“Talking helps,” Holly said, scooting closer to me. “Let it out, Ronnie. Let us help you.”
I sighed. “I think I’m gonna have to kill Tabitha. She’s dead set on carrying out her plans for revenge, and she won’t stop until this entire place is destroyed, along with everyone that lives here. If I can’t talk her out of it, I’ll have no other choice but to stop her.”
“What if you can’t?” Tanya asked gently.
“I took care of Andrew didn’t I?” I asked, stumbling over the use of my late father’s name.
“Yes, but Andrew was batshit crazy. Not to mention he had some really sick plans for you. Tabitha is just a little girl that wants revenge because she thinks the Council murdered her father. Deep down, she’s your baby sister, Ronnie. The only family you have left. Do you really think you could kill her if it came down to it?”
“I won’t let other people pay for the problems my family created. It’s my job to stop Tabitha before she destroys everything, and that’s what I’m going to do. No matter what, I’ll make sure this place and everyone here is safe. I won’t let her hurt you guys.” Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure of my conviction. I could stand around and talk a big game, but when it came down to it, Tabitha was just a little girl. Fourteen years old and alone in a world that didn’t understand her.
Could I really kill her?
Chapter Twelve
The preschool was in a panic. Teachers and students were running around screaming like chickens with their heads cut off, and the parking lot was full of frantic parents that were all calling for their children. For a minute, Annie and I just stood by our car, watching the chaos that Tabitha had created, unsure of where to start. From the parking lot, I could see maybe two dozen or more slow zombies stumbling around the playground, but they didn’t seem to be doing any kind of actual damage.
It was like they were just walking around to scare people. Tabitha could have commanded them to attack people, but she didn’t. She chose this place for a reason, but it wasn’t to cause people the most pain. It was to scare them…or was it? Did she choose this place for me? There was something about this place that made me feel like I’d been here before, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Let’s get to work,” Annie said tightly. “Tanya, you and Ezra come with me. Holly, you and Finn go with Ronnie. Stay close to her. And if any of you see Tabitha, call out, and we’ll all come running.” Annie looked over at Finn. “Do not let Ronnie engage her alone. You were foolish to give the two of them alone time before. Don’t make that mistake again.”
Finn clenched his jaw to keep from snapping at Annie, and nodded his head. He’d been in a really bad mood for the last few hours, and I knew it had something to do with our fight. Who am I kidding? It has everything to do with our fight. He’s mad at me because I won’t give him a chance, and he’s mad at himself because he feels like it’s his fault I’m pushing him away.
Annie and I hadn’t been the same since she found out what exactly I’d been keeping from her. She felt betrayed that I’d told Finn and not her, since she was my teacher and he was just my friend, which I didn’t quite understand. She believed that I should have told her, but she had once told me to never disobey the Council, and that’s why I hadn’t told her. I felt slightly guilty about telling Finn and not her, and the only reason I’d done it was because I knew that Finn knew me too well to keep something like that from him. He would have found out sooner or later, and coming clean to him gave me someone to talk things over with.
I understood why Annie was mad at me, but I thought she was being a little unfair by giving me the cold shoulder and treating me like a child incapable of making good decisions. I’d shown that I could be trusted, and I’d shown that I was willing to do what was necessary for the greater good. She had no right to treat me like I was in danger of betraying my friends at any given moment.
Finn and Holly followed me across the playground while I thought about my predicament with Annie. They were both tense and on the lookout for Tabitha, though I was sure she was long gone. She had to know that the Council would show her no leniency now, and hanging around would most likely be a death sentence. She couldn’t risk being captured just for another chance to talk to me; she had too much left to accomplish to let family ties get in her way.
I set my sights on the nearest zombie. She looked to be in her late thirties, and it looked like she had been dead for some time. Her skin was shriveled and peeling away from the bone. Her left ankle looked broken and swollen, and her left should was dislocated and swinging uselessly behind her. She lumbered after a little girl in pigtails and a plaid skirt, and Finn jumped into action.
He crept up behind the zombie and put her in a headlock, keeping his arms away from her mouth in case she tried to bite. Holly scooped up the little girl and ran her to safety, dodging zombies with graceful strides. While she herded more kids to safety, I gripped the amethyst pendant in my hand, using it to enhance my power.
Searching deep inside myself, I found the small ball of energy that was my power. It grew as I called to it, and it flowed into my fingertips, filling every last inch of my body with strength. When I opened my eyes, I could see the soul trapped in the zombie’s body, and I set to work on releasing it. Tabitha’s power was holding her to the zombie’s corpse as if it was some kind of superglue, but I worked slowly and carefully until it was unbound.
When her soul was freed, I banished her to the afterlife, finally giving her some peace. The second her soul was gone, the zombie went still in Finn’s grip, and he let her drop to the ground. Finn jumped quickly to the next zombie, stopping it from terrorizing a group of teachers near the school’s exit. They watched Finn with as much fear as they did the zombies, but he refused to pay attention to them. If he lost his attention for one second, the zombie could twist free of his grip and hurt him or someone around him.
I jogged over to where Finn was grappling with the frenzied zombie, and I nearly tripped over a cat in the process. Looking up, I noticed that they were all over the schoolyard. There were almost as many cats as there were zombies. Black, gray, striped ones–all just standing around. Some were watching me and Annie with rapt attention, and I couldn’t help but notice that the others were gazing around at nothing in particular.
My stomach clenched painfully. Even though I hadn’t seen many cats besides Two Socks in a while, I still knew what all of their focused attention meant. Even as I thought it, a shiver went down my spine, and I looked around. Dozens of ghosts appeared, walking around as if they belonged in a preschool playground. I knew that Annie and I would be the only ones to see them, but that was the whole point. Ghosts would take any chance to speak to a necromancer like myself, and their attention would keep me from focusing on the task at hand.
“Ronnie, let’s go!” Finn snapped impatiently. He was holding a struggling zombie in his arms, which would make anyone a little rude.
I turned to the zombie that was struggling to get free from his grasp, and took a deep, calming breath. Searching inside myself for the power that was always there, I brought it forward, extending it beyond my body. The process of unbinding the soul from the zombie’s corpse was a difficult one, and I needed to be focused on it and only it, or else I’d have to start over again.
“Little girl? Little girl, can you help me?”
My attention slipped, and I felt the soul reattach itself again. I suppressed a groan, scratched my shoulder blade to keep it from breaking my concentration again, and went back into my power. I knew it was rude to ignore a spirit in search of help–I knew that I was one of the few people that could help them–but I couldn’t afford to waste time talking to her now. She would have to wait until the zombies were all gone. Power gathered at my fingertips, and I began the process of unbinding once again.
“Little girl, I know you’re busy, but I really need your help.” My concentration broke again and I groaned out loud. Finn narrowed his eyes and I raised a hand to stop whatever pr
otests he had before he said them. A hand touched my shoulder and I shuddered as her fingertips went through my skin–it had been a while since I’d had contact with a ghost other than my mother’s, and I’d almost forgotten what it felt like. “I just need a moment of your time.”
I looked up into a large pair of kind blue-gray eyes. She appeared to be in her late sixties, with long gray hair that curled around her shoulders, and a pink flowered nightgown that I couldn’t help but notice was soaked with water, which was pooling around her feet. “My daughter needs to know that it wasn’t an accident. I didn’t fall off the boat; I was pushed.”
“Uh–”
“She told me I was a fool to get married again at such a late age. And she told me that he was a no good snake, but I wouldn’t listen to her. You have to tell her for me, please!”
“Ma’am, I’m kind of busy at the moment,” I said, looking around. “In case you haven’t noticed, the world’s going to hell. I have to stop these zombies before they hurt someone.”
“Please, you have to tell my daughter–”
“Screw your daughter! What about the money I hid under my floorboards?” An elderly man stepped up beside the old woman and frowned. He had a bad comb over and black suspenders. “My money is far more important. I can’t leave it behind for just anyone to find. It has to go to my youngest grandson; he’s the only one that won’t waste it all on stupid shit that doesn’t matter.”
“My mother has to know how sorry I am.” My gaze dropped to the bleeding wrists of a teenage girl. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, and she had a lost, vacant expression on her face. Something about her appearance pulled me in, and I felt a stirring of recognition, but I couldn’t place it. “I didn’t mean for it to go so far! I just wanted her to notice.”
Suddenly, more than ten of them started talking all at once. They were yelling at one another for interrupting, and at me for not paying attention to them. I rubbed my temples, trying to focus on one voice at a time. They were all so loud and so insistent; I knew I couldn’t just ask them to leave, or else they’d just complain even more. As they continued to shout at one another, I could feel the migraine building at the backs of my eyes, and I clenched my jaw, trying to keep from screaming. It was all too much! There were too many of them, and they were all trying to be heard at the same time! “Shut up!” I screamed, startling them all. “I have work to do. Get out of my way and wait in line before I banish you all!”
They stared at me in shock, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“I have important things to do right now. In case you haven’t noticed, there are children being chased down by zombies! Now stay out of my way and let me do my job.” Finn was watching me with a startled look on his face, and I sighed heavily. “Tabitha called up a bunch of spirits to keep Annie and me from concentrating. She knows that they’re insistent, annoying, and they refuse to stop talking until they’re heard.”
“Excuse me!” the old man snapped. “We are not annoying!”
“You’re still talking!” I snapped back, narrowing my eyes at him. “Normally, I would love to help you all–that’s what I do–but I’m kind of busy at the moment. I have to stop the world from burning to the ground. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” I asked, turning my back on the ghosts. They huffed angrily and grumbled to one another, but they remained mercifully quiet while I got back to work.
This time, without the ghosts to distract me, I was able to release the spirit. It departed to the afterlife, and Finn and I moved on to the next one. The ghosts followed me around the playground, watching my every movement with interest. I could hear them all whispering to each other, and even though more than a dozen people whispering at once was incredibly annoying, it didn’t hamper my work.
With Finn and Holly’s help restraining the zombies so they couldn’t fight me, I was able to release them faster and faster. The playground was littered with motionless corpses once more, and I noticed that Annie was moving quickly with Tanya and Ezra’s help. Holly and Tanya spent most of their time calming terrified children until their parents arrived to rush them away.
There were four police officers who stood back and watched with wary looks on their faces and their hands resting on their guns. Annie had told them earlier that these zombies couldn’t infect someone through a bite, but they didn’t seem to hear much of what she said. They just stared at me and her with fear and mistrust, and that was when I realized something. No matter what happens now, that’s how people will always look at you. You could save the world and it wouldn’t even matter. People would still call you a freak, and look at you with that look of fear and mistrust, and they’ll never consider you one of them ever again. You’re doomed to be an outcast because of your heritage. Doubly so.
Not only did humans consider me an untrustworthy freak, but my own kind did as well. Because of what my mother had done–using her necromancy to bring me back to life after I’d technically been stillborn–I was feared and mistrusted by other supernaturals as well. I would never be accepted, no matter where I went. People would always see me as a monster. Maybe you are…
The thought crossed my mind without permission, and I quickly banished it like I was supposed to be banishing these souls. I wasn’t a monster. I’d chosen to stand by those that wished to live alongside humans in peace. I’d gone against my own father, and now my own sister, because I knew that what they wanted wasn’t right. This was right. What I was doing now made me a good person, right? I was out here with Annie, willing to further damage my soul by killing Tabitha if that was what it took, and if that wasn’t good, I didn’t know what was. I could have easily sided with Andrew, or with Tabitha, but I hadn’t, because deep down in my heart, I knew that it was wrong.
You’re not a monster. You’re not evil. You’re not a freak. You’re just a young woman trying to survive and do right by others. There’s good in you…don’t forget that. With those thoughts in my mind, I freed the last spirit and the final zombie crumpled to the ground. Then I took a deep breath, and turned to face the ghosts. They were upset at being forced to wait so long, but I diligently took their names and information, promising to help their loved ones in any way that I could.
When the girl with the bleeding wrists turned to face me, I felt as if the very air had been knocked from my lungs. She had looked so familiar to me earlier, and now I knew why. She frowned, as if finally recognizing me as well. “Ronnie? Is that really you? I thought it was, but I wasn’t sure…”
“Yeah, Erica. It’s me.” She and I stared at each other for a minute. “You’re dead.”
She nodded her head sadly. “Yeah, I am. And you can see me. Why is that? Nobody else can see me, even when I scream their names.”
I nodded back. “It’s a family curse kind of thing. My mom could see the dead, too. It sucks, but it’s kind of my job. Erica, what happened to you?” The Erica Vander that I had known during school did not seem like the kind of girl that would self-harm, and she certainly didn’t seem like the kind of girl that would kill herself. She’d had everything: money, popularity, tons of friends, good grades, a good boyfriend, not to mention a spot on the homecoming court. What would possess her to kill herself?
Erica looked down fleetingly at her wrists, before uncomfortably tucking them under her arms and out of view. When her eyes met mine, I saw so much pain and sadness that it immediately made me sad for her. “You have no idea the kind of pressure I was under,” she said defensively. “My parents were always on my case, forcing me to cram for exams and take extra classes and do my best. And my studies weren’t enough. They had me do ballet, piano, volleyball, and swimming. And everyone at school always expected me to be this perfect, beautiful, charming girl that never failed.” She looked down at her wrists again. “This was my way to escape. It was a way to relieve the pressure everyone put on me.”
“You took it too far,” I said quietly. Erica and I had not been friends. She had been one of the popular girls that al
ways seemed to have something mean to say about me, or anyone else less popular, but I was sad to see her like this. “Was it an accident?”
Erica nodded. “Yes. I didn’t mean for it to go so far, but I was so stressed, and so tired. I hadn’t slept in days, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. Nobody was home to catch my mistake before it was too late,” she said quietly. “And now my mom and dad blame themselves for my death. I’ve peeked in on them a few times; they’ve done nothing but cry and blame one another. I’m afraid it’ll ruin their marriage. Could you talk to them for me?”
“Erica, that doesn’t usually work out to well. Before all of this happened,” I said, motioning to the zombies around me, “people would either laugh me off or scream at me and demand to know how I could be so heartless that I would prey on their tragedies. Now that all of this stuff has come out, I think seeing a necromancer is going to just frighten them. And I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like risking getting shot just to tell your parents that you’re sorry. I’m sure they already know you didn’t mean to do it.”
She frowned. “You don’t have to tell them. Leave them a note.”
“Saying what? That their dead daughter didn’t mean to kill herself? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll make them feel so much better about everything.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and put her hands on her hips, looking like the girl I’d known back in school. “You know something? I’m beginning to remember why I never liked you.”
“I assure you the feeling is mutual,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. The migraine was building up again and I was sure my head was going to explode at any moment. “Alright, what does this note have to say?”
“Just tell them that I left a note for them in my grandmother’s old desk. It’s in my room; they’ll know where to look. I wrote down all of my frustrations about them once and sealed it in an envelope addressed to them. I was too afraid to give them the note, but it’ll tell them everything I just told you. Hopefully they’ll realize that I was just trying to cope and that it was an accident. I don’t want them to blame themselves.”
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