Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (21 page)

“So what should I
do?” Jimmy asked.

“Don’t go there to
talk to him alone.   Bring George, or wait and I’ll go with you.  We can bring
my husband for added safety,” she said.  “Go see the teacher.  See her after
school today, if you can.  Just leave the confrontations for a later time.  I
don’t want you to end up missing, or part of some new vanishing hitchhiker
story.  This town has enough ghosts.”

Jimmy’s shoulders
sank. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

“I know.  Trust
your friend George, and trust Warren and me.  We’ve been there, and we know the
territory a bit.”

Jimmy sighed and
shook his head.  “I guess I’d better get going.”

Tabitha gave a
weak smile that Jimmy guessed was her way of trying to be reassuring.  It
wasn’t entirely successful.

“We’ll figure this
out,” she said.

Jimmy nodded and
then turned and walked out the office door.

“Call me if you
hear back from the FBI contacts or anything else,” Jimmy said.

Jimmy turned away
and pushed his way through the glass door.  He headed out into the hallway and
walked through the building.  The walls felt cold and the world felt like it
was spinning out of control beneath him.  It seemed like every turn and
everything he found just sent them flying off in another direction and led to
more questions.  He had just wanted to go to a dance, and now he was involved
in a mystery that might have involved a murder and some very powerful people.

Maybe he should
just give up.  Maybe he should just abandon this whole thing and try to get
back to his regular life.  Except, of course, that was impossible.  He had now
crossed the powerful people who owned the school hallways.  He had placed a
target directly on his back.  Nothing about his life was ever going to be the
same.

Jimmy opened the
door into the sunlight and blinked up at the sky.  What was next?  He had
started the day excited, and now he felt betrayed and crushed.

He moved around to
the side of the building and unlocked his bicycle.  It felt like a long way to
ride home.  He started pedaling, making his way out of the downtown area, and
was soon riding up and down the hills and around the curves and across the
wooded areas.  Above him the sun shone and the sky was a dazzling blue.  It was
a day that he would normally dream about and wish he could take the day off. 
Now he had the day off, and he felt sick.  He just wanted to crawl back into
bed.

Jimmy was lost in
thought when he heard the sound of a vehicle coming up the road behind him. 
Jimmy made sure he was as far over to the side of the road as possible.  The
engine of the vehicle got louder and Jimmy waited for it to pass on his left,
his eyes down, watching the tires of his bicycle.  When the engines began
revving, he became puzzled and turned to look behind him.  His eyes went wide.

Devlin Little’s
black pickup truck was bearing down on him.

Jimmy’s
eyes went wide.  The pickup truck had looked big when it was sitting in the
parking lot of the library, and now it looked like a Sherman tank as it bore
down on him.  Jimmy began pedaling with all of his might, his breath wheezing
in and out of his chest as his heart went into overdrive and his body suddenly
surged with adrenaline.  He had never felt such terror as he did at that
moment.  He could hear the roaring engine from the truck as it drove directly
for him.  Jimmy looked back and could just see Devlin Little’s face, a mask of
rage and pure hatred with the merest hint of a smile, behind the wheel. 

Jimmy got as far
over to the right as he could.  He looked to his right and saw that there was a
steep hill that led down to the line of trees encroaching the road.  It would
be a hard fall.  Jimmy could see roots and fallen branches and jutting rocks
seemingly everywhere on the steep incline. 

Jimmy cast a
glance behind and saw that the truck was nearly upon him.  He could see the
shiny radiator grille so clearly, the blue sky and bright sun reflected in the
polished metal.  How much of a dent would he and his bike make on that piece of
steel, he wondered.  Would there even be a dent when Devlin hit him?  Would the
front of the truck be covered with blood and hair and other gory things that
Jimmy dared not think about too carefully?

Jimmy rode back
over to the other side of the road.  The drop was a little less intense here. 
In fact, it was almost worn down, almost enough that Jimmy could probably ride
on it.  It was enough that he did not think about it any more than that.  He
turned the bike hard to his left and began bouncing down the slope that led
into the forest beyond.

Behind him the
truck roared past.  Jimmy felt stones and bits of gravel slam into the back of
his head and across his shoulders.  He heard the squealing of brakes as Devlin
brought the truck to an abrupt halt.  He heard curses from the open window and
then heard the door open.

Jimmy held on to
the handlebars of his bike for dear life.  The ground beneath was not studded
with rocks and branches, but it was not even and it was not meant to be ridden
upon.  He felt as if he were about to go headfirst over the bike and into the
trees.  He prayed and held on, barely controlling the descent.  The trees loomed
up fast and he swerved around a huge tree trunk that he could have sworn wasn't
there when he had decided upon this rather ridiculous course of action.

Jimmy heard Devlin
hurling curses at him from the road behind.  He could not make out any of the
words.  All he could hear was the crunching of his tires on the dirt and gravel
and general wilderness around him and the sound of his own heartbeat.  Both of
them were deafening. 

There was an
explosion from behind him.  Jimmy nearly fell off the bike, and the sound made
him swerve.  Suddenly the tree trunk he had been so worried about exploded into
a thousand splinters and shards.  Jimmy reached the edge of the tree line and
the bright sunlight was gone.  His heart was still racing.  He hadn’t had a
moment to process what had just happened.  When he did, his blood felt like
ice.

Devlin Little had
just taken a shot at him. 

Judging by the
size of the explosion, Little had shot at him with a shotgun. 

Yes, this man was
unhinged and very, very serious.

Jimmy pedaled. 
The momentum from the ride down the hill sent him off like a bullet into the
trees.  His front tire hit a huge tree root and he nearly lost the bike again
as the front end went up into the air. Jimmy had never popped a wheelie before,
but he managed to hold on.  He swerved, dodging around another tree, and then a
branch hit him in the face. 

The world suddenly
upended.  Jimmy saw the sky and the trees, and then everything was upside
down.  He fell hard on his back, all of the air in his lungs erupting from his
mouth and he gasped for air, rolling around on his back like a turtle that had
been turned on its side.  He was terrified all over again, feeling as if a hand
were squeezing his lungs.  It went on for what felt like an eternity, looking
up through the tree branches at the sky that had never felt so far away.  Then
Jimmy's lungs caught air and he inhaled in great, whooping gasps.  Some part of
his mind told him to be quiet, to keep it down since Devlin was right behind
him and had a shotgun, but his lungs told him that he needed to shut up and
inhale the cool, sweet air in great, shuddering gasps.

Jimmy got to his
feet when his breathing returned to something resembling normal. The world swam
in and out of focus.  His head hurt again.  He reached up and felt his head;
his bandage was all askew.  He looked down at himself and saw that his shirt
and pants were torn and he was covered with leaves.

Jimmy heard a
sound from behind and ducked behind the first tree trunk he could find.  He
squatted down, trying to push past the pain that seemed to be trying its best
to envelop him completely.  He peered around the trunk.

The first thing
Jimmy noticed was how dark it was.  He had managed to get farther into the
trees than he had thought.  There was sunlight, but it was strangely diffuse. 
He went by these trees every day of his life, but he’d never thought about just
how thick and dense the forest was until the forest was all that was saving his
life. 

The second thing
he saw was a shadow.  The shadow was in the shape of a man, and it was coming
from the direction of the road.  It didn't take much for Jimmy to understand
that this was Devlin.  The man was moving slowly, trying hard not to step on
any branches and give away his position. Given the pickup truck, Devlin’s
general attitude, and the shotgun, Jimmy made an educated guess that the man
was probably a hunter.  He would be familiar with the woods and how to operate
in them.

Jimmy looked to
his left and saw his bicycle.  It would be suicide to try and get back on that
thing and try to ride out of here. At the same time, he had to get out and
bring his bike back. If he didn't he would have a lot of explaining to do, and
there just wasn't enough in his vocabulary to come close to making up a lie to
his own mother about what had happened today.  He would have to push the bike
until he reached a road.  Jimmy did not like the idea very much.  The bike
would slow him down.  He decided it might be best to just crouch here and try
to make himself as invisible as possible.  Maybe Devlin Little would just walk
past and give up.

Jimmy peered
around the tree again.  Devlin was moving directly towards the wrecked bike,
stepping carefully so as not to cause much noise.  Jimmy had to admit that the
guy was good.  He had not heard Devlin step on any twigs or make any noise. 
The thought of Devlin’s den being filled with animal heads and stuffed
carcasses immediately filled Jimmy’s imagination, along with the image of his
own head mounted on that same wall.  Jimmy shuddered and exhaled carefully. 
Devlin was maybe ten feet away, moving away from where Jimmy had sought
shelter.

Just how good was
Devlin? Jimmy wondered as he bit his lower lip.  Had Jimmy left tracks from the
bike accident to where he was?  He had images from a hundred movies and TV
shows where some faithful Native American companion could track prey across
rocks and over rivers and through insane terrain just by a slightly bent blade
of grass.

Devlin bent and
looked at the wreckage of Jimmy’s bike.  He studied it for a time and then
stood up.  He looked around, and Jimmy ducked quickly behind the tree trunk
when Devlin’s head turned toward him.  He held his breath.  There was a noise
then, a strange snapping sound, much louder than Jimmy thought would have come from
Devlin.  Devlin had shown he could be a silent as a shadow.

Jimmy quickly
peeked out from behind the tree.  Devlin was facing the opposite direction from
where Jimmy was hiding.  The sound had come from there.  Devlin was scanning ahead
of him, his head turning from side to side as if scanning things intently. 
Then he crouched, the shotgun cradled in his arms.

“You can come out
now,” Devlin said.  “I heard you.  I can spend the rest of the afternoon trying
to sneak up on you, or you can come out and we can take care of this.  If you
make me sneak around in these woods all afternoon, I am just going to get even
more pissed off than I already am.  You don’t want that, boy.”

There was another
snapping sound, and then something that sounded like feet running through the
leaves.  Devlin jumped and stood up again.  He listened a minute more as the
sound faded off into the distance.

“Come back here,
boy!” Devlin screamed.  “Get back here.  We have a score to settle!”

He ran off into
the woods.  Jimmy held his breath again and listened as the man’s screams and
shouts and curses faded away.  Soon he was left with just the sound of the
breeze in the branches over his head and the sound of insects buzzing around
him. 

Go
, a voice said in Jimmy’s head.  That familiar static reverberated
around his skull.

Sapphire?
Jimmy asked.

Who else?

Was that you
making the noises that drove him away?

Yes
, was the reply. 
Don’t bother asking how, though, because I’m
not entirely sure.  Just move before he comes back.

Jimmy got to his
feet and ran over to his bike.  He grabbed the handlebars and lifted the bike
upright.  The front tire was bent slightly, but the bike was far from un-rideable
and unfixable.  Jimmy had spare rims back at home that would do in a pinch.  He
immediately began pushing his bicycle back the way he had come. 

Was he one of
the ones that hurt you?
Jimmy asked into the static
that still filled his brain.

I think so
, Sapphire replied. 
It’s so hard to know.  It’s like wearing a
blindfold behind a veil while in thick fog sometimes, Jimmy.  I don’t know why
I think this, but I can’t help but feel that there’s something over here that
doesn’t want me to know the answers to these questions.

Jimmy didn’t like
the sound of that at all. 

He moved slowly,
trying to be a quiet as he could, but it wasn’t easy with the bicycle.  Several
times he thought he heard Devlin running up behind him and turned, expecting to
see the barrel of a shotgun leveled at him, but each time the woods were
empty.