Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (29 page)

The idea had given me a second wind
.
I quickly finished co
o
king dinner, and was seating my mother at the table just as my father walked through the back door
.

“Dinners a little early tonight isn’t
it,
kiddo
?
You got some place to be?
”
h
e questioned with curiosity
.

“Nope, Dad
.
Just got a lot of homework I want to get to
.
Actually
,
I think I’m going to eat in my room, that way I can eat and work at the same time.
”
Before he could argue I grabbed my plate
from the table and ran down the hall
.
I paused at the end of the hallway and shouted, “Just leave the dishes, I’ll take care of them later.
”

I hit my bedroom door at a jog and immediately tossed the plate of food onto my desk
.
I was onto something and I didn’t have time to eat
.
Before I had even really settled myself into my computer chair, my fingers were flying across the keys of my keyboard
.
I searched every website I tho
ught would help, starting with W
ikipedia and moving onto sites like gospel-mysteries, eternal destiny, and even the Catholic encyclopedia of terms
.
What I learned was that no one really
k
new anything for sure
.
There were people out there that swore demonic possession existed and others who thought of it as a myth or scary story
.
Considering all the religious lore I had recently discovered was true, I was willing to believe that possession was real as well
.

One thing I did find out was that people have believed in possession for hundreds of year
s, through dozens of cultures. T
he ancient
Sumerians
,
for example
,
had methods of exorcism
.
It has generally been my belief that if a conviction or story has lasted hundreds of years it has to have some truth to it
.
From what I could gather
,
in order to be possessed a person had to meet four criteria: they had to have superhuman strength, they had to speak in tongues, they had to know information that they clearly shouldn’t know, and they must show aversion to religious relics
.
Based on that information I wasn’t
entirely sure that Cami was possessed
.
She hadn’t shown any of these characterist
ics to me, unless you call using text-speak in everyday life talking in tongues
.

I was discouraged but not defeated, I still felt like I might be onto something and the only way to know for sure was to confront Cami
.
I knew one thing for sure
,
the way Alex and Scarlett reacted to my cross Gabriel was right, it was a religious relic and if Cami
were
possessed she would react to it as well
.

I awoke on Wednesday morning determined
.
If I had dreamed last night I couldn’t remember it, but I had a plan
.
It felt good to have a plan of action, rather than meandering through my day waiting for the next bad thing to happen
.
I knew I was going to confront Cami and although I didn’t know what would happen, at least I knew I was going to do something
.
I threw the blankets back and climbed out of bed
.

I made my way to the shower and readied myself for the day to come
.
I wore my favorite pair of jeans, the ones with the hole in the knee
,
and a faded gray t-shirt with a pict
ure of gizmo across the front
.
I
t was dorky but the material was so worn and
so
soft that I loved it and I needed all the comfort I could get today
.
I grabbed my combat boots out of the closet and laced them up, and made sure I had my cross securely tucked inside my shirt before grabbing my
messenger
bag and heading for the front door
.

Gabriel was waiting for me
on the front porch as I stepped out into the sunny, crisp fall morning
.
He
was leaning against the porch railing, flipping through a noteboo
k as I walked out
.
I had a moment to truly
appreciate how beautiful he was; the sun was making
his black mass of curly hair shine and his pale, white skin looked like granite in comparison
.
He heard the storm door close behind me and looked up with those amazingly clear eyes
.
For a moment I just stared
and then a smile spread across my face
.
I had no reason to be smiling, but looking at him and knowing he loved me made me smile like a fool
.

“Well someone is in a good mood today,” he commented
,
smiling back at me
.

“Yeah, I suppose I am.” Gabriel closed his notebook and shoved
it
into the book bag at his feet
.
I adjusted the messenger bag on my shoulder and reached for Gabriel’s hand
.
“I have a plan and for the first time in a long time I know what I have to do.
”

Gabriel arched one on his dark eyebrows, “Really?” he questioned
.

I proceeded to explain what I had decided about Cami and how I knew what we needed to do to save her
.
When I was done G
abriel looked at me skeptically.
“Well if that’s what you think needs to be done, then I’m here for you
.
I just hope it works.
”

Just like that we changed directions and instead of heading towards the school we began heading towards Cami’s house
.
We walked in
silence,
hand-in-hand towards what I hoped would be a rescue and not a disastrous confrontation
.
As we got closer to her house my anxiety began to build remembering how unpleasant our last confrontation had been, but I squared my shoulders and continued on
.
No matter how unpleasant, this was Cami the only person who knew me through lost teeth, bad haircuts, and questionable outfit choices
.
She knew me before my mother had changed and she was there for me after
.
She was my best friend, my sister,
and I was determined to save her
.
We rounded the corner towards her house just in time to see Alex’s escalade turn into the driveway
.
I would have much rather done this without him here, but I knew I was going to have to confront him sooner or later in order to snatch her from his grasp, I guess why not sooner
rather
than later
.

I dropped Gabriel’s hand and quickened my pace, better to not over think this, just dive right in
.
As I reached the sidewalk in front of her house I turned without pause and marched up to her front door
.
I didn’t
knock or announce that I was coming in, I had come into her house like this a hundred times before, but this time it was different
.
Gabriel followed close on my hee
ls and we found ourselves standing in the all to
o
familiar living room, but the familiarity did little to calm my nerves
.
I scanned the room and quickly saw Alex leaning against the kitchen counter to the left of the living room
.
He had his arms crossed
across
his chest and he didn’t look at all surprised to see us
.
I didn’t give him a second thought
.
I wasn’t here for him
.
I turned to the right and headed directly up the stairs to Cami’s bedroom
.
I started calling her name as I reached the top of the stairs
and turned pushing the first door on the left open
.
Cami was exactly where I expected her to be, seated at her vanity applying masc
ara to her already perfectly made-up
face
.

She shot out of
the chair as I entered her room.
“What the hell are you doing here
?
” she shouted.

“I’m here for you
.
You
’
r
e
coming with me,” I reached out and grabbed her by the wrist
.
She stumbled but came along behind me with surprisingly little effort
.
I think the sheer surprise of the situation was working to my advantage
.
I dra
g
ged
her down the stairs behind me, and by the time I had reached the bottom of the stairs Gabriel was already throwing the front door open for us, but of course it wasn’t going to be that easy
.
Alex finally reacted to the situation
,
moving forward and slamming the door shut
,
wrenching it out of Gabriel’s grasp
.

“You didn’t expect it to be that easy, did you?
”
Alex sneered
.
“Come on, you don’t think I’m just going to let you take her,” he laughed
.
“Michelle, I thought you were smarter than that.
”
He turned and faced Gabriel, “ You
,
on the other hand, I know you’re a fool.
”

He reached out and grabbed Gabriel by the shoulder and attempted to slam him against the wall, but Gabriel was prepared for the blow an
d
managed to
absorb
most of Alex’s force
.
Then Gabriel turned and
backhanded
Alex with a closed fist
,
sending
him
backwards
.
The hit didn’t stun him as much as I would have liked, but
luckily
the coffee table was directly behind him and he slammed int
o it, lo
sing his balance and falling
over backwards
.
I pulled
Cami out onto the front lawn, but it was then that
she seemed to snap out of her stunned silence
.

She
jerked her arm out of my grasp.
“What do you think you
’
r
e
doing
?
You can’t just come into my house and drag me out. I don’t want to go with you!”

“Yes you do
,
Cami, it
’
s me
,
Michelle, you would never treat me like you have been if it weren’t for Alex
.
Please
,
you have to listen to me, you have to believe me, if I just get you away from him for awhile you’ll come back around.
”

Just then the front door swung open
,
slamming against the
siding on the house
.
Gabriel and Alex came tumbling out onto the front lawn
.
It looked like Alex was headed in our direction and Gabriel was doing everything in his power to stop him, but he wasn’t succeeding
.
Gabriel hauled off and punched Alex hard in the face
,
splitting his lip open and blood
y
ing his mouth
.
Alex didn’t
even so much as wince, he simply
turned and smiled in my direction with the blood pooling in his teeth
.
“Seems like a lot of trouble for one little whore,” he scoffed in my direction
.

“She’s not a whore,” I shouted in his direction
.
Cami just stood with a shocked look on her face, so I continued to try and drag her towards her beat-up station wagon parked along the curb in front of the house
.
As we neared the door to the back seat, she again started to struggle
.

“Let go of me Michelle,
you’re
acting crazy, just like your mother!” she shouted
.

I have to admit it stunned me for a minute
.
That was a low blow, even for someone under the influence of Satan
.
I’m sure I
visibly
winced, but it just further proved my point
.
The real Cami, the Cami that wasn’t under the influence of Alex Chase
,
would never say such a thing to me
.
I did the only thing I could think of, I slapped her as har
d as I could across the face
.
Her
head snapped to the side
,
sending her blond
e
curls in
disarray
across
her face
.