Little Spark

41 - Inside Scoop

When I get to the church the next morning, the doors are locked.

"No meeting this week."

Von.

He comes up to meet me. "You're looking for Candis?" he says, leaning his shoulder on the door beside me and crossing his arms.

"Yeah. She won't return my phone calls, and I really need to talk to her. She's not here?"

"Sorry, no." He squints toward the woods. "There was a break-in last night, so my dad cancelled this morning's meeting."

Umm, what? "A break-in??"

"Actually, I don't even know if you could call it that. The locks on all the windows and doors were intact, but my dad's office was completely trashed when he got here this morning. Considering you have to go through three locked doors to get inside it, the person either had a master key or was Jesus."

"Huh?"

"He could walk through walls."

"Ah. Gotcha."

"Sorry, preacher's kid humor. Anyway, like I was saying, Dad's the only one with all three keys, so needless to say, the whole thing is a little freaky."

I stick my hands in my pockets and look down at my moccasins. It's not freaky at all if the intruder possessed the ability to shift from one dark place to another....

"So... did they take anything?"

"That's the strangest part," he says. "The only thing missing was the member directory... names, addresses, phone numbers, that kind of thing."

"That is strange." What in the world would a Shadow want with a list of churchgoers?

"Anyway, hate to cut this short, but I have to get back to my post. I'll tell Candis you stopped by."

"Thanks." I start down the stairs. "Guess I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Keep your head up, Bliss. As my dad's always saying, all it takes to start a fire is a little spark."

********************

I'm so lost in thought as I ride away from the church I almost crash right into a lady jogging with a stroller. Everything I've learned over the past three days clangs around in my head like a cacophony of giant cymbals. By the time I pull back into the yard, I'm buzzing... literally; my fingers spark every time I touch something like I spent the last hour dragging my socked feet across a carpeted floor.

When I get back to my room, there's another note on my bedside table. I'm actually a little nervous about touching it especially after hearing about this church break-in; either Reign was so eager to see me, he came here in broad daylight, or whatever he needed to say was so urgent, he was willing to risk getting caught in my room in order to talk to me.

I unfold it slowly.

Need to talk ASAP. Please call me.

I drop my arms to my sides and let my head fall forward. I swear if I get any more bad news, I'm going to scream so loud and so long, they'll end up locking me in a padded, soundproof room in a straightjacket.

I drag myself to the phone outside Gigi's door and dial.

He picks up on the first ring.

"B?"

"Hey."

"Thank God—"

This catches me off guard. "Do Shadows even believe in God?"