At first Colleen didn't know what to say. All at once she was disappointed in herself for how she had attacked Kirk. "Well, Vicki can't help the way she is." It was her standard line, but for once, it sounded hollow even to Colleen.
"Yes she can," Kirk insisted. "She's not an idiot. Just a mean girl. You do to her what you just did to me, and I bet she wouldn't pick on you so much."
Colleen's face felt very warm. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I didn't even give you a chance to defend yourself."
"No sweat off my nose," Kirk said. "I just think you should start giving Vicki what for."
"We're gonna be late for class," Colleen said quickly. Though this was true, she was really more interested in changing the subject.
Kirk knew what she was thinking. "Okay. I'll see you later." Colleen started walking away. "I'll check with Ricky about the card." He now had to yell to be heard. "If he did it, I'll kill him! I swear." Hurrying, Colleen just made it through the doorway of math class as the bell rang.
* * *
That evening, just as Colleen finished her homework, Lance called. He said he was meeting Kirk at Wide Awake and asked if she wanted to join them.
Colleen had to beg her parents to let her out of the house. They were nervous because of Tish's disappearance. But they trusted Lance, and so let her go, as long as she was back no later than ten-thirty. Luckily, Lance came to pick her up right away.
"A big storm's supposed to be moving in, honey," Mrs. Martini called from the front door as Colleen got into Lance's car. "If it starts to rain, I want Lance to bring you back before it gets too bad out."
"I will, Mrs. Martini!" Lance yelled back, winking at Colleen.
"If you're stranded somewhere, call!" Mrs. Martini added. Colleen simply waved in reply as Lance pulled out of the driveway.
Once they were on their way, Lance asked about Colleen's day. Colleen told him everything, minus the part about the Death card in her locker. She knew he'd think Kirk had done it, and she didn't want the cousins to fight. Luckily, the drive to the coffee shop only took a few minutes, so technically, she didn't have time to bring it up anyway. Inside, Kirk and Ricky waited at a booth.
"Dude and dudette!" Kirk greeted them. Ricky just nodded and winked.
As soon as Lance and Kirk sat down, a waitress descended upon them. She took their orders and went back to fill them. While they waited, Kirk asked about Mrs. Wodell.
"So, how's the old lady doing?" They'd all been wondering.
"Slow," Lance told them. "I read her a list of words that the doctors gave me, and she repeats them." He shrugged sadly. "Or tries to. You can really tell how hard she's trying, and how frustrated she gets when the words come out wrong."
Colleen rubbed Lance's back. She could tell he was feeling Mrs. Wodell's frustration. "How sad," she said aloud.
"Wow," Kirk said, amazed. "A woman like that, not to be able to talk. It must be killing her!"
"Kirk!" Colleen shot him a harsh look.
"I'm not being mean. The woman liked to talk. Am I wrong?"
"It's just the way you say it," Colleen answered, but she could see that he hadn't intended to be mean after all.
"I wouldn't say it's killing her, but it is rough on her," Lance said. "She does enjoy when I read to her. She kind of smiles and just relaxes. Things don't seem so hopeless then."
"What're ya reading her?" asked Ricky. "Let me guess. Little Women? Jane Eyre?"
"Actually, Grimm's Fairy Tales."
Colleen and Kirk were surprised. Ricky, however, seemed pleased.
"Wow, gruesome stuff. Hardly little-old-lady material."
Lance just shrugged. "She was reading it when she had her stroke. I tried to read her something else, but she wouldn't let me. She didn't speak, exactly, but she communicated with gestures pretty clearly what she wanted."
"Wow," said Ricky. "There's a woman after my own heart! Maybe I should come read to her," he told Lance. "I'm much more qualified for scary stuff than you are."
"Right," Lance laughed. "I can imagine you reading Grimm's Fairy Tales to Mrs. Wodell. You'd probably make it so vivid, you'd give the poor woman a heart attack!"
"Lance!" Colleen giggled as she swatted his arm. Somehow, when he said things like that, they didn't sound quite as mean. All at once, she remembered that Mrs. Wodell and Lance weren't the only inhabitants of the old woman's house. "How's Denny? Do you see him there?"
"I used to," Lance answered, a quizzical expression on his face. "He used to come home and look in on us before going to his room. Always had a smile. Now he goes straight to his room."
"Is he sick?" asked Colleen.
"I dunno. He doesn't talk, either, you know." Lance seemed to be seeing Denny in his mind. "To tell you the truth, he's making me a little nervous."
"I bet it's spooky being in a house with two nonverbal people," Kirk suggested. Lance thought it over.
"Maybe that's it," Lance replied. Then he shrugged off the clouds that seemed to have descended upon him. "Anyway, I know Denny's a good guy. He's probably just upset for Mrs. Wodell, that's all."
Just then, a flash of lightning lit the coffee shop. The group looked outside as another flash occurred. In it, they could see the outlines of heavy clouds marking the approach of a rainstorm.
Colleen turned to Lance. "I bet my parents are freaking out right now. I'd better get home."
"Aw, but you just got here," whined Kirk. "Stay a few more minutes."
"Nah, cuz," Lance told him as he stood. "You should've seen her mother when she left. Colleen's right." Colleen pushed out of the booth and waved good-bye to Kirk and Ricky.
"By the way," Ricky said. "It wasn't me." At first, Colleen didn't know what he was talking about. Then she remembered the card. "Promise!"
Lance looked at both of them questioningly.
"I'll tell you in the car," Colleen said as lightning flashed once more. Several seconds later, thunder rumbled in the distance. " 'Bye guys."
Lance took her arm and walked her to the door. In the reflection of the front window, Colleen noticed someone she recognized. Turning around, she saw Vicki sitting in a booth toward the back of the coffee shop. Melina sat beside her. Instead of turning away when Colleen discovered them staring at her, they both simply smiled. Colleen was instantly certain that they had been watching her the entire time she had been there. Almost as proof, Vicki formed her forefinger and thumb into the shape of a gun and "fired." Colleen jumped as if she had been struck by an invisible bullet. Colleen shot out of the coffee shop, dragging along a surprised Lance, who had stopped to see what she was looking at.
"Slow down!" he told her when they were outside. She was practically running.
"Those girls are so horrible!" Colleen yelled, close to tears. The fact that they had been watching her made her feel worse than if there had been a confrontation. How could she defend herself if she didn't even know they were there?
"You mean Vicki and her clone?" Lance draped an arm around her, slowing her to a walk. "Don't worry. They're just a couple of high school kids." He regretted the statement as soon as he had said it, but it was too late. Colleen turned on him.
"Is that how you think of me?" she demanded. "A high school kid?"
"Of course not. Certainly not like them." But that didn't score him any points, either.
"What am I like, then? Am I an easier mark than high school girls like them?"
"No, that's not true," he quietly told her. "I like you because of you, and high school has nothing to do with it." Then he laughed tentatively. "If it did, I probably wouldn't be going out with you. If a college guy gets caught dating a high school girl, his friends rake him over the coals." He had begun to brighten, but then bowed his head and held both her hands. "But I don't have many friends at college anyway. Why do think I hang out with a dork like my cousin? And even if I did have friends, they'd have to accept me going out with you, or they wouldn't be my friends." Then he looked her straight in the eyes. "Do you believe me?"
So mesmerized was Colleen by Lance's eyes that she almost forgot to answer. As it was, she only nodded. Lightning flashed once more, followed almost immediately by thunder. The first raindrops began to fall.
"I'd better get you home!" Lance said. "Race you to the car!" Without waiting for an answer, he took off running. Colleen didn't have a chance, but at least he had the doors unlocked by the time she got there.
Chapter 13
A cloud of cigarette smoke rose from the table where Vicki and Melina sat. When it cleared, the booth formerly occupied by Colleen and her friends was empty; Kirk and Ricky hadn't stayed much longer after the others left.
Vicki ground her cigarette into an ashtray, extinguishing it. "We can get out of here," she told Melina, and stood. Melina didn't move.
"Uh, excuse me, mind telling me what we came here for anyway?" Vicki had dragged her out tonight without explanation, and was now dragging her away in the same manner. She was none too pleased.
Vicki raised a bored eyebrow and plopped back down into her seat. "Had some business to take care of. Didn't work quite the way it was planned, but we got the job done anyway."
"What? Hassle Colleen? I'm all for it when we run into her at school, but do we have to waste time looking for her?"
"We didn't look for her. I knew where she was gonna be." Vicki's expression was mysteriously self-satisfied.
"What's going on?" Melina asked curtly, the closest she had ever come to demanding information from Vicki.
Vicki didn't answer immediately. She never did. Instead, she slowly lit a cigarette, then took a long drag. The ash glowed bright orange at the tip. Vicki stared at the ember, and for a moment, Melina felt as if her friend had forgotten she existed. Vicki had made an art of such gestures.
"Oh, just a little conspiracy to split Colleen and her boyfriend. Nothing you have to worry about."
But Melina was not satisfied. "What? You expect to impress Lance by trashing his girlfriend? Ha! I'm sure that'll just make him flip for you!"
Vicki turned suddenly on Melina. "Don't butt in where you don't have business, Melina. Stage one is to get him away from that twerpy girl." Then she relaxed and leaned back in her chair, smoking luxuriously. "Stage two will call for different tactics. Believe me." Melina was looking at her as if she were crazy, but Vicki didn't mind. Her friend didn't know half of what was going on. But that was nothing new, Vicki thought, causing her to snicker to herself.
"I'm sorry, Vicki," Melina said carefully, "but you're getting kinda creepy these days. This obsession with the college guy. And what about Tish? You've barely said anything about her. Aren't you even worried? I am."
This time Vicki was angry. "You're beginning to sound like that mouse Colleen," Vicki spat with disgust. "Look, Tish loved to try throwing herself to the wolves. I'm supposed to feel bad if she finally found one? Gimme a break."
Suddenly Melina seized upon something. "She called you that night. Didn't she?"
Vicki was caught totally off guard. "What are you talking about?"
For the first time, Melina rose up against Vicki. "Don't deny it. I can see it in your eyes. She had a fight with her parents. Everyone knows that. But she called you for help. She'd do that, because she looked up to you." She narrowed her eyes. "Like I did. Or used to. But you probably told her to get a life or something. So she ran away!" Melina's eyes glowed mutinously.
"You're the one who needs a life," Vicki snarled. She got up once more, shoving the table away from her and almost knocking Melina down. "Whatever your problem is, keep it away from me!" Vicki stalked out of the coffee shop. The springs on the front door kept her from slamming it shut.
Melina pushed the table away from her and stood. Scanning the coffee shop, she saw no one she recognized. This meant Melina had to find her own way home, since she had caught a ride with Vicki. Thunder reminded Melina that a downpour was in progress, but she didn't think of calling home. Her parents had little sympathy for her, and she didn't want to give them a chance to show it. So it was time for the bus.
Luckily, the bus stop she needed was covered. Unfortunately, she became soaked on the walk to the bus stop. Since it was a weekday night, it took the bus a full forty-five minutes before it arrived to pick her up. The transfer to the second bus took an additional half hour. Nearly two hours later, Melina stepped out into the rain from the bus stop nearest her house. She had a good ten-minute walk ahead of her.
Melina began to sneeze as she neared the street where her house was located. I'm gonna catch a cold, she thought to herself grimly. And tomorrow, she thought with more cheer, I'm gonna go up to Vicki and unload some contagious mucus in her face. Melina was smiling as lightning struck a nearby power line and the lights winked out.
Stopping in her tracks, Melina allowed her eyes to get used to the dark. Unfortunately, the clouds of the storm obscured what would have been a nearly full moon. Her choices were to stay in one place and get pneumonia or start walking and get pneumonia and get home. She got back under way. Her only obstacle was the lightning. Each flash halted her in her tracks. For a moment the entire neighborhood was lit clear as day, and then for the next minute, Melina could see nothing until her eyes readjusted to the darkness.
It was during a lightning flash as Melina neared her house that she noticed someone walking toward her. She stopped. Who would be out walking in weather like this? she wondered. There can't be another person in this city with as mean a friend as Vicki. But by the time lightning flashed again, the figure had disappeared.
Maybe the person had gone into a house, she thought.
Maybe no one had been there, and she was just seeing things.
Maybe.
But she would rather be home than standing here in the rain, so she started forward again. Only a few more houses. Then a warm bath. Yes. That would ward off a cold, she thought. Tomorrow, sick or not, she would deal with Vicki. If she wasn't sick, she would warn Colleen about Vicki's designs on Lance. Melina really didn't understand why Vicki seemed to hate Colleen so much. Or anyone, for that matter. Melina shook the rain from her hair as she reached her house at last.
Strong hands closed around Melina's neck as she started up her walk. She tried to pull away, but the hands held her tight. So tight she couldn't scream. And even though she was not ten yards away from her own front door, no one would have heard her anyway. The rain and thunder were too loud. Then Melina realized that the sound she was hearing wasn't thunder at all. It was the pounding of blood in her ears. The sound grew louder and louder. Then it stopped. They stopped.
The pounding — and Melina's heart.
Chapter 14
Melina's body was found sprawled on her own front lawn the next morning by the paperboy. Pandemonium erupted at Springwood High shortly thereafter. The superintendent nearly canceled for the day, but changed his mind at the last minute. Many parents kept their children home anyway. Colleen managed to convince her mother that staying cooped up alone in the house all day would drive her crazy.
At the high school, the hallways were only half-full. Colleen saw few of her friends. Even Kirk was nowhere to be found. Due to low attendance, most classes simply became study halls. In history class, most desks were empty, including Vicki's. Despite the way Vicki always treated her, Colleen wondered how she was doing. She had lost her two closest friends in as many days. That would be rough on anyone.
Colleen tried to contact both Lance and Kirk at lunchtime, but could reach neither of them. The rest of the day slipped by in a gray haze. As Colleen approached her locker after her last class, it seemed to her the day had been somewhat of an anticlimax.
Then she saw the Death card taped to her locker.
At first she stared at it in disbelief. Then she looked around frantically, as if the perpetrator might be watching to catch her reaction. But the hallways were practically empty by now, and the few students nearby were paying no attention to her. Colleen felt fear, but that left quickly. It was replaced by anger. Swiftly she y
anked the card off her locker and crumpled it into a ball. Instead of throwing it out, she stuffed it in her backpack. Then, full of furious energy, she threw open the door to her locker and stuffed what she needed into the backpack, burying the card. That done, she slammed the locker shut, closed the lock with a snap, and ran to the nearest pay phone.
Dropping money into it, she dialed Kirk at home once more. His mother answered.
"Hi, Mrs. Newman," Colleen said, trying to keep her voice under control. "Is Kirk there?"
"I'm sorry, dear, he's not. He was home most of the day with a cold, and then the library called. They're having such a time there, what with Mrs. Wodell out and all. Poor woman. Can I give him a message for you?"
"No, I've got to go there anyway. Thanks, Mrs. Newman."
"You're welcome, dear," Mrs. Newman said cheerily. Then a note of concern crept into her voice. "You're not going alone, are you? With what happened to that poor girl, I'm sure your mother wouldn't want you to be out on the streets alone."
Colleen lied. "I'm meeting Lance there, but thanks." She was ready to hang up, but Mrs. Newman wasn't.
"Is he working today? I thought he was taking care of the librarian at home?"
"I don't know. I just spoke to him and he said he'd meet me. And if they called in Kirk, they probably need Lance, too."
"Yes, that's right." Luckily, Mrs. Newman didn't need too much convincing. "Well, take care, dear."
"I will. Thanks." And Colleen was able to hang up.
The library was only a few blocks away. Colleen's seething anger powered a run the entire way. She was breathless as she pushed the front door of the library open and entered. Standing inside for a moment, she caught her breath. Colleen located a cart full of books after a quick search. Kirk could not be far away. Marching over to the cart, she found him halfway down the aisle between the bookshelves.
"Kirk!" she whisper-shouted. Startled, he clutched his chest as though he were having a heart attack when he realized it was only her. But the smile on his face evaporated when he noticed her distress. "What's this?!" she demanded, not letting him speak. She dug into her backpack for the card, found it, and tossed it at him.
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