by Heidi Lang
30. CADEN
Are you sure your mom won’t mind dropping me off?” Caden asked Vivienne as they waited in front of the school.
“You only live a few minutes away. Of course she won’t mind.” Vivienne pulled on the straps of her backpack and shuffled her feet back and forth, not making any eye contact. It was like she wasn’t sure how to act around him now.
He felt the same way. He kept picturing how her face looked wet with tears, and it made him feel strangely off-balance. It was a whole different side to Vivienne, a side he hadn’t even suspected existed. He’d always assumed her life was great since she was popular, smart, athletic… he’d thought she was happy. And this whole year, she’d been carrying around a fear so dark and terrifying even he didn’t want to think about it too hard.
He knew what it felt like to be afraid of yourself. Of what you might become. But at least he had control over himself. She had nothing—nothing except a magic amulet and an unreliable promise from Patrick.
Caden thought of his own promise to her and hoped he’d be able to keep it.
“There she is,” Vivienne said as a sleek gray car pulled up. “Finally.”
Caden noticed a dent in the front bumper. It seemed strangely out of character, considering what he knew of Mrs. Matsuoka. It was like walking into a beautifully maintained house and then discovering a hole in the kitchen wall. “What happened to your car?”
“Oh, Mom swerved to avoid a deer last weekend and ended up kissing a tree. She’s okay,” Vivienne hurriedly added. “She was a little shaken up when she got home that night, but she said the damage is just cosmetic, not structural. She’s been really busy since then, and my dad is still out of town, so…” Vivienne shrugged. “It’ll get fixed eventually.”
Mrs. Matsuoka opened her door and stood, her eyes meeting Caden’s. Terror sliced through her, sharp and sudden. “What are you doing?” She stepped back, her gaze flicking between him and Vivienne. “I did what you asked!”
“What?” Caden didn’t understand, and her anguish felt like a million little knives slashing at him, making it hard to focus.
“Uh, Mom?” Vivienne said gently. “This is my friend Caden. I was hoping we could give him a ride home?”
“Caden?” Mrs. Matsuoka peered at him, then forced a laugh. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
“Who?” Vivienne asked.
Her mom rubbed her eyes. “Oh, no one. I’m having one of those days.”
“I think you need a vacation.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Mrs. Matsuoka pasted a wide smile on her face. It looked about as sincere as one of Patrick’s promises. “I’d be happy to give you a ride, Caden.”
“Thank you.” Caden slipped into the back. Vivienne followed him, setting her backpack between them.
On the drive Mrs. Matsuoka kept sneaking glances at Caden through the rearview mirror. Now that her panic had ebbed, he sensed something beneath it. An emotion almost as strong, pulsing in sluggish green-brown waves like a moss-choked pond. Guilt, or shame, maybe? It was hard to tell between the two.
He tried picturing Mrs. Matsuoka visiting his mom and then, abruptly, he remembered Aiden’s story. How someone at Green On! had helped him escape. He caught her gaze in the mirror, holding it for a second before she looked away. And he knew. He wasn’t sure how, but he did.
She was the one who’d helped Aiden get away from the lab.
He wondered how she had known about his brother’s kidnapping; he didn’t get the impression that her department worked much with Patrick’s. But maybe she’d been involved somehow, possibly as part of the deal she’d made with Patrick for Vivienne’s elixir. And maybe she’d felt guilty about her role, and that was why she’d freed Aiden.
And maybe that was the real reason Patrick had stopped giving Vivienne her elixir.
It was a lot of maybes. Caden wished he could ask her about it, but he wasn’t even sure where he’d begin.
She pulled up in front of his house without needing his address. But then, of course she knew where he lived. He was the son of the resident ghost hunter. “Thanks for the ride.” He glanced at Vivienne. “See you tomorrow?”
“I sure hope so.” She grinned at him, and it was almost normal between them again. Only the lightest touch of awkwardness.
Caden got out and waited until the car pulled away again before he started walking up his driveway.
His dad’s car was still gone.
Caden frowned. His parents had to be back by now. Maybe his dad had gone out somewhere again? He fished out his key and unlocked the front door, then walked inside, stopping just in the doorway.
The energy in the house felt all wrong, as musty and unmoving as if no one had lived here for years. He knew immediately that something was wrong.
His mom had taught him it was dangerous to stand in a doorway for too long, so he made himself take a step inside, and another, quietly shutting the door behind him. He slipped off his shoes and his backpack, leaving them in the landing area before walking into the kitchen. Empty. He glanced at the table where his mom usually left notes. Nothing.
But then he noticed that the table seemed different. Like it had been moved a few inches, the chairs scattered. He turned slowly. Two of the cupboards hung open slightly, like someone had gone through all of the shelves.
Caden went cold all over. He took the stairs two at a time. “Aiden?” He couldn’t tell if his brother was there or not. That company owns this town. They can do anything they like with impunity. What if they change their minds about Aiden and demand we give him back? His dad had been worried about Green On!, despite Aiden’s and Patrick’s supposed “understanding.” Maybe it was for good reason.
Aiden had only been home a few days. And Caden had spent all of that time avoiding him as much as possible. What if he was gone again, this time for good? Caden pictured the fortress that was Green On!, with its security detail and cameras and cement outer walls. If they decided to take Aiden back, there would be no way to fight them. Who would believe the Prices if it was their word against the people of Green On!, the largest employer in Whispering Pines, the company that funded the local schools, contributed to the chief of police’s reelection campaign, provided free energy to those who opted into their programs?
“Aiden!”
Sick with worry, Caden yanked open his brother’s door. Empty. Reluctantly Caden did a quick check of his own room—also empty—and his parents’ room. No one there at all. He closed their door and leaned against it, trying to calm himself down, the panic expanding in his chest like a soap bubble.
He pulled out his phone and called his mom. It went straight to voicemail. Again. He dialed his dad next. Same thing. He even tried Aiden’s new phone. Voicemail.
Caden shoved his phone into his back pocket with shaky fingers. He wasn’t sure what to do.
He could try Rae. She always seemed to have a plan. Not necessarily a good plan, like the time she’d suggested they break into a therapist’s house, but right now he needed something. Anything.
He slowly crossed the hall and walked down the stairs, a small niggling doubt poking into his bubble of worry.
Maybe Aiden hadn’t been taken at all.
His brother had been strangely accepting of the loss of his powers, yet still eager to learn more about the safeguards that kept some great evil imprisoned in the rift. Plus he’d been reading books on the history of Whispering Pines ever since he got back. Clearly, he was looking for something. A way to get his magic back.
Maybe he’d found it.
Caden slowly walked down the hall and opened the door to his mom’s study, bracing himself for what he’d see. At first, it looked as untouched as the bedrooms upstairs. But as he wandered through, he noticed that there were several things missing. His mom’s large silver ritual bowl, all her tea candles, some incense, and chalk.
Caden sank onto the end of the bed, the dread he’d been ignoring for days rising up to chok
e him. And for the first time, he wondered if his parents were really at a relationship workshop or if their absence was due to something far more sinister.
31. RAE
Rae sagged against the wall, exhausted and sweaty and dirty and yuck. “I feel like the business end of a mop.”
“I know what you mean.” Ava leaned next to her. “I could take a thousand showers and still be dirty, I just know it.”
“At least the house is clean.”
“Cleanest house ever.”
“Mom is gonna be surprised.”
“Yep.” Ava glanced at the clock. “It’s almost midnight. We should probably finish up and get to bed.”
“I call shower first.”
Ava sighed. “Fine. But only if you check on them.”
Rae knew exactly what her sister meant by “them.” They’d managed to catch three of the centipedes alive, trapping them inside a large glass bowl turned upside down and placed on top of a cookie sheet. Ava had fetched a heavy rock from outside and put it on top of the bowl to hold it in place. “Why?” Rae whined. “They’re fine!”
She’d seen enough of the ugly little things to last a lifetime; in addition to the three they’d trapped, they’d killed another five. The citrus spray hadn’t done anything but make the house smell nice, so Ava had gone searching in the garage and found some Raid. They’d thought that would do the trick, but it had as much effect as the other sprays, barely slowing the bugs down. So they’d resorted to physical violence, squashing the bugs with a mop, a shoe, and, in one horrifyingly disgusting case, the bottom of Rae’s foot; she put boots on after that. She just hoped that was all of them. They’d been thorough in their cleaning efforts, but those creepy-crawlies were fast and sneaky.
“What if they eat through the bowl? Didn’t that happen with your friend Vivienne?”
“Yeah, but that was a water bottle with a plastic lid. This is glass.”
“Just check, okay? I’ll sleep better.”
Rae pushed herself to her feet, still grumbling, and stomped over to the kitchen. She peered in at the glass, then frowned. “Ava? You might want to see this.”
“Oh no!” Ava rushed in. “Did they get out?”
“No. I think… I think they died.” One of the insects had curled into a little ball. The other was stretched out on its back, legs sticking up. And the third… the third was in oozing pieces. As if the first two had ripped it apart.
Rae tapped the glass with her nail. Nothing happened. “Do you think they suffocated?” It made her feel strangely guilty. Even if they were flesh-eating insects.
“No,” Ava said. “There’s enough air in there for them.”
“Starved?”
“Same thing. Shouldn’t have been so fast.”
“Hmm.” Rae had no other ideas. Nate might know more. He’d stayed behind yesterday to study at the lab, and he’d skipped school today to do more research. She collected her cell phone and punched in his number.
Nate picked up on the third ring. “What happened?” he demanded, his voice high and anxious.
“I had a question about the bugs.”
“A question?” Nate said slowly.
“Yeah. A research question.”
“Nothing life or death?”
“Not yet, at any rate,” Rae said.
Silence. Then, “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Rae checked her phone. “Eleven fifty-eight p.m.”
“So you do know.”
“Uh, yeah…”
“Then why, oh why, would you call me at this hour for a research question? You almost gave me a heart attack! I thought those bugs had eaten Vivienne or something.”
“Not as far as I know.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Wait, Nate. Sorry, you’re right, I should have waited until tomorrow. It’s just, I found some of those bugs in my house. And I started worrying that maybe they’ve already spread all over.”
“I found a few in my house too,” Nate said quietly. “But before you panic, I believe the ones currently skittering through our respective houses are merely hitchhikers, thanks to our trek through the tunnels.”
“Panicking anyhow,” Rae muttered.
“I’m calling these small pale ones the workers. Their job, as far as Doctor Nguyen and I have been able to determine, is to modify the makeup of their environment.”
“To do what now?”
Nate sighed, loudly and deeply. “They are transforming the soil to make it friendlier for their kind.”
Rae still wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but clearly Nate was already on edge. “Okay,” she said. “I guess.”
“And they require a specific kind of organic material to do this.”
Rae thought of the dead animals she’d found. “Flesh.”
“Exactly. Plant matter doesn’t seem to cut it.”
“Well, that’s horrifying.”
“However, much like the common fruit fly, these smaller workers seem to die within a day or two.”
“Oh! That’s good!”
“Yeah, that’s good.”
Rae really didn’t like the way he’d said that. “What’s the not-good part, then?”
Nate sighed. “I was going to give you and Vivienne the full report tomorrow.”
“Want to just give me the highlights now? I won’t be able to sleep otherwise.”
“Fine. You remember the one we caught in the lab?”
“No, I’ve forgotten,” Rae muttered.
“If you’re going to be sarcastic, I’m leaving.”
“Sorry, sorry. Please continue.”
“As I was saying. Those bugs weren’t queens at all, but rather males, as far as we could determine. Their job appears to be incapacitating larger prey and then dragging it off to the nest, where the queen will shove her eggs inside to produce more males that will continue repeating that gruesome process.”
Rae wrinkled her nose, trying not to imagine how she had almost been “incapacitated” by one of them.
“These males will continue growing until they’re killed. The one we caught in the lab is already twice as big as it was, and I haven’t seen it eat anything.”
Rae slowly sank down onto the floor, the phone pressed to her ear.
“I could be wrong on this—I’m presenting my findings to Patrick tomorrow at school—but I believe at this time there is only one queen. She probably stays very near the nest. However, I think that these bugs are preparing to swarm soon.”
“Swarm?”
“Like a honeybee hive. Once it gets large enough, it produces a second queen. That queen takes half the hive and sets up base somewhere else, and the cycle continues.”
“Oh, great.”
“Like I said, I could be totally wrong. But… I don’t think I am.” He yawned. “I need to get some sleep. We can talk about it in the morning, okay? Patrick called a meeting for first period after homeroom.”
“Okay.”
“And you owe me for the emergency call.”
“I owe you,” Rae agreed.
“I mean, honestly you’re lucky I even picked up.”
“I know, I know. And I promise if you ever call me, even if it’s in the middle of the night, I’ll pick up too, okay?”
“You’d better.” And he hung up.
Rae stared at the upside-down bowl and the dead bugs and thought of the noises she had heard, deep down in the tunnels. The sound of something very large crashing after them. Had that been the queen?
From above she heard water running. Ava had totally snaked the shower. “Hey! Cheater!” she yelled, all thoughts of bugs vanishing as she sprang to her feet and dashed up the stairs.
32. CADEN
Caden didn’t think he’d be able to sleep, but as soon as he closed his eyes, the dread that had been bubbling in his stomach seemed to expand and suck him under. And the dream began.
He was in the Watchful Woods, slices of moonlight hitting his face through the bran
ches, the smell of damp earth and moss and the sharp, sweet scent of pine filling his nostrils. Just ahead, the trees opened up to reveal that old, rotting cabin, paint curling down the sides in long, messy strips, the front porch sagging as if crushed beneath an invisible weight.
Caden was drawn to the cabin like a fish on a line, pulled inexorably forward, the door bursting open before he touched it. Inside, at first all he could see was dark. But slowly his eyes adjusted to the lighting, picking out details. There was the couch, pushed all the way to the side to leave the room bare. There was the fireplace, lying cold and empty, the mantel above it where the Unseeing had kept its jar of stolen eyes.
A whimper from the back corner, where the darkest shadows collected. Caden turned, the movement slow and drawn out in the way of dreams. He already knew what he would see.
Rae, her back to the wall, her hands up defensively. He couldn’t see her face well in the gloom, but he recognized those large doe eyes now full of terror. And standing over her, the Unseeing, its silhouette taller than Caden remembered, more humanlike.
He could hear Aiden’s voice, just like he’d heard it the night he confronted the Unseeing. “The rift! You need to open it now! It’s her best chance.”
Caden began reaching for the energies of the house, then stopped. Why was he having this dream now? Rae was safe, the Unseeing sealed back inside the Other Place where it belonged. But this didn’t feel like a memory.
It felt like a prophetic dream. Only… not quite. Something was off.
The Unseeing turned and looked at him, and it was wearing Aiden’s face and Aiden’s smile. “I knew you’d figure it out,” it said with Aiden’s voice. “Better hurry if you want to save her.”
“Save her?” Caden frowned. “From what? You’re gone.”
“Am I?”
And Caden realized it wasn’t the Unseeing at all. It never had been.
Aiden grinned. Then he pulled a familiar long, white bone-handled knife out of his pocket and lunged at Rae.
* * *
Caden sat up in bed, panting. His shirt clung to his sweaty back like the spiderwebs in the woods. It took him several long moments to get his heart rate and breathing under control. He kept seeing Rae’s panicked face as Aiden lunged for her with their mother’s knife…