Luke was certain they did. He was less certain that they were experiencing hallucinations.
The cafe door swung open and a group of kids spilled out onto the sidewalk. Luke tensed.
It was Quentin, along with Jeff and some of the other skinhead followers.
But Mandy hadn’t noticed. “Naturally there’s some electrical residue left over,” she went on, intent on her explanation. “It’s working itself out, sparking unexpectedly. It’s unpleasant, so the brain interprets it unpleasantly, like nightmares. At least that’s the way mine have been.” She looked up at him. “Yours, too?”
But Luke had stopped listening. He’d gone as rigid as a statue.
Another nightmare vision had invaded his brain. But this time he wasn’t the focus.
Mandy was.
Chapter Ten
“Luke?” A spike of alarm went through Mandy. Luke had stopped, his eyes fixed and unseeing.
She reached to tug his arm and pulled back her hand with a cry of shock. His arm was as hard and cold as stone. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
A bray of laughter snapped her head around.
Quentin was standing on the sidewalk, looking at them. The sun flashed off his glasses, straight into her eyes. Mandy blinked and flinched away.
“It’s so nice to see you, Mandy,” Quentin said. His tone made “nice” sound like a dirty word. “But what are you doing with that meat brain? Brawn is cute, but its use is limited. Don’t you agree?”
Mandy stepped in front of Luke as if to shield him. Her insides were quivering. She told herself not to be weak.
Quentin was between them and the cafe entrance. For such a scrawny creep, he seemed to take up a lot of room. Mandy slid her hand behind her back and poked Luke. No response.
“He’s not quite ready to resume his limited existence yet, Mandy my love,” Quentin purred. “He’s learning his place in the scheme of things.”
“Get out of our way,” Mandy demanded. She wished her voice had more force.
Quentin threw back his head. His greasy hair hung in lank clumps. He surveyed the sky with satisfaction and sucked in a deep breath of air.
“Oh, this is soo much fun,” he cried. “I wish I could prolong it forever.”
He lowered his head and focused on her. The tip of his tongue protruded between his ratty teeth. He licked his lips slowly.
Mandy stepped back, right into Luke. His body didn’t yield, but his arms came around her protectively.
Quentin didn’t like that. He stepped forward, anger flashing in his colorless beady eyes.
“There’s something on the bulletin board inside that should interest you,” he hissed. “Both of you.”
Quentin moved closer still, his lips almost brushing Mandy’s ear. “You think you’re above it all, Mandy,” he whispered. “But you’re nothing unless I say you are.”
Mandy recoiled from his words and his fetid breath. Quentin was no longer looking at her. He flicked a hand over his shoulder and his obedient acolytes moved into formation behind him.
Luke still didn’t move, his arms locked around Mandy like a gate. As Quentin passed, he reached out a hand so quickly Mandy didn’t have time to duck. His clammy fingers brushed the back of her neck.
A sick shiver ran down her spine. She cried out in fury. Quentin’s laughter floated back at her.
Suddenly she felt life flow back into Luke.
“What?” He jumped, embarrassed to find his arms clasped around her. “S-sorry, Mandy,” he stuttered. “I had one of those vision things. Like I blacked out. It was awful.” His voice was hoarse and his hands were shaky.
He peered at her intently. “You’re okay?”
“Sure.” Mandy ducked away from the intensity of his gaze.
She had liked the strong feel of his arms around her. But Quentin had rattled her so much she didn’t know what she was feeling. She couldn’t even think straight.
“Let’s go inside,” she said. “I think we both need to sit down.”
She could still feel the sluglike trail of Quentin’s fingers at the top of her spine. His touch had felt so intimate … and worse, familiar.
She would never, in her entire life, let Quentin touch her again.
“You sure you’re all right?” Luke persisted. His voice was soft and tender. “Did you have one of those, uh, hallucinations, too?”
“No. Really.” Mandy shook her head, letting her hair fall forward to hide her face. “It’s just that talking to Quentin Creep always upsets me.”
“Quentin? So he was here.”
“Yes.” Mandy felt a pang of dismay. She knew it wasn’t Quentin who had frozen Luke—it was an electrical spasm, shorting out his brain, putting him into a fugue state, as the medical book had described. But it gave her chills to realize he hadn’t even known Quentin was there.
As Luke opened the cafe door, Mandy glanced up the street. She couldn’t see Quentin, but the skinhead with the lightning tattoo was looking back at her, grinning wolfishly.
Luke grunted. “That’s my brother, Jeff,” he said. “I knew he’d become a real jerk, but I didn’t know until today that he’d sunk low enough to be hanging out with Quentin.”
They went inside. The place was dim and cool. There were only a few people at the tables. Mandy glanced at the back wall where the bulletin board was. Everything that was happening in town got tacked up there.
She could see there was a big new yellow poster, but she couldn’t read it from where she was standing.
She wasn’t ready to tell Luke what Quentin had said. Or to go back and read the poster for herself. Any message from Quentin was sure to be bad news.
“Cappuccino?” Luke asked.
“Double latte,” Mandy told him.
While Luke went to get the coffee, Mandy greeted a few kids she knew. Two of them lived closer to the power junction than she did. She asked if they had felt anything strange last night.
“Strange?” Kari cocked her head. “Like what? An earthquake or something?”
“An electrical feeling in the air,” Mandy said, “like before a storm.”
But Mandy already knew the answer. Kari and Gordy both seemed too normal. And that walled-in feeling was back again. Mandy felt like she was inside an invisible capsule and everybody else was outside.
Funny. She hadn’t felt that at all with Luke.
She saw him threading his way toward her through the crowd. He looked so solid. Cute, too, with his jaw set so seriously. Plus, he had those soulful eyes.…
He set the drinks down on an empty table near the front and Mandy slid into a seat. Luke smiled. “Quentin Creep. I like that. It suits him.”
Mandy laughed. “I’ve always called him that. Ever since he fed my goldfish to the neighbor’s cat and held my arms so I couldn’t save it.” Even now she shuddered slightly at the memory. “We were both six at the time. He hasn’t changed a bit.”
“Except for the worse, maybe,” Luke said, his smile gone.
Mandy sipped at her coffee. “He’s been hassling me lately. Just before the semester ended he joined the astronomy club. And ever since, he’s been acting like there’s some connection between us. It’s horrible.”
Luke looked worried. “What did he say when we were outside? While I was in my trance or whatever.”
“Oh.” Mandy grimaced. “He said we should check out the bulletin board.”
Luke’s gaze flew over her head. He got up so quickly his chair almost fell over.
Instantly Mandy felt irritated with him. She had been enjoying their quiet moment. Why did Luke have to spoil it?
But she rose and followed him back to the bulletin board. She saw his back go rigid. A stab of alarm went through her. Was Luke having another one of those catatonic episodes?
Could the electrical surge have made him epileptic? She had read that epilepsy was sometimes caused by a blow to the head.
She hurried toward him. In her concern, she forgot about the poster. And then Luke turned
to her.
He wasn’t catatonic. She sagged with relief.
But his skin had gone dead white. His lips were pressed in a bloodless line.
Luke looked as if he’d seen something worse than a ghost.
Chapter Eleven
Luke gestured weakly at the bulletin board. He felt like he’d just been hit by a train. His brain was working in low gear.
Mandy looked at the bulletin board. She looked back at him. There was disbelief in her clear eyes. And something else. Anger?
He stared again at the bold black letters.
ARE THERE ALIENS IN OUR MIDST?
Under the headline, it said, ABDUCTEES INVITED!
Then there was a blurb. It was the usual hysterical nonsense. Normally he would be the first to make fun of it.
“Luke! Hello?” Mandy frowned and rolled her eyes. “You’re not taking this seriously? You can’t be. It’s some sick joke of Quentin’s. You’re playing right into his hands.”
“What’s Quentin got to do with it?” Luke protested. “Besides, what difference does it make if it’s a joke? Satisfying your curiosity doesn’t make you a believer. Right?”
Mandy’s eyes flashed. Luke couldn’t understand why she was getting so uptight about this.
“You think you were abducted by aliens last night, don’t you?” Mandy demanded. She flicked her hand at the books tucked under his arm. “Aliens Among Us, Abductees in Their Own Words.” She shook her head in disgust. “I should have known when I saw those books.”
“Mandy! Wait,” Luke called as she spun away from him. “I’m not the one with the closed mind,” he said, dogging her heels as she stalked out the cafe door.
“Ha!” Mandy made a strangled sound of disbelief.
“It’s true,” Luke said. “Look at the facts. I think you’re probably right. All this has something to do with the electrical power surges connecting up with our overenergized brains. But still, Mandy. It’s the only possibility you’re willing to consider. What if you’re wrong? What if we have been abducted by aliens?”
Mandy made another disbelieving sound and increased her pace.
“Come on,” Luke insisted. “What do you have to lose? I don’t know about you, but I’m finding this whole experience a total one-hundred-percent bummer. I’m willing to try absolutely anything to get back to normal.”
“You go ahead and do what you have to do,” Mandy said, tossing her head. “I’m going to go home and read up on power surges. There’s a scientific explanation for what happened to us—and it doesn’t involve aliens. Aliens don’t exist!”
Luke dropped back and let her go. He didn’t know what was making her so angry, but he was only making things worse arguing.
He could kick himself for checking those alien books out of the library. If not for that, Mandy might have been willing to listen.
Disgusted with himself, Luke turned on his heel and headed back to the library. He dumped the two books in the outside return slot.
“There,” he said to himself, suddenly feeling at a loss. He was right back where he had started from. And he hadn’t told Mandy about that last awful vision.
Not that she would have believed him. As the world around him had faded, Luke had pictured Mandy, strapped to some kind of table or stretcher.
In his mind’s eye, he’d seen her surrounded by shadowy creatures. He couldn’t focus on them. But one thing he could see. They were not human.
Luke pushed the awful scene from his mind. He hoped Mandy was right. If what was happening was an electrical storm of the mind, then it would probably end soon.
But if she was wrong, he didn’t want to be caught waiting around doing nothing. Waiting passively for something to finish digesting his brain.
Luke turned purposefully toward Old High Street. He would go back up to the power-line junction. Maybe there was something there. Some evidence he could show Mandy. Maybe they could figure it out together.
If he could get her to talk to him again.
Reaching Old High Street, Luke turned automatically. The road was empty. The scrubby woods on each side gave the whole scene a desolate feel.
But Luke was preoccupied. Thinking about Mandy. The graceful way she moved. The little pucker between her brows when she concentrated.
Even when she was angry, she was still a knockout. Most people’s faces scrunched up and looked ugly when they got mad. But, though he hadn’t noticed so much at the time, Mandy’s eyes just got a brighter shade of blue and her nostrils flared in a very delicate way.
But it wasn’t only her looks. She really listened to people when they talked. He liked the way she looked into his eyes and considered his words in a serious way. Although she hadn’t done that in the end.
Luke slapped his fist against his thigh. Maybe the picture he’d built up of Mandy was wishful thinking. Just because she was beautiful.
What if the real Mandy was the stuck-up, do-it-my-way-or-no-way girl who’d stalked away from him, nose in the air? Why shouldn’t that be the real Mandy?
Kicking up a chunk of rotten asphalt from the old road, Luke put her out of his mind.
Coming to the bottom of the hill, the steady buzz of the wires overhead snagged his full attention. Luke looked up, reluctant to go on.
One step at a time, he forced himself up the small rise. The sky was sunny and cloudless. It was silly to think anything could swoop out of such a sky and grab him.
But his nerves jangled. The crackling noise was getting louder. There was nothing weird about that. Still, Luke couldn’t shake the feeling that the wires were buzzing excitedly among themselves. Waiting for him to come within their reach.
“Don’t be such an idiot,” he told himself. Out loud.
His voice was instantly gobbled up by the storm of energy overhead.
He reached the top. Walking over to the immense aluminum poles, he forced himself to stay and look around. He touched the pole. His nerves seemed to vibrate in tune with the wires. He snatched his hand off the pole as if he’d been burned.
This was the spot where it had happened. Starting from here, he had lost four hours of his life. And scrambled his brain.
But the area told him nothing.
Luke took a deep breath, then another, trying to calm himself. He stepped away from the pole, off the asphalt. There was a weedy area where the woods had been cut back.
Walking into the scraggly brush, Luke examined the ground. He wasn’t sure what to look for. But if he’d had his brain fried here, there should be some sign. A burned patch, something.
He tried to shut out the menacing sizzle of the wires so he could concentrate. Methodically, he moved forward, scanning.
Something burst out of the dry grass at his feet. Luke jumped. It flew at his face. He scrambled backwards and it flew past his shoulder.
A grasshopper. Luke’s heart was pounding erratically.
This was pointless. There was nothing here. He should go.
Talk to Mandy, apologize, do it her way. The important thing was to stick together. No one else knew what they were going through.
But instead, Luke found himself moving forward. He’d just go as far as the edge of the woods. Then he’d turn back.
Luke startled another grasshopper. He was absurdly pleased with himself for not jumping out of his skin again. Reaching the trees, he was about to turn back when a flash of brightness caught his eye.
He looked toward the spot, just a few feet into the woods. Nothing. He moved his head from side to side, slowly. There! Something shiny, reflecting in the sun.
It was probably a piece of broken glass. Luke’s heart began to thud again, telling him to forget it, give up, go home. He moved cautiously toward the spot.
As if the shiny thing might fly up and bite him.
He was looking right at the spot, but he couldn’t see the cause of the flash. He cocked his head, moved it from side to side, but whatever it was had disappeared.
That’s impossible, Luke thought. He cr
ouched down and began to run his hand over the leaf litter on the ground. “It was right here,” he muttered to himself.
His fingers encountered something hard and smooth. But he couldn’t see what he was touching. His eyes were telling him there was nothing there. The hair stood up on the back of his neck.
Luke wanted to snatch his fingers away. Sweat was trickling down his spine. But he forced himself to run his fingers over the object, looking for an edge.
He found a jagged break. The edge was sharp, but not enough to cut him. Carefully, he scoped out its size. It was stuck to the dead leaves in a couple places, and was no bigger than his palm.
Only when he had peeled it free of the debris could Luke actually see it. And then only because bits of earth and leaf stuck to it.
It was as hard and clear as glass, but thin and as flexible as plastic.
Luke stood slowly, examining the almost invisible sheet. It was strange, but it certainly didn’t look like an alien artifact. Just a scrap of something. He figured he’d show it to Mandy anyway.
Her father was an electrical engineer. Maybe he would know what it was.
As Luke turned to leave, something spiked between his shoulder blades, like a needle jab.
His heart instantly ratcheted up to piston speed. He felt eyes drilling him. And they weren’t friendly.
Luke whirled, hoping to catch a sudden movement. The weedy waste ground looked undisturbed. He was alone. Except Luke somehow knew he was not alone.
His hand closed over his new find. Maybe he could still hide it. He slowly moved his hand toward his back pocket.
Suddenly there was a sharp flash. His hand stung. Luke cried out, blinded. Yellow spots burst red before his eyes.
He twisted toward where he thought the flash had come from. Was that a movement in the trees? Luke blinked, trying to clear his eyes of the bursting color spots.
There was a disturbance among the trees, leaves rustling. Luke saw a shimmer in the air. There was something there. But he couldn’t quite make it out.
Eyes clearing, he looked down at his hand. The palm was blistered. There was nothing in his hand but a small pile of fine grains like ground sand.
A surge of anger overwhelmed his fear. He slid the grains into his pocket and started into the woods. He was going to track down whatever it was he’d seen in the trees.
Abduction Page 5
