The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (8 page)

When I heard Al’s alarm clock buzz, I went to the kitchen and started his coffee.

He didn’t say much when he came into the kitchen. He wasn’t much of a morning person, but he smiled at the coffee. Picking up his packaged cameras, he left the house.

Shortly afterwards, someone dropped Grace off. As she walked up the driveway, I suddenly didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Exhausted, I stumbled to my room and lay down on the bed. Since it was daylight I felt safer, even though I knew it probably made no difference. My eyes were burning from lack of sleep, so I closed them and tried to think of what to do next. And then my thoughts faded, and I must have drifted off to sleep because when I opened my eyes again it was early evening.

“Good evening, Sleepyhead,” Betty greeted me as I entered the kitchen. “Grab a bun, honey. The hamburgers are ready.”

Grace was reading a book at the table. She looked up and gave me her customary grunt of recognition and I nodded in return.

“Did you get a lot of visitors last night?” Betty asked as she plopped a juicy burger onto my plate.

I briefly wondered if I should tell her about the dark-haired stranger, but Tigger decided to let out a bark and it distracted all of us. He rarely expended the effort to bark. I’d only heard him do it twice before, and on both occasions it was due to the fact I hadn’t given him a bite of my dinner. This time, he was staring at the front door.

Someone knocked.

Feeling a rising panic, I shivered and eyed the butcher knives as Betty made her way toward the door.

It was the FedEx man. He didn’t come nearly as often as the UPS guy did, but when he did, he always brought a doggie cookie for Tigger.

With the mystery solved, I relaxed and returned to my hamburger, watching the bloodhound munch his treat. Betty exchanged light-hearted gossip with the FedEx man as she signed for an envelope.

Grace yawned and turned the page of her book.

“It’s for you, Sydney.” Betty smiled when she returned. She tossed the cardboard envelope onto the table.

I eyed it suspiciously.

“What is it?” Grace asked after a few moments. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

Frowning a little, I pulled the tab and shook the contents out. Several glossy sheets of paper slid out onto the kitchen table. I could see big, bold letters, “Congratulations! You Have Won Two VIP Backstage Passes To Jareth!”

Grace and I squealed at the same time.

“You lucky girls!” Betty laughed, picking up the envelope to throw it away. Something fell on the floor. She picked it up and said, “Oh, there was still something in there, honey.”

It was a folded white card. I opened it up and nearly fainted.

It was a personally signed photo of Jareth.

As Grace shrieked in delight, I immediately lost all interest in seeing him.

Now I knew why the dark-haired stranger on the porch last night looked familiar. I was looking directly at him in the photo. There was no mistake. The eyes and the makeup were the same.

I was freaking out. Why would Jareth, the most famous rising rock star in the country, try to push his way into my house on Halloween?

“What is it, Sydney?” Betty asked with a note of concern. She had been watching my reaction.

I almost told her, but it would have sounded too crazy. Instead, I shook my head. “Just tired.”

Grace snagged the picture from my hand and I let her have it.

I ate my hamburger, lost in thought. Maybe Jareth had been drugged out. That would explain his odd behavior of trying to push his way into a random stranger’s house. It wouldn’t be the first time a celebrity had done something like that. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with an explanation of how he had disappeared into a puff of mist.

I washed the dishes, volunteering to do Grace’s part as well so she’d leave me alone. She skipped outside to play soccer and to wait for Rafael to drive by. Betty sat down to read a book in the family room. As soon as I was finished washing the dishes, I decided to google Jareth.

Sitting down in front of the computer, I began the almost impossible task of finding any real information about him. There were so many photos of him plastered everywhere and tons of magazine articles, all claiming to have the exclusive scoop on Rock’s Latest Sensation, but it was all marketing, filled with what parties he had attended, what he wore, what he ate, and who might be his latest girlfriend. There was nothing real.

A short time later, Al came home with free movie passes a customer at the tire shop had given him. Everyone tried to convince me to go, but I was too engrossed in my research. I had to know more about Jareth.

“Just leave her alone, honey,” Betty said, sending Al a knowing smile. “She just won special passes to the Jareth concert and they put her into a Jareth mood.”

Al squinted over my shoulder at the full-body shot of Jareth I had up on the screen. He was dressed in black pants with no shirt, his muscular abs exposed, his arms widespread, and his hair blowing in all directions with his eyes ringed in black eyeliner and streaked with silver eye shadow.

“Reminds me of that neighbor kid, Rafael,” Al grunted.

I glanced at Al in surprise. I was beginning to think that underneath that gruff exterior he was actually quite perceptive.

He tousled my hair before throwing one arm around Betty and the other around Grace to herd them out the door.

I returned to my research.

I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but I knew there had to be something odd out there, somewhere, about Jareth. I immersed myself in reading the forums and it was some time before I realized that I was alone once again. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I grew uncomfortable.

I was just about ready to turn the computer off and escape to my room, when I saw a strange entry on one of the forums.

The subject heading read: “Jareth doesn’t exist! It’s a conspiracy!”

Chapter Seven - Jareth Doesn’t Exist!

Shivering a little, I clicked on the discussion titled
Jareth doesn’t exist! It’s a conspiracy!

It was an entry dated about three weeks ago and posted by someone named “Jung Lin - in Covina, CA”. Written as one big paragraph, it was difficult to comprehend. On my third pass of trying to understand it, I began to read it aloud to myself in little chunks:

Jareth doesn’t really exist. He appeared out of nowhere six months ago and had someone cleverly fake a background to make it seem as if he has been here all along when he really hasn’t been. There’s no real record of him before six months ago. I went to the school that he was supposed to have attended and he was never there. None of us remembers him. His agent won’t answer me anymore. As a journalist, I can smell a rotten story a mile away and this one reeks. I tracked him down and when I asked him about the fake school record, he ended the interview abruptly and I was fired from my job on the next day! But he picked the wrong woman to do this to!

There was a whole line of those frowning-face emoticons, followed by a line of exclamation points in bold. Then, some very strange sentences began. Ones that sent chills down my spine.

I started following him. He isn’t human. He can disappear into a cloud. He can make things appear out of the air. He can talk to animals. He meets with other beings that mysteriously appear out of thin air. Every one of them adds Equal to their water before drinking it. They never touch anything metallic. It seems to cause them problems. I managed to overhear one of their conversations once and they said that the Snake Brotherhood is causing problems and that they can’t find a Fate Tracker named Melody. He said it had to do something with the mysterious ‘blue-thread’ that suddenly appeared and Jareth said these words, and I quote directly: ‘My rival is shrouding my sight. Why is he down here on Earth and why won’t the Inner Circle get rid of him?’ Then that bird flew over me. It landed on Jareth’s shoulder and whispered in his ear. I know that blasted pigeon told him where I was because he stopped talking abruptly and started running toward me and I barely managed to escape.

I swallowed and quit reading aloud.

At this point, Jung Lin started talking more about the Snake Brotherhood. I clicked on all the reference links and discovered it referred to a race of reptilian beings that have been secretly controlling the Earth from the fifth dimension for thousands of years. They allegedly built the Pyramids and some claimed that present day rulers in some rich countries were really reptiles. Apparently, it was quite a popular conspiracy theory on the internet.

I frowned, not certain what to think about it.

I turned my attention to researching “The Inner Circle”, but my searches brought up mostly musicians and self-help groups. I doubted they had anything to do with Jareth.

Scanning the first part of the entry again, I grabbed my science notebook. Since Jung had mentioned that these beings disappear into clouds and talk to animals, I figured I must at least consider the rest of her data in my research. I quickly jotted down the following:

Per Jung Lin, they do the following -

Drink Equal in water - unconfirmed

Don’t touch metal, causes problems - unconfirmed

Jareth arrived on Earth six months ago - unconfirmed

Jareth has a rival - musician?

Melody - person of interest?

Snake Brotherhood - need to research

Inner Circle - need to research

Blue-Threads - need to research

Fate Tracker - need to research

I stared at the page, tapping my pencil when, again, the thought crossed my mind that I was alone in the house.

I reached over and turned on Betty’s radio, but they were talking about Jareth’s upcoming concert and I nearly knocked over the computer in my attempt to change the station. I found one playing classical music and managed a deep breath as the sounds of a harp filled the room.

Deciding it was getting too dark, I got up to flip all the lights on in the living room, kitchen, and hall, before returning to the computer and reaching a sudden decision. I was going to respond to Jung Lin’s message. Maybe I could get her to talk to me. She might have more information.

I created a fake username of “Tigger” and posted “I’ve seen them disappear into mist too.” I didn’t say anything else. I hit reply, but an immediate message popped up on the screen. It said: “This discussion has been removed. It’s no longer valid.”

Frowning, I hit refresh and searched through the list of entries.

The discussion was no longer there.

I kept hitting refresh and searched for any traces of the thread for a good fifteen minutes, but it was as if Jung Lin’s entry had never existed.

Recalling that she’d been located in Covina, California, I thought googling her directly might be worth a try.

It didn’t take long.

I found the link near the bottom of the first page of results.

“Local Journalist Found Dead in Apartment.”

It was Jung Lin. It had happened just five days ago.

I looked at the screen in complete shock.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang and I screamed. Searching for a weapon to defend myself, I seized a pair of scissors.

The doorbell rang again.

Shaking, I crept up to the window and peered outside.

It was Ellison. He was surprised when I opened the door and hugged him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, but rushed to add, “Never mind, I’m glad you are!”

Ellison grinned and walked inside. “Yeah, Betty texted me and asked if I wouldn’t mind dropping by to check on you. She thinks you’ve been a little freaked out since Halloween.”

I laughed a little nervously and hid the scissors behind my back. “Nah, not really. I’m used to being by myself.”

Ellison bent and scratched Tigger’s belly before straightening and holding out a small white stone. “What are these? I found quite a few outside in the yard. Kind of cool looking.” He tossed it to me.

Still clutching my weapon, I couldn’t move fast enough to catch it and the stone bounced off my nose. Ellison laughed as I sheepishly revealed the scissors and set them on the table. He stooped, picked up the stone, and dropped it into my palm.

It was small, polished, and pearly white. I turned it over and saw a strange symbol burnt into it that looked like a triangle with some loops inside it. It was actually quite pretty.