No Filter, page 10
In a ragged and eager voice, this other Jinx says, “Hello, me!”
Jinx falls backward and smacks her head against the windowsill. The other Jinx looms over her, grinning maniacally. As pain pulses from the knot in her head, Jinx stares up in shock as she realizes that she’s not holding the camera obscura anymore.
This specter—this other Jinx—is in the real world. But still the air around her ripples, dark and inky, like her very existence is a cancerous corruption of the world.
“Go away! ” Jinx shouts stupidly, panicked, her head throbbing.
The other Jinx laughs almost hysterically, her veiny, pitch-black eyes wide with mirth. Then she lunges forward and grabs Jinx by the neck with both hands. Jinx tries to push her off, but between the knock on the head and the lack of air, she’s too weak. She grabs a handful of hair and yanks as hard as she can, but all it does is make the other Jinx cackle gleefully and squeeze harder.
Jinx can’t breathe. Her vision begins to swim and darken. She flails desperately, trying to grab at anything that might help her. But of course there’s nothing around, because Jinx doesn’t like clutter. Is this it? Is she going to die here, in her own bedroom, strangled to death by … herself?
But abruptly, the other Jinx releases her.
Jinx lies there, gasping, as the other Jinx straightens and looks down at her with a gloating expression. The space around her drips with raw malice. Every time she moves, streaks of darkness reverberate outward like ripples in a pond.
“W-Wha …” Jinx struggles to speak. She wants to ask who she is—what she is. But her throat hurts, and her voice is weak with terror and disgust.
The other Jinx’s dark eyes fix on something above where Jinx is slumped against the floor. That’s where Jinx’s whiteboards are. The other Jinx leans across the desk and writes something, snickering to herself all the while. When she’s finished, she climbs over Jinx, opens the window, and kicks out the screen. She straddles the windowsill, then pauses a moment to look back at Jinx and flashes her dark and dripping fanged smile.
“Later, Jinxie,” she says in her ragged voice.
Then, even though they’re on the second floor, she jumps.
It takes Jinx a couple of minutes before she’s recovered enough to get to her feet. Her throat is sore and she’s still a little dizzy, so she grips the windowsill as she looks out. There’s no sign of the other Jinx.
Then she looks at her whiteboard. “Jinx’s Day” has been smudged out. Over it, in a messy, uneven handwriting, has been written:
Blaine i really really need to talk to you
I should have told you about Ella, sorry!
Forget about that this is important. Can you meet me at the playground near my house?
Right now?
Yea rn
Long pause.
Yea I guess. Give me 5 min
Jinx breathes a sigh of relief. She is on the verge of a total freak-out, but she’s keeping it together because she knows she has to tell someone about this … entity calling herself Lucky. If Blaine had been too lost in girlfriendland to meet her, she wasn’t sure who else would believe her.
Aunt Helen is downstairs, fumbling around the kitchen for breakfast. Jinx checks herself in the mirror, and just as she feared, bruises are already forming on her neck. If her aunt sees the bruises, there will be a lot of questions that Jinx doesn’t know how to answer. So for now at least, she needs to hide them.
She yanks open her dresser drawer and rifles through clothes she hasn’t worn in over a year, until she finds it. A lavender, sleeveless turtleneck that her aunt gave her for Christmas. At the time, Jinx had thanked her politely but secretly wondered how anyone could ever want a shirt that was too chilly for winter, but also too hot for summer. Well, she’s grateful for it now.
Once she swaps out her oversize Live Through This T-shirt for the sleeveless turtleneck, it feels weirdly tight around her torso, but that’s probably because she’s been wearing nothing but men’s XL shirts for so long. Another check in the mirror confirms that the bruises are now entirely hidden.
When she gets downstairs, she finds her aunt sitting at the table, eating from a cup of blueberry yogurt.
“Evening, kiddo.” Aunt Helen waves her purple-coated spoon sleepily.
“Hey, Auntie.”
Jinx wants to dash out of the house, but she can’t let her aunt see how panicked she’s feeling right now. So she forces herself to walk slowly, calmly to the door.
“Aw, you’re wearing that shirt I gave you,” says Aunt Helen.
“Yup.” She reaches the door and leans against the frame so she can pull her shoes on.
“Isn’t it a little late to be heading out?”
“Meeting Blaine.” One shoe on.
“Oh?” Her aunt gives her a knowing smile. “Ready to forgive him?”
“I guess.” The other shoe is on.
“How magnanimous of you. I’m counting on you to be home at a reasonable hour.”
“I always am.” She grasps the doorknob. “Later.”
Tappity-tappity. Tap. Tap. Tappity-tappity. Tap. Tap.
Then she’s out the door and jogging down to the court parking lot. But instead of heading to the street, she heads in the opposite direction to the tree line, and takes a narrow dirt path. She holds her hand up in case there are spiderwebs as she follows the unlit path through the trees until she reaches a clearing with a playground that has a small climbing structure, a slide, monkey bars, and a couple of swings.
She’d hoped to get there before Blaine. She kind of assumed she would, really, since he’s always late for everything. And this time, it would have been nice to have a few minutes to calm herself before he showed up. But he’s already waiting for her, drifting slowly back and forth on one of the swings. The playground isn’t lit, and it’s too dark to see his expression.
“Thanks for coming,” she says.
“What’s the emergency?” he asks.
Now that the moment has arrived to tell him, she isn’t sure how to begin. This is why it would have been nice to have a moment before he got there to collect herself. Well, she’ll just have to muddle through as best she can.
“So, uh, remember how I said there’s nothing wrong with my camera?”
“Yep.”
“But I wouldn’t tell you how I knew that?”
“Sounds right.”
“Okay, well …” She starts pacing back and forth. “I know this sounds weird. Maybe even impossible, but I swear that the reason I knew was because the smudge wasn’t just showing up on my dad’s camera. It also showed up when I took pictures with my phone. It even showed up when I used that cardboard camera obscura.”
“What does that even mean?”
“What I thought it meant was that I was like that spirit photographer guy who could channel the dead with cameras.”
“Except he was a fake,” he points out.
“I know that,” she says testily. “And obviously I was wrong about that. But it turns out that I was channeling … something.”
Jinx can’t see his look of concern in the dark, but she hears it in his voice. “What do you mean ‘something’?”
“It’s like … I don’t know, okay. I was looking into the camera obscura and she just—”
“She?”
“Yeah, I guess her name is Lucky? She looks like me, kind of. But like a scary version of me. And then she started strangling me—”
“Hold up,” interrupts Blaine, sounding more and more uneasy. “How could she strangle you if she was inside that camera thing?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” Jinx is struggling to keep her frustration in check. “She’s loose! In the real world! She says she’s going to ‘fix’ my life, but like, that’s right after she almost killed me, so who even knows what that means!”
Blaine is silent for a moment, then shakes his head. “Sorry, I’m really trying here, but I still don’t understand. What do you want me to do?”
“We have to stop her from rampaging around Greenbelt!”
Again he’s silent. Then, “You want us to stop this … person … who looks just like you—”
“Except scary,” clarifies Jinx.
“Right. Scary Jinx.”
“Her name is Lucky.”
“Sure. Lucky. And she’s … like a supernatural creature?”
“You don’t believe me,” she says accusingly.
He holds up his hands. “I’m trying, honest! It’s just really hard to accept that you have some … evil twin or something? For real?”
She groans in frustration. Then she turns on the flashlight app on her phone, pulls down her turtleneck, and shows him the bruises. “This is what she did to me before she took off.”
With the light from her phone, she can finally see Blaine’s expression. His eyes widen as he looks at her neck. “Jinx …”
“Bad, right?” she demands.
“Jinx …” He looks concerned, which is understandable. She’s concerned, too. But he doesn’t look angry that someone did this to her. He’s giving her an altogether different kind of worried look. The not-good kind. “What did you do to yourself?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Jinx turns off her phone light because she doesn’t want to see that look anymore. “Well, okay, maybe I shouldn’t have thought I could talk to my dad with a camera, but how was I supposed to know something like this could happen?”
He’s quiet. Too quiet. Then he says, “Is your aunt home?”
“Huh? Why?”
His voice is gentle. Almost pleading. “Let’s go see her.”
Cold understanding dawns on her. “You think I hurt myself.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No! She did this to me!”
“Your … evil twin … Lucky?” His voice is heavy with doubt.
“Yes! I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me, Blaine. It really happened.”
“I want to believe you. I really do. But you’ve had a rough couple of days, and then I see these horrible bruises on your neck, just like your Dad after—”
“This isn’t like that!”
She didn’t mean to shout it. All that does is freak him out more. She’s only making things worse. He looks genuinely alarmed now but for all the wrong reasons.
“Let’s go see your aunt. Please.”
He reaches out to her.
She quickly steps back.
“Okay, then how about my place?” he asks. “My mom made too much food, as usual. You can have some leftovers and chill with us for a while.”
“Blaine, I don’t have time for that. Don’t you see? She’s out there somewhere. She could be hurting other people like she hurt me!”
“Seriously, Jinx.” He stands and takes a step toward her.
She takes several steps back and starts glancing behind her, looking for the best escape route.
“If you take off, I’m going to call your aunt,” he tells her.
Jinx hesitates. “But then she’ll totally freak out, call up everyone she knows in the neighborhood, and they’ll all be looking for me.”
“Yeah.” He takes another step toward her. “Exactly.”
She glares at him. “I didn’t know if you were going to help, but I honestly didn’t think you would actively try to stop me.”
“What choice do I have?” She still can’t see his expression in the gathering darkness, but his voice sounds pained. “I’m really worried about you.”
“You should be worried,” she tells him. “Just not about me.”
He squares his shoulders and walks toward her with purpose. So she sprints back into the trees.
Jinx knows Blaine was serious about calling her aunt. She knows that while she’s running through the trees, occasionally getting whacked in the face by branches, and once tripping over a root and almost breaking her neck, he’s probably doing it right now. And that’s a real problem. She’ll have to dodge well-meaning but clueless neighbors while also searching for Lucky.
And what has Lucky been doing this whole time? Breaking things? Hurting people? Jinx thinks of those glittering obsidian eyes framed in spidery purple veins, of that too-wide mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth. She shudders. There’s just no telling what Lucky is capable of, and nobody else knows that she even exists. It’s all up to Jinx to stop bad things from happening.
She threads her way though the winding inner pathways of Old Greenbelt, which she probably knows better than anyone. But where should she look first? Lucky said she was going to “fix” Jinx’s life, so she’s probably going to places that Jinx goes all the time.
Roosevelt Center would be a good place to start, she decides. So she makes her way swiftly through the dark neighborhood, the squeak of bats and the occasional hoot of an owl filtering through the night air. She used to hate that the pathways are so poorly lit at night, but now she’s grateful. As long as she can use these routes, nobody is going to find her.
But unlike the inner pathways, Roosevelt Center is brightly lit at night. Once she reaches the edge, she slows down. Part of her wants to just charge in, but she has to be smart about this. She can’t get caught, or that’s it. And once she finds Lucky, what will she do? What can she do against a supernatural creature like that? Well, one thing at a time. First, she has to locate her.
It’s almost 9:00 p.m. Beijing Pearl and the co-op are already closed, and they seem fine. Joey’s is still open and Jinx approaches cautiously. Ms. Lombardi is probably one of the people Aunt Helen would call first, so Jinx needs to make sure she’s never in sight of the glowing restaurant windows. She gets just close enough to peak in. No Lucky. The movie theater is still lit up but looks okay, too.
Maybe Jinx was wrong? Or at least wrong about Roosevelt Center?
Next she checks the pool and the youth center, which are both closed and seem okay. The skate park is also Lucky free, but it is not people free. Blaine’s friend Oscar is there, and he definitely seems like he’s looking for someone. Maybe that isn’t Jinx. She doesn’t know him super well, after all. But if Blaine asked him to come all the way over from Hyattsville to help search, he would.
So Jinx skirts around the skate park and heads over to the community center and the library. The library is closed, but she forgot the community center doesn’t close until 9:30 p.m. She comes around the corner and accidentally steps right into a giant pool of light. She glances around but doesn’t see anyone.
She pauses for a moment, debating what to do next. Roosevelt Center is clear, at least for now. Should she find a good hiding spot around here and assume Lucky will show up eventually? Or should she search somewhere else?
She’s still mulling that over when Bill emerges from the community center.
“Ms. Jinx?”
She could run, but he’s not part of Aunt Helen’s inner circle, so he probably doesn’t know that people are looking for her yet. Monica might call him and ask him to help eventually, but not right away. On the other hand, if she runs, it’ll definitely make him suspicious.
“Oh, hey, Bill,” she says with what she hopes sounds like a casual tone. “I didn’t know you live around here.”
“Nah, I’m still in College Park.” He walks over to her. “But there’s this lady here who teaches an amazing sewing class, and I’ve been wanting to up my game.”
“Oh, cool. Well, have a good night.” She turns to go.
“A little late for you to be out wandering alone,” he says thoughtfully.
“I’m on my way home now,” she assures him.
“It’s pretty dark, you want a lift?”
“I’m good, thanks,” she says, maybe a little too quickly.
His eyes narrow thoughtfully. “Hmm. Well, you be careful, Ms. Jinx.”
“Thanks, I will.”
She waves goodbye and forces herself to walk calmly to the nearby staircase that leads down to the library parking lot. Is he buying it, or is he right now texting his suspicions to Monica?
But if Jinx risks a look back, that might give her away, so she keeps her eyes forward and walks way slower down the stairs than she ever would normally. Then, when she reaches the bottom and is out of his line of sight, she sprints across the empty blacktop and into the woods.
Once she’s safely hidden in the trees, she stops a moment to catch her breath and check her phone. She had turned the Do Not Disturb setting on so that she wouldn’t be plagued by her aunt’s frantic calls and texts. Sure enough, there are a bunch from her, Blaine, and Monica. There’s also a weird notification from her social media app:
YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN ACCESSED BY A NEW DEVICE. IF THIS IS NOT YOU, CONTACT OUR SECURITY TEAM IMMEDIATELY.
Of course it isn’t Jinx. But what if Lucky knows everything that Jinx knows? Then she would know the password to her account.
“Oh no …” she whispers as she launches the app.
She checks her feed. Sure enough, there is a picture of Swapna’s house, festooned with toilet paper. The caption reads:
LMAO RICH PEOPLE SUCK
#SORRYNOTSORRY
It’s posted publicly for anyone to see. From Jinx’s account. Everyone will think she did it.
She has to get over there now and tell Swapna and her mom what’s really going on. She just hopes they believe her.
Once more Jinx uses the inner pathways of Old Greenbelt to cross the neighborhood without being seen. But that plan only works until she gets to the edge of her neighborhood. Regular Greenbelt doesn’t have the winding trails and dense wooded areas that have kept her hidden from her aunt, Blaine, and whoever else might be looking for her. She stops at the edge of a path and gazes nervously out at the open space before her. The wide lawns and spread-out houses look so exposed. Anyone will be able to see her …
Jinx shakes her head. Lucky has already shown that she isn’t afraid to hurt people. She might attack the Kapoor family, too. Jinx needs to put their safety before anything else.
