Poltergeeks (22 page)

Authors: Sean Cummings

BOOK: Poltergeeks

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I squinted at the header, it said: "Just read this, okay?"

So I did.

Julie:

I've decided to write you an email so that I can explain what happened in your basement today. Call me a wuss for not telling you how I feel in person, but that didn't exactly go over terribly well when I tried. For the record, I said you were beautiful and meant every word of it.

I did this because it's how I've felt for a very long time now and I wanted you to know how I felt – how I've always felt about you. It was a conscious choice on my part and I did it knowing full well that you probably don't see me in the same way that I see you. That's fine – that's a risk a person has to take when they want to tell someone how much they mean to them. And you mean so much to me, Julie. Not because you have weird-ass powers that fascinate and terrify me all at the same time. Not because we've been best friends since we were little kids. It's just that I care about you in a way that is more than friendship. I miss you when you're not around – like when you and your mom go on vacation. I've had to stop myself from reaching out to take your hand or to just kiss you because I don't want to get hurt by the most important person in my life. I mean, nobody wants to face rejection and I know there's a real chance that when you read this, you'll want to send me packing because you don't feel the way I do.

Still, it's a risk I'm willing to take because… well, I love you.

There, I said it. I love you and I've been in love with you for a long time now. I just haven't had the courage to tell you – again, that whole rejection thing. I know you might be trying to figure out a way to let me down easy or to tell me that you like me as a friend and I'm sort of bracing myself for it. Just know that regardless of how you feel about me, I do love you very much.
  I think that I always will.
  Marcus

I allowed myself a long and very heart-wrenching sigh. I held my hand over the keyboard and bit my lip hard because I wanted to email him back in case things went badly at the Rugby Stadium. But I couldn't. I needed to stay focused on taking down Hudibras.

Still, it
was
a beautiful letter. It also put to rest any fears that I had about Marcus being into Marla and I wished I'd seen it before I decided to get megabitchy with the both of them. I felt tears welling up as I re-read the email. Every single word was a declaration of the joy that Marcus felt whenever he was near me. Nobody had ever expressed anything so loving and genuine to me before in my life. My head was swimming with emotions that bounced against the interior walls of my skull at about a million miles an hour because for the first time I realized how much I actually
meant
to someone. Marcus really and truly loved me with all his heart.
Me!
He hadn't abandoned me. And he was
still
by my side even now when the likelihood of my death was staring me straight in the face.

Tears rolled down my cheeks and a hollow ache radiated out from the center of my chest. I gulped air again as I ran my sleeve across my face to wipe away the tears when it finally dawned on me.

Whoa. I was in love with Marcus Guffman.

I wanted to race downstairs and throw my arms around him. I wanted to whisper in Marcus' ear that I loved him too, that I'd read his letter and that he'd touched my heart, but I couldn't. I had to keep my mind on defeating Hudibras. I had to fight. I absolutely
had
to bloody win.

I didn't have any choice.

I decided that when all this was over, I'd tell Marcus that I'd read his letter and that I loved him with all my heart. I'd apologize for treating the one person who'd never stopped believing in me like shit and that I wouldn't have come this far if it hadn't been for him.

All I had to do was to survive the night and save my mother's life.

Chapter 24

Marcus was wiping his hands on a tea towel and there were twenty-one bags of witch's chaff-laced firecrackers all lined up and ready to go. It took everything in my power to stop myself from taking his hand and telling him that I had read his letter. But this wasn't the time or place.

Betty's tail thumped agreeably when she saw me walk into the room. I was dressed in a pair of hiking boots, black cargo pants and a thin, black sweater that clung to my curves like plastic wrap. I think Marcus noticed too because his face turned three kinds of red after he took one look at me.

"Marcus, you're going to be in charge of launching those bags at Hudibras," I said firmly. "Stuff them in your backpack and when we get to the rugby field, we'll find a good place for you to hide."

"This may sound dumb, Julie, but will I be protected?" he asked.

"Yes and no," I said uneasily. "I'm not familiar with the layout of the field, but I'm going to assume there's only one set of gates. I think that's where we start launching the chaff. If there's enough time, I'll have a circle for you that will offer protection from anything Hudibras sends your way. Of course if something bad happens to me, make sure you high-tail it out of there and head for the hills."

Betty the dog's baritone voice rumbled. "Marcus should stay with me. Don't forget that my magic can also pack a punch when I choose to use it."

I scratched Betty's thick muscular chest and knelt down. "I didn't think it would be right for you to get involved. This is my grudge match, not yours."

Betty leaned her giant head into my shoulder and nuzzled me affectionately. "I am your guardian and part of my job is to protect you if you're in danger. But I can't fight this battle for you because you issued the challenge for this duel. You're a Shadowcull now, Julie; it falls on you to defeat Hudibras."

I stroked her shining tan coat. "Yeah. I just hope I've got enough in me to do it, you know?"

She nodded and stepped back a couple of feet. "Just remember to channel your emotions. Shape them into the most devastating magic you can muster and don't let Hudibras know you're intimidated, not even a breath of fear."

"I'll remember that, Betty," I said firmly. "Everyone ready to go?"

Marcus glanced at Betty and then back to me and said, "Uh, sure… there's only one problem."

"What's that?" I asked.

Marcus shrugged hard. "There's no bus service in Calgary at two in the morning and we can't call a cab because the cabbie will get suspicious since they don't generally drop teenagers off in Calgary's industrial block when the entire city is sound asleep."

Shit. I'd forgotten about that.

I turned to Betty and offered an awkward smile.

She snorted. "I have paws, and I doubt my long legs will reach the pedals… You get to drive your mother's car, but I'll make sure it gets us there in one piece."

"Just don't get a scratch on it or she'll kill me," I warned.

Betty let out an aristocratic sniff as she turned and headed up the stairs. I gave Marcus a hopeful smile and when his eyes met mine, I actually blushed a little bit.

Marcus held up both our backpacks for my inspection. "I've got the pyro in my bag and all your stuff including your father's grimoire is inside yours. I wish I could be of more use but–"

I grabbed my bag and said, "Marcus, look, I want you to know that I wouldn't have been able to come this far without you. Whatever happens, just know that you've been rock solid through all this. Let's head outside so I can call out Hudibras and get my mom back."

The three of us to headed outside to the shed. It seemed only fitting that I should call out Hudibras from the site of his first attack on me. I ran my finger along the twisted hinges that were the only thing remaining of the door. Betty and Marcus stood alongside the marble circle where my mom exorcised the spirit inside the teddy bear. It was time to do some serious magic.

I stepped into the circle and knelt down. I touched the smooth cold marble ring and drew on a small amount of my spirit and whispered, "Seek."

The ring hummed with magical energies as I pulled out a piece of chalk from my pants pocket and began writing my message to Hudibras using the Theban alphabet so there would be no mistake as to who the message was coming from. When I was done, I stood up and stretched out my arms and I searched for Hudibras' magical signature through the supercharged atmosphere. I intensified my focus, and closed my eyes tight. I sensed the familiar magical signatures of local practitioners whose energies brushed against my skin, and within seconds, I felt weightless as my spirit drifted through thick fields of magic, both good and malicious. To my surprise, the energies parted, as if sensing my purpose. Force of every description divided like an endless sea of curtains, each pulling back to make way for my will to seek out the now familiar pulse of Hudibras' own malicious intent.

I'd homed in on it now, an inky blot floating amid of a haze of spectral blues and reds; his magical signature stained the supernatural realm with an old simmering hatred for me, for all witches. It knew I was coming as it bubbled and frothed in my presence. I drew upon my message written and I hurled my own menacing, vengeful words into the middle of the boiling mass. It hit with amazing force, a geyser of dark magic spewed up, and I knew my message had been received when a cold emotionless voice rang out, "To your doom, witch. Tonight you will breathe your last."

The three of us hopped into Mom's car and I turned the key. The engine roared to life and I stared at the steering wheel for a moment as I tried to remember how to turn on the headlights.

"Okay," I said with a huff. "I can do this. Betty, where's the lights?"

Betty's poked her huge head between the front seats and said, "The lights are that little knob just above your left hand. Pull it toward you and then put the car in reverse. All you need to do is get it backed onto the street and slip it into drive, I can do the rest."

I nodded and rested my sweaty right palm on the shift knob and pulled it back until I saw that it was in reverse. The car shot backwards, tyres squealing as I swung the steering wheel hard to the right.

"Take your foot off the gas pedal!" Betty snapped. "Just pump the brake!"

I did as instructed and slowly navigated the car back out of our driveway and onto the street. I straightened the tyres and kept my foot on the brake pedal as I switched the car into drive.

Betty closed her brown eyes for half a second and whispered something completely incomprehensible. I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles were turning white.

"You can remove your hands from the wheel and take your foot off the brake," she said. "The car knows where it needs to go now. Might I suggest a veil so that either the police or Hudibras won't see us coming?"

I exhaled slowly and slipped my copper amulet into the recess of my Shadowcull's band. I closed my eyes and whispered words of magic, drawing the veil over the car like a crisp, clean sheet on a mattress. Within seconds we were rolling down my street and amazingly, Betty's magic ensured the car stayed within the speed limit.

Marcus fidgeted in the passenger seat next to me and I could tell he was frightened, so I placed a reassuring hand on his.

"Are you scared?" he whispered.

I tried to offer something resembling a hopeful smile and squeezed his hand. "Shitless," I replied. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, Marcus. And you know what? If either of us weren't scared, they might as well ship us off to a padded room somewhere."

He nodded "Who do you think Hudibras is?"

I shrugged hard as the car whipped onto Deerfoot Trail and accelerated to sixty miles an hour. "We're about to find out."

"Yeah," he said. "Listen Julie, you look wicked hot in that Jedi outfit."

A big goofy grin washed over my face and I let out a huge belly laugh. "You wait until
now
to tell me that I'm hot?"

He snorted. "Can't help it. You're dead sexy."

"It's a Shadowcull's cloak," I said, half smiling. "Not quite as subtle as that of a Jedi Knight, but way more kickass."

Betty the dog let out a loud cough from the back seat. "Let's keep our heads in the game," she warned. "Julie, do you sense that Hudibras received your message?"

"Loud and clear," I said firmly. "Any thoughts on how we're going to take him out besides chucking bags of firecrackers at him?"

Marcus reached into his pack and pulled out an honest to goodness slingshot. I could have kissed him. "While you're peppering him with magic, I thought I could launch the bags at him with this. I've also got about two thousand ball bearings for good measure."

"Can you shoot that thing with accuracy?" I asked.

Marcus snorted again. "Puh-lease! Firing a slingshot is a matter of anticipating the trajectory, compensating for wind and applying the right amount of force – in short, science."

"Smart move, Marcus," I said. "When I give you the word, you fire the chaff and hopefully it will work. We'll bean him with ball bearings as a distraction."

We coasted onto the exit ramp leading to Glenmore Trail and I cracked open the window for a breath of fresh air. My stomach was doing backflips as the certainty of the deadly confrontation started hitting home. Everything up to this point spoke of menace and dark magic and sure, I'd successfully withstood two attacks from Hudibras, but I couldn't help but wonder if he had been holding back somehow. My instincts told me that everything about the two attacks was intended to kill me and that Hudibras was using the full measure of his power, but call me superstitious, if he was half as clever as I thought he'd be, I was certain Hudibras had a backup plan somewhere.

I just needed to be that much smarter and faster.

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