Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (37 page)

The buzzing
started in Jimmy's head and quickly grew to a skull-splitting level.  Jimmy
grimaced, but did not put his hands to his head like he felt he should.  He
stared hard at Devlin.

"Tell me what
you did!" Jimmy yelled.

There was another
flash of light.  This time, a lightbulb in the ceiling exploded in a flash of
rainbow-colored light.  It lit up the walls of the cell, reflecting off the
bars for a moment, and then stopped.  Devlin let out a kind of wail and then
put his hands to his mouth.

Stop, Jimmy
, Jimmy heard the voice in his head say.  Sapphire was pleading with
him now. 
Stop.

"But he did
this to you," Jimmy said out loud, not caring how insane he looked talking
to himself.  "I have to get him to tell me what he did."

"Please,"
Devlin cried.  "Please, leave me alone!  Leave me alone!  Leave my family
alone!"

It wasn't him,
Sapphire said into Jimmy's mind.
I don't know who it was, but I
do know that it wasn't him.  Nothing about him feels right, and the memories
haven't come.  Jimmy, he may have killed George, but he didn't kill me.  He was
there, I know it, but it wasn't him.

How can you be
sure?
Jimmy thought, closing his eyes and shutting
out the pathetic sight of Devlin Little rocking and mewling and crying on the
floor, snot running from his nose and drool dripping from his chin. 
How can
you be sure of anything?

You have to
trust me,
Sapphire said. 
And doing this is
wrong.  Protecting us is one thing, but destroying what remains of a man's
sanity is another.  No matter what he's done.

Jimmy opened his
eyes and looked at the man.  He was terrified beyond words.  Whatever remained
of Devlin Little's sanity was fading.  Jimmy doubted that the man would stand
trial for what happened to George.  He would start ranting and raving about
Jimmy flying and opening up portals and shooting lightning from his fingers;
add in the whole idea that Jimmy was a wizard or demon, and any doctor would
declare him insane.

Jimmy sighed and
turned away.  Tabitha saw the look on his face and put a hand on his arm and
stopped him.

"Where are
you going?" she asked.

Jimmy shook his
head. "Sapphire says he didn't do it.  You know how this works.  Whenever
we hit on something that falls into place, her memories come back.  This puzzle
piece does not fit right.  Devlin was there, but I don't think he killed her."

Tabitha's mouth
dropped open.  "What if she's wrong?"

"She
isn't," Jimmy said.

"Well, can't
you find out what he does know?" Tabitha said, looking back at the
hysterical man. "If you can bend reality, can't you pretty much do
anything?  Read his mind or something?"

Jimmy shrugged. 
"I don't know, but look at him, Tabitha.  This isn't what these abilities
were supposed to be for.  It's one thing to protect ourselves and to try to
find out who killed Sapphire, but it's another thing entirely to destroy the
mind of a mean old man who apparently already has some issues and is near the
breaking point."

"You buried a
man up to his neck in the ground," Tabitha said.  "You told me you
opened up a portal between dimensions and dropped a guy into it.  Now you
suddenly have lines you won't cross?"

"Sapphire
won't cross them," Jimmy said.  "And the power only has those
abilities when we work together.  Besides, that was using the power to try and
protect all of us."

Jimmy looked down.

"I failed at
it," he said.

Tabitha sighed. 
She cast another glance back into Devlin Little's cell.  The man was weeping
and holding his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth.  He had never
looked less like the confident businessman and community leader than he did
right now.  Now he looked sad and pathetic.

"OK,"
Tabitha said.  "Now what?"

"Let's drop
the skull off with the sheriff and get it tested,” Jimmy said. “I don't know
how we're going to confirm it's Sapphire's, but maybe we can at least confirm
that it's a female and about her age."

Tabitha nodded,
but there was a mixture of confusion and sadness in her eyes.  Jimmy could
tell, right then and there, that if the power had been within Tabitha, she
would have pushed Devlin Little.  If necessary, she would have pushed him into
catatonia to get whatever he knew.

"We're really
back to square one," she said.

"I
know," Jimmy said.  "And I am not happy about it, but let's regroup
and see what we can find."

Tabitha agreed. 
Jimmy led the way.  On the way out, he knocked on the sheriff's door and gave
him the skull.  Tabitha and Jimmy explained what they were hoping to find out
and the sheriff said he would get a state forensics team on it right away and
do what he could to rush the results. 

After that, Jimmy
and Tabitha left the building, evil stares from the receptionist following in
their wake. They headed to the car, and when Jimmy got in he laid his head back
and closed his eyes.  His head was pounding and he could still tell that
Sapphire was agitated.

I stopped
, he said to her in his mind.

I know
, she replied. 
Thank you.  I'm sorry that I don't know more,
Jimmy.  As I have said before, I'm not sure why things work this way here, but
that's how it is.

I know
, Jimmy said. 
I understand.  I'm just tired.  Our little act the
other day really wore me out.  Just using the little bit of this power in there
has just about wiped me out again.  I don't think the human body is built to
manipulate things like this.

I'm sorry
, Sapphire said. 
All of this is my fault.

No
, Jimmy replied. 
It was meant to happen.  Can't you feel that,
too?  That we were meant to find each other?  That the power was always within
us, and that it was only a matter of time before we connected and it was fully
unleashed?

Yes
, Sapphire said, but with sadness in her voice.
 I wish we had
met before, well, you know.

I do, too.  I
wish none of this stuff had happened and we had had a nice normal
relationship.  Guess that wasn’t meant to be.

There was silence
between the two of them for a moment.  Then Jimmy heard a noise that he guessed
was the otherworldly version of a sigh.  Then he thought he heard a soft sob. 
He felt his heart clench.

Nothing about
us is normal
, he thought.

I know
, Sapphire said. 
I think I need to go for a while.

Tabitha and I
are heading back to the house
, Jimmy thought.  He
was so tired now. 
I think I need to sleep.  I'm exhausted.  Then we need to
figure out what to do next.

Sapphire did not
reply.  The buzzing in Jimmy's head just stopped, as if a switch had been
thrown, and his thoughts were, once again, his own.  It was amazing how he had
gotten used to that buzzing in his head.  It was like living next to the
airport—you eventually got used to he sound of airplanes taking off and
landing.  Now, with the silence, save for his own thoughts, he realized how
much he had missed the general quietness of thinking on his own.  He loved
Sapphire, but having someone inside your head was tiring.

"Everything
OK?" Tabitha said as she rounded a corner.

Jimmy nodded. 
"Just having a discussion with Sapphire about how insane our relationship
is. She's gone for the moment."

Tabitha looked
over at Jimmy with concern.  "You look exhausted."

"Yes,"
Jimmy replied.  "I don't think the human body, or mind, is meant to have
the kind of power that Sapphire and I share.  Every time I use it, it wears me
out.  The other day, when George was shot, it nearly put me into a coma, I
think.  The small amount of energy I just used back there at the jail has worn
me out."

"We'll get
back home," Tabitha said, "and you can rest."

"Any bright
ideas of where we should go next and what avenues to take?" Jimmy asked.

Tabitha shrugged. 
"Nothing yet.  Just a few thoughts about maybe trying to find Sapphire's
family.  I think they should know what we've found, and they may need to
provide DNA samples."

"All we've
found is a skull that may or may not be their daughter's," Jimmy said. 
"If it turns out not to be, it would probably shatter them all over
again.  Plus, everything else we've found has been a dead end."

"Don't give
up hope on me," Tabitha said.  "We only have a few more days where we
can get away with this, you know.  At some point you actually are going to have
to go back to school."

Jimmy groaned. 
"Great, then I can head back to school and everyone can either be afraid
of me or hate me.  I don't have a clue how I’m going to survive it without
George there."

That put a damper
on the rest of the conversation.  They sat in silence as they drove the rest of
the way home.  Jimmy closed his eyes and said a silent prayer that when he
slept, he would not dream.

His
prayers, however, were not answered.  This time, the dreams were not coherent. 
His mind jumped from one image and scene to another. Each time the dream
started over, he was back in the car, driving, and something was behind them.
Sapphire sat in the seat next to him; sometimes she was fearful, sometimes she
was eager and excited, and sometimes she seemed to smile at him with a look
that Jimmy could only define as evil.  In the backseat was either Jesse or no
one, except for one time, when he had looked in the rearview mirror and seen
George, his face pale and blood running out of a hole in his chest.

In each case, the
car would crash.  He would sometimes be in the woods.  Other times he would be
stuck in the muddy banks of the river as if he had been thrown from the car and
over the bridge.  Sometimes he would awaken beside the road on his back,
looking up at the blackness above him.

In each dream he
staggered to his feet and heard Sapphire screaming.  However, it varied who was
holding Sapphire.  Her dress was often torn and hanging off one shoulder. 
Sometimes she was bloody and beaten.  Sometimes Devlin Little was holding her
by her throat. Sometimes it was Stan Little.  Sometimes it was a faceless
creature that towered over both of them with bright red eyes and a mouth filled
with sharp white teeth. Once, it was Jesse holding her and smiling at Jimmy,
his face contorted into that of the monster with red eyes and rows and rows of
sharp teeth.

"Sheep's
clothing," the thing with Jesse's face said.  "We're all just wolves
in sheep's clothing, Jimmy. And all of us have teeth.  Especially over here. 
All of us have teeth and all of us bite."

Then the thing
with Jesse's face opened its huge mouth, its eyes glowing so brightly that
Jimmy had to raise his hand and shield his eyes. The thing leaned in and took a
huge bite out of Sapphire's neck.  Sapphire screamed Jimmy's name, and then
blackness engulfed the entire scene. 

After that one,
Jimmy awoke in his bedroom.  He was completely wrapped in the blankets and the
bed beneath him was drenched in sweat.  His hair was plastered to the top of
his head, and his heart was hammering like a fist on a door inside his chest.
He was breathing hard.

He sat up in bed
and looked at the window.  It was late in the afternoon.  He had slept for a
couple of hours, he guessed.  His mind felt wrung out and he was still
exhausted.  His skin looked pale when he looked down at his arms.  The buzzing
in his head was still gone, and he did not call out for Sapphire.  He was,
however, overwhelmed with one thought.

He needed to talk
to Jesse.

Jesse was the one
flaw in the story that they had pieced together.  Sapphire felt that he was
lying.  Tabitha didn't buy the librarian's story, either.  They hadn’t gotten a
straight story from him.  Jesse knew what had happened and had, apparently, fed
them a line.  With Devlin Little in jail, Jesse no longer had any reason be
afraid.  Jimmy needed to speak with the man who had been his friend and find
out the truth.

Jimmy got dressed
and grabbed a jacket, and then headed down the stairs.  He could hear Tabitha
in the kitchen.  It sounded like she was on the telephone.  Jimmy found his
shoes near the door.  However, when he bent over to tie his shoes, the floor
creaked loudly.  A moment later, Tabitha was in the doorway.  One look at her
and Jimmy forgot all about trying to sneak out, and he stared hard into
Tabitha's eyes.

"What?"
he asked.

Tabitha still held
the phone receiver in her hand.  Her face was pale and her mouth was drawn downward.

"Devlin
Little," Tabitha said.  Then her mouth opened and closed a bit and she
shook her head.

"What?"
Jimmy repeated.

"He's
dead," Tabitha said, almost in a whisper.  "He killed himself in his
cell."