by Stacey Jay
"I guess he likes older, more popular girls."
"Older, more horrible girls is more like it." Jess slammed her hand down on the carpet. "This is awful. He can't take her! He just can't!"
"Apparently he can. And today I saw them out driving together in her car."
"No, this can't happen," Jess said, bouncing up to stalk around the dance space. She was as pissed as I'd ever seen her in our four years of friendship. "We've got to keep this from happening."
"No, it's okay, it's-"
"No, it's not okay. They're both awful," Jess said, turning flashing blue eyes to mine. "This is what you were so upset about before, wasn't it? What you weren't going to tell me about?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Why weren't you going to tell me? I tell you everything, Megan." She paused, sucking in a big breath before dropping her gaze to the floor. "It really hurts my feelings that you weren't going to say anything."
"I'm sorry, Jess. Really, I-"
"Listen, I've got to call Kyle for real now, okay? I mean, if we're not doubling with you and Ethan, we're going to have to find another ride. He doesn't get his new car until graduation."
"Okay." I stood up and grabbed my dance bag, feeling like the lowest form of scum on the earth. "You aren't mad at me, are you?"
She crossed her arms, making me wait a horrible moment. "No, I'm just… sad, that's all. It'll be fine. Just talk to me next time, okay?"
"I totally will, I swear," I said, giving her a hug before heading to the door of her room.
I felt awful as I trudged to the dark car where Barker was waiting. If I wasn't careful, I was going to lose my best friend.
CHAPTER 13
I'd just made it back to my house and was sneaking a Dr. Pepper from the fridge-because I still had to study for a stupid Macbeth quiz and needed the caffeine-when the phone rang. I pounced on the kitchen cordless, answering before the ringing woke my parents. After our crazy time last night, they'd gone to bed at like seven thirty, right when I was leaving to go to Jess's house with Barker.
"Hello?" I whispered, highly conscious of said bodyguard.
As far as I knew, he was getting ready for bed, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been given leave to monitor my phone time. My parents were all about giving other people control over my life-especially people who were supposed to keep me from setting anything else on fire.
"Megan, is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. What's up?" It was Jess, which made me smile. She was probably risking an after-nine-o'clock phone call to tell me that she loved me and that we were still BFFs.
"Why are you whispering?"
"I'm in the kitchen and my parents are asleep. They had a rough time last night," I said, hoping Jess wouldn't ask me why they'd had a rough time, because I was so done with lies right now.
"Okay, well… jeez, I didn't think they'd be asleep already. Maybe I shouldn't have called."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Well, I… I called Kyle after you left. Right?"
"Right."
"And I was telling him that Ethan was going to the dance with Monica."
"Yeah." There was nothing fake about how upset hearing Ethan's name made me.
He really was an ass. He'd had all day to call and at least leave a message on our home machine saying he was sorry for not telling me about his transfer personally, but he hadn't. It was now nine thirty, and he apparently hadn't been able to spare a single second in his busy, Monica-protecting schedule to pick up the phone. It hurt. Badly. I'd thought we were friends at the very least, if not on our way to being something more.
"Well, so I told him I couldn't believe Ethan had done that to you, and Kyle told me I shouldn't believe it because he was at the senior bonfire, and Ethan and Monica were there too, but…" She paused again, and it was all I could do not to freak out and beg her to talk faster.
"But what?"
"Well, he said they were fighting and not looking at all like a happy couple," Jess said, getting excited. "And that Monica stomped off into the woods after Ethan said something about you."
"What about me?" I asked, hope making me suck in a breath and hold it.
"I don't know. Kyle said he couldn't hear."
My breath whooshed out. "Oh. Well, I-"
"But he said Monica got in her car and left just a few minutes ago," Jess said, like this was the best news she'd heard all year. Maybe it was just my lack of sleep, but I didn't get what she was so jazzed about.
"So?"
"So! Ethan was still there, hanging out with London and some other people." Jess sighed, clearly frustrated by my lack of imagination. "If your parents were still awake, I was going to tell you to make them drive you out there and talk to him, see if you guys could make up so we can still go to the dance together. They're having the bonfire down the road from the old Carlisle farm and that's only like five minutes from your house."
A five-minute drive, but at least a fifteen-minute bike ride at top speed. Still, it was only nine thirty. My school-night curfew was usually ten, sometimes ten thirty or eleven on special occasions. I could be there by nine forty-five, talk to Ethan, and then be back by-
"No, I can't," I said, mentally shaking some sense into myself. "My parents are asleep and I would feel awful waking them to ask for a ride."
And my bodyguard would never let me out of the house to go make a visit to the small-town Protocol officer he'd replaced. I could tell already that Barker thought he was way too cool for Arkansas. He'd flown in from Missouri this morning to help the Elders deal with their problem child since Arkansas didn't have any full-time Enforcement people working in the state. Our population was too small to warrant such a presence-until my special situation. Wasn't I soooo lucky?
"Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, you can always talk to him tomorrow… though by then he and Monica might have made up," Jess said, sounding bummed. "But so what, right? I mean, he's a jerk for dumping you to go with her in the first place and-"
"Well, he didn't exactly dump me," I blurted out before I could talk myself out of it. I needed to tell Jess at least part of the truth or I was going to bust something. "Monica was the one who told me about the change of plans."
"What! Are you nuts, Megan? Why would you ever believe something that-"
"Ethan didn't call me to say it wasn't true! And I saw him earlier and he totally ignored me. So I figured Monica was being straight with me for once."
"No way-there must be some other explanation. You've got to go to him!" She sounded like a character from some sweeping epic set on the prairie.
"You've started reading romance novels again, haven't you?"
"I never stopped reading them-I just told you I did so you'd quit making fun of me." She laughed and I laughed with her, even as a rush of adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream.
I couldn't really sneak out of the house and crash the senior homecoming bonfire. Could I? But how could I not when my entire romantic future could be at stake? What if Monica had told Ethan some sort of lie too? Maybe that was why he hadn't talked to me all day. That had to be it!
"Okay, I'm going to go," I said, tiptoeing to the garage door before I could chicken out. A peek outside revealed the garage door was still open, so no one would hear me when I fetched my bike and hit the road. I threw on my jacket and searched my backpack for my phone. "But I'm taking my cell, so you have to promise to call Kyle and let him know I'm coming so he can call you if it looks like Ethan is going to leave before I get there. Then you can text me so-"
"No way-I'll call Kyle and make sure he keeps Ethan there for at least five more minutes."
"Fifteen more minutes. I'm not going to ask for a ride. I figure I can bike there almost as fast," I said, stepping out into the garage.
"Perfect!"
"Okay, so I'm going, in my dance clothes because I don't have time to change, but-"
"That's fine; you look hot in those black dance pants. Just be careful, okay?" Jess sounded a lit
tle worried now that she'd convinced me to go. "It's really dark on that road by the Carlisle farm, and you know the old man who lives there likes to shoot at people sometimes."
"I'll be prepared to duck bullets."
"And pull over if a car is coming so you don't get run over. I know a lot of the seniors are drinking tonight, so-"
"Don't worry," I said, getting a brainstorm. "I'll take Clint Street and then cut through Perkins Park to get to the other side of Carlisle's place. It'll be faster anyway."
"But what if there's some creepy homeless person-"
"We live in Carol, Arkansas, Jess. When was the last time you saw any homeless person, let alone a creepy one?" I laughed, and I could hear her giggle softly on her end of the line. "Okay, I've got to get off the phone now. Remember, call the cell if you need to give me an update."
"Will do. Go get your man, Megan Berry!"
"Right, okay, bye," I said, grinning like an idiot even though Ethan was hardly "my man." At least, he wasn't yet.
***
God, but it was creepy riding my bike through the blackness at the end of Clint Street. The dense trees on either side of the road made it so dark I was forced to turn on my little bike headlight, which in turn made me certain I was going to get shot any second, even though the road was a good half mile behind the farmhouse where Nathaniel Carlisle lived.
Or where we all assumed he still lived. No one had seen or heard from the old man for years-except for the occasional shotgun blast- and the house was completely surrounded by rusted old cars from the '50s and '60s. Rumor had it that Carlisle didn't even have electricity, that he used candles for light and an old woodstove for heat because he hated other people so very, very much.
So very much he was willing to risk murdering them by shooting at them. My heart raced at the thought, and I pumped even faster.
A few minutes later, after riding so hard I felt like my lungs were going to burst out of my chest and then running my bike through the darkened park-which was kind of spooky even without the homeless people Jess was worried about-I realized the very large flaw in my and Jess's plan. Not only could Ethan have decided to leave before I got to the bonfire, Monica could have decided to come back.
"No. Way." I stopped dead at the edge of the crowd of seniors huddled close to the roaring flames, my heart crawling up into my throat and trying to puke itself out onto the leaves beneath my feet.
Monica was back and snuggled up very close to Ethan. My Ethan, who didn't look like he was upset with her. At. All. He didn't seem the least bit bothered by the fact that Monica's arm was moving around his waist, or that her hand was sliding up the inside of his sweater, or that her mouth was whispering something into his ear. In fact, he was so non-bothered by all of it that he turned to look down at her, giving her the perfect opportunity to move her mouth to his.
Unholy lip lock, Batman-and then they were kissing. Bight in front of me. The night after Ethan had kissed me like my mouth contained the last breath of oxygen left in the world.
Monica finally pulled away and snuggled her cheek into Ethan's arm, a movement that turned her eyes straight toward me. Our eyes connected, but she didn't look the slightest bit shocked to see me. Instead, her victorious expression made it seem like she'd known I was there all along.
I turned around fast, gulping in air as I rolled my bike back toward the park, tears already blurring my vision. A few of the seniors I passed shot me strange looks-including London and Beth, who actually looked kind of sorry for me-but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop or talk to anyone or I was going to embarrass myself by sobbing over Ethan in public. I had to get away-far away.
I pushed my bike across the uneven ground a little faster and within a few minutes had left the glow of the bonfire behind. That was when I started to lose it so badly I actually had to quit walking.
I couldn't believe I'd been such a fool, to think Ethan would want to talk to me tonight, let alone tell me I was the one he really wanted. He was obviously very happy to be glued to Monica Parsons' skanky size-two body, and that was fine with me.
I hoped the two of them would be very freaking happy together.
The tears really started pouring now that I was out of hearing range. I didn't want Ethan to be with anyone else. I wanted him to be with me because I wasn't just crushing on him hard-core-I really liked him. More than liked him. Way more than liked him. Maybe even-
No. I was not going to think about that. I sucked in a breath and swiped at my nose, which was running again.
It always ran when I cried. Maybe that was why Ethan had decided he didn't like me. He'd gotten home and seen the snot on his sweatshirt from when I'd blubbered all over him last night and realized Monica was the better option. The prettier, tinier, less snotty option.
Hopefully Barker would be in bed by the time I got home so he wouldn't see what a mess I was. Or catch me sneaking back in. I was out of the house without permission, probably something that could get me in a lot of trouble if I were caught.
Which meant I should get moving.
"Gaaannnnnh." The sound came from the trees in front of me, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. All I got was the vague impression of something thicker and blacker than the rest of the night, with glowing red eyes, rushing at me before I was knocked to the ground.
I tried to scream but couldn't draw a breath. The thing on top of me was too heavy, easily the biggest zombie I'd ever seen. Or felt. I actually still couldn't see it, but I could feel its hands closing around my neck, smell the stink of its rotted flesh as it leaned toward my face, and hear the unmistakable groan of a Reanimated Corpse hungry for its first taste of the living.
"Reverto!" I forced the word out, spitting it into the face of the zombie who was doing a pretty excellent job of crushing my windpipe.
"Gunh," it groaned as it rolled off of me and crashed away through the park.
I flopped over in the leaves, gasping for breath, little pinpricks of light dancing across my vision. On my hands and knees, I crawled forward, feeling for my bike in the near complete blackness, my heart beating a million miles a minute. I had to get up, had to get back to the bonfire and tell Ethan and Monica what had-
Unless this was Monica's work.
"Gunh!"
"Gahhhnnn, gunh."
"Oh no," I whispered, jumping to my feet so fast the world spun. There were more of them, somewhere out there in the darkness.
Bike forgotten, I stumbled backward until my back hit a tree, then stood absolutely still, holding my breath and doing my best not to make a sound, straining to determine exactly where the groans were coming from. I knew I had to run, but it wouldn't do any good if I ran straight into the path of one of the RCs. No matter how much the terrified part of me wanted to haul ass, I had to be smarter than that. I'd barely squeezed out the reverto command last time and-
The reverto command! Would it work if I couldn't see where I was aiming the spell? It seemed logical to assume it would… except it obviously hadn't banished the rest of the corpses when I'd dispatched the first one.
Which had to mean there were a lot of them out there.
Oh. God. There were a lot of them. A dozen at least. How had Monica raised so many so fast? She couldn't raise this many corpses all by herself, could she?
Worry about Monica later--get out of here now!
Shuffles and groans came from the darkness ahead of me and from either side. Slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I began to notice spots of red floating in the blackness. It was their eyes, the glowing red eyes of at least twenty Reanimated Corpses, and those were only the ones I could see. There were probably more behind me, closing in on my location, ready to tear my body apart as they fought for the chance to feed upon my-
Stop it! You've got to think, not scare yourself to death.
Okay, okay. I had to think. Think!
All right, so the reverto command was out. It shouldn't have even worked the first time, considering the number of corpses
I was dealing with. I could try the flame command, even though I'd already gotten in trouble for that once because, hello, I'd rather be in trouble than dead-but there was a chance that wouldn't work either.
The Elders seemed to think the exuro command had only worked so well last night because the zombies were clones and therefore easier to overwhelm with one command. Kind of like burning a bunch of paper dolls that were all connected. It would take more power to burn twenty separate corpses.
But I didn't have much of a choice. I still didn't have the entire pax frater spell memorized, even though I'd been working on it during study hall. Besides, I wasn't the type to carry a little dagger around in my wallet like Ethan the Always Prepared.
Even if I'd had one, however, I didn't see how I'd manage to avoid getting eaten by one zombie while I was pax frater- ing the other.
So the flame command it was.
I pulled myself together, focusing my power as best I could with the grunts and groans growing closer and closer, and then threw everything I had into the flame command. "Exuro!"
The backlash of the spell knocked my head into the tree behind me, making me see stars frolicking through the pillars of flame now lurching through the trees. Yes! I'd torched them good. I was a little wiped from the spell, but it wasn't like I had to engage in serious combat or anything. All I had to do was hurry home and call SA so they could take care of these zombies before they set the park on fire.
I started hauling ass back toward the bonfire, scanning the ground for my bike, realizing too late that there were only ten or twelve burning corpses. The rest of them had made it through the spell unscathed. And now that the area beneath the trees was illuminated by burning zombie flesh, they could see exactly where their prey was running.
Five pairs of glowing eyes and rotted hands lunged forward to meet me as I raced through the trees, making me scream bloody murder. But then, who really cared if some non-Settler heard and came to investigate? I had bigger things to worry about at the moment than blowing my cover.
I spun around as fast as I could, sliding on the leaves, my hand dipping down to land in the mud before I managed to reverse direction and start scrambling back toward Clint Street. If I could just get back to civilization, I knew I would feel safer. If I could make it to the gas station, I could run in and get the night clerk to lock the door. Then my family would be relocated for sure, but at least I'd be alive to see my sixteenth birthday.