Dead Rules (6 page)

So that was it. She looked over her stuff from real life. Lip gloss, bowling shoes, and a cell phone that wouldn't work. If she had advice for anyone in high school, it was to die with your best stuff in your arms. Have your pockets full and carry a backpack of the things you care about most at all times. Just in case.

It was silly of her to think about it, but Jana's secret wish, if she had to die without Michael in the first place, was to have died with her Ken doll. It was someone to talk to when she felt alone. Ken had been her best friend since she was six and she told him everything.

It was Christmas 2001 and her mother wasn't home. She sent gifts to Jana instead. Same as every Christmas.

Jana's mother had been hired by Mattel to appear in places around the world as Barbie for the fortieth anniversary of the original Ken doll. Marilyn wore a striped one-piece bathing suit in all the pictures Jana had seen of the international promotion of the new Ken doll. She had her hair tied in a ponytail. The model playing Ken wore a tuxedo with a silver, glittery cummerbund.

Inside one of the Christmas packages was the perfect American couple in washable plastic. A new Barbie, dressed in a formal gown, and a Ken dressed in a tuxedo. Jana fell in love with Ken. He was a man, not a boy. And he became her best friend overnight. Two days later, Jana threw away the Barbie. It looked too much like her mother.

Ken could do no wrong.

Jana bought herself small gifts when she was a little older, for her birthdays and for Christmas. She wrapped them and put tags on the boxes that read
To Jana, From Ken.

She guessed she wouldn't be getting gifts from Ken anymore.

“You have your own shelf in here,” Arva said, coming out of the bathroom. She had combed her hair and her face looked freshly scrubbed. “The school gives you a brush, comb, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Things like that.”

Jana was struggling not to cry. There had to be someplace she could get a signal. She wondered if anyone had tried using a cell phone on the roof.

Someone knocked on the door to their room. Arva answered it without opening the door widely enough for Jana to see who it was.

“No,” Arva said in her froggy voice. “You can't be here. Go away.”

A hand pushed the door open from the outside. In a flash, there stood Mars, grinning. The tall Slider with half a face stood behind him.

“Shut up, Davis,” Mars said. “I'm here to see Webster.”

Chapter Eight

“LET'S GO FOR A WALK.”

Mars glanced briefly at Jana's clothes from the Planet spread out on the bed, then motioned for her to come outside.

“I don't think so,” Arva said, speaking for Jana.

Jana had already had an entire day of Arva telling her what she should not do. It was time her roommate learned that Jana had a mind of her own. She left the room to go with Mars.

The Sliders walked down the hallway. Jana followed. Mars's thick dark hair was shaggy in back. His jeans fit too tightly and were practically worn through at the seat. There was a hole in his rear pocket and a corner of his wallet peeked out.

Guys had an advantage over girls when they died, if they died with their pants on. They got to bring their wallets with them. Photos, IDs, driver licenses, and all sorts of things. It was like a memory book for them. She couldn't even remember the name of her town.

At the end of the hall, Mars pushed open a metal door under an Exit sign in red letters. The tall Slider stepped outside.

Mars stood back a half step and held the door open for Jana. He started to smile, then dropped his eyes. She slipped by him, feeling an aura of warmth. Heat radiated from the Sliders, Jana was learning. Especially from Mars.

They stood under a dull yellow light mounted on the brick wall above the door. Jana's feet were cold. They were on a second-story fire-escape balcony. The stairs that led to the railed landing above had been taken away. Maybe third-floor dead kids didn't catch on fire, Jana thought.

The breeze was chilly. Jana got goose bumps.

“Three things,” Mars said without looking at Jana. “First, this is Wyatt.”

The tall, disfigured Slider now had a name.

Mars kept talking. “Wyatt's here to apologize, aren't you, Wyatt?”

“Yes,” he said. “I'm sorry about the thing in the library. I didn't mean to scare you.”

In the dying sunlight, Jana could see how his face might have looked before half of it was scraped away. She felt sorry for him.

“Show her your arm,” Mars directed his companion.

Wyatt held out his forearm toward Jana, the one he had sliced open in the library while sitting next to her. There was a red mark where the blade had pressed against his flesh, but no wound from a cut.

“It's okay,” Jana said. She put her weight on one foot, then the other, feeling the cold iron grate through her socks. She worked her toes to keep them warm.

“Did you tell anyone?” Mars asked.

Jana shook her head.

Mars nodded to Wyatt and the tall Slider hoisted his good leg onto the railing. Teetering on his bad leg, Wyatt reached high over his head until he grabbed the bottom rail of the third-floor balcony. He pulled himself up.

She watched his legs disappear above her head. The Sliders were obviously practiced at moving between the floors of the dorm this way. He was gone in seconds.

“I have a question for you,” Jana said now that she and Mars were alone. “Did you write those messages in my class notebooks?”

She stepped toward him as she spoke. The taste of strawberries grew stronger in her mouth.

“What messages?” Mars seemed confused.

Jana decided not to give away too much information. “Just messages,” she said. “Did you write them?”

“Ask Henry. He writes notes all the time, Webster.”

Clever, Jana thought. Mars had dodged her question.

She waited. She breathed in slowly. It was an actor's trick, a purposeful pause intended to make Mars speak. As she breathed, her head swam with the smell of ripe strawberries. Her mouth tasted like sugar.

“Do me a favor,” Mars finally said. He stood between the railing and Jana.

Mars was deadly handsome this near. His eyebrows were perfect dark arches over blue eyes. His eyelashes were dramatically dark and swept down, then back up like delicate wings. Just for a second, Jana wished she was as beautiful as her mother.

“What's that?” she asked.

“Don't tell anyone what Wyatt did. He could get into trouble. Real trouble.”

So could I, Jana thought, if Mars moved one inch closer. She was cold on the iron fire escape. Mars was warm. His breath smelled of mint. When he smiled, his face created that disarming dimple near the edge of his mouth.

“I won't tell a soul,” she promised. “If . . .” Jana raised her eyebrows and held them there.

“If what?”

“If you help me get my cell phone to work.”

“There's no signal here or on campus,” he said. “Your battery goes dead trying to find one.”

“The roof?”

“Won't work,” Mars said.

“But there is a way, isn't there?”

“Yes.”

“Then we have a deal,” Jana said, smiling brightly.

“I guess we do. When you're ready, Webster, I'll show you how. It's risky.”

“I'm ready.” Jana was filled with new hope. She could call Michael. She could tell him everything. They'd find a way to be together.

Mars considered it, then shook his head no.

“Not now,” he said. “It doesn't work the way you think. It doesn't work the same way it used to. Nothing does here. Give me a day, okay? I'll fill you in on everything, but we can't stay here long. The Grays walk a circle around the dorm every so often.”

“Okay.” Jana gave in.

“The Grays are snitches,” he added quickly. “Never tell a Gray anything you don't want the school to know, Webster. And be careful when you talk to other students in front of them. They have no choice. They tell.”

“Okay.”

“And don't tell Arva either. She's scared of everything. She'll rat you out too. Not on your first day or anything. But later, once you've been here awhile.”

Jana listened intently. Mars spoke with such quiet urgency that she believed everything he told her. She moved closer to him as he spoke. With every inch, the warmth increased.

“Risers who rat are worse than Grays,” Mars said. “Grays have no will. Risers make a choice to do you in. They think it keeps them safe.”

Mars leaned back against the balcony railing. Jana felt his warmth being pulled away and was suddenly very, very cold. He crossed his arms over his chest. His upper arms bulged under his shirt.

He looked powerful and fit, but not bulky like bodybuilders. His body reminded her of boys on the swim team at her old school. Jana looked him over from top to bottom without being obvious about it. His death had left no telling mark or sign that she could see.

Standing this close to Mars, Jana's usually keen sense of self disappeared. It was a new feeling for Jana. Michael never made her feel this way.

When she looked into Michael's eyes, she saw herself. Jana saw herself as someone stronger. Someone bigger. When she looked at Mars, Jana got lost in his eyes. His gaze drew her inside and held her captive. Jana wanted to know what he was thinking. She was seemingly without a thought of her own.

“The second thing,” Mars said. “I wanted to ask where you're from. I think we're from the same area but not the same school.”

“I don't know,” Jana confessed. “I've been trying to think of it all day.”

“Charlotte? Knoxville?”

“Is that where we are?”

“In between,” he said. “We're at the edge of Asheville, in the mountains. Black Mountain is east. Knoxville is west. And Charlotte's south. You should be from somewhere around here.”

“I am,” Jana said, scrunching her mouth. “I just can't think of it.” Her toes were too cold for her to think.

“It happens. You forget things here. There's no pattern to it. Some things just disappear. Big things, little things. One thing you'll remember forever is your own death. That never goes.”

“That's not so wonderful,” Jana said.

“Tell me about it. Some kids . . . well, they don't want to remember.”

“What else?” Jana didn't want to forget anything.

“You'll remember people your own age best and people you've known a long time, like your family. And things you paid a lot of attention to over the years, hobbies and stuff. But other things will just disappear. Over time, a lot of it is gone if you don't work at remembering.”

Not Michael, she decided. Jana wouldn't forget Michael. Not for a minute. He was a part of her. “Webster and Haynes,” Jana said out loud to keep it fresh, to keep the two of them alive in her heart.

“Webster and Haynes,” Mars said. “What's that, a law firm?”

“My boyfriend,” Jana stammered. She was too cold to talk. How could she tell him everything about Michael when she was going to freeze to death any minute now?

“Oh yeah, I saw his ring,” Mars said absently. “Hey, wait. His ring, it has your school on it.”

Jana lifted her hand close to her face to see the ring better in the dim light. It was the hand she'd been using to hold the waist of her plaid school skirt closed. The ring had a cat's face in the middle. You could see it under the blue stone. The initials CHS were molded into one side and Michael's graduation year in the other.

“Apparently I am from CHS and our mascot is either a tiger or a lion, or a fat man with whiskers.”

Mars laughed. “Central High School,” he said. “And you're the Panthers. One of your football players is in homeroom. He's a Stretcher. There are a couple others you'll recognize when you run across them.”

“Oh.” Jana meant to smile. But when she moved her mouth, her teeth chattered instead.

Mars moved closer. Jana felt his warmth like a blanket softly pressed against her. “Your home-town is Asheville, Arden Lake, or Grove Park,” he said.

Jana made a face. Asheville sounded right. But so did Arden Lake. She couldn't remember.

“I'm cold,” she finally blurted out. “I can't think. I'm too cold.”

Mars laughed again, but it was a smaller laugh. It stayed close between them like a secret shared. Even his laughter felt warm.

“It's you,” he said. “Here, give me your hand.” Mars held out his hand to Jana. She placed hers inside his. He covered it with his other hand.

“Ah, nice,” Jana said in spite of herself. Her hand warmed instantly. The warmth radiated up her arm to her shoulders and neck. She flushed with heat. If he put his arm around her, she thought, if she rested her face on his chest, she would be warmed to her toes.

“Didn't Davis tell you?” Mars asked. “Risers are cold. Something happens to your body when you come here from the Planet. You're two or three degrees colder, Jana. You'll adjust.”

There was a natural kindness in his voice as he spoke. She hadn't expected it. And he had used her first name for the first time.

“Do I feel cold to you?” Jana asked. She didn't like the idea that she was cold to touch. The thought made her seem more dead than ever.

“Absolutely frigid.” Mars grinned. He took his hands back and let hers fall to her side. “Really, not much at all. You'll get used to it. The first few days, everything is sort of heightened, magnified. I doubt Davis even notices anymore.”

Jana wondered if Michael would think she felt cold.

“I better go now,” Mars said. He hoisted himself onto the railing.

“What was the third thing?” Jana asked quickly. “You said three things. One was Wyatt's knife trick. The other was you wanted to know my hometown.”

“Tomorrow, you're going to a funeral.”

“I am?” Jana was trying to see his face as he raised his arms over his head and teetered briefly on the railing before catching his balance.

“Take me with you,” he said. “You get to take someone.”

She watched his faded jeans disappear over her head.

“It doesn't have to be your roommate,” Mars continued. “I'll help you talk to your boyfriend. I'll help you understand everything . . . and . . .”

He had pulled himself above the top of the second-floor fire-escape balcony and was making his way over the railing to the third floor.

“And?” Jana called after him.

“And put your skirt back on,” Mars called down to her.