Evanescent (34 page)

Sleepy Hollow comes upon us with its long
nefarious arms. The violet sky acts as a dramatic backdrop to the
necrotic skeletal maples, the bare-naked birch trees with their
network of fingerlike protrusions.

Coop plucks a flashlight out of his jeans
and illuminates a path as Hattie runs us deeper into the woods.

He interlaces our fingers and pulls me
in.

What if this is a trap?
I ask, trying
to keep up with him.
How well do we know Hattie? And who the
hell is she if she’s not a Tobias?

“Hattie!” Coop barks, and she comes to a
standstill. Those large doe eyes of hers look slightly terrified by
his tone. “When you came to me that first night, you said you
wanted to help find your family.”

She takes an uneasy step toward us. “That’s
what they wanted me to say.”

“Who are ‘they,’ Hattie?” I ask, trying to
maintain the fine line of trust with her. “Is it Wesley?”

Her eyes widen as if she sees where this is
going.

“You don’t believe me. You think I’m here to
hurt you. I would never do that Laken. You have to believe me.
Flynn and you—you’re my only friends.”

“A few weeks back,” I start, “you morphed
into a monster in the dining hall. As far as I know, Celestra can’t
do that.” I don’t finish, and let her surmise what she will.

“There was a Fem with me that morning. He
said he liked to have fun with you.” She holds out her hand, and I
take it.
We shouldn’t speak. They might hear
.

I give a brief nod.
Tell me, Hattie
.
Who’s doing this? Are they trying to throw me off?

I can’t go back there
. Her face fills
with fear, and for a second I think she’s going to bolt.
I
shouldn’t say anything else
.

Then don’t tell me.
I tighten my grip
over her.
Show me their faces
.

Here are your enemies, Laken
. An
image of Jones pops up with his tie notched just above his sweater.
Edinger stains the landscape of her mind, seated at his desk—across
from him sits Cooper. He leans over and shakes Edinger’s hand, and
my blood runs cold. My body goes numb from the visual. Her mind
goes blank, and it’s done.

Wesley wasn’t a part of the show.

I glance over at the boy who so efficiently
stole my heart. Cooper?

Which one put you up to this?
I pull
Hattie in as if I were about to give her a hug.

Figure it out, Laken. I’m not going back
into that hellhole just because you can’t do the math
.

The rustle of branches emits from the
south.

“They’re here!” She pulls me along as we
trek deeper into the armpit of these unhallowed woods until we come
upon a clearing. “Flynn?” Her voice quivers as she calls his
name.

A stench fills the air. One by one the
shadows around us come to life, and bodies fill in the
landscape.

I suck in a quick breath.

“There’s enough of them to outfit a small
city,” I whisper to Coop.

Too bad they’re not human. Every single one
of them is a Spectator.

I latch onto Cooper for dear life.

We’re surrounded—far too outnumbered to ever
win this war.

If this isn’t a trap, I don’t know what
is.

Cooper

Spectators hold a peculiar stench. They make
rotting fish and sour milk smell about as pleasant and welcome as
apple pie.

The shadows move in around us. Bodies, in
numbers too high to count, shade the open spaces as grunts and
howls take over the night.

I would have thought we could trust Hattie.
I thought for sure she was leading us to Flynn as she made us
believe. And now, here we are a hundred deep in a crowd of long
forgotten humans who happen to crave the very thing we need to
survive—brains.

I run my hand up my thigh as I reach for the
meager weaponry on me. I’ve got nothing but a six-inch pocketknife
and my bare hands to protect Laken. There are far too many of them
to ever win this fight.

A hard grunt riles up the masses. A
Spectator with jeans and an Ephemeral practice jersey makes his way
to the middle with his wiry hair, his body strutting in staccato
motions, his arms and legs locked in their partial rigor state. I
recognize those stoned out eyes—that stupefied look.

Shit.

“Flynn!” Hattie runs over and jumps on his
stiff frame causing him to stumble back a few good feet.

“Looks like she’s the real deal after all,”
Laken whispers, wrapping her arms tight around my waist.

“
Coop
,” Flynn grunts it out with all
his effort.

I head over and lay my hand over his so he
can speak his mind, literally.

His flesh is cold to the touch and rubbery
as a corpse, but I suppose that’s par for the course as far as
Spectators go.

“What the hell happened?” I ask as the crowd
narrows in on us. Laken places her hand over mine in an effort to
listen in.

Dude!
He grunts in his enthusiasm.
I found the Tobias family. They’re ready and willing to head to
the resurrection chamber. By the way, I think I’m going to need
some resurrecting myself.

I glance at Laken. I’m not entirely sure how
I’m going to tell Flynn there’s no cure for his condition.

“What are all these other people doing
here?” Laken shudders when she says the word
people
. “Are
you trying to get us killed?”

Flynn looks around at the growing number of
Spectators.

Dude, these guys are tight
, he
asserts.
And they’re ready and willing to try anything to
improve their situation. They’re totally down with checking out,
Ezrina
. He grunts as if to annunciate his point.

“Which one bit you?” I pan the vicinity for
the guilty party. We may as well pinpoint who’s to blame for
Masterson’s demise. I don’t know why he would get so close to one
to begin with.

There were these two hot chicks.
He
looks down with the hint of a budding smile.
Dude, they were
hitting on me. It was like they wanted a threesome right there in
the woods, and you could hardly see the rot on their faces. They
were like cover models. I couldn’t resist
.

Laken and I groan in unison.

“I hope you’re happy, Flynn,” Laken snips.
“Just because you couldn’t control that garden snake in your pants,
we’re going to have a zombie apocalypse on our hands. You have
successfully screwed us all.”

Garden snake?
He huffs
. Honey,
I’ll have you know, I have the ability to give anacondas a run for
their slithering money. If you want a private show just name the
time and place.

“Oh gross!” Laken swats him in the chest.
“Just call off your friends, so we can get out of here with our
brains intact.”

Exactly.
Flynn grunts as he says it.
We all want to get a move on to the Transfer, so Ezrina can get
her potions in motion.
He slaps an arm over my shoulder.
Let’s roll, buddy
.

I glance around at the enormous crowd.

I’d have to carry them all individually.
This would take weeks. Tell them it’s just the Tobias family for
now
.

Flynn calls out to the crowd in what sounds
like a Spectator’s version of yodeling, and a young boy and girl
step forward.

“Where’s the father?” I say it breathless.
It’s hard to believe Flynn, in all of his boneheaded glory,
actually came through for once.

Dead
. Flynn glances from me to Laken.
Rumor has it a white hunter with a sharp knife killed him while
he was chasing a young girl through these very woods. Pummeled his
brains out a few weeks back.
Flynn gives an intense look that
scares the living shit out of me.

“I killed him?” As if I had to ask.

“And I was the girl.” Laken looks down,
despondent over the news. “It was the first day I arrived, and you
saved me.” She brushes her fingers over my cheek with a resolute
sadness.

“I killed him
.
” I sway on my feet.
I’ve never really viewed them as people before. “It was Emmanuel
Tobias.”

The boy and girl step into our midst, and
Hattie picks up the little girl’s hand.

“Richard and Kara,” Hattie introduces us to
the Spectator duo.

Thunder rolls from above. A tremor of
lightning illuminates the forest, and the Tobias sisters appear in
tandem—first in their haggard state, then in their healthier,
comelier forms.

“Richard! Kara!” Hattie barks as if she were
reprimanding them. She and Amelia head over and engage in
life-clutching hugs that go on for a long time. “We’re so glad to
have you back.” Hattie caresses the side of Kara’s deteriorating
face. “This will heal. I promise.” She looks up at her brother.
“And father?”

Shit.

Richard shakes his head and grunts out
something unintelligible.

“I see.” Hattie and Amelia exchange a
forlorn glance. “He’s in paradise,” she whispers to the quieter of
the two. They nod into one another as if they were conducting a
private conversation.

“I’m sorry,” I say to the two of them at the
risk of outing myself as the killer, but neither of them
acknowledges my apology.

The original Hattie steps forward and
touches the hair of the Celestra taking up residence at
Ephemeral.

“They gave you my name,” she says with a
marked sense of pride.

Amelia, the silent one, goes over and offers
a firm embrace to the doppelganger of the bunch.

“She’s mine,” Hattie says to both Laken and
I. “My granddaughter.”

“Granddaughter?” The word expels from Laken
in a fog.

“They freed you,” she whispers. “You must
never let them take you back.”

“I’ll make sure of that,” I volunteer,
hoping to change the terms of our agreement because God knows her
other two family members aren’t going to fair as well.

The crowd presses in. A series of grunts and
moans swell around us until it’s difficult to make out an escape
route in this thicket of undead bodies.

“Cooper…” Laken’s voice quivers.

“We’re going to take them to the Transfer
now. We’ll be back for you later.” I shout it loud enough to
appease the crowd, and a rush of voices rise into the sky as they
cheer in hopes of their newfound freedom.

How are we going to pull this off?
Laken squeezes my arm like she’s juicing it for blood.

On three, pick up Kara, and I’ll take
Richard. I’ll lead us out to the boulders. Make sure you run as
inhumanly fast as possible. Once we hit through the barrier, we can
figure things out from there.

Laken looks down at the little girl with her
misshapen head, her round eyes bulging unnaturally. I know Laken is
thinking of Lacey, how precious this little life is and doesn’t
want to hurt her.

Laken presses her face to my neck and
inhales sharply as if holding back tears.
We can’t let Ezrina
hurt her, either of them.

We won’t. Let’s get out of this mosh pit,
and we’ll see what we can do.
I nod over to Flynn in his
haggard state of being.

I clear my throat. “Laken and I will lead
the way with the Tobias siblings.”

Hattie and Amelia each hug them goodbye.

“Kara”—Hattie bends to meet her—“you be a
good girl. Soon you’ll have your life back, and Laken here will
treat you as if you were her own sister. Isn’t that right, Laken?”
Hattie glares over at her. She knew just where to place the dig.
“Take care of Richard as well.” She straightens. “You did good.
When you yield the proper results, we’ll discuss the passage to
your loved ones.”

I glance over at Laken.
Throw Kara over
your shoulder, and whatever you do, don’t let go of my
hand
.

She offers a firm squeeze. Her eyes light up
as if she’s ready for a fight.

“Three!” I shout.

Laken and I snatch up the Tobias siblings
and drive down the field, laden with Spectators, as fast as our
feet will carry us. Bodies fly as we pick up our pace to
supernatural speeds. My foot catches on something, and I send
Richard flying through the air like a projectile missile. Laken’s
fingers disconnect with mine, and the crowd fills in, pushing and
shoving.

“Laken!” I drift further east with my feet
off the floor as the Spectators carry me closer to the boulders
fully expecting to cross over to the promise land.

We hit the overgrown rock formation and
noticeably nothing happens.

Fists pound against the pale blue granite.
The stone lays still as the crowd begins to swirl in confusion.

An angry growl penetrates the air and the
zombie parade shifts direction.

The entire lot of them, turn and head toward
campus.

First stop on the way—Henderson Hall.

Wesley

After scouring every known dorm looking for
Coop and Laken, I end up back at the party.

Kresley spent the last twenty minutes
teasing me every which way with her stripper routine. No matter how
hard I try to avoid her, she manages to pop up in my line of vision
with those swollen boobs aching for attention.

“Face it Paxton”—she slithers up from behind
and whispers into my ear—“you’re mine tonight, and you know
it.”

Shit.

Ironically, despite all of her attention
seeking, her periodic nipple flashing, Kresley is the last person
on my mind tonight. That picture she showed me of Coop and Laken
exchanging a kiss in their coordinated outfits keeps regurgitating
itself. What the hell was with the themed costumes, anyway? Is that
Laken’s way of giving me the middle finger? I would have sworn on
my life that she loved me—that every part of her was genuinely into
me—and now she’s off doing who knows what with Cooper.

I bet she spilled the deep dark secrets of
her imaginary past, and he chose to play along. In the beginning I
considered it. Just something to pass the time until her true
memory came back, but I knew it would be dangerous. He’s hurting
her in an effort to get into her
kick
pants. It just proves
what an ass Flanders is. And to think, I felt bad about Grayson
cheating on him earlier with Fletch. Some part of me wanted to
believe Laken tried his blood just the once—one and done. I bet
they’re having a good laugh over what an idiot I’ve been all
along.