“Hello again, Trina,” Fallon said, standing in the wall beside her.
Hello, she wrote back. Who are you? What do you want with me?
“I told you, my name is Fallon,” he said. “I’m a Cupid. I make people fall in love.”
Seriously?
“Yeah, didn’t really believe it either, not at first,” Fallon said. “Look, you’re still kind of freaked out, right?”
Yes.
“Okay then,” Fallon said. “I’ll tell you about myself and what I’m doing here. If you know me better, you’ll see I’m nothing to be scared of.”
Okay.
“Right,” Fallon said, and he began.
It took him only ten minutes to tell Trina about his death and rebirth. She listened without saying (or writing) anything, and when he was finished, Fallon had to wonder if she’d paid any attention at all.
Louis sounds like a real jerk, she wrote, putting Fallon’s fears to rest.
“He sure is,” he replied. “Well, is there anything you want to ask me?”
Plenty, she wrote. How do you make people fall in love? Wait, I have another question first. What is your problem with Susan?
“That,” Fallon said with a sigh, “is a long story.”
I have half an hour left. Tell me.
Fallon walked through her desk and sat on the floor beside it. He’d known he would have to tell her, but that didn’t make it any easier for him.
“She’s the reason I wanted to kill myself,” he said, and he told her about Susan Sides. It took another ten minutes, starting with the time he first met her and finishing with the events of that fateful, awful day.
“I don’t know if she does it on purpose,” Fallon said, “but that doesn’t stop the effect she has on people. That’s why I need your help, Trina. We’ve got to get Ryan away from her.”
He looked up to see if Trina had a response. She was looking in his direction; she must have sensed his shift in position.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“Thanks,” Fallon said. “You’re a great listener.”
She smiled at that, a really pretty smile.
I’m going to make someone love that smile, he thought.
“I’ll talk to Susan,” Trina whispered. “Maybe I can get her to see the counselor.”
“She won’t go,” Fallon told her. “Trust me on this. I tried, but she wouldn’t do it. All she wanted was to suck the life out of me.”
“You make her sound like one of those Suicides,” Trina said.
“Yeah,” Fallon said. “Who needs Suicides when you’ve got Susan Sides?”
Fallon started to chuckle, but then his eyes went wide. Suicides. Susan Sides. That had to be more than just a coincidence. Now that he thought about it, Susan fit the profile of a Suicide to a T.
But how? Suicides were dead, weren’t they?
“Fallon?” Trina said.
If it was at all possible that Susan was a Suicide, Louis would know. Fallon really didn’t want to talk to the man, but he had to find out. And it was probably his duty to report it, though that had never been specified in his training.
“I’ve got to go, Trina,” he told her. “Don’t try to talk to her, it might be dangerous. When I get back, you’ve got to help me save Ryan.”
Fallon ran out of the classroom, then held up his hands and created a portal to the Cupid Center. He hurried through and went in search of his boss.
But he quickly realized that the search was hopeless. The Cupid Center was huge; Louis could be anywhere inside it. He might not even be there at all, and there was no way to check. All Fallon could do was run around the Cupid Center and hope to get lucky.
“Not a very good system,” he said. Then he thought of how quickly Louis had come when he’d eaten from another Cupid’s Love cube. Louis must manage thousands if not millions of Cupids, yet he’d turned up almost instantly. Had something alerted him?
Fallon decided to find out. He walked over to the nearest desk-sized Love cube, broke a piece off, and waited. If he was right, he would not need to eat it. He didn’t want to steal from another Cupid, even one with a cube as large as this one.
He tossed the piece of Love in the air and caught it a few times. On the seventh toss he missed, because a blast of electricity zapped him in the back.
“Just don’t learn, do ya?” Louis said, striding quickly toward him.
Well, it worked, Fallon thought.
“You are not allowed to eat another Cupid’s Love!” Louis went on. “Thought I made that clear the last time.”
“I didn’t eat any,” Fallon said. “I was … ”
“I don’t like liars,” Louis said, giving Fallon another shock.
“I was trying to find you!” Fallon screamed through clenched teeth.
“Well, ya found me,” Louis said. “Now we’re gonna go and take some Love of yours to replace what you stole.”
“But I have the piece I took right here,” Fallon said, picking it up and showing Louis. “I only took it because I thought it would make you come. Look, I’m putting it back … ” He tried to do just that, but another jolt knocked it out of his hand.
“It’s been on the floor,” Louis pointed out. “Would you eat it?” To drive his point home, he stepped on the dropped Love and squashed it. “We’re taking some of your Love, end of story. Let’s go.”
“Fine,” Fallon said with barely contained anger. “But I need to talk to you about something.”
“Talk on the way.” Louis was already walking off.
“I need to talk about Suicides,” Fallon said as he caught up. “Can they take on a human form?”
“No,” Louis said.
“Can they possess someone?”
“No.”
“It’s just that there’s this girl in that school who acts a lot like … ”
“You having hearing problems?” Louis said, stopping in front of him. “I said no. Suicides are dark spirits. They don’t take on physical form, and they can’t possess people. You got that?”
“Yes,” Fallon said.
“Good.” Louis turned and started walking again.
“If I have any more questions,” Fallon asked, “how do I find you?”
“You don’t,” Louis said. “You were trained. You shouldn’t have any questions.”
“Uh huh,” Fallon said.
He realized he’d made a mistake. He didn’t believe a word Louis had said—in fact, Fallon was more certain now that Susan was a Suicide than he’d been before Louis told him it was impossible.
If Louis wouldn’t make time for him, there was only one other Cupid he knew who could help him—Caleb. The question now was, where was Caleb and how could he find him? Unfortunately, Fallon realized, the only person who knew that was Louis.
This was not going to be easy.
13
Fallon guessed it was at least an hour before he got back to the portals. The design of the Cupid Center was all wrong; if it had been up to him, there would be a portal next to every Love cube so that Cupids could avoid all the unnecessary walking time.
And time was of the essence. If he wanted to reconnect with Trina, Fallon knew he needed to get back to Guildwood Mills before the school day ended.
He was very annoyed, and not just about the lost time. Louis had taken half of the Love he had left, far more than the tiny chunk Fallon had broken off the other cube. Injustice piled on top of injustice, with zero accountability.
“No,” Fallon told himself. He’d decided not to let Louis rile him, since the man clearly enjoyed it. He would stay calm and deal with it as best he could until he found a way to take Louis down a peg.
In the meantime, he had a job to do. Fallon chose a portal and went thro
ugh it, returning to Guildwood Mills’ front entrance.
Trina’s study period would be long since finished. Fallon knew he’d have to find her again, and that could take a while. He also had to get a couple together, too—his Love cube wasn’t going to grow by itself.
And he had to find Susan and see what she was up to. Amazingly, he didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Susan Sides stood by herself across the hall from the boys’ bathroom. Classes were in session and the halls were empty; she had no reason to be there.
Of course, Fallon knew immediately who she was waiting for. He ducked through the wall into the boys’ room and found Ryan, staring at the mirror above the sinks. He did not look good: he was leaning on the sink for support, and his features bore an expression of helplessness.
It hadn’t been so long ago, Fallon reflected, that he’d been hiding from Susan in the boys’ room. He’d sat in a stall for twenty minutes, and when he finally left, Susan had still been waiting for him. Now Ryan was on that same sinking boat.
Tentatively, knowing what he would find, Fallon reached a hand into Ryan’s chest. Instantly, he felt a wave of hopelessness; Ryan had been infected with depression.
“Hang in there, dude,” Fallon said, and he turned and walked back through the wall.
Susan was still there. She didn’t look impatient or bored, just resolute. She would wait all day, if necessary.
Fallon raised his hands and gave her a blast of Love. If he was right and she was a Suicide, the Love would finish her.
However, it did not. She stood against the wall the same as before, unaware that anything had happened.
Fallon saw two possibilities. One, he was wrong and Susan was just a very annoying and clingy person. Two, he was right and Susan was a Suicide, but being human shielded her from the Love. If he was right, his job had just become a lot harder.
There was a way to be sure. When the other Suicide had attacked him, Fallon had felt misery more powerful than he could have imagined. Caleb had warned him not to let a Suicide touch him, because the effect would be the same.
If I touch her, he thought, and she is a Suicide, I’ll feel the misery.
It was a plan that would work, but with one serious drawback. The depression would overtake him, and there wasn’t anyone around who could help him. If he were to survive, he’d need a major dose of Love to get him through it.
That meant he had to get to work. He had to replenish his Love supply or he wouldn’t be useful to anyone.
Behind him, the boys’ room door opened and Ryan stepped out. He did not look surprised to see Susan waiting for him. Rather, he looked resigned.
“There you are!” Susan said. “I thought maybe you’d fallen in. You feeling sick?”
“No, I’m okay,” Ryan replied, though his face said the opposite.
“It’s just you were in there for half an hour,” Susan said. “I thought that maybe you were hiding from me.”
“No! Why would you think that?” Ryan said.
“Oh, no reason,” Susan said. “It’s just that you were in there for so long, and we missed half of math class, so if you’re not sick, then what were you doing?”
“Just … using the bathroom,” Ryan said. “I didn’t think you were going to wait for me.”
“Of course I was going to wait for you,” she said. “You’re my best friend.”
Fallon turned and walked away. There was nothing he could do for Ryan, not yet.
Three classrooms later, Fallon finally found a couple he could match up. It hadn’t been easy—a large number of students were actually paying attention to their teachers. Luckily, there were still some at the back of each class who roamed their eyes around.
In a Geography class, Fallon hit pay dirt. A dark-skinned girl sitting by the window kept checking out an Asian boy at the front. It would have been easy to make her fall for him, but Fallon wanted to be sure the guy was willing, too. He walked over to the guy’s desk and slid his hand into his heart, then whispered:
“Turn around. Check her out.”
The guy did, and Fallon immediately felt an attraction. He wasted no time firing Love into the guy’s heart; a few seconds later, he had the girl’s heart, too. They stared at each other across the classroom, lost in the other’s eyes.
“Yeah!” Fallon said, pumping his arm. He’d done it again.
“Jason, Penny, are you two in love?”
Fallon groaned inwardly and watched as the red-faced teens turned to face the teacher. That, Fallon realized, would be a continuing problem if he brought couples together in classrooms.
“Sorry, Miss Mitchell,” Jason said sheepishly.
“If you can tear your eyes off each other for a few moments,” Miss Mitchell said with a smile, “we were discussing erosion as it relates to the current state of the Canadian Shield. Any thoughts?”
Fallon mouthed an apology to Jason and Penny and turned to leave. After he’d left the room, he could still feel the two teens’ hearts. He’d had a similar experience with the first couple he’d brought together, at the poetry event—he could still sense where they were, and what their feelings were, too. That was important; he’d have to check in on them several times to keep their love flowing.
Fallon walked across the main foyer, looking for another set of classrooms. The foyer was currently empty; classes were still in full swing. Fallon walked straight through the wall at the far end, expecting to end up in the middle of another classroom.
He stopped. Did a double take. This wasn’t a classroom. Not unless it was Biology and they took anatomy very seriously.
He was in the shower area of the girls’ changing room. There were seven girls in there with him, all naked, most of them showering while others toweled themselves off by the doorway.
Fallon knew the decent thing to do was cover his eyes and retreat through the wall behind him. But how often did life, or death, give you an opportunity like this?
“I am such a perv,” he said, unable to look away. He’d had no contact with female nudity in all of his seventeen years, not counting the porn magazines he’d flipped through. He’d hoped he might get there with Becky, but Susan’s invasion of his life had ruined those plans.
Susan, he thought, reminding himself of what he was supposed to be doing. He could look at naked girls later. Right now, he had to find …
“Trina!” he said, as she walked through the door wearing only a towel.
Trina froze. Her eyes went wide. And her towel chose that moment to drop.
“Oops,” Fallon said.
This was going to be awkward.
14
Fallon, you jerk!” Trina cried, covering herself with her arms while simultaneously reaching down for her towel. “Get out of here, you sicko!”
“I’m so sorry!” Fallon slapped a hand over his eyes at last. “I was just … I mean, I didn’t know this was … ”
“Get out!” Trina screamed, snatching up her towel and wrapping herself up in one swift motion. Then she turned and bolted from the shower room.
“What’s her problem?” one of the girls asked, turning off her shower and reaching for a towel.
“Haven’t you heard?” said another as she rinsed conditioner from her blond hair. “She sees dead people.”
“You mean like the kid in that movie?” asked a Japanese girl.
“That’s what she says,” said the blonde. “I say she’s a freak.”
“Oh, that’s original,” Fallon said. He knew he should leave, but he had to try and straighten things out. He had the distinct impression that Trina was not part of the in crowd. And he’d just made things worse.
He crossed the shower room and entered the changing room, keeping his hand over his eyes and taking quick peeks to see where he was going. There were
a few girls in the room in various states of undress, and Fallon tried very hard not to look at them.
Trina was standing alone in the corner, already half dressed. Fallon approached slowly, trying to think of how to apologize.
“Go away,” she said without turning, as she threw on her shirt.
“I’m not looking,” Fallon said. “I’m really sorry. I was in there by accident, I swear.”
“Oh, bull!” Trina said, turning to face the sound of his voice. “You just ‘accidentally’ ended up in a room full of naked teenage girls?”
“Who’s she talking to?” a girl asked.
“Keep your voice down!” Fallon said. “The other girls think you’re nuts.”
“They … do not,” Trina said, suddenly aware of how many eyes were on her.
“I was just … ” she said to them, then turned around awkwardly and sat down on a bench. The other girls stared a few moments longer, then went back to their hushed whispers.
“Freak,” one whisperer said, just loud enough.
“Look.” Fallon squatted next to the bench. “It was stupid of me to go in there. I wasn’t thinking.”
Trina said nothing. Which, Fallon thought, was probably for the best. He stood up and turned to leave, and that was when he saw the seven girls from the showers standing there. They were still naked and carried their towels in their hands.
“Hey, Trina!” the blond one said, and all seven girls threw their towels over their heads like ghostly hoods.
Trina made the mistake of looking. All seven girls shook their towels and went, “Oooooh!” like B-movie phantoms.
Trina stood up, pushed her way through them and ran for the doorway. The girls laughed, and Fallon made a mental note to deny them love for as long as they lived.
He chased after Trina, but he didn’t have to go far. A large gorilla in a tracksuit—the gym teacher, Fallon guessed—had stopped her at the changing room doors.
The Cupid War Page 7
