Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) (27 page)

Arianna’s false annoyance and ignorance was convincing.  She was proud of her newfound acting abilities and would have believed her if she were they.  Still, her heart pounded in her ears and she felt her breakfast rush to the back of her throat.

Scott leveled his brown eyes at her again as if trying to read her mind.  She swore she saw the same flash of amber she’d seen the night of the party.  She’d dismissed it then as a reflection of the trashcan bonfire.  But now she knew it was something else entirely. 
The light in his eyes was as good as a poker tell.  He was using his powers, perhaps trying to influence her and coax a confession from her.  She did not feel the slightest tug within her which meant whatever he was trying to do, he was failing miserably at.

“Well?” she said with an arrogant smirk.  “I don’t have all day.”

He hesitated a moment then checked the time on his phone. 

“Why were you talking to that little freak?” he asked her
and changed the subject, clearly trying to throw her off kilter.  She had not had an answer ready so she went with the stock
I’m-going-to-deflect-your-stupid-question-with-another-stupid-question
answer. 

“Why wouldn’t I talk to her?”

He screwed his features up at her, crinkling his nose in a way she supposed other girls found charming.  She felt her stomach churn. 

“She’s not one of us,” he spat as if he believed that to be a bad thing.  “She’s just a strange little
girl.”

“So I can’t talk to strange little girls?” she asked defiantly.

“Talk to whoever you want, but don’t waste your time with Beth.  I know what you’re thinking,” he said and smiled condescendingly.

“Oh you do, do you?” she challenged.  “Okay, what am I thinking?”

She could hardly wait to hear the nonsense he was going to spew.  He held about as much psychic power as a call-in charlatan peddling bullshit abilities in a late-night commercial. 

“You think she’s one of us.  She gives off that odd vibe, like a little electric current,”
he said and for once, was spot-on.  “But she is nothing.  Trust me, we checked.  We thought the same thing when we first met her.”

“I never thought she was,” Arianna said and doubted she sounded at all
persuasive.  “So what were you accusing me of before,” she said and hoped to switch gears.  Unfortunately, that was the only subject she’d been capable of blurting out, the very subject she’d wanted to avoid. 

“Jess and Josh never came home last night,” Scott said and attempted his weighty gaze again. 

“So?” she said.  “What does that have to do with me?”

“They’re missing,” he enunciated each syllable as if her were speaking to a child.

“Maybe they’re off torturing children,” she said in the same tone he’d used, pronouncing each word and exaggerating each syllable.  “You guys seem to like doing shit like that.”  She smiled and wrinkled her nose as he had moments earlier.

“You think you’re so clever, Arianna Rose, but if I find out you had anything to do with this, you’re dead.  You understand me?”

She knew she had to act as if his words were hollow, his threat without merit, but a dark, sinister forced brushed against her skin, licking at her with its serpentine tongue.  Her insides crawled, revolted by the sensation. 

Scott took a step
toward her and the feeling grew stronger.  “You see, Agnon may think you’re something special.  I still don’t know why.  But here’s the thing: I don’t give a damn what Agnon thinks.  No one fucks with one of my people,” he hissed inches from her ear.

Arianna turned her head and looked directly in his eyes.  “O
kay
.  Thanks for the warning,” she eyed him as though he were crazy to maintain her casual appearance.  Meanwhile, her insides were screaming for her to get as far away from him as fast as she possibly could.  “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind, but I have to get to class right now.  Unless you want to accuse me of global warming or John F. Kennedy’s assassination, I’ll see you later.  Try not to kill anyone until then, okay, pumpkin,” she winked and patted his cheek patronizingly.

Scott narrowed his eyes at her and his mouth formed a hard line.  She could practically feel his insides teeming with fury; feel the heat of his boiling blood.  She’d mocked him openly and she knew he wanted to punish her within an inch of her life because of it.

As she walked away, Arianna had to make a conscious effort to keep her legs from collapsing beneath her.  Both felt as if they were made of gelatin.  He knew she was involved in Jess and Josh’s disappearance and he was pissed.  He wanted to kill her.  That much was plain.  Even now, she could feel his eyes trained on her, drilling into the back of her skull hatefully. 

Any hope for surviving the day began to falter.  She’d be lucky if she survived the next hour.  But her life was not what she concerned herself with.  She was worried for Desmond.

Chapter 18

Agnon gazed out the bay window in the living room of Scott’s house and watched as snow continued to fall.  A layer of white already blanketed the picturesque neighborhood, draping on boughs and lampposts as perfectly as it would have if it had been painted by an artist’s hand.  The entire landscape before him begged to be put on a canvas, in fact.  Puffs of white smoke plumed from the chimneys of several houses and warm golden light glowed in the windows.  Dusk had not befallen the area yet, but it was coming soon.  The world beyond the windowpane was swathed in the preternatural glow of newly fallen snow and impending twilight.  The view was breathtaking.

He would have thought himself bor
ed with snow.  After all, he did live in one of the coldest, snowiest locations on the planet.  But where he called home was less hospitable than Hallowed Hills, and far less inhabited.

People filled this part of the world and
made use of every little act of nature, found a way to make it pleasurable for themselves, a fact that fascinated him almost as much as it amused him. 

He watched as a school bus pulled to the far end of the street and several children climbed off.  The
y immediately dropped their backpacks and began playing in the snow, scooping up mounds and forming them into balls, lying in it and making snow angels.  As he watched, he could not help but think about how human beings certainly knew how to take advantage of the world around them.  And they knew how to exploit every resource and bleed it dry. 

Enjoy yourselves, fools.  This will likely be the last winter you ever see
, Agnon thought as he stroked his silky beard.

He lingered by the window for several moments, watching the children play, until Scott’s Jeep Cherokee made its way down Merryville Road
then turned in to the driveway. The sound of the garage door opening was followed by the rumble of the SUV’s engine beneath his feet.  Seconds later, heavy footsteps could be heard stomping up the steps. 

“Hello Scott,” Agnon greeted Scott before he stepped into the room.  “Lovely day, isn’t it?”

“No,” Scott snapped huffily.  “I hate driving in this crap!  It’s so annoying!”

Scott was not Agnon’s
favorite among the younger warlocks he’d met, but he was fearless and arrogant, traits Agnon respected and admired, traits that mirrored his own.

“Now, now, it isn’
t that bad,” Agnon said calmly. “Besides, doesn’t that monstrous contraption you drive have four-wheel drive?”

“Yeah it does, but it doesn’t matter.  You can’t get traction in this sloppy shit!”  Scott blustered and dropped his backpack to the floor dramatically.  “And why the hell are we talking about the
weather and shooting the breeze all nonchalantly when two of our own are missing.”

“
I am a bit concerned, I’ll admit, but you have to ask yourself: are they really missing?” Agnon asked and did not acknowledge Scott’s haughty tone.  “They are teenagers.  Perhaps they’ve gone off on their own on a road trip or done something impetuous like that.”

“Impetu-what?  Speak English!  Or at least speak like a normal person!  Damn, you and your
fancy talk,” Scott ranted.

Agnon felt the slow roll of his insides as they began to simmer at Scott’s increasingly disrespectful tone.  How dare he address an elder in such a voice, and with such vulgar language?  And he was not just any elder.  He was Agnon, the most powerful living warlock.  Perhaps Scott needed to be reminded
of his place in the order of their kind. 

“I know Arianna had somethin
g to do with it too, by the way,” Scott continued.

Agnon shot him a look of disapproval and hoped it would end the conversation about Arianna then and there.  But Scott persisted.  “She is involved and I know it.  Who else could it be?”

“It is not Arianna.  She is with us,” Agnon assured him in a stern voice that left little room for argument. 

“She sure as hell doesn’t seem like she’s with us,” Scott
bickered and Agnon felt his insides begin to teem with molten, fevered energy.

“She will be when the time comes,” Agnon raised his voice, the sound of it filling the room intimidatingly. 

“Look, man, I know she’s your little pet, or maybe you have some kind of old man boner for her but,” Scott stormed, but Agnon raised his hand and silenced him mid-sentence.  Pure, white-hot energy branched between Agnon’s fingertips making it look as though a small lightning storm were raging among them and, using only his powers, he gripped Scott’s throat.  Scott gasped and choked as if his windpipe were being crushed. 

“Silence!” Agnon boomed.  “How dare you sp
eak to me that way?  You are an insolent, insignificant part of our movement.  I could kill you now, do you know that?  Oh, of course you know that.  You can’t breathe right now, can you?  And if I don’t stop what I’m doing, you will pass out and die of oxygen deprivation,” Agnon said levelly.  “Oops!  There I go using big words again.  Shall I give you the rundown of what everything means?  It may take a while, I must warn you.”

Scott’s face had turned an unhealthy shade of magenta and his hands clutched his throat. 
A thrill of delight raced up Agnon’s spine.  While he did not enjoy harming his own kind, he did enjoy putting others in their rightful place.  Scott’s hands and his powers were useless.  Agnon’s powers surpassed all others and would until the full strength of the Sola’s powers revealed itself. 

“Raise your hand if you wish to live,” he ordered Scott.

Scott raised his hand feebly and Agnon relaxed his invisible grip just a bit. 

“When we take the school and begin to execute the students, she will feel it.  The urge to join us will compel her to act.  It will be beyond her control.  It is her destiny.”

Agnon dropped his hand and Scott collapsed to the floor, wheezing and struggling for breath.  The scene was disgraceful, a pitiful flurry of hair gel and skinny pants.  Scott, the future of warlocks, was not like the warlocks of Agnon’s early days.  He was puny, and not only weak of body and strength, but also weak-minded.  The thought of seeing Scott attempt to heft a sword like the first he’d ever wielded made a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.  No, warlocks today barely resembled the ones he’d had the pleasure of knowing in the past.  They were not even remotely comparable to warlocks of centuries ago.  Scott and the motley crew he lived with lacked discipline, intelligence and most importantly, they lacked respect.  Agnon knew the world was to be overtaken by their kind, young and old, but eventually, the younger among them would have to shoulder the responsibility of leading.  He did not have much confidence in their ability, and that was why the Sola was so crucial to their movement.  She would guide them, mold and shape them into what they needed to be; she would prepare them to rule the world. 

“I just don’t get why
we need her, why we need Arianna,” Scott croaked, his vocal cords tender from being compressed moments earlier.  “You said that the Sola was going to rise after it begins and that it would set off a chain reaction across the world.  You said we would all rise and begin to rid the world of these useless humans.  Why do we need her for that?”

Agnon felt his anger coil tightly like a snake ready to strike.  “Because she
is
the Sola,” he shouted at Scott.  “Arianna Rose is the Sola!”

The color drained from Scott’s face, shock and confusion replacing all of the overconfidence he’d been feeling.  “What?  How?” he stammered.  “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

Agnon leveled a steely gaze his way.  Scott’s features withered and he seemed to sink into himself, into the wall behind him.  “You and the others did not need to know.  But now you understand why she is not to be touched by you or anyone else,” he growled.  “She needs to be at that school tomorrow morning when it begins, when we take the school and begin the chain reaction.  She is the key to everything.”

Scott stared at him with his mouth partially agape and his eyes glazed over.  Agnon wanted nothing more than to kick him like the wretched dog he was.  They were nothing alike.  Scott was arrogant and fearless
, but lacked the true fortitude necessary to support either.  He was a step above the drooling imbeciles that currently inhabited the planet, the ones they would purge the planet of.