The Clique

by Jay Mason

  “Hallo, lovely evening, isn’t it?” he said. He had the trace of an accent that she didn’t recognise.

  Alex went to answer only to find her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. Her heart speeded violently and sweat broke out on her forehead. Her legs felt unsteady and she leaned against the fence, trembling. The man looked at her curiously, a slight frown formed on his forehead.

  “Yeah.” Alex finally managed to say.

  He nodded and moved past her. As he did so Alex’s vision blurred and for one awful moment she thought she was going to faint. She closed her eyes.

  “Hey, you okay?” Rusty’s voice brought her back to herself. “I thought you were going to drop there,” he said. “I know it’s not the smartest house, but no-one’s ever had that reaction to it before.” He stood beside her surveying his home. “I should get around to painting it.”

  “Sorry,” said Alex. “That man — the one who just came out?”

  Rusty’s face darkened. “Dr Straker.”

  “I know him,” said Alex, half to herself. “I know I do.”

  “Don’t your parents work at The Center for Scientific Excellence?”

  Alex nodded.

  “He’s the CEO. His face is always all over the news.”

  “Ah, okay,” said Alex. She didn’t add that her parents didn’t allow a TV in their house on principle. She put up her hands to rub her temples. “Sorry, I think I’m getting a bit of headache.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve apologised to me,” said Rusty. “That’s not the Alex I know.”

  Alex shook her head to shake away the cobwebs across her thoughts. “What was he doing here? Dr Straker?”

  “He visits my mom now and then,” said Rusty. “She’s on an invalidity pension from the Center.”

  “She works there too?”

  “Worked,” said Rusty, blushing “Can we go in now and start? We’ve got a lot to do. Or were you expecting to study in the yard?”

  “No, of course not,” said Alex and followed him in through the front door.

  “I thought we’d work in the back parlour,” he said. “Mom’s in the lounge. Visitors tire her.”

  Alex nodded. She felt for him. It was obvious he had a difficult family life. The room he took her into was largely filled with a family dining table, but every inch of it was covered with chemistry equipment. Alex hardly had time to take this in before her attention was drawn to the tall windows that lined one wall. Outside in the garden a girl in a cheerleader’s uniform was turning flips over and over and over. Rusty followed her gaze. “My little sister, Cat. And no she never gets dizzy. More energy than a barrel load of bees as my grandpa used to say. She’s hoping for a track scholarship for college in a couple of years. The cheerleader thing is a phase — or I hope it is.”

  “Why?” asked Alex.

  “Would you want every jock on the pitch trying to see up your baby sister’s incredibly short skirt?”

  “I thought all you Americans were really into cheerleading.”

  “We are,” said Rusty. “As long as it isn’t our little sister.” He began checking over the materials on the table. “I’ve forgotten the — hang on a minute. It must be next door.” He hurried out.

  Alex put her hands behind her back. Some of the stuff here was as good as her mom’s. It demanded to be used, but bearing in mind she wasn’t meant to be much better at chemistry than Rusty, she had better stand and look stupid.

  There was a creaking noise and one of the windows opened. The girl sat on the sill. “Hi, I’m Cat. Are you Rusty’s girlfriend?”

  “No,” said Alex. “I’m here to help him with his experiment.”

  “Oh, you’re the one who upset it all. He came home so cross. He went on about you for ages. You’re prettier than I thought you would be. From the way he described you I thought you’d be a proper dog.”

  “Thank you, I think,” said Alex.

  “So?”

  “So what’s your name and do you have any intentions towards my brother?”

  “Alex and no.”

  “That’s a shame. He could do with someone to take his mind of Bethany. But then she is very pretty.”

  “Yes, she is,” said Alex.

  “And a total bitch,” added Cat.

  Alex couldn’t help laughing. “I’m not too keen on her myself.”

  Cat gave her a big grin. “I knew you were alright. Rusty needs a proper friend. He spends all his time caring for Mom. He deserves some fun.”

  “Your dad?”

  “Disappeared ages ago,” said Cat carelessly. “Obviously couldn’t be bothered with all the trouble.” She leaned in a little further and lowered her voice. “Don’t tell him I told you, but Rusty deliberately almost flunked High School. He’d been offered a scholarship, but it would have meant leaving me to cope with Mom. Either that or letting the Center take care of her and then I would,” she cocked her head to one side. “I’m not quite sure what would have happened to me, but I think it wouldn’t have been nice. Oops, I can hear him coming. Remember! Ssh!” Cat put her finger to her lips. She closed the window and hurried back to her spot in the yard. By the time Rusty came into the room she was turning flips again.

  “Got it,” said Rusty. He passed Alex a sheaf of papers. “If you look through that it explains what we’re doing and why. I’ve done all the research. We just need to observe the experiment and make notes.”

  Alex found a dining chair and sat down to read. She wasn’t half way down the page when she said without thinking, “You know this is wrong, don’t you? If you reversed stages two and three the whole thing would work a lot better.”

  “Let me see,” said Rusty. He scanned down the page. “No, I don’t think so.”

  Alex felt her temper rising. She snatched the papers back. “If you can understand this principle,” she said pointing at a line Rusty had underlined, “you can understand the rest. That’s the hardest bit. So either you are deliberately messing up or you’ve copied this from someone.”

  “I am not a cheat,” said Rusty hotly.

  “There’s no way you could get one idea and not the other,” said Alex.

  “As if you would know! You’re certainly not God’s gift to chemistry,” said Rusty.

  Rusty looked out of the window at Cat. “Have you been talking to my sister? Because this is none of your business!” Rusty’s raised his voice.

  “Look forget it,” said Alex. “I was only trying to help. I must be mistaken. Let’s get this over with, shall we?” Alex started setting up part of the experiment while Rusty looked through his notes again. They carried on in silence. Alex found a piece of paper from a pile on another chair and made some quick calculations before she mixed up the solution. The quicker she got out of here the better. She finished setting up the last vial. “Turn the Bunsen on and we’re ready to go.”

  Rusty put down the papers. He checked over what Alex had done. Alex had to bite her tongue from saying anything. “It’s all right,” said Rusty at last. “You’ve written down the mole calculations.”

  “Yeah, didn’t want to mess it up again,” said Alex.

  “But you didn’t ask for the text book to get them.”

  “They were in your paper,” said Alex.

  Rusty shook his head. “Nope, they weren’t.” He took a deep breath. “You’re right you know, if I want them to think I am a d-plus student I shouldn’t be able to explain that principle so clearly. You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?”

  Alex shrugged. “I have my reasons for staying here. I expect you do too.”

  Rusty sat down heavily on a chair. Papers spilled onto the floor. “I did wonder,” he said. “You’ve hidden your ability well. How good are you? As good as your mother?”

  “I don’t know,” said Alex honestly. “I know I could ace every paper they set us.” She pushed her hair back behind one ear in a nervous gesture. She wasn’t used to being this honest with people. “Look, if you want to flunk a p
aper deliberately it’s not that easy. You have to be convincingly dumb. You might have got away with it so far, but eventually the professor’s will pick up that you know more than you are letting on.”

  “So what?” said Rusty. “How would they prove it?”

  “They could expel you for suspected copying if you’re inconsistent.” Alex sighed. “Maybe I could help you dumb down your papers?”

  “You’d do that for me?”

  “It’s self-interest,” said Alex. “I don’t want the professors getting any ideas about students deliberately not doing well. If they so much as suggested that to my parents I’d find myself in Yale faster than a fly finds itself in a spider web.”

  “You think you’re that smart.”

  “Genetics,” said Alex shortly. “Do we have a deal?”

  “Okay,” said Rusty. “But I should you tell you why I’m doing it.”

  “You don’t need to,” said Alex quickly.

  “No, I’d like to,” said Rusty. “I haven’t even told my sister the real reason. It would be good to share it with someone.”

  “But you hardly know me,” protested Alex.

  “Yeah, but I know your secret, so I know you won’t tell mine. Fair exchange.”

  “I don’t do friendships,” said Alex.

  “I think the Center deliberately harmed my mother. I think she got to close to uncovering something.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know,” said Rusty. “But Dr Straker- I don’t trust him.”

  Alex shivered. “See you felt it too,” said Rusty. “There’s something off about him. I’ve been thinking about doing something more — more — proactive. There’s this website. It’s run by a paranormal investigator, but they seem to take on all sorts of odd cases. What’s more there’s no charge as long as they find out new stuff. If I could get them into the Center …”

  “What’s this so called investigator’s website called?” asked Alex.

  “Beyond Belief Investigations.”

  Alex barely prevented herself from exclaiming.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” said Rusty, “but this one seems on the level.”

  “Look, Rusty,” said Alex attempting to copy her mother’s calm and annoyingly reasonable tone, “what makes you think anything at the Center is even remotely paranormal?”

  “It’s certainly odd,” said Rusty.

  “Says you,” said Alex. “Have you ever even been there?” Rusty was silent. “I thought not. You’ve got enough on your plate without engaging with some internet nutter, who gets their kicks from spinning ghost stories.”

  Rusty’s face took on a mulish look. “You’re wrong,” he began, but whatever else he was going to say was lost to the sound of his phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Savannah,” he said with a sigh. “Hi Sav, what do you want?”

  From her seat a couple of metres away Alex could hear the girl talking loudly, shrilly, and quickly.

  “Hang on. Slow down,” said Rusty. “Bethany’s been what? A monster … Have you guys been taking something?”

  There was an even shriller level of agitated noise from the phone.

  “Okay. Okay. I’ll come.” He rang off. “Sorry. I’m going to have to go back to the college. Sounds like the girls have got themselves into some sort of scrape.”

  “And you’re their knight in white armour?”

  “Bethany’s missing.”

  Alex felt the blood draining from her face. “I’ll come with you,” she said. Rusty hesitated. “It’s not like I’m going to finish this work for you.”

  “Okay,” said Rusty. “We’ll take my mom’s car. Hopefully there’s some gas left in it.”

  Alex climbed into the passenger seat of the rusting Ford. “Don’t look down,” said Rusty.

  Alex did. “Is that the road?” she said.

  “It’s only a small hole,” said Rusty. “Keep your feet away from it and you’ll be fine. It’s not like there’s a fuel line down there or anything. Besides, I won’t be going fast. Never know what might fall off.”

  “Okay,” said Alex drawing her legs up and feeling almost as nervous as when she had faced the monster in the tunnel.

  Rusty drove exactly on the speed limit all the way there. Alex breathed a sigh of relief as they turned into the parking lot. “There’s someone sitting there,” she said pointing.

  “What?” said Rusty. He peered into the dusk following the direction of her finger. “Your eyesight’s better than mine. I thought that was pile of rags.” He sprung out of the car and rushed over.

  Alex turned off the engine and followed him. She didn’t take the key. No one in their right mind would steal this heap. By the time she caught up with him Rusty was kneeling beside a sobbing Bethany. He had one arm round her and was stroking her hair with his other hand. “It’s okay, Beth,” she heard him say. “I’m here now. You’re fine. What happened?”

  Bethany cried some more and Alex saw her mascara stayed in place. In fact for a crying girl she still looked remarkably pretty. Alex felt a pang. Something about Bethany being thinner than a pile of rags was on the tip of her tongue, but she managed to keep her mouth shut. She did notice that Bethany was covered in dust.

  Savannah, Charisma, and Tiffany erupted out of the college main entrance. “Thank goodness, you’ve found her,” said Savannah. “We looked everywhere.”

  “And yet not a hair on your head is out of place,” muttered Alex under her breath. But as the girls moved towards them the parking lot lights showed they were all covered in the same dust as Bethany.

  Savannah gave her a chilly look. “Why did you bring her?” she asked.

  “We were working on a science experiment together,” said Rusty shortly. Then he turned his attention back to Bethany. “Come on, sweetheart. Tell me what happened?”

  “I don’t remember,” wailed Bethany. “I don’t remember anything.”

  “What were you up to?” Rusty asked Savannah sternly. “She’s in a terrible state.”

  Savannah shrugged. “Nothing. We were working on a project together.” She sneered at Alex. “Just like you two.”

  “You’ve been in the tunnels under the college,” said Alex. “They’re dangerous. Liable to collapse.”

  “Did you hit your head?” Rusty asked Bethany. He began feeling her head tenderly all over. She brushed him off. “No, I’m fine. I just don’t remember how I got here — in the parking lot.”

  “What do you know about the tunnels?” Bethany suddenly asked Alex.

  “Nothing,” said Alex. “Only what I’ve heard.”

  “Come on Rusty,” said Savannah. “We can take her back to mine. My father’s a doctor,” she said at Alex. “He can check her over. If we squeeze up we can all fit in your car. There’s no need for Alex to come.”

  Rusty, his arms still around Bethany, frowned. “Will you be alright getting home, Alex?”

  “Oh, don’t worry about me,” said Alex. “I’m used to being on my own.” She turned her back on the lot of them and walked off. Behind her she heard Tiffany whispering and knew she must be talking about her. Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to cry.

  Alex Morgan didn’t need anyone.

  3. Thinking Alike

  Four days later Alex still hadn’t made up her mind what was happening. She sat in her bedroom rewriting an email to c0nundrum for the fifth time. Her mother had produced something she had called a ‘Suet Tart’ for tonight’s dinner and the effect it was having on her stomach was not helping Alex’s concentrate. She deleted everything back to ‘Hi c0nundrum’ and started again.

  >I am grateful for the formulae you sent me. Though I still don’t understand why they worked or why they would have brought down part of the tunnel.

  Hell, she thought, I’m as bad as Rusty. That’s backwards. She deleted it once more.

  >I went down into the tunnels as you asked and encountered an entity. I did not see it clearly, but I heard it roaring long before any par
t of it came into sight. I do not believe it was an animal. I saw the eyes — and they were at the height of an average man, but were glowing red.

  She sat back and looked at what she had written. It sounded like the beginning of a bad horror movie. But c0nundrum had known something was down there. Something that for all she knew had kidnapped Bethany. Something that might decide to pop up for another student and next time not so conveniently bring them back.

  >I know how this sounds, but I am convinced the only way to get to the truth is to tell my experience as truthfully as I can. It will be entirely up to you to decide whether you believe me. Anyway, I believed the entity was hostile and about to attack. I threw your discs at it. There was a sharp smell of pine, a flash, and then the tunnel suffered a minor cave-in and I was knocked out. When I came to the creature had vanished.

  I do not understand from the formula you gave me — and which I made — how the discs could have had such an effect. It would be useful to me to know how that happened. I have never seen a creature with glowing red eyes before, and while I do not care to repeat this experience, I am rather afraid that I will be called upon to do so. And sooner rather than later.

  A few nights ago a student went missing at the college. She was found within minutes in the parking lot, but in a distressed state with no memory of how she got there. She had been with three other friends, although they denied it, down in the tunnels. They were covered in the same dust that ruined my clothing.

  Oh, if I could only bill him for those, thought Alex. But long ago, she had decided that trying to get funds out of people on the Internet would only raise the chances of someone tracing the website back to her. It was bad enough that she was limited geographically — although it was amazing how much research one could do over the Internet.

  >I believe you know more — or suspect you know more — than you are telling me. As it appears that one girl’s life has already been put in danger, not to mention my own, I would appreciate some candour at this time.