Fifteen

Cole

A lot had happened since I'd seen Bobby. But I wasn't sure I needed to tell him everything. Not because I wanted to keep secrets from him but because it was all really fucking weird, and I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around it all. I looked at the wall I'd made that had all the information I'd gathered.

"It looks like a crime scene investigation," I mumbled to myself as I continued to stare at it. In the center was the poem or whatever the fuck it was, I'd heard on repeat since that first day. I had managed to figure out a few things, but I still wasn't sure how it was all connected.

"Any luck?" Mom asked when she walked in a few minutes later. She folded her arms and stood looking at it all while standing next to me.

"Not really, but thanks for telling me all you did. It might end up helping more than we realize."

"You might try to find Nox; he could have more information about what happened that summer. He left town afterward, and I haven't seen him here since, but Anna Avery might be able to help you."

"Miss Avery?" I asked. We lived in a small town, but I had never once heard my mom mention anything about her.

"Yes, she's Nox's aunt."

"Tell me again what happened. I just can't believe all of this is connected, and I don't want to get anyone else involved until we know everything is connected." I thought about my plans to meet with Bobby and about all the chances I'd had the past two weeks to tell him what my mom had told me, but he was involved by chance, and I didn't want to tangle him in this mess any more than he already was.

She took a deep breath and glanced toward the door. I knew she was checking to see if Dad was there, but he was at work. They'd all been involved that summer, and she knew he wouldn't like the fact she was bringing it back up. "The summer we all graduated high school your father, Nox, and I spent a lot of time together. We'd all grown up here together, but until the last month of school none of us had been all that close. Egan and I had exchanged a few looks but nothing more. Just enough to let the other know we liked what we saw."

"Ew," I said, making her laugh.

"We weren't always this old," she said with a laugh.

"I know, go on," I encouraged her and forced myself not to grimace.

"Nox had always been quiet and a little weird. He seemed to prefer to be alone, and no one I knew had ever gone to his home or had him over to theirs. Don't get me wrong, Anna is lovely, but Nox's mother was not."

"Did he live with Miss Avery?"

"Not until after graduation. Then his mom just disappeared one night. Some of the townsfolk thought she had a secret lover in another town, but others thought Nox's father had returned and taken her with him, but I don't think either is what really happened." She gave me a look that made my blood run cold, and I struggled to say the words I knew she was thinking.

"You think she's dead," I finally managed to choke out.

She glanced down at the floor and drew her lips tight while drawing in a deep breath. "I'm not sure, but I know she didn't leave because she wanted to. That woman never left their house. She had Nox do the shopping and if he needed help Anna pitched in where she could, but something definitely wasn't right in their home. After she left Nox went to live with Anna, but like I said he left at the end of summer."

"You said the three of you were together more that summer."

"Yeah, we partied a little but mostly we tried to help him with a spell he was working on." Her eyes met mine then she waited for my reaction. When she'd first told me the story, I hadn't been sure what she was saying.

"He practiced witchcraft."

"Yes, or something like it. It wasn't like he had a book of magic or anything like that. He said a voice told him what to do and how to do it to gain more power."

"Was he schizophrenic?" I had no experience with mental illness, and for a while I thought that's what was making me hear the voice in my head, but now I wasn't so sure.

"No. There was nothing wrong with him, just like there's nothing wrong with you. The only difference is he was seeking the power, and he was being guided by a voice he managed to convince us would lead us to power and riches."

"What kind of power?" I asked.

"Well, teenage me didn't understand that part, but I did understand the riche's part and to an eighteen-year-old who still wasn't sure where their life was going that sounded pretty good. Until we went to the carnival." Her eyes met mine then, and even though I'd heard this, it still made me nervous about hearing it again.

"When we first got there, we rode a few rides, ate some food, we even played a few games. But we soon realized the reason Nox wanted to go was to see the fortune teller. He had decided that she could tell him the way to follow the voices in his head and gain the power he wanted."

"Why did you and Dad go along with it? I mean he didn't make you go. You could have just left."

She shrugged her shoulder. "We were stupid kids and honestly, I was curious. I'd never been to a fortune teller, so I wanted to see what it was all about."

"Okay so tell me again what she said." I'd heard this a few times now, but it still creeped me out. I always thought of my parents as hard-working, logical people. Apparently not so much when they were younger.

"She was standing outside her tent when we walked by. Nox locked eyes with her, and it was almost like they were having a silent conversation. She nodded before walking over and holding the tent open for us. There was a table in the center of the tent, and I remember thinking how cheesy it was. But that was before she spoke. ‘With a flash of blue.'"