Chapter Eighteen

Jake

I kissed Meena goodbye when she dropped me off at my truck. Not that I wanted to let her go. Seeing her in a bikini made me wonder how much one of those above ground pools cost. Aunt Zelda had acreage behind the garage. A pool out there would be amazing. Maybe I’d try talking her into one.

When I walked in the front door, Aunt Zelda smiled at me from behind the cash register. “Did you have fun at the lake?”

“It was great,” I said. “I’ll clean up and then grill something for dinner, if you want.”

“Sounds good. I’ll close up shop in an hour.”

It’s not like she had any customers at the moment but I didn’t think I should point that out. Maybe someone was coming over to pick up an order. I was surprised by the number of people who dropped by to pick up herbs and crystals. Were all of them witches? It was hard to tell magical people from normal humans in this town, unless they had fangs or horns.

After a shower, I lit the barbecue grill one of Dale’s customers had asked me to haul off after I put his new one together. There was nothing wrong with the grill. It was a few years old and the lid had rusted. I’d asked Dale if I could keep it and he’d shown me what to use to clean the rust off and repaint it.

It bugged me when people threw good things out because they were a few years old or needed a little upkeep. If you put in a little work, most things could be fixed instead of thrown away. My dad used to make wind chimes out of scrap metal he had lying around. My mom would shine them up or paint them and sell them at a local flea market.

I put a package of franks and some corn on the grill. Soon they were sizzling. Zelda came outside and made a show of inhaling. “Why does anything cooked on a grill smell so much better than food cooked on the stove?”

“Smells like summer,” I said. “My dad always grilled hot dogs and hamburgers as soon as it turned warm.”

“He was a good man,” Zelda said.

I nodded and turned away for a moment. “Everything is almost done.”

We ate in the kitchen. She talked about the items she’d sold. I told her about the bookworm lake we went to. And then I remembered something.

“Meena wants to try and contact her mom. She asked if we’d be there for her when she does.”

“Of course, but I’m still not sure it’s a good idea. I don’t know if her mom could have survived all this time, in limbo, unscathed.”

That was a comforting thought. “You mean her mind might be gone?”

“Gone or twisted. Neither would be pleasant for Meena.”

I almost hoped she couldn’t do it, but that was wrong.

“On a positive note, she’s not going to worry about breaking her contract with Bane. She’s going to ride it out for the summer and be done with it.”

“I was holding out hope that you’d come across some ancient spell I’d never read that would help break mine and Carol’s contracts with Bane.”

“Me too,” I said. “I’m willing to scan through more books if you have anything you think I should check out.”

…

Friday night, Meena and I were sitting out back on her porch swing when she said she was ready to try contacting her mom.

“I was thinking a Saturday afternoon would be good because my dad would be home from work, and if it fails you can take me out for ice cream as a consolation prize.”

Time to play the supportive boyfriend. “Sounds good.”

“Gee.” She poked me in the shoulder. “That was convincing.”

“Sorry.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and held her closer. “This whole astral travel thing scares me. The idea of floating away from your body…it’s just…it sounds like the basis for a horror movie. I mean, what if that’s where ghosts come from?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve practiced a lot. I know what I’m doing.”

“I believe you, but there aren’t a lot of people in my life that I care about. You’re one of them and I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t.” She snuggled into my side. “This is something I have to do. Can you and Zelda come over at eleven?”

“Sure.” Meena needed some sort of closure with her mom. Hopefully she’d find it.

…

Saturday afternoon, Zelda parked her Old Lady Oldsmobile in front of the house and we walked up the drive. Meena greeted us at the door with a big smile.

“Ready for this?” I asked, hoping she might have changed her mind.

“As ready as I can be.”

We followed her into the kitchen where Sage and her father waited.

“I asked all of you here today on the advice of Sage. He thinks the stronger my bond or tether to people in this plane, the more likely I’ll be able to come back to my body with ease. Since I have no desire to drift around in the ether, I wanted to have you all here.”

“Any way I can talk you out of this?” her dad asked.

“No.”

“Fine. Where are you doing this?” her dad asked.

Meena turned to Zelda. “Where do you suggest?”

“Your bedroom or the living room. Someplace where you can lie down and we can gather around you.”

“We can carry kitchen chairs into the living room,” her dad said. “So that might be more convenient.”

Meena stood and headed toward her room. “I’m going to grab a pillow.”

I followed behind her and stood in her doorway. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Something in my gut told me it wouldn’t be as simple as we hoped.

“No.” She grabbed her pillow and hugged it. “I’m terrified, but I have to do it. I have to know.”

“Then we’ll be here to make sure you come back okay.”

Meena took her pillow to the couch and lay down. I helped her dad carry chairs in from the kitchen. “Feels like a wake,” he muttered once we were all seated and looking at Meena.

Cheery thought.

“I believe we’re ready,” Sage said. “I’ll keep track of your tether. If there are any complications, if it looks like you’re starting to drift, I’ll call you back.”

“Back in a bit.” Meena closed her eyes.

Now all we had to do was wait.

…

Meena

I dove through the ether, focusing on my mom. I spotted a black pulsating mass. Not like Zelda’s happy purple crystal. “Mom?”

My voice echoed back to me, like I was in a void. I pushed through what felt like oily black tar. It was sticky and slippery and disturbing. It felt like it was trying to suction on to me.

The further in I went the thinner the strange substance became. Eventually, I could see pinpoints of light. The tar receded and I could see the outline of a building. It was a house. The closer I got the clearer it became. It wasn’t just any house. It was my house. I floated to the front lawn and landed in the grass. Squatting down, I touched the blades; they felt real.

Now what? Was this house all that was left of my mom? A symbolic shell of what used to be? Did I go knock on the front door? Anyone or no one could be inside. Staying in the grass wasn’t doing me any good, so I steeled myself and walked up to the door, raised my hand, and knocked on what felt like solid wood.

Nothing happened. I pushed down my disappointment and knocked again…harder this time. Footsteps…I heard footsteps on the hardwood floor coming my way. My heart beat faster. Anticipation built in my chest. It might not be her. The door swung open. There she stood.

Tears filled my eyes. “Mom?”

“Meena?” She reached out to touch me like she wasn’t sure she could believe her eyes. “You’re real?”

I nodded. “It’s me.”

She pulled me into a hug. I heard her sniffle…felt the tears running down my own cheeks. “Mom, I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too, baby.”

I lingered in the hug, afraid of what might come next. I wanted to hold on to this moment. I’d found her. She was here. She knew me. She wasn’t completely gone. I could save her.

I needed to hear her version of events so I could figure out what we should do next. I took a breath and pulled away from her. “Do you know where you are?”

“Come inside. Sit.” She pulled me into the living room toward the couch. “I’m not sure where I am. I think demons trapped me in some sort of alternate dimension. I’m so happy to see you, but how did you get here?”

I sat while I processed what she’d said about demons. Was this the story she told herself to cope with what she’d done? Maybe we needed to back up a step. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I was planning your fourteenth birthday party. Then there was this flash of light and I woke up here. I’ve been stuck here for three days. I’m so glad you found me. Your dad must be worried sick.” She narrowed her eyes. “You look…different.”

Time flowed differently in demon realms, but this was extreme. I put my hand on her arm. “Don’t freak out. You haven’t been gone for three days, Mom…it’s been three years.”

“What?” She paled. “That’s impossible.”

“Tell me more about what happened. What did it feel like?” I’d traveled inter-dimensionally and while it wasn’t a fun feeling, it was definitely memorable.

“I…” She blinked and stared off into the distance. “There was this light and then it felt like someone pulled me backward down a slide. It was awful…like motion sickness. I guess I passed out. When I came to, I was here in what looks like our house, but it isn’t.” She furrowed her brow in concentration. “How did you find me?”

“Astral projection,” I said. “My body is in the real world, but my essence is here with you.”

“If that’s true…where’s my body?”

“It’s in a safe place.”

“Meena,” fear tinged her voice, “what aren’t you telling me?”

I needed more information. “The light you saw. What color was it?”

“I don’t know. It was white…I think.” She brushed her hair behind her ears. That’s when I noticed the vertical scar lines on her wrists.

I caught her arm. “How did you get these?”

“I don’t remember.” She traced the dark pink lines with her fingertips. “The lines were there when I woke up.”

She didn’t meet my gaze.

Were the scars on her wrists the physical manifestation of her attempt to commit suicide? “The day you saw the light, did you take your medication?”

“Yes. Your father kept harping about the pills, so I took them.”

A cold tingling sensation trickled down my spine. “How many did you take?”

“One is the normal dosage. One stupid pill a day.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I hate those pills. They dull my senses and slow my brain.”

They certainly had done that. “Did you take any sleeping pills?”

She shifted in her seat. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Never mind.” I grabbed her hand. “If I can get you back to your body, do you want to wake up?”

“Of course I do.”

“What if the only way I can do it is to make you a vampire?”

“You can turn me into Bigfoot if you get me out of here and back to you and your father.”

I hugged her, hard. “Good. We’ll save the vampire stuff as a last resort. Now, did you know your mother refused the call to become a witch?”

“Kind of. I found my grandmother’s journals. She talked about learning spells. I thought she’d made it up.”

“There should be a spark of magic inside of you. If we can find it, we might be able to jump-start your body and wake you up. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go the vampire route.”

“Find the spark, right.” She looked around the living room and then back at me. “Any idea how we do that?”

“I guess it will be a treasure hunt.” I glanced around. “This house probably represents your brain or your body. So the spark might be in here somewhere.”

“Meena?” A voice floated around us. It was Sage. “Meena, you must come back. It’s too dangerous to stay any longer.”

“Who is that?” my mom asked.

“Sage. He’s my familiar.”

She clasped onto me. “Don’t go.”

“I don’t want to, but I may not have a choice.” I felt myself fading. “Find the spark. I’ll come back. I promise.” And then I was yanked out of my mom’s psyche and slammed back into my body so hard I thought my skull would crack.

I curled into a ball, cradling my head. “What did you do?”

“I’m sorry, Meena,” Sage said. “Your tether was drifting away. I had to pull you back.”

I opened my eyes and looked at Sage. He had stubble on his chin and his eyes were bloodshot. Jake sat next to me in wrinkled clothes and his eyes were bloodshot, too.

“How long was I gone?”

“A week.” Jake grabbed my hand and held tight. “It’s been a freaking week.”

What? “It only felt like an hour in there.”

Zelda handed me a glass of orange juice. “Drink. You’re probably dehydrated.”

I downed the juice and the pain in my head lessened. Someone pushed past Zelda. “Did you find her?” my dad asked.

I nodded. “The last thing she remembers is planning my fourteenth birthday party and then there was a bright light. She thinks she’s only been gone three days.”

“Time must travel very slowly in that dimension,” Sage said.

“That would explain how a week passed here while I thought I was only gone an hour.”

“Did she remember taking the pills?” my dad asked.

“She claims she only took one.”

“Maybe she’s in denial,” my dad said.

“Or she only took one and some demon pulled her into a different dimension and stranded her there,” I said, mad on my mom’s behalf.

“No disrespect, but that could be something she made up in her head to cope with what she did,” Sage said.

“Can we please stay positive?” I reached up to scratch my head and touched greasy hair. And then I became aware of my body odor. Gross. “I feel disgusting. I’m going to take a quick shower and then we’ll talk.”

I pushed to my feet. It took effort to make my legs move. “Can someone go make sandwiches while I clean up? I’m starving.”

After a shower, where I scrubbed my head with shampoo twice, I dressed in shorts and a tank top and exited the bathroom. Jake stood in the hallway in fresh clothes.

“You scared the hell out of me.” He pulled me into a hug.

“Sorry.” I relaxed in his arms. “I swear it only felt like an hour.”

My stomach growled, making Jake laugh. “Guess we should feed you.”

In the kitchen my dad set a plate of reheated lasagna in front of me. I ate it in record time and I was still hungry. Jake walked over to the deep freeze and pulled out a carton of Neapolitan ice cream. He sat next to me at the table, opened it, and sat it on my plate. “Thought you might want this.”

“Thank you.” I took a few bites and then sat back. “I feel almost human.”

“Tell me every detail,” my dad said.

I repeated everything I’d seen and every word my mother said.

When I finished, my dad wiped his eyes with a napkin. “I’m not sure what to hope for.”

“Hope we find the spark,” Zelda said. “The good news is the time difference moves in our favor. Meena, even if you take a few days to recover before going back, your mom will only think you’ve been gone for an hour.”

“True.” Not that I wanted to wait too long before going back. “Did I miss anything while I was gone?”

…

Jake

“Bane dropped by when you didn’t respond to his summons,” I said. “He wasn’t pleased to see you’d taken what he called a vacation.”

“Crap. I didn’t even think about that. What’d you do?”

“I took care of the collections,” Zelda said, “since I already work for him. Jake volunteered, but I knew he’d rather be here with you.”

I was grateful Aunt Zelda had stepped up because besides quick showers and a change of clothes I hadn’t wanted to leave Meena. Seeing her lying there like that had made my stomach hurt. It felt like I’d just figured things out and now I might lose her.

“It wasn’t easy to wake you up.” I grabbed Meena’s hand and held on. “Maybe we need a different system when you go back…something safer.”

“That’s a good idea.” Sage entered the kitchen in cat form.

Funny how quickly you could become used to a talking cat. Marshmallow, the non-talking cat, followed his every step. When he sat, she curled up next to him, wrapping her tail around his paws. Were they just feline friends, or was he having a relationship with Meena’s cat? The logistics of that were too weird to contemplate.

“How did you leave things with your mother?” Zelda asked.

“I told Mom to search for her spark of magic. Hopefully, she can find it and we can use it to wake her up.”

“If what your mom claims is true, we need to figure out who put her in that dimension,” Zelda said. “And why they did it, so we can keep her safe once she’s back.”

“She never even used her magic,” Meena said. “I don’t understand how she could be a threat.”

Her dad cleared his throat. “There’s something you need to know. When I found Emma, she was lying next to the empty pill bottles.”

“Those could have been planted,” Meena argued, but she didn’t sound too sure of herself.

Her dad sighed. “I’d love to believe that your mother didn’t try to kill herself. It would be a hell of a lot less hurtful.” He frowned. “Then again, I’d feel like a real son of a bitch if she’s been waiting for us to rescue her from a demon realm and we had no idea.” He rubbed his face. “I don’t honestly care which it is. I just want her back.”

“Me, too.” Meena sniffled. “I wish I could’ve brought her back with me tonight.”

The mood in the room took a nose dive. I wanted to say something but I couldn’t think of any words that would make this better.

“You spoke to your mom. That in itself is a victory,” Sage said. “Now you should rest up for your next attempt.”

“I am exhausted.” Meena stood, walked over to her dad, and gave him a quick hug. “We’re going to get her back. I can feel it.”

“Love you, kiddo.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Now get some rest.”

She came back around the table and held out her hand. “Walk me to my room?”

Her dad muttered something under his breath. I ignored him and took Meena’s hand. Her room was only ten feet from the kitchen, so it was a short walk.

When we reached her doorway, I pulled her against my chest and held her tight. “I don’t suppose your dad would let me camp out in your room so I can keep an eye on you.”

She laughed. “No.”

I loosened my grip on her so she could back up a step and pressed my lips against hers in a quick kiss. “You have no idea how scary it was to watch you lying there for a week. I was afraid you’d been sucked into your mom’s coma. Sage swore he had things under control but when your tether started to slip, even he freaked out.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” I kissed her one more time. “See you tomorrow.”

Once Zelda and I were in her Oldsmobile headed home, I felt exhausted. “Why am I the one that’s tired when Meena is the one who actually did something?”

“Sometimes I think it’s harder to be the observer than the person going through the event. When you’re watching you have zero control. All you can do is wait.”

“I’m glad Meena was able to find her mom.” I yawned. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“If Emma was pulled into another dimension by demons, I imagine she’ll be thrilled to be home and will put some effort into taking her medicine and holding herself together. If she did try to kill herself, she might be less stable than she was before.”

“Great,” I muttered as I watched the storefronts go by. “It’s hard to see any way this works out in Meena’s favor.”

“Let’s try to maintain a positive attitude. No matter what condition Emma is in, I’m sure Meena and her father will be happy to have her home.”

We drove in silence for a while. As the corn fields came into view I remembered something. “Did you know that Casey at the ice cream shop is now a vampire?”

“That’s quite the topic change. And no, I did not.”

“She claims the adjustment wasn’t hard since she has a daylight ring.”

“What about drinking blood?” Zelda asked.

“Apparently people line up for the high.” I cringed. “I can’t imagine.”

“Me either. Wine works fine for me,” she said.

I laughed.