by JL Bryan
Heather left the drainage crew to take their equipment apart and go home. She tossed her hazmat suit into the trunk of the federal police car driven by Officer Boele, her assigned security detail. Though Heather had a rental car at the hotel, Schwartzman ordered her to ride everywhere with Boele, a taciturn young man in a blue uniform.
“We’re going to Jenny Morton’s house,” she said. She gave him the address, and he plugged it into his dashboard computer.
Jenny and Seth found their panic subsiding as the sun rose. They took turns peeking out the window to see if the frightening young man had returned.
“This is crazy,” Jenny finally said. “We’re acting like kids who saw our first scary movie.”
Seth nodded. “Why are we so afraid of him, anyway? You hit him pretty hard with Jenny pox. Why would he come back knowing you could kill him?”
“Yeah.” Jenny looked down at her hand and wiggled her fingers. Her lethal touch. It had almost made her life not worth living, until she met Seth.
Jenny went to him and slid her arms around his waist. She laid her head against his chest and listened to his heart.
“He looked like her, didn’t he?” Seth asked after a minute.
“The eyes,” Jenny said. “He had her eyes.”
“You think he’s a relative or something?” Seth asked. “He seemed pretty hell-bent on revenge.”
“No,” Jenny said. “That’s not what I think.”
“You have some ideas, feel free to share.”
“Look at my eyes, Seth.”
Seth pulled back from her so he could look down into her face. He smiled and cupped the back of her head, and his touch sent warm ripples through her, chasing away the black cobwebs of fear. “Beautiful,” he said.
“No, I’m not,” Jenny said. “And I wasn’t fishing for compliments, either. Come here.”
Jenny took his hand and led him to the bathroom. They stood next to each other, surrounded by fading floral wallpaper.
“What am I looking for?” he asked.
Jenny stood on her tiptoes and laid her cheek against his. Two pairs of deep blue eyes stared back at them.
“They’re the same color, aren’t they?” Seth said.
“Because we’re a pair,” Jenny said. “Opposites. That’s what keeps drawing us together, through all these lifetimes.”
“We’ve been enemies, too,” Seth said, and she gave him a puzzled look. “I’m just saying. I saw that in my memories. We killed each other, a bunch of times.”
“Long ago,” Jenny said. “The last few times, we’ve really worked on becoming human. Learning to love.” She looked at him.
“Becoming human.” Seth shook his head. “That’s a weird way to put it.”
“It’s true.”
Seth turned away and left the bathroom, as if he didn’t want to look at himself anymore. She followed him into the kitchen, where he was pouring a Dr. Pepper. “Your dad have anything stronger I can put in this?” he asked. “Whiskey?”
“No, he threw it all out.”
“I need something.” Seth sat at the table and looked out through the window into the deep woods that shadowed Jenny’s house.
Jenny leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “You get what I’m saying, though?”
“Yes,” Seth said. “We’re evil. We’re not normal human souls. We don’t belong here.”
“I mean about us being opposites. Ashleigh must have one somewhere, too. Someone whose touch doesn’t spread love, but the opposite.”
“What’s that?” Seth asked. “Hate?”
“Or what we felt last night,” Jenny said. “Fear.”
“His touch spreads fear.” Seth drummed his fingers on the table and shifted around, looking agitated. “Jesus. Think of what he could do with that.”
“I bet he can control people,” Jenny said. “Like Ashleigh. Just in a different way. They fear him instead of love him, but still.”
“I wonder where he came from,” Seth said. “Why’s he here now? Because Ashleigh’s dead?”
“You’ve never seen him before?” Jenny asked.
“Why ask me?”
“She was your girlfriend for three years? You were up her ass all the time? She made you her slave—”
“Okay, I get your point! No, I’ve never seen him, or heard Ashleigh talk about anyone like that. But she never admitted having a power in the first place. He wasn’t a part of her life, unless she kept it totally secret.”
“Which she was good at,” Jenny said.
“You really think he’s like us?” Seth asked.
“He did something to us,” Jenny said. “Don’t you wish there was some kind of expert on this stuff we could ask? It’s hard figuring it all out by ourselves.”
“There’s not even a name for what we are,” Seth said. “If we were, I don’t know, vampires or werewolves or something, maybe we’d have some clues.”
“Vampires.” Jenny laughed a little, without any pleasure. “I’m worse than that.”
“If that guy comes back, I’ll deal with him,” Seth said.
“I’m pretty sure that’ll be my job.” Jenny looked out the window again. “And if there’s another one of us to deal with—another one like Ashleigh—then this isn’t a good time for me to turn myself in.”
“I totally agree.” Seth grabbed her hand. “But we really should move over to my house. You’ll be safer. There’s a thousand places you can hide.”
“A thousand scary places,” Jenny said.
“They’re not all scary.” Seth stood up and embraced her from behind as she looked out at the woods. He pulled her close to him, and he kissed her neck. “You like the navigator room. The bed hung with old sails…”
She closed her eyes as he turned her and kissed her mouth. His hand slid under the hem of her shirt, to cup her left breast. She tried to catch her breath. He was putting her off guard…but they needed to…
“We need to go!” Jenny pulled away from him. “If I’m hiding and playing dead, we can’t stay here.”
“But I was thinking—”
“I know what you were thinking.” She kissed him, then went to her room and stuffed clothes and a few other things into her school backpack. “Go make sure Rocky has food. You’ll have to come check on him every day until this is over.”
When the dog was fed and Jenny was all packed up, she made a last circuit of the house, checking that the windows and back door were locked tight. They’d done a very careful job of securing the house last night, though, when they’d been scared out of their brains.
They stepped out onto the porch. As Jenny locked the front door, a black-and-white police car pulled into the driveway.
“Shit,” Jenny whispered. “Too late.”
The car parked, blocking them in. It was one of the federal cop cars, Homeland Security.
“What do we do?” Jenny whispered.
“Just smile and nod until they leave,” Seth whispered back.
A guy in a blue uniform stepped out of the driver’s side. The woman who emerged from the passenger side had a short, professional haircut and wore a dark suit. She carried a black doctor’s bag. Some kind of ID badge was clipped to her lapel.
“Hi,” the woman said. “Are you Jenny?”
“Um,” Jenny said.
The woman walked all the way to the porch. Jenny felt pinned. She looked at Seth, but he wouldn’t know what to do, either.
“I’m Dr. Reynard,” the woman said. “Centers for Disease Control. I’m looking for Jenny Morton. It’s urgent.”
Jenny thought those were among the scariest words she’d ever heard. I’m from the Centers for Disease Control and I’m looking for Jenny Morton.
“You must be her,” the lady continued. “You look just like the picture.”
“Okay,” Jenny said. “What’s going on?”
“Did you get a flyer like this?” Dr. Reynard held up the flyer ordering medical screening for everyone.
“Mayb
e,” Jenny said. “I don’t know.”
“Things have been crazy,” Seth said. “Nobody knows what’s going on.”
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Reynard said. “We can’t leave town and let things get back to normal until we’ve screened everyone. That’s not my choice. I just have to do my job.”
“Where do we need to go?” Seth asked. “When?”
“Actually…” Dr. Reynard thumped the black medical bag in her hand. “We can do it right here. It’s very simple.”
Jenny stared at the bag. She was scared to think what they might discover about her. And kind of curious, too. She hadn’t been examined by a doctor since she was born, and that had led to tragedy.
“Wait,” Seth said. “You can’t just show up at Jenny’s house and force her to do this.”
“Yes, we can.” The Homeland Security officer reached for his belt, either for a Taser or a gun.
“I can handle this,” Dr. Reynard told him.
“We have lawyers,” Seth said. “We’ll fight you.”
The Homeland Security officer looked at Jenny’s crumbling old house and smirked.
“This is considered a state of national emergency,” the Homeland Security officer said. “You will follow orders.”
“Look, I’ll do it,” Jenny said. “Don’t worry about it, Seth. It’s fine with me.”
Jenny and Seth went inside, and the Homeland Security officer followed. He let the screen door bang shut behind him, so the doctor had to switch her medical bag to the other hand and open it herself. “Thanks,” she muttered.
The uniformed officer stood just inside the door, hands at his belt, spine straight.
“What do we need to do?” Jenny asked the two strangers in her living room.
“We’re actually in a pinch,” Dr. Reynard said. “I’m supposed to be getting some mobile lab units in tomorrow, so we can test people at their homes. But we don’t have them yet.”
“So why not wait until tomorrow?” Seth asked.
“Seth,” Jenny said.
“Because we want to get out of this town as much you want us gone,” Dr. Reynard said. “Is there a table where we can sit?”
Jenny led her into the kitchen. “I’m sorry it’s messy,” Jenny said. “We weren’t expecting doctors.”
Dr. Reynard laid the medical bag on the table and sat down across from Jenny. Jenny let out a small sigh of relief when the doctor strapped on a pair of rubber gloves. No skin on skin contact.
“Let’s start with a quick blood pressure check.” Dr. Reynard strapped a cuff over Jenny’s arm.
Jenny kept herself frozen in place. She didn’t want to accidentally bump against the doctor when she was leaning so close.
“Just relax your arm,” Dr. Reynard said. She squeezed a bulb to pump up the cuff with air. “Have you had any unusual medical conditions recently, Jenny?”
“Like what?” Jenny asked. The question made her very nervous.
“Oh, anything,” Dr. Reynard said. “Like sores, blisters…any strange growths or rashes…anything like that?”
“No.” Jenny’s voice was too small to hear, so she made herself say it again. “No.”
“Blood pressure looks fine.” Dr. Reynard clicked a button, and all the air hissed out of the inflatable cuff.
Jenny stiffened again when the doctor pulled out a penlight to inspect Jenny’s eyes, ears, and throat. Though the lady wore gloves, it still made Jenny nervous to have her fingers so close.
“Any special medical conditions?” Dr. Reynard asked.
“No,” Jenny said.
“You aren’t taking any prescription medicine? Or pregnant?”
“No.”
Jenny kept her hands folded in her lap. She wore light blue cotton gloves today. She never left the house with her hands bare.
“This is weird,” Seth said. “You’re just going to do this in somebody’s kitchen? That doesn’t seem very, what do they call it, sanitary.”
“You got a problem?” the Homeland Security officer said.
“I’ve worked in worse conditions,” Dr. Reynard said. “I’ve been in places where they’ve never seen running water.” The doctor removed a Q-tip from a case in her bag. “Now just a couple of quick samples, and we’ll be done. Can you open your mouth for me, Jenny?”
Jenny felt her heartbeat pick up as the doctor swabbed the inside of her cheek.
“This town hasn’t been easy, though,” Dr. Reynard said. “Seems like nobody wants to tell me why two hundred people got together at the town square on Sunday night.”
Jenny’s hands grasped each other tighter.
“I just need a quick hair sample.” The doctor clipped a few of Jenny’s hairs and dropped them into a test tube. “I tell you what, it’s like nobody wants us to figure anything out. Any idea why that is?” Dr. Reynard looked intently into Jenny’s eyes.
“It’s a strange town,” Seth said. Jenny nodded.
“Do you two know anything?”
Jenny and Seth stayed quiet.
“Hm. Well, I’m going to need a blood sample, and I’ll let you go.” Dr. Reynard looked at Jenny’s folded hands. “Isn’t it a little warm for gloves?”
“I just like them,” Jenny said. She hated how small and pathetic her voice sounded.
Jenny peeled off a glove and watched the doctor swab her fingertip with alcohol and prick it with a little sharp-tipped tube, which slowly filled with Jenny’s dark red blood. That’s it, Jenny thought as Dr. Reynard sealed the sample inside another test tube. All my secrets are yours.
“The only thing anybody will talk about is witchcraft,” Dr. Reynard said. “Why are people so interested in that around here?” She looked closely at Jenny.
“I don’t know,” Jenny said. “I don’t really go to church.”
“No thoughts?” Dr. Reynard asked. “Do you have any idea what happened on the town green?”
Jenny shook her head. “Are we done?”
Dr. Reynard changed out her disposable gloves for a fresh pair. She’d even brought a small container where she could stuff the used ones. She winked at Seth. “Your turn.”
While she’d taken a lot of time with Jenny, her testing and sampling of Seth was quick and efficient. She didn’t seem very interested in him at all, Jenny thought. Which meant she was very interested in Jenny. That worried her.
Dr. Reynard thanked them and packed up her bag.
“Do you have any questions?” the doctor asked, smiling at Jenny again.
“When do we get our results?” Jenny asked.
“Results?”
“From the tests,” Jenny said.
“Oh.” Dr. Reynard looked puzzled. “We aren’t really getting back to individuals unless we find something unusual. So, no news is good news. Is there something you’re concerned about?”
Jenny shook her head.
“Anything you want to ask me? Or tell me?”
Jenny looked down at her own shoelaces.
“If you change your mind, call me.” Dr. Reynard gave Jenny a business card. She offered one to Seth, too, but he turned it down, so Dr. Reynard laid it on the coffee table. “I’m in charge of the investigation.”
“Okay,” Jenny said.
Dr. Reynard turned toward the front door, and the Homeland Security officer pivoted to accompany her out.
“Oh, one more thing.” Dr. Reynard turned to face Jenny. “It’s a little bit of a strange thing. Several people told me they saw you drown in a pond on Sunday night. Over at the Goodling residence. Any idea why people are telling me that?”
Jenny didn’t know what to say.
“They must be confused,” Seth said, but Jenny didn’t think his comment helped anything.
“Were you at the Goodling house Sunday night?” Dr. Reynard asked. “Or at the town square?”
Jenny wasn’t sure what to say. The woman seemed trustworthy, but a lot of people seemed that way. And the Homeland Security guy didn’t seem like he would be very sympathetic.
> “No,” Jenny said. “We were home.”
Dr. Reynard studied her, then gave a quick nod.
“Okay,” Dr. Reynard said. “Thanks so much for your cooperation today. Jenny, get in touch any time.”
Jenny watched the doctor and the uniformed man leave her house. She closed and locked the front door as they pulled away.
“I am so screwed,” Jenny said, leaning against Seth.
“You said you wanted someone to study you.”
“But this could be really bad. I don’t know what to do. What should I even expect?”
Seth held her tight. He didn’t have any answers, but at least he was warm.
Chapter Fourteen
Tommy loved the open road, with the Harley roaring beneath him and infinite blue space before him. Oklahoma was very flat, which made for dull scenery, but it really let you open up the throttle.
Using the fear inside him, he’d mugged somebody in Evans, just outside of Augusta—a man in a suit who was able to withdraw six hundred dollars at the ATM. He’d bought a black motorcycle helmet to avoid getting pulled over. Considering he was an escaped prisoner riding a semi-stolen bike, it would be stupid to get busted on a minor helmet law. He could usually deal with a lone police officer just fine, but it was always risky, and he didn’t want the hassle.
He was in a hurry. Daylight was starting to break in the east. He’d been driving for eighteen hours, with only a brief stop for a nap in the Ozark National Forest.
The sores on his hands, arms and face were healing, but slowly. He didn’t know what that bitch had done to him, but he couldn’t focus on her until the immediate business was handled.
He sped through the dreary countryside, past collapsing farmhouses and rusty barbed wire, towards the miniscule town of Sulphur. There was a bright grin on his face. He was going to sort some things out today, and sort them good.
In his childhood memories, the Tanner house and the outbuildings made up a massive compound, almost like a town. When he pulled up the dusty gravel driveway, he almost thought he had the wrong place. The main house looked tiny and gray, many of its exterior boards crumbling to dust. The outbuildings seemed much smaller than he remembered, too.
