The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin (3 page)

“Why make me watch this?  I don’t understand.”

Vanessa laid a hand on his shoulder.  “You need to understand what you’re up against.  And why it’s so important that you live.”

Jimmy brushed her hand away.  “Oh, please.  I’ve never been important to anyone.  Except maybe the two friends I just watched burn to death.”

Vanessa sighed.  “Don’t make the mistake of blaming me for their deaths, Jimmy.  I didn’t kill your friends.”  She pointed out of the windshield.  “They did.  The sooner you get that, the better.”

“I don’t get any of this.”  Jimmy shook his head.  “Jamal and Derek didn’t have to die.  I should have been there with them.  If you hadn’t come for me-“

“You’d be in a far worse situation than you know,” said Vanessa.  “Listen carefully, Jimmy: I know what it’s like to lose friends.”  She paused.  “Family even.  You’re not the only one who has suffered.  All of us have.  You’d do well to remember that.”

Jimmy said nothing, aware of the rage he felt swelling in him.  He’d known Vanessa for all of thirty minutes and he already hated her.

“Jimmy.”

He glanced at her.  “What?”

“You’re angry with me.  I understand that.  You don’t have the full picture yet.  So that hatred you have brewing inside you?  Just make sure you direct it at the right people – the right man – who is truly responsible for the deaths of your friends.”

“And who would that be?”

Vanessa glanced at her watch.  “It’s time we were moving again.”  She wheeled the car into reverse and they slid back down the hill before making a series of fast turns.  Jimmy realized he was in a part of the city he’d never seen before.  Within minutes they were driving on the highway leading out of the city.  Only then did Vanessa seem to relax a bit more.  With a big sigh, she used one hand to take the blonde wig she’d been wearing off and throw it into the back seat.

Jimmy stared at her as she fluffed her brown hair underneath.  “So who are they?  What do they want with me?”

Vanessa looked at Jimmy and then back at the road as if trying to decide something.  After a moment, she took a breath.

“They want to kill you, Jimmy.”

Chapter Two

“I kind of figured that part out,” said Jimmy.  Still, hearing Vanessa actually say it set his heart thundering in his chest.   Jimmy’s fingers danced along the armrest and his knees shook.

Relax.  Take a deep breath and exhale it.

Jimmy froze.  The voice had never spoken to him when he was with other people before.  However, he did as he was told and when he blew out the breath, he felt a little better.  But only just.

“Try not to be so nervous,” said Vanessa.  

“That’s easy for you to say.  You weren’t just told that people you’ve never even met before want you dead.”

Vanessa cracked a tiny smile.  “Jimmy, there are plenty of people who want me dead, too.”

“Yeah?  Like who?”

“The same people who want to kill you.”  She looked back out the windshield.  

Jimmy frowned.  “Way I’m feeling right now, you could probably add my name to that list.”

Vanessa nodded.  “I know you’re furious with me for not saving your friends, Jimmy.  I get that.  But it’s misguided rage.  My mission tonight was to get you out of that orphanage intact.  The parameters of the operation weren’t flexible enough to allow me to save anyone else.  I’m sorry, but those are the cold, hard facts.”

“Yeah, well, those facts suck.”

“I’m sure you feel that they do.”  She glanced at a highway marker.  “Now let me concentrate, I’m still not used to finding this place.”

Vanessa steered the car off the highway and onto a long winding country road.  Jimmy looked around but saw no other houses.  They must have been at least thirty miles from the city by this time.

The rain had let up some, but a slight drizzle still spattered the windows.  Tall trees seemed to shield part of the road as they drove.  They came around a bend and  Vanessa made a sharp turn.  They bounced down a dirt road that looked more like a trail in the woods than anything else.

Jimmy gripped the arm rests and tried to keep his jaw from clattering as they maneuvered down the path, the car jumping and bucking with each bump and scrape.  “Maybe you should get this paved.”

“No,” said Vanessa.  “There's a reason why we left it this way.”

Jimmy frowned.  “You still haven’t told me why they hate me so much.”

Vanessa pointed out of the window at the surrounding landscape.  “It’s this way for a reason.  Harder to get a lot of vehicles down here, and that’s if they even knew where this place was.  Which they don’t.  Lucky for us.”

Jimmy wondered if she’d ever answer any of his questions.    The car continued to jump and buck over the holes and bumps in the dirt track.  “The tires are going to pop if we stay on this much longer.”

“They run flat anyway,” said Vanessa.  “Can’t have people shooting out our tires now can we?”

“Shooting?”

“Yes.  You know, bullets?”

The car nosed its way through the dark woods, twisting as the path did, until at last the trees seemed to thin out and Jimmy could see a few hundred yards ahead of them.

“That?  That’s where we’re going?”

If it had once been a magnificent mansion surrounded by manicured lawns and carefully sculpted rose bushes, there was little to suggest its former beauty.  The stonework seemed in desperate need of new mortar, with large scabs of brick and masonry littering the ground closest to the house.  The rose bushes hugged the foundation, reaching their thorny branches up toward the first floor windows.  No lights glowed from within the house.

Jimmy tried to decide if he’d ever lived in a worse looking place.  “Looks like it’s haunted.”

Vanessa laughed.  “There were rumors of ghosts here a long time ago.”

“Who owns this dump anyway?”

“Does it matter?”  Vanessa pulled the car around to the back and Jimmy watched as an automatic garage door slid open.  Blackness seemed to reach for the car and as Vanessa drove in, they were swallowed by it.  The door slid down behind them and only then did a faint red light come on, illuminating the interior.

The garage had a single door leading out of it, but was otherwise empty.  Jimmy thought it strange there weren’t any rakes, shovels, or any other garden equipment he would have expected to find in garage.

Vanessa got out of the car.  “You can get out now.”

Jimmy slid out and then closed the door behind him.  Vanessa waved him over.  “In case you’re thinking about running – which I wouldn’t advise – we’re on over a thousand acres of densely forested land.  Step into the woods and you’ll be lost in no time.”

Jimmy frowned.  “I might have a keen sense of direction.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Jimmy, the only woods you’ve ever seen have been in movies or on the television.  You’re a city boy.  Not Daniel Boone.”

She unlocked the door and ushered Jimmy inside.

It was cold.  A breeze seemed to drift through the house as they climbed a set of stairs to the back of the kitchen.  Jimmy noticed that each step seemed to creak an awful lot as they climbed them.

“Stairs need work.”

“Or maybe I like them that way for a reason,” said Vanessa.  “Come on.”

The kitchen looked old, but functional.  Jimmy could hear the hum of the refrigerator and the stove looked like it might actually work.  An assortment of pans hung on an overhead rack near the sink.

“Are you hungry?”

“Tired,” said Jimmy.

Vanessa nodded.  “I’d expect so.  I’ll show you to your room.”  They walked down the long hallway leading off of the kitchen.  Jimmy’s sneakers sank into the plush carpet and he looked at the framed portraits hanging on the walls.

“Who are these geezers?”

“I don’t know.  I bought the place furnished.  Maybe they’re the ghosts everyone says live here.”

Jimmy frowned.  “Ghosts don’t bother you?”

Vanessa put one hand on the banister of the staircase that led upstairs.  “I’ve never met a ghost who could destroy an orphanage, Jimmy.  I tend to worry more about the people in this world who can actually hurt me than about ghosts and that lot.”

The stairs leading to the second floor creaked just as much as the ones from the garage.  But when they got upstairs, the house looked a bit more comfortable.  It was warmer, for one thing.  And when Vanessa showed him his room, he saw it was a king-sized bed with a lot of pillows and blankets on it.

“I think you’ll be comfortable enough.”

Jimmy nodded.  “Yeah.  Thanks.”

Vanessa turned to leave.  “It’s a bit after 2200 hours now.  Wake-up time is 0530.  Good night.”

Jimmy shook his head.  “What?”

Vanessa stopped and sighed.  “It’s ten o’clock at night and you’ll be waking up at five thirty in the morning.”

“What for?”

Vanessa smiled.  “See you then.”

Jimmy closed the door behind her.  At least she didn’t lock him in.  He wandered to the windows and stared out.  The lawns ran about two hundred yards in all directions before the dark forest closed in.

She is right.  You will never make it if you run.

I might make it, thought Jimmy.  

Not yet.  In time, perhaps.  But not right now.  You would be dead within a day and then what kind of fun would we have?

Jimmy turned from the window and kicked off his sneakers.  What kind of fun are we going to have anyway?  I’m cracking up, talking to a voice in my head.  

Are you?

Jimmy lay down on the bed and sank into the layers of comforters and blankets.  Without realizing it, he stretched and yawned.  

In seconds, he was asleep. 

* * *

“Let’s go!”

Jimmy’s eyes didn’t want to open; they felt sticky and heavy.  Jimmy didn’t want to move.  But when Vanessa started hitting the pot with a big metal spoon, the noise drove Jimmy crazy, so he finally swung himself out of bed.

Vanessa stood there in a sweat suit with sneakers on.  Her hair was back in a ponytail.  She looked rested and Jimmy hated her all the more for it.  He could have slept for another day.

He glanced at the windows.  The sun was only just beginning to peek over the trees, warming the dark blue sky with orange and red streaks.

“Are the birds awake yet?”

“Get your stuff on and meet me downstairs in two minutes.”  Vanessa spun on a heel and left.

Jimmy shook his head.  His mouth felt like moss had been growing on it.  But he pulled on his sneakers and sidled downstairs.

The front door was open.  A cold breeze wrapped him in its chill and he shivered.

Vanessa stood on the grass.  “Over here.”

“It’s freezing out!”

“You’ll get warm soon enough.”  She pointed to a spot next to her.  Jimmy walked over.

“I want you to stand and relax.  Keep your head held up and your arms naturally by your side.  Bend your knees just a bit.  Good.”

Jimmy did as she said but yawned.

“Breathe,” said Vanessa.  “I want you to feel rooted to the earth.  Like your feet are sinking into the earth.  You’re immoveable.  Unshakable.”

Jimmy imagined his legs were roots and they were growing down into the ground.  It felt weird, but he had to admit that he felt very stable.

“Good.”  Vanessa turned and stood in front of him.  “I’m going to punch you now.”

“Excuse me?”

Vanessa grinned.  “Not full speed.  At least not yet.  My punch will arc at your head like a hook.”

“I bruise easily,” said Jimmy.

“All I want you to do is lift your left arm up like you’re waving at someone behind me.  As you do that, I want you to sink on your knees a bit more.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

Jimmy frowned.  “I don’t know.”

“Trust me, Jimmy.”

Trust didn’t seem to be a fair request.  She’d basically kidnapped him last night, hadn’t she?  And she’d let his friends die.

S
he saved your life.  Now do as she says.

Jimmy sighed.  Great, the voice was back.  He looked at Vanessa.  “Lift my arm and bend my knees.  Is that it?”

“Keep thinking of yourself as being rooted to the earth, too.”

“Sure.”  Jimmy took a breath and waited.

Vanessa’s punch sailed in at his head.  As it came at him, Jimmy lifted his arm and sank.  Vanessa’s punch bounced off his raised arm.

“Good.”

Jimmy grinned.  “That’s it?”

“Not even close.  Now that you’ve got that, there’s more.  This time, keep your other hand open and in front of your throat, elbow down.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s no such thing as only one punch, silly.  You block one punch and there will be another one coming.  Your other hand is your guard.  It will protect you as you take care of the first punch.  Now do it again.”

Vanessa repeated her attack and Jimmy responded as she’d told him.  

She kept building the exercise, though.  “This time, after you block my punch, put your other hand under my chin, step forward with your right foot, and shove my head back – way back.  Once I’m off-balance, sink on your knees and I will fall down.”

“You will?”

Vanessa smiled.  “You’ll be shoving my head beyond the support of my spine.  I won’t be able to stand up if you do it properly.”

“I doubt that.”

Vanessa stopped.  “You think I’m playing around with you, Jimmy?  You think this is some sort of game?”

Jimmy frowned but said nothing.  Vanessa nodded.  “Maybe you should be the one to punch me, then?”

“I’m not going to hit a girl.”

Vanessa folded her arms across her chest.  “First of all, I’m not a girl.  I’m a woman.  And if you think that you can do any harm to me, then you’re a fool.”

“I’ve been in fights before.”

Vanessa snorted.  “Dealing with that bully at school is a far different thing than dealing with people who are intent on killing you.”  She paused.  “Just ask Jamal and Derek.”

Jimmy’s heart thundered in his chest.  “What did you say?”

“Am I speaking another language?”  A grin snaked across her face and Jimmy felt himself go hot with fury.

The tidal surge of rage exploded out of him as he suddenly reared back on his right heel and threw a right punch arcing in at Vanessa’s head.  As he punched, a yell erupted from his throat that was part scream and part shout.