Shadow Hills

by Anastasia Hopcus

  “You may not care now, but you will. Sooner than you know. And by then, it may be too late. Who knows what could happen if Zach—” Corinne stopped herself and drew in a steadying breath. Her pale eyes were glossy. If I had thought she was capable of genuine emotion, I would have been convinced she was tearing up.

  “I would never hurt Zach,” I said vehemently. “I care about him very much. If you’d taken the time to get to know me instead of doing everything in your power to frighten me away, you might realize that.” I was fighting tears myself, and I wasn’t quite sure why. “And I’m not breaking up with him, no matter what you say to me. If you really loved him, you would want him to be happy, even if it was with me.”

  “I do want him to be happy, but more than that, I want him to be reasonable. I want him to do what he has to, to protect himself and us.” Corinne let out an exasperated breath. “But I won’t do anything about what he’s already told you—unless you force me to take desperate measures. Whatever you may think of me, I don’t relish the idea of picking apart someone else’s mind. So I really do hope you care about him enough to keep quiet. Even after you two are apart.”

  Her words, the idea of not being with Zach, tore through my heart.

  “Because you won’t last—you can’t. The human body isn’t meant to be bombarded with so much energy; it kills us, and little by little it will kill you. You and Zach may not want to believe it, but it’s true.”

  “I’m stronger than that,” I protested, hoping I was right. “My energy … it … Zach and I are stronger together, not weaker.”

  “I can’t explain your energy. I’ve never encountered it before.” Corinne gritted her teeth. “But I do know what history has taught us; we can’t be with outsiders. If you weren’t so incredibly pigheaded, you would see that I’m trying to protect you.”

  “Why would you try to protect me?” My words echoed off the tile walls of the restroom. “You’re probably the one who tried to attack me in the Arts Building!”

  “That soda machine crap? Zach already gave me the third degree and checked with our parents to make sure I was really at home that night. It wasn’t me—must’ve been someone else you pissed off.” Corinne snorted. “Besides, why would I chase you down a hallway? That’s totally ridiculous.”

  “Maybe because you hate my guts?” I suggested.

  “I don’t hate you. I just know this will end badly.” Corinne’s voice was steady, sure. “If you break up with him now, it’ll be easier on all of us. You will save yourself and my family a lot of heartache.”

  “Oh, so you’re pretending to have a heart now?” I spat nastily. “Because as far as I can tell, the only thing residing in your chest is a cold hard block of ice.”

  “I am trying to save you, you ungrateful idiot!”

  “Don’t do me any favors.” I swept past her, letting the bathroom door swing shut in her face. I was practically shaking, I was so angry—or afraid; I wasn’t positive which it was. Maybe a bit of both.

  I spotted Zach and Brody over by the DJ table talking to the guy running the music. Zach burst out with his thick, deep laugh. I wanted desperately to be near him, to feel his reassuring presence wash over me. I wanted to ask him if Corinne could really erase my memories. I suspected that it was true, and the idea horrified me—that everything that had happened the last couple of weeks, my whole relationship with Zach, could be gone from my mind one day, just like that. But I knew if I asked him, he would be furious with Corinne and the whole evening would be ruined. And that was exactly what Corinne wanted.

  I couldn’t go over there right now. I glanced around the room and saw George, but he was talking to a group of guys I didn’t know. Then I spotted Adriana leaning against the wall behind the table that the administration had given the parent-friendly title of “refreshment center.” She was observing the party revelers with detachment. There was at least one person who was self-involved enough not to notice I was upset.

  “How’s it going?” I asked after grabbing a bottle of water.

  “It’s whatever.” Adriana shrugged. “Why do you think he wanted to go to the dance with her?”

  She was eyeing Trent and Sybil, who were standing at the entrance of the room. Trent seemed bored as he watched Sybil talk animatedly to some sophomore who had been following her around since the beginning of the week. Sybil’s building her army of lackeys, one insecure girl at a time.

  “If the story you told me about game night is any indication, he invited her because he thinks it will get him laid,” I answered.

  “But he’s so hot. I bet there are tons of girls willing to sleep with him. Girls who aren’t related to Satan.” Adriana pointed at Sybil’s shoes. “Notice how she doesn’t ever wear peep toes? It’s to hide her cloven hooves.”

  We strolled past the refreshment table, where Mrs. Carr was dipping out punch, no disgruntled husband in sight. She gave us a mechanical smile as we went to join Brody and Zach.

  “Hey, you guys!” Toy came bounding over, a sweaty Graham right behind her. “Why aren’t you dancing?”

  “There should be some kind of protective barrier set up around Graham and Brody when they’re dancing. That is a majorly hazardous danger zone,” Adriana informed her. “I was afraid I was going to lose an eye.”

  “I’ll have you know I took the all-preschool dance trophy,” Graham said proudly.

  “Wow. Impressive,” Toy teased.

  “Shush, you.” He chucked her lightly under the chin, and she practically glowed with happiness. Watching Toy and Graham, I was glad I had encouraged her to go after him. They would make a perfect couple. Not that they’ll ever be able to compete with Zach and me. I looked up at Zach, and he planted a kiss on my forehead.

  “Jesus. Get a room already.” Adriana nudged me. “I’m going to have to go back to that perilous dance floor before I enter insulin shock.”

  As always, Brody followed close behind her.

  Toy and Graham exchanged a look. “Yeah. We’re going to go dance some more, too.”

  “I guess we scared everyone off again, huh?” Zach laughed.

  “I don’t mind,” I assured him.

  “I just want to tell you, in case I forget later, that I had a wonderful time tonight.” Zach smiled.

  I laid my head against his arm and let out a little sigh of contentment.

  “Happy?” Zach asked with a wide grin.

  “Very,” I assured him. Or at least I had been. Now Corinne was walking toward us.

  “I need to talk to my brother. In private.”

  “I’m kind of busy here,” Zach told her through gritted teeth.

  “I’m sure Phe won’t mind. I’ll return you good as new.”

  Somehow I doubted that. Corinne was determined to ruin our night—our whole relationship, in fact—and since I hadn’t folded, she was now trying to break Zach.

  “It’s fine. I’m not going anywhere.” I arched an eyebrow at Corinne to make sure she got my double meaning.

  “Thanks, L.A., I knew you’d understand.” She gave me a nasty little smile.

  “I’ll be right back,” Zach said before following Corinne out onto the balcony.

  I tapped my heel as I waited. Who knew what she was out there saying. I just had to trust that Zach would take it with a grain of salt. Or arsenic, in Corinne’s case.

  My small evening bag started vibrating, and I extracted my ringing cell phone from it. I didn’t recognize the number.

  “Hello?” I answered curiously.

  “Persephone.” The voice sounded just like my swim teacher’s. “It’s Mr. Carr.”

  Probably because it was my swim teacher. I glanced at the punch table where he had been earlier. Only Mrs. Carr was there now.

  “Where are you?” I did a complete 360.

  “I’m at the pond behind the SAC.” His voice sounded strange, almost panicked. “Can you get away for a second? Come meet me here? By yourself?”

  I glanced out at the balcony. Corinne
was still chewing Zach out.

  “I guess,” I agreed hesitantly. This didn’t feel right. And not in a “I think my teacher is hitting on me” way. It felt wrong in a “something bad is going to happen” sense.

  “It’s important. I have something to tell you. Something you really need to know.” Mr. Carr was trying to hold his voice steady, but I could hear the desperation creeping in around the edges.

  “Okay.” This wasn’t a good idea, but as usual my impulse control was less than stellar. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Thanks, Persephone.” He let out a sigh of relief, and I hung up the phone.

  I felt weird leaving without saying something to Zach. If he came back in and found me gone, he would be extremely worried. But I couldn’t believe that Mr. Carr was going to hurt me, and he had said to come alone. I’ll just have to get back before Corinne’s done bitching. That meant I had at least ten minutes.

  A dense fog had descended on the campus while we had been in the SAC, and now I could barely see two feet in front of my face. I felt my way around the corner of the building.

  The adrenaline pumping through my veins was telling me to run, but I knew that was a bad idea. I couldn’t tell where I was going—what if I twisted my ankle like some idiotic girl in a horror movie? That was a sure way to end up dead. I forged on through the eerie white vapor, praying that I would see Mr. Carr. Because if he wasn’t here, then this was some kind of trap. And I had walked right into it.

  Fear was spreading through my chest like thick creeping ivy—I was halfway to the pond, and the fog had grown even denser. It was rising off the water like smoke from dry ice, obscuring everything. I couldn’t even see the huge willow tree that stood next to the pond. Why had I come out here? I was completely defenseless. And Zach didn’t know where I was. What if someone grabbed me from behind and slit my throat? I felt something damp touch the back of my neck and I started running blindly.

  All of a sudden, my legs were knocked out from under me and I was falling, the mist cold on my skin. I hit the ground with a thud. A flash of silver glinted at me from the grass. Athena’s ID bracelet. I wrapped my fist around it tightly.

  Only then did I notice what was lying beside the bracelet. A human hand. My entire body quaked as I followed the outline of the body up to the face. I was staring into the unseeing eyes of Mr. Carr. They were terrifying in their emptiness. There was no soul behind them. These were the eyes of a shell. Mr. Carr was gone.

  I couldn’t fully comprehend the horror of what I was seeing. I was just on the phone with him. He had been alive, and now he was dead. A corpse with a raw red handprint burned into either side of his head.

  There was a roaring in my ears. What if his killer was still here? What if I was next? I whipped my head around and saw a figure running at me through the fog. My heart stopped momentarily, and I couldn’t breathe, my lungs constricted by the steel trap my rib cage had become. There was nothing left for me to do—he was too near; there was no chance for escape. I closed my eyes tightly, hoping to shut out the searing pain I knew was coming.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Phe! Phe, are you okay?”

  Zach was gently shaking me. I blinked my heavy eyelids, dazed and disoriented. I was lying in the cold wet grass a few feet away from Mr. Carr’s body.

  “I thought you were the person who … I thought you were …” I clutched the bracelet in my hand so tightly that the sharp metal corners dug into my skin. “I must have fainted.”

  “You were just lying here when I ran up. I could barely see you through all the fog.” Zach took my outstretched hand and hoisted me off the ground. Kissing the top of my head, he murmured into my hair, “You scared the shit out of me.”

  At this, I started crying. Zach was here and I was safe, but Mr. Carr wasn’t. Mr. Carr would never be anything ever again.

  Teachers and various parents were hurrying past us, screaming at one another about CPR and ambulances.

  “What happened?” A girl I didn’t know came running up, looking panicked. A teacher stopped her with one arm.

  “We think Mr. Carr had a heart attack,” the teacher told her. “Please go wait inside the SAC with the other kids, and we’ll tell you what happened when we know more.”

  Heart attack? I felt my mind getting fuzzy again. I could hear the commotion all around as Zach picked me up, cradling me in his arms. Then it blended into an unintelligible din, and I slipped into unconsciousness. When I awoke, I was lying on a couch with my head in Zach’s lap.

  “Hey.” He gave me a small sad smile.

  “Mr. Carr?” Maybe it had been one of my dreams. A terrible nightmare.

  “He’s gone. The coroner took him away.”

  “He’s really dead?” The tears in my throat were choking me. I sat up. “Was he … did somebody …?” I couldn’t quite bring myself to say the word murder.

  “No,” Zach reassured me.

  “Phe. You’re awake.” Ms. Moore broke off from the group of teachers and parents next to us. “How are you feeling?”

  “Awful. Out of it.” That barely touched on all the emotions swirling through me.

  “I am so sorry you had to find him like that.” Ms. Moore’s eyes were shiny with unshed tears.

  “Thanks.” I was trying not to cry myself. The entire school was crammed into the downstairs of the SAC, and I didn’t want to break down in front of them.

  “I’ll give you some time.” Ms. Moore patted me on the shoulder, then walked back over to the other adults.

  Zach watched the group intently.

  “What are they talking about?” I had no doubt he was using his superhearing to his advantage.

  “They’re trying to decide how much to tell us right now. They want to wait for the hospital’s test results before they make an official statement, but several of them think it was an aneurysm.” Zach closed his eyes in concentration. I could barely pick out the low buzz of their voices in this crowd of noise.

  “Apparently he’d been complaining of headaches for a few days. They’re saying maybe a blood vessel in his brain …” Zach saw the look on my face and trailed off. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” It wasn’t the description of the aneurysm that was getting to me. I just I didn’t want to go through all this again. I was tired of death.

  “Listen up, everyone.” Mr. Potterson clapped his hands together. “We aren’t going to find out anything concrete tonight, so we have come to the decision that everyone should go back to their dorms and get some sleep. We will hold a meeting as soon as we know what happened to Mr. Carr.”

  “Was he murdered?” a male voice called out from the middle of the crowd.

  Several students echoed the sentiment.

  “Are we safe?” a girl yelled.

  “I can assure you that you are all safe. Mr. Carr’s death was a natural one.” Mr. Potterson’s booming voice drowned out the others. “The paramedics think it was a heart attack. But as I said before, we won’t know anything for sure until they have had time to run some tests. Now, I am going to have all the houses break up into groups, so please go stand by your respective dorm heads. Day students whose parents are here may leave with them. The rest of the day students, remain with me. I will walk you out to your cars when the boarding students have cleared out.”

  The teachers lined up at the front of the SAC.

  “I wish I could come with you.” Zach tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow, though.”

  I nodded silently. I was afraid if I spoke, I would start crying. I felt like a raw nerve. I wanted Zach to stay with me now more than ever. I wanted to fall asleep next to him, curled in the shelter of his arms. He squeezed my hand one last time before I went over to stand with Ms. Moore’s group. Adriana was at my side the moment we stepped out of the SAC, and she walked right next to me, silent as a ghost, all the way back to the dorm. Even when we reached our rooms, she only gave me a little sad wave b
efore going in.

  I closed my door behind me and locked it. As soon as I was alone, my shaky legs gave out on me, and I sank to the floor. I let a tear roll down my cheek.

  The teachers had said his death was natural, but I had seen Mr. Carr’s body. The red handprints seared into his head. That was anything but natural. I opened my purse, shaking its contents onto the floor. The silver ID bracelet was still there. Why did Mr. Carr have it? Had he found it in the Athletics Center? Maybe he’d just come across it recently. That made sense.

  But what didn’t make any sense was the way he had spoken to me, his voice rushed and shaky. Urgent. What could have been so important about my lost bracelet? And why would he have felt that he needed to talk to me about it outside and alone?

  I ran my thumb along the engraved infinity symbol, like it was a genie’s lamp that could provide me with answers. What was Mr. Carr going to tell me? Had someone killed him to keep it secret?

  Everything had finally felt right in my life, and now it had been ripped apart again. In a surge of anger I threw the bracelet across the room. It bounced off the bedside table and fell harmlessly to the floor. I took my heels off and threw them, too, not caring that they were my favorites.

  The loud thump the shoes made as they hit the wood table was satisfying. But it didn’t get rid of the fright that permeated me, like a deep, cold ache in my bones. It wasn’t just the red handprints on Mr. Carr’s body that scared me. It was death. I had felt it when Athena died, too.

  I stood up and pulled off my dress, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked exactly how I felt: small, vulnerable, tortured. It was like I had curled into myself. Then I noticed something else in the mirror.

  The mark.

  Had my Hekate’s Wheel protected me tonight? If I had gotten there a few minutes sooner, would I be dead, too?

  This idea sent a sickening shiver through my body. I turned away from my reflection and put my pajamas on. But even with the mark covered up, it still weighed on me. I could pretend it wasn’t there, but I knew it was.