Unleashed

by Nancy Holder

  “What is it between Trick and—” Katelyn began, but Cordelia cut her off.

  “You said it wasn’t a dog.” She was very tense. “So what was it?” Cordelia’s knuckles were white where she clutched her lunch bag. She stared at Katelyn as if her life depended on the answer.

  Katelyn let out a breath. “I got a flat tire and I was fixing it, and it … it dragged me. Oh, God, I thought it was going to kill me.” Suddenly her head throbbed in pain and she had to stop. She clutched her temples and took a deep breath.

  “What? What dragged you?” Cordelia demanded. She didn’t seem to notice or care that Katelyn was in pain. Her eyes were wide, desperate-looking.

  Katelyn looked back at her and didn’t want to tell her. She didn’t know why, but she struggled with herself.

  “Tell me,” Cordelia whispered.

  “A wolf.”

  Cordelia stared at her. She blinked several times, and then she contracted her shoulders and stomach, as if she had been punched.

  “What?” Cordelia whispered.

  The secret was out and instead of feeling better, Katelyn felt worse. There was so much fear she’d been keeping to herself. She wanted—needed—Cordelia to believe her, to understand. “A wolf. I’m sure it was the same one that attacked Trick and me.”

  Cordelia covered her mouth with both her hands. “Oh, Kat,” she said. Her voice was quiet and flat.

  “Friday night it dragged me into the woods. I got away, but it came after me. And it bit me.”

  “It bit you?” Cordelia echoed. Something in her expression changed and she stopped and grabbed Katelyn’s arm and looked her square in the eyes as she asked her next question. “Did it break the skin?”

  Her voice was so intense it frightened Katelyn. “It’s okay.” Katelyn hastened to reassure them both. “I’m getting rabies shots.”

  Cordelia sat, frozen and silent. She stared at Katelyn as if her friend were speaking in a foreign language.

  “I know.” Katelyn scrambled to explain herself. “I’m too stupid to live. But I didn’t plan to be out alone in the woods. I mean, if my grandfather found out—”

  “Kat,” Cordelia said, her voice low.

  Katelyn couldn’t stop herself, spilling details, knowing she probably sounded insane. “I’m stuck. I don’t want my grandfather to know I completely ignored what he told me to do, but what if this is the same animal that went after Haley and Becky? It went after me. I know this sounds crazy, but it was like it was waiting for me. Like it knew who I was. I mean, I was in two different parts of the forest, yet the same wolf shows up in both places? I should say something, right?”

  “Did it break the skin?” Cordelia repeated herself, voice shrill.

  Heads swiveled their way, and Cordelia slowly lowered her hands to her sides. Cordelia was staring at her as if she’d never seen her before in her life. It frightened Katelyn almost as much as the wolf had. What is happening? Is she afraid of rabies?

  “Cordelia, the shots are just in case. You won’t catch rabies from me or anything.”

  Cordelia just kept staring.

  “I’m all messed up,” Katelyn said. “My sense of smell is whacked and my eyesight sort of telescopes or something. My ears are so sensitive it sounds like people are yelling at me.” Katelyn was speaking faster and faster, desperate to get her story out, desperate for someone to know she was scared. “I told them at the clinic, and they said it’s the shots. But it’s so extreme. I’ve been having these nightmares about the wolf. It’s attacking me and laughing at me and its blue eyes are glowing.”

  “Blue eyes?” Cordelia echoed. “Are you sure they were blue?”

  Katelyn took a deep breath and really looked at Cordelia. The other girl was chalk white and she was shaking.

  “Are you okay?” Katelyn asked. Then it hit her. “You do think it’s what attacked the other girls. You think I should tell my grandfather about it?”

  “No!” Cordelia shouted.

  People at the other picnic tables looked at the two of them. Katelyn’s ears were ringing from the shout. “Cordelia, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Cordelia lowered her voice and took a huge breath. She looked like she was about to throw up. “You—you were right. I’m just … freaked out for you and glad that you’re okay.”

  Katelyn didn’t believe her. Not a word.

  “What happened to you over the weekend?” Katelyn asked her. “Because I know something did.”

  “Maybe you should go back to L.A.” Cordelia was trembling now. “That’s what you need to do. Go home.”

  Then, to Katelyn’s amazement, Cordelia got up, ran across the grass, and disappeared inside the building.

  12

  Katelyn’s head began to throb harder as she jumped to her feet and stared in the direction Cordelia had disappeared. She tried to call after her, but a sharp pain exploded in the back of her skull. Her knees buckled, and she might have fallen, except that Trick was there to catch her. His hands gripped her tightly as he helped her sit down on the bench.

  “What’s up?” he said.

  “Head. Ache.” She bit off the words in a strangled whisper.

  “With you and Cordelia?”

  “Girl stuff,” she said, barely able to speak. The sun was too bright. The rays were practically stabbing her eyes. She was even more unnerved by Cordelia’s reaction. “My head is killing me. Can you call my grandfather to come and get me?”

  “Hell with that. I’m driving you home,” he informed her.

  They didn’t speak much on the drive through the forest. Her head hurt too badly, and she was too freaked out. What was up with Cordelia? Why had she panicked? And told her to go back to California?

  Finally she nodded off, waking up when she felt the car stop and heard the engine go off. They were at the cabin.

  “Stay,” Trick ordered her as he climbed out of the Mustang. He came around to her door and opened it as her grandfather was hurrying down off the porch.

  Ed bent over her, studying her face.

  “Katie?” he said. “How bad is it?”

  “I should have taken her to the clinic,” Trick said.

  “No. It’s the shots,” she told them both. She needed to be alone. She had to think everything through.

  “You should lie down,” her grandfather told her. “You need help up the stairs?”

  “No. I can do it. Thanks, Trick.”

  “Got your back,” he assured her, walking behind her and her grandfather.

  Exhausted, her head still pounding, she left the two downstairs as she went into her room and fell into a fitful but dreamless sleep. When she came down for dinner, Trick had gone. Katelyn was quiet, her mind swirling with everything that had happened—that was happening. What was wrong with her? And why had Cordelia lost it?

  The smell of the food—vegetable soup and corn bread—made her queasy; outside, in the darkness, the drums pounded, echoing against the mountains, making her want to scream. She lingered at the table, trying to get something down, but it was no use.

  “I’m going back upstairs,” she finally announced.

  “Rest up, honey,” her grandfather said. “Come and get me if you need to.”

  She nodded and trudged back to her room.

  The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.

  I shall do thee mischief in the woods.

  Hot breath on her closed eyelids. Sharp claws on her leg, where the bite was. Where the sutures closed the torn skin back together.

  Katelyn, you are marked.

  You are mine.

  A horrible pain seared her leg, as if someone had placed a hot fireplace poker on it, and she woke up.

  Bolting upright, she leaped out of her bed. She felt as if her bones were on fire.

  She staggered into the bathroom, closed the door, and flipped on the light. She pulled up her pajama leg and looked at her wound. The sutures were coming undone, as though her skin was rejecting them. The pain was increasing, and in desp
eration she reached down and gave a tug, and within a few seconds, all of them had come free.

  The pain instantly lessened. She grabbed her washcloth and dabbed at the bit of blood that welled to the surface. The wound looked like a nasty scratch, nothing more.

  She stared at it in shock.

  This is so not happening. It’s not possible to heal that fast.

  She pulled down her pajama top and stared at her shoulder. It was smooth and unblemished.

  “Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” she said. Then she gazed at her own reflection and shook her head. Who was she fooling?

  I needed stitches. Something like that doesn’t go away.

  She went back to her room and sat on her bed with her hands around her knees. She kept checking, rechecking. It really was gone. She sat staring into the darkness, hearing the drums, and the wind, and her rapid heartbeat.

  Eventually she fell back asleep and her dreams were filled with the drums, and the wind, and someone calling her name.

  Katelyn.

  By morning, all evidence of the bite had vanished. Like on her shoulder, the skin was completely smooth, as if nothing had ever touched her. Katelyn was bewildered … and scared.

  She thought of the look on Cordelia’s face when she’d described the attack and her symptoms. Cordelia had completely and totally lost it.

  Because she was scared of me. She knows what’s going on.

  And Katelyn was going to make Cordelia tell her what it was.

  “You’re not okay,” Trick said that morning on their way to school.

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not.”

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  Right then, in the car, Katelyn almost confided in him. She was about to tell him everything, about the attack, the wound’s healing, everything.

  Her phone pinged and she glanced down. It was a text message from Kimi.

  Yo, babe. U dont call u dont text whazzup

  Katelyn was taken aback. Kimi was the one who had been pulling away.

  Trick turned on some music. “How Soon is Now?” by the Smiths blared as he tore through the forest like a wildfire. The moment for confidences was lost.

  Better to wait and confront Cordelia, she decided. Make her explain.

  She texted back. Sorry—lots happnin.

  That was an understatement.

  No excuse! Kimi texted back.

  “Are you okay now?” Trick bellowed over the music.

  No. Not even.

  “Yeah,” she yelled back.

  He gave her a look but said nothing.

  The rain came crashing down as they pulled up to the school. They were early, and as was her habit, she headed for the library, realizing that she could make use of the reference section to see if there was anything about weird wolf bites. As she walked, Katelyn looked for Cordelia, and Sam and Beau. The rain pelted the roof. Thunder and lightning accompanied the torrents, and wind whistled down the hall. Around her, students gossiped. Waving her gold fingernails, Dondi motioned her over.

  “Sam’s leaving,” Dondi informed her. “Her family’s moving to Little Rock. They’re going at the end of the week.”

  “Oh?” Katelyn said, surprised. That seemed sudden.

  “Yeah, it sucks,” Dondi said. “We were working on a presentation for English together. Now she’s just bailing. Argh.” She made a face, then saw Maria. “Hey, did you hear? Sam’s leaving,” she called to the other girl.

  Katelyn’s phone chimed again and up popped Kimi’s reply—a photo of Kimi and Jane in pigtails, posing with two saws with ARKAN written on them in black marker. They were blowing kisses at the camera. It was clear that Kimi had replaced her.

  I can’t confide in her, she thought glumly. No, I can’t confide in anyone.

  Cordelia got to class and sat down right as the bell rang. Katelyn waited for her to turn so she could get her attention, but her friend wouldn’t look at her. When class ended, Cordelia walked on ahead with Dondi. Katelyn followed, her confusion growing. When they got to P.E., they discovered that they had a last-minute substitute, who decided to hold study hall. Everyone spread out around the gym in little clusters; then the sub announced she had to “get something” and left the gym.

  Katelyn got up and grabbed Cordelia’s arm and dragged her to the top of the bleachers. Cordelia sat reluctantly, rubbing her arm where Katelyn had gripped her. When Cordelia moved Katelyn’s hand, she saw that she had left red fingerprints on Cordelia’s skin.

  “What’s happening to me?” she asked fiercely. She was desperate.

  Cordelia’s eyes went huge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Anger flashed through Katelyn.

  “You ran away from me yesterday. You were scared of me.”

  “No,” Cordelia insisted.

  “Look. Look at this.” She rolled up her pants leg. Cordelia looked at the unbroken skin, and her eyes widened. “You can’t even tell I was ever bitten.”

  “It’s a miracle,” Cordelia said, clearly trying to sound excited. And failing.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s not. And I think you know what it is. You have to tell me.”

  Cordelia crossed her arms tightly and hunched forward, her face wan, guilt clear in her expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Stop lying to me,” Katelyn demanded, angry and pleading at the same time. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

  “I am your friend,” Cordelia said, but avoided her gaze. “That’s why I’m telling you that you’re fine. Your imagination is just running away with you and you need to calm down. Take a break. You’ve obviously been through a lot. First with your mother and then the attack—”

  “Don’t you dare try that on me,” Katelyn said in a low, angry voice. “This has nothing to do with my mother. And I can’t believe you would even go there. That night when we heard the screams and you refused to let me call the police, something weird was happening then, too, and you knew it, didn’t you?”

  Katelyn waited for her friend to answer. She watched as scarlet crept up Cordelia’s neck and fanned out across her cheeks. “It was a cat. You said it was.”

  “But we heard a wolf. It was when Becky was being killed, wasn’t it? We were outside when Becky was being killed, weren’t we?”

  Cordelia took a deep, shuddering breath. “Even if that’s true, there was nothing we could have done.”

  “What?” Katelyn was shocked. As much as she’d feared it, that was not the answer she had been expecting. She reached out to grab Cordelia again but the other girl flinched, and Katelyn dropped her hand back to her lap.

  “I mean, I don’t know what happened to Becky.” Cordelia’s tone was steeped in misery.

  “Well, what about me? You know something.”

  “No, I don’t,” Cordelia said.

  “You do. I know you do. Please, tell me what’s happening.”

  “No,” Cordelia whispered, “I couldn’t help Becky and I can’t help you.”

  “But what does that mean?” Katelyn was going crazy. She was sure now that Cordelia could tell her why things had turned so strange, but the girl wouldn’t budge.

  Cordelia sat with her eyes downcast. The anger continued to build in Katelyn. Cordelia wouldn’t even make eye contact, which made it impossible to connect with her.

  “Look at me,” Katelyn begged, desperate for an answer. Any answer.

  But Cordelia didn’t move.

  “Cordelia, please.”

  There was still no response. Deep inside, Katelyn’s anger simmered, then boiled up and over; she couldn’t contain it.

  “Look at me!” Katelyn shouted, shaking with rage. Cordelia jumped and lifted her eyes as Katelyn’s words echoed. People stopped talking and stared at them.

  Tears welled up and ran down Cordelia’s cheeks. She took a deep, ragged breath. “I don’t know who—or what—did this to you,” she murmured.

  “But you know something,” Katelyn said
, forcing herself to speak quietly.

  “Believe me, Kat, if I could tell you anything, I would. But it’s not just me.… There’s too much history, too much everything.”

  “What on earth does that mean?”

  Katelyn watched her friend flounder. Cordelia was clearly frightened, but not by her. It was like something was holding her back, controlling her. She thought of the fairy tale-like house where Cordelia lived with the Arkansas equivalent of the Addams Family. She had tried to reach out to Cordelia, be a friend … and now that she needed one, Cordelia wasn’t there for her.

  “Fine, then,” Katelyn said. She stood abruptly to show that she meant business. “I’ll do what I should have done in the first place. Talk to my grandfather.”

  “No! You can’t!” Cordelia cried as she leaped up and grabbed her arm, jerking her back down.

  “Why not?” Katelyn pressed.

  “Because.” Cordelia’s lips trembled as she stared in horror at Katelyn. “Because my father will kill you.”

  Katelyn stared at Cordelia in disbelief. “Your father will kill me?” she asked incredulously. “As in, literally?”

  Cordelia looked as horrified as when Katelyn had told her the dog that had attacked her had actually been a wolf.

  “Yes.” Cordelia hung her head forward, draping her hands over her knees. “Yes. He will.”

  The sub appeared in the doorway and looked up at Katelyn as she walked briskly back into the gym. “This is study hall, girls,” she called. “Do I need to separate you two?”

  Katelyn shook her head. “No,” she called back.

  But as soon as the sub turned her attention elsewhere, Katelyn looked back at Cordelia. She was pale and shaking, but at least she was looking Katelyn in the eyes.

  “You need to talk to me,” Katelyn whispered.

  Cordelia nodded. She looked utterly defeated. “I will. I promise. Just … not here. Not at school.”

  Relief flooded Katelyn. Finally, she thought. Some answers. But she wasn’t going to let her friend avoid it. She wasn’t ready to give in so quickly. “Right after,” Katelyn insisted.