On Monday, Liza warily boarded the bus, carefully avoiding Andrew. But with all her care, she needed have bothered. He was, as usual, listening to his IPOD louder than necessary and couldn't have heard her if she had clogs on and was walking on a tin roof. Still, all the same, she was glad when Shara boarded and even more glad when Quinn did too. Snuggling into him, Liza allowed herself a little emotional down time. She was constantly worried about her father, except when she was with Quinn. Somehow, Quinn would make it all better. After all, they were going to use his plan, right? He came up with the solution, he came up with the way, and she would have her father soon.
"So, I was thinking we might spend our free hour in the library today," Quinn said.
"Why?" Liza asked.
"What if I could do what the medium can do?"
"Can you do that?" Shara asked.
"Well, my dad did a lot of work on a lot of those types of subjects. I have to admit, I've worked with the stuff a little. Say the word and I'll practice more and we can keep this in house, so to speak, and not have to bring a stranger into it. I don't want this getting messed up by somebody who doesn't care how it turns out."
Liza thought for a moment.
"I'll think about it. We can do some research. I swear, our library must be the most well stocked occult library in the world. What's up with that, anyway?"
Shara smiled.
"The librarian is Wiccan and practices several other occult things with it. She likes us to be well informed."
Liza rolled her eyes and shook her head. The lady was nuts. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Andrew glancing at her. He was so weird!
By free period, Liza was more than happy to spend some time with Quinn, even if they were looking up the weird occult. They met outside the door and walked in together.
"Where do we look first?" she asked.
"Let's try over there. See what we find," Quinn answered, gesturing to the back right corner.
"Okay, you go ahead, I'll get a basket."
Quinn nodded and headed off. Liza turned and picked up a basket on her left, and stopped. She saw Andrew sitting in an overstuffed chair. Although he is enough to give her pause, that wasn't what stopped her. He was holding two magazines as if he were reading them both. But the way he was holding them, the titles read: DREAMWALKERS. He had been nonchalantly flipping pages in both magazines until he saw her looking at him. At that moment, he looked up at her and she could have sworn she saw blue electricity arcing around in his brown eyes. Panicked, she spun on her heel and ran out of the library.
It took Liza a few moments to catch her breath and realize that Andrew wasn't following her. What was he? How did he know? Questions rolled around in her head. Was he the one working with the criminal? Fear speared through her. If he was helping the criminal, and he knew who and what she was, she was in danger. They needed to speed up their plan. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Liza jumped and screamed.
"Liza! Are you okay?" Quinn was looking at her with concern.
"We have to leave. Now. We aren't safe here."
"What? What's going on?"
"Now."
"Okay, just let me go get my book."
"No! Don't go back in the library."
"What's wrong with the library?"
"Quinn, please!"
"Okay, okay, lead the way."
There was a graveyard nearby. Liza headed for it, and amazingly, Quinn didn't ask questions. The thoughts of going to a graveyard creeped Liza out, but it was the closest and most likely of places to have spirits. She just hoped Quinn could keep up his end by calling one of them. When they had settled near a fresh grave, Liza finally explained, but she was pretty sure Quinn already had some idea of what she was thinking.
"There's a boy at school. His eyes, they crackle with electricity. He knows what I am, what I can do. He showed me."
"What!? Are you okay?"
"Yes. But I think he's the one working with the criminal. The one on the outside trying to get him out. With what he knows, we're out of time. We have to do the plan now, before he can stop us."
"Alright. I did some research after we all talked. I think I know what I need to do."
Liza nodded her head curtly.
"Okay. Do you think ten minutes is long enough for you to get a spirit to come to me?"
"It should be. Is it long enough for you to convince your dad?"
"It shouldn't even take that long. Alright, here goes."
Liza laid back on the ground. She closed her eyes and mentally tied her tether. Within seconds, she was soaring out of her body and in the direction of her father and the criminal.
