The Last Symphony

Chapter Two

My cell phone grew damp in my palm under the table as the room fell silent. My response elicited no response from her. She waited, patiently, for my answer. If she wasn't crazy, if she truly wasn't human as she said, then the police couldn't help me here. And if she was just high, the cops wouldn't be here for another hour. They took their time coming to places like my neighborhood anyway.

"How do I even know you're telling the truth?" Her predatory gaze didn't leave room for doubt but my sanity required me to press. While her story was impossible, the stuff of fairytales, an unsettling ache in my stomach, warned me her words held truth.

If that was the trade, my life for my brothers, then I only had one possible solution. The truth was my life became forfeit the moment she walked in my kitchen

But how my brother could do it, how he could trade his life for another, was beyond me. I mean, Jacob's a great guy, a wonderful human being who spent countless hours keeping us housed after mom lost her mind while also putting food on the table. But how could he risk our futures like this?

Her face turned feral, her lips stretched higher than any natural smile. "Allow me to show you the kind of magic we Jackal's possess." She pushed a necklace towards me, the metal scratched against the roughed-up table. She nodded towards the out-of-place gem. "Just touch the amulet and close your eyes."

An unease spread through my blood, but I pushed it aside. I laid my damp phone down and reached out, pressing my finger against the cool gem. I slammed my eyes shut, as she instructed, and waited.

The black faded, and I saw him. Shaggy brown hair entrapped in a hairnet. The goofy shake of his hips matched the beat of the music filling my ears. Jacob. The kitchen around him was familiar, the counter glistening with grease as he worked. I'd visited him there, in the past, but the owner had refused to hire me as a part-time waitress. Said I was too young.

I was still too young.

He flipped the meat, and I jumped at the sizzling. The warm smell of freshly cooked burgers teased my nostrils. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of the lunch I skipped.

A woman strolled into the kitchen, a waitress judging by her uniform. She slipped her arms around Jacob's sides and leaned her body against his back. He reached around, spinning in her arms, and the rodent tattoo on the underside of his wrist flashed out. The one he got last week without explanation. A waste of money even if he said he got a deal. Mom would be furious if she noticed. It wasn't like we had the cash to spare on pointless tattoos. The expense had been unlike him.

The waitress turned her head from him and up towards the eye of my vision like she was looking directly at me. Seeing her, meeting but not meeting the other woman in my brother's life, I felt nothing but rage. This had to be her, the girlfriend my brother traded his life over. His adoration was obvious. Because of the love she stole, he'd been forced to take the deal or watch her die. But instead of paying for her burden, it'd pass to me. I would die to save this stranger's life.

She opened her mouth, her face strained, and said, "With life comes death, you will destroy him."

"What are you reading?" Jacob asked. He followed her gaze but his eyes never quite landed on me.

The way she looked at me, a tingle traveled through my stomach. She seemed to be speaking directly to me. That didn't make sense. She had to be reading something. On the ceiling? But turning my head did nothing to alter the vision.

The waitress calmly shook her head and raised his hand to her mouth. She placed a chaste kiss on the tattoo and I twisted my head away from the intimate picture. The brief image of my brother's sad smile, of her look of longing, ingrained into my mind.