She crossed her arms and continued to look upward. Polluted or not, she chose to enjoy it. The luxury of choice was just as beautiful as the complexion of the sky at sunset.
It didn’t take long for Alex’s dreams to find her that night. Thankfully, they didn’t carry her to the Eskers, but to somewhere she’d never been before. She was trekking through a hot desert, miles and miles of it. Although she was alone, millions of footprints imprinted the sand, choppy like an ocean current. She saw no end in sight, but kept walking, unfazed.
“Now this is what I expected death to be like,” she said aloud.
She felt Chase’s presence, and it began to snow. You’ve been watching too many movies.
“How do you figure?”
Death isn’t so much different from life, is it?
“I guess we wouldn’t know, since we aren’t really dead, or so I hear.”
The scenery shifted. Her toes were still in the sand, but the grains turned cold. She was back at the beach on Parrish Day when the boys played volleyball for hours and she was subjected to the idiocy of the drunken girls. The scene unfolded like a movie. Finally, Chase came to her rescue before the redhead and Posey dragged the blonde from the beach.
Chase once again fell to his knees in front of her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Suddenly he looked much older than thirteen. His hair was a bit longer than it had been a moment ago, and all boyishness had vanished. Although his eyes maintained the same Caribbean blue, the face around them, if possible, had become even more breathtaking, stronger and sharper. “How is everything?” he asked her.
The people around them continued to act as they had that day years ago. The volleyball game commenced without Chase, and the other kids continued to talk and laugh around the bonfire.
“Where are you?” she asked with a slow smile.
“I’m paying penance.”
“For what?”
“No worries.” He shifted to sit beside her in the sand, resting his forearms on his knees. “It was worth it.”
“For me,” she said guiltily.
“And for me.”
Alex wanted to reach out and touch him, but fear stopped her. She worried her hand would go right through him. “Where were you going the night before I arrived here? Why did you get in trouble? Your brothers haven’t exactly been eager to talk to me about you. In fact, no one seems eager to talk to me about anything.”
The flames reflected in Chase’s eyes. “It’s frowned upon to even discuss rule-breaking. Who would’ve thought death would be so strict? What were you doing the night before you arrived here?”
“Dying, actually. Thanks for asking.”
His voice was soft. “And you actually have to ask where I was going?”
“You were coming to me. So it was my fault.”
“No. It was my choice.”
Alex turned her gaze to the water and watched the tide rise. “Are you really here, or are you just in my head?”
“It’s one and the same.”
“What about when I was alive?”
He pointed to the scar on her wrist. “Who do you think told Liv what you were planning to do to yourself?”
“And now? How do I know what’s a dream and what isn’t?”
“Why do they have to be separate?”
“Is this a dream right now?”
“The images are.”
The waves began to white-cap, spilling relief-scented energy onto the beach. Alex took a deep breath to savor it. “You’re real?”
Chase chuckled. “I hope so.”
“Why did you risk leaving the other night if you knew I was dying and you’d see me anyway?”
All humor left him. “No one deserves to die alone, least of all you. All I wanted to do was be there with you. I didn’t want you to be scared.”
“My mind was gone anyway. They saw to that at the Eskers. I barely remember it, honestly.”
“That doesn’t make it better. And I thought maybe if I was there, I could talk to you, since I couldn’t get through in your head. Your body shielded you. Although I could get in and I could hear you, it kept you from hearing me.”
“But I heard you sometimes. Whispers.”
“I could tell. It was only when your mind let down its defenses.” He lifted his hand and allowed grains of cold sand to run through his fingers. She took the opportunity to stare at him.
“How long are you going to be gone?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Why are they keeping you so long?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard by now we aren’t permitted to leave the city.”
“It’s like house arrest.”
“It’s a rule. I broke it. I’m paying the price.”
“So it’s punishment?”
“At first I wondered if they just thought I was the one responsible for the pranks around campus. Like maybe they thought I was masterminding some plot to encourage other newburies to break the rules.”
“But the pranks are still happening,” she pointed out.
“Exactly. Which works out well for me.”
Alex glanced up when a shadow blocked the flames. Kaleb twirled a beach chair above his head. “Who’s ready to catch a ghost?”
She quickly realized he wasn’t talking about her. The crowd had dwindled. The younger children had been sent to bed, and most of the adults had succumbed to their impending hangovers and headed home.
She turned to Chase, disappointed to find him young again. Jonas appeared, sandwiching a marshmallow between two graham crackers. “No one has ever seen the Parrish Cove Ghost. You actually think she’ll make an exception for you?”
“Most girls do.” Kaleb situated the beach chair with his back to the group. He shouted against the noise of the waves. “It’s Parrish Day. No doubt she’ll be out to play.”
It was a lost cause. Locals and tourists alike were always setting up camp on the beach because they wanted to witness the infamous Parrish Cove Ghost. But even if the ghost-watchers avoided sleep the entire night, they would still claim to see no activity on the beach. And it had been a long time since anyone had seen a trail of fresh footprints along the wet sand in the morning.
“I’ll stay out here with you, Kaleb,” Gabe offered.
“Thanks buddy. Jonas, no one wants you out here anyway.”
Jonas swallowed his s’more with a loud gulp. “If you really wanted to go ghost hunting, you wouldn’t sit on the beach all night.”
Kaleb turned in his chair. “Really? What would I do, oh wise one?”
Jonas shrugged. “You’d go to the Parrish woods. Check out the Eskers in all its nighttime glory.”
“The mental institution? You’re off your rocker.” But Kaleb seemed excited despite his scoff. “Hey, Liv,” he shouted through the flames of the bonfire. “You’re a mental case. Would you go into the Eskers woods at night?”
Liv Frank was staring in the direction of the bay, stone-faced. Usually, she'd retaliate with a clever comeback. Alex envied Liv's wittiness even if she knew it only masked Liv's insecurities about her nutty family and her weight. Even in the dead of summer, Liv wore long pants because she hated her legs, yet now she shivered.
“Are you okay?”
Liv seemed surprised to find Alex sitting there. She nodded and murmured something about footprints.
Jonas shook his head. “I’m just saying … ”
Kaleb leapt to his feet. “Let’s go.”
Alex didn’t need to listen. She knew what would happen. Within minutes, they were packed into Kaleb’s Jeep en route to the Eskers. It intrigued Alex to be a participant in the dream, acting exactly like she had years ago, but she went along with it simply because she enjoyed it. And she was hopeful that Chase would reappear, the real Chase, not the one she was wedged next to. She was so close to him she was practically sitting on his lap, and her heart pounded in the dream no differently than it had in real life. It was invigorating to feel a true heartbeat again, not
just the memory her mind created.
They stopped when they reached the middle of the woods, and they weren’t there half an hour before Jonas dared them to get out.
“Are you crazy?” Liv shrieked. “You aren’t supposed to get out of the car. Those are the rules!”
“Who made those rules, Liv? The ghosts?” Jonas snickered. “You just worry about your Weight Watchers rules. I’m going.”
Kaleb pulled the keys from the ignition. He couldn’t be outdone by his little brother. “Me, too.”
Alex hated to admit it, but she was curious.
“You aren’t supposed to turn off the car either,” Liv wailed.
“What?”
“You turned off the car! And the headlights!”
Kaleb shrugged. “Habit.”
Liv shook in panic.
“You’ll be fine.”
“Leave the keys,” she demanded, holding out a hand.
Kaleb fought a smile. “Are you planning to drive away without us?”
“No,” she said, but she didn’t sound completely sure.
“She's not going anywhere,” Jonas remarked. “There isn’t a McDonald’s around here.”
All participants in the dare needed to separate, and Alex found herself alone. Within seconds the air around her silenced. No movement, no whispers, no animals. It was dauntingly still, like the world after a snowfall. Alex tried to spot one of the others, but she couldn’t see a thing. She began whispering into the darkness, calling each of their names. No one answered. They couldn’t be far, so she called their names a little louder. The darkness swallowed her voice.
She decided to make her way back to the Jeep, but she couldn’t remember which way was which. She set off tentatively, crunching through the leaves. And then she froze.
She turned her head, listening for it again. The logical half of her brain insisted that she was making it up, but she couldn’t ignore the tinkling sound of tiny bells, like those on a clown hat. A jester’s hat. She picked up her pace.
They rang again, echoing in her head, except this time they’d moved to the right. Her fingers and toes grew numb with cold, and she could only warm herself with an overcoat of vulnerability. She heard a whimper escape her throat.
Chase, she thought.
Don’t worry. His voice came instantly, and Alex wondered if he had been there all along. That Jester guy is just messing with us.
Where are you now? In the dream.
Looking for you. He split us up.
Why?
He’s bored. We’re entertaining him.
He doesn’t want to hurt us, right?
No. I feel some sort of energy though, so there might be someone else out here with us, dead or alive. He might be trying to keep us away from whoever that is, too. What made you think of this anyway? Your mind must have held the memory for your dreams to carry you here.
I guess maybe because I saw the Jester mentioned in some book that Gabe was reading.
Gabe’s obsessed. But it is kind of cool that some of this world has to do with where we grew up.
The scene played out exactly how she remembered it. Each of them found their way back to the Jeep because they followed the sound of screaming. When they reached Liv, she was hyperventilating because a pair of blinding white lights was slowly traveling towards the car. The high beams grew larger and larger, and to avoid getting slammed by a car of such size, Kaleb quickly started the Jeep and veered sharply left to get out of the way.
It occurred to them on the way home that the road did not go straight ahead. The lights had been shining at them through the trees. And they were accompanied by the ringing of bells.
As the others screamed, Alex could hear giggling. It wasn’t external; it was like the laughter was inside her head.
And it sounded completely insane.
Brigitta’s classrooms all seemed the same: vast stadium seating, mahogany railings with desks attached, and raised stages for the instructors. The exception was Professor Duvall’s alchemy, botany, and chemistry workshops, nicknamed ABC. Alex considered the room to be a mix between a marine biologist’s dream and a mad scientist’s lab. A sheet of glass comprised the entire right side of the wall, revealing a tank filled with a variety of sea creatures from pea-sized fish to human-sized squids. To the left, jars wallpapered the room, floor to ceiling, displaying grotesquely unidentifiable contents. The one closest to Alex looked like it was filled with human fingers. Other jars were solid. She could only imagine what was hiding in those.
The only available seat waited for her in the back corner. Calla Bond slouched over the wobbly table, rocking with the precariously uneven legs. Her mousy hair fell over her freckled face, shielding her from the world. She was accompanied by two others: a boy who shared her features right down to the placement of freckles, and a portly boy scratching his scruffy blonde hair. Their feeble island isolated them from the rest of the class as though they were infectious.
Alex slid into the empty chair, and the pudgy boy jumped, gawked at her, and began to scoot his seat away.
A woman sidled into view, exiting from a misshapen door in the front corner of the classroom. She commanded them to turn to page six hundred sixty-six, and snickering filled the room.
Alex rummaged in her bag, but her stomach flip-flopped when she realized she had forgotten her book. What a fantastic first impression she’d make on this teacher. The freckled boy noticed her plight, and he scooted his chair closer to position his book directly in front of Alex.
“Thanks,” she said. “Can you see the page?”
He waved his hand, shooing the thought. “I already read the whole book.”
He had to be kidding. The textbook was the size of a small suitcase, and it was full of formulas and foreign languages. Not the sort of book one could memorize even with an accelerated brain. The pudgy boy met her gaze and winced like he was in pain.
“Ah, right,” said the teacher, “I sense new blood in the room. Where is she?” Like an anorexic runway model with her wiry hair and hollowed eyes, she high-stepped down the aisle and moved like a breeze to the snapping of the loose jewelry around her bone-thin neck and wrists. The thick, colorful beads reminded Alex of stage accessories in a dress-up trunk. Objects fell to the floor in her wake: a piece of paper in one row, an empty cup in another. She didn’t seem to notice. When she came close to Alex, she stiffened, aghast.
Alex greeted her with reserve.
Professor Duvall didn’t respond at first; she just hovered with her mouth frozen in an O. Alex should have been used to this since most of the teachers had behaved the same way. But, unlike the others, this woman’s mouth curved into a Cheshire Cat’s smile and her emerald eyes lit up. “I’ll be damned,” she murmured under her breath. “How did you do it?”
“I’m sorry?” Alex asked, confused.
Duvall waved off the question. “You are the one who took care of that dreadful gargoyle of a bench?”
Alex nodded. News really traveled fast around here.
“Good riddance. I have despised that bench for a century. I’m Professor Lucia Duvall. It’s lovely to meet you.” She regarded the other occupants of Alex’s table with derision, sucking in her already skeletal cheeks. “It would be favorable for you to occupy a seat closer to the front, would it not?”
Alex double checked the seats in the room but saw no vacancies.
“You have much to catch up on.”
“Oh.” She placed a hand on the book sitting between her and the boy. “He’s loaning me his textbook today.”
“I see.” Professor Duvall sneered at Alex’s remote table of rejects before gliding to the front of the room.
Alex let out a breath and curled her arms around her chest. She wondered why she had chills up her spine. Then she realized the freckled boy next to her was grinding his oversized teeth. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he muttered, glaring at the teacher. “Just the witch.”
Alex didn’t think
she’d heard him correctly. “The what?”
He pointed to the front of the room.
“Jade stones!” Professor Duvall’s voice rang through the vaulted rafters. “Mr. Seyferr, if you could be helpful enough to tell us how this substance affects the bodied.”
The round-faced boy on Alex’s other side began to flip through the pages of his book furiously.
“Hello!” Duvall barked. “Reuben Seyferr!”
“I …” Reuben Seyferr squeaked in a voice much smaller than he was. He itched at one of his arms. “I don’t remember.”
“You didn’t read the chapter?”
“I did. I just … ”
“See me after class.” Duvall’s voice was angrily high-pitched, but she seemed pleased that she’d embarrassed him. “Jackery Bond?”
The freckled boy lifted his chin. “Yes?”
“Jade stones?”
Jackery Bond sighed. “For humans, excuse me, the bodied, jade is often a symbol for perfection and immortality. Mesoamerican Indian masks often had the stone embedded within the representations of their gods,” he recited. “The Chinese also greatly value the stone.”
Alex was impressed. Perhaps he had memorized the entire book.
“Humph.” Duvall gave a sniff nod. “And Skye.” She refocused her attention, and her tone softened considerably. “For what do we use the stone?”
“Our doctors use it,” Skye responded in a sing-song voice. “It helps to sustain spiritual injuries in the core area.” She pointed to her hips.
Alex wasn’t sure what to think about Skye Gossamer. That morning, she had walked up to Alex in the vestibule and stared into Alex’s eyes, scrutinizing her own reflection. “You have long eyelashes,” she’d said. “That means you don’t always allow yourself to the see the things right in front of you.” And then she’d turned her heel, and her long auburn hair billowed behind her like a curtain.
“Very good.” Duvall gave a small nod of approval. She openly favored Skye over Jackery or Reuben. She waved her arm above her head in a fist and the image of a primrose yellow stone appeared, hovering in midair.
“Jackery,” Alex whispered, “is that a projection?”
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