by Mintie Das
I watch Naomi get closer, somewhat amused at her crooked walk because it’s rare to see her so not in control. Although I’d heard that she’d become a sloppy drunk lately.
“Violet,” someone says and I turn around. My stomach plunges. Austin is standing in front of me. What is this, my very own version of Children of the Corn? I have the Aiedeo and a stalker after me but Austin is still the last person I want to see. I can feel my pits filling with flop sweat.
“Freeze!”
I quickly turn away from Austin to see five police officers standing in the middle of the party, next to the kegs. For a few seconds, no one dares to move, then someone shouts, “Run!” and pandemonium breaks out, with drunken teens rushing in every direction.
Toby plows past us, knocking kids down like he’s back on the football field. I’m paralyzed from all the commotion.
“Move!” Meryl commands as she tugs on my arm. “Your dad will kill you if you get arrested.”
That’s all it takes to jolt me into action. We race straight into the rows of corn. Every horror-movie instinct warns me that this isn’t a smart decision. However, the worst part about a cornfield kegger is that it doesn’t provide much of an exit plan.
I’ve spent practically my entire life around cornfields but that doesn’t mean I know my way around them. The starry sky seems to have disappeared and we’re trying to cut a path through the towering rows of cornstalks in utter blackness. I hold out my cell but it barely lights the hard ground beneath me.
The music from the party fades into the loud crunching noise of the cornstalks cracking under my sneakers. I can hear heavy footsteps coming fast behind me but I’m too afraid to check if they belong to kids or cops. My heart pounds in my chest.
Meadowdale is such a small town that any kind of underage-drinking bust shows up as front-page news in the Lamoine Herald, the local newspaper. That kind of embarrassing publicity buries kids and their families here. Even though my dad spends most of his time outside of Meadowdale, his prestigious university foundation makes him a prominent member of this community. I push myself to run faster. Bringing any kind of shame onto Naresh is grounds for boarding school or worse.
The scraggy corn stalks and the wild, spiky assortment of morning glory, water hemp, and a dozen other types of weeds that grow out here scratch up my bare legs. I really wish that I’d worn jeans instead of shorts to the party. My calves prickle like a hundred ants are crawling all over them but I try to ignore it and keep on running.
After what feels like thirty minutes but is probably only half that time, I stop. “I can’t.” I hunch over and gasp for air. “I’m totally lost and my legs are like jelly.” We had hitched a ride to the party in the bed of some kid’s pickup, but even if I had the faintest inkling of where his truck was parked, it was probably long gone. In the mass hysteria to flee the cops, neither Meryl nor I had really thought through our plan, but now we have no choice but to try to find our way out of this cornfield and home.
“We gotta keep going until we see a dirt road or a barn or something that will help show us the way back to town,” Meryl whispers.
She turns around to face me but she doesn’t say anything; instead, her eyes grow so big they practically take over her entire face.
“What?” I ask shakily as I also turn around. The glare of a flashlight blinds me.
“You can stop running, ladies. We’ve got you!” a police officer shouts as he walks toward us.
My pulse races as he comes closer.
“Run, V! My dad will get me out of this but Naresh will go totally apeshit if you’re busted!”
I’m frozen, not sure what to do.
“Go!” Meryl shouts in my face.
The cop is so close that I can see the light reflecting off his badge. Just then, I feel a massive shove and realize that I’m flying through the air. Then, just as suddenly, I crash to the ground.
I lie there, too dazed to move, and see a figure standing over me with eyes lit up like a bat’s. “Wh-wha—” I start, but before I can get anything else out, he’s gone.
* * *
I stumble out of the cornfield and fall to my knees. The grit from the gravel road sticks to my skin. I’ve been walking in that endless corn maze for what seems like the entire night, but my phone battery died a while back so I can’t be sure how long I was trapped in there. It’s still dark and the stars are still out, so I figure it must have been only a few hours. Although it felt like an eternity.
My throat is parched and my skin is scratched and bitten. A gross taste of salt and metal mixes in my mouth from the blood, sweat, and tears I shed in my struggle to get out.
I look around. I have no idea where the hell in the boonies I’ve ended up. My house could be in any direction from here. Without my GPS, I don’t even know which way is north. Although I prefer the open road to that claustrophobic corn hell, I make it a general rule to stay clear of the sticks in the middle of the night. Given all the rumors about KKK gatherings and Satanist cults that meet in Meadowdale’s backcountry, this is definitely not a safe place for a brown girl.
I let out a frustrated cry. Being lynched or sacrificed are certainly things to avoid, but strangely, racists and devil worshipers aren’t nearly as real right now as the monster with the bat eyes. The entire time that I was running in circles through the cornfield, my mind was running in its own circles with the same thought: Is he in here or out there? My sheer physical exhaustion only adds to my fear.
Meryl would have known what to do. I wonder if she saw Bat Eyes push me out of the way. If not, how am I supposed to explain that to her when it makes no sense to me?
Suddenly, I see a pair of headlights flash up ahead. I drop to the ground as fast as my broken body lets me. I’m sure it’s Bat Eyes coming to finish the job. I feel around, searching for a weapon. All I can find is a rock that’s no bigger than my palm.
“Violet!”
I look up in confusion to see Dede stepping out of my father’s SUV. She walks over to me.
“How? How did you . . .” I’m too frazzled to speak.
Dede helps me to my feet. “I put tracker in your phone when you come home before party to change clothes. I know there trouble tonight. But I lose you when battery die. So I wait for you.”
Having my own version of Alfred from Batman following me around is usually a pain in my ass. I was furious the first time I discovered she’d tracked me. Now, though, I’m grateful.
As I crawl into the front seat, my fatigue and fear give way to relief. I’m sure that Bat Eyes is out there somewhere waiting for me. But right now, I convince myself that I am safe. My aching muscles start to relax and my heavy eyelids fall.
“Thank you,” I mumble as I drift off to sleep.
Seven
Day 3: Alive
MERYL AND I sit in the bed of Old Blue, her pimped-out 1954 Ford pickup truck, sipping our McDonald’s frappés. We’re outside of MHS, but since Meryl somehow snagged a teacher’s parking pass as soon as she was old enough to drive, we’re in the admin lot. It’s a little past eight a.m. and there’s no one around but the two of us. It’s kind of pretty here, with the sun shining down on the playing field and the cornfields that surround our school. After last night, I would be fine with never seeing another cornfield again, but that’s virtually impossible when you live in Meadowdale.
“Oh my God,” Meryl whispers. She takes a long sip of her drink. “The mofo Aiedeo want you back.”
Chills run down my arm. I’ve just gotten Meryl caught up on everything that’s been going on with me and it’s definitely a lot for both of us to process.
“And you think that Bat Monster . . . Bat Guy—”
“I call him Bat Eyes.”
Meryl nods. “Right, Bat Eyes. Do you think he has anything to do with the Aiedeo?”
“I’m confused AF about all this.” I shrug. “But it can’t be a coincidence that he showed up around the same time that the Aiedeo started up again.”
A crisp morning breeze hits us. I’m wearing my workout T-shirt and shorts because Naomi called a surprise mandatory practice for nine a.m. Meryl pulls her soccer socks all the way up. MHS has no official soccer program, so the girls on the intramural soccer team pretty much have to do everything themselves and pay for it out of their own pockets. That means they spend a lot of time fundraising but Meryl isn’t about selling candy bars or washing cars—most of her Stumpy’s hustling money goes to the team. In fact, she bought their uniforms after a particularly lucrative Greek Week last year.
“I know you’ve always told me how shady the Aiedeo are. And I remember when you broke your legs.” Meryl chews on her lip in that way she does when she doesn’t want to say something because she knows she’s going to piss me off.
I raise an eyebrow. “But?”
“It’s a war, Violet!” Meryl says loudly. “I mean, I’m talking full-on world-destruction shit here,” she says in a lower voice. “How can you not do anything?”
“What the hell am I supposed to do? I don’t even have powers anymore!”
“But you do. You said that one Aiedeo chick who came to your room told you that the Aiedeo never took your powers away.”
“Oh, right. When she spouted that cheesy Hallmark channel bullshit about believing in my powers. Fine, I believe. Let’s see if I can make my straw fly away.” I focus on my drink straw and try to concentrate but I get frustrated after a couple of seconds. “You think I can help win a war when I can’t even move a dinky straw?”
“Obviously you’re out of practice. But the believing stuff might not be total bullshit.” Meryl starts to chew on her lip again. “I mean, it’s just that you live in this bubble where you shut out anything you don’t want to deal with.”
“Ha! I live in a bubble? That’s rich, considering you just got busted by the cops at the cornfield kegger but nothing happened to you because your dad made it all go away. Just like he always makes it go away.”
“Yeah, I know that I’m privileged AF. I’m not denying that. But isn’t being an Assamese warrior queen with a shit-ton of awesome-ass powers pretty privileged too?”
“Except that my privilege comes with an almost guarantee of me being killed!”
Meryl drops her shoulders and speaks quietly. “V, what scares you more, the Aiedeo or yourself?”
“WTF, Dr. Phil.”
“Do you remember what you were like when you were an Aiedeo? Even if no one else knew about it, I did, and I could see it in you. I mean, you didn’t do any tricks, not even when I begged you to get AJ Rockman back for tripping me and breaking my arm in gym class. But there was this confidence in you, this inner badass bitch, because it was like you knew you were the shit.”
I run my finger over the truck’s metallic blue paint. I don’t remember anything about what Meryl is saying. That’s the thing with denial—it forces you to forget the good stuff too.
Meryl continues. “I totally get why you ditched the Aiedeo. I mean, I really do. They hurt you. I could see how furious you were with them when you were in the hospital but I also saw how it broke your heart. Especially because you never got to see your mom again. But you changed after that—”
“Yeah, I stopped being a freak!”
“No, V!” Meryl shakes her head. “You lost your confidence and you just became so afraid to go against the herd in any way. You know, to be a little different.”
“Screw you, Mer!” My jaw tenses. “Look around this lily-ass town. I don’t have to be different because I am different. Brown girl with the dead mom.”
“I get—”
“No, you don’t, damn it! In your little privileged world where you reign supreme, you choose to do your own thing, to go against the grain. You choose to be different.” I look Meryl straight in the eye. “I don’t get a choice.”
“But who the hell cares what a bunch of ignorant, racist bastards in Meadowdale, Illinois, think?”
“I do! I know that sounds totally wack but I want to belong here. Because this is all I have.” I look away and blink back a tear. “I can’t handle being a freak. Hell, this town can’t handle my freak.”
“And you think being an Aiedeo makes you a freak.” Meryl laces her fingers through mine. “But all of it’s on the DL, right? No one would ever have to know about you being an Aiedeo. I mean, isn’t having a secret identity pretty standard superhero stuff?”
“Hmph. Maybe in make-believe. But in reality, it’s too big of a risk to take. I came so close to being discovered after that speeding-car shama. And that was three years ago, when we were still in junior high! High school is even worse, with everyone trying to throw any shade they can on someone. God, can you imagine what Heffers and Hos would do if they heard I got visits from my dead relatives?”
“Got it,” Meryl mumbles.
“You asked me what I’m scared of, Mer. I’m scared of all of it. The Aiedeo, Bat Eyes. I just want to survive this nightmare and go back to my normal life again.” A couple tears roll down my cheeks. “Before I lose everything.”
Meryl wraps her arms around me as tight as she can. “I got your back, V, and I’m sorry I’m such a privileged white bitch.”
I laugh. “That’s not what I said.”
“It’s pretty much exactly what you said.” Meryl smirks as she hands me a tissue. “First things first: I’m not leaving you alone. At night, I mean. That’s when it seems the Aiedeo and Bat Eyes show up. I’m sleeping over from now on.”
“Okay, but how are you going to do that?” I wipe my eyes. “Didn’t your dad ground you for getting busted last night?”
Meryl winks. “Please, V, you’ve got your powers and I’ve got mine. You know that I’ve perfected the art of sneaking out. Though it’s hardly a skill these days when both my parents are too caught up in saving their second and third marriages to notice where I spend my nights.”
We both stand up and jump out of the truck.
“Looks like my ride is here.” Meryl chuckles as she points to a dilapidated school bus.
Clearly fundraising hasn’t been so lucrative this year if that broken-down hunk of metal is supposed to take the soccer team to their away game in Peoria.
Meryl gives me a quick hug. “I’ll come by after eight!”
I chuck my plastic cup in the recycling bin. It isn’t fair of me to drag Meryl into all of this (although she’s hardly the type to stand by and watch), but I’m relieved not to be entirely alone.
* * *
I feel my core start to tremble, followed by the muscles in my thighs and butt. My back arches against the weight of the two girls that I’m lifting up. I fight to hold on, but within seconds, the entire pyramid gives way and we all topple onto the thick blue gymnastics mat.
“Jesus!” Naomi shrieks as she lands on her ass with a loud smack. “How many times can you idiots keep messing this up?”
She stares at Becca, Lara, and me because we’re the main bases for the pyramid, but her rage seems to be directed at everyone, even the volleyball team practicing on the other side of the gym.
“What do you expect when you call a surprise mandatory practice at nine a.m. on a Saturday?” Lara whines. “We’ve been here for over two and a half hours and we’re exhausted.”
“And you know we were all out at the cornfield kegger last night and didn’t get home until late.” Jessica scowls. “This is crazy.”
Jessica, Collette, and some of the other girls are covered in scratches, bruises, and chigger bites just like me and we are moving slower than the old people at Oak Grove Nursing Home. Seems like each of us experienced her own version of cornfield hell last night. Rumor is that a dozen tenth-graders and Fat Mike were arrested.
I take a deep breath. My body feels like it’s been run over by a tractor, and my mind is even more of a mess. I’m only here because Dede went off with Mrs. Patel this morning and I didn’t want to be home by myself.
Naomi stands with arms akimbo and sneers down at us. “You clumsy dicks sucked balls yest
erday and now you’re gonna pay for it. I don’t care how much you’re hurting.”
“You were, like, totally smashed.” Collette eyes Naomi. “How did you manage to escape the po-po?”
“Because I’m a Talbert. The cops don’t mess with me,” Naomi explains as if this is a basic truth.
In a way, I guess it is.
“Maybe you’re not as invincible as you think.” Jess grins.
“What does that mean?” Naomi asks.
“Just that when you’re at the very top, the only way to go is down.” Jess points her index finger at the ground.
“Is that from a fortune cookie?”
“Although I hear that you do like to go down.”
“What did you just say?” Naomi barks as she steps in Jessica’s face.
“Shut up,” Collette whispers as she nudges Jess.
I roll my eyes. The sun had just risen when I saw that Collette had already looped me into a group-message thread all about Naomi-gate, which has apparently become a full-on obsession with most of the student body or at least the upperclassmen. With all the whispering, texting, and general hype, I’m amazed that Naomi doesn’t have any clue about what’s going on. Although H and H has yet to post anything.
I really don’t care about any of it because all I can think about is Bat Eyes. I keep looking over my shoulder for him or the Aiedeo. I just put it together that he’s gotta be the same guy that Austin saw spying on me in my room with what he thought were infrared glasses. Crazy chills run up and down my back.
Jess ignores Collette and glares at Naomi. “You need to step the hell back.”
“Bring it, bitch,” Naomi yells.
“Guys, let’s take a ten-minute break and cool off,” Tessa suggests. Her eyes are bloodshot and she looks scruffier than usual.
I grab my water bottle and pop a squat on the floor. Even if I’m only here to be Naomi’s punching bag, I find it comforting to hang out in the school gym.
