hyperventilating.

“We can see the ends of the paths of life, even from the beginning, and we can stretch out those paths to the farthest horizons.”

“What did that even mean?” thought Lucy. Amanda took another step.

“We can make slaves of corpses or learn wisdom from the mouths of mummies.” The shoes stepped forward again. “We can make meat golems and zombies.”

“Meat golem?! WHAT in the HECK was that?!!” Lucy was struggling to control her own brain.

“We are necromancers.”

Necromancers
. The word burned on Lucy’s tongue somehow, even though she hadn’t spoken it out loud. The shoes stopped. Lucy bit down on her burning tongue.

“We hold the balance between this world and the next. Without us, there would be chaos. Once we were many and powerful, but we were betrayed and scattered. They branded us witches and heretics. But we found refuge in the New World. Among the other disaffected religious refugees, the Amish and the Brethren, we made a home here in Pennsylvania. Why do you think your mother was born in Pennsylvania, Lucy? This was the only place where we were free to practice our art.”

The shoes shuffled but did not move.

“But what persecution could not destroy, apathy accomplished far too easily. Too few held to the old ways and soon there weren’t many of us left. Your mother was one of the last.”

“My
mother
?” Lucy thought.

“There must always be one to carry on the burden, Lucy. At
least
one. That one is THE Necromancer, the champion of Death himself. He makes sure that the will of Death, the Great Master, is done.”

“Great Master?!” Lucy was panicking in her mind. “What sort of people called
Death
the ‘Great Master?!’”

“We have been led by one for a very long time, but he is very old, Lucy, centuries even, and he can no longer lead us.” Amanda paused and said the next word very carefully, “Lazlo Moríro.”

The name made Lucy shudder uncontrollably with dread, though she didn’t know why.

“He is your great uncle, Lucy.”

“Great uncle?!” Lucy thought, “Is that why everyone was asking me about an
uncle
? How come I’ve never heard of him?!”

Amanda went on. “From birth, your mother was chosen to replace him.”

Lucy ran her fingers through her hair, this was all too bizarre to absorb.

“Haven’t you wondered why she left Pennsylvania? She was running away, Lucy. Running away from her family. She was young and afraid of the responsibility.”

Lucy held her breath. Amanda was very close. Then the shoes began to walk off again. Lucy breathed a sigh of relief but then slapped her hands over her mouth, afraid Amanda might have heard her. The shoes paused, but only briefly and then kept walking.

“Haven’t you wondered why she came back after all these years? Why she moved back to your grandmother’s house a year ago? Away from your friends and everything you knew? Why she insisted on home-schooling you here but not in Texas? Haven’t you wondered why she left a job as a librarian at a community college in Texas to take a lesser job as a middle school librarian in rural Pennsylvania? Doesn’t that strike you as a step down, Lucy?”

Lucy had thought that many times in fact. Every day she had slept or ate or did anything in that musty old house she hated it and wondered why her mother had forced them to live there. Lucy pounded her temples with her fists and tried to force herself not to cry. How did this woman know so much about her and her family?! “It just couldn’t be true,” she thought to herself, but she wasn’t so sure anymore.