Tysseland Chronicles - Cursed Part 2

Sasha's freakiness was on full display last night. She had the misfortune of losing control in front of a cute guy too.

As she replayed the night's events over in her mind, she realized that she may have convinced Evan that nothing unusual happened. He seemed to accept her reasoning that the bullet went off target because the robber had bad aim. She hoped that lie stuck.

Sasha was confident that he didn't suspect anything freaky was going on. It was hard to explain what was happening when Sasha, herself, didn't know.

She hoped she'd see him again. He was unlike anyone she knew. She wasn't interested because he was good looking. There was something special about him. He was super brave last night and didn't even know her, yet he risked his life for her. He could have taken off out the back of the cafe and left her with those thugs. He didn't and that impressed her.

She liked to think she wasn't shallow. She still had a crystal clear image of Evan in her head. He was working diligently behind the counter doing what baristas do. His light brown hair stood up in an almost military style haircut.

When he drove her home, he didn't speed or do what other boys do to show off or pretend he was a race car driver. He just did what he had to do.

She had to tell Cady about last night. Cady had been with her when the man jumped them in the park and the blue sparks first appeared. Maybe she could help her figure out what was going on.

She dialed the number and it rang a dozen times before a sleepy voice said h.e.l.lo.

"Did I wake you?" Sasha spotted the clock. It was 10 a.m.

"Who is this?" Cady asked. Sasha frowned stunned.

"It's Sasha," she said uncertainly. Was Cady playing with her?

"Oh, right," she said unapologetically. "Why are you calling me so early?"

Sasha cleared her throat nervously.

"Something happened last night," she said and told Cady about the robbery. She decided to hold back talking about Evan. He was her secret right now. "So the blue sparks reappeared."

"What sparks?" Cady said yawning.

"You know, the blue sparks that appeared when that guy jumped us in the park," she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cady said sounding unpleasant.

"You know, when the guy demanded our phones and wallets," she said clarifying.

"I know a guy jumped us in the park," Cady said sounding annoyed. "I kicked him and he ran off. What about it?"

Sasha didn't know what to say. That wasn't how she remembered the attack. She saw her cup fly at the guy with supersonic speed. She didn't remember Cady kicking the guy.

"I don't remember you kicking him," Sasha said uncertain. How could they have recalled the night so differently? "I threw a cup at him and there were blue sparks."

"And I don't remember blue sparks," Cady said. "Really, Sasha, blue sparks? What is that code for?"

"It's not a code," she said feeling tears of frustration fill her eyes. "Just forget it."

Cady sighed. "Maybe that joint we smoked was laced," she said.

Sasha remembered Cady smoking but she didn't touch it. She didn't answer for a minute, trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe Cady's memory was cloudy. She should probably just drop it before Cady started to think she was crazy.

She'd been feeling that way a lot lately. Her insecurities were getting the best of her and she worried about losing Cady as a friend. It wasn't like she had many friends other than Cady and Jenna, her next door neighbor. Jenna and Sasha used to be super close but grew apart when they got to high school. Sasha met Cady a few months ago and they became fast friends almost immediately.

Lately though Cady seemed to disagree with almost everything Sasha said and did. It was frustrating and Sasha didn't know how to fix it.

"Moving on," Sasha said. "Are you coming to my birthday dinner?"

Her birthday was in two days and her mother wanted to throw her a party. It wasn't a party a 17-year-old would like. It was more of a party for her mother as most of the guests were her friends. Sasha hadn't invited anyone yet.

"When is it?" Cady asked.

"Two days," Sasha said. "I was thinking-."

"No can do," Cady cut in. "I've got a thing."

"A thing?" Sasha said wondering what could be more important.

"I set it up weeks ago," Cady said defensively. "Don't jump over me because-."

"Forget it," Sasha cut her off.

There was silence on the line. Sasha tried to get beyond her hurt feelings. It was a struggle. She would do anything for Cady. Didn't Cady feel the same way?

"Ok," Cady said sounding defeated. "I'll try and come and push back my thing."

Sasha's heart leaped in her chest. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," she said.

"You're going to owe me."

"I know."

Sasha heard rustling on the other end of the phone and voices in the background.

"I gotta go," Cady said in a rushed voice. "Later."

Sasha leaned back onto her pillows relieved. At least she had one friend coming. Should she invite Evan?

"Sasha have you decided where you want to have your birthday dinner? I have to make reservations," her mother said walking into her room. She pulled a gold tube out of her purse and applied a dark burgundy lipstick to thin lips while gazing at her reflection in the closet mirror. She took out a tissue and blotted.

Willow Bean and her daughter shared the same dark hair and brown eyes and little else. Sasha a.s.sumed she got most of her personality traits from her father, an organized and introverted engineer. He was the complete opposite of her mother.

Willow Bean was an awesome and frightening figure at times. She was strong-willed, and steely in her focus which made her a successful real estate agent. She had a dozen realtors working for her and was one of the top agents in the state. Sasha had no plans to follow in her footsteps. It was a career that required lots of smiling and cajoling, two things that Sasha wasn't very good at.

"Have you invited your friends? You know you can't wait too late. People have lives and make plans," her mother said. She'd finished with her lips and moved to fluffing her hair.

Her mother thought she needed a friend for every occasion. She had several close friends who worked in her business. She'd never said how she met them. Sasha imagined they were from college, bonded over drinks and saved each other from letches. That didn't explain how her mother knew Dominic, who had to be at least 80.

"Don't worry about it mother," she said. "I need your help with something else."

Her mother turned from inspecting her reflection. "What's that?"

Sasha picked up the black cord around her neck, the blue stained gla.s.s pendant dangled between her fingers.

"How important is it that I wear this all the time?" She asked.

Willow Bean frowned. She sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Very," she said.

"Can you explain it to me?" Sasha asked.

Willow Bean stroked the pendant with her thumb rubbing the gla.s.s. She slowly laid the pendant against Sasha's neck and caressed a locket of her daughter's hair.

"Do you trust me?" Willow Bean asked Sasha.

"Of course," she said automatically. "What's going on?"

"I need you to trust me Sasha," she said with her head bowed and eyes closed. "I will tell you everything. I'm just not ready yet."

"But-," Willow Bean placed a finger across her daughter's lips.

"No buts," she said. "I need you to wait."

Sasha nodded, confused by her mother's request. Why couldn't she tell her what was going on? Her mother's behavior only confirmed for Sasha that she was indeed the target of last night's attack and it had something to do with the pendant.

"Am I in danger?" Sasha asked. She was scared to hear the answer but she had to know.

Willow Bean softly stroked Sasha's cheek brus.h.i.+ng away stray hairs. She tipped Sasha's chip up so they were staring into each other's eyes.

"I will never let anything happen to you," Willow Bean whispered. She pulled Sasha into a tight embrace and kissed her on the forehead.

Willow Bean got to her feet pressing the wrinkles out of her skirt with her palms. The tenderness she showed toward Sasha melted away and was replaced with her realtor persona.

"Pick a restaurant and be done with it. Otherwise I'm cooking."

Sasha wrinkled her nose already smelling the burnt food. Willow Bean was a busy realtor with little time for domestic ch.o.r.es. A cleaning lady came in once a week to vacuum and take care of the bathrooms and kitchen. Meals consisted of frozen dinners, pasta and boring crock pot meals. Sasha usually made her own dinners and tended to eat a lot of oatmeal and grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Fine, I'll text you a name," she sighed, disappointed that she got no answers from her mother.

After her mother left, Sasha tried to study. She cracked open her biology textbook. She had a mid-term on Monday and needed to study. She had a hard time focusing because her mind kept wandering to Evan.

She opened her laptop and tried to find Evan's digital footprint. Everyone had one. She searched all the popular social media sites and found nothing. He didn't have Twitter or Facebook accounts. She did find a resume on LinkedIn but it was blocked to anyone who wasn't a contact. Frustrated Sasha gave up. He didn't want to be found on the Internet.

Maybe she'd see Evan at the police station later today. She was going to bike there after lunch. She was daydreaming about Evan's blue eyes when there was a clanging in her doorway.

Her little sister Hannah stood there clad in a bathing suit, carrying a cow bell. Twelve-year-olds were a pain in the b.u.t.t and yet old enough to rat Sasha out to her parents.

"Mom said you'd take me to the community center," Hannah said swinging the cow bell.

"Can't you go on your own?" Sasha said rolling onto her back pulling the textbook up to her face.

"Mama insists you come with her," she said in a whinny voice.

"I can't right now, I'm studying." Sasha said turning a page of her textbook without reading the previous page.

Her sister didn't protest and wandered off, dragging the cow bell behind her on the carpet.

Before Sasha could refocus on biology her phone rang. She didn't recognize the number.

"This is Sgt. Al Corey," a deep voice said. Sasha recognized the name as the detective who took her statement. "Can you come down today and look at photos?"

Sasha asked for the address and told the officer it would take her an hour to get there because she didn't have a car.

"I can send a patrol car to get you," he said. Sasha declined the offer. How would she explain it to her mother who would surely hear about the patrol car in the driveway from the neighbors not to mention from Hannah? It was best she went there and got back before her mother came home.

"No, I'm good," she said and hung up. She told her sister she had to go out for a bit and promised to take her to the pool when she returned.

It took Sasha 20 minutes to cycle to the police station. It was tucked away in a strip mall on South Lamar Boulevard. She locked her bicycle out front and gave her name to the officer at the front desk.

She picked up a magazine and sat by the windows while waiting for Sgt. Corey. The magazine was three months out of date, so she put it down and stared out the window not really seeing. She was daydreaming about Evan again when she spied a man in a dark overcoat in the parking lot.

It was the strangest site. The man was wearing a black fedora hat, tilted to one side. He leaned against a black Lincoln limousine. The man must be a business tourist dressed like that or in the music industry. The city was overrun with strange music people dressed in all sorts of bizarre garb. He certainly fit in with the city's slogan, "keep Austin weird."

Sasha craned her neck to get a better view. Maybe he was a famous musician. The limousine seemed a giveaway. She couldn't see his face well and after awhile gave up.

Sasha turned away from the window when Sgt. Corey called her name. She followed him into a small room with no windows that smelled like sweat. There was a mirror on one wall.

"Gosh," she exclaimed. "This is like something out of Law and Order."

Sgt. Corey smiled and put a laptop on the table. "We don't usually solve crimes in 60 minutes," he said. He powered up the computer and explained that photographs are now digital. He asked her to scroll through some pictures of known thieves in the area to see if anyone seemed familiar.

"They were wearing masks," Sasha reminded him.

"I know but you saw their eyes didn't you?" he said.

Sasha closed her own eyes and pictured the face of the robber who grabbed her. The black knit mask covered most of the skin. The openings around the eyes were large and the men hadn't painted the skin to match the mask. She knew both men were white. She didn't know the eye color of the second man, but the main robber, his were a green-brown. She had stared into those eyes as he demanded her pendant.

She couldn't really remember much else. Her fear had clouded her concentration. She didn't even remember what was said except for the man demanding her necklace.

"I'll try," she said squinting at the computer screen. She scrolled through dozens of photographs until she came to one that seemed familiar. The eye color seemed right but the shape was off. The robber had a rounder eye not so slanted as the one she was staring at.

She kept scanning pictures diligently trying to help. Sgt. Corey offered her a drink. After about an hour, she turned to the officer disappointed she couldn't identify the robbers.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't see him here."

Sgt. Corey spun the laptop around and closed it. "That's ok," he said. "Evan didn't have much luck either."