Devoured (12 page)

Ryan and I look at each other with wide eyes as Tyler stares after Kevin and says, “
He said it again!
Why did he jump all over my ass? I only said ‘hell.’”

“You need to be at least a level three to swear,” I say.

Tyler rolls his eyes. “This is such a crock of shit.
Who’s got the magic?
” he says bitterly. “Crock of shit,” he says again after giving us a wave good-bye.

“I’ve got my costume meeting, hopefully it won’t take too long,” I say after Tyler leaves.

“I can’t wait to see you dressed up as Snow White,” Ryan says.

“Wouldn’t you rather see me undressed?”

A smile breaks out on his face. “Yes! Can’t you tell Nicki you have more training tonight?”

Reality crashes in again. “I wish I could.” I truly mean it too, because I know Nicki is not going to like being a guinea pig for Luke’s ghost wrangling.

“Oh my God! Look!” Samantha yells, running toward us with her phone held out in front of her. “I just got a text message from Christophe. He asked if I wanted to hang out tonight! There’s a softball game at the exchange students’ dorm!” She jumps up and down a few times and I raise a hand to give her a high five, which she eagerly hits.

Ryan’s brow furrows. “You’re not going are you?”

“Of course I am!” She giggles as she starts to text Christophe back.

I give Ryan a puzzled look. “Why wouldn’t she?”

“She’ll be with a bunch of strangers.”

“She’s a big girl,” I say, though I can kind of see why he’d be worried. Samantha is the antithesis of street smart. “And I read in the information packet that there’s supervision at these things—she’ll be chaperoned.”

Samantha puts her hands on her hips. “Who says I
want
to be chaperoned?”

“It’s just better that way, until you get to know the guy,” Ryan says.

“And I better head off to the meeting,” I say, not liking the look on Ryan’s face, and not liking the nagging suspicion that he’s not as happy as I am that Samantha may be moving on to foreign pastures. “Why don’t you see if you can find Christophe while I’m there?”

Ryan looks at me with his eyebrows raised, but I don’t care—I’m determined to see a Samantha/Christophe hookup.

Samantha squeals. “Oh, great idea!” She takes her phone out and starts pecking away at the tiny keyboard.

“I’ll wait by the front entrance—alone,” Ryan says. “Like tonight.”

I keep myself from rolling my eyes. “Hopefully the meeting won’t be too long, and we can hang out for a bit afterward.” I wink at him and he smiles, making me feel like an utter creep for lying.

ELEVEN

I walk into Ye Olde Costume Shoppe and see Miss Patty has already started. She looks up at me. The smile in her eyes is gone and I wonder if she’ll demote me to the Fun Farm despite whatever strings Ari has pulled.

“Sorry I’m late,” I say quietly, and then make my way to the back of a crowd of at least thirty people.

“As I was
saying
, being a character actor is just about
the
most important job in the Land of Enchantment world. Once you don one of these finely crafted costumes that I have painstakingly made sure are accurate to the tiniest detail, you become that character, and you become one of our
Faces of Enchantment
.”

Faces of Enchantment? In the illustrious words of my coworker Tyler,
what a crock of shit
. I’m half tempted to raise my hand and ask what about Bo Peep’s ultrashort miniskirt is historically accurate? Or should I mention the Snow White look-alike I saw had a much more detailed bodice? Sure it was soaked in blood, but still, it was a hell of a lot nicer than the satin Halloween knockoff I’ll be wearing.

I shake my head. I’m officially losing it. How else can I casually compare my outfit to what some poor girl lying butchered on the forest floor was wearing?

Oh!

What if that horror show I just saw was the chase
before
the kill? I hear the sound of the knife cutting through bone in my head, and my stomach turns. God, she was hunted down like an
animal
. Bile rises in my throat and I swallow it down.

“Are you okay?”

I jump and see the girl staring at me.

“Maybe you should sit down. You look like you’re gonna pass out,” she whispers.

I take a deep breath. “I just need something to eat. I haven’t had lunch.”

She nods but moves a couple of feet away from me as if what I’ve got is contagious—or maybe she’s afraid I’ll throw up on her or something. One thing’s for sure, it’s getting harder and harder to pretend everything’s fine, and people are starting to notice the cracks in my facade.

I just pray Luke can successfully work his psychic mojo on Nicki tonight, and then we can try it on Mom.

My heart sinks. In order for Remy to move on, then Dad’s got to too. As much as I keep thinking it’s for the best, what if I’m wrong and Mom’s right?

Tears gather in my eyes and I try to brush them away without looking too obvious. It’s hard to believe everything was status quo just a few days ago, and now Remy’s turned everything upside down.

“I have about a million things to do before opening day, so Henrietta is going to give you a few tips about being one of our Faces of Enchantment,” Patty says as she smiles and waves her fingers around her face.

“Oh, and would Megan Sones please come to my office afterward?”

I stand up straight, totally taken off guard. “Um, sure.”

After Patty leaves, Henrietta Stupin gets off her chair and looks at us wearily. “First thing you need to know is ya gotta marry rich or invest wisely so you don’t get stuck schlepping around a park in your eighties like me. Second, and you returning girls already know this, putting on one of these hoochie-girl costumes brings out the worst in even some of the biggest churchgoing men, so you’d best be keeping an eye on roaming hands.”

A few people titter, but we mostly just stare at her.

Henrietta gives one girl sitting on the floor the evil eye. “Don’t think it’ll happen to you, eh? Well, I’m in my eighties and I got my rear end slapped
sixteen times
last summer, and some old coot got a little too friendly with my bra while I was posing with him and his granddaughter and he knocked the padding out of the left cup! I ain’t got nothing without the padding neither.”

She looks around at us, nodding her head. “So just imagine how many’ll hit on you young things!”

I exchange horrified looks with the girl next to me. She’s looking a little faint herself now, and I’m pretty sure this is not the talk Miss Patty envisioned.

“And don’t try and turn ’em in either,” she continues, “’cause they’ll just deny it and call you crazy. Trust me, I know! And as for you boys who signed up for Prince Charming, get a life!”

The five guys in the room all flush deeply, but the rest of us laugh.

“Hey, I’m the Big Bad Wolf,” one pimply guy says, looking around at the rest of us, but no one says a word.

Henrietta puts her hands on her hips and looks around the room. “Any questions?”

Everyone’s head shakes.

“Good! Don’t know why Patty wanted me to talk to you anyway. You dress up and walk around—what’s to know?” She rolls her eyes. “Class dismissed ’cause I gotta get a smoke!” Henrietta salutes us and stalks out of the room.

“Too bad we can’t at least get tips for being groped,” one girl says as we start to file out of the room after Henrietta.

I hang a left down the hall to Miss Patty’s and wonder if I’m going to be fired for being late for the character meeting, or for seeing her trashed the night before.

As I approach Miss Patty’s office, the door is open and I hear her singing. I recognize the song from the CD of chorus selections Nicki was playing in her car on the way to Ari’s—“Someone to Watch Over Me.” While her voice is not as polished as Nicki’s, Patty conveys the longing in the words much better. Given what I know about the Roy family, it’s no surprise she has the emotional baggage to give the words more depth.

I feel weird walking in midsong, but with Ryan waiting I want to get this over with. Plus, I still need to get in touch with Nicki so Luke can play ghost whisperer on her.

I give Patty another minute, but when she starts over from the beginning of the song, I knock on the doorjamb. “Um, sorry, but you said you wanted to see me?”

Miss Patty jumps. “Oh,” she says, bringing a hand to her heart. “You startled me.”

I grimace. “Sorry, you were singing and …”

Her faces flushes under the thin line of hot pink powder she’s brushed on her cheekbones. “Just me making more of a fool of myself than I already have.” She looks away and it’s obvious she didn’t call me in to fire me. She’s embarrassed about last night.

She motions for me to sit on the pink polka-dotted chair in front of her desk.

“No,” I say sinking into the overstuffed pillows. “You’re really good. You should be in the chorus with Ari.”

Her eyes widen in surprise. “Me? No! I mean, I love to sing, but I don’t think Ari would enjoy having her mother watching over her, if you get my drift.”

I nod. “Yeah, but you do sing really well.”

She gives me a genuinely pleased smile. “It was these little ol’ pipes of mine that first caught Mr. Roy’s attention. He heard me singing in a club down in New Orleans and bought me a drink afterward. The rest is history.”

I can’t help thinking the real story of their meeting sounds a bit classier than what the mirror said the night before. I so didn’t want to think about Mr. Roy stuffing twenties in her G-string at a stripper bar.

“Anyway, I asked you to come by so I could apologize for my behavior last night. You were a guest in my home and I was not the hostess I should’ve been.”

Now I’m embarrassed. What do I say?
No worries—my
mom trash talks with mirrors after she’s been binge drinking too.

“Um, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, and you’re showing me more kindness than I deserve. I just hope you can find it in your heart not to mention yesterday’s events to the other team members. If not for me, then for Mr. Roy and Ari—they shouldn’t be punished for my lapse in judgment.”

“Oh, I won’t say anything—I never planned to. I understand, you know, that stuff happens.”

Tears well up in her eyes. “You’re a good kid. I knew it the minute you walked into my office, and I …” She pauses and furrows her brow. “I know you and Ari are getting to be friends.” She smiles but it seems forced. “Ari doesn’t have many friends, besides Luke, and well, I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but—”

“Patty!” Kevin rushes into her office. “Henrietta fell. I think she may have broken her hip! We called 911, but you’d better come see her.”

“Oh, crap!” Patty says, pushing her desk chair back. “Please tell me it wasn’t—”

Kevin purses his lips and nods. “Yeah, that sidewalk we haven’t repaired yet.”

Patty grabs her cell phone and hustles around the desk. “You call Mr. Roy, and I’ll call the lawyers.” She looks at me as if she’d forgotten I was there. “Oh, thank you for coming, Megan, I really do appreciate it!”

They dash out of the office, and I exhale. That was close! Of course, being fired wouldn’t have been the end of the world—especially in light of Christophe being thrown into my mess of a love triangle. I stand up and catch my reflection in the gilded mirror hanging on the wall. I look over my shoulder and then walk behind Miss Patty’s desk.

I brush my dark bangs to the side. I really could use some sun this summer—my skin is so white, I practically glow under the fluorescent lights in the office. Hopefully, Hansel and Gretel’s will stay broken all summer. There are definitely more chances to be out and catch some rays at the roller coaster and log flume, and frankly, I don’t ever want to go near that witch’s house again!

I run my hands up the sides of the mirror, trying to feel the on switch. I can’t find anything, and I’m not about to lift it away from the wall—with my luck it’d come crashing down. I run my fingers around the carved frame one more time. Those people in France did a great job making it look old.

I take a chance and go with the obvious. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

The mirror shimmers and I catch my breath. I remember that it’s voice activated, and as my reflection vanishes and the dark face comes into view, I take a step back, thinking I should’ve just run out to meet Ryan by the exit.

“You were once most fair, ’tis true, but now …” the face begins, and then its eyes widen. “You!”

I stare at the face. “Me?” I choke out.

The face’s expression softens. It smirks. “
This
is a
most
interesting development.”

Remy appears at my side, her eyes as wide as saucers. “
No, Meggy!
Don’t talk to it. It’s bad.”

I shake my head. “I
do not
have any energy left to deal with you! Can’t you see it’s not real?”

“It’s bad, Meggy,” she says, shaking her head. “I need Daddy—he’ll fix it. Where’s Daddy?”

My heart starts to pound. “Just stop it and leave me the hell alone!”

Remy rocks on her heels, looking aimlessly around the room. “But if you make a wish … yes, that’ll help. Star light, star bright, first star—”

“Oh my God! It’s a toy—it’s not real!”

“A ghost!” the mirror says.

Ghost? My blood freezes. “What did you say?”

The glass shimmers, and my reflection reappears, looking wild and crazed.
“What did you say?”
I scream at the mirror, wondering if this face—this wild face I’m seeing—is what got Hayden so freaked he forgot to lock the brake earlier.

“It’s gone,” Remy says with a sigh. “It’s gone.”

She fades a bit, and I step closer to the mirror.
“What did you say?”
I repeat slowly, carefully pronouncing each word.

Nothing happens, and I shake my head. “You don’t have to say it again, I heard you the first time.”

I wait for a minute for the face to come back and then I roll my eyes and turn away. I’m talking to the mirror like Patty was. Might as well get “nut job” tattooed on my forehead. “God, I’m crazy,” I whisper. “I’m really crazy.”

“Bad,” Remy says, her voice hushed like mine.

“No, I told you, it’s a toy,” I say, but I can’t help thinking that no matter how carefully that thing was programmed, the chances of it saying, “Ghost,” with Remy in the room are astronomical.

Remy walks through me. Chills wrack my body. “She’s gonna die,” she says matter-of-factly. “Die.”

My heart rockets in my chest. I run out of Miss Patty’s office and head for the exit. I burst through the door and find a bench to sit on. I exhale slowly and take out my phone. I bring up my call list and punch in Nicki’s number.

By the fifth ring I start to wonder if she’s so mad she won’t pick up.