Deadly Darlings (October Darlings Book 2)

by Wendolyn Baird

  “What the hell?” Tomas swings it open, leaving me to fall over onto his feet and stare up at him from the ground.

  “Oh, now you open the door?” I complain, deflecting from my awkward position. “Ugh, they want to go out to The Sycamores. It’s bound to be miserable out there and I just want to check on Sabrina and get some ice cream.”

  “I take it you’re asking me for help getting out of it?” He asks as I climb to my feet.

  “Yes, that.” I point at him.

  “Did you try, maybe just saying something? It’s not like they’re going to force you to go.”

  “I, uhm.” The truth is, it’s hard to speak when I get stressed. Sometimes I stutter, sometimes I can't speak at all. But it’s not exactly something I like people knowing.

  “Right.” Tomas nods as I continue to flop over my words. “Give me a second.”

  He retreats to his room and grabs his jacket off his bed. The facial hair at his jaw has just passed from a shadow to true stubble, and he rubs at it before glancing around for his keys and wallet. His quiet demeanor reveals that these are normal antics for his sister, even as I struggle to block out her and her friend’s screeching laughter.

  When it was just me and my dad, it was quiet. Once I moved in with Delia, it was cozy, but again, pretty relaxed, and Delia worked most of the time anyway. Even with Sabrina, sure she’s exuberant, but she let me have my space. So far, Ramona has shown zero boundaries whatsoever. Well, besides not telling Tomas that Ellis and I had broken up. But that’s probably just because she felt bad for me.

  “Alright, follow my lead.” Tomas winks, and angles around me, heading back out to the living room. “Here’s the deal,” he exclaims over the cacophony of laughter and jokes. “I’m stealing Addie for the night, and if y’all aren't home by two in the morning, I’m going out looking for you.”

  “Aww, Tommy,” Yvette groans. “Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?”

  “Because his mission in life is to annoy me as much as he possibly can,” Ramona retorts.

  “Are you sure it’s not the other way around?” Tomas asks under his breath, impatiently shaking the keys in his hand.

  Three accusing gazes stare him down, before they succumb to another fit of laughter and stumble outside.

  Shaking my head, I watch them crowd into Ramona’s SUV, then I slide into the passenger’s seat of Tomas’ car. “You know, we don’t actually need to go out,” I tell him. “I could just call Sabrina now that it’s quiet enough to hear.”

  In response, Tomas puts the car in gear and scoffs, “yes, but if you did that, you’d most likely stay up all night wondering if she really is alright. Better we make a short trip up to campus and you can see for yourself. Besides, there’s no ice cream in the freezer.”

  “Oh, uhm, I actually didn’t bring my purse.” I complained about ice cream out of exasperation, not actual need. I’d never imagined he actually intended to stop to get ice cream.

  “Okay?” Tomas chances a glance at me as we roll up to a stop sign. “I didn’t realize you needed a bag to eat ice cream with. What, were you planning on taking a sundae to go?”

  “No, I meant I don’t have any cash on me.”

  “Oh.” He jerks his head back and almost sounds... hurt. “Addie,” he says in a soft voice, “don’t worry about it, I’ll pay.”

  But I can’t help but worry. And as we pass the many old houses and narrow roads that lead us back to Blackwood College, I can’t help but wonder what Ellis would think about this. About me. Everyone who knows us will probably assume I left Ellis for Tomas; the way Yvette assumed we were together. My stomach flips at the thought, even as guilt weighs over me like a rain cloud.

  Darting around the side of my former dormitory building, I back up and count windows until I spot Sabrina laughing in our room. A flash of red hair flickers past the glass, and with a start, I realize Eden has already moved in. I haven’t even been moved out an entire day, and she’s already taken over my bunk.

  “Are you okay?” Tomas checks on me as I continue to stare at the window wordlessly. He’s got a grackle on his shoulder, and another one perched on his opposite arm, and in the glowing orange lamplight, his eyes are reflective like a cat’s.

  “Fine. I’m fine.” I clear my throat and wrap my jacket closer around my neck. “Actually, instead of ice cream,” I ask even as I blink back useless tears, “can we get hot chocolate? It’s freezing out here and I need something comforting.”

  Raising his arms, he lets the birds take to the sky. “Yeah, of course.”

  I take one step, and then the noise of metal scraping across concrete sounds again. This time, when I frantically turn towards the sidewalk, I’m horrified to see sparks flying up, as though a shovel or weapon truly is being dragged along the ground.

  “Hide, now!” I hiss. Shoving Tomas behind the nearest tree, I dart into the shadow of its branches and wait with bated breath for the spirit to come our way. My thumb runs down Frank’s back, alerting him to the danger, and he awakens immediately.

  The air around us twists with a reddish haze, pulling closer against our bodies, but even as my muscles tense up, Tomas puts his hand on the middle of my back and whispers for me to relax.

  “This is part of what I can manage. Nobody should be able to see us,” he murmurs, “not even the dead.”

  Goosebumps creep up my arms, and as the haze covers us completely, waves of arachnids scuttle forth. Enchanted as he is, Frank has his own abilities, and summoning small armies of live scorpions is one of my favorites. It’s kept me alive, at least.

  “Such big eyes I have,” the same voice I’d heard from the doppelganger cackles out. “But it seems like you want to play hide and seek. Won’t you let my eyes rest a little? I’ll need them to watch you die.”

  My breath halts halfway to my lungs, and Tomas stiffens behind me, his fingers freezing in place on my spine. Whoever, or whatever this spirit is, it’s toying with us.

  The sparks stop, and the air is so still, I can almost believe the world has stopped turning. That time itself has paused.

  Frank clicks his claws shut, commanding his minions to surge closer to the sidewalk, but as soon as the sound is released, the tension snaps.

  “There you are!” A haggard face is merely inches from my own, and blinking away my terror, I recognize the shriveled features of the elderly woman I’d seen earlier. But her teeth are far too narrow and crowded to be human, and her eyes are clouded over with death and cobwebs. Even her hands denote a sense of something sinister; her nails are jagged and long, curling, and yellowed as she reaches for my neck. “Such a pretty little witch.”

  My heart is slamming against my ribs, but I can’t move a muscle. Fear has me as rigid as stone, and shock keeps me from processing anything but my horror.

  “Impossible!” Tomas exclaims. Wrapping his arms around my midriff just as the hag drags a single nail across my jawbone, he pulls us around the other side of the tree trunk. His arms are hot around my torso, but his voice is brittle and cold, and before I can tear my eyes away from the materializing spirit, a shift comes over my new roommate.

  My brain can’t or won’t comprehend what’s happening as he takes a step back from me and spreads his arms out at a right angle. But in the faint lamplight beneath a moonless night, Tomas is no longer human. His eyes are too sharp, his clothes lengthen and meld into a feathery texture, and within a few seconds, where once my friend stood, I’m met with a humongous bird of death.

  Standing as tall as I am, with a wingspan twice my size, he turns one beady, silvered eye my way and cocks his head. He doesn’t speak, but just as I can sense Frank’s meaning when he looks at me a certain way, I can almost hear Tomas in my head.

  “Duck.”

  I do as he instructs, and Frank uses the opportunity to have the scorpions form a protective circle around me. Just like running water, iron, and silver, evil can’t pass a sentinel. Or in this case, the hag can't cross the squirming scorpions Fra
nk’s called forth.

  A harsh gale sweeps over me, blasting the dark entity away from my body. Hazarding a peek between my fingers, I see Tomas falling to the ground, already shifting back into a person. His feathers recede into his clothing as though they were just clever pieces of fabric, and his sharp beak twists and softens into his regular facial features. The only things that remain the same between his two states are his pale eyes and jet-black hair.

  Thrusting a hand out to me, he stares past me frantically.

  Already, the deceased killer is struggling to break my barrier, and vile anger takes over her expression. I focus on cementing her in place with my gift, even as Tomas wrenches me away.

  Clutching his palm, I try as best as I can to keep up with his long strides. There’s a stitch in my side, and my throat feels as though it’s on fire, or been rubbed raw with sandpaper. Still, I run.

  The pavement beneath our feet is cracked and uneven, and we knock into each other several times, but we make it to the car, where we stand, heaving for air.

  “I told you,” Tomas wheezes. “Moths to a candle.”

  “I thought,” I gasp, “that your job was to get rid of her. Why didn’t you do that?”

  Tomas shakes his head quickly, bent over and clutching his own abdomen and he breathes harshly against the cold wind. “Can’t yet. She, it, is too powerful. I need Ramona’s help.”

  “Okay, then let’s go get her,” I demand. “I’m not leaving that thing around to hurt someone!”

  But before he can so much as respond, a shrill shriek cuts through the night. It’s a long, lingering wail, far worse than anything in a horror movie because the anguish in the cry is greater than an actor’s false terror.

  We freeze, horrified eyes caught on each other, and a fresh wave of adrenaline fights through my veins, sending my heart into a thunderous mess. Tomas reaches out to grab my arm, but I’m already whirling around, my hand on Frank’s form, and searching desperately through the dim light for the source of the scream.

  “Addie, wait!” Tomas hollers after me.

  I don’t have time to listen, though. Spirits can be deadly, and this one already proved its malevolence in life.

  “Hello?” I call out. “Where are you?” My voice breaks as I plead for the girl to answer me, wherever she is.

  Ducking under the narrow archway that separates the dormitory buildings from the classrooms, I stumble on a stray brick and scrape the heels of my palms against the coarse concrete when I fall. The ever still statue of a woman appraises me from the corner of my eye, and my pulse is pounding through my temples. My head is aching and sweat is pouring down my skin, stinging in wake of the frigid air swirling around me. Again, a scream rings out, this time, further away.

  I stumble to my feet, but when I pass through the archway, everything has changed.

  “Impossible,” I breathe.

  Instead of midnight, I step in a space drenched in a soft, evening glow. The sun is low in the sky, barely visible over the trees, and a colony of bats is rising in the south. Small groups of people dressed in clothes from different time periods linger at the picnic tables between the buildings, none of which pay me the least bit of attention.

  “Not impossible,” a deeply familiar and unnerving voice corrects me. “To tell you the truth, I’m surprised you didn’t come back sooner.”

  Stumbling in a circle, I turn to find a pair of identical twins behind me. The original creepy one and two.

  “Anna Mae,” I guess, frowning at her. Her dress is a light sage color, and from what I can recall of my ancestors, her sister Eleanor favors rose colors.

  “Oh, good,” she approves, “you can tell us apart. That’s reassuring.”

  “Her talents are coming along nicely,” Eleanor Jane agrees. “I think she’s almost ready.”

  “Ready for what?” I rasp out. “Look, I don’t know how I ended up here, but I can’t be in the in-between! There’s a girl in my realm who’s in danger!”

  The two exchange devilish glances then smirk at me. A shudder makes my knees shake. As the two who made some dark deal for the ability to see the dead and then slaughtered the men who murdered their family, these distant relatives are the last ones I’d like a reunion with.

  Together, they converge back and forth in the shadows, approaching me with alarming speed and silence. “You’ll manage to take care of that,” they whisper in my ears. One on each side of my face, their hands as cold as ice, burning as they brush across my shoulders. “But be careful which bird you trust. They need a bond you know, and clairvoyants don’t always survive that. You wouldn’t want to come live with us, would you, Adeline?”

  Unable to bear their deathly whispers, I wrench free of their grasps and make a beeline for the archway. I just need to get through to the other side. I need to be back in the mortal realm, where I belong.

  Dashing through the archway, I’m expecting to see the night sky, but as I cross over to the dormitory side, I’m met with the undeniable sight of dawn.

  “No, no, no!” I clutch my head and drop to my knees. My chest is tight, my head dizzy, and my arms weak. “I can’t, can’t do, I can’t do this!”

  My eyes burn as my vision blurs, and my throat is overcome by the lump in my throat. I can’t get stuck here. I need to get home! What did those awful sisters do?

  “Hello?” I choke out. “Can anyone hear me?”

  A stone drops somewhere down the winding sidewalk to my right, but not a soul is in sight. I push myself to my feet with a heavy heart. Maybe the archway is like a gate.

  I run back and forth under the arch, each time being greeted by a different time of day, but never midnight. Never a moonless sky, never a campus where Tomas, Sabrina, and the mystery girl are present. Always just the in-between.

  Eventually, I collapse in the quiet alcove, sobbing under the watchful eye of the unmoving statue in the corner. Her still eyes show no mercy, and as I beg Frank to help us get home, I’m terrified I’ve gone mad.

  Frank has no power here. He’s simply a stiff, iron bracelet stuck to my wrist. I’m alone in the in-between, and even the company of my terrifying ancestors is better than this solitude.

  Time passes with no meaning, and sometime between the sky shifting on either side of me, I pass into unconsciousness.

  “ADDIE? OH MY GOD, ADDIE!”

  I groan, shielding my swollen eyes from a sun that’s too bright, too real. Impatient hands shake at my shoulders, startling with their warmth and my eyelids fly open. Dark brown and green hair hits my cheeks, and a frantic, oval shaped face looms above me.

  “Oh, thank the stars!” Ramona cries. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

  “Where are we? Are we in the mortal realm?” I demand, using her arms to pull myself into a sitting position.

  “Mortal realm?” Ramona asks, her face twisting with confusion. “What are you— are you telling me you were in the Shadow World this whole time?”

  I groan and grab my pounding head. “Good, I’m back. Yes. Don’t ask how, no idea.”

  “We need to get you home. You’re half frozen. You’ve really got to stop passing out places!” She scolds me, as if it’s a choice I’ve made.

  “Uhm, thanks,” I croak out sarcastically. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

  Ramona helps me to her car as the first groups of staff members and students begin to stumble into the morning. Once I’m safely buckled in beside her and resting my forehead against the glass of the passenger’s window, she calls Tomas, who apparently has been running around frantically as well.

  “Tell Yvette to call the others off,” she mutters into the phone. “I’m bringing her home, but this isn’t an adventure any of them should know about.”

  “You had your friends looking for me too?” I ask tiredly.

  “Of course, I did. Tomas called us nearly yelling on the phone. He couldn’t find you, but he did find another student, knocked out and sporting some pretty nasty cuts on her face.
Like someone tried to carve her like a jack-o’-lantern.” Ramona’s hands tighten around the steering wheel and the car swerves as she talks, but her face is resolutely emotionless.

  “Is she... is she going to be okay?” I ask nervously. I’ve known for a while that some spirits can be violent enough to cause deaths... but to believe that’s the kind of haunting we’re dealing with? It’s a lot to swallow.

  “Yes. Tomas called for help and gave a police report when medics came. That’s why he was so terrified when you vanished, but he couldn’t ask the cops for help, because you know they’d assume you were the suspect or a victim.” Ramona admits.

  Acid rises up my throat at the thought of such a horrendous error, but the idea of one of my possible classmate’s faces cut up... that’s what drops my stomach into knots so deep I hunch over in my seat. That could have been Sabrina or Eden. It could have been Ellis. Was breaking up with him enough to spare him from all of this?

  I have to believe it was. He has to stay safe. They all do.

  “I’m going to help y'all take the hag down. As soon as we can.” I decide, shaking my head as I press my fingers to my temples. “This isn’t going to happen again. I won’t let it.”

  “Whoa, Addie! How about we just get you back to normal first? You crossed over the veil last night! You can’t just go off confronting this thing like that didn’t just happen!” Ramona hits the brakes and stares at me. “I didn’t even know that clairvoyants could do that.”

  “Maybe some of them can, some of them can’t.” I mumble. My tongue is clumsy, and my stomach is flipping, there’s no way I’m getting sick in her car. “I can. Not that I can really control when or how... trust me.”

  My eyes are still swollen from crying, and every inch of my body aches from sleeping on the rough concrete floor. The scratches on my hands are covered in dirt, and the only thing I plan on doing before curling up in bed is taking a shower.

  Ramona hits the gas again, and I duck my head to control my nausea. One way or another, I need to get a grip on this peculiar life of mine. If I can’t... well, it’s not just my safety or my friends who are at risk anymore.