by H. D. Gordon
Vivian approached me and placed a hand on my shoulder. Through both her aura and her eyes, I could tell that she felt for me, but that there wasn’t anything she could—or rather, would, do. I tried not to be angry with her for this. If anyone should understand that she had to follow orders, it would be me.
The thing was, I was done with following orders, and a part of me couldn’t help but resent her for it.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Without evidence…” Again, she shrugged.
“I know. I know,” I said. “I’m on my own.”
CHAPTER 36
After Vivian dropped me back off at my apartment it was nearing two o’clock in the morning. I was feeling like a big old piece of poo, completely downtrodden and upset. I stripped out of my day clothes, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and then promptly threw myself onto my bed and let sleep drag me under.
When I awoke the next morning, I was grateful that it was Friday, because I felt like I could’ve slept the whole day away and still not be fully refreshed. I didn’t even want to see Thomas, which spoke to how foul my mood was, and I skipped our usual rooftop breakfast routine and instead got in some extra high intensity interval training before I had to head out to school.
I did the squats, lunges, mountain climbers and high jumps with a particular vigor, as if I were mad at the world. And, really, I suppose I was. I was kicking myself for having been so stupid as to not secure some kind of evidence to show the Brokers. Now all those Halfling children—wherever they were—had only my little makeshift team to try and save them.
Scowling like a Scrooge, I grabbed my backpack and skateboard and opened my apartment door to head to school… and found Thomas on the other side, his hand raised as though he’d been about to knock.
He took one look at me, shook his head, and handed me a brown paper sack that smelled of breakfast meat. “Most important meal of the day,” he said, and then turned to leave me to my misery.
I mumbled my thanks and set out to school, riding along the sidewalk on my board while simultaneously destroying the breakfast burrito that Thomas had given me. I wasn’t sure if it was in his nature to take care of those around him, or if he had a particular thing for me, but one thing was for certain—my stomach was a direct route to my heart.
When I reached the school, it was apparent that something was out of sorts, because everyone’s auras were in states of flux. A crowd of students was gathered on the stone steps in front of the school building, and I pushed my way through them, trying to locate one of my friends so I could ask what was going on.
I couldn’t locate Sam or Matt—who obviously were really my only friends—so I pulled up next to a girl in one of my AP classes and asked what was going on.
“One of the students is missing,” she said. I thought her name was Mary, but wasn’t sure enough to call her by it.
“What do you mean, ‘missing’?” I asked, my heart plummeting. A bad feeling swept over me as swift and sure as a tidal wave.
The girl shrugged, standing on her tiptoes and looking through the crowd apparently for someone more interesting to talk to. I resisted the sudden urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her hard.
“Like, he’s been missing since yesterday morning,” she said. “I guess he never came home from school yesterday.”
Mary—or whatever her name was—went to move away, spotting someone and turning without a glance back at me. On its own accord, my hand shot out and gripped her forearm, halting her retreat.
She gave me a dirty look and I spoke quickly. “Who is it? What’s the kid’s name?”
“Ow,” she said, and I released my hold. She jerked her arm away as if I’d burned her. “Some sophomore, one of the special needs kids. Brian something.”
Now I was pretty sure my heart dropped somewhere near my shoes. My mouth felt dry and my breath short. “Brewbaker?” I asked. “Brian Brewbaker?”
Mary nodded. “Yeah, that’s it.” She moved away from me before I could ask anything else. Not that I had anything else to ask. In fact, I could hardly breathe, let alone speak.
It was in this shocked state that Sam and Matt found me.
“What’s going on?” Matt asked.
I had to swallow twice before I could answer. “Brian Brewbaker is missing,” I said.
Sam’s face went pale, her mouth forming a little ‘o’. I didn’t need to read her aura to know what she was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing. I didn’t know why, or how I knew it, but I had the sinking feeling that Brian’s unknown status had something to do with me.
“You don’t think…?” Sam began.
I realized belatedly that my hands were balled into fists.
“Think what?” Matt asked, his eyes flipping back and forth between the two of us. “What am I missing?”
I ignored his question, not to be rude, but because I’d barely even heard him over the blood that was rushing in my ears. I turned on my heels and went off in search of the evil wench who I thought just might have answers.
***
I couldn’t find Raven all day, and classes dragged on as if dipped in molasses. Everyone was in a somber mood, and it was seeping in and out of me through both my aura and theirs. I had no real reason to think that Brian’s disappearance had anything to do with me, other than a nagging feeling in the back of my head that insisted it did.
I could hardly sit still at my desk by the time last period rolled around, and if I’d thought I could gather more information elsewhere, I likely would have just skipped school altogether. All I could think about was where Brian must be at the moment, possibly trapped and scared and unable to help himself. I told myself a million times that if I did find out this had some sort of connection to all the other craziness going on in Grant City, whoever was behind it would need to watch out. I felt like a train going full speed off its tracks, apt to crush whatever came into my path.
“Whoa,” Sam said when she met me at my locker after the dismissal bell finally rang. “You look like your fuse has been lit.”
I grabbed my skateboard and the books I would need and slammed the locker shut. “That’s pretty close to how I feel.”
Sam’s voice lowered, her blue eyes filled with concern as she pushed her glasses up on her nose. “We don’t know anything, Aria,” she said. “Could be he just wandered off.”
Whatever look I gave her had her holding up her hands. “Okay,” she amended. “I admit that’s unlikely.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry for my mood. I just can’t help but feel like I’ve had the worst streak of luck in, like, the history of all time.”
Matt joined us, and we exited the school and walked toward the flower shop. Matt would be working at Roses for me tonight because it was Friday and I had to play in my second lacrosse game. In my current mood, playing a game was about the last thing on the list of stuff I wanted to do. Then again, getting out some of my pent up energy might serve me well.
As they walked and I rode alongside them on my board, I told them about what had happened the previous night. When I got to the part about Rose and the man in the suit who’d tried to drown her in the bay, Matt nodded gravely.
“I knew it,” he said. “I knew something was off with Rose. I know it’s crappy to say it, but I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d just let her drown.”
I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand, feeling the tension there. I wouldn’t admit it, but the thought had crossed my mind after the fact. When I’d seen Rose hit the water, I’d just acted, but there was a jaded, angry part of me afterward that had wondered if I’d made the right choice.
“You did the right thing,” Sam said, as if she’d read my mind. She shot Matt a reprimanding look. “He probably threatened her life or her daughter’s life. I don’t think Rose would just betray you otherwise.”
“Stabbing someone in the back is still stabbing someone in the back, no matter the reason,” Matt mumbled.
“Yeah, well, you’ll underst
and if I let you walk the rest of the way alone from here,” I said, stopping a couple of blocks away from the flower shop. “I don’t want to face her yet. Not right now. I’ve got too much on my plate.”
Matt nodded, his brown curly hair swaying around his face. “Okay, I’ll be at the game tonight to cheer you on. See you guys later.”
We watched as Matt headed off. Then Sam sighed and turned toward me. “What else did you find out last night? What happened with the chick from the Brokers?”
I resisted the urge to slap myself in the head as I explained what happened when we’d reached the farm, and Sam listened with sympathy like the good best friend she was.
“Wow,” she said once I was finished. “They couldn’t have moved the whole lab and all those Halflings too far. It’s only been twenty-four hours.”
I knew her well enough to see the wheels turning in her head, no doubt formulating an act of computer magic to somehow track the Halfling lab’s new location.
“If I could find them,” she asked, “would the Broker come back again?”
I shook my head. “I highly doubt it. I’m not their favorite Halfling in the world, if you can imagine.”
Sam’s pretty face filled with a determination I wished I could match. Like usual, my respect for her bloomed further in the most mundane, sudden of moments.
“Don’t stress about it,” Sam said. “You didn’t need them a few months ago when there was a psychopath Warlock on the loose, or before that when you took down that Halfling Werewolf, and you still don’t need them now.” She gave me a confident nod. “We’re going to figure this out, and we’re going to save those Halflings, because that’s what we do. We’re heroes.”
I summoned a smile and gave it to her, hoping she didn’t see through it to all the despair and doubt that was roiling inside of me.
***
Coach Sanders stood before us blank-eyed, his large hands around a clipboard and a whistle around his thick neck. He blinked, looked down at the board, and back up at us, as if he’d momentarily lost his place and couldn’t remember where he was.
“Alright, ladies,” he said slowly, as if only half awake. “I want you to go out there and play good. Try to play good… and… let’s hope you play good.”
Some of the girls exchanged glances, a few giggled, mumbling that Coach must be hung over. Coach Sanders didn’t respond to any of this, only looked down at his clipboard and back up again.
As he stumbled through this inspiring pep talk, my eyes were locked on the evil Succubus sitting across from me. Raven’s red lips were turned up just slightly in a smug smile as she observed the effects of her voodoo on the coach, clearly pleased with the results. If I was being completely honest with myself, what made this worse was the fact that I couldn’t really say this change in Coach Sanders didn’t please me on a primal level as well. He had been a predator, and now… Well, now he was little more than an automaton.
I would never tell her, but what Raven had said to me the other day about the man having deserved this outcome had really sunk in. It had made me examine the right and wrong I’d long tried to adhere to.
Raven didn’t make eye contact with me at all until the coach waved his hand for us to hit the field, and then she gave me a little wink that made me clench my hands into fists tight enough to make my knuckles go white. I returned it with a stare that I hoped conveyed the inevitable conversation we’d be having as soon as I got her alone.
Andrea Ramos also sat without looking at me or Raven, her dark eyes full of turmoil and her lips pressed together in a thin line. We hadn’t spoken at all since what had happened, and I could see from her aura that the whole ordeal had shaken her. Though I wasn’t Andrea’s biggest fan by any means, there’s a certain sympathy that is evoked between females who experience such a thing, and she could deny it all she wanted, but it was there.
As we exited the locker room I saw that the stands of the stadium were as full as they’d been for the first game, the buzz of the crowd making my stomach flip and the worries plaguing my mind dissipate. Seeing all those people solidified in me a want to win, a need not to disappoint. If I had to be failing at everything else in my life at the moment, I wanted to do well at this.
And we did. In fact, we kicked butt. With every goal Grant City High scored, the crowd cheered louder and louder, like fuel to the fire that I hadn’t even known was lit inside me. I hit the players on the other team with a little more strength than I usually would’ve dared, and took some sort of primal pleasure in each one I mowed down. To be fair, I absorbed my own share of blows as well, but barely even registered the impact for all the adrenaline that was running through me.
By the time the game ended, I was dripping sweat, my hair stuck to my head under my helmet, and the blood rushing through my veins so fast it almost felt like a high. The people in the stands that were rooting for GCHS were ecstatic, cheering and yelling that the champs had returned, many declaring the first loss a fluke.
We exited the field in a torrent of appreciation, and I sucked it up the way Raven sucked up souls, as if it fed me somehow on a root level. With all the darkness I’d been feeling lately, a little good emotion was more than welcome.
It would be short-lived, however, because as soon as I entered the locker room and watched as Raven discarded her pads and helmet, I knew I still had a fair amount of aggression that needed releasing, and lucky her, because she was the target.
***
I waited until we were alone, because with my temper being what it was as of late, it seemed the wisest choice.
I got my opportunity soon enough. The locker room cleared out after the game as if the place were haunted, everyone eager to get to post game festivities. Raven hung back, knowing just by the death stares I’d been giving her all evening that there was a conversation to be had.
Once we were alone, I went over to where she was pulling on her tight jeans and low-cut top and told myself to maintain control. Choking the life of out her would hardly help the situation any.
“Sup, fairy,” she said in greeting, grinning as though she thought herself clever.
“Where’s Brian Brewbaker?” I asked, cutting through the crap before I quite literally cut this chick.
I watched her aura as she formulated her response, and in it, I saw that my suspicions were gratified. She knew where Brian was, or at least, what had happened to him.
“What makes you th—?”
That was as far as she got before that control I had such a loose grip on gave way. I snatched her up by her shirtfront and slammed her back against the lockers hard enough to make a banging noise like thunder. This was why I’d waited until we were alone.
“This isn’t a game,” I growled, the words slipping out past clenched teeth. “Brian can’t defend himself, and he’s completely innocent in whatever messed up plan you’ve got going. Tell me where he is.” I shook her a bit on this last part to emphasize the point.
As if just to piss me off further, Raven let out a laugh, her eyes swirling Succubus-purple. “Everyone’s innocent and everyone’s guilty,” she said. “And what are you going to do if I don’t tell you, fairy? We both know you won’t kill me. Goes against your code.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
One dark brow lifted as she stared back at me. “I know that you wouldn’t let me kill an obvious pedophile, a man who deserved to die as much as any other person out there. If you stopped me from killing him, you’re obviously no threat to me.”
“That was before,” I said.
“Before what?”
“Before you kidnapped an innocent boy with special needs.”
Raven let out a sound of disgust. “You can’t even be politically incorrect for a second.” Her dark eyes, still swirling with glowing purple, narrowed. “Why don’t you just admit that you’re in way over your head. You don’t have what it takes to stop us. You and your merry band of nerds are delusional if you think you do.”
&nbs
p; My fist drew back and slammed forward fast enough to make her cringe, but at the last moment, I diverted it to the lockers just behind her head. It left an indentation there the size of a basketball, the metal warping inward and rendering the locker unusable.
Now Raven’s eyes weren’t quite as smug. She knew as well as I did that punch would’ve broken her face. “Luckily for you,” she said quickly, and a bit out of breath, “I’m supposed to deliver a message. You want to get Brian back? Fine.” She dug into her pocket and shoved a piece of paper into my chest. “Be there tonight at midnight. Come alone. If you don’t show, or if anyone else is with you, no one will ever see the boy alive again.” She gritted her teeth, her eyes swirling. “Now, take your hands off me, fairy.”
With a deep breath, I released my hold. Raven straightened out her shirt with a single jerk, grabbed her bag, and tossed me one more smirk before leaving me by myself in the locker room. I looked down at the piece of paper in my hand.
Seemed I had a date.
CHAPTER 37
I climbed out onto my fire escape and leapt up onto the roof of my building. I was disappointed to find that Thomas was not there, and wondered where he might be, but decided I needed a minute to clear my head anyway.
As I stared out at the city beyond, the lights coming to life as the sun sank low in the sky, I tried to think of nothing, to give my mind a rest, but every time I attempted to enter a meditative state, unwanted thoughts would circle back around, infiltrating my peace.
I worried over Brian Brewbaker; where he must be, how he must be feeling. I wondered where the Blue Beast was when it wasn’t terrorizing the city, what the person controlling it was waiting for. I thought about all those young Halflings in that vanishing lab, and about Rose’s betrayal, about how she’d given me up so easily, about the way it had made an ache form inside of me to think about how I almost wished I’d let her drown, even though I knew that was wrong.
