Fever

by Amy Meredith

  She cracked open the door and looked out into the hallway. ‘Empty,’ she whispered, then, moving silently, stepped out of the locker room. One of Luke’s sneakers squeaked on the smooth wooden floor as he followed her.

  He winced, but didn’t hear any movement from deeper in the school. Was this going to turn out to be another dead end? It seemed like the perfect place, but the building felt deserted, completely different from a regular day with lockers banging, kids racing to make it to class, and teachers yelling at kids not to run.

  When they entered Mr Dokey’s room it felt completely different too. Mr Dokey was one of those teachers who kept things lively in his class. The guy hardly ever stood still. When he lectured, he paced up and down the aisles between the desks, hands gesturing constantly as he spoke. Luke had never experienced Mr Dokey’s room when it was quiet.

  ‘The stuff he brought back from his trip to Egypt is over here.’ Luke’s voice sounded loud, even though he was speaking more softly than he usually did. He walked over to the bookshelf to the right of the chalkboard. ‘Not here,’ he said more softly. The closest thing was an engraved bronze pot that held kohl for blackening the eyelids and lashes. Not even close to the picture they’d seen of the ceramic bowl Amunnic used to catch his victims’ blood, the bowl the magician had later imprisoned the demon in.

  ‘You said he was showing you the stuff a little at a time, and that he was saving the best for last,’ Eve reminded him. ‘Let’s check the closet.’

  It was a good idea. But the bowl wasn’t there, only maps, textbooks, paper, just usual school stuff. ‘Mr Dokey wouldn’t have said I knew where it was if it was at his house. That doesn’t make sense. School makes sense.’ Luke thought for a moment. Where would Dokey keep the bowl if not in his classroom?

  ‘We should check the teachers’ lounge,’ Jess said. She still sounded a little breathless from the run, although Luke and Eve had managed to catch their breath.

  ‘Teachers’ lounge. Yeah,’ Luke agreed. They hurried out of Mr Dokey’s room and down the hall to the lounge – then hesitated. It was just an automatic thing. Kids didn’t go in there. It was strictly teachers only.

  Eve gave a nervous giggle. ‘I can’t believe I’m OK with hunting a demon, but feel weird about going in here.’ She grabbed the doorknob and swung open the door.

  ‘This is it?’ Luke asked, taking in the conference table and chairs, the coffee maker, the fridge and the leather couch. He shook his head, smiling a little at his reaction. ‘I don’t know what I was expecting.’

  ‘A pool table at least,’ Eve answered. ‘There are even rumours of a hot tub!’ She opened the bathroom door. ‘Nope. Not even a shower. Just your basic sink.’

  Jess sank down in the closest chair. ‘The bowl’s not here.’

  ‘We don’t know that for sure.’ Luke started opening the cupboards over the microwave and coffee maker – nothing but napkins, stained coffee mugs, and little packets of sugar and sweetener.

  ‘I guess we do now,’ Eve commented. ‘There aren’t many places in here it could be hiding. Do you think he would have left it in the principal’s office for safekeeping?’

  ‘Possible, I guess,’ Luke answered. ‘We might as well look since—’ His cell rang, the Ludacris ringtone sounding insanely out of place. A mix of hope and nauseating fear rolled through him when he saw the call was from his dad’s cell. ‘Hello?’ he said, anxious and eager.

  ‘Luke. Need you,’ his dad croaked.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Luke burst out.

  ‘I need you.’

  ‘I’m there,’ Luke promised. ‘Just hang on.’ He hung up and jammed his cell back in his pocket. ‘It’s my dad,’ he told Eve and Jess. ‘I don’t know. He sounded dreadful. I have to get over there. When my mom— I didn’t get to say goodbye. I have to get over there.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ Eve told him. ‘Go.’

  ‘But Amunnic,’ Luke said.

  ‘Go,’ Eve told him again. ‘Jess and I will keep looking for the bowl and Amunnic. Your dad’s more important.’

  ‘But—’ Luke hesitated. He knew finding the demon and killing him could save his father and everyone else in the plague ward. But his father wanted him. If he died before— ‘OK, I’m gone. Call me if you find something.’ He bolted without waiting for an answer.

  His dad had sounded horrible. Barely hanging on. Luke had to get to him before— He had to get to him while— Luke had to get to his father. Period.

  ‘I need to rest. Just for a sec.’ Jess leaned against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the floor outside the girls’ locker room. They’d searched it after they’d checked the principal’s office. No bowl – or any other sign of Amunnic – in either place.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Eve asked. She didn’t know why – it was so obvious Jess was anything but OK. ‘Do you want some water, maybe? Or do you want to go home and rest for a while? I can keep loo—’

  Jess shook her head. ‘I’m not going home without Peter.’

  ‘Me neither,’ Eve promised.

  Jess wrapped her hand around Eve’s ankle. ‘Eve! Look down there.’

  Eve followed Jess’s gaze and frowned. ‘I’m not sure what I’m looking for?’

  ‘On the ground. A little past the drinking fountain. I think that’s my mom’s purse!’ Jess cried. She used both hands to shove herself to her feet. She stumbled down the hall, Eve at her side.

  ‘I was right!’ Jess swooped down and snatched up the bag. ‘She – I mean, Amunnic – had this when he left with Peter!’

  That meant the demon was here. Somewhere in the school with them. It was go time. Time to end this.

  Jess’s eyes glittered with a feverish determination. ‘That demon is going to be very sorry he chose my brother to mess with. I know I’ve only had a few kung fu lessons, but I’m going to release every bit of hi-yah I have on Amunnic!’

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘Peter’s lucky to have you for a sister,’ Eve told Jess. ‘Let’s finish this. I bet Amunnic is holding everyone in the basement. He dropped the purse right in front of the door that goes down there.’ She tapped the DO NOT ENTER sign on the door. ‘I guess we’re going to get the chance to see every forbidden area in this place before we’re done.’

  ‘Let’s go get my brother.’ Jess opened the door, her hand shaking.

  ‘Me first,’ Eve whispered. She slid in front of Jess and started down the flight of plain cement stairs. Jess followed her. There was another door at the bottom. Eve swung it open, and tried to look everywhere at once.

  Her eyes almost immediately snagged on Peter, tied to a chair near the centre of the big, dimly lit, dusty room. Rose, Leo and Cathy were tied to chairs on one side of Peter; Dave and Elisha to chairs on the other. They all looked up, stunned.

  Where was the demon? Amunnic was nowhere in sight.

  ‘Oh God, Peter!’ Jess cried, and Eve looked back over at him. She knew what Amunnic did to his victims, how he fed, but it was still almost impossible to accept what she was seeing. The ceramic bowl rested under Peter’s right arm. A fast, narrow stream of blood flowed from a puncture wound just above his wrist into the bowl, blood for the demon to drink. The others each had a similar puncture wound in the same place.

  Jess stumbled across the room to Peter and began to untie him. Eve hurried to Rose’s side and started working on her bindings.

  ‘We all have to get out of here before that psycho comes back,’ Dave cried. ‘He’s coming back. He’ll want to drink that blood while it’s fresh.’

  ‘We will. We are,’ Eve told him.

  Rose didn’t say anything as Eve freed her hands and went to work on her feet. Rose’s eyelids were only partway open, and through the slits, all Eve could see was white. Her eyes had rolled back in her head.

  ‘You’re OK,’ Eve murmured. ‘We’re going to get you out of here.’ She didn’t get a response. She was afraid Rose had lost consciousness. How much blood had Amunnic taken from her? Her skin w
as cool under Eve’s fingers as she worked on the knots. ‘How long has she been this out of it?’ she asked.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Eve saw Cathy turn her head towards them. ‘Since I got here,’ she answered. ‘He drank more blood from her than anyone.’

  ‘Except Briony, and she’s dead,’ Leo added. While Cathy’s voice had been ragged with fear, Leo’s was flat. He’s gone through so much, he can’t feel anything any more, Eve realized.

  Rose began to slide off the chair as Eve undid the last knot. Eve reached out and guided her down to the ground, making sure her head didn’t hit the cement floor.

  ‘Eve, help me with Peter!’ Jess cried. ‘I can’t get him free. My hands keep slipping.’ She held them up to Eve, and Eve could see her fingers were slick with Peter’s blood.

  ‘Hey, Peter, hey, buddy,’ Eve said as she joined Jess by his side. ‘We’re going to get you out of here.’ She looked over at Jess. ‘We need to stop that bleeding.’

  ‘Where am I?’ Peter asked, as if seeing Eve and Jess for the first time.

  ‘You’re at school, sweetie,’ Jess said. Eve didn’t think she’d ever heard Jess call her little brother ‘sweetie’ before. ‘At the high school.’

  Peter looked around, brow furrowed. ‘This isn’t the high school,’ he said. ‘How’d I even get here?’

  He’s in shock, Eve decided. She managed to free his hands and started to work on his feet.

  ‘Later,’ Jess said. ‘I’ll explain everything later.’ She grabbed the ruffle cascading across the front of her halter top – one of the ten items of clothing she had on the list of what to save in the event of a fire – in both hands and gave it a vicious yank, then wrapped the strip of silk chiffon around Peter’s arm, pulling it tight across his wound.

  How were they going to explain what had happened? Eve wondered. Not important, she thought. Not now, at least.

  ‘This isn’t working!’ Jess burst out. Eve looked at the makeshift bandage. Blood had already soaked through it.

  Jess pulled off her woven belt, hands trembling. ‘Maybe it needs a tourniquet.’

  ‘What he needs is a paramedic,’ Eve answered. ‘I should have called the ambulance the second we got down here. We need help to get everybody out before the demon comes back.’

  ‘Demon?’ Cathy cried. Elisha began to whimper.

  ‘Demon sounds right to me,’ Leo said, his voice still stripped of all emotion.

  ‘We don’t have time to wait for help,’ Jess protested. ‘It could be back any second.’

  ‘I know. But there are too many of them,’ Eve answered. ‘And you’re … you’re not feeling well, Jess.’

  Jess opened her mouth to protest. ‘You know it’s true,’ Eve said before Jess could get out a word. ‘Any day that I can run faster than you – the way I did when we were cutting across the field – is a day you’re sick. But it’s OK. It’s all going to be over soon. You’ll be fine.’

  Eve whipped her cell out of her bag. ‘No bars,’ she announced. ‘I’ll go upstairs.’ Jess nodded as she wound her belt around Peter’s upper arm. As she took the stairs two and three at a time, Eve could hear her best friend talking in a soothing voice.

  She checked her cell again when she reached the hallway. Three beautiful bars. Just as she started to punch in 911, Luke’s father came round the corner. All the air left Eve’s lungs in a whoosh. Reverend Thompson was carrying Luke in his arms! Luke hung there, body limp, head lolling.

  ‘What happened?’ she shouted as the reverend walked towards her. ‘Is he OK? Don’t bring him this way. There’s a demon. It’ll be coming back here. You have to get Luke out and call for help! There are six people down there. They’ve all lost blood. One of them is—’

  Eve felt her heart drop into her stomach as the truth hit her. That wasn’t Reverend Thompson, not with his lip curling into a snarl. It was Amunnic! Many Faces. And it had Luke! That phone call from his father had been a fake, a trap.

  ‘You evil bastard!’ she screamed. Her fury got her power churning, hot and strong. She could almost see it glowing through her skin. But she couldn’t attack. She couldn’t risk it. Not with Luke in the demon’s arms.

  Seeing her hesitate, Amunnic laughed, a sound like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. That laugh coming out of a being with the Reverend Thompson’s face and body was sacrilege.

  Eve suddenly heard Master Justin’s voice in her head. Side kick! OK, she’d only had one lesson of kung fu, but if she could just get Amunnic to drop Luke … One, two – and three! She spun and kicked out, aiming for Amunnic’s knee.

  Satisfaction rocketed through her, almost as hot and bright as her power, when she heard the demon give a grunt of pain. Without hesitating, she landed another kick in the same spot.

  Amunnic gave a growl of fury, then turned and threw Luke through the open doorway leading to the basement. Eve’s bones tingled with sympathy pain as she heard his body tumbling down the cement stairs.

  ‘Luke!’ she heard Jess cry from the basement. ‘Oh God, Luke!’

  ‘That was one huge mistake!’ she yelled at Amunnic as the demon lunged for her, arms outstretched. ‘No one treats my friends that way.’ She thrust out her hands, aiming at Amunnic’s belly. Lightning bolts flew out of her fingers, one after the other – so fast and hot they smoked and sparked.

  But Amunnic crouched down like a line backer, ducking the bolts. He twisted his body, and rammed himself into Eve, shoulder first. She flew backwards, smashing against the wall behind her. Some of her bolts had hit him – she could smell the stench of burning hair, and a smoking bald spot had appeared on the side of Amunnic’s head. But most of the dozens and dozens of bolts had missed the mark. They’d sped over Amunnic’s head and crashed into the window at the far end of the hall, smashing it to sparkling bits of glass.

  The demon prepared to ram her again. If he hit her while her back was still pressed against the wall, that was it. Her spine would snap. At least Amunnic was clumsy in his human form, clumsy and not nearly as fast as Eve.

  She twisted her body to the side an instant before he rammed her, and he ended up hurling himself into the wall instead. The plaster cracked as his body hit.

  Eve sprang a few steps away, raised her hands, and fired. The demon dropped to his knees, a move that was awkward, but effective. One of his shirt sleeves began to smoulder, but most of her bolts had missed again.

  She let more zaps free as Amunnic shoved himself to his feet. He’s so strong, she thought as he kept advancing on her even as her power struck him in the same shoulder again, then the chest and the belly.

  Amunnic snatched one of her outstretched hands while she was still blasting and used it to jerk her to him. The bolts from her free hand went wild, hitting the lockers with a metallic sizzling and the scent of melting paint. He pinned both arms to her sides.

  In this position, she couldn’t use her power against him. She was facing the wrong way. OK, OK. Master Justin went over this, remember? she thought. He’d used the last twenty minutes of class to demonstrate a few self-defence moves.

  She raised her elbow up, twisted towards Amunnic, and brought it down on his arms. She wrapped her fist around her hand, then used the force of both arms to jerk her elbow up into the demon’s chin. And tiger claw, she thought, raking her nails across Amunnic’s face, straight across the eyes.

  It worked! She’d broken free! She owed Master Justin a muffin basket. Or some fancy nunchucks.

  The demon recovered quickly, so quickly she only had the chance to fire a few bolts. He lurched at her and gave her a one-armed shove that sent her back through the doorway leading to the stairs. She had a sickening moment when she knew she was going to fall, but couldn’t stop it.

  She pinwheeled her arms, trying to catch her balance. Too late. She was falling, her head and back bouncing on the hard steps as she hurtled down.

  The demon started down the stairs after her.

  ‘It’s Amunnic!’ Eve yelled, and before the de
mon could reach her, Jess launched herself at him with a screech of outrage.

  ‘Jess, no!’ Peter shouted. But Jess didn’t hesitate. She leaped over her friend towards Amunnic, sweeping out with one leg. Her leg smashed into one of the demon’s knees – the same knee Eve had managed to hit twice.

  Eve’s head was spinning too badly for her to stand up. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t zap. She tried to position her hands to let more of her bolts fly, but she couldn’t find a way where she’d be sure she wouldn’t accidentally hit Jess.

  ‘Get away from him!’ Peter yelled.

  ‘He’s stronger when he drinks, and it hasn’t been that long. He’s going to kill you!’ Dave screamed. Elisha began to wail hysterically.

  ‘You drank my brother’s blood,’ Jess screamed at the demon. ‘I’m the one who’ll be doing the killing.’ She spun round and sent her elbow flying into the demon’s gut, then she slammed one of her feet down on Amunnic’s instep.

  Eve could hear Jess’s laboured pants. She could see the sweat gluing her shirt to her body. ‘Jess, please, just get out of the way,’ she cried. She could tell her friend had almost no strength left.

  Jess ignored Eve, aiming another elbow blow at Amunnic. The demon gave a low, impatient growl and backhanded Jess. It was a small motion, but it sent Jess hurtling towards the wall. She hit it with a horrifying crunch, slithered into a heap on the floor, and lay still. Peter gave a howl of outrage.

  ‘Nooo!’ Eve slammed her power at the demon, using all her fury over what Amunnic had done to Jess, and to Luke, and to Peter, and to Leo and Cathy, to Briony, and Rose, and Dave and Elisha and to the whole town. Her bolt hit him full in the face.

  The demon’s eyes flashed red, losing the hazel colour of Reverend Thompson’s. The skin on his face began to ripple, and dark patches of necrosis appeared. His nose almost disappeared into his head, and his lips curled back, revealing a double row of teeth. Amunnic’s body stretched out and out, his arms and legs extending until they were impossibly long, and impossibly thin, his torso narrowing too.