Fever

by Amy Meredith

  Eve laughed.

  ‘What?’ Jess asked as she clicked the first hit.

  ‘So much is freaky, it’s like freaky is normal,’ she explained. She laughed again. ‘I know it’s not that funny. I’m just stressed.’

  ‘Wimp,’ Luke teased, smiling at her.

  ‘This one just mentions Amunnic–slash–Many Faces in a list of demons. No other info,’ Jess said. ‘Moving on. Another list of demons, but we get a few more details. Sightings in ancient Egypt, which we knew because of the scroll.’

  ‘Doh.’ Luke slapped his forehead. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t instantly made the connection. ‘Egypt! Where Mr Dokey was!’

  ‘So maybe he did bring back the plague!’ Eve exclaimed. ‘Not as a virus or some kind of bug. He somehow brought the demon to Deepdene.’

  ‘That would explain why the portal was still closed,’ Jess said. ‘This demon didn’t come through the portal. Eve, maybe that’s why you haven’t been smelling anything demony – maybe that wood-smoke smell comes from the portal, whenever a demon passes through it.’

  ‘Isn’t it bad enough we have a doorway to hell,’ Luke asked, rubbing his face with both hands, ‘without demons choosing Deepdene as some kind of vacation spot?’

  ‘I guess the travel brochures didn’t mention that Deepdene has its own demon-fighting witch,’ Eve joked. ‘A witch with a whole team to back her up.’ She looked back and forth between Luke and Jess. ‘I love you guys, you know,’ she added, turning serious.

  ‘We love you too.’ Jess reached out and gave her a half-hug.

  ‘Yeah,’ Luke said. And he did love her as a friend. But he was really starting to think he might love her too. Don’t lose your focus, he told himself. His dad needed him sharp. The whole town did. ‘What else does the entry say?’ Luke asked Jess.

  ‘Oh. Not good.’ Jess frowned at the computer screen. ‘The demon is also known as Many Faces for its ability to take on the appearance of any human or animal it chooses.’

  There was a long stretch of silence as they all took in the implications. ‘So it could be anybody,’ Eve said. ‘Or at least it could look like anybody. As many anybodys as it wanted to, sounds like.’

  There was a scratching sound on Jess’s door, and Luke started a little. On edge, much? he asked himself.

  ‘It’s just Ringo,’ Jess told them. ‘He scratches when he wants in.’ She stood up and let in her poodle. When Jess sat back down on the bed, Ringo joined her, nosing Eve and Luke, tail wagging furiously.

  ‘It could even be Ringo,’ Eve said. She’d been scratching the poodle’s stomach and she slowly moved her hand away.

  Jess cradled Ringo to her. ‘It could so not be my sweetums,’ she answered, burying her face in his curly hair. ‘I mean it could be,’ she added, ‘but it’s not.’

  ‘Probably not,’ Luke agreed. ‘But from here on out, we’ve got to be in trust-no-one mode.’

  ‘Anything else on that page?’ Eve asked.

  ‘Nope,’ Jess answered. Her fingers flew across the keyboard. ‘And the next entry is just a list of demon names. What next?’

  ‘How about that line from the scroll? The one about knowing him from the coming of the plague,’ Luke suggested. ‘Maybe cut and paste the line in Arabic. That should narrow things down a little.’

  ‘On it,’ Jess said.

  Luke noticed that Eve had returned to petting Ringo, but her sapphire-blue eyes looked even darker than usual.

  ‘Mmm. Here’s something about the translation,’ Jess said. ‘It says that the line is often misinterpreted. What it really means is that a plague arrives before the demon, not that the demon brings the plague.’

  ‘Huh.’ Luke drew his eyebrows together. ‘Like some kind of demon alarm?’

  ‘It was a curse,’ Eve announced. She pointed to the footnote she’d spotted. ‘It says that Amunnic wasn’t always preceded by the plague. The plague was a curse put on the demon by an Egyptian priest. He wanted to give people a warning that a demon was among them. The curse sent a plague before the demon – a plague and a heatwave – arriving in each place the demon went, to give the people there a warning that a demon was among them.’

  Jess frowned. ‘So you mean that the plague isn’t the badness. The plague is just an announcement of the badness?’

  ‘It seems like the priest just gave them something else to worry about in addition to the demon,’ Luke said. He didn’t get it.

  ‘Yeah, couldn’t the priest have made, I don’t know, rainbows appear when the demon was close? Why make people sick to tell them there’s a demon? That just seems mean.’

  ‘Maybe curses aren’t that easy to perform,’ Eve suggested. ‘Maybe that was the best he could do. Any power has limitations.’ Luke was pretty sure she was thinking about her own power.

  ‘Yeah, that’s why you’ve been able to bring down the other demons. Their power has limitations,’ Luke told her, choosing to misunderstand.

  Eve reached out and put her hand over one of Luke’s. ‘This is good news for your dad, I think. Good news for everyone who has the plague. Once we kill the demon, they’ll all be OK again. No demon, no need for demon-warning system.’

  Luke wasn’t entirely sure that logic made sense. Yeah, no demon, no need for demon-warning system. But maybe that just meant no new people would get the plague and not that the people who already had it would be cured.

  ‘I can’t stop thinking about the part where it feeds on blood,’ Jess admitted. ‘I just found some more on that. Listen. It says before the curse, the demon could destroy entire communities in days.’ She took a sharp intake of breath as she read on. ‘There was one village – I can’t pronounce the name – where in just a few days, every single person was completely drained of blood.’

  Chapter Five

  Eve opened the sliding door to the back patio, a fresh pitcher of berry and lime smoothie in one hand. She was glad she’d told people to come over today. With so many of her friends sick, it felt good to have some of the others close around her, and she thought they felt the same way. Most people had arrived around three, and it was now nearly six.

  Not that any of them were able to completely enjoy the impromptu party. The behaviour seemed to fall into three general groups. There were the people like Dave and Megan, who were acting exaggeratedly happy, straining to have fun, fun, fun – so much fun they couldn’t think. It was easy to see the panic underneath. Jess’s little brother Peter was in this group too. He’d invited himself to the party even though he wasn’t even in high school yet, and had been cannon-balling into the pool almost non-stop. He’d arrived to tell her Jess would be showing up late, and had never left.

  Then there were the people who were huddled in little groups, like Katy and Alexander, talking about the plague – and only the plague – expressions tight and anxious.

  And, finally, there were a couple of people who were staying off by themselves, lost in their own thoughts, so much so they probably hardly realized they were even at a party. Luke was in this group, thinking about his dad, maybe, or about how anyone poolside at Eve’s right this moment could be a demon in disguise, or maybe about how they’d been researching all morning and hadn’t turned up any new information about Amunnic.

  Eve set the pitcher on one of the patio tables, and walked towards Luke. ‘Do you think she’ll ever be actually pretty again? Or does the skin just never come back?’ she heard Bet asking Katy and Alexander.

  She picked up her speed, not wanting to hear the answer. When she reached Luke, she sat down on the end of his lounger. ‘Hi.’

  It took him a moment to say ‘Hi’ back. He’d been far away in his thoughts.

  ‘I should be wearing my mask,’ Eve admitted. ‘But my mom isn’t home, and how can you have a party with a reminder of the plague walking around? Not that half the people aren’t talking about the plague anyway. And the new curfew.’ In addition to the lock-down, a nine-o’clock curfew was now in place, so that it was easier to account for th
e whereabouts of Deepdene residents at night.

  ‘They aren’t even sure masks can stop the plague from spreading,’ Luke answered. ‘And now we know that what we’re trying to stop isn’t really the disease at all. You know.’ He clearly didn’t want to say the word ‘demon’ with all the people milling around. Good call.

  ‘Eve, Luke! Get in here!’ Megan cried from the shallow end of the pool. She was perched on Dave’s shoulders. ‘We challenge you to a chicken fight! I knock Eve off your shoulders, and we win. She knocks me off, you two win. And so you know, I rock at this.’

  ‘Maybe later,’ Eve called back.

  At least Megan isn’t sick, Eve thought. Jess’s next-door neighbour had been put in a psychiatric hospital after a demon attack just a few months ago. She didn’t deserve to be a demon victim again. Not that anyone deserved any of this.

  ‘You didn’t ask if I wanted to chicken fight,’ Luke commented. He sat up and took off his sunglasses, and Eve felt as if he’d returned to her from the dark place his thoughts had taken him.

  ‘Did you want to?’ she asked. And suddenly she was thinking about their kiss. Again. What was he—

  ‘I’ve arrived!’ Jess called from the side gate.

  ‘Me too!’ Bet rushed up behind her. ‘Is Rose here?’ she called out as they came into the back yard.

  ‘Rose hasn’t come, at least not yet,’ Eve called back.

  ‘I still have her purse,’ Bet said when Eve reached her and Jess. ‘She never came back for it yesterday.’

  ‘Maybe she just forgot it when the announcement was made about school closing,’ Eve suggested. ‘Everyone was running around like crazy.’

  ‘Nobody forgets a Valentino bag,’ Jess said. ‘Especially not the purple patent leather one with the bow detail.’

  Eve and Bet nodded, and Eve felt the smoothie she’d had earlier begin to curdle in her stomach. ‘Do you think she got sick?’ She didn’t want to use the plague word about Rose.

  ‘Yikes. I hope not,’ Bet answered. ‘I’m going to ask around. Maybe someone’s seen her since then.’

  ‘OK, let’s have it. What’s your excuse for being late to my party?’ Eve asked Jess. ‘The best-friend code says the best friend shall be the first to arrive and the last to leave, so as to be available to offer any assistance the other best friend might need.’

  ‘I told Peter to tell you I’d be a little late,’ Jess said. Like that was an actual answer.

  Eve raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you really attempting to not tell what you were doing?’

  ‘Did you make berry and lime smoothies?’ Jess asked, looking over Eve’s shoulder at the pitcher. ‘Yum. I’m going to get one.’

  Eve put her hand on Jess’s arm, stopping her. She stared into Jess’s face. ‘I’m waiting,’ she announced.

  It only took a few seconds for her to crack. They were best friends. No secrets allowed. Another part of the code. ‘I went to a martial arts class,’ Jess burst out.

  ‘That’s so cool! Why wouldn’t you want to tell me that?’ Eve asked.

  Jess lowered her voice, aware of the other people around them. ‘I guess I was starting to feel like the weak link in our little group,’ she confessed. ‘I signed up because I wanted a superpower of my own. You have your witch stuff, and Luke has the magic sword that can kill demons.’

  ‘You are always standing around texting while Luke and I risk our lives,’ Eve joked. But Jess didn’t laugh. Eve studied her friend’s face. Jess was serious. She really felt like she didn’t contribute. ‘Jess, come on. You were as much a part of rescuing Vic from the hellhounds as any of us. And you came up with the idea for how I might be able to close the portal. You aren’t the weak anything.’

  ‘This new demon really scares me,’ Jess confessed. ‘Really, really. I couldn’t even let Ringo sleep on my bed last night. That’s how freaked I got. I kept thinking how Many Faces could be anywhere.’ She forced a smile. ‘But now that I’m learning kung fu, I’ll be unstoppable. And I’ll have the best butt in school. Those moves really work the glutes.’

  ‘I think I should come with you next time,’ Eve said. ‘I’m surprised they’re even having classes with the town in lockdown and everything.’

  ‘There were only two other people,’ Jess said. ‘But the instructor, Master Justin, says that the discipline of kung fu isn’t something that should ever be abandoned. He said at a time of crisis you need the centring it gives you even more, and that’s why he’s still giving classes.’

  ‘You may have your smoothie now,’ Eve told Jess. ‘And there’s a bunch of food on the kitchen table. Go and—’

  ‘Hey, guys!’ Alexander called from the other side of the pool. ‘Leo Mackenzie got shut out of town last night. My brother just called to tell me. He was in Amagansett for a gig with his band and didn’t make it home before the lockdown.’

  ‘Wouldn’t they just have let him in if he got home late?’ Dave asked as he climbed out of the pool. ‘Like check his ID or something?’

  ‘I don’t think any exceptions are going to be made,’ Luke said.

  ‘I have his cell number,’ Megan said. ‘I’m calling him.’ She got out of the pool and hurried over to the lounger where she’d left her bag. Everyone at the party watched as she tried to reach Leo. ‘Went directly to voicemail. And it’s full. I couldn’t even leave a message.’

  ‘His parents couldn’t get through to him either,’ Alexander said.

  ‘How long do you think it’ll be before he can get back in?’ Bet asked.

  ‘They’re working on an antibiotic for the plague, according to my mom,’ Eve said. ‘A vaccine too. Hopefully it won’t be too long.’

  ‘Lucky Briony. Forced to stay with her boyfriend the whole time we’re locked in,’ Katy commented.

  ‘You didn’t hear?’ Megan asked. ‘Briony never showed at the boyfriend’s. Her father thought that’s where she’d go, but her mom told my mom that she didn’t. She hasn’t called or anything.’

  Eve felt like crushed ice was sliding through her veins. Rose still wasn’t here. She’d vanished from school without her stuff. Rose and Briony were both missing. And Leo would have gotten in touch with somebody if he’d been locked out, surely. Phones and the internet were still up and running.

  ‘Come help me in the kitchen a minute,’ she said to Jess. Luke was already heading towards them from the other side of the patio, face grim. Eve gestured for him to follow them inside.

  ‘This can’t be a coincidence,’ Eve said the moment the three of them were alone. ‘Three people missing. No one’s heard from them. That has to be because of Amunnic.’

  ‘Who is Leo, anyway?’ Luke asked.

  ‘A guy from the neighbourhood. He graduated last year,’ Eve said. ‘He’s kind of been what his parents like to call a late bloomer. He didn’t go to college. All he cares about is guitar.’

  Jess sat down in one of the kitchen chairs so suddenly it was as if her legs had gone boneless. ‘Amunnic is drinking his blood. Rose and Briony’s too.’ Her voice cracked as she said the words.

  ‘We don’t know that for sure,’ Luke said, then he sighed. ‘But Amunnic is here. So I guess we pretty much do know it.’

  ‘If he’s got Leo, he must have grabbed him before he even got out of town yesterday,’ Eve said. ‘Amunnic has to have Rose, Briony and Leo somewhere in town.’ Or at least their bodies. She couldn’t stop that hideous thought from slamming into her brain. ‘We just have to figure out where.’

  ‘Somewhere with no people,’ Jess said. She kicked off her sandals.

  ‘Is it helping?’ Eve asked, nodding towards Jess’s shoes.

  ‘Not yet,’ Jess said.

  ‘Jess has this thing where she believes she thinks better when she’s barefoot,’ Eve explained to Luke.

  ‘Good thing my shoes are already off,’ Luke answered. ‘OK, somewhere with no people around … Let me use your iPhone,’ he said to Jess. ‘My cell gets to the internet with the speed of a toddler on a tricycle.�
�� Jess took it out of her tote and handed it to him. ‘I’m going to look at some maps to help us come up with places.’

  ‘Deepdene’s just not that big,’ Eve said.

  ‘And there aren’t many empty buildings,’ Jess agreed. ‘The whole town is what Megan’s mom calls real-estate platinum.’

  ‘It looks like there’s a big building out beyond the railway station. You two have any idea what it is?’ Luke asked, peering at a satellite map on the iPhone.

  ‘By the station? I can’t think of anything out there.’ Jess wiggled.

  ‘Oh, wait!’ Eve exclaimed. ‘It’s the power plant! Remember, Jess? We took a tour of it in Mrs Gleeson’s fifth-grade class.’

  ‘I think we have our possible evil lair,’ Jess said, sliding her sandals back on.

  ‘It’s a working plant?’ Luke asked.

  ‘Not really. They shut almost all of it down about two years ago,’ Eve replied. ‘They opened this big plant out in Montauk to handle the entire district, and the Deepdene one is supposed to be used only as backup in case of an overload to the system. It’s really old, so I guess it wasn’t efficient enough to be the main plant any more.’

  ‘And the county is pretty bad about keeping it up, because of money,’ Jess said. ‘My mom is talking about starting a campaign to make them get rid of the place entirely since it’s an eyesore, all overgrown and stuff. There’s nobody ever there except maybe a security guard, maybe not even that with the plague. The thing is barely even functioning.’

  ‘Power plant it is, then.’ Luke stood up.

  ‘Jess, how about you go tell people my mom’s coming home early because she’s not feeling that well. We need to end this party fast,’ Eve said.

  ‘That should do it,’ Jess said, starting for the door.

  Luke looked at Eve. ‘I think it’s time for Amunnic to leave town.’

  The good thing about Deepdene was that nothing was all that far from anything else. It only took Eve, Jess and Luke about twenty minutes to walk-and-jog to the plant. Against the darkening sky, Eve could see the even-darker towers of the power plant.