Predestined (7 page)

Realization washed over me and I
stared at him. His blue eyes. The shape of his jaw. His posture.
The curve of his lips and sound of his voice. He -- Leif was -- he
was the boy from my dreams.

“It’s you.”

A regular guy would need
clarification from my simple statement but Leif wasn’t regular. He
understood what I meant. So instead, he simply nodded.

“Why? I don’t
understand.”

“You were promised to me. My
father’s power healed you and in return your mother promised your
soul to me.”

I was obviously dreaming again
because this sounded ridiculous.

“I see it in your eyes,” his grin
grew larger, “your soul knows me. The fire is there.” He held up a
mirror which came out of nowhere and I stared in horror as my eyes
were no longer their familiar green but instead were the color of
fire. My pupils were surrounded by what looked like flickering
orange flames.

Trembling, I shook my head and
pushed away from the car to put more distance between
us.

“Pagan--” he started then his face
turned furious as he tilted his head upward and was once again
gone.

“I missed him again, didn’t I?
Well, shit!” Gee hissed.

I sagged against the bumper of my
car and wrapped my arms around my waist.

“You okay? He didn’t touch you did
he?”

I turned my face up to look at Gee
and she stiffened, staring directly into my eyes.

“Your eyes,” she said reaching out
and touching my cheek carefully. “What the fuck?”

I shook my head and stood up
turning away from her. I needed Dank. This was bad. My eyes were
beyond creepy.

“Where’s Dank?” I croaked, not
wanting to cry in front of Gee. She wasn’t the kind of being you
wanted to get emotional in front of.

“Get in the car, I’ll drive.” Gee
commanded, nodding her head to the passenger side. Normally, I
wouldn’t be okay with her driving because everything Gee did she
did dangerously but at the moment I couldn’t concentrate enough to
drive. So I did as I was told and sank down into the passenger
seat.

“Where’s Dank?” I repeated as she
cranked the car and backed up entirely too fast out of the
driveway.

“In Afghanistan dealing with those
idiots who blow themselves up.”

“When will he be back?”

Gee sighed and glanced over at me,
“Not for awhile, Pagan. He’s got to deal with the voodoo creep
stalking you.”

I reached up and pulled the mirror
down to study my eyes. Their normal color was back and the sickness
in my stomach eased some.

“Your eyes were freaky Peggy Ann. I
ain’t gonna lie to you. That was some freaky, freaky
shit.”

“I know! Don’t you think you should
tell Dank?” I just wanted him back. I missed him and after my
run-in with Leif I needed to feel secure. As much as I loved Gee
she didn’t give me the security I needed.

“I’ll tell him but right now I’m
not leaving you. The Voodoo prince is hot on your tail. So I need
to stick close. No more running off to try and talk some sense into
Dankmar.”

I fought the urge to cry. Instead,
I bit the inside of my cheek and kept my eyes focused on the
passing houses.

“It’s okay Peggy Ann. I got
this.”

I wasn’t so sure about that but I
sat silently as she sang off key to a Three Doors Down song that
was playing on the radio.

Once we pulled into my driveway I
didn’t wait around for her to get out. If I couldn’t have Dank then
I wanted my mom. Thankfully, her car was here. As I reached the
door I glanced back at Gee.

“I’m going to go hang out with my
mom for awhile. You can make yourself at home in my
room.”

“While you’re at it why don’t you
ask her about the Voodoo crap she’s got you all mixed up in?” Gee
replied, then vanished.

I walked inside and was relieved to
see Mom curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn instead of
tucked away in her office writing. CSI Miami I could drag her away
from. Her writing, not so much.

“Hey sweetheart, did you enjoy
eating over at Miranda’s?”

I sank down beside her and grabbed
a handful of popcorn wondering if I’d be able to actually eat it
after the scare I’d just had. I needed to be careful how I sounded.
If Mom heard even the slightest unease in my voice she’d perk up
and begin grilling me with questions until I caved and told her
everything. Focusing on keeping my tone casual and unaffected I
replied, “Yep, we had boiled shrimp, corn on the cob and salad. The
salad had raspberries, pecans, and goat cheese in it. It was
surprisingly good. Even with the sweet dressing.”

“Oh, that sounds yummy. I might
have to call and get that recipe.”

“You’ll love it. Right up your
alley in the healthy weird foods category.”

Mom chuckled and nibbled on the
handful of popcorn in her hand. I wasn’t sure how to bring this up.
Did I just say, “Hey Mom, remember when I was dying and you took me
to that Voodoo doctor?” I had a feeling she would balk if I
approached it directly like that. But it had to be true.

I turned my attention to the
television and watched the crime scene of a strangled girl as the
CSI crew did their thing. I popped one kernel into my mouth and
managed to chew it up. The butter felt heavy on my sensitive
stomach so I decided I better not try anymore.

“What’s bothering you
Pagan?”

I glanced over at Mom and she was
studying me instead of the television. Figures she would pick up on
my mood. The woman was impossible to hide a problem
from.

“Um... I was just thinking
about...” I paused and debated if I should even say anything. Did I
really want to know this? I took in my mom’s puckered eyebrows as
she frowned at me waiting on me to finish. Her dark hair was tucked
behind her ears and she was free of any makeup. I could see her
concern and love glowing in her eyes. I knew why she’d done it. But
I still needed to hear her explain. Maybe something she knew would
help Dank end this. “You remember when I was sick as a kid,” I
began and watched as her frown deepened and she gave me a short
nod.

“Well, I was dying. I remember
that. And well... I had this dream. More like a memory. I was in an
old shack and you were there too. There was this old lady.” I
stopped as the panic began to flicker in her eyes. It was true. I
didn’t need to explain anymore. She knew exactly what I had
dreamed.

“It was real, wasn’t it? You took
me to a Voodoo doctor and she... or he healed me.”

Mom swallowed hard and shook her
head almost frantically, “Oh, god,” she murmured looking down at
her hand that had dropped the popcorn it had been holding. Had she
really never expected me to remember?

“What did you promise them, Mom?
What was their payment for healing me?”

Mom set the bowl on the coffee
table in front of us and stood up. I sat there calmer than I
actually felt as she began to pace back and forth in front of the
television.

“Ohgod ohgod ohgod,” she chanted
under her breath. Now I was beginning to panic. This wasn’t the
reaction I’d expected. My cool, calm, collected mother had never
had a breakdown on me.

“Tell me, Mom,” I
demanded.

She ran both her hands through her
short hair and then rested them on her pajama clad hips. The flying
pink pigs on her flannel bottoms were so happy and carefree and so
incredibly out of place on the woman wearing them. I began to
wonder if she was going to have some sort of panic attack the way
her breathing had quickened.

“I didn’t know what else to do,”
she whispered in a broken sob and wrapped her arms around her waist
as if she needed to hold herself together.

“I understand that. What I need to
know is what was the payment they required?”

Mom finally focused her grief
stricken eyes on me, “Why’re you asking me this? Has someone... has
something... contacted you?”

Explaining that my boyfriend was
Death and that a soul transporter was hanging out in my room
probably listening to my iPod and painting her toenails an
outrageous color didn’t exactly sound like the best of plans. So I
decided to go with something she would believe. “I had a dream. I
saw it all. I remembered everything. Even the moldy stale
smell.”

A small amount of relief came over
her tense expression. She nodded and wiped her palms on the front
of her pajama pants nervously. “Okay. A dream. That’s okay,” she
was talking more to herself than to me. I waited.

Finally she turned her gaze back to
mine. “I was desperate Pagan. A nurse in the hospital told me about
the voodoo doctor back in the swamp. I knew nothing of Voodoo. We’d
been sent to The Children’s Hospital in New Orleans because they
had a specialist there that came highly recommended. The culture
there was so different. I didn’t know what to believe. I ignored
her at first,” she paused and took a deep breath. “But then...but
then they told me you weren’t going to wake up. I panicked. I took
you to the old woman. I didn’t know anything about her or her
methods. I thought maybe she had a miracle drug,” she let out a
hard laugh. “I mean, who believes in spells anyway. I wasn’t
expecting her to actually brew up something and then the boy walked
in.” She closed her eyes tightly. I watched the creases on her
forehead deepen. It had been Leif. I knew that without a doubt
now.

“The boy was so young. But his
eyes... his eyes were terrifying. He began chanting and this dark
mist fell over the room.” She opened her eyes and stared at me. I
could see the memory of it in her eyes. The experience haunted her.
“And then we woke up back in the hospital room. It was as if we’d
never left. You were sitting up in bed chatting with a nurse and
smiling. The circles under your eyes were gone. You wanted macaroni
and cheese and someone had run off to find you some. Doctors and
nurses began to pour into our room. You were a miracle. They had no
explanation but there was no sign of the disease in your body,” she
swallowed so hard I could see her throat constrict. “There wasn’t
even any sign that the disease had ever been there. You made the
news. You were a medical marvel. Then one day everyone forgot about
it and it was as if it had never happened.”

This was all she knew. She hadn’t
promised them anything. She’d just said she’d give them whatever
they wanted. She had no idea she’d given them my soul. I stood up
on shaky legs and walked around the table and hugged her. Not
because she deserved it but because even though she’d made a grave
mistake she’d done it because she loved me.

Chapter Seven

“Hey, what’s
wrong?”

I sniffled and looked up at a
young boy about my age. His hair was blond and he had friendly blue
eyes. I shrugged and wiped my nose on my sleeve. I wanted to be
alone and cry. I didn’t want to explain things to some
stranger.

“Nothin’,’” I mumbled and stared
down at my dirty tennis shoes. I’d just got my pink sparkly tennis
shoes last week but now after running through the woods in the mud
they were all dirty. Didn’t matter. Mom was upset. I’d scared her.
I didn’t mean to. I never meant to. I needed to learn not to say
anything.

“Something is bothering you,” the
boy said and sank down on the porch step beside me. Who was this
kid?

“Just stuff,” I muttered fiddling
with my dirty shoe string.

“I’m good at fixing things. I bet
if you told me I could help,” he replied.

Was he for real? I just wanted him
to leave me alone. Shrugging, I figured the truth would probably
send him running away. I lifted my head and stared at
him.

“I saw my dead Grandma today. We
went to her house because she had a heart attack and died. Everyone
put on dresses and went to visit her in her casket at her house and
eat food and stuff. I saw her lying there. She looked asleep but
she wasn’t breathing. Then I went into the kitchen to find the
coloring books she always left for me. And there she was. Smiling
like she always did. I was so happy to see she’d woken up. I went
to hug her and she was gone.”

I stopped, waiting for the
horrified look my mother had given me when I told her this same
story to come over his face but it didn’t. Maybe he didn’t
understand.

“So, I spun around and there she
was again. Standing behind me. She looked sad and she shook her
head at me. I was just so happy to see her alive I ran to tell Mom.
But when I got back into the room where the casket was my grandma
was still lying there like she was asleep. My mother was still
crying.”

I stopped again waiting for the
boy to jump up and run away from me. But he sat there waiting for
me to say more. I’d wanted someone to listen to me today. Instead
my mom had told me to stop it and threatened to ground me if I said
anymore about this. Then she’d sobbed so loudly I felt sick. I
didn’t want to make her sad. I’d only been trying to make her feel
better.

“Go on,” the boy said.