by JL Bryan
“That’s what we have to do, Ashleigh,” Seth said. “All three of us. It’s the right thing.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Ashleigh stepped back from them. “And I don’t care. You two are not standing in my way.” She turned her back and walked down the bandstand steps.
So the war was on. Ashleigh liked to think she could escape to Washington, and leave all this small-town nonsense behind her. But she knew they would pursue her. Jenny hated her. Besides, Ashleigh needed the option of coming back to Fallen Oak to open a political campaign office, to be staffed and partly funded by the town that adored her. She needed to stay in close touch to oversee “Ashleigh’s Girls,” as some of the media now called the pregnant teens, and see that the unborn children into whom she’d invested so much power were raised the right way, by the group that she would bind together in marriage.
There was no breaking away from Fallen Oak, or Seth and Jenny. And Seth and Jenny would only grow strong together and more in command of their powers. They would never be any weaker than they were today. The time to strike was now, while they were young, before they became any more of a threat.
When Ashleigh, Cassie and Neesha were in Ashleigh’s car, with the windows up and doors closed, Ashleigh said it.
“I want them dead,” Ashleigh said. “I’m not kidding. I want them to die today.”
“Whoa!” Neesha said. “Somebody needs to hit the pond, get stoned and relax.”
“No,” Ashleigh said.
“I know you hate them,” Cassie said. “But you’re too stuck on this Seth and Jenny thing. We’ve got bigger projects going now.”
“They have to be dealt with,” Ashleigh said. “They’re the last obstacle.”
“And you have a plan to get away with it?” Neesha asked.
“Hell yes,” Ashleigh said. “We aren’t going to do it ourselves. We get the town to do it for us.”
“How do we do that?” Cassie asked.
“First we go to my house and get ready,” Ashleigh said. “My parents have brunches and teas and crap. They won’t be home for hours. Have somebody we trust keep watch on Seth and Jenny.”
Cassie took out her cell phone. “Shannon McNare?”
“Anybody but her. And somebody with a car.”
“Brenda Purcell?” Neesha suggested.
“Perfect,” Ashleigh said. “She’s pregnant, Jenny won’t mess with her. She just needs to see where Jenny and Seth go, make sure they’re not leaving town or anything crazy. Hurry up and call! Everybody’s leaving.”
Cassie dialed Brenda’s number.
Ashleigh pulled out of the church parking lot, into the alley by the church. She glared up at the window with the temporary black plastic panel, where some jerk had smashed the pane with a rotten apple. It looked ugly. Her dad needed to hurry up and replace it. He’d fundraised for a replacement window three times already.
As she drove to her side of town, a cold, calm mood fall over her. Her brain was spitting out calculations, plotting how to make this play out her way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jenny and Seth returned to Barrett House after the Easter egg hunt. They made fun of each other for their fancy clothes, but kept wearing them anyway. It was like being in a Halloween costume, just as Seth had said.
She worried about how the town had responded to Seth with cold silence, and about their confrontation with Ashleigh. Jenny could have told Seth that Ashleigh’s offer of peace was a ruse, that if Ashleigh was being friendly, it meant she was plotting something. Jenny had just accepted Ashleigh’s offer because it seemed like the best thing to do at the time. She’d fully expected Ashleigh to be insincere, but Seth had gone ahead and called her on it.
It was interesting, and troubling, how Ashleigh spoke in terms of war and peace, as if they were competing nations instead of just three people. Maybe Ashleigh had interpreted Jenny’s liberation of Seth from Ashleigh’s control as an attack by Jenny. Maybe it was, technically, but Jenny hadn’t thought of it like that.
Ashleigh was right about one thing—the three of them were linked together, like it or not. None of them could pull free, not if Ashleigh had plans for all the unborn children. Ashleigh had called them “my babies” and “my army.” The idea that Ashleigh could be thinking so many years ahead gave Jenny chills.
It was long since noon and they’d never eaten, so Jenny went to work in Seth’s kitchen. She wanted something quick but Easter-y, and ended up making scrambled eggs and French toast, plus some cantaloupe. They ate at the kitchen table now, using the normal flatware and some Gilligan’s Island collectible plates.
“Thanks for doing that,” Seth said as he ate.
“Which thing? Going to the stupid egg hunt or making you breakfast for lunch?”
“All that. You’re great to me.”
“Yeah,” Jenny said. “If you can get around the whole pestilence and death thing, I’m not so bad.”
“What’s a nice girl like you doing with an evil power like that, anyway?” Seth said, and she laughed. “Seriously. Why couldn’t you have a nice power, like making people fall in love?”
“And what if Ashleigh had my power?” Jenny asked. “She’d kill everyone she didn’t like, and she’d get away with it.”
“At least she finally admitted she has it.” Seth shook his head. “What are we, Jenny? And why three of us in one little town?”
“I don’t know.” Jenny poked at her French toast, feeling her appetite suddenly fade. “Something in the water? If I try to think about it, my mind just goes in circles until I stop.”
“Maybe if we understood it, we’d understand how to stop Ashleigh. Keep her boxed in.”
“But there’s nobody to ask,” Jenny said. “Nobody can explain it to us. I don’t think there’s even a word for what we are.” She put down her fork, her appetite completely gone now. “Maybe there aren’t any answers, Seth.”
“There are answers,” Seth said. “There must be.”
When they finished, Seth put away the dishes. It was almost four, and they had school the next day. They made it a lazy afternoon. Jenny called her dad, who was at June’s in Vernon Hill and planned to stay there, unless Jenny needed him. Jenny told him to stay. June got on the phone to wish Seth and Jenny a happy Easter, and to tell Jenny about the cute chocolate rabbit she’d received from Jenny’s dad.
The call for Seth came later, after they’d nearly dozed off in their favorite upstairs sitting room. It was just after dusk. Seth’s cell phone erupted on the end table, rattling around and startling them both awake. It vibrated to the edge of the table, danced over the side, and fell silent as it hit the carpet.
Seth stretched and picked up the phone from the floor.
“Who is it?” Jenny asked.
He looked at the screen.
“It was Dave Trenton. He’s our kicker. Was our kicker, I guess, since we’re graduating.”
“Is he a good friend?” Jenny asked. She was already thinking about Ashleigh. “How well do you know him?”
“He was, before the…”
“The Jenny pox pictures,” Jenny said. “When I cost you all your friends.”
“Shit happens,” Seth said. The phone began buzzing in his hand. “It’s Dave again.”
“Don’t answer.” Jenny had a cold, knotty feeling in her stomach. “He can leave a voice mail.”
“He could be in trouble.” Seth answered the phone. He immediately looked perplexed. “Oh. Hey, Shannon.”
Shannon McNare? Jenny mouthed. Seth nodded, and Jenny began shaking her head vigorously. She pantomimed hanging up the phone.
“Okay, slow down,” Seth said. “When did it happen? How bad?” Seth listened for a minute. “I’ll be right there.” He clicked the phone off and jumped to his feet, grabbing up his Easter dress shoes, the only ones in the room.
“Seth, what’s happening?” Jenny asked.
“I have to go,” Seth said. “There was a car crash at the square
. Dave’s hurt. So’s Franny Blackfield, and she’s only eight.”
“But that was Shannon, right?” Jenny followed him out of the room, toward the front stairs.
“Dave’s unconscious. He’s bleeding from his head.” Seth raced down the steps, and Jenny hurried to keep up with him. Seth opened the front door, and Jenny followed him towards his car. “Shannon took his cell phone to find my number. She remembers what I did at the farm, and she thinks I can help. She’s right.”
“Wait!” Jenny yelled, as Seth climbed into the car. “We need to talk about this!”
“Then get in.” Seth slammed his door and cranked the engine.
Jenny huffed and ran around to the passenger door. Why wouldn’t he stop for a second?
As soon as she was inside and closed the door, Seth turned his car and raced down the winding brick drive, toward the gate.
“Shannon is one of Ashleigh’s,” Jenny said. “She’s in all her groups. We can’t trust her.”
“I don’t have to trust her,” Seth said. “I just have to help these people.”
“Seth, there might not be anyone who needs help,” Jenny said, as Seth peeled out onto Barrett Avenue.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“It could be a trap,” Jenny said. “Ashleigh threatens us, then we get a call from her little minion? We’d be stupid to walk into that.”
“What if it’s not?” Seth asked. “What if somebody dies because of me? Dave’s a good friend.”
“Too good to talk to you,” Jenny said.
“This isn’t the time to be petty.”
“No,” Jenny said. “It’s the time to be suspicious.”
Seth gave her a worried look, but he continued accelerating towards town.
“Ashleigh can’t be behind everything, Jenny,” Seth said. “You can’t live in fear of her.”
“If you’re me, you have to.” Jenny watched out the window as the world streaked past.
When they reached the square, it was dark enough that the corner lamps, designed to look like old-timey gaslights, had come to life. A large mob milled around on the lawn, concentrated near the courthouse.
“There’s Dave’s truck.” Seth pointed. They could just see the cab of a white pick-up truck that had stopped slantwise in the middle of the road, right in front of the courthouse. They couldn’t see much through the crowd. If there was another car involved, the crowd was blocking Jenny’s view of it. Many of the people were still in their Easter clothes, like Jenny and Seth, while others had changed over to jeans and boots.
“Why are so many people here?” Seth asked.
“Maybe Shannon McNare called all of them, too,” Jenny smirked. “We should leave. All these people hate us.”
Seth parked in front of the Five and Dime, since the crowd was blocking the roads. They couldn’t safely park anywhere closer.
“I’ll just check,” Seth said. “If nobody’s hurt, I’ll be right back. Okay?”
Jenny unfastened her seatbelt. “You’re not walking out there alone.”
Jenny left her high heels in the car and walked across the grass in her bare feet, annoyed at herself for not grabbing her sneakers. But she’d been too busy keeping up with Seth.
Several people turned to face them, and their mouths dropped in surprise. They smacked the arms of the people around them, murmuring, and soon everyone was looking at them. They whispered to each other. Jenny was ready to run away, but Seth kept plodding ahead, determined to help people even if it killed him.
They made their way toward Dave’s truck, and the crowd pulled back and let them through. Jenny saw revulsion and hate on every face. She took Seth’s hand and clung tight.
When they reached the truck, both truck doors were closed. It didn’t look damaged. Seth looked in the window, but there was nobody inside, no sign of injury.
“Dave?” Seth turned back to face the crowd. “Where’s Dave?”
“Right here, buddy.” Dave emerged from the crowd, along with Everett Lawson and a few other guys from the team. Shannon McNare trailed behind them, obviously wanting to be close enough to watch without getting involved.
Dave carried a hunting rifle. So did all of the other guys, except for Everett, who had a pump-action shotgun.
There was a ripple of movement through the crowd, and lots of people raised their weapons. Besides guys from the team, there were guys from Ashleigh’s groups, Coach Humbee and a few other teachers, a gang of random men from McCronkin’s, the entire Women’s Steering Committee from Fallen Oak Baptist with their husbands, and assorted men and women from all over town. They were people from her school, people who hired her dad for repair jobs, people Jenny saw at the gas station and the Piggly Wiggly. They were armed with rifles, pistols, crowbars, hammers, and the occasional broken chair leg.
Even Chief Lintner was there, and Deputy Guntley, and Mayor Winder. They stood with the crowd.
The entire crowd was eerily silent, just staring at Jenny and Seth.
“Dave, what’s going on?” Seth whispered. He looked at Shannon, who turned her eyes to the ground. “I heard you were in trouble.”
“You’re the one in trouble, asshole,” Dave said.
“What did I do?”
Dave snorted.
“You know what you did,” Everett said. “Everybody here knows.”
The crowd closed in on them from every side. Jenny cast a panicked look in the direction of Seth’s car, but the mob stood directly in the way. Jenny and Seth backed up, but the crowd kept advancing, one step at a time, like a herd of zombies. Jenny and Seth backed across the road, under the gnarled oaks, up the courthouse steps, until they were against the courthouse doors. The crowd stopped at the bottom step and grew denser as stragglers caught up. It was a wall of people. There was nowhere else to go.
“I told you it was a trap,” Jenny said.
“Okay,” Seth whispered. “But how could Ashleigh do all this?”
“She’s an amazing girl,” Jenny said. “You should date her.”
“Somebody tell me what’s happening!” Seth yelled at the crowd.
“You went too far this time,” Earl McCronkin said. He held a large revolver in one hand, against his hip. “You Barretts think you can do anything to anybody. Took my granddaddy’s farm away. You think you own this town.” Several men and women shouted their agreement.
Jenny looked to the police chief, but the man had his arms folded, just keeping watch without interfering.
The front doors to the church opened, and Cassie and Neesha stepped out, their eyes down, looking upset. They waited on the front stoop of the church, letting the crowd notice them and whisper to each other to look.
When the crowd’s attention was on the open church door, Ashleigh came out, looking awful. Her hair was dirty and wild, but pinned up to reveal her face. Bruises covered her face and neck, one eye was black, a lip was swollen, and her left cheek looked cut up and mangled. She wore only a lace dressing slip, and she was barefoot. More wounds and fresh bruises were visible on her shoulders, arms, and legs.
The crowd gasped and grumbled at the sight of her. Many angry looks were cast at Seth and Jenny, who just looked at each other. Either Ashleigh had accomplished the world’s most incredible make-up job, or she’d had her friends pound her with blunt objects until she bled.
Ashleigh descended the church steps slowly, her eyes on the ground. Her two friends followed at a careful distance, like bridesmaids, or mourners.
The crowd’s voice fell into low, urgent whispering as Ashleigh crossed the street, then became silent as she stepped on the lawn. The people parted for her, creating a wide grass avenue toward the courthouse. Ashleigh walked along the center of it, looking at no one, keeping her eyes down. It was the way Jenny had walked in public for most of her life.
Ashleigh walked all the way to the first courthouse step, while her two friends lingered back in the crowd. She looked up at Seth. She pointed her finger at him.
“He d
id it,” Ashleigh said.
The crowd erupted in chatter, and a few angry shouts. Mayor Winder and the two police now made their way through the crowd, to stand behind Ashleigh, looking up at Jenny and Seth.
“She told me about it,” Cassie said. She glanced at her father, the mayor. “Seth invited her over after church. He said he wanted to make things right and get back together with her. So Ashleigh went, because the truth is, she never stopped loving Seth.”
Some of the crowd found this whisper-worthy.
“But it was a trap,” Cassie said. “He assaulted her. He…” Cassie shook her head.
The crowd muttered, and there were a few more shouts.
“That’s crazy,” Jenny said. “I was at Seth’s. Ashleigh never came over.”
“She helped!” Ashleigh jabbed a finger at Jenny. “She beat me. And she tore off my abstinence ring.” Ashleigh held up her empty left hand, to some gasps.
“She’s lying,” Seth said, which only seemed to anger the crowd. Ashleigh’s condition seemed to speak for itself. “It’s what she does. She manipulates everyone.”
“Shut up,” Jenny whispered.
“Why? It’s true. Isn’t it, Ashleigh? Tell them the truth. Tell them I didn’t do this. Tell them how your friends Cassie and Neesha beat you up so you could frame me.”
Many outraged voices spoke up in the crowd, and somebody shouted “Get him!”
“I don’t think the truth is working,” Jenny whispered.
“How can you just let them stand there?” Ashleigh wailed. She looked to the crowd on her left, the crowd on her right. “Look what they did! Somebody do something!”
Some of the mob shuffled forward. Everett and two older armed men in hunting jackets got as far as the third courthouse step, with seven steps left to go. They looked at each other, waiting to see who would go first. Nobody volunteered. They were attacking unarmed teenagers, hometown kids.
“Please!” Ashleigh screamed. “Somebody! Somebody!”
There was some more shuffling forward, but not as much. Ashleigh turned to face them.