Static (13 page)

"Come on, we need to get out of here."

I followed Trevor as he headed for the far corner of
the parking lot and away from the main street. "How are we going to
get to my place? A bus?"

"No, I got a better way to travel." He moved quickly
away from the light of the lampposts and into the thick dark
shadows along the outer edge of the parking lot. Once we were in
the darkness cast by shadows, he turned to me and grabbed my
hand.

I was startled by his actions and flinched backwards.
"What are you doing?"

"Take a deep breath, think about your house, and step
into that black shadow beside your feet."

"Dude, I think you're off your meds."

He glared at me. "You want to know how I've been able
to show up where you are, and then disappear just as quick?" He
motioned toward the black shape on the ground. "That's how. Through
the shadows. That's how incubi travel. How they can show up in your
room at night and suck out your soul."

My breath caught in my throat as I thought about that
night I evidently sleepwalked across town. The old bum had said I'd
come out of the shadows. Maybe I had, really, truly done that,
without even realizing I could.

"Does it hurt?" I really was through with feeling a
lot of pain. I wasn't a wimp, but how much could an average person
really take before their brain exploded into a thousand mushy
pieces?

Trevor must've sensed the unease in my voice, because
he squeezed my hand, not a tight I'm going to break if off squeeze,
but a comforting I understand type of press. Maybe he wasn't as
hard-assed as I original pegged him to be. "There's no real pain.
It just feels like you're being sucked down a tube, really
fast."

"Great, sounds like fun."

His lips twitched a little, but he shook it away and
looked sober again. "Take a deep breath, picture your house in your
mind and step into the shadows."

I nodded and then taking a deep breath, I stepped
into the black spot of shadow, squeezing Trevor's hand so hard
my
fingers hurt.

At first nothing happened, and I opened my mouth to
call him a big fat liar. But then I sensed it, pulling at me,
tugging at my insides. And it didn't feel very good at all.

It was like I was being sucked through a thin plastic
bendy straw one molecule at a time. First my feet, then my ankles.
I looked down to make sure I was still whole, but that was a big
mistake. I couldn't see anything below my knees. It was as if I
didn't exist past them. Just thick black space, like a black hole,
occupied the area where my flesh should've been.

I glanced up at Trevor and was about to call him a
nasty name, when he disappeared. Well, not so much as disappear as
disintegrate into an inky jelly-like mass that quivered on the
ground. But before I could scream, I too melted into
nothingness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in my bedroom near
the window. Trevor sat on my bed, staring at me. "Not so bad,
right?"

I crossed the room intent on strangling him, when the
toe of my boot connected with the game guitar lying on the floor.
It went sailing across the carpet and into the open closet door. It
shouldn't have been much of a sound, but it seemed deafening in the
dark of my room at midnight.

"Salem?" Came my mother's voice from the living
room.

"Shit," I hissed under my breath, and looked at
Trevor. "Get out of here."

"I can't get out that fast." He stood, obviously
playing off my rising panic.

"Salem?" Her voice was getting closer. It would only
be seconds before she peeked into the room to see if I was
home.

I pushed on Trevor's shoulders. "Get on the floor.
Get under the bed."

He ducked to the ground, just as my mom pushed open
my bedroom door and looked in, catching me standing by my bed, a
smile on my face, in the dark.

"I didn't see you come home."

I shrugged, but realized she probably couldn't see
it. "You must've been in the bathroom or something."

She flicked on the light and came in a few steps.
"Everything go all right?"

"It was fine." But I didn't meet her gaze, because
everything was not fine. Not in the least.

She pressed her lips together and I could tell she
really wanted to ask me all sorts of questions, but she kept her
cool. My mom was awesome that way. God, I was going to miss
her.

"He wasn't all you thought he'd be?"

I just shook my head, not trusting my voice.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I guess we're always trying to
find that white knight, when really they don't exist."

Yeah, there were no white knights. Dark ones maybe.
And I took that moment to glance down at my feet. Half of Trevor
was under the bed, the other half peering up at me. His gaze was so
intense it gave me shivers.

I looked at my mom again. "I'm tired. I'm just going
to go to bed."

She nodded. "Okay, babe." She turned to leave, but
glanced over her shoulder at me. "If you want to talk about it, or
anything, I'm here for you."

"I know, Mom." Tears welled in my eyes. I couldn't do
this. I couldn't leave her, and everything I've known. I didn't
want to be a fugitive. On the run, from the law, and from myself.
Running with a boy I didn't know, and wasn't sure if I truly wanted
to know. This couldn't possibly be my life now. It just
couldn't

Before she could make it through the door, I came
around the bed and to her. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged
her hard, breathing in her flower scent one last time. "I love you,
Mom."

She hugged me back, just as fierce, sensing that I
needed it. That's what I loved about her, she usually knew what I
needed. Even when I said one thing, she instinctively sensed I
meant the other.

"I love you too, baby. You're my special girl."

I couldn't stop the tears then. I let them roll down
my cheeks, hoping that Mom thought they were the result of a bad
date with a stupid boy and not anything else. And not because I was
leaving her and my home—my life.

She patted my back, and kissed my cheek. "Get a good
night's sleep. Everything will look differently in the morning."
Giving me her I-completely-understand smile, she rubbed tears from
my face with her thumbs, then tapping me on the nose with a finger,
she turned and left my room, quietly shutting the door behind
her.

Trevor crawled up from under the bed to sit on the
edge. I whipped around and glared at him. Grief mixed with anger
and fear at having to leave swirling around in my gut and I wanted
to lash out at something, anything.

His face was still hard, but something in his eyes
softened his look a little. "I'm sorry."

"I can't do it. I can't leave."

"You have to, Salem. You don't have a choice."
Standing, he grabbed my pink camo backpack from the floor and set
it on the bed. "Just grab the essentials. We can buy the rest on
the road."

"I'm not doing it."

He didn't respond. Instead, he searched the room,
then picked up the backpack, walked to my dresser, opened the top
drawer, grabbed a handful of my underwear and shoved it in. He
opened the next drawer and the next, systemically shoving my
clothes into the bag.

I rushed across the room and grabbed the bag from his
hand. "Stop it. I'm staying."

"Don't you get it, you can't stay. You'll go to jail
for sure. You assaulted Josh and nearly killed him."

"I don't care."

"You should. Do you have any idea what juvie will be
like for you? You'll go nuts. At first you'll be picked on and beat
up because you're so small, but then when your other half awakens
you'll start killing. You won't be able to stop yourself."

"I'll control it. I'll keep it at bay."

He arched brow. "Oh, like you controlled it with that
guy you were with? If I hadn't showed up when I did, he'd be dead,
sucked dry."

"Shut up." I pushed him back, my anger filling me
like a tornado. "You don't know. You don't know what this is like.
How hard this is."

He gripped my upper arms to keep me still and stared
into my eyes. "I do know, Salem. I had to do the same thing. Two
years ago I had to leave my home and my family and my life behind.
It sucks, but you have to do it. It's the best thing for everyone
involved."

A fresh brew of tears trickled down my face and I had
to suck in several breaths to keep from sobbing. Instead, I leaned
against Trevor and wrapped my arms around him. I needed something
solid to hold onto. To his chagrin, he was the closest thing I
could find.

After a few more moments of my crying, he patted me
on the back. "You're tough. You'll get through this."

"How do you know I'm tough? Maybe I'm just a big blob
of emotional goo," I managed to say between sniffles.

Grabbing my upper arms he pushed me back, enough so
that he could look into my face. "Nah, I didn't peg you for an
emotional blob, irrational fleshy mass maybe."

That made my lips twitch. And I dropped my arms and
took a step away from him. Wet spots dotted his t-shirt. I chewed
on my bottom lip. "Sorry about your shirt."

He glanced down then shrugged. "Don't worry about it.
It'll dry."

We stared at each other for a few awkward seconds.
Trevor cleared his throat. "We should go."

I nodded, then taking my backpack I added to the
clothes he'd already packed with my iPod, a pair of runners, and a
couple of hoodies. I glanced at all the personals on top of my
dresser. I grabbed my deodorant, and was reaching for a box of
tampons when Trevor shook his head.

"As far as I can tell you won't need those
anymore."

I snatched my hand back from the box.

He shrugged. "Incubi and succubi don't reproduce
normally.
We
are the result of that abnormality. And we
won't be able to reproduce either."

"Oh. Okay." I didn't think I wanted to know how he
knew that. I tossed in my favorite facial cleanser and my favorite
tube of cherry flavored chapstick, and then zipped the bag up. Once
I slung it over my shoulder, I nodded to Trevor. "I guess I'm ready
to go."

"Okay, we'll head to my place first." He went to the
door, made sure it was shut, then flicked off the light. Holding
out his hand to me, he moved towards the deep shadows we'd traveled
through. "We can get a few hours of sleep before the band moves
again."

"Can we leave the old fashioned way?" I gestured
toward the bedroom window. "I really need a break from more
weirdness at least for another half hour or so."

He glanced at the window then back to me. He
shrugged. "I guess." He went to the window and drew it up, swinging
his leg out.

I moved to follow but then turned back and surveyed
the room. I was going to miss it. I realized it was just stuff. But
it was my stuff. Things my mom had given me, things I'd bought for
myself with my first paycheck from Starbucks. Useless trinkets I'd
treasured when I was a kid, and expensive baubles I coveted as a
teen. I suppose where I was going I wouldn't need any of it.

Before I jumped out the window, I shoved my pillows
under the blankets and pulled them up. From a distance it would
look like I was buried deep in my covers sawing some major logs. If
my mom checked on me, I didn't think she'd suspect anything. Not
until morning, when I didn't wake up for breakfast. Sunday was
crepe day, my mom's specialty. I loved crepes with huge dollops of
syrup and fresh strawberries.

My stomach growled in response, but I pushed it down
and walked to the window. Trevor had already jumped out. I dropped
my pack to him waiting on the ground, and then followed it out. The
drop was easy since we lived in a bungalow. I landed, took my pack
from Trevor and was walking down the drive all without breaking my
stride. Now that I was out, I didn't want to dawdle. There was no
point in dwelling on leaving. It would only make it that more
difficult to do.

We made our way down the drive to the curb. I glanced
over my shoulder one last time toward the welcoming light in the
window of the living room where I knew my mom was probably
finishing watching a movie before stepping out onto the street. I
don't know how I missed it, because it wasn't like it was a small
thing, but I ended up kicking the metal trash can that I'd
forgotten to drag back up to the house last Wednesday. It fell onto
its side, clanging and ringing like a bell tower as it went.

A shape materialized in the front window. It was mom
checking things out.

Trevor grabbed me around the waist, picked me up, and
catapulted us into a black line of shadows along the hedge
separating our yard from the neighbors. I didn't have time to
protest before we were sucked down into the darkness.

Chapter 15

The last place I expected to materialize into was a
large, tastefully decorated hotel room, but that's exactly where we
ended up.

I spun in a circle taking in the small kitchenette,
sofa, coffee table and flat screen LCD TV on the wall. Below it was
a stereo unit and game console. "This is where you live?"

"Today it is."

I wandered to the balcony window and looked out at
the city skyline. I didn't recognize the skyscrapers surrounding
the hotel. "Where exactly are we?"

"Seattle. The band plays a gig tomorrow night. After
that it's up to Vancouver." Trevor wandered into the small kitchen
area, and opened the compact refrigerator. "Do you want a soda or
something?"

"Yeah, sure." I dropped my backpack onto the sofa,
then sat down beside it.

He came over, handed me a can of Dr. Pepper, then,
popping the top of his own, collapsed in the big armchair, taking a
swig as he settled in.

I popped the tab and took a long drink. The soda
bubbled on the way down and settled like a boiling pit of lava in
my turbulent stomach. A loud gurgling erupted from inside. I
blushed embarrassed by it.