by K. R. Conway
“It’s okay, Eila. I know,” she said with a pale smile as she left my room, heading to change. Suddenly my worries with Raef seemed so small in the grand scheme of life.
I grabbed my puffy coat from the desk chair and headed down the stairs, sliding my hand along the smooth cherry handrail that poured effortlessly towards the first floor. I yelled up to Ana’s room as I reached the last step and grabbed my keys from the hall table, “I’ll start the car – it’s freakin’ cold out!”
“Wimp!” I heard her yell back through her bedroom door.
I fished in my coat pockets for my gloves as I walked through to the kitchen and pulled side door open to leave. Just as I did so, Agent Howe’s fist nearly connected with my forehead.
“Holy shi . . . WHAT the heck!” I demanded, pin-wheeling my arms as I narrowly avoided his gloved hand knocking on my skull.
“Whoa – sorry Ms. Walker! I was just about to knock,” he replied, the apology slipping away into the freezing night like smoke from a cigarette. His young face was pink from the ocean breeze biting his cheeks, and he squeezed his chin further down in his plaid scarf.
Sometimes I looked at Howe and thought he could pass as a college student, given how young he looked. And yeah – he was cute in a semi-disheveled, CSI sort of way, especially with his wayward auburn hair. Unfortunately his constant nagging deleted any positive points he had, and made me want to poke him in the eyeball every time his freckled face appeared.
I looked out into the darkness and saw his blue sedan sitting in my driveway. “Does your damn car come with stealth mode? I didn’t even hear you pull in!” I accused. I was so aggravated that I was once again facing the FBI. Couldn’t they just leave me alone? Toss their hands in the air and scream Uncle over the whole Breakers thing? What ever happened to the appeal of a little unsolved mystery?
Howe apparently wasn’t a fan of loose ends – as a kid, I was sure he debunked Santa and the Tooth Fairy in the same day, no doubt sharing his horrifying discoveries with the other small kids on the playground.
I pushed past him and headed for my Jeep, keys in hand.
“Ms. Walker – I really do need to talk with you and your friends again. When can I meet with all of you?” he asked, following me over the crushed seashell driveway. I heard the house door slam and looked up to see Ana glaring at Howe as she exited the house.
He glanced back and almost winced, “Oh – Ms. Lane is here too.” His voice was barely a whisper and I was pretty sure I saw him shiver.
I bit back a smile, remembering the last time Ana was face to face with Howe. She had mentioned that his ability to fetch coffee was divine, and she couldn’t understand why his partner Sollen only allowed him to handle the drinks. Surely he could also move up to take-out orders. She may have also mentioned that men in the FBI as young as him needed a job that was full-time since they had no love life.
Yeah – Ana was his least favorite suspect, no doubt because she ruthlessly stomped out any spark of self-worth he had, reducing his confidence to a smoldering heap of ash . . . repeatedly. She came striding over to the Jeep as I unlocked the door and cranked the engine to life. Howe took a step back as she approached, the fire in her eyes glowing brightly.
“You again? Jeez man, you need to get a life. I mean look at this,” she said gesturing to his outfit, plaid scarf and all. “No wonder the ladies run in the opposite direction. Plus – you nag, like all the time. It’s annoying. You’re like a Cabbage Patch doll with a pull string, except you yank it yourself and repeat the same inane questions over and over again.” She slammed her arms across her chest.
Howe gave her an exasperated look, “Ms. Lane. Lovely to see you, as always.”
“Yeah, well, the feeling ain’t mutual,” she replied.
Howe tried to twist down a smile, “I’m sure. I was just telling Ms. Walker that we all need to meet up again. For a chat.” Ana dramatically rolled her eyes and slid into the car with me. Howe shut the door for her and then walked around my side. I wondered if I would go to jail for a long time if I just ran him over.
He leaned down near my window and rapped on the glass, so I rolled it down. “What?” I snapped.
“Dalca Anescu’s shop was vandalized last night – well, what remains of the shop. Would you know anything about that?”
I gave him a ridiculous look, “Are you kidding me? Hell no. Probably some moron decided it would be fun to wreck the place further on a dare.” It was the truth, though it made me uneasy that anyone would set foot inside the Crimson Moon again, especially in its current state as a burned out shell.
Howe looked at me for a moment and my unease grew. He finally pulled out a photograph from his jacket pocket. He held it out to me and I gave him a curious glance as I looked down to the picture of a gear with a white, glassy finish. It had a strange, looping symbol engraved into its surface. “What’s this?” I asked, taking the photo from Howe.
“We uncovered a safe built into the floor of the Moon, after it was ransacked last night. When we got it open, this gear was inside it in a wooden box. You don’t know anything about it?”
“Do I look like I know anything about gears?” I asked, losing my patience. “No. I have no clue what the hell this is.”
Howe handed me another photo as he replied, “Then maybe you can explain why the lowest scar on your back matches a drawing that was also found with the gear. Care to explain that?”
I looked down at the second photo and the air stilled in my lungs. Just as he said, my kill mark was drawn on a faded piece of paper that had been photographed in some well-lit room, most likely at FBI headquarters. I could literally feel Ana frozen beside me. We had been trying like crazy to distance ourselves from Dalca Anescu and this was definitely not the way to do it. Not to mention, I had no clue what a gear had to do with me – or my kill mark. I managed to choke out a question as Howe plucked the photos from my hands, “How do you know what the scar on my back looks like?”
“Photographs from the hospital, Miss Walker. Seeing as you and your friends are under investigation for your role in a possible bombing, we had access to all your medical records. Tell me – why does your physician believe the scar on your back is a burn from babyhood?”
“Because it is,” I whispered, knowing that was TOTALLY a lie. “It’s a radiator burn.”
Howe placed the photos back inside his pocket and looked me dead in the eye. “And yet the exact same design is on a paper that was inside a hidden safe in the home of Dalca Anescu. A woman who happened to be killed during the Fire and Ice ball, while the rest of you survived.”
“Eila nearly died,” hissed Ana.
Howe simply pushed away from my car, heading for his own as he yelled over his shoulder, “I’ll be in touch soon, Ms. Walker.”
I sat there in the Jeep, listening to the radio play a rock band softly as Howe walked back to his car. I turned to Ana who looked paler than usual. “Well, crap.”
13 Eila
On the ride to the high school, I called Raef to fill him in on Howe, the drawing, and the gear. He and Kian had no answers either, but weren’t thrilled that there was now a link between me and Dalca. He was also concerned as to why anyone would ransack Dalca’s former shop, though he was proud that both Ana and I managed to keep our cool when questioned by Howe. With Raef’s assurances that we would figure it out and come up with an excuse, I shoved Agent Howe and his pestering questions to the back of my mind.
At the football field, Ana and I had managed to squeeze through the throngs of fans to the top bleachers on our home-field side. I felt as though nine million people had greeted both of us, happy we had finally come back to school, though I suspected they just wanted to see if we looked damaged and possibly confirm the Newport rumor.
Ana and I however, showed no outward marks except for her walking boot, which probably fueled the rumor mill that we weren’t actually at the ball. We people-watched from our high perch above the football field and my eyes soon found the
most curvaceous and loud cheerleader in a five-block radius.
Nikki Shea, with her body built for badness, was causing a near riot with the male fans as she shook her red and white pompoms. Ana caught me watching her. “You know, I was actually looking forward to getting back to classes, but now I’m not so thrilled,” she moaned, sticking her tongue out.
I chuckled. “I’ll just avoid her. I already switched classes, so I rarely see her anyway,” I reasoned, refusing to give the irritating twit the satisfaction of my social agony. Plus, she had Elizabeth’s necklace, which just plain pissed me off. Seeing her face reminded me that I didn’t have the one item that could unlock Elizabeth’s freakin’ diary, and that drove me nuts.
Ana stared at Nikki with a focused intensity and I shuffled uneasy in my seat. “What are you doing?”
“Shhh!” she snapped, waving a multicolored mitten in my face.
I leaned closer, whispering, “What are you doing?”
“Trying to convince her to flash the crowd so she gets expelled.”
“ANA!”
Ana sat back laughing, “Chill woman – I’m not that brilliant.”
“You are pure evil, you know that?” I laughed, but my giggles were cut short as a snowball whizzed past Ana’s head and smacked into the back of a heavy-set woman in front of us. She turned, the tight red curls on her head framing a face that could freeze the sun. She glared at the two of us and I shook my head, raising my hands to prove we didn’t just nail her with a snowball. She looked like she had a mighty short fuse and angering her would probably lead to an early grave. She slowly swiveled back to the field.
What moron was tossing snowballs?
We glanced at the crowds milling around, but saw no guilty snow-hurler anywhere. I looked at Ana and she gave a confused shrug just as another snowball whipped past her and nailed the woman right in the back of the neck. Oh dear.
This time the woman got to her feet and turned on us. “What is wrong with you?” she snarled.
“I swear – it’s not us!” I pleaded.
Ana, never one to be wrongfully accused, crossed her arms defiantly, “Lady – do you even see any snow up here in the stands? It isn’t us!” Ana apparently wanted us both to die a slow and painful death.
The woman started unwedging herself from the two other people in front of us, their looks wishing us well in the afterlife as their popcorn was jostled all over their laps. This was how we were going to go out – not at the hands of a talented Mortis, but broken into itsy-bitsy pieces by an enraged, middle-aged football fan.
Just as she was stepping over the steel bench to pummel the two of us, I heard our names being called. Crazy lady stopped as Ana and I searched for the source of the voice.
Finally I spied the name caller – MJ, tall and lean with a giant smile on his face and a snowball in hand, was standing just off the side of the bleachers.
“MJ!” screamed Ana, delighted. I waved down to our long-lost pal, but then turned my attention back to the angry redhead. “I think the snowballs were meant for us – our friend just can’t hit the broadside of a barn.”
I wanted to suck the words back into my mouth the moment I said them.
Her eyes grew wide as she realized I suggested (unintentionally) that she was bigger than a barn. Knowing she was about to grind me into the silver paint beneath our butts, I grabbed Ana’s hand and yelled down to MJ, “We’re coming! Stay right where ya are!”
“What?” asked Ana, turning her attention back to me as I yanked her arm to get her moving. “We aren’t watching the game?”
“We will – just from somewhere else!” I hauled her down through the bleachers and out of the glare of the woman, who no doubt was plotting ways to dismember us if we ever came near her again.
We finally reached the bottom of the bleachers where MJ was strolling towards us. Ana launched herself at him and he grabbed her up in a bear hug, her petite frame glued to his long torso. She was squealing in his ear and MJ was laughing at her craziness. He finally put her down, keeping one arm around her as he reached out and hauled me into his chest. His long arms curved around both of us, hugging us tightly. “I know, I know – ya missed my fabulosity. But have no fear, the cool dog is here.”
I snorted into his chest. “Yeah, sure ya are,” I laughed. He began wiggling his fingers into our sides and Ana and I started yelling at him to stop tickling us. We were writhing around in his arms so much that he finally had to release us or risk toppling into the band – all of whom were watching our antics with great amusement.
Ana had tears in her eyes and MJ’s face faltered as he gave her another hug, and kissed the top of her head. “Missed ya, babe,” he said softly into her blonde hair.
“You’re forbidden from leaving ever again,” she whispered.
He held her tightly and rubbed her back. “You got it . . . though all those hot chicks in West Palm are going to be bawling their eyes out.”
She started laughing and MJ pulled her over to sit in a few open seats toward the end of the bleachers. I followed and Ana and I boxed in our dear friend, drilling him with a thousand questions about Florida. Having him with us was like coming home to a warm fire and perfect cup of cocoa. While I would never see MJ as anything other than a friend, I loved him. He was the brother I never had – for both Ana and me.
The game finally started and Barnstable dominated the field. I watched as Jesse led the team through play after play, fighting their way into the end zone and racking up the points. As they scored, Nikki’s voice would ring out in the cold night, working the crowd into a thunderous roar. It was contagious, and soon I was on my feet with my friends, screaming for our classmates battling on the field. I was shocked to find myself truly enjoying the game, the atmosphere – the entire event. I glanced around and noticed one girl cheering from the warmth of her boyfriend’s jacket. She had leaned into him, her back to his chest, and he had pulled his coat tightly around them both, cheering along with her.
Watching them, I missed Raef’s warmth and I wondered what he was up to tonight. I wondered if he would be as insane for the football game as our classmates.
The buzzer rang out, signaling half-time, and the team jogged from the field. I noticed Jesse scanning the crowd as he ran and when his eyes swept towards where I was, I waved. He saw me, and his face lit with a brilliant smile that contrasted sharply against his dark skin. He waved and disappeared into the field house.
I turned back to Ana and MJ and found them staring at me. “What?” I demanded.
“He LIKES you,” purred MJ.
“He’s just a friend,” I replied, looking sternly at my disbelieving pals. “HE IS!”
14 Eila
When the final points were lit on the scoreboard an hour later, it was obvious – very obvious – that we had one heck of a football team. People were high-fiving and yelling and shouting. The cheerleaders had joined the players and fans on the field, in their own victory-induced party.
The crowd finally grew silent as a mic was handed to the coach who named Jesse the MVP of the game. Everyone went wild again and Jesse graciously accepted the game ball and the mic and the crowd hushed to hear what he had to say.
Ana, MJ, and I were scanning the masses, looking for familiar faces as I listened with one ear as Jesse thanked his coach and praised the hard work of his teammates, saying victory was only accomplished when everyone worked together. I was only half listening when he began talking about being MVP, “So while I am very flattered to receive the game ball tonight, I’d like to hand this off to another winner of sorts. One who defied the odds, and came back from a no-win situation to be with us tonight. Eila Walker – can you join me on the field?”
I turned slowly toward Ana whose mouth was hanging open. MJ had an equally stunned look on his face. I started to shake my head no, but the crowd finally saw where I was and started to clap. Ana and MJ tried to shrink away but I grabbed them. “If I have to go out there, you are both coming with me,” I h
issed.
Ana moved with near wooden legs, but MJ slipped easily into rockstar mode, waving to people. As I walked across the field, the crowds parted, opening an alleyway to Jesse and the team. On my left I saw the vibrant pompoms of the cheer squad and I passed dangerously close to Nikki, who gave me a lethal look, her eyes tracking me. I glanced over my shoulder back at her, worried she was about to literally stab me in the back.
MJ and Ana hung back as I made my way up to Jesse, who held the football easily in his wide hand. I swallowed as I finally reached him, daring a glance at the massive crowd around me.
Jesse leaned toward me, “You look a bit pale.”
“I am a bit freaked, thanks,” I replied.
“Don’t pass out.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Jesse brought the mic back to his lips and spoke to the crowd. You could hear a pin drop and I wanted to crawl under the AstroTurf.
“Most of our class knows Eila here. They know she, along with Ana Lane and MJ Williams, survived the disaster at the Breakers a month ago. She has fought hard to come back to us – a sign of a true warrior’s heart. It is with great honor that we – the entire team – bestow the winning game ball to her tonight. She won against impossible odds and that makes her our MVP – Most Valuable Person – of the night.”
Jesse handed the ball to me, and I looked down at its thick leather hide and tough outer shell. It was a ball that had gone through hell tonight and weirdly, I knew how it felt thanks to the Breakers.
My football and I weren’t all that different.
Realizing the rumor mill just spun completely off its track thanks to Jesse’s revelation, I managed to whisper a semi-sincere thanks to Jesse. I then turned to the crowd, which looked like a sea of millions and Jesse tipped the mic toward my face. I swallowed and said the first thing that came to my mind as I held up the ball, “To all the warriors, big and small.”
The crowd went insane and the team grabbed me and pushed me up onto the shoulders of Jesse and another player. At first I was completely horrified, but as I looked out over the sea of people, jumping and cheering, as a rock song pumped out of the speakers, I suddenly felt like an average high schooler.
