by Sarah Blair
“No one that I know of has ever seen a ghost here, Mr. Williams,” Elinor told them. “But here is our special area dedicated to our friends, the koalas. At this time, we’re nursing several koalas who have been infected with the strain of chlamydia particular to marsupials. It’s a serious infection, but one we hope will have a vaccine soon enough, especially with the help and cooperation of our new partners at Lake Industries.”
Elinor beamed at Sidney. They entered a room similar to the morgue facilities with an exam table and surgical lamps. “These are our top-of-the-line suites, where the animals are monitored and cared for on a 24-hour basis by our Special Care Team, including veterinarians and dietitians available on-call 24/7.”
The photographer stepped up and took some photos. “Can we get a few of you two together?”
“That’d be great,” Angela agreed.
Sidney stepped in with Elinor and smiled for a few photographs. Angela took out her phone and turned it to the voice recorder.
“Who are you wearing tonight, Ms. Lake?” Angela asked.
“Sophie James.”
“Is this piece from her Winter collection?”
Sidney recalled the specific instructions Drew had given her for speaking about the gown. “It’s an exclusive. Silk chiffon base with over 2,000 hand-sewn crystals. It won’t be released in any collection.”
The reporter described the bespoke gown into her phone in great detail.
“Um. Aren’t you going to ask what I’m wearing?” Williams crooked his elbow and posed, very debonaire. “It’s Ralph Lauren.”
“Graham Williams, former web-show host, wearing Ralph Lauren,” Angela said into her phone. “Vintage.”
“Ouch,” Williams said. “Just, so the record is accurate, though, Ghosts Gone Wild did air on Paranormal Network. It technically falls under the umbrella of—it would’ve been FOX, but I guess now maybe—”
The reporter turned to Sidney. “Ms. Lake, what led you to become active in animal conservation?”
“With the drastic rise in global temperatures, the climate crisis is making it more important than ever for humans to protect wildlife all around the globe,” Sidney answered. “They’re innocent victims. It’s not their fault humans fu—messed everything up.”
Sidney mentally kicked herself. It had been awhile since she’d had to give any official statements on behalf of her grandfather’s company.
She was here unauthorized. He had no clue what she was doing, or the promises of groundbreaking vaccine research she’d made in the company’s name. Not that he could go back on them once this article came out. Always better to ask forgiveness than permission.
“And how do you feel about the well-established fact that Lake Industries, your own family’s corporation, has been known to use animals for testing?” The reporter canted her head waiting for the answer, and Sidney felt a sudden sting of hostility directed toward her.
“My grandfather’s company specializes in developing an extensive array of pharmaceuticals. That includes medicines and vaccines used to help animals, not harm them. Chlamydia is an extremely serious threat to koalas as a species. Especially now, since so many were lost to the Australian wildfires, and such an extensive amount of their natural habitat was destroyed,” Sidney explained. “When I think about what a tragedy it would be for such majestic animals to fall into extinction knowing we could have done something, I just . . . well, there’s nothing to even consider, is there? We all have to do our part.”
“Yes! It’s such an honor to have you join us as an Animal Ambassador and fight for lives that are so precious to all of us.” Elinor squeezed Sidney’s hands and tugged her gently away from the reporter. “We’ve done enough questions for now. Would you like to come and meet Oatmeal and Cinnamon?”
“Would I!” Williams literally jumped at the opportunity.
“Right this way.”
The director led them through another door and they came up at the back of the exhibit, with Williams first. One of the green-khaki dressed employees entered and spoke quietly into Elinor’s ear. She nodded.
“Um, according to our Animal Care Specialist, it seems Oatmeal and Cinnamon are a bit riled up from all the attention this evening. It would be best to forgo the encounter for the moment.” A low rumbling sound filtered through the open door. The director smiled tightly. “But he assures us, if they settle down, and feel comfortable enough, you’ll certainly be able to greet them.”
“Is that what happened to Peyton?” the reporter asked.
“Pardon me?” The director perked up.
“There are reports that Peyton Remington was attacked right here at the zoo by two other koalas a few days before her death, and the animals were put down as a consequence.” An antagonistic vibe emanated from the reporter. “Do you care to comment?”
“That was a deeply unfortunate accident.” The director pressed a hand to her chest. “And I don’t recall seeing your press credentials. Ms. Lake, I’m terribly sorry, but it seems we’ll have to reschedule for another day.”
Elinor herded everyone back out to the public area of the exhibit. The door slammed behind them, and the rumbling noise from the enclosure evolved into an unsettling mixture of grunting and squawking.
Sidney turned on her heel and faced Angela, “How did you know about the attack on Peyton?”
“How do you know?” Angela glared at her.
“Peyton was an idiot.” The photographer spoke up. “Yeah, I said it. Candy was just minding her own business and Peyton insisted on holding her. She didn’t want to be held! She was just doing what animals do. If anybody was attacked, it was Candy!”
Angela turned on him and smacked his arm. “Shut up, Scott!”
“Candy is?” Sidney raised her eyebrows.
“The koala. Cotton was her mate, he was just trying to protect her.” Scott’s eyes rimmed red. He pulled off his floppy knit hat, buried his face in it, and sobbed. “They sentenced them to death just for following their instincts. It wasn’t their fault.”
“Shit.” Angela pulled out her phone and stepped away to answer it.
“Lake.” Williams tugged her arm.
“Hang on.” She swatted his hand away.
“Cotton and Candy didn’t deserve to die!” Scott sobbed. “But Peyton got what was coming to her. Karma’s a real bitch, you know?”
“What do you mean, she got what was coming to her?” Sidney shook the guy, trying to bring him to his senses.
“Victoria, this is a bad idea,” Angela insisted to her phone. “You can’t make a difference from jail.”
“Seriously, Lake.” Williams’ tugging persisted.
The growling rumble got louder, and people started filing out of the exhibit. Sidney was trying to pay attention to three conversations at once, but it was too distracting. The squawking intensified, echoes reverberating around the enclosure.
“You can’t do this,” Angela demanded. “Remember what the book said; everything comes back on you threefold. It’s not worth it.”
Sidney’s pulse jumped. She grabbed Scott. “What book?”
“Justice for Cotton and Candy!” Scott wiped his tears away and raised his red hat in the air. “WILF FOREVER!”
“WILF?” Sidney asked.
Angela turned off her phone and rejoined the conversation.
“Wildlife International Liberation Front. Promoting the freedom of wildlife all over the world. Animals belong in their natural habitats, not in cages.” She spoke to Sidney, but her eyes were fixed on the koala exhibit. Color drained from her complexion, leaving her even more white than she already was.
Scott shoved his hat back on his head. “We tried to make it WILD, but couldn’t think of a D-word.”
“Directive?” Sidney suggested.
“Ohh, dip! You’re good at this,” Scott said. “You’d be a great influencer. You have a platform. You should use it for something positive.”
Sidney took a step back from Scott’s intensi
ty, and bumped into Williams.
“Lake. Look!” Williams grabbed her shoulders and turned her.
A thick knot of dread formed in Sidney’s chest. “Oh, fuck.”
The koalas bared their long front teeth. Eyes glowing. The rumbling growls and grunts turned into full-on screeching. It rang through Sidney’s skull, vibrating so hard it made her teeth ache.
“Sounds like someone trying to strangle a constipated parrot.” Williams gaped.
“Um . . .” Sidney eased back. The skin on her bare arms tightened into goosebumps and a buzz of static gathered in the air. “We need to go.”
“Jeez, dude. What have I been telling you?”
The bizarre growling continued as the koalas stared each other down, bodies stiff with pent up hostility. One koala took a swipe at the other and a fight started in earnest with tufts of fur drifting around the enclosure like the first flakes of snowfall in the winter.
“They can’t get out, can they?” Williams wondered.
A wall of thick glass extended up about as far as Sidney’s head, but the top part of the enclosure remained open. Something wrapped around her arm and she yelped.
“Hutch, shit.” She caught her breath. In the middle of everything else, she’d completely forgotten about him. “You can’t be in here. You have to get out, right now.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Sid, I need you to find out what happened to Peyton. Please.”
“Now is so not the time. Seriously.” Sidney pushed him toward the door.
The animal specialist from the tour came out. “I’m sorry, but the exhibit is closed at this time. We’re going to need you folks to move along.”
“No, I—” Hutch’s sentence was cut off by a howl of rage, but it wasn’t from the enclosure.
“He’s innocent!” Hutch’s mom charged in after Detective Manners and several uniformed officers. They all turned their attention to the human spectacle unfolding on this side of the enclosure.
The moment the police appeared, Scott and Angela vanished. Sidney shoved Williams toward the side door. “Follow them!”
“Theodore Hutchison IV, you’re under arrest for the murder of Peyton Remington.” Detective Manners told him. An officer put handcuffs on Hutch while his lips went white and he pleaded silently with Sidney.
“Get him booked,” Manners told the officer.
“You son of a bitch!” Bambi’s howls joined in with the koala chorus, exacerbating the situation in the enclosure. “You can’t take my son from me!”
“Honey, please.” Hutch’s dad came up, putting his arms around his wife. “It’s okay.”
“Keep your hands off me, Trip!” She screamed at him. Then at the officers, “You can’t do this!”
“M’am, step aside, or I’ll have you placed under arrest for obstruction,” Detective Manners informed her.
“Sidney, please. You have to convince them.” Hutch yelled as the officer led him out.
Shit, Sidney cursed inside her head.
Hutch’s mother stalked after them screaming, while his dad trailed behind, on the phone presumably with his fellow lawyers.
If the police had arrested Hutch, it meant they were in possession of solid evidence. Sidney wondered if they’d finally discovered the murder weapon.
The detective turned to Sidney. “Convince me of what?”
“Those koalas are—” She stopped herself, before making a reference to anything supernatural that she suspected was actually going on. It would take too long to explain. “Rabid.”
A heavy thunk cracked the thick glass.
“Oi, the fuck you two still doing in here?” The animal specialist shooed them away. “I mean, uh, right everyone, let’s give the koalas a bit of space while we try to help get them separated and calmed. Take your party outside, eh?”
A scream erupted from the back of the enclosure, only this time it was distinctly human. Sidney jumped.
“Elinor?” The specialist went to the edge of the enclosure and called out to the back. “You all right?”
A koala landed on top of the eucalyptus tree inside the enclosure. Red streaked its soft fur. It unleashed a rumbling growl. Four long front teeth dripped red.
Sidney stared, frozen in her place while the koala took a flying leap straight over the top of the enclosure and landed on the zoo employee’s head. The thick gray fur muffled his screams as he flailed.
He hit the thick plexiglass partition, blood smearing across the surface as he slid down the clear wall of the enclosure. Warm blood sprayed Sidney’s face, and the shrieks continued as the man wrestled the animal.
“Get back.” The detective shoved Sidney behind him and aimed his gun at the animal.
“I lost them.” Williams rushed back in, breathless. “Holey buckets! Where did that guy’s face go?”
Williams grabbed Sidney around the waist and dragged her toward the door. The screams of the zoo employee stopped, and the abrupt silence was even worse. The koala lifted its blood matted face from the mangled body. The shredded flesh of the specialist’s neck gaped wide, and a few last spurts of blood trickled out like a sprinkler that had just been turned off.
The detective fired point-blank at the koala twice. The reverberation sent Sidney’s ears ringing, muffling all the other sounds. The koala’s eyes flared bright red and the vicious creature bounded straight at them.
Williams yelled, but she couldn’t hear his words. He held the door for her, waving her through.
“He doesn’t know what he’s dealing with.” She shouted. “We have to help him!”
The other officers had left with Hutch and his mom, and the detective had no backup. She broke free and ran back to Manners.
The koala vaulted at the detective. He fired again.
Sidney ignored Williams’ protests and dug her fingers into the animal’s fluff. The koala was heftier than she anticipated, but she pried it off the detective, then hauled back and gave it a solid left hook straight in its big black nose.
It skittered away and squared off again, aiming its gaze directly at Sidney as it hunkered down, ready to pounce. Manners rolled onto his shoulder and shot twice more. He missed.
The koala plowed into her, and she hit the ground. The world disappeared in an explosion of lights, blinding her even worse than the flashes of the paparazzi cameras.
An earthy-sweet animal scent of eucalyptus and dung smothered her. Mouth filled with fluff. Weight crushed her. All she could do was grab on and lock her elbows straight above her to keep those long teeth as far away from her face as she could manage.
Sound-waves vibrated through her body. The acrid scent of gunpowder stung her nose. The animal went limp on top of her. An overwhelming sense of déjà vu stole her breath away. Her lungs collapsed in on themselves, crushed under the weight of her nightmares.
Suddenly, Sidney wasn’t in the Central Park Zoo anymore. The hot blood seeping onto her wasn’t from a koala, but a much larger creature. The world around her grew dark and quiet as she stared up at the ceiling of her parents’ bedroom with an enormous monster pinning her down. There was nothing she could do to free herself. The monster was too heavy, and she was so scared, she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.
The silence faded gradually and muffled voices emerged like someone slowly turning up the volume on a television. Bit by bit, her senses returned and brought her back to reality.
“Lake? I’m here. You’re okay.” She heard Williams before she saw him. “Hey, would you get this damned thing off her?”
The weight on her chest lifted, replaced with a rush of cold air. She shivered.
“Sweeney, Waters, get a medic over here,” Manners yelled. A blanket covered her. “Keep her warm.”
The light returned, too bright and sharp. Sidney flinched. Everyone spoke over and around her, and she wondered if maybe this was what being dead was like. Had she hit her head harder than she thought?
“Williams?” It felt like she shouted, but barely anything came o
ut. At least she could sort of hear again.
“Right here, partner.” A steady hand squeezed hers. She clung to it, her only tether to reality.
“Partner?” Sidney had no idea what he was talking about. They weren’t technically partners, she wasn’t a full-agent.
“Yeah. After that exhibit of total baddassery, I don’t want anyone else to have my back but you. That was amazing.” Williams grinned. “Also, you’re lucky you’ve got such a hard head.”
The paramedics covered her in a shiny mylar sheet, and took her through a gambit of questions and medical tests. By the time they were finished, her shaking had eased and she was able to sit up. The paramedics helped her out to a waiting ambulance.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital, really. I’m fine,” she insisted.
“Let them check you over. I’m right here, okay?” Williams remained within sight while he made a call.
The paramedic sat her in the ambulance, and removed the crinkly warming foil and a tuxedo jacket, replacing them with a heated blanket before she proceeded to take Sidney’s vitals again.
The detective came over. A bright red smear marred his white shirt and he took his jacket back and slid it on. He sat next to Sidney while a second paramedic attended to some scratches on his face and hands. “All right?”
“Typical Friday,” Sidney said. “You?”
“Better than the other guy, thanks to you.” He shrugged. “What you did was really fucking stupid, but. . . brave. I appreciate it.”
Silence settled between them while the medics worked. The whoop of a police cruiser nearby reminded Sidney what had happened right before the attack.
“What about Hutch?” she asked.
The detective smirked. “You’re definitely braver than he is.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Sidney shook her head. “He didn’t kill Peyton. There were people here tonight who actually wanted her dead. They said so.”
“Yeah, you were so sure he was guilty a couple hours ago.” Manners pulled a card out of his pocket and wrote a number on it. “If you have any information that would prove useful, that’s my cell.”