Chapter Twelve – Not Another Tempest Thing

“Gail,” the prowler cries out as I fight against him with all my might. “Gail, it’s just me!”

I push him off me and cling on to my pounding chest. Xander readjusts his leather jacket while chuckling to himself and leaning on my house. The mini shears in my hand are thrown into the ground so their handles stick up. Sweat glistens on them from my clammy palms in the moonlight. My head turns back to the guy standing there; not a demon or a peeping tom, just my idiot friend.

“You know you could have texted me saying you were outside!”

“I did,” he says trying to conceal the huge grin on his face. He points to my phone making me flip up the screen to find the last text he sent. My eyes roll after I read:

Xan-Xan – rocks on your window not cutting it. Come down & let me in!

My arms push him hard but he hardly defends himself. He’s too busy laughing at startling me.

“You could have said something before even heading here,” I argue. Xander removes his leather jacket and throws it on the patio table. His head wiggles back and forth like he thought about warning me but didn’t care enough to do it. Yup, he’s as stubborn as Katie and I when he wants to be. “I just want to be alone right now,” my lips sigh.

“And I don’t buy that,” Xan flat out tells me. “Why are you outside anyway?”

My cigarette is replaced in my mouth until I catch Xander’s gaze. He’s not much of a health nut but his mother washes his clothing still and the smoke from my light sometimes gets him in trouble. I put it out in the ash tray on the table and stare at the glittering sky.

I wish I was a star. That way all I’d have to do is watch things unfold. Plus, I’d get to sleep half the day. It’s a win in every aspect. Too bad I’m a puny human who has just been tossed into a culture I’ve never heard of until recently. Dusty clouds roll in over my view of the stars but it doesn’t block it completely. I switch to stare at the moon even though I’d never want to be that; too much attention. I’d rather be a lonely star that someone would wish on every once in a while.

Xander lets me stand there quietly for a few moments while I look to the places he can’t see. Usually he’s one to make sarcastic remarks about my absent-minded staring but he keeps them to himself. We lean on the wall beside my backdoor where Xan takes my hand in comfort. He’s the kindest person I know but can also be the biggest prick if you rub him the wrong way. A conundrum wrapped in contradictions, grungy clothes and spiky blonde hair.

“Come on,” he whispers, disturbing my thoughts. “What’s racking around that noggin of yours Miss Abigail?”

“Why do you talk like you’re thirty,” I ask him, purposefully avoiding his question. This is met with his blank face and a long sigh. I turn from him, deciding to relax at my old spot on the porch swing. Xan follows me over and leans on the railings above me since I’ve take up the entire seat.

“Scoot over,” he commands gently. My finger points lazily to the grass because I am too cozy to move a muscle. But since Xander isn’t taking any of my crap today, he lifts my legs up for me and sits beneath them. “I want to make sure you’re okay. Whatever you’re going through is more than your fight with Katie so spit it out.”

My teeth bite at my lip and my tongue begins to twirl around my left snakebite piercing. Why can’t he leave me alone? It’s so much harder with him here. Xan stares intently at my but I shift to lay on my side and avoid his gaze. How can I keep a secret from him if all he does is be nice and care? Stupid Xander…

“I’m fine other than the heart attack you just gave me,” I reply. That gets a small laugh from him which in turn makes my lips curl up. But I can’t tell him I’m a witch seeing as I hardly believe it myself. “You don’t have to be here Xan. It’s something I need to figure out on my own.”

“No, no, no, no,” he says leaning forward on the swing. “You’re my best friend and my girl’s best friend. What else am I supposed to do? Be like one of the footballers and ignore it?”

Carefully he removes his jacket and tosses it to the grass beside him. I can tell he’s been working out again. His muscles are starting to look defined the way they cast shadows on his skin. Katie has told me about how he sometimes ‘disappears’ to work on strengthening his body but he’s never told her why. She only knows that when he does it, something’s not right at home. Xan scoffs at the players on the school’s football team and brings me back to the wall growing between us.

“I have more manners than that, thank you.” I swat my arm at him and he takes it with a grain of salt before his voice gets serious. “Even if you’re not talking, I’m going to be here for you no matter what.”

I stay quiet, pushing back the love I feel. It’s not a romantic love, more of the sibling kind. Xander’s always been there for me and I push him away yet he keeps coming back for me ignoring him again. Some friend I am.

“Thanks,” I murmur so quietly I’m pretty sure he didn’t here. Xan drums playfully on my leg and I bury my cheek into the seat’s cushion. He makes me feel safe which is something I need right now.

“Aw, such a cute little kid,” he says in an annoying baby voice. My neck turns to find him shuffling through my photo album. As much as I love Xan, that’s not for him to see. I push myself up as fast as I can and yank the thing out of his arms.

“Give me that!”

Xan fights my grip for a little while with a smirk on his lips. I don’t think he realizes how important this thing is to me. He finally lets go and I hug the thing to my chest.

“This is private,” I yell at him. Xander mumbles an apology as his hands fly up in innocence. I should be the one apologizing. He doesn’t know how much I need this book. With shaking hands, I set it down away from his grasp and reset myself to lay over him.

“You know,” Xander starts. I keep my eyes on the kiddie pool in front of me, determined not to look at his face. Him being here is already guilting me enough as it is. “I do actually know you and care even with you keep me away. And I know when something is up so just tell me.”

“No,” I whisper with my face heating up in held back emotions.

“Gail whatever it is, I’ll understand.”

“I can’t tell you!”

“Can’t or won’t?!” My face turns to a scowling Xander. It makes my bottom lip quiver to not let him know. And why should I? I have to keep a promise to a lady I’ve only just met and her non-student lackey. The only reason I followed along was to maybe get the chance of being with Trevor and he’s forever unavailable to me. Maybe I should tell Xan. It’d be easier to have one person to talk to.

But fear pulls me back from even thinking of mentioning this to him. He won’t believe me and I have no proof. My face scrunches like a kid as I try and keep everything down under my bubbling surface. Why is life cruel like this?

Xander bends forward over my knees but makes no attempt to stand up. Instead, he reaches for a fallen photo and hands it to me delicately.

“I’m guessing that’s you and your dad,” he says quietly. I take a corner of the square Polaroid picture and gaze into its scene. Me and dad are looking into a mirror and waving spastically. The white flash is blocking most of his face but I still see his square jaw under the flat camera bottom. I remember taking this picture as odd as that is. A smile cools down my face in sweet remembrance.

I am on the floor playing with my rabbit and kitten stuffed animals. It isn’t a tea party since I hate tea, so I call it a brunch and serve my ‘guests’ fruit juice. I inhale the old perfume of my house from the scented candles my mom always had burning. It smells like home. I turn to my young self whose lips move along in the muted scene. Why am I looking at me from the staircase? I should be remembering it from my child eyes.

“Daddy’s got a new toy!” Both me and the four year old version of me turn to him as he struts in the room with the square camera. The young me runs up to my father and jumps up and down, reaching for the thing. Daddy picks me up with one arm and poses in front of the mirror.

“Smile,” he says as he moves his fingers to take the picture. I wave at the mirror with my toothless grin. The flash blinds my eyes but the instant picture prints from the slot. Daddy puts me down and I impatiently grab for the undeveloped photo. “Slow down there, little miss. It takes a while to process.”

“Aw,” she mumbles lowly. And by ‘she’ I mean me. Why am I watching this? Shouldn’t I be seeing this from my younger self?

‘Gail,’ someone speaks softly in my ear. I turn to the sound of the voice but no one is there. It calls for me again but I can’t hear it. My hands start to shake as I realize I’m caught in a vision.

Not another Tempest thing! I reach for my amber bracelet to find it’s not there. The damn thing was left on my nightstand from irritating my wrists. I mutter a curse under my breath but turn back to the hallucination or whatever it is. I want to see my father, to remember him.

“I’m home,” my mother calls. The door behind me opened without me noticing. I guess this vision’s sound is distorted. My younger self shouts out my mother’s name but I can’t hear it. All I see are her lips moving and me running to her with the square photo in my hand.

‘Gail.’ The voice is Xander’s! I reach out my hand which hopefully does the same in reality but I’m not sure what will happen. I don’t want to bring him in with my powers like in the graveyard, I want out. The feel of Xan’s fingers wrap around my wrist and I shut my eyes hard.

“Gail, what’s going on?”

A sigh of relief fizzes through my lips. I open my eyes, turning to him with a reassuring smile. But his sight isn’t turned towards me; it’s turned towards the living room of my childhood home.

“Xander!”

His grip tightens on my wrist and I pull on him for my own support. We’re both trapped in a vision of my past! How the hell did this happen? We watch as my parents lead small me into the kitchen and this room starts becoming darker and darker.

“We have to go,” I urge Xan, pulling his body up and off the steps. “Come on, the memory is leaving. We can’t stay here.”

Xander keeps muttering in his astonishment but gradually stands. We stumble our way through my old house to find us. Small me is watching the picture develop as my parents stand on the far side of the kitchen. Their voices are hushed but not completely muted. I move Xander over with me to get a better look but he keeps staring at the young girl at the table. I didn’t realize this would freak him out more than it does me.

“You have to tell her what’s going to happen,” I hear let slip from my dad’s lips. Xan finally snaps out of it with the pain of my nails digging into his skin. The two of us edge closer to my parents and listen to the rest of the conversation.

“She will know when I want her to,” my mother snaps. “She is my family and I will be the one to train her.”

“You brought me into her life,” Daddy argues. “I didn’t have to help you but you needed me. And whether you like it or not, she’s going to turn. You are going to have to trust me on this.”

“Gail, you’re hurting my wrist,” Xan whispers in my ear. I shush him with the breath I barely have in my body.

“But Abby won’t be able to not talk. You know how she likes to tell people things.”

My daddy stays quiet for a while before whispering, “We’ll tell her when she’s ten. It’s something she’ll be able to handle by then, right? But we have to tell her at least part of the truth now.”

“Gail!” Xander wrenches his wrist out of my hands but miraculously he stays in the vision.

“What?” I turn to him and he grabs my arms to repeatedly shake them. “No, let me see them! I want to know!”

But it’s too late. Xander’s shaking has taken me out of the memory and returned us to the night in my backyard. He falls over his feet to the grass and scrambles to regain his balance. I wipe at my face and realize the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. They’re gone again! Rage and confusion start to tingle through my back and spread throughout my body.

“Why did that happen,” Xander shouts with a cracking voice. “The same thing happened before. What’s going on with you?”

“I can’t tell you,” I cry out to him. My finger pulls at the untwisted roots of my dreads. Nothing is making sense right now. Why did my mom treat my dad he was only a consultant? I thought they loved each other.

“Don’t give me that, Gail,” Xan yells back at me. “I have no clue what’s going on and you can’t just expect me to leave it go. We went… somewhere! Somewhere where there is a younger you and a very strange smell and… and…”

I turn to him with pleading eyes and his mood instantly softens. Xander pulls me in for a hug and for the first time ever, I can feel him shaking with fear. I’ve never known Xan to ever be scared of anything so this side of him makes me feel nervous.

Suddenly, a flash of two well-dressed men appear behind my eyes. I push the thought away seeing as Xan is taking precedence over anything my mind can conjure up. Friendship before witchery: that will never change for me.

“I know whatever it is, you think I won’t believe you. But I will,” he calmly explains. My arms wrap around his chest and I pull him in a tighter hug. “Gail, what’s going on with you? Whatever it is I will be here. You’re one of my only friends and I don’t want to lose you.”

An unwanted sob leaks from my throat and Xander holds me tighter. After a minute of calming my emotions and of him trying to prepare himself for what I’ll say, we release our embrace and stare at one another.

“Alright,” I sigh and stare at the ground with shame. Here goes everything. Gasping a lung full of air, I stare into his eyes and release my words in one breath. “I’m—”

My body gets that same breath knocked out of me as I’m suddenly yanked back into a rough-skinned body. Xander calls out to me but his voice is too subdued by the people holding us. My eyes focus back on their faces and I realize these are not normal people. My lips scream behind a grey menacing hand and stare into Xan’s attacker’s florescent blue eyes.

“Good evening, little witchy-darling,” the demon whispers gruffly into my ear. His rotten breath singes the minute hairs on my face as it makes my limbs go numb. I watch as a similar thing happens to Xander. My arms try and reach out to him but I can barely fight the grip of the demon restraining me. The one holding my body up laughs at my attempt and raises me in the air like a trophy he’s just won.

“Why don’t we go get something to eat, hmm?”

“Their treat,” the second one says before laughing heartily with his mate.

The demon man throws me over his shoulders easily with his last words echoing in my mind. Reality slips from my grasp and I panic overtime, calling and praying for the Emerald or Trevor to find me.

They have me, I mentally yell out to them. But even I know they’ll never hear me in time. I’m on my own. Please… help me.

Finally my body gives out, falling into the black void of unconsciousness and into the hands of the demons’ mercy.