Auracle. Part 19

The message in her silence is as clear to me as if she had spoken the words. Jason wouldn't give Taylor a chance, either. Despite the impression that he's been hit on the head by a few too many footb.a.l.l.s, even he was smart enough to see that Taylor had the potential to ruin a guy's life. But he was giving Anna a chance, and Taylor would take what she could get.

Her tone is frigid. "If you bother Jason and me again like you did today, I will have you arrested. Again. And if you follow me around, I'll get a restraining order against you for stalking me. See, Rei, you've got another chance to join Seth in jail."

"Taylor, I don't care what you do to me. But Anna did nothing to you. Just give her back," he pleads.

"You want Anna back?" She turns to him with a chilling smile. "Be careful what you wish for, Rei, because I only know one way to leave this body, and you won't like what's left of Anna if she goes into that waterfall like I did."

Rei freezes as her threat sinks in.

"Sayonara, Rei. I'll give your regards to Jason."

I don't know if he wants to be alone or not, but I follow him, making up the rules as I go along. If he wants to be alone, I rationalize he'll go into his weight room. If he wants to talk to me, he'll stay in his bedroom. If he rushes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, well, that's an entirely different issue.

He lies on his bed and I notice the tears pooling in his eyes just before he closes them. I haven't seen Rei cry since he was eight years old and he broke his leg skiing. Well, falling, actually. Even then, he didn't cry in fear or pain; in fact, he didn't cry until Yumi broke the bad news to him that he couldn't ski for the rest of the winter. He cried in frustration.

I need the good stuff right now. I pull my energy from deep within the universe, and when I'm vibrating at full capacity, I appear and touch his arm so he knows I'm here.

"I'm sorry." He swallows hard.

We must be the two sorriest people in the universe.

He reads my message and nods.

I'm sick of apologizing for other people, and I'm sick of listening to you apologize for stuff that's not your fault.

"It is my fault. I screwed up and now she knows I know she's not you. Did you hear what she said?"

I nod. I heard what she said.

Tissues are light. I stretch to pull one up out of the box and let it ride a current of air over to where Rei sits.

"Thanks."

Did she at least brush my teeth before she shoved my tongue down your throat?

"Yeah. You were all minty fresh." He rubs his thumb absently over his front teeth. "She pierced your tongue, you know."

I heard. How are your teeth?

"Fine." His sigh could rival a Category 5 hurricane. "I have to keep her away from Jason. She'll probably do it with him just to get even with me." He looks about as miserable as I feel with that prospect. "Maybe if I talk to your mom, she'll tell Taylor she can't see him anymore."

Something tells me that would only make Taylor more determined to see him. No, I think Jason should meet the real Anna Rogan if he's planning to devirginize me in the near future.

I think I should pay our friend Jason a little visit. Can you help me find some good music to play for him?

"What? Why?"

Because I want to scare the c.r.a.p out of him.

This thought cheers up Rei considerably. "Seriously? What's more important, music or lyrics?"

Big guitars. Lots of ba.s.s. And dark and disturbing lyrics would be helpful.

"Come on," he says. "I keep all my lyrics in here." He rolls off his bed and opens the door to (gasp!) The Weight Room!

The only time I've been in this room, it was dark. The view from outside the window is different once I'm actually in here. It's a room. After all the mystery, I'm almost disappointed. It's big: the size of the two-car garage downstairs. It's tastefully decorated with oatmeal-colored carpet, off-white walls, and bamboo shades over the windows. There are his weights and weight bench near the door. There's a black canvas futon, and his favorite toy, his sleek and shiny black Ibanez electric guitar, sitting on a stand next to a rather impressive-looking amplifier that I know for a fact can be heard all the way across our yards and into my bedroom if he is so inclined.

The computer is back in Rei's bedroom, so I just mouth Wow! and raise my eyebrows like this is the coolest room I've ever seen.

In the corner by the window where the sunlight divides into shadows cast by the willow's lacy foliage, there's a low table where several partially melted white candles sit on a tray and a pillow that's shaped like a mushroom cap is pushed to the side of the wall. I put two and two together and decide this must be where Rei meditates. I flit over and point.

"Yeah, I figured you'd have some wisea.s.s comment about that. Why do you think I never let you in here before?"

I frown. I thought it was because I told him he looked constipated when he lifted weights. But then again, I do have a hard time picturing Rei sitting cross-legged on this pillow chanting "om." I readjust my vision: get rid of his shirt, lose the "om," the mushroom pillow has to go, too. Much better.

"My mom got that pillow for me-I never use it. And no," he says defensively, "I don't say 'om' either, just so you know."

I wish I had the computer here so I could tell him I love that he meditates. I love the serenity that flows from him, and I miss it this week. He's disappeared in here a few times, but I don't think he's spent much time charging up his positive vibes. It makes me sad to know he feels self-conscious about meditating.

"Okay, so what are you looking for ... power metal, thrash metal, speed metal, Goth metal, punk metal, black metal, death metal..."

I nod vigorously.

"Death metal?"

Yes, that sounds perfect.

"Sure." He pulls a plastic file bin out from under an end table and riffles through until he comes up with a file marked Death Metal. Okay, that type of organizational attentiveness is scary in itself.

"What looks good?" he asks as he spreads the papers all over the floor.

I find a band whose lyrics are all equally disturbing, and Rei a.s.sures me the guitars are plenty big enough to get my point across to Jason. "Right this way," he says as he leads me back to his bedroom where he pulls up YouTube on his computer.

"You want dark and disturbing?" Rei asks. "Here you go."

I smile at him as the room begins to vibrate. Perfect.

Five minutes later, I'm in Jason Trent's bedroom, which is just as disgusting as he is, especially the stained sheets on his unmade bed. Is Rei the only guy who ever washes his sheets? There's a vaguely disagreeable odor hanging in the room, like a combination of sweaty socks and sour milk. He does have a very nice desktop computer he's left online, so it's just a matter of pulling up YouTube and searching for my dark and disturbing music video. I turn up the volume as loud as it will go, so when he runs into his room with a puzzled look on his face to see why his speakers are about to detonate, he gets a nice surprise.

Me!

Parked here next to his computer, I look as solid as any flesh-and-blood girl. For a moment, his little blue b.u.t.ton eyes register confusion, and I can almost see the thought bubble float out of his head with the word "huh?" printed across it. He looks at the window for a second as though he's trying to figure out how I got into his room. What a dolt! Maybe if I float toward him and let myself fade a bit....

He screams b.l.o.o.d.y murder and bolts out of the door, tripping down the last few stairs in his hurry.

I leave the video playing and bounce back to Rei's.

"That was fast!"

He screamed and ran away. Am I really that scary?

Rei laughs for the first time in a while. "I'm afraid to answer that."

CHAPTER 29.

There are strange people in and out of school all day on Wednesday. The police search Seth's locker and they find the crumpled note, which they carefully place in a plastic evidence bag and label. While they are in there, they look through the rest of his possessions, which are mostly schoolbooks, tattered spiral notebooks, pencil stubs, and a plastic bag containing a moldy sandwich featuring some unidentifiable meat and a rancid odor which is much more noticeable now that it's been unearthed from the pile of stuff.

Someone decided it would be easier for the attorneys to come to the high school to talk with any students they want statements from rather than the other way around. There are a few empty cla.s.srooms set aside, and parents are required to be present during questioning. Annaliese Rogan is excused from her P.E. cla.s.s so the district attorney can question her. My mom meets her at the cla.s.sroom and listens while Taylor gives her version of events, complete with hand gestures, gasps, and dramatic facial expressions. She is amazingly consistent with her story, and the district attorney grins like the village idiot as he jots down notes.

He looks entirely too happy.

I decide my presence is required. I drift to the top of the file cabinet behind her and my mom, and surge into view. He stops smiling abruptly.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Taylor asks as soon as she notices his frozen stare.

"No, no, nothing is wrong. So, um, you were saying something about her shirt?"

"Yes!" Taylor says. "He grabbed it with both of his hands and ripped it wide open! It looked like he was planning to rape her!"

I roll my eyes and shake my head no.

The district attorney looks at me, then at Taylor, and marks something down on his paper.

"And when she resisted him, he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her over to the edge!"

I shake my head again, and the district attorney looks from Taylor to me. Taylor spins around to look behind her, but I vanish before she can see me. My mother seems to realize that if she stays very quiet and doesn't turn around, she'll get back to work sooner.

"I see. And, um, you said something about his wrist?"

"Yes! She tried so hard to fight him off, she clawed at his wrist, but he was just too strong."

I materialize again and shake my head. He has a phony little smile glued onto his face as he makes more notes.

I drift up to the chalkboard which, like most chalkboards, has a layer of chalk dust on it. My letters are so faint, you would have to know I was writing to notice them.

She lies.

I look back to make sure the district attorney sees what I've written. He does. He looks me straight in the eyes and I see question marks where his pupils should be. I let myself dissolve slowly, leaving the ghostly letters on the chalkboard as the only proof I was there.

Rei gets pulled out of his fourth period chemistry cla.s.s to talk to the attorneys, and his story never wavers. He takes the opportunity to enlighten Seth's attorney about the memory issues "Anna" has been having since her b.u.mp on the head and her out-of-character behavior, including her tattoo. He also mentions the note the police found in Seth's locker, since the rumor about the police visit has circulated through the school as fast as the rancid odor from Seth's sandwich.

Seth's attorney gets a whack at Taylor, too, but I decide not to mess with him. He asks about her tattoo, but she refuses to acknowledge it.

The attorneys talk to Taylor's friends and to some of the teachers and other school staff. I overhear a teacher in the hallway tell another the upcoming trial was mentioned on the six o'clock news the night before. All we need now are some elephants and ponies, and we'd have ourselves a real circus.

Taylor trolls the area around Jason's locker from time to time, waiting for him. He shows up just before sixth period.

"Hi, Jason," she smiles up at him.

"Hi," he stutters and fumbles with his books.

"Are you busy after school today?"

"Um, yeah," he slams his locker and backs away a few steps before he turns and literally runs down the hallway.

"Rei ruined everything," she complains to her friends on the way to her next cla.s.s. "Jason won't even look at me now! How can he be afraid of Rei? He's, like, an amoeba compared to Jason."

"G.o.d, Anna," Vienna huffs, "you really did mess up your memory when you fell. Rei has, like, a second-degree black belt in karate and now he takes something else-alido? Akudo? I don't know-something. Jason would be an idiot to pick a fight with him."

"Well, I'm not going to let Rei Ellis ruin this for me!" Taylor declares.

"So if you're not going out with Rei anymore, is it fair to say he's back on the market?" Cori asks.

"Sure. Whatever."

Taylor has the tenacity of a terrier. As soon as Jason slams his locker door at the end of the day and sees Taylor standing there, he jumps a mile.

"Did I scare you?"

"Uh, kinda." He shoulders his backpack and starts to back away from her.

"Jason, if you're worried about Rei Ellis, he won't be bothering us again. If he does, I'll just have a restraining order issued."

Jason looks confused. "Rei Ellis? Why would I be worried about Rei Ellis?"

"Because he was such a jerk yesterday. I just thought maybe you..."

"You thought I was afraid of Rei Ellis?" Apparently this threat to his male ego trumps all fear of me. "I am not afraid of Rei Ellis. I just remembered I am free today. What do you want to do?"

Well, first she wants to parade Jason right in front of Rei, who takes a deep breath and starts to follow them out of the school.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Rei," Taylor calls over her shoulder. "That's, like, creepy stalker behavior."