Chapter 11

In the magical world, the number three is very powerful. You’ve seen it everywhere; it’s very predominate in religion too (think of the Holy Trinity). Today was Wednesday. If the second animal sacrifice finished after midnight on Saturday night, then it would have been cast and sealed Sunday, which would make today three days later. I had a horrible feeling about today, especially after having yet another potentially close call with the black robed man in my dream last night, but when I woke up I could hear the storm raging outside. I climbed out of bed and shivered as the warm covers slipped away from me. I grabbed my robe and pulled it tightly around me before pulling the curtains away from the window to look outside.

The trees in our backyard were whipping around like some strange tribal dance. Rain pelted the window hard enough to sound like stones thrown against it and the various things that you end up leaving in the backyard were being rolled around in the wind. I stared wide-eyed and a little confused. I hadn’t sensed this coming. That really scared me. It was so cold outside my breath was fogging up the windowpane.

“Crap… school’s gonna be a lot of fun,” I muttered to myself, thinking of all the extra traffic there would be.

I got ready as quickly as I could, pulling on my black rain boots with white polka dots my dad had teased me over getting, saying that I’d never need them. I also pulled on a beanie hat all the way over my ears; no matter what you did today it wouldn’t make a difference to your hair, so I might as well be warm. After I was bundled up head to toe, I grabbed my backpack and lunch from the fridge to leave.

“Hey, honey,” I heard my mom call from the living room just as I touched the front door knob.

“Yeah?” I called back over my shoulder.

“You sure you want to go out in this?” she asked, coming into view around the corner. “The news says everything’s flooded.”

“Well I m –” I stopped short, coughing to cover my slip. I had almost told her I missed yesterday so I had to go, but she didn’t know that. “I’m Jodi and Steven’s ride, they’d be stranded.”

“I don’t know…” she looked out the window by the front door, worry lines creasing her face.

“If it’s too bad I’ll turn around and come back, deal?”

“Ok, but you be really careful! You hear me?”

“Yes, mom,” I said in the standard teenager you’re-being-ridiculous tone. She smiled and gave me a hug and I was out the door. Thank God for the rain boots; our front yard was a small pond; even our front walk was underwater. I splashed over to my car. Luckily, the water wasn’t up around the door so I was able to get in without flooding the floorboards. Steven was waiting at Jodi’s house for me as usual. They had both hidden inside until I was right in front of her house so they could make a mad dash for the car.

“Dude! What the hell?” Jodi asked.

“I didn’t know it was coming,” I said, putting the car in gear and easing out into the road. I saw Jodi’s look of horror out of the corner of my eye when I admitted to not sensing such a violent storm. “But I had a thought.”

“What?” Jodi asked. Steven leaned in to listen.

“Well, if the second ritual was finished after midnight Saturday, then it was really Sunday when they did it and that would make today three days later.”

“So?” Steven asked, not catching on.

“So, you think it’s the power of three?” Jodi asked. I saw Steven’s face contort in the rearview mirror, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world for him to have missed.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, gripping the steering wheel tightly as we turned onto a road with much higher water levels. “Ugh! Sometimes I swear to God I hate California!” I said loud and angrily.

“Dude, this never happens here,” Jodi said confused.

“I know! So the stupid city makes the roads dip down in the middle so the water collects rather than runs off. The roads should come up in the middle so the water goes to the gutter. Freaking idiots!” I had lost what little patience I had in the morning; Jodi and Steven just stared ahead. At this rate I knew we’d be getting out into two or three feet of water when we parked.

I merged into the line of cars making their way into the high school parking lot at less than a mile an hour and just sighed. I had given up on getting to class on time when the water level became high enough to be a river. We inched forward with the other cars until finally coming around the corner on to the side road that led to the parking lot. There were a lot of full cars passing us on the other side with disgruntled drivers.

“Dude, look,” Steven said, pointing towards the parking lot entrance, “they’re turning people away.” And sure enough I saw a crossing guard and campus police with flashlights forcing people to turn around in the driveway to leave.

“You don’t think they’re gonna make us park somewhere else and walk farther in this crap, do you?” Jodi asked sounding as angry as I was getting. I pulled into the driveway, rolled my window down a little.

“Excuse me?” I called over the wind and rain to the officer directing traffic; he pretended not to hear me. “Excuse me, but where are we supposed to park?” I yelled a little louder.

“Where ever you want, school’s closed, it’s flooded. Now move along, you’re causing a backup,” the officer explained.

“Nice!” I heard Steven say over my shoulder. I cranked the wheel and turned us out of the driveway and back onto the road. “’Bout time they made up for the snow days kids get back East.”

“Dude, if Shay’s right and this is because of this weekend, this isn’t a holiday,” Jodi admonished. Steven sunk back into his seat like a scolded child.

“Then shouldn’t we be doing something about it? We are Elementals after all,” Steven asked, sounding father away than he actually was.

“I don’t know…” I said. “I’m reluctant to cast against something I don’t know much about.”

“We don’t have to cast against the casters, we can just try to do something about the weather,” Steven said, still not coming forward like he usually did.

“Yeah, it’d really just be calling a balance to things,” Jodi said. I chewed my lip, staring at the blurred red light in front of me. I hadn’t automatically headed home. I had debated going to see Deb again, but I knew getting to the store would be hell. “Shay?” Jodi asked, touching my wrist. The light had changed and I hadn’t noticed.

“Sorry,” I eased into the intersection, not wanting to cause the water to rise up in waves around us. “Even if we wanted to, where could we possibly cast in all this mess?” I asked.

“Maybe we could make it work in your room,” Jodi said, a distant look on her face as she thought.

“I still don’t know how I feel about doing this without really knowing what’s going on. We may just make it worse.” I came to another red light. In this traffic I didn’t think we’d make it anywhere.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’d like to know what it means,” Steven said, changing his mind. “Should we go see Deb?”

“She’s been really reluctant to give us any information so far, I don’t think she’d answer our questions now,” Jodi said and I nodded in agreement. “Ok, I agree with Shay. If we meddle in something and not know what’s going on, then we could just make it worse.”

I had to practically creep home, not wanting to get us stranded in the water because I had flooded something. I gripped the steering wheel tight enough to make my numbing fingers ache with the effort. I didn’t know what we were going to do but I wanted to be home, under the protection of my shields, free to think clearly.

Another forty-five minutes later and we were finally pulling up to the curb at my house. The water was so high it had come over the curb and the sidewalk and front yard were under a foot of water. We waded up to the front door. I fumbled with the keys, my fingers growing numb because I had forgotten gloves. We dripped uncontrollably just inside the front door, shivering despite the many layers of fabric we each had on.

“Don’t move,” my mom said as she walked past us into the hallway. I heard the linen closet open and a moment later she was back, carrying half a dozen towels. We each took one and she laid out the rest on the floor. We stepped on to the towels and toweled off like we’d just come in from swimming. “Its about time, I wanted you home sooner than this.” My mom had her hands balled into fists on her hips, but I knew she wasn’t really mad.

“Dude, we left the school almost an hour ago, trust me, you didn’t want me even close to the speed limit in this crap,” I said, wringing out water from the ends of my hair, now so wet it looked black.

“I think you two should call your parents and let them know you’re here,” she said, looking at Steven and Jodi in turn.

“We called on our way over,” Steven said with his best smile that most moms loved.

“I’ve got a kettle of hot water on the stove if you guys want tea or hot chocolate,” my mom said, taking our towels from us and walking out to the laundry room to dispose of them.

Jodi and I started down the hall for my room while Steven went to the kitchen. Steven and Jodi were here so often my parents looked at them like adopted children, so Steven felt comfortable enough to raid the kitchen and make three cups of hot chocolate for us without me being there. Jodi followed me to my room. I could feel her anxious aura pressing against my back like a hand shoving me down the hall.

Once inside, we left the door ajar just half an inch so Steven could push it open once the drinks were ready. We both peeled off our coats and hats and boots in silence, letting it all fall to a pile on the floor just inside the door. I shook out my hair and then combed it, pulling it back into a high ponytail before picking up the pieces of clothing and hanging them up so they’d dry. Jodi was at my stereo in the corner looking for music to mask our conversation from prying parent ears. I had gone to my bookshelves and was pulling books off them, piling them into my arms.

My room was the second largest in the house and was big enough for my queen sized bed, a desk and chair, two bookshelves – one loaded down with books and nick-knacks, the other was a corner bookshelf with my T.V. and stereo set up on it – and an armchair with a small table next to it. It was almost crowded, but came off more cozy than anything else. I put a stack of books on the foot of the bed, the table by the chair, and on the desk so that each of us would have material to read through.

Steven came in the room, two mugs held by the handles in one hand and one in the other. He pushed the door closed carefully with his foot. I had claimed the armchair and Jodi was stretched out on my bed on her stomach already, leaving him the desk. Steven wisely put all three cups down on the desk before trying to hand either of us a steaming cup so he could get a better hold on them. We didn’t need to talk. We each knew we were looking for anything to explain this weather, even though we didn’t really know what it was that we were looking for.

Two hours and three empty mugs later, Jodi sat up on the bed, a book open in her lap, “Hey, listen to this,” she said, settling back into the pillows, brow knitted it concentration. “A spell to bring a storm. It even gives ingredients for lightening and wind.” She looked up hopefully at us.

“But I thought we agreed this storm was a result of a spell gone wrong, not that the storm was conjured,” Steven said, looking a little confused.

“We did,” I said, putting aside the book I had been reading and picked up another. “Nice try, babe.” Jodi sighed and tossed the book aside, grabbing at another one. I had a small collection of “black magic” spell books, not because we ever used them, but because it was good to know what weapons your enemy is using. If you don’t, how can you expect to fight back effectively?

I had piled these books for myself, not that I didn’t trust the other two to look them over, I just had a very strong sense of protection towards them and didn’t like the thought of them even touching the books. I could feel the frown on my face like a mask of wrinkles. My stomach knotted and unknotted as I skimmed through the pages. Many of the spells offended me, but I held onto that emotion tightly, glad that they did, knowing how seductive these spells were meant to be.

I was reading for more than an hour when I came across a summoning spell that nearly made me drop the book. I stared wide-eyed at the title of the spell, tiny chills racing up my spine, setting the hairs on the back of my neck on end and my stomach to turn. I thought I was in danger of throwing up right there in the middle of the room. I took a slow and steadying breath as quietly as I could. I could feel the cold sweat on my forehead and chanced a glance at Jodi and Steven, but they hadn’t noticed anything and were still reading carefully. I looked back down at the book and knew I had found the spell that haunted my nightmares: a summoning of a demon helper. I was very aware of the sound of my own heartbeat in my ears; I had that horrible feeling of falling backwards.

I turned the book to look at the title of it and found that I had picked up a book that was an amalgamation of black arts, no one deity or concept to streamline the spells inside, just pure self-aggrandizement and evil. I had bought this book because, with each spell, it gave a counter spell or curse for people like me that wanted to combat black magic. This book contained exactly what we were looking for. With blind determination I flipped to the table of contents, scanning quickly through the list of spells and charms listed there until I came to a sub-section of spells for the caster to invoke the power of the dark gods and goddesses.

“Guys… I think I found something.”