Death & Co.

by D. J. McCune

  ‘I’m not the one hanging round with Bulber,’ Adam retorted. He turned away from Weasel, trying to keep his expression casual. ‘What do you want?’

  The Beast was studying him, his face unreadable. One of his eyes was bruised and swollen. ‘Just a little chat.’

  Adam shrugged. ‘Well, here I am.’

  The Beast’s face darkened but he managed to smile. He turned to his friends and jerked his head. ‘Take a walk there, lads.’

  Adam shook his head. ‘You know, I fancy a walk myself. So why don’t you leave your friends there and we’ll take a little turn around the playground.’

  The Beast laughed. ‘Very romantic.’ He stared at Adam, obviously wondering whether he should just beat some answers out of him. In the end, his curiosity got the better of him. ‘OK, lead the way.’

  Adam tried to hide his relief. He started walking, letting the older boy fall into step beside him, keeping a wary eye turned towards him. ‘So what do you want?’

  The Beast smirked. ‘You know, I should have kicked your head in back there but I decided to give you a fighting chance. So why don’t you just tell me about your little magic trick the other night and I might not break your arms.’

  Adam shrugged. ‘There was no magic. It was dark. I hid and made a run for it. You just didn’t notice.’

  The Beast smiled. ‘You’re a nob, not a ninja. So let’s just cut the fairy tales and tell me what happened.’

  Adam shrugged. ‘Believe me or don’t believe me. I told you what happened.’

  Before he could react Michael Bulber had lunged and wrapped one meaty arm around his throat. He bent down until Adam could feel the other boy’s breath hot in his ear. ‘In about five seconds I’m going to start squeezing and I’m not going to stop until you answer my question.’ He tightened his grip, grinning when Adam coughed. ‘That’s right. Hurts, doesn’t it? Bit like this did.’ He gestured towards his black eye. ‘I’m going to give you one of these as well, just to keep things even.’

  Adam didn’t know much in the way of self-defence. One thing he had learned though was how to break out of a headlock. When you had an older brother like Aron it was a useful skill to have.

  He grabbed the Beast’s little finger and pulled it sharply in the wrong direction. Bulber gave a yelp of surprised pain and loosened his hold just enough for Adam to wriggle to freedom. Wheezing a little he scuttled to safety before the Beast had a chance to catch him again. ‘What are you doing? We’re in the middle of the playground!’

  The Beast’s face had darkened with fury. ‘You’re going to tell me what I want to know.’

  Adam felt an answering fury quicken in his chest. Michael Bulber seemed to have a gift for finding a temper Adam hadn’t known he possessed. ‘No, I’m not – because there’s nothing to tell!’ He could feel himself shaking, more with anger than fear. ‘I told you what happened. If you don’t believe me, tough.’ He forced himself to take a step closer. ‘And that gives you a problem. You’re basically saying I can make myself disappear. So the question you need to ask yourself is: do I really want to threaten someone who can make himself disappear?’

  For the first time, the Beast’s expression changed and something that might have been fear crossed his face. He took a step away from Adam, eyes narrowing, calculating. ‘You’re full of it,’ he sneered, but both of them knew that something had changed. ‘I could tear your head off right here.’

  ‘You could,’ Adam agreed. ‘But if I have some kind of superpower maybe I can stick it back on.’

  The Beast glared at him uncertainly, then forced himself to laugh. ‘You’re mental. I don’t even know why I’m wasting my time on you. So why don’t you run back and hide under your little table in the library?’ He backed away a few paces, then turned and jogged back to safety.

  Adam watched his retreat until his breathing had returned to something like normal. Then he grinned, thrust his hands in his pockets and sauntered back towards his friends. He had just had the most brilliant idea.

  Back in the library Adam’s friends were huddled over the table top, caught in a heated debate. They didn’t see him at first. Archie was glaring at Spike. ‘We can’t just sit here and do nothing. The Beast probably has him dangling from a hook in the changing rooms by now!’

  Spike shrugged. ‘Who are you going to tell, The Bulb? He would probably go and join in! We all warned him to stay away from Melissa.’

  ‘Thanks for watching my back, mate,’ Adam said, resisting the urge to throw himself across the table top and strangle Spike.

  The effect was electrifying. All three of them leaped to their feet. Dan’s chair hit the ground with a thunk. ‘You’re alive! You’ve escaped from the jaws of death!’

  ‘Of course I’m alive,’ Adam said, trying to pretend that he wasn’t as surprised as the rest of them. ‘His dad might be The Bulb but he’s not actually allowed to kill me, you know.’

  Spike was watching him coolly. ‘So what did he want? And how did you live to tell the tale?’

  Adam kept his expression neutral. ‘Nothing much. He just wanted to talk to me.’

  Archie stared at him with saucer eyes. ‘It didn’t seem like nothing much! He said he was going to kill you. He was pretty detailed about how he was going to do it! I drew it.’ He pushed a piece of paper across the table towards Adam, revealing a perfect diagram of how Adam might look with no limbs and his head on a stick.

  Adam winced and looked away. ‘It was all just a misunderstanding. But it did give me a great idea. I hope you haven’t emailed The Bulb just yet.’

  Spike eyed him from across the top of his laptop. ‘We were just about to. Why?’

  Adam shrugged. ‘No reason. I just thought maybe we could make things a little more … ambitious.’

  Dan chewed his lip. ‘I think seeing The Bulb in high heels is ambitious enough for me!’

  Adam grinned. ‘Yeah, I guess. I was just thinking that maybe we could keep it in the family. Get both the Bulber boys dressed to kill. You know, a bit of father-son bonding.’

  They stared at him. Dan’s mouth was hanging open. ‘Isn’t one brush with death enough for you?’ His voice was faint. He cleared his throat and pointed an accusing finger. ‘I’ve heard of people like you! People who looked death in the eye and started getting a buzz from it! They’re addicts! Adrenalin junkies!’

  For a moment Adam almost yelled that he was the opposite of an addict to death. He controlled himself and turned to Spike. ‘I’m game for it if you are.’

  Spike gave him a long appraising glance. At last he shook his head regretfully. ‘I’ll mess with The Bulb’s head but the Beast is a different matter.’ His fingers tapped madly across the keyboard for a few moments and then with a flourish he hit send. ‘It’s done. Bulb senior only.’

  Dan looked nervous. ‘Michael Bulber will already kill us if he finds out we’re setting up his dad.’

  ‘No he won’t,’ Adam said grimly. He thought about the Beast’s face; how freaked out the older boy had looked when he realised Adam might have superpowers. Then he smiled.

  Chapter 14

  In spite of his fighting talk Adam decided to lie low for the rest of the week. He’d seen what the Beast and his friends were capable of – he wasn’t going to stay freaked out by Adam for long. But Michael Bulber kept a low profile and Adam began to relax. He knew that if he made it to the weekend he would be safe. After that there would only be one more week to go before the half-term break.

  He had another reason to be cheerful. On Tuesday when he walked into biology he expected Melissa to be absent. It was their last lesson working together and probably his last chance to really talk to her. But to his delight Melissa was sitting in her usual place. Whatever had happened to her mum couldn’t have been serious, although Adam still felt a pang of unease for reasons he didn’t quite understand.

  Melissa had swivelled round on her stool and was chatting to the girls who sat behind them. Adam tried to walk towards them nonchalant
ly but completely ruined the effect by crashing into a bench and knocking a pile of textbooks over with his bag. He muttered an apology and scrambled to pick them up. By the time he finally made it to his seat Melissa and her friends had fallen silent. One of them, a girl with blonde hair and trendy specs, looked him up and down and shook her head.

  Feeling paranoid, he crept onto his stool and muttered hello with his face in his school bag. What had Melissa been saying? He tried to run a mental replay of Friday night. Things had gone well until they left Petrograd. Admittedly the evening had gone downhill pretty rapidly from that point. Maybe Melissa had told them about his disappearing act or the fact that he didn’t like coffee or the funny smell that had followed him into the pizza place. Maybe she had found out about his frogmarch to the cashpoint at the hands of the angry Italian. He felt cold sweat break out beneath his shirt and fought a sudden, desperate desire to run for the door.

  ‘Hi, Adam,’ Melissa said.

  He grunted something in return. What did she mean with her ‘Hi Adam’? Was it the voice of pity? Had she just been telling all her friends what a loser he was? That he smelled of bin bags? That he hadn’t texted her once all weekend even though he knew her mum wasn’t well? Heat was rushing up through his body and into his face. He had pretended to look in his bag for what felt like an hour. No one on earth had a school bag containing anything that interesting. She was going to expect him to pull out the lost treasure of the Incas soon. There was nothing he could do but sit up and accept his fate.

  When he finally turned his burning cheeks towards her she was smiling perfectly normally. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’

  He stared at her. ‘Erm … Yeah. I mean, kind of. Big family thing. You know, really boring.’ Apart from the bit where Auntie Jo insulted Darian, Darian threatened me with the death penalty, Heinrich announced that he was going to die … ‘What about you?’

  She shrugged. ‘I’ve had better.’ She was trying hard to keep her voice light but her face was strained.

  Adam hesitated, feeling like he was prying. ‘What happened with your mum?’

  Melissa kicked at the bottom of the bench. ‘She was in the hospital for a few hours but then she went home. They wanted to do some kind of test on her but she said she felt better.’ She shrugged. ‘She needed to go to work on Saturday morning. So did I.’

  ‘Oh right.’ Adam felt awkward. He also felt pretty sure that Melissa’s mum must be nuts. Didn’t she realise how fragile humans were? How fragile their lives were?

  Maybe Melissa could read his thoughts in his face. She scowled. ‘Look, I know it’s OK for your dad, since he’s got such a great job.’ She managed to make it sound like an insult. ‘If he needs to go to a doctor he can probably just take time off. But I told you, if my mum misses work she gets kicked out. And then we get kicked out of our flat. So it’s a no-brainer. We don’t all live in a big house.’

  Adam glared at her. ‘You don’t know anything about my father. He works really long hours. I mean really long. He gets called out at night all the time!’

  For a second she looked confused. ‘I thought you said he was a businessman.’

  Adam cursed himself silently. ‘Yeah … he is … you know, like a … a troubleshooter! He deals with unexpected problems.’ That’s a nice way of putting it. Unexpected problems like death.

  Melissa sighed. ‘Look, I didn’t mean to start on you. I’m just …’ She shrugged. Her eyes were tired and sad.

  Her hand was resting on the bench, beside a pencil case with lots of graffiti on it. Without thinking Adam put his hand on hers. It was a lot smaller than his. It seemed to disappear, apart from her fingertips. Her skin was very pale. They both stared for a long moment.

  About a millisecond later, Adam realised what he was doing. There was a tiny man at the back of his mind hopping about and shrieking insults. He sounded amazingly like the angry Italian. Adam snatched his hand away from Melissa’s as though her fingers had just bitten him. ‘Sorry. About everything. You know, your mum. And the hand. And taking so long the other night.’

  Melissa grinned at him. ‘I had a nice time the other night.’ She looked away suddenly, fidgeting with her pencil case. ‘I thought you would have texted.’

  ‘I was going to …’ Adam tailed off, not really sure why he hadn’t.

  ‘It’s OK, I think I know why you didn’t. I heard that Michael Bulber was giving you hassle. I’m really sorry. He’s such a …’ She struggled to find the right word, then settled for rolling her eyes. ‘We only went out a couple of times and it was back in September.’

  Adam’s heart contracted all over again at the thought of Bulber taking Melissa on a date. ‘I’m sure he’s a nice guy underneath all the … erm … violence,’ he said, not sounding remotely convincing.

  Melissa sighed. ‘No, not really. I know what people say about him but I kept thinking he must have hidden depths.’

  Adam managed to suppress a snigger – but only just. ‘And does he?’

  ‘I never got a chance to find out. Every time I tried to talk … Well, let’s just say he was more interested in mauling me.’ She shuddered delicately.

  Adam took several deep calming breaths. ‘Yeah, great guy.’

  Melissa rolled her eyes. ‘He never gets the message. He asks me out again every so often – like this morning. You know, because it’s Valentine’s Day on Friday.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ Adam said, snarling inside at the Beast’s continued and blatant interest in her.

  ‘Yeah, I was going to go to Cryptique. They’re having a big Valentine’s night. They always play brilliant music.’

  ‘Great,’ Adam mumbled. He had a sudden miserable image of Melissa dancing in the coolest club in Flip Street, surrounded by gaggles of admirers. He gave a heavy sigh.

  ‘Yeah, it’ll be really good,’ Melissa said.

  She was staring at him expectantly. It was making him nervous. Did he have something between his teeth or dangling from his nose? Her eyes were doing the laser thing. It was different though this time. He stared back at her. It was like she was trying to communicate something to him by the power of thought …

  A brief look of frustration passed across her face. ‘So do you think you’ll be going? On Friday?’

  Adam almost snorted with mirth. Yeah, of course he was going to Cryptique because he was so famously cool … He glanced away, pretending to look at his textbook. ‘Nah, probably not. I have a lot of other stuff to do.’

  ‘Oh, right.’ Her face fell. ‘It’s just I was going to see if you fancied coming but if you’re too busy –’

  ‘Nothing I can’t put off,’ Adam said, snapping his head up so fast he almost dislocated his neck. ‘I’ll have to talk to some people, move some things about but I can take care of it. And Cryptique is great. Always a good night there.’ He was babbling like a maniac. He made himself shut up.

  ‘I didn’t know it was your kind of place. I’ve never seen you there.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ Adam said, nodding violently and trying to look nonchalant. ‘I used to go there a lot more but I’m pretty busy these days.’

  Melissa raised an eyebrow. ‘Wow, I didn’t know that! You must know the right people. They’re really strict on the door. I only get in because one of the girls at work is dating the manager. I was going to see if she could get you in too but it sounds like you’re sorted.’ She beamed at him.

  ‘Well, it might make things easier –’ Adam began.

  ‘No, to be honest it’s better if I can just go on in with her instead of waiting. I can meet you inside. It should be a good night.’ She gave him a sidelong smile and looked away, busying herself with their experiment. Her smile made Adam feel warm and excited and sick, all at the same time.

  The Buzzard appeared behind them with a frown at their lack of progress so there was no further opportunity to talk. She hovered while they hurried to finish and record their results. It was only at the end that Melissa was able to speak to him again. ‘Well, I�
��ll probably see you around but if not I’ll see you on Friday.’ She hesitated, as if she was trying to pick her words carefully. ‘And listen … I don’t want Michael giving you any grief. Do you want me to have a word with him?’

  Adam stared at her, horror stricken. How could she possibly think that would help? He couldn’t imagine anything worse – getting a girl to ask the school bully to leave him alone! She might as well just chop his goolies off and get it over with! Michael Bulber would never let him live it down! He could almost picture the joy on Spike’s face if handed an opportunity like this … There would be posters, badges, websites in his honour … ‘No!!! I mean … There’s no need. He’ll be fine. He’ll get the message.’

  She looked at him doubtfully then shrugged. ‘Well, if you’re sure. So, I guess I’ll see you on Valentine’s Day.’ Her eyes were glinting.

  Adam swallowed hard and watched her walk away. It was like winning the lottery. Melissa had just asked him out on Valentine’s Day. All he had to do now was get into Cryptique, not get killed by the Beast and not make a complete tit of himself. No problemo.

  As he made his way home from school Adam knew that everything he had hoped for with Melissa was within his grasp. There was only one hurdle standing between him and success – and that was how the hell he was ever going to get into Cryptique.

  He knew where it was because everyone knew where it was. Flip Street was packed with clubs and bars but Cryptique was a legend. Everyone wanted to be there on a Friday night. Of course Adam had never actually been inside and on his own he never would see inside. Luckily there was one person he knew who might be able to help. The question was – would Luc be feeling generous? And if he was, what was it going to cost Adam?

  He knew he needed to get Luc on his own and in a good mood. He also didn’t want to give too much away – the last thing he needed was Luc tormenting him about having a girlfriend. Could he actually call Melissa his girlfriend? Probably not. Better not to run before he could walk. He would probably have to have kissed her before he could say she was his girlfriend. And she would have to like the kiss and want to kiss him again. It was all so complicated.