Naomi Grim (8 page)

"You're dismissed. Call
your brother downstairs please."

I sighed. I would have
appreciated an answer to my question. On the way to my bedroom, I knocked on
Bram's door. "Doyle wants you."

In our room, Keira sprawled
across the bed watching TV. "What happened?"

"He's taking fifteen
years away from me."

"That sucks,"
Keira answered absently. I wasn't surprised by her lack of sympathy.

I sat beside her. She was
watching a crime documentary about serial killers. "Are you mad at
me?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Naomi, I didn't expect
any different."

"Keira—" I started
to argue with her, but stopped myself. Her feelings were justified. Before we
left Nowhere, Keira had predicted I would mess this up. I had proven her right.

* *
*

I was dreading Monday morning. I had no
idea what to expect. Had Hunter told everyone that I was some sort of creature?
The first part of the day went by as usual, except for the fact that I spotted
more Fated. This was the beginning of our third week, but it felt like we'd
been there much longer.

As I changed my into my gym uniform in
the locker room, none of the girls would look at me, not even Roxy. Hunter must
have told them. I pretended it didn't bother me.

We played volleyball, which I was no
good at. I stood off to the side and hoped the ball didn't come my way. It came
to me once and I actually managed to hit it back over the net.

After class, I tried to change as
quickly as possible. I was putting my shirt on when something slammed into the
back of my head. A volleyball dropped at my feet. Rubbing my throbbing head, I
turned around. Ashley smirked at me. "All this time we’ve been calling you
Casper, who knew?"

"Who knew what?" I asked.

"Hunter told us. He's says you're
like some kind of skeleton-alien-ghost or something."

The locker room fell silent. Everyone
was watching. "Do you really believe that, Ashley? That I'm a
skeleton-alien-ghost?" A few girls laughed.

Ashley looked back at Roxy, who looked
at the ground. "He said your face was like a skeleton. I told him it was
probably a mask or something, but he swore it wasn't. He said he touched it.
Why would Hunter lie about that?" Ashley asked.

I wanted to know what Roxy thought.
"Roxy?"
     She shrugged. "Ashley makes some good points. There is something
weird about you and your brothers. How you just showed up at the same time with
a bunch of other kids. You would never let us come inside your house. Your
brothers and Keira are all wearing those scythe charms. I don't think you're a
ghost or anything like that, but something is off that I can't quite put my
finger on."

"Maybe this is an alien
invasion," said a girl with pink-streaked hair. She looked totally
serious. A few of the other girls nodded.

I turned to finish dressing. "You
guys have been watching too many movies. I don't care what any of you think. It
doesn't matter," I said, addressing the entire locker room. It didn't
matter. According to the glows in the room, at least five of them would be gone
soon and after the massacre, I'd be back in Nowhere.

* * *

After PE my head was still sore, so I
stopped to get a drink from the water fountain. The halls were virtually empty
as most students were in their usual lunch spots. A few stray kids strolled
down the hallway. I leaned against someone's locker and rubbed the back of my
head. I saw two boys dressed in dark green and camouflage open a door with a
key and then disappear behind it. A minute later another boy dressed the same
way approached. He knocked on the door with a peculiar rhythm. Someone opened
the door and let him in.

I walked to the door. A sign on it read
Do
Not Enter. Custodial Staff Only.
I tried the handle. The door was locked.
This was no problem for me. I was a Grim. I looked both ways. The hallway was
empty. I closed my eyes and walked through the door.

A staircase led to a lower level filled
with boxes, old desks, and broken bookshelves. I didn’t see or hear the boys. I
walked down the stairs. I heard a scraping sound come from the left. I followed
it. I wasn't worried about my feet making noise as I walked through the dust
and gravel on the floor. Grims were able to work in complete silence.

There was a little room off the side.
Seven boys sat at a table—a table covered with maps and pages filled with
harried writing. I recognized a map of the school, the same one Mrs. Clark had
given me on my first day.

I didn't remember seeing any of the boys
before. One kid with dark bangs that hung in his eyes addressed the group.
"Wednesday morning. The custodian opens the school at six o'clock. That's
when we need to be here to set up. Jannigan is the only one here that early and
that's when he goes around the outside of the school with the leaf blower.
We'll have the inside to ourselves for about an hour. Principal Sharpe doesn’t
usually come in until seven."

"Does everybody know their
station?" asked a boy with a shaved head. All the boys nodded.
"There's no turning back now. We're all in. Wednesday is Doomsday."

I'd heard enough. Keira was right. The
kids she had been hanging out with weren't the culprits. I had to find Bram and
tell him right away. I left the storage room and  called his cell. It seemed to
take him forever to answer. "Where are you?"

"In the vehicle," he answered.

"Stay there." I went there and
told him everything I had heard.

Bram nodded. "Nice. We'll go back
after school and check it out just to be sure. Nice work, Nay."

I couldn't help but smile. I hoped this
would make up for how I had messed up before.

After school, we went back to the room.
It was empty. The papers and maps they'd had spread out on the table were gone.

"I don't know. It was all here
earlier," I told Bram.

He walked around the room, kicking at
the trash and broken pieces of things that littered the floor. He stopped and
pointed at a small rusted file cabinet. "There."

Bram went to the bottom drawer and
pulled it open. A stack of old papers sat in the drawer—old tests and study
guides—not what we were looking for. Bram took them out and underneath there
was a black metal file box. He set it on the table.

I lifted the lid from the box. The
papers were inside. Maps of every wing of the school with red x's marked in
each corner.

"What do you think that
means?" I asked.

"Hmm, maybe that's where they're
placing the bombs. Or
have
placed the bombs. For all we know, they could
be there already."

I flipped through the other pages. There
were schedules. Lists of students' names. A list of places like the gym and
cafeteria and the times they'd be the most populated.

That was all we needed to see. Bram
began to put the papers back in the box. "Are you sure they said
Wednesday?"

"Yeah."

"Good. The day after tomorrow, then
we can do our job and go home."

* * *

Dorian was already waiting when we
arrived at the SUV. Bram turned the key in the ignition and checked the
rearview mirror. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked, turning
around to Dorian.

I looked behind me. Dorian had a black
eye, much like the one he'd received after our visit to Litropolis, except it
was his other eye this time.

Dorian pulled his hood over his head.
"Don't worry about it."

"Who did that?" Bram demanded.

"Doesn’t matter. Just some
kid."

"Why didn't you tell me someone's
been bothering you?"

"Are you kidding me?" I asked
Bram. "He's been miserable since we've been here, but you've been too busy
playing heartbreaker to notice."

Bram glared at me. "Shut up!"
Then he turned back to Dorian. "Look, it's my job to take care of you. You
should have told me. Whoever did that—point them out to me tomorrow."

"What about me? Ashley hit me in
the head with a volleyball."

Bram put his hands up. "Oh, no, no,
no. One thing I do know is not to get involved with girl drama. Now if a dude's
giving you problems, I'm your man."

I sighed and sank into my seat. I had
more important things than Ashley to worry about. We finally had a time frame.
Two more days and then it would all be over.

* * *

I spent Monday night tossing and
turning. Keira told me to be still or get out of the bed, so I went to the
kitchen and fixed myself a cup of hot chocolate. The others were happy now that
we knew who was responsible and when the incident would happen, but something
wasn't sitting right with me.

I thought mostly about Roxy and Hunter.
Sure, they'd been ignoring me, but who could blame them? If I'd seen what
Hunter had, I would have freaked out too.

I tried to think like a Grim. That meant
I should have been able to know this terrible thing was about to happen and not
lose any sleep over it. I thought of the others sleeping soundly in their beds
and wondered why I couldn't do that. How was I supposed to walk the halls the
next day, knowing so many people were going to be murdered, and not do anything
about it? I could stop it, keep it from happening. I could warn Principal
Sharpe. Show her the plans and the maps. They would shut the school down and
find the bombs. Everyone would be safe. I sat at the kitchen table, thinking
until the sun came up.

Everyone was in a good mood the next
morning. Bram was determined to pummel whoever had given Dorian a black eye.
"What are they gonna do? Suspend me?" But for some reason Dorian
wouldn't identify his assailant, so I wasn't too worried about Bram getting
into a fight.

The school day went by in a blur. I
discovered many more students glowing as well as five teachers. The girls and
Hunter were still ignoring me, but that was probably for the best. After
tomorrow, I'd never see them again anyway.

After school, I stood in front of the
office contemplating whether or not I should go in. Should I warn Principal
Sharpe of what would happen the next day or should I do my job—not intervene
and just collect the lives? I thought about Hunter. I could never be with him,
but he was a great guy. All he wanted to do was make a better life for his
mother. He didn't deserve what was coming—none of them did. I thought about
Roxy. Young, beautiful, and full of life. Who knew what she'd turn out to be? I
remembered  the Forager's threat in the bathroom. Then I thought about my
family, Keira, Dunningham, the Grim Covenant, and my brother telling me I never
had the heart of a Grim. My hand clutched the cool, metal handle of the door. I
took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked inside.

Don't stop here!

Part 3 of

Naomi Grim

The Silver
Scythe Chronicles is now available.