The Vendeleer Brothers Book 3: Nightmare on Holly
Chapter 10: The Intern

Roderick was doing his best not to think about Holly, but the mechanic still danced around in his mind. He and Ian had been assigned to research duty with Joey, while Jordyn and Brian got to do the fun stuff and work with super powered people. Roderick grumpily put his chin in his hand as he flipped through one of Joey’s books. Joey had collected a lot of books over the years, which Ian and the others had had the pleasure of unpacking, and there were quite a lot to go through.

So now, Joey’s small house was even more cluttered than usual as she cleaned up from the events of the other night and created stacks of books for them to look through. Normally, Roderick would have been voraciously reading these things on ghosts and spirits, but Holly was like a beautiful looking cake that your mother said you couldn’t have because it was for her book club friends. It was something very hard to ignore.

Roderick glanced over a page about spirit sicknesses when he suddenly felt his phone buzz.

‘You’re into classic cars right?’

Roderick didn’t have this contact in his phone, but he was pretty sure he still knew who it was. He texted back with a smile.

‘Yes. This is Holly right?’

‘Yeah. Check this out:’

Underneath the text was a picture of a very beat up Shelby Cobra Roadster sitting in her garage. Roderick’s eyes grew wide.

‘Holy crap!! Where did you replace that?!’ he texted her, losing all focus on what he was supposed to be doing.

‘Empty lot. The owner is a lady who knows nothing about cars and just wanted to get rid of it. She sold it to me for three hundred bucks!’

‘That’s crazy!!’

“Roderick, who are you texting? We are supposed to be working here.” Ian exasperated, slamming another big book down in front of his brother.

“Yeah, yeah. Hold on.” Roderick brushed off, hunching over his phone as it buzzed again and texting back enthusiastically. Ian rolled his eyes and went back to his place at the table, surrounded by books and diagrams.

“Where did you even get all these books Joey?” Ian asked. “I mean, most of these are handwritten by a bunch of different people.”

Joey casually flipped through one of the books.

“Some of them were given to me in odd circumstances, and most of them I simply found in peculiar places.”

Ian raised a brow.

“You just found most of these? That’s a bit coincidental, don’t you think?”

Joey stopped to think about this, adjusting her large glasses.

“Well, I know what to look for. Many others before me have glanced over these without much of a second thought, but… I don’t know. It’s just a certain feeling that comes with them I guess.”

“A feeling?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to explain.”

Ian made a mental note to address this again later, and continued to flip through the book he was looking at. He paused when he glanced over the words, “metallic taste in mouth.” He recalled the night he had gone to Joey’s he had tasted something coppery all of a sudden. He decided to read more carefully.

Sometimes, spiritual abilities can manifest themselves in people who have undergone great emotional distress. A metallic taste in the mouth means a number of things. It means that the person in question is under a great amount of stress, and that they have lost control of the ability. This can have catastrophic consequences.

“Hey Joey? Did you happen to have a metallic taste in your mouth the night Kishnu tried to kill us?”

Joey stopped flipping through her book to look up at him. Even Roderick stopped texting the girl he liked so much to look up.

“Come to think of it, I did.” she said slowly. “Why do you ask?”

“Because as I came up to your door the other night, I did too.”

Roderick suddenly stood up.

“I had a weird metallic taste in my mouth right before the velociraptor attack! I thought it was just the garage!”

Joey looked at the two brothers curiously.

“What did you replace Ian? What does this mean?”

Ian turned the book around and pointed at the page.

“It means that someone in town with an ability has lost control. Which also means that the weird things going on here fall under our jurisdiction.”

The three of them let this sink in.

“So we need to replace this person and figure things out quick before anyone else gets hurt.” Joey nodded. “I’ll continue reading up on things here and see what I can replace to help the situation.”

“I’ll go check all the places that were hit by weird circumstances and see if there’s any connection.” Roderick said quickly, jumping at any excuse to possibly see Holly. Ian raised a brow, knowing all too well what his brother was thinking.

“Roderick, you’re not going to get sidetracked are you?” he asked accusingly.

“Of course not! I’ll see you later bro!” he called out with a grin, practically running out the door. Ian shook his head.

“I’m going to go back up to the PDU and tell the others what we’ve discovered. Call if you need anything.”

“Ok…” Joey responded absentmindedly. Ian hesitated on his way out the door.

“I mean it.”

Joey looked up and attempted a smile.

“Thanks Ian, but I promise I’m fine.”

Ian didn’t believe her, but decided she probably wanted some time alone anyway. So with a sigh, he headed out the door.

“So he won’t let her do it?” Holly asked Maureen over the phone, disappointed.

“Yeah, like I said, Hector’s a bit overprotective. It was a good idea though.”

“Oh. Well, thanks anyway Maureen. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ok. Bye honey.”

“Bye.”

Holly closed her flip phone, feeling a bit discouraged about this murder mystery she found so intriguing.

“You done talking to Principal Huckaby now? Her first name’s Maureen right?” someone behind her asked. Holly whirled around to replace Akaysha standing there.

“Akaysha? Wha-What are you doing here?” she sputtered. The girl dropped her bookbag and stood there with her hands on her hips.

“I’m here for my internship!”

Holly raised an eyebrow.

“Your principal just told me your foster dad wouldn’t allow it.”

“Well, he thinks I’m studying at the library.”

Holly stood there harumping in disapprovement, but then eyed the car that Akaysha had been beating up the day before.

“I’m not getting you to leave without force, am I?”

“Nope.”

“Fine.”

After all, what’s the worst that could happen? She thought to herself. Hector Leavitt comes in here and yells at me? He’s already done that once with Bobby.

“Alright then, roll up your sleeves. I’ll show you a couple of things on that car you were whacking on.”

Akaysha made no move to roll up her sleeves, but did look on as the mechanic started to explain things and point things out. Holly found herself enjoying the explanations, and then rolled up her sleeves so she wouldn’t get grease on them. Akaysha went to stick her hand in as well, but Holly stopped her.

“If you don’t want your foster dad to replace out you were here, you can’t have grease on your jacket.” she scolded. The girl paused, seriously considering something, and then quickly scrunched up her sleeve and stuck her hand in. It wasn’t quick enough though, because Holly still noticed the bruises on her arm. Akaysha caught her staring and quickly put her sleeve down again.

Holly didn’t know what to do or what to think, but she immediately felt anger bubble up inside her. She thought of that stupid guy trying to get labor from her and Bobby for free, and how Akaysha had seemed so hungry in that Waffle House and how she had been beating the living daylights out of that car.

“Did your foster dad do this to you?” she asked softly.

“No.” the girl said immediately.

Holly knew she was lying. She just knew it!! But if Akaysha was unwilling to say anything or even tell the truth, there wasn’t much she could do.

“Maybe I should go…” the girl said awkwardly, inching towards the door. Holly stood there fuming with clenched fists, but still managed a smile.

“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to Principal Huckaby. Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you some more stuff.”

Akaysha gave a small smile, nodded, and then ran out the garage door.

Holly felt too sick to work on cars now. Maybe a shower would help.

So Holly locked up and stomped up to her apartment. However, cleaning off the grease still didn’t do much to get her mind off things. After getting dressed, she threw in a John Denver cd, but still no good. She was beginning to think that she might just have to buy a punching bag, when there was a knock on her door.

Of all people, it was Roderick Vendeleer.

“Uh… Hey! ...Holly.” he said with an awkward little wave. “So uh, we think we may have figured out something about these strange attacks, and… uh… I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?”

Holly gave him a good long look, thinking about Akaysha and her own frustrations. And for a moment, she forgot all about Roderick’s weirdo friends tying him up and pointing a gun at her. All she wanted to do right now was have fun and forget what was troubling her.

“You know what? Let’s go on that date you were trying to ask me on.” she told him matter of factly. Roderick’s jaw dropped.

“Wh-what? Uh-.”

Holly grabbed her bag and then locked the door behind her.

“Come on. I’ll drive. I know of a great place we can go.” she told him, taking him by the arm and pulling him with her. Roderick was so surprised and pleased, that he forgot what he had come there for.

“Uh… Ok!”

So Holly hopped in her car with Roderick, driving away from her broken cars and her worries.