The New Magic - The Revelation of Jonah McAllister - Landon Wark (bill gates best books TXT) 📗

cracking thud against the driver's side window and Sandy screamed as a long split appeared along the glass. The outline of a loose hunk of concrete was visible for a moment and then it was drawn back.

"Fuck it!" Sandy shouted and the car lurched backward into the blur of colour that was a truck, stopped in the middle of the street by the commotion. Bill's rock pounded impotently against the hood and with the shearing sound of metal the car began the slow acceleration that it was built for. Prepared for another swing Bill instead sidestepped the arc of the side mirror and lost the leverage to do much more than to strike a glancing blow that left little more than a chip in the yellowish, blurry glass.

By the time he recovered the car was out of his arm's reach. The rock sailed through the air, landing with a thud on the trunk and skittered off the tail light.

The blurs clarified into actual people jumping out of the way along the sidewalk as the Buick's hubcaps scraped the edge of the concrete before the forward momentum carried it into the street.

"They're gonna want us for a hit and run," Sandy moaned as she glanced through the rear windshield at (what was assumed to be) the owner of the truck shouting after them before turning his wrath on Bill.

The tension in the car from the incident dispersed along with the last of the blurring filed as they rambled down the street, now far out of range of any projectiles and still three or four blocks from a stoplight in the distance.

"Something's going on," Jonah said, leaning over his shoulder to watch the scene in the street where Bill Wilson was frantically dialing his phone.

"Why wouldn't the credit card work?"

"What?"

"The credit cards," he replied. "Why wouldn't either of them work?"

"I-I don't know," she said, breathing heavily. "That's what you're worried about?"

"That's Jenny's husband back there that tried to stone us?"

"Yeah. Uncle Ezra said he showed up at the house last week. He looked pretty far gone."

Jonah bit on his tongue. "We need to get back to the house."

"You dirty fucking rat!" the man screamed as he shook Bill by the sweat stained lapels of his suit jacket.

In between shakes Bill absently tried to bring the phone to his ear. He thought that he might know the man shaking him, but for whatever reason the circuits of his sleep-deprived brain refused to connect. Listlessly he glanced at the talk button that glared out at him. If the man holding him would just stop for an instant... It was an important call, how could he not know that.

"Who the fuck was that?" his assailant demanded. "You better hope—"

The man's demands were cut off by Bill driving a knee into his testes. With a gurgle his eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to his knees. A small discharge of vomit from his mouth hit the ground and the toe of Bill's shoe.

"Fucking witches!" Bill hissed into the man's face as he pressed the talk button on the phone. "Fucking Christ-damned witches!"

The phone buzzed in his ear as the people on the sidewalk, taking pictures or frantically trying to dial, murmured and gasped.

I'm already doing it, he thought. Don't worry. The authorities are going to know.

"Hello?" he spoke into the phone amidst the commotion. "I need to talk to the Sheriff..."

The voice on the other end of the phone prattle on for a moment, though he was already tuned out. How could they go after the witches and not know that some of them had taken that car into town? But he just shrugged against the plastic of the phone. Fucking witches could be anywhere they wanted he supposed.

With that thought Bill's red eyes squeaked against their dry lids as he surveyed the people along the sidewalks, whispering and taking pictures. A sneer split along his quivering lips.

"Get the fuck outta here!" he screamed. "You fucking witches!"

The voice on the other end of the phone paused.

"Look!" he shouted at it. "Just... You just tell the Sheriff that he doesn't have all of them! There's at least two of them in town! Are you all with them?! How many of you sold your goddamn souls!"

A couple accompanying a small girl on the sidewalk started to back away.

"You tell him!" Bill screamed into the phone as the sun began to dip into a particularly red sunset in the West. He threw the phone at the moaning man holding his loins a few steps from where he paced. It glanced off the man's temple, knocking him to the ground as the crowd gasped.

"You tell him," Bill whispered.

The New World Ablaze

Fire.

Red tongues of it licked at the gaudy teal siding and combusted the new tar under the shingles. Flames poured up into the sky from the windows and the front door. The concrete of the front step blistered and cracked under the heat and windows split into little more than melted shards. It ate at everything, first searing it black and then consuming, turning everything that had once been there into vapour. It roared and coughed, challenging them, taunting them with a bright, blazing laugh.

Jonah leaned out of the car in shock, his mouth agape. Sandy merely sat in the car, her hands white on the steering wheel.

“Where is everyone,” she managed over the roar of the fire. “Did everyone get out?”

He shook his head, taking another step away from the car toward the inferno. The foundation was cracking and the east side was sinking into the earth. He had to put up a hand to keep from being blinded by the glaring burn.

The idea that the others had been trapped inside was too much for him. The guilt of it