Authors: Multiple
"It
doesn't matter," Desiree said. "I deserve it, alright? And it's not
even that I deserve it, but I can't ask to go with you two. You don't owe me
anything. I need to go back."
"What
if I ask you to come with us?" I asked.
She
turned, looked at me. "What?"
"You
said that you can't ask to come with us, but what if we ask you to? What will
you say?"
"I..."
She swallowed hard and squeezed her elbows in her hands. "You can't,
alright? Just... just don't. Don't take pity on me or anything. It's not
fair. I mean, I guess if you asked, I'd say yes, but don't ask because you
feel bad for me. I don't want that."
I
smiled, genuine. "I don't feel bad for you," I said. "I'd
still like it if you came with us, though. I think it'd be nice."
Evan
backed away, appraising the situation. Jonny glanced over, curious, and Evan
shrugged at him.
"I'll...
I'll go, I guess. But if you change your mind, don't be afraid to tell
me," Desiree said slowly, stumbling for words. "I mean, I'm not
useless, you know? I can do things on my own, too. Even if I don't go back to
Alex and the rest of the people in the camp, I'll figure something out. I'd be
fine."
"I
know," I said. "But you don't have to."
We
stood there in awkward silence, no one knowing what to say now.
Cinna
bounded forth and snatched at Desiree's shoelaces again, taking the end of one
in her mouth and biting into it. She tried to pull it away with her and bring
it back to her secret kitten lair, but it remained attached to Desiree's
shoes. The laces came undone, though, and Desiree bent to re-tie her shoes.
"This
cat," she said, nervous, laughing. "I swear, she's crazy. Playful,
but she needs toys or something. I should go check the pet store. I bet
there's plenty left there. She'll need a cat carrier anyways, so..."
"We
can probably find a car," Evan said. "I know Alex thinks it's a bad
idea, but I think he's wrong and what does it matter what he thinks now,
anyways? If we're going to travel we could use one. It'll work out
better."
Jonny
ambled over to us. "You guys are leaving then?" he asked.
"Not
right away," Evan said. "If that's alright? Do you mind if we stay
here for a couple of days?"
Jonny
mimed dismay and grumbling, then he grinned. "Nah, I don't care. It'll
be nice. There's plenty of popcorn for everyone, right?"
He
pointed to a box of it behind the counter; it was only half full. Were there
more boxes? How many did he have to start with? He probably had enough for a
few more weeks, but then what? Maybe he kept some in a storeroom somewhere,
too. I shouldn't worry about it, but I did.
"I
kind of wish I'd brought my solar array," Evan said. "Without it the
laptop's pretty much useless, but I can't really go back for it now."
"If
we leave soon, we might be able to sneak into camp while it's still dark and
grab it?" Desiree suggested. "The rain's stopped, but it's nighttime
now. Who knows if Alex is awake, either. Or if he's..."
Dead.
She didn't say it, but I knew what she meant. Would I feel bad if I killed
him? I didn't know. I shouldn't, because of what he'd done for me and what
he'd done to Evan, but I knew I would. It didn't matter how angry I was. I
never wanted to kill anyone.
"It's
risky," Evan said, shaking his head. "I don't think it's a good
idea."
"You
have other things back in your camp, don't you?" I asked.
"Well,
yeah, but..."
"It's
not just about the sun power thing," I said. "Desiree probably has
stuff she could use, too. You two should hurry and get your things if you need
them."
"We
don't
need
them," Evan said, reticent.
"It'd
be really nice if we had some of our stuff," Desiree said to him. "I
know where you're coming from, Evan, but it'd work out a lot better if we had
more to start out with. If we're going to do this, we need to go now. Soon.
Otherwise we probably won't have another chance."
He
frowned, obviously disliking his options. "Let me think about it."
"You're
welcome to some of the supplies here, too," Jonny said. "What am I
going to do with them? Want to see what we've got?"
"Yeah."
Evan perked up. "Yeah, if you don't mind, Jonny? Let's go see and
then... yeah. Maybe there's stuff here we can use instead. That'll work out
great."
Evan
and Jonny left, but not before Evan snuck over and kissed me. His lips
lingered on my cheek like a sultry promise and he winked at me before leaving.
I blushed and squirmed, gazing after him as he walked away.
"You
two," Desiree said, groaning. "Seriously. It's like eating too much
candy every time I see you. Ick."
"Shush,"
I said. "There's always Jonny if you're lonely."
"Ha!
That guy. How did you even meet him? Is this some Zombie's Anonymous place or
something? You meet up once a week for popcorn and a movie and discuss zombie
problems?"
"I
think I'm offended!" I said, putting my hands on my hips. Desiree rolled
her eyes at me and I grinned.
"No,"
I said. "I don't know. Evan and I just found him when we came here.
Jonny's like me, I guess. He's really nice."
"He
seems alright." Desiree shrugged. "A little weird, but alright.
It's not a bad place here, you know? I never thought I'd be in a movie theatre
again. The popcorn's a nice touch, too. I haven't had any in forever."
She
slinked behind the counter and opened the machine, filling the scoop and
dumping some of the snack into a popcorn bucket. Grabbing some to munch on for
herself first, she held the bucket towards me, offering some.
I
took one piece and plopped it into my mouth. The sweet, buttery warmth of it
made me smile.
"What's
your favorite movie?" I asked all of a sudden.
"Huh?"
Desiree stared at me blankly for a second. "I guess... it's kind of dumb,
but I really liked
Ghost
. It's older, but it was one of the first
movies I ever saw and I guess it stuck with me."
"
Ghost
,
really?" I grinned wide.
"Yes,
Ghost
. What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
I
scampered over to the couches, ignoring her, my happy grin taking up half my
face.
"Sadie!"
she shouted after me, chasing behind me with the popcorn bucket. "What's
wrong with
Ghost
? It's not just some trashy romance flick, you know?
It's a good movie!"
"Oh,"
I said, still grinning. "Oh no, I know. It's good."
"Right."
She raised one brow at me, perplexed. "Right, then."
"Do
you think everything will be alright?" I asked.
Cinna
hopped onto the couch next to me and crawled into my lap, snuggling against
me. I scratched behind her ears and she nuzzled her head against the side of
my hand.
"Yes,"
Desiree said. "I mean... I don't know if
everything ever
will be
alright, but for now I think it will be."
I
nodded. I thought so, too. I wanted to think so completely, but a little part
of me disagreed. Just a small part, a nervous part.
Everything
would be alright, but what if it wasn't?
I
shouldn't think about those things.
A
Note from Cerys
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~*~
That's all of it!
This story is a little different from
what I usually write, but it's also different from anything I've read before,
too. I really enjoyed the idea of it and I had fun doing some research into
the possibilities behind it.
For paranormal stories, everyone writes
about shifters and werewolves, vampires, and even other magical beings like
witches, demons, and angels. Psychics and ghosts aren't entirely unheard of,
either.
This... isn't really any of that, haha.
If I had to liken what exactly Sadie and the "Others" are, they're
probably more similar to vampires in a lot of ways. A friend of mine helped me
out with figuring out the specifics behind the mentality and the somewhat
scientific workings of my idea in a medical sort of way. I didn't want to
include a lot of the science of it in the story, though, because honestly I
feel like it kind of bogs it down, you know? There is a scientific sort of
reason for what happened, though, and it's mentioned somewhat in the
beginning. There's more to it, too, but... how would Sadie or Evan know about
that?
I wanted to leave this one open to
possibilities at the end, but I also wanted to close it up, too. The story is finished,
but there's the potential for more, you know? I like that in stories I read,
and for a lot of reasons. One of the main ones is... well, what do you think
will happen? No one ever really knows where their life is going to take them,
and this can be especially true for dire situations like this.
Now that you've read this story, it's not
just mine anymore. I think you're as invested in Sadie and Evan's future as I
am, and so I want you to be able to imagine possibilities for them, too, you
know?
Saying that, I do have plans for more of
this in the future. I enjoyed writing in the style I did for this one, and not
only was the story different, but the writing was different, too. I tried to
use some subtle nuances in writing to get certain points across, and I hope it
worked. Just small stuff, nothing too crazy, but I think it added to the
atmosphere of the story.
I loved telling Sadie and Evans story,
and I hope you loved reading it, too. It's different, but I think that's a
good thing. It's fun and sweet, but it's a little dangerous and suspenseful,
too. The world they live in is entirely unlike our world right now, and it
might be a little scary, but I don't think that it always has to be scary. It
can change and become different, and it's certainly possible that Sadie and
Evan will change it, don't you think?
Saying all of that, if you enjoyed this
story, I hope you'll check out more from me. If you liked it, I'd also love if
you rated and reviewed it, too! It helps me a lot when you do that, and I love
reading everyone's comments and seeing what people think, too. It helps me
figure out what you liked and how I can write more of that in the future. It's
also fun to see what people think of my stories, as well.
And... that's it! Thanks so much for
reading and taking an interest in my writing! As an indie author, I do all of
this myself, and I try to provide you with the best possible -everything- that
I can. I appreciate you taking the time to read my book, and I hope you
enjoyed it and that you'll read more from me in the future!
Bye for now!
~Cerys
1:
Grades
Okay. Don't panic.
I stared at the screen, unbelieving. It
was an error, pure and simple. Somewhere, an underpaid graduate student,
hungover from a post-final-exam bender, had fallen asleep at the keyboard and
typed in this very wrong grade.
CH 575 Physical Chemistry. D–
But then, there couldn't really be TWO
hungover finger-impaired graduate students, right? I mean, sure, you couldn't
cross any college campus in late December without tripping over a half dozen,
but could another one have typed in this?
MT 202 Calculus III. F
Then it occurred to me. I'd been hacked.
A psych major was conducting an experiment and had paid off some impoverished
intern to let him change the grades to see how we'd react.
They did this sort of thing. One night
I'd answered the phone at 3 a.m. to a girl screaming hysterically that she was
going to be killed. About the time I was waking up enough to figure out how to
get her help, she said, "Never mind," and hung up, still leaving me
all shaky and distressed.
The next morning, some bleary-eyed
third-year had knocked on my door to ask about bad dreams. I could have punched
him.
I jumped from my desk and moved to the
window. Was there a camera somewhere? Was I being punked? I rushed to the door
and yanked it open.
Two coeds dragging suitcases stopped
talking to stare at me. I jumped back inside, grateful my roommate had already
headed home for the holiday break. No practical joke. No experiment.
I sat back down, defeated.
I knew I wasn't doing well. But failing?
This was my second shot at Calc, and I'd been doing better. Or so I thought.
The final was, well, I hadn't been at my best. I'd spent the night before out
with Gordon, and we DID sort of prioritize celebrating his 4.0. I didn't want
to bring him down by mentioning I still had finals to take.
I glanced at the silver framed picture by
my computer. Mom. Brilliant chemist. Bought me my first plastic Erlenmeyer
flask when I was five. The other girls had Easy-Bake Ovens. I got the Chem
C2000. I blew up my first sodium and chlorine by age ten.
Maybe that should have been our first
clue.
"Sorry, Mom," I said to her
photograph. She looked out at me, her thin blond hair lumpy beneath her
favorite metal headband. I touched my own head and knew my straw-colored mop
was just as bad. We'd always been twinsies, sharp-nosed, pale-skinned,
burn-not-tan. Feet the size of water skis to balance our formidable racks.
Sadly, I hadn't an ounce of her brains.
She'd been so pleased when I'd gotten
into Boston College. And freshman year had gone by like a breeze. Okay, maybe
that was because I only took easy electives and English I and none of the
killer stuff. Sophomore classes were a bit tougher, but I'd pulled through the
fall semester.
But then it all tanked. No one blamed me.
Mom had died from chemical burns during a botched experiment — something
secret that even my dad wouldn't talk about. My profs had been lenient and
placed me on academic probation, hoping I'd pull it out.
But these grades would sink me.
I laid my head on the desk. I could
appeal, beg, cry. But no guarantee. I'd still have to tell my dad.
* * *
"Jet, Sweetpea! That's brilliant.
Shall I drive up to help you pack your things?"
I stared at the phone. "Dad, is that
really you?"
"Yes, of course it's me. I can be
there tomorrow. Or maybe I should fly up and we could drive back in your
Beetle."
I smacked myself on the side of the head
a few times. He didn't care? Maybe he had hearing loss. "You understand I
flunked out, right, Dad?"
"Yes, it's perfect. Can you come
home, or is that too nineties? I can front you a little apartment."
"Dad. Are you listening? I got an F
in Calculus. Again. I was on probation."
He sighed. "I know it's a
disappointment. But I wasn't convinced that was the school for you
anyway."
"It was Mom's school!"
"Of course it was. I climbed in
through a dorm window not five down from yours."
Well, ick.
"I'm getting online right now.
Tickets, tickets." I could hear him clacking away on a keyboard.
"There you go. I can be there tomorrow morning, and we'll start the drive
back."
"All right. See you then." I
hung up the phone, more than a little weirded out. Parallel universe? Or too
many toxins in the chem lab? Dad was the lead biologist for a chemical company.
Maybe making the world safe for others had fried one too many of his brain
cells.
My room was cluttered with clothes,
books, random electronics, and magazines. I kicked my way to the sink and
stared at my reflection. "College dropout," I said to the mirror.
"Jet, career burger-flipper." I poked at the cowlicks that made my
hairline look like a sine wave. Maybe I had enough chemistry credit to merit
promotion to the shake machine.
Someone knocked at the door. Still hoping
for a psych student, I wrenched it open.
Just my resident adviser, Rima. She
monitored the dorms and generally got in our way when we tried to violate the
rules of the Virgin Vault by keeping a boy overnight. Which I did more often
than not. But I liked her okay.
She held a stack of flattened cardboard.
"I heard."
I stepped back to let her in. "I
thought grades were private."
"They are. I got the vacate
notice." She dropped the collapsed boxes on the floor. "I brought
this too." She held up a bottle of tequila, half full.
I dug some paper cups out of a drawer.
"I'll pack to that."
She sat on my bed while I poured. "I
called your academic adviser. She's planning on putting in a request for a
semester off for you, and another round of probation in the fall. If you want
it."
I almost said, "I want it"
right off, but then I hesitated. Mom's death hadn't been bringing me down this
semester, not really. I mean, sure, I was sad, but that hadn't stopped me from
speed dating four guys this semester alone, nor from guzzling more rum punch
than a tourist on a Jamaican cruise. The boys and the booze just weren't
helping. I didn't belong here like my mother had. I didn't belong anywhere.
Rima took the cup I offered her.
"You know, your mom's still a legend around here. We all know about the
time she made Old Man Nichols's methylene blue demonstration turn pink."
I nodded. "The freshmen always think
they can pull it off." After all these years, Nichols just expected that
some plucky first-year would try to sabotage his chem kit.
Rima laughed. "Except you."
I set the tequila bottle down, not
bothering to shove the stopper back in. "I knew better than to try."
"We all thought you knew the
secret."
"Mom never shared it with me."
The room chilled with the silence. And
now I'll never know, I finished silently.
A dark head poked around the door, which
Rima had left ajar. "Anybody home?"
Gordon, my latest boy-babe. He looked as
yummy as always, jeans that hugged his hips just so, a casual button-down snug
at the shoulders, and brown hair cut on the long side brushing against his
scruffy jaw.
He'd been the perfect boyfriend for the,
oh, three weeks we'd been together. Not that this was short. Most boys didn't
make it past two dates, more annoying than they were worth once it was clear
the chemistry worked about as well as mixing up a batch of
butyl seleno-mercaptan. Unless, of course, you liked
skunks
.
Gordon looked around at the disarray.
"Taking the whole room home for the holiday?"
"Permanent holiday." I handed
him my shot and poured another. "I got axed."
"Oh." He tipped the cup back.
He gulped it down, and I admired his long neck. I had use for that neck.
"I didn't realize you were cutting it that close."
I shrugged. Gordon was one of those
top-notch scholarly types, but I had a healthy respect for his nonacademic
pursuits. "Come here. I could use a bit of distraction."
Rima set her cup on the counter.
"Maybe I should go."
"No, no," Gordon said.
"I'm not staying. Just wanted to wish Jet a Merry Christmas." He held
out his hand for me to shake.
Seriously. A shake?
"You'll call me later?" I
asked, although I could feel the cold coming off him like a frosty window.
"I have one more night here."
"I think I'm heading out, like,
now." He seemed to realize the handshake was insulting, so he bent down
and brushed a kiss across my lips so light that I wasn't sure he actually made
contact.
I grabbed his sleeve. "Usually you
greet me a little more hot and heavy than that." I glanced at Rima.
"Audience or no audience."
He smiled weakly. "Let me know if
you end up back here."
I let go, realization flaming through me.
No one loves a failure. Whatever.
He waved to Rima and disappeared through
the door.
She passed me a fresh shot. "That
was a waste of booze."
I contemplated the gold liquid in the
waxy cup, letting the rejection float off me like a vapor. "Easy come,
easy go."
"That's been your motto as long as
I've known you." Rima shoved the stopper in the bottle. "Maybe there
will be some boys next door in Connecticut ready and waiting." She tapped
her cup against mine.
I downed the shot in a fiery gulp.
"There usually are."
* * *
Josie, my little red Volkswagen Bug,
lurched along I-90. Dad drove, I stared out the window, and the boxes blocked
all the back windows. Beetles weren't made for moving.
Hallow, Mom's albino ferret, sat in my
lap, sleeping. I had the window cracked to manage the smell. "You sure
he's okay? He was never this rank before."
"Your mother wouldn't hear of having
him fixed, and it's mating season."
"Eeuww!" I yanked my hand from
Hallow's head.
"No worries. Not like he's got any
mates around." Dad glanced at the GPS suctioned to the window. "I got
a lot of looks on the plane, though. He was a good chap and hid in my pocket
like he always does, but his odor was pinned on me."
"Maybe we should do it when we get
back." I thought I felt Hallow twitch, but when I looked down, his eyes
were still closed.
"Oh, he's an old fellow. No use
removing the unused parts at this late date." Dad settled back in his
seat, his formal tweed jacket with elbow patches out of sync with my
flower-print seat covers. He'd aged tremendously since Mom died, more gray in
his flattop, a web of wrinkles around his eyes.
The snow gradually became less broken as
we moved out of the city, white drifts blanketing the landscape. We had a
couple hours' drive to Connecticut. My late night of packing was catching up
with me. But we still hadn't discussed the important bits.
"So, Dad, what's with the
unconditional support? I flunked out of college. Spoiled Mom's dream."
"Not her dream, Jet. Her only dream
was to see you happy, chemistry or not." He pressed his lips together.
"I'll probably get a deferment. My
adviser said I could pick back up next fall if I did some community college."
"Excellent. Perfect timing." A
few flakes began to land on the windshield, so Dad flipped on the wipers.
"Timing for what?"
"We've had a little trouble at home.
We need your help."
"We? Who's we?" Was Dad seeing
someone? Already?
He glanced down at the ferret in my lap.
"Hallow and I."
"What are you talking about?"
At my higher pitch, the white bundle stirred, blinking up at me with red eyes.
"What I'm going to say isn't going
to come easy."
I petted Hallow's head, nerves jangling.
"Just dump it on me."
"Your mom was a brilliant chemist,
of course. But not of the kind you always thought." He looked at the
ferret again. "Chemicals were definitely her strength. She made a lot of
potions."
"Potions? What do you mean, potions?
You don't take 'Potions' in undergrad." My hair was hackling. Hallow sat
up and stretched.
The snowy hills whizzed by behind Dad's
head. He concentrated on the road, his knuckles white as he gripped the
steering wheel.
"Your mother was what you might call
a witch, and her last potion killed her."