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Once I got back to Reef Hollow I didn’t want to watch Liona drive away, so I didn’t look back until I reached the beach. By then her taillights were disappearing into the dark. She hadn’t parked or anything, she just stopped the car and I got out, and then we waved goodbye. I don’t think she wanted to leave but what else could we do? I had to work things out with Tim Lan.
The hour was late, so I snuck into the house quietly. I didn’t see Tim Lan, or hear him snoring, so I tiptoed to his corner of the shed to see if he was even in the house. His bed was empty and still made, so he hadn’t come home from town. His leather pouch and a few pearls were spread out on the table in the kitchen, as if he left in a hurry. I didn’t touch them. Maybe I should have put them away; however, I didn’t like touching Tim Lan’s personal things, so I left them where they were. I strode over to my corner, curled up into my sleeping bag, and closed my eyes.
The walk that day had worn me out. I should have fallen asleep right away, but I had a hard time quieting my mind. I kept thinking about Liona, our kiss and how good I felt when she put her arms around me. There was no way that I could live without her, especially since she felt the same about me. I was sorry that she wouldn’t let me get my own place with my magic. Still, I had made up my mind that I would move in with her, even if I had to live in the boarding home. The only thing to do now was to talk to Tim Lan and let him know my decision. I had to tell him that I wasn’t going to make any more pearls for him. Then I would ask him what I wanted to know, like why did he hate Liona when she was such a nice person, and what did he use the pearl money for?
I tossed and turned in my bed with those thoughts racing through my mind. Finally, I faced the wall and closed my eyes, hoping for sleep. I started to doze when I heard the door creak open. I just lay quiet as I wasn’t ready to talk to Tim Lan yet, so I played possum. He stepped over to the table, but he didn’t turn the light on. I kept my eyes shut until I heard a crash. I figured he might have hurt himself in the dark, so I sat up quick.
Tim Lan wasn’t in the room. My mother was. A chair in the living room had fallen over and she stood next to it, an astounded look on her face, a flashlight in her hand.
I jumped out of the sleeping bag. I think I startled her as much as she startled me. She sprang back. “You!”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, sensing black magic pouring into my veins from the shock.
“You rotten little devil. It’s true! You’re living with him.”
“You’re trespassing.”
“What? By visiting my son?” She snickered and shook her hair out of her face, shining the flashlight around the room. First in my eyes, then the walls and then the beam landed on Tim Lan’s pouch on the table.
“Oh no you don’t!” I said and made a bee line for it.
She intercepted me, shining her light in my eyes. The brilliance blinded me. I lunged at her and grabbed the flashlight. She pulled back. We struggled right there in the middle of the room, knocking over the other chai. We skid across the floor and fell on the ground. She pulled my hair and bit me. Her fingernails dug into my arm. I threw my elbow into her face, hitting her nose. She snorted and growled, her hair flying wildly into my eyes. I got a hold of the flashlight with both hands and yanked it away from her. We both got up off the floor and before I could catch her she dove for the table, and the pouch of pearls. I couldn’t let her have them, but she was faster than I was. Several more pearls fell out of the bag as she jumped away from me, pouch in hand.
“Those aren’t yours.”
“You owe them to me.” She dove for the fallen pearls.
“They aren’t mine, either,” I said. Anger soared through me like venom. It rattled through my left arm as I watched her scramble on the floor chasing the marbles as they rolled. I pointed at her, the electricity in me burning to be released. “Stop it!” I commanded barely able to contain the magic.
“Get to hell with you,” she retorted and stood, the pearls clattering in the palm of her hand. “You’ll make me a rich woman yet, despite your insolence.” She tossed her hair over her shoulders, sweat dripped down her neck. She smelled of alcohol. “All your life you tried to keep me down, just like your father. All the suffering I did because of your pity parties, calling CPS on me, rallying your friends against me, you’ll pay for it all Dylan.” Her spit hit my face when she talked, her eyes squinty like an old bat. “Hiding behind your crippled uncle’s wheel chair, collecting his money, living off him when he could barely afford you. You killed him, you know? You know that, don’t you? You killed your uncle and now look what it’s got you.”
“I didn’t kill him. I loved Uncle Jim.”
“He was in bad shape, and you made it worse for him.”
“No! That’s not true! It couldn’t be true. Uncle Jim loved me. He would have told me if it was too much for him.”
“No, he wouldn’t. He’d have suffered and not told anyone. Your uncle was a nice guy. Unlike his nephew.” She stepped closer to me. Her mouth contorted, saliva smeared across her face. I could see the malice spew from her lips. “You made him die, Dylan. You made him die! How do you feel now?”
“Stop it!” I couldn’t take it anymore. Her words dug too deep, her hate bore a hole in my heart. I stepped back away from her, away from the spray of her foul mouth, far enough that I could stretch out my arm. The power had swelled. I was a dam bursting and I couldn’t hold the bitterness inside any longer.
I released it. All of it. The black energy spun out from my fingertips onto each of the pearls in her hand, illuminating them. They glowed. Her eyes widened at the sight. The radiance lit up her face. And then she screamed as the pearls turned red hot and scorched her. I smelled her flesh burn. She dropped them and screamed again, holding her wrist, doubling over. Nothing inside of me wanted to stop the outpouring. I burned her hair as she fell to the ground. Her pain felt good to me. Evil, but good.
Not until Tim Lan came running inside did I let up.
“Stop it!” His voice traveled high over my mother’s cries. I pulled my arm back and hid my hand in my pocket. Suddenly a light came on inside of me and I saw what I had done. My mother weeping on the floor in pain.
“What is going on here?” Tim Lan asked.
“She broke into your home. I caught her taking your pearls.” My voice trembled. I was looking at the scene from somewhere else, somewhere outside of my body. My hands shook, sweat dripped from my forehead.
“That’s a lie!” my mother cried out, still groaning in agony. “He let me in the house, told me to take the pearls and sell them. Said he wouldn’t tell. He wanted to meet me later to split the bounty.”
Tim Lan turned to me sharply. My mouth hung open
“Get out. Both of you.”
“It’s not true!” I pleaded but Tim Lan had already grabbed the pouch and pearls from my mother’s burnt hands.
“Get your mother to a hospital,” he ordered me.
He helped her up and nodded toward the door. “Now! And don’t come back.”
I was livid and speechless and about to wretch whatever was in my stomach. My jaw clamped shut but it didn’t matter because no way would Tim Lan believe a word I had to say. I pulled on my hoody and stormed across the room. Grabbing my mother by her elbow I pulled her out the door. Tim Lan threw my backpack outside on the ground, and then slammed the door hard behind us.
The night was amazingly still. Stars and the milky way crowded the midnight sky. A misty chill hit me in the face and steam seeped from my mouth.
My mother wrenched her arm away from me. “Get your hands off me, you filthy warlock.” She stumbled toward the old parking lot and I followed. Even though I hated her, and wished her evil, I knew I had to get her to a hospital. I pulled out the phone that Liona had given me and clicked on the “emergency call” button.
“What’s your emergency?”
I froze at the sound of the stranger’s voice. They asked again.
“A burn,” I finally whispered.
“Location?”
“The beach by Reef Hollow.” I hung up after that. With my mother furrowed against an old oak tree in the gravel, holding her wrist up, and crying, I moved away from her. I had done everything I could do for her. To her. Everything. I turned and ran down the beach not sure which way I should go, or if I should call Liona, or if I should just die.
Chapter 23
