A Death Displaced (17 page)

‘I’ll stay out of the way. How come he couldn’t control you with his mind?’

‘I don’t know …’ He thought about it. ‘It felt like his eyes were piercing into me, but it had no other effect.’

A car sped by and made him jump. He laughed at how jittery he was, then tried to mentally relax. He said to Juliet, ‘I know we have to go back, because it 
must
 have something to do with my mum … I have to talk to Aldrich again.’

‘What if you’ve killed him? You can’t ask him questions if he’s dead.’ Juliet said and winced.

‘But 
you
 can.’ He raised his eyebrows. Guilt flushed over him at the thought of turning an accidental murder into an advantage.

‘No. It doesn’t work like that. Spirits just seem to show up whenever they feel like it.’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t summon them.’

‘I hope he’s not dead. I only did it to get you out of the trance you were in. It was all I could think of.’

‘I know. Looks like you saved me again.’ She laughed, and her eyes lingered on his for a significant moment.

‘I think we’re missing something. We can’t just go back like this. My mum tried to tell you something, didn’t she? I have to take something with me.’

‘Yeah, but she vanished before she could tell me what.’ Juliet had a hopeless look in her eyes, and Nick saw her go inwards mentally. She looked up at him with an expression that clearly meant: You’re not going to like this.

‘Why don’t you use your ability?’ she asked.

‘What? I’ve never 
used
 it before. It’s like what you said about the ghosts. The visions come to me. I don’t know how I do it.
When I tried to use it before, it gave me a splitting headache!’

‘But can’t you try? If you can see the future, then we’ll be one step ahead. What if he’s already sent someone after us? Please, Nick.’ She put her hand on his knee. ‘Please try.’

He didn’t say anything. He thought about her touch on his leg, and enjoyed it. What she was asking of him made sense, but he’d tried to have a vision before and it hadn’t been so easy. He’d spent hours reading up on it and meditating, mostly to no avail.

If he tried it now and let her down, then how awful would he feel? But then what if Aldrich
had
sent someone after them? Nick would have the upper hand if he knew the future.

‘What if there are repercussions?’ he asked. ‘I saved your life, but now you see ghosts, and that poor woman fell in the same place. Was that just a coincidence? I had painful flashes relating to her death. Maybe I deserved the pain for messing with fate …’

He watched Juliet close her eyes at the mention of the woman who fell. When she opened them again she said, ‘That woman appeared to me yesterday, she explained what happened to her and she doesn’t blame you. I’ll tell you about it another time. We’ll have to think of the repercussions when we need to, but for now we have to try something. What else can we do?’

‘Okay, I’ll try, but don’t expect anything to happen.’

He closed his eyes, squeezed them as hard shut as possible and scrunched up his face, trying to think of the future. Holding his breath, he tensed his body. Nothing happened. ‘It’s not working,’ he said.

‘Relax, Nicolas. You look too tense.’

Trying a different method, he began to breathe deeply. He told himself not to worry, that it didn’t matter whether it worked or not.

Imagining himself sinking into the seat stilled him. Then he envisaged his whole body and mind being connected to everything. He saw his entire self as a tree growing outwards, branches and roots weaving into the world around him. The relaxation was so deep he lost the sense of where he was and what he was trying to do in the first place.

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer sat in his Vauxhall Corsa.

*

He walked through a foliage archway, recognising it from Grendel Manor.

He turned around and saw three people trailing behind him: Juliet, Tom, and Tommy. All three looked nervous.

This time he knew he was inside a vision. It
felt
just as real as the first time, except that on the first occasion he had become so absorbed that he actually believed it was real, until he awoke from it. But this time he simply watched through his own eyes.

Ahead of him the large front door of Grendel Manor was open, the way it had been left when he’d escaped. He walked up the chalky path, and in a hushed voice he said to Juliet, ‘Stay outside, we’ll go in and check.’

She nodded and stopped where she was. Nick headed inside with his brothers following close by.

He found Aldrich where he’d left him, on the floor with a small puddle of blood, the broken statue head, and the cane. Nick approached the body cautiously then used his fingers to check for a pulse.

Aldrich was alive.

*

He opened his eyes with a swift inhale.

‘Did it work?’ asked Juliet.

‘Yeah. I saw something.’

‘What did you see?’

‘I saw us go back to the manor. I think I know what my mum was trying to say. She was saying that I must take my brothers with me. Maybe they are immune to Aldrich’s ability too? I saw them with us in the vision. We went back and the door was open the way we left it. I asked you to wait outside in case Aldrich tried his mind-thing on you again, and when I went inside he was on the floor still. I checked his pulse. He was alive.’

Juliet looked relieved, and gently sighed.

Smiling at her, Nick laughed awkwardly at the situation they were in. Juliet seemed to be watching his eyes, and whatever she was thinking she leant in closer.

Was he reading her body language wrong? He looked from her eyes to her lips, then back to her eyes again. Juliet pulled her gaze away from his, then allowed her stare to linger on his lips. Then she kissed him, and he kissed her back.

Chapter 14

What have I done?

She pulled away from the warmth of his lips. The kiss had lasted no more than five seconds, and her ambivalence had prevented her from fully enjoying it. It was a spur of the moment thing; in her last relationship she’d never been the one to go in for a kiss.
He’d
always initiated it.

Too much change was happening: the car incident, the spirits, a man who could control minds, and now these new feelings towards Nicolas. She wanted to kiss him, but also
didn’t
want to.

After she pulled away, she saw that Nick looked nonplussed. He followed her with another kiss, and she let their lips connect, but then gently pushed him back.

‘We need to go get your brothers,’ she said.

 Nick huffed, amused. ‘Err, okay.’ He pulled out his mobile. ‘What was the kiss for?’

‘I don’t know.’ She moved firmly back to the passenger’s side of the car, composed herself, but offered no further explanation.

In a strange sense, she felt violated: not by Nicolas, but by Aldrich. He had invaded her mind,
used
her body and altered her memory. An eerie shiver bristled over her skin, thinking about it. Although she’d initiated the kiss with Nicolas, the intimacy felt like too much right now.

‘Okay … the twins might be at college. I’ll ring Tom.’ Nick’s phone was to his ear instantly. A moment later he said, ‘Tom, are you at home? Good. Is Tommy with you? College? Why aren’t you at college? Actually, it doesn’t matter. Could you call Tommy and tell him I’ll pick him up at the main entrance in about twenty minutes? Maybe a little longer. I’ll come get you straight after that.’ He paused and his eyes shifted in thought. ‘It’s important. Don’t say anything to Dad. It’s about Mum. I can’t explain now. Thank you, thank you.’

Juliet was impressed at the speed and painlessness of the phone call. She imagined if she were to call Kim in that manner, Kim would flood her with questions.

Nick started up the car and was back on the road in no time.

‘What are you going to tell them?’ asked Juliet sensibly.

‘My brothers?’

‘Yes. And did I hear correctly, are they called Tom and Tommy?’

‘Ha, yeah they are. It used to be difficult to tell them apart, but it’s easier now. Tommy is the larger, muscular one, and Tom is the slim one. I’m not sure what to tell them, but I know what we definitely
can’t
tell them.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘We can’t tell them about our ... erm, abilities. They’ll think we’re pulling their legs, or that we’ve gone insane,’ he said in a practical voice.

‘But what will you say about Aldrich? You have to warn them, else we’re putting them in danger. They’re going to notice the marks on your neck.’

She rubbed under her nails in an attempt to flake off the dried blood. The idea that she could have done that to him, bruised and cut his neck, well actually, the fact that she
did
do that to him made her stomach churn.
I don’t remember anything.

She’d never laid a hand on anyone before. Once, she had wanted to, years ago when some girls at school had bullied her for being wealthier than them. She’d heard most the names growing up: rich-bitch, spoilt cow, snotty, more-money-than-sense, stuck-up. But these girls were particularly nasty. Violence hadn’t been the answer though; Juliet’s parents had respect, and they didn’t gain it through physical force. Juliet’s ‘retaliation’ had been to say she didn’t care what those girls thought and that she’d never stoop to their level of bullying. They’d simply been stupid, jealous girls; and Juliet was better than that.

Nick appeared to be cogitating. ‘We’ll tell them about Aldrich, but then they’re still going to think we’re crazy,’ he said, sounding like he just wanted the situation to be resolved already. ‘I’ve already told Tom it’s about Mum, so they know it’s important and they will want to come with us. But they won’t believe about Aldrich, not unless they see it for themselves.’

‘We don’t want that to happen,’ Juliet made clear. ‘Hopefully they are immune to his ability like you are.’

‘I think that’s what my mum was trying to tell you.’

The route Nick took towards Amiton was different to the way they’d come, of course, seeing as they’d approached from Chanton. He drove south past the small hamlet of Willow, and on their right was Eradon Lake.

Juliet looked across at the water surface. There were dour grey clouds hanging above, preventing many reflections on the water and causing it to appear deep and dark and sullen. The lake’s surface area was roughly four miles and so it took a few minutes to drive clear of it. Nick drove over a bridge crossing the Nova River and headed southeast.

Maybe we should visit Tamara Trewin
, Juliet almost suggested, thinking the witch could possibly help. But she soon found many reasons why it was a bad idea: Tamara might be in the middle of an appointment, Juliet had been rude on her exit when she last visited, Tamara could be susceptible to Aldrich’s ability, and how would they convince her to come along? And what could she do? She
claimed
to be a powerful witch (and all her other titles) and she had been right about Juliet being displaced, but how useful would her talents be against Aldrich’s ability? And anyway, it wasn’t Juliet’s decision who to bring along; it was Nick’s car, and
his
mum’s past they were trying to figure out.

‘Do you mind that I invited myself along to all of this?’ she asked. ‘I’ve just realised it isn’t my business what happened to your mother, and you might not want me present when or if you find out.’

Nick seemed to really think before answering. ‘My mum appeared to you as a ghost. She affected your life and made it your business.’ He paused, cleared his throat, and continued. ‘I feel like I can trust you, and I’m happy for you to figure out this mystery with me. But I understand if you don’t want anything to do with it. I’ve already assaulted a man, and I don’t know what else we are getting ourselves into.’

Juliet thought she saw guilt on his face. ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ she consoled. ‘I want to go back to the manor with you. I can’t avoid the changes that have happened to me. I see spirits, and I’m going to make the best out of the situation that I can.’

When they reached Amiton College, Nick pulled up on a curb by the entrance. Other students huddled about in small groups or walked aimlessly by. Some glanced over, unimpressed at Nick’s decision to park there, but most were indifferent.

The building featuring the main entrance was Victorian style. It had red bricks, (slightly yellowed) white window frames, and to one side there was a gothic clock-tower piercing high above all else. The rest of the college was made up of modern builds and even a stack of unflattering mobile-classrooms.

Juliet had attended Amiton College where she’d achieved a diploma in Business, but not at this campus. A smaller one was in the upper grounds of the town centre and was where she’d also studied the practical elements of her degree. She’d had a good experience there, respected the college, and made a couple of friends along the way. At the time she completed her diploma she turned eighteen, which was when her parents bought her Chanton Hillview café and moved to Marbella.

A brawny youth came from the direction of the mobile-classrooms and headed towards the entrance. Juliet observed how he swaggered with attitude, a manly strut that gave a clear message: Don’t mess with me. The youth didn’t look unkind, but more along the lines of cocky.

Juliet recognised some attractive qualities in his face. ‘Is that Tommy?’ she asked, loosely pointing in the brawn’s direction.

‘Ah, yeah, that’s him. I’ll go get him.’ Nick got out of the car and ran over to Tommy. Juliet watched him move fast but stoically, then saw him exchange a few words with his brother. From inside the car she couldn’t hear what they were saying.

They marched over and Nick opened the door, levered the driver seat forward, and then Tommy squeezed in. He looked uncomfortably large sat in the back.

‘Alright?’ Tommy asked, as Nick repositioned his seat and got back in.

‘Hello. I’m Juliet Maystone.’

‘Tommy,’ he replied with a shrug. Juliet smiled, somewhat warily.