by Sara Clancy
“Don’t give me that look. I bet that you didn’t even consider the idea that it wasn’t me.”
“You choked me.” Even though Benton couldn’t raise his voice above a whisper, it was clear that he was completely done with the entire situation.
“Are you sure?” Zack said, willing the fingers of his good hand. “It could all be an illusion.”
“I want to stab you.”
“Right. I guess it was me. God, that’s, well−” He chuckled nervously. “It’s terrifying, actually. What else did I do?”
“Call the twins.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Because they can do a subtle headcount. Right.” He pulled his phone from the pocket of his soggy jeans. A few flicks of his thumb and he just stared at the screen. Benton had lost interest and gone back to cleaning the dirt out of the wounds. “What do I even tell them?”
“What do you remember?”
Zack thought for a moment. “I was in the school parking lot. No one else was around. I got held up in the locker room.”
“Don’t want to know.”
Zack snorted. “I was scrolling through Instagram.”
Benton arched one eyebrow at him.
“Okay, I might have posted a few topless shots. And others. All tastefully done.” A smug smile crossed his face. “You’d be surprised how many fans I have.”
“Don’t want to know.” Benton still failed to increase his volume, but he was able to put force behind each word.
Zack’s chuckle ended with a hiss when Benton pushed a little too hard.
“God, Benton. Nicole does it with love.”
Benton just shook his head.
“I can take over,” Nicole said.
Neither boy was surprised by her arrival, and she wondered if they had been aware she had been listening in all along. She reasoned that it didn’t really matter either way. All things considered; it had been nice to see her friends getting along so well. Reassuring in a way. Everyone’s alright. Settling down next to them, she took over Benton’s duties, relieved to find that the damage wasn’t too bad.
Carefully examining each finger, she mumbled, “I don’t think anything’s broken.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Zack asked.
“Um, yeah. I did. I just wanted to make sure everything was locked up, that’s all.”
The boys looked at each other before rolling their eyes in unison.
“What was that?” she asked.
“You’re a terrible liar,” Zack laughed.
Benton gingerly pressed an ice pack to his throat. “The worst.”
“Is this really what we should be focusing on right now? Hm? No? Okay. So, Zack, you were taking naked selfies in the school locker room.”
“Everything was covered,” he protested, his cheeks warming. “And you can’t see my face.”
Benton whimpered in pain.
“I know, I know.” His impersonation of Benton was horrible. “You don’t want to know.”
“And then you went to your car,” Nicole pressed, desperate to get the conversation back on track. Her eyes darted to Zack’s pile of wet clothes as something occurred to her. “Where’s your jacket? You weren’t wearing it when you came to the door.”
“I don’t like to wear it while driving. The truck’s heater is awesome.”
“Do you wait for the truck to warm up before taking it off?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Just establishing the timeline,” she said.
“Oh,” Zack said, confusion quickly chasing realization across his features. “Hey, yeah, I remember now. I was in the truck, listening to the radio. Nothing good was playing. I was there long enough to take my jacket off. So, five minutes.”
“Were you posting?” Benton asked.
Zack blinked at him. “Right. Time of posting will narrow the window even more. I’m with ya.”
Nicole made sure to avoid catching even a glimpse of the screen while he scrolled through his Instagram feed. Zack grunted as he checked between his phone and his wristwatch. He only actually spoke again when she started to wind a bandage around his ravaged knuckles.
“Fifteen minutes ago. How long was I whooping Benton’s butt?”
“Hand in door,” Benton croaked.
Zack wiggled a finger to indicate his throat. “Sorry, can’t hear you, speak up a bit.”
“Is this the way you two bond, or should I get the hose again?”
“Bond,” Benton grumbled.
Zack just shrugged in agreement.
Rolling her eyes, she decided to leave that whole topic alone. It wasn’t really her place and she had other things to worry about. As long as they didn’t gang up on her, she’d deal with it.
“Okay, so, accounting for ice conditions, minimal traffic, and the little altercations,” Nicole thought aloud. “It only took a couple of minutes, at most, for this thing to completely take over your mind.”
“What was that?” Zack asked.
“Driving,” Benton whispered.
“Right. He drove here.”
It wasn’t like Fort Wayward had a complicated setup, but there were a few one-way streets and intersections separating her house from the school. Given how many people were out for animal control, someone would have noticed if he had been driving erratically.
She switched from thought to speech as she continued, “And that truck’s a stick shift. I haven’t had much experience with this sort of thing, but that seems like an impressive amount of control.”
“Someone controlled my mind?” Zack cut in, his eyes wide.
How did this not occur to you already? “I think so, yes.”
“Like the deer?”
Nicole nodded. Zack quickly glanced between her and Benton.
“That creature that was in the hallway,” he said in a meek, cautious voice. “The creature with the skull for a head. That thing was inside my head?”
“Sorry,” Nicole said.
She wasn’t sure what else to say in a situation like this. Zack’s eyes roamed the room as he tried to come to terms with that theory. Nicole’s skin went cold just thinking about it; that kind of violation from such a monstrosity. Having no control over it. No memory that it had ever happened. Somehow, that made it worse. If things had played out differently, he could have killed Benton without ever knowing it. She violently shoved the thought away.
“Going?” Benton asked.
Zack frowned, glanced at Nicole, and answered with a ‘huh?’
“Where were you going?”
“Use more words,” Zack teased.
Benton snatched the phone out of Zack’s hands, winced at whatever he found displayed, and began typing furiously with his thumbs. Then he shoved it back.
“Zack, you unbelievable jerk,” Zack read aloud. “You didn’t just choke me out. You were trying to take me somewhere – alive. Do you have any idea where you were supposed to take me?”
“It’s probably the same place that it’s trying to lure you to in your sleep,” Nicole said. Energy crackled restlessly under her skin, and she whirled back to Zack.
“Think really hard, Zack. It’s important. Do you have any idea where you were supposed to go?”
“I don’t even remember losing my mind to this thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be an actual location,” Nicole insisted. “Maybe you have a strange feeling? A notion? Nothing solid but still there.”
“Nope.”
“Well, think about when you were first asked. Did anything come to mind? A smell or color or anything.”
Zack strained himself with thought. It only left him looking more confused. “Grass.”
“That’s good,” Nicole said with energy, getting the enthusiastic approval in before Benton could say anything. “You’re doing great. Now elaborate. What about grass?”
Deep lines formed in his brow and gathered around his eyes. It actually looked painful to be thinking so hard. But whatever thought he was chasing remained
just beyond his grasp.
“It’s okay if it doesn’t make sense right now. It could still be important.”
“I just smelt grass.”
“Only grass? No trees? Rotting leaves maybe?”
“Just grass.”
Nicole was almost giddy with relief. “Awesome. Zack, you’re the best.”
“We live on a grass plain,” Benton muttered.
“Yeah, as much as I like the praise, I’m going to have to side with the banshee. Grass is everywhere. It doesn’t narrow anything down.”
“But it does eliminate an option,” she beamed.
Benton took Zack’s phone again. Zack was just as confused as she was when Benton passed back the new message. Reading it quietly to himself, Zack snorted a laugh.
“You know, that describes her pretty succinctly.”
“What did he write?” Nicole snapped a hand out for the phone only to have Zack pull it away. “Benton, what did you write?”
Benton smirked and kept his silence.
“You two are horrible,” she sulked.
“How do you know it wasn’t singing your praises?” Zack asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, back to the life and death situation.” Accentuating the words didn’t make either of them remorseful, so she plowed on. “Where in Fort Wayward wouldn’t you smell grass?”
“At school?” Zack asked.
Benton pointed to the ground.
“Yes, in buildings, of course,” she said. “But where else?”
“The same place as your point?” Before she could respond, Zack rushed to add. “My hand is sore. I’m not thinking straight.”
She let her frustration leave her on a long breath. “The forest. At the very least, we know that whatever is after Benton isn’t trying to take him back to the haunted forest. And, since the Highway of the Lost runs through it, we can safely assume that it’s not going near there either.”
“And that’s important?” Zack said carefully.
“Did you want to deal with buffalo head, angry ghosts, and those tree-demons all at the same time? Not to mention whatever creep is roaming the highway looking for hitchhikers?”
“Hey,” Zack grinned. “Look at that. We just found a silver lining.”
“We,” Nicole muttered under her breath, her eyes darting to stare bitterly at the phone and whatever comment lay there.
“What was that?” Zack asked.
“I was asking you to call the twins. The buffalo monster probably selected you because it saw you coming around here so often. You’ve failed, so it might go after them.”
“There is no way your mumbling had that many words,” Zack replied. He started dialing anyway.
Benton nudged her. “Call your mom.”
“Why does everyone keep suggesting that? I can handle this.”
His eyebrows inched towards his still damp hair. “She’s a police officer.”
“Oh. Right. Yeah, I should probably call mom.”
Chapter 8
Logically, Benton understood why people did it; he was a Banshee and all. It only made sense to ensure that he couldn’t scream. But he was getting really sick of people using his throat like a stress ball. Zack’s fingerprints now covered the faded damage Logan had left behind and, as the throbbing sensation faded, a deep ache rose up to replace it.
The innards of the ice pack Nicole had given him had long since melted into slush. Condensation drizzled down his battered skin. By this point, his shirt collar had completely soaked through. Every so often, a droplet would seep free and trail down his back or chest, making him shiver.
It had only taken two short calls for the Rider family to snap into action. Watching it all play out around him, Benton became convinced that, should they ever have the passing fancy, it wouldn’t be hard for the three of them to take over a small country. Neither Benton nor Zack had been included in the Rider family’s Facetime. Although, at Logan’s request, Benton had been asked to display his new array of bruises. There were a few bad jokes about Zack hiding the evidence of Logan’s previous assault before the soldier grew serious.
Rounding up the twins had fallen to him. Dorothy had taken damage control; interviewing the neighbors, making sure that they felt the issue was being properly dealt with without any further need of outside intervention. Benton wondered how she could convince people that everything was fine and stress that they shouldn’t leave their home at the same time. Nicole’s duty was to defend the home-front.
After making sure Zack and Benton were busy nursing their wounds and egos, she had begun fluttering around the house. At this point in their relationship, it didn’t exactly surprise him to learn that Nicole was proficient at setting boobytraps. Zack had commented that she must have watched Home Alone a lot. Benton decided not to mention that a great deal of those traps would have been fatal in real life. Both of them had growing concerns as to why the Rider family had so many sledgehammers and bear traps on the premises.
Benton had decided it was best to stop watching once she brought out a large bottle of oil and a flare gun. People burning alive had a very distinctive, disgusting smell. He had experienced it in countless dreams, and even thinking about it made his stomach churn.
“Are you boys hungry?” Nicole asked with excessive sweetness. “I can get you something. Ice cream maybe?”
“You’re busy, I can get it,” Zack said.
Nicole’s eyes widened, but her smile didn’t fade. It was an unsettling combination.
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t move about too much,” she said, hurrying off to the kitchen while spouting on about how it was her duty as their host.
Zack sunk back down onto the nest of blankets and pillows.
“We probably shouldn’t touch anything,” Zack whispered.
“Agreed.”
A sharp rapping on the door came soon enough. After Nicole detached a tripwire that would have brought a large butcher knife swinging down, she opened the door and allowed her father to come inside. Meg and Danny were ushered into the living room and set down with the boys. The ice-cream Nicole brought them all didn’t ease anyone’s concern.
“This is a good set up, angel.” Logan beamed with pride, jabbing a finger toward the dangling knife.
Nicole took the compliment with a blush and proceeded to answer a few follow up questions. There weren’t many. Mostly, they switched between checking that Nicole was all right and asking if she had made any ‘normal’ cookies, whatever that meant. Meg and Danny were a lot more talkative. Zack was left to explain it all to them as Meg anxiously devoured her chocolate fudge sundae. Then her sister’s.
“So why are we here? We didn’t do anything.” Danny winced in Benton’s general direction as she added. “You look horrible.”
“Thanks,” Benton muttered, his voice guttural and raw.
“Oh, my God, you sound even worse,” Meg chimed in. Putting down her spoon, she leaned over and prodded one finger against an exposed bruise, as if checking to make sure they weren’t fake. Benton smacked her hand. “Zack did a hell of a job on you. How are you even talking?”
Like a bratty child at an aquarium petting pool, Meg tried to poke at him a few more times. Benton smacked her had away each time and tried not to be too insulted that she seemed to think just moving slowly would trick him. Zack eventually took mercy on him and cupped his hand over Meg’s. She didn’t try again after that.
“Did you really try and kill Benny?” Danny asked.
“I didn’t mean to,” he half snapped, half cringed. “I don’t even remember doing it! I was at school and then suddenly my hand was locked in a door. And I apologized. Benton and I are cool now. Right, Benny-boy?”
Benton smirked. Nodding would hurt too much. And the way that slight bit of ambiguity drove Zack nuts was a bit of an extra bonus. It was another one of those situations where logic didn’t quite cancel out his bitterness.
Danny cut off Zack’s babblings. “Why does Nicole have so many bel
ls?”
They all looked to see Nicole practically skip into the room, her long hair swinging, and an almost serene smile on her face. Benton was instantly on edge. She only ever smiled like that when she was sure she had just wrestled back control of a situation. That didn’t always work out too well for him. Her wicker basket was hooked over her arm, filled to the brim with an array of shiny jiggling orbs. Without a word, she knelt down to join their circle and instantly set to work attaching long strings of bells around Meg’s ankle, looping it a few times before fixing it with a tiny padlock. They were the kind that people attached to their suitcases for security.
“Hey, Nicole,” Zack said with forced cheerfulness.
“Hey, Zack,” she chirped back.
When she didn’t offer anything more, the teenagers shot looks at each other. Benton often wondered how the trio managed to do this; if it was a talent learned from knowing each other since birth, or a survival skill developed specifically to deal with Nicole’s more tenacious whims. Whatever the reason, they could actually conduct a game of rock-paper-scissors by glances alone. Zack lost.
“So, um, what ya doing?” Zack asked cautiously.
“Safety precaution,” Nicole said as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
“To stop us from moving about?” Zack pressed.
Nicole giggled, swiftly finishing her work and moving onto Danny. “You make it sound like I’ve kidnapped you.”
“Your father did bundle us into a car with minimal explanation,” Danny said, subtly trying to pull her leg away.
Nicole had the padlock fastened before she got very far, then started on Zack.
“That won’t hold up in court. Besides, it’s for your safety, too. We don’t fully understand what happened to Zack yet, and there’s a risk it could happen to you guys as well. It’s imperative we keep track of where you guys are for a little while.” For a moment, her mask of sugar-sweet innocence slipped. “Don’t try opening any of the doors without letting me know.” She clicked the padlock shut. “Or the windows. Okie-dokie?”
