Before I had the chance to ruin Dominic's one plan and knock on the door myself, he did himself. I knew that the talisman was almost, if not completely, as connected to him as it was to me, but it was still mine, and Jack and Sierra were my friends, not his. Of course, that take-charge-of-his-own-future attitude is probably what attracted me in the first place, but it was still annoying.
"What if they're not here? What if they're halfway to the lawless land of Seattle to start a new life?" Dominic asked, even though he didn't give anyone the chance to answer the door.
"Seattle? What's the point of kidnapping people, crossing state lines, and going to Seattle? That's much worse than regular kidnapping," I said.
"Isn't there an indie music scene in Seattle that would definitely attract some unknown West Coast musicians?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"You're not a very supportive best friend."
"I'm working on it, okay?" Why was he so obsessed with making me a better person when the reason we liked each other was that we were both kinda sucky? "If I was so unsupportive, why would I be—"
The door opened and cut me off before I could remind Dominic why we were there. Harvey stood there with his chin tilted down and to the side, almost like he was surprised that I did the dumbest thing I could have done in the situation.
I smiled. At least I wasn't dumb enough to kidnap two people over a piece of metal. It was always uncomfortable when I wasn't the craziest person in the conversation, but I had gotten used to the odd sensation with Dominic. Harvey? Not so much.
"Lindsay? What the hell are you doing—" Harvey began, but I interrupted.
"What are you doing? You really thought the best way to get my attention would be to kidnap two of my best friends?" I glanced over at Dominic for a second. He shook his head, but I wasn't really sure what that meant. Or maybe I was, and I just didn't care. "What do you want from me?"
"You know exactly what I want. The screeching sound equipment, the lights going out, Roberts's heart attack? James has those pictures of the mystery medallion that he got from the anthropology department in his office, and he's not supposed to throw the student who found it under the bus. But if you put it all together, that shit wasn't random, and it traces back to you having a little meltdown over the situations."
James? Was I missing a piece to the puzzle here?
He must have caught some confusion on my face, because he clarified, "James Rainier."
That made sense. I was hoping Harvey wouldn't put all that information together the same way it took Dr. Reed, Dominic, Sierra, Jack, and me a while to figure it all out, but he had the head start of not liking me.
What was I even supposed to say? Lying wasn't going to bail me out, and I couldn't just run into the house, find Sierra and Jack, run back out, then live happily ever after.
Talisman, talisman. What could I even wish to get me out of this situation?
Dominic told me that magic wasn't going to undo the mess it made in the first place, but what choice did I have?
Every single time I got myself into a mess that I couldn't get out of, the talisman somehow made it better and worse.
Talisman, please do me a favor and—
"I really think we should just—" Dominic began, but I shushed him. Didn't he know I was concentrating on the exact thing he told me not to do?
—please do me a favor and erase the memory of the person named Harvey standing right in front of me. I'm fairly certain Jack told me that his birthday is sometime in April if that helps for identification purposes. Ideally, the best time to cut off his memories would be around seventy-two hours ago, but I'm willing—
"Lindsay, your lips are moving, and I know for a fact that you're not praying right now," Dominic said.
I paused. "You don't know my relationship with God or whatever."
"I think that gives it away," he said, and I really didn't have an argument for that.
Never mind, talisman. Please forget everything we were just discussing. Thank you.
Where was I supposed to go from here? I was very good at ignoring problems, so why couldn't I just let myself do it one more time? It wasn't my fault Jack and Sierra were gone. I figured Lumberjack of all people would be able to put up a decent fight, and Sierra was pretty good at making sure everyone knew that something was wrong.
What the hell was I doing? What could Harvey possibly do to kidnap those two? Chloroform them? Yeah right.
"This doesn't make sense," I whispered and turned to Dominic. "I don't think they're in there."
"What? You were pretty damn sure about five minutes ago," he said.
Before I could explain to him that it was rational albeit uncommon to update thoughts and opinions as new information came out, Harvey jumped into the conversation. "Oh, Jack and his little girlfriend are in here. They're perfectly fine, though, if you want to see them."
And from there, I could figure out a way to keep the talisman in my possession and keep them safe. Who needed plans when I was around?
"Can we?" I asked. It seemed a little extreme for Harvey to do anything to hurt them, besides the whole trauma of kidnapping. Weren't we all emotionally damaged enough?
Harvey led the two of us into the house and up the stairs to a room, and although Dominic didn't say anything, his arms were crossed as he followed behind me. It wasn't that cold in the house, so it was very possible that he wasn't too thrilled with me or my decision-making skills.
He wasn't arguing with my course of action, so how bad could it have been?
When Harvey opened up the door, Jack and Sierra were both there just like he said, but there wasn't anything else in the room with them besides a heater that rattled constantly. They were both seated next to it, but neither of them moved when they saw Dominic and me. The only light was from the window on the back wall, and I imagined that it would be horrible to try to fall asleep in there with no curtains or blinds to shut out the streetlights from outside.
Dominic followed me as I took a few steps into the room, but neither Jack nor Sierra budged from their seats on the floor.
Strange.
"Lindsay? What are you doing here?" Jack asked.
"I just wanted to make sure that you guys are here. Well, you obviously are, so we can—" I turned back for Harvey, but it was too late.
"Dumbass," Harvey muttered as he shut the door in front of me and Dominic, and the door locked with a click. "You can come out when you make the right decision and hand over the thingy."
Wow, me. Way to go. I stared at the door in silence for a moment. What an ugly, old door. The handle appeared it was from a million years ago with its crystal-like design, but it sure as hell looked like it was made with the old-fashioned sturdiness that couldn't keep up in business today.
"Well, that was stupid. My bad, everyone," I said.
"You are so—" Dominic paused and took a breath. "I guess this is my fault too. I don't know what I was just thinking."
I never knew what I was thinking, but it was never right, so at least he had that going for him.
"Well, now what?" Sierra asked.
"I just want to know how this happened. Sierra would be very easy to kidnap, but Jack? That makes no sense at all," I said.
"Don't victim blame me," Jack said, but he didn't elaborate any further.
"I wasn't. I just don't understand—"
Dominic interrupted me. "I don't understand how he got us either, but here we are. We're not asking any questions like that."
That was actually a fair point. It would be easy enough to make up a story for myself about how Harvey made this happen at a later time, or even now. I was going to have plenty of time, it seemed.
No one spoke for a moment, so the only sound was the clunky heater. Not a single sound came from downstairs, which was a weird change from what I was used to. I had only been to Harvey's place to watch the band rehearse.
"How long do you think it'll be before someone notices we're MIA?" Sierra asked.
Of course, the only people who would notice that I was gone were in the room with me, but it sure would seem suspicious that Dominic wasn't in class. But it probably wouldn't raise any red flags for a few days.
I didn't say anything back to Sierra. Instead, I reached for the talisman in my back pocket and studied it once more. It had lost a bit of its shine from when it was originally cleaned up, but maybe that was all in my head.
"Put that back," Dominic said. "It's not going to help us. It only makes things worse."
I shook my head. "No, it's me who makes everything worse. But this time, I'm not letting it happen. I'm really going to think this wish through."
A snicker snuck out of Sierra, but I pretended I didn't hear it. I was only trying to help.
Dominic shook his head at her, then turned back to me. "You're really trying, aren't you?"
I nodded. Trying didn't mean much, but it was more than I ever used to do.
"Every single time I tell myself I'm better off without you, you do something that makes me realize it's really not a bad thing that we've somehow gotten stuck together with that thing." He gestured to the talisman.
How many times did it happen? I didn't look to Jack or Sierra for their reactions as a small smile snuck to my face. They wouldn't get it no matter how hard they tried or how much they knew.
"I mean, just when I was done with everything, you genuinely tried to study ASL with me, and I couldn't imagine a future without—" He paused for a second. "What the hell am I saying? God, you think you're about to die a slow, painful death, and then you just start spilling everything. Ignore everything I just said."
I shook my head. "No, keep going. This is good."
"This is gross. I thought I said you needed to talk alone," Sierra said, but once again, I ignored her.
Dominic shook his head. "I don't—"
"Don't make me wish it. And then, everything that comes out of your mouth won't be a choice at all," I said.
"And I have a knife. Don't start with this," Dominic said.
Was that a threat? Was that what we were doing now?
Before I could ask out loud, he continued. "It's nothing. It's just that that's exactly what happened on the day that the sky went dark until we kissed. That's it. Weird coincidence, right?"
But he and I both knew it wasn't a coincidence. Everyone in a fifty-mile radius knew it wasn't a coincidence.
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Hi everyone! Once again, thank you so much for your patience, and thank you so much for reading! I promise I'll be doing better with updating from this point on. Like, I really promise.
So how deep is the connection between Lindsay and Dominic? Is it real, or is it a product of the talisman?