Sister Zero (Scenes 14-19)
14
Into an underground vault beneath Cooley’s mansion, where the Cairns twins looked up from Katherine’s alcove bedside in the back of the vault, and both twins came up and hugged Celia at once (“Ow!”) before letting go.
“Sorry about that,” Mara said.
“Are you okay?” Nico added.
“I’m fine,” Celia said, “just really sore.”
Both twins traded looks, and Nico said, “I bet. We saw what happened on the stairs.”
“Wait, how much did you see?” Celia said, looking from Nico to Mara and then to Madison and Cooley and Blaze, wondering if they all saw Auna’s horrific accident and the forced execution of a . . . She pulled herself from these thoughts and said, “How much did you all see?”
“Everything from the gunshots onward,” Cooley said, “including the death of that girl.”
“Why didn’t you come sooner?” Celia yelled.
“We couldn’t,” Cooley said. “Something or someone was blocking us from getting in, till someone else disrupted the spell.”
That’s when Celia’s mind flashed on the injured Auna manifesting her gun in her hand, aiming it and firing at Rancaster just as Celia was about to fire her shot into Auna’s chest. And before she knew it, Celia found herself breathing hard as tears began trailing her cheeks again. So Madison hugged Celia close to her, saying that it wasn’t her fault, because someone else (Rancaster) forced her to do it, yet Celia pulled away and approached Katherine’s bedside in the alcove and kneeled and cried.
Madison kneeled alongside her and placed her arm over Celia’s shoulders, rubbing circles behind her shoulder blades, but stayed silent on everything that Celia caused in this total cluster-fuck of a night.
“Are they gonna be okay?” Nico said.
“Just give it time,” Cooley said.
After a time, Madison said to Celia, “We need to take Kathy home. Are you ready?”
Celia wiped away her tears and nodded her head, then helped Madison hoist Katherine into a fireman’s carry over her shoulders and threw her seal on the floor encompassing herself and Madison and blinked out of sight—
15
Only to get dropped back at the entrance of the round Chinese pavilion overlooking the wine-dark sea of Mara’s mind, because the spell couldn’t complete its circuit through the mirror inside Celia’s bedroom.
“Why are we back here?” Celia said.
“I don’t know,” Madison said, then: “Fuck, I hope it’s not what I think it is! Try again,” and while Madison repositioned Katherine’s body weight over to her other shoulder, Celia threw another seal below their feet and blinked out of sight—
And reappeared beneath the Chinese pavilion, because the spell couldn’t complete its circuit. She cursed, then placed Katherine gingerly on the ground and said, “Oh man, we’re fucked!”
“It’s all my fault,” Celia said. “If I didn’t drag you and Kathy into this, you wouldn’t—”
“It’s not your fault, okay?” Madison said, grabbing Celia by her shoulders and looking into her eyes, then hugged her close. “Please, stop saying that! It’s not your fault!”
“But it’s true,” she said.
And before Madison said anything else, Mara said behind them, “That’s not true, Celia.”
The Hearn sisters turned and saw Mara leaning against one of the pillars of the pavilion, which framed a backdrop of a clear white moon in the sky that shimmered on the mirror sheen of the sea below it.
”What are you doing here?” Celia said.
“Shouldn’t you be at Cooley’s place?” Madison added.
“I just came here to see you off,” Mara said and hugged Celia, gently this time. “You did all this for my sake, even after I stabbed your friend. You’re my hero, so don’t you forget it!” She then hugged Madison, saying, “Cooley told me about you and Blaze.”
“She WHAT?” Madison said. “How much did she tell you?”
“It’s not just me, either,” Mara said and smiled a Celia-like mischievous smile.
That’s when Nico stepped out from behind the same pillar and approached the Hearn sisters and hugged Madison and Celia, then gave Celia a kiss on her lips and said, “I may be dead, but I still have more waiting for you the next time I see you.”
Celia blushed in a deadpan manner, saying, “Do you have to make it that obvious?”
Nico nodded and smiled a Celia-like mischievous smile.
“Okay, spill it, you two,” Madison said, crossing her arms over her chest. “How much did Cooley say?”
“More than you want to know,” Cooley said behind Celia and Madison, and when the Hearn sisters turned, they saw Cooley smiling at them in front of another of her mirrors. “Trust me, they don’t look like it, but they’re as pushy as Blaze. You won’t believe how much information they pried out of me, but please don’t tell Blaze. She’s already jealous enough as it is. And they wouldn’t leave me alone without seeing you off first.”
“Something’s keeping me from getting back, though,” Celia said. “Can you get us through to my room?”
Cooley paused for a moment and said, “My powers only work in the Phantom Realms, so I can’t get you there directly. But,” she added, “I might be able to help. How did you get here?”
“We used one of Kathy’s bathroom mirrors,” Madison said, “but only its reflection. We can’t do it the way Kathy does it.”
“You mean,” Cooley said, “you used it against an entrance?”
“Yeah,” she said.
Cooley then summoned her own mirror and said, “Put your hands against my mirror,” and when both sisters did, Cooley placed her hands over theirs, and the mirror glowed as an image of Celia’s bedroom door fluttered through her mind and manifested into the reflection against a spider web of cracks. “It’s cracked.”
“Damn it!” Madison said.
“No wonder I can’t pass through,” Celia added.
“Don’t worry yourselves,” Cooley said. “I can fix cracks, as well. Just keep your hands steady over the mirror. Like that, yes,” and Cooley closed her eyes and imagined a smooth wash of water running down the mirrored surface, and the cracks in the mirror washed away in the reflection, and a moment later, an astral copy of the door to Celia’s room stood in the center of the pavilion. “There! Come on now,” she added, looking at Madison and Celia gaping at her feat, “stop gaping and get a move on.”
“How did you do that?” Celia said.
Cooley smiled and said, “I have my secrets. Come on, we don’t have all night, you two.”
“You’re a godsend,” Madison said. “No wonder Blaze came to you. Oh, and I’ll try to coax her back to my house one of these days. Catch you later,” and she hoisted Katherine’s body over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry and waited at the door for Celia as her sister hugged Cooley, as well.
“Thank you,” Celia said, “for everything.”
“I’m at your service if you need me,” Cooley said, then looked into her eyes. “And take care of Kathy for me.”
“I will,” she said and joined Madison’s side.
When Nico went over and opened the astral door into Celia’s bedroom, Madison (carrying Katherine) and Celia passed through—
16
Into the room, where Madison laid her eldest sister on Celia’s bed, still dozing in the slow-wave oblivion of dreamless sleep. Celia then pulled the door shut and came over to Katherine’s bathroom mirror and shifted it to the side, taking the reflection of the door with it.
“I’ll get the sleeping bags,” Madison said and opened Celia’s door and headed to a closet in the hallway to get them, then returned with two rolls under her arms and plopped them on the ground. “Come on, we need to sleep. We’ll deal with everything later.”
But Celia shook her head and kneeled beside Katherine’s bedside, refusing to look at her sister and reveal her tears.
That’s when Madison knew she was crying, so she came over and kneeled beside Celia and looked at Katherine’s peaceful expression in her sleep, till she noticed the rose Celia had placed in Katherine’s hands over her bosom when she went to get the sleeping bags. Madison looked at her sister and said, “What’s wrong?”
No answer. Only tears.
“Come on, Celia,” she said, “I’m your sister.”
Only then did Celia acknowledge her, saying, “I didn’t mean to do it . . . I didn’t mean to—”
“I promise you,” Madison said, placing her arm across her shoulders and rubbing circles between her shoulder blades, “I’m not angry at you, and neither is Kathy.”
But Celia didn’t seem to think so, saying, “If I didn’t do what I did, if I didn’t drag both of you into this, Kathy wouldn’t be . . .” And her words drifted from her lips.
Madison couldn’t find words to comfort her on that topic, since neither she nor Celia were there in Katherine’s private boudoir when it happened, but she found something better than words. She took Celia’s hand in her own and placed it on top of the rose Celia had placed in Katherine’s hands over her chest.
“What are you doing?” Celia said.
“Shhhhh,” she said. “Just watch.”
And while Katherine slept a dreamless sleep, they still felt her heartbeats under their palms, and the rose inside her hands began to glow and pulse with Katherine’s heartbeats animating its petals, becoming alive because Katherine herself was alive and well even when her mind was submerged in a comatose. They kept their hands over Katherine’s, watching the rose grow larger and brighter as they themselves grew sleepier amidst the spectacle. And so they watched and watched with dreamy eyes, then dreamed and dreamed with eyes of sleep, both sisters now fast asleep with their heads cradled in their other arms over the bedside, while their hands stayed connected with Katherine’s.
17
Since Katherine’s dream mansion matched her own from the first floor down into the underground vault and even to the arrangement of the maze of hallways on the second floor, Cooley had a better idea of Katherine’s floor plan of each story than Madison or Celia could hope for. Still, after doing another search of Katherine’s private boudoir and finding a program beneath the pillow of the bed and perusing the contents under the lights, she wondered about Katherine Hearn’s reasons for including an outsider into personal matters of such a momentous circumstance. Indeed, Katherine falling under a sleeper curse proved one such circumstance, but why include an outsider in on this?
She kept thinking about this question as she finished shepherding the Cairns twins back into the underground vault beneath her own mansion and telling them to stay put, adding, “Blaze and I need to talk for a bit.”
Yet the more she thought about it, rolling its implications through her mind, the more she felt lost in her thoughts when she passed through her mirror—
18
Into the underground vault of Katherine’s mansion, followed by Blaze stepping close behind her, and flipped a light switch on the wall, illuminating the space with a small lamp dangling over a table and chairs. Blaze went over to another light switch and flipped it, illuminating the rest of the space from the track lighting on the ceiling. To the west of the table and chairs was a twin bed tucked away in an alcove at the back of the vault with columns of shelves next to the alcove on either side of it stocked with canned food and dry goods on one wall and cleaning supplies on the other wall; to the north of the table and chairs were sliding double doors into a backroom stocked with more supplies; to the east of the table and chairs was a bulletin board with several to-do lists tacked on; and to the south of the table and chairs was a blank wall with Cooley’s mirror manifested against it, through which they had entered. It all matched Cooley’s underground vault just on the other side of Cooley’s mirror.
Cooley pulled the chair aside and sat in it, bidding Blaze to sit opposite her, and when she did, Cooley sat forward and buried her face in her arms over the table’s edge, so Blaze wouldn’t see tears or the anguish of overlooking something that had plunged Katherine into slow-wave unconscious sleep.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Blaze said, reaching over across the table and grasping one of Cooley’s arms and uncovering her tear-stained face. “Kathy will wake up, I promise.”
“I know,” Cooley said, yet the rest of her words drifted off into space as she thought of all the warning signs she had underestimated or misinterpreted or just plain overlooked: the darkening clouds over her own mansion, the emotional ruse, and the hidden sacrifice for the invocation, etc. “I know I’m better than this, but this whole mess has me beat. Even as an avatar and spiritual guide, I’m not qualified for stuff like this.”
“Come on,” Blaze said. “Everybody’s got a learning curve, even you and Kathy. Nobody’s perfect. It happens to everyone.”
“That’s exactly my point,” Cooley said. “We’re way out of our league here.”
“What are you saying?” Blaze said, leaning forward in her chair. “Are you saying we’re the Losers’ Club or something?”
“We are,” Cooley said, “because first impressions can only get us so far, and even that was under less than ideal conditions tonight. Without Kathy’s help and more information, we won’t last long against Rancaster and whoever that ‘bambina’ girl is, even if we knew what we were doing. Which we don’t!”
“Did you talk to Mara and Nico?” Blaze said.
“Yeah,” she said, “but I need another perspective. Preferably, one with more knowledge and experience, if that could be had. If not, then we need records and documents, something tangible to get some leads.”
“Leads?” Blaze said, leaning forward and resting her elbows over the table. “Are we detectives now?”
“We’re not,” she said, “but we need someone with expertise in that department.”
“As if we’re not,” Blaze said.
“I’m serious here!” Cooley said, glaring at Blaze’s blasé attempt at being funny during a pressing hour of need. “We need an insider’s perspective on this.”
“To balance out our lack of insider’s knowledge?” Blaze said.
“You’re getting it, yes,” she said. “We need to eliminate any biases we might have in our first impressions, because that’s what got Kathy in a sleeper curse right under our noses. You see what I’m saying here? We’ve got to cover our asses!”
Blaze winced at her use of foul lingo and said, “Okay, I get it. So, for this insider perspective, who do you have in mind?”
“Ronald Hamilton,” she said.
“Have you gone insane?” Blaze said, slamming her hands on the table and standing up from her chair.
“There are worse options, you know,” Cooley said.
“Yeah,” Blaze said, “but involving the Phantom Office is super risky, and that guy has connections to some of the most despicable bastards on either side of the Borderlands! And he’s perverted as hell, more so than Kathy even, and she’s got some twisted jollies, that girl!”
“But we need his connections,” she said, “especially with the Phantom Office.”
“Why?” Blaze said. “Did you find something?”
“I did,” she said and pulled out a program from the pocket of her cut-off slack and read the words on the cover, saying, “It reads, ’Masque of the Red Death.’ Weird title for a party program, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is,” Blaze said, coming around the table and looking at the program in Cooley’s hand. “Where did you get it?”
“From Kathy’s private boudoir,” Cooley said. “I did a second search just to be thorough, and lo and behold, I found this,” and she waved it in front of Blaze over the table. “Now don’t tell Kathy I found this, because it contains a hidden letter addressed to Colbie Amame.”
Blaze just gaped, saying, “Why’s it addressed to her?”
“How should I know?” Cooley said. “All I know is that Kathy might have written this letter before succumbing to the sleeper curse, meaning that she must’ve intended to have one of her sisters (Maddy or Celia) take this to Colbie but had to hide it in case Rancaster entered the room. Since Kathy couldn’t deliver it, I’ll do it for her.”
Blaze whistled at Cooley's take on a live drop mission, nodding her head, and said, “It makes sense, but how are you going to pull that off, Agent Cooley?”
“Incognito,” she said.
“Oh my God, really?” Blaze said, biting back a derisive giggle. “And where’s that gonna take place?”
“At the ‘Masque of the Red Death,’” she said and opened the program to the first page and read, “during the ’Debut Ball of Alice Pleasance Liddell’ on ‘December 3, 2018’ at ‘5:00 p.m.’”
“Okay,” Blaze said, pausing for a moment, then: “Where does this Ronald Hamilton guy fit in?”
“I’m not sure,” Cooley said, “but I’ll have a little chat with him while I’m at the masque, so there!”
Blaze whistled once again and smiled, then said, “At least you’re prepared.”
“I try to be,” she said.
“Okay, what about the outsider perspective?” Blaze said. “Who do you have in mind for that?”
“Leslie Amame,” she said.
Blaze gaped, saying, “You can’t be serious!”
“But I am,” Cooley said, but before Blaze had a chance to blurt out another protest, she added, “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out, okay? You and I both know how much Kathy looks up to her. Hell, all three Hearn sisters look up to her. Next to their own mother, Leslie’s got the most experience.”
“Yeah, but isn’t she retired now?” Blaze said. “Last time she went dream diving, Kathy and Maddy were still in grade school and Celia was just a toddler!”
“I know, but—”
“And even if she were willing to help,” Blaze continued, “she’s probably rusty as hell and won’t be much good to us.”
“But I—”
“And even if she still had it in her, we still—”
“Damn it, Blaze, will you let me speak for once?” Cooley yelled, and then silence followed for a moment. “Will you hear me out?”
Blaze nodded her head and gestured for her to go on.
“Look, I know what you’re saying, and I get it,” Cooley said, “but Leslie Amame has something we lack.”
“And what’s that?”
“She’s got firsthand experience,” Cooley said, and Blaze paused on that word and gulped. “She’s been through this before, which might also be a reason why Kathy wants to give this program to Colbie,” and she waved it before Blaze over the table. “In any event, we need Leslie’s guidance, now more than ever, because it’s not just Kathy we’re worried about here. It’s Mara and Nico, too. Now do you understand?”
Blaze gulped and nodded her head.
19
Mara and Nico paused on Cooley’s words in the vault underneath Cooley’s dream mansion, both girls standing by Cooley’s mirror on the south wall and peering through the reflection and eavesdropping on her conversation with Blaze, both wondering if they should push their luck with Cooley and walk through her mirror to tell her about an anomalous find.
“I don’t see any initials,” Nico said, looking at the key before handing it back to Mara. “Do you really think it belongs to her, this ‘Leslie Amame’?”
“I’m not certain,” Mara said, grasping the key in her hand and feeling a familiar sensation in it, as if a residual presence of Colbie Amame lingered on it. Maybe this was Colbie’s key to her bedroom door, she wondered. If it was, Mara would steal into her room and turn on the light and see her sleeping in her bed, all peaceful and quiet and cute, then slip beneath those sheets wherein she would discover Colbie sleeping in the nude, and she would—
“What are you thinking?” Nico said.
“W-what do you mean?” Mara said, snapping out of her reveries, and walked to the alcove in the back of the vault and sat on the bunk bed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Nico just kept staring at her and smiled. “You know why.”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything!” Mara said.
“Are you sure?” she said, walking towards the alcove and sitting with Mara, and wrapped her arm around Mara’s elbow and leaned into her. “Because you’re blushing, you know.”
That’s when Mara tried to get up, but Nico kept her in place and leaned further into her, till both girls teetered over and lay flat on the bed, Mara underneath and Nico on top and nuzzling her face between Mara’s breasts. Mara let Nico have her way, though, letting her fondle her breasts and feeling her lips touch and linger on hers, but when her eyes became one with Nico’s and flashed upon visions of kissing other girls (with Mara kissing Colbie and Nico kissing Kendra and Celia), she pushed Nico away.
Mara sat up and avoided Nico’s gaze, tongue-tied on what to say, too embarrassed to admit that she too had her own needs and desires beyond what her own sister could offer. She then broke the ice and kissed her sister once more, this time on her forehead, and said, “Remember what Mom said: we’re sisters, not lovers, okay?”
“But you were kissing another—”
Mara kissed her again, this time on her lips, and said, “Nico, nothing’s gonna change how I feel for you. You’ll always be my sister, and I will always love you. Believe me.”
Nico nodded, even as tears trailed her cheeks at the thought of her sister falling for other women, so Mara wiped her tears away and kissed her eyes, then hugged her close so Nico could feel her heart beating against her bosom like a drum, bosom to bosom, beating for the both of them.
Both girls then caught something in the corners of their eyes, and they turned towards Cooley’s mirror on the south wall.
Cooley and Blaze were peering at them through the reflection from the other side, smiles on their faces.
Cooley said, “Don’t worry.”
“We’ll keep it a secret,” Blaze added.
Cooley and Blaze winked at them and promised to keep their secret with their fingers raised to their lips before entering through the mirror, distorting the reflection in their passage.
“Don’t spy on us like that!” Mara said, then stole a glance at her shame-faced sister. “Nico’s embarrassed enough as it is.”
Nico hit her shoulder, saying, “Don’t make it worse!”
Then both girls looked at Cooley as she took a small booklet or pamphlet out of her pocket and placed her hand flat over it against the mirror’s surface.
Mara said, “What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing much,” Cooley said in deep concentration over Colbie’s location in space-time, and in the mirror appeared a girl in a sky-blue Sunday dress wearing a red mask amid other groups of formally dressed masqueraders wearing black and white masks. “Just doing a little espionage. I’ll be back before you know it, so Blaze will look after you while I’m gone. Reflect!”
Then the mirror flashed, filling the underground vault with light for an instant.
When Mara’s vision returned to normal, she found Cooley gone and said to Blaze, “Where did she go?”
“On a mission,” Blaze said.
