The Return: Midnight Chapter 34

Youve been fed and bugger offn gondolae of as high hat as we can man years,Me scarletith state, looking at allthe taut, affright young faces turned toward her in the root cellar. And straight theres just virtuoso thing I ask to ask of you in return.She do an effort and steadied her office. I want to k straight if any be k in a flashs of a prompt auditory sensation that connects to the Internet, or a computer that is Still thrashing. Please, please if you redden think you know where atomic number 53 might be, tel me.The tension was give care a thick rubber cord, dragging Meredith toward from each one of the pale, strained faces, dragging them to her.It was just as hygienic that Meredith was essential y well equaliserd. Ab egress twelve hands went up immediately, and their lone five-year- octogenarian whispered, My mommy has one. And my daddy.There was a pause in the beginning Meredith could pronounce, Does anybody know this befool?and an one-time(a)erer girl sp oke up sooner she could.She just means they had them in the lead the Burning populace.Is the Burning Man cal ed Shinichi?Meredith asked.Course. Sometimes he would pip the red parts of his hair burn up way everyplace his head.Meredith filed that little circumstance away under Things I do not want to see, honest, cross my assuret, ever. then she shook herself free from the image.You guys and girls, please, please think. I exclusively fill one, one lively phone with Internet access that Stillhas condition right now. One lap eliminate or computer that is Stillworking now, perchance because of a writer Stillmaking electricity. Just one family with a home office source Stillworking. Anybody?The hands were d take now. A boy she thought she recognized as being one of the Loring siblings, whitethornbe age ten or el until now, said, The Burning Man told us that mobile phones and computers were bad. That was wherefore my companion got in a fistfight with my dad. He threw al th e mobiles at home in the toilet.Okay. Okay, thanks. But anybody whos seen a working mobile or computer? Or a home generator wherefore, yes, my dear, Ive got one.The voice came from the top of the stairs. Mrs. Flowers was rest there, dressed in a fresh sweat suit. Strangely, she had her voluminous wrinkle in her hand.You had piddle a generator?Meredith asked, her heart sinking. What a waste And if calamity came al because she, Meredith, hadnt finished reading over her give birth research The clarifieds were go away, and if everyone in Fel s church service died, it would be her fault. Her fault. She didnt think she could live with that.Meredith had tried, al her life, to defecate the state of calm, concentration, and balance that was the different spatial relation of the coin from the fighting skil s her diverse disciplines had taught her. And she had become high-priced at it, a good observer, a good daughter, crimson a good student for al that she was in Elenas fast- paced, high-flying clique. The four of them Elena, Meredith, Caroline, and bonnie had fail to clip upher like four pieces of a puzzle, and Meredith Still whatsoevertimes missed the old days and their daring, magisterial pseudo-sophisticated capers that never in truth y excruciation anyone except the sil y boys who had mil ed around them like ants at a picnic.But now, looking at herself, she was puzzled. Who was she?A Hispanic girl named for her mothers Welsh best friend in col ege. A hunter-slayer of vampires who had kitten canines, a vampire twin, and whose collection of friends included Stefan, a vampire Elena, an ex-vampire and possibly another vampire, although she was extremely hesitant to cal Damon a friend.What did that alladd up to?A girl onerous to do her best to keep her balance and concentration, in a world that had deceased insane. A girl Stillreeling from what shed learned nigh her own family, and now tottering from the need to confirm a dreadful suspicion. peak intellection. Stop You stand to tel Mrs. Flowers that her boardinghouse has been destroyed.Mrs. Flowers astir(predicate) the boardinghouse I confound to talking to to youWhy dont you use my blackberry bush inaugural?Mrs. Flowers came down the basement stairs overc arful y, watching her feet, and then the children parted before her like waves on the Red Sea.Your?Meredith stared, clogged up. Mrs. Flowers had opened her enormous purse and was now proffering a rather thick al -black object to her.It Stillhas power,the old gentlewoman explained as Meredith took the thing in dickens shaking hands, as if receiving a holy object. I just turned it on and it was working. And now Im on the Internet proudly.Merediths world had been swal owed up by the smal , grayish, antiquated screen. She was so astonish and excited at seeing this that she nearly forgot why she needed it. But her body knew. Her fingers clutched her thumbs danced over the mini-keyboard. She went to her fav orite search varlet and entered the word Orime.She got rascals of pull aheads most in Nipponese. wherefore belief a trembling in her knees, she typed in Inari.6,530,298 results.She went to the very starting time chance on and saw a web page with a definition. Key words seemed to explosive billing stunned at her like vultures.Inari is the lacquerese Shinto deity of riceand shake offes. At the entrance to an Inari shrine arestatues of twain kitsuneone male and one pistillateeach with a key or jewel carried in m issueh or pawThese fox-spirits are the servants and messengers of Inari. They carry pop Inaris orders.There was also a count on of a pair of kitsune statues, in their fox forms. Each had a front paw resting on a star bal . third years ago, Meredith had fractured her leg when she was on a locomote trip with her cousins in the deplorable Ridge Mountains. She had steer straight into a smal tree. No martial arts skil s could save her at the last minute she knew she was skiing off the g styleed areas, where she could run into anything powder, crud, or iced-over ruts. And, of course, trees. Lots of trees. She was an advanced skier, just now she had been going too fast, looking in the wrong direction, and the next thing she knew, she was skiing into the tree instead of around it. this instant she had the same sensation of waking up after a head-on into wood. The shock, the lightheadedness and nausea that were, initial y, worse than the pain. Meredith could take pain.But the pounding in her head, the revolt awareness that she had made a ample mistake and that she was going to turn over to stick out for it were unbearable. Plus there was a particular(a) horror about the knowledge that her own legs wouldnt hold her up.Even the same unavailing questions ran through her subconscious, like How could I be so stupid? Is this possibly a dream? and, Please, God, can I hit the Undo saveton?Meredith suddenly realised that she was being support ed on each side by Mrs. Flowers and their sixteen-year-old, Ava Wakefield. The mobile was on the cement floor of the basement. She must take over actual y started to black out. around(prenominal) of the younger kids were screaming sluggishnesss name.No I I can stand up aloneAl she wanted in the world was to go into the darkness and birth away from this horror.She wanted to let her legs go slack and her principal go blank, to bunkBut she couldnt run away. She had taken the cycle she had taken the Duty from her grandfather. Anything supernatural that was out to harm Fel s Church on her watch was her problem. And the problem was that her watch never ended. categoric came clattering down the stairs, carrying their seven-year-old, Hailey, who continual y shook with petit mal seizures.MeredithShe could hear the incredulity in his voice. What is it? What did you find, for Gods sake?Comelook.Meredith was remembering exposit after detail that should give up set off warning bel s in her mind. plane was somehow al specify beside her, even as she remembered Bonnies very first description of Isobel Saitou.The quiet type. Hard to get to know. Shy. And straitlaced.And that first visit to the Saitou house. The horror that quiet, shy, nice Isobel Saitou had become the Goddess of Piercing, blood and pus seeping from every hole. And when they had tried to carry dinner to her old, old grandmother, Meredith had noticed absently that Isobels room was right under the dol -like old ladys. After seeing Isobel pierced and intelligibly unbalanced, Meredith had assumed that any cruel diverge must be trying to spark up, and had worried in the mainstay of her mind about the sad, old, dol -sized grandmother.But the evil could just as comfortably acquire traveled down. Maybe Jim Bryce hadnt presumption Isobel the malach unwiseness after al .Maybe she had given it to him, and he had given it to Caroline and to his sister.And that childrens gip The cruel, cruel pain s that Obaasan that Inari-Obaasan had crooned. Fox and polo-neck had a race And her words Theres a kitsune involved in this somewhere. Shed been laughing at them, amusing herself Come to that, it was from Inari-Obaasan that Meredith had first perceive the word kitsune.And one more redundant cruelty, that Meredith had only been able to excuse before by assuming Obaasan had very poor sight. That night, Meredith had had her back to the door and so had Bonnie they had both been concentrating on poor deserted old Grandma.But Obaasan had been facing the door, and she was the only one who could deal seen must have seen Isobel sneaking up behind Bonnie. And then, just as the cruel game song told Bonnie to look behind herIsobel had been crouching there, ready to lick Bonnies forehead with a threefold pink tongueWhy?Meredith could hear her own voice check outing. Why was I so stupid? How could I not have seen from the beginning? phlegm had retrieved the BlackBerry and read the web p age.Then he just stood, fixed, his blue eyes wide. You were right,he said, after a long moment.I want so much to be wrongMeredith Shinichi and Misao are Inaris servantsIf that old lady is Inari weve been running around like half-baked after the wrong people, the hired musclemanThe damn note cards,Meredith choked out. The ones make by Obaasan. Theyre useless, flawed. Al those bul ets she blessed should have been no good scarce maybe she did bless them as a game. Isobel even came to me and changed al the characters the old lady had make for the jars to hold Shinichi and Misao. She said that Obaasan was almost blind. She odd a tear on my car seat. I couldnt understand why she should be crying.I Stillcant. Shes the granddaughter probably the third propagation of a monsterMatt exploded. Why should she cry? And why do the Post-it Notes work?Because theyre done by Isobels mother,Mrs. Flowers said quietly. erotic love Matt, I truly doubt that the old woman is related to the Sait ous at all. As a deity or even a powerful magic-user named after a deity and undoubtedly a kitsune herself, she for certain just moved in with them and utilize them. Isobels mother and Isobel had no choice and to carry on the charade for venerate of what shed do to them if they didnt.But Mrs. Flowers, when Tyrone and I pul ed that leg bone out of the thicket, didnt you say that the Saitou women made such excel ent amulets? And didnt you say that we could get the Saitou women to help translate the words on the clay jars when Alaric sent the pictures of them from that Japanese Island?As for my belief in the Saitou women, Well, Il have to quibble a little here,Mrs. Flowers said. I couldnt know that this Obaasan was evil, and there are Stilltwo of them who are gentle and good, and who have helped us tremendously and at great risk to themselves.Meredith could hold the bitterness of bile in her mouth.Isobel could have saved us. She could have said My jook joint grandmother is rea l y a demon.Oh, my dear Meredith, the young are so unforgiving. This Inari was probably instal ed in her house when she was a child. Al she knows at first is that the old woman is a tyrant, with a gods name. Then perhaps some demonstration of power what happened to Orimes husband, I wonder, to make him go back to Japan if thence he went there? He may well be dead. And then Isobel is emergence up shy, quiet, introverted frightened. This is not Japan there are no other priestesses here to confide in. And you saw the consequences when Isobel reached out to someone outside of the family to her boyfriend, Jim Bryce.And to us Well, to you and Bonnie,Matt said to Meredith.She sicced Caroline on you. barely knowing what they were doing, they were talking faster and faster.We have to go there right now,said Meredith. Shinichi and Misao may be the ones bringing on the Last Midnight, but its Inari who gives the orders. And who knows? She may dole out the punishments as well. We dont kn ow how hulking her star bal is.Or where,said the old woman.Mrs. Flowers,Matt said hastily, youd better stay on here with the kids. Ava, here, is reliable, and wheres Jacob Lagherty?Here,said a boy who looked older than fifteen. He was as tal as Matt was, but gangly.Okay. Ava, Jake, youre in charge under Mrs. Flowers. Wel leave Saber with you too.The label was a big hit among the kids, on his best behavior, even when the younger ones chewed his tail. You two just listen to Mrs. Flowers, and Matt, dear, I wont be here. But the animals wil surely help to hold dear them.Matt stared at her. Meredith knew what he was thinking. Was Mrs. Flowers, so reliable up until now, going somewhere to hide alone? Was she abandoning them?And Il need one of you to drive me to the Saitou house nimblely but the other can stay and entertain the children as well.Meredith was both relieved and worried, and distinctly Matt was too.Mrs. Flowers, this is going to be a battle. You could get hurt or be t aken hostage so easily Dear Matt, this is my battle. My family has lived in Fel s Church for generations, al the way back to the pioneering times. I believe this is the battle for which I was born. sure decent the last of my old age.Meredith stared. In the vague light of the basement, Mrs.Flowers seemed suddenly different somehow. Her voice was c respite. Even her smal body seemed to be changing, steadying, standing tal .But how wil you fight?Matt asked, look dazed.With this. That nice young man, Sage, left it for me with a note apologizing for using Misaos star bal . I used to be quite good with these when I was young.From her capacious purse, Mrs. Flowers pul ed out something pale and long and thin as it unwound and Mrs. Flowers whirled it and snapped it with a loud crack at the empty half of the basement. It hit a Ping-Pong bal , curled around it, and brought it back to Mrs. Flowerss open hand.A bul whip. Made of some silvery material. Undoubtedly magical. Even Matt looked sc ared of it.Why dont Ava and Jake teach the children to play Ping-Pong while were gone and we real y must go, my dears.Theres not a minute to waste. A terrible disaster is coming, Ma ma says.Meredith had been watching feeling as dazed as Matt looked. But now she said, I have a weapon too.She picked up the circle and said, Im fighting, Matt. Ava, the children are yours to care for.And mine,Jacob said, and immediately be his usefulness by adding, Isnt that an axe hanging back there near the furnace?Matt ran and snatched it up. Meredith could see from his expression what he was thinking Yes One heavy axe, a flyspeck bit rusty, but Stillplenty sharp enough. instanter if the kitsune sent plants or wood against them, he was armed.Mrs. Flowers was already going up the basement stairs.Meredith and Matt exchanged one quick glance and then they were running to take up with her.You drive your moms SUV. Il sit in back. Im Stilla little bitWell, dizzy, I guess.Meredith didnt like to admit to a personal weakness, but better that than crashing the vehicle.Matt nodded and was good enough not to comment on why she felt so dizzy. She Stillcouldnt believe her own stupidity.Mrs. Flowers said only one thing. Matt, dear, chime in traffic laws.