by Stacey Jay
So there had been that family’s drama to deal with; then one whole section of the clinic had been closed off because they’d had to bring in a prisoner from the containment center downtown-a girl suffering from seizures caused by working too much black magic. It had taken me all of ten seconds to figure out who that was. Jess was the only black-magic artist presently being held at the SA facility in Little Rock. So I got to listen to my former BFF try to swallow her own tongue while I was sitting in the waiting room. Really fun. Really.
That she was still dealing with the fallout of her big bad plan last fall was more disturbing than I thought it would be. No matter that she’d planned to kill me and was a complete, psycho nutcase, I still didn’t want her to be brain damaged for life… or worse.
“Megan?” Mom’s hand on my shoulder was just the whisper of a touch, but it still made me jump. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I couldn’t worry about Jess right now. I had plenty of my own crap to deal with. “I think I’ll take a shower. My hair is… ” I froze in the hall outside the kitchen and threw my arms up to keep my parents from going any further.
“Megan, are you-”
“There’s someone here,” I said, cutting my mom off with a harsh whisper. “Or at least someone has been here. Look at my backpack. I didn’t leave it like that.”
On the floor a few feet away, my L.L. Bean backpack lay open, every compartment unzipped and all my books, practice clothes, and makeup strewn across the floor. Ugh, and Mom’s romance novel! But hopefully she wouldn’t notice I’d liberated Savage Kisses from under her bed in all the excitement of our house being broken into.
“Give me your phone,” Mom said. “I’m calling SA.”
“No need. We’re already here.” Elder Thomas stepped into the hall and actually had the nerve to smile when Mom and I screamed. Like it was funny that she’d nearly scared us half to death. The white-haired, grannyish-looking woman had once been my favorite Elder, but now I wondered how I’d failed to see the evil in those rheumy blue eyes.
Okay, not evil, but she certainly didn’t care about me or my family. She cared about the prestige that having one of the most powerful young Settlers in years had brought to her town, and she was determined not to lose what my freakiness had gained. The woman watched me like a hawk, always ready to praise my accomplishments, but even more ready to jump all over me when I made a mistake. Like she was in a position to criticize. It was her stubbornness and SA’s unwillingness to believe teenagers could be deep into black magic that had almost gotten me killed last fall. In my opinion, anyone with their head that far up their you-know-what should mind their own business. But that was an opinion Elder Thomas obviously didn’t share.
Hence the breaking into my house and nosing through my things.
“You went through my backpack?”
“And your room. The officers are finishing up now. We should be able to leave you to your shower in a few minutes.”
“You’re searching my room?” I asked, not bothering to hide my outrage. I’d managed to take down at least six weird zombies while keeping myself and Monica alive. What had I done to deserve a bunch of people pawing through my things?
What if they’d found my stash of Babysitter’s Club books and thought I was an idiot who couldn’t read age-appropriate material? Or what if, even now, the Protocol officers were reading my diary? What if Ethan was reading my diary, and getting an eyeful about my groping torment? Grrr… this was so not fair!
“Yes, we are.” The friendly faзade vanished, and Elder Thomas nailed me with that cold “I’m assessing a mutated specimen” look she did so well. “And we’d like to ask you some questions. I assumed you’d be too exhausted and the matter could wait, but your mouth seems to be in perfect working order. So if you’d like-”
“No, I wouldn’t like.” Damn straight my mouth was in perfect working order. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I-”
“No one is saying you did.” Mom jumped in before I could say something even stupider. I shouldn’t talk back to Elder Thomas. She might be inept at times, but she was an inept person who could get me in a heck of a lot of trouble But I was just so sick of being treated like a freak who had to be investigated every time something strange happened in Carol. “I’m sure the Protocol officers just need your statement.”
“Actually, I’m allowing the Enforcement team to handle this.”
“Enforcement? But we-”
Elder Thomas cut Mom off. “I’m not at liberty to discuss the matter. I’m sorry, Jennifer.”
“Hey you guys, glad you made it home,” Kitty said as she materialized next to Elder Thomas. “Megan, I thought I heard you come in. Long night.” She smiled and blinked tiredly behind her thick glasses.
Kitty was barely five feet tall and looked more like a refugee from Revenge of the Nerds than a member of the Settler secret service, but I knew better. The woman could kick major butt, had a knowledge of Settler spells and history that was downright freaky, and was the big boss lady over the team of Enforcement officers who were hanging out in Carol until I was trained and my power was firmly under control.
“You want to get some Doritos and hang out at the kitchen table while we get this over with? I don’t know about you, but I’m dying for a snack.” She was also really nice, and I knew I’d forgive her for letting Barker and Smythe turn my backpack inside out… eventually.
“I think I’ll just snag a Sprite,” I said, moving into the kitchen. “My stomach isn’t up to Doritos, but I’ll get you a bowl.”
“I’ll be in our room, Jennifer.” Dad escaped into his and Mom’s room, clearly annoyed to have our lives invaded again. Poor Dad, it couldn’t be easy being a normal dude in a world full of zombie-fighting freaks.
“I’ll get the chips, Megan. You and Kitty go ahead and get started. It’s a school night and I’d like to see you in bed in the next hour.” Mom urged me toward the table and began bustling about the kitchen, fetching far more bowls than a single serving of Doritos required. She seemed… nervous. I guessed it was the Enforcement presence.
Usually a team of Enforcement officers searching your house would be a very, very bad thing. They didn’t get involved in local matters unless some seriously illegal stuff was going down. But Kitty, Barker, and Smythe weren’t just any Enforcement officers. They were my teachers, trainers, and kind of my friends. We’d all exchanged Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa presents, for God’s sake.
So I didn’t feel any huge need to freak. They were probably just helping our local SA chapter out. The Carol Protocol division was pretty small and no doubt unprepared to investigate something like the zombies Monica and I had encountered in the woods.
“Monica told you about the weird RCs, right? That’s what this is about?” I settl
ed into my chair with my Sprite while Kitty pulled a tiny tape recorder from her pocket. Mom set the Doritos down between us and then returned to puttering around the kitchen, clearly intending to eavesdrop, which was fine. I had nothing to hide from her or anyone else.
“She did, and she was thorough. As usual.” Kitty winked at me and I smiled. “But I’d like to confirm everything with you. On the record.” She pressed the record button and got her official voice on. “Interview with Megan Berry. January thirteenth, approximately twenty-two hundred hours.
“Due to the late hour and the fact that Miss Berry suffered head trauma earlier in the evening, this interview is purely for the confirmation of the incident, as per regulation four point three, subsections a and b. Are you ready, Megan?”
“Um, yeah. I mean. Yes.” I cleared my throat, catching a bit of Mom’s anxiety.
It was hard not to be anxious when Kitty started sounding like the FBI-type person she really was. I made a vow right then to keep my voice friendly when conducting Enforcer interviews. Assuming, of course, that I ended up becoming an Enforcer like everyone and their sister’s friend’s dog wanted me to be.
“Okay.” Kitty smiled again, obviously trying to put me at ease. “When did you first notice the Out-of-Grave Phenomenon?”
“About ten minutes after I got to the car wash. Probably around five? I smelled something funny, then heard groaning, so I grabbed Monica-um, Miss Parsons-and we headed into the woods.”
“You smelled something? Could you be more specific?” she asked, and I did my best to describe the smell of the herbs I’d noticed. “Great. So you entered the woods unobserved by any human witnesses?”
“The other members of the pom squad and the guy getting his car washed saw us.”
“But they didn’t see the Out-of-Grave Phenomenon?”
“I don’t think so. No one came to look for us until we’d joined power and-”
“We’ll get to that in just a second. First, could you tell me how many Reanimated Corpses you observed and briefly outline any unusual traits they may have had?”
I took my time describing as much as I could remember about the strange RCs-their fast movements, the lack of red eyes, the pink cheeks and apparent absence of grave dirt or any real signs of decomposition.
“So you’re saying they appeared to be alive?” she asked casually, as if that weren’t a huge weird deal.
“Well… I guess. I mean, the two I got really close to were pretty pale, but their skin wasn’t cold or stiff.” I hadn’t thought of it at the time, but Shorty and Baldy’s hands had been warm. “But they were both really strong, like zombie strong, and they definitely wanted a piece of me.”
“They tried to bite you?” Kitty’s eyes narrowed just the slightest bit and a shadow passed over her face. If she were someone else, I would have said she doubted my honesty. But this was Kitty. She knew I wasn’t a liar, especially about something like this. So why was she looking at me like that?
“Several times. I managed to stop them, but it wasn’t easy. None of the commands were working, even the pax frater. I don’t know what we would have done if combining our power for the reverto spell hadn’t worked,” I said, a hint of accusation creeping into my tone. “You never told us there were RCs that didn’t respond to spells. That would have been a good thing to know, you know. Like, before we almost died.”
Kitty sighed and took off her glasses to rub her eyes. “All Reanimated Corpses will respond to Settler commands if there’s sufficient power behind the spell and a manageable number of Out-of-Grave Phenomenons. Never in the history of our people have we had a documented case of-”
“But, I swear, there were only seven, four at first, and they didn’t-”
“Never have we had a documented case of Reanimated Corpses behaving as you’ve described.” Kitty slid her glasses back into place and nailed me with her clear gray eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more at this time, but be assured your training in how to manage the Undead has been thorough.”
“Then what were those things?”
She looked sorry for me for a second, but apparently not sorry enough to answer my question. “Megan, could you tell me one more thing?” she asked, suddenly very interested in typing something into her BlackBerry. “Where were you between four o’clock and five o’clock this afternoon?”
“I was-”
“She was right here. Eating lasagna with her family, ” Mom interrupted in a supremely pissed voice. She’s a vegetarian and normally way more hippy than militant, but once you make her angry she can be pretty scary. “And this interview is over.”
CHAPTER 5
“Jennifer, please,” Kitty said. “I’m not trying to-”
“Oh, I know exactly what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to trick an innocent sixteen-year-old with a head injury into being interrogated without the benefit of representation.” Mom grabbed the chips from the table and set them down on the island behind her with loud thunk. Clearly, hospitality time was over. “If Megan is a suspect, you’ll need the proper paperwork, and we’re going to need a mediator.”
Settlers don’t have lawyers, but mediators are basically the same thing. They step in and made sure people suspected of wrongdoing are treated fairly until their guilt or innocence is determined. After SA had decided to try Beth and Jess in Settler court, a mediator had been responsible for getting Beth’s sentence transmitted to a stay in a mental facility instead of Settler Affairs prison. Tests had shown she was dealing with a bunch of different disorders and was a good candidate for rehabilitation once her memory had been wiped by Enforcement.
If Mom thought we needed a mediator…
“Okay, let’s just calm down,” I said, certain the maternal unit was overreacting. Kitty was my friend. She’d never think I had anything to do with those weird zombies. “I didn’t do anything wrong and I’m sure Kitty and-”
“Don’t say another word,” Mom said, pointing a firm finger at me before turning back to Kitty. “I’d like you and your team out of my house.”
“Mom! Please, stop it.”
“Be quiet, Megan, and… and go to your room!”
“My room is full of Enforcers!” I jumped to my feet so fast my chair clattered to the ground behind me. “And this is crazy! I didn’t make those zombies, if that’s what everyone’s thinking. Use a lie-detector charm on me, I swear it will-”
“I doubt the charm would work, Megan. You’re too powerful.” The way Kitty said the words made it clear she didn’t think my power was all it was cracked up to be. Great. Neither did I.
“Then find some other way to test me. I’m telling the truth.”
“Megan, listen to me,” Mom begged. “You need to be very careful what you say.”
“But I-”
; “Your mom’s right. You shouldn’t say anything else.” Kitty flipped off her recorder with a soft sigh and pushed back her chair. “I’ll have the paperwork filed by tomorrow morning. You’ll get your copy by early Thursday at the latest. After that, it will be your responsibility to file a petition for representation. In the meantime, it would probably be best if Megan didn’t discuss this with anyone other than family members who, as you know, can’t be called upon to testify against her in a felony case.”
“Felony?” It felt like all the air had been sucked from my lungs.
I’d bent the rules a few times, sure, but what made Kitty and her team think I’d committed a felony? A felony was like… using black magic to murder someone or something horrible! Even the time SA thought I’d accidentally summoned a bunch of RC clones, no one had said anything about mediators or felonies.
An accident! Maybe this was something I’d done by accident. I still didn’t have total control over my power, so it was possible.
“What if I did something without knowing I did it?” I asked, hurrying on before Mom could tell me to shut up again. “Like the time they thought I made those clones?”
“Not this time.” Kitty’s tone allowed no room for argument.
“We’re finished in her room.” Barker, another of my Enforcer trainers, appeared in the entrance to the kitchen.
He was so tall his head nearly hit the top of the doorframe and so wide he had to stand at an angle to keep his shoulders from hitting the sides. The dude was big enough to be flat-out scary and usually had a scowl on his face that completed the “fear me” look, but now he just looked sad. And disappointed.
My Sprite gurgled sickly in my stomach as I realized I was the one who had put that look on his face. Or whatever he thought I’d done. The man could barely look at me, which made me sad. And angry.
