Eye of the Storm (The Charmed) (16 page)

Harley spoke up, “They’ll never stop, these people, the ones who keep trying to find us, they’ll never give up.”

“Possibly.” Mr. M muttered more to himself. “Lyla, why are you covered in ash?”

“Chase blew the safe house up.”

Mr. M gave a low whistle. Brendan stopped mid-bite and stared at Chase. “Dude, really? I mean, like bam?!” Brendan made a hand motion like something was flying in the air.

Chase nodded. “I thought he killed Lyla. Well, he did. I was pissed.”

“Hey Chase, you know how we left, how did you get here?”

Chase began the long story about how he found out about Tom and the spell. Kayla was getting distracted by a loud buzzing noise. She looked at the others to see if they could hear it too but nobody paid any attention. Like usual. She had been uncomfortable since they had picked the two up and the feeling hadn’t gone away. She felt hate toward Lyla that came out of nowhere, like Lyla stole Chase from her but that clearly wasn’t the case. She was having problems controlling it when a light caught her attention outside. It was familiar, something from her childhood that used to keep her company when her parents were away. She had to get outside to see it. She had to touch it. Everyone was talking animatedly to each other, nobody was paying any attention when she quietly slipped away from the table. She had to see that light. Kayla walked outside to where the pink light danced in the air. She looked to her left. The old people were gone. She walked toward the bouncing color.

Jaden was first to notice Kayla was no longer at the table. He looked around. “Hey guys, did Kayla go to the bathroom?”

Everyone stopped speaking and looked around. Harley and Lyla both jumped up from the table and ran toward the bathroom. Jaden continued to scan the store for any sign of her. His heart began to race and pound furiously. He had finally broken through some of her walls and wanted to continue trying. Why hadn’t he noticed when she stood up? The girls came running back. Harley was out of breath. “No!”

Then Jaden saw her. She was outside walking toward a pink dancing light. She was smiling. The scene put him at alarm. He bolted up from the table and ran to the doors throwing them open, the others followed close behind.

Mr. M put a hand out to stop them. Just as Jaden stepped outside, Kayla touched the light. She disappeared in the blink of an eye. Jaden and the others ran toward the place she disappeared. Mr. M hurried outside just as every single one of the group disappeared before his eyes. The last object to be in his vision was the dancing pink light and then that too blinked out of existence.

Mr. M screamed. He had everyone together for thirty whole minutes. Just long enough for someone, somewhere to find them. Most likely the old people on the porch alerted someone. He should have known better. His anguish over Jaden was too much to bear but he knew that wherever he was, the whole group was together. He had to believe that. He walked over the whole parking lot trying to locate any energy spikes or peculiar objects but came up short. People were getting out of cars and stopped to stare at him. After a few more minutes he walked back in to pay for their food and left as fast as possible. He walked to his car, thankful he had been the one driving so he had the keys. He started the car and drove toward the Georgia airport. He was on his way to Seattle to tell Harley’s dad that his daughter was now missing.

“W
aky, waky, sweetheart.” Kayla could hear someone speaking it was a familiar voice. Her eyes fluttered open She looked around at her surroundings, she was in a completely white room. Her arms were in a strait-jacket and just to the right of her vision was her mother clothed in a long white dress. Her blonde hair loose down her back and blood-red lips. She had moved back from Kayla when her eyes opened.

“Hello, sweetheart.” Her smile was slow and deliberate.

“Mom? Why am I in this jacket?”

“Didn’t want you to harm yourself once you woke up.”

Well that was a lie, Kayla thought to herself.

“Don’t you mean you were worried I would hurt you? Mother? Where have you been?” Kayla was trying to sit up and managed to accomplish it after a few tries.

“I’ve been with your father.” She was walking slowly around the room, keeping Kayla’s eyes from focusing on her. “We’ve missed you this summer.”

‘Really? Because you sure haven’t in summer’s past.” Kayla was getting angry. Her mother put a hand to her head.

“Kayla, you have to believe me.”

“Where am I, exactly?”

“Please Kayla, you’re hurting my head.” Kayla’s mother put a hand to her head, a perfect line of blood obstructing her pretty features coming from her left eye. “You’ve gained your powers I see, I’ll just leave you alone.” She ran from the room, her heels clicking loudly on the cold white tile.

Kayla didn’t know what came over her. She was so mad right now, and the strait-jacket wouldn’t protect anyone, it didn’t take hands to perform a spell or charm, especially when it was anger driven. She stood up carefully and walked to the window in the door. She stood on tip-toes to see out the small windowpane. What she saw curled her blood. She was looking into a hallway with similar doors with tiny windows in them. Kayla walked over to the window opposite with a view to the outside. She looked out over a rocky cliff at the ocean. A storm was rolling in and she could see angry black clouds already forming over the sea. She looked left and read a sign: Seal Rock. Kayla focused her mind to read what the sign really said:

San Francisco

Mental Hospital

For the Criminally Insane

Dianne Nutting grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but now lives in sunny Lakeland, Florida with her family. When she’s not carting kids off to various sporting events, she does voiceovers for companies from her home studio. For upcoming stories and to see what she’s up to in Florida, follow Dianne on:
Diannenutting.com