Chapter 32

Part 1

“Fate…? It is you.” July used to be favorite month when I was younger. “Bet you’re with your friends.” School was out, so my friends and I could stay up late watching movies and playing games under the AC. Venturing around Greenville’s creeks and old buildings, getting chased off by police, studying documentaries to adopt their styles, our budding interest in the occult bloomed throughout those vacations. “I don’t see June, guess she’s not around. No surprise, it’s getting pretty warm out.” Anytime the club would get in trouble, I’d reluctantly call Mom to bail us out. She took off around that time of the year a lot, typical office worker, couldn’t handle the summer heat. Film and documentaries were her expertise; that gave us a great person to bounce ideas and questions off of whenever she was around. Those awesome days helped form our dreams. “Well, what are you doing here?” But at some point, I started hating July.

“It’s not really your business, Dad.” My father, seeing him always clogged my chest with conflicting emotions.

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m just asking a question.” The arrogance! I…needed to calm down. Getting upset could’ve activated the seed, when healing was my top priority. “Who’s this with you?” I’d forgotten Anesha was standing right there! “She’s not from around here, I can tell that.”

“You’re not from around here either. Don’t you live further out west?”

“I did. We moved to Gold River a few months ago. I tried to call you and tell you that a bunch of times, even came to your job and the apartment, but you always brushed me off. Guess this tells me that you and June don’t really talk about me, huh?”

“Why would we? Wait…we? Oh right, your real family.” Vitriol bubbled up in the back of my throat. Even if I wanted to stop, I couldn’t. “Shouldn’t you be with them, your loving family, getting ready for the holiday coming up?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know where you’re going with this, so let’s not argue.”

“I agree! I have people waiting for me anyway.” Though I hinted toward Anesha, she’d stayed quiet the whole time, shockingly. “So, if you’ll be excusing me…”

“Zahn, Maya’s asking for our orders? Do you want the usual…?” Some brown haired Native American woman exited a restaurant and walked into the fray. Smooth skin so full of luster, and high cheek bones, she could’ve been a model; despite dressing so conservatively. “Hello, nice to meet you.” Forcing an awkward smile, she moved over to my father. The woman whispered into his ear, unaware of how sensitive my hearing was. “Who are they?” The suspicion was justifiable.

“Jaci, this is Fate; my son.” He introduced me, and I could tell immediately what was coming next. “Fate, this is Jaci; my wife.”

“Good for you! She looks ten years younger than you, when Mom is only eight! Congratulations!” Seeing that woman, looking no more than a decade of so older than me, standing under my father like a schoolgirl in love, choked me. “Sorry.” My rudeness accidently extended to Jaci.

“It’s fine. Um…Fate…” Womanly was the first word to come to mind when seeing her body language combined with that fashion sense. Just a long burgundy skirt, brown flats, and a cream-colored top. Jaci’s clothes were outshone by my father’s own denim jacket and pants. “Would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Huh?!” Both my father and I reacted the same way, maddeningly.

“Oh, is now a bad time?”

“Y-Yeah. I have people waiting for me.” Again, I pointed to Anesha, expecting that she’d grown tired of the entire conversation.

Silently eying us back and forth, the witch finally spoke. “Do what have you. I will make no fuss.” My jaw dropped, literally. I was left dumbfounded with a reserved answer!

“A-Arnold?” I looked to our elderly companion who’d already climbed back into his rusted truck.

“Got nothin’ to do with me. Do whatever.” He put the truck in drive and pulled around to the side of us. “Ya’ know the way back? It ain't hard to find.” With that, he drove off leaving me with little other means of escape!

(Seriously? I really don’t want to!) Jaci’s resolute eyes reminded me of Mom’s, a kind of determination just short of pigheaded stubbornness. I knew next to nothing about that woman, was it right to harbor animosity toward her? It was all my father’s fault, as always, his selfishness affected everyone!

“Zahn…?” There was no backing down as Jaci’s gaze shifted to my father.

“Jaci, I don’t think you would want to be sat down and chastised by my ill-tempered son for an hour.” Words that cut right to the point.

“Ill-tempered? Yeah right. I guess that is how you see me, you of all people!” My blood roared. “The man who abandons his family because he couldn’t get his way, and throws a tantrum on the way out, calls me Ill-tempered!” The seed could’ve activated at any second, and that rage was reaching a boiling point!

“Fate.” Anesha said calmly, snapping me out of my tirade! “…Lo' I possess little in the way of ground to stand on in such a situation, need I remind you of our goal?” She was right. My life wasn’t the only one in danger. Whenever the seed would activate and exude mana, there was always the chance of attracting attention. Magekin, cryptids, even spirits, and as much as I resented my father, I didn’t want him or his new wife to be pulled into the crosshairs, like Teddy was.

“Just leave me alone.” I hiked Bramble back up into my arms, leaving.

“Fate, please wait!” Jaci was the one to call for me, not my father. Anesha followed as we walked away from that disastrous reunion.

Part 2

I needed to do anything else, so we walked. Didn’t matter to me where or how long, just needed to distract myself from…myself. “…” Drifting through Gold River’s streets, Anesha shadowed me alongside the scampering Bramble. They silently eyed stores about, as other pedestrians stole glances of the witch. I’d lost track of how long we wandered until happening upon a bar. Not even needing to look, I felt Anesha’s eyes on my back, glaring.

“I won’t drink, ok? But look, they allow dogs as long as they’re on a leash.” The sign on ‘The Watering hole’ expressed. “So, let’s just…sit down, ok?”

“Fine.” She agreed, looking over her shoulder to make sure we weren’t being watched. Under her breath, the witch cast a spell and created a red ribbon which ensnared the dogman’s chubby neck. He frowned, begging it to be loosened. “Calm yourself.” After doing so, we entered the establishment.

We were seated almost immediately in the sparsely populated bar. After ordering some water, we sat, decompressing. The barkeep cleaned up, and the waiter swept the floor as royalty free music played through speakers. “Listen…” I began. “I’m sorry to get you involved in all that…and to get so upset that the seed could’ve activated.”

“Apologies are unnecessary. Words do little when paired with actions that run in contrast to them.” She was right. Losing my cool, acting on emotion, and not thinking things through had gotten me into way too many bad spots. My friends had suffered because of me already, and if I didn’t make better choices in the future, things would only get worse.

“You’re right, obviously. Arguing with my father reminded me of what happened with Ken. I lost my cool, and…kind of blacked out. I ended up beating him nearly to death, and…all because I let my emotions control me. As long as I keep doing that, I’ll never be able to properly control the seed, I guess.” The seed’s mana was tied to my physical and mental state. For Erna to operate on me and remove the seed in the future, I’d need total control.

“With that said, apologies are also unnecessary for such interactions with your father.” She was full of surprises that day! “I was not privy to your relationship. It is strained, clearly. Such things can be made difficult, when one is subject to the whims of their parents.” Any time it seemed Anesha was trying to connect with me, it felt alien. Always boasting about being a goddess and better than everyone, but she would speak somberly without reservations on occasion. “The circumstances of one’s birth should not determine one’s life, lo’ they often do.”

“Yeah, that’s tough. I don’t want to bellyache about it. Like you said, actions, not words.” A guitarist on stage began tuning their instrument as a drummer finished constructing her kit.

“I commend you for understanding that.” A few notes were strum by the guitarist. When he looked up through shaggy black bangs, he offered a reserved wave. Anesha didn’t bother, but I politely reciprocated. Leaning back in the seat, I took a long gulp of my water while staring off into space. Instinctually, I was driven to look at my phone with the downtime we were granted.

The 99+ icon hovering over my ‘messages’ app welled up that self-loathing I was becoming accustomed to. No part of me could bear answering or acknowledging people’s genuine concern, and the messages were only going to get more frequent. (I wonder how Chester and the others are doing? Just checking on the club should be fine.) Social media was the perfect way to keep an eye on my friends from a distance, alleviating one worry. It was especially easy since they were all active online. (Nothing…or at least, nothing substantial.) Words spoken by the Seer rattled around in my head, provoking deeper seeded anxiety.

Scrolling through Demica’s social media showed a new mob of followers had flocked to her. Lots of her posts were her dressed up and looking pretty, more so than ones about our club, not uncommon. Comments praising my friend’s looks littered each post, but a smattering of questions about our production gave me a little joy. Some insults and unruly things came from clear sock accounts, which I reported without remorse. It wasn’t often we’d get haters, but being the weirdos, we’d attract them every so often. Chester tasked himself with running the group account, growing busier in tune with cryptid news becoming more mainstream. He avoided arguing with random people online by concisely breaking down information and disseminate facts. Deep down, I knew Chester though, he’d rather call them idiots and be done with it. Perry had a side gig editing other channels’ videos, so searching his handle brought up tons of people thanking him…and replying to posts about Teddy. He would repost articles about the Jasontown Swamplands incident and Teddy, to which Chester replied every time stating it was an unexpected, baffling loss.

(It’s like watching them fight with each other indirectly. I’ll bet Demica is screaming at her brother with every post.) Notes mixed, beats matched, and messy drumming started. That off-beat rhythm was suddenly corralled by the slow reintroduction of the guitar. Like watching an organized person lead a chaotic one through cleaning their room, the lo-fi song gathered into its rhythm. On stage, the band played without saying a word, just letting the music wash over the bar, then the owner, and finally, the three of us seated at the table. I’d heard music like that before, but the song played then was oddly heartfelt, tinged by the disorder associated with someone lost in their own life. Trapped in a hell of their own making, and realizing they want out, it was like building an escape one piece at a time. Bramble seemed to enjoy the melody; I could tell watching the ears atop his sleeping dog head.

Anesha, she was enraptured. Those red-brown eyes were transfixed on the band. Leaning onto the table, and placing both hands under her chin, it was like she was swooning over the song! “What a melody…” She was! The woman, perfectly described as a ‘witch’, wicked, evil, turpitudinous even, was getting emotionally invested in a math rock song?! The day, and the witch were full of confusing events.

The song ended and before I could clap, Anesha was offering a subdued, respectful, calm applause.

“Uh…” The guitarist began speaking. “Thank you to the couple at the table over there…” With a voice so meager, the mic barely picked it up. Murmuring and muttering through what seemed to be heartfelt gratitude, the drummer eventually got up from her seat and pulled the microphone away from her bandmate.

(…Erna.) Muttering and murmuring, those went hand-in-hand with my anti-social friend. With no socials that I knew of besides the homunculi forum, scanning for Erna’s activity was impossible. I hadn’t seen her in a single video outside of our Jasontown Swamplands investigation, and the site hadn’t been updated with her profile. (Are you really going to just shutter yourself away from us now? It’s my fault, isn’t it? I should just call her and Mom at the very least. No! I…I can’t.) Fighting against my waning resolve was the toughest battle I’d fought to that point.

Other patrons began to file into the bar, heading straight for drinks. “I believe it is time for us to take our leave.” Anesha said, standing up from the table and dragging Bramble along the floor like a hairy fat slug, not wanting to use his own paws.

“Sure.”

Part 3

“I’m back!” Rushing back to meet Anesha and Bramble awaiting me on the corner, a frown was shoot in my direction!

“Making me wait on a street corner as if I were a cheap whore, have you no understanding of delicacy?” She said, same huff and haughty tone as always.

“I told you to wait in the park.”

“What? Am I a dog, do not forget your place! Y-”

“Yeah, yeah, here! Take this before I change my mind.” It was cheap, not a name brand, and probably worth less than I paid for it, but I presented Anesha with a gift. “Here.”

“…And this is?” An MP3 player, one already out of the box.

“Oh, and these too.” I also handed off a pair of earbuds to go along with the glossy black palm sized device. “Know how to use them, right?”

Just confusion on her face. “…You did not answer me. What is this?”

“A music player and some headphones. I ran over to that shop there and got it.” A pawnshop with a window full of assorted items sat several stores down. As we walked by, I noticed the MP3 player and had the idea.

“I see. For what purpose?” The insistence on knowing was getting annoying! I wondered if that’s how I came off to Anesha sometimes.

“Well…” I caught myself blushing! “It’s a thank you for not prying into the stuff with my dad and not being mad about it.” Cheeks red hot, eye contact impossible, I looked away. “I got it from the pawnshop, then ran back to the bar to use their Wi-Fi and downloaded some stuff. Go ahead, check it out.”

Looking apprehensively at the device in her hand, Anesha began fumbling through the screens. It became immediately evident she was lost. The witch’s face shifted back and forth between frustration and bewilderment faster than an elderly person scrolling through their grandchild’s socials! Thinking back, most times, Anesha would just have me interact with any technology during our travels, instead of doing it herself. I leaned over, keeping my distance, and directed her. Finally, she happened on one of the songs I’d downloaded. Hesitantly putting the earbuds in, she slowly pressed play. “Oh!” Realization hit her, finally! “This is the song from before.”

“Yup! When I ran back to the bar, I asked the band for their information. Took a while to download it, but their name is ‘Dirtbags done wrong’ and that song is ‘Empty Room’. Speaks for itself, huh?” Admittedly a bit smug, I laughed at successfully surprising the witch.

Anesha listened to the song, then managed to pause it. A sort of pensive frown came over her face. Something lodged itself firmly in her mind, trapping Anesha in deep thought unlike her usual meditation. “This changes nothing.”

“Huh?” She spoke so fast, I hardly caught that.

“Your gift, I shall accept it.” Pivoting back into her usual haughty tone, she was back. “I am quite impressed by your ability to pick something like this out. Your observational skills are far beyond that which I expected. For now, I shall say…t-thank you. Now then, let us return to Arnold’s dwelling! I grow tired.” Considering that her sleep schedule was likely thrown off, it did seem best we make for homebase. “I pray your wound heals soon, as it shall allow us to return to hunting for the Magekin.”

“Gotcha’!” Anesha and I both sensed something approach! It appeared in an instant, mana fanning outward, washing by my shoulders…or maybe my ankles…actually, it would’ve been more correct to say it reached my ankles because the energy just inched above my sneakers. In around a corner, a gray and pimply ear twitched. Following that, the wrinkly, chubby body of a familiar creature appeared!

“Pinky, bro, get back here! Come on, bro! Not cool!” Along with that little cryptid, in ran Jordie Mack and he grabbed up the squonk in his arms! “Wait a minute, I know you guys!” Joyously, he jogged over to us, having the squonk suddenly vanish into a mist of tears and sweat! “Oh! He’ll be back, don’t worry!”

“Jordie Mack? What are you doing here?” I took over the conversation, as Anesha and Bramble both seem disinterested and ready to sleep.

“We live over in Whispering Hills. Me and my brother were just driving by, and Pinky leapt out of the car.”

“Pinky? You mean the squonk? Are you keeping it?”

“Hell yeah! He just kind of stuck around after the other night. Miss Anesha…” Jordie bowed his head, attempting to appease Anesha and was met with a yawn.

“Hurry this along, I grow tired.” In just the time I’d taken my eyes off her, Anesha’s eyes narrowed with bags forming beneath them.

“Jordie, bro! What are you doing? We’re not doing street interviews.” Two other guys joined us. One with hair more majestically quaffed than Jordie’s, his brother Bobbie Mack, and one who appeared to be their cameraman. “BB, is the camera ready?”

“Not right now. Are we filming?” The cameraman rifled through his big bag full of equipment and retrieved an expensive, high-tech camcorder; something we’d never be able to afford! “Ready whenever you guys are!”

Anesha shot a glare to Jordie, who understood right away her intent. He placed his hand over the camera’s lens and pushed his crew along with a nervous laugh. “Come on guys, t-they don’t want us to bother them!” Jordie comprehended the witch’s cue instantaneously. “Let’s just head back to the abandoned schoolhouse and set up for the night.”

“Abandoned schoolhouse?” Interest peaked! “What schoolhouse? Do you have pictures?” I knew Anesha was growing frustrated, but I couldn’t help myself! She groaned and rolled her tired eyes, but didn’t snap. I took that as leeway.

“I shall begin walking back to Arnold’s. Do not allow me to leave your sight, am I clear?” Crystal clear. Each step Anesha took in those clopping, platform boots, I counted and occasionally peered over my shoulder.

“So…schoolhouse? Can I see?” Thinking of the architecture excited me, and the pictures Jordie showed on his phone didn’t disappoint!

“There’s this schoolhouse in Whispering Hills that got wrecked because of a rockslide earlier this year!” On the screen, a beautifully ramshackle, two-story building sat with a wall of trees to its back. Weeds and ivy had grown up the sides, reclaiming the structure, leaving only wooden walls pierced by nature’s mighty vines. “The town has a much better school opened up near the riverbank, and people from Gold River go there too, bro. Thing is, our commenters think this other one is cursed or something and have been bugging us to spend the night, so we’re doing an overnight show!”

“That sounds awesome…wait…you guys are doing urban spelunking along with your investigations?” Jordie and his crew nodded. “H-how many views did your last investigation get?”

“Huh? Oh, you mean the train yard and Pinky – I mean the squonk investigation, right? I think…500k.” I slyly checked our video from the Jasontown Swamplands, it’d reached…120k. “If you want to swing by, just DM me, bro! We should get going.” Jordie then leaned in and whispered. “And don’t worry, Pinky likes to disappear all the time, but he’ll show back up soon. Later bro!” Off the quaff haired, handsome, blonde, and popular online creator went.

“…I hate the internet.” Aggravation drove that petty feeling, but fear piloted another. Anesha was almost out of my sight! I grabbed Bramble, who stayed behind, up in my arms and made a mad dash! (I wish I could go to that schoolhouse too. Maybe once we beat those Magekin and clear things up a bit, I’ll stop by!) I looked forward to it, not suspecting that I’d see sooner than I thought, and at a deeply intimate level.

End of chapter 32