Ava Rising: Book 2 of 3

Chapter 4

Ava jolted out of bed to the sound of pounding on her door.

"Ava, it's me, I'm going to break into your room now."

She groaned into her pillow. Sleep had been a welcome relief from the unending emotional roller coaster of the last week—despair, terror, carefully crafted witty banter, wash, rinse, repeat.

She rolled over but refused to actually move into a vertical state without further explanation. Whatever was happening it clearly wasn't dire; Lucas was being far too casual. The click of the doorknob informed her that Lucas had indeed followed through on his threat to break into her room.

"Is that drool?" Lucas asked, looming over her prone form.

"No," Ava answered quickly. She craned her neck, spying a large stain of what was most certainly her drool on the pillow. "I haven't slept this soundly in weeks," she said defensively.

"So that's why you insisted on separate bedrooms. You're a drooler."

"That's not a word," she replied, pretending to rise to his bait.

Lucas's tone turned more serious. "There's something I thought you should see." He held his iPhone up and she moved to a sitting position on the bed, muscles suddenly tense.

Lucas had a video queued up from their local news station. The image, embedded under the heading, "Has the Salem witch hunt returned to Massachusetts?" was pixilated but Ava could tell right away that it was Natasha in the thumbnail.

"If they've touched a hair on her head I swear to God—"

Lucas cut her off by pressing play on the video.

The camera was focused on a local news reporter who was speaking from her desk while Natasha's school photo was featured prominently in the background. "Hello, I'm Monica Leming and tonight we have an intriguing story out of Brookvale, Massachusetts. You've all heard of the mass hysteria surrounding the Salem witch trials of seventeenth-century Massachusetts. Now it seems history may be repeating itself. A local teen has had her house, car, and locker vandalized." The camera cut to show images of the vandalized objects, each covered dramatically in crimson spray paint. "The pranks vary in their exact phrasing but all have the same terrible message—"You'll burn, witch." The image behind the reporter changed to show the phrase scrawled across a locker. "Authorities are taking the acts of vandalism extremely seriously, exploring a number of angles. One source has informed us that authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the acts are racially motivated. With more on the story, we have Bill Drewbank's interview with the victim."

The video cut to a middle-aged man holding a microphone next to a fiercely scowling teenage girl. He smiled insipidly at the camera, asking his question without bothering to glance at Natasha. "Ms. Lopez, can you tell us a little bit about your state of mind after these terrible incidents? Do you feel that you can now empathize with the women targeted by the original witch trials?"

"Um...not that I don't respect your hard-hitting news coverage, but don't you think comparing a few words scrawled on a locker to the Salem witch trials, where dozens of women lost their lives, is a little melodramatic?"

This got the reporter to finally turn and truly look at his interviewee, but he couldn't manage to get any words out through his obvious surprise. Smelling blood, Natasha continued, "I mean for a generation practically weaned on Harry Potter, 'witch' is the ultimate compliment. Hermione Granger is the definitive badass." Natasha looked like she could continue on this subject for a long time, but her expression changed suddenly; it was clear that she had remembered her surroundings. Somewhat less enthusiastically she added, "I could do without the burning part, but—"