Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace (Book III of The Hazy Souls) (5 page)

Minutes later, they were on the planet Olg,
just outside Maren's family castle. Wet green fields glistened in
the mid-morning sun. The castle was set on a high, rolling hill,
and towns rose up in small clusters further out, closer to the
sea.

Jeremy palmed his forehead. "Probably should
be a bit more discreet." A guard standing watch at the metal gate
flinched at their sudden appearance, but otherwise remained in
place.

Jeremy smiled at the guard, waved, and then
fanned Maren's face. She opened her eyes and he shook her slightly.
"Hey,” he called out to the guard. “I'm Cajjez Jeremy Chikalto.
I've brought Maren home safely. Let us through."

The guard, who was wearing white body armor
and a helmet, his hand firmly planted on his sword, only wavered a
little.

Jeremy was about to raise his voice when
Maren pushed her way out of Jeremy's arms and approached the guard.
"Ren Golsen? Where is my father? Let us in."

The guard leaned forward slightly. "You're
being monitored by video. Leave, now."

Maren shook her head. "But—"

"So then we've already been spotted," said
Jeremy. He steadied Maren, placing a hand on her shoulder. She
hadn't recovered fully from Haze travel.

"You haven't. The guards would be here by
now if you had," said the guard.

Maren scanned the few trees on the property.
"So you'll be punished when they see the video."

"Yes."

Maren turned to Jeremy. "He's got to come
with us."

"Miss Nononia, I cannot leave my post."

"He cannot leave his post," repeated Jeremy.
"Let's just leave."

"Whose command are you currently following?"
asked Maren.

"Today, His Highness Lawrence Chandler;
yesterday, Captain Vallary of the Leveled Ground, Division III," he
said with contempt.

Maren grabbed Ren's wrist and yanked him
forward. "You're coming with us."

"My family..."

Maren frowned. "Where is your family?"

"35 Wantin Park, Estelle Gardens, Pathway
#7."

"About twenty miles north,” said Maren.
“North is that way,” she added impatiently, pointing.

Jeremy grabbed Maren and the guard and
pulled them through to the Haze, pushing a crowd of spirit animals
out of his way. A stubborn mule stood its ground and opened its
mouth to chomp at the guard's leg, baring grisly red gums. Jeremy
yanked Ren away from the teeth. “Hey! They aren't dead. Just
passing through!” A demon hissed nearby and the mule trotted
away.

Jeremy popped out of the Haze and sat on the
grass while Maren and Ren came to.

They were at the edge of a meadow beside a
brook. Jeremy grabbed a slimy stone and skipped it across the water
with impeccable technique.

Ren was the first to speak. "How are we
here?"

"Strange times," said Jeremy, jumping to his
feet. “I just saved you from about thirty mauling weasels.”

“Just down here, Ren?" Maren pointed to a
lane just past the meadow, which curled into a mass of small
saplings.

“Yes,” he said.

The young man lifted off
his helmet to reveal shoulder-length black hair. His face was
porcelain white and his eyes were wide-set and brown. Jeremy felt a
dull weight settle on his chest: could Ren be more handsome than
himself? Jeremy could feel his own face tense up, and he almost
unleashed a verbal assault on the man's appearance or posture or
proposed livelihood, but held his tongue.
Still the best.

"How did I get here, Miss Nononia?" asked
Ren. He stepped onto the dirt pathway that wound through the trees,
and the three started walking.

"We have a secret way of teleporting, more
or less. You're safe with us. And call me Maren."

To Jeremy's surprise, Ren did not press her
for more.

Maren held Jeremy's hand and smiled. "I've
known Ren for a long, long time and both he and his family are very
loyal to the Nononias. Ren," she continued, "do you know if my
father and Jeremy's parents are hiding on the planet Olg?"

"Not that I know of,
Maren. Your family's guards remain loyal, as do most of the staff
at the Nononia castle, but we've been
infiltrated
—
first
by the Leveled Ground, and then by a local militia. The militia has
ties with the Labor Party, which is loyal, but there's some talk of
a few defectors ranking higher up who might turn you over to the
Leveled Ground if the price is right."

"Thank you, Ren. Your family will receive
full amnesty from any charges of insubordination, once this mess is
straightened out."

Ren hesitated and ducked
below a low tree branch. "Thank you, Miss
—
er, Maren." The idea of anything
being straightened out seemed implausible lately.

Maren leaned in toward Ren. "Have people...
disappeared here lately? Like, en masse?"

Ren shook his head.

"I see." Maren sighed.

Jeremy whistled a sad tune.

The wind picked up and flower petals twirled
to life, encircling the party.

They walked for ten minutes down the quiet
lane to the Golsen residence. The large blue house was dome-shaped
and Jeremy, Maren, and Ren walked around it to the back, where they
met an expansive parking lot packed with hover-cars.

“That's quite the collection,” said
Jeremy.

“Yes, my dad is passionate.” Ren cleared his
throat and then headed to the front door. Ren's mother, a heavy-set
woman with short black hair, flung the front door open and bounded
towards them with open arms. She gave Maren a bear hug.

"Have your families come to Olg? Has your
father reclaimed the castle?" asked Ren's mother.

"No," said Maren, watching the woman's face
fall.

"Is everything all right? Do you bring
news?"

"We've been granted amnesty," said Ren.

The woman's brows knitted together, and her
eyes grew wide. "Are we in trouble?"

Ren fidgeted. "I'm afraid Miss Nononia and
Cajjez Jeremy came to the castle when I was standing guard.”

"I see." Ren's mother
frowned. "Well don't just stand there, come in!
I'll go get your father.
"

Ren's mother, Amelia, a hearty woman with
rosy cheeks, set down the plates and silverware, while his father,
Takumi, took a seat beside Jeremy.

“Go to the cellar and get our guests some
wine. We have a lot to talk about,” said Takumi. Takumi's hair was
impeccably parted down the middle, his grays showcased like
trophies.

Ren nodded and went downstairs.

When the table was set and the wine was
poured, Jeremy forgot his princely table etiquette and gobbled up
the roasted potatoes, febcrum, and red peppers. “Sorry,” he said
after he'd cleared his plate.

“Don't be ridiculous, I'm happy to put some
meat on those bones, Cajjez,” said Amelia, tsk-tsking at Jeremy's
wiry build. She smiled, took his plate, and heaped another helping
of stew onto the porcelain.

“The demon sightings,” began Ren, but he
didn't know where to go from there.

“It's okay, we need to clear the air,” said
Maren. “It's true. There are demons.”

“And do they call to Cajjez Jeremy?” Takumi
sipped his wine and eased the glass down.

“They did,” said Jeremy, “but they're gone
now. You don't have to fret yourself anymore.”

Maren bit her lip and turned to Jeremy.

“Contained,” said Jeremy, “gone... in a
manner of speaking,” he added, leaning back in his chair.

Ren stood up and poured himself a glass of
water. He offered the pitcher to Maren and she politely declined.
“It was wrong of the Leveled Ground to capitalize on this chaos.
I've seen loyal men and women turn on Ambassador Mateo. On
Mateo!”

“Politics,” Jeremy stood up and stretched,
“are a headache. A few tribesmen, bickering over who the biggest
hut belongs to, while lions gather outside the village.”

Amelia's brows furrowed and she placed a
protective hand on her son's shoulders.

“I'm afraid he's right,” said Maren. “Now's
the time to look after your loved ones. Beware of power, because in
dark times, the weak rule.”

The rest of the evening passed by in talk of
old times, and soon Jeremy and Maren were set up in the guest room.
It was a small room with two quaint paintings of green fields on
light yellow walls. A ceiling fan whirred overhead. While in bed,
Jeremy placed his arm around Maren and encapsulated them both in a
blue force field. Maren giggled. “What are you doing?”

“Can you feel the buzz?” Jeremy nuzzled his
head into her neck.

“That tickles,” she said. “I'm tired, turn
out your light.” She smiled.

“I'll sleep soon. I just need to feel safe
for a moment. Let me have this buzz.”

Maren grunted and turned away from him,
fading fast into sleep. Jeremy thought for some time on Maren's
words at dinner. Ten minutes later, he let his force field fizzle
out and fell asleep.

Chapter 7

The In-Crowd

At 2:30 a.m. in the Civic Center district of
San Francisco, down in the depths of the BART station, a grizzled
man stumbled and swayed his way to a bench. He was singing a song,
chuckling through the verses and pulling on his stringy hair. His
soiled sweatshirt read, “He is coming, pray for forgiveness.”

“La, la, la, they don't want you to know
about the vampires, they want to make you pay taxes, but I know the
spaceship is coming, it's in the Constitution....” He closed his
eyes and lay on the bench, enjoying his echoes in the empty
station. The lights flickered, and then there was a blinding flash.
He sat up, and the whole subway station was suddenly like a bomb
threat at rush hour, people packed tight and panicking.

“I knew it.”

Chapter 8

Leaving

"Should I open the fridge and close it
obnoxiously?" Jeremy tapped the fridge door.

"They'll be up soon. I can't imagine they
slept well, knowing they're about to leave their lives behind."

"I did," said Jeremy. He took a moment to
rearrange some of the fridge magnets.

"We're just... a little more seasoned."
Maren looked at the clock on the wall. A floor board creaked.

Thirty minutes later, and still the hosts
had not risen. Maren poised herself outside Ren's door.

"Do it," goaded Jeremy.

Maren knocked.

No answer.

"Ren? We should probably get going."

Still no answer.

Jeremy grabbed the door handle and pushed
the door open. "Hey, Ren my boy."

The young guard was not in his room.

"They've left us!" Maren raced down the
hallway and rapped on Ren's parents' door. "Hello? We should
probably be heading out."

No answer.

Jeremy smiled. "It's
perfectly understandable. We have no power, we're wanted by,
well,
everybody
,
and you offer them amnesty."

"We
do
have power!"

"They don't know that. The way they see it,
they're sitting ducks with us."

"You don't know the Golsen
family! They are
loyal
."

Jeremy tapped Maren on the nose. “You're
cute when you're naive.”

Jeremy grabbed a handful of car keys off a
shelf despite Maren's protesting, and made his way out back to the
hovercar collection. He tried the keys until he found one that
matched the solar-powered VEX Hovercar Special Edition with booster
mods, the “sweet one,” as Jeremy put it. Jeremy hopped gleefully
into the driver's seat and Maren reluctantly joined him.

Jeremy floored the pedal and the VEX flew
down the long parking lot, the air brakes whining at the sharp turn
onto the road. “Love the countryside,” said Jeremy, racing down the
road winding through the woods.

Maren released her breath. “Easy.”

There was a bend in the road and Jeremy
hugged its edge, accelerating.

“Knock it off!”

Jeremy just winked.

“You like torturing me for some reason,”
said Maren. “Just drive regular so we don't get pulled over.”

“Low profile, yeah, yeah.”
He slowed the car and then turned the radio on
—
static. "What, no
music?"

Maren surfed through the frequencies:
Static. Static. Some high-pitched white noise. She turned it
off.

Then they smelled the smoke.

Maren covered her sleeve over her face as
the car took a left turn onto a main stretch of highway that
bisected a field.

Up ahead, a car had flipped onto its side.
Jeremy passed it slowly, but didn't see any bodies.

Jeremy pointed to the intersection. "There's
another one. And another."

"Are they okay?" Maren gripped the
dashboard.

Jeremy made a u-turn and drove in the
opposite direction. The car approached a traffic light where five
cars were lined up, hovering. "Let's just have a look." Jeremy
stopped the car ten feet back from the nearest one. He hopped out
and made his way towards another solar-powered VEX Hover-car
Special Edition, without booster mods. Static blasted from the
car's radio and the frequency hurt his ears. He searched the
interior but the car was empty.

"What is it?" Maren called out.

"Nothing." Jeremy walked up to the next car.
It was a silver, large enough to accommodate a family of six. He
looked inside the back window. There were two empty car seats. The
front seats were empty too.

Jeremy ducked back into the car with Maren
and stared blankly ahead. "Everyone's gone. How about we just check
back on Watico." The wind picked up and they could see storm clouds
rolling closer in the distance.