8  

Reggie was relieved to pedal into an empty driveway when she got home: her father and Henry were still out. She showered first, washing the soot and grime off her skin and out of her hair, and threw her dirty clothes in the hamper. She rubbed antiseptic on her burn; there were no bandages in the house large enough to cover the wound, so she put on a thick plastic bangle that mostly hid it. She didn’t want her father asking any questions about it.

She took out the trash with the bloody bleeding hearts in it and replaced the bag. Then she sat down at the kitchen table to wait. When Dad got home, she figured she might as well get the drama over with.

She drummed her fingers on the table. The summer solstice. Armageddon. It was a lot to have to think about when she should be studying for finals.

She heard the truck pull up a half-hour later. When they walked in, Henry gave Reggie a sympathetic look, but Dad walked straight to the sink and got a glass of water. He took a long gulp, then filled the glass again.

“Hen, why don’t you go play in your room for a bit?” he said.

Henry nodded and left the kitchen. Dad finished the second water and came back to the table. He sat down heavily and only then allowed his eyes to focus on his daughter.

“Do we need to get you a new watch?” he asked.

Reggie looked at her hands.

“Because I believe I was very clear on the time we were leaving this morning. Am I wrong?”

“No, you were clear.”

“Then explain to me why at nine o’clock I go into your room to find an empty bed and then can’t get a hold of you on your cell phone. That phone is a privilege, not a right. When I call, you pick up.”

“Dad, it was an emergency. Aaron—”

“Aaron? Aaron had an emergency? And you chose…” Dad’s teeth clenched. “Look, I know you have issues with me, but this time I thought… because it was Henry. That you’d be there for him.”

“Dad, I wanted to be—I did. It was a mistake, I know. Things have just been so crazy.”

“Things will always be crazy, Reg. That’s life. But your brother should be a priority.” Dad spoke softly but firmly, and Reggie could tell he was trying to keep his temper in check. “When you do things like this, he sees that you have more important things in your life than him.”

“I’m trying to protect him! I’m trying to protect all of you!” Reggie looked as surprised as her father at her outburst. She bit her lips and kept her head down, and tried to keep the tears at bay.

“Protect us? Reggie, get control of yourself. Look, I’m not going to punish you,” Dad continued. “Lord knows that hasn’t worked in the past anyway. I need you to work through this and be the sensible girl I know you are. Dr. Unger said you may be reacting to discipline reserved for a child, so I won’t do it. And in return I’m expecting you to act like an adult.”

“Is that what Dr. Unger said?” Reggie asked wryly. It was probably true in most teenage girls’ cases. Reggie already felt like an adult, and it was the last thing she wanted to be.

Dad took one of Reggie’s hands in his and looked pleadingly at her. It was an awkward gesture, because Dad was not prone to physical affection with his daughter, but she couldn’t hold his gaze.

“Reggie, my greatest fear is to lose you like I lost your mother. And it scares me to see you checking out on us like she did. Please make an effort, if not for me, then for Henry. I don’t know if he can take someone else leaving him.”

Dad let go of Reggie’s hands, put his palms on the table, and pushed himself up out of his chair. Reggie watched him go out into the hall and heard the door to his office close. A minute later, Henry’s head appeared in the doorway.

“I heard what he said.” He came into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Reggie’s shoulders.

“Henry, you have to believe that I didn’t mean to miss your appointment today.”

“I know that.” Henry pulled away and Reggie saw concern in his eyes. “Was it the Vours?”

Reggie pursed her lips. She didn’t want to worry Henry, but she didn’t want to lie to him either. She nodded.

“But I want you to know that everything’s going to be okay,” she said.

Henry stood quietly for a moment, playing with the hem of his T-shirt. His brow furrowed.

“What is it, Hen?”

Henry squinted his eyes and scrunched his face, like he did when he was trying to figure out the answer to a math problem.

“Something happened last night, Reggie,” he said finally. “I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt funny.”

“Felt funny how? Like you were sick?”

“No. My skin felt weird, like all the heat was being sucked out. It was kind of prickly. Like something was pulling at me.”

Reggie frowned.

“Did it hurt?”

“No. It just felt freaky.”

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”

“No, I thought maybe there was something on my skin, so I went to the bathroom to try to wash it off. But then, when I was in the hall, it got even stronger. Like a whoosh, sucking all the heat right out of me. What, Reggie? What’s the matter?”

Reggie’s lower jaw had dropped open.

“Nothing. That’s just really strange, isn’t it? I’ll talk to Aaron about it—maybe he’ll know what it is. Let me know if you feel this way again, okay?”

“Okay. Hey, want to play War?”

“Yeah I do.” Reggie got out of her seat and followed her brother upstairs, but her mind was far from cards.

Quinn had been upstairs last night in her own room, mere feet from where Henry slept. Henry’s chills had woken him, and increased when he was in the hall, even closer to Quinn. Could it be that Henry had some kind of physical Vour detector inside him? Maybe his experience in the fearscape had left him hypersensitive to the monsters’ presence.

It wasn’t totally far-fetched. And Reggie appreciated the possibilities of being able to immediately recognize her foes, though she didn’t like the idea of putting Henry in their proximity. Still, if such an ability existed, it was sure to help their side—she made a mental note to mention this discovery to Aaron the next time she saw him.

But when Reggie called the Cole house Sunday afternoon, Aaron was still sleeping. Dr. Cole didn’t want to wake him, and she told Reggie that Aaron would be missing school the following day for doctors’ appointments. Reggie guessed Dr. Cole had set up psych visits for her son to deal with his traumatic experience.

School went by excruciatingly slowly on Monday, and Reggie found it hard to concentrate on exam reviews. The other students steered clear of her, whispering and pointing as she passed them. Being the best friend of the kid police thought had something to do with the Quinn Waters case, and the sister of the kid who’d nearly killed a classmate last Friday, hadn’t done anything to boost her popularity. Not to mention her freak-out in class.

Reggie sat by herself under a tree in the quad at lunch. As she munched listlessly on a turkey sandwich, her thoughts turned to Aaron. He hadn’t contacted her since she’d seen him at his house, and this worried her. What if the Vours really had cracked his mind? The summer solstice was less than two weeks away, and if the event Quinn had warned her about was real, she needed to find a way to stop it.

“See any good movies this weekend?” a gruff voice called out to her, and in the hot sun Reggie felt her skin prick with chills. Keech and Mitch Kassner stood on the sidewalk in front of her. Keech smirked at her, but Mitch hung back, looking at the pavement. Reggie scrambled to her feet.

“Stay away from me.” She felt in her satchel for the pepper spray she always carried with her.

“I may look like a dumb jock, but I’m not stupid enough to go after you in front of all these people. That’s where your little brother went wrong, you know. Never attack someone on the playground. Should’ve waited ’til he had the kid alone.”

“Shut up!”

“Why are you talking to that chick, Kassner? You know she hangs out with that kid, Cole.” Rodney Perez, a tackle for the football team, walked up to them and stared at Reggie. “How does your sick little friend feel about lethal injection?”

The bell rang, and the wave of students eating outdoors moved toward the school’s entrance. Rodney gave Reggie one last glare, then turned and followed the crowd.

“All alone, Halloway,” Keech said, grinning at Reggie, then he said under his breath, “better watch your back.”

He and Mitch ran to catch up with Rodney, leaving Reggie standing by the tree. She realized there was one thing she could do until she heard from Quinn again: get rid of their most immediate threat. Keech.

Her mind flashed to Eben—he had, after all, worked some kind of miracle to get Aaron out of jail. Should she bring him in on this? She dismissed the thought quickly. He would have only one recourse for dealing with Keech, and after her experience in the theater, Reggie had chosen a different path. She didn’t need Eben.

She needed Aaron.