PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  I intend to get back in the Jeep and follow him home, but Robin catches me when I turn around.

  “Where’s Mason going?” she asks.

  All I can do is shrug. “I don’t know. He’s in a weird mood.”

  I start to brush past Robin, but a thought occurs to me. I’m still not convinced Robin isn’t bad news, but I’m leaning toward her not being a direct threat to Mason’s safety. She’s got such a big mouth and no social filter to stop her from saying whatever’s on her mind, so I doubt she could really carry out a complicated, underhanded mission without giving herself away. I’m hoping, though, that her big mouth can be put to use in a more helpful way.

  “Hey, do you want to come over and hang out?” I ask Robin.

  Surprised by my offer, it doesn’t stop her from accepting. “Sure! I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family.”

  Her enthusiasm gives me a moment’s hesitation, but I figure Mom and Dad will both be at work for a while still, so it shouldn’t be a problem. “Hop in,” I say with a smile I’m not sure is completely honest.

  The ride to my house is short and filled with Robin talking nonstop about her day. I’m glad when we finally pull into the driveway and I have an excuse to jump out. Robin goes right back to her story about the guy who sits behind her in French when she comes around the Jeep and I have to stop myself from groaning.

  “Hey,” Robin says, grabbing my arm as I reach for the front door, “what’s with the creepy car over there?”

  My eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. “What creepy . . . ?”

  My words trail off as I turn toward the street and spot a black sedan. The guy sitting in the front seat looks to be intently checking email on his phone, or maybe playing Angry Birds. He’s got a t-shirt and sunglasses on, which seems normal enough. But I think that’s what he was trying for.

  I live on a street where it’s fairly rare to see a For Sale sign. Most of my neighbors have been here my whole life. The newest family moved in five years ago. This guy, I’ve never seen him before. His car doesn’t look familiar, either. Even more suspicious is the fact that the house he’s parked in front of belongs to a widow whose only family is her middle-aged daughter.

  “Uh, let’s go inside.” I grab Robin’s arm and shove her into the house.

  Both of our backpacks get ditched next to the door and we move in concert over to the window where we push back the curtains just enough to peek through. Mr. Casual’s phone has disappeared. His eyes are now focused on the house, watching, clearly waiting for something to happen. Or someone to show up. Immediately, I think of Mason, but that doesn’t make sense, does it?

  “Can Sentinels see Aerlings?” I blurt out before thinking.

  “What?” Robin asks. “No, of course not. Only Caretakers can see Aerlings.”

  I notice that she doesn’t brush off my concern about who might be in the sedan. In fact, her lip is tucked firmly between her teeth to keep it from trembling and her hands are clenched into fists. She’s thinking the same thing I am.

  “Is it one of them?” I ask quietly.

  “I . . . I don’t know. It’s not like they look any different than normal people.”

  My eyes narrow at her. “Normal people don’t sit around in parked cars watching people’s houses.”

  Before Robin can respond, Evie plops onto the couch next to us. “What’re we looking at?”

  “The creeper watching our house,” I say without looking away from the window.

  Evie crowds in next to me. “What?”

  I don’t relish the idea of taking my eyes off this weirdo, but Evie shoves me out of the way. With her eyes peeking just over the window sill, she glares at the guy in the car. “What’s he waiting for? He’s giving me the creeps.”

  My thoughts exactly.

  “Maybe his car broke down,” Robin says weakly. She cringes when Evie and I both pierce her with a fierce glare.

  “Is this guy looking for Mason?” Evie demands. “One of those Sentinel nutjobs you told Olivia about? Did you bring them here?”

  Robin’s eyes fly wide in a panic. “What? No! Of course not! Why would you even think that?”

  “We never had fishy looking guys staring at our house before you showed up,” Evie counters with her usual sassy flare. “We really don’t know that much about you. How are we supposed to know what you’re really after?”

  “After?” Robin asks. “Who says I’m after anything?”

  As Evie stands, hands on hips, Robin hops up and stumbles back. Evie matches her step for step. Usually, my little sister’s knack for speaking her mind and getting in people’s faces makes me want to disown her, but I’m perfectly happy to let her back Robin into a corner.

  “Is that guy a Sentinel?” Evie demands.

  “I don’t know!” Robin counters, finding her footing and stopping her retreat.

  I step forward, eyeing Robin. “Take your best guess.”

  “Probably,” she mutters. “He looks the type.”

  “Why would he be here? How did he find Mason?” Evie demands.

  Robin shakes her head. “He may not be here for Mason. Did either of you think he might be watching me? The Sentinels know my family. They tend to pop up every once in a while to make sure we’re not up to something.”

  “So it is your fault he’s here,” Evie says with narrowed eyes.

  The beginnings of panic start showing in Robin’s eyes and I decide to step in and give her a break. After all, she might be right about why the Sentinels are here. If it even is a Sentinel. It’s not too farfetched to think we may not have noticed it following us and parking before we got to the front door.

  “Robin may be right,” I say, mainly to Evie so she’ll back down, “but even if she is, Sentinels poking around still puts Mason in danger.”

  “Where is Mason?” Evie asks.

  For the first time, I wonder the same thing. With him walking and me driving, it wouldn’t be surprising for us to get home first, but I never saw Mason walking on the way. Earlier, I assumed he had wanted to go hole himself up in his room and ran home like he usually did when he was upset. Clearly, that didn’t happen.

  “He isn’t here?”

  Evie shakes her head. “He usually rides home with you. You didn’t see him after school?”

  “Well, yeah, but he said he was walking home. He was in a bad mood.”

  Robin takes a hesitant step forward. “You didn’t see him come home?” she asks Evie.

  “See him?” Evie asks. She gives Robin one of those “you’re so stupid” looks that Robin is always giving me. “No. I didn’t hear the door either. He isn’t here.”

  Anxiety blossoms on Robin’s pale face. My thoughts are heading down the same path. Where could Mason be? Surely the Sentinels don’t have a clue about him. Robin has to be right that they’re only here for her, checking up. They wouldn’t be sitting around watching the house if they already had him, right?

  “Where’s Mason?” Evie demands.

  “Is there somewhere he might have gone?” Robin asks.

  The concern in her expression seems genuine, but part of me still fears that she isn’t the innocent girl she appears to be. Regardless, I try to focus on her question. Where else would Mason have gone? We live in the middle of a big subdivision. Escaping would mean driving somewhere a good distance away. Mason has no way of getting that far on his own.

  “Robin, please,” I beg, “you have to be honest. Could the Sentinels possibly know about Mason?”

  Dropping back down to the couch, Robin presses her hands to her face. “Of course it’s possible, but you guys have been cut off for so long, who would want to betray Mason?”

  Robin’s words actually calm me down a tiny bit. What did the other Caretakers think had happened to Mason? Did they think he was dead with the rest of his foster family? Did anyone even know he still existed? There was no way to know for sure, but surely it was a slim chance anyone would know enough to tell anyone anything abou
t Mason.

  Evie opens her mouth to say something, and judging by the scowl on her face it won’t be pretty. I slip my hand over her arm and pull her out of Robin’s face. After reigning Evie in, I turn back to Robin.

  “Look, whether this guy is here for you or Mason, he’s bad news. We need to find Mason and tell him what’s going on.”

  “Tell me what?” Mason demands as he walks into the room.

  Immediately, I spin around and sigh in relief to see him whole and unharmed. I can’t seem to say or do anything for a moment. The huge dose of fear I had been holding at bay slithers off of me and I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around him and not let go. Robin seems to be having a similar reaction, which kind of irritates me. Evie seems to be the only one still at a loss.

  “What’s going on?” she asks worriedly.

  Robin glances over at Evie with another one of those looks. She seems dumbfounded that Evie would ask such a stupid question when Mason was standing right in front of her. Her expression and her earlier question about whether or not Evie had “seen” Mason makes my mind whirl.

  I stand back as Mason touches Evie’s shoulder and tells her that he’s home and everything is okay. Knowing where he is now, Evie throws herself around him in a hug. I don’t miss how Robin’s curious eyes follow the both of them. Something isn’t right here. She can sense that. Realization that Robin wasn’t the only one in her family that could see her Aerling hits me square in the face.

  Of course her parents had to be able to see Eliana! Robin was a baby when Eliana arrived. She couldn’t have taken care of an infant when she was one herself. Mason’s Caretakers could see him as well. All of them.

  If Robin realizes that I’m the only one who can see Mason, the jig will be up. I don’t know what that will mean. Will she tell someone? Will they try to take Mason away from me and give him to a real Caretaker family? I can’t let that happen. I refuse to let that happen.

  Chapter 8

  In This Together

  (Mason)

  A little unsure of why Evie is hugging me like she didn’t talk to me in the halls just an hour ago, I look over her head at Robin and Olivia. My curious expression does nothing to inspire an answer.

  “What is going on?”

  Robin’s head dips for some reason. Olivia folds her arm across her chest. Their reactions tell me I’m not going to like whatever they’re about to tell me.

  “There’s some guy out front watching the house,” Olivia says calmly.

  The tremble in her hands makes a liar out of her, though. She’s clearly pretty worried. Given the way she’s been freaking out about every little thing lately, that shouldn’t surprise me, but this feels different. She’s scared and doesn’t want to show it. That makes me worried.

  “What do you mean ‘watching the house?’”

  Robin’s voice makes a reappearance as she tells me about seeing the car when they got home and how he’s still sitting there watching the house. At some point during the explanation, Evie stops trying to strangle me, but keeps a hand on my arm to make sure she can hear anything I say. She stumbles when I dart away from her and head for the window. She stays close, though, and discretely touches my arm so she can hear me.

  I don’t worry about anyone seeing me standing in front of the window where the curtains are pulled apart. My eyes zero in on the man sitting in his car with his eyes glued to the front of the house. Medium brown hair, average build, youngish but not too young, he’s completely nondescript. The perfect guy to act as a one-man surveillance team.

  Spinning around, I spear Robin with a glare. “This guy is a Sentinel?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” she says. “He might be here to watch me, though. Sometimes they check up on known Caretakers to see if they contact anyone else.”

  “Isn’t that what you’re doing,” Evie snaps.

  Robin’s eyes water. “I . . . It’s not . . . You were never part of our group. There’s no reason to think I would even know any Caretakers in this area. They can’t suspect . . . ”

  The usual life and vibrancy that follows Robin around breaks down. Her whole body deflates. Afraid she’ll collapse, I grab her arm and pull her against me. Her weight leans on me heavily as she turns her face into my chest. Caught off guard, I look to Olivia for help. The prickly nature of her stance doesn’t offer much and I figure it’s better to handle this myself.

  Walking Robin over to the couch, I gently sit her down with me. “Robin,” I say quietly, “what is going on?”

  “I’m so sorry,” she wails. “I should have known better. That’s why we move around so often, to protect the other Caretakers. I never should have talked to you guys at school. What was I thinking?”

  Olivia and Evie look like they have a million questions buzzing around in their heads. I can tell that they’re both itching to lay into Robin after that admission. Neither one of them has been terribly keen on her from the start, though. Waving them off before they attack and run Robin off, I gently push Robin to look at me.

  “Robin, I’m not following what you’re saying. Why weren’t you supposed to talk to us at school?”

  “Because my family is marked!”

  We all stare at her, not sure what she means. Our confused expressions make her eyes widen and I get the impression that if Olivia’s family were real Caretakers, they would know exactly what she is talking about.

  “Eliana died,” Robin says, as if that should clue us in.

  Trying to preserve our lie, I take a guess at what she’s telling us. “So, after Eliana died, it meant the Sentinels knew you and your family were Caretakers, right? And you aren’t supposed to talk to other Caretakers in case the Sentinels are keeping an eye on you?”

  Robin nods. “I just got so excited to see another Aerling that I couldn’t resist.”

  My eyes glance up to Olivia, and I am surprised to see the glint of anger in her expression. I grimace at the sight. I know Robin didn’t mean any harm, but Olivia is clearly seeing the implications. Robin may have just outed me to the Sentinels.

  “You guys weren’t supposed to be here,” Robin says in her defense.

  “What do you mean?” Olivia asks.

  Shaking her head in confusion, Robin looks at Olivia. “We move every few years to keep the Sentinels from bothering us too much. We go where there are no other Caretakers, so even if the Sentinels follow us, there’s no chance of us leading them to anyone. There weren’t supposed to be any active Caretakers in the area. I don’t know how they got it wrong.”

  I do. As far as whoever does the Caretaker organizing and assigning knows, my family, and me, died twelve years ago. There’s no way Robin’s family could have known I was still alive and living with Olivia’s family. When I glance back at Olivia to confirm that she has come to the same conclusion, I’m glad to see that her hostile stance has softened a bit.

  “Olivia’s mom and dad may not have reported where they were,” I say in an effort to comfort Robin.

  “But still, I should have known to walk away so I didn’t put you at risk.” Robin sniffs, her face splotchy and red from crying. “It’s just that it’s been so lonely on our own. I was so excited to meet you both. I didn’t think.”

  As tears start welling in her eyes again, I slip my arm around her shoulders. It’s a strange sensation to have Robin turn into my shoulder as she cries. I’ve never had to comfort a crying girl before. Olivia almost never cries, and she’s usually so together that I rarely have to comfort her. It feels oddly natural to hold Robin, not romantic, but nice.

  When Robin stops crying, I ask, “What’s going to happen if the Sentinels figure out I’m here?”

  “You know what will happen,” Robin whispers. “They’ll take you. They’ll . . . kill you.”

  Evie and Olivia both tense at her words and start forward as if attacking Robin is going to change anything. I wave them off, glaring at them until they back off.

  “When the Sentinels came after Eliana,” I
begin slowly, “did they try to hurt your family?”

  Confused by the question, Robin sits up and cocks her head to one side. “No. Why would they? It’s just the Aerlings they’re after.”

  “Did your family try to stop them?”

  I know mine did. Maybe that wasn’t how it usually happens, though.

  “We never got the chance,” Robin admits. “They came for Eliana at night. Everyone was asleep. We only woke up when she screamed, but by then it was too late.”

  “What if . . . ” I scrub my hand through my hair in frustration. I’m not sure how much I can say without rousing Robin’s suspicions. “What would the Sentinels do if they couldn’t find the Aerling they were looking for? Would they hurt the Caretakers?”

  Robin shakes her head as if my question makes no sense. “I’ve never heard of that happening before. They would just wait and try to find the Aerling later.”

  I don’t understand. What made my family so different? If I was the only thing the Sentinels wanted, why kill my entire family? Something isn’t fitting, but I have no idea what it is. Fear and confusion fill my mind. What if it happens again? Is there something about me that makes things different? I can feel my body rising toward panic, but I can’t stop it.

  The feel of Olivia’s fingers slipping onto my shoulder and squeezing it lightly feel more like a warm embrace. Everything I am feeling takes a back seat to her touch. I want to reach up and take her hand, press it to my lips and pull her to me. Her voice breaking the silence scatters such thoughts.

  “How do the Sentinels find Aerlings?”

  Robin shrugs. “Short of someone betraying a family, they stalk families like mine, haunt places Aerlings have been known to be housed, watch for suspicious occurrences.”