Destiny Trap

          Chapter One


         The sky was etched with the pink and violet of the late afternoon as Jillian drove westward towards the mountains. There were almost no other cars on the road and the world seemed still in calm in the frigid January air. In the back seat of her car, Amanda Lawry was sleeping. Carolyn half collapsed onto Jordan, Amanda’s head leaning against Carolyn’s. The four of them were about to spend a week in the mountains camping.
“Amanda, get your elbow out of my ribs.”
Carolyn muttered. There was a general stirring in the back, and then Jordan leaned over the leather seats so her head was on the back of Jillian’s seat.
“Hey,” She said, “Where are we?” “About five miles from the city,” Jillian announced. “I’m starving.” Carolyn said rubbing her eyes sleepily. Amanda was far away from being sleepy; in fact she was down right hyper. “I brought muffins!!!” She yelled whacking Carolyn in the face with a plastic bag. Jillian laughed at her as Carolyn glared. Amanda was about 5’4, thin with hazel eyes and shoulder length, dirty blond hair.
“Got any lemon poppy seed?” Carolyn asked searching though the bag. Carolyn was one of the shortest in the group. She stood at about 5’1. She had ebony black hair that she dyed red it fell around her ears. She was thin like Amanda. “Want one Jordan?”
She asked. Jordan nodded. She was Jillian’s sister…fraternal twins actually. They both had black hair and brown eyes. Jordan was shorter then Jillian she stands at about 5’3. Jordan’s hair was shoulder length and flipped out at the sides as Jillian’s fell down to the middle of her back and was straight.
A few hours went by as the scenery started to change, concrete roadways turned to rubble paths, and skyscrapers turned to tall oak trees. Soon they arrived in a small town where they would stay the night before setting off on a hike/camping trip. The four of them giggled gleefully as they checked in to the bed and breakfast.
“Alright! So tomorrow we get our stuff packed and head off into the wonderful wilderness.” Amanda said happily. Jordan groaned “Wonderful.” She sighed. Jillian and Carolyn laughed before going to sleep.
The small group had been well rested and well fed at the small bed-and-breakfast they'd stayed at, and, ever since leaving the small inn, their spirits had been high. In fact, their spirits had been, and still were, very high. The weather had been very pleasant thus far and, despite a tension in the air that Jillian figured was just the presence of oncoming rain, it looked to stay that way. The whole world seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, and the four friends traveling down the winding dirt road were no exception.
Jillian had been humming to herself cheerfully when she first noticed the old woman. The road they had started down that morning had been remarkably empty all day, which had suited the friend’s just fine: their own company was enough for them. As an added bonus, Amanda and Jordan had been in such a good mood that they'd even refrained from fighting. At any rate, the group hadn't yet run into anybody that day, and so the distant figure caught Jillian's eye almost immediately. Jillian dug out her wallet.
“Old on a second guys.” she whispered to her friends as they walked. “Let's see if this lady up here wants to sell us anything.” Jordan squinted at the figure, waiting patiently at the side of the road, as they approached her. “What for?” she hissed back. “Do you know her or something?” “Of course not! I'd just like to help her out, that's all.” Carolyn smiled. “That's actually pretty nice of you, Jill.” “Yup.” Amanda agreed smiling at her friend. Jordan scoffed, “Yeah, why can't you be more like this all the time?” Jillian growled. “Watch it, Jor-”
”Excuse me.”
A soft, kind voice gently smothered Jillian’s threat. “Pardon me,” the woman smiled. She didn't look very old, Jillian realized, now that they were closer to her. She looked a little tired, and she was a small woman, but she still possessed an attractive face and a healthy-looking body. “I was just wondering-” “Of course! We'd love to buy something!” Jordan blurted, grinning falsely. “Very smooth,” Jillian muttered.
The woman looked a little confused. “Oh, I don't have anything to sell,” she corrected the girl politely. The seventeen-year-old turned to her twin sister and scowled. “Nice call, Jillian.” she mouthed angrily. Jillian blinked, bewildered. “But I could have sworn. . .” “Huh?” Amanda looked curiously at her friend, waiting for her to finish. Jillian blushed faintly, feeling a little stupid. “I just had a feeling. . . that you had something for us.” The woman smiled warmly. “But I do.” she spoke softly. Carolyn blinked. “But you just said-” “Oh, not to sell.” The woman chuckled pleasantly. “As a gift.”
Jillian glanced nervously at her three friends. Amanda glanced back as if to say ‘it’s your fault.’ Carolyn spoke up, “Uh…I don’t think we want them.” She said. The woman nodded “Would you at least look at them?” she asked. Jordan fidgeted nervously, “What if you pull out like a gun or something?” she asked. “JORDAN!!” Carolyn, Amanda and Jillian scolded. The woman laughed. “Oh…okay fine we’ll see them or whatever.” Jillian said nodding to the woman. “Alright then.” The woman plunged her hand into her pocket as she spoke. Her hand emerged in a little fist, from which dangled…Jillian who had been focusing on Jordan and Amanda who where having a glairing contest and Carolyn had been in shock from Jillian's sudden outburst all turned and focused on what the woman was holding. From her fist trailed down four separate strings of leather, on which hung four separate amulets. They swung lazily in the air and glittered brilliantly; though their colors were different and obvious, they were all crystal clear. “Yep,” the woman said, and she shoved them back in her pocket. The four friends jumped.
”What're you doing?!” Carolyn asked shrilly, despite herself. “Oh. I thought you didn't want them.” The woman's eyes shone briefly with the remnants of what had once been a very roguish spirit. Carolyn's eyebrows twitched in a hint of a frown, and the woman pulled them back out rather hurriedly.
“These are for you. If you want them, that is.” She looked as if she wanted to be a great deal more sarcastic, but didn't want to risk pissing the black-headed girl off any more than she already was. Jillian leaned forward to get a better look. “What are they?” Her voice was soft and slow in her wonderment. The woman looked at her, and then touched one of the stones lightly, completely ignoring her question. “So, do you want them?” There was a second of silence. Then, with an almost audible popping noise, the four snapped back to reality. “Hey, why not?!” Amanda asked. “I wanted them before. It was Carolyn who didn't.” Jillian said nodding “Jillian! That’s not true!” Carolyn rebounded. “Oh, please! Let’s take them!” Jordan said happily.
The woman sighed, feeling that she had better things to be doing with her time. “If you want them, then take them.” Four hands reached out instinctively. The woman jumped back in alarm. “But,” she continued quickly. “You can only take one each. And you have to choose…” She paused for lack of a better word. “Wisely,” she finally finished lamely.
“What are they?” Jillian repeated her attention fixated once again on the flat discs of stone. Jordan leaned in for a better look. The four amulets swung back and forth, however slightly, and she was having trouble focusing on just one. The stone discs were small, a bit larger than the size of a quarter, and they looked smooth and oval shaped. “Wait a minute…” She reached out and caught one curiously. It was cool between her fingers. She turned it over. “Look at this…”
One side of the small stone was smooth, but the other was covered in an intricate design, carved right into the stone. It looked to her to be a jumbled mess; she couldn't make heads or tails of the design.
“Cool…” Amanda said slowly, her head close to Jordan’s.
The amulet Jordan held was green in color; she let go and let it swing alongside the others. The others were a light blue, a lemon yellow, and a mahogany red… She looked closer at the green one. There was something there…
”Look at this blue one,” Jillian suddenly spoke. “It's a bear.” “Huh?” her other three friends looked over. Jillian was holding the blue amulet between her thumb and forefinger. “See the carvings? It's a bear.” She glanced at them sideways. “Don't tell me you don't see it.”
Amanda, Jordan, and Carolyn leaned in, and it was like the jumble of lines was twisting before their very eyes, shifting, to form something, something perfectly clear, something obvious and familiar…
It was a carving of bear, though done in a strange style: almost Aztecan, the carved picture portrayed the bear performing some sort of watery attack, or at least something like it.
“That's really neat!” Carolyn quipped. And at the words, Jillian's face twitched just a little, as if the word 'neat' didn’t do this bear depiction justice. But the only person who noticed was the strange woman who glanced away immediately, despite the faint smile that plied at her lips. Jordan, Amanda, and Carolyn had turned back to the remaining amulets, leaving the blue one safely between Jillian's fingers.
Something at the back of Amanda’s mind reminded her that she liked the element of water more then any of the other elements, and that she should be looking at the blue amulet, Amanda went back to studying the green one. She focused on the carvings. She still couldn't quite see what they formed, but just barely. It was like a word on the tip of her tongue: she could see it, it was there, and she just had to look a little longer before it could come clear…
“Hey! Look at this!” Jordan excitedly waved a hand in front of Amanda’s face, severing her eye contact with the green stone. Amanda blinked. It took a great deal of effort on her part to not kill Jordan. She took a deep breath and counted to ten.
Jordan, meanwhile, was tapping the red amulet elatedly. “It's a fox!” she cried. “It's a fox!” She shook Carolyn by the shoulder. “Look, Carolyn, do you see the fox?”
“Huh?” Carolyn looked up from the yellow stone. “Uh, sure, Jordan.” she turned back to the yellow amulet. “This is really cool…” her voice trailed off.
“Look, Amanda, look! Look at the fox!” she thrust the stone in her face, the woman still holding it protectively by the leather string.
Amanda glanced at it, and the same shifting happened as before, she began to see the semblance of a fox on the small disk of stone, the fox had its tail rapped around it a wreath of fire around its head, and then she batted her hand away. “That's really cool, Jordan,” she said supportively, wishing she would leave her alone so that she could work out the mystery of the green amulet. Jordan smiled proudly. “This is so cool.” She held the stone close to her face and studied it carefully. Amanda rolled her eyes and leaned in closer to her amulet.
The woman, meanwhile, was getting pretty tired of standing and holding these amulets like a jewelry display, but she continued to wait as patiently as she could manage. As much as she hated to be on the giving end of it, she knew that there was to be no rushing these sorts of things. She took another look at the sky, jiggled her leg edgily, and turned back to the four people clustered around the four necklaces. Finally something clicked in Amanda’s brain. Her eyes shot open. “HA!” Amanda jumped up, both arms raised above her head. “I figured it out it’s a Stallion! That there is a Stallion!” Amanda smiled tiredly. It had actually taken a lot out of her to decipher the picture, but now that she had, she felt so unbelievably triumphant. And the carving was so wonderful… a stallion, in the same style as the other two amulets a wreath of plant vines encircling it. She loved it. It was incredible. The woman smiled despite herself. “Well, then, I guess you know which–” “No, not yet. I still have to figure out the yellow one.” Carolyn sat down determinedly and looked intently at the last amulet. After a few minutes Carolyn smiled, “It’s a hawk! How beautiful!” she said. The Hawk stone had the hawk wings outstretched with its beak open wind coming out of it.
The woman had exhibited a great deal of patience under the circumstances, but she'd finally run out of it. Her hand enclosed the four stones, with a flick of her wrist. “Just pick already. Shouldn't it be easy?” “I don't know.” Carolyn shrugged indecisively.
”Well, come on! I mean, you'd get the Ha-” She stopped in mid-word as a reprimand sounded loudly in her head. It said, quite plainly, that it wasn't her job to be choosing for these people. “Yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, hurry up and pick,” she told the friends, and let the four stones fall back out of her hand.
Jordan's hand strayed automatically to the red amulet. It collided with Carolyn's on the way there. “Huh?” She put her hands on her hips. “Just what do you think you're doing?” “Oh. Well. It has a fox on it so…I guess I just figured that I should take this one…and Jillian took the yellow one.” she shrugged, looking more than a little confused.
“Jillian?” Jordan whirled around. “Why'd you take the yellow one?” Jillian looked up at her distractedly, holding the yellow amulet a little away from herself. “Oh. Well.” Jordan would have thought the words 'déjà vu' if she hadn't been so distressed. “Um. Well, I figured you'd want the yellow one,” the girl continued, “seeing as how you like birds and that kinda stuff. So I guess…” she trailed off, looking lost.
“Oh. Well…” Amanda bit her lip. “I guess I'll just take this blue amulet, then.” She reached out hesitantly, her hand hovering over the green stone, before she closed it around the blue one. Carolyn, in turn, took the red amulet, looking at it disappointedly. As Jordan took the yellow one and Jillian took the green one. The woman blinked. “Um… are you sure you all made the right choice?” The four girls sighed mournfully. “Yes,” they chorused glumly. “It's only fair,” Carolyn added halfheartedly. “After all, I don’t like birds very much.” Carolyn’s shoulders drooped. “So I guess it just stands to reason…”
“Yeah,” Amanda piped up unenthusiastically. “I like water, Jillian likes green, Carolyn likes foxes and the only one left was the yellow one for Jordan ….” she trailed off. The woman looked very unconvinced. “Are you sure this is what you want?” She paused. “Are you positive?” She looked at them all very blankly. “Wink, wink,” she said flatly, not believing the sheer stupidity of these four people. Jillian shrugged, shoving the green amulet into her pocket, feeling disheartened and thinking about the loads of other free gifts she'd gotten in the past, presents that had rocked so much harder than this piece of crap. “I guess.”
The woman shook her head in defeat. “Okay. But…” “Thanks,” Carolyn said mildly, though she was beginning to feel impatient, and something about this woman was starting to get on her nerves. “Well, we’ve better be off.” She started off down the road grumpily. “Hold on a second!” the woman shouted after them, fed-up. “This isn't my fault! I don't know why she messed up like this, but she did, and now you’ll have to deal with it.” She did a little half-skip to catch up to the girls. Jillian stopped disconcertedly.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jillian asked incredulously, fully regretting her decision to stop and talk to this woman. The woman wasn't listening. She was looking at the sky again. When the girl spoke, she looked back down, distractedly. “Hmm? Still here?” She arched an eyebrow.
“Come on, Jillian!!” Jordan set off down the road sullenly, her eyes looking a tad more sad than usual. Amanda and Jillian followed melancholically, feeling as though they’d forgotten something, unable to place just as to what it was. Carolyn hazarded one last look at the woman, who met her gaze with a blank, eerily calm look. And then she followed her friends. None of them looked back, not that it mattered: watching the foursome set off into the horizon, the woman turned and whispered something to the wind. And then a slight breeze swept across the road, and she was gone.