A Girl Called Dust

by V. B. Marlowe

  “That’s not why he goes away. Ask him.”

  I threw my books back into my backpack. Who could think about school with all this life-changing drama? It had been enough learning that Dad wasn’t my real dad. Now I was supposed to believe he wasn’t Human at all? I couldn’t just erase what I’d believed my whole life. “I’m not asking him anything. Dad is just Dad. A plain old boring marketing executive. He’s not some creature.”

  Fletcher shrugged, giving up. “If you say so.”

  “What are you?”

  “A Walker.”

  “What’s that?”

  A blast of wind passed over us, and Fletcher shivered. “It means I can turn into different animals at night.” He said it so casually like it was no big deal. “We’re supposed to protect people from Takers. Only I’m not very good at that yet.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I haven’t been able to stop the Wendigo attacks.”

  I gulped. “That’s why you think it’s me. Well, it’s not. I’m not the one who killed those people, Fletcher. They say I’m not strong enough to do that yet.” But I will be.

  “There are no other Wendigos around here but you, Arden. You don’t know what you do at night after you go to sleep.”

  I was hurt that he was still thinking that I was capable of such a thing. “You think I would hurt Bailey?”

  “I don’t think you would want to, but you can’t help it. A Wendigo would eat their own family. People are just food to them.”

  I thought about my parents and sisters. There was no way I could ever do that. I would die before I hurt them. “If you think it’s me, why haven’t you killed me then?”

  He looked down, letting his hair cover his eyes. “You’re my friend, and if you say it’s not you, I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  I didn’t know what to do to prove to Fletcher that he was wrong about me. “Dad said we would talk tonight.”

  Fletcher brushed the chip crumbs from his hands. “Great. It’s about time.”

  After dinner, Dad and I went out onto the patio. I had the leftover pot roast from dinner and Dad had a bowl of ice cream. My sisters had spent the whole night staring at me like I was a stranger. They’d barely said three words to me. I figured we were back at square one, and any sisterly bonding we had done had gone down the drain. Now they didn’t just think I was weird. They were afraid of me. I tinkered with the BIG SIS charm that dangled from my bracelet.

  The November evening was chilly, but I didn’t feel it. I was warm and comfortable with a light jacket. Dad and I sat side by side on the porch swing.

  “Dad, do you promise to be honest and answer all my questions?”

  “I promise.” He looked me in the eye so I knew he meant it.

  I stuck my fork into the pot roast.

  “Am I your daughter?”

  “Yes.”

  “No. I mean your blood daughter.”

  Dad sat his bowl down between us. “No, you’re not my biological child, but you are my daughter. Nothing can change that. There’s more to family than blood.”

  “Where’s your real daughter?”

  Dad sighed, looking somewhere over the fence. “I don’t know.” I felt uncontrollably jealous. My parents were probably thinking about the other girl every single day.

  “Why did they switch us? Who switched us?”

  Dad shook his head. “We don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure it out. There has to be some motive.”

  I stuck a chunk of pot roast in my mouth. “If you knew I wasn’t yours, why didn’t you do something about it?”

  “By the time I got back from my trip, your mother had fallen in love with you, and so had I, on first sight. No one had listened to your mother and everyone assumed she was suffering through some sort of postpartum when she kept saying someone had taken her real baby. After a while we just accepted the fact. Arden, I swear I had no idea what you were until you got older. I thought you were Human. When you were around ten, you developed the smell. That’s when I knew.”

  “When you knew, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you teach me?”

  Dad picked up his bowl again, but he didn’t eat. “For a couple of reasons. Your mother thought if we just ignored it, that you could be normal. Human. That you wouldn’t change. Then you started acting out at night, and we knew that you would change no matter what. On top of that, I’m a Giver and you’re a Taker. I don’t know how to teach you to be what I’m not. I don’t know how to hunt and destroy and kill just for sport.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the bitterness in his voice. Bitterness toward Takers. Bitterness toward me, because whether I liked it or not, I was one of them.

  A slight feeling of defensiveness rose in me. “They don’t kill for sport. Only for necessity.” I couldn’t bring myself to say “we” because technically I had never killed anything. “Still, you should have told me.”

  “As I said, we hoped it would just go away if we did nothing about it. Your mother mostly was hoping you would just turn out to be normal.”

  Just be normal. All that time I’d thought Mom had only been talking about making friends when she had actually been pleading with me to be Human.

  “What happened there?” Dad asked.

  I told him everything, including how the man in the cloak had told me I wasn’t special and brought me home. “Why would he lie to me?”

  Dad began to eat his ice cream. “I have no idea why he would do that. Having you there would be only a benefit to him and the other Takers.”

  “Dad, Fletcher says you’re not Human either? What are you then?”

  “A Guardian. A type of Angel.”

  There was nothing abnormal about my father that would separate him from any typical man. No wings. No halo. Could he fly like Hollis? I knew it was true, but it was still hard to picture.

  “What about Paige and Quinn? Doesn’t that make them angels too?”

  Dad shook his head. “No. When a Human and creature breed, only the firstborn will be a creature. Any other child will be Human.”

  Lucky them.

  I remembered the conversation Fletcher and I had had earlier. “When you go away for business, where do you really go?”

  “October is my month for duty. We have a sanctuary that must stay protected at all times. All Guardians have their appointed month of the year to report for duty. We can’t leave for any reason. That’s why I couldn’t come home when Paige was missing.”

  All that time I had pictured Dad sitting in the stuffy conference room of some hotel listening to presentations while he was off somewhere being a freaking Angel. I didn’t know how many more revelations I could take.

  “Your book club meetings?”

  Dad ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “It’s a support group for parents of Givers and a few Takers. We meet to discuss how our kids are doing and how to make life as normal as we can for you.”

  Every Thursday night they were meeting to talk about me. I wondered who else was in the group.

  “Arden, they will probably come for you again. They will teach you things, things that I can’t. How to find your own kind. How to survive. Things about their world that I don’t know. That means our lives are going to change around here.”

  That scared me. “Change how?” My family was already looking at me differently and walking on eggshells.

  “Things will just be different.”

  I shook my head. “No. You mean now I’ll be the enemy.”

  Dad took his hand in mine and squeezed it. “No, Arden. You will never be the enemy. No matter what happens, but . . .”

  “But what?”

  “The closer you get to adulthood, the more you’ll transform. Most kids your age have done it already, but I think not being with your birth parents and other Takers stunted your growth. You’ll be eighteen in a year.”

  Pieces of the frightening picture came crashing together. I remembered Mom crying on the cou
ch the morning of my birthday. “That’s why Mom is always depressed on my birthdays. Because I’m getting closer and closer to changing.”

  Dad smiled grimly. “I know it seems like your mother is hard on you sometimes, but it’s only because she wants this life for you. For you to stay with us and live like a Human.”

  I felt guilty for being angry with Mom. All this time I’d thought she didn’t like me for not being good enough, but all she wanted was for me to not become a monster.

  That night I lay in my bed with the covers pulled tight underneath my chin. I thought about how the father I’d known my entire life was actually an Angel, a living, breathing Angel. I couldn’t believe my parents had kept this secret from me all this time. A part of me felt like I couldn’t trust them anymore. All my life I’d believed what they told me simply because they were my parents, but after so many lies, so many secrets, I could no longer trust everything that came out of their mouths.

  I pressed my eyes closed, trying to find sleep, when the balcony doors creaked open. I didn’t even bother looking. “Hollis?”

  “Yes.” He approached my bed, stepping out of the shadows. “What are you doing here?”

  “What do you mean? I live here.”

  He towered over me, and I finally looked up at him. In the darkness, I could only make out his massive form. “You can’t just leave the lair like that. It’s dangerous.”

  “But I didn’t leave . . .”

  Hollis clearly had no interest in what I was going to say because he jammed a needle into my neck.

  I woke up groggy and foggy headed. Cadence brought me a cup of hot tea that tasted like peppermint.

  She perched herself on the edge of the bed and stared at me as I sipped the warm beverage. I was grateful for it even though the room was warmer than it had been the first time.

  “Why’d you leave?”

  I almost choked from swallowing too quickly. “I didn’t leave. Some man threw me out. He said I didn’t belong here.”

  Cadence rolled her eyes. “Right. Hollis got in a lot of trouble because of you.”

  “Because of me? In trouble by who?”

  “His father. Mr. Mason runs the lair.”

  I placed my empty teacup on the table beside the bed. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would he punish Hollis for that when it had nothing to do with him?”

  “You’re right. That doesn’t make sense. But Mr. Mason blames Hollis for everything that goes wrong around here. Anyway, stay put this time. There’s nowhere to run or hide. Wherever you go, we’ll find you. Or have you already forgotten about the chip I inserted in you?”

  There was no use in arguing with Cadence. She was determined to believe I had run away. I didn’t feel I had anything to prove to her anyway. “So what now?” I asked. “You guys are supposed to be teaching me stuff.”

  “Yes. Hollis will come in a few. Until then, sit tight.” She pointed to the golden book on the table by my teacup. “I’m sure you have some reading to catch up on.”

  Cadence left, taking the teacup with her. I grabbed the book and turned to a random page to read. I was is the middle of the page about Grindylows when Hollis came in. He was stone faced and quiet.

  “Hollis, I—”

  “Come over here,” he ordered. He sat in front of a television monitor. Reluctantly, I took a seat beside him.

  “Look, I didn’t run away. A man in a black cloak threw me out. I’m not sure why your dad’s punishing you, but I can try to talk to him . . .”

  “It’s okay. Punishment builds character. No big.”

  I wondered what kind of punishment he had gotten. “Hollis, all this stuff is interesting, but what if I’m not really one of you? What if I’m a normal Human and someone made a mistake?”

  His dark eyes narrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  “You guys do amazing things. I don’t. I’m just weird. That doesn’t mean I’m one of you. I don’t even look different. I’m Human.”

  Hollis bit his lower lip. “Who told you that?”

  “The man in the cloak.”

  Anger rose in Hollis’s voice. “One man told you that you weren’t one of us and you believed him just like that? Never mind the color you saw around your teacher and how she just happened to turn up missing. Never mind the way you act at night. You just believed what he told you. When are you going to stop letting people tell you what you are?”

  “Why are you getting so mad? What’s the big deal? Why can’t I just keep living my life the way I’ve been living it? Why do you guys care whether I’m here or not?”

  Hollis groaned. “Your father didn’t teach you anything. Arden, you will die, okay? If you don’t learn about your heritage and how to protect yourself, you will die.”

  Dread formed a stone in my stomach. Who wanted to hear something like that? “What do you mean, I’ll die?”

  His shoulders slumped slightly. “I’m sorry to say it like that, but you have to know. I’ll try to make a long story short.”

  I sat back in my seat, still reeling from his words. “Okay. I’m listening.”

  “Creatures only occupy these five states—Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho. Anyway, Takers dwell underground. There are five large tunnels that connect all five states.” He tapped some keys on the keyboard and pointed to the monitor. The scene switched from the dark, empty halls of my school to a hallway in the lair. Something with two horns and a horse face strolled down the corridor with something that looked almost identical to Wes, just a bit smaller.

  “So what is this place? Some kind of school for Takers?”

  Hollis cocked his head to the side. “More like an orphanage, only no one’s waiting to be adopted.”

  “Meaning?”

  “A few years back, there was a massacre and many adults were slaughtered. Dad created this place to take their children in.”

  “Oh.” A sadness weighed my shoulders down. “That’s awful.”

  Hollis nodded. “My mother was killed too.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He shrugged. “It’s all right. I mean, it’s not all right, but at least I have my father. The kids here don’t have anyone.”

  I felt slightly guilty for having two parents who loved me even though we weren’t blood related.

  “There is the sixth tunnel,” Hollis explained, “but that’s closed off. I’ll show it to you, but you have to be prepared.”

  I swallowed hard. “Why? What’s in the sixth tunnel?”

  “The scarier things.”

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see. “Scarier than what I’ve already seen?”

  Hollis’s face fell, and I regretted my words. “I didn’t mean . . .”

  “It’s okay. Yeah, scarier than us. The sixth tunnel is where the beasts live. They’re wild and uncivilized, so we have to seal them off. They’d kill us if they had the chance.”

  “Then why keep them? If they’re so dangerous, just kill them.”

  Hollis gaped at me open mouthed. “Destroy them? For what? Just for being what they are? They might be dangerous, horrible, repulsive beasties, but they’re family. We take care of family.”

  I would never call any of them my family. “What exactly is down there?”

  “Ghouls, Hellhounds, Chupacabras, Trolls, Ogres, some other things.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was playing with me or not. I’d read about several of those creatures, but actually seeing them and knowing for sure that they existed was a whole different story. Up until then, I’d wanted to believe the more dangerous things were fictional. “Really? Are there werewolves and vampires down there too?”

  Hollis smirked. “There’s no such thing as vampires, dummy. And werewolves are extinct. By the way, we keep the Wendigos down there too.”

  My body tensed. Was he telling me they were going to throw me down into some tunnel with the worst monsters imaginable?

  Hollis must have read the look on my face because he quickly a
dded, “Don’t worry. You’re not full Wendigo, so they won’t throw you down there, but if you become a danger to those around you, they will. The Banshee half of you could help you maintain control, but that’s completely up to you.” He focused on the monitor again. “Ready?” I wasn’t, but I nodded, and he pressed a button. The screen changed to a scene from a horror movie, the most gruesome one ever created. The ghastliest things I had ever seen clawed over each other while running amuck.

  Dark forms ran back and forth. It took me a moment to realize they were huge dogs with razor-like teeth. Skinny beings with snow-white skin moved along as if in a trance. Hollis touched one on the screen. “Those are Ghouls.”

  Tall, skinny wolf-like creatures tore through the tunnel chasing each other. “Those are Wendigos.”

  I was one of those. I couldn’t be. What would happen if I fully transformed and they threw me down there with them? That would be my life.

  “We feed them regularly, but that’s about all we can do. The giants guard the only opening to that tunnel. There would be no way to control the beasts if they ever got out. They would destroy everything in their path.”

  I didn’t want to look at the screen any longer. The thought that half of me was a beast and that I could very well end up down there was too much for me to handle.

  “I know this was a lot. You should go to bed,” Hollis said. “Tomorrow I have to teach you about something very important. The most important thing you’ll ever need to know.”

  Morning came too quickly, and I awoke to a plate filled with some kind of potato cakes. They weren’t the best-tasting things I had ever had, but I was famished. I longed for olives and beef jerky. Maybe a slice of Mom’s pot roast.

  Hollis came in about an hour after breakfast.

  “What’s the most important thing I need to know?” I asked as soon as he stepped into the room. I couldn’t take any more of the suspense. What I didn’t know was going to hurt me.

  Hollis leaned against the door, watching me. “You made a mess last night. I watched on the camera.”