She frowns. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“What if we can prevent the ghosts from killing?” I still haven’t figured out that part, but she might have some ideas.
Jeffery jumps from our boat to the coop.
“Careful, son.”
“I’m fine, Mama.” He enters the cage, and chickens peck at his skin, but he doesn’t seem to care.
Amy shakes her head at him. “I don’t see how that’s possible. There are only fifty or so of us.”
“Right. But the ghosts only kill after the first ray of the sun hits the sky, and none of us can die. If we all keep an eye on two to three ghosts, we can interfere. It will be difficult at first, but after a while, the numbers will diminish, and it will be easier.”
“Honey, for something like that to work, you’d have to get everyone on the island on board, and you’d have to keep it a secret from Samuel.”
“Difficult, but not impossible.” Birds flutter into the trees around us as if they are listening. They begin to chirp and flutter their wings.
“Also, that might work the first time, but then Samuel will be onto you, and it will be harder the next time.”
“But that’s just one idea. If we can come up with several ideas for preventing the ghosts from killing, then we can always be one step ahead of him. According to the book, if we take away thirteen ghosts, the rest will disappear and take Samuel’s power with them.” I chew on my bottom lip. I hope she’ll say yes.
“Is that so? It’s a long shot.” She stares at me for a moment as if she’s trying to decide if I’m telling the truth.
“I know.”
She looks at Jeffery playing with the chickens, and resolve forms behind her eyes. “You know what? It’s time to stop him. I’m in.”
I squeal. “Thank you.” I thought it would be harder to get her on board. But I guess he basically took her kids away from her, so she’s got little to lose. Everyone else should be easy at this point.
“We’ll never be able to meet as a whole group. We’ll need to meet in small groups of twos and threes and pass plans on that way. After the first time, he’ll be more suspicious, so we’ll need our plan for all thirteen months before we begin. We should have a few backup plans as well.”
We spend the next few days meeting with everyone on the island. At first, most people are skeptical, but with Amy on my side, everyone agrees to help. We plan out six months. The first one, we’ll sabotage the ferry so the motor doesn’t work. That’s the easiest way to take his army down by one. The second one we’ll call a meeting and corral all the ghosts into one tent and get the people off the island early. After that, it’s going to be each of us watching a couple of ghosts. With any luck, no one else has to die. It’s a plan fraught with faults, but it’s the best we’ve got.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The ferry is tied up at the dock on the other side of the island. There are a few dinghies as well, but those aren’t meant to ferry people to the island. It doesn’t matter, though. We’ll take them all out.
The afternoon of the new moon, a handful of people literally remove the engines from the boats and hide them in a shed. My job is to distract Samuel, which I despise, but I’m good at it. When I see a yellow flag out the dining room window, then he no longer needs distracting.
I offer to have lunch with him and hold up a basket full of food. Ruth’s famous white cake is in there as well.
“You’re coming around. I’m glad to see that I don’t have to tell anyone about your little secret.”
He’s going to hold that over my head until the day I die. Bastard.
I put on my best smile and place my hand over his. “Maybe I’m extending the olive branch.”
He chuckles. “It’s the new moon. You want something from me. Too bad for you, I’m busy. Tomorrow, though, let’s definitely have lunch.”
Crap.
“Come on, you have to eat. Let me join you.” I lean forward so I’m in his personal space. I’m wearing a very low cut, white dress. He can definitely see down the front. He sucks in a breath.
“Very well. But let’s go have a picnic somewhere. I’m tired of being in my house.”
No, no, no. This is not how this is supposed to go. I wipe a hand across my forehead and unbutton the top of my dress. “It’s so hot, and the AC on my boat isn’t working very well. I’d rather eat here.”
He chuckles and waves me in. “Now, I see what you want. But you know, you could have gone to Amy’s or Lorena’s. Why me?”
I move past him and into the dining room to give me time to think. I never noticed the window on the other side. It’s small stained glass with butterflies and flowers. It doesn’t seem like Samuel at all.
I set out all the food, and Samuel grabs plates and silverware. He’s wearing a nice cologne. It’s almost floral but still masculine. He stops me before I sit down, and he grabs both of my hands in his.
“Why me?” he repeats.
I let out a sigh. “I just came to the conclusion that we’re all stuck here, and I don’t really want to be enemies. As long as you behave yourself, I don’t see why we can’t be civil to one another. Maybe then, you’ll stop forcing me to hang out with you when it’s not convenient for me.”
He studies me long enough that it makes me uncomfortable. Either he’s thinking I’m being real with him, or he sees right through me. “You know, all the contracts have been renewed except one.”
I freeze. One person is all it takes. We can’t take out the ghosts if we’re scared one of us is going to die.
“Who?” I ask, feigning disinterest. I bounce my knee up and down and keep an eye on the window.
“Benny.”
I let out a breath of relief. At least it’s not someone who can die.
“So?”
“So, he no longer has protection from moving on.” Samuel leans forward and grins at me. “I have no incentive to keep him on the island.”
I drop my fork. “No way. You can’t.” He could take Benny away from me, but I don’t want to believe it.
“Oh, but I can. He won’t be around past the next full moon. You better enjoy his company tonight because it will be the last one you have.”
A flash of yellow appears in the window. I don’t have to entertain Samuel anymore. The engines have all been removed, and I can’t stay here another second anyway.
I fly from the house and try to hold back tears. It’s not fair. None of it is. I’m going to lose Benny. I’ve been so focused on saving the living that I didn’t even realize he is in danger. This is the worst possible scenario.
I lock myself in my house and think. I have no solution. Maybe Benny will. He’s managed to survive this so far. He’ll find a way. I have to believe that, or I’ll lose all hope. I pull out a stack of tissues and blow my nose.
Hard as I try to put Benny’s fate out of my mind, I can’t do it. The next several hours pass in pure agony, and I pull out Juliette’s iPod and find a country music playlist that speaks to me. It reduces my tears down to sniffles.
A couple of hours before sunset, there is a clatter on the docks behind me. I slide my window open slowly. This is the moment of truth and the only thing that distracts me from my ruminating.
“This is impossible,” Samuel says.
“Plum missing. Don’t have a clue where they done went,” Elias replies.
“How the hell are we supposed to have a show if no one can get here?”
“Don’t know. Maybe we’ll just git the night off?”
“No. Luke has a dinghy. So does Amy. Use them.”
“Already checked with them. Them motors is missing, too, doggone it. Maybe the gators got ‘em.”
“You know full well that’s not what happened.” He pauses for a minute. “Callie. Dammit. She wasn’t having lunch with me because she was being friendly.”
I scramble away from the window and crouch low. He pounds on my door. I stay down, and he pounds again.
“Don’t recko
n she’s there,” I hear Elias say.
“Then where the hell is she?” Samuel’s voice is angry. I hold my breath and wonder if Elias will give me up. Sure, he was on board with the plan, but we’ve never been friends. He could just as easily give me up, and it wouldn’t do a darn thing to our plan.
“Don’t know. She left mebbe an hour or so ago.”
Samuel growls. “Oh, she’s going to pay.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I wait until I’m positive Samuel is gone and poke my head out. Elias gives me one of his creepy grins and a thumbs up.
“We did it,” I say, wiping the sweat off my forehead.
“We did. Just twelve more to go.”
I give him a high five and head to the main docks. I need to make sure no one shows up. I expect Samuel to find me here, but he doesn’t come out here. I pace back and forth. The sun goes down, and Benny appears next to me. “This won’t work.”
I keep my eyes peeled out into the water. I think I see blinking red lights, but that’s probably my imagination. It seems darker than normal. Though, it’s always dark on the new moon.
“I don’t care. I have to try.”
He lets out a sigh and runs his hand over his face. “At one point, there was a hurricane, and it literally took the boats out. This was long before any of the current islanders can remember. People still came. They are drawn here. They’ll find a way.”
I cross my arms. He’s wrong. He has to be.
An uncomfortable silence settles between us. I have other bones to pick with him.
“Samuel said you no longer have a contract with him.”
Benny stiffens. “I know.”
“Why didn’t you ask to sign a new one?”
“I did. He refused.”
I spit out the sickest idea I’ve had, and I say the words before I can think of the consequences. “That means if you kill someone tonight, you’ll be resurrected.”
“Is that what you want? Me to kill someone?”
My mouth goes dry, and I take a sip of my water. “No. Yes. I don’t know. But Samuel also said you’d move on at the next full moon.”
“Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t. I’m pretty sure Samuel has zero control over that.”
I jerk my head around. “I thought he controlled everything.”
“No. He seems just as surprised as the rest of us by who moves on.”
“That’s not what he told me.”
“He lied to you. I think moving on is completely random.”
I shouldn’t be surprised that Samuel might have lied to me. I want to believe Benny, but I don’t want to take any chances.
“But you still could.”
“I could. But, Callie, I don’t get it. You’ve made it obvious that we will only be friends even though I’ve made my feelings for you very clear. Now, you want me to kill someone to keep me here.”
I swallow. “I…I…do like you. I just was trying to not be distracted.” I can’t take my eyes off of him, and I certainly can’t deny my feelings toward him.
He puts a hand around my waist and pulls me into him. He moves my hair behind my ear, and his eyes study mine. “I’ve been waiting weeks to hear you say those words.”
I bite my lip. “I want you to stay with me, but I feel horrible for thinking it.”
“We’ll just make the most of the time we have together.”
I wrap my arms around him and rest my head on his chest. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“Me neither.” He strokes my hair. “You know, my whole existence, I’ve only ever wanted one thing. Love. You gave that to me. I have no right to ask the universe for anything else.”
Love. Holy crap. That is not what I said. Do I love him? Maybe. I don’t know. Either way, that doesn’t matter right now. I let go of him. I have to convince him to fight, whatever that means.
“Benny, you can’t…” The words die in my throat.
In the distance, three boats slice through the water. No. No. No. No. This isn’t supposed to happen. The blood rushes out of my face.
Benny squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry.”
I check out the incoming boats. “How many people do you think?”
Benny rubs the back of his neck. “Twenty, maybe thirty total. It’s hard to say. But, I’d bet anything there are boats behind them.”
“You can’t keep us away,” a girl howls, the one with the gray sharpened teeth. The other boats are captained by the lice girl and the tall boy. Of course they’d ruin it for us.
“You stay here and count the number of people,” I tell him. “It’s time for plan B. No one is dying tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I race to find Amy.
“They came anyway, but not very many. Think we can guard all of them?” Usually, there are a couple hundred people. Twenty or thirty should be easy.
She nods. “You herd them to the main tent, and I’ll gather the others and meet you there.”
I run back to the docks just as the boats are pulling up. They’re filled with teenagers. My throat closes up for a moment. They all have so much of their lives ahead of them, and one of them is going to die. This isn’t right, and it has to be stopped.
“Benny, we’ll guide them to the main tent so we can figure out how many are here. They’ll all want to see the show, anyway. It should be easy to keep them there for a while. I’ll count them as they go and double-check once they’re all at the show.”
He nods. He may not agree with me, but at least he’s willing to help. The lice girl and her buddies don’t get out of the boats. Though, I don’t really care.
We manage to get them all into the tent. “Can you go see if any more boats are coming?” I ask Benny.
He grabs my hand and pulls me close to him. “You might do all that you can, but someone will still die tonight, and you cannot take responsibility for it. Do you understand? It’s not your fault.”
I let out a sigh. He’s too good to me. “I have to try.” And I will still feel guilty if someone dies.
Benny takes off, and Amy arrives with some islanders. I’m counting heads and don’t say anything.
“Thirty-two. That’s doable, right?”
Amy shrugs. “There are eight of us. We need more. Let me go see who else I can round up. Most people are doing shows, but with so few guests, I’m sure some can leave.”
I watch the people nervously. There is no telling what will happen tonight. Amy returns with a few dozen others, and we gather outside the main tent.
“Remember, the ghosts can’t kill us. We do whatever we can to get between the ghosts and their prey.” I feel like a teacher giving a pep talk before a test I know all of them will fail.
I duck into the tent to watch the show. Samuel stands there, his arms wide. Glitter and bubbles float down around him.
“As you can see, tonight, you are part of an exclusive group who will be witness to the most wonderful, most spectacular, most gruesome show on earth.”
He steps back, and a spotlight focuses on an acrobat high above his head. It’s a ghost in a bright blue leotard. She waves to the crowd and leaps from the platform. She twists and spins in the air, and the guests watch with bated breath. She’s going to hit the ground.
Out of nowhere, another acrobat swings down holding a rope suspended from the ceiling. He catches her by the hand, and the crowd lets out a gasp.
The acrobat chuckles and wipes her forehead.
Someone shouts, “Look,” and the spotlight moves to the top of the tent. Standing inches from the rope is a clown who looks like he’ll murder you in your sleep. He holds massive garden shears, and before anyone can even scream, he slices the rope.
I duck out of the tent, not wanting to see them crash to the ground. They are ghosts who will be fine, but I still don’t like watching it.
“They’ll be out in a second,” I say.
The guests start leaving the tent, and we all pick people to shadow. Amy and I follow a couple of giggly
girls to the vampire tent. They are safe for now since the sun isn’t about to rise, so I don’t go inside.
Benny runs up to me. “More boats just arrived bringing several dozens more people.”
“Dammit. Now what do we do?”
Amy creases her eyebrows. “This is impossible. We’ll never be able to protect them all.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. I have to fix this, but I see no solution.
“We’ll do our best. We save who we can. Maybe if we interfere with enough of them, the sun will rise before they can kill.”
The hours fly by, and Benny stays by my side and makes sure I have water and enough to eat. This could be our last night together, and here I am playing the hero even though it’s pretty much hopeless. But I can’t ask everyone else to watch over the people if I’m not willing to do it myself.
Amy finds me an hour before dawn. “You know, if we can get them all back to the main tent before the sun rises, we might be able to protect them.”
“How will we do that? They’re all wanting to see the shows. It’d need to be pretty enticing.”
“Well, if we could engineer a strip show, we’d get all the boys.” Amy chuckles, and I know she’s not serious.
I snap my fingers. “That’s it.”
“What?”
“We promise them a sexy show. But not a strip show. We’ll show them a girl eaten by a tiger. There are what? Seventy-five?”
“Seventy-seven.”
“Perfect. I’m going to change. We’ll lead them all to Luke’s tent. The big cage, the one in the middle where he does his show. Think we can fit seventy-seven people in there? We’ll lock them up and guard the outside of the cage. We got this.”
Benny’s eyes light up. “That’s brilliant. But why are you changing?”
“Who do you think the sexy girl will be? I still have that awful costume Samuel made me wear.”
Benny swallows. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Amy smirks. “Oh, it’s a good idea all right. You go change, and I’ll let the rest of the islanders know the plan.”
Circus of the Dead: Book 2 Page 12
