Darker Days

Chapter Eleven

“That didn’t sound good…” I said, looking past the open field and beyond the tracks. A second boom came, this one accompanied by an angry looking plume of gray smoke and a series of smaller bangs. With a quick glance toward the house, I turned on my heel and took off toward the chaos without a second thought.

Footsteps pounded against the ground behind me. Lukas. I don’t know why I was surprised he’d followed—but I was. Surprised, and something else. Glad? Grr. Why would I be glad? Obviously something in my brain had short circuited—spending more time with him wasn’t going to make it any better.

Another boom, this one even louder than the first. There was a slight shake to the ground and in the distance, someone screamed. I picked up the pace.

I crashed through the brush at the edge of the field and hit the pavement of the lot behind Al’s Antiques. The ground was wet and my sneakers slipped, momentarily disturbing my momentum, but I righted myself and kept going. Another boom. Louder. We were getting closer.

Rounding the corner of the building, I came to the sidewalk and pulled up short. Lukas plowed into me from behind, sending us both lurching forward into the street, but it didn’t matter. There was no traffic to worry about. Why? Because people were all on foot. Everywhere.

Flankman’s Department store had opened in Penance over a hundred years. They’d started out selling food and simple supplies, then in more recent years branched out to become a kind of sell-all store. TVs, clothing, groceries—Flankman’s had a little of it all. Family-owned, like most things in town, it was almost a landmark.

Well, had been like a landmark.

The glass storefront was shattered, only a small portion—the top part of the F and bottom half of L—remained. Smoke billowed from the top floor where the founder, Martin Flankman’s, original apartment had been. The entire right side of the roof was in flames and the fire was creeping across.

Another boom spilt the air. Just behind the building, shooting over the roof, a cascade of red and blue streaked across the sky. Fireworks. Someone had found Pete Flankman’s secret stash.

I was so busy staring into the sky, that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings. I backed into something solid—a man balancing two twelve packs of beer in his arms. George White.

“Watch it, bitch,” he snapped, taking a step back. He hugged the cases close like they were precious, eyes darting back and forth to keep watch for any harm that might come to them.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say. George was cranky on his best days, but I’d never seen him downright rude.

People were running around like quartzed demons. Cursing, screaming, and the occasional shoving match everywhere you looked. It was insanity squared…then I took a closer look through the broken storefront. People were inside, frantically filling their pockets and arms with as much as they could carry.

“Oh my God—you guys are looting Flankman’s?” I whirled on George—who was still standing there glaring at me. “Pete Flankman is your friend, George! What the hell?”

“Are you eyeballing my beer, kid?” Eyes narrowing, he set one of the twelve packs down and took a step forward. “You thinkin’ of taking it from me?”

My mouth fell open. “Have you gone bonkers?”

George snarled and leapt forward, swinging the remaining twelve pack at my head like a baseball bat. I moved to get out of the way, but the corner of my shoe clipped the curb and everything started tilting upward. Something strong wrapped around my waist and suddenly I was flying backward just as George slammed the case of beer down where I’d been. An explosion of glass and amber-colored liquid erupted from the wrecked cardboard box and oozed out onto the concrete. With a growl, George left the smashed case, retrieved the other, and lumbered off toward the street without another word.

“Hell in a hailstorm…” I huffed.

“It’s Greed,” Lukas whispered, warm breath tickling the side of my face. Inopportune moment aside, I realized something right then—I liked the sound of his voice. Odd time for a revelation. Still, it just…hit me. He had a really nice voice. Warm and deep. It reminded me of hot cocoa—and there was nothing nicer than hot cocoa.

For a moment, I didn’t move. I was tilted back, arm raised at a slightly odd angle and leaning against him. He’d caught me before I hit the ground and dragged me away from the curb. I was pretty sure his intention hadn’t been to whisper in my ear, but it gave me warm tingles regardless.

Kendra would have a blast-o-million if she could see this.

“Do you see him?” I managed to pull myself away and move aside as a tall woman missing one shoe came blasting from the store. She had an armful of clothing and a Twix bar dangling from her teeth and was giggling like a loon.

“I don’t think Greed’s here anymore,” Lukas said, taking a step toward the burning building. “I don’t feel him.”

Sirens wailed as two fire trucks came speeding up the road. A whole slew of new people. “Oh, craps. Will they be affected? Like if they go in?” Then it hit me. “Even bigger craps—will we be affected?”

Lukas shook his head. “Anyone arriving after the initial infection has a very slim chance of being affected. If someone particularly susceptible were to happen along, then yes. Otherwise, it’s safe.”

I couldn’t really classify this disaster as safe, but whatever. “Okay. Small favors. I’ll take what we can get. Any idea how to diffuse the situation? If Greed is gone, how come the people aren’t going back to chill? Back in The Pit, soon as you calmed down, everything was fine.”

He looked a little pale, and I felt guilty about bringing it up. “What happened earlier wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t infect anyone, I just lost control and some of the anger Wrath harbors leaked out. As soon as I regained my senses, Wrath’s influence faded.”

“So you’re saying no one new will go all grabby?”

He blinked twice then nodded slowly. “Yes. And for those affected, it will wear off in time.”

More sirens, these from the Penance PD. “Oh great. Barney Fife is here.”

“Who?” Lukas dodged something and pulled me with him. A pair of red women’s pumps flew past, narrowly missing our heads, followed by an unboxed toaster from the middle of the chaos.

“What are you doing here, Jessie?” Binkie—err—Officer Barnes yelled, jumping from his squad car. A second later, his entire face lit up. “Is Klaire here, too?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have more important things to worry about at the moment? Like, oh, I dunno, the riot going on inside Flankman’s?”

He looked past me, eyes wide, then cleared his throat. “Of course I do. I was just making sure she wasn’t—” he shuffled sideways then started toward the door, “…inside.”

As Officer Barnes was swallowed by the crowd, three more police cars pulled up in front of the building. Thank God. No way was one small town cop going to be enough to get this under control. Four probably wouldn’t do the trick either.

Luckily for them, I was more than happy to help. “Come on,” I said, motioning to Lukas.

We stepped over the remains of the storefront and into the main room. It was a disaster. There were two kids fighting over a small pile of candy while two women—I guessed their mothers—battled it out over a canned ham. Behind them, Officer Barnes was trying to restrain Mrs. Mesher, the elderly woman who lived down the road from Kendra. She swung her cane, catching him across the shin as he snapped the cuffs into place.

A loud clatter rang above the din, and I whirled to see a man swinging a baseball bat at the beverage cooler. Because opening the door would have been too easy, right? He hit it once. Then twice. On the third swing, the glass shattered, but did he stop there? Of course not. He swung again, hitting the shelf. Bottles exploded, assorted liquids shooting in every direction.

I managed to duck a projectile can of Pepsi but wasn’t so lucky with the two liter bottle of root beer that landed at my feet. The plastic bottle bounced twice and slammed into my shin, fizzing and spitting until the cap shot off and caramel colored soda covered me from head to toe.

“Ick!” I flicked my hands and pushed a strand of wet hair from my face.

“That was mine!” the man screamed, rushing forward.

There was probably no point in telling him three more sat on the floor by the cooler, along with an entire row still up on the shelves. I spread my legs apart, ready to take him on, but it was unnecessary. Lukas intercepted him before he got halfway across the room.

Charging like a bull, he tackled the larger man, forcing him down to the ground. The man struggled, but Lukas dodged him and delivered a sharp jab to the side of his face. The man’s eyes rolled back, and his head lolled to the side.

I held my hand out to help him up, not bothering to hide the smile on my face. “Impressive.”

He returned the grin with one of his own. “Don’t look so surprised.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw something move. A blur of blonde and bright blue. When I turned, Kendra was standing over a man, lips pulled back in an angry snarl.

“That’s mine,” she growled.

“Uh oh…”

“What?” Lukas said, scanning the room.

I pointed to Kendra. “Greed infested normal people are bad—green infested witches are probably worse.”

His gaze swiveled. “Your friend is a witch?”

I nodded. “Kendra doesn’t have very good control over her power.”

“Do I want to know what you mean by that?”

“It means she could do some serious damage. We have to stop her.” I let go of his hand and started forward. “Kendra?”

“Don’t come any closer,” she snarled. Bending down, she scooped up the box at her feet.

I peered over the rim. The box was full of shoes and Kit Kats. Figured. There was no one on planet Earth who had a bigger shoe fetish then Kendra. “Trust me, I don’t wanna take your shoes away.” Another step. “I just wanna get you out of here before someone gets hurt.”

She backed away, lips pulled back in an angry snarl. Funny, little known facts about witches. They’re usually very moody and hard to get along with. They prefer night over day and prefer to only associate with their own kind. Kendra’s mom was the stereotypical witch. Surly and combative, she worked as a night guard at the corrections facility and rarely left the house during the day unless necessary.

Kendra, on the other hand, was an anomaly. She was bubbly and thrived on sunshine. Her favorite place in the whole world was the beach, and she had always kind of been afraid of the dark.

Kendra set down the box and closed her eyes. I held my breath as her lips began to move, chanting something too low for me to hear. It took a moment, but when I realized what she was doing, every muscle in my body tensed. A spell. She was going to try to do a spell.

I took a step back, dragging Lukas with me. “Oh… This isn’t going to end well…”

Kendra’s eyes flew open and a loud crash filled the air. Then another. To our right, the remaining beverage cooler doors exploded one by one. A chorus of screams erupted, and people dove for cover. A few feet away, an old woman cried out and fell to the floor clutching her arm. Seeing blood, I dropped to my knees, dodging projectile glass to crawl to her side and check on her.

But I only made it a few feet. The ground was solid one moment, and gone the next. My world tipped sideways, then upside-down and I was flying backwards through the store. I hit the far wall hard, teeth banging together with a brain-jarring snap. The sound echoed inside my head and caused my ears to ring.

A warm hand grasped my arm, tugging me upright. Lukas. My vision cleared to see him standing over me, brows furrowed with concern. “Are you all—” The air whooshed from his lungs, the sentence stolen, as a large man plowed him over on his way to the door.

“Craps!” I watched him go down as Kendra took me by surprise, hitting like a Mac truck with no brakes. Stars bloomed behind my eyes as I tipped back and lost my footing. I crashed to the ground again, jamming my left shoulder and bending the fingers on my right hand back at a completely unnatural angle.

“I’ve spelled myself,” she said with a wicked grin. “I’m faster and stronger than you. You can’t take them away from me!”

Spelled herself? Oh, she was going to be sorry later. I gave her a quick once over to search for extra appendages. A tail, spikes…another set of horns… But whatever the side effect, it wasn’t plainly visible.

Kendra kicked out, but I managed to roll away as the pointy toe of her favorite black boots sailed by, inches from my face.

“Not cool, Ken!” I scrambled back to my feet as she turned for another round. This time, as she passed, I jumped back and grabbed a chunk of her hair. Girl move? Totally. But it did the trick.

Kendra let out a howl as I yanked back. She teetered for a moment before losing her balance. Unfortunately, so did I.

I went stumbling inelegantly forward into Lukas, knocking us both to the ground. When we untangled ourselves, I turned around, and Kendra was gone.