Betrayal

by Amy Meredith

  ‘Well, we’re mainly shopping for you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to buy anything, does it?’ Eve asked. ‘You wouldn’t torture me like that.’

  Jess still didn’t move to the door Eve was holding open. ‘Of course not. You can shop, but …’ She hesitated, then looked at the dress again.

  Eve got it. ‘You like it too, right?’

  ‘Love it,’ Jess answered. ‘Love it, love it, love it.’

  This was exactly the situation dibbies had been created for. With dibbies there was no fighting, no tears. Whoever called it first got first chance to buy. That was law. ‘I’m sure we’ll see tons of great dresses. If not today, then when we make our big shopping expedition to the city.’ They were going to wait and go to Manhattan when the boys could go with them.

  ‘It’s a prom dress, though,’ Jess said. ‘And you’re not going to the prom. You don’t even have anyplace to wear it.’

  Eve felt a pang – a full pang, not just a panglet. What Jess had said really stung. Didn’t she understand how hard it was to see her going off to the prom when they’d always planned on double dating?

  ‘I was thinking I’d wear it to the HEART charity event,’ Eve said, trying to hide her hurt.

  ‘You can’t wear a gown on the beach,’ Jess protested. ‘You’d ruin it.’

  Eve felt a little stunned. Dibbies was law. But being a true best friend was even more important, she told herself. Jess was clearly smitten with the dress, and she did have the absolute perfect place to wear it. Dibbies or no, Eve wasn’t going to try to take the dress away. Eve smiled. It was a little hard to make her lips turn up, but only a little. ‘Dibbies withdrawn. That might just be The Dress,’ she told Jess. ‘Can you see it with the pendant you liked?’

  Jess finally walked through the door, and Eve let it swing closed behind them. ‘It would be perfect,’ Jess replied. ‘Better than perfect.’

  ‘Go grab it and try it on before some other prom girl spots it,’ Eve advised her.

  ‘I will.’ Jess rushed towards the sales assistant, and disappeared into a changing room a few moments later.

  Eve walked to the nearest rack and began flipping through what turned out to be bathing suits. Truly, a girl could never have too many bathing suits, especially with a pool in the backyard and the beach a few blocks away. But none of the bright little slips of cloth grabbed her attention. She kept thinking about how she’d look in the dress Jess was trying on right that second as she clicked though the hangers faster and faster.

  She heard a hiss, a crackle, then sparks jumped off the rack. ‘What—’ the assistant exclaimed.

  Eve jerked her hand away from the hangers quickly. ‘You should get someone to look at that,’ she cried. ‘It gave me a shock.’

  ‘I will,’ the woman assured her. She shook her head. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’

  Eve moved away, on to another rack, this one of sheer, summery dresses. She looked at them, but didn’t trust herself to touch the hangers. Her power had come out so fast, so unexpectedly. She couldn’t risk that happening again. She didn’t—

  ‘Opinion?’ Jess called softly, pulling Eve away from her thoughts.

  Eve turned and faced her. ‘Gorgeous,’ she said, with absolute honesty. The dress clung and flowed in all the right places, the neckline showing off just the right amount of cleavage. ‘Fairy princess meets prom queen.’ She pulled her iPhone out of her bag. ‘Let me get a picture. Do you think you’ll wear your hair up for the prom?’

  ‘Probably,’ Jess answered. She quickly twisted her hair into a knot on the top of her head and Eve took several pics.

  ‘You’re sure it’s OK if I decide to get it? You did call it,’ Jess said.

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ Eve told her. ‘It’s the Senior Prom we’re talking about.’

  Jess rushed over and gave her a hard hug. ‘Thanks. You’re the best.’ She started back towards the dressing room.

  I’m the best, Eve told herself.

  Why didn’t that make her feel better?

  ‘Tell me if you see anything dead, especially dead and squishy,’ Jess said as they walked through the woods on their way to East Hampton. She’d been giving Eve the same instruction almost every fifteen metres the entire time, and Eve was relieved that they were almost there. ‘I don’t want to have to throw away these shoes too. I thought about buying a pair of Crocs just for walking through the woods, but even the possibility of slimy ickiness could not get me into plastic shoes.’

  ‘Still no dead squishiness. Or slimy ickiness,’ Eve replied. ‘No squirrels, nothing.’

  ‘I’m so glad they let me put the dress on hold,’ Jess said. She still wanted to take another look at the possibly extremely gorgeous dress she’d seen in East Hampton, even though when she’d tried on the Dolce & Gabbana gown it had looked as if it had been made with her body in mind.

  I’m not sure she really loves, loves, loves the dress, at least not the way I do, Eve thought, or she would have bought it on the spot.

  ‘I know, that’s great!’ she said out loud, pushing down her sadness. She was going to be happy for her friend. That’s all there was to it. ‘So what’s this Cynthia Rowley dress like? Or should I not know, so I can give you my gut first impression?’

  ‘It’s white, with grey rosettes under the bust and then just one circle of them around the dress further down, at an angle. Grey isn’t a colour I’d usually think of for prom, but there’s just a little bit of it.’

  ‘Sounds sophisticated, and I bet the pink pendant would look really good with it,’ Eve said.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Jess asked.

  ‘Mmm-hmm. Why?’ Eve replied.

  ‘You’re walking slowly,’ Jess pointed out. ‘It’s like you suddenly stepped into a pool of quicksand.’

  It was true. Eve hadn’t noticed right away, but her feet felt heavier. As she continued walking, they got heavier and heavier with each step. She began panting with the effort, but the air was so cold it was like the oxygen had frozen and wasn’t available to her body. She shivered.

  ‘Eve!’ Jess cried. ‘It’s happening again. You’re all goose-bumpy.’

  Eve didn’t have enough breath to answer. She took one more step, then her knees buckled and she landed hard on the ground. Air – she had to have air. She braced both hands in front of her and fought to fill her lungs. They wouldn’t expand.

  Black dots began swarming in front of her eyes, multiplying until they filled most of her field of vision. She could hear herself wheezing, but it sounded so far away.

  Something jerked on her shoulders, and dragged her backwards about a metre. Her lungs allowed air in again, and Eve felt as if she were thawing from the inside out. She blinked rapidly, and the woods reappeared around her. She tilted her head, and saw Jess above her, pulling her across the ground.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Eve gasped. ‘You can stop.’

  Jess let go of Eve’s shoulders and dropped down on the ground next to her. ‘Are you positive?’ she exclaimed.

  Eve nodded. ‘Just let me rest a sec.’ She took long, slow breaths and focused on the hot ball of power inside her until she felt completely normal – normal and warm – again, then she pushed herself to her feet.

  ‘Are you sure you should be standing up already?’ Jess protested. ‘You looked really terrible.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Eve joked. ‘But I feel fine.’ Actually, now that she could concentrate on the power thrumming through her body she felt more than fine. ‘It’s just like yesterday. I got incredibly cold and I couldn’t breathe. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been here to pull me back.’ Except she did pretty much know. She’d have ended up one of the dead things in the woods. ‘It hit me so suddenly, then it left almost as fast,’ Eve continued, pushing the horrible thought away.

  ‘It was the only thing I could think to do,’ Jess answered. ‘You got better when Luke pulled you back from the place before, so I tried it.’

  Eve looked aro
und. ‘You know, this is almost where we were yesterday. Remember, we were practically up to where the woods end in East Hampton.’

  ‘Let’s get away from here,’ Jess said. She gave Eve’s arm a tug.

  ‘We’re the Deepdene Witch and a kung fu master. We don’t need to run away from anything,’ Eve told her. She wished she had something to direct her power at, something to fight.

  Jess gave a sharp nod. ‘You’re right. But we do need to figure out what’s doing this to you. To you specifically,’ she added. ‘I didn’t get even a little shiver and I was standing right where you were. The guys were fine yesterday too.’

  ‘That’s true.’ Eve hadn’t really thought about that part. She took out her iPhone. She used the GPS app to pinpoint her position on the map. Then zoomed in closer, closer. ‘We’re only a few steps away from the official borderline between Deepdene and East Hampton,’ she murmured.

  ‘Ooo-kay.’ Jess said slowly. ‘And that matters why? It’d be weird if the official border did anything to you.’

  ‘My life has been all about the weird since school started,’ Eve reminded her, not that Jess needed a reminder. She’d seen most of the weird firsthand. ‘And don’t you think it’s also weird that I’d have the same reaction in the same place?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s weird.’ Jess peered over Eve’s shoulder at the map. ‘All right, we have a hypothesis. Ms Whittier would say the next step is an experiment.’ Ms Whittier was one of the school biology teachers.

  ‘With me as the lab rat,’ Eve said.

  Jess winced. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I think what I need to do is try to cross the border in a different spot,’ Eve said, dreading the possibility of feeling another blast of freezing pain and being unable to breathe. ‘Let’s walk down that way, then I’ll give it a shot.’

  ‘Maybe you can use this for the science fair next year. You know your mom would pass out with joy if you entered,’ Jess joked as they began walking, but Eve could hear the worry in her friend’s voice.

  ‘You’re not going to believe this, but it’s been a whole two days since she last talked to me about the state of my extra-curricular activities and how important they are to getting into the right school. Two days. As in two!’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could use being the saviour of our town as an extra-curricular? Now that would be impressive,’ Jess commented.

  ‘That would get me a long stay in a psychiatric hospital,’ Eve countered.

  ‘Good point. Guess you’ll have to join the choir or something,’ Jess said.

  They walked for about a quarter of a mile. Eve checked the map. ‘Let’s try here. The border curves out up ahead.’ She turned to face the invisible boundary and sucked in a deep, deep breath, as though that might help if her lungs iced up again. Then she started towards it.

  ‘Oh, Eve, ick! Dead-thing alert,’ Jess called.

  Eve stopped in her tracks. ‘I see it.’ She wished she hadn’t. It was a small possum, and its throat was cut, just like the squirrels and Pumpkin the cat. Its fur was splotched with blood. ‘Poor th—’ She didn’t finish. It was starting. The tingling in her arms told her that the goose bumps had popped up, and a moment later her teeth began to chatter.

  ‘Stop there,’ Jess said. ‘You don’t need to keel over. The same thing is happening, right?’

  Eve took three big steps back, and it began to feel like May again. ‘Yeah, it was happening.’ She rubbed her arms with her hands, even though the goose bumps had disappeared. The East Hampton side of the border didn’t look any different from the Deepdene side. What was going on? Why did this keep happening to her – and just to her?

  ‘When’s the last time you left town?’ Jess asked.

  Eve thought back. ‘It was before the quarantine when Amunnic was here.’

  A nasty plague came to any place where Amunnic was. It was actually a good thing – a kind of advance warning system, which also stopped the demon drinking your blood if you caught it. The Center for Disease Control didn’t know that though, and so Deepdene had been put into quarantine. ‘I think it was the week before that we went to your cousin’s party in Montauk.’

  ‘Oh, yeah. Right,’ Jess said. ‘So something has happened between that day and yesterday; something that won’t let you out of town.’

  ‘Something powerful,’ Eve said.

  Jess’s brow furrowed. ‘Do you think we’ve got another demon on the loose?’

  Chapter Five

  ‘I think it’s time to give the third musketeer a call,’ Eve said as she and Jess started home. ‘Luke’s going to want to know what happened.’

  ‘Do we have to be musketeers? I’d rather be Charlie’s Angels,’ Jess said.

  ‘Fine by me. As long as you’re the one who tells Luke he’s a kickass girl.’ Eve pulled out her cell, and a second later Luke was saying ‘hello’ into her ear. She hadn’t realized exactly how much she’d wanted to hear his voice.

  ‘Hey, Boo-Boo.’ Eve decided it was time to find the perfect he’s-my-boyfriend nickname for Luke. ‘I had another one of those episodes in the woods,’ she told him.

  ‘What? Are you OK?’ he cried. ‘And did you just call me Boo-Boo?’

  Cross Boo-Boo off the list. He’d sounded almost as horrified by the nickname as he had by what happened in the woods. ‘I’m fine. Jess pulled me back, Pork Chop,’ Eve added as an experiment.

  ‘Pork Chop? Uh, could I talk to Jess for a minute?’

  ‘Luke’s afraid I got some brain damage out there,’ Eve told Jess. ‘I’m trying to find a nickname for you, that’s all,’ she explained to Luke. ‘I’m guessing you don’t like Pork Chop either.’

  Luke laughed. ‘You can call me anything you want as long as you’re all right.’

  ‘I am. I swear. And the two of us figured something out. When the cold feeling hits me, I’m right at the town boundary between Deepdene and East Hampton. Freaky, right?’

  ‘Big yeah,’ Luke said. ‘I’m just over at the Y, playing some b-ball. We’re almost done. Want to meet me at my place? We should try to figure this out.’

  ‘Luke wants us to come over,’ Eve told Jess.

  ‘We’ll be there,’ she said to Luke as Jess nodded hard. ‘Bye, Love Boodle.’ She hung up before she could get Luke’s response to that one. She and Jess began walking faster. Eve figured Jess was almost as eager as she was to get out of the woods and over to Luke’s. If this was another demon attack, they’d figure out together what they had to do. They always did.

  ‘If there’s badness, I hope pretty soon we’ll have something I can kick,’ Jess said. She slammed one leg straight out to the side in a kung fu move. She was getting good.

  ‘And I hope pretty soon I have something I can zap,’ Eve agreed as they reached the edge of the woods. She had all kinds of power. She could feel it now, coiled inside her, and she wanted to use it. She needed to use it.

  ‘I just want to run into the D&G boutique on the way,’ Jess said. ‘They’re only holding the dress for me until the end of the day, and I don’t want to let it go.’

  ‘You’re getting it?’ Eve asked. They stepped out of the woods and turned onto Main Street.

  ‘I know there are hundreds of other dresses out there, and we haven’t even been to New York, but …’ Jess gave a little shrug.

  ‘It looks awesome on you,’ Eve said, because it did, and because she wanted to be a good friend. She didn’t add that it would also look awesome on her. Or that she’d had dibbies on it.

  ‘We still have to make our trip to the city, though,’ Jess said. ‘I need shoes, and a clutch—’

  ‘And frozen hot chocolate,’ Eve added.

  ‘And that, absolutely,’ Jess said.

  ‘It won’t work very well if I can’t cross the town line, though,’ Eve said, frowning, as they made their way down Main Street.

  ‘We’ll get you out, even if we have to dig a tunnel,’ Jess promised.

  Eve knew she’d do it too. ‘I’ll wait for y
ou out here,’ she said when they reached the boutique. ‘I’m just loving being in the sunshine. When I get hit with that – whatever it is – it’s like I’ve walked into a blizzard.’

  ‘Are you still cold?’ Jess asked.

  Eve shook her head. ‘It goes away really fast. But the sun still feels good.’ She tilted her face up, letting the rays stroke her skin.

  ‘Be right back.’ Jess headed into the shop and was back out a few minutes later with a big bag and a big smile. ‘Now on to Luke’s. Or do I get to call him Love Boodle too?’

  ‘You can try,’ Eve told her. ‘But I’m not going to be responsible for what happens if you do. I don’t think it’s going to make the cut for his pet name.’

  ‘My vote – Hugalumps,’ Jess offered.

  The rectory was only a few blocks from the boutique. They came up with – and discarded – Luke boyfriend names all the way there. When they arrived, Luke was out front, waiting for them. He hurried over to Eve and wrapped her in his arms. ‘You’re sure you’re OK?’ he asked.

  ‘Absolutely. And I’ll be more than OK once we figure out what’s going on,’ Eve said.

  ‘Come on in, and we’ll get at it,’ Luke said. ‘But later, I’m taking you out and we’re going to have fun, with no talking or even thinking about demons.’

  ‘Does that invitation include me, Numnums?’ Jess used the silliest name she and Eve had been able to come up with.

  ‘If you bring Seth,’ Luke answered. ‘I’m not sure I can handle a date with the two of you.’

  ‘You definitely can’t. Together, we’re way too much woman for you,’ Eve told him as he ushered them inside. He got them settled at the kitchen table with sodas and jalapeño kettle chips.

  ‘I was thinking maybe the first thing we should do is call the Order,’ Luke said, his voice losing all its teasing tone. Time to get down to business.

  ‘We could do some research online first,’ Eve suggested. ‘See if there’s anything about – I don’t know – paranormal phenomena along borderlines.’ The Order had a lot of information in their archives. She realized that. But … they knew she was part demon now that they’d tested her blood. Their attitude towards her was different: they were wary of her, maybe even a little suspicious. She didn’t want to go running to them every time something strange happened in Deepdene, not when she felt as if they didn’t trust her.