by Heidi Lang
Rae straightened up. She didn’t think Coach Briggs, a tough woman with a no-nonsense attitude, would approve of her bent over, sucking in air like an amateur. And forgetting to use her inhaler was a rookie mistake. It was just, back home she hadn’t needed it so often. Something about this place…
“Need your inhaler?” Vivienne asked.
“Vivienne!” Coach Briggs called. “You’re up!”
“Rae?” Vivienne said.
“I’m fine.” Rae blinked a few times, the world spinning slightly.
Vivienne hesitated, but Rae waved a hand at her, and she jogged toward the start line.
“You use an inhaler?” Alyssa said. “Want me to get it for you?” She actually sounded… concerned. Rae waited for some additional comment, something snarky and scornful—something Taylor would say—but there was nothing.
“I can get it.” Rae took a careful wheezing breath. “But thanks.” She wobbled away from the track, Alyssa walking carefully next to her like she was prepared to carry Rae if needed. It was weird.
“I think that was one of my best times,” Alyssa said as they meandered over to the metal bleachers set up on the side of the field. Rae wasn’t sure why Alyssa was still talking to her like they were good friends. Maybe she just wanted to rub in her better finish? Rae concentrated on her breathing and didn’t say anything back, but that didn’t seem to matter to Alyssa. “I actually almost got first,” Alyssa continued. “But second is pretty good. I think Mom will be happy.”
Rae couldn’t help but think that if she hadn’t had an asthma attack, that second finish would have been hers. Maybe even first. “I didn’t know your mom came out today,” she said.
Alyssa looked away. “She didn’t.”
Guilt punched Rae, hard and strong. She hadn’t been trying to be mean. “Oh,” she said. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. She doesn’t usually come out to tryouts.” Alyssa shrugged. “She’ll come out to the meets, though. Sometimes.”
Rae glanced up at her own mom. She was sitting at the top of the bleachers furiously typing something into her phone. Rae doubted she’d actually seen any of the race. Still, at least she was here. She tried not to imagine how different it would have been if her dad were here, but it was impossible not to think of how he’d have been cheering louder than anyone. Probably wearing a ridiculous hat and waving a large sign and being super embarrassing in the best way.
Her mom must have felt her staring. She glanced up, gave Rae a small wave and an even smaller smile, and then went back to her phone. Rae sighed.
“My mom’s just really busy,” Alyssa said as she and Rae sat down next to each other on the lower bench of the bleachers. “I mean, she wants to come out more, but…”
Rae didn’t know what to say, so she busied herself with digging around in her pack. She shoved aside a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, her fingers brushing against Vivienne’s Mint Attack before curling around her inhaler.
Vivienne had told her that Alyssa’s dad was basically not in the picture. After he and Ms. Lockett got divorced five years ago, he’d moved out of state and barely kept in contact. Rae could tell how much Alyssa wanted her mom’s attention, as if it might make up for that loss. Rae knew it wouldn’t, but she wasn’t sure how to tell Alyssa that. Not without being a lot more open than she wanted to be.
She took a puff of the inhaler.
Another sharp blast of the whistle, and Vivienne and the others took off on the 1,500-meter run. Vivienne effortlessly moved to the front of the pack, holding her lead as they finished the first lap. For someone so short, she sure moved fast. It was the way she loped along so naturally, like a wolf.
Rae released her breath, then pressed on her inhaler for a second puff. It barely seemed to be helping.
“Um, Rae?” Alyssa sounded younger suddenly, her voice high and nervous.
“Yeah?” Rae dropped the inhaler in her bag.
“I’m sorry if I came across as a little harsh before.”
Rae stared at Alyssa. “What?”
Alyssa pushed her sweaty bangs back from her forehead, her blue eyes watery. Rae really hoped she wasn’t about to start crying again. Alyssa had been crying pretty constantly ever since Jeremy vanished. Not that Rae blamed her, but tears always made Rae uncomfortable. Especially in this case, where she thought she knew what had happened to Jeremy.
“You know,” Alyssa said, “not inviting you to the movies and being mad about you taking my seat—you did totally take my seat, though. But I know Vivienne told you to take it, and that’s really why I was mad. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Oh.” Rae felt like she’d forgotten all of her carefully practiced social skills. She was not equipped for this conversation. “That’s okay,” she managed. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this sadder, nicer, apologetic Alyssa. It was a lot easier before, when she could view her as just another Taylor.
But Taylor had never once apologized.
“It’s just, Vivienne.” Alyssa sighed. “She’s been acting strange all year, even before you got here. Ever since this summer, in fact.”
“Strange how?”
“Well, kind of secretive. Like, what is up with that backpack?”
“I thought that was just her thing.”
“It didn’t use to be.” Alyssa stared out at the track. Rae followed her gaze. Vivienne was still well in the lead. Just past the track, Rae could see another field, only it was blocked off with wooden barriers and bright green tape, a large deep shadow darkening the middle of it surrounded by silhouettes. She raised a hand above her eyes and squinted closer, and the silhouettes resolved themselves into a group of Green On! employees in their toxic-colored hazmat suits, all circling the perimeter and jotting down notes.
They were probably just studying the sinkhole.
Just the sinkhole.
Rae frowned. She’d barely lived in Whispering Pines, but already she was getting used to all the oddities. Like Vivienne always carrying around a giant backpack. It seemed strangely… normal, at least for here. She hadn’t really even questioned it. But now she wondered exactly what kinds of secrets Vivienne was keeping.
“We used to share everything,” Alyssa said. “I mean, we’ve been best friends since kindergarten, you know? But now… I don’t know. And then here you show up, and suddenly it’s like she has this new exciting friend and doesn’t need me anymore, and—” Alyssa pressed her lips together, as if she was trying to keep the flood of words back. And then she looked at Rae, obviously waiting for something. Some kind of response. But what was Rae supposed to say to that? Sorry? She didn’t arrive in Connecticut with the purpose of stealing Alyssa’s friend.
Rae took a deep breath to tell her that, then started coughing. Ugh, that inhaler had been next to useless.
Alyssa frowned and turned away. “Anyhow,” she said, her tone colder now. “I just thought I owed you an apology.”
“No,” Rae gasped. “I mean, I—”
Alyssa stood and flipped her ponytail back over her shoulders. “I’m going to go congratulate Vivi,” she announced, and then she marched off, leaving Rae to wheeze in peace.
“Talk about awkward,” someone said.
Rae turned. A boy hovered behind her, his blond hair mostly hidden beneath a knit cap. “Rae, right?” he said.
She nodded. “Hey, Ivan.”
“Oh good, you remember me.” He smiled. “Mind if I sit with you?”
“Um, sure.” She couldn’t think of a good reason not to let him. But as he climbed forward onto the seat next to her, settling in too close, she began to regret being polite. He seemed like he was a little too interested in her.
She shifted slightly away.
“I make you uncomfortable, don’t I?” Ivan said.
Rae admitted, “A little.”
Ivan sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just… you’re the only other new kid at our school. I hoped we’d have things in common.” His brown eyes stared very intently into her own. “
And I could really use another friend right now.”
“Why?” And then Rae could have kicked herself. “Oh. Jeremy.”
Ivan looked away, his hand coming up to half hide his face, like he might start crying.
“I’m sorry,” Rae said. “I hope he turns up.”
“I’m sure he will. Eventually.”
But in what condition? Rae kept this thought to herself.
Ivan reached over, and for one panicked moment she thought he might try holding her hand, but he just took hold of the zipper on her bag and closed it.
Rae frowned. “Please don’t—” she began.
“Ivan! Hey!” Alyssa bounded over to them. “Have you heard anything yet? Did they find him?”
Ivan shook his head. “Nothing yet.”
Alyssa’s shoulders slumped.
“You know you’ll be the first person I call if I do hear anything,” he promised her. He moved over on the bench, leaving space between him and Rae. “Come, sit with us.”
Alyssa glanced at Rae and hesitated, like she thought she was trespassing on Rae’s turf. It was another way Alyssa was so much different from Taylor. Even back when they were friends, Taylor always wanted whatever Rae had.
Rae wondered if she’d been unfair with Alyssa from the beginning.
“I don’t bite.” Ivan patted the seat next to him again. “Besides, you must be tired after your race. I watched you out there; you were incredible.”
Alyssa’s cheeks colored, and with one last sidelong glance at Rae, she stepped over the lip of the bleachers and wedged herself in the open space. “Thank you.”
“Rae-Rae!” Vivienne yelled from the edge of the track, waving her over. “Alyssa!”
Rae stood. “Coming?” she asked Alyssa.
“I’m good here,” Alyssa said, not looking at her.
Rae shrugged and grabbed her duffel, then headed over to where Vivienne stood with Carly, another girl from their grade.
“You feeling better?” Vivienne asked. “Up for some celebratory ice cream?”
“Ice cream?”
“We always go after tryouts,” Carly told her. “All of us who made the team. It’s tradition.”
Rae glanced up at the bleachers, seeking out her mom, but stopping instead on Ivan, who was staring right at her. He didn’t look away now, and as she turned back to Vivienne, she could feel him still watching her. “It’s only for people who made the team, right?” Rae asked. “No one else allowed?”
“Only for the team,” Vivienne confirmed.
Rae relaxed a little. “Okay, then. Let me go ask my mom.”
* * *
Rae settled in front of her desk at home, a local newspaper open in front of her. She hummed as she searched through it, feeling content and full of ice cream. She was on the cross-country team now. After only one week at school, she’d managed to find herself a group to belong to. She had figured out how to fit in.
Rae smiled and flipped another page of the paper, skimming the articles. Most of them were small things, local town heroes doing heroic acts, bizarre weather patterns, and the occasional oddity. She stopped at a large photograph of a woman holding a skull in one hand, a proud-looking pit bull sitting at her feet with a femur in his mouth. Next to it was a very weird article:
WERE BODIES LEFT BEHIND?
Whispering Pines, CT. It’s a well-known but not-often-talked-about fact that Whispering Pines’s brand-new town square used to serve a much darker purpose: a burial ground for the dead. In fact, until about twenty years ago, that whole area was covered in gravestones.
The town paid a large sum to have the graves exhumed and everything moved to Peaceful Pines Cemetery, but recent events have caused citizens to wonder how thoroughly this job was carried out.
“I was just walking Archie—that’s my dog, by the way—when we came across a pile of bones! A pile!” says longtime resident Sylvia Benton. “So now I’m thinking… what if they just moved the gravestones, and left the bodies there?”
Whispering Pines has many festivals throughout the year, all of which take place in the town square. Further investigation will be required to determine whether or not citizens of this town have been literally dancing on the dead.
Rae shook her head. It was strange, but not related to her current case. Still, she carefully cut the article out. She unclipped the decoy corkboard and set it to the side, her eyes skimming over the cluttered board behind, searching for a good spot.
She froze.
There was the photograph of her and her dad… and next to it, pinned over an article about a possible UFO crash in Texas, was a new photograph. One of Caden, and Vivienne, and her. In the woods.
Rae’s heart stopped, then started again, racing to make up for missed beats.
Someone had taken a picture of them in the woods. And then somehow snuck into her house, into her room, and pinned it here, in the one spot Rae thought was safest of all.
22. CADEN
Someone was frantically banging on the door. It reminded Caden a little of fall thunderstorms, the sound rising and falling like rain.
He lay in bed, listening. He’d been sluggish all day and didn’t feel like getting up. But when a minute passed and no one answered the door, he finally stood and walked slowly down the stairs, his bare feet slapping against the wood. “Mom?” he called. “Dad?” No answer. Just that relentless pounding.
Sighing, Caden threw open the door.
Rae half fell into his house. She caught her balance, then pushed him farther in and pulled his front door shut behind her, locking it.
“Um, nice to see you, too?” Caden said. “Please come in?” Though he was happy to see her. He had wondered if Rae would ever talk to him again after yesterday. She’d seemed super freaked out by the whole his-brother-trapped-in-another-dimension thing. Apparently, witches and spell books were one thing, but the Other Place was something else altogether.
She peered out the small window in his door, then turned around. “Yes, sorry. Thanks for letting me in. I’m really, really glad you’re home.”
Caden felt strangely pleased, but then he noticed how terrified Rae looked, her skin an ashen gray, her eyes so wide he could see the whites all around. And the fear roiling around her was overpowering. He wasn’t sure how he’d missed that initially.
“Tryouts go well?” he said, trying to calm her.
“What?”
He nodded at her new Dana S. Middle School Roadrunners T-shirt.
“Oh. Yeah, I’m on the team. Can we get away from the front door?” Rae glanced back over her shoulder. “I have something to show you.”
Caden stepped to the side and waved her through. Rae paused to kick off her shoes, nudging them next to his, and then followed him into the kitchen. She dropped her weight into one of the small wooden chairs and plunked a wrinkled piece of paper on top of the table, then waited.
Caden sank slowly into the chair next to her and leaned over to look.
It was a photograph: there was Caden, his hands raised slightly, and Vivienne, her Mint Attack aimed right at his face, both of them just slightly out of focus. And Rae centered in sharp relief, sitting on her butt in the leaves and staring openmouthed up at him.
Caden caught his breath. No wonder Rae was terrified. “Where did you get this?” he asked.
Rae’s lips trembled. “I found it,” she whispered. “In my room.”
“Your room?”
She nodded. “Someone was in there, Caden. Someone got in while I was gone, and I’ve been closing and locking all the windows and doors since the night Brandi turned up.” She shuddered, and Caden wondered if she would ever feel secure enough to sleep again. “How could someone possibly sneak in without breaking any of the locks and manage to get into my second-story bedroom? Unless you’re right, and it’s not someone at all, but something.” She took a deep breath. “So. How do we get rid of it?”
We. It filled him with warmth, before the reality of what she was asking him sank i
n. His dad had told him how: they needed to send it back “from whence it came.” Which meant… “We need to reopen the rift,” he said.
“Do you know how?”
Caden hesitated. The honest answer was “no.” After Rae left last night, he’d gone through the rest of his mother’s Book of Shadows. There were a few mentions of the Other Place, alluding to a ritual, but the description of the ritual itself was missing. Without the torn pages, Caden had no idea what to do. And he hadn’t felt a hint of Aiden since his brother had been pulled away, back into the mirror.
But Rae was staring at him like he might actually have the answers. Like he knew what he was doing. It wasn’t a look he was used to, but he liked it. So he lied. “Yes,” he said, even though his stomach wriggled. He’d just have to figure it out somehow.
Rae smiled. “Good. So we just have to find out where it’s hiding.” She fiddled with the photograph on the table.
“According to my dad, creatures like the Unseeing can cross over from other dimensions as long as they find a host on this side.” At Rae’s blank look, he clarified, “A possession.”
“Like The Exorcist?”
Caden winced. That was always the first thing people thought of when they found out what his family did. “Sort of,” he admitted reluctantly. “Anyhow, that means this Unseeing is probably hiding among us, pretending to be fully human.”
Rae nodded. “Creepy, but okay. That makes sense.” She tapped her chin. “Actually, it makes a lot of sense. I think I might know who it is.”
“Me too,” Caden said. “I think it’s—”
“Doctor Anderson,” Rae said, at the same time that Caden said “Patrick.”
They both stared at each other. “The Green On! guy?” Rae said at last, wrinkling her nose. “Why him?”
Caden paused. He may have told her what happened to his brother, but he wasn’t ready to share his ability to feel others’ emotions. He got the sense that might be the thing that finally scared her off. “He just seems suspicious,” he said. “I mean, he already knew who I was, and I’d never met him before.”
“Hmm,” Rae said, but she sounded unconvinced.