Witch Hunt
3 reviews!! Yay :) Things are finally going to start happening, I promise. As much as I love dwelling on Summer/Tyler, I realise that we need a story. So soon, all the evilness will be revealed...
Chapter Thirteen
Later, I lay face down on my bed with Tyler propped on one elbow beside me. His fingers traced patterns around the scratches on my back that tickled and felt really good at the same time. His shirt had come undone at some stage during our little session so that the cuff traced an identical pattern a few inches lower. Apart from my school shirt and his tie though, we were mostly still dressed.
"I want to ask you a question," he told me. "But you don't have to answer."
"Ok," I said slowly, turning my head to face him.
"What happened in the woods?"
I sighed. "It deserves an answer," I decided. "I wanted to talk to Dan. He's been acting so strangely lately. So I got him to come for a walk with me. But we started arguing, and he… said some things. What he said upset me, but even that we were fighting was horrible. We've never fought like that before. He's changed. And it kind of scares me, because we've always been so close. He's the only family I have left really."
Tyler was silent.
"I mean, there's my gran, but… we don't really get along that well and…" I bit my lip. Tyler clearly didn't need to know about my gran.
"You really think there's something wrong, don't you?" he asked finally.
"Yes. Dan's changed. And I didn't know Reid very well before, but he seems to be worse too."
"I've been trying to talk to Reid for a while," Tyler said, brows sunk in worry. "But he gets pissed as soon as the conversation turns serious."
"Like Dan did."
"Yeah. I… I think maybe you're right about those girls. Reid's really not himself. He's always used more than the rest of us, but he used to have it under control. I think he's totally addicted now."
"We should do something," I decided.
"Yeah, but what?"
I sat up, thinking.
"We can't confront them. We need proof. We need to know exactly what they are," Tyler continued.
I nodded. "So we find out," I told him. "What do we know?"
"Not a lot," Tyler moved to sit next to me. "They must know something about the Power, because you said Jess has seen Reid use at least once. And they have some sort of hold over Reid and Dan that makes them…"
"…angry. And makes them use more," I cut in when he trailed off.
"Yeah. I've never felt them use though. At least I don't think so. They could be witches… or just people who know about us."
"So basically we don't know a lot," I concluded. "We don't know if they came to Ipswich to find you guys. We don't know who or what they are or what the want."
"Nope."
"Hmmm."
I scrunched up my nose and thought for a minute.
"We have to go all Harriet the Spy on their asses!"
"What?" Tyler was obviously confused by my pre-teen reading references.
"You know, spy, snoop, investigate, detect!" I explained.
"Oh. Don't you think that's a bit… unethical?"
"Yeah, but so's holding our brothers hostage. We have to resort to their tactics." I was kind of excited about the idea really. I always wanted to be a detective when I was a kid.
"I guess." So obviously Tyler wasn't quite as thrilled as I was. I glanced around my room looking for inspiration.
"We need…" I bounced across to my desk. "Notebooks and pens!" I flourished the offending items. "And dark glasses! And coats with big collars!" I perched my big sunglasses on my nose and pulled a jacket from my closet. Tyler held my notebook and pen while I slipped the jacket on and pulled the collar up so that it touched my nose. He grinned.
"Sounds like a plan Agent Jones. I can still tell it's you though, cos I can see your cute nose."
"Oh no!" I feigned horror. "Her nose exposed her!"
Tyler laughed.
"So Miss Nosey, where do we start snooping?"
I scrunched up my nose again and spun around, searching for our first clue.
When I saw it near the door, my good mood popped like a balloon.
Dan's bag.
It was sitting next to mine where we'd left them before our walk in the woods. If we were serious about finding out what was wrong with Dan and Reid, it would be a good place to start. And now was the perfect opportunity. I glanced at Tyler, then the bag, then back to Tyler. He noticed where I was looking and collapsed back to sit on my bed.
"Our first moral dilemma," he said.
"He'll never know?" I offered.
"True. But it's not a very moral thing to do."
"But what if there's a clue in there. Like a letter from Naomi, or…"
"He's your brother," Tyler told me. "Your decision."
I took a deep breath and pulled the bag into the middle of the room, closer to Tyler.
"He'll never know," I repeated, trying to convince myself.
I chewed my bottom lip as I slowly pulled it open. It honestly seemed plain wrong to be going through Dan's things. I couldn't imagine how angry he'd be with me. I would have been livid had the situations been reversed. But Dan (I decided silently), like it or not, needed saving.
I peeked inside. Books, textbooks, loose paper. Deeper down I found pens, gums wrappers, other rubbish…
A glint of silver caught my eye. I shook some crap out of the way and pulled out a silver pendant that was about the size of a wren's egg, though flatter. An intricate pattern of wire, twisted together within and oval frame, held a polished black stone in place. And extra twist of wire was obviously meant to hold the thing to a chain.
It was heavier than it looked, and must have been pretty well-made to survive the depths of Dan's bag. I held it out for Tyler to look at.
His eyes narrowed.
"Reid's got something like that," he said quietly.
I looked back down at the pendant. It suddenly felt incredibly sinister in my hand.
"He wears it on a chair under his uniform," Tyler continued. "Only takes it off for training."
"I think," I said slowly, "we have our first clue."
"Yeah. But what are we going to do with it?"
"We…"
I was interrupted by a knock at the door. I slid the pendant into my pocket.
"Come in!"
"The door's locked," came the reply.
Dan!
I looked at Tyler, who shrugged (helpful!) and decided that Dan sounded distinctly less angry than earlier in the afternoon.
I crossed my fingers behind my back and stood to let him in.
He closed the door behind him and glanced around the room, frowning slightly as he took in my dishevelled appearance and Tyler's unbuttoned shirt. Thank goodness I'd put a jacket on.
"What?" I asked him. I can't say I was full of sibling love. Tyler had calmed me down, but it was hard to just forget what Dan had said.
"I… ah, came to apologise," Dan stammered out.
I could feel Tyler's discomfort even as I continued to stare at Dan.
"I haven't been myself lately, I know and I said some things this afternoon that I really shouldn't have. That I didn't mean," my brother continued slowly, eyes flicking nervously around the room. "But I went for a long walk, and it really cleared my head. I feel a lot…"
His eyes settled on the floor near where I was standing. I glanced down.
Fuck.
Dan's school bag lay open for the world, and worse still Dan, to see.
Shitting hell arse fuck.
It felt like slow motion. I tensed. I heard Tyler's sharp intake of breath. Dan exploded.
"What the FUCK Summer?"
"I…"
"Don't even fucking try to get out of this. God, and here I was coming to apologise! I've been beating myself up about this afternoon while you…"
He grabbed his bag and looked inside.
"How could you? I'm you fucking brother! I thought that meant something! Like trust! And Tyler?"
"Don't bring Tyler into this!" I cut in.
"He's here isn't he? I thought he was better than this. Hell, I thought you were better than this! Did you take anything?"
Before I could reply he turned his school bad upside down so that the contents spilled across the floor.
"Go on! Have a good fucking look!" Dan yelled at me. I watched his eyes scan the mess on my floor and narrow. He peered inside his now empty bag, eyes flashing black. I flinched.
"You took it!" he advanced on me. I've never been scared of Dan before, but at that moment I was terrified. He seemed suddenly a lot bigger than me, and standing over me seemed capable of anything.
"Don't move a muscle, baby boy," he menaced, without ever taking his eyes from mine. He reached out a hand and almost casually threw Tyler back onto my bed. I gulped.
"Did you take it?" he asked quietly.
Staring up into his eyes I couldn't think, couldn't look away, couldn't breathe. His anger tore through the barrier we normally kept between our minds. I'd never felt anything so black and full of hatred. Dan didn't feel like Dan any more.
I felt the weight of the pendant lift from my jacket pocket and watched in absolute horror as it floated away from me into Dan's outstretched hand. He grabbed it and with another careless flick of his wrist gathered the mess on my floor back into his school bag.
"Don't you ever come near me again," he threatened, still staring blackly down at me. "You're not my sister."