Voodoo (6 page)

“Took a balloon, I think,” Alex answered. “I'll get you into the house for another piece of silver, but no one is home.” Stephen looked at me, I nodded.

It took no time for Alex to find the spare key and let us into the house. We wandered through the rooms, painted in rich reds and warm cream tones. Each room was filled with lavish wood and velvet furniture. I felt like I was in a museum. The stairs creaked under my feet as I climbed to the second floor. Each room had a large bed in it, and carved wooden dressers. When I opened the door to the last bedroom, I knew it was hers.

The bed was unmade, white sheets half thrown off the bed. That was something Claire always did. I looked around for anything else to explain how I knew it was her room, but there was nothing. I went to the dressing table and sat down. I couldn't help but run my hand over the bone handle of a silver hair brush. I glanced into the mirror. My heart faltered when I saw Clea looking back at me. She smiled a sweet, false smile.

“I knew you would find my room,” she said. The scar looked worse close up.

“H-how?” I asked. Cold fear filled me, I wanted to bolt from the room, but felt stuck in place.

“Mr. Jones told you where I lived, my spies told me that much. The connection you have with your sister did the rest,” Clea said. Her hand went to the amulet around her neck. Mr. Jones' words came back to me and I tried to study the necklace without being obvious.

“So you aren't my sister?” I asked.

“I am,” Clea said. “In many ways I am. In others I am not. Crescent affects everyone differently. Be sure though, I am the closest thing you have to a sister in this world.”

“I'm not any different,” I said. I swallowed, licking my lips.

“No, it's true.” Clea tilted her head. The movement was so Claire I almost cried. “You are an anomaly here, so much the same as you were before, but that changes nothing. You won't last long in our world, you were not meant to. When you are gone I will have nothing to fear.”
“You have a guard of six big guys and you run the north side,” I said. “What could you possibly have to fear from me? I just want my sister back.”

“That, dear sister,” she said ‘sister’ like the word tasted bad in her mouth. “Is exactly what I fear.” The mirror went black.

“Alyssa?” Stephen asked from the doorway. I jumped at the sound of his voice, my face sickly pale in the mirror. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, slowly turning to him. “I just saw Clea. She was in the mirror.”

“I had no idea she had that power,” Stephen muttered. He lifted his hat and ran his hand over his head. Stepping forward, he ran his fingers around the mirror. They came back covered in a yellow powder.

“Snake,” Alex said. He had slipped silently in behind us. “Snake powder. If ya get it blessed by the right woman it can turn any two mirrors into a communication device.”

“How do you know that?” Stephen asked, frowning at the boy.

Alex shrugged. “I've lived my whole life in Crescent, you pick up things.”

“Where would she go?” I wondered aloud.

Clea wasn't at the house, and Alex thought she was on a balloon, whatever that meant. I couldn't get the image of the amulet out of my mind. It looked like a simple white stone, but it felt like more than that. Clea thought she had a reason to fear me, which meant I could get Claire back. She was and wasn't Claire. My mind swam with ideas.

“Prob’ly to the Jungle,” Alex said.

“The jungle?” I raised my eyebrow at him.

“It's another city,” Stephen said. “Sort of. There was a bad earthquake there a few years ago; it left most of the city in pieces. I’ve heard that people still live there though. It is just the sort of place Clea would like.”

“How do we get there?” I asked.

“On a balloon,” Stephen said with a smile.

8.

We thanked Alex for his help, and left him with a few extra copper. On the main street Stephen flagged down a black taxi. We climbed in the back, enjoying the padded leather seats. Stephen told the driver where we were headed, and then leaned back beside me as the car pulled into the street.

“You're sure you want to do this?” he asked, looking at me with concern.

“I have to.” I turned to face him. “You did everything to find Hannah, didn't you?”

“Yeah,” Stephen said. “And then she just disappeared, that's why I’m wondering if you really want to do this. Maybe we would be better off running away.”
I shook my head. “Hannah went someplace good.”

“So Mr. Jones said,” Stephen grumbled.

“I want that for Claire, if that’s what needs to happen. Hannah wasn't scared. I just feel like wherever she went was where she was supposed to be.” I shrugged. “I don't know why.”

Stephen let out a long breath, and nodded. “No, you're right, I feel it too.” He reached over and took my hand. “Is this okay?”

“Yes.” I squeezed his hand. “This doesn't make me feel like I am floating away.”

“Good,” Stephen said. “Though something else should soon.” He pointed out the window.

We had driven out of the city and up ahead in a field was a whole fleet of hot air balloons. I had never seen one in real life at all, let alone the twenty or so that were tethered to the field. Bright reds, blues, and yellows painted the sky. Green, purple, and orange filled in any space forgotten by the three main colors. It was beyond beautiful.

When the taxi came to a stop, I climbed out with a child-like glee filling me. I had a huge grin plastered on my face and just couldn't seem to shut it down. Stephen paid the taxi driver, and took my hand. Together we walked toward the balloons. Wind whipped through my hair, but it barely shifted the tightly tethered balloons.

“Can I help you?” asked a perky looking brunette in a bright red print dress. She smiled widely to reveal straight white teeth framed by her ruby red lips.

“We need to take a balloon to the Jungle,” Stephen said, returning her smile.

“Alright,” she said. She pulled a small notebook out of her pocket and searched through it. “Here we are. That will be two gold per passenger. If you have it with you we can get you going right now.”

Stephen handed her the money. She smiled and waved for us to follow her. We weaved through the balloons to a red and blue balloon that was tethered a bit lower than the rest, with a rope ladder hanging to the ground.

“Jesse, we got two more,” the girl called up.

A young man with dark hair leaned over the side and gave her the thumbs up. Stephen climbed up first, the rope ladder swaying under his feet. I slipped off my heels and tossed them up to him before climbing up myself. There were three other passengers on the balloon, a woman and her two small girls. They sat buckled onto a bench on the wall of the basket. Stephen and I sat on the bench opposite them and buckled our own seat belts. The young man was apparently the pilot, though he wore nothing to make that clear, just a white button up shirt and brown slacks. He nodded to us before leaning over the edge of the basket.

“That everyone?” he called down to the girl. I looked over the side to see her nod. “Alright then.”

The pilot pulled up the rope ladder. He rolled it into a tight bundle and tied a cord around it. Shutting the trap door the ladder had hung through, he locked it in place and went to the control panel. Down below, four people went to the tethers holding us in place. At some signal I didn't notice they unhooked the tethers and sent us floating.

We drifted up to about five-hundred feet and the pilot hit a switch on his control panel. There was a low hum from below as two engines kicked on. We began to move with purpose. I glanced over the side one more time, and decided I didn't want to look anymore. We were high enough to make me dizzy.

“So,” said the pilot. “How are we all doing today?”

*

The trip went quickly. When the air turned chilly, the pilot pulled out blankets for us. The woman and her kids were on their way to visit relatives and the pilot told us he flew this route once a day as long as there were passengers. I sat snuggled up against Stephen, feeling totally content in the moment. Because we happened to be traveling in the same direction as the wind, the air in the basket was peaceful and still. I was disappointed when the pilot stopped the engines and began slowly releasing the hot air.

The balloon gently descended towards the earth. I risked looking out over the side again and saw we were headed for a balloon field similar to the one we had just left. There were only five other balloons below though. The earth seemed to be coming up far too quickly, but when we did hit there was only a gentle bump. The land crew tied up the ropes and the pilot lit the burner again to keep the balloon inflated for the next flight. We were ushered out of the basket before the balloon gained any more lift.

“That was amazing,” I said as we walked off the field.

“Best way to travel,” Stephen said. “Now, back to business.” He waved over an attendant and subtly handed him a coin. “Has a red haired woman and her crew been through here?” Stephen asked quietly.

The man glanced around before leaning in to answer. “Early this morning,” he said in a hushed tone. “You'll find them in the old church on Main.” He tipped his hat to Stephen and hurried off.

“Have you been here before?” I asked Stephen as we walked.

“I'm not sure,” Stephen frowned. “It seems familiar though. We should have gotten a ride with that woman and her kids. There aren't going to be taxis like in Crescent.”

“We can walk,” I said, unwilling to admit how nervous I was to see Clea in person. I took his hand and we began to follow the dusty road toward the city in the distance.

“Were you and your sister close?” Stephen asked.

“Not really,” I admitted. “We fought constantly. We used to be close when we were little. I don't know what changed.” That wasn't true; I knew what had changed. All of a sudden as we got older we were competing for everything: friends, boys, clothes.

“Hannah and I fought,” Stephen said. “But at the end of the day she was my little sister. I would have stood with her against anyone.”

“Yeah.” I nodded absently. I wasn't sure if that would be true about Claire and me.

“You just have to remind her you are family,” Stephen said. “I mean if you can't count on your family to be there through everything, who can you count on?” I smiled and leaned into him, glad he had found me.

“I would have been lost without you,” I said. “I never would have found Claire.”

“Well I never would have gotten Hannah's soul back without you, so I guess we’re even,” Stephen said. He shook his head. “I still can't believe you took that chance.”

“I thought I was going to be able to really play him,” I said. “I wasn't expecting a straight game like that.” Somewhere behind me a clopping noise was growing louder.

“Still, it was amazing,” Stephen said.

I stopped and looked over my shoulder. Behind us a horse and cart was drawing nearer. Stephen and I moved to walk along the side of the room, making room for the horse to pass. As the horse drew near, the woman driving pulled the horse to a stop. She was an older woman with a gray bun at the nape of her neck and tan, weather-worn skin. She smiled.

“You two want a ride into town?”

I looked at Stephen. “Sure,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem,” the woman said. “Too far to walk on a day like this. Hop on the back.”

Stephen and I went and sat on the back of the cart. “Okay,” Stephen called and the cart began to move again.

9.

We hopped off the cart at the city limits. The place didn't seem habitable; rubble littered the streets from half-collapsed buildings. Sections of the street were raised a few inches above the next, some at a sharp angle. Trees and other plant life had begun to take over the city, growing from the cracks in the road and on top of the rubble. A small girl stood watching us, fingers in her mouth, from the doorway of a building that was now only two stories, but looked like it was once at least a couple more. I felt like I was in a war zone.

“Come on,” Stephen said. He got me moving with a gentle hand on the small of my back.

The city was unnaturally quiet. We passed few people as we walked, and there was none of the usual bustle of talk and activity that fills a city. I could hear gulls calling in the distance, and the chittering of squirrels in the trees. It was like a lonely country road, but surrounded by buildings. The people we saw seemed more like ghosts.

“Why don't they leave here?” I asked.

“Some of them have no place else to go, some of them are afraid to leave,” Stephen said. “For criminals, this place is a haven. They rule the streets without question.”

“Seems like even more reason to find someplace else to go,” I said with a shudder.

“I agree,” Stephen said.

We walked along the silent main street until a church came into view. Like the rest of the city, it was a crumbling mess. It looked like a giant had walked by and taken a bite out of the spire. The cross at the top looked like it might fall in the next big wind. A half broken, circular, stained glass window faced the road, and stone from the church walls littered the yard. We stood at what once would have been the gate to the church yard. Now it was only a gap in a collapsing wall.