Justin was in the doorway, ready for action, when Eve screeched the car to a stop; if he was still mad, at least he wasn't letting it get in the way of a good fight. Eve frantically signalled for him to stay where he was, on safe ground and checked the street on all sides.
"Do you see anything?" She asked me anxiously. I shook my head, still sick. "Okay..you know the drill? Asses and elbows. Bail!"
I fumbled open the lock, bottled out of the car, and hit the sidewalk running. I heard Eve's door slam and running footsteps. Now all we needed was for Brandon to show up and act like a total asshole.
I nearly ran into Justin as I pelted across the threshold; he stepped out of the way just in time, far enough to let me pass, and grabbed Eve to pull her inside as he slammed the door and locked it.
"You have got to get a better job" he said. Eve wiped at her ruined make up with the back of one hand and threw him a dirty look.
"At least I have a job!" She said.
"What, professional blood donor? Because that's what you're going to be if you-"
I turned, ran into a vampire, and screamed my lungs out. Okay, so she wasn't a vampire. That was established in about thirty more seconds by a combination of Justin doubling over with laughter, the vampire screaming in fright and cowering, and Eve saying, in blank surprise.
"Miranda! Honey, what the hell are you doing here?" She asks.
The vamp - she looked like a vamp, I amended, but now that my heart rate was going down below race car speeds I saw that I was make up and drama not nature - slowly lowered her arms, peered at me uncertainly through her thick black mascara lashes, and made a little O with her ruby red lips.
"I had to come" she said. She had a breathy floaty voice, full of drama. "Oh, Eve! I had such a terrible vision! There was blood and death, and it was all about you!"
Eve didn't seem impressed. She sighed, turned to Justin and said, "You let her in? I thought you hated her?"
"Couldn't leave her out there could I? I mean, she's got a pulse. Besides, she's your friend" he said. From the look Eve gave him, friend might of been stretching things.
Miranda gave Justin a loopy smile, great, I thought, annoyed and disgusted and still trying to contain the aftermath of a nuclear terror explosion. The girl was tall and most of her was thin, storklike legs revealed by a black leather mini skirt. She had lots of make up, and standard dyed black hair, shag cut around a white face. Ragged Magic Marker crosses drawn on her wrists and around her neck.
Miranda suddenly swung around and looked up at the ceiling. She raised her hands to her mouth in dread. "This house" she said. "Oh my, it's so strange. Do you feel it?"
"Mir, if you wanted to warn me about something, you could of called" Eve said, and steered her into the living room. "Now we've got to figure out how to get you home. Honestly, don't you have any sense?"
As Miranda sat down on the couch, I caught sight of something else on her neck..bruises. And in the centre of the bruises, two raw red, holes. Eve saw it too, and blinked, looked at Justin, and then at me.
"Mir?" She asked gently, and turned the girls chin to the side. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing" Miranda said. "Everything. You've really got to try it. It's everything I dreamt it would be, and for a second I could see, I could really see-"
Eve let go of her like she'd caught on fire. "You let somebody bite you?"
"Just Charles" Miranda said. "He loves me. But Eve, you have to listen - this is serious! I tried to call, but I couldn't get anyone, and I had this terrible dream-"
"Thought you said it was a vision" Justin said. He'd followed me into the room and was standing near me, arms folded. I felt a little bit of a tight knit of anger and tension unravel at his closeness, even if he wasn't looking at me.
"Don't, Justin, she's been through hell-" Eve evidently remembered, too late, that whatever Miranda had been through, it waited for Justin too, unless we could negate his deal with Brandon. "Um, right. Vision. What did you see, Mir?"
"Death" Miranda said it with hushed relish, leaning forward and rocking gently back and forth. "Oh he fought, he didn't want it, didn't want the gift, but...and there was blood. Lots of blood. And he died...right...here" she put out her hand and pointed to a spot on the floor covered by a throw rug.
I realised with a sinking sense of horror, that she was probably talking about Micheal.
"Is it- is it Justin? Are you seeing Justin's future?" Eve asked. She sounded spooked, but then, we'd had a spooky night all around. And worrying about Justin made sense.
"She can't see the future" Justin said flatly. "She makes up crap. Right, Mir?"
Miranda didn't answer. She craned her neck up and looked at the ceiling again. I realised, with a strange creepy sensation, that she was looking exactly where the secret room would be.
"This house" she said again. "This house is so strange. It doesn't make sense, you know"
There was a creak on the stairs, and I looked over to see Micheal padding down to join us, barefoot as usual.
"Yeah" he said. "It's not the only one. Eve, what the hell is she doing here?"
"Don't ask me! Justin let her in!" Eve said.
"Hello, Micheal" Miranda said absently. She was still staring at the ceiling. "This ones new" she said waving at me.
"Yeah, that's Anastasia" he said, he hadn't exactly come bounding to the recuse when I had screamed.
"Anastasia" Miranda whispered, and suddenly looking directly at me. She had pale blue eyes, really strange. They seemed to look right through me. "No, it's not her, not her. Something else. Something strange in this house. Something or right. I need to read the cards"
"The hell?" Justin asked. Miranda grabbed Eve's hand and jumped up, and practically dragged her to the stairs. "Okay, now this is too much, Eve?" Justin asked.
"Um..right. It's okay" Eve called back, as Miranda practically yanked her arm out of her socket. "She just wants to do some tarot or something. It's okay, I'll bring her down"
Justin, Micheal and I just looked at one another for a few seconds, and then Justin made a loopy gesture at his temple and whistled.
Micheal nodded. "She didn't used to be that bad" he said.
"I guess it's this Charles guy she was taking about" Justin said grimly. "Should have known that if anybody would hook up with a bloodsucker for true love it would be some ditz like her. I should of made her walk home"
"She's a kid, Justin" Micheal said. "But sooner we get her out of her, the better I'll feel. She gets Eve a little nervous"
Eve? But Eve didn't really believe that crap, did she? I had become convinced that it was just costuming, that underneath, Eve was just a normal girl after all, all the goth stuff was just posturing. But did she really believe in visions and crystals and tarot cards?
The two boys looked at me. "What?" I asked. "Oh by the way I'm fine, thanks for asking. Got chased by some vampires. Business as usual" I say.
"Told you not to go" Justin shrugged. "So, who's getting Miranda to leave?"
They kept looking at me, and I finally understood that somehow, it had become my job. Probably because I was new, and didn't know Miranda, and I was a girl. Micheal was too polite to ask her to go. Justin just wanted her out of the house.
"Find" I sighed. "I'll go"
"That girls smart" Justin said without smiling, to Micheal, as I started up the stairs.
"Yep" Micheal agreed. "I like that about her"
The bedroom doors were all closed except for Eve's, which was casting a flickering light out onto the polished wooden floor. I smelt the bright flare of matches. They were lighting candles.
I took a deep breath and looked around the doorway with a smile that felt totally forced. Eve was lighting candles, and boy there was a lot of them. Big tall black, purple ones, blue ones. Her bed was black satin, little Halloween and pumpkins and ghost fairy lights dotted about.
"Hey" Eve said, not looking up from the black pillar candle she was lighting. "Come on in, Ana. I guess you haven't really met Miranda exactly"
"Hi" I said awkwardly. The longer I was around the girl, the younger she looked. Younger than Eve, maybe even younger than me.
"Um..Eve? Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked. Eve nodded. She pulled out some cards from a black box Miranda carried with her. Tarot cards.
Eve held them between her two palms, then cut the deck several times and handed them to Miranda. "I'll be right back" she said, and went out into the hall with me, closing the door.
"The guys sent you up?" At my nod, she muttered, "Pansies, both of them. Fine. They want her out, right?"
"Um...yeah. I guess" I rocked uncomfortably. "She is a little...weird"
"Miranda's- yeah, she's weird. But she's also kind of gifted" Eve said. "She sees things. Knows things. Justin ought to get that. She told him about the fire before-" Eve shook her head. "Doesn't matter. If she came all the way over here in the dark, something's wrong. I should try and find out what"
"Well..can't you, you know, ask her?" I say.
"Miranda's a psychic" she said. "It's not that simple- she can't just blurt it out"
"But she can't really see the future right? You don't believe that?" I ask.
Eve finally met my eyes. Angry. "Yes. Yes I do believe that, and for a smart kid you're pretty dumb if you don't understand that science isn't perfect. Things happen. Things that physics and math and crap that gets measured in a lab can't explain. You guys just leave us alone for a little while. I'll be fine"
She went back into the room and shut the door. I swallowed hard, feeling hot all over wishing I hadn't been pushed to do that. I slowly went back downstairs, Justin and Micheal were sitting on the couch playing video games with open beers on the table in front of them.
"Not exactly legal" I said and sat down on the steps. "Nobody here is twenty one"
Micheal and Justin clicked bottles. "Here's to crime" Justin said, and tipped his up.
Micheal put the game on pause. "Is she leaving yet?" He asks me.
"Nope" I say.
"If she starts trying to tell me I'm going to meet a tall dark stranger, I'm leaving." Justin said. "I mean, the kids a head case, and I didn't want to be mean. But jeez she really believes this stuff. And she's got Eve convinced too"
"She was looking at the secret room" I said. "When she was standing down here. She was staring right at it"
"Coincidence" Micheal said.
"Total coincidence" Justin nodded.
"Eve said that Miranda had some kind of vision about you, Justin, when-"
"Not that again! Look, she said she had a vision of the house on fire, but she didn't say that until later, and even if she did, fat lot of good that did!" Justin's jaw tightened.
I sighed. "I'm going to bed"
But I didn't. I was tired, and aching and jittery...but my brain was too busy picking over things. I finally nudged Justin over on the couch and sat next to him as he and Micheal played.
"Ana. Wake up" I blinked and realised that my head was on Justin's shoulder, and Micheal was nowhere to be seen. My first thought was, was I drooling? My second was that I hadn't realised I was so close to him, snuggled in.
My third thought, although Micheal's spot on the couch was empty, Justin hadn't moved away. And he was watching me with warm, friendly eyes.
Embarrassment flooded in a second later and made me pull away. Justin cleared his throat and scooted over.
"You should probably get some sleep" he said. "You're beat"
"Yeah" I said. "What time is it?"
"Three in the morning. Micheal's making a snack. You want anything?" He asks.
"Um..no. Thanks" I slid off the couch and stood there like an idiot, unwilling to leave because he was still smiling and I liked it. "Who won?" I asked.
"Which game?" He asks.
"Oh. I guess I was asleep for a while" I yawn.
"Don't worry. We didn't let the zombies get you" this time, his smile was wicked. I felt it like a hot blanket all over my skin. "If you want to stay up, you can help me kick his ass.
There were not one but three empty beer bottles on the table in front of Justin. And three where Micheal had been, too. No wonder Justin was still smiling at me, looking so friendly. "That depends" I said. "Can I have a beer?" I ask.
"Hell no" Justin shakes his head.
"Because I'm seventeen? Come on, Justin" I whine.
"Drinking kills brain cells, dumbass. And besides. If I give you one, that's one less for me" Justin tapped his forehead. "I can do the math"
Micheal came out of the kitchen with a bag of cheese puffs. Justin grabbed a handful and stuffed his mouth.
"Ana wants a beer" he mumbled through the food.
"Ana needs to go to bed" Micheal said, and flopped down. Micheal glanced at me. "You're still here. No beer. I'm not corrupting a minor"
"But you're a minor" I pointed out. "At least for beer"
They mocked me together, I rolled my eyes faking a sarcastic laugh before making my way up the stairs. I stopped when a shadow suddenly blocked my access to the hallway at the top. Eve. And Miranda looking weirder than ever.
"Miranda's leaving!" I called down the stairs. Which wasn't a good idea because Eve looked upset, and Justin was drunk.
"Miranda's not leaving" Eve said, and clunked down the stairs, with Miranda drifting like a ghost behind her. "Miranda's going to a seance"
Below, in the living room, I heard Micheal say, in outright horror, "oh, shit"