by S. T. Hill
"Just tell me what needs to be done so we can get to the end of all this," I said.
For a moment, as we locked eyes there, I felt that same tension with Vick as I did with Adam that first night at his house. That same electricity crackled in the air between us that sent my heart racing.
He could feel it, too. But unlike Adam, he didn't give into his base urges. Disappointment flashed through me as he turned around to give a schedule I had on the wall far too much scrutiny.
"You have a plan, don't you?" I said.
"Yeah, of course I do."
I grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him back around so I could look at him again.
"Then let's get this done before somebody else ends up on the news feed like Jenn."
Vick swallowed heavily. For a moment, I saw past the tall, confident man to the boy inside, still uncertain of who he was and what he was doing in this great and terrible thing called life. I knew because the same feelings were in me.
"Right," he said, "This is what I figure we do."
Chapter 32
It was the first night in a while that I spent in my dorm room. The shadows lurking in the place my lamps couldn't reach were once again unfamiliar. Not that I was paying them all that much attention.
I sat cross-legged on my bed, my shoes on my feet and laced, my jacket pulled on.
Vick's plan was good. Foolproof, even. But wasn't there some saying about best-laid plans going awry, or something along those lines.
The plan would be for nothing if Adam didn't call me back soon. My cell sat in my lap. I kept flicking the little unlock bar on the screen back and forth, pulling it not quite close enough to bring up my home screen and then letting it shoot back to the other side as though it were spring-loaded.
The message I'd left on his phone about twenty minutes ago still echoed in my mind.
"Adam, you won't believe what I found at the library. It was in a really old book. It talks about that curse on your family... But... it also says there's a way out of the curse."
I'd done it as breathlessly and with as much excitement as I could muster, hoping he wouldn't be able to detect my falseness with that incredibly sharp hearing of his.
The neon green numbers of my clock said it was coming up on eleven. It was a school night, so most of the campus would probably be in bed.
There would be no one to help him. Just like there'd been no one to help me that night Eric and Joseph held me down. No one to help me but Adam, anyway.
But I wouldn't be there to help him. I was the bait.
This feeling of betrayal didn't sit well in the pit of my stomach. I tried to tell myself that what Vick and I were about to do was with the best intentions, but I remembered that there was another famous saying about intentions and where the road they built led.
"It's for Jenn. You're doing it all for Jenn," I whispered, accidentally unlocking the phone. Its little click was loud in my quiet little dorm room. I hit the lock button on top of the phone, the locking noise just as loud as the unlocking one.
My biggest concern was that Adam had already locked himself in the scarred room in the basement, and wouldn't be human again until the sun peeked down at him tomorrow morning.
If that was the case, we'd just try it again tomorrow. Though, I'd have to come up with a different ruse. I'd also have to pretend that I could no longer find the book at the library.
Lies upon lies upon lies. Lying was okay if it was for a good reason, wasn't it? I kept telling myself that.
I even found my resolve fading, found myself hoping that he wouldn't return the call. There had to be some way to fix this without killing him.
The only problem was, I couldn't really think of one.
When the phone rang I dropped it into my lap out of surprise. I looked at the screen as it buzzed again.
"Adam Arnold" my call display read. The big inviting green answer button appeared, and my thumb hovered over it.
I looked back over at my laptop's screen, still open to the same news article it had been on all day. I'd refreshed it a bit back, and they'd put up a picture of Jenn. They'd grabbed her high school graduation photo. She had no piercings in it, and her hair was a more natural brunette color. She really had been so pretty.
"Adam?" I said, putting the already warm phone to my ear.
"Hey, Steph," he replied. He still sounded worn out. But now there was a slight note of hope in his voice. It was funny how such a tiny thing could utterly crush me on the inside.
I pulled the phone away for a second, trying to get a hold of myself.
"Steph? Stephanie? You there?" Adam said, his voice sounding tinny with the speaker so far away.
I took a deep breath, let it out through my nose, and put the phone back in place.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Can you meet me now?"
My heartbeat was less a beat and more a constant humming in my chest. I squeezed the phone as I fought the urge to end the call right there.
"You sure? It's been kind of a rough night. I miss you..." Adam said.
I pulled the phone away again and then bit down on my fist. If this was the right thing to do, why did it feel so wrong? Why was it so hard?
I couldn't keep doing this, though, stopping the conversation. He'd suspect something, or I'd fold and tell him the whole plan and that he needed to run away right god-damn now.
"Yeah. The library's open all night. Meet me at my place and we'll go check that book out. Then I'll come home with you, all right?"
The relief in his voice was palpable. "Yeah, I'll be at your dorm in ten. Okay?"
If my insides were crushed earlier, now they were being grinded up. It was all I could do to force out an, "I'll see you in a bit," and end the call.
I took another breath. That was phase one down. My responsibilities weren't over yet, not by quite a bit.
I texted Vick.
"He's on his way. Should be with you in 15," I typed, pecking out all the letters and numbers as slowly as I could with my thumbs. I hit send.
He replied about five seconds later with a, "See you soon."
I got up, shoved my phone into my pocket and left my room. My steps boomed loudly up and down the stairs, and before I knew it I stood just inside the main doors, looking out across the fields of dead grass and naked trees, waiting for Adam to pull up.
The ten minutes he quoted me ran out. For a few moments there, I hoped that he might have changed his mind on the whole thing, or had been overcome with that urge to transform and had gone to hide himself away in the basement.
Then I saw someone, hands stuffed into the pockets of a leather jacket and head down, walking quickly towards my dorm.
He quickly came into the light thrown out from the doors. Adam pulled his hands from his pockets and ran through his hair as he looked at me.
When he smiled, I forced myself to return one of my own. I pushed the door open and found it frigid outside. It was so cold that little ice crystals seemed to float in the oddly windless night. I hunched my shoulders as my body tried to withdraw into itself for some heat.
"Hey," I said.
"Hi."
When Adam saw the look on my face, he glanced away for a moment. He was looking in the direction of the Arnold building, which of course couldn't be seen from here.
It seemed somehow poetic that they found her there, as well as ironic, since we hadn't discovered her in our own search of the campus.
"You heard about the body?" he said.
"Yeah," I said. I could feel my resolve to get this over with growing now, with him here.
It galled me that he would even talk about her. It didn't matter the pain I heard in his voice, or the way his stubbled cheeks crinkled with barely contained grief.
We were taking too long, standing there staring at the ground awkwardly. Vick would wait, though. I'd already given him the signal.
Using the heat of my anger to ward off the cold, I put my hand on his shoulder to make him look at me.
; "Come on, let's get to the library."
When I tried to take my hand away, he caught it. I didn't think it was possible, but my body stiffened even more at his touch. It took every little bit of willpower I had to not yank myself from his grip, and to force my arm to relax so that he couldn't feel that tension.
"You really found something about the curse?"
We started walking down the path that led past the soccer pitch.
Only a little bit longer, I told myself. You can take anything for a few moments, no matter how bad.
"Yeah, I don't think anyone's even opened it in decades. It nearly fell apart!"
"I just need this out of my so bad. You have no idea how it feels to know you've done something so awful. And I can't even tell myself it will never happen again, you know?"
"I know," I said.
This time, when he gave my fingers a squeeze, I returned the reassuring gesture.
Up ahead, there was a chalk mark on the sidewalk. It was a rough square, almost the size of the cement segment. All I had to do was get him into that little zone and stand back.
"What's up? Your heart is racing!" Adam said.
Why did he have to talk like that, to explain how guilty and terrible he felt? I even still found him handsome, despite his tattered appearance.
Nothing excuses evil like good looks, apparently.
"It's nothing..." I said, trying to quicken our pace.
I could feel the tension in his arm increasing the longer I refused to look at him. You didn't need heightened senses to know when someone you trusted acted strangely.
He said something, but I couldn't hear him over the roar of my pulse. I thought my heart would burst as we both set foot in that chalk mark cage.
I stopped and took a step back as though looking for something on the ground.
"What is it? What did you drop?" Adam said.
Why did the actual act have to be so easy? He turned a slow circle in the chalk square, trying to help me find what I pretended I'd lost.
I took another step back from him, unsure how far away I needed to be. I raked the line of trees and brush on the other side with my eyes, looking for any sign of Vick.
Now! I thought. Do it now!
We were so close to the spot where Adam rescued me from Eric and Joseph. If I turned around, I knew I could see the lights from my dorm, so close and so distant. Just like with me, those rays would be no help to Adam.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"Me too."
"I wish there was another way."
"There isn't. You didn't have to lie to me, you know. I would have come willingly," he said.
I opened my mouth to say more, but a shadow leapt from the bushes. Adam saw it right away. I knew that even as a human, he was strong and fast. He could have done something to stop it. But he didn't.
He just looked at me as Vick jabbed a taser against his neck. The little device clicked as it sent thousands of volts through Adam's body, instantly locking all his muscles in place. He groaned as he fell to the ground, trembling and writhing.
Vick, dressed all in black, pulled a needle from a pouch on his belt. I winced as he rammed it down into Adam's thigh and shoved the plunger in with his thumb.
Adam's struggles ceased a moment later as his body relaxed. I couldn't keep myself from watching the whole thing, my eyes stinging as I resisted the urge to blink. It felt wrong not to see the consequences of my actions.
It was the right thing. I had to do it. It needed to be done. I kept telling myself all that, but even in my mind the words were hollow.
"Is... is he dead?" I said. It felt like my feet were anchored right where they were.
Vick hadn't really shared anything with me about the plan after this. What was in that needle? Whatever it was, it worked quickly. I doubted Adam really felt anything aside from the tasering.
"No."
"But... I thought you were going to kill him?" I said.
Vick pulled off the black balaclava he had on. His hair was a little messed up, and he breathed heavily as he looked down at his catch. It was like he couldn’t quite believe it, either.
"I am... I have to. But not here. There's a ceremony. My family has to witness it."
I felt happy that I hadn't eaten anything in hours. If there was any food in my, I'd probably toss it all up right then. Vick didn't say anything about any sacrificial ceremony when he shared the plan with me.
It was getting even more difficult for me to be okay with all this.
"What? Tonight? Here?" I said.
Vick pulled his cell out of his pocket. It lit his face with its ghostly glow as he tapped out a message to someone. He shoved it back into his pocket and looked around, making sure no one caught us in the middle of our crime.
"No. There's a place... Look, I can't really tell you. You need to go now. They'll be here soon to get us."
"But... how are you?" I said.
I didn't even know how you killed a werewolf. Was it like in the movies where you had to shoot them with a silver bullet, or beat them over the head with a silver club?
Both of those possibilities painted awful pictures in my mind's eye. I leaned forward, hands on my knees, feeling my stomach lurch inside me. Bile lapped and burned at the back of my throat.
This was wrong. It was so wrong. Every part of me seemed to agree on that except the rational part of my mind, which kept trying to tell me that Adam needed to answer for his crime, and never be allowed to do anything like that again.
"Vick..." I said, finally able to urge my feet to take a step towards Adam's still body.
Somewhere in the distance, the purr of an engine started getting louder. Vick took a protective position over Adam as though I was about to deny him his entry to manhood. He even got out his taser, though it wavered uncertainly in his grip.
"Go, Stephanie. Now. Don't worry, we did the right thing. You owe it to yourself to concentrate on school, now. Forget about all this, about me, about Adam. It's going to work out," he said.
Was he trying to convince me, or himself? I knew then that he felt just as strange and unsure about this as I did.
The engine got even louder. The brakes squeaked as it pulled it to some stop sign nearby.
"Go, Stephanie! You heard Adam. He knows he deserves this. You heard him when he said there's no other way."
Headlights appeared, shining through the branches and the brush. It was one of those big white cargo vans. In a few moments, they'd be close enough to haul Adam into the back and take him on to his final destination.
"Please!" Vick said. He turned the taser on. A blue arc of electricity moved between its prongs, crackling menacingly.
I took a deep breath and let it shudder out of my lungs. With one final look at Adam Arnold, I turned and ran back to my door. The sound of those squealing brakes chased me, and then the opening and slamming of doors as Vick's monster hunting family members got out to help him load his catch.
Back up in my room, I wrenched my laptop open, nearly breaking one of the hinges. I didn't care. It again woke to the news article on Redeemer's website. I brought up Facebook instead. My fingers were still numb from the cold, and it took a few tries to tap in Jenn's name in the search bar.
Her profile came up. It had been officially locked by Facebook staff. All you could do now was put messages up on the wall and look at the photos and information that was there before.
It was full of long memorials from family members. I even saw something up there from Jim, and another message from Cheryl.
I clicked on her profile picture and made myself look into her smiling eyes.
"It's done," I said, "He's gone. It's okay, right? Everything's okay, now. Everything's good."
I sounded like Vick those few minutes earlier, trying to convince myself more than anything else.
I couldn't look at her anymore, though. I slammed the laptop closed and threw myself back onto the bed. The mattress groaned. I pulled out my phone, opened the contacts
menu, and scrolled down to my mom's number.
It was almost midnight here. Back in California, it was pretty late. She was probably asleep, and I didn't think they'd even allow a call through at this time of night anyway.
I just needed to talk to her, though. Right then, I just wanted to hear the sound of my mother's voice. She'd be able to tell right away that there was something wrong. I couldn't tell her the truth of it. Not that she'd believe me, anyway. But, like a good mom, she'd try to sooth me and make me feel better. She'd tell me everything was okay, and I'd believe her because she was my mother, even though I'd also know it was a pretty little lie to make life a little less unbearable.
It was selfish, though. Even though I knew she was doing better, she was still sick. The cancer hadn't disappeared. She needed her rest more than I needed comfort, or so I told myself.
So I held my hand out over the side of the bed and let the cell slip out of my fingers. Something cracked when it hit the floor.
Leaving all the lights on, bothering only long enough to struggle out of my jacket and kick my shoes off, I wound the covers around my body and forced my eyes shut. I didn't know if I'd be able to sleep, but I had to try.
Chapter 33
The next day, I sat in Dr. Hackett's history class. The room was unusually quiet, despite being nearly full.
Whispered conversations crested to a certain noise level, when everyone realized they were getting progressively louder, and then died down. It was like watching the tide roll in and out.
Despite all the warm bodies, the room felt chilly enough that I didn't bother shrugging out of my sweater.
The base fear and worry in the room even had a faint but unmistakable odor to it that linger like an invisible mist over everything. The heated air blowing down out of the vents overhead, the ducts rattling almost silently, couldn't dispel it.
Everyone was still upset or frightened over what had happened, it seemed. None of them knew that the killer had been caught last night, and that now they were safe.
But of course, I was the only person in the room that knew the truth. Now that I thought about it, things were probably going to get even worse. At some point, someone would notice that Adam had gone missing.