by C. L. Stone
It was weird to be out of school, on a day we should be there, and know I didn’t have to be there at all really. There was some lingering guilt, like we could get caught by cops, questioned why we were out of school, and they’d send us back, likely facing suspension, and it would go on some permanent record. The sort of things growing up kids were told would happen if you skipped school.
So many things had changed since I met them.
The line was so long for the drive-through that it stuck out into the street. Instead of driving on to a different one, North parked the Jeep. “Me or you?”
“Me,” Silas said. “More because you usually come back with just the slim sandwiches.”
“What more do you need?” North asked Silas, but Silas didn’t answer and left the car, closing the door.
I was in the back seat. And at first, I didn’t think anything of it.
North glumly stared out the front of the Jeep.
Normally I’d ask him questions. Was he tired? Did he actually sleep last night?
Instead, because of how he wasn’t talking to me, I didn’t know where to start. Was he mad at me for what happened?
I knew the answer. North hated it when I kept anything from him. Erica and the mask... those were big ones.
I wasn’t sure what to say to him, and was looking around the Jeep absently, waiting for Silas to get back when I sensed him looking at me. I looked up in time to catch him staring at me via the rearview mirror.
I instantly tried to look away and then felt guilty for it.
But he didn’t stop. He kept staring at me, his image reflecting his dark eyes, intense.
I swallowed and my lips felt glued together. Maybe I was tired still from the lack of sleep, but I couldn’t come up with what to say at all.
And I kept looking down and away and then looking back at him. His stare was too intense, but I kept trying.
Suddenly he turned, taking his seatbelt off so he could twist in the seat and look at me full on. “Come here.” He motioned with his fingers.
I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do, but I scooted to the edge of the seat and he reached back. His fingers wove into my hair, finding the back of my head, holding it, and drawing me close.
He held me as best as he could, twisted like he was, and separated like we were. “I’m guessing there was a reason you didn’t say anything.”
“Not a good one,” I said glumly. “Nathan and I thought we shouldn’t tell Kota... and for some reason that led to not saying anything to anyone. I don’t really know why. We were mostly waiting to see if Volto came looking for the mask, or watching Erica to look for anything unusual...”
He massaged the back of my scalp for a minute, until he drew my head closer and his forehead touched mine. “Victor kept things from us, too. About Volto. For different reasons. And so have a few of us. But we need to stop.”
“Okay,” I said weakly.
“I don’t want you looking at me like you’re afraid to talk to me,” he said. “I can’t stand it.”
“...Okay.”
He huffed once and pulled back enough that those dark eyes pierced right into my soul. “I’m not mad.”
“You are.”
“Not at you.”
“Not at Nathan?”
He didn’t say anything.
“You can’t be mad at him, either,” I said more defensively. “We both made the decision, so you’re either mad at us both or you’re not mad.”
“I’m more angry that Volto makes us do stupid shit because we’re so damn paranoid.”
“So we’re stupid?” I asked.
He released a breath through his nose. “We all are. For letting him get to us the way he does.”
“Because of me,” I said.
He narrowed his gaze. “Him. Not you. Volto.”
I wasn’t really satisfied. There were many reasons why Volto got away with a lot, but the biggest reason was we simply couldn’t go to the police, because doing so risked my exposure. Was it even really worth it? We risked it now by being forced to call the police about the break-in.
And sometimes I wondered if that’s what Volto tried to do. Push us until we were forced to call outside help.
Silas opened the passenger door and North pulled away from me, still appearing flustered.
“Got the family deal,” Silas said with a grin, until he looked at North and then at me and our grim expressions. “What?”
“Nothing,” North said.
“North’s not saying he’s mad at Nathan and me for not saying anything,” I said quickly.
Silas tilted his head. “I thought you were mad about the bruises on her neck.”
“Shut up,” North said.
“That’s what you said earlier...”
“Just shut up,” he said and turned the key in the ignition to start the car. “Let’s get going.”
I held my breath, replaying the scene in my head. He hadn’t been the one to say first why he seemed upset. I assumed it was because of what Nathan and I had done.
I absently reached up to my neck, feeling the skin, the tender spots where Silas had sucked the day before. There were visible bruises? I didn’t have makeup or anything to cover it.
Silas glanced back at me and winked. “Don’t worry. He’s just jealous.”
“We’ve already been through this,” North said. “About the marks on her skin. You know you shouldn’t do it where it’d be visible.”
“That’s where it feels good.”
North emitted an annoyed groan.
This was clearly an ongoing conversation between them. While I’d had marks on my neck before, it was mostly from North since we both discovered we liked being bitten.
Silas distributed the food, and while North drove, I tried my best to situate my hair and the hoodie to mostly cover the marks at my neck. I could only do it by feel. Since we were out in public, I felt it was probably a good idea to hide it.
Should I be covering it? It wasn’t like I was at risk for going to my parents and they’d worry about it. Or was it a jealousy thing? There was always so much to think about when I was with them.
After we ate on the way, North parked in the lot of a hospital I was unfamiliar with.
“She’s not here right now, so we’re good to go in,” North said. “She should have been back home early this morning. She’s probably dead asleep.”
“What’s the plan?” Silas said.
“I’ve got a list of dates and times when Volto has made physical appearances,” he said. “He can’t be in two places at once, so let’s prove it’s not Erica.”
“It won’t be the night she picked up Nathan off the side of the road,” I said. “She was working but claimed she was coming home at the time.” That night was pretty scary, but Nathan and I had worked out the timeline. It was highly possible if she was Volto to have driven up the road, switched vehicles, changed clothes by the time she got back to Nathan, and then further to pick me up at a grocery store up the road. It all just happened so fast at the time we didn’t put the two together.
“No, but there’s other times on record,” North said. He motioned to a duffle bag next to me. “Open that up. Pass me the folded shirt and the kit.”
The kit was a black canvas bag inside the duffle. North replaced his black T-shirt with a white undershirt, and a white cuffed button-up over top. The canvas bag had a gray tie, and a pair of nonprescription glasses.
After he finished, he appeared more like a grumpier Kota.
I snickered.
“Don’t,” he grumbled low.
Silas cocked a smile. “She has a point there.”
North rolled his eyes. “Just stay close. You two are visiting, and I’m here for work, but keep an eye out for me.”
I wasn’t sure how we’d learn the information, but I followed them out of the Jeep and in through the front entrance. I kept my hood up, too.
This hospital was more a bare bones brick box on the outside. I’
d never known where Erica worked, but the hospital was technically in Goose Creek and not Summerville, a little further away from the closer hospital. I wondered why she worked here and not the closer one.
I wasn’t paying attention to anyone else we might have passed because I couldn’t stop myself from staring at the difference of North in his new attire. He even walked different, more upright and with a small spring in every other step. Did he think that’s how Kota walked? Maybe he did and I hadn’t noticed. His hair was even combed back, a little wet. A completely different North.
I almost liked it.
Silas hung back with me. We walked in separately, letting North lead the way. Silas moved slower, holding the door open for me. We could monitor North and where he went, but we focused on talking to each other.
The lobby had a large circle desk several women sat behind, directing other people. The gray-speckled tile floor was shiny after a fresh wash that morning. A large fountain as big as a conference table took up the majority of the center of the entryway, with ivy vines draped down over planters in the corners.
We drifted a little toward the fountain, checking it out while we monitored North waiting his turn at the front desk. There were coins in the basin, clashing against light blue tiles. I tried counting the amount to not be tempted to look again at North. I didn’t want to give us away.
“This might take a few tries,” Silas said quietly to me. “If North doesn’t do this right.”
“What’s the plan?”
“He’s going to pretend he’s from the finance department and there’s a problem with some of the employee records about hours. He’s here to double-check the computer system in the nurse’s offices.”
I wondered if the person at the counter could tell North was too young to be an accountant. Maybe Mr. Blackbourne ought to do it. However, Mr. Blackbourne had a school to manage, given he was acting principal now. He might not be able to during open office hours. Maybe Mr. Buble...
When North got to the counter, he’d barely spoken when the receptionist pointed a direction for him. He nodded, waved shortly and hurried in the direction she’d motioned to.
We took a minute, talked about the weather, before Silas and I finally followed down a hallway where North had gone.
It was unclear if we were supposed to even be in the hallway, but the area had way more offices and management than there were doctors and nurses. We passed by doors, most being dark, but a few had lights on, with glazed windows and white lettering painted on. Administrator Assistant. Management. HR Department.
North had paused just outside one door marked Data Management. He checked back, giving us a short glance before he opened the door. There had been a light on inside. It was likely someone was there.
Silas and I, very slowly, approaching the glazed glass, looking in. North was saying something. A reply from a masculine voice. North said something again.
We went past the door, a few dozen feet away. Silas placed himself with his shoulder against the wall, leaning, and motioned for me to move around so I was facing him.
We were no one important, just two people lingering outside an office hallway and talking. Hopefully that’s what it looked like, anyway.
“If anyone asks, we’re here to see... I don’t know. Your stepmom or something?”
She wasn’t in the hospital anymore, and I wasn’t sure she’d ever been in this hospital, but it was easy for me to think of saying that and make it believable. I wanted to try to hear what was being said in the Data Management room but I couldn’t quite make it out. There was noise from other rooms, voices, even if muffled.
“It doesn’t matter,” Silas said. “It’s not Erica.”
I bit my lower lip shortly, feeling the guilt I’d been hanging on to ever since we found the mask in her car. “I want to believe it it’s not her.”
“It can’t be,” he said. “She wouldn’t be risking our lives. Not her.”
“Maybe she didn’t mean to.”
“Volto meant to,” he said. “She’s a nurse. She wouldn’t try to give us all strep throat. She wouldn’t punch Luke in the nose until it was broken. She wouldn’t have led Nathan into the middle of some lake and left him to the alligators. She wouldn’t scare her own son or take pictures of you naked to send to us to torment us all.”
I couldn’t imagine it either. It was hard to make the connection. “If he doesn’t find anything, then she’s in the clear,” I said. I put a hand on his, holding gently. “It just eliminates any chance it’s her, right? Doing this?”
He nodded shortly, some of the edge in his dark eyes disappearing. His broad lips smiled a bit. “Yeah. That’s right. Let’s mark her off the list.”
He reached up, gently touching a spot on my neck. I felt the light sting of a bruise.
“Does it hurt?”
“Only a little.”
“I don’t want to feel pride about this. I don’t know why I do.”
“Is North really mad about it?”
“Only jealous. But serves him right since he leaves bruises, too. Or gets them. Only tells us off when it’s us, not himself.”
I wasn’t sure deserving some jealousy was how this would work better. “I don’t want anyone to be mad.”
He gently, with his broad forefinger, swept a lock of hair away from my eyes. “You can’t tell us how to feel. We’ll get over it.”
We were only standing in the hallway for a few more minutes before there was a louder voice, North’s, closer to the door behind Silas’s back.
I peeked around Silas, spotting North opening the door. “Thanks again,” he said. He gave me one short look as he exited and then turned down the hallway without speaking to me, back to the lobby.
It was the look in his eyes that made me unsure. Concern. Worry. Should we follow?
However, Silas waited, long after North’s footsteps had faded. Longer still. Just in case. Leaving exactly at the same time probably looked funny.
And when we left, Silas took a different exit from when we’d come in. Better that way. Looking like we weren’t together at all. Who knew who was paying attention.
I tried not to hurry too much. However, at the Jeep, I jumped in, my heart beating wildly, waiting to hear it.
Not her.
Tell us it wasn’t her.
Silas nearly rocked the Jeep with getting in and slamming the door closed. “Got it?”
North was clutching the wheel, looking out, frowning. Suddenly he ripped off the glasses, tossed them at the windshield hard enough to crack the fake lenses and they clattered against the dashboard.
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to the steering wheel.
“She’s lying to us,” he said grimly.
There was a surge deep inside me, a fear welling up that took over, threatening tears to my eyes.
Erica Lee. Kota’s own mother.
“You’re wrong,” Silas spoke in a low tone at him.
North didn’t lift his head, only movement was the shaking of his shoulders and the tightening grip at the wheel, as if trying to contain himself. “Every time. Every fucking day I’ve got on my list, she’s not been working. Even on days I know... that I remember... she looked me in the face...” He lifted his head and his cheeks were red, his eyes cold. “Every god damn time...”
I sat back in the seat, defeated, slumping down and letting my head roll back. I closed my eyes. Somehow, we had to know, and I regretted knowing. Maybe it still couldn’t be. Maybe she wasn’t Volto.
But it didn’t matter. She was hiding something. From all of us. From Kota.
And so far, what we feared the most, that she could be responsible for so much... so much of our own fearful encounters with a masked person. And we had no idea...
How could she...
And why?
Decelerando
(Slowing down)
Victor
The motel the other part of the team had settled for across town from where Mr. Buble had placed Sa
ng and the others was small, run by a mom-and-pop team on the outskirts of John’s Island.
After too few hours of restless sleep, Victor woke up to someone shaking his arm.
Victor tried to force his eyes open, but it wasn’t easy. His mouth and throat ached being so dry. It was uncomfortably hot even with just the itchy white sheet over him.
More shaking at his arm. “What?” he mumbled.
“Quick, before he comes back,” he heard Kota asking. “Tell me if you’ve told him anything.”
Victor groaned and flopped over on the lumpy motel bed, only to discover not only Kota was hovering over him, but also Luke and Gabriel, so close he could smell sticky sweet sugar from their breaths.
Victor blinked hard and pushed a hand toward Luke’s face, which had been closer, nearly in kissing range. “Okay, guys, back up. What are you talking about?”
“Mr. Buble,” Gabriel said over top of everyone else trying to explain. His big blue eyes widened, and he pushed a forefinger at Victor’s chest. “Don’t play dumb. Did you say anything? Why is he saying you and Sang are about to team up tonight? Why did he insist it was you?”
“Get off of me,” Victor said, pushing Gabriel’s hand away and rubbing at his eyes. He was trying to wake up enough to remember even where he was, or what job Mr. Buble might have meant for this evening. The clock on the side table between the two beds said eight thirty. Victor had passed right out the moment they got in and he thought he’d get much more sleep than this.
“Also—” Gabriel slapped lightly at Victor’s exposed thigh. Victor jumped slightly away from him. “That’s for being a stupid head about the drugs and the drinking.”
“You already told me off for that.”
“I wanted to do it when you were sober. I didn’t get my turn yet.”
Victor sniffed and sat up on the bed, pulling away from the other three. “Can I just please wake up first? Are we having to go somewhere?”
“I’m already having to explain why we were gone most of the day yesterday and not helping Sang and Nathan when they were going through my mom’s room,” Kota said.
Oh yeah. So much had happened, it was hard to remember. Victor stood up, hovering on the carpet, lightheaded, likely from lack of sleep and low blood sugar. He was in the same T-shirt he’d been wearing... was this day two? The boxers were the same as well, and he was feeling grungy. Still, a shower might have to wait. “Catch me up?”
