A Girl Called Dust

by V. B. Marlowe

  Once my bowl was empty, he took it from me. “Get some sleep. We have a lot to show you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? I don’t want to be here tomorrow. I want to go home.”

  “You are home. So, you’ve been fed.” He pointed to the table beside my bed. “You have water, and the bathroom’s over there,” he said, pointing to the other side of the room. “That should be all you need for the night. Yell if you need anything. I won’t come, but yell anyway. I’d appreciate the noise. It gets a little too quiet around here.”

  I wanted to throw the water pitcher at his head as he made his way toward the door. A clunking sound let me know that I was locked in for the night.

  That night I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. My mind was wired and crammed full of information as I flipped through the book. Trolls, Ogres, Gremlins—things I’d only seen in scary movies. I tried to stay awake to read more, but the need for rest won. With the book open on my lap, I drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  The next morning, I woke up to a steaming bowl of mush sitting on the nightstand. The mush tasted like oatmeal, and when I was done, I wanted more. I also wanted to shower and change out of the nightgown I had been wearing since Hollis had taken me from my bed.

  After eating, I went back to the book. I was in the middle of a chapter about demons when the door was flung open. Hollis came in with Wes on his heels. Ignoring me, the two of them went to the table, which contained several monitors stacked on top of each other.

  Wes tapped the keyboard, and the monitors switched on, each showing a different scene.

  I closed the book and sat on the edge of the bed. “Good morning to you too.”

  Hollis glanced at me over his shoulder. “Oh, I thought you had some sort of aversion to talking to evil child-eating beasts.”

  So he was still sore about the night before. Wes laughed. “Look, Hol, it’s almost lunchtime. That’s my favorite part.”

  Wes, the Vetala. Hostile spirits who can see the past, present, and future. They control and read minds.

  Wes chuckled again and then turned to me. “I can’t tell the future yet. I’m still working on that.”

  “What?” I stood up, my feet chilled against the cold steel floor.

  “You’re thinking about me. I read minds. Obviously you know that. And I’m not going to use mind control on you, so don’t worry. We don’t use our powers against each other.”

  “I want to leave now.”

  Wes kept on as if I hadn’t said a word. “I know all the terrible things you’ve been thinking about us. Well guess what. You’re not perfect yourself, Bandigo.”

  “Don’t call me that!”

  “Think what you want about me, but there’s nothing worse than being what you are—weak,” Wes said bitterly.

  I glared at him. “How can you say that? You don’t even know me.”

  Hollis scoffed. “We know you better than you think.” He tapped one of the monitors. “We’ve been watching you for over a year.”

  “What?” I walked over to the monitors, and sure enough, each screen showed a different part of Everson High. One showed the cafeteria filling with students. Another showed the teachers’ lounge. A few hallways, the empty gym, and the library were displayed on others. Everyone went on about their business, completely unaware that they were being watched. The thought of them viewing my life like it was some TV show made me feel weirded out and violated. “What the hell? You know how creepy that is?”

  Wes nodded. “We don’t just watch you, we watch everyone at that school. It’s better than TV. It’s like our very own reality show.”

  “We’re not your source of entertainment,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Whatever,” Wes said. “Anyway, you are weak. You let that girl with the yellow hair walk all over you.”

  Hollis nodded. “She’s an interesting character.”

  I gulped. Had they really seen everything?

  “Shut up!” I shouted. “You don’t go to school. You have no idea what it’s like, especially for a girl like me.”

  Wes grinned at Hollis. “Look at that. She can’t stand up to the yellow-haired girl, but she can stand up to us.”

  Hollis leaned back in his seat, resting his hands behind his head. “That girl’s awful. If I were you, I would just eat her and be done with it.”

  I marched over to the door and yanked on the handle. The door wouldn’t budge, as if it were welded shut. I banged on it with my fist. “Open this door. I’m leaving.”

  “It’s not locked,” Hollis said. “You’re just not strong enough to open it.”

  “Sit down,” Wes added. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  The only thing I wanted to do was get away from the two of them.

  I was angrier with the fact they’d watched me be a total loser and also that they were right. I knew I needed to stand up for myself, and I couldn’t take one more person stating the obvious. It was easier said than done.

  For a whole year, these creeps had been watching and judging me. “Hey,” I said to Hollis. “If you’ve really been watching me all this time, then you knew what I looked like. Why’d you take Paige? She looks nothing like me.”

  “He was dr—” Wes began.

  “Quiet,” Hollis snapped.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Drunk? You were drunk? If you’re going to be soaring through the night kidnapping people, don’t you think you should at least be sober? What if you dropped somebody or crashed into something?”

  Hollis punched Wes in the arm. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and I’ve never been drunk. Look!” Hollis pointed to a screen focused on a hallway, where Ranson dangled some poor kid upside down while his friends looked on, laughing. Nice way to change the subject. “That dude’s my kind of guy.”

  I felt like smashing all their monitors, but instead I got back into bed and buried myself underneath the covers, waiting for this all to end.

  That night I sat up in bed reading as much as I could. Just as I was reading an interesting bit about fairies, the door creaked open, and a man slunk into the room. My muscles tightened at the man’s intimidating appearance. He wore a black hooded cloak, while his face was completely covered in a black mask, and I wondered what type of creature was hiding underneath. The door shut behind him with a bang, and I immediately felt more trapped than ever. Who was this person, and what was he doing here?

  He moved leisurely toward me, stopping a few feet from my bed. “Come with me.”

  “What?”

  He squared his abnormally broad shoulders, and I could only imagine how strong he was. “You’re going home now.”

  I closed the book and clutched it tightly. “Oh. I thought Hollis said I had to stay.” Although I would never admit it, a small sliver of me wanted to stay. I was finally getting some questions answered. I had only made a small dent in my reading.

  “You’re leaving. You’re not who we thought you were. You’re not one of us.” His voice was deep with menace yet familiar. Hollis and Wes had said they would never hurt me, but I didn’t get the same vibe from this . . . whatever he was.

  I frowned. “But what, what about all the—”

  “All the what?” In one swift motion, he was on my bed and leaning over me. How had he moved so fast? His eyes, the only part of him not covered, shone a bright blue. “You haven’t exhibited any powers.”

  “But I think about death all the time, and I saw the purple haze around my teacher.”

  “So you’re depressed and you have cataracts. The children here fly and shape-shift and heal wounds with just a simple touch. They perform all sorts of fantastical feats. Surely you’re not comparing yourself to them.”

  “I—I don’t . . .” No, I couldn’t do anything even close to what they could do.

  He touched my chin with his gloved hand. Every body part was screaming at me to move away, but I didn’t want him to hurt me.

  His eyes peered at m
e like I was a wounded puppy, but his sympathy was only pretend. “Oh, poor girl. Did you think you were special? That you were some kind of magical creature? Well, let me assure you that you’re not. You’re just a regular girl. Now the girl you were switched with at birth, she is special. Dear, you were only a placeholder. You’re just a baby they grabbed from some random cradle and threw in her place.”

  I swallowed hard as his words cut my core. The man seemed angry with me, but I didn’t understand why. I hadn’t done anything to him. I hadn’t asked for any of this. Hollis had brought me here and told me that I couldn’t leave.

  The man’s gaze pierced me like ice-cold daggers. “You’re not important. You’re just what your classmates call you. Dust. I’m taking you home where you belong.”

  How did he know what the kids at school called me? Had he been watching me on the monitors too?

  Before I could protest, the man placed a large hand over my eyes. When he took it away, I could see nothing. I groped in the darkness. He had blinded me.

  “What did you do? What did you do? Fix it!” My heart raced with panic.

  “Hush. It will wear off in an hour or so. You are not one of us, so I couldn’t possibly let you see where we live.” Next thing I knew, his arms were underneath me, carrying me toward the door.

  I screamed for help. The man squeezed me so hard I thought my bones were going to be crushed. “No one’s going to help you. Make another sound and I will put you out.” I believed him, so I shut up.

  He hauled me down what felt like a long hallway. I tried to listen for signs of others. There was no sound except for the rhythmic tapping of the man’s feet against the ground as we walked. A door scraped open, and I was slammed by a cool blast of wind. Before I could adjust to the change in temperature, we were up in the air, and minutes later, I was thrown onto my bed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When I awoke the next morning, I wasn’t sure what to think. At least I could see again. Was the man right about me not being one of them? I couldn’t fly like Hollis or heal myself like Fletcher. Whoever thought I was special must have made a mistake.

  Downstairs, Mom and Dad were in the kitchen going about their normal routines. Mom buttered toast while Dad checked his email on his laptop. I stood in the doorway watching them act completely normal as if nothing traumatic had happened, like their oldest daughter being kidnapped by a boy with wings. Had they even called the police? Had they tried to get me back? My parents should have been crying or having full-out meltdowns, but there they were acting as if it was just a normal day. A part of me wished the mysterious man hadn’t brought me back. Everything about being home felt wrong.

  I cleared my throat.

  Dad hopped up from the table and Mom dropped her toast. They stared at me as if they had never seen me before.

  Mom looked to Dad, who seemed as if he were about to say something, but didn’t, then she rushed over to me. “Honey, we’ve been so worried.”

  Had they been? They didn’t seem worried. They seemed afraid of me.

  She held my face in her hands. “We weren’t expecting you back so soon. Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” They were expecting me to be gone longer? Why were they acting as if I’d simply come home from summer camp?

  I eyed my mother, trying to read her real emotions. She was good at hiding them. “Maybe you never expected me to come back. They told me that was my new home. Maybe you thought that too. I think that’s what you wanted.”

  Mom’s face crumpled, and I felt guilty, but that was the way I felt. “Arden, don’t be silly. We were worried sick, but like your father said, we knew they wouldn’t hurt you.”

  Dad kissed me on the forehead, then he frowned. “So, they let you come home?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. I kind of got kicked out.”

  Dad glanced at Mom then turned his attention back to me. “I know we have a lot to talk about. We’ll chat when I get home from work.” He kissed me again and then disappeared from the kitchen like he couldn’t wait to get away from me.

  Mom went back to her toast, which was seriously overbuttered by then. “I’ll make you something to eat. Hurry and get ready for school.”

  I groaned and sank into my chair at the kitchen table. “School? Can’t I stay home? I’ve kind of been through a lot. Besides, I’m exhausted.”

  “No. I’m sorry. You’ve already missed two days. People will start wondering.”

  Of course. It was all about what people thought. I had been kidnapped and locked away for two days, and Mom was worried about what her friends would say.

  “Mom?”

  She paused after pulling a package of bacon from the fridge. “Yes?”

  “You know this isn’t normal, right? None of this.”

  She looked at me for a moment then went back to what she was doing. “I know.”

  I stomped upstairs to take a shower and throw on a dress. Mom made me take my bacon sandwich to go. Just the thought of the school day filled me with dread. I was in no mood to deal with Lacey, Ranson, or anyone.

  Before the first bell rang, I looked around for Fletcher, but he was nowhere. I didn’t run into him until third period. He grabbed me by my arm after class and pulled me to the side. “What are you doing here? I thought they took you.” I thought he’d be happy to see me, but he wasn’t.

  I looked around. Not that anyone was paying us any attention, but I couldn’t risk them hearing our conversation because it all sounded crazy. “Can we talk after school?” He nodded but walked away looking worried. Had me wanted me not to come back?

  Lacey “accidentally” bumped into me on the way to the cafeteria. “Where’ve you been, Dust?”

  I thought about Hollis and Wes and the cameras. They were probably watching me right then, thinking about what a sucker I was. Knowing they had cameras placed all over the school made me feel more self-conscious than usual. I tried to speak in my firmest voice. “Sick. I’m surprised you even noticed, seeing as though I’m invisible. Nice to know you missed me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. Ms. Melcher’s class has been pretty boring with the substitute, and I was hoping you’d eat something else gross. A frog, maybe.”

  Just when everyone had forgotten about the crayfish, Lacey would bring it back up. Why couldn’t she let it die already?

  I was so not in the mood. “Have you gone to see Bailey?”

  Lacey scoffed. “No. Why would I have? We’re not friends anymore. She let a guy come between us. And from what I’m hearing about her scars, no guy will ever want her again. You can have her back.”

  “Your friend is horribly scarred and was almost killed, and you’re still mad about Trent, who happens to be dead, by the way. Have some respect.”

  Lacey smirked. “Think about it. If the two of them hadn’t been together, none of this would have ever happened. You were there. I asked Bailey to stay on the patio and dance with me, but she just had to go out into those woods with her boyfriend. She ditched you too, you know.”

  I had never wanted to punch Lacey as hard as I did then. “I bet you don’t remember saying how you wished they’d be mauled by the Teacher Killer.” My voice had risen slightly.

  “Shhh.” Lacey yanked me into a corner by my arm. “I was joking. I totally didn’t mean that.” She looked slightly sorry, but only because she knew if anyone heard what she said, they’d all hate her. Everyone felt sorry for Bailey, and not even the queen bee could get away with making such a heartless statement. “I—I was drunk.”

  She might have been tipsy that night, but she knew exactly what she was saying. “You have to be the most horrible person I’ve ever met.”

  Just like that, any fear she had shown was replaced by her usual smugness. “Whatever, Dust. Gotta go. Bi-yee.”

  She sauntered off, and I hated her more than I ever had.

  Fletcher texted me to meet him in the park so we could talk. I settled onto our bench, and I focused on my homework si
nce I had so much to make up. I wished I had the book of creatures to read, but because of Creepy Guy in the Cloak, I’d had to leave it behind.

  Fletcher plopped down beside me with a white plastic bag from Gerdy’s. He handed me a jar of olives and took out a bag of potato chips for himself.

  “Thanks.” I twisted the cap off the jar and stuffed olives into my mouth. I couldn’t get enough of them.

  “So, not that I haven’t missed you, but what are you doing here? They couldn’t have possibly taught you everything that fast.”

  The olives suddenly had a weird taste to them. “Fletch, is it true? Am I what they say I am? A Bandigo?”

  He looked straight ahead. “Yeah.”

  “You’ve known all this time?”

  He nodded. “I didn’t know until the first time you spoke to me in Gerdy’s after the bus thing. It was the first time I had gotten close enough to smell you.”

  “All the times I asked you—you’re my best friend. Why couldn’t you just tell me?”

  “One, you wouldn’t have believed me, and two, it wasn’t my place to tell you. Parents have the right to disclose the truth to their children as they see fit. I don’t agree with your parents not telling you, but I had to respect it. It’s part of the code.”

  “What code?”

  He put his chips to the side and pulled a book from his backpack. “You’ll learn.”

  The olives I’d swallowed so quickly threatened to come back up. “Fletch, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m not supposed to be talking to you about any of this because I’m a Giver. Did they at least tell you about Givers and Takers?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. You need to talk to your father. He’s a Giver too.”

  I almost laughed because the thought was so ridiculous. “What are you talking about?”

  “Think about it. Your father leaves for a month, the same month every single year.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, so? I told you. He goes away for business.” He went to an advertising conference in New York each year, although he never told us much about it, not that we wanted to hear details. It all sounded so dull.