Insidious(33)

“Don’t think Mark didn’t tell me about your little run-in with Adam.”

Busted.

“Danny Boy,” hollered one of the other basketball players at the end of the hall. “Come on. Coach wants to have a meet with us before we leave.”

“Gotta go. Love you,” he said, giving Carly one last kiss.

“Kick some ass,” she laughed, smacking him in the butt as he walked away.

I turned back to my locker, putting all my text and notebooks in their proper order. A weird rippling effect suddenly swept into my vision. I kept blinking, trying to rid of it when vertigo hit in full force. My body immediately wrenched backward. Expecting to hit the floor, I gasped, suddenly finding myself still standing upright.

“Daniel can give me a lift,” Carly said beside me, once again on the floor.

“What are you talking about?” I muttered, noting my vision was once again intact. “He’s got a game.”

She looked up at me quizzically. “He does?”

“He just told-” My mouth clamped shut, seeing Daniel making his way back down the hall that he just came from.

“Speak of the devil,” said Carly, climbing up to her feet. Once again, she met him with the same overly affectionate kiss.

They were having the exact same conversation from a minute ago. I numbly slammed my locker shut, finding Carly’s keys magically clasped in my left palm. What the hell?

“…I have a game up in Winnetka. We’re heading out at four.”

Carly looked at me, and I dazedly handed the keys back to her for the second time. “It’s okay. I could use a walk,” I muttered, staggering away. She called out something, but it was lost on me as I disappeared down the hallway. I burst out of the front doors, letting the cold breeze bat me in the face. What just happened?

Reese’s words ran feverishly through my mind, and I found myself yanking out the business card from my pocket. Dialing the number on the back, I raced down the cement steps to the sidewalk.

“Y’ello,” answered a silvery voice on the third ring.

“Where can we meet up?” I blurted, trying to steady my own voice against the anxiety shooting through my veins.

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s Kat. Kat Montgomery. Where can we meet?” I clarified.

A beat of silence.

“Hello?” I asked, checking my phone to see if maybe he’d hung up.

“You know where Slippery Pete’s is?” he finally said.

“What?”

He sighed. “It’s a restaurant, down by the pier. Think you can find it?”

“Yeah.”

“Meet me there at 4:30.”

Good. The pier was on the whole other end of town, but he’d given me enough time that I could make it there easily via public transport.



Mystic Harbor catered to the tourists that flocked to the city from May through November. The beaches and oceanic properties made the city a hot commodity during the summer, and the autumn colors and rustic scenery made it idyllic for cozy lodging. Because of this, a tourist trolley could be found on nearly every street corner of the downtown. I jogged my way down to Jefferson Boulevard and grabbed the green line that took me to the shopping center right by the pier.

The trip took a good forty-five minutes, due to the constant stops and scenic detours that the visitors reveled over, but I’d made it there no less. If Google was correct, Slippery Pete’s should have been at the very end of the road past the store fronts. The afternoon crowds flooded the streets and sidewalks, forcing me to push my way through the throng of people. As I maneuvered around a group of seniors, someone knocked shoulders with me, their hand brushing my own.

“Sorry,” I said, looking behind me. Everyone buzzed in different directions, making it impossible to determine who I’d run into. I walked about a dozen steps or so when a searing pain suddenly pierced the inside of my left arm. I buckled over, gripping the skin, only to see a soft pale light spreading across the back of my hand.

A couple onlookers took notice to me, their faces contorting in bewilderment. “You okay, hun?” asked an elder woman.

The light on my hand started growing brighter and brighter, going from the intensity of a glow stick to a tiny strobe light.

What was happening?

As more bystanders started paying mind to me, I suddenly darted out into the street, narrowly dodging traffic as I raced to the other side. Running down the alley between two nearby storefronts, I came out into the woods backing the shopping center. The ground sloped, and I galloped downhill till I was out of sight. I bit back a grievous scream, feeling the flesh on my arm sear like someone was holding a torch to it.

Elaborate swirls and symbols took shape in the light, akin to an expanding, glowing tattoo. And a string of small shimmering tethers curled around my ring finger, wrapping about and knotting into an intricate design. The strange, shining patterns continued to grow upward underneath my sleeve. I pried off my coat and yanked at the material of my long sleeve shirt, hiking up the fabric as far as it could go.