She pulled out her cell phone, flipped it open, ignored the message alerts, and considered, for the twentieth time, dialing the local police. She’d looked the number up so many times, she put it on her speed dial. It wasn’t a 911 call, after all. It wasn’t like they could pull Aristotle back out.
And what would happen if she did call? What would happen if she told some world-weary desk clerk that the monitor lizard she was taking care of had eaten a dog? Could she sound sincere or sane enough to get them to pay attention? And if someone met her at the house and she brought them down to that basement room, and it was all true, what would happen to Ms. Mandisa? Was it legal to keep a six-foot, dog-eating lizard?
Beyond that, what if it wasn’t true? What if the lizard hadn’t really eaten the dog? It didn’t make sense, after all, and the lack of sense was a major warning sign that the OCD was in charge, yanking her crank. That she really was crazy.
With all the windows barred, Aristotle couldn’t have gotten into the house, let alone the cage, and with all that thick Plexiglas, Koko couldn’t have gotten out. So was it really a leash she saw? It was entirely possible, calm and happy as she’d been at that moment, that she’d imagined it, that the light from the heating bulbs caught a stick or leaf in just such a way that her mind contrived the rest.
That had to be it. Aristotle was probably safe at home right now this very minute in the arms of his fashion-challenged owner. Had to be.
Sigh. It was the same damn conversation she’d been having with herself since yesterday, the same talking points, over and over, only instead of counting the books on her shelves, or the Cheerios floating in her milk, now she was counting the tiles on the Bilsford High School walls.
The reason she kept going around with it wasn’t her condition. It was the conclusion. It was always the same, and it was the one thing she longed to avoid most of all. If she couldn’t be certain of what she’d seen, she had to go back and figure out whether it had really happened or not. She had to take another look, and maybe even use the claw to pull out the thing that looked like a leash, to make sure it wasn’t.
An image flashed, pieces of Ming—of Aristotle—still attached to the collar, coming out from under Koko as she pulled. Koko grabbing the metal arm and pulling Chelsea through the small hole, so that he, with his lazy Kermit grin, could more easily feed on her.
124, 125, 126 tiles.
She wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t going back by herself. She had to bring someone with her, just in case it was true. Someone who didn’t think she was crazy. Someone who would just help.
Someone who wouldn’t tell anyone else if I asked.
Derek.
He was at school this morning, but Chelsea didn’t know which test he was taking. She did know, like she knew the length of the back of her hand, that inevitably he’d head to the cafeteria for a snack. There were no classes. The school was only open for the midterms, so she was free to head there at will.
A powerful smell of cleaning fluid and sour milk blasted her face as she opened the double doors to the huge cafeteria. That and the fact that the huge room took up most of the basement reminded her of Koko’s habitat. Keeping herself under control, she scanned the sparsely populated tables and didn’t spot him anywhere.
It could be hours before he showed, but was she in a hurry? Should she be in a hurry? If Chelsea was wrong, it didn’t matter at all. And even if she was right, did it matter when Tess Sullivan found out her pet was dead?
Two of her closer friends, Tony and Darlene, a couple for six months, sat at a corner table, so Chelsea walked up to join them. Unfortunately, they were sitting with Penny Denning, a junior who made no secret of the fact that she wanted Derek. Penny’s gray sweater picked up the girl’s black hair and smoky blue eyes. She looked positively predatory, even had a half grin on her face.
The three were chatting excitedly until Chelsea walked up. Then, all of a sudden, on seeing her, they clammed up.
She rolled her eyes. “You heard I had to leave the bio test, huh?”
They all looked puzzled.
“No,” Tony said.
“You had to leave the bio test? Are you okay?” Darlene said. Darlene had become horribly sympathetic to the pain of others now that she had her own boyfriend. When she was single, if she was on her cell phone, she’d walk right past you if you were bleeding to death.
“Eep,” Chelsea said as she sat down. “Guess I didn’t have to mention that then, huh?”
“Guess not,” Penny said.
“But are you okay?” Darlene repeated.
One of the ways OCD kept victims in its grip was by getting them to keep secrets, to lie and say they were fine when they weren’t. Her parents and Dr. Gambinetti had worked with her for ages, getting her to talk about it as much as she could, keep it all out in the open. Still, Chelsea didn’t feel like announcing her insanity to any group bigger than one, and certainly not to Penny.
“I’m fine. Just having a bad day. Bad weekend. I’ll take the test Thursday. The sub was a royal bitch,” Chelsea said. She twisted her head sideways. “So what were you guys talking about when I walked over?”
“Nothing,” Tony said. He was a crappy liar, too.
But Penny spoke up immediately. “We’re all going to Hobson Night at nine. Some of the college kids have made a sluice out of carved ice and they pour vodka down from the top. You sit on a chair at the bottom and drink as it comes down.”
“Penny!” Darlene protested.
Penny shrugged. “She asked. She’s a big girl. Am I supposed to lie?”
Darlene rolled her eyes and offered Chelsea a soupy grin. “We didn’t want you to feel bad, because, you know…”
“Because my OCD won’t let me go, right? It’s okay, Darlene. I’m fine. Who else is going?”
Darlene fumbled, but Penny picked up the ball. “Everyone. It’s like a celebration for finishing midterms.”
“Not Derek, though,” Tony said.
“Right, not Derek. I tried to talk him into going,” Penny said.
I’ll bet you did.
She looked at Chelsea. “But he wouldn’t. Not without you.”
Chelsea couldn’t help but smile a little.
“You think that’s cool, don’t you? You shouldn’t be so selfish. Just because you can’t bring yourself to go because you’re too afraid of being raped and mutilated doesn’t mean you should hold him back. Is that fair?” Penny said.
“Penny!” Darlene said again.
Chelsea winced, not just because the words brought the image to mind, but also because Penny was right. Derek was dying to go, but he wouldn’t go without her.
Just as Chelsea was achieving a whole new level of feeling bad, Derek walked up. “L. C.!” he said. “I’ve been emailing, IM’ing, text messaging, and calling your cell. I was thinking of actually writing you a letter. Why’ve you been blowing me off? You leaving me for the lizard?”
She walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a big kiss. From somewhere behind her, she could hear Penny huff in disapproval.
Derek smiled. His eyes actually wobbled a bit from pleasure. “Okay, I forgive you.” But as he focused on her face, he knitted his brow. “You okay?”
“Can I talk to you in private?” Chelsea whispered.
He nodded, so she led him off to a quiet corner of the cafeteria.
At first she spoke in halting tones, but then, as she told him everything she’d been through, she spoke faster and faster, until finally she was making one very long sentence connected occasionally by the word and.
When she got to what he considered the most interesting part, he couldn’t keep from bursting into a grin.
“So you think it actually ate a dog? Wicked!”
“Shh!” she said. “This is so serious! How can you laugh? It’s horrible!”
But the fact was, she wished she could laugh too. Then she might be able to do something about it herself. Maybe that was why she stayed with Derek. So
many things that seemed awful to her struck him as laughable. It was a strength.
“Come on, L. C., it is funny! It’s probably just a twig or something, like you said.”
She sighed. “I have to go back to see, to make sure. Come with?”
He didn’t hesitate. “You bet! I’m done with my tests and my car is outside. We can go right now.”
At first she thought he was just being an amazing boyfriend, but then she realized he was really excited about seeing the cool lizard that ate the dog.
As Derek pulled up, Chelsea noticed that the trees lining the street all had posters on them. She knew what they were for before she even got out of the car to look, but she felt compelled to see for herself. In big black letters, above a color photo of a Chinese crested, it said: HAVE YOU SEEN MY DOG?
Not a good sign. Aristotle wasn’t safe at home as she’d hoped.
The temperature had dipped yet again and the cold made her cheeks ache as she stared at the picture of the little dog. She glanced at Tess Sullivan’s house, saw her at the window looking out, but didn’t dare turn to face her. Instead she tried counting the branches on the tree.
“It’s groomed to make it look like a little horse,” Derek said coming up behind her. “Freaky.” He was munching on some chips from the open bag he’d found in the backseat of his car. She heard them crunch between his teeth as she turned again to the picture of the dog. Crunch. Crunch.
Like Koko’s jaws, moving.
It was true. It had to be. She felt as if she was going to tumble into an abyss inside her own mind, fall forever. But when she shivered, Derek put his hand on her shoulder and brought her back to the world.
“Come on,” he said, clacking his tongue against the inside of his mouth. “Let’s check out Koko.”
On the porch she fumbled with the ancient keys. Derek stood there in his thin jacket, slapping his hands against his legs. He was trying not to hurry her, but he was clearly freezing. She stopped for a second and turned to him, “I’m sorry about Hobson Night. Maybe you should go without me. I know Penny wants you to.”
He looked up at the gray sky. “Penny? Nah. They say it’s going to snow tonight anyway. Maybe you can come over to the house and we can watch a DVD or something.”
She smiled a little, knowing what “something” translated to in his hard-wired male brain. Finally, she managed to push the right key into the lock. They stepped in, Derek strutting ahead as if he owned the place. The first thing she noticed was that with the drapes open, it was lighter but drafty.
“So where’s the reptile house?”
Chelsea tugged half-heartedly at a thick drape. Maybe she could leave them open until Ms. Mandisa came back.
“Downstairs,” she said weakly. “The basement door is in the kitchen.”
As they walked down the hall she could see it was open, like she left it, the yellow glow visible against the bottom half of the door. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was the only thing she had to do: head back down there. Maybe she could send Derek alone. No, that would be stupid. Selfish, just like Penny thought. Besides, then she’d just worry that Koko would get him.
She neared the door and stopped short. “Wait.”
“What?” Derek said. He knew her well enough to add, “Come on, let’s just get it over with.”
Feeling like a child trying to avoid an injection at the doctor’s office, begging for just a few more seconds, she switched tacks. “I’m supposed to feed him today. We have to feed him.”
It was a good idea, anyway. If they were going to poke around his nest with a mechanical arm, better Koko should have his tummy full.
“Great! So are the rats next to the brewskis?” Derek said. She’d told him the story, so he walked right over to the fridge, popped it open, and started ferreting around in it.
He emerged a few seconds later, a look of boyish delight plastered on his face. “Whoa!” he said, dangling one of the plastic bags in front of him. “Check it!” He shook the bag so the rats sloshed in their juices.
Chelsea turned away, feeling like she was going to throw up. Gritting her teeth, she led him down the steps, counting the slats in the paneling. As they entered, she realized that, though the room still looked pleasant enough, since she’d thought about it so much and so often, it now held an eerie glow in her psyche, as if it were haunted.
Ignoring all the dials and instructions, Derek walked right up to the Plexiglas. “There it is, in the corner! Wow! It looks plastic,” Derek said, scrunching his face. “Are you sure it’s even real?”
Koko had shifted back to lying on one claw, and Chelsea was pleased to see that the collar was nowhere in sight.
“Oh, he’s real, all right.”
“Koko! Koko!” Derek said, rapping on the Plexiglas.
“Derek! Stop!” She pulled him back. Then a thought hit her. “So, do you want to feed him?”
Derek’s face lit up, but then he looked at her suspiciously. “You want me to feed him just because you’re too scared to, right?”
Chelsea nodded. “Right. Is that a problem?”
“No.” Derek grinned. “Just checking.”
She tried to talk him through it, but he was one step ahead of her all the way. He actually scooped the rat out with his hands and stuck it in the claw, like it was a worm on a fishing pole. She felt her lunch slosh in her stomach as he did it.
“Now I just stick it at him?”
She nodded. She was going to tell him how lucky he was that he could just do that sort of thing, but then he made a weird mechanical humming noise as he pushed the claw through the small window in the Plexiglas. “Gshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
THUNK!
Derek’s eyes lit up. “Awesome! And you get paid for this?”
She took the claw from him. “You’re right. I should be doing it.”
“No, no! It’s okay, really. I’m here. Let me. You get to do it for the next ten days!”
She, of course, feeling stupid, relented, and he repeated the process twice. Each time Koko bit, Derek’s eyes lit up. The last time, he chuckled out loud. He looked at the bag again and seemed disappointed it was empty. Trying to maintain some of her dignity, Chelsea at least grabbed the wet bag and tossed it in the trash.
“So, I’m not seeing any leash,” Derek said.
“I don’t see it either,” Chelsea said, walking up to the Plexiglas. “But he was in a different position.”
She watched Koko closely. He chewed a few times, as if savoring the last bite, then swallowed. When he was done, he leaned forward and brought his second claw back out under his chin.
And there, under his arm, she saw it again.
The angle was different, so she wasn’t quite sure what it was, exactly, but the little bit of pink was obvious. Maybe it was a piece of a plant?
“There!” Chelsea said, pointing. “Right there! Under his claw.”
Derek was beside her in an instant, lining his head up with her pointing finger. “That? The little pink thing? That could be anything. It might even be a piece of rat.”
“Thanks for the picture, Derek. I’ll keep it forever.”
“Sorry.”
“I saw more of it before. I just wish I could be sure….”
“No problem,” Derek said. He grabbed the claw again and pushed it through the window.
“Derek, don’t poke him!”
“I’m not going to poke him, I’m just going to grab that little pink thing. Gshhhhhhhh!”
Koko raised his sleepy head as he saw the claw coming. He eyed it warily, as if aware he’d had his three rats already and there were something unusual about this fourth intrusion into his domain. Could lizards count? Chelsea wondered.
Koko followed the end of the metal pole with his head all the way back to the window. Then he seemed to stare right at Derek’s face.
Derek noticed. “Gshhhh! Easy, fellow. Nothing to see here. Move along.”
For now, the lizard did nothing, only watched, seemingl
y bemused as the claw edged closer and closer to the little pink flap—and finally snagged it.
“Got it!” Derek said, terribly pleased with himself. “I’m a regular ‘Crocodile Hunter’!”
He tugged gently, pulling it free from the straw and twigs that lay around and above it. Luckily, it wasn’t actually under Koko. Luckily, the lizard seemed to find this all terribly interesting.
The pink thing swung forward, right in front of the lizard’s bemused face, into the light, where it could clearly be seen. There was no question now: It was a dog collar, pink with silver studs, torn and frayed at one end, as if it had been chewed.
Chelsea screamed, long and loud, hurting her throat and filling the quiet space with a shrill, terrified sound. Koko snapped at the metal arm, yanking it from Derek’s hands. It fell onto the floor of the habitat, one end near Koko’s mouth, the other just below the circular window. Then Koko pulled himself completely into the shadows of the nest, disappearing, except for the tip of his tail.
“Damn!” Derek said, working his index finger in his ear as if trying to dislodge Chelsea’s scream.
“He ate Aristotle! Koko ate Aristotle!” Chelsea sobbed as she sank to her knees. Her OCD, oddly enough, was completely silent, as if basking in its success. No need to say, “I told you so.”
Derek tried to pull her back up to her feet. “Come on, L. C., come on. The good news, I guess, is, it’s not your OCD playing tricks on you.”
“What’s wrong with you? How can you be so calm? This really is terrible!”
Derek shrugged and hugged her. “Shh. Calm down. I guess I never liked small dogs much. I mean, I’m sorry, I guess, but it happens. For that matter, how did it happen?”
He gently pulled away from her, helped her back down to sitting on the floor, and looked around, scanning first the floor and then the ceiling. Finally, he pointed.
“There.”
Chelsea looked and wondered how she had missed it before. Wondered how it’d been missed ever. Above the Plexiglas wall, the wire mesh that ran to the ceiling straddled a basement window. It was open, not all the way, but enough. It was barred, too, like all the other windows, but the bars were far enough apart for a small, curious dog to squeeze through.
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