Tommy Nightmare (Jenny Pox #2) (10 page)

Heather tromped toward the pond.

It was mostly empty. The hoses sucked mud at
the bottom.

She didn’t see a body down there, infected or
otherwise.

Schwartzman would probably grouse about the
money, but Heather knew emergency funds were coming from Homeland
Security. Besides, if there had been another case, it would have
been important to get the body quarantined.

Or maybe not. Nothing contagious had been
found. There was no disease, only symptoms. Heather couldn’t
imagine what that might mean.

And Heather had checked off two items on her
list, visit the Goodling home and drain the pond. She’d discovered
nothing conclusive. She didn’t hold out much hope for her next
stop, either, but sometimes epidemiology required the baleen whale
approach—suck in all the information you could get, and hope you
picked up something you needed.

Heather left the drainage crew to take their
equipment apart and go home. She tossed her hazmat suit into the
trunk of the federal police car driven by Officer Boele, her
assigned security detail. Though Heather had a rental car at the
hotel, Schwartzman ordered her to ride everywhere with Boele, a
taciturn young man in a blue uniform.

“We’re going to Jenny Morton’s house,” she
said. She gave him the address, and he plugged it into his
dashboard computer.

Jenny and Seth found their panic subsiding as
the sun rose. They took turns peeking out the window to see if the
frightening young man had returned.

“This is crazy,” Jenny finally said. “We’re
acting like kids who saw our first scary movie.”

Seth nodded. “Why are we so afraid of him,
anyway? You hit him pretty hard with Jenny pox. Why would he come
back knowing you could kill him?”

“Yeah.” Jenny looked down at her hand and
wiggled her fingers. Her lethal touch. It had almost made her life
not worth living, until she met Seth.

Jenny went to him and slid her arms around
his waist. She laid her head against his chest and listened to his
heart.

“He looked like her, didn’t he?” Seth asked
after a minute.

“The eyes,” Jenny said. “He had her
eyes.”

“You think he’s a relative or something?”
Seth asked. “He seemed pretty hell-bent on revenge.”

“No,” Jenny said. “That’s not what I
think.”

“You have some ideas, feel free to
share.”

“Look at my eyes, Seth.”

Seth pulled back from her so he could look
down into her face. He smiled and cupped the back of her head, and
his touch sent warm ripples through her, chasing away the black
cobwebs of fear. “Beautiful,” he said.

“No, I’m not,” Jenny said. “And I wasn’t
fishing for compliments, either. Come here.”

Jenny took his hand and led him to the
bathroom. They stood next to each other, surrounded by fading
floral wallpaper.

“What am I looking for?” he asked.

Jenny stood on her tiptoes and laid her cheek
against his. Two pairs of deep blue eyes stared back at them.

“They’re the same color, aren’t they?” Seth
said.

“Because we’re a pair,” Jenny said.
“Opposites. That’s what keeps drawing us together, through all
these lifetimes.”

“We’ve been enemies, too,” Seth said, and she
gave him a puzzled look. “I’m just saying. I saw that in my
memories. We killed each other, a bunch of times.”

“Long ago,” Jenny said. “The last few times,
we’ve really worked on becoming human. Learning to love.” She
looked at him.

“Becoming human.” Seth shook his head.
“That’s a weird way to put it.”

“It’s true.”

Seth turned away and left the bathroom, as if
he didn’t want to look at himself anymore. She followed him into
the kitchen, where he was pouring a Dr. Pepper. “Your dad have
anything stronger I can put in this?” he asked. “Whiskey?”

“No, he threw it all out.”

“I need something.” Seth sat at the table and
looked out through the window into the deep woods that shadowed
Jenny’s house.

Jenny leaned against the wall and folded her
arms. “You get what I’m saying, though?”

“Yes,” Seth said. “We’re evil. We’re not
normal human souls. We don’t belong here.”

“I mean about us being opposites. Ashleigh
must have one somewhere, too. Someone whose touch doesn’t spread
love, but the opposite.”

“What’s that?” Seth asked. “Hate?”

“Or what we felt last night,” Jenny said.
“Fear.”

“His touch spreads fear.” Seth drummed his
fingers on the table and shifted around, looking agitated. “Jesus.
Think of what he could do with that.”

“I bet he can control people,” Jenny said.
“Like Ashleigh. Just in a different way. They fear him instead of
love him, but still.”

“I wonder where he came from,” Seth said.
“Why’s he here now? Because Ashleigh’s dead?”

“You’ve never seen him before?” Jenny
asked.

“Why ask me?”

“She was your girlfriend for three years? You
were up her ass all the time? She made you her slave—”

“Okay, I get your point! No, I’ve never seen
him, or heard Ashleigh talk about anyone like that. But she never
admitted having a power in the first place. He wasn’t a part of her
life, unless she kept it totally secret.”

“Which she was good at,” Jenny said.

“You really think he’s like us?” Seth
asked.

“He did something to us,” Jenny said. “Don’t
you wish there was some kind of expert on this stuff we could ask?
It’s hard figuring it all out by ourselves.”

“There’s not even a name for what we are,”
Seth said. “If we were, I don’t know, vampires or werewolves or
something, maybe we’d have some clues.”

“Vampires.” Jenny laughed a little, without
any pleasure. “I’m worse than that.”

“If that guy comes back, I’ll deal with him,”
Seth said.

“I’m pretty sure that’ll be my job.” Jenny
looked out the window again. “And if there’s another one of
us
to deal with—another one like Ashleigh—then this isn’t a
good time for me to turn myself in.”

“I totally agree.” Seth grabbed her hand.
“But we really should move over to my house. You’ll be safer.
There’s a thousand places you can hide.”

“A thousand scary places,” Jenny said.

“They’re not all scary.” Seth stood up and
embraced her from behind as she looked out at the woods. He pulled
her close to him, and he kissed her neck. “You like the navigator
room. The bed hung with old sails…”

She closed her eyes as he turned her and
kissed her mouth. His hand slid under the hem of her shirt, to cup
her left breast. She tried to catch her breath. He was putting her
off guard…but they needed to…

“We need to go!” Jenny pulled away from him.
“If I’m hiding and playing dead, we can’t stay here.”

“But I was thinking—”

“I know what you were thinking.” She kissed
him, then went to her room and stuffed clothes and a few other
things into her school backpack. “Go make sure Rocky has food.
You’ll have to come check on him every day until this is over.”

When the dog was fed and Jenny was all packed
up, she made a last circuit of the house, checking that the windows
and back door were locked tight. They’d done a very careful job of
securing the house last night, though, when they’d been scared out
of their brains.

They stepped out onto the porch. As Jenny
locked the front door, a black-and-white police car pulled into the
driveway.

“Shit,” Jenny whispered. “Too late.”

The car parked, blocking them in. It was one
of the federal cop cars, Homeland Security.

“What do we do?” Jenny whispered.

“Just smile and nod until they leave,” Seth
whispered back.

A guy in a blue uniform stepped out of the
driver’s side. The woman who emerged from the passenger side had a
short, professional haircut and wore a dark suit. She carried a
black doctor’s bag. Some kind of ID badge was clipped to her
lapel.

“Hi,” the woman said. “Are you Jenny?”

“Um,” Jenny said.

The woman walked all the way to the porch.
Jenny felt pinned. She looked at Seth, but he wouldn’t know what to
do, either.

“I’m Dr. Reynard,” the woman said. “Centers
for Disease Control. I’m looking for Jenny Morton. It’s
urgent.”

Jenny thought those were among the scariest
words she’d ever heard.
I’m from the Centers for Disease Control
and I’m looking for Jenny Morton
.

“You must be her,” the lady continued. “You
look just like the picture.”

“Okay,” Jenny said. “What’s going on?”

“Did you get a flyer like this?” Dr. Reynard
held up the flyer ordering medical screening for everyone.

“Maybe,” Jenny said. “I don’t know.”

“Things have been crazy,” Seth said. “Nobody
knows what’s going on.”

“Unfortunately,” Dr. Reynard said. “We can’t
leave town and let things get back to normal until we’ve screened
everyone. That’s not my choice. I just have to do my job.”

“Where do we need to go?” Seth asked.
“When?”

“Actually…” Dr. Reynard thumped the black
medical bag in her hand. “We can do it right here. It’s very
simple.”

Jenny stared at the bag. She was scared to
think what they might discover about her. And kind of curious, too.
She hadn’t been examined by a doctor since she was born, and that
had led to tragedy.

“Wait,” Seth said. “You can’t just show up at
Jenny’s house and force her to do this.”

“Yes, we can.” The Homeland Security officer
reached for his belt, either for a Taser or a gun.

“I can handle this,” Dr. Reynard told
him.

“We have lawyers,” Seth said. “We’ll fight
you.”

The Homeland Security officer looked at
Jenny’s crumbling old house and smirked.

“This is considered a state of national
emergency,” the Homeland Security officer said. “You will follow
orders.”

“Look, I’ll do it,” Jenny said. “Don’t worry
about it, Seth. It’s fine with me.”

Jenny and Seth went inside, and the Homeland
Security officer followed. He let the screen door bang shut behind
him, so the doctor had to switch her medical bag to the other hand
and open it herself. “Thanks,” she muttered.

The uniformed officer stood just inside the
door, hands at his belt, spine straight.

“What do we need to do?” Jenny asked the two
strangers in her living room.

“We’re actually in a pinch,” Dr. Reynard
said. “I’m supposed to be getting some mobile lab units in
tomorrow, so we can test people at their homes. But we don’t have
them yet.”

“So why not wait until tomorrow?” Seth
asked.

“Seth,” Jenny said.

“Because we want to get out of this town as
much you want us gone,” Dr. Reynard said. “Is there a table where
we can sit?”

Jenny led her into the kitchen. “I’m sorry
it’s messy,” Jenny said. “We weren’t expecting doctors.”

Dr. Reynard laid the medical bag on the table
and sat down across from Jenny. Jenny let out a small sigh of
relief when the doctor strapped on a pair of rubber gloves. No skin
on skin contact.

“Let’s start with a quick blood pressure
check.” Dr. Reynard strapped a cuff over Jenny’s arm.

Jenny kept herself frozen in place. She
didn’t want to accidentally bump against the doctor when she was
leaning so close.

“Just relax your arm,” Dr. Reynard said. She
squeezed a bulb to pump up the cuff with air. “Have you had any
unusual medical conditions recently, Jenny?”

“Like what?” Jenny asked. The question made
her very nervous.

“Oh, anything,” Dr. Reynard said. “Like
sores, blisters…any strange growths or rashes…anything like
that?”

“No.” Jenny’s voice was too small to hear, so
she made herself say it again. “No.”

“Blood pressure looks fine.” Dr. Reynard
clicked a button, and all the air hissed out of the inflatable
cuff.

Jenny stiffened again when the doctor pulled
out a penlight to inspect Jenny’s eyes, ears, and throat. Though
the lady wore gloves, it still made Jenny nervous to have her
fingers so close.

“Any special medical conditions?” Dr. Reynard
asked.

“No,” Jenny said.

“You aren’t taking any prescription medicine?
Or pregnant?”

“No.”

Jenny kept her hands folded in her lap. She
wore light blue cotton gloves today. She never left the house with
her hands bare.

“This is weird,” Seth said. “You’re just
going to do this in somebody’s kitchen? That doesn’t seem very,
what do they call it, sanitary.”

“You got a problem?” the Homeland Security
officer said.

“I’ve worked in worse conditions,” Dr.
Reynard said. “I’ve been in places where they’ve never seen running
water.” The doctor removed a Q-tip from a case in her bag. “Now
just a couple of quick samples, and we’ll be done. Can you open
your mouth for me, Jenny?”

Jenny felt her heartbeat pick up as the
doctor swabbed the inside of her cheek.

“This town hasn’t been easy, though,” Dr.
Reynard said. “Seems like nobody wants to tell me why two hundred
people got together at the town square on Sunday night.”

Jenny’s hands grasped each other tighter.

“I just need a quick hair sample.” The doctor
clipped a few of Jenny’s hairs and dropped them into a test tube.
“I tell you what, it’s like nobody wants us to figure anything out.
Any idea why that is?” Dr. Reynard looked intently into Jenny’s
eyes.

“It’s a strange town,” Seth said. Jenny
nodded.

“Do you two know anything?”

Jenny and Seth stayed quiet.

“Hm. Well, I’m going to need a blood sample,
and I’ll let you go.” Dr. Reynard looked at Jenny’s folded hands.
“Isn’t it a little warm for gloves?”

“I just like them,” Jenny said. She hated how
small and pathetic her voice sounded.

Jenny peeled off a glove and watched the
doctor swab her fingertip with alcohol and prick it with a little
sharp-tipped tube, which slowly filled with Jenny’s dark red blood.
That’s it,
Jenny thought as Dr. Reynard sealed the sample
inside another test tube.
All my secrets are yours.