Scott and Katie’s Apartment

Big Bear Lake, California

5:47 PM

I’ve never felt so much fear in my life. Seeing my face in the bathroom mirror, then the glowing tattoo on my shoulder, it was certain the events from earlier weren’t hallucinations or dreams. I pinched my cheek to make sure that I wasn’t asleep. My shirt was tossed into the trash from the burn marks and shed skin so I wore a tank top, but I still stared at my tattoo.

I ran my fingers over the Celtic pattern on my shoulder. To my eye, it looked like a bird’s wing, running vertical from my shoulder to the middle of my upper arm. The edges felt raised like a three-dimensional image, sharp but rounded. Within the blue-green color, it was patterned as marble, almost alive as I pressed on it.

Funny thing is it had the same style as my pendent.

I kept looking at it for a while, waiting for the cell phones and cable to come back. There was nothing for us to do but wait, hide our tattoos from the neighbors, and hope for the best. I wondered a lot about my family, the winery, and my friends. I wept a little remembering their faces.

God, I thought, first Helen, then the crystals, now this? What else is there? I’m not a religious woman, but a little faith can’t hurt, right?

Loud and anxious knocking came from the locked door, along with Ashley’s distressed voice. “Come on, Katie. You’ve been in there for over an hour. Please come out, this isn’t funny.”

Mike and Ashley arrived a while ago after getting out of the rubble. As the crystals fell, they both huddled under Ashley’s ticket booth. They too had been hit with the orbs and had left her in shock after waking up. They came bearing the bad news of the bar having been destroyed. When we showed them the tattoos, Ashley freaked out more than Mike. I had never seen her so scared.

“I-I’m coming,” I said and covered my tattoo with an unused bandana. I grabbed my cell phone and it still showed no signal. The phone company must be taking their sweet time to fix it.

I opened the door to see Ashley, standing with her arms folded, expressing deep concern. Her black hair was tangled and her uniform torn and dirty. Ashley was looking directly at the bandana, she still didn’t accept the changes, and looked like she was about to cry.

I hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry. I’m just… distracted.”

“Stop it,” Ashley demanded and pushed me away. “Just stop it. I’m too afraid to touch that thing.” She pointed at my bandana.

“Ashley, I’m scared too, but that doesn’t mean I have to collapse to the floor. And with you shaking, I’m not handling it well either.” I blinked, my voice had come out harsh.

Ashley looked away and grasped her cross pendent. The gold and pewter gleamed from the light in the living room.

“I’m ready to go home; I don’t need this, Ashley. Scott is stressed too.” Scott was outside with the car, checking to make sure the crystals didn’t break something vital.

“Katie, my beliefs are being tested! This is breaking me in uncomfortable ways.” Ashley sniffed.

“Oh boy,” I said and pulled her into a hug again. Tears streamed down her face and I felt them on my un-tattooed shoulder. “Things will be all right. You just have to give it some hope.”

“Easy for… you to say,” she sniffled. “I should be handing this, but I’m not. This sucks.”

My cell phone beeped and I looked at it. My heart lifted upon seeing five bars across the top. I smiled as voicemail and email came, regrettably, all from my mother and father.

Ashley was still crying. “Hey, hey. Please don’t go on, you’ll make me cry too.” I held back tears.

She pulled away and wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve. “You know, I’m envious of you. You’re so strong and focused and hard working. It’s amazing you’re still with Scott all these years.”

“You have no idea,” I added. “You sit on the couch. I can make you hot cocoa if you like, but I need to call my family first. Okay?”

She nodded, thanking me and went to sit down. I made hot cocoa and she accepted it with a smile.

Living in the mountains changes you. In the wintertime, there are two thoughts that go through every person’s head that lives in a mountain community: the road and weather conditions. Ashley told me that the first week we moved there. Thinking about the roads, I called the number for the road conditions. The news was not good and I told Ashley and she looked at me in confusion. I dialed the winery’s number and was about to press the call button when I heard a familiar, but angry voice. It made us yelp.

“I don’t believe this,” Scott yelled.

I walked to the balcony.

I chucked a coffee cup sized crystal into the air and it smashed against the complex’s brick wall.

Have you ever had a moment when you think it will be a good day, but then hours later it blows up in your face? It did for us three times, but I had two more. The crystal that I had thrown had come out of a hole in the car’s ceiling and had gone straight through the rear. There was a second one wedged into the engine block. I don’t know much about cars, but the big puddle of oil mixed with snow made me feel sick. The fact that it was still snowing didn’t help the situation.

Mike was the one that had pulled out the crystals. His Canadian flannel jacket was soaked from the snow, and his Dodger cap was fixed tightly to his head. His grief-filled eyes were aimed at me.

“Our only way of getting off this mountain is gone. We’re stranded, Mike. Stranded! What are we gonna do now?” I yelled.

“Scott, you can get another car,” Mike said while getting up, grunting. “Rent a car or steal one is what I would do.”

“Oh, yeah right, like I’m gonna trust those guys down the street with my credit card. Even if I do steal one, the cops down the hill will certainly stop us.”

“They’re more concerned about riots and vandalism. Your story will check out, I’m sure of it. I will lend you my truck if I have to.”

“Thanks but no. You need that truck.” I pointed at it, parked twenty feet from mine and slightly askew from the garage. A stray puff of wind blew snow at me and I closed my jacket tighter. Some say that people with fat tend to handle the cold better, but I beg to differ.

Mike huffed, “Ah, take it. I wanted to get rid of that piece of shit for a while now. Always wanted a Jeep for myself, with or without a loan.” I snickered a little but still wasn’t happy.

“Scott?” I looked up to see Katie on the balcony leaning over the rail. She was strong enough to handle the cold for a bit, but she still covered her tattoo. “What’s wrong with the car?”

“The car’s rear axle is severed and the engine block is totaled,” Mike answered. “Sorry, but you two are stuck.”

Katie cursed, “We have to think of something else, but I have good news and bad news.”

“What’s the good news?” I asked.

“The cell phones are back. I’m calling my parents right now.”

“And the bad news?”

Katie sighed, “Caltrans and highway patrol closed down all three roads out of here.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mike gasped. “That’s unheard of. They got to at least let the flatlanders through for safety reasons.”

Flatlanders, that’s what they call people from down the hill, even Katie and me.

Big Bear has three highways leading in and out of the mountain. The western road runs past Arrowhead. The other two are longer; the southeast road goes to Yucaipa and Redlands, and the northeast road goes to Lucern Valley.

“They’re not letting anybody off or on, Mike, not even delivery trucks. They’re saying that there are landslides on all three roads and they don’t have an estimate on when they’ll be open.”

“Great, just perfect,” I said, kicking the snow.

Katie called her parents. “Come inside so we can talk to them.” She left the balcony and slid the door closed. The holes had been patched with printer paper and tape.

“The least she could do is wear a jacket,” I commented, I noticed a few people watching. I hoped the bandana wasn’t too obvious.

Just as I was about to trot through the snow, Mike grabbed my shoulder to stop me. I turned to look at him. “Let me see that tattoo again,” he said in a fatherly tone. I sighed, hid behind my car from anyone watching, and pulled off my right hand glove.

Mike examined it, he rubbed his fingers over the raised and glowing tattoo. Everything about the tattoo disturbed me: the color, the shape of a dogs head within the Celtic tribal design, how it was raised from my skin, and the constantly shifting pattern. I refrained from telling him that I had almost taken a steak knife to it to cut it out, but Katie had stopped me before the blade sliced my skin.

Mike shook his head and hummed to himself. “I may not be a doctor, but from common sense, I think this is leading to something big.”

“You think?” I said as I pulled my hand back. “As if the crystals weren’t enough. I still believe I’m going to die and this is some odd mark for death.” I showed him the tattoo one last time before I slipped my glove back on.

“Yeah, it might lead to that outcome, maybe not, but you two might not be the only ones in the world who has one. How did Katie handle it before we came? She seems pretty calm with it.” She was to tell you the truth. The bird’s wing on her tattoo was far more detailed than the dog on mine.

I nodded, “Katie freaked out too, but she calmed down quicker than me. She thinks the tattoos are magical, but I have my doubts.”

“Magic? Yeah right. Whatever she thinks is hers and hers alone.”

“You never know,” I said with uncertainty.

“Scott, are you coming or not? They’re on the phone right now,” Katie called out to me from the top of the stairs before disappearing back inside.

I told her I was coming and went up the snow brushed steps, pondering what Mike said. I do love Katie very much, from her hips, her style of dress, to her hair. There was one buried obsession that made her very special, and different from me, and that was her relentless fascination with magic and the supernatural. You can blame her big brother, Robert, for that. At a young age, she bought New Age books and fake magical items to study them. It was her secret hobby and —I kid you not—I didn’t know about it until our junior year in high school.

Back when I was living in a spare guest room at the winery, now my own room, Katie showed me her collection, and it was like something out of an old trunk straight from the Harry Potter movies. Books both new and old, yoga books and videos, gemstones and crystals used for spells and incantations, an actual wand handmade from oak, and some clothes she wore for Halloween and costume parties, including a genuine witch’s hat. She told me that she keeps it as a fantasy.

Katie stopped adding to her collection when she graduated and moved for college, but occasionally I catch her peeking into the trunk. On our second date, she bought the Celtic pendants and had them custom inscribed with a Gaelic inscription. Hers was barróg críonnacht “embrace wisdom,” while mine said marthanóir “survivor.” I wear them as a symbol of love and to hold back my gruesome memories.

Yeah, I get it, I’m dating a hot and sexy magic nerd. Bring it. But still, magic is something far more complex than cars.

Mike went inside first, leaving me to close the door. He went straight for Ashley on the couch. She was sitting on the couch farthest away from the crystal-damaged armrest and had her hands folded with her elbows on her knees and her hands on mouth. The level of distress on Ashley’s face was unbearable. She relaxed and leaned on Mike when he sat down next to her.

Katie was on the cell phone, standing next to the dining table, and trying to be as reassuring as possible to whomever on the other end. “No Mom we… we’re going to be home don… don’t cry please.” Katie noticed me as I came to her side and asked what her mom had said.

“Just the roads and the accumulating snow,” she said while covering the phone’s receiver with her hand.

“Put it on speaker, Katie.”

She nodded and pressed a button, then set the phone onto the table. The screen had Brenda Walsh’s Caller ID and current picture. Her long dark brown hair bound in a loose ponytail with a pair of loose locks framing her sharp features made her look like she was in her late thirties. Katie had inherited mostly all her mother’s looks, but her dark brown eyes were from her father.

“Okay, Mom, we’re both here,” Katie said, and I placed my hand on her shoulder, not touching her tattoo.

“Good. I can’t believe those jerks closed the roads without thinking,” said Brenda, recovering from a sob session. Her voice was heavy with anger and sorrow, I figured that they had both yelled at each other for our mistake.

“What’s happening down there Brenda? Did you and the others get hit by an orb?” I asked.

“Y-Yes, we all did, but it’s turned into a madhouse. Downtown, massive riots hit the stores and restaurants, people stealing cars and food from each other, plus the gangs in LA are crowding the streets starting fights at random. Not to mention the religious folks. The entire world became crazy when we woke up. Right now Jonathan had to grab his shotgun and guard the warehouse to keep people from stealing the wine.”

“Are Robert and Jacob okay?” Katie asked.

“Yes, they’re both fine. Jacob is shaken a bit and staying close to me. God, what in the blazes were those things that attacked us?”

“How should I know? What is the news saying? Our TV is out.”

“Jonathan kept the TV on all day, sweetie, but besides people going religiously insane overseas by this, they showed a few people with these odd tattoos on their bodies.” Katie and I looked at each other, and my right hand tensed. “I don’t know what that means, but it scared me that one guy got it on video burning out of the skin. I fainted, Katie. Fainted.”

“Ah, Mom we…” I interrupted Katie with a nudge.

I knew her mother well. Whenever something stressful happens, like the time Katie broke her wrist in high school, Brenda turns into an overprotective grizzly bear. “What?” Katie asked me.

I shook my head and used my mouth to motion words to her. Don’t tell her, just saying, I said. She understood, remembering how her Mom gets, and nodded. One less thing for her parents to freak out about until we got home.

“Katie, what’s wrong?” Brenda asked.

“Nothing, Mom, thought I saw the TV flicker. Look, I promise, once the roads are clear we will be home. Don’t worry Mom, we’ll be fine.”

Another voice came, it sounded like Jonathan on the other end. “Brenda, I need you and Robert to help. Some hooligans got into the warehouse.”

“Oh, no. Katie I have to go now but please don’t do anything without thinking first. Stay close to Scott.”

“I will Mom.”.

We said goodbye and the phone shut off. If Jonathan got on the phone too, his tone towards us would have been very harsh, harsher to me for bringing Katie with me. Katie ran her fingers on the phone and then embraced me and I raised an arm over her back.

“The good thing is they’re safe,” I said. “We’ll get home, Katie, even if Mike’s truck is the answer.”

“I hate lying to them,” she whispered.

I heard new voices chime in and Mike told us that the cable was back on the TV.

“Oh good, turn up the sound,” I told him.

All four of us spent the next two hours doing nothing but watching the news, eating leftovers, and waiting for the roads to open. Every news station said reported the same thing, some with new information as others followed, but the news of Southern California was our most concern.

Brenda was right, everybody had gone crazy.

One reporter in Los Angeles was at an on-site location, getting a hands-on experience with a ten-story crystal wedged into the beach. He was the first one to nickname the event. “The Wave”. I forgot his name, but I know that it rhymed with bacon. As obvious as it was, everybody else adopted the name. Also the riots. So many riots in the streets.

Other than our home, reports came from Vatican City and other places of Christian worship. They showed St. Peter Square with Christians praying, happy to be alive, and the Pope blessed the world for safety and good fortune. No crystals were on the ground but I spotted three SUV sized crystals twenty yards away from the cathedral’s main entrance, all grouped like cactus as construction crews tried to dig them out of the stone. Somebody must’ve cleaned up the loose crystals.

The major cities were hit the worst, theorists claimed that the Wave sent more crystals to areas of the world with higher populations, hence the cities of London, Paris, New York, Moscow, Sydney, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Mumbai looked like dazzling junkyards. Countries that had the higher populations of the world, well, they lost more lives than anyone else. There were buildings demolished, monolithic crystals stuck in the streets and buildings, people running and screaming, ocean vessels semi or fully sunk at the docks, and major suburban areas reporting deaths of into the hundreds, even thousands. India and China, who knows.

It would’ve been helpful to show the footage from when we all were in comas.

The strangest part was that the rest of the world was covered in storm clouds, Big Bear did have the snowstorm, but down the hill there were rain storms that nearly flooded the streets and freeways. Oklahoma was experiencing a freak appearance of tornadoes, Egypt was receiving rain in amounts unheard of in centuries, and the barren deserts of Australia had storm action, even hail. It was either a result of the Wave’s or some sort of invisible radiation. I definitely felt the air clearing with each slow breath.

As for ground zero—it was impossible to see, thick clouds circled around and ships were unable to penetrate it due to high currents driving them away. They expected it would be a while before the weather settled and exploration could commence.

All the news was too much, but I still watched.

But one report, among the many related ones, was on five minutes before eight, and that special report hit Katie and me like a brick to the chest. It was an on-site interview at Pioneer Square in Seattle and it was that moment that revealed the true reason behind the crystals, the orbs, the tattoo’s, and the change in my people’s destiny.