by Morgan Rice
Quick fast, Kate grabbed her sister and shoved her out of the way. Boiling coffee rained down on Kate. She screamed as her skin sizzled.
Everyone froze and stared at her, horrified expressions on their faces. Kate clutched her face, the burning pain greater than anything she’d ever felt.
But no sooner had it started than it disappeared. She moved her hands away from her face, knowing there’d be nothing there to show of her scalding. Just like in the hospital, she seemed impervious to injury.
“You clumsy girl,” her mom said, stammering, trying to find a way to pin her dad’s shortcomings on her least favorite child, as always.
“It wasn’t me,” Kate stammered. “He’s the one you should be blaming!”
From his place on the sofa, Robert pulled himself up to standing. He towered over everyone, his huge frame wobbling on unsteady legs. His family cowered.
“What did you say?” he cried, threateningly.
He lunged for Kate but she was too quick for him. She darted out of the way. Robert lost his balance and stumbled clumsily into an armchair. Madison started shouting, telling everyone to calm down. Their mom was becoming a hysterical mess.
“Max, get out of here!” Kate cried. She didn’t want her little brother seeing this.
Max went to scuttle from the room, but their dad caught hold of him by the scruff of his T-shirt.
“Stay here, son!” he barked.
“Don’t you dare touch him!” Kate cried.
A protective instinct overtook her and a power like none she’d ever felt before descended on her. She ran forward and grabbed her dad’s arm, wrestling him back and off of Max. Robert tried to hit her but she grabbed his fist in her hand and held it there.
They were locked in that position, Robert with his fist raised, Kate holding it in place in the palm of her hand like he wasn’t a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than her.
“No,” she said. “No more.”
Robert looked at his raised arm, confused by Kate’s strength. He went to smack her with his spare hand, but she caught that too, holding his arms up above his head in a position that made him look like some kind of marionette.
“I said stop,” she said through her teeth.
Robert was looking from one hand to the other, his frown a deep crease in his forehead. He glared at her, his rage still at a boiling point.
With no other option, Kate yanked both his arms, crisscrossing them above his head so that he pirouetted on the spot. She rammed her foot into his back, kicking him so that he fell to his knees. She wrenched his arms back and around his back. Robert cried in pain as he fell chest first against the carpet. With her knee in his back, Kate had completely overpowered him. There was no getting up. He let his head fall to the floor, defeated.
A stunned silence descended on the room. No one moved. No one said a word.
Kate’s mom was the first to break the silence.
“I can’t believe you attacked your father like that,” she screamed. “I should call the police on you.”
“On me?” Kate cried. “He’s the one who needs to be locked up.”
Their mom raced forward and tried to shove Kate off her dad’s back.
“Oh, Robert, my darling, I’m sorry. What kind of a monster did we raise!”
She was starting to sob again. But from the floor, the only noise Robert responded with was a snore. He was out cold.
Kate huffed. Her dad was no longer a threat so she brought herself up to standing.
Her mom turned on her, her eyes blazing. “You awful child. How could you do that to that poor man?”
Kate shook her head in disbelief. “I was trying to protect you. I was trying to protect them.” She gestured to Madison and Max. But they were both cowering together against the wall trembling, fear brimming in their eyes.
Kate’s stomach sank. She realized as she looked at them that their fear wasn’t directed at their dad at all, but at her. Her display of strength had frightened them far more than their father’s violent outburst had.
Kate looked down at her hands. They looked completely normal, but there was no denying that some kind of power was contained within her body. She knew that there was one—and only one—question on everyone’s minds.
What had she become?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Scared and alone, Kate decided to head up to the mountains. Sitting there and looking down at the city below would calm her, plus it would take her the whole morning to hike up there. The thought of sitting at home all weekend with her family staring at her like she was some kind of freak did not appeal to her, and it wasn’t like she could call on her friends. They all seemed to be mad at her because of what had happened at the party. The only person who could help her now was Elijah, but he had disappeared into the darkness and some instinct inside of her—one she didn’t fully understand—told her he wouldn’t be back for some time.
As she walked through the busy city streets, cringing at the noises of the passing cars, the smell of food wafted through the air. The smells of sweet breads and donuts no longer made her salivate, but there was something else that caught in her nostrils and made her empty stomach roll.
She sniffed the air, searching for the source of the smell, then stopped on the sidewalk and looked at the steak restaurant across the street. A large family sat by the window tucking into rare steaks. Blood dripped onto the plates from their forks. Kate’s stomach groaned as though telling her to enter.
She couldn’t help herself. She went in. It was hot inside and even louder than the streets.
“Can I get you a table?” the server said. She was a young Mexican girl, with a big, broad smile. She was wearing a bright red T-shirt with a cow on the front.
“Uh, yeah. Table for one,” Kate said. She had no idea what she was doing. She’d left the house without any money. But her hunger was becoming too powerful to ignore. She’d just have to run for it when the time came to pay the bill.
Suddenly, someone said her name.
“Kate, hey!”
She swirled on the spot. It was Tony. He was wearing the same bright red T-shirt as the server.
“Hi,” Kate said, looking confused. “You work here?”
Tony gestured to his shirt. “I know, it’s goofy. We all have to wear one.” He looked slightly embarrassed to have been caught in the strange outfit. Kate was under the impression that guys like Tony were never embarrassed. “I’ve never seen you in here,” he continued. “I figured you were a vegetarian because you’re always eating salad.” He rubbed his neck awkwardly. “But you like steak? Well, I mean, obviously you like steak or else you wouldn’t be in a steakhouse.” He laughed nervously.
Kate narrowed her eyes. Why was he acting like that? It was almost as though he liked her. “You could say I get cravings sometimes.”
Tony laughed like she’d made a joke way funnier than she had. Then he leaned in and whispered, “If you want my advice, don’t buy it from here.” He glanced over his shoulders. “The chef’s not the cleanest guy in the world, know what I mean?”
Kate nodded. “Thanks for the tip.”
She was kind of relieved to have been given an excuse to leave. Although her stomach wasn’t.
“Oh, wait,” Tony said as she headed toward the door. “Is everything okay with you? Amy was going crazy after you left the party. She said she couldn’t get hold of you.”
As he spoke, he started cleaning up the plates from the large family Kate had looked at through the window. She could see the blood from their rare steaks swimming on the plates. Her stomach growled loudly.
“Yeah, yeah,” Kate said, dismissively. “It was fine. She has an anxious streak because of her parents.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “So you’re fine?”
She gave him a look. “Yes. I’m fine.”
The juice on the plates he was holding was too tempting. Kate was suddenly struck by an idea.
“Hey, could you lend me a dollar? I st
upidly left my bag at home. I’ll pay you back Monday.”
“Sure,” Tony said. “Here, hold these.”
He dumped the stack of plates in Kate’s arms then began rummaging in his back pocket.
“My wallet must be out back with my bag,” he said. “Wait a sec?”
Kate nodded and watched as he disappeared into the kitchen. The second he was gone, she bent her head down and licked the plate. Straight away it tasted amazing and nourishing.
She was overcome with hunger. She started licking the plate quickly, then tipping it up so the blood ran into her mouth. She started working her way through the pile of plates, discarding them on the table as she went.
Once she’d licked the last plate clean she came back to her senses. It felt like someone had turned down the volume of the world, and hit the dimmer switch at the same time. For the first time since the crash, her mind felt calm.
Calm, that was, until she noticed the large family staring at her with disgust. Suddenly, the realization of what she’d just done hit her. She drank someone else’s steak juice straight from the plate. What kind of crazy freak did such a thing?
Tony emerged from the kitchen but Kate wasn’t sticking round for the dollar. Horrified by herself, she ran back out into the street.
*
Kate’s experience at the steakhouse had completely freaked her out. She kept playing it over and over again in her head, trying to pinpoint the exact point she’d lost her entire mind in the middle of a busy restaurant.
But despite her disgust at her behavior, she had to admit she was feeling way better than she had in days. It was as if all she’d needed all that time was... blood.
“It’s the iron,” she tried to reason with herself. “Loads of teenage girls are deficient in iron.”
She reminded herself to pick up some multivitamins and spinach ASAP.
She spent the day in the mountains, thinking about everything that had happened to her over the last week, from Madison’s college party on Monday right up to her night on the rooftop of Elijah’s house. When night started to crowd in, she didn’t even feel cold. The moon was bright, almost entirely full, giving her plenty of light to see by. She was more than tempted to just stay in the mountains—her parents certainly wouldn’t notice if she didn’t come home—but she couldn’t do that to Max, or Madison. She thought of her sister, of how she’d finally stuck up for her for the first time in what felt like forever. Had she ruined it by acting like some kind of super-strong freak in front of her? She hoped not. She liked the idea of having Madison on her side for a change.
It was dark when she finally returned home that evening. Everyone must have been asleep. She looked in the fridge to see if there were any leftovers. On the bottom shelf were some ground beef patties that her mom had made, presumably to fry up as burgers. They sat there on the plate, raw, pink, and glistening. Without thinking, Kate grabbed one and devoured it.
Then she slammed the fridge door shut guiltily. She wondered whether her mom’s constant comments about her weight and diet had triggered some kind of eating disorder. She’d read about kids who would starve themselves for days then dig the leftovers out of the bin in the middle of the night because they couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe the accident had triggered something like that in her, making her crave weird foods and have distorted eating patterns.
I must have damaged my hypothalamus when I hit my head, Kate thought. Or hippocampus.
Whatever the name of it, it didn’t stop her feeling mortified with herself and the strange cravings she had suddenly acquired. But she had to admit that for the first time in a long time she felt full and satisfied.
She tiptoed to her room and flung herself into bed, her mind crowded with thoughts and theories and logical explanations for her behavior. As she finally drifted to sleep, she prayed she wouldn’t have another nightmare and wake up screaming. She hoped instead, that when she closed her eyes, she’d finally see Elijah again.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The rest of the weekend passed in a blur. Her dad woke up on Sunday morning and immediately went on one of his charm offenses. It was something he did occasionally when he knew he’d really messed up. It was as if he thought a family trip to Frankie & Benny’s once a month could make up for his deplorable behavior the rest of the time.
Kate declined the invitation to go out with her family. Group outings usually involved her mom putting down her clothing choices, telling her that she couldn’t have a dessert and that she’d better stick to water instead of juice, and Madison gloating away about her oh-so-perfect life. Kate felt like she’d have less ability to tolerate it now than ever, especially since her mom was acting like the whole dad-getting-fired-and-beating-the-kids thing had never happened.
Plus, she was scared of what might happen if she got into an argument with anyone. Would she flip out and hurt someone like she had her dad? And what if she suddenly grabbed another diner’s rare steaks, unable to stop herself from devouring it? It was better to stay in, away from everyone. She could make a start on the stack of books next to her bed that she’d been meaning to read.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay in forever. Monday arrived and Kate had no choice but to go to school. She dodged her friends when she got there, totally not in the mood to face up to ignoring all their calls and texts all weekend.
She could hardly concentrate on her lessons. Though she loved literature, she was struggling to focus. Her gaze kept wandering to the silver bracelet Elijah had given her, wondering what he’d meant when he said it was a good luck charm.
“Maybe Miss Roswell could answer the question,” she suddenly heard the teacher say.
Her headed bolted up. Everyone was looking at her.
“I’m sorry?” Kate said. “I missed the question.”
“The question,” her teacher said, “was what were the main themes running throughout Bronte’s Wuthering Heights?”
“Oh,” Kate said.
Her mind had completely blanked under the scrutiny of her classmates’ glares. She began nervously twiddling with her bracelet. Then all at once, the answers seemed to materialize in her mind.
“Well,” she began, “there’s the theme of love and passion as destructive forces, and the theme of resistance to change. Kathy and Heathcliff’s love is ultimately doomed to failure because neither will change; Heathcliff, though wealthy on his return to the heights, refuses to lose his wild nature, and he certainly is able to maintain a grudge for a very long time, which contrasts with Hearton, who is more than willing to change as he grows and is ultimately rewarded with the love of the young Catherine.”
The teacher blinked, astonished. “Well, yes, that’s very good, Kate.”
“I wasn’t finished,” Kate replied. Her mind seemed to be alive with thoughts, like she’d downed four shots of espresso. The synapses in her brain were firing so quickly she just had to get it all out. She went on to explain the symbolic importance of pairs in the novel. “The wildness of the heights versus the civility of the grange. Kathy’s love for Heathcliff and for Edgar. The two love stories that are parallels yet opposites of one another…”
She finally stopped speaking as she looked up and saw the teacher’s expression. It was one she would never forget. She stood there, mouth open, gaping, clearly in awe. As was the entire class.
The teacher raised a palm to silence her, clearly wanting to hear no more.
Kate felt her cheeks redden. She sank down in her seat and cast a dark expression at the teacher. Her mind was still firing away. The clarity with which her thoughts came to her astounded her. It made her feel more powerful even than when she’d stood up to her dad.
She touched the bracelet and wondered: Is that what Elijah meant by good luck?
*
As class ended and the kids filed out in the direction of the cafeteria, Kate could hear whispering taking place behind her. She walked carefully, slowly, listening to each hushed insult.
“She’s such a lo
ser freak,” a girl was saying. “I mean when she’s not beating people up and smashing coffee tables she’s being all weird. Did you hear her in class? Who knows things like that?”
Feeling empowered by her experience in the classroom, Kate spun on the spot, singled out the girl who was whispering about her in an instant, then rushed forward and slammed her against the lockers.
Everyone gasped.
The girl who’d been bad-mouthing her was named Emma. Kate narrowed her eyes and glared at her. But as she stared into Emma’s eyes, a sudden sensation washed through her, like a disembodied voice telling her that Emma was lashing out because of jealousy.
“You’re ashamed of your dyslexia,” Kate said, cocking her head to the side.
“How do you know that?” Emma said, turning beet red. “No one knows about that.”
Her heart pounding, Kate stood back and let Emma go. Emma scurried off toward her friends, looking back over her shoulder at Kate. Kate just stood there, panting, confused. Emma had asked a question she herself desperately wanted to know the answer to.
How had she known that?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Finally!” Dinah shouted across the cafeteria at Kate. “Girl, where have you been?”
Kate’s attempts to avoid her friends had finally failed. She trundled over to their table.
Dinah pulled her in for a hug. “Did you drop your phone down the toilet or something? I’ve been texting you all weekend.”
Amy and Nicole were far frostier than Dinah. Neither seemed to be about to let her off the hook for her behavior over the past few days.
“Do you still have my dress?” Nicole said, coolly. “I’d like to wear it this week so…”
“I’ll wash it and bring it in tomorrow,” Kate said.
Then it was Amy’s turn to berate her. “What about my old best friend Kate Roswell? Is she still in there somewhere? Any idea what’s happened to her?”