Grounded for All Eternity, page 15
“No,” I said.
Lilith frowned and bit her lip. Her hand tapped out a rhythm on her leg. One two three four, one, one two three, one two three four… The same rhythm she always tapped when she was nervous. We never spoke about it. The same way we never spoke about how she spun her locker dial five times before opening it, never four or six.
I rubbed her arm with my hand and smiled.
“It spoke,” Lilith said. “The soul spoke.”
“Yeah,” I said.
We stepped out onto the street. The cold air helped.
“Look,” Sean said. “I have to call my dad. This is way more serious than I thought.”
“Maybe you should,” Lilith said. “If you think he’d know more about this.”
“What?” I protested. “Why? We know what we need to do. We just have to do it.”
The last thing we needed was more adults who thought they knew better, but apparently, I was the only one who thought that.
“Mal, look what he’s done to this town,” Lilith said. “Didn’t you feel it? His influence? He’s changing, and I think we need to get him trapped before he’s finished changing.”
“Changing into what?” I asked.
None of us had the answer for that. A shade slipped through the trees above me. I looked up, hoping it would make eye contact. It was hard to tell whether I was successful.
Sean put his “phone,” which I had learned it was called, to his ear and walked away from us.
Cassandra flitted in to fill the silence with a rustle of feathers again.
I looked nervously to Sean, but he wasn’t paying any attention. Whether that was because he was distracted or because Cassandra had done something to him again, I wasn’t sure.
“The thrones will be here tonight,” Cassandra said. “They’re going to cleanse the town.”
The thrones were a choir of angels that dealt with justice. Not quite as personal as sending an archangel, but just as dangerous. There was another rustle of feathers, which was weird because Cassandra’s wings hadn’t moved.
“Why do I think ‘cleanse’ means ‘destroy’?” Lilith asked.
“We’re going to be able to take Parris with us as part of this cleansing, right?” I asked Cassandra. “Get him back where he belongs?”
“Oh, I doubt it,” Cassandra said. “There’s going to be lots of smiting, so nothing to take with you. Come along.”
“Awesome,” I said. Not awesome. “Wait, um, do you know, just for academic reasons, is Parris still a soul? He’s not a demon or anything, right? If we had an object or—or a morningstar, would that still work?”
“Of course,” Cassandra said. “He’s very powerful, and only getting stronger the longer we wait, but yes, he’s still just a soul.”
“Why is he getting stronger?” Lilith asked. “He shouldn’t be.”
Cassandra smiled. “Well, I would tell you to ask your nice friend over there. He could tell you, but we should really get going.”
“That was super helpful,” I said. “But you can’t take us to Heaven with Sean here, because he’ll notice, and I’m pretty sure you still don’t have the paperwork for a human appearance.”
Cassandra pouted, and I had never been so glad for bureaucracy in my entire life.
“Guess you’ll just have to wait till we’re alone to kidnap us,” Lilith said sweetly.
Cassandra scowled, but thankfully disappeared. A child’s giggle sent chills up my spine. I looked around but didn’t see anything. Freaking heavenly angels were making me literally insane.
Okay, no problem. We just had to constantly be with Sean. Or Charity. Or any human, really. Nah, probably best if it was Sean. It was just logical. Not for any other reasons.
“What was that supposed to mean?” hissed Lilith as soon as Cassandra was gone. “Sean knows why Parris is getting stronger. I knew we shouldn’t be trusting some random stranger.”
“He’s done nothing but help,” I protested. “She has done nothing but try to kidnap me all night. Who are you going to trust? Besides, Crowley is still with Charity. What are we going to do, bail on him? There’s no going back without Crowley. Not even if we capture Parris.”
“Of course not,” Lilith said. “I would never leave Crowley behind.”
Sean continued talking into his phone like our feathery intruder had never appeared, but now that she was gone, I realized that I could hear him speaking clearly.
“Dad,” Sean said. “I know. But—No, sir, of course that’s important. I’m not saying that.”
I could vaguely hear a gruff voice coming through his phone, which was not exactly like a pocket mirror. I don’t know why he had it facing his ear, but then again, the conversation didn’t seem to be going well. I’d probably hide my face too.
“I’m not a kid,” Sean said. “It’s not about missing Halloween…. I know how to deal with a ghost, I’m telling you—Yes, sir. Yeah. I know. I will.”
Sean sighed and put his phone into his pocket.
“Does he know anything?” I asked, almost afraid to interrupt the tension.
“He wouldn’t even listen,” Sean said. “Like I don’t know how to deal with a regular ghost! Like I would call him for anything that wasn’t an emergency. Why would I when he acts like I’m—whatever.”
“Sorry,” I said, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. I wasn’t necessarily upset with how it had worked out, but I knew what it was like when talking to your dad was more like talking to a wall. A wall who thought you needed a babysitter.
“Do you know why Parris is getting stronger?” asked Lilith.
Sean frowned. His face darkened with anger. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be calling my father.”
“We know that,” I reassured him.
“Do we?” asked Lilith.
“Yes, we do,” I said.
The air grew tense, and I almost couldn’t believe this was where we were right now. Lilith was wrong, though. Sean wasn’t the one keeping secrets.
A song broke the silence between us, and Sean pulled out his phone again, his angry scowl smoothing out a little as he answered. “Tell me you have something, Charity.”
“Sorta, kinda,” Charity said, her voice barely audible. “Remember that thing you were asking about? The lapel thing? I figured it out. Where are you?”
“Just leaving the Witch’s Dungeon,” Sean said. “No luck. I called my dad—don’t even ask. I was going to head to the Witch History Museum next.”
“Don’t,” said Charity. “Meet us a block from Gallows Hill.”
“Wait, why?” Sean asked. “Hello? Darn it, Charity.”
He put his device back into his pocket and sighed. “If you want to trust me, come with me. I’m going to meet up with Charity and your friend, but I’ll tell you right now, I don’t know what’s going on or how Parris’s ghost is more than a ghost.”
“We’re coming,” I said.
Lilith nodded but looked resigned. I nudged her. She raised an eyebrow, but eventually snickered and shook her head. She threw her hands up into the air.
“Where to?” she asked.
TWENTY-SEVEN
I think my feet are bleeding,” I said, in an effort to lighten the mood.
“What? Why?” asked Sean distractedly. “Did you step on something?”
“Yeah, the ground,” I said. “I’ve done more walking today than I ever have in my entire life.”
“That’s probably true,” Lilith said. Her arm brushed against mine. Was it happening more than normal? Did her fingers always curl like that? I looked at Sean and felt my stomach twist for no apparent reason.
“Why do people live where it’s so cold?” I said, reaching for the next available topic to grab. My thoughts were in a dangerous place.
“Fan of global warming, are you?” Sean asked.
“If that means making this place warmer, yes,” I said.
“It’s going to get worse. It’s not even winter,” Sean said. He glanced at me quickly before looking away. “Is it—is it warmer where you guys are from?”
“Our world is literally on fire,” I said. Sean mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, So is ours.
Awkward silence fell between the three of us again.
I was going to have to tell Lilith about the spark.
We were wandering a human dimension as it moved ever closer to total apocalypse, or at least citypocalypse, leaving us with three options.
Option 1: We’d be destroyed with the rest of Salem.
Option 2: Cassandra would be successful, and we’d be imprisoned in adopted into Heaven.
Option 3: And perhaps worst of all, without Parris, we’d have to have Aleister contact our parents, who would then know that not only had we violated Hell’s lockdown but we’d allowed an escaped soul to enter the mortal coil. And if that happened, what would happen to Aleister?
I had the solution in my pocket. We didn’t need to wait.
It was selfish and awful, but I didn’t want to give up my only escape from what was waiting for me at home. Whether I used the spark or not, knowing it was there was everything. And beyond that, I didn’t want to admit to my friends that I was still keeping secrets.
“Why would you say that?” whined a girl across the street. It was a welcome distraction.
“I’m not sorry. Those shoes are terrible,” said the one standing next to her. “But I like your hair.”
“You do?” asked the girl, who looked immediately happier.
“Yes, you should cut it off and give it to me,” said her friend.
“Okay.”
I hesitated because hair, but Lilith nudged me forward.
“That has to be because of Parris, right?” Sean asked, pointing to the two girls.
“Do people often trade their hair here?” Lilith asked.
“No, that is not a thing,” Sean said.
“Then it’s probably Parris’s chaotic influence,” Lilith said, shrugging. “It may not be intentional, though. Just contamination, maybe?” She tapped her fingers against her leg. One two three four, one, one two three. She didn’t know the answer.
We knew Parris was a manipulator, but he wasn’t here, and even with my sometimes problematically large imagination, I couldn’t see how trading hair or dancing on tables could possibly benefit anyone. What would be the point? But somehow Parris was getting stronger. I just wished I knew how.
Cassandra says Sean knows, I thought. Yeah, Cassandra says we’d be better off in Heaven too.
I glanced back at the hair girls. Their auras glowed a steady blue, so they were apparently the harmless variety of weird.
My eyes jerked to the side when I heard a flutter of feathers. There was a flash of white in the bushes. Was Cassandra following us? Had she decided that stealth was a better option?
“What’s the deal with Gallows Hill?” Lilith said, tugging me away from the girls and the flash of white feathers.
“You heard that?” Sean asked. “Um, I’m not sure why we’re going there, but Gallows Hill is where they executed the people who didn’t confess to being witches during the Salem witch trials.”
Wait, what?
“The ones who didn’t confess?” I asked.
“If they confessed, they weren’t killed,” explained Sean. He shrugged. “See, Puritans thought that if the witches confessed, they were repentant, and if they were repentant, then the people should leave any other judging to the afterlife.”
“Why wouldn’t everyone just plead guilty?” I asked.
“The people back then thought that lying sent your soul to Hell,” said Sean. “For the innocents it was a choice: Do you want to tell the truth, and go to Heaven? Or do you want to lie, and go to Hell when you died of old age?”
That was not how that worked.
“The ones the townspeople accused were different enough that people were willing to believe the worst,” said Sean. “People always attack the ones who are different, whether it’s skin color or religion or the fact that you’re always the new kid or have the entire first three episodes of Firefly memorized. And I’m sorry, but that show was amazing—” Sean abruptly cut off his rant, which had become more and more animated as it went on, and blushed. “Anyway…”
“Are you saying the trials were rigged?” I asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” agreed Sean.
True anger flared in me for just a moment. Justice and protection of those who couldn’t protect themselves was sacred. I didn’t need sharp black wings or a halo to tell me that. I turned my head to hide the flames I knew had sprung to life in my eyes. The wind kicked up for a moment, sending fallen leaves swirling. One particularly bright orange-and-red leaf stuck to my shirt. I picked it off, spun it by the stem, and let it drop to the ground. It stayed there, lifeless.
I sighed.
We had to go home.
TWENTY-EIGHT
We arrived at our meeting spot before Crowley and Charity, which gave us more opportunity to stare awkwardly at each other. There was a bookshop across the way, and Lilith didn’t as much wander over to it as she fled to it. The store was closed, but looking through the glass was undoubtedly preferable to the tension that had fallen over the three of us. I sat next to Sean on the bench anyway.
“Is it always like that with your dad?” I asked.
“Yup,” Sean said.
“Mine too,” I said.
“He’s just—”
“Yeah.” I hesitated. “My dad and I had a fight before I came here. He thought being out of the house was reckless. I’m rather irritated that he seems to have been right.”
“Well,” Sean said, “my dad’s not right about this.”
“Didn’t say he was,” I said.
Something tickled my hair. I brushed it with my hand and felt something silky soft and barely there. I whipped my head around. I didn’t see anything. I looked at my hand. Something shimmery? And there was a giggle again. High-pitched and young?
“What?” asked Sean. His hand went to his pocket, where there was probably a weapon hidden. He looked behind us.
“I thought I felt something,” I said. “Maybe a bug.”
“All sorts of things show up tonight,” said Sean.
“But not like this?” I asked.
“Well, the things showing up are probably pretty normal for when the veil gets thin like this. Most aren’t a problem. Honestly, we usually just celebrate with friends and family. Remember all that food at Charity’s? We eat over there, but…”
“Parris screwed everything up,” I said. Brimstone.
“If this is because of him,” said Sean. “Yeah. I guess. Maybe Dad’s right. Maybe Parris is just a strong ghost and whatever this is, it’s because of something else. Dad said that when this is over, we’re going to redouble my training.”
Yeah, I could relate.
Sean stood up and kicked a trash receptacle. The clanging caused Lilith to spin on the spot. A nearby person cheered. A tiny voice whispered, “Uh-oh.”
“Has he ever even asked if I wanted to follow in his footsteps?” Sean yelled. “God forbid I have a choice! Maybe I just want to be me? Not that he’s ever tried to know who that is!”
Sean’s breaths came in angry gasps. His fists clenched in rage, and his face turned an unhealthy shade of red. Lilith came up to the bench. I was too stunned to stand. Watching Sean lose his mind was like watching myself from the outside.
“Maybe it’s time I make him listen,” Sean said. He reached for his hidden weapon.
“Sean,” I said, forcing myself to move. “Wait.”
He was way too angry for the situation. Where was this coming from? His entire body trembled.
Before anyone could act, something flew in a blur of movement and jumped onto Sean’s back. He staggered, and it took me an embarrassingly long few seconds to recognize the figure as Charity. She swiped her hand across his forehead, muttered something, and jumped down.
“That was a close one!” said Charity. “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” Sean said. He shook his head like he needed to clear it. I had seen that before. “I need to sit.” Charity helped him sit back down on the bench, while Crowley ambled his way over to us.
“We figured something out,” announced Crowley when no one had said anything further.
“Oh right, yeah,” said Charity. “We totally did! So, remember the thing you asked me about?”
“Yeah,” said Sean. “But it may not apply to this. You know the psychic thing’s not exactly a science.”
Sean must have been more frazzled than he looked, because he didn’t blink at admitting something personal, and he didn’t even try to kick Charity.
“Yeah, well, we think it does apply,” said Charity. “Anyway, we looked into it: l’appel du vide. It’s French, and it’s actually an entire concept.”
“I explained to Charity that Parris was stronger than he should be,” Crowley said.
“Understatement,” I said.
“Right!” said Charity. “And we already thought he was affecting way too much stuff, so my mind was racing. And I kept thinking about the thing you said, Sean. I mean, at first I thought it might have been some stupid fashion thing you saw on Project Runway, so I ignored it, and then I thought it was lyrics from that song on the radio that no one understands, but that didn’t seem right either, and it was driving me crazy, and—”
“Speed it up, Char,” said Crowley.
“Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway… Call of the void.” Charity clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her toes, looking pleased.
“Annndd, back it up a little bit,” said Crowley.
“Okay, the literal translation is ‘call of the void,’ but it’s not just random words your psychic little brain cooked up. It’s the name for that feeling when you’re high up, and you feel like jumping, or jerking your bike into traffic, or even pushing someone off the subway. But people don’t really do it. It’s just a feeling, and the feeling has a name: the call of the void.”
“We think Parris is amplifying it,” explained Crowley. “Normally people’s consciences would stop them from acting on the call, but instead people are just listening.”
