by Sara Clancy
“Not again,” she groaned.
“There’s an Algebra test today,” Danny shrugged.
Benton glanced over his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“I’m good at Algebra,” Meg said as she jabbed a thumb at her sister. “She’s better than me at Biology. We trade.”
“So you take tests for each other?” Benton said.
“No,” Nicole cut in sharply. “They make very bad jokes about it. Because if they did do such a thing, it would completely–”
“How many times have you given us the morality-must-win speech?” Meg interrupted.
Nicole actually gave thought to the question. “Eight.”
“And how many times has it worked?” Danny asked.
“Eight. I hope.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Meg giggled. “You’re going to be very disappointed.”
Danny leaned forward and gave Nicole a hug from behind. “You can just pretend that this is the one time that we actually do listen.”
“That is exactly what I’m going to do.”
“What about you?” Meg said as she kicked the back of his seat. “Are you going to tell on us, Benny-boy?”
Benton tilted his head towards her but didn’t bother to look all the way around. “I’ve gone this long without caring about your existence. No reason to change that now.”
“Wow,” Meg laughed. “Can you even remember the last friend you had?”
Without conscious thought, Benton slipped a hand under his hoodie and deep into his hair. He traced along a surgical scar that would never quite heal. His mind was trapped in a dark alleyway he hadn’t set foot in for years. He shivered.
“Yeah, he was pretty memorable.”
Benton turned back to the window. The small brick buildings that made up the town became specks on the horizon. They grew, rising up as Nicole pulled onto an asphalt road. The crystal clear sky hung low. It felt close enough to touch. Opening the window, he ignored the girls’ conversation and enjoyed the brisk breeze. His eyelids drooped at the soft scent of fresh grass.
His body turned rigid. His eyes crawled over his bones. Frozen in place, he snapped his eyes open, trying to see what had provoked the reaction. Needle sharp claws slipped out from behind him, growing until he could see the long, disjointed fingers that followed. They twisted and curled, perpetually searching. Benton recognized them instantly. They had remained in the back of his mind since the moment he had seen them in his dream. Since he had been in the field of glorified dead. Been forced to watch a man drain his own life.
The hands silently slithered forward, flanking him, enclosing him. Thin, twitching arms expanded out around him until the claws scratched against the dashboard before him. He darted his gaze to Nicole. She was still talking with the twins, undisturbed by the rough grooves the nails were digging into her car. The hands snapped around to face him, the claws bare and sharp, poised, deadly. They struck.
They destroyed his chest, slashed open his lungs, transforming his emerging scream into a slick whistling whine. He thrashed, unable to move within the limited space as agony seared through him. The tips of the nails traced the edges of his heart, nicking it with every frantic beat. Nicole’s voice rose over the chaos and blinding pain. Benton clung to it. Focused on it as the only center of reality.
Then the hand was gone and the strap of the seatbelt was all that was left fixing him into place. A few swift tugs and he was able to double over. He put his head between his knees, coughing and sputtering until he was able to force his lungs to function. He tugged at his sweater, thumped his chest, searching for the gaping hole. There was nothing. His mind whirled but he couldn’t grasp onto a single explanation. He hadn’t hallucinated before. He wasn’t on any medication.
“Should I pull over?”
Ignoring Nicole’s question, Benton nearly scrambled out of his seat as he whirled around to glare at the sisters. Each of their hands were normal. No claws or blood or hunks of his flesh clinging to their nails. Nicole called for him again and he shrunk away from the flood of questions the twins were now throwing at him.
Swallowing thickly, he leaned back into his seat, mumbled an apology, and pulled his phone and earphones from his pack. The questions continued and he cranked up the volume, until it drowned them out. Squeezing his eyes closed, he focused on getting his heart to slow down.
Chapter 6
The second they arrived at the school, Benton threw himself out of the car and practically fled into the building. Nicole had tried to follow, but he was an expert at hiding in small crowds. Even at lunch, she wasn’t able to lay eyes on him. The longer she didn’t get to talk to him, the more the questions crammed into her mind. She tried to sort everything she had learned over the last few days into something that made any kind of sense. But it was as if she was missing the centerpiece that would hold everything together. The problem was, the longer it didn’t make sense, the more her brain refused to make room for anything else.
By the time the last class of the day came around, she was functioning mostly on autopilot. Leaving the locker room, not at all excited for gym class, she drifted out onto the baseball field and instantly searched for the twins. They had adopted their normal styles once again. Meg with her overabundance of eyeliner and aversion to color, and Danny with her hair slightly curled and more feminine. Both of them looked unbearably smug.
“How was your fraud?” Nicole asked.
“Do you really want to know?” Danny asked softly.
She really didn’t and let the conversation drop. More students filtered out of the gym and, in the absence of a teacher, formed into different groups and began to chat. It wasn’t hard to pick Zack out of the crowd. It never was. He was tall, boisterous, and a massive flirt. He lumbered over to them, winked suggestively at Meg, and slung his arm over Nicole’s shoulders.
“How are my favorite girls, today?”
“I’m good,” Meg smiled. “How’s my least favorite guy?”
“Why hurt me?”
“Have you met Benton, yet?” Nicole asked.
Zack had been looking forward to the new addition for a while, and she was sure that the two could actually be good friends. Her hope dwindled when she saw Zack’s brow furrow.
“You mean the weird new kid?”
“He’s not weird,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, he is,” Zack said.
“He did completely freak out this morning,” Meg noted.
“He’s just under a lot of pressure. If you haven’t noticed, he’s had it rough the last couple of days. You’d be a little weird, too.”
Meg and Zack shared a smirk.
“So,” Meg said. “You’re admitting he’s weird?”
“Don’t get her riled up, guys,” Danny sighed.
“Oh, look who finally showed up,” Meg smiled and glanced over Nicole’s shoulder.
She turned and scanned the crowd. Benton tried to melt into the background, but his gray hood was visible against the brick walls. Apparently, he knew his disguise didn’t work all that well, since he hid behind his sunglasses and hunched his shoulders like he could somehow get rid of his height. They turned to each other, Nicole waved for him to come over, but he somehow managed to vanish in the sparse crowd. An act like that had to take a great deal of effort.
“Wow,” Zack chuckled. “This must be so embarrassing for you, Nicole.”
“Want to revisit the whole ‘weird’ thing?” Meg said with a smile in her voice.
Nicole tried to shrug it off, but the rejection stung more than a little. She had never really had much experience with it and wasn’t about to accept it. The conversation continued and Zack’s teasing laughter drew her back in, despite herself. Then the air shifted. Within the same instant, everyone fell silent, but no one could place why. A nervous anxiety filled the air as the groups absently shuffled closer, closing their ranks. Nicole’s stomach went cold when she spotted Victor stalking across the grass, closing in on them with a ferocious snarl, his
body vibrating with restrained energy. He looked to be out for blood, and she instinctively took a step back.
“Hey, man!” Zack greeted.
Despite his happy tone, Zack quickly finished putting his shoulder length raven hair into a ponytail, ensuring his hands were free and his chest protected by the time Victor joined them.
Victor didn’t respond. He just silently joined their circle and stood rigid, hands balled.
“Not that it’s not great to see you,” Danny said hesitantly. “But you look horrible. Maybe you should drop by the hospital.”
“Baseball today?” Victor’s voice sounded like shattered glass.
Zack cast his eyes around the group, but none of them really knew what to do.
“Yeah,” Nicole answered. “But don’t you think you should sit this one out?”
Victor locked his bloodshot eyes on Zack. “You pitching?”
Zack once again looked around for help before answering, “Yeah.”
Victor twitched uncontrollably. Still, his eyes were an unwavering force as they locked onto Benton. He acknowledged him with a jerk of his chin before speaking to Zack, “Hit him.”
“What?” Zack laughed awkwardly. “You want me to hit the new kid with a pitch?”
“As hard as you can.”
A grin twisted Victor’s face but never reached his eyes. It ripped open the broken flesh of his lips, released beads of fresh blood. Zack was famous for his arm. He could bring in a speedball that rivaled some of the best minor league talents. Nicole’s mind instantly summoned the memory of a time when one of his pitches had accidently struck a batter’s hand. It had shattered a few bones.
When no one else spoke up, Nicole said, “You can’t be serious. Vic, you hate violence, remember? Why would you want to hurt anyone?”
Victor’s eyes remained locked on Benton in a venomous, unblinking glare. Blood dripping from his mouth, the smile grew wider.
“Hey,” Zack nervously nudged him, trying and failing to get his friend’s attention. “What’s going on, man?”
“He’s messing with my girlfriend.” His knuckles popped as he balled his hands.
“Benton?” Meg’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure you have the right guy?”
Victor growled, the tone feral. Meg edged closer to her sister’s side.
“I think you got the wrong guy,” Nicole tried again. “He hasn’t had time to meet anyone yet.”
“She visited him this morning.”
Meg’s nerve was something hard to lose but easy to retrieve. She didn’t hesitate to cut back in, “That sounds more like she’s messing with him.”
A raw growl rumbled within his ribcage as he lunged at Meg. Zack instantly placed a hand on the center of his chest and pushed. A month ago, Victor would have easily won by weight alone. Now, he staggered back a step and was unable to regain his ground.
“Just calm down,” Zack kept his voice low, trying not to draw any attention. “Take a breath.”
“Are you going to help me or not?” Victor snapped.
Zack hesitated.
The silence only spurred Victor on into a wild, near hysterical scream that Nicole had never heard before.
“You’re picking him over me?”
His voice cracked on the last word and Zack had to put more force into keeping Victor’s frail form back.
“Okay, just settle down. I’ll do it,” Zack muttered under his breath, but it was still enough to satisfy Victor. The wild anger seeped away. By the time the coach arrived, he had such little energy left in him that he just stared vacantly ahead like a zombie. He turned, shuffling towards the bleachers with an exhausted lurch, getting out of the way before Coach Lam made it to their group.
Nicole watched him carefully as he took a seat on the bottom rung of the bleachers. He just sat there. Unmoving. Unblinking. It would have been easy to confuse him with a corpse. But still, his eyes were strong, watching Benton like a hunter stalking a deer. Her stomach twisted into knots as she grabbed Zack’s forearm, yanking him close.
“You’re not actually going to do it, right?” she whispered.
“You want to see how badly he freaks out if I don’t? Besides, he’s my friend.” Zack pulled his arm away and stepped back. “Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on the freak.”
She opened her mouth but Zack cut her off with a smile and a nod towards Coach Lam. She had just come into earshot, leaving Nicole with only facial expressions and minimal hand gestures to express how much she hated this plan. Zack only found her efforts amusing, and she fought the need to stomp her feet in frustration. Resolved to at least warn Benton, Nicole spun on her heel and almost smacked into the Coach. Nicole wasn’t short, but Coach Lam was a towering woman and wasn’t above using it to intimidate the more uncooperative teens in her care.
“Oh, excuse me,” Nicole smiled and tried to slip past her.
“Not so fast, Rider,” Coach Lam said and pointed back over Nicole’s shoulder. “Out on the field with your team.”
Nicole glanced around, stunned to discover that the class had already been split into teams and were preparing for the game. Maybe Zack and Benton are on the same side. For a moment, the thought made her smile. But then she spotted Zack on the mound, kicking at the dirt and stretching out his shoulder while Benton was third in line to bat.
“Can I just quickly tell Benton something?”
At the sharp point to the outfield and a tiresome sigh, Nicole started to think that she may have used up all of her goodwill with Coach Lam. Understandable really, after that rather unpleasant semester of badminton. Feeling defeated, she headed out onto the field, meeting up with Danny in the area designated for people who weren’t all that helpful. Danny was a runner, good at sprints and an all-star at cross country, but wasn’t exactly great at hand-eye coordination.
“Do you think Benton would understand some hand gestures?”
Danny’s lips tilted in a light smile. “I’m sure he’s been on the receiving end of a few.”
At least she had the decency to look remorseful when Nicole shot her a reproachful glare. The first ball was thrown, hit, and people quickly scurried around to grab it as a student ran for first base. Nicole bobbed on her feet, her eyes darting between the three men, the memory of cracking bone lodged in her head.
“Hey,” Danny said as the next pitch hurled towards the new batter. “He’s going after Vic’s girl. A bruise is him getting off easy.”
“Vic’s girl?” Nicole groaned and swung her arms wide. “Who the hell is she? Does she have a name? Have you ever seen her? Does no one else see how monumentally strange this is?”
“So they’re being discreet.”
“Look at him,” Nicole said. “He could pass for a junkie. Even if she exists, even if she’s human, this relationship is killing him.”
“If she’s human?”
The tone alone was enough to make Nicole snap her mouth shut. For all the times she had churned it over in her head, she had never actually considered that Victor’s mystery lover might, in fact, be an ‘it’ over a ‘she.’ Hearing it come out of her mouth, it sounded ridiculous. But it lodged in the forefront of her mind and refused to shift.
“Well, how about this, have you ever known Vic to be the jealous type?”
Danny was saved from answering by Coach Lam’s bellowed ‘strike three.’ It didn’t matter. The unsettled concern that crossed her face spoke loud and clear. Nicole had thought that she might feel some measure of victory. It had taken her weeks to get anyone to even admit that much. But all it did was feed the sick feeling that chocked her until she could taste it.
“Huh.”
“What?” Nicole pressed, her stress turning the word sharp.
“Nothing. I just get your fixation a little more.”
“I don’t have a fixation.”
It was an automatic response to the common accusation. A heartbeat later, she realized that she didn’t know what Danny was talking about. She followed her line of sigh
t and was caught off guard to see Benton getting ready to head towards the plate. What had happened to the last guy? she thought wildly as she glanced around. She had been too preoccupied to notice that the second batter had been easily struck out. Zack gave her a half apologetic shrug which she quickly met with her best ‘are you kidding me’ arm gesture. Then it clicked what Danny was talking about.
Benton had removed his loose sweater, revealing a tee-shirt that was just a little too tight. It was his shoulders. Everything about him was lithe and strong, but his shoulders were broad and pulled the shirt across his chest like a second skin. He ran a hand through his hair, the motion bringing attention to the slivery streaks, and picked up the bat. With his hood, he looked awkward. Without it, he just looked generally infuriated by everything around him. And completely unaware of what he was walking into.
“Do you think his face would crack if he smiled?” Danny laughed.
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” Broken bones were playing over and over in Nicole’s head until she could almost hear them cracking.
“Oh, relax, Zack’s not going to hurt him.”
Nicole watched as Zack glanced to the stands. Victor was still there, his body vibrating with rage, his fingers clawing at his own hands until they were streaked red with blood. Zack shivered, coiled up, and sent the ball hurdling towards Benton in a blur. Benton dropped.
When the dust settled, she was relieved to find that Benton was okay. He was staring at Zack, his face surging between shock and anger. Behind him, the catcher pulled his hand out of his mitt with a sharp hiss.
“What the hell, Zack!” the catcher snapped over the shrill cry of Coach Lam’s whistle.
“That was at his head,” Danny muttered in disbelief.
Zack hunched his shoulders at the Coach’s reprimand and kicked the dirt.
“It got away from me,” he called back.
Benton got to his feet, one hand clenching the bat while the other dusted the dirt off of his jeans. His eyes never left Zack. Nicole couldn’t keep still as nervous energy built up inside of her. Once more, Zack looked over to the stands. Like a man possessed, Victor was shredding his skin, his hands sinking under his jacket to find unmarred flesh. Even from this distance, she could see blood trickling out from under the material. Zack threw all his effort into the next pitch.
