Poison and Mirrors

by Holly Hook

  Nothing. Only the quiet hum of the fan from one of the rooms filled the air.

  I imagined Sara offering Stephanie an apple, a very red apple that I might have held before, and I crept back down the stairs. Sara had already hurt two people. She might have helped screw up my memory. More would follow.

  Maybe Haven House was set up by someone to protect me from the man in black and the evil queen. And Sara had just found us and made us think she'd been here the whole time.

  But when I got downstairs, I found Stephanie in her office, door mostly shut with the phone to her ear. No apple on her desk. Sara was nowhere in sight. I searched the den for her but found nothing. Sara had come in. I heard her. No one else had gone in or out.

  Then I noticed the car parked on the curb right beside Haven House.

  It took me a second to realize whose car it was. It was an electric blue Charger with an orange flame painted down the side and a dark figure sitting in the drivers’ seat.

  Eric’s car.

  I had seen him pulling in and out of the school enough to know. He had the only car like it in town. Heck, on the planet.

  And getting into the passenger seat was Sara, a tote bag in tow.

  My heart stopped. I watched her get in and close the door. She stuffed some money into her pocket, money I had no idea how she could have gotten.

  And then Eric sped away, tires screeching.

  Chapter Eight

  “Eric!” I shouted, pushing out the door.

  But he kept speeding away. I grabbed my bike, hopped on, and pedaled after them as fast as I could. The wind blew against my face and he stopped the car at the red light up ahead. I pedaled faster and rode into the street. A car honked at me and brakes screeched. I didn’t care. Sara had Eric alone and now she could do whatever she wanted to him.

  That was what this was about.

  She’d wanted him all along. She wanted to be the fairest in his eye.

  “Eric!” I yelled.

  But then the light turned green.

  A car behind me honked and I moved my bike out of the road. Eric sped down the road, engine roaring as he took Sara with him. Stephanie must have let her go. Or she'd taken off and wiped Stephanie's memory as well.

  I stopped on the sidewalk and let them go. There was no catching up.

  Then I did what any self respecting teenager would do at that moment.

  I pulled out my phone and texted Sara like crazy.

  ME: Where are you going?

  I waited. Eric’s blue car turned into a dot on the road and vanished as he went around a curve.

  No answer.

  ME: Sara, please.

  Nothing.

  I tried a few more times, but my chest started to ache by my fifth attempt and I threw my phone down into the bush and sat down on a bench. I left my bike sitting on the sidewalk and only got up to move it when a jogger came through and stared at me as if I were a sack of trash.

  I felt like a sack of trash.

  Sara had taken the guy of my dreams.

  She just had to poison me next.

  At last, I got up, grabbed my phone, and checked it again. No messages. So I did the next thing I could. I went to check her Facebook.

  She had taken me off her friends list.

  My heart got even heavier. Sara had never been my friend at all. Maybe the man in black was her father or older brother or something. The whole family could be out to get me.

  Grabbing my bike, I headed back to Haven House. I didn’t know Eric’s number but I could try to find him. I might know Moanna’s. We had talked before last year in gym class—or at least, I thought we had talked. If my memory was right.

  I checked my phone. I had her number. Good. I texted her.

  ME: I think something is wrong with Sara.

  About a minute passed.

  MOANNA: She did seem weird today.

  I didn’t know Moanna very well, but I had someone to talk to, at least. Relief filled me and I texted her back.

  ME: I think she did something to that comb she gave you. Something in it made you pass out but I’m not sure.

  MOANNA: Really?

  I paused. Then texted.

  ME: Really.

  MOANNA: I don’t know why I passed out but I feel like something weird happened in Foods yesterday but I can’t remember.

  ME: I think we should talk.

  I couldn’t type fast enough for this. Moanna and I agreed to meet at the local Wal-Mart since there was really nothing on this side of town. I didn’t want to stay here and I didn’t want to meet at the Goodwill where Sara and I had found a lot of skirts and thrift clothes. Or at least I remembered doing that. Those trips were probably like the ants crawling through Moanna’s mind right now. They didn’t feel right.

  I didn’t even tell Stephanie where I was going. I passed the office, saw that she was still on the phone, and went back up to my room and changed into a different outfit. I was becoming paranoid. I even tied my hair up into a pair of black ponytails, not that it would throw off Sara.

  Stephanie was still on the phone when I ran back down the steps. “...she took off. Eric took her. Yes. That might be a problem and we need to keep the...keep the boys in mind.” Then her door closed as she pushed it shut from behind as if to keep my ears out. Stephanie lowered her voice. She must be talking to Tom, who I’d only seen a few times around Haven House. The guy had come out to fix some pipes once and mow the lawn when our normal guy didn’t show up to do it.

  Either way, I wasn’t going to get any more from this conversation.

  I grabbed my bike and took off.

  The Wal-Mart was two miles away and on a busy road full of people. When I got there, I was relieved for once to see the parking lot full. Good. Lots of people around. Sara wouldn’t make an attempt on my life here unless she was stupid. Or Moanna’s life, for that matter. I figured Moanna deserved to know what was really going on.

  I rehearsed what I’d tell her. Yeah, Moanna. I’m living in some kind of fairy tale. Only there’s no hot prince and the only guys I got to see naked were Nort and Joey. She’d probably laugh but maybe with Foods and all I could convince her.

  I browsed around the clothes and grimaced at ugly Betty Boop tees and Tweety Bird pajamas while I waited. Moanna lived ten miles away in the country and she wouldn’t be able to get here until she convinced her brother to give her a ride. At last she texted me and said she’d tricked him into coming here to pick up some groceries for their parents that they really didn’t need. I watched Moanna come in through the sliding door with her older brother. They walked behind a couple of ladies who must be wearing wigs. I waved Moanna over and she said something to her brother, who gave her a glare. It was clear that he’d caught on that he was the taxi, not the grocery run.

  “Hey,” she said, walking up to me and leaving her brother behind. “Thanks for finding me in the bathroom today. I’m so embarrassed.”

  “About passing out?” I asked. “It could have been worse. You could have passed out in the middle of the hall or something.”

  Moanna forced a smile. “Or in front of Joey.” She blushed.

  I grinned. I had some things she might want to know.

  “What?” she asked. “What’s so funny?”

  I waved her down the aisle and towards the electronics. “What do you remember about Foods yesterday?”

  The smile dropped off her face. “Ants,” she said. “And I hate ants.”

  “There’s more to it than that,” I said. “A lot more. Tell me what you really remember and I don’t care how weird it is. Something is going on in our school.”

  Moanna looked right ahead and pretended to check out some Hallmark cards for a second. We approached the wall of TV’s and all of them were playing some car commercial. “I remember the ants crawling all over our food,” she said. “And up my pant legs. Some of them bit me. We all screamed and dropped our plates. I…I think a deer or something might have walked out of the woods to eat our food,
but I’m not sure. I just…forgot. When we got back to the Foods room I remember feeling groggy and I must have passed out there, too, because then I was lifting my head from my desk and my thoughts were all weird. I just remember the ants. I think I was having a dream about donkeys right before I woke up in class.”

  Moanna glanced at me as we walked past a stand of DVD’s. I could see the worry there in her brown eyes. In the way her hair wasn’t combed. She must be terrified of combs now, too, the way I had to be terrified of apples.

  My dream in Algebra hadn’t been a dream after all.

  It was a memory. A blocked one. And I had the idea there had been an apple in it.

  “Why are you asking me this?” Moanna asked.

  “Because something like that happened to me,” I said. “You weren’t there, but in Mr. Rain’s fifth hour class, I woke up just like you did, thinking something big had just happened. Only Mr. Rain said I had been there the whole time, sleeping. All I can remember is something red and a cold sensation. I just don’t think my memories that I have right now are right. I don’t know what happened to me but I’ve seen a guy in black walking around the school. I think some of our teachers have been working with him and Mrs. Laney was one of them.”

  Moanna’s eyes widened again. She held up a finger. “I was dreaming about a guy in a black robe right before I woke up in Foods. I just forgot about it until now.”

  “It wasn't a dream. You saw a guy in a black robe. Awake.” I said. “I know, because Sara and I were standing in the hall when he was leaving the Foods room. His robe had this red trim around it and you couldn't see his face. He erased your real memory of what happened during the picnic.”

  Moanna and I were getting on the same wavelength. At least someone believed me. She lowered her voice. “Then what were the donkeys in my dream? Were those real, too?"

  “Just be glad you didn’t eat the purple lettuce,” I said. “I think Sara did something to it. Joey and Nort…they ate the salad and turned into the donkeys you barely remember.”

  Moanna stopped. “No.”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “No.”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I warned you this was going to be weird.”

  “But Joey. I saw him today. He was fine.”

  I explained what had happened with the lettuce and Moanna checked the aisle behind her as if to make sure Sara wasn’t coming. It was all clear except for a guy in hunter orange sifting through the DVD's. The guy was all rugged like he had just come out of the woods and he glanced at me as if trying to peer into my soul. I waved Moanna farther into the electronics section, where a young guy stood behind the counter texting on his phone.

  “And she did something to that comb," Moanna said. She was trying to think.

  “It was my comb,” I said. “I was letting her borrow it and she was messing with it right before you came up to our table. I think she was hoping that I’d be combing my hair last night in my room where no one would find me when the poison went to work.

  I was shaking and I didn’t even care that I was letting down my toughness in front of someone. Sara was trying to murder me. She wanted Eric for herself and she wanted me to know. She’d done everything short of cutting my heart out and throwing it in a box.

  Where would I sleep tonight?

  “Do you think the man in black was in Mr. Rain’s class the other day?” Moanna asked.

  “He could have been,” I said. Then I started telling her about how I’d seen him appear in mirrors and phones and Moanna finally held up her hand.

  “Hold it,” she said. “I have to process all this first. Maybe we should make like, a bulleted list and try to figure all this out.”

  “So you believe me,” I said.

  “I can’t not believe you,” she said. “Everything you said matched up with what I’ve been wondering about." Moanna’s eyes rimmed with tears. “I could have died today,” she said. “I could have ended up a donkey yesterday. What’s going on, Mara?”

  “I’m trying to find out,” I told her. “I just don’t know how other than breaking into the principal’s office.”

  “Moanna. Are you done?”

  It was her brother standing there who I didn’t know the name of. She turned and nodded. “Just give me a minute,” she said.

  “Now,” her brother demanded. He was a big guy with a deep voice who must be in college already. “I’m not hanging around this store all night. And the music here sucks. It’s all edited crap.”

  Moanna turned away from me. “I have to go,” she said. “Let me know tomorrow what we’re going to do.”

  "Wait," I said. "Where does Eric live?"

  She faced me. "Why do you want to know that?"

  I hesitated. I had another jealous girl to deal with. "Because Sara went with him today. I'm worried."

  Moanna's eyes glazed with fear. Her brother sighed. "He's at fifty seven fifty four Rambridge. It's on the other side of town. Rich area. He's got the biggest house on the street."

  And she walked off. Moanna was clearly scared of her brother and wasn’t about to dare go against him.

  At least she had a brother. I wished I had one, even one as much of a jerk as hers. Aside from Moanna, I had no one to talk to about this. Stephanie had shut me out and probably wouldn't believe me.

  Unless she had to do with everything, too?

  I watched Moanna leave and browsed around the edited CD’s for a while just so I wouldn’t make the guy behind the counter think I was up to something. He was already watching me. I picked a few up and set them down again. Wal-Mart didn’t have crap for a selection so I had to pretend to be interested in Motown compilations and country albums. And I had to remember that Moanna was into Eric. That might be a problem, too.

  I saw a flash of orange nearby.

  The hunter was standing at the end of my aisle. He looked down at the CD’s as I turned my head, like he didn’t want to catch me looking at him. The guy had leaf bits in his beard. Wasn’t it too early in the season for shooting deer or something? That wasn’t until fall and it was still just September. Maybe geese were in season or something, but the guy was dressed too warm for that.

  I didn’t want to look nervous around the guy, so I moved and headed to the video games. I’d pretend to look and then I’d get out of here. Sara could have something else up her sleeve and I wasn't taking any risks.

  But quiet footsteps approached from behind. And in the glass of the video game case came a blob of electric road cone.

  I turned. The guy stood there just five feet behind me. He managed a smile but his teeth were so gross and yellow that nothing could help them.

  “Why are you following me?” I asked in my best tough girl voice. I couldn’t afford to be nice here. My life was at stake. “Don’t you know that’s rude?”

  The guy just stood there like he wasn’t sure what to say. He stuffed his hand into his orange pants pocket. Something was bulging there.

  I couldn’t help it. I backed up. Terror blossomed in my gut like a black flower with ugly green tendrils. The man went to pull out whatever he had, then must have thought better of it. “Are you Mara?”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t know who you’re looking for but you’ve got the wrong girl. I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  “The other girl called you Mara,” he said. The man drew closer. I could smell his breath now. It was like stale cheese mixed in with garbage and I wanted to puke. “I need to talk to you. Your heart. It’s been broken, hasn’t it?”

  And then he reached into his pocket again. This time, I caught what was in it. A handle. A black knife handle.

  That was it.

  I bolted out of the electronics section.

  The contents of Wal-Mart raced past as I tore through the men’s clothing section across the aisle and through racks of tee shirts and jeans. Then I about knocked over a box sitting there next to the fitting room doors. The man’s footfalls were behind me. All I could think of was my bike, c
hained to the rack down by the gardening section outside. I’d have to mess with the lock. I’d never get out of here before the man caught me and drove that knife into my chest.

  Sara must have asked for my heart in a box.

  The story was unfolding the way it should.

  I looked back as I ran through an empty checkout line, ducking under the chain that blocked it off. He was easy to spot. The hunter booked past the jewelry case, a crazed look in his eyes. It was a look I’d never forget.

  The bike wouldn’t work.

  Not unless I could do something first.

  One of the ladies watched as I ran past her. “Is something wrong?” she asked. I didn’t stop to answer. I knew I should scream that this guy was trying to kill me, but it wouldn’t come out. If I’d just yell someone would call the cops.

  “Is this man chasing you? I'll call someone.”

  There was a crash behind me and I whirled around. The woman screamed while a family with a shopping cart stopped to watch. The man in orange was wrestling with the woman, who held a corded phone in her hand. He tried to pry it away from her while two other women from the other lines rushed over to help. The man grit his teeth and made a grunt like a crazy person. The mother pulled her two kids away from it all and abandoned her cart. The hunter shoved the woman down and ripped the phone out of its cradle, tearing the wire. He growled, tossed it down and turned on the other two women.

  And then he drew his knife.

  It was the scariest one I’d ever seen. Black. Jagged. Meant to kill.

  One of the women screamed and then everyone in the front of the store freaked. Screams came up and cell phones came out. The first woman got up and grabbed for any weapon she could find. The man held the knife up and swung it down at one of the others. She barely dodged out of the way and the knife plunged into a rack of gum. Cheap candy flew everywhere as the man cursed. He was strong. Too strong for them to handle.