The Lost Girls

by Sonia Hartl

  “Don’t be rude, Ida.” Rose clasped her hands, looking every bit like a big-eyed bunny facing a gothic house of horrors. “A little fresh air, a little Lysol, and this place will clean up nicely.” Her smile faltered as a mouse scurried across the living room and into a hole in the wall. “It was very kind of Stacey to let us stay here.”

  “We could always get another apartment,” Ida said.

  “How did you find the last apartment, anyway?” The rent on that place must’ve been double what I made at Taco Bell in a month. Unless Ida had a secret business selling her art projects on Etsy, I couldn’t figure out how they afforded it.

  “We killed the landlord.” Rose had a way of making murder sound like peaches-and-cream innocence, and she gave the sweetest smile at the memory. “He owned six properties, lived alone, and charged enormous late fees. He still hasn’t been reported missing.”

  “Huh. Good idea.” That was so much more economical than trying to scrape together enough money for rent. When I lived with Elton, we mostly stayed in hotels or off-season cabins. It had never occurred to me to secure housing for more than a few days at a time. Just another way I hadn’t been properly prepared to live as an adult.

  “Now that that’s done, a few warnings.” Stacey dusted off her hands as she came out of the basement. “The second floor is beyond repair, don’t go up there. The backyard butts up against the woods. You can dump your kills back there, not too close to the house, though, or it’ll attract animals. My mom’s house isn’t a palace, but I don’t think Elton knows about it.”

  She looked to me for confirmation, and I shook my head. I never did tell Elton where Stacey lived. She insisted it would be the end of our friendship if I ever told him personal details about her. If only I’d listened when she tried to warn me. A thought that had become a constant spinning loop in my mind on nights when I’d been left alone. The nights that had become all too frequent near the end of our relationship and should’ve signaled the writing on the wall. I didn’t realize until much too late that he didn’t like her because he didn’t like any threats to his full attention. My job was to feed his ego, and Stacey threatened my dependence on him, which he’d so carefully honed over months of subtly eroding my confidence.

  I shook off the shame and regret that always accompanied thoughts of Elton. We were ending this soon. I had to keep reminding myself of that. “What did you do with your cult?”

  “Tied them up in the basement.” Stacey opened the door near the kitchen, where the horrified screams of the teens floated on the air like a symphony of dark delights. “There are enough to last the three of you a week. In case you need to lay low.”

  “That was considerate of you.” Rose shot a warning glare at Ida, who had groaned. “I might nibble on one or two, but we’ll be on the move quite a bit over the next week. There are a few things we need to take care of before the full moon.”

  We only had a week left. A week to get Rose’s heirloom and say goodbye to our memories. Another week of keeping Parker alive. It didn’t seem like enough time, but at the same time, it felt like too much.

  I understood Parker’s resentment for her mom. Hell, I still carried mine around over thirty years later, when it shouldn’t have mattered anymore. I even understood her desire to set down roots somewhere after I’d spent all that time moving around with Elton and never getting attached to anything. But if Parker left, I’d be able to breathe easier.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t much help with the spying.” Stacey walked around, picking up discarded paper, plastic cups, and other trash. “Elton recognized me, which was surprising.”

  “I’m not surprised,” I said. Stacey had challenged Elton the way very few did. She didn’t shy away from him, and she wasn’t enamored by him, either. It got under his skin.

  “I do think I can help with the bank situation, though. Breaking in might not be necessary.” Stacey held out her hand to Rose. “Can I borrow the ID you’ve been using?”

  “Sure.” Rose gave her the license that had belonged to a Kristin Helms, before Rose made a meal out of her, took her wallet, and assumed her identity. “What are you going to do?”

  “Back in high school, I used to forge parent signatures for money,” Stacey said. “I was pretty good at it, remember, Holly?”

  I’d completely forgotten. She’d done such a good job of faking parents’ signatures, her own mom thought she’d signed Stacey’s report card, even though she couldn’t recall ever seeing it. Her forging business kept us in cheap dollar movies and arcade money for most of the year.

  “Can you put together something that would allow Rose to get into the box?” I asked.

  “I can try to put together something official looking.” Stacey tucked Rose’s current ID in her back pocket. “I’ll need a few hours at the library.”

  “Excellent.” I bounced on my toes as I clapped my hands together. It would make my entire week if we could get out of the bank-heist portion of this mission. I did not want to spend the full moon in jail. “What about Frankie? What should we do with him?”

  “I’ll go talk to him.” Ida put her hand on the front door and gave a meaningful look to Rose. “Not. By. Myself. Remember what happened at the graveyard?”

  “Oh. Right.” Rose jumped to attention. She’d already gotten one of her dishrags out, fully prepared to stress-clean until her problems became more manageable. “We should find out if he had a hand in ransacking our apartment and see just how close he is to Gwen these days.”

  When Ida left, with Rose trailing behind her, Stacey turned to me. The two of us in this house was like moving through a dream, familiar yet all the details were wrong. It wasn’t until I clenched my fist and felt the pull of my skin over my bones that I realized time didn’t like it, either. The two of us alone in this house didn’t belong here.

  “I need to get going on that paperwork, but you’re welcome to stay.” Stacey loosened the knot on her scarf, as if it was trying to choke her. “One of the kitchen cupboards has a stack of books. I don’t know if there are any romances, though.”

  Stacey hurried out the front door, bending over and breathing out a sigh of relief at the foot of the porch stairs before disappearing toward the adjoining neighborhood. I stared around at the moldy walls, jars of greenish liquid with bits of gray meat floating inside, and unidentifiable stains in the carpet. If only I got some sense of peace from cleaning the way Rose did, I’d be able to find my calm. The muffled screams of the kids in the basement hummed on the dusty air. I couldn’t just sit around and read. I had too much restless energy, and everything about this place depressed me.

  My mind went back to Parker, because it always seemed to go back to Parker. She’d be fine. She wouldn’t tell Elton we kissed. She had no reason to tell him about that. But still, it would probably be better if I made sure …

  Closing the front door behind me, I set off for the one place I really shouldn’t have gone.

  I rubbed my palms against my jeans as I stood outside Parker’s apartment. The complex wasn’t that far from the school. Blue and brick-colored buildings with eight units apiece surrounding a pool and clubhouse. It was a smaller complex, but nice enough. Generic. Easy to leave behind and move into another complex in another state just like it.

  I pressed my nails into my palm as I worked up the nerve to knock.

  “Just do it already,” I whispered to myself.

  It wasn’t that weird for me to show up. She’d be happy to see me. Maybe. Probably. I needed to get over myself. I was a vampire. Undead, immortal, powerful. I would not be brought to my knees by a mortal girl with a gorgeous smile and terrible dance moves. I straightened my spine and knocked, wincing as it echoed through the empty hall. No taking it back now.

  Parker flung open the door. It hit the wall, and she jumped. “Hi.”

  The left side of my mouth curved up in a grin I tried to suppress. I couldn’t help it. Everything about her made me smile. “I came over to make sure you were okay.
”

  “Why?” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “I mean, do you think I shouldn’t be okay? Because I’m totally okay. Fine. Why?”

  “Uh-huh.” I strolled around her living room, careful to keep my distance. A couple of generic floral prints hung on the walls, an iron clock, cheap and trendy couches with bright throw pillows. No pictures anywhere. The entire apartment screamed impersonal and transient. “So. This is where you live.”

  “For now, anyway.” She tugged on the fraying hem of her sweater.

  “Did you make this?” I held up a lumpy pottery sheep.

  “In third grade.” She grabbed it from me and put it back on the bookshelf.

  “Has it always been you and your mom?” I asked. I didn’t know why I kept firing questions at her, except being in her space made me want to wrap myself in her and know all the pieces that made her tick. I wanted every part of her, not just the ones she chose to show me.

  “Yeah. I don’t know who my dad is.” She lifted a shoulder, as if to say it wasn’t a big deal. “To be honest, I don’t think my mom knows, either.”

  “My mom told everyone my dad was dead so she could get sympathy widow points.”

  My father took off right after I’d been born, a scandal in the early ’70s. So my mom moved to Glen River and told everyone she was widowed, including me. I didn’t find out my father was alive until she confessed it to me in middle school, but by that point, I just kept the lie going because it was easier. Stacey was the only person who knew the truth. I never even told Elton. Of course he never asked, either, because it didn’t center on him, so he didn’t care.

  Parker let out a choked laugh. “Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. That’s really fucked up.”

  “It’s kind of funny.” I grinned at her for what felt like way too long to be considered normal. Playing with the clasp on my locket, I turned back to the bookshelf. “Are you a reader?”

  “Yes. Historical and fantasy, mostly. I like going someplace that isn’t here. Do you want anything to drink?” When I raised my eyebrows, she shook her head. “No, of course you don’t. Silly me. Why are you here?”

  “I can …” I gestured at the door. This was turning out to be way more awkward than I’d anticipated, and I hadn’t anticipated this going well. “I’m not even sure why I came over.”

  Other than wanting to see her, which was a problem. I didn’t need to involve myself in her life or feel things while standing in her sad apartment because her mom never gave her anything close to stability. And I absolutely did not need to notice how cute she looked as she bit her bottom lip and knotted her fingers behind her back.

  I had no place here.

  I started to march across her living room toward the door when she reached out and grabbed my hand. Her palm was warm, and her pulse thumped in a skipping beat until it matched my own. “Wait.” Her soft brown eyes met mine. “Don’t go yet.”

  “This is a bad idea.” I swallowed. “You should tell me to leave.”

  Her gaze swept my lips. “But I already invited you in.”

  “That’s not a thing.”

  I kissed her, and oh, God, it was just as consuming as the first time. I’d never kissed with this much urgency before. Tangled tongues, teeth bumping, completely lost in this girl. She guided me to the couch and backed me into it so I fell against the cushions. As she straddled me, I gripped her hips, pulling her closer, needing more.

  A knock at the door had us both pulling back. “Parker. Open up.”

  Elton. My heart leaped into my throat. If he suspected anything …

  Parker rested her forehead against mine. “I’ll get rid of him.”

  “No.” I grabbed her arms to hold her still. “If he thinks there is something going on with us, he’ll kill you. Act like everything is fine. This will be over in a week.”

  Her eyes widened. “What do you mean, he’ll kill me? Is that a joke?”

  “You know what it means.” I moved her off my lap and adjusted my sweater, retied my messy bun, making sure everything was in the same place it was when I came over. “If you want to keep living in denial, that’s your choice, but do not think for a second that Elton is just some harmless high school boy.”

  “I’ve never considered high school boys to be harmless.” Parker straightened her own sweater and smoothed down her hair. “I wish you would just tell me the truth.”

  “I wish you’d say it first.” I gave her a mocking bow. “And I’d be happy to confirm.”

  Her expression hardened as she stared at me. Elton knocked again.

  “Coming,” she said as she kept her eyes on mine.

  I tucked my locket into my sweater, and she flung open the door. Elton, in all of his black leather jacket, windswept glory, stepped into the living room like it was a stage and we were an audience who existed just for his entrance. My stomach clenched, an involuntary reaction, as my blood rushed through my veins. Still so beautiful. My fingers itched to trace the lines of his face, even as my mind screamed at me to run. His grin sharpened as soon as he laid eyes on me.

  “Holly. How nice to see you all cleaned up.” He slung his arm over Parker’s shoulders and nuzzled her ear. The sharp point of his fang traced the shell, and her shoulders hunched in response. “Grave digging is such dirty business.”

  Parker’s brow furrowed as she glanced at me. “Grave digging?”

  “Don’t listen to Elton.” I glared at him. “He seems to have lost his head.”

  “Yet here it is, fully attached.” He picked a piece of lint off his button-down shirt. “By the way, while I appreciate you sending that frizzy-haired menace to check up on me today, it’s truly unnecessary. We’re old friends. I’m sure we can settle our differences on our own.”

  “Is that what we’re calling them now? Differences?” One more week. Then I could rip off his head in a more permanent way. “What do you want?”

  “I’m sorry.” He put a hand to his chest as he looked around.

  “Do you live here? My mistake.”

  “I was just leaving, actually.” I rammed my shoulder into Elton’s as I passed. “Obviously, my presence here is unwanted. Be careful,” I said to Parker.

  “This tired conversation again?” Elton let his icy eyes fill with pity, an act he’d perfected over the years. “You need a new angle, Holly. I know our breakup hit you hard, but you’re starting to look desperate at this point.”

  “And you’re starting to look …” I waved my hand up and down. Honestly, it was a crime for him to be so pretty. “Whatever. I’m done here.”

  “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon enough.” He gave me a little wave.

  I slammed the door and blew out a breath. Hopefully Parker would play along. If she broke up with Elton, he’d probably think it a fun little game to win her back. But if she told him she was ending things because she wanted someone else … I didn’t want to think about what he would do if she broke his delicate ego. We only had to keep this up for another week. Then Parker would be free to move on with her life, I’d be free to leave Michigan, and we’d never have to see each other again.

  That did nothing to comfort me.

  By the time I got back to Stacey’s house, Rose and Ida had returned. Ida had another art project. She sat at the dining-room table with a length of long blond hair, which she knotted to form a thick rope. She hummed a tune I didn’t recognize. Lost in her own world. Rose had already tied up four bags of trash and had one corner of the living room scrubbed to a gleaming polish. If I looked at that one corner, and blocked out my peripheral vision, I could almost shut out the rest of the disaster around us.

  “Did you talk to Frankie?” I asked Rose.

  “He was with Gwen. We couldn’t get him alone.” Rose pulled out the last rusty nail from the fireplace mantel and got to work on the surrounding marble. “He could be useful, though. We’ll have to set up a time to meet him where we can all speak freely.”

  “I saw Elton today.” I told her about my
visit to Parker’s, minus the kissing, and what Elton had said to me before I shut the door in his face. “I think he might try to ambush us on the way to the bank, so we need to be cautious.”

  “He won’t know what direction we’re coming from, though.” Rose had put some wildflowers in a mason jar and arranged them on the mantel. “That’s an advantage.”

  The front door banged open, kicking up a fresh round of dust, and starting the chorus of screams in the basement anew. Stacey walked in with blood staining her lips and a board game under her arm. “Anyone want to play Monopoly?”

  I raised my hand with much more enthusiasm than I felt. Only because Stacey loved board games. If I shut out the crumbling walls, the faint scent of dried blood, and the shrieks of terrified teenagers, it could’ve been 1987 again. But as I glanced between Rose and Ida fighting over the thimble, it occurred to me that not everything in my present needed to be compared to the way things used to be. I had things worth fighting for now, and maybe it was time to let my past go, before it let me go.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The sun rose over the trees as I stood on Stacey’s back patio. An old swing with rusted hinges and faded cushions still managed to stay upright at the back of the property. I walked through the yard, where a chilling mist wound around my ankles, and a light frost coated the grass. The gazebo where I spent lazy summer days reading had fallen apart, now no more than a pile of sticks with chipped white paint and overgrown weeds. Her backyard bumped up to the woods where Stacey and I waited half the night for the Fisher brothers, who never showed up because they’d been caught sneaking out of their bedroom window. Another memory that came to me out of nowhere, but soon would be burned away the moment Rose, Ida, and I sacrificed our heirlooms to kill a boy we all once had loved.

  Ida stepped outside. “It’s almost time.”

  While Stacey, Rose, and I had played Monopoly all night, Ida quit after the first round to work on her human-hair rope. She stayed silent and moody. At around one in the morning, she’d gone off on her own, not returning until now. The closer we got to ending Elton, the more withdrawn she’d become. I worried what losing her memories would do to her state of mind and what trauma still lingered from the graveyard.