9. Chapter Nine - Teagan
Chapter Nine- Teagan
Istare at the unlit King of Hearts skeleton painted on the tattoo studio window and realise, even though I’ve seen him a thousand times, that his canines are actually fangs.
White headlights slowly spill over me as a car draws up, pulling me from my musings, and I turn with my hand up to shield myself just as Summer’s car parks. The engine dies, and after a beat, she steps out, wrapped in her fluffy purple coat and a backpack slung over her shoulder.
“Yo, Summer,” I call, and she returns my greeting with a tight-lipped smile. Her grip on the backpack strap clenches and unclenches like she’s about to bolt. “Don’t worry, we’ll be in and out, and if we get found out, just blame me,” I assure her.
“Don’t worry about that, babe,” she replies, stepping forward and looking me over with wet eyes, like she might start crying. “Thank you…for helping me.”
I nod and head for the entrance with Luuk’s keys in hand, the door reflecting Summer as I unlock the studio and lead her inside, the bell dinging to announce our presence to the empty parlour.
“I didn’t wanna put you in this situation,” Summer says, voice low and tight. “I promise I’ll make this as painless as possible.”
“It’s all good.”
The inside smells like chemicals from the cleaner the artists use to wipe down their stations.
The space is doused in darkness and silence, making our light footsteps heavier by contrast. I haven’t been to the studio in months, but apart from more punk posters plastered on the walls, nothing has changed.
Summer’s steps are hesitant as she moves around me, her breathing shallow. The hand on her strap clenches and unclenches.
“Summer,” I say as she comes to my shoulder. “This really is okay, don’t feel guilty. We’re just getting your stuff back.”
After a beat, she blows out a huff of air from her nose but stays silent as she leads me to the back of the studio, to a door labelled ‘Basement: Staff Only’.
She gives her backpack strap one last tentative squeeze, then reaches out—her black rings shiny despite the lack of light—and grabs the handle with more certainty before twisting it down.
Rusty hinges squeak as the door is opened reluctantly, as if every inch is costing Summer something.
Not for the first time, I think about why Summer and my big bro fell out.
She said something about Kai lying, but since she hasn’t offered anything else, I haven’t pried.
Memories of my own time at uni flood me, and it occurs to me she might be feeling what I felt when I packed up and left for good.
It was like saying goodbye to a life I wasn’t ready to let go of.
To a dream that was ending.
And maybe every time our feet meet the wooden steps, the hollow taps are like the tick-tock of a clock counting down.
So when we finally reach the bottom to stand on solid ground, Summer’s shoulders sagging, I wonder if she feels like her life at King’s has officially ended? Like mine did when I left art school.
A light is clicked on, and I rub my eyes as we’re bathed in a glow bouncing off the brilliant-white walls. When spots stop dancing in my vision, I glance around to look for Summer’s paints, only to find the basement empty of everything but a couple of broken hydraulic chairs pushed into the corner.
“I don’t see your stuff…” I scratch the back of my head, frowning. A bad feeling grows in the pit of my stomach. Kai wouldn’t throw them away; he’d never do anything that mean. “Wanna check upstairs—”
I try to move, but can’t.
I attempt to shake my arm, move my wrist, wave my hand, twitch a finger—nothing. I push at my tongue to twist in my open mouth, or force up a word, but all that leaves my tight throat is a choking croak.
Panicked, I glance around, tears welling up. What’s happening? Am I sick? Is this what having a stroke feels like?
I beg my mouth to make the shape of Summer’s name so she can help me, but all I can manage is the smallest broken whimper.
“It’s okay, Teagan, everything’s fine.”
Summer comes into view, her face drawn and…I squint to better understand what I’m seeing. A weird wet bead floats above her pointer finger, connected to a taut piece of thread coming from a small incision in her flesh. It almost looks like blood, but that makes no sense. None of this makes sense.
“I’m sorry to do this to you, I just…I need this to work, and I was scared you’d panic and hurt yourself.”
Inside, I’m screaming and struggling at invisible bonds; on the outside, I’m a statue.
“This won’t hurt…” Summer’s gaze drops, eyes squeezing shut as if in pain. “I will be as gentle as I can, okay?” When Summer looks up again, I startle, my breathing coming out in short, erratic bursts.
Her eyes are…
Her eyes are black. Circled in a red rim of light, like staring into an eclipse.
“I have to open a type of door to get somewhere. Somewhere not in this realm. Normally it involves a death, but—”
A strangled cry leaves my paralysed chest, and I try to fight back. Try to thrash out of whatever is holding me in place, throat working and tears streaming down my face. But I’m trapped!
“Calm down. Please, please, please, Teagan, I’m not going to kill you! I would never, okay? I’m going to use my blood and some of yours, and it’ll get the door open.”
Fear slices through me, and I double my efforts. But whatever Summer’s done has me trapped.
“You love Kai, right?” A tear runs down Summer’s cheek.
“I loved my family, too. But they were taken. Killed. By the Demon King, and I need—” she flashes her teeth, biting down on her words like they’re tough meat she’s trying to rip apart, “I need to destroy him for what he did. You would do the same for Kai, right? For Thomas?”
I want to scream at her. Fuck you, never say their fucking names, don’t even think them! I only manage to hiss out some spittle.
Her lips press together, Summer’s face transforming into a serious mask. “Let’s get this done fast. I can’t imagine that’s comfortable.”
She drops her bag down with a thud, and the moment she unzips it, a disgusting grey leather-bound book, so large I’m surprised it even fits inside, floats out to hover in front of her, opening wide like a hungry mouth.
Horror and tears choke my throat, and the only thing that can escape this nightmare is a raspy sound that scrapes against the soft tissue as it leaves my throat.
Frightened, internally begging, I look on as Summer pulls out a bottle of paint remover and a scrub brush from her bag, then marches to the wall opposite us, her face determined, lips pursed.
Unceremoniously, she unscrews the lid and splashes the harsh chemicals all over the white wall, before dropping the empty bottle with a clatter and scrubbing the wall in hurried, wide arches.
The whole time, that strange bead remains bobbing above her pointer finger.
A bizarre shape drawn in black paint is revealed; the outline of a door surrounded by jagged symbols. My panic ignites, and I redouble my useless efforts as Summer steps back, a film of sweat shining on her forehead.
“Nearly over,” she whispers, staring at it with a twist of revulsion to her upper lip. She reaches down to her ankle, tugging up her jeans leg to slide out a long, pointed black dagger hidden in her boot. Turning to me, she nods as if to reassure me that everything will be okay.
My stomach sinks.
“I had to get in here without setting off the alarm to give myself enough time…” She sighs, the sound so heavy her shoulders droop beneath it. “You’re gonna hate me after this. Just like Kai and Apollo…”
I try to tell her with my eyes that if she just lets me go, I’ll never hate her.
That I’m scared and just want to go home.
That I’m only twenty-two and I have so much life left to live.
“Oh, Teagan. I am so sorry. I didn’t want this to be you—or anyone really.
But I took an opportunity and…well…” Summer breathes out as she approaches me.
“Here we are, I guess. But I promise I only need a little of your blood, and mine, too. Mostly mine, okay? That should be enough, and no one needs to die. I don’t…
I don’t want to hurt you!” The last part comes out in a frustrated yell.
She’s crazy, and fuck—I’m going to die down here with her.
Gently, Summer slips off my bomber jacket and folds it, placing it to the side and out of the way, and whatever regrets she has don’t stop her from slashing a deep wound on my frozen forearm.
The pain is unbearable, my legs shaking with the unnatural effort it takes to keep me standing, my chest bulging from keeping my screams locked inside. I expect my blood to flow out of my arm—it doesn’t.
Somehow, like I’m trapped in the worst fucking nightmare, my blood is leached from my arm, each drop feeling like it’s being clawed out as it flows in a current towards that strange doorway.
Then, the moment my blood splashes into the middle, filling the outline in red, the gnarled doorway begins to glow the same colour as an infected wound.
Summer cuts into her arm with little hesitation and a single grunt. Her blood pours out, carried by the same invisible force to twist around mine, the two becoming a horrible, wet torrent that fills the doorway.
A small, wrecked whimper leaves me, and all I can hope is that Kai isn’t the one who finds my body. That Luuk doesn’t blame himself. That Apollo doesn’t go crazier. I hope my little brother knows I love him. I hope my parents think I was brave, even though brave is the last thing I’m feeling.
Then, Sen…I guess we were never going to have enough time. I wish I could close my eyes and picture his face. I don’t want Summer to be the last person I see.
“I told Emma that no one needed to die,” Summer murmurs, her wide eyes locked on whatever the fuck is happening with our blood.
The agony is something I’ve never experienced; it pulls and rips and demands I give everything up, even when I have nothing left to offer. Even my tears have stopped, and the effort it took to cough up weak, hoarse moans becomes insurmountable.
At least Summer is struggling, too. She’s drenched in sweat, heaving like she’s run a marathon. The bead above her finger starts to wobble, and I dig deeper than I ever have before, down into the lowest pits of myself, to drag up the last dregs of energy I have left.
I push at the invisible chains. Every muscle strains, my bones stretched to their absolute limit.
Summer glances at me, down at the quaking bead barely holding onto its structure. She moves—it’s too late. The bead drops. And I drop with it. Finally freed, I scream out my pain, my anger, my confusion. It splinters from me in a long, fragmented wail.
Summer yells my name.
Somewhere above us, a roar shakes the air, followed by a crash, then a shadow blurs into the basement at impossible speed to coalesce into a man, and through my fuzzy vision, I find Sen.
He takes one look at me on the ground. Then he whips around, face furious, and grabs Summer by the neck.
“STOP!” She screams, grabbing hold of his wrist. “My spell! The door is nearly open!”
“You. Fucking. Hurt. Him!” Sen growls, lifting Summer.
Our blood that was filling the doorway splatters to the ground, and the glowing stops. The pain should stop with it. Instead, my throat tightens until I can’t breathe. Frantic, I kick my legs, making choking sounds and clawing at my throat.
“Teagan?!” Sen calls as his grip on Summer tightens.
I slap at my neck, thrashing on the floor, desperate to drag in air. But my throat refuses to work.
Sen drops Summer, taking a step in my direction. The second Summer is freed, my windpipe relaxes, and at the same time, Summer and I suck in a mouthful of life-saving air.
Sen halts. “No…” he chokes out, looking back to Summer.
“W-what’s happening to-to me…” I beg, shaking as I barely manage to push myself up.
“No!” Sen goes for Summer again, but the second his hand wraps around her throat, I’m choking.
He stops immediately, stumbling back in complete shock. Summer’s gaze whips to mine. In the next second, her black rings seem to suck in the light, and she drops into her shadow—vanishing.
I can’t make sense of what’s happening. My chest heaves, my body throbs. I try to stand, but crumble into the mixed pool of our blood.
“Teagan!” Sen is by my side in a second.
I try to speak through my raw throat, yet nothing comes out. Sen is saying something, but my mind is garbled, my vision blinking out—once, twice—until it doesn’t blink back on.