by ID Johnson
“Good.” Elliott “talked” some more through his eye and then went over to the window. “All right, lil girl. I gotta go.”
“So soon?” I asked, following after him. “But you just got here. You may as well stay for lunch.”
He seemed to consider it. “It does smell awfully good.”
“It is. My mom’s pot roast is the best.”
He shrugged and opened the window. “See ya in a bit.”
I was confused, so I ran over to the window and watched him disappear in a flash. A split second later, he was in the yard, waving at me, and then there was a knock on the front door. I realized I hadn’t changed clothes, so I ran to my closet and grabbed a sweatshirt and jeans, throwing them on as quickly as I could without tripping, and headed for the stairs.
By the time I got there, my mom was letting Elliott in, telling him what a pleasant surprise it was to see him, like she hadn’t just spoken to him a few minutes ago when they’d been yelling at each from different floors, and I headed for the kitchen, a wide smile on my face. If we were being watched, I wanted everyone in IAC land to know I was an ignorant, blissful teenager, happy to have a friend over for lunch, despite the burning in my stomach that told me Jack was a monster, Lucy and Emma were about to get their memories wiped again, and my sister was probably in more danger than I could even imagine.
After lunch, my dad went upstairs to watch football, my mom went to her bedroom to call her mother, my Grandma Shirley, and Elliott and I set about loading the dishwasher. I wondered if my parents had conveniently left us alone or if he had designed that. I was glad to have the opportunity to follow up on a few topics my parents had touched on during the meal. Though they were careful not to talk about anything in front of me I wasn’t supposed to know, they’d asked how Cadence was doing, and I had more questions about that particular subject than I could ask in front of them.
Elliott was rinsing, and I was loading. I took a bowl from him and slid it into a slot. “So, where does Cadence live exactly?” I asked, reaching out for a handful of silverware.
“We live in an apartment building,” he replied, handing me a glass, which I dropped into the top rack. “She lives in the penthouse.”
I stood up straight and looked at him for a second. “Really? That’s cool.”
“Yeah, I think it was a little bit of a problem for Eliza from the very beginning. There are only two apartments on the top floor, and I don’t think Eliza thought your sister should get that one.” I could see that we’d put in the last dish, so I stepped around the open lid and shoved him out of the way so I could get to the cabinet beneath the sink where we keep the soap. He stepped backward, drying his hands on a towel.
“Why did they give the best apartment to Cadence?” I asked, grabbing a pod out of the container and moving back around to stick it in the right slot in the machine.
“It used to be your grandma’s apartment, I guess,” he replied as I pushed the racks in and closed the dishwasher door.
“Really?” I asked, washing my hands now.
“I guess so. I didn’t work there when they… I mean she… did, so I’m not really sure.”
Taking the towel from him and drying my hands, I looked at him with a giant question mark on my forehead. “So, my grandpa really did use to work there, too?”
Elliott shrugged. “I’m not sure. I never met him.”
“You are too,” I muttered, turning back to put the towel on the counter. I pushed myself up so that I was sitting on the counter now, right next to the sink. “I know you don’t want to talk about that, so I won’t ask anything else,” I sighed.
“Good,” he replied, putting his hands on his hips. “Something tells me you’re not done asking questions, though.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. He knew me all too well. “So… why is it Christian’s job to monitor the interwebs?”
Laughing, he asked, “Is that what you kids are calling it these days?” I shrugged. “He’s good with technology. Which is surprising, since he’s even older than I am. Older than Jamie and Aaron even….”
My eyebrows shot up. “How old is he?” I asked. I had no idea how old Aaron was, but I knew Jamie was about a hundred and fifty.
“Well, he fought in the Revolutionary War,” Elliott replied casually, like that wasn’t a big deal.
“Shut up!” I exclaimed. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” he replied. “He’s always been the tech guy as far as I know. Course, he does some weird things with it….” He made a face, and I had to ask what he was talking about, even if I was going to live to regret it.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Elliott?”
“Nothing. He just… I guess he used to be really shy around girls. So, one of the reasons he personally wanted to help create the IAC was so he could record stuff without them knowing it and then replay it over and over and analyze his conversations with girls, figure out what he was doing wrong.” Elliott was shaking his head in a sympathetic way. “What a weirdo.”
“Uh, yeah, I’d say so,” I agreed. “I knew there was something weird about that guy as soon as I met him.”
“He’s okay,” Elliott said. “He’s not dangerous or anything. Just a little… odd. You know how techy people can be.”
I wondered if he was trying to compare Christian to Emma, but I didn’t go there. Emma has a disability—or a different learning aptitude, or something like that—Christian just sounds like a freak show to me. “Who do you like?” I asked, wanting to know more about this Clandestine world while he was willing to talk. “Who do you hang out with?”
“Well, until recently Aaron and I were best friends, but that changed a little bit when your sister entered the picture.” He looked a bit melancholy, and I felt a little sorry for him. “Now, he’s with Eliza most of the time, and I’m with your sister. But… God forbid the two of them need to tell the other something, and then I’m everybody’s best pal.”
He looked so put out by the whole thing, I couldn’t help but laugh. “So, you’re the go between?”
“Yep.”
“Are you mad at Aaron, for what he did?”
“Of course, I am,” Elliott replied quickly. “But there’s not much I can do about it right now. I think he knows, though, that he messed up. I think he’s working on it. It’s just gonna take some time.”
I nodded. I couldn’t imagine Cadence would be willing to forgive such an infraction so quickly. “Anyone else?”
“Nah, not really. I mean, Jamie’s cool. Great guy to have around in a pinch. And there’re are a couple of girls Cadence really likes, Aurora and Meagan—you met Meagan, right?”
I nodded. “Me-gan,” I said, remembering how I thought her name sounded so odd.
“Meagan likes a guy named Shane who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the day, though with Channing Tatum’s face. And Hannah’s pretty cool, though I guess you don’t think so.”
It took me a moment to realize he’d mentioned Hannah. I was still stuck on Channing Tatum’s face on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body. “Huh? Oh, yeah. No, not a fan of hers right now.”
He smirked in my general direction. “She’s good to have around in a bind, though. She did make you feel better after Jack died.”
“Uh, yeah, about that,” I began, wondering if he was about to regret mentioning Jack. “His parents are a mess. Can she do anything to help them?”
“She did, but the thing is, people need to mourn. She can’t just go around messing with people’s emotions all of the time, or they’ll end up having some serious problems later on.”
“That makes sense,” I nodded. “What about… Jack?” My voice was a whisper.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” His gaze was even, and I could feel the weight of it on my lungs. “Let it go.”
“Okay,” I said, and then a few seconds later, I said, “but whose ashes are those?”
Elliott sig
hed as if I was the most exhausting person on the planet. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.” This time I tried to keep myself from asking any more questions. His answer to the last one had confirmed to me that Jack really was a vampire. Otherwise, he would’ve just said the ashes were Jack’s. I bit my tongue. There were so many other things that wanted to come tumbling out of my mouth.
“I need to head back,” he said quietly.
Disappointment washed over me like a wave at high tide. I nodded. “Okay,” I said again, for the third time, not meaning it at all this time. I hopped down from the counter. “When do you think you might be back?”
“I don’t know.” He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “If you would stay out of trouble, maybe I wouldn’t have to keep flying up here.”
“Well,” I smiled slyly, “all the more reason for me to get myself in a pickle.”
He laughed at me. “I was not implying that you should use me visiting as an excuse to work your way into a conundrum.” He began to walk back into the dining room, and I followed.
“But if getting myself into a jam means you have to come to my rescue….”
Elliott plucked his jacket off the back of his chair where he’d left it and slipped it on. “Something tells me you’re not the type of girl who needs rescuing, Cass. You’re too much like your sister.” That was definitely a compliment, and it made me feel all warm inside, even if I didn’t think it was true. I felt like a little girl who really did need someone to keep her from falling into her own trap most of the time.
I followed him to the front door. “Are you going to tell my parents goodbye?”
“Nah,” he shrugged. “They’ll probably forget I was even here.”
Wondering if he was serious, I raised an eyebrow at him. “Where’d you park?”
“Couple streets over. I wanted the element of surprise.”
Remembering how terrified I’d been when I opened the door to find him in my room, I replied, “You definitely got that.”
“Cass, please, stay out of trouble,” he implored, stepping forward and wrapping his big bear arms around me. The scent of leather and bike grease was both suffocating and comforting at the same time. “And don’t worry about Jack.” He let me go. “You’re perfectly safe.”
Chills ran down my spine as I thought about the video I’d seen. “Are you sure?” I asked. “I don’t need to worry about… any of them?”
Elliott gently placed both of his hands on my shoulders and leaned down so that I was looking into his eyes. “As long as there’s air in my lungs, you’ll be safe, Cassidy Findley.”
I nodded. Considering how old these people tended to grow, it seemed like pretty good chances to me. “Thanks.”
“No more chatting,” he warned me, opening the door.
“I promise,” I said, my fingers crossed behind my back, not that I intended to run upstairs and blab, but you just never knew….
I guess he has a detector for that, too, because he cocked his head to the side and gave me a stern look. I let out a deep breath. “See you,” he said, and then he proceeded to walk down the sidewalk like a regular human being.
“See you,” I shouted after him, stunned, as I had expected him to vanish in a streak like lightning, but then I imagined there were potentially people outside or looking out the window, since it was a Sunday afternoon with relatively mild weather for January. I closed the door but crossed to the window and watched until he was out of sight. Then, I sank down into my dad’s chair and tried to collect my thoughts. I had no idea what might happen next, but the fact that I was back to having to deal with Jack as a vampire on my own was overwhelming. I was glad I had left my phone upstairs. Otherwise, I probably would’ve caved and called Lucy right then, and since I was fairly certain there was still someone—or something—listening, that was probably not the best idea I’d ever had. I decided to take some time to weigh my options. Hopefully, by the time I talked to my girls again, the answer would be clear to me.
Chapter 11
“So?” Lucy asked as soon as I walked into biology class. I’d avoided her in the hallway, but there was going to be no getting around her now. We were partners after all.
Playing dumb, I asked, “So what?”
“So… why didn’t you call me yesterday? Where were you this morning?” She lowered her voice. “What happened with the video? Emma said you wanted to call me and tell me yourself, but you didn’t.”
I took a deep breath and sat down in my seat. “It’s nothing,” I said, trying to figure out how to make my voice sound nonchalant. I was lying to her, and I hated it, but I didn’t know what else to do. I’d promised Elliott I wouldn’t tell them anything else.
“What’s nothing?” Emma asked, flinging her books down in such a way that papers spread everywhere out of her notebooks and folders. Lucy and I grabbed them before they spilled all over the floor and helped her stack them back up. She always carried too much stuff….
“Nothing is nothing,” I replied as she sat down between us.
“The video,” Lucy whisper-yelled. “She won’t tell me.”
“Oh,” Emma said, her eyebrows knitting together. “Why don’t you want to tell Lucy it’s a match?” she asked.
Lucy gasped, and I couldn’t decide whether or not to slug Emma in the arm or bang my head on the table. I opted for taking a few deep breaths.
“OMG! Cassidy! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“This! This is why I didn’t tell you,” I replied. “You’re not supposed to know anything, and now everyone is staring.”
“But… what do you expect? You should’ve called me!”
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “But I promised I wouldn’t say anything to you, okay? When I got home from church yesterday… let’s just say there was someone waiting for me! I am in huge trouble! I almost got all of our memories wiped again.” I was gritting my teeth, looking around like a crazy person. While we were getting some stares, no one seemed to be able to hear what we were saying.
“I’m sorry,” Lucy said, clearly trying to control herself. “But… if the video was a match, then that means….”
“I know what it means!” I knew I’d hurt her feelings, but there was no way I was going to let her say it.
“Yeah it means that Jack’s not dead.”
Emma’s voice seemed to boom through the room like a bomb going off. Lots of people heard that. Their faces turned to us, their mouths dropped open, and Emma just shrugged at all of them. “Uh, because he will always live in our hearts,” I said, as sympathetically as I could, and as if on cue, Lucy began to cry, real tears splashing down her face.
“Miss Burk, do you need a moment?” Mr. Horton asked, having clearly also heard Emma’s declaration.
Nodding, with her hand pressed over her eyes, Lucy took off toward the bathroom, shouting over her shoulder, “Come on, Cassidy.”
I looked at Mr. Horton for a moment, silently asking permission, and he nodded at me. I could see in his eyes that he understood what a trying time this must be for all of us. I knew asking for Emma to come, too, would be pushing it, but I wondered if she’d say anything else, anything more detrimental, if I left her alone. Luckily, I heard Mr. Horton give a direction to open our books to a specific page as I made it out into the hallway and knew that would distract her.
Lucy waited for me about halfway to the bathroom. I rushed to catch up with her. We pushed through the doors and made sure no one else was around. “Holy crap, Cassidy!” she exclaimed as soon as we knew we were alone. “I can’t believe this! That means that Jack is actually a….”
I rushed to cover her mouth with my hand. “Shhh!” I said before she could get the word out, looking around us like some sort of a crazy paranoid person. “Don’t say it!”
Once I was sure she understood how serious I was, I withdrew my hand. “Cassidy? What the crap is going on?” Lucy asked. She looked around, too, like there was something she wasn’t seeing.
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you guys. They know—they know I told you! And if they find out that you still know, they’ll come and brainwash you again, to make you forget! And I don’t want that to happen, so please… just don’t say that word, okay?”
“Okaaay,” Lucy said, fairly certain I’d lost my mind. “But Cassidy, there’s no one else in here.”
“I know that, but we didn’t think they could hear us when we were at your house the other night either, and yet they knew everything I said to you.”
She folded her arms. “How is that possible?”
I had my theories, and a lot of them involved people on the roof, but I wasn’t about to try to explain that to her right now, not when she was looking at me like I was an escapee from the looney bin. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But Elliott was at my house yesterday, and he threatened to wipe everything away again. Listen, Lucy, these people mean business. We can’t keep jerking them around.”
Her eyes were the size of saucers. “Have we been jerking them around?”
I realized she didn’t remember most of what I was talking about. She had no idea we’d already been through all of this once. “I have been,” I admitted. “So… in answer to your question, yes, it does mean that about the person you mentioned. But we aren’t in any danger.”
“How is this possible?”
“I don’t know—something must’ve happened the night that they went to that place.” I was speaking in a code she didn’t understand, but I didn’t see any alternatives. She continued to stare at me. “We’ll have to find another way, another place to talk about this, okay?”
“Oh, okay. I’ll just go back to class and pretend you didn’t just tell me your sister’s ex-boyfriend is a….”
The threat of my hand covering her mouth again made her stop. “I know it’s hard. Believe me. But we don’t have any choice.”
Lucy opened her mouth to say more when the bathroom door opened. I turned to see Jessica standing behind me, a sympathetic look on her face. “Hey, you guys. Mr. Horton sent me to check on you. Are you okay?”