Never (The Ever Series Book 2) (14 page)

I could say that I know for certain what I would do, but it would be a lie. I think you can only know once you’ve made the choice, and even then, you might still be haunted by regret. Abruptly aware that I could spend all night debating the decisions I’ve made and have yet to make, I get off the couch to examine Audra’s table of wonders. With a plate full of random selections, I sit down again as Lindsay holds up two movies.

“Girl possessed by the Devil … or deranged lunatic stalking campers?”

“Is there a door number three?” I ask dryly.

Ashley holds up a third.

“Homicidal clowns?”

“
No
!” the rest of us cry in unison.

“God! Okay! So, what freaks you guys out more—something totally gross like someone’s head exploding or waiting for something to jump out?” Ashley asks.

“Definitely heads exploding,” Taylor says. “Bleck.”

“The waiting,” Audra says.

When I look over at her, I’m unnerved by her vacant stare, like she’s somewhere else. I’ve seen the exact same look on Ever’s face. Like they’re reliving the same thing. Lindsay has already gotten up to put in one of the movies, and when Audra finally looks over at me, I’m tempted to try digging around in her head. I resist the urge. The last thing I need is to end up having a seizure and biting off my tongue in front of my friends.

That would end the night pretty quickly.

Audra hits a button on the remote, and the lights dim as the screen turns to black. Some super creepy music starts playing, and a shiver runs down my spine. I swallow. Being scared out of my mind was not how I envisioned spending girls’ night. The opening shot of the movie pans across an empty, candle-lit cathedral, and I take a deep breath, watching with morbid fascination as the camera zooms slowly toward the front of a gothic church. A priest, his back to the camera, begins to turn like he’s about to address a church full of worshippers. When his face finally comes into view out of the shadows, I let out a yelp of terror. His lips are twisted in a maniacal grin, and his eyes are coal black.

“All right, Wren!” Lindsay whoops. “You’re our first screamer of the night.”

I smile in embarrassment and do a small princess wave like this is a badge of honor. I can do this, I tell myself. I force myself to breathe. It’s only a movie. This turns out to be pretty much my only thought for the next ninety-three minutes. When the credits finally roll, I throw my hands up in the air in frustration.

“Seriously?” I demand. “How about the girl
doesn’t
get demonically possessed in the end?”

“Uh, Wren?” Lindsay laughs. “How many of these have you seen? This is the
only
way these movies ever end.”

“You know what?” Taylor says. “You’re totally right! I can count like three other movies with the exact same ending. And every time, it’s like, ‘Yay! The good guys won—oh, no. Wait! One of them is possessed!’”

“What ever happened to the good guy winning in the end?” I ask. “Happily ever after? What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s out of style, but it will come back. It always does. In dark times, people want to believe in happy endings,” Audra says.

She should know. I turn when Ashley holds up a nail polish. I wrinkle my nose.

“It looks kind of like fungus.”

She laughs.

“Yeah, but it’s
so
in right now.”

Getting up, I stretch. Then momentary panic sets in. Does this house even have a bathroom? Given its occupants, I realize it’s totally possible that it was designed without one. I cross my fingers as I turn to Audra.

“Bathroom?”

She points toward the back of the house, and I exhale. Walking barefoot, I notice that the shiny concrete floors are surprisingly warm. I can’t help slowing and looking around as I pass a large, stark kitchen with glossy black marble countertops. The appliances are all stainless steel, and they look utterly unused. Down another hallway lined with several closed doors, I eventually find the bathroom. It’s immaculate, but I’m just grateful that they’ve remembered small human things like towels, soap, and toilet paper. Then again, with lifetimes of practice, I guess it’s not that hard to get the little things right.

Returning to the living room, I glance over at Taylor. Her eyes are closed, her body curled into a tiny ball on one of the sofas. Her long black hair is spilling around her chaotically, and she looks peaceful and childlike. I nudge Ashley and point.

“Do you think she’s doing okay?” I whisper.

Ashley shrugs.

“Yeah. … I mean, I think so.”

“She said something about things not being so great with her—”

“Step-monster?”

I nod.

“I feel bad,” I mutter.

“It sucks. Your parents are divorced, too. Right?”

“Yeah. That’s why we moved.”

“God. Sometimes it feels like my parents are the only ones still married.”

“Do you think they’re happy?” I ask automatically.

I immediately feel guilty for asking such a nosy question, but Ashley just laughs.

“Yeah, I guess. I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Then they’re happy. If they weren’t, you’d think about it all the time. Trust me.”

Music suddenly blasts from hidden speakers, and the two of us look over at Lindsay, who’s dancing and singing along. Taylor sits up groggily and looks around.

“
Hello
! Let’s get this party started,
chicas
!” Lindsay whoops.

With Ashley’s help, I grab Taylor off the couch, and everyone starts dancing. With a shrug, I start hopping around completely off-beat. When Lindsay does a perfect cartwheel and launches into a complicated dance routine, it reminds me why I don’t dance. Lindsay stops abruptly, staring intently at Audra, who is moving so fluidly with the music that it’s impossible not to watch. She may have seemed human earlier, but now it’s hard to think of her as anything other than an immortal goddess.

“Have you taken dance before?” Lindsay asks, attempting to imitate Audra’s graceful movements.

Audra shakes her head. Another song comes on, and Lindsay, Taylor, and Ashley line up and start doing a group performance of some dance routine I was never able to pick up in elementary school. Sitting down on the couch, I whistle and clap, watching enviously as Lindsay does another effortless cartwheel. By the time a mellower song comes on, Taylor joins me on the couch. Finally, Lindsay senses that everyone’s enthusiasm for dancing is fading, and she turns to us breathlessly. It’s easy to tell she loves being the center of attention. The two of us couldn’t be more different in that way.

“Are you guys ready for a piece of real cinematic art?”

Zombies, ghouls—what’s next? I cringe as she flips off the music and goes back to her bag to rummage around. Once everyone has grabbed some more junk food, we settle back on the couches, and I brace myself as the movie begins playing. After a few minutes, I realize it’s actually pretty boring. It’s mostly just a guy in a mask wielding a scythe and chasing campers around. Very slowly. I lay my head back on the couch and start to count the number of times the masked psycho-killer trips over his own feet.

The sound of knocking wakes me out of a sound sleep, and I sit up and look around. My friends are sprawled out around me on the couches, their faces an unnatural shade of blue in the light of the TV screen. Even Audra is asleep, which seems strange. Shrugging, I get up and walk to the front of the house.

The door is already wide open, and Alex is standing there, smiling this terrible grin. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. Behind him there are at least ten more people staggering toward the door like zombies. He grips my hand, his grin widening.

“
Me and you, together forever
,” he says in a sing-song voice.

I force a scream out of my throat as I fall backward onto the floor.

“
Wren
!”

My eyes fly open, and I sit up and stare at Ashley, Taylor, Lindsay, and Audra.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, shaking my head groggily.

Lindsay laughs, but it’s more of a freaked out
what just happened
kind of laugh.

“You screamed. Like horror movie screamed—in the middle of the most boring part,” she says.

“We thought you were awake, but you were totally out,” Ashley adds. “I had to shake you to get you to snap out of it.”

“Sorry, guys. I guess the demon possession movie got to me.”

“Is everyone ready for pizza?” Lindsay asks, taking her phone out.

I smile and nod. I try to pretend that everything is all right, but I can’t quite manage it as snippets of the dream come back to me. Bringing my knees up, I hug them to my chest. My breath is coming out in shallow little bursts.
Pull it together, Wren
, I command silently. Alex released me from our deal, and everything is okay. Lindsay asks what everybody wants, and I veto pineapple. When Audra comes over and sits next to me, I look over at her.

“If I could sleep, I would have nightmares,” she says quietly without looking at me.

I smile awkwardly, not sure if this is meant to be comforting or not.

“Wren? Do you think you can handle the rest of the movie?” Lindsay teases as she hangs up from ordering the pizzas.

“Sure. How scary can it be if I slept through most of it? Has he caught anyone yet?”

“Almost,” Taylor cackles. “He wheezes and moans most of the time, and he’s kind of slow.”

“Maybe he smokes,” I smile.

“Ha!” Lindsay laughs.

“Hey, maybe that’s why he grunts so much!” Ashley says before burying her face in a pillow.

In the next five minutes, the masked stalker has been kneed, punched, and hit with a baseball bat. I wince.

“I don’t think he can take much more abuse. These girls are destroying him. Do you think he’ll give up soon?” I ask.

“Girl power!” Lindsay hoots.

This just makes me think about my own stalkers. They’re not mask-wearing sociopaths; they’re not even human. But there has to be some way to win. Then suddenly it occurs to me that the villain from the movie doesn’t have any motive. He’s mindless.
That
’s the difference. Whatever is after me has a motive—to claim a stake in this world. I think of what Alex said.

I aim to be on the winning side
.

It makes me wonder: Why would he give up and leave me alone so easily? The sound of knocking startles me, and I jump up and follow Audra to the front door for proof that my nightmare was just that—a nightmare. I hold my breath when she opens the door. A guy, probably a few years older than me, is holding the pizzas and staring down at the receipt. He looks up, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I see his eyes are unquestionably human.

His gaze focuses on Audra, and I try not to laugh as his mouth falls open. He’s looking at her like she’s a golden statuette come to life. When she hands him the cash, he just continues staring, like someone just told him he won the lottery. She doesn’t even notice.

“Thanks!” I say cheerfully, relieved he’s not some possessed zombie.

He glances at me, and I catch a snippet of his thoughts before his eyes quickly return to Audra.

…
the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen
.

As soon as Audra shuts the door, I start laughing.

“Does it ever get old? Guys falling at your feet, I mean?” I ask.

She looks at me blankly.

“You honestly don’t even notice it, do you?”

Then again, why would she if it happens all the time? Maybe—after an eternity—you can get used to almost anything. In the living room, I set the pizzas on the table, and Audra brings over plates—real plates. It makes me wonder if she bought them specifically for this human occasion. I pick up a slice of pizza and take a bite. The cheese is still hot and the pepperoni is salty.

“Awesome, right?” Lindsay says.

I pick up the soda I poured earlier.

“To girls’ night!” I toast.

Ever’s existence might be infinite, but there’s a chance that all I have is right here, right now, and I intend to enjoy every second I can.

“To girls’ night!” everybody else screams back.

By the time the second movie has limped to its end, we’ve all eaten way too much pizza. I scowl at the TV screen. The last scene of the movie is scarier than the rest put together, and Lindsay pauses the screen right after a glove-covered hand has risen out of the lake. This can only mean one thing.

“You guys want to watch the sequel?” she asks.

“
No
!” the rest of us laugh.

“All right. How about some old-school fun?” Ashley asks.

Lindsay and Taylor groan, and I turn and look at them, waiting for the punch line as Ashley goes over to her bag.

“Come on, Ash. Seriously? Aren’t we getting a little old for this?” Taylor asks.