The Grave Winner

by Lindsey Loucks

The ground trembled.

  “You have to tell me what’s happening,” Callum demanded, grabbing my shoulder.

  Tram popped up from a hole in the ground seconds later. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and he cradled his right arm at his side.

  Callum reeled back at Tram’s sudden appearance, his shoes crunching over the grass.

  “It’s Jo.” I took Tram’s good arm and dragged him after me back inside the school.

  Callum chased us through the cafeteria. We ignored teachers’ shouts for us to stop running. Students gawked. Jo was right where I’d left her in the library.

  “A spider crawled out of her mouth. It’s One and Two. They’re making her sick.” I wanted to find that spider and crush it, but it must’ve scuttled off somewhere.

  Tram blinked. “They’ll take her.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Somebody better tell me what’s happening,” Callum demanded.

  I stared at Tram, waiting for him to say something more.

  When neither of us offered an explanation, Callum wrapped his arms around his sister and hauled her up from the chair. She might as well have been a ragdoll.

  Tram watched, his face blank. “They said they would make sure you don’t spill more of your blood. And likely to be sure you don’t run.” He blinked, then speared my heart with his doomed expression. “They’ll kill her if you do.”

  Day Three

  Shadows hid on the roads between streetlights. I pedaled through them to Jo’s from the motel, sticking to the middle of the streets. Dad and Darby were still asleep, so I left them a note, the first of my final farewells to them.

  Maybe it was lack of sleep or the knowledge that this would be my last day alive or the fact that I’d put my friends and family in danger, but I was pissed. Instead of quaking in my combat boots, I wanted to kick someone’s ass. I pumped the pedals on my bike so hard, they squeaked.

  A dark figure crouched in my black yard again. The rotten death smell hit me in the stomach. It was Sarah. Again. Her constant whispers threaded the air.

  I skidded to a stop. “What are you doing here? And why did you leave ash tree keys in my yard?”

  She stood, the few strands of hair she had left billowing around her head in a morning breeze. Her baggy gray sweatshirt swallowed her whole. She looked over her shoulder, toward the blue tarps over Mom’s dead lilacs, then back at me.

  “Sarah…” I cleared my throat over a twisting knot. “I need to live. How do I do that?”

  Her sad eyes sparked. Was that anger? She brought her arm up, below her slumped mouth, and tapped her chest. Thump thump. Thump thump. Then she walked past me, cold radiating from her skin even though she didn’t touch me.

  Another ash tree key lay where she’d stood. I snatched it up and jammed it in the back of my bondage pants. Hadn’t we done this exact thing the day before? Ash tree keys wouldn’t help me, and if they could help, I didn’t know how. But why was Sarah leaving them in my yard? To help or to hurt?

  With a sigh, I took off for Jo’s. Callum answered my knock before my black death seeped into their yard. His brown eyes looked even darker with the shadows underneath them.

  “You didn’t sleep either?” he asked.

  “No.” I brushed past him. “How is she?”

  “She’s sleeping,” he said on a sigh.

  I looked down the dark steps of the basement as if I could see her from where I stood. Why were One and Two doing this to her? I’d offered myself as their Three. I hadn’t known I couldn’t waste my blood. Why punish her for my stupidity? Today was my last day, and I’d accepted it as well as could be expected. One and Two had no reason to make Jo their insurance because I had no intention of running away from them or spilling any more of my blood.

  Callum touched my arm. “What do we do?”

  “There is no we. I die.” I pointed downstairs. “She lives.”

  He started shaking his head before I even finished. “No.”

  Funny how one word from him triggered my teeth to clamp together and my hands to form fists. “Yes.”

  “You think I’m going to sit back and do nothing?” He jerked his head toward the basement. “That’s my sister. And you’re…”

  I pushed my lips together at the impossible thickness of his skull. “After everything I told you about the Sorceressi, how could you still want to help?”

  The muscles in his jaw contracted. “I’m not doing nothing.”

  “You have to. Or else you’ll get hurt,” I said, my gaze sinking to the rip at the neck of his t-shirt. “Or worse.”

  He tipped my chin up so I would meet his eyes again. “I can only think of one thing that would be worse. I’m stuck to you like glue today.” A grin reached his eyes before it touched his mouth, a skill I’d never seen anyone else master as well as him. “You’re a pirate and I’m the parrot on your shoulder.”

  My tiny smile sealed the deal. How did he do that? “Fine. How would you feel about skipping school today?”

  His eyebrows lifted. “I’m for it.”

  “Meet me in your car.” When he nodded, I tiptoed downstairs to check on Jo.

  Dead silence filled the basement. No TV. No arguing between Callum and Jo. No promise of life. Nothing. Even Elf was gone, probably curled up somewhere in a tight furry ball.

  I held my breath when I entered Jo’s bedroom. There she was, tucked under her covers with her eyes closed. Her brassy red hair spilled onto the pillow, almost like blood. I shivered. Leaning over, I kissed her forehead. Her icy skin surprised me, and I shrank away.

  “I love you,” I whispered. Chomping the insides of my cheeks to keep myself together, I backed out of the room.

  “Where are we going?” Callum asked as soon as I was settled in his messy car.

  “Pay phone.”

  He put the car in gear and stepped on the gas. “What’s a pay phone? I’ve got a cell.”

  I pushed the button to lower the window so I could soak up a few of the rising sun’s rays that weren’t hidden by clouds. “I’ll pretend I’m your mom when I call the school if you pretend to be my dad. And people can track cell phones and blocked calls. My dad’s not finding out about this, okay?” Death would be way better than his disappointment in me.

  Callum grinned while he lowered his window, too, the breeze teasing his already messy hair. “What are we doing instead of school?”

  I shrugged. School without Jo sucked enough even when it wasn’t my last day alive. Now that I was skipping, I had no idea what I wanted to do. “Drive around, I guess.”

  On the edge of a grocery store parking lot, Callum pulled to a stop in front of a drive-by pay phone. After finding the school’s number on my cell, I passed it to him. He dug in his pocket for some change.

  “I’ll go first,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

  I gave him an unenthusiastic thumbs-up. “Good luck.”

  He dialed, then dropped his voice a few octaves to explain I was sick. It must’ve worked even though he sounded nothing like Dad because when he hung up, he gave a triumphant smile. “I’m the coolest guy ever.”

  I snorted and held my hand out. “Money, Super Ego.”

  “I guess you’ll have to crawl into my lap since the phone’s on this side,” he said with a wink and placed a quarter in my palm.

  “You want to make friends with my fist again?” I snatched at the handle then slammed the door shut.

  “Mothers aren’t supposed to hit their children,” he called out the window.

  Trying to hide the smile that kept tugging at my lips, I circled the car and dialed. My voice sounded all prim and proper when the secretary answered. I told her Callum was ill as he choked on his own laughter behind me. His forearm rested on the window frame, and I dug my fingernails into his flesh to make him shut up. That ended his laughing only for a second while he licked my hand.

  I hung up and whirled around to yell at him. “You’re disgusting.”

  He howled with laughter.

>   What the hell was wrong with us? We both must’ve lost our minds. Either me or my best friend or Ica would die tonight and the final hinge on the door to the Core would open. And what was I doing about it? I was frolicking around with the boy who poked his thumbs into my heart instead of the boy who tried to protect it. That was my solution to the problem. I should be searching for a loophole out of me becoming Three to save myself. The crazy laughter bubbling up inside me popped.

  The same must’ve happened to Callum because he winced. “What’s wrong with us?”

  “We’re freaking out.” I climbed into the car again, and we both stared out the windshield at the people bustling in and out of the store, completely oblivious.

  Callum started the car, and we drove around Krapper in silence for a while.

  What was Ica doing now? She wanted this much more than I did, but wasn’t she terrified?

  I rubbed my temple to stop the questions thudding against my skull, but it didn’t help. What would it feel like to die? And then to come back again? Would I see Mom when I died? I had to. I needed to. The thought flooded my eyes, and I swiped at them quickly before Callum noticed. I would put up a fight tonight, no doubt about that, but if One and Two put me in the ground, maybe I would see Mom.

  “You see somewhere you want to stop, just tell me.” The area above Callum’s eyebrows puckered with worry.

  “Okay.”

  The sun rose higher in the sky while we drove, but the thickening clouds sucked in its rays and took its warmth. Shivering, I pushed the button to roll up the window. The red stoplight in front of us swayed with the strengthening wind. A faded sign down the street caught my eye as the first splashes of rain plopped on the windshield.

  “Can we stop at Whaty-Whats?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” When the light turned green, Callum signaled, and we pulled into the parking lot.

  The bell above the door dinged as we entered. My cheeks twitched while the smell of gently used and musty cedar greeted me. The granny twins did their windshield wiper wave at us, and I joined in. Callum didn’t. He just shoved his hands into his pockets and looked uncomfortable while the three of us did our strange interpretive dance together. I missed Jo.

  We wandered around the thrift store, sometimes together, sometimes not. I didn’t need anything; I just wanted to say goodbye. To the store, to the twins, to Callum. My mouth wouldn’t open, though. So I just ran my hands through the hangers of wool and cotton, baskets of yarn, and the fur and hair of stuffed children’s toys.

  Callum found a studded belt he liked, so we stepped up to the checkout counter to pay. At least he would have something to hold his pants up if I died and the world ended in pandemonium tonight.

  While the twins rang him up, I studied the picture of the pretty red-haired lady behind the counter and rubbed my fingers over the display of silver lilac rings. I wished I had mine with me, but it was at home.

  “That’s why I had to get you one of those,” Callum said.

  I caught the blush staining his cheeks before he looked away.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He smiled and shook his head while pulling a few bills from his wallet. “The look on your face when you see them. It’s a look like…calm. Like everything will be all right.”

  My turn to blush, though I didn’t think everything would be all right.

  “Girrrl. Is that a shirt you bought here?” one of the twins asked, gesturing to me.

  “Yeah,” I said absently while I brushed a finger over the lettering and drops of blood. “It’s my favorite.”

  “How fitting,” the other twin said.

  The first twin nodded. “Especially the blood.”

  My gaze flicked up to them. The hair on my body spiked alert. “What?”

  “Your blood is your gift for the dead.” The second twin’s mouth slid into a slow smile.

  “Why don’t you just stay here so that pesky Trammeler can’t find you tonight?” the first twin asked with a grin. “We’ll take you to the graveyard ourselves.”

  A spider scuttled across the counter toward the mangled bug ring display. I jerked back. All the air rushed out of me.

  Callum grabbed my waist with one hand, his belt from the counter with the other, and backed us up toward the door. “You can’t have Leigh.”

  The twins cackled and scooted closer together. A ripple in the air formed between them. Then they merged together as one body, one head, with a series of pops like splintered bones. Their legs and arms lengthened while the body shrunk into a brown oval. All eight limbs thinned and bent outward. The front four crashed to the ground over the counter. Fur sprouted all over. Eight black eyes formed across the oval where human faces used to be, blank and staring. Curled fangs extended below them and dripped dark venom.

  I gasped. Chills licked up my back. How could this be real?

  One of its legs whipped out and grabbed Callum by the ankle before he could take another step backward. He fell to the floor and took me down with him.

  Hot fury shot through my veins. I jumped to my feet, uprooted a cardboard M&M’s display, and hurled it at the giant spider.

  It knocked the display away with another leg. Callum crawled to his feet and lunged to my side, his breath coming in short bursts.

  “What do you want with me?” I shouted.

  “Your gift of blood led One and Two straight to your house,” the spider said in a rough voice. “They weren’t sure who was more powerful, you or your sister. So they tested your strength by pretending to choose your sister.”

  Questions rose in my mouth like bile. This was a game. Always had been. A game played by cheaters, and I’d joined in completely unaware of the rules.

  The bell over the door dinged, and I dared a glance back. Ica Reynolds from Wichita’s channel thirteen marched in, her red lace suit hugging her body. A black tattoo circled her right eye and dipped down onto her cheek. Three. A Three tattoo just like the one I used to have. In the center of it by her eyebrow was a large red spider bite

  “They lied to us, aunties,” she said, her glare aimed at the spider, and not us.

  Muscles tensed, I backed into Callum, and pulled him into a squat behind a rack of shirts in the middle of the store. The giant spider stood motionless to the left. I scooted both of us right and peered around several long sleeves. Everything inside me screamed to run, but Ica blocked the door.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Ica sing-songed.

  Spiders crawled out from between the items I’d just run my fingers through minutes before. Hundreds and hundreds of them swept past Callum and me. I covered my gasps with my palm, willing myself invisible to every damned spider in this place, while their legs brought them much too close. They crept to the middle of the store and climbed on top of each other in two piles until pale skin and red hair peeked through. Whispers swirled around us.

  Then One and Two faced Ica, ten steps in front of us.

  My heart striking against my ribs, I put my hand to my nose to cover the rotten stink and dug my fingers into Callum’s arm. Disbelief tightened my grip. Someone would stop us if we darted past them toward the door. But we needed out of there. Now. On quiet feet, I inched us more to the right.

  Ica aimed a vicious look at the Sorceressi. “It’s amazing what a little torture can teach you.” She crossed her arms over her tight red lace shirt. “I just learned from a Spanish teacher there are two Threes. Two of them. What could you possibly need two for?”

  A Spanish teacher. Oh, God. A shudder traced down my spine.

  A Sorceress hissed and black mist puffed between her decayed lips. My lips pressed tight, I covered Callum’s mouth.

  Ica breathed in the mist and her brown eyes glowed blue. “Gretchen doesn’t want you.” Her voice scraped the air like she’d swallowed broken glass. “We promised you could be Three so you would break us free and to make the Trammeler leave town so we could choose the real Three. You’re not wanted anymore.” Ica fell to he
r hands and knees and spit out the black mist. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she pulled in air like she’d been drowning.

  The giant spider crept toward her. I pulled Callum’s shirt, and we crawled another inch closer to the door.

  Ica stood, breathing hard. “Fine.” She held out her bare arms in front of her. Red fog coiled down them and shot in front of the Sorceressi. The fog turned to red fire as soon as it hit the floor. Flames consumed One and Two and flashed across the store.

  Callum and I raced to the other end of the shirt rack. We needed up. Away from the quickly growing fire. We raced toward the checkout counter and jumped onto it before the flames reached us. Black smoke thickened the air and choked me.

  The Sorceressi hissed, but I could barely hear it over the sizzling heat. Sheets of blue ice fell from their hands and swept over the floor. It spread over the spikes of fire and froze them in mid-leap.

  Ica pointed to a wall display of shovels and hammers to her left. “I want to be the one who finally frees Gretchen. I want that power.” She whisked her finger toward One and Two. The tools rocketed through the air right at the Sorceressi. And right at us five feet behind them.

  Callum clotheslined me with his arm. We both fell off the counter onto the frozen floor and slid into the back wall. The red-haired lady inside the picture frame pitched forward above us and clattered to the ice at my feet.

  Then silence.

  Callum and I just sat there, catching our breaths, the cold wet seeping into the butt of my pants. I locked eyes with him, and without a word, we both inched to the end of the counter, hands and knees slipping on the ice.

  The hammers and shovels hovered around One and Two, pointy ends aimed at Ica. Ica’s mouth was curled into a sneer, curved like her number tattoo. The giant spider had two of its legs wrapped around the Sorceressi’s necks.

  “I want the fame of releasing Gretchen and opening the Core. I gave gifts to the dead. I set you free. I. Am. Three.” Ica’s eyes flared red. She waved a hand over her head where a huge black ball of smoke appeared. Then she threw it at the Sorceressi.

  One and Two hissed. The black ball burst. Ica screamed. Black ooze splattered backward onto her. The hammers and shovels swiveled around in mid-air, pointed at the giant spider, and sped toward it with sharp whistles.