Young Writers Society

Chapter Nineteen

Wednesday evening crept up on them so quickly that Landon couldn’t believe where the time had gone. He sat on the porch steps outside his house that night, staring up at the stars. He wondered if there really was a higher being up there, looking down on him.

His thoughts were everywhere, yet at the same time, they were nowhere. There was so much to be risked that night that he could only pray someone “up there” was watching out for him and his friends.

He was worried. The whole situation was just so uncertain that he hardly believed it, even if he’d been living this reality for nearly a week. The concepts of God, the devil, angels, and higher powers were staggering—it shouldn’t have been dropped on them in such an abrupt way like that…and to be given just one single week to sort it all out was ridiculous.

Sometimes he still believed it was a dream, but then he’d wake up in the morning to hear his mother and father’s thoughts invading his own. The constant wave of personal feelings pushing themselves into his brain was overwhelming and uncontrollable—not a good combination.

Then the stupid words would enter his head: God never gives you more than you can handle. The dreaded sentence would creep into his mind amidst the thoughts that weren’t his own and make him feel weak—unworthy.

Of course, there was the constant threat, too: the possibility of one of them being killed; the chance that one of them could fall to the evil that began to make itself known to the four of them…

“Hey.”

Landon snapped out of his personal thoughts, jumping at the sound of Ness’s voice. Where had she come from?

“Hi,” he replied absently, letting his vision drop from the sky to meet Ness’s strange violet eyes as she sat down on the steps next to him.

“They’re beautiful tonight, aren’t they?”

For a minute, Landon was caught—her eyes were beautiful, but that wasn’t what she was talking about…was it?

“What is?” he asked, heat rising to his cheeks.

“The stars,” Ness told him, smiling as she lifted her eyes to the glowing pinpricks littered across the night sky.

“Oh. Yeah, they are beautiful,” Landon said sheepishly, looking up. “I like that big, bright one up there.”

Ness followed his gaze. “Oh, that’s not a star. That’s a planet. Jupiter, actually.”

“Really?” he asked, letting his eyes meet Ness’s again. “How do you know that?”

The redhead shrugged her slim shoulders. “I don’t know. I think I picked it up from star charts somewhere. I used to be really into astronomy when I was younger—I told you that, remember?”

“Oh—yeah. Almost a week ago.”

“Last Friday…the night that Camael came into the woods and told us all that stuff. I remember looking at Jupiter before we went in there.”

“I remember you telling us then.”

A silence followed as Landon watched Ness play with the excess fabric of her jeans. She looked different tonight as they sat under the stars: more worldly and sophisticated than he’d noticed before. It was something he hadn’t seen in any other girl his age, but something he always looked for. They were qualities that he possessed himself, and over the years, he grew used to the fact there weren’t many people out there like him.

He watched Ness’s eyes rise to the stars again, and he had to pause and think before he processed the words she spoke. “Do you ever look at them and think that it could be the last time you see them?”

He was stunned for a second; the thought had run through his head a few times before. “Actually, yeah,” he replied, swallowing. “Especially on nights like this.”

“Who knows what’s going to happen? It might be the last time we sit on your porch like this, talking about stupid things…”

Her voice trailed off for a moment. Landon considered what she was saying, turning it over in his head a few times.

“Before I left to come over here, I hugged my mom really tight because I’m afraid I won’t get to do it again. Hell, I almost told her what we were going out to do,” Ness admitted. “That way, if something happens…she’d know why.”

“I understand,” Landon said, looking deeper into her eyes. His power picked up on the emotion unexpectedly leaking through her tightly held walls, and he slid a little closer to her.

Ness laughed a small laugh. “I’m sorry. Here’s me, being all pessimistic. It’s like Camael said, right? ‘Good always conquers all.’ I mean, if there really is a God, He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us, right?”

Landon thought about her words. “Well…I guess that’s kind of like asking, ‘why do people get cancer?’ He lets people get sick and die and their families members hurt…”

“I know, but that’s not us, is it? Why would He pick us to help save the world and just let us die?”

“I don’t know. One of the mysteries of the universe, I guess,” Landon supplied.

Ness pulled her knees up under her chin and looked into Landon’s gray eyes. “I wish the universe wasn’t so mysterious,” she said. It was strange: for the time he’d known Ness, she was always open to the three of them. But here, on this starry night, he was finally feeling her walls drop and her heart open up.

Maybe he wasn’t so alone after all…

“Look,” Ness whispered, pointing to the inky black sky. “A shooting star.”

“Make a wish,” Landon whispered back as the star quickly shot across the expanses of the night. Ness put a hand on his arm—he was startled as the unexpected gesture. When he turned to face her again, her eyes were shut tight in mid-wish.

He began to reach out with his mind to see what she was thinking, but stopped. If she wanted to tell him, she would.

By the time he looked back at the sky, the star was gone—along with his opportunity to make a wish of his own, he thought.

“Landon.” He let his eyes travel to hers for the fourth time that night. “What did you wish for?” Ness asked.

He thought for a moment, searching through his head to find something to make up. “Well,” he began, but the honking of a car horn cut him off.

“Come on, guys, let’s get this over with!” Max’s voice cut through the silent night like a knife.

Landon slowly got up from the steps, grateful for the loud distraction. He reached out a hand to help Ness stand. As the two of them piled into the backseat of Jonas’s white Subaru, he made a wish on the stars he saw in Ness’s eyes.

Please let everything go all right tonight.

* * * * *

The car slowly pulled up to the bottom of Westchester Drive and Jonas parked it underneath the cover of the tall trees next to the road. The four of them piled out of the car and into the night.

Ness shivered against the breeze, wishing she had worn something other than the thin gray blouse and purple tank top. Then again, she shouldn’t be letting the wind affect her like this: she had control over it; she could stop it.

“All right…do we remember the plan?” Landon asked as the stepped away from the car and headed toward the house.

“Sure. Just…go in,” Ness replied.

“Get the Candle. That’s all we need to do. Simple, right?” Jonas added.

“Let’s hope so,” Max muttered.

“Nothing has been easy,” Ness said under her breath as she looked down at her red shoes.

She stopped abruptly while the others kept walking. Something pulled at her head—something from a long time ago…

Red shoes. Purple tank top. Gray blouse…why did that bother her?

Landon stopped. “Ness? You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said automatically. “Actually…no.” She shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips. “But it’s nothing. It’s stupid.”

“Nothing is stupid anymore. You of all people know that.”

“It’s just that…I don’t know. I’ve worn these clothes before,” she said sheepishly.

“‘You’ve worn those clothes before,’” Landon repeated. “Well…they are your clothes.”

“Ignore her—she’s a girl, Landon. They’re like a whole different species,” Max said, turning around a few feet from the others.

“I told you it was stupid. I don’t know…I just have this feeling…I can’t explain it.”

“You’ve had these feelings before and they’ve been right,” Landon said slowly.

“I know. But I can be wrong,” Ness replied, shrugging. “Ignore me.”

They kept walking for what seemed like miles. To Ness, the night somehow looked more menacing than normal. She felt eyes on her, peering out through the trees on all sides of them.

The walk seemed longer than it did before: colder somehow. The wind blew fiercely, rattling the leaves overhead. Ness heard a twig snap somewhere in the distance and stopped again.

“Now what is it?” Jonas asked, following her gaze into the woods.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to See beyond what they were telling her. To her normal sight, the woods were dark and empty. She couldn’t see past the first layer of trees because the swirling leaves were falling off the branches like rain.

“Do you guys see anything out there?” she asked, staring hard and body unmoving.

“Ness, you’re just paranoid,” Jonas told her. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s not paranoia.”

A twig snapped to the left of them—but none of them were moving.

“Did you hear that?”

“What?”

“Sh.” Ness closed her eyes, concentrating hard on what she could see through her mind’s eye.

At first, it didn’t work. But slowly, ever so slowly, she began to See what the woods were concealing.

She could feel Landon in her head, trying to read what she was Seeing.

Oh, my God, she thought to him. They’re everywhere.

Panic was beginning to grip her chest. She felt it close around her heart as her mind’s eye scanned through the woods. There had to be at least twenty of them hidden here alone, dressed in black cloaks. They were pushed up against trees, crouching behind bushes and rocks, waiting silently for the perfect moment to catch the four off guard.

Don’t let them know we see them. Landon’s mental voice slid across Ness’s mind like silk, barely calming her but leaving behind a reassuring feeling. After hearing his voice, it was hard not to think that everything would be okay. Maybe they won’t bother us.

Just keep walking, Ness told Landon. He passed the message on to Jonas and Max, and the four of them continued to walk down the road.

Another twig snapped in the distance. “They’re following us,” Ness whispered.

“They aren’t being too discreet about it, either,” Max whispered back.

“Then why don’t we give them what they want?” Jonas suggested.

“Yeah?” Landon asked. “What’s that?”

“A fight,” Jonas replied, his yellow eyes quickly flashing red.

“No,” Landon replied, emphasizing his words with his mind. “Let them come to us, if that’s really what they want.”

“Turn us into wind or something, Ness. Get us out of here,” Max suggested.

“I’d like to, Max, but you know what we have to do,” Ness told him, sighing.

She would love to turn them all into wind right now, to escape this horrible plan. She wanted to wait until Friday to tell Camael, hey, thanks for the offer, but it’s a no-go. Sorry, wrong number, go find someone else.

Too bad everything in life couldn’t be that easy.

Ness sighed and continued walking. It really was a long way to the house—longer than she ever thought it would be. Maybe it was her nerves acting up, making her think that it was a lot longer than last time. She heard nerves could do that to a person.

“Are you sure it was this far down the road?” she asked after a bit, not sure what was going on.

“Yeah. It was the only house on the damn street,” Landon replied. “Don’t worry, Ness…you’re just nervous. We all are.”

Ness felt something in her stomach twist. He was right—it was probably just nervousness. But it felt... different, somehow. How did Landon always get her feelings down so well? It was as if he could read her mind...

Oh, Ness thought stupidly. He can.

He never did it on purpose, though, unless she was broadcasting so loud that he could hear her.

They walked for what seemed like hours. After checking her watch, Ness saw it was really only a few moments. Landon kept shooting her worried glances—yeah, she was broadcasting, all right. Poor Landon.

For the next thirty seconds, she worked hard on putting up a mental wall to shield him from her thoughts. Thirty seconds later, she wished that she wouldn’t have been trying to do so.

Everything had happened so quickly. If only she’d been paying attention to her surroundings, she might have been able to do something to stop it. Her power should have been able to forewarn her about it. Weeks later, she would tell herself repeatedly that it wasn’t her fault, that nothing could have ever stopped what happened next.

The trees rustled, but she suspected it to be the wind. Five seconds later, she heard Max grunt. It was quickly followed by a swift tck, and then the labored breath of her friend filled the air.

That was when she turned around to see all the black-robed people behind her and all of the blood…crimson-red blood that coated the shining blade of a knife.

Crimson-red blood that covered Max’s throat and clothes.

In another five seconds, Ness screamed. It was the only thing she could do; she fell into such a state of shock that she couldn’t breath. Max was being held by one of the hooded figures. Her eyes were darting between the glowing yellow eyes under the hood and Max’s limp body. She watched as Max fell to the ground, blood pouring everywhere—there was so much blood…

And then there was fire. Jonas reacted before any of them. Ten seconds later, the after-images of the sudden brightness on the dark road were imprinted on Ness’s retinas. When all thirty seconds had passed, there were five charred bodies lying on the hard pavement, plus that of the bleeding Max.

Landon was already next to him, beginning to work his healing powers on the fallen blonde boy—given that it wasn’t too late. Ness was beginning to come out of her initial shock—anger was taking over.

She and Jonas looked at each other and nodded. A sick half-smile crept onto his brown face; his eyes were already glowing red with his power. Ness watched as he extended his hand and sent a jet of bright, orange-red fire streaming toward another line of hooded figures.

Ness was left facing the man with the bloody knife—Max’s blood was on that blade. She narrowed her eyes, her anger bristling through her entire body. She could almost feel her eyes changing color—becoming bright, piercing silver—as the wind around her picked up its speed. It blew back the hood of the person in front of her, exposing his face.

She wasn’t at all prepared for what she saw next. In fact, she could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate all over again.

It was Camael.