The Awakening

“Or maybe this will help.” I snatched a drawing hung among the bills and notes on the fridge. “This is Simon’s work, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t as obvious as the message he’d left in the warehouse—a comic-book character would stand out too much on Andrew’s fridge. Simon trusted Derek to recognize his work even when it was a simple sketch.

“Yeah, it’s his.”

“It’s someone swimming. I have no idea what it means but—”

“Pool house,” Derek called back, already striding toward the rear of the house.

I scrambled after him, but by the time I reached the door, it was already shutting. I stepped out into the pitch-black yard, huge trees closing in on all sides, blocking the moonlight. Derek popped from the shadows, making me yelp. He waved me back inside and shut the door.

“He’s not there?” I said.

“Running outside might not be such a smart idea.”

He took the picture again and studied it, like he was looking for any clue that Simon hadn’t drawn it willingly.

“Front door,” he said. “We’ll go the long way. Sneak up.”

With an impatient wave for me to stay close, he started off. I took out my switchblade again and followed. It was a slow trip to the pool house. Derek stopped every few feet to look, listen, and sniff. It was too dark for me to do anything except stay as close as I could. With his dark clothing and quiet walk, that wasn’t easy; and every so often I had to reach out and brush the back of his jacket to reassure myself he was still in front of me.

Finally we could see a clearing ahead and, in it, a pale building. Then came a shrill whistle.

“Simon,” Derek said.

He broke into a jog, leaving me scrambling after him. Before he reached the door, it clicked open.

“Hey, bro,” Simon whispered. He thumped Derek’s back, the nylon jacket crinkling. “Where’s Chloe?”

“Right behind—” Derek turned and saw me stumbling along. “Sorry.”

“Forgot not everyone has your night vision?” Simon thumped him again and strode past, greeting me with a one-armed hug and a whispered, “Good to see you.”

He squeezed my upper arm, then started to say something before Derek cut him off with a hissed, “Inside.”

We stepped through the door into the glow of a lantern. Noticing that, Derek looked around sharply.

“Relax,” Simon said. “No windows. You didn’t notice the light, did you?”

Derek grunted and walked farther in. As he’d said, it was a pool house, filled with neatly stacked and organized pool and yard supplies. Simon and Tori had set up two lawn chairs. Wrappers and Diet Coke cans covered a nearby table-top. I glanced around for Tori and found her asleep on an inflated raft.

“The longer she sleeps, the better,” Simon said. “It’s a good thing you two showed up because another day alone with her?” He pantomimed throttling.

“I saw that,” said a sleepy voice. Tori lifted her head. “Believe me, the feeling is mutual.”

She sat up and raked her hair back, stifling a yawn. “There’s nothing like spending a whole day alone with a guy to make a girl say, ‘What was I thinking?’”

“At least one good thing came of it,” Simon murmured.

Tori looked at me. “He left me here. Alone. Unarmed. At the mercy of whoever took his dad’s friend—”

“First, from what I hear of your spells, you’re a helluva lot better armed than I am,” Simon said. “Second. Left you? Excuse me? You refused to come along.”

“Because I didn’t see the point. Why go racing off looking for the bad guys? I’m sure if we stick around here, they’ll find us soon enough. The smart thing to do would have been to get as far from this place as possible. But no, poor Derek and Chloe might not find us. Hello?” She waved at Derek. “Human bloodhound. He’ll find us.”

Simon leaned down to me and whispered, “It was fun.”

“And then—” Tori continued.

I cut in, “And then we remembered that we called a moratorium on bickering and if we have any issues to discuss, we should wait until we’re someplace safe.”

“We need to discuss a game plan, too,” Derek said, “in case this happens again. Right now, the important thing is Andrew.” He turned to Simon. “What did you find when you got here?”

Exactly what we had, as Simon explained. The front door had been ajar, and they’d left it that way to warn us to enter with caution. They’d walked through the house, and when Simon realized it looked like when his dad had vanished, they got out of there quickly. Simon left the note, and found the keys, and they retreated to the pool house.

“Do you have the keys?” Derek asked.

Simon handed them to him.

Derek flipped through. “Looks like a full set. Is the car still in the garage?”

Simon swore under his breath. “Totally forgot to check.”

“We’ll look, but I’ll bet it is.”

“Car?” Tori walked over. “We have a car?”

“No, we do not—” Derek began.

“You’re sixteen, right?” Tori said.

“I turned sixteen two months ago, locked up in Lyle House, meaning I don’t have a license and even if I did—”

“But you can drive, right?” she said. “You look old enough that no cop would pull you over as long as you keep to the speed limit, don’t run a yellow—”

“I’m not stealing a car from a guy who has disappeared and may be reported missing at any moment. My only point about the car was that if it’s still here, Andrew didn’t drive off. Someone took him. We just don’t know whether it was with his permission.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Presume he was kidnapped and get as far from here as we can, in case they come back.”

Tori turned to Simon. “See? We can get some sleep, then we’re taking my advice—”

“I mean right now,” Derek said.

He was right—the sooner we left, the better—but I couldn’t help feeling my shoulders slump at the thought of hitting the road again. Walking again. Eating energy bars and sleeping in alleys again. I tried not to picture the house, warm and cozy, with beds, food, showers…

Feeling Derek’s gaze on me, I straightened. “I’m good.”

“Of course she is,” Tori said. “Our perky little—” This time, she cut herself off. “Okay, sorry, but you know what I mean, guys. As long as Chloe can walk, she’s not going to admit she needs to rest.”

“I slept on the bus.”

“For about an hour,” Derek said. “And none last night.”

“What happened last—?” Simon stopped. “Later, I know. But Tori has a point. Chloe needs to rest and she’s not the only one. We’re beat. It’s already late. If we can rest here safely, we should all recharge our batteries. Otherwise they’re going to quit when we need them most.”

I could tell Derek wanted us to move out, but after a moment’s consideration, he waved us to the door. “We’re up at dawn, gone a half-hour later. If you aren’t ready, you stay behind. Any light that isn’t on, leave it off. Stay away from all the windows….”

Thirty-eight

WE ALL SHOWERED. HAVING two bathrooms made that quick. While I was waiting, I tried to tie a knot in my necklace chain—I didn’t like keeping the pendant in my pocket. When that didn’t work, I looked for string and instead found a piece of ribbon and tied it on that.

After the showers, we ate. Andrew had a lot of convenience food—his housekeeping skills didn’t seem to extend to cooking. We found decent frozen meals, cooked them in the microwave, and they tasted so good—better than any gourmet dinner.

Simon organized our watch shifts as we ate. Derek insisted on taking the first, and the rest of us headed to bed, with Tori and me sharing the spare room and Simon on the office futon. No one felt right sleeping in Andrew’s bed.

I made a bathroom stop first. When I came out, I saw the photos along the hall, and stopped at a shot of Simon and Derek. Maybe twelve, they were roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Simon looked like Simon, with his spiked dark-blond hair and big grin as he showed off his flaming marshmallow for the camera.

Derek looked different. The picture had been taken before puberty hit. His skin was clear and he had a shock of black hair, still falling into his eyes. He was taller than Simon, but not as much, and he was thinner—he hadn’t started filling out yet. He still wasn’t magazine cover material, but he was the kind of guy that, at that age myself, I might have stolen a glance at across the classroom and thought he was kind of cute, with really nice eyes.

“That was taken out back here.”

I jumped. Simon laughed and shook his head.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m still jumpy. So this was here?” I pointed at the picture.

He nodded. “The summer before Dad and Andrew had their fight, I think. There’s a clearing where Derek and I camped out.” He paused, thinking. “I wonder if Andrew kept all that gear. I’m sure Tori isn’t the backpacking type, but…”

“If it means no more sleeping in rat-infested buildings, she’ll go for it.”

“I’ll talk Derek into giving us time to look for the camping gear tomorrow. I know you’re exhausted, so I won’t keep you up chatting, but you will tell me about the adventures I missed this time?”

I managed a tired smile. “Sure.” I started to turn away, then stopped. “You’ve got your watch alarm set, right? You’ll get me up after your shift?”

“I doubt either of us will be taking a turn. Derek only let me organize shifts because he wasn’t in the mood to argue. I’ll go out at three, but he won’t give up his post.”

“He needs sleep, too.”

“Agreed, and I will hassle him. But he doesn’t like us being here and there’s no way he’ll let someone without superhero strength and senses stand guard. The best thing we can do is find those tents and sleeping bags in the morning, get him to the nearest campsite, and let him sleep then.”

I got a few steps away before he said, “Chloe?”

I turned. The hall was dark, lit only by the living room light behind him, throwing his face into shadow.

“Was Derek…okay with you today? I know he was getting up in your face before we left Buffalo and I was worried. You guys seem fine now….”

“We are.”

When he said nothing, I said, “Really. We got along great, actually. A nice change.”

I couldn’t see his expression, but could feel his gaze on me; then he said softly, “Good.” A pause and a more emphatic, “That’s good. I’ll see you tomorrow then. We’ll talk.”

We headed for the bedrooms.

Once again, sleep and I weren’t on speaking terms. My brain was too busy playing in the land of nightmares.

I kept thinking of the woods surrounding the house. I’d hear a branch scrape the window and leap up, certain it was a bat and, of course, then start thinking of zombie bats, trapped in their crushed bodies….

After a Disneyfied dream of prancing through the forest, leading a singing trail of undead critters, I bolted awake, sweating, and decided it was time to give up the ghost…so to speak. I got out of bed and checked the clock. It was almost five, meaning Simon had been right about Derek not letting us take a turn. I got up, grabbed a coat from the front closet, and headed for the kitchen.

“Chloe,” Derek’s growl vibrated from the forest long before I could see him. “I told Simon I want you guys to sleep—”

He stopped as the smell of sausages drifted his way. I could imagine him sniffing the air, stomach rumbling, and I tried not to laugh.

I found him sitting on the grass in a clearing. I held out a lawn chair and a plate of sausages in buns.

“I know you won’t come in, so you might as well be comfortable. Unless you aren’t hungry…”

He took the sausages. I pulled a bottle of Coke from my pocket, then shucked the coat and passed them over.

“You should be sleeping,” he said.

“I can’t.”

“Sure you can. Just close your eyes and…” He studied me, then grunted, “What’s up?”

I looked out over the forest. The air smelled very faintly of woodsmoke, reminding me of the photo.

“I saw a picture of you and Simon. He said you guys had a camping spot out here. Is this it?”

“So we’re changing the subject?” He shook his head, set up the chair, sat, and looked at me expectantly for a moment, “Yeah. This is the spot.”

“It smells like someone else had a campfire going earlier tonight. Someone burning leaves? Or kids getting a jumpstart on summer?”

“So we’re definitely changing the subject?”

I paused, then lowered myself to the grass. “It’s just…this.” I waved at the forest. “I’m worried that I’m going to, you know, in my sleep…”

“Raise another corpse?”

I nodded.

“That’s why you couldn’t sleep last night, isn’t it? I thought about that later, on the bus. You were afraid she was buried out there—the girl you saw get killed.”

I nodded. “I was worried that if I drifted off, I’d keep thinking about her, about summoning her, like with the homeless guy. I can’t control my dreams. And I figured there was a good chance she was buried out there, never found.”