“Was he? I didn’t notice.”
I kept my face expressionless, knowing she was trying to get a reaction. For some reason, Alex loved getting reactions out of me. She started laughing, my expression giving me away regardless. “It’s all over the school, Clare. He kissed you in gym, and now you guys have detention on Friday. And the way he was all over you at lunch…” She made groping motions with her hands.
“Huh. I didn’t hear that rumor. Did we really get detention?” I gave her an innocent look.
“Don’t play coy with me...what happened? How’d you two realize you were crazy-bad in-like with each other? Details woman, I want details.”
There was so much to tell, and it had all happened so quickly. I’d only had two days to process a lot. I wasn’t sure if I really had a handle on it yet. But, despite the fact there had been plenty of fear and crazy occurrences, my moments with Daniel had made everything else fade into the background. It was as though I knew the fear, the danger, were just momentary blips in a life that was meant to be spent with him. It was enough to make me want to talk about it, the emotions bubbling over and out, uncontainable and uncontrollable. I told Alex what I could, my story tempered by the things I couldn’t say without giving away my secret. She listened in rapt attention. Ellen came back down as I finished, and we left to go to Amanda’s house. Ellen didn’t have to ask to know what we were talking about.
“I think it’s nice,” Alex said as we walked to her Jeep. “I’ve always thought Daniel was trying too hard to be happy. Like he thought if he pretended hard enough, happiness would come. Now, he doesn’t have to pretend.”
“Relationships go bad.”
“Cynic. Stop acting like it’s no big deal. You know it is.”
She floored the gas pedal, cutting off my snarky reply. I heard Ellen squeak from the sudden movement. I held on to the door with a strong grip, prepared for Alex’s driving. We rode to Amanda’s in silence. Alex’s thoughts went back to Amanda, and Ellen’s went back to the Seekers hunting us. I thought about both. Was there an answer to either? How does one realistically stop people who are serious about hunting you? How do you convince a teenager it is okay to be different? Both questions were out of my league.
When Alex finally jerked the car to a stop, my stomach slowly filled with knots at what was in front of me. We were at Amanda’s house, though ‘house’ wasn’t really the proper term. It was more like a cabin. A cabin so old and dilapidated – it was made of chinked wood and mud – it looked ready to fall down at any moment. I tilted my head and realized the structure slanted slightly to the left. The dirt yard was deserted and bare of any kind of ornamentation or furniture. Where there should have been grass, there were rusted pieces of metal, and junk, covered in thick, dead vines. Three other houses bordered the small property and, while they weren’t mansions by any stretch of the imagination, the cabin made them look like Daniel’s house in comparison. Smoke curled halfheartedly out of the old stone chimney, misting the yard in a thin haze. A group of dogs, tied to metal stakes near the edge of the property, got up and started barking as we stopped. A couple strained against the stakes, choking themselves in their attempt to reach us.
As I unbuckled my seatbelt, I saw a curtain in the cabin twitch. There was a moment of quiet doubt then the door opened slightly. Amanda peeked out at us, her thoughts ghosting across the yard as much as the smoky haze. She looked scared, as if she thought we were there to kill her, or worse. I waved to assure her we came in peace, and she stepped out, shutting the door with a click. Alex grabbed some papers from her bag and followed me, looking around sadly. Ellen stayed in the car, looking at the house, not wanting to get involved unless Gavin Nichols did.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.” Amanda turned her head to listen for sounds of her dad moving inside. I heard her worrying about her father overhearing. He was in the living room, passed out. He had been on a bender since early in the day. As she looked back, I saw a faint blue color that was obviously the result of a hit on the face highlighting the bones of her cheek. The instant I saw her face, I wanted to go inside and hit Mr. Nichols in retribution. I controlled the impulse however, figuring that wouldn’t help our reason for being here. “What are you guys doing here?” Amanda asked.
“Alex brought your homework from school,” I replied. “And I came along, because I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in coming to the movies with us this Friday.”
Alex threw me a warning look, but I ignored her. Amanda could still say ‘no’. I wanted her to know that I wanted her there. That somebody cared. It was important. More important than my desire to go inside and teach her dad a lesson.
Why would she do that? I’ve only talked to her a couple of times since she came here, and I’m sure I just said something stupid each time. This has to be a trap. “I don’t know…” Amanda said.
I took a step forward. “Look, Amanda, I think you’re really cool. We think you’re really cool,” I gestured at Alex, “and we would like to get to know you better. But if you don’t want to come, that’s fine. I just thought it would be a good opportunity for us to hang out.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said uncertainly, her voice barely a whisper.
Alex handed Amanda the papers. “But you’re okay, right?” she asked. “You haven’t got strep throat or the measles or anything?”
“Oh! No. I think it’s just a cold or something.” She sniffed unconvincingly, her eyes glancing at the door again. Daddy is going to be so mad if he wakes up. I wish the dogs would shut up! …I still don’t get why he said I couldn’t go to school. I’m going to get so behind! It was really nice of them to bring my work…but how will I get it back to my teachers? Amanda played with the papers nervously. “Thanks for bringing these.”
“No problem.” Alex smiled at her.
“Amanda! Shutthadogsup!” A drunken, slurred voice called from inside. Amanda jumped as if she’d been whipped. “Amanda! Dicha-hear-me! Shut-those-dogs-up!”
“I hear you!” she called back looking at us nervously. She added, “I’m about to feed them.”
“Damn straight! Then-you-best-fix-me-dinner!”
Amanda blushed from the roots of her hair to her fingertips. I felt a burning anger, and my fists clenched. When Amanda had jumped, I had gotten an image of a man hitting her for burning dinner, a slap across the face for coming home late, a hit for questioning him about staying home from school…other occurrences. It was a stronger rage than the initial one I had bested. How badly I wanted to teach him a lesson! Controlling my rage, I stepped closer to Amanda and took a pen out of Daniel’s jacket. Taking one of the papers from her hand, I wrote my number on it, using my leg as a table. “If you need anything…or you make up your mind about the movies, call me. Whatever you need. It doesn’t matter what.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Oh…she’s making me into a charity case. That’s all I need...
“Amanda!” the voice yelled again.
“We should go,” Alex said nervously. “Will you be in school tomorrow?”
Amanda hesitated. “I don’t know. I’m still feeling a bit under the weather.”
“Well, when you get back, you can show me how to do that problem you solved the other day in Calculus. I still can’t get my head around it,” Alex said.
“Sure.” Amanda said, blushing and lowering her head, ashamed to feel proud of herself. “Well, I’d…” She gestured vaguely towards the dogs.
“Bye,” I said.
“Bye.”
Amanda watched us leave, her thoughts filled with burning questions and dark skepticism. As we drove away, my stomach settled into a curious knot of foreboding.
Chapter 15
“Can you believe that man?!” Alex’s normally happy eyes were fierce with anger.
“If it weren’t against the law, I’d go back there and teach him a lesson,” I said, trembling with my anger.
“Who cares about the law?!” Alex said angrily.
> “Your father might,” Ellen replied quietly from the backseat. I could tell she was also upset by the encounter, though she was trying to hide it for our sakes…to keep us calm.
“He’s biased,” Alex hissed. “Did you hear the way Amanda’s father talked to her? I mean that voice! It was just so…evil!”
I froze.
“And the way he treats those dogs! I bet he doesn’t treat Amanda any better!” Alex raged on. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. “I oughta hit him until he cries, that evil, evil, man!”
“What’s the matter, Clare?” Ellen asked, noticing my tense frame.
“His voice was familiar, that’s all. It was like I’ve heard it before.” I put particular emphasis on the last words.
She frowned, thinking about my words.
“Maybe you heard it in town?” Alex suggested, giving us a funny look. “He preaches on the corner every Saturday.”
“No,” I said staring at Ellen. “More like at school…and out in the woods.”
Ellen’s eyes widened as what I was saying registered. You mean out in the woods with those scary people you told me about? He was the evil man? She was trying hard not to freak out, but I could see her fear.
“In the woods?” Alex asked, totally confused.
I faced the front and focused on the road. “I could be wrong.”
Alex glanced at Ellen in the rearview mirror and muttered, “Uh-huh”
We were all silent then – figuratively speaking. Alex’s anger at what we had witnessed, and her confusion at my reaction, pounded through my brain. Ellen was trying to think about other things, so she wouldn’t worry me with her worry. Sam’s face kept popping into my brain, making it difficult to concentrate on what I had just learned. I scowled at her, and she slowly blushed. The images of Sam faded as she started repeating nursery rhymes.
I thought about the man’s voice again. While it had been slurred from the alcohol, the quality had been the same. The way the voice had made the hair on my arms stand on end, and the irrational fear and anger were the same. There was no mistaking it.
I had to tell Daniel or someone from his family. Was someone following us? Daniel said they were keeping an eye on us; maybe, they had heard the voice as well. But had they connected it to the man in the forest? Had they even shared the memory? I picked up my necklace and looked out at the trees flashing past.
Poor Amanda! Her father had caused Ryan Holt’s death, and I knew for a fact he wanted me dead. What would he do to his own child? A child, I bet, who reminded him of the wife who had left him. A child he resented.
“I have to go home and finish my homework or else I’d come in,” Alex said into the silence.
I looked up and blinked, startled to see we were home. Her thoughts were less angry now as compassion and helplessness for Amanda’s situation swirled around in her brain. She had arrived at the same compassion I felt even though she wasn’t aware of the true extent of his evil. I unbuckled my seat belt. “Thanks for driving us.”
“Thanks for coming with me,” she replied.
I got out and waited for Ellen. Ellen stared at Alex’s reflection, hesitating. “You don’t mind that your dad asked me out to dinner this Friday, do you?” Ellen blurted out finally.
Alex started laughing at the question and the expression on Ellen’s face. It was so fretfully worried it was hard not to laugh. It relieved some of the tension we had all been feeling. “No, I don’t mind. Who do you think has been suggesting he ask you out before some other guy got the idea?” Alex paused realizing how that sounded. “I mean, he’s been really nervous about it. He thinks the world of you, and I know he hasn’t really dated anyone since…” She bit her lip. “He just doesn’t want to mess anything up.”
Well, that makes two. Ellen smiled and crawled out of the backseat. “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
We waved and watched Alex barrel off down the street like a bat out of hell.
As soon as she was gone all the bad feelings fell down on me like Dorothy’s house fell into Oz. Knowing who the human was the others were using to gather information and track me, didn’t make me feel better; it made me feel worse. I knew Amanda, I felt sorry for her; I empathized with her. Now, I had found out her dad wanted me dead. I shivered. Ellen wrapped her arm around my waist. “Your friends might have some answers to what we learned. They might know how to deal with this.”
‘Deal’ sounded rather ominous, even coming from her. There was no escaping what she meant.
My voice was fierce when I answered. “I don’t want Amanda’s dad to get hurt. I don’t want him near me, but I don’t want him hurt.”
“Why?”
I hesitated. I saw how much Daniel punished himself. It was a constant thing. He had half hoped I would leave when I had learned about the others tracking me, so he could continue his self-inflicted punishment. It was why he was so afraid. But, I would protect him. There had to be a solution to this…somewhere. If I could just understand why they were tracking me and why they were so interested in studying me, then I could understand how to protect Daniel. There had to be another way beyond killing Mr. Nichols and fighting with the Seekers. There had to be…I just wasn’t seeing it.
Ellen was waiting for me to answer her. Somehow, we had gotten inside and up the stairs. “What was the question again?” I asked.
“Never mind,” Ellen said. “I think I know the answer.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to go upstairs and pretend I don’t have a target painted on my back.”
“I guess I’ll see you in the morning, then.” Ellen knew that when I retreated to my lair it meant I was in for some heavy thinking, and I wouldn’t surface until I’d found some answers. Before, my lairs had always consisted of deserted places tucked away in buildings no one ever bothered with, but now I had a place that was my very own. And it wasn’t trespassing.
“Kay,” I said.
She smiled at me and went into her bedroom thinking she would run a bath and read a book. It calmed her when she was worried. I didn’t want to tell her that a bath would do little to calm what we had to worry about. But to each their own…
I crossed the hall and shut my door, treading heavily up the dark wooden stairs, wondering how much more of this tension I could take. I felt like I had no control. I felt that despite what I was learning about my life, and my role in this world I had come to accept, nothing made any sense. Everything felt flipped on its side.
I stood in the middle of my room for a moment trying to decide what to do about my tension. If I sat up here and dwelled on what I had just learned, I would get angry. If I got angry, I might be tempted to do something stupid. Or I would be a complete nervous wreck when Daniel arrived, which wouldn’t make our time together fun. I needed some peace and that meant…the usual.
I went to my window seat and started digging through the books I had stacked around it. From the outside, the books looked like a moat defending the window seat from trespassers. I shifted the last book, but what I was after wasn’t there. I dug around on the window seat itself, and was rewarded when my fingers hit something plastic. I pulled my music player out with a triumphant grunt, happy I hadn’t broke it like I had the last one. I selected the song I wanted and instantly felt myself relax.
Singing with the music, I took Daniel’s jacket off and changed into a t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms. Once I was comfortable, I picked Daniel’s jacket back up and went over to my bed to wait. I had a long evening and night to get through, but I had music, and Daniel’s jacket, and a feeling of expectation to keep me company. I hoped it would be enough to keep the bad thoughts and the fear away. Maybe, this time, time would cooperate with me.
*
Hands lightly brushed against my hair and removed the ear buds from my ears. I woke with a start, wondering what had happened and why it was dark outside. I pushed the hands away in panic, Amanda’s father’s voice rushing into my head. His voice had been in my d
reams, haunting me through endless corridors of darkness; the sort of darkness that was a direct result of murder and fear.
“Shhhh!” Daniel whispered. “Your mom is still up reading.”
I put a hand to my chest and took a deep breath. He had come. A part of me had doubted he would. I looked around the dark room for an answer to the oddness in which we were seeing each other. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“Really?” He smiled. “I thought you were snoring for another reason.”
I sat up. “I don’t snore,” I said halfheartedly, knowing I did.
“Sure, you don’t…And horses are green.”
“Hey, man, I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz like ten times. I’m pretty sure those horses were green.”
He chuckled quietly and sat down next to me. “I’ve never seen anyone as happily unconscious as you just were especially when listening to music that loud. It was kind of hysterical.”
I made a face as I shifted to give him more room. “Music helps me relax. The louder the better.”
“You were listening to one of my favorite songs,” he admitted.
“You like Eric Clapton?”
“Yep.”
His eyes left mine and looked around the room. We were silent for a moment, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was the kind of silence I had come to expect when I was around him – peaceful and familiar. Daniel tensed and his mood shifted. When he spoke, he sounded worried and a little angry, “Jackson said you went to Amanda’s house this afternoon.”
“I did,” I said.
“I thought we agreed: no more dangerous stunts.”
“No, we agreed I wouldn’t go in the woods. Besides, it wasn’t dangerous. Ellen and Alex were with me.”
“Do you realize how little that means? Do you have any idea how easily I could kill them, kill you? Those Seekers were out there distracting Beatrice and me. What if they have more allies? Seekers or humans we can’t see? They could have overpowered Jackson and taken you right then and there. We’re not your typical human, but we do miss things. We have limits.”
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