The sun begins to set. The sky is a bizarre mix of purple and yellow. Normally I'd enjoy a nice walk on the beach with my boyfriend, but I feel incredibly uneasy. When we had been scooping the sand, Gaea had spoken to me again. She said the same thing she says in my dreams at night. Goading me to join her, that she will give me a life with what I desire most in this world. It's the first time she's spoken to me outside of my dreams since our quest.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Leo asks. I don't think he's feeling too hot about our trip either.
"We're close." Hazel promises. "Come on."
Just over the dunes, I see him. He's sitting on a boulder in the middle of a grassy field. A black and chrome motorcycle is parked nearby, but each of the wheels has a big pie slice removed from the spokes and rim, so they resemble Pac-Man. No way it's driveable.
I squint at the guy. My eyes have to be deceiving me. "Oh, no way. No god-damned way."
The guy has short blond hair, a scar across his face. He wears black leather biker's pants, steel-toed biker's boots, and a blood-red jacket, sort of a Michael Jackson joins the Hell's Angels look. Around his feet, the ground is littered with what looks like broken shells. He's hunched over, pulling new ones out of a sack and cracking them open. Shucking oysters? I'm not sure the Great Salt Lake has oysters.
I don't want to approach, and Leo seems hesitant, but Hazel forges on, so we have no choice but to follow.
As we get closer, I notice disturbing details. Attached to the his belt is a curled whip. His red-leather jacket has a subtle design to it. Twisted branches of an apple tree populated with skeletal birds. The oysters he's shucking are actually fortune cookies.
A pile of broken cookies lie ankle-deep all around him. He keeps pulling new ones from the sack, cracking them open, and reading the fortunes. Most he tosses aside. A few make him mutter unhappily. He would swipe his finger over the slip of paper like he's smudging it, then magically reseal the cookie and toss it into a nearby basket.
"What are you doing?" Leo asks.
The guy looks up, and I fall backwards in a panic. Leo and Hazel react similarly.
"Aunt Rosa?" Leo asks, his voice squeaky.
"What?" I ask. That's not his Aunt Rosa. No way. I know exactly who that is. Gaea let him back out through the Doors of Death just to torment me.
"Is that what you see?" Luke asks him. "Interesting. And you, Hazel?"
"How did you-" Hazel sounds alarmed. "You look like Mrs. Leer. My third grade teacher. I hated you."
Luke cackles. "Excellent. You resented her, eh? She judged you unfairly?"
"You-you taped my hands to the desk for misbehaving." Hazel says. "She called my mother a witch. She blamed me for everything I didn't do and- No. She has to be dead."
Okay, we're all seeing different people. This isn't actually Luke. I get a small sense of relief, but then those blue eyes train on me, and a surge of rage fills my lungs. "Ah, you hate me most of all, dear Theodora."
It's Luke's voice. I know that voice. But it's not Luke. I have to keep reminding myself to breathe.
"Who do you see?" Hazel asks.
"She sees Luke." Leo tells her. He turns to me. "Don't you?"
I nod, unable to speak while those piercing blue eyes are on me.
"Luke?" Hazel asks.
"Who are you?" I choke out. I need to know.
"Oh, Leo knows." Luke tells me. The sound of Leo's voice in his mouth makes me want to strangle him.
