Daphna hurried down the road, so Dex had to catch up again.
“What was that all about?” he asked, coming alongside. “Did I just see what I think I saw? Did she really just invite you to a party? I thought you had to be a Pop to go to a Pop party.”
Daphna shrugged, looking both pleased and somehow guilty, like she’d just been caught cheating or something.
“You heard her,” she said.
“But you’re not a Pop.” Dex scrutinized his sister. She certainly didn’t look like her dreams had just come true. On the other hand, she had a bit of a smirk she was trying to hide.
“I don’t get it,” Dex said.
Daphna turned a sharp eye on her brother, but then collected herself. “I ran into her,” she said, coolly. “Turns out they did lie about going to camp, but they apologized. So we’re cool. Now let’s get a move on or we’ll—Oh, gosh—”
They’d reached the burned out hulk of the ABC. The twins stopped and stood there gaping at the collapsed front room. A line of yellow tape strung around rubber poles cordoned off what used to be the entrance. The place looked desolate.
“Wow,” said Dex, “creepy.”
“Hey! It’s them!” someone shouted. The twins tensed. Six boys stepped out from behind the far side of the building.
“Run, Daphna!” Dex yelled, dropping his bag.
Daphna was too stunned to react. Dex grabbed her by the arm, causing her to drop both her bag and the soup, and tried to pull her away. But because they both reached back for their bags, the twins wound up in a tangled clutch, and then it was too late. The boys dragged them toward the steps leading down behind the warehouse.
Rough hands pushed and pulled them down the stairs and then shoved them up against the blackened rear wall of the building. Dirty fingers jammed over their mouths.
“Well, well, well, well, well,” sneered a gangling boy with ferocious red hair. He looked back over his shoulder twice as he spoke, though no one was there.
Dexter recognized this hooligan. He’d been there in the park with his gang when Emmet made Dex piss himself. Emmet had shouted at him to keep away. Dex was scared, there was no doubt about it, but something deep inside whispered that this might just be a chance to redeem himself.
Daphna was terrified, plain and simple. She had no idea who these boys were. Some of them looked like the kids at school who were always getting suspended, but she never went anywhere near any of them.
“You got a strange name,” the redhead said to the twins. “Wax. What’s up with that? Are you made of wax or something? If you caught on fire, would you melt?”
Dex and Daphna tried to look at each other to gauge the seriousness of this threat. For their efforts, they got their skulls slammed into the wall. The redhead took a lighter out of his jeans pocket and flicked it. A tall blue flame jutted out like a blade.
“Go, Antin! Go, Antin!” sang the boy with his disgusting hand on Daphna’s mouth.
“Shut up,” Antin barked. Then he said, “We’ve become very interested in fire lately.”
He stepped forward and waved the flame in Dex’s face, revealing his herky-jerky black pupils. “Do you have any idea why we might be so interested in fire lately?”
Dex and Daphna managed to shake their heads.
“Tell ‘em,” the same other boy urged.
“Shut up. I’ll tell you why,” Antin said, stepping toward Daphna now with the flame. She recoiled from the bloodthirsty look in his eyes.
“For one thing,” he said, “this old place just went up. Very interesting, fires. They can really mess you up. You ever see how much a fire can mess a person up?”
Daphna had no idea how to respond to this. She was too frightened even to speculate about what was going on.
Antin didn’t seem interested in her answer, anyway. He snapped the lighter shut and crammed it back into his pocket.
“Funny you should ask,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “Here, I’ll show you.”
At his command, a boy with tattoos on his hands pulled aside a large piece of plywood resting against the wall, exposing a hole. Other boys pushed the twins through, then covered the hole behind them blotting out the light like the door to a dungeon.
It wasn’t completely dark inside. They were in some sort of basement or lower storage area. Portions of the warehouse’s floor above had collapsed, so the ground was strewn with debris that seemed to include charred books. A series of dim, flickering flashlights were set up in a half circle in the center of the space, projecting weak beams at something large and lumpy under a sheet. Little else was visible, making the object appear to float in an empty black sea.
“Over here,” Antin ordered. He’d moved up ahead and was squatting down at one end of the thing. Then, for some reason, he suddenly swung his light toward the back of the storage area. He moved it around a moment, but quickly turned his attention back to whatever was on the floor.
When Dex and Daphna were pushed forward, he snatched the sheet away like a magician. There were no flowers or birds or bunny rabbits in this trick. It was Emmet. Daphna looked down sadly at the body. The smell before was awful; now it was atrocious.
Dex was prepared for neither the sight nor the smell, and the shock, combined with the rank vapor he’d sucked into his throat, caused him to start heaving. The boys holding him leapt away, letting him fall to a knee and vomit on the floor. Everyone laughed.
So this was his redemption.
“We found him,” Antin said, hauling Dex to his feet.
“So?” said Daphna. Seeing Emmet had somehow calmed her, and she’d been able to gather her thoughts a bit. She was desperate to get her bag before she lost the Ledger, but she didn’t want to use her Word unless she absolutely had to.
“Sooo,” Antin said, turning to Daphna with mock patience, “we want the scoop.” He shone the flashlight at the body again. “What do you two know about good ol’ Emmet here getting toasted?”
“Nothing,” Dex insisted. “We don’t know anything about it.”
“Don’t be stupid, even if you are the stupid one,” Antin spat, looking back and aiming his light in Dexter’s face. “We found him in your little hideout.” Dex must have looked dismayed, because Antin laughed.
“The other day,” he explained, “after you and him put on that little show in the park, we saw him follow you into the woods. So I did a little following myself. He watched you crying like a sissy for a long time before he took off.” Antin turned to Daphna then and said, “We found Mr. Well Done here right before he croaked.”
Now it was Daphna’s turn to look dismayed. She must have been wrong about Emmet being dead! She’d walked away from him, and he wasn’t dead. These boys, these sick boys, must have been the people she heard in the woods.
“And guess what his dying word was,” Antin said, giving a wildly exaggerated sniffle.
“I—I don’t know,” Daphna whispered.
“Nope,” Antin quipped. Then he choked up with phony emotion and said, “His last word was—it was—‘Daphna.’ Isn’t that touching? Anyone have a snot rag? I may weep.” Approving snickers met this remark. Daphna dropped her head and fell silent.
“So what’s the story?” Antin asked, switching to another voice, this one gossipy. “You and Emmet have a little thing going, or what?”
“No!” Daphna cried, disgusted by the mere suggestion. But Antin had given her an idea. It worked once, so— “I only got to know Emmet so I could ask him to help me meet you,” Daphna said shyly. She was still using the poor boy. “I’m always too scared when I see you around.”
“Why’s that?” Antin asked, suddenly interested.
“‘Cause—’cause—” Daphna sputtered. Her insides felt like they were rebelling. She didn’t think she could go through with it without throwing up like Dexter had. No more words would come out.
“Well?” Antin said, the edge creeping back into his voice. Now the light was directly in her face.
Next ti
me, Daphna told herself. It was now her motto. “I just think you’re kind of cute is all,” she said.
CHAPTER 9
burning desires (part ii)
“Daphna!” Dex yelled in disbelief, but two boys grabbed him and twisted his arm behind his back so far he couldn’t speak.
“Fellas, fellas!” Antin said, turning round. “Did you hear that? Daphna here’s got the hots for me!” He turned back to Daphna and said, “You’re one of those good girls who go for bad boys, is that it?” All the boys in the room laughed, malevolent cackles in the dimly blinking dark.
“Why don’t we go outside and talk about it,” Daphna asked. She couldn’t tell if she had the upper hand. It didn’t feel like it had with Emmet. Not at all.
“Sure,” Antin said. “Noooo problem.” But he didn’t move.
Daphna was rapidly losing her nerve. “Can we go now?” she asked.
Antin chuckled. “Sorry, Babe, business before pleasure. That’s what I call my girlfriends—‘Babe’—hope you don’t mind. So, how ’bout you just tell me what old Emmet here was looking for.”
“I told you,” Daphna replied, “we have no idea.”
“That’s right,” Antin said, “you did say that.” He took a few steps toward Daphna, and the next thing she knew a vicious slap snapped her head to the side and sent her sprawling. She never saw it coming. The boys holding Dex clenched him even harder, but he didn’t try to move. He could see his sister’s silhouette crumpled on the ground, but he could not react to it. He couldn’t feel anything because his mind was spinning away.
“Oh, I guess I shoulda told you,” Antin said, helping Daphna, stunned and disoriented, to her feet. “That’s what I do when my girlfriends lie to me.”
Antin walked over to Dex and put his arm around his shoulder like they were old-time buddies. “Chicks,” he said. “Can’t do anything with them, right? ’Specially the good-lookin’ ones. So, what’s the story, man?”
“We don’t know any story,” Dex whined when someone took a hand off his mouth. His arms were going to break if they didn’t let up.
“I’ll tell you a story then,” Antin said. “When that freakshow showed up and started scaring kids off the streets around here, he was messing with our territory. We went to take care of him, but he told us he and the old man were up to something major. He said he’d cut us in on it if we backed off in the neighborhood for a while.”
When neither Dex nor Daphna responded to this, Antin continued. “Soooo,” he said, “when we found him all extra crispy-like in the woods, we tried to beat the story out of him for a while. But the big idiot wouldn’t spill the beans no matter what we did—too stupid to feel pain, I guess.”
The twins remained silent.
“Soooo,” Antin went on, “old Antiny here had to do some figuring on his own, and this is how he figured it: Emmet here’s burnt up, right? Good. And this place burned, right? Good connection, right? Solid. And that freak wrings your neck. You with me? And he croaks out your name before going kaput. Any of this making sense? Oh, wait, your old man sells books, right? Found that out, too. And that old books can be worth a lot of money. You following me? Been all kinds of vultures around here sneaking off with burnt books. How this crap could be worth anything is beyond me. Lookit—” Antin bent down and picked up a book and opened it. It was too dark to see what it looked like, but it seemed heavy.
“Just names,” he said. “Like a gazillion names on every single page. Most of the books down here are just as stupid.” He tossed it away. “Anyway,” he said. “So what’s the deal?”
“We told you—” Dex tried, but it was a feeble protest.
“Save it,” Antin snapped. “We want to know what Emmet and the old dude were after. I knew you’d come snooping around here soon enough. So, unless one of you tells me exactly what I want to know, right now, we are gonna start melting some wax around—”
“How dare you!” Daphna suddenly screamed. Her cheek was still smarting, but her head was clear. She hadn’t heard anything past the news that the gang had beaten Emmet. She leapt at Antin, already punching and kicking. She wanted to tear his hair. She wanted to scrape his eyes out for what he’d done to that poor, lonely, dying boy.
Though she’d never physically attacked anyone before, all of the anger and frustration she’d been feeling about so many things burst out in a singular desire to hurt. Daphna wailed her arms and legs indiscriminately, trying to claw at the arms and hands struggling to get hold of her. Enough was enough, she was going to choke every last evil boy there with her Word—but now hands were on her mouth. She couldn’t speak. She could barely breathe.
Antin started laughing again when Daphna was finally subdued. “I guess we know who wears the pants in the family,” he sneered. “And speaking of pants, did your brother tell you what happened when old Emmet here—”
“He’s gone!” someone shouted.
The boys who’d remained with Dex wheeled around to see where he was, but just then there was a violent whacking sound. Someone on the fringes of the group let out a whelp of pain and collapsed.
Moments later, there was a second smack, then another cry as a second boy fell. Bedlam ensued as everyone scrambled in a riot to get out. The blinking flashlights were kicked around in the mad rush and sent spinning in all directions like crazy, feeble searchlights. It was impossible to see where anything was. Cries followed one upon another as more boys crumpled in pain.
Daphna heard the repeated smacking and the heavy thumps of bodies hitting the floor around her, but she couldn’t see what was making them fall. The lights were here, then there, whirling around. She caught a glimpse of one boy stagger as if he’d been hit in the back, but for the life of her couldn’t see what hit him. Terrified, she crouched on the floor.
“Daphna!” It was Dexter. He was somewhere nearby, but she couldn’t see him.
“What’s going on, Dex? I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Come on,” Dex urged.
Daphna couldn’t see where to go, but suddenly the board blocking the hole in the wall was pushed aside. She ran for it, getting only a brief glance back inside at the strewn bodies clutching heads, guts and legs. Once out into the light, Daphna found her brother holding a broken piece of rafter. He tossed it aside, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up to the street. It was getting dark.
“My bag!” Daphna cried leaping to scoop it up. Dex grabbed his own, and the pair sprinted away. They ran full out until they reached the R & R but pulled up before going inside.
“How—when—I didn’t know you could—what happened in there?” Daphna panted.
Dex, shaking and wheezing, said, “It was dark—they let go when you—I surprised them—”
Daphna, also shaking uncontrollably, waited for more of an explanation, but none came. It was as if Dex thought it was no big deal to beat up half a dozen juvenile delinquents. Before she could ask anything further, he stepped around her and hurried into the lobby, so she followed, impressed with her brother like never before.
CHAPTER 10
(not) breaking and entering
After composing themselves as best they could, Dex and Daphna stepped into their father’s room. They found him working on his computer in bed. Daphna, trembling still as her adrenaline ebbed, noticed immediately he was typing much faster than usual.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Milton whispered when she pointed it out. He apparently didn’t want to strain his voice, which sounded like sandpaper now, but he flexed his fingers above the keyboard. “My arthritis isn’t bothering me at all,” he said. “It’s been years since my hands felt so good. And my hip! It hurts so much less than—are you two okay? You’re both pale. And Daphna, now your face is bruised. Did something happen? The two of you look like you’ve been through a war.”
“Oh,” said Dex, thinking his father had no idea how right he was. “We—raced,” he lied, dropping his bag on the floor. “Daphna wiped out.”
It was difficult
to speak in a normal voice with his heart still throbbing. Dexter was on a high like he’d never experienced before. He could barely contain the urge to prance about and scream and pump his fists in the air. He’d just routed an entire gang. He, Dexter Wax, had just routed an entire gang. With every swing of that board he was taking out more than just those psychos. He was taking out the cruel kids in elementary school who challenged him to spell three letter words on the playground; he was taking out the domineering Pops in middle school who walked all over everyone; he was taking out every adult who’d ever lectured him about his lackadaisical attitude toward life and learning. This wasn’t exactly the way he’d been hoping to start asserting himself, but it sure felt good.
Dex felt like some kind of superhero, and now maybe he’d have the confidence to find a way to feel like this all the time. He did wonder if maybe he’d used more force than was strictly necessary, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been driven to it. He’d figure it out later, when he had some time to think.
“I tripped on a curb,” Daphna explained. She put a hand to her cheek, feeling the pain now that her father had pointed out the bruise. Then she suddenly realized they’d lost the soup.
“Ah, I’m really sorry, Dad,” she said, “but I kind of dropped the dinner Latty made for you, when I fell. It was your favorite again.”
Milton offered a dismissive wave. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Evelyn brought me a great meal. She ordered out. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Sure, Dad,” Daphna said. “Are you getting sick?”
“Evelyn thinks I’m getting laryngitis of all things. When it rains it pours, eh?”
“She likes you, huh?” Daphna asked, walking over to one of the two cots Evelyn had brought in. She stashed her bag underneath one and then sat on her hands to make them stop shaking.
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