Velocity (5 page)

The group broke up, wishing Hugh and I good luck and promising to hold down the fort in Hell. Callie hugged him before she left.

“Are we going by land or air?” Lucy asked as we were heading outside. It had started to snow again, a flurry of huge flakes. The temperature had dipped lower than yesterday, and the sky was a flat, dove gray. Theo and I held awkward silence between us, when all I wanted to do was talk about everything with her. Seeing her made me realize how much I’d missed her.

This was all happening so fast; it felt like my world had been pancake-flipped upside down. We settled on taking Lucy’s car, because it was better on gas mileage. Hugh didn’t want to fly because we didn’t have the extra money.

We stopped by their house so they could pack a couple of bags, and then we were off on our journey. The roads, at least, were salted. A row of zombie snowmen, decorated with red pop, lined the area around the ‘Welcome to Hell’ sign.

Theo and I sat in the back seat, not saying a word to each other. I don’t think either of us knew how to start.

###

Golem’s brother was located in Georgia, so it was a long trip. We stopped a few times for fast food on the way. Theo and I both remained mute, as Lucy and Hugh exchanged banal conversation in the front seat. Theo was drawing the whole time in a notebook.

I watched the landscape morph and blend from towns to fields and forests, then to strip malls and car dealerships with bright flags waving.

A few times Theo or I would open our mouths or look at each other as if to speak, but neither of us got that far. I put my earphones in and listened to music, feeling my eyelids droop. I was still exhausted, the weight of all the recent revelations dragging me down.

I shut my eyes and let the music carry me away.

I dreamed of the burning tree again, glowing against a dark, unforgiving sky. The crisp leaves curled as the fire consumed them. At the base of the tree was a gaping hole.

I felt someone shaking me awake. My face was mushed against the window glass.

“We’re almost there,” Hugh said. It was dark, but outside the window I could make out lush greenery dusted lightly with snow. Vines snaked up trees that I couldn’t make out the tops of. “Does he live in the middle of the forest?”

“Must be,” Lucy said, watching the GPS on the dash. “As long as Noah’s given us the right address.”

“I double-checked it before I left,” Hugh said, but he didn’t sound too sure, either.

Icy rain was plunking on the windshield. We drove down a series of dirt roads almost too narrow for more than one car. There was a clearing and the Golem’s brother’s house came into view.

It was a small brick cottage, the exterior coated with dead ivy leaves, and a thin layer of white snow on the roof. It reminded me of the pig who built the brick house to keep out the wolf. The grass was tall and bushy, growing over the stone path. Swooping hills and valleys stretched out behind the house. A long porch wrapped around the front, held up by sagging posts. It looked like controlled chaos.

“Maybe you should text Noah,” Lucy suggested, peering out of the windshield. “I can’t tell if anyone is even living here.”

“There are lights on. And the car’s in the garage behind the house,” Hugh pointed out. “He said his brother was expecting us.”

The four of us walked up the steps to the porch, not saying a word. Even though it was a little place, it was somehow intimidating. Standing beneath the little porch roof, we huddled together. Hugh pressed the bell and we heard it intone deep inside. I shifted around, feeling like a trespasser. Then we heard footsteps draw close, and the door creaked open on rusty hinges.

A man appeared, looking like an older version of my Mr. Golem, with a longer, more lined face and salt and pepper hair. He had a priest’s uniform on, a square of white at the collar. The uniform struck me as surprising, and apparently it did to Hugh.

“Are you Luke?” he asked. The priest appeared hesitant for a moment, like he was about to start something he didn’t want to.

Finally, he nodded. “You’re Hugh. We met once, but it was a long time ago, during school.” The two men shook hands, and he turned his attention to Lucy, outstretching his hand. “And you’re Lucy Vore? A friend of ours?”

Ours?
I didn’t miss the friendly term.

Hugh nodded. “And these are our daughters, Ariel and Theo.”

“Welcome.” Luke smiled, still with the same hesitant, careful demeanor. “Please, come inside. Don’t want to catch your death of cold.” He stepped back so we could enter his house. He smiled directly at me as I passed, and there was something knowing in his eyes, like he could see right through me.

CHAPTER 4

“TO BE HONEST,
I didn’t expect a priest,” Hugh said as Luke shut us into his warm house. “I didn’t even know you were Catholic.” The house smelled pleasantly of cinnamon and spices. Heavy shutters covered all the windows I could see, and although the house was cluttered it was tidy and inviting. The same tamed chaos as in the garden.

Luke chuckled quietly. “We grew up Catholic, but my brother renounced the faith after our…experiences. I drew closer to God and found my faith a source of comfort and clarity.”

He led us down the hall, lined with shelves full of antiques. Different clocks sat on every surface, all ticking away in perfect harmony. We entered a living room with rose-patterned, overstuffed couches. A fire was burning in the cozy stone fireplace, and there were more clocks on the mantle. I wondered how he got them so evenly set.

Each of us took a seat on the couches. Paintings of flowered meadows and log cabins decorated the walls. There was no TV or electronics of any kind visible, like we’d stepped into the last century. A fine layer of dust had settled on most of the objects displayed.

“Would any of you like something to drink?” Luke asked, still standing and appearing nervous again as he folded his hands. “I apologize, I don’t have much. I haven’t been to the grocery store yet this week, but I can brew some tea.”

“Tea would be lovely,” Lucy said, speaking for us. None of the rest of us knew where to start. Luke used the request to dash out of the room.

“He doesn’t really seem like he’s happy we’re here, does he?” Hugh whispered to us.

Lucy shrugged, not one to be impolite.

“Maybe he’s not crazy about getting involved,” Theo whispered back. We sat in awkward silence, trying not to stare at each other.

A kettle started to whistle. Luke returned minutes later carrying a tray with a teapot and some blue china cups.

“So, let’s get started,” Hugh said, avoiding further pleasantries. “Noah said that you had some information that would help us against our enemies.”

Luke sipped at his own tea. “Did my brother tell you why we left Hell after high school?”

Hugh shook his head. “I remember that you moved pretty abruptly. But he came back to teach when Hawthorne was renovated. We never really spoke about it. I figured hometown pride brought him back.”

“You probably didn’t know about our younger sister, Marnie. She was in middle school when Noah was a junior.”

Hugh appeared to wrack his own brain. “I don’t really remember,” he apologized. “I’m sorry, so much has happened.”

“That’s okay,” Luke said with a wave of one hand. “Your paths wouldn’t have crossed and neither my brother nor I like talking about it.”

He took a deep breath and set down his tea cup. “Marnie was a quiet girl who always had her head in the clouds or a book. She tried not to stick out, but the children at school picked on her and called her a witch because of the dark dresses she wore. On several occasions, they even threw rocks at her. She drew away from us more as she got older, and we didn’t understand why. Finally, she revealed to us that she saw the spirits of dead people all the time. She had horrible dreams. It was all too much for her and she thought she was going insane. Soon after that, she jumped off of the Mason Bridge and killed herself. It was what I’d later come to understand is called the Sight.”

He took a photo housed in a round, braided silver frame down from the mantle. It showed a girl with a shy smile and her hair parted down the middle. “This is Marnie, taken that last year before she died.”

I shivered, picturing the young girl with mournful eyes giving up and jumping to her death.

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy murmured.

Luke’s eyes clouded over, but then it passed as he drew himself together. “That was before you and my brother stopped Phillip Rhodes’s ritual plot. But we had all sensed the evil lurking in Hell. Our family moved away soon after.”

“Why did Mr. Golem―Noah, sorry―why did he come back?” I asked, riveted.

“My brother felt called back a few years ago. And even as far away as I am, I can feel the evil radiating from that town.”

We listened to the clocks ticking in the gloomy room.

“Do you think you have the Sight, like your sister?” I asked. “Did your mother?”

Golem shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. Mom never said anything about it, but she was a homebody before she passed. Occasionally an item would go missing and she’d blame it on a dead relative, but that was it. We didn’t tell her about Marnie’s visions.”

Hugh cleared his throat. “From what I’ve read on the matter, siblings of those affected with Sight have residual effects,” he said. “The ability to sense things—feelings, hunches.”

“Like Aunt Corinne? She told me she didn’t inherit Eleanor’s gift, but she did say that she sensed spirits. I’ve always thought she was full of hot air, but maybe she really does feel spirits nearby?”

“Yeah, she didn’t seem to happy that you could see ghosts and she couldn’t,” Theo said, rubbing her elbow.

My father nodded and looked back at Luke, who was refilling the teacups.

“So, what do you have to help us?” Hugh asked. “Just information? I don’t mean to be rude, but we could have spoken over the phone…”

“Wait here,” Luke said, as he stood and retreated from the room. He came back moments later with a basket containing a cloth bundle.

“Your daughter is the one, correct?” Luke asked Hugh. He nodded. I felt a weird sense of anticipation and nerves as Luke brought the basket over to me.

“How did you know?” I asked him, tilting my head.

“You’re very warm,” Luke said. “When I shook your hand, I noticed it.”

He took the cloth off of the object and held it in his hand. I was momentarily disappointed, though I don’t know what fancy thing I had been expecting. It was a medium-sized black rock with thin, white veins running through it. He handed it to me.

“Why are you giving me a Pet Rock?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.

My father and Lucy laughed, but seemed equally perplexed. A grin appeared in the corner of Luke’s lined mouth. “This rock is called a grounding stone. My sister entrusted it to me, before she died. She bought it from the owner of an occult store called the Blue Moon. She used it to step into moments from the past.”

I turned the stone over in my hands. It was only a couple of inches wide, and flat on both sides. It looked like a stone I could pick up on the side of the road.

“I watched her use it several times. It works,” Luke said softly, sensing my disbelief.

I was intrigued, nonetheless. “How is that possible, though? How can a person actually see the past?”

“My sister said it was like stepping back in time. She described it as like falling backwards. Her body stayed in place but her spirit was able to walk around.”

“So, I can actually see events that have already happened? Do they have to be my own memories?”

“No.”

“How does it work?” Hugh interjected.

“I only know how Marnie was taught,” Luke warned. “She used to lie down on the floor and place the stone over her heart. You envision the time of which you desire to visit, and then shut your eyes. You hold a clear idea of the time in your mind’s eye― the scenery, the people who were there. It took Marnie months of practice, but she got there eventually.”

“We don’t have months,” Hugh said.

“I want to try it,” I said. I started to take off my jacket. “Let’s do this thing.”

Hugh held up his hand. “Wait.” He turned his attention back to Luke. “What are you not telling us? Is it dangerous? Did it contribute to Marnie’s decline?”

The priest’s eyes looked guarded and sharp at the same time. “Whatever she saw made her unhappy. But she used it to spy on the people who were picking on her, to confirm all of her worst fears. I don’t know if it’s dangerous. I do know that it puts the body in a kind of sleep state.”

“Dad, I want to do it,” I insisted. “We could spy on Thornhill’s activities, on their past. There are so many possibilities.”

“Ariel.” His eyes were hard.

“I want to at least try,” I pleaded. “I probably won’t even be able to do it, if it took Marnie months. But I have to give it a chance. We’ve got to know what Thornhill’s plans are and what we’re up against. It’s too risky to send a spy in.”

Hugh couldn’t really protest against me. “But what if you’re tempted to look at things you shouldn’t?”

A quick rush of temptations went through my mind. I could go and spy on Lainey and Henry’s old relationship. I could go back and see Jenna, alive. But the new voice inside of me, which was gaining strength, firmly told me.
No. Do not open that door.