The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

by Lauren James

  Rima swallowed tightly and took Harriet’s hand. Her brow furrowed as she focused on where they touched. Almost immediately, tears welled in the corners of Rima’s eyes. She wrenched her hand away.

  “Stop!” she gasped, as tears flooded her cheeks. “Oh, make it stop, plea—”

  Rima clutched at her stomach, bent double, then shivered and transformed into a silvery grey wolf. It tipped its head back and howled, the sound as painfully mournful as anything Felix had ever heard.

  Kasper watched from the corner, looking queasy and confused. Harriet looked astonished, mouth half open.

  “Harriet!” Felix yelled, horrified. “Stop it!”

  Jolted into action, Harriet touched the tip of the wolf’s ear. It stopped mid-howl, throat billowing.

  The wolf tilted its head to one side, curious and confused. Then it twisted around and began happily licking its rear end as if nothing had happened.

  This is actually the first time I saw Rima. This moment, a flash of the future – Rima twisting into a wolf, while Harriet watches. I saw it during the Jacobite risings. Just like this.

  For me, Harriet was there from the very start. I assumed she would arrive along with Rima and the others. That’s why it was such a surprise that Harriet came later. There was always an empty space waiting for her. Her shadow was standing among us, and only I could see it.

  Then, one night, I was sleeping in the corner of Rima’s room while she watched VHS tapes of The X-Files. A bright flash woke me up, but before I realized what was happening, it was already over. There was no time to react. Something had happened, and Rima was dead.

  I still don’t know what caused it.

  FELIX

  “Well. That worked.” Felix licked his suddenly dry lips. It had worked. It had worked.

  “Can you turn back, Rima?” Leah asked, stroking one hand down the wolf’s back. The wolf twisted back into Rima, who sat on her haunches and glared at Harriet.

  “You couldn’t have picked joy instead of sorrow? That was the most depressing thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life!”

  Harriet shrugged. “You’re a very cheerful person. I had to make you do something out of character.”

  “It was still shitty. And how have you got two powers?”

  Felix swallowed. “Did you accidentally take some energy from the police officer while Kasper was inside?”

  Kasper made a pained, cut-off noise, and buried his head in his hands.

  “Er, no. I don’t think I took anything from her. Can you even take powers from living people? Is that a thing?” Harriet asked.

  “I have no idea. But how else could you have two powers?”

  “Right,” Harriet said. “About that…”

  Felix jerked his head up. She knew why this was happening. “Harriet?”

  She folded her arms, already on the defensive. “I wanted a power. I couldn’t wait. So … I sped up the process a bit.”

  “What did you do, Harriet?” Leah asked. She hadn’t seemed bothered by Harriet’s drama until Rima had been hurt. Now she was watching Harriet with a wary, preparatory expression. Felix was pleased that someone else finally saw what he did in Harriet – danger.

  Leah continued, “Your hair is white, which means you must have got a whole lot of energy from somewhere. What have you been playing at?”

  Eyes on the ceiling, Harriet said, “I went to see the Tricksters.”

  Rima swore, short and fast. “What did they do? Did they hurt you?”

  “Not as such. They explained to me how I could take, um, leftover powers.”

  Felix frowned. He’d never heard of any powers being leftover. “What does that mean?”

  “You know, where they aren’t being used. Going to waste. Like … with the Shells.”

  Rima gasped. “They made you steal a power from a Shell? Oh, Harriet, you poor thing. You should never have gone near the Tricksters. They can’t be trusted.”

  Kasper looked wide awake now. Rufus and Vini had been trying to persuade Kasper to possess humans for them for years, ever since they’d found out what his unused power did. They would probably be delighted when they heard that he’d finally used his power. If they’d got to Harriet, too, who knows what terrible things she could have learnt?

  “How did you do it?” Felix asked. There was something about the set of her shoulders that made him think she was hiding something.

  Harriet froze. She looked between them and swallowed hard. “I… It wasn’t that bad, I promise.” She was pleading with them now. Whatever she’d done, she clearly really wanted them to forgive her for it.

  Immediately, Felix understood. If it was possible to take someone’s power, then there was only one way that could be done. “You took their energy, didn’t you?”

  Harriet looked trapped. “No!” She paused. “OK. Yes. I did.”

  Taking another ghost’s energy was forbidden. It was the absolute most important rule – the unthinkable thing that would get you sent straight down to the basement. Even the thought of doing it made Felix want to throw up. It was cannibalism, pure and simple.

  “How much? A little bit of energy, a taste? Or – or all of it?”

  She didn’t want to answer. Her denial was clear from her expression.

  “Did they disintegrate?” he pressed. “Harriet?”

  Every muscle in her neck was tensed when she nodded.

  “No,” Rima said, the word cracking down the middle.

  “How many?” Leah’s voice was hard as stone.

  Felix’s mouth was dry. Too dry to speak. Felix had been a Shell just days ago. It was only luck that meant he’d absorbed some of Harriet’s stray energy when she died. He could easily have been up on the fifth floor instead, still a Shell even now. He could have been the person Harriet had killed.

  Harriet couldn’t meet their gazes. “Two. A girl and a boy. The others disintegrated on their own.”

  Rima had turned pale. She looked like she was about to faint. Kasper had gone green, wrapping his hands around his knees as he hugged himself.

  This was worse than anything Felix had imagined Harriet was capable of. She had done this more than once. She hadn’t just tried it and found it repulsive and sickening. She’d gone back for more.

  Now all of the fifth-floorers were gone? For ever? Felix cursed himself for not doing something to help bring them back from being Shells. He’d been too distracted to think about them and now they were gone for ever.

  Felix thought vaguely that they would have to send Harriet to the basement now, but he didn’t know how to make that happen. Usually, when someone was sent to the basement, there was shouting and violence and anger. They were marched downstairs by Qi, who would imprison them inside with lightning. But Harriet was still looking at them like she’d made a terrible mistake. Like this was all a trick that the Tricksters had played on her. Was she a victim here?

  “You destroyed them,” Rima said. She was clearly struggling to believe it.

  “You told me that the Shells are close to disintegrating,” Harriet said. “It was inevitable. I hurried it along a bit, that’s all.” She was staring out of the window, watching a pigeon fluff its feathers on the sill. “It’s euthanasia, more than anything.”

  “It’s murder,” Kasper said.

  Harriet went very still.

  “They only needed a bit of energy and they’d be just like the rest of us.” He had his head in his hands. “I told you that, when we went to find your phone. You can’t pretend you didn’t know.”

  Harriet’s face twisted in a conflict of emotions. “It’s irrelevant now, anyway. I put them out of their misery.”

  Felix was suddenly furious. Harriet was a liar. Nothing she was saying was true. She had never thought about anyone but herself, not once since she’d arrived.

  “You made them disintegrate!” he shouted at Harriet. “That’s far worse than being a Shell. You can’t pretend that you did it for their sake, when all you’ve ever cared about is yoursel
f!”

  Harriet lunged at him, teeth bared and pure hatred in her eyes. Kasper was at Felix’s side in an instant, as Felix skittered back on his heels. He pushed Felix behind him as Leah leapt forward to block Harriet’s path.

  Felix had a sudden vision of Harriet sending them all into comas. All she would need to do was touch them and she could knock them out, or take all their energy like she had with the Shells. He had to stop this before it got that far.

  “Everyone, calm down. This isn’t productive,” he tried to say, but the air was so full of voices it was impossible to distinguish any words. Rima was yelling, and Harriet was hissing out threats, and Leah was muttering something ancient and lethal while Claudia wailed in her arms, and Kasper— Felix focused his attention on him; carefully attuned to his timbre after decades of practice.

  “Harriet,” Kasper was pleading, “just stop. This isn’t like you. There’s something wrong. Someone’s—”

  Felix brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a single piercing whistle. Immediately, there was silence. Rima sobbed.

  Before Felix could speak, Kasper said, “Harriet, why didn’t you come to me if you needed help? Why did you go to the Tricksters instead? I thought we were—” He reached for her hands but she slipped her fingers out of his grasp.

  “You thought what?” she said, calmer suddenly than she’d been throughout the whole conversation. “That we were going to be together for ever? This isn’t a love story, Kasper. You were a bit of fun. A means to an end.”

  Kasper’s face crumpled. He took one step back, eyes begging her to take it back, to say it was all a mistake. He pressed the base of his palms against his eyes, hard enough that Felix saw his skin turning white. He inhaled, quick and devastated, and then dragged his hands down his face. When he opened his eyes again, they were glistening but resigned. “Right. Sorry. My mistake.”

  “What happens now?” Rima asked, when nobody spoke. Harriet and Kasper were staring at each other. It was like picking at a scab – Felix couldn’t look away from them, even when it hurt.

  Leah had her lips pressed to the side of Claudia’s cheek, rocking her back and forth reassuringly. She was glaring at Harriet with murderous intent.

  “Look, there are obviously a lot of problems here that we need to address,” Harriet said.

  “Problems that you created!” Felix yelled.

  “Not just me!”

  “YOU ALONE!” he repeated. “YOU.”

  Before anyone could respond, someone walked through the door. Adrenaline made Felix jump in self-defence. To his surprise, it was Greg. He spent most of his time hunting rats while he waited for orders from the Tricksters.

  “What do you want, Gregory?”

  Greg smirked at him, wandering into the room. Felix took a step back, keeping carefully out of touching distance. You could never be too careful with Greg. He was a slimy person, always searching for the most profitable deals.

  Harriet clearly didn’t know to avoid him, because she let him touch her wrist. “Harriet. It’s Rufus and Vini. They want to see you. They have something you need to hear.”

  Chapter 13

  HARRIET

  As they walked down to the basement, Harriet listened to Greg’s chatter in a dreamy kind of calm. All of the fight had gone out of her as soon as he’d touched her. She was relieved to be leaving Rima and the others behind. She needed time to collect her thoughts before she carried on talking to them. Otherwise, she was likely to do something rash.

  It was getting harder and harder to control her words, or focus on anything but the energy inside her. It was a miracle she could hold a conversation at all, when inside she was screaming.

  She wished she’d left before Rima and the others had started asking her questions. She’d messed up. However much she had wanted to stay quiet, these horrible things kept tumbling out of her mouth, one after the other, until she was shouting at them. Their faces had grown more and more horrified the longer she’d talked and she hadn’t been able to find the right thing to say to fix it. They thought she was a monster. Harriet had ruined everything.

  They wouldn’t help her any more. That was why she was so upset. It wasn’t because Rima would stop inviting her to sunbathe on the fire escape or celebrate Halloween with them. Harriet wiped a tear away from her cheek. Who cared if they hated her, anyway? They were nothing.

  Besides, she’d got this new second power from the Shell. If she could control their feelings, she could force them to like her – or love her, even. They would be her friends whether they liked it or not.

  Greg stopped outside the basement. “I’ll, er, catch up with you later,” he muttered. “Things to do, you know.”

  “Yeah,” Harriet said, wondering what Rufus and Vini wanted to tell her. Did they have some new information for her? Maybe they’d found more Shells she could use, now she’d run through the supply on the fifth floor.

  “See ya.” Greg bolted down the corridor. What was up with him?

  Harriet stepped through the door, which lit up in that bright white light again. She was immediately pinned to the wall by Vini.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he spat in Harriet’s face, arm pressed up against her windpipe, so tightly he must be able to feel bone.

  Harriet spluttered. What had she done? His lips were drawn back in a snarl, seconds away from ripping her cheek open with his teeth.

  Behind him, the ghosts of the basement had stopped their game of pool to watch. Rufus strolled up to Harriet and hooked his finger under her right eyelid, pinching the flesh between his forefinger and thumb.

  Her vision blew out, fear sending her blind with panic.

  “Let go of her, Vini.” He spoke like mist.

  Vini’s arm dropped from her throat. She held her head totally still, very aware of the fingers steadily holding her eyelid in place. The flat of his nail was touching her eyeball.

  “What did I do?” she gasped. “I don’t know what this is about!”

  Rufus dug his fingernails into her eyelid, squeezing until the skin tore and his fingers met. Harriet screamed. Nothing had ever been so painful. Blood began dripping into her eye.

  “Do you think we’re fools? Do you think we haven’t dealt with snakes like you before, time and time again?”

  “I didn’t mean to—” She ran over everything they’d talked about, trying desperately to work out what had happened. “I really don’t know what—”

  She gasped. Suddenly she did know.

  “Oh,” she gasped. “The phone.”

  It must have run out of battery. They had realized that the deal she’d made with them for information was worthless.

  “The phone,” Rufus confirmed, furiously calm, and dragged his hand backwards. He tore a hole along the length of her eye, pulling the lashes away from the lid.

  The pain kept coming in waves, worse and worse, and a scream forced its way from her throat. “St-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

  Vini had his hand on her elbow, steadily leaching her fear away from her. The familiar pins and needles turned into a white-hot fire, and then disappeared into numbness. Was this what the Shells had felt, when she’d sucked them dry – a slow, burning loss of sensation?

  Finally, Harriet managed to control herself enough to speak. “Stop! Wait! I can fix this!”

  Rufus paused. Carefully, he slid his fingers free of the hole in her eyelid. He held the torn piece of skin on the end of his finger, inspecting it carefully, then folded it into his palm.

  He surveyed her. Harriet met his gaze through the destroyed remnants of her eyelid.

  “How are you going to do that?”

  When she blinked, pain came screaming back into her eye. “What do you want? I’ll get you anything you want to replace the phone!”

  His eyebrow twitched. “What makes you think you have anything to offer us?”

  “I have powers now. I can use them to trade. They’re strong ones.”

  His gaze fixed on Harriet’s
newly white hair. He leaned in to sniff delicately at her temple.

  “Three?” he asked, surprised. “Oh, you’ve become a perfectly creeping horror, just like you always wanted. Well done, you busy girl.”

  Vini grinned, revealing sharp eye teeth. “Leave some for the rest of us.”

  They could tell how many Shells she’d consumed just by smelling her? “Two and a half, actually.”

  “A half?”

  “One of them disintegrated before I could get its power.”

  “Ah. A waste of a good murder.”

  Harriet ignored this. She hadn’t killed the Shells. They hadn’t been alive at all. They were practically brain-dead, whatever the others thought.

  “I can turn invisible and manipulate emotions,” she said. “Surely those are worth keeping me around for?”

  “If you don’t trick us again. Would you care to explain why you never told us the phone would shut off when we made a deal?” Vini smiled through rigid lips.

  “I was distracted. I forgot. It was an honest mistake.”

  Harriet wished she’d never come to the basement. She was no match for the Tricksters, she saw that now. She was an amateur.

  Rufus was waiting for more.

  “I’m telling the truth.” She tried to smile, but it hurt too much to move her face. “Only an idiot would try to trick you. Even I can see that.”

  “You forgot,” he repeated. “You came down to the basement to make a deal with the most dangerous beings in this building, and you were so preoccupied you forgot that your phone’s battery would run out. Well. How nice it must be, in that little brain of yours.”

  Harriet blanched. “I’m sorry. Really. Please. Let me make it up to you.”

  Rufus turned to Vini. They conferred silently.

  Harriet waited, listening carefully. She caught the words “Leah” and “not strong enough”. The basement air tasted rotten on her tongue. Her eyelid twinged.

  Finally, Rufus spoke to her. “Do you know Qi Pang?”

  Harriet curled her lip. “We’ve met.”