Harlowe’s Curse – Chapter 5

NORMA

Jaden hasn’t looked me in the eye since Harlowe walked into the fortune teller’s tent. I can tell he’s still fuming. He’s breathing like a bull and his shoulders are so tense his neck is almost nonexistent. I chew the inside of my cheek, raking my brain for the right thing to say.

“It’ll blow over,” I finally blurt out because I just can’t take the quiet any longer. “You’ve had a million fights. You guys always make it up.”

“Because I’m the one to apologize,” he snaps, kicking a pebble with his sneaker. He doesn’t seem to notice the people staring at him as they walk by. “Every time, I manage to forgive her even though she never apologizes for any of the fucked-up things she says.” He scoffs. “And she says a lot of things.”

“She doesn’t mean half of them,” I say, hands in the pockets of my oversized army jacket.

“Then why say it in the first place?” he asks, his voice rising even more.

Jaden finally looks at me, and I’m taken aback by the sorrow in his pale blue eyes. Whatever I was about to say dies on the tip of my tongue.

He takes a step toward me, gaze locked with mine, and whispers, “I hate what she said to you.” This time his voice is but a tired whisper.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say at once with a shrug.

“It does. I saw the look in your eyes.”

I force a smile on my lips. “She’s not wrong though. The publishing world is sort of brutal. I’d rather know these truths.”

“The truth is that you can do anyt—” Jaden interrupts himself, wincing as though he said something he shouldn’t have. “Um, shit. I mean.” He’s blushing a little, in a way that makes my heartbeat pick up. “You work really hard. You’re—You’ve got this, okay?”

He’s being so awkward I can’t help feeling secondary embarrassment. “Okay?”

I would thank him but there wasn’t really a compliment in there. It’s like he stopped himself before it could be one, like he remembered I was his sister’s best friend and put up a wall between us again. He steps back, rubbing the nape of his neck.

“Sometimes I wonder why you’re even friends with her.”

“Excuse me?”

“She can be so cruel. I just don’t get why you put up with that.”

I’m frozen in place, because there’s no way in hell I’m ever admitting why I put up with it half of the time. The other half though, is easy.

“She’s my friend,” I mumble.

“Yeah, well, there are days I wish that’s all she was to me, so that I could walk away when she’s being like this. But as my little sister, she’s my responsibility.”

“No, she’s not. She didn’t ask you to come here. You’re the one who always insists.”

My tone is a little harsher than I intended, and Jaden looks at me like he doesn’t know who I am, but I can’t help it. I know what it’s like to have someone thinking you’re too naïve or too young to go anywhere alone. My father is constantly making sure I know how vulnerable I am out in the world on my own as a woman, and I really wish he’d focus on teaching my younger brothers how to treat women instead of reminding me a million times a day what people could do to me if I show that vulnerability. I’m perfectly aware of it all from everything I see in the news. It’s not the kind of thing a girl has the luxury to ignore.

The flashing lights from a nearby arcade turn Jaden’s hair blue and green for a moment. We just stare at one another—me with the remnant of buried anger simmering in my veins, and him with absolute surprise in his eyes. He opens his mouth but can’t seem to find the right words.

And then.

A scream.

“Did you hear that?” I ask, but as I watch Jaden’s body tense up even more, I know he did.

…Jaden…

The scream is muffled by the tent’s thick fabric and the loud fair, but it’s definitely Harlowe calling for her brother. My instinct is to reach for my phone.

Jaden’s is to run.

He rushes through the crowd and I race after him, my anger replaced with fear as we reach the tent.

When I vault inside right after him, we find the place completely dark. A darkness so thick it feels like we stepped into an underground cave. My eardrums are stuffy, as though even the air pressure changed.

“Harlowe?” Jaden calls somewhere in front of me.

Nobody answers.

I tap the flashlight on my phone quickly to illuminate the tent. Jaden does the same, and with our two lights combined, we look around without a word.

Empty.

Completely empty. How is there nothing in here? There should be a couch, a table, a phony crystal ball, something. But there’s just sand under our feet and a weird black smoke floating in the air, forming peculiar shapes around the light of my phone.

Jaden runs to the other side of the tent to draw a curtain open but he’s suddenly thrown back inside as though someone hidden behind the curtain shoved him violently. With a thump, he lands on his back a few feet away from me, grunting as sand floats up in a cloud at his feet.

I rush to his side. “Holy crap, are you okay? Who the hell pushed you?”

“Shit,” he says, stumbling to his knees. “Shit.”

“What?”

“Watcher.”

“What?” I look back at the curtain, aiming my flashlight, but I don’t see anything except the billowy smoke.

“Shit,” he repeats, wiping the dust on his arm. “We’re fogged.”

“I’m sure the smoke will fade. It doesn’t even smell like fire or anything. Must be some ice smoke trick.” I stretch my fingers forward to touch a wispy strand of black and my eyes widen as it curls around my hand, snaking down my wrist before floating away gracefully. “Wait…”

“No, Norma, it’s…” He paces around frantically, pulling at his dark hair. “Shit, shit, shit. HARLOWE!”

“Hey, calm down.” I start dialing Harlowe’s number. “I’m calling her.”

It doesn’t have time to ring that my phone flies across the tent, the flashlight going out. I gasp, swallowing smoke and tasting a weird, acrid flavour on my tongue. “What the hell is going on?”

Jaden looks around the tent with huge, blue eyes. “What did you do?” he asks.

“I didn’t do anything!” I say, hands in the air.

He grabs my arm and pulls me close to him, eyes still darting all over the tent. “Let her go!”

He’s not talking to me.

“Jaden?”

I’m seriously scared now. This better be Harlowe pulling a prank on us.

“HARLOWE!” Jaden bellows, making me start.

My hands are sweaty, and I’m one second away from bolting when I hear my phone ring. Its screen lights up a few feet away and I rush to it.

“Careful,” Jaden cautions.

I frown at him before reading the caller ID. Relief floods through my body. “It’s her.” Before he can say anything, I answer. “Where are you? What the hell is going on?”

“Put it on speaker,” Jaden says as a voice cackles in my ear.

I shiver. Goosebumps run all over my arms and neck at the creepy echo of the voice. I tap the speaker button and give Jaden a worried look.

“Who’s this?” I ask as the same time Jaden says, “What did you do to my sister?”

“Relax, Jaden,” the voice says. “It’s not like I killed her or anything.”

“Is it that fortune teller?” I whisper, but Jaden’s eyes are on the phone.

“Lift the fog and let us out of here,” he commands, hands curling into fists.

“Can’t grant all the favors, now. I’m just a humble little Sight witch, not a mighty Blood one.” Another laugh makes my veins turn cold.

The rational part of my brain is saying that whatever is going on is not really going on, that there’s a logical explanation somewhere that I’m just missing for some reason. But when I look up at Jaden, his sullen features illuminated by the dim blue light of the cellphone between us, the dark smoke still dancing near the curls covering his ears, I get the sudden, unshakable feeling that I don’t know him at all.

I’ve been friends with Harlowe for more than ten years and have been hanging out at the Wickens for as long as I can remember. I thought I knew them almost as well as my own family, but suddenly, I’m not so sure.

“Jaden?” I whisper, a terrified plea.

He meets my gaze. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers back, and there are tears in his eyes.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“We’re stuck.”

I shake my head. I throw my phone in his hands and stride through the tent to reach the exit, ready to rip the curtain off if I need to. But the moment my fingers graze the velvety textile, my feet are swept off the floor. My heart stops beating as I’m propelled through the tent, landing on the sand with a painful smack.

I can’t make sense of any of it. All I can think about is that time when I was six years old and my brothers accidentally locked me into our toy trunk while we were playing hide and seek and it took what felt like an hour before my father came to get me out.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t—

“Hey, hey, look at me.”

Jaden is kneeling next to me, hands on my cheeks, but I can’t focus on his comforting eyes through the veil of my tears.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

“Norma, breathe. Breathe.”

It’s just as dark as it was in the toy trunk, and my lungs feel so tight, so raw. I’m mumbling to myself, trying to keep it together, but it hurts so much to get the words out that I’m surprised Jaden can figure out what I’m talking about.

“It’s not like the toy trunk,” he says, helping me to my feet. “Look, there’s room enough to breathe and to move and you’re not alone. Okay?”

I’ve started wheezing, and I prop myself on my knees, dizzy.

Jaden pulls me up, arms steadying me. “I don’t have time to explain how but I’m getting us out of here. You’re going to have to trust me.”

“I trust you,” I say, a little too quickly maybe. But it’s true. I’ve always known I could trust him, maybe even more than my very own best friend. Jaden doesn’t have Harlowe’s need to control, to acquire, to rule. Jaden just wants to make sure his family is okay, even though he can sometimes be annoying and intrusive in his methods. I may not know all of him, but I know I trust him.

He nods, like that settles it.

Jaden leans forward, and for a crazy second, I think he’s going to kiss me. And I hate my foolish heart for getting all excited even in the middle of this chaotic panic attack. But he just presses his cheek against mine and whispers in my ear, “If it comes to it, get my parents at Cliff’s and tell them everything that happened in as many details as you can.”

I hear a tinkle and feel his fingers graze my hips, then a slight weight shifting in my jacket. He slipped his car keys in my pocket.

“Jaden?” I whisper, worry at its peak in my lungs as he pulls back.

His features are fully focused now. He taps the speaker button on my phone again to cut me out of the conversation, then brings it to his ear. “You still there?” A beat. “Good. I don’t know who the hell you think you are, and I certainly don’t care,” he snaps in a voice I have absolutely never ever heard him use. Ever. Not even when Harlowe stole his scooter and crashed it into the house on the marshes three years ago. “But I don’t think you realize what family you’re messing with, and how much blood will be shed if you don’t let my sister go.”

It’s utterly quiet as the person on the other side of the line replies. Jaden just paces the tent, nostrils flaring as I stand there on the shakiest legs.

“Then you better tell me what you did to her.”

I don’t know what the fortune teller is saying, but the look Jaden gives me isn’t good.

“Blood shall nourish the Marshes shall strengthen our blood,” he says before hanging up.

I gawk at him, going through what he just said at least twelve times in my mind, trying to decipher its meaning.

“Cute haiku,” I finally manage, voice trembling.

He shakes his head. “It’s not—” But then he gives up on explaining any of it, shoulders slumping. He hands me my phone with a sigh.

“Now what?” I ask, feeling like I’m going to start hyperventilating very soon if things don’t start making sense.

I tuck the phone against my chest protectively.

“Now this.” Jaden holds me by the shoulders and looks me squarely in the eyes. “You can see through the fog, Norma. I believe that you can.”

“What are you talki…” I trail off when the smoke around us turns into furniture. A huge, red couch materializes right next to us, and then a coffee table in front of it. I have to move when I see a huge tray full of candles is grazing my jacket. I turn to Jaden and see he’s standing right in the middle of a big chest, disappearing inside like a ghost from the knees down.

“Your legs,” I begin, pointing at them.

“What do you see?” he asks. “Tell me everything, is Harlowe there?”

“Impressive,” the stranger’s voice says behind me, and I whirl around to see the fortune teller with their long wavy hair running down their chest. “It even works to counter a spell.”

“Norma, tell me everything, quick!” Jaden urges.

“They’re here!” I blurt out. “The fortune teller!” My gaze falls to the lump at their feet and my heart clenches, but it’s not Harlowe. It’s a girl I’ve never seen before, porcelain skin and red hair. “There’s a girl, unconscious, but…” I glance around the tent. “Lowe isn’t here.”

“She has to be,” Jaden says. “HARLOWE!”

The fortune teller steps over the body and toward us. I can’t help but let out a little cry as they approach me. I stumble on the coffee table and end up with my back against Jaden. He holds both of my arms, stabilizing me as I clutch my phone against my collarbone like it’s the most valuable thing on this planet.

“Tell them that she’s alive,” the fortune teller says. “Tell them that it’s not what I wanted, but she got in the way. I saw what she wanted to do, and I couldn’t let it happen.”

They stop when they’re right in front of me. A smirk, red lips wide and content.

“Please just tell us where Harlowe is and we’ll leave you alone,” I beg.

“You’re adorable.” They trail one side of my jaw with a chewed nail. “But I make the rules, now.” Their fingernail grazes my throat and I stop breathing. “Your friend thought she could steal from just anyone, she thought she could steal from me. I couldn’t let her go without consequences.”

“Are you sure she isn’t here?” Jaden asks against my ear, and it’s too much.

His breath and the fingernail and the panic and the feeling of being trapped.

I scream and fling my arms, jumping over the couch and leaping toward the curtain. But the moment I touch it, I’m flung back through the room again as though I’ve hit a trampoline. I’m still screaming as I land on a huge dresser, my stomach taking most of the impact. Air and voice are knocked out of me. My ribs burn with pain.

Jaden hurries to my side, helping me up. “You okay?”

I cough, rubbing my stomach as I shake my head. “No, I’m not okay! What the fuck is going on?”

“Norm, please. Look everywhere to make sure she isn’t here. Is there something of hers, anything?”

“You’ll see her soon enough, don’t worry,” the fortune teller says, something like guilt flicking through their brown eyes.

I ignore them and start looking around the tent, behind the couch and every box and piece of furniture I walk past. When I reach the girl on the floor, I gasp.

“Holy shit.”

“What?” Jaden asks.

“It’s a guy, now. It was a white girl but now it’s a black man.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Are you goddamn kidding me right now? Of course I’m sure!” I yell, five seconds away from a whole new level of panic attack.

“Tell them I cursed her,” the fortune teller continues, unfazed. “For her own good. Someone had to.”

“Tell who?” I shout, running out of courage but also patience. Nothing makes sense. I just want this to make sense.

I kneel at the man’s side to check if he’s breathing, desperately looking for an iota of silver lining in this mess, but just as I touch his shoulder his features contort. His body slims, and his dark skin fades to an olive shade. I’m now looking at a skinny, blond woman, also unconscious. I jump back, heart in my throat, and stumble on a few candles that fall on the couch.

Flames swallow the taffeta cushions in a blink.

“I DIDN’T WANT TO COME TO THE GODDAMN FAIR!” I burst out.

The fortune teller scowls at me. “If I were you, I’d tell them fast.”

“WHY?”

“Because you can only get out of here once you deliver my message.”

The flames have already spread to the curtains. I don’t get the chance to warn Jaden about the fire that the fortune teller seizes his throat and drags him out of the tent, leaving me and the body alone in a fiery trap.

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