Chapter 14: Adrasteia

I straddled Madison in the darkness. Her tummy bellowed and her breath came out in short huffs. Chloe stood over us.

"Let me up," Madison said, sounding desperate.

I got off of her. She scrambled to her feet.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Madison, I'm so sorry ... I had no idea..."

"What the fuck was that? What was it?"

"A demon," Chloe said.

There was a pause.

"Fuck you!" Madison said, and she began to leave.

I followed her from under the bleachers into the starlight.

"Madison! Wait!"

She didn't wait, but I kept up with her.

"It's real. You have to do it, pull out your hair. She'll really come for your sister."

"Fuck that shit! The dean is hearing about this in the morning."

"Madison..."

She kept walking and following seemed pointless. Chloe caught up with me and grasped my arm.

"We have to do something," I said.

"Yeah."

"Can we call your aunt?"

"Yeah."

Chloe called Lana on her cellphone. She wanted to see us right away, or as soon as possible. She had no car, and neither did we – Brandon's car had long since been towed away – so Chloe said we'd take the bus in the morning.

I didn't know what a bus was. Chloe explained.

The alarm woke us at six o'clock, and we scurried to get dressed and out the door before the other girls – or worse, the teachers – began to rise. I put on a knee-length skirt and a gray jersey. I wore flat shoes. Around my neck, I put on a necklace with a wire setting which held a small glass ball, one of my magic glass balls. The last one remained hidden in my closet

When we got outside, after slipping past Ms. Dunn's open door and the sounds of her getting dressed, we hurried around the back of Miranda Hall and to the trees beyond.

The lane between the road and the school ran for several hundred yards, but were a car to pass there were many trees and other places to hide. But no car passed. The morning was quiet, except for the chirps of a little brown swallow who watched us from a branch. At the end of the lane, the gate stood open. It's hinges and latches appeared rusted as we passed.

"Do they ever close the gate?" I asked.

"I don't think so," Chloe responded.

We went out to the road.

"How far to the bus stop?"

"About a quarter mile, I guess. It's by Maple Lane."

I had no idea where Maple Lane was. Chloe began to trudge along the road and I followed.

The bus stop was just a sign on a pole set in the grass on the side of the road. It was in someone's yard, I guessed, for back among the trees I could see the front of a house.

"They don't mind people waiting in their yard?"

"They don't have a choice. The bus stop is here."

"Oh. So what do we do?"

"Just wait."

Chloe leaned against the pole. I looked around, hoping to see a stump or any other thing I could sit on, but there was nothing. I didn't want to sit on the grass in my skirt.

"I wish they had a bench."

Chloe just nodded. I looked up at a tree and saw the little brown bird.

Soon we heard the low rumble of an engine, and the bus approached. With hisses and squeals, it stopped in front of us and its door popped open.

"Come on," Chloe said, and she scrambled up into the bus. I followed.

"I'm paying for both of us," Chloe said as she dropped coins into a device by the driver. He nodded.

We took seats midway down the bus.

"I want the window," I said.

"Oh? Okay, that's fine."

I slid over by the window. She plopped down next to me. I looked around for the bird.

The bus hissed and groaned. Its door slammed shut, and, with a jerk, it began moving.

The bird took off from the branch and began to fly along behind the bus.

"We're being watched," I said.

"Huh?" Chloe looked around at the other passengers and at their vacant faces.

"No, not them. By that bird."

I pointed at the bird, who was by now a mere fluttering speck. Leaning over me, rubbing against me, Chloe craned her neck to see the bird.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Fuck. I don't think it's my aunt. She'd have told me."

"Then it's got to be Mr. Woodhouse."

"Hmm. You think Mr. Woodhouse can turn into a bird?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem his style, but maybe he sent the bird, or maybe he can see through its eyes or something."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Chloe took out her phone and called her aunt. They talked.

"She thinks this is maybe a good thing," Chloe said after she'd hung up.

"Oh?"

"Well – I guess she has some witches hanging around near his house, and if he comes out after us, and they can be sure he'll be gone for a while, they're gonna go in to get your blood."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, if he shows up, try to stall him."

I looked out the windows and wondered by what manner Mr. Woodhouse would show up. Would he come at us before the bus reached the city? For just then, it was passing over a ridge, and I could see the tall buildings strewn along the river running through the valley below.

"How long before we're in the city?" I asked.

Chloe shrugged.

He came at us in his little red car. I saw it careen down a tree-lined lane and whip around the corner and onto the road we were on. Then it passed from view behind the bus. But still, even over the low rumble of the bus's engine, I could hear the high purr of the little car as he rushed up behind us.

"That was him!" I said.

"Do you think he'll just follow us?"

"I don't know."

Chloe called her aunt again. "He's behind us in his car," she said. She listened to her aunt for a bit, then she hung up.

"She says the other witches are already going into his house."

"Good. I guess we just stay on the bus and see what he does. I don't think he'll attack us in public, in the city –"

The bus lurched hard to the side and there was a tremendous roar of shearing metal and grinding gears. I felt the front-right of the bus drop, and everyone was slammed forward against the seat before them. Smoke came pouring from behind us. A few seconds passed before the screaming began.

"Are you alright?" I asked Chloe.

She coughed in the smoke. "Oh fuck! My tooth!" she said.

"Make room." I rolled over onto my back so that my feet could press against the window. I kicked, and the entire five-foot panel of glass was ejected. It fell and shattered on the road. Smoke poured out from the opening. The air began to clear.

"Come on!" I helped Chloe to the window. Vaulting out, I landing on the road below, on the pile of shattered glass. I looked around. To the front of the bus, to its right, was a crushed box shaped truck, broken and twisted. Its dazed driver had just dropped down from its cab. He stumbled.

To the rear of the bus, as I gazed through the billowing smoke, I could see the outlines of Mr. Woodhouse's little red car.

"Jump!" I shouted to Chloe, who stood by the opening, looking down. "Come on!"

She climbed out and lowered herself slowly, holding the edge of the window, hanging down with her feet only a yard above the pavement. I went and held her and let her down gently. She clung to me for a bit, and her face was a wreck. Her nose was twisted and bruised. Blood poured from it, and from her mouth.

"That's his car," I said.

"Do you see him?" she asked, and her words were slurred. I could see her missing tooth.

"No. Let's go."

The thickest smoke came from the back of the bus where its engine burned. After I passed through that smoke, I could see his car clearly, and I could see him.

"Tyballa!" he said, walking toward me with a smug, slanted grin, "I know my spells are weak against you, so..."

I said nothing. In his right hand, he held a long, steel knife.

I thought of running, but then Chloe came out of the smoke, and she couldn't run like I could run, and I suspected that he could outrun her. I didn't want to explain to Lana how I'd let Chloe get caught.

"New girlfriend?" he asked when he saw her.

I shrugged. "Chloe dear, why don't you leave him to me. Just go."

"Chloe?" he asked, "So this is the Sommers girl, yes?"

We didn't answer.

"Ah, so I must insist she stay, Tyballa. And Chloe, how is your aunt? I think her little minions will find soon the welcome at my house most interesting."

She reached into her purse for her phone. "Uh-uh," he said, shaking his finger as if she were a child. "My spells will work on you."

Chloe didn't get out her phone.

"So, come girls. The other passengers on the bus have not yet gotten curious, but soon they will come back here, and I will have to handle them. Do you want that on your conscience? Get in the car and let's take a ride. It'll be a tight fit" – he smiled – "but you two won't mind laps, no?"

I walked toward him. "Stay behind me," I whispered to Chloe. When I got near to him, I reached and yanked off my necklace and cast it to the ground. It flashed.

I wasn't entirely sure that it would work on him, but it did. He blinked.

"Uh – hi – hey, aren't you Tyballa, Renee's friend?"

"Yes."

"Uh –" He spun about, looking at all that was happening. "Was there an accident?"

"Yes. Renee was on the bus, but the ambulance took her away. You need to get to the hospital, though."

His eyes got wide.

"Which hospital?"

"St. Albans General, downtown. Do you know it?"

He nodded.

"Will you come?" he asked.

"No – Dean Gilbert is meeting me here."

"Oh – her!" he said with a wry smile, "I don't like her."

"Me neither."

"Uh – okay. See you."

He headed back toward his car. "Why do I have a knife?" he asked, tossing it onto the seat.

"Wait! Mr. Woodhouse!"

He spun back to me. I rushed up and grabbed his wrist.

"Yes?" he asked.

I cast far hearing.

"What was that?"

"For luck," I said.

He smiled. "Thanks."

Then, after he got in and started his car, its engine purring, and after he peeled out, roaring through the smoke and driving toward the city, the police and ambulances began to arrive. They rounded up the victims of the crash. Four people had to be carried off the bus, including the driver. Two of those people didn't move, and after the medics worked on them, shouting and cutting off their clothes, they covered them with white sheets.

I rode with Chloe in an ambulance. They couldn't find her missing tooth.

They took us to a different hospital from the one I'd told Mr. Woodhouse to go to, sometimes you get lucky. We were taken to the emergency room, and several nurses milled about, fretting over Chloe and bandaging her face.

I heard the purr of Mr. Woodhouse's engine. He didn't speak.

Soon, Lana arrived, and a nurse escorted her into our little room. When Chloe saw her distraught face, she insisted, "I'm fine, Aunt Lana!"

"Yes, good, very good. They say you'll be fine. No, I'm worried about the girls who went into Woodhouse's place. I haven't heard back from them."

I glanced at Chloe.

"He seemed to know they were there," I said, "He said they'd be surprised."

"Oh."

She sat down.

"The good news is the little balls seemed to work on him."

"Oh? Well, good. How many do you have left?"

"Only one, and it's back at school."

"Ah. We can make more. But I doubt it will work on him again. When the spell wears off, he'll no doubt figure out what happened and take precautions next time."

"I thought he might, but there is one other thing..."

"Yes?"

"I cast far hearing on him."

"Oh?" She smiled. "You can hear him now?"

"He's just driving in his car, but yes, it seems so."

"Tell me right away if he says anything – um – interesting."

"Alright. So ... anyhow, about the girl Madison – we need to deal with that too."

"Yeah. We do."

"Can I undo the geas?"

"Well, maybe. The entity that arrived, do you know his name?"

"No, and it was a her."

"A her? Well, there aren't too many woman demons who do geas. What did she look like?"

"It was dark. All I saw was a shadowy figure with red eyes."

"That doesn't narrow it down much."

I shrugged. "So, what can we do. The demon said she'd take Madison's sister. And I don't think Madison is going to follow my command."

"What was your command?"

"She has to pull out five strands of hair during every class until she's bald."

Lana blinked.

"But," I went on, "I'm not sure she really quite believed it."

"Ah. Well, she'll believe it when her sister is gone."

I grabbed Lana's arm.

"We can't let that happen. I mean – I couldn't – we just can't."

"No, Tyballa, we cannot. We'll find a way. I think we'll perform an augury to discover what demon you called, and we can summon her and you'll work out a deal."

"Will that work? What if she won't deal?"

Lana didn't answer that.

After a stressful hour of Lana arguing with the nurses, we got Chloe released from the hospital. Lana called a "taxi" to take us to her house. We rode along, all three of us piled into the back of an old, dirty car, Chloe with a bandage on her nose and a very swollen mouth.

"So," I asked, "Is there a spell you can cast to fix Chloe's tooth."

"Yes, it's called calling the dentist."

"The dentist?"

"Uh – he's like a doctor, but he does teeth."