The Lies That Bind (9 page)

We traveled the empty hallways to Station 5, PB’s official detention room, and I slapped the plaque at the door automatically.
Abyssus
abyssum
invocate
. “Hell invokes hell.” True to Pemberly Brown form, no one could remember where the rituals came from, and hitting the signs marking the twelve stations for good luck came just as automatically as the rest.

I liked to pretend that I was above all of the ridiculous, antiquated crap that my self-obsessed private school passed off as tradition, but today I wasn’t in the mood to tempt fate. Taylor ran her fingers over the bronze, and it surprised me that girls like Taylor even bothered. Then again, we could use all the luck we could get.

Or maybe she was just thinking about all the Sisterhood had lost over the past few months. The twelve stations also served as the markers to the underground tunnels the Sisterhood had built when Pemberly and Brown first merged in the ’50s. They’d controlled the tunnels for years, using them to navigate the campus after hours from their underground headquarters. But now the Brotherhood had taken over and changed the locks, like some advanced breed of squatters, and by the looks of things, they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

In the detention room, half the chairs were full of kids sleeping, texting, staring off into space, or even reading. Alistair was one of the sleepers. I shoved Taylor through the doorway. If McAdams was awake, she was the better candidate to do the talking. McAdams and I weren’t exactly best buds, since I’d spent my fair share of free periods in detention rotting along with Alistair.

“Kate!” she protested, stumbling into the classroom. “I am…um…sorry, Mr. McAdams?”

I heard an unintelligible grunt from behind the door and assumed it was McAdams. I could see a few kids lift their heads, including Alistair, who glared in Taylor’s direction. Psycho much?

“Mrs. Newbury in the office sent me here to get Alistair. I think she has a message for him.”

I was very impressed with Taylor’s improv. I didn’t know she had it in her.

“I hope you have a note, Ms. Wright,” McAdams grumbled, more bear than man.

“She was in the middle of her lunch and said to apologize. It will just take a second.”

Even though I could only see the back of her head, I could tell she was smiling, which I knew must have been incredibly difficult to pull off at the moment. The girl was good. I also knew she’d hooked McAdams. No one could resist Taylor Wright’s smile. Especially not an underpaid widower in his early sixties.

Another gurgle and Alistair was free.

“Thanks for the free pass, T.,” he said, pushing past Taylor and into the hallway. “Sorry I’ve gotta run.” Then his eyes landed on me, and he looked back at Taylor and started laughing. “Nice hair, freak show.” In terms of greetings, I had to admit that was actually one of Alistair’s more friendly salutations. “See ya around.”

Wow. I never knew that level of dickery actually existed.

“We got your text,” I called out to him as he walked. That stopped him in his tracks just like I knew it would.

“Well, at least we’re not beating around the bush anymore. I suppose you’re here to tell me that you’ve disbanded the Sisterhood?”

“Do not be ridiculous,” Taylor snapped. “We are here to give you one last chance to let Bethany go. Or else.”

Alistair laughed. “Or else what? You’ll tell that fat-ass security guard to beat us in an arm-wrestling match? Ooh, scary.”

Never in my life have I wanted to punch someone more than in that moment. Alistair Reynolds was the worst kind of asshole. The kind who had never been put in his place. The kind with actual power.

“Let me know when you’re ready to turn over your little robes and necklaces, and then we’ll talk. But you better hurry, because I heard your friend wasn’t feeling too hot this morning, and now that I think of it, I’m not sure anyone remembered to feed her.”

Taylor ran up to Alistair and went straight for his face, her hands ready to claw his eyes out. He managed to grab her right hand, but with a broken wrist he couldn’t stop her left hand from drawing four lines of blood down the side of his cheek.

He cupped his fingers over the wound and, without a word, turned his head, his eyes like flint.

For one long moment I thought he was going to backhand her. But Taylor just stood up and walked back down the hallway. Her arm bumped mine as she passed me, and I could see the struggle in her face as she tried to hold back tears. I could tell by the look on her face that if she even uttered a single word, the floodgates would open and every emotion she’d bottled up over the past few days would come pouring out all at once. And if Taylor was anything like me, tears would make her feel weak, defeated. She picked up her pace and pushed into the closest girls’ bathroom and was gone.

So that went well.

I made my way over to Alistair, who hadn’t moved an inch.

“This isn’t going to end well. You might as well just tell me where she is.”

“You want to know the truth, Lowry? I have no idea where they hid her. It’s not my job to know. This whole thing wasn’t even my idea.” It was strange, but Alistair almost sounded like he was telling the truth.

“You honestly expect me to believe that as president of the Brotherhood you have no idea where they’re hiding the girl you’re holding for ransom?”

“I don’t expect you to believe anything, but you should know that I’m not the president anymore. And like I said, this isn’t my plan, so I’m doing my best just to stay the hell out of it.”

Alistair turned in the other direction and began walking, his hand still pressed tightly against his cheek. As I watched him go, I saw a piece of notebook paper flutter to the ground.

For a moment I held my breath, sure he’d notice that he’d dropped it, but he kept walking. The second he rounded the corner, I snatched up the piece of paper. I figured with my luck it would be something stupid, like his Latin homework, but I was wrong.

The piece of notebook paper had clearly been ripped from a journal of some sort. There were cutouts of beautiful girls in bathing suits and words pasted across their faces.

Too young to die, too old to live.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

Tick tock, time’s out.

I examined the girls in the pictures, trying to see if any of them looked like Bethany or even Taylor. Maybe this was some kind of hit list the Brotherhood had created? But these girls just looked like a bunch of models randomly snipped from magazines. I carefully folded the paper and slipped it into the pocket of my uniform skirt. And just as I was about to push into the girls’ bathroom to check on Taylor, I caught a flash of plaid at the end of the hallway, light spilling in from the huge bay window behind the girl. But there was no mistaking her.

She was taller than Grace, and while their hair color was the same, it hung differently down her back. For a split second, I lost my place. I felt like months had been ripped away from me, that I was back at square one. But this flash of a girl was new. I’d only caught a glimpse, but there was no mistaking her thick hair, her height, her swagger.

It was Bethany.

The bell rang and kids poured into the hallway, a sea of plaid and khaki. I pushed through, showered with nasty looks and sarcastic laughs. I screamed her name, forcing my legs into action as I turned the corner after her. “Bethany, wait!”

But when I made it to the bay window, the hall was almost clear of students who’d already found their way into classrooms and she was gone.

I collapsed onto the window’s wooden ledge and let myself slip back into that place where I’d seen Grace so many times before, the darker place where nothing seemed to matter. Dr. P., my parents, Liam, Seth, so many people counted on me to stay normal. I had promised all of them at one point or another that I’d stay away from the Sisterhood and the Brotherhood, that I’d ignore the ghosts or the hallucinations, whatever you wanted to call the things I saw that weren’t really there.

But when I thought of leaving it all behind, ignoring Taylor, forgetting the picture of Bethany and her trashed house, my throat burned. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the paper again, wondering what it all meant. I could help Taylor find Bethany. I could be there for her so she wouldn’t have to go through the most terrifying, lonely, heartbreaking moment of her life alone.

Or I could walk away.

My stomach knotted when I noticed the time. Doors were clicking shut, teachers launching into lectures. I was headed into demerit territory. I slid down from the window seat and considered going back for Taylor. But based on her dealings with McAdams, Taylor wasn’t quite as prone to demerits. I didn’t have that same luxury. And then I heard my name called from down the hall.

For a split second I thought it was Bethany and my entire body clenched, the slip of paper floating to the ground. But it was just Maddie, rushing down the hall toward me, her uniform still hanging off her thin form despite her having put on some weight. I held Grace’s pearls and bent to retrieve the paper just as Maddie made it to my side.

“Someone said they saw you out here. Richardson’s about to write a demerit, but I told her you needed help. What’s going on?” Maddie was out of breath as though her trip down the hall had taken everything out of her.

I tried to discreetly fold the paper. “Um…yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t feel good. I needed to sit down for a second.” Maddie’s eyes zeroed in on the paper. “But I’m okay now. You can go back to class.”

I went to shove the paper back in my pocket, but it was snatched from my hands before I could stop her. “Where the hell did you get that?” she asked.

“I, um…well, I just found it in the hall, and I thought it looked interesting.”

“So you have no idea where this came from?” An angry flush colored Maddie’s cheeks.

“I…well, yeah. I guess. What is it? Do you recognize it?”

Maddie shook her head and stuffed the paper into her uniform pocket. “No, I don’t recognize it. Just looks private, that’s all.”

She was lying, obviously. And all of a sudden, Maddie’s homecoming seemed a little too coincidental. I mean, she magically showed up the same night Bethany disappeared. She hated Bethany almost as much as I did, maybe even more after enduring a year of her endless manipulations and lies while the Sisterhood and Brotherhood covered up what really happened to Grace. And now she was lying to me about some weird coded document Alistair was carrying around with strange phrases covering girls’ faces. And, of course, there were the messages blatantly blaming everything on the Brotherhood and written in our dead best friend’s handwriting.

It just didn’t add up. Or maybe it did. I’ve always sucked at math.

“You coming?” Maddie asked, headed in the direction of Richardson’s classroom. Staring at her for a second longer than was natural, I finally nodded.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted more—to find Bethany or to finally get a second chance with my best friend.

I never could have guessed that I’d have to choose between the two.

I tried to convince myself that it was normal to ride my fugly bike to Maddie’s house at 11:00 p.m. I tried to pretend that I was just a concerned friend who wanted to make sure her old bestie was adjusting to life outside of rehab. I was counting on this being a very boring stakeout, but when I saw a tiny dark-haired figure make her way out onto the roof, I knew I was wrong. Or right. Honestly, I wasn’t sure which.

Either way, my heart sank as I watched Maddie climb down the trellis on the side of the house. She paused for a minute and dug a piece of paper out of her pocket. It was the same weird page of pictures that Alistair had dropped earlier. I was right. It was some sort of code, or maybe even a map. As I watched her clamber onto her old orange bike, I guessed it was probably the latter. Seeing Maddie on that bike brought back memories of long bike rides to the pool and handlebars sticky with Dairy Queen ice cream. For a second, the frosty January air disappeared, and I could almost smell the charcoal-barbecue, fresh-cut-grass smell of summer.

But there was no time for memories. Maddie had always been the fastest of all of us, and apparently that hadn’t changed over the past few years. I raced off in the direction of PB’s campus, keeping a safe distance between us but never losing sight of my old friend.

My heart stopped dead in my chest when I heard a car approach. The engine slowed to an idle, and I fully expected to see some black car with tinted windows stalking me like something out of a movie.

The moment I saw the bright white minivan was the perfect mixture of extreme relief and extreme annoyance. The driver’s side window rolled down, and a head of curly red ringlets popped out of the car.

“What the heck are you doing out here?”

“Seth! You’re killing me. Ever heard of inside voices?” I hissed, the bike wobbling beneath me as I attempted to steer and talk at the same time.

“But we’re outside.” He looked genuinely confused as he slurped noisily on what looked like a large chocolate milk shake. “I saw you sneaking around from my treehou…I mean, my observatory, and I thought I’d come keep you company.”

I squeezed the brakes on my bike and skidded to a stop, stretching my neck to be sure I still had a visual on Maddie. “Seth, that was over an hour ago. Have you been watching me this entire time?”

“Maybe.” Even in the darkness I could see the red flush travel up his cheeks.

I looked down the road again and saw that Maddie had disappeared.

“Crap! I lost her.”

“Why are you stalking Maddie anyway? Not that I was like stalking you…I mean, stalking is such a strong word. Watching…watching is better. Why was I watching you…er, why were you watching Maddie?” The tips of Seth’s ears were now so red I thought they might burst into flames.

“Enough!” I sounded harsher than I meant to, but I was nervous about losing Maddie. With my luck she was probably dragging Bethany’s lifeless body out of some secret lair or hooking up with Alistair, and I was missing everything. Ugh. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you, but this is important. We have to follow Maddie.”

“Well, why don’t we just offer her a ride?” Seth popped the trunk of the minivan. “I mean, with the storage capacity in this bad boy, I’m sure I could get both of your bikes in here.”

“No!” Seth looked taken aback at my response. “I mean, she doesn’t know I’m here, and it’s kind of a long story. Can we just go? Please?”

“Sure. On one condition. You explain everything on the way.” Seth waggled his eyebrows at me, and I knew he wasn’t going to move an inch until I agreed and Maddie was already out of sight. Plus it’s not like I had to tell him everything, just enough to keep him moving.

“Fine! Fine. You win.”

I threw my bike into the back of his car with a clang. I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of screws roll underneath the van, but I’d worry about that later. Right now, my main goal was to follow Maddie.

As Maddie rode toward Pemberly Brown, I told Seth that I was worried about her getting involved with the societies again and that I’d seen her with a weird document I thought was some sort of map. All of which was true, just not the entire truth. We sat at the edge of the parking lot watching Maddie lean her bike up against the side of Station 8, Hayden Auditorium.

“
Acta
est
fabula, plaudit
,” I whispered.

“The play is over, applaud!” Seth translated the station motto for me. “You think she’s involved in some sort of undercover performing-arts troupe?”

I couldn’t help but smile as I pictured Maddie secretly performing scenes from
Romeo
and
Juliet
in the dead of the night with other hardcore theater geeks. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that Maddie’s late-night journey to campus involved something much more sinister.

We watched as she tried to open the front door. It must have been locked, because she then made her way around the side of the building.

“Come on.” I flung open my door and slunk out, running with my head bent to take up as little space as possible until I could take cover in the surrounding trees. Seth did the same, although he fell flat on his face two or three times before we finally stood side by side, huffing and puffing. At first I thought I was seeing things. Maddie looked left and right suspiciously and then finally flipped over a rock, expertly revealing a small keypad. After punching in a code, she flung open a hatch door flush with the ground and hidden by snow-covered moss and then disappeared. I heard Seth gasp.

“She got in.” His voice was breathless and at least an octave higher than it normally was. “She’s in the tunnels. But how…”

I didn’t wait to hear him finish. I was already off and running, desperate to get to the door before it locked again. My fingers dug into the grass, and I felt the wood underneath my fingernails as I pulled as hard as I could. The door swung open a breath before I heard the dull clicking noise of the mechanical lock sliding back into place.

I felt Seth’s hot breath on my neck as we peered down into the darkness.

“How do we unlock the tunnels? I mean, they are locked, right? We have to follow her. We can’t leave her alone. She’ll just repeat all her same mistakes and then stop eating and then go back to skinny-girl rehab and then probably just die. I mean, that’s what happens when you stop eating. You just die, right?” I wasn’t sure if Seth was panting from physical exertion or because he hadn’t stopped to take a single breath while talking.

“Right.” I said it mostly to shut him up. “Follow me. But be quiet, okay?”

He nodded and I began climbing down the stairs into the ancient tunnels that ran beneath our school. Seth eased the trapdoor shut and we were thrust into a deep, velvety darkness.

“What happened to the lights?” Seth’s whisper bordered on panic. “There used to be lights down here.”

I shushed him. We didn’t have time to rehash everything that had changed about the tunnels—the new hatch that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, the lack of flickering sconces, the fact that Maddie knew exactly how to get in. Instead, I held my cell phone out in front of me as a makeshift flashlight, and we made our way slowly down the stairs. My fingers trailed along the rough brick walls as we descended deeper and deeper beneath the earth. As soon as I felt my foot hit solid ground, I froze, listening. I could barely make out the sound of footsteps to my right.

We padded quietly in the direction of the noise, and I prayed that we’d figure out how to get out of here. The walls of the tunnel seemed to tighten the farther we moved away from the stairs. Claustrophobia wrapped long fingers around my neck and chest, slowly squeezing until the air burst from my mouth in short gasps. My throat began to close, my breath rasping audibly in the stony silence.

I leaned my cheek against the wall, hoping the cold bricks would calm me down or at least put out the fire burning on my cheeks, but it only served to remind me that we were fifty feet underground. Enclosed in a narrow tube of brick-lined concrete. Nothing surrounding us except dirt. The panic tasted like bile on my tongue, and a cry rose up and out of my lungs.

“Shhh!” Seth grabbed my arm, stopping me short. “I think she’s going up.”

The footsteps did sound different, lighter somehow. When we heard a door creak open and then slam shut, we broke into a run.

“Over here!” I whispered. My phone barely illuminated a staircase to our right.

We ran up the stairs and flung open the door at the top. I had no idea what we were going to find, but I was past the point of sneaking around. I just needed to get the hell out of those tunnels.

But when I heaved my body up and out through the door, I was thrust into darkness so dense and so black that I felt like I’d been blindfolded.

I held my phone out in front of me like a beacon, but it was immediately knocked out of my hand. A scream bubbled up in my throat and I opened my mouth to let it out. I knew I had to stop, but the panic was choking me. And then someone’s hand closed roughly over my mouth.

I did the only thing I could think to do. I bit down. Hard. The hiss of pain from behind me brought me grim satisfaction until I realized it had come from Seth. He let out a tiny yelp before yanking me to the ground and prodding me forward to crawl.

I couldn’t see two inches in front of my face, but I could tell by the scratched hardwood floors beneath my fingers that we had found our way not only into the auditorium, but onto the stage itself. Tiny gusts of air washing over us indicated movement, and I could tell that there were a lot of people doing the moving. And there was a rhythm to their movement. Calculated somehow. They swarmed like malevolent ghosts, brushing against my arms and legs and cheeks as they moved around us. The only sound was the swish of fabric and the muted padding of bare footsteps.

Seth gripped my hand, prodding me forward until we reached one of the perimeter walls. I was reminded of all the late summer nights when Grace, Maddie, and I would sneak out of Maddie’s house, creeping down to the lake at the center of her neighborhood. We would jump off the dock and into the cool, black water, stifling screams and giggles, not knowing which way was down or up, left or right. The blackness was all-encompassing, like a shroud. Exactly like this.

“Now what?” I hissed.

“We have to find Maddie.”

A scream, shrill and panicked, bounced off the surrounding walls.

“That’s her! We have to do something.” Seth tried to yank me up, but I refused to move.

He was right; that was Maddie’s voice. I’d recognize it anywhere, had it memorized after hundreds of lame haunted houses and late-night encounters with the Ouija board. But why was she screaming? I thought she was here to meet Alistair. To torture Bethany. The fortune, her weird reaction to Alistair’s letter, her convenient return to Pemberly Brown the night Bethany disappeared—all signs pointed to Maddie Greene teaming up with the Brotherhood again to destroy the Sisterhood once and for all.

The robed figures were running now, chanting something low and quiet in rhythm with their steps.

“Sacrificum. Sacrificum. Sacrificum
.” The chanting grew louder and louder, and the figures moved faster and faster. They were frenzied ghosts, wreaking havoc, shouting, and laughing cruelly as they danced in the darkness.

Seth’s hand dug into mine, and I felt thankful not to have to be here alone. I had a friend willing to stay by my side, even through the scary stuff. That one moment seemed to stretch out for hours.

And then without warning a spotlight flipped on.

I blinked, blinded by the glaring light. Black spots blurred my vision, but I heard a door swing open, then peals of laughter and footsteps.

By the time my vision cleared, the black figures had disappeared. Instead there were boys filing in through the double doors and down the aisles, pointing and staring. At first I couldn’t see what they were looking at, but then I saw her.

Maddie, pale and alone, stood center stage handcuffed to a chair. She was completely naked except for her babyish polka-dotted underwear and what looked like one of her old training bras. Tears ran down her face as the boys laughed and pointed, but it wasn’t until she turned around that I saw that someone had scrawled something across her back in bright red marker.

Proditor
.

Traitor.