Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy

by V. B. Marlowe

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sunday morning, I called Fletcher. I wanted to see him in person, but he wasn’t allowed to have company. I didn’t bother asking why. Nothing about his family made much sense.

  “You could have stopped it,” Fletcher told me as if I didn’t feel guilty enough. “Those people would have still been alive.”

  That was one time I didn’t appreciate his bluntness. “You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t been up all night thinking about it? I tried, Fletcher, but I don’t know how. What was I supposed to do?”

  “You know how, it’s just like what you did with the locker, you’re just not strong enough. Keep practicing, but after your . . .”

  “My Gemini dies?”

  “Right. After they die, you should be able to use those powers whenever you want.”

  I’d wanted to have the conversation face-to-face but I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had to get things off my chest. “Speaking of Geminis,” I told him. “I met Rose.”

  Fletcher was silent for a moment. “What?”

  “Yeah, I met her. It was very interesting actually. She told me that I wasn’t her Gemini. As a matter of fact, she had never even seen me before. Guess what. I totally believe her, but if that’s the truth, everything you told me was a complete lie.”

  Fletcher coughed. “You actually went to look for her?”

  I pulled on a strand of my hair. This was one of the most uncomfortable conversations I’d ever had to have. “Of course I did. What did you expect me to do?”

  “Not that. I never expected you to do that. Arden, I had my reasons for lying.”

  “What reasons?” I demanded.

  He sighed heavily into the phone. “Just reasons.”

  Fletcher and I couldn’t go back to that place—the place where he told me lies and spoke in riddles. We had been through too much for him to start keeping things from me again.

  “Fletcher, we’re not doing this. You told me Rose was my Gemini. I might have killed that girl for no reason. How could you do that?”

  “I know you, Arden. I knew you would never kill her, even if she were your Gemini. It’s not in you. I can’t believe you actually went to look for her. I’m sorry, but I honestly thought you would just let fate have its way since you seem to be winning anyway.”

  Fletcher sounded disappointed in me, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that. I didn’t want to go into Mr. Mason’s threat of tossing me down into the tunnel. “If Rose isn’t my Gemini, that means whoever it is, is still out there.”

  “Yeah,” Fletcher said. “Keep your eyes open. If they’re getting weaker, they’ll probably be looking for you. Taking you out is the only way they can survive. I have to go now.”

  We hung up and I dragged myself out to the backyard to clear my head and get some fresh air. Resting my back against the picket fence that divided our yard from the neighbors.

  Sheba, Paige’s white Persian cat wandered around the trunk of our large oak tree, rubbing herself against the bark. I tried to ignore her, but when she spotted me, she went on her haunches and hissed. I hated that cat, something was wrong with her. Or maybe she just sensed the creature in me.

  I crouched on my knees, glaring at her. Sheba stared at me for a moment and then pounced. “BRRROWWWWWW!”

  She scratched me across my cheek and then bounded back to the tree. Sharp pain from her assault made the whole right side of my face throb. I was furious. Sheba settled at the base of the tree watching me, basking in her triumph.

  My gaze wandered to a branch above her. I pictured the branch breaking, falling, and crushing her tiny body. Squinting my eyes and concentrating on the branch, a crack formed between the branch and the tree’s trunk. I focused all my energy on it, blocking everything else out as it continued to break. The branch separated from the tree and soared toward the ground. Before I could even think about it, I moved forward, scooping Sheba into my arms just as the branch collided with the ground. She hissed again, taking another swipe at my face, but missing. I dropped her and she scurried away.

  I fell back against the fence, breathing deeply. Maybe the branch had been about to break on its own, but who was I kidding? Just the night before I hadn’t been able to make anything happen. Now I could. I was getting stronger.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Monday after carnival weekend was always a Teacher’s Work Day. I wanted to take advantage of my day off and sleep in, but instead I spent a great deal of time staring at my ceiling and talking to myself.

  “You are not a Wendigo. You are not a Banshee. You are just a girl. There is not a colony of monsters living under the school. You did not kill your best friend.” Maybe saying these things over and over would make the past months only a horrific dream.

  When I checked my phone, I had two missed calls from Imani and a text that read:

  N the kitchen

  What?

  I forced myself out of bed and opened my bedroom door. It was blocked by the armoire, reminding me that my life was real and not just some extended nightmare as I’d hoped.

  “Dad!” I yelled. “I need to come out.”

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs. “Sorry, honey,” he said as he grunted, pushing the armoire out of the way. “Forgot.” I wondered how long it would have taken him to realize I was still barricaded in my bedroom. “You have company.”

  So Imani really was downstairs. When I stepped into the kitchen, Sheba who had been settled next to her food bowl, screeched, shot around the kitchen island, and vacated the kitchen.

  Imani giggled. “Hey, Arden. What was that about?”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “Sheba hates her. Anyway, let me finish telling you about my dress.”

  I went to the pantry for a jar of olives and watched the kitchen table. Imani sat in my place, listening to Paige gab away. Her braids were pulled up into a bun with a yellow and purple scarf wrapped around it that matched her purple tank dress. Mom and Quinn were in some deep conversation while Dad drowned his pancakes in syrup. I hated pancakes. Each of them had a small stack on their plates. The whole scene reminded me of how much I didn’t belong and how replaceable I was.

  I settled onto a bar stool at the kitchen island and started in on my olives. When Imani dropped her empty plate into the sink, she leaned over and whispered in my ear. “I heard my parents talking about what happened at the carnival. There’s like some kind of conspiracy cover-up or something.”

  I sighed. Of course there was. Those kids had seen a Minotaur and a Satyr with their own eyes. Were they just supposed to forget that? I screwed the top back on the olives. I wasn’t even that hungry. “Let’s go to my room.”

  Upstairs, I locked my bedroom door and the two of us settled on my unmade bed. “What’s going on?” I asked, trying my best to play dumb.

  Imani’s face brightened at the prospect of another mystery. “First, it all started with Lacey. She called me last night. She said she was stuck on the roller coaster and saw how the whole thing had gone down.”

  My heart sank. That night, I had no time to focus on who was actually on the ride, but of course Lacey Chapman of all people would have been one of them. Why did she have to be there? People listened to her and believed anything she said. “Okay,” I said, hoping I sounded bored.

  “So Lacey says it wasn’t an ox at all like they’re saying. She said it was some kind of monster. It had horns and a man’s chest and arms, but the legs and head of some kind of animal. She said it was definitely not an ox.”

  I laughed it off. “You don’t believe that do you? Lacey must have been drunk or on something.”

  Imani shook her head. “That’s what I thought at first. That, or her mind had been playing tricks on her, but that was only until late last night when I heard my parents talking.”

  I went to my closet to pull out a dress. I didn’t want to hear anymore. People couldn’t know about creatures. They needed to believe that a wild ox had killed those two men.

 
; “My dad was telling my mom what witnesses were reporting to the officers in their interviews, and you know what—their stories matched Lacey’s. She wasn’t lying. I believe there really was some sort of monster there that night.”

  I stood in my closet and changed out of my pajamas and into the dress I’d chosen. “Imani, you sound ridiculous. Do you really believe in monsters?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. I hadn’t expected that answer. “The attacks that happened before, I don’t think it was simply a wolf doing that. I think it was something else. I think there are some kind of strange creatures living in the woods around us that no one knows about.”

  She had no idea how right she was. I ran a brush through my hair, still trying to appear uninterested. “That sounds ludicrous. There’s no such thing as monsters. You need to stop watching so many scary movies.”

  Imani’s voice was almost a whisper. “Maybe you believe in them too.”

  I froze. “What?”

  “Remember that story you told me about monsters living under the school—and then a monster shows up at the carnival. That’s a huge coincidence, don’t you think?”

  That stupid story. Why had a told her that story? I wished I could take it back.

  Imani raised herself from my bed. “Well, maybe it is a coincidence. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I feel it in my gut and my gut is always right. Something weird is going on around here and I’m going to find out what it is.”

  After Imani left, I couldn’t help but feel relieved. Something about the way she looked at me made me feel she would discover my secret at any second. I had to get my mind off Imani and her theories. I needed to get to Fletcher’s to share the progress I had made the day before.

  I rang the doorbell at the Whitelock’s. It took a while for someone to come to the door and I almost thought no one would answer despite the cars in the driveway. Finally, Mrs. Whitelock appeared, looking different than usual. Dark circles had formed under her eyes. Her auburn hair was a mess as if she hadn’t brushed it in days.

  “Arden, hi.” She didn’t look happy to see me at all.

  “Hi, Mrs. Whitelock. Can I see Fletcher? Just for a minute.”

  She looked me up and down. “You look well.” There was the smallest hint of bitterness in her voice.

  How was I supposed to look? “Thanks.”

  She clicked her tongue. “Fletcher’s not up for company, dear. He hasn’t been feeling well lately. I knew we should have kept him from going to that carnival, but he insisted. He didn’t want to let you down.”

  A knot of guilt formed in my stomach. Maybe the carnival had been too much for him. I hated that he had pushed himself for me. “Why is he so sick all the time?”

  Mrs. Whitelock brushed some loose curls back from her face. “Don’t be cute. You know exactly why.”

  I wasn’t a doctor. How would I know? “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know why he’s always sick.”

  She leaned against the doorframe, folding her arms over her chest. Something dark flickered in her features. “You’re getting stronger, aren’t you?”

  How did she know? “Well, yeah, but . . .”

  Mrs. Whitelock lifted my chin, forcing me to look her in the eyes. Her fingers were ice cold. “You’re not that dense. Put two and two together, Arden.”

  The world came crashing down on me all at once. Realizations flooded my mind. How Fletcher was always cold while I was warm. How he was getting thinner and paler while I was gaining weight and getting stronger. How his wounds would no longer heal right away. How could I not have realized this before? I was the twin eating all the food in the womb, sucking the life from him. I was the one who was killing him. Fletcher was my Gemini.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I pushed past Mrs. Whitelock. She didn’t bother stopping me. Flinging open Fletcher’s bedroom door, I found him sitting at his desk playing a game on his computer.

  I slammed the door behind me, my eyes filling with tears before I could stop them. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time. The whole time you’ve known me. You knew you were my Gemini.”

  Fletcher turned slowly in his desk chair. “It doesn’t matter.” The way he said it infuriated me—like it was no big deal. The expression on his face looked almost like relief.

  “It doesn’t mat—” I dropped to my knees because they would no longer hold me up. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Fletcher, you’re dying and that matters. It matters more than anything!”

  He shrugged. “Fate made its choice. It chose you. I’m glad it did. Let the cards fall where they’re supposed to. It’s only fair.”

  None of this was fair. I didn’t care about fate and cards falling where they may. I couldn’t believe he was acting as if this were nothing. I searched for any excuse for it not to be true—waiting for him to tell me that I was crazy and had it all wrong. “Your birthday’s in July. Mine is in October.” Geminis are born on the same day.

  “That’s a lie. I was born the day before Halloween, just like you.”

  I pressed my back against his bed, banging my head on my knees. After a few moments, I felt light-headed. The weird feelings I got around Fletcher I had mistaken for love, for my crush on him, but my senses had been telling me that I was his Gemini. My skin tingling, heart fluttering, rapid breathing, the smell he gave off, had all been signs. “How long have you known?”

  “I knew before we officially met. I passed you one day in the hallway at school. You were drinking from the water fountain. That’s when I felt it.”

  I couldn’t believe he had kept this from me all this time. What other secrets was he hiding?

  Fletcher sat beside me. “I didn’t mean for us to become friends, but as soon as we had, I knew I could never do it. I knew that if the curse had been cast, I couldn’t kill you. I would never hurt you, Arden. Ever. Not even to save myself.”

  I believed him. I didn’t think he would ever harm me, and I knew he would always put me before himself, but that didn’t solve our problem. “But you’re dying, Fletcher. I’m not just going to sit here and watch it happen.”

  He gave me a lopsided grin. “You don’t have a choice. That’s the way things work.”

  I took his hand and squeezed it. “Then we’ll make it work a different way. Fletch, I promise. We’re going to find a way to stop this stupid curse.”

  Part 3

  My Gemini

  Chapter Seventeen

  Fletcher was out of school again on Monday. I had the crushing feeling he would never come back, at least not until we were able to stop the Gemini Curse. I couldn’t concentrate on school or anything else but that. I would die before I let myself suck the life out of Fletcher.

  I came across Lacey in the girl’s bathroom between third and fourth periods. Surprisingly, she was alone without her bees buzzing around her. She stood in front of the mirror brushing her hair. I paused before going into a stall, waiting for her to call me Dust, or to tell me how hideous my dress was, or something. Our eyes met for a second then she went back to her hair.

  “What? You don’t have anything bitchy to say?” I asked. Not that I missed Lacey’s taunts, but she had obviously been avoiding me and I wanted to know why.

  She stared at me wide-eyed in the mirror. For a moment she looked afraid, then she scowled. “I’d just prefer not to talk to you, period, that’s all.” She tossed her brush into her Chanel bag and headed for the door. “I can’t be late for Mr. Christy’s class again.”

  “I heard about what you saw at the carnival. Or what you think you saw.”

  Lacey froze with her hand on the door, then she walked over to me, so close we were almost nose to nose. I could smell her cherry lip gloss. “What do you mean, what I think I saw? As I recall, you were standing right there. You and your weirdo boyfriend. You saw what happened. You saw those men get killed.”

  I stared her dead in the eye. I couldn’t believe there was a time when I had been intimidated by this girl. “I saw an ox come out
of the woods and trample them to death. Yes. It was horrible.”

  She narrowed her green eyes at me, backing away. “Liar. You saw what the rest of us saw, the only difference was that we were scared shitless. You and Fletcher stood there watching like it was something you saw every day. You didn’t look afraid at all. We were trapped on that ride. We couldn’t go anywhere. But you two, why didn’t you run like everyone else? Why weren’t you afraid, Arden?”

  “It was just an ox,” I said in barely a whisper.

  Lacey moved toward the door again, flipping her blond tresses over her shoulder. “Something is wrong with you. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but it’s something. You were the last person seen with Bailey before she vanished. Fletcher warned Ms. Melcher before she disappeared. How did he know something was going to happen to her? Now monsters are popping up and you act like it’s nothing. Maybe you’re an alien or something. God knows you act like one.”

  “Lacey—”

  “Save it, okay. Something is wrong with this town. My family and I are moving away this summer.”

  I clapped my hands. “Great!”

  She looked like she wanted to shove me (she’d done it before) but she thought better of it. “I tried to warn Imani about you, but she wouldn’t listen. She’ll learn, I suppose. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but stay away from me.”

  The bell rang and then she was gone. What exactly had she told Imani?

  Imani and I met by the trophy case after school. She was talking a mile a minute about Ms. Melcher and the events of the carnival, but I couldn’t focus on that. I had to go to the lair and find out about stopping the curse. There had to be a way, and if there was, the Takers probably knew about it.