Never Let You Go (23 page)

Megan faced him.

“Look, we’ll figure this out,” he said. “We’ll do it together.” He rested his forehead against hers, and they stood like that for a long moment.

Relief flooded Megan. She felt exhausted and nervous with energy at the same time.

Then she heard a clattering. A huge rock bounced down the ravine toward them, tearing up bushes as it fell. A shadow flitted along the top edge of the ravine.

“Jordan!” Megan screamed.

He jumped aside, pulling her along with him, just as the rock rolled over the very spot they’d been standing.

“Someone’s up there,” Megan gasped. “Anna! She must have followed me here.”

Jordan looked around and switched off his flashlight. “Okay, we’ll go up the creek bed. It’s narrower. She won’t be able to see us in the dark.”

They ran holding hands, stumbling on the rocks, trying not to fall. Megan scanned the top of the ridge constantly. Jordan stopped after a minute and began climbing up the steep slope.

“What are you doing?” Megan whispered frantically. “She’s up there! She knows I lied to her. She’s capable of anything now.”

“I know,” Jordan said. “There’s no time to go to Thomas.” He scrabbled over a boulder, his sweaty shirt clinging to his
back. Megan’s sneakers slipped and slid in the loose dirt as they climbed. “We have to get to her first. She could beat us to the farmhouse and do something awful.”

They bellied over the top of the ravine and scrambled to their feet. Megan looked around. All she could see in the silver light were tree trunks and the thick layer of dead leaves underfoot. Then a sharp crack came from the left as a branch broke.

Jordan took off running toward the noise. “Come on!” he said.

Megan followed, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Her breath whistled in her throat.

They found Anna struggling to roll another boulder closer to the ravine, thinking they were still down there. She looked up as they approached, and Megan caught her breath.

She’d been cutting herself again—Megan could see that right away. The belly of her torn gray T-shirt was stained with fresh blood. But this time, she’d painted her face with it. Dried blood was slashed in a clown’s smile across her mouth, and she’d smeared it on her cheeks like blush, over her eyes like eye shadow. She must have done it after she’d found Megan gone.

“Anna,” Jordan breathed, slowing to a halt, clearly shocked by the sight of her face. Megan stopped a few feet behind him. She couldn’t tell if Anna noticed her or not, she was so focused on Jordan.

“Anna, we know you pushed that rock. It almost killed us,” Jordan said. He moved a few steps to the right. Megan could tell he was looking to see if she had the razor.

Anna’s stance suddenly changed. Her body relaxed, and she dropped her head bashfully. She swayed toward Jordan.

Megan backed up until she was in the deep shadow of a nearby tree.

“Jordan, please help me,” Anna said in a sexy voice. “You’re the only one who can help me.” She looped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m sick, baby. I need help.”

Jordan shuddered, Megan guessed at the smell of the blood. He tried to peel her off of him. “Anna, you do. You do need help.” He spoke gently. “I’m going to help you, okay?”

“Yes.” Anna was panting now. “Help me.” She pressed herself against him, her head tilted up, trying to kiss him. “Jordan, I love you.”

“Stop, okay?” Jordan pried her arms from around his neck, lifting his face away from her searching lips. “We’ll take you to Thomas. He’ll help us.”

Anna didn’t seem to hear him. “Jordan,” she breathed. She leaned toward him and licked his neck. “You don’t need that bitch. You need me. She’s frigid. I can do anything for you. . . .” Her voice trailed off into a whisper. She tried to slide her hands down the waist of his jeans.

“Anna!” Jordan’s voice rose. He pushed her away, held her by her bandaged hands. “Listen to me. You’re delusional. I don’t love you. I’m with Megan, do you hear me? I love her. That’s the truth—not whatever story you’re making up in your head.”

Anna stared at him, her eyes huge. She started trembling, then shaking, until her whole body was swaying with the tremors. Still staring right into Jordan’s face, she opened her mouth and
screamed, an eerie, keening wail. Again and again she screamed. It was a horrible sound. Megan cowered against the tree trunk and covered her ears.

Anna broke from Jordan’s grasp and fell to the ground, her hands pulling at her head. She screamed as she ripped out clumps of her hair. Blood trickled down her face. She screamed again, baying at the sky. Her fingers went to her eyes.

In a flash, Megan remembered their tenth-grade English project:
King Lear
’s famous scene of the blinding of Gloucester. She ran forward. “Anna, stop, stop!” she sobbed. She fell to her knees in front of her friend and seized her wrists. “Please!”

At Megan’s touch, Anna turned her head in one short, swift movement, like a lizard. She studied Megan’s face. Then she rose and bared her teeth. Her lips were shredded and bleeding where she’d bitten them. She growled deep in her throat. Anna broke Megan’s grasp, and her hand went to her back pocket. The metal of the razor blade flashed.

“Stop!” Megan gasped. She raised her hands to protect her face and caught the slash of the blade on the back of one hand.

“Megan!” Jordan shouted. He ran forward, hitting Anna with his own body. Anna fell to the ground. The razor flew from her hand, landing somewhere in the darkness.

Anna’s whole body went still. Her eyes were vacant, and her hands lay limply beside her on the ground as if detached from the rest of her body. She began rocking back and forth. Back and forth. Megan and Jordan backed away.

“Anna?” Megan whispered tentatively.

She didn’t answer. She just kept rocking rhythmically, staring off somewhere into the trees.

“Come on,” Jordan said quietly to Megan.

They ran.

The eastern sky held a tinge of gray when they reached the farmhouse. Megan ran up the steps with Jordan close behind. Her lungs were burning, her hand still bleeding.

“Thomas!” she yelled, struggling with the kitchen door. “Thomas!” Inside, the house was still asleep.

“Thomas!” Jordan shouted up the stairs.

A moment later, the hall light went on and Thomas appeared at the top of the stairs, his hair disheveled. “What? What is it?” He hurried down the steps. “The animals? What?”

“No.” Megan tried to catch her breath. “It’s Anna. Something’s really wrong with her. She tried to kill us.” As fast as she could, she poured out the story as Jordan paced anxiously by her side. “We have to stop her,” Megan said. “She could do anything.”

Thomas’s forehead wrinkled. “Megan,” he said slowly, “are you sure about this? These are serious accusations. This isn’t some kind of misunderstanding? . . .” He looked at her bleeding hand. “Did you two have a fight?”

Megan almost screamed with impatience. “No, please, Thomas! We have to do something fast. You have to believe me, she isn’t—”

Jordan stopped her with an upraised hand. “What’s that?”

Everyone froze, listening. There was a crackling on the kitchen
porch. Thomas sniffed. “Smoke.” His eyes went wide. “Linda!” He turned and ran toward the stairs. Jordan ran behind him.

“Get outside!” Jordan shouted to Megan. Anna was laughing hysterically outside the window. Wisps of smoke curled under the door and around the window frame. The shrill of a smoke detector pierced the room. The crackling grew louder. Flames leapt up outside the window.

Megan ran for the door and grabbed the knob, then let go with a gasp. The metal was scorching hot. She grabbed a dishtowel from the counter and twisted the knob. It wouldn’t open. She pushed with all her might, but something was blocking it. Anna had shoved something against it. They were trapped, and the house was rapidly filling with smoke.

“Anna!” Megan screamed. She pounded on the door, coughing, her eyes burning. Then she felt heat at her back and turned. The fire was at the front of the house now—she could see it in the living room. The kitchen door was the only way out.

“Get out of the way!” Jordan shouted from behind her. Thomas stood beside him, holding Linda in his arms. Jordan threw his whole weight against the door. It shuddered in its frame.

“Help him, Thomas!” Linda cried. She coughed violently. The room was hot now.

Megan had a sudden thought. “Dave and Sarah!” she cried.

“Gone for the night!” Thomas shouted back.

Megan’s lungs were burning. Each breath was harder to draw than the last. She wondered how it would feel to suffocate. Anna was screaming with laughter outside.

Thomas sat Linda in a chair, and then together, he and Jordan slammed their shoulders at the door. Again. Again. How could it resist those tremendous blows?
They have to get it open—Linda can never get out a window
, Megan thought frantically.

Finally, the door shuddered. The wood split, and with a crash, the door gave, spilling them out onto the burning porch. Gasping, Jordan grabbed Megan and pushed her to safety. The burning boards gave way beneath her feet. Megan threw herself forward, tumbling down the steps, and on her elbows, pulled herself across the grass, away from the flames, just as Thomas shoved Linda to the ground beside her.

Megan lifted her head as Anna danced before them manically, a can of kerosene in her hand. Anna lifted the can and poured it over her head in a deadly shower.

Anna flicked her lighter. Flames exploded from her hair and clothes.

“No!” Megan screamed.

Jordan threw himself forward, knocking Anna to the ground and smothering the flames with his body.

The fire roared with massive orange power, climbing to the second story. Flames shot out the bedroom windows, and a shower of glass and ash rained down on the lawn.

“Help us, someone,” Megan moaned. Thomas knelt on the lawn, his head in his hands, and Anna sobbed in defeat as the house was slowly consumed.

EPILOGUE

One Year Later

“So, I’m going to see you in two weeks.” Jordan hugged Megan tightly as they leaned against the sun-warmed metal of his Wrangler, which was parked in her driveway. “You’re not allowed to be sad. Then I’ll be sad, and I still have to drive three hours back to school.”

“I know.” Megan sighed. Jordan was at Ohio State, like he’d planned. It wasn’t too bad in terms of a long-distance relationship. She planted one last kiss on his lips, lingering as long as she dared. Her mother was probably watching from the living room window.

Jordan held her close for another moment, then kissed her quickly and climbed into the car. “I love you,” he said, leaning out the window. The sun gleamed on his red-gold hair.

“I love you, too.” Megan waved as he backed down the driveway and his car turned the corner. She sighed, already feeling the sharp stab of his absence. Still, it
was
only two weeks.

Smiling a little to herself, Megan wandered back to the house.

“Well, that’s it. I’m officially bereft for the next fourteen days,” she called into the dim foyer.

Her mother appeared in the doorway of the dining room, her reading glasses pushed up onto her forehead. Her brow was furrowed.

“It’s okay, Mom.” Megan went over to her, a little surprised. “I was just kidding. I mean, I
am
sad, but—”

Her mother cut her off. “Meg, come sit down, honey. I have to talk to you about something.”

Megan sank into a chair, her hands suddenly cold. The last time her mother looked that way was four years ago, when her cousin Lanie had died.

Her mother took her glasses off and put them on again. She seemed to be having trouble getting started. “You know I’ve kept in touch with Anna’s mother this year—”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Megan said flatly, just like she always did whenever her parents brought up Anna.

Her mother put her hand on Megan’s knee. “Anna’s been released from Greenbriar.”

Megan tensed.

“She’s made a lot of progress, Janine said. And she’s been released to a halfway house, where she’ll be closely supervised.” Her mother squeezed Megan’s hand between her own. “Really, Janine said she’s like a different person. She almost didn’t recognize her at the last visit. And anyway, it’s not like you’ll be seeing her. She’s still near the Greenbriar campus, in Michigan.”

Megan nodded. She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Right. I just want to put it all behind me.” She slipped her hand from her mother’s clasp and stood up.

“Of course you do,” her mother said, standing and heading toward the kitchen. “I think that’s just the right attitude.”

“I’m going to take a shower before dinner,” Megan called as she mounted the stairs to her room. She and Jordan had taken a long bike ride that afternoon, and she was feeling a little sweaty.

“Okay.” The blender started up in the kitchen. Her mother raised her voice over the noise. “You got some mail. I put it on your desk.”

In her room, Megan riffled through a batch of colorful college circulars. There was also a note from her grandmother, and at the bottom of the stack, a plain white envelope, with no return address. She flipped it over and ripped it open. A small square of gray fabric fluttered to the floor. Megan jumped back as if it were alive. With her heart pounding, Megan pulled an index card from the envelope. Three words were scribbled on one side.