The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (38 page)

An
idea bursts into my mind, a horrible theory. How can taking venom
give these people magical powers? Because the venom has demon blood
in it.

Oh.
My. God.

I
get up and run to the bathroom. Slamming the door I stand in the
dark. It can’t be… That can’t be what’s
going on…

No.

The
Spider can’t be dispersing demon infections in pills; he can’t
have turned hundreds of people into black magicians. It’s too
terrifying to consider.

But
I can’t help considering it.

But…why
would a man who only values power make everyone around him powerful?
That is a big hole in my theory… but not enough to dismiss it.

Whoever
watches out for us people down here (if anyone does), please let me
be wrong.

A
banging on the bathroom door makes me scream.

The
door rips away, taking part of the wall with it. Polite Goon stands
holding the door, raining plaster bits.

Day
Nineteen (early morning)

Polite
Goon looks around the dark bathroom, then back to me. “Are you
alright?” he asks.

“
No!”
I shout, “You scared the hell out of me!”

“
I
apologize,” He says, “I’ll give you some privacy.”
He starts to put the door back into place.

“
No,”
I say, “I’m done.” I go back and lie on the bed.

After
putting the door back (as best he can) Polite Goon says, “I
know it is not my place, but could I give you a… suggestion?”
When I nod he continues, “Put him from your mind. Even if
circumstances weren’t what they are, it’s not a good
match.”

Obviously
he misunderstood my distress.

I
think about playing dumb, saying ‘
with
who
?’
but the words don’t form. So I say nothing.

Closing
my eyes only strengthens my thoughts, and they rampage through my
head, unchecked, reviewing everything that’s happened since I
arrived in this country; dissecting every little thing I could have
done to keep Linnie out of the web; flicking through each moment I’ve
spent with Stephen, like a slideshow of my mistakes. Though I know my
mind is in a dangerous place, I can’t rein in my thoughts.

I
grip the paper with Kasem’s transcribed story in my hand (the
story he knew better than to take as a story cautioning people not to
follow their heart).

I’m
not sure if I sleep or not, but I jolt to alertness as the door to
the bungalow opens.

Changing
of the guard.

I’m
not sure if Stephen just got back or was outside guarding for a while
before he switched places with Polite Goon; but suddenly he’s
here. And we’re alone.

I
decide to feign sleep; but when I feel the bed slump down beside me I
can’t pretend. I’m not exactly sure what comes over me. I
flip over to face where he’s climbing in beside me and when he
smiles, I pull my foot up, place it on his hip and push.

I
catch him right at the exact moment when he’s almost but not
quite lying down; I’m rewarded with seeing him disappear over
the side and then an audible ‘thump’ as he hits the
bungalow’s floor.

A
second later his head pops up. “What was that for?” He
asks, but I think that he knows, evident by the tiniest of smiles
playing on his indignant expression.

Insufferable
butt-head!

“
You’re
unsanitary,” I say, “This is my bed; I don’t want
bugs or diseases or anything on it. Go sleep in Linnie’s.”

That
wipes that little smile clean off.

“
Raven,”
he whispers in a ‘be reasonable’ tone that makes me want
to kick him again, “We need to talk.”

Yeah
we do, we really do. But honestly, I can’t make myself be
civil. I have absolutely no control over my emotions. “I need
to sleep,” I whisper back, pretending to close my eyes, just
peeking a little.

He
sets his knee on the mattress.

With
one shove he’s back off the bed.

“
What?
Are you
thirteen
?”
He whispers fiercely.

“
Yes,
I’m thirteen. Now leave me alone.” I say.

“
You
shouldn’t be acting this way.”

I
know.

“
And
you definitely shouldn’t be feeling this way.”

I
know!

“
I’m
not feeling any way.” I lie, “Besides tired. Now leave me
alone.”

He
stands beside my bed for a long time; eventually he pulls something
from where it’s hidden in the back of his pants, and lays it
beside my head. A book.

He
flops onto Linnie’s bed and sprawls out, turning his head away.

I
peek at the cover of the book, which I can just barely see in the
moonlight: The Holy Bible.

I
almost want to laugh. Almost.

Hey
sweetheart, sorry I ditched you for a pair of practically naked
floozies; it’s okay, I stole you a BIBLE.

Seriously!
Seriously?

I
roll away from it, but a couple seconds later I sneak my hand out and
slide the Bible from where it’s lying and hide it with my body
from Stephen. I turn to the back and flip through a couple pages but
the small writing is impossible to read in this light. I’d
sneak it to the bathroom, to check if it has the book of Revelation,
but Polite Goon’s door escapade made sneaking into that
bathroom impossible.

“
I
can hear you flipping pages,” Stephen says.

Lying
very still, I even-out my breathing.

“
Your
snores are much louder than that,” he says.

Turning
my head, I peek one glaring eye at him.

He’s
lying there, turned to me, totally, unapologetically, watching me.
And he totally catches me peeking.

Catching
my eye he exhales a breath and closes his eyes. Stephen crawls to the
edge of Linnie’s bed and whispers in a very low voice, “I
did not sleep with that girl. I did no more than dance with her. I
needed an excuse to get away from Kasem seeing everything I do for a
couple hours.” He crawls across the space between our beds, and
this time I don’t shove him off, I’m too busy suppressing
the muscles around my mouth’s plot to betray me.

When
he’s only a couple inches away he whispers, “You should
not care.”

“
I
don’t,” I say while battling the happy little monster
inside of me that wants to come out and do a little dance around the
room.

He
takes my head in his hands. “I’m serious,” he says,
“If I think that you have feelings for me then I
have
to distance myself, and I do not want to do that.”

I
bite my lip. He’s right, I know he’s right; but then in
the same moment I can’t help but notice how beautiful his eyes
are, the blue almost grey. And I can’t help but notice how that
even though his lips pull to one side I’ve never seen such a
strong mouth. And I want to tell him that he is my trap… that
I don’t know what’s happening on this island…I
don’t know what’s going on with the Venom and The Spider
and all those missing greater demons; but I do
know
that he’s the bait and the snare the demons snapped closed
around me. And I am trapped.

Jones
words surface in my mind:
I
would rather this responsibility be on the shoulders of any other
person in the world, than you. A blind, deaf, mentally disabled,
paraplegic lemming would do a better job than you.

And
in this moment, I know that he was right (and not for the first time
I send out a big mental,
Thank
You!
to the universe that Jones is not here).

I
take a steadying breath (which is a mistake, because I breathe in him
and even though he smells like cigarettes and sweat, I want to lean
in closer). “Maybe…” I force out, “You
should.”

Even
though I know it’s ‘The Right’ thing to do, the
moment I say it, I regret it.

Stephen
gives me a straight lipped half-smile and pulls his hands from my
face. “Alright.”

There
are times when I’m seriously glad I can’t cry.
I’m
not sure why I would be crying:
shame?
disappointment? The fact I’m pushing away the only human in
this world who might understand me?
I’m not in love with him (evident by the gates of Hell not
being open), but I am certain that if I could cry, tears would be
trickling down my cheeks.

“
I
still need to tell you what I learned,” he says, not moving
away.

I
swallow and say, “I need to tell you something too.”

“
You’ll
want to hear what I have to say. Can I go first?” he asks.

I
hold back my sigh of relief and nod.

“
May
will meet with you,” he whispers. “She won’t agree
to anything more, but she agreed to meet with you
if
you can lose Kasem tomorrow, in not this coming day but the next, at
noon, in a place she told me about. But we can only go if we lose
Kasem; otherwise her life is at risk.”

“
Seriously,
really, she’ll meet with me? Does that mean…do you
think… she might—?” She’s been avoiding all
contact with me for days, walking away if I get anywhere near her.

“
She
is at least sympathetic—I think she feels guilty.” He
sighs. “She told me she couldn’t do it several times; but
then she agreed to meet with you.”

Not
really knowing what I’m doing, I hug him to me, squeezing
against him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I
whisper. If she’ll meet with me…I’ll at least have
a chance.

“
Didn’t
you want to tell me something, also?” Stephen asks, waking me
up to the fact that I just asked him to give me some distance and now
I’m pressing my body against his on a bed.

I
release him and make myself scoot away from Stephen. “Yeah,”
I say, and then I tell him my theory. It only takes a minute to
explain about what I saw Polite Goon do and the connection between
the venom and the webs; but even before I finish my explanation I can
tell from Stephen’s straight lipped expression that he doesn’t
believe me.

“
It’s
a good theory,” he says.

“
But…?”

“
But,
there is a reason why there are so few powerful Black Magicians in
the world—to gain substantial power you must drink a
substantial amount of demon blood, usually a full vial; the greater
the demon the greater the power. To obtain a vial of demon blood from
a
lesser
demon you have to offer more than your soul. These pills are showing
they have a connection with greater demons—it would be hard to
believe that The Spider could get
one
of them to give up their blood, let alone twenty eight. And the
amount of blood to supply this many people, some people taking a
couple pills a day, even if it was only a drop per pill—he’d
need vials and vials from each greater demon. ”