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chapter forty-four

The flames started at my feet, curled quickly up and around my legs, tasted the web that held me captive and then, once it got hold of it and decided it liked it, everything that was on me or attached to me burst as the flames completely encompassed me.

I turned and looked around me, my eyes boiling with fire.
 
The spiders were backing way.
 
Some along the walls dropped on me in a suicide mission to grab the amulets.
 
I closed my eyes and willed their poison out of me.
 
Almost at once I felt better, even though the rancid smell of their spoiled juices seeping out of me and burning in the roasting fire was enough to make me gag.

I turned to the door and sealed it shut.
 
Then I waved my hand around the room and set the lot of it on fire.
 
Everything in here had to burn, including me.
 
Every nook and cranny had to be incinerated.
 
And when it was, when every spider was dead and every web had fallen, I waved my hand again and restored the room to its former damp glory.

Someone pounded on the door.

I removed the smell of smoke from the room, caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and immediately cleaned myself up before I went to the door.
 
I looked around before I opened it.
 
Everything seemed in place.
 
But when I swung open the door, nobody was there.
 
They gym was empty.
 
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the note pinned to the door.

I grabbed it, opened it and read it.
 
It was from the witches.

Was that unpleasant, Seth?
 
We hope it was at least bearable.
 
We were just playing.
 
But to think they nearly cocooned you.
 
What would you have done if they had?
 

You made it out alive this time.
 
Fine.
 
But what about next time, when we’re not playing?
 
What will happen then?
 
None of us even wants to
think
about that.

And so we won’t.
 
We’ll all find out soon enough, anyway, because it’s coming, Seth.
 
We’ll kill you if we have to.
 
Just give us the amulets and you’ll be free of us.
 

So will your friends….

All best,

Your new friends

ALC

I folded the note, jammed it in my pocket and asked the amulets to tell me where they were now.
 
A response came at once.
 
They were in Mrs. Pearson’s Latin class.
 

Of course, they were.
 
They likely were excelling at it.

I made myself invisible and then transported myself so I was standing just outside Pearson’s door.
 
There was a window.
 
I looked through it and saw all three of them seated in the front row.
 
They sensed me and turned to look at me.
 
They frowned.

Before they could think or even react, I put a shield around myself, drove down hard into the amulets and electrocuted them in their metal chairs.
 

Immediately, each witch reared back while their hair fanned out and sparks popped off their bodies.
 
They were trying to get up, but I kept them rooted to their seats.
 

Smoke came off them.
 
Their skin started to sizzle.
 
They thrashed in their chairs and bellowed in pain.
 

Mrs. Pearson and the other students started to scream while I drilled a message into each witch’s head:
 
Leave here.
 
Go back to where you came from.
 
Don’t you dare fuck with me again.
 
If I have to, I’ll take each of you bitches out.

I continued to let them fry until their clothes caught on fire.
 
Burn
, I thought.
 
Burn and go to hell.

They were now three funnels of flames flailing about at their desks.
 
I could hear them making noises that weren’t human.
 
They were gurgling, choking, sputtering.
 
“YELP!” one shouted.
 
“SHLOP!”

One of the students suddenly was in front of them, blasting them with a fire extinguisher, which put the fires out even as the witches continued to twitch and heave in the pulses of electricity I was feeding into their seats.
 

I gave them one final, massive jolt before I stopped.
 
It was enough to knock them unconscious, if only for a moment.
 
Now they were slumped in their seats, mouths open, eyes bleeding, skin ruined, smoke rolling off their bodies in rotten swirling curls.
 
Before they came to, I needed to see Jim.
 
Quick.
 
I transported myself to his trailer.

*
  
*
  
*

When I appeared behind the stand of trees on his property, I saw him sitting in the Adirondack chair I gave him, sipping a Bud Lite.

“Now, what the hell are you doing here, boy?
 
School ain’t over yet.”

I came around and told him everything.
 
This time, for the first time, the cool that I’d come to associate with Jim dropped and he truly looked concerned.

“They put my neck in a noose?”

“They hung you.
 
And it looked real.
 
I thought it was you hanging there.”

“And I burst into spiders?”

“Spiders that cocooned me, bit me and tried to steal the amulets.”

“Little bitches.
 
Give me that note.”

I gave it to him.

“So, they’re threatening you with your friends.”

“That would be you, Alex and Jennifer.”

“But they hung me.”

“That’s because you mean more to me than them.
 
They sense that.
 
What do you think they’ll do?”

“Whatever it is, it ain’t going to be good for me.
 
Or your other friends.”

“I electrocuted them,” I said.
 
“I warned them.
 
I knocked them out.”

“You did what?”

“You heard me.”

“Son, you better explain yourself.”

I told him what I did to them in Pearson’s room.

“Stupid move?” I asked

“Actually, smart move.
 
Now, they know you’re a force.
 
You took out three of them.
 
You set them on fire.
 
They passed out from it.
 
Good, good.
 
They’ll be pissed.
 
They’ll want retribution.
 
But they won’t see you as some play thing anymore.
 
You’re an equal to them now.”

“How can I protect you, Alex and Jennifer?”

“You can’t.
 
They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

“But I can put a shield around you and your trailer.”

“You could do that, but they’ll just pick away at it like those spiders did to you.
 
I’ll be safe for a few minutes.
 
That’s it.
 
Same goes for your other friends.
 
What you need to do is to go after those little bitch witches.
 
You need to kill them.
 
That’s the only way this is going to stop.”

The wind started to pick up.
 
Above us to the east, dark storm clouds were rolling in.
 
In the distance, there was a flash of lightning followed by a rumble of thunder.

“How am I going to kill them?”

“Sounds like you almost did today.
 
I think you found a weakness.
 
You’re going to have to figure out how to exploit it.”

“My problem with the amulets is that when I’m distracted, I can’t fully tap into them.
 
Today, I had to let the spiders bite me so I could stop and focus.
 
What am I supposed to do if I’m faced with these three witches and they’re suddenly on top of me trying to pull off my limbs?
 
It’s a losing situation.”

“That’s because you’re not using the damn amulets right.
 
You keep saying things like ‘tap into them,’ when you shouldn’t have to tap into anything.
 
Seth, at this point, they should be natural extensions of your thoughts.”
 
He looked up at the sky, which was darkening fast as a storm settled in.
 
“You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.”

I had to raise my voice above the rising wind.
 
“Then tell me how to do it when I’m under attack.”

“Same way you do it when you imagine a beer for me, to use your words.
 
You just think it.”
 
There was a crack of lighting, a louder clap of thunder, but no rain.
 
I turned around to look up at the sky and was about to suggest that we get inside when I saw them.

It was the witches.
 
It was they who were creating the storm.

“Boy, you watch yourself,” Jim said.

They were high in the air, seemingly one with the clouds, about twenty feet apart and they were coming fast.
 

I could see the damage I’d done to their skin.
 
It was no longer poreless and refined.
 
Now, it was burnt and spotted with scabs.
 
They’d changed their clothes and now wore black leather.
 
In the wind they created, their hair was a tornado of dark curls spinning violently behind them.
 
They looked furious, filled with vengeance and I knew I had to do something to stop them fast.
 

I imagined them on fire and for an instant, they fleetingly burst into flames before cutting straight through the fire with a laugh.
 
In the classroom, I’d taken them by surprise.
 
But now they were ready for me and fire didn’t work quite as easily as it had before.

Quickly, they cast a wider net and moved away from each other, so much so that now I couldn’t see all of them at once.
 
The middle witch, who I assumed was Anna, lifted her arm and flung a lightning bolt at me.
 
I deflected it with a wave of my hand and hurled it back at her, but she skidded to the left and it soared past her.

“Give them to us!” she screamed.