A Knight of the Sacred Blade (12 page)

Chapter 11 - I Don't Know What I Did

Anno Domini 2012

The day after graduation, Ally drove to the park.

She looked at the parked cars lining both sides of the street, scowled, and pulled Simon’s Ford Focus into an empty space about a block distant. Ally climbed out of the car, taking an envelope and tucking it into her pocket. The cool night air brushed at her face, and she pulled her green coat tighter. She felt much more comfortable in a T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes than in a dress and heels. 

It was a good night for a party.

Rows of picnic tables had been set up, their surfaces covered with pizzas, chips, cookies, and juice. Coolers marked “SODA: LIGHT”, “SODA: REGULAR”, and “ALCOHOLIC” stood at the end of the tables. A scowling elderly man guarded the “ALCOHOLIC” cooler, glaring at anyone underage who happened to wander past. A crowd of people stood around the tables, eating and talking. A horde of little kids played some sort of game with a bright blue beach ball. 

“Bill!” said Ally. “Congratulations.”

Bill stood by the coolers, a soda in hand. Behind him stood his parents, each dressed in a severe lawyer-like black suit. 

Bill beamed at her approach. “Ally! You made it!”

“I said I was going to come, didn’t I?” said Ally.

“I’ll be going to your party, don’t worry,” said Bill. “It’s on Saturday, right?”

“Right,” said Ally. She handed over the envelope. “Happy graduation, Bill.”

Bill took the envelope, opened it, laughed at the card. “A twenty-five gift certificate to the book store!”

Ally shrugged. “You’re always reading those long books about goblins and knights and wizards and stuff like that. I can never keep track of them, so I thought you could pick out what you like with this.” 

That, and she didn't like to read them. Reading about wizards always seemed to trigger her nightmares.

“Thanks, Ally,” said Bill. “Thanks. This is a really cool gift. Now I have to get something good for you.”

“We’ve heard quite a bit about you, young lady,” said Bill’s father, a balding man with a severe face. “I’m William Ryan.”

Ally shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Jill Ryan,” said Bill’s mother. Ally shook her hand as well. “I hear you gave William Junior quite a run for valedictorian.”

Ally shrugged. “It was pretty close.” 

“Well, I never had any doubt William Junior would come out on top,” said Mrs. Ryan.

“Mom,” muttered Bill, his ears turning red. “You heard what Dr. Burton said. It was close that anything would have tipped it.”

“True, true,” said Mrs. Ryan. She kissed her son on the cheek. “But you didn’t tip it, did you?”

“Dear.” Mr. Ryan touched his wife’s arm. “The Coltons are here. We’d best go say hello.”

“Of course,” said Mrs. Ryan, straightening up. “Stay right here, Junior, we’ll bring the Coltons over in a minute.” The Ryans hurried off, leaving Ally alone with Bill.

Ally raised an eyebrow. “William Junior?”

Bill sighed. “Don’t ask.”

“You have to stand here all night?” said Ally.

“Yeah,” said Bill. “My parents bring the guests over here, and I say hello, they say congratulations and good luck and, my, how tall I’ve gotten, and then they go to talk business with Dad.” 

“That sounds like a real pain,” said Ally.

“It is.” Bill took a drink of his soda. “I was thinking about sneaking some beer, you know, just this once to celebrate. But Grandpa Ryan won’t stop guarding the cooler. He’s Baptist and thinks alcohol is the devil. I hope your party is better.”

“Me too,” said Ally. 

“I’m sorry about my mom,” said Bill. “It was pretty rude, what she said.”

“That’s okay,” said Ally. “I don’t think she meant anything by it. It was close, after all. I mean, if you’d gotten sick an extra day, I probably would have gotten it.” She still did not understand why it meant so little to her. 

It was as if more important things had already happened to her.

“Ally. Um…I…” Bill looked at his shoes.

“What is it?”

“It’s…I’m not sure I should tell you…”

Ally frowned. “Bill. What’s wrong?”

Bill sighed. “Mary was here.”

Ally stiffened. “She was? When?”

“Just twenty minutes before you got here,” said Bill. “She…she doesn’t look good, Ally. And Nathan Jameson was with her. Mary tried to talk to me, but Nathan stopped her. I think he was stoned or high or drunk or something. My dad told them to leave or he’d call the police.”

Ally scowled. “Did they leave?”

“No.” Bill pointed at a rusty black truck parked against the curb. “At least, Nathan’s truck is still here. I think they went off into the woods together.”

Ally turned. “I have to talk to her. Sorry, Bill.”

“Ally. Don’t,” said Bill.

Ally frowned. “Why not?”

“Nathan’s high on something, I’m sure of it,” said Bill. “And he was mad. He was mad when he showed up, and he was even madder when my dad made him leave. He hates you. He might try to hit you if he sees you.”

“I can take care of myself,” said Ally.

“He’s a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than you!” said Bill. “Ally! Come back…”

Ally headed towards the woods on the far side of the park, her shoes sliding against the dew-damp grass. She spotted a path leading into the trees, and followed it. Worry churned in her stomach. She had tried to get in touch with Mary dozens of times in the last four months. Mary had never returned her calls or her emails, and Nathan had screamed at her a few times over the phone. Then Nathan had been expelled for drug use, and Mary quit school to move in with him. They disappeared off the face of the earth...

Ally heard voices, one loud, angry, and male, the other soft, terrified, and female. 

“You bitch. I do not believe this. You dragged me to that stupid prick’s party. And then…I don’t believe this! After everything I’ve done for you. I let you move in with me. I let you eat my food. I don’t believe this, I don’t believe this.”

“Nathan, please.” It was Mary. “I wanted you to marry me. Why won’t you marry me?”

“Bullshit,” said Nathan. “Don’t tell me you believe all that church bullshit?”

“It…it just wouldn’t feel right,” said Mary. 

“It’d feel right to me,” said Nathan, his voice slurring. “Oh, come on, baby. I’m leaving for boot camp in two days. Just give me what I want.” His voice grew hard and angry. “I gave up everything for you. I’d have gotten that football scholarship, but I spent so much time on you. It’s your fault I had to join the Army. So you owe me. So just give me some more money.”

“No!” said Mary, her voice shrill. “You lost the scholarship because of all those drugs!”

There was silence for a moment.

“You bitch. You did not just say that. Apologize. Now.”

Mary began to cry. “I won’t! I thought you’d be rich and famous. But you’re a bum, you’re just a drunk bum. And look at me. Look at me! I have to work in a cocktail bar to pay our bills. I do that to pay the bills and you still call me names and hit me. I’m tired of it, Nathan! I’m tired of you. I’m leaving, and I never want to see you again.”

“You…” Nathan’s voice rose in an animal scream of rage. “You bitch!”

Ally heard the sound of flesh striking flesh. 

She sprinted down the path, her mind churning with a mixture of rage and terror. The path ended in a deserted bike trail, the path and the surrounding trees illuminated by a few lamps. 

She spotted Nathan and Mary beneath a tree. Mary lay writhing on the ground, her face mottled with bruises and blood.  Nathan stood over her, fists clenched, eyes glittering with manic rage. He looked high on something.

“Oh my God,” said Ally. “You bastard. You bastard!”

Mary turned her head. “Ally. Run. Don’t stay. Don’t…”

Ally reached for her pocket, intending to grab her iPhone and call 911.

Except she had left her phone in the car.

Oops.

Nathan turned, that crazy light in his eyes growing brighter. “Well, well. It’s the ice queen.” He staggered toward her. “You put that attitude into Mary’s head.”

“Ally,” whispered Mary. “Run. Please run. He’ll kill you.” 

“Let her go,” said Ally. Nathan stalked towards her, and Ally felt a stab of fear.

He was so much larger than she was.

Nathan laughed. “Guess what, ice queen? There’s no teachers or cops around. We’re all alone. I’m going to teach you a lesson. I’m going to break that pretty little nose of yours and knock out a few of those white teeth.” 

“Go away,” said Ally. Her voice shook. “Now.”

“What, are you going to make me?” said Nathan. 

Ally blinked. One of her premonitions struck her, and she knew what would happen to Nathan. 

“You’re nothing,” said Ally, her voice cold and calm. Her fear had vanished. “You were a third-rate quarterback from a fifth-rate high school football team who squandered his moment of glory. Now you’re nothing but a drunken brute.” Nathan flinched. “You wasted your past, you have no present, and you have no future, and you know it. You’re going to wind up standing on street corners begging for change so you can buy your next drug fix…”

Nathan bellowed in rage and charged her, his fists swinging. Mary screamed and huddled against a tree. 

Ally stood her ground. Katrina had dragged her to self-defense classes for years, and she knew she should run. But Nathan was big and slow, so slow, and it was almost as if Ally could see into the future and know exactly what he would do next.

He swung at her face with a wild roundhouse punch. Even without the strange foretelling whispering inside her skull, she would have seen it coming a mile away. She pivoted just as Katrina had taught her and swung her foot. Her heel slammed into the back of Nathan’s knee, and he stumbled several steps with a cry of pain. 

Nathan staggered to a stop and spun. “You bitch! You kicked me!”

Ally circled him. “Perceptive.” 

Nathan roared and lunged at her again. Ally veered to the side. He was big and strong, but the booze and the drugs had slowed his movements, and he shot past her with a curse. It was as if a fire burned in her blood, telling her exactly what he would do next.

He turned to face her, snarling, hands raised to grab her neck.

Ally kicked him in the groin.

He staggered back, face going red, but the blow did not hurt him as much as Ally expected. The chemicals coursing through his bloodstain must have taken the edge off his pain.  

“Bitch!” said Nathan. “I’m going to make you bleed!”

Hot fury blazed in Ally’s mind. The fire in her blood spread, made her brain and chest felt like they were burning. “Just like you made Mary bleed?” 

He roared and came at her, murder in his eyes.

A hint of a long-forgotten memory came to Ally’s thoughts, and she hit him in the chest, driving her palm against his breastbone. It should have done nothing. He was eight inches taller and seventy pounds heavier. He should have simply plowed her over.

Instead Ally felt the fire inside her erupt from her hand.

There was a dazzling white flash.

When her eyes cleared Nathan lay in a sprawled heap at her feet, his limbs trembling and his eyes wide with terror. 

“Don’t,” whispered Nathan. “No, please, don’t, no more, no more…”

Ally felt calm, so glacially calm.

She reached down and grabbed the front of his shirt. “Listen to me. If you ever hurt Mary again, I’ll hunt you down. You’ll wish you had gone to prison. You’ll wish you had never been born. Nothing they could do to you in prison, in the Army, or even in Hell can compare to what I’ll do to you if you ever hurt Mary again. Understand?”

Her voice sounded alien, as if someone else spoke through her lips. 

Nathan cringed away from her, quivering like a landed fish. “No! Please…I promise, I promise, I won’t…I won’t ever hurt her again.” He began to shake. “Just…just please don’t do that, please don’t…” He curled up into a ball and began to weep

Ally blinked. Why had she ever been frightened of this weeping wreck? 

And what had she done that had terrified him so much? What had that white flash been?

She released his shirt and let him fall in a heap to the ground. He crawled away from her, still weeping. 

Ally walked to Mary and knelt beside her. Her left eye had swollen shut, and blood crusted her lips and chin. She seemed a pathetic echo of the friendly, outgoing girl Ally had known. 

“What…what did you do?” said Mary, her voice faint. 

Ally looked at Nathan. “I don’t…I don’t really know.” 

“I’m cold,” said Mary.

“Here.” Ally slid out of her battered green coat and slung it around Mary’s shoulders. “That’ll keep you warm until we can get you home.”

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” said Mary. 

“Then you can come stay with me,” said Ally. She would convince Katrina and Simon of that, however much it took. She looked at Nathan’s whimpering form. “After we call the police. I don’t want…I don’t want him hurting anyone else.”

“Ally,” whispered Mary. “I…”

She burst into tears. 

Ally hugged her. “It’s okay. It’s okay now. We’ll get you through this.” 

Ally heard footsteps, and saw Mr. Ryan burst into sight, followed by a half-dozen of his friends. Bill trailed behind them. “Dad! See, I told you. We should have come right away…”

“Bill,” said Ally. “Everything’s fine. Mostly.” 

“What is going on here?” said Mr. Ryan. His bushy eyebrows narrowed. “Isn’t that the boy I threw out of William Junior’s party? And isn’t that his girlfriend?”

“Mr. Ryan,” said Ally.

Mr. Ryan’s head snapped around. “I trust there is a good explanation for all this commotion?” 

“Bill told me Mary and Nathan went this way,” said Ally, her voice quiet and hard. Mr. Ryan glared at her. “I followed them here and saw Nathan attacking Mary.” Mr. Ryan’s frown deepened. “I stopped him.” She helped Mary up. “Mr. Ryan, I think you should call the police. And maybe an ambulance.”

Mr. Ryan ran a hand through his thin hair. “This is going to cause such a scandal.” He slipped an iPhone from his belt. 

Ally looked at Bill. “Sorry I ruined your graduation party.”