Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6) (3 page)

“I’m sure school will be fine,” I whispered, and as I said the words, she glanced back at me.

“Are you sure?” she asked, face unduly concerned. It almost seemed like she had an ulterior motive, but what?

“Yes,” I responded, trying to figure out what she was up to. Nothing good, surely.

“Well, that’s good.” She bit her lip, obviously mewling over some kind of thought. “You have someone here to see you.” She spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable so I wouldn’t miss anything. “One of your friends.”

“Oh?” I asked, somewhat taken aback. Was that why she had come to see me? It made sense, but it was still a little strange. Almost everyone I remembered had been in the mental hospital. I couldn’t even think of someone else. The thought made me cold inside. It was why I’d avoided seeing people because as fun as it was awkward as hell to see people I couldn’t remember meeting. Sorry, I shouldn’t cuss, but it was. See, these people acted like they knew me, regaled me with stories about some tricycle accident where I’d careened into the tree in their front lawn or picked all the unripened peaches off their tree.

Only, only I didn’t remember any of it. So I’d nod and laugh, pretending I recalled the memories until it got so awkward I’d try to excuse myself, at which point, my mother would declare she was tired, and we had errands or some other made up thing to do. I’d be whisked home in a heartbeat. Sometimes, we’d stop for ice cream or a cookie, usually at a place I didn’t remember that was supposed to be my favorite.

It was starting to get so I was terrified of doing anything that reminded her of my past. I was ready to move forward with my life. I just wished I knew what that meant. For all I knew, I could be unconscious, my body lying motionless in the medical bay back home. Maybe I had a brain slug. Then again, those were pretty gross and slimy. I’d like to think I’d notice if one was slurping up my brain juices.

“Yeah, Charlie came by. He wants to see you.” She smiled, and it was a fragile thing reminding me of the awkward fluttering flaps of a baby bird leaving its nest for the first time. “It’ll be good for you to get out on a Sunday afternoon.”

“Charlie?” I asked, not sure who she was talking about. The only Charlie I had known had been back in the Dioscuri. He’d been an annoying dweeb who breathed on the back of my neck in class, and well, someone who had wound up saving my life. I wasn’t even quite sure what happened to him. Some friend I was.

“He was our neighbor before you…” she trailed off for a second and bit her lip. “His family moved, but they’re still in town. He’d like to see you. Would that be okay?”

“Sure,” I replied, somewhat curious. Maybe this wasn’t the same Charlie. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, if it was the Charlie I remembered, that would be just another nail in the coffin of my sanity, but if it wasn’t, well, I didn’t know if I was ready to fake having a childhood friend.

My mom brightened like I’d turned on the sun. It made my heart thump in my chest. I wasn’t used to making my mother proud. Who knew all you had to do was be insane for a few years before coming out of your delusions. If I’d known it was that easy, I’d have done it years ago.

“Great!” she said, beckoning for me to follow her into the main room. “I’ll bring you two some cookies and lemonade.”

“Alright,” I said, glancing down at my stomach. If she kept feeding me like this, I was going to turn into Augustus Gloop. Maybe I could go for a run? I had gym clothes and running shoes in my closet. Then again, I hated working out, and well, sweating. I avoided sweat like the plague. Perhaps I could diet? Nothing I ate ever really tasted as good as thin felt, you know, except my mom’s homemade cookies. They made me think being thin could go jump off a cliff.

She must have caught me looking at my stomach because the next thing she said was, “You’re still stick thin, Lillim. I don’t know what they were feeding you, but it’s time to put some meat on your bones.”

Easy for her to say. I was two sizes larger than my supermodel-sized mother. It sort of sucked because, even if this was a fantasy world, she had some really cute outfits, and I couldn’t even pull them past my thighs. Well, I could, but I liked retaining the ability to breathe. Even still, I sometimes thought it might be worth the tradeoff.

We were standing in the living room although I didn’t remember stepping out of my room. Maybe I’d just been paying too much attention to the inch of flab covering my formerly flat stomach. I shook the thought out of my head before I could have a full on melt down. Instead, I ran a hand through my black hair, finger combing it as my mother walked toward the door and opened it.

Her body blocked the person on the other side of the door from view so all I saw was sunlight streaming into the room, framing her in such a way that she seemed dark and foreboding. She spoke to the person in low, hushed tones I couldn’t hear. Probably warning him I was a delicate porcelain doll who would shatter at the slightest provocation.

I took a step closer, and as I did so, she whirled, pulling the door open and revealing Charlie Daniels. He had chiseled features and muscles, actual muscles, straining his black t-shirt. He was taller than I remembered him being. He pushed the blond flop of hair out of his eyes and took a step inside, holding out a cellophane wrapped bouquet of summer flowers, all bright pink and yellow. The plastic wrapping crinkled in his grip as he stared at me, mouth slightly agape.

“I… um… brought you some flowers, Lil,’” he said, his face twisting into an awkward half-smile. His cheeks reddened as I made no movement to take them.

“Thanks,” I murmured, glancing from the flowers to my mom and back again like an overly excited bobble-head. When she made no movement to save me, I stepped forward and tried to take them from him. Our fingers touched, and I swear to everything holy, electricity zipped off his skin and through my brain, instantly turning me into a muttering idiot.

“I remembered you liked the yellow ones,” he added, reaching out with his other hand to pull me into a hug. Alarm filled me as he crushed my body against his own.

“They’re very nice,” I whispered, extricating myself and handing the flowers to my mother. She smiled at me and took them.

“I’ll just go put these in water,” she replied before vanishing into another room and leaving me alone with Charlie. Not cool.

Okay. Okay. I could deal with this. He was just a boy. I was Lillim Callina after all. What was a boy?

Charlie was staring at me when I turned back to him. He smiled, revealing a mouthful of perfectly white teeth and a dimple on his cheek. “Are you ready?” he asked and his magnificent blond eyebrows arched up and down a couple times.

“What?” I replied, my heart hammering in my chest. “Ready for what? What are you planning?” I took a tentative step back, about to bolt into the kitchen where my mom could save me. But from what? Why was I so frightened? That didn’t make sense. He was
just
a boy. Granted, he was incredibly handsome and had featured in some of my fairy tale adventures, but he was still just a boy, right?

I took a deep breath and straightened my back, throwing steel into my spine as he eyed me, his smile growing strained for a split second. He shook his head.

“Your mom asked me to come get you and show you around the school beforehand.” He shrugged, evidently mistaking the look I must have given him with the need for more explanation. “I know, it’s lame, but my mom made me promise. Still, she gave me money for lunch afterward. Let’s just do this, and we can go spend the money on pizza? What do you say?”

“Or we could not go…” I replied, not sure if I was ready for this. Even though it’d been several days, I’d
always
had my mother or father within shouting distance. This would be different. This would be out on my own. What if something happened, and they weren’t there? What if I needed them? What if I woke up and my mom was back to being dead?

I swallowed and shook my head. No, I couldn’t risk it. Too much could go wrong. What if something attacked us, and I couldn’t defend myself because I’d lost my magic?

“We have to go,” Charlie said, stepping past me as my mom appeared from the kitchen sans cookies and lemonade. Had she been waiting just out of sight? Had she lied about the cookies? That was just plain not fair.

“I don’t want to go,” I stated, my voice flat and empty as I spoke. “You can’t make me.” It was then I realized my hands were balled into fists so tight, my knuckles were white with the strain of it. I noticed because Charlie’s eyes swept down, and he took a quick step back, raising his hands in supplication.

“Um, okay?” he said, looking past me to my mom. I whirled just in time to see her reach out and put her hand on my shoulder.

“This will be good for you, Lillim. Can you just try? For me?” The look in her eyes made my heart want to shatter into a million pieces. It wasn’t fair.

“Fine,” I huffed, looking at my white tennis shoes and sighing. She kissed me on the forehead before wrapping me in a hug.

“I’m proud of you, Lillim,” she said, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting beside Charlie in his black BMW. It wasn’t new, maybe five years old, but it was still a BMW and in nearly perfect condition. Charlie evidently took good care of it.

I tried to think back, to remember what happened after she hugged me, but the space between seemed strangely blank. Had I just forgotten it?

Chapter 4

The high school looked almost exactly like how I remembered it, you know, sans cyclopses and crazed police detectives. As we walked through the empty parking lot and toward the school, I stared at the chain-link fence surrounding the campus. Something about it seemed off, only I couldn’t figure out why.

“So that’s the science building,” Charlie said, pointing past me toward the squat building where I remembered taking classes with the red-haired professor. “It’s also where the math classes are.” He shrugged. “You probably remember all of this so I’m not quite sure what we’re supposed to do.”

Charlie looked at me sheepishly, and the look in his eyes told me the truth. He didn’t want to be here with the crazy girl. He did not want to spend his last day of spring break walking around and showing me the sights of a school I supposedly had attended. Fair enough, I didn’t want to be here either.

“You don’t have to stay here,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and turning toward the gym. “I can look around on my own, and you can go do whatever it is you want to do.” I began walking off, but he stayed next to me, his sneakers crunching over the gravel.

“It isn’t like that at all,” he replied with a shrug. “I want to be here with you. I’m just not sure what to do.”

“I’m not going to break,” I told him even though I might. I mean, I wasn’t planning on it, but as I walked closer to the spot where I remembered the cyclops bursting through the doors, I couldn’t help but marvel at how everything was back to normal. The strange thing was, I sort of remembered things going back to normal after the attack, but how was that possible? If there had been a cyclops attack, shouldn’t the damage have stuck around? Or, at least, evidence of it having been fixed?

“I don’t think you’re going to break,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not worried about upsetting you, trust me. If I did, my mom would have my head on a platter.”

I glanced sideways at him. “Nice to know you’re only being nice to me because your mommy told you to.”

“As long as we’re being truthful.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his navy blue jeans. “So how long do we need to stay here before we go get some food?”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that,” I said, moving away from the doors and making my way toward the clock tower in the distance. I didn’t see any signs of battle from here, but maybe I should check and make sure. Even if doing so only cemented the fact I was insane. If I did, at least I’d know, right?

“Doing what?” Charlie asked, following me as I trudged over the grassy hill in the center of campus and made my way toward the giant clock tower. I remembered scaling it from the outside, but as it loomed over me, I wasn’t quite sure how to go about getting to the top. Was it even possible?

“How do you get to the top?” I asked, turning to look at him.

He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes wide as he processed my statement. Evidently, he wasn’t quick on the up take. “To the top?”

“Of the clock tower,” I replied. “I want to go up there.” I turned and pointed at the huge clock above us.

“We’re not supposed to do that…” he trailed off, eyes following my hand. He looked back at me. “I’m not even sure how to go about it.”

“Useless,” I said, moving away from him as I began to walk around the huge stone structure. Surely there was a service door or something with stairs up there.

“Why are you trying to go up there?” Charlie asked, an undercurrent of fear in his voice. Did he think I was freaking out or something? I stopped, a flush rising on my cheeks. That was exactly what he thought. Dammit, I wasn’t freaking out, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a cyclops up there and oh my God, maybe I was freaking out.

I stopped so suddenly, Charlie bumped into me, his hand brushing against mine and that same zing of electricity ripped over my flesh. I stared down at the spot where he’d touched me as he stood there looking at me like the crazy person I was.

“I’m acting crazy, aren’t I?” I murmured, glancing away from his face. It was annoying because I wound up staring at his chest, its hard lines of muscle barely concealed by his thin shirt.

“A little,” he said, reaching out and very carefully touching my hand. “But if you want to go up top of a building, we can always climb up onto the gym.”

“Onto the gym?” I asked, looking up at him. His slightly too big lips were quirked into a mischievous smile.

“Yeah, I’ve never done it, but I’ve heard kids do sometimes.” He shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to try.”

A shiver ran through me at the thought. The idea of climbing the gym was strangely exhilarating although I didn’t know why. Was it just because I’d totally be able to see if there were monsters around from there? I didn’t think so, but maybe that was why… or maybe it was just because the way Charlie looked at me made my heart do a little flip flop.