Five: Out of the Dark (9 page)

I could have kissed Seth! On the cheek, of course. My first real kiss was saved for Johnathan. And every real kiss after that, too.

We spent the next couple of hours cleaning up, picking out our areas, and organizing our possessions. We checked out the stove and found that one of the burners still had gas piped to it. We discussed the plausibility of keeping the ice box supplied with enough ice to keep food cold, and decided it would be difficult at best. Halli came up with a brilliant solution. She gathered a few bricks, cast a freezing spell on them, and put them in the ice box. We wondered if they might actually stay cold in there for two or three days before we had to zap them again. Only time would tell.

Seth constructed a trap door over the stairs using broken boards from the room above. Meanwhile, Johnathan and Alec filled us in on what they’d found out on their information-gathering expedition.

“Some of us can register as siblings, stating we’re homeless. They can’t require past records that way,” Johnathan explained. “But, I think it would be suspicious if we all did that. As homeless students, we don’t even need a parent or guardian to sign for us. We asked a worker at a homeless shelter and she gave us a copy of the McKinney-Vento Act that says, basically, that schools have to register homeless kids even if they don’t have a parent to sign for them, or past school records, or proof of immunizations.

“As for those of us who won’t be registering as homeless, we talked to a couple of
document specialists
some thugs pointed us to. They said making fake school records wasn’t a problem … the problem is their asking price for doing so.”

“Yeah, I don’t know where we would come up with that kind of money,” Alec added. “They wanted like a hundred bucks per person!”

“I can probably get my real records,” Seth said in a hushed voice.

We all looked at him.

Finally, I broke the silence. “How?”

“Well, don’t be mad, ’kay? I sometimes contact my family.” We all sat in stunned silence. “They understand why I had to leave and they’ll do what they can to help us. I’ll have my mom mail them to our grocer friend. I might even be able to have her send my sister’s records for Paige.”

“Okay. Perfect. Thank you, Seth,” Johnathan said. I think we were all a little jealous that Seth’s parents understood and supported him as best they could. “One more thing, though.” Johnathan added as he turned to Halli. “You aren’t going to be able to join us at the school, Hal. You’re too young and look even younger than you are. But, we’ll find something for you to do to help, don’t worry.”

Halli’s face fell; some of the sparkle left her eyes. “I kind of figured I wouldn’t quite fit in as a high-schooler. I’ll help however I can, though.”

“Thanks, Hal. Okay, since Paige will hopefully be using Seth’s sister’s records, you guys’ll need to act as siblings. We’ll just need to find a parent to sign for you. Alec and I will be brothers. We won’t need records if we play homeless … and we
are
homeless. They’ll probably just test us for placement. I’ll go talk to Joe tomorrow to see if he can play dad for Paige and Seth.” Johnathan wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. “I’m feeling kind of funny today.”

“Funny how?” I asked.

“I’m not sure how to describe it. I feel a little shut-in, like I need to be outside. I’m just a little sick to my stomach, too. I’m sure it’ll pass soon. It’s nothing, really.”

I wasn’t reassured. For the first time in a couple of days, I thought about the bite he’d received.

“Let me see your hand, John,” I demanded.

He bunched his eyebrows, surprised, as though he hadn’t thought about his hand wound for a while either. He held his hand out to me. It looked the same as it had a couple of days ago. My concern deepened when his hand started shaking. He pulled it back quickly, probably hoping I hadn’t noticed the tremors.

“See? It’s fine, Paige.” He smiled but his eyes showed worry.

“Johnathan, hold both hands out.”

Eyes rolling, he held his hands out to me, palms down. They both shook. He closed them into fists and shrugged. “It’s just because I haven’t eaten today. Don’t be such a worrywart.”

“I
am
worried about you. I’m going to get you some food. You stay put.” Yeah, I could be bossy at times.

I made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and brought him our last can of lemon-lime soda. He ate it all. He chewed each bite for too long and swallowed like he was forcing it down—like he had no appetite at all.

We cleaned up a little more. Halli and I focused on scrubbing the bathroom, while Seth looked for a way to rig up a shower in a back room that had probably been used for storage at one point.

Late in the afternoon, we all gathered at a table near the bar. Johnathan’s face was pale, with small beads of sweat on his forehead.

“I really need to get out of here for a while,” he said. “I didn’t plan on patrolling tonight, but I’m thinking maybe Seth and I should go try to contact his family. The sooner we get those records, the sooner we can figure out what’s happening at that school, and hopefully prevent any more so-called suicides.”

“Johnny, you aren’t looking so good, bud,” Alec said. He was the only one that called him Johnny. Johnathan hated it.

“I’m fine,
Alice
,” Johnathan said, a little defensively.

“Okay, whatever, man.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk him out of going, so I just said, “I’m going with you. I could use an evening stroll.”

Alec and Halli wanted to come, too, so we gathered our gear belts, set our wards, and headed for aboveground.

e walked the two or so miles to Frink Park, where Seth had found an old pay-phone with rotary dial—and he’d apparently been able to use it before without it going up in smoke and flames, although it had crackled a lot and cut him off before he was done.

He called his parents collect. He was able to convince his mom to send the records we needed. He didn’t tell her exactly what we needed them for, but assured her it was for a good cause.

We decided to hang out at the park for a while before starting the walk back to our new home. This was one of our favorite parks. The seventeen acres gave us plenty of room to roam. It had a creek, wooded areas and hiking trails. We walked a little ways down a trail and stopped in a small clearing. In the center of the open space, a fire pit sat surrounded by a couple of benches made out of large logs. Johnathan stumbled up to a bench, and fell more than sat onto it. He was no longer pale; instead, his skin was flushed a dark red. He had rivulets of sweat pouring down his face and the hand tremors appeared to have extended to the rest of his body while intensifying tenfold.

I rushed over and sat next to him. I took one of his hands in mine; it was burning hot. I wiped the sweat from his brow, which was, unbelievably, hotter than his hands. “Johnathan! Oh my gosh, you’re burning up! Are you okay?” Dumb question, since he was obviously
not
okay, but I was near panic.

“I don’t know. I’m really dizzy and everything hurts. I feel like my skin is crawling. Something’s not right, Paige.” He looked at me with a desperation and fear I’d never seen before. Not from anyone, but especially not from my brave Johnathan. I was really scared.

The others gathered around us, concern written all over their faces, too. “What should we do?” Alec asked me.

“I … I don’t know. We need to cool him off. See if you can find something to bring some water from the creek in.” My voice shook. It was cool outside already and about to become even cooler since the sun was getting ready to set. Johnathan was shaking uncontrollably. “John, maybe you should lay down.”

He gripped my hand with bone-crushing strength and I saw through the tears in my eyes that his other hand gripped the bench with equal intensity. His fevered eyes widened in terror. I could see his muscles
undulating
unnaturally beneath his skin.

“Paige … lock me in a circle. Do it now!”

“What …?” I hesitated.

“Now, Paige!”

I jumped up and looked for a place to draw a pentacle. The fire pit was surrounded by cement. I took out my chalk and drew a circle as big as I could in the limited space. I carefully and quickly drew the pentagram. As soon as my chalk made the last mark of the pentagram, Johnathan surged forward into the circle.

“Close it!” he choked out in a growling voice.

My heart raced and my hands shook uncontrollably. My mouth went dry as I tried to swallow. His eyes had turned a frightening yellow-gold color and his pupils dilated and constricted at a dizzying pace. I dug in my belt for a straight pin and almost dropped it before pricking my finger to draw a drop of blood to close the circle with. Halli stood nearby, and joined her power to mine to give the spell added strength.

The circle closed just as Alec and Seth came running down the trail.

“What are you doing?” Alec yelled, grabbing me by the arm.

“He wanted me to!” I yelled back, ripping my arm free and turning to face him.

“You guys, stop!” Halli yelled. “Look at Johnathan!”

We whirled toward him. Johnathan was in the throes of agony. His body doubled over, bent almost in half. And … he was
changing
. We stood watching, speechless, as Johnathan’s humanlike screams turned to animalistic howls of pain and rage. His body contorted again, and he bent to all fours like a dog, except his arms were longer than his legs. His bones shifted shapes, stretching his skin taut to the point I thought he’d rip right through it. Black furry hair sprouted in thick patches over his body. His already large muscles grew to enormous proportions, ripping his T-shirt. Claws erupted from his hands and feet, ripping through his tennis shoes. His teeth lengthened and multiplied and his face elongated into the shape of a deformed wolf. He snarled and then looked up at the now-risen full moon and howled in rage and lustful yearning.

“Someone’s gonna hear him. We need to put up some wards.” Halli, always the voice of reason.

I couldn’t move. The others set about putting wards up around our small clearing. I backed to the bench Johnathan and I had been sitting on just moments before and sat down hard.
This is my fault. The changeling did this to him.
Tears streamed down my face. I started to hyperventilate as the animal Johnathan had become screeched and howled and started to pound on the barrier that enclosed him. Each time a part of his body touched the invisible force field, a bolt of sheer blue power shot out from that spot.

Seth and Halli sat next to me, Seth’s arm around my shoulders. Alec knelt in front of me.

“Paige, slow down your breathing, you’re going to pass out,” Halli said gently.

I tore my gaze from the awful sight before us and sought solace in Halli’s eyes. She reached for my hands and squeezed them. “Breathe with me, Paige.”

I followed her pattern of breathing slowly, in through my nose and out through my mouth. It helped stop the numbness that had started around my lips, but did nothing to slow the sobs that now escaped my throat.

We sat that way, huddled together in silence, for several minutes. We stared at our leader, now reduced to a howling, slobbering monster. He began to claw at his face. Streaks of blood spilled from each rip of his skin, but his claws relentlessly continued to dig.