Harbinger (10 page)

11

“EVERYBODY ON YOUR FEET.”
Even facing the wall, I recognized Freddy’s growl.

Though I wasn’t overjoyed to hear his voice, I was thankful that he’d interrupted Aunt’s endless string of words. For the last half hour or so, while our leg muscles turned to jelly and our arms stiffened into agony, Aunt had subjected us to some sort of Holbrook manifesto on how to become a good citizen.

Aunt let out an irritated hiss. “Nobody move a muscle. We’re not finished here.”

But I couldn’t take it anymore. I unclasped my hands and fire shot through my arms. I craned my neck toward the classroom door, wanting to savor the showdown between these two bastards.

“I have orders to collect them,” Freddy insisted.

“Well, now you have different orders. Come back in an hour.”

We all stayed crouched, but like me, the others flexed their fingers and silently stretched their arms. Only Damion stayed exactly where he was supposed to be.

“Mordoch says to bring all the kids for lunch, and that’s what I’m gonna to do.”

“Outside.” Aunt bit off the word and spat it at Freddy. Her feet clacked across the floor. Then to us she said, “Anybody try anything and you’ll be spending class like this for a week.”

The door shut, though we could still make out her shrill voice. “How dare you question my authority in front of these children.”

Kel let out a groan as he slumped against the wall. He just sat there, staring at the floor, forehead creased, like that threadbare carpet was the most important thing in the world.

My legs trembled and I followed suit, collapsing to the floor in a heap. If we’d get punished together anyway, I might as well be comfortable. Kel’s face was gray, and sweat beaded on his upper lip. Everything in me wanted to go over to him, to make sure he was okay, but my body wouldn’t seem to move.

Maya was on her feet, grumbling and wincing. “Haven’t they ever heard of the Geneva Convention?”

Nami reached out for Maya to help her up. But Maya ignored the gesture, pacing along the back of the room. I wasn’t sure if she was clueless or just wasn’t quite ready to be a joiner.

Nami got up on her own. With exaggerated care, she brushed dust off the legs of her jumpsuit and patted her hair. Then in a faux-haughty voice she said, “Yeah. I’m definitely not giving this place five stars. And next time, I’m trying out the waterboard facial instead.”

Zach snorted, sinking onto the floor with a thump. “Maybe a nice Sodium Pentothal injection? They’re supposed to be very soothing.”

Nami grinned at him. “I knew that whole deer-in-the-headlights thing was just a ruse.”

Zach blushed, then winced as he stretched out his legs, his face going pale. “What do you think they’re gonna do to us?”

Maya rounded on him. “Nothing. If they try anything, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Damion, who’d been silent and holding his position, was suddenly on his feet, right in Maya’s face. “You’ll throw a fit like last night? Get us all in trouble again?”

Maya involuntarily backed up a step, arms wrapping around herself. There was real fear in her eyes. “What’s your problem? I just—”

“You just nothing. Maybe you can all afford to dick around in here, but I can’t. From now on we’re gonna make nice and do what they tell us. Until—” Damion held out his hands, showing us the red that spiderwebbed across the creases of his palms and stained his dark fingers. “Until we find out exactly what’s going on.”

His eyes went to the shut classroom door, and for a minute, we all listened to Aunt’s shrill outrage battle Freddy’s guttural growl.

When Damion spoke again, it was almost in monotone, his voice completely calm. “Last night I fell asleep in bed, locked in our dorm room. This morning I was on the floor, my hands like this. Zach was the same way, sprawled on the linoleum. Like he was dead . . .” Damion’s words faded out and his hands shook. He stared at the floor, like he could still see Zach’s body. I saw a glimpse of the sadness again as his face froze in a horrified grimace. Like he was trapped in his own nightmare.

Nami stepped between Maya and him. Her arm brushing against Damion’s. Somehow, she managed to make the action look both natural and accidental. He came back to himself, and for a moment, they looked at each other. A grateful smile hovering on Damion’s lips.

Then his face went serious and he took a very deliberate step away from Nami. “Someone is fucking with us, and until we know what kind of game we’re playing, we’re going to fall in line. Now, everyone tell me exactly what happened to them last night.” He scowled down at Kel. “You start, Hoodie Boy. And you mind telling us why you’re the only one here with a stylish wardrobe?”

“Leave it.” Kel’s eyes blazed with the same buried rage I’d seen in him at dinner the night before.

“Trading favors with Dr. Mordoch? She’s a little old for you, but she’s probably all you could get.”

“I said, leave it.” Kel’s words were rigid. The same tension filled his body as he sat up straighter, but he didn’t move from his spot on the floor.

Damion stayed perfectly still too, but his body practically hummed with adrenaline. Gearing up for a fight.

“Now, now, boys. Play nice.” Nami interrupted the standoff. Kel shook his head, slouching against the wall again. Damion relaxed too. As if Nami’s voice had pulled them both back from the brink. “I woke up on the floor too, right next to the window. And it was open.”

“Ours too.” Zach tried to sound nonchalant, but a tremor in his voice betrayed him.

We were all trying hard not to make too big a deal about the night before. I mean, what if it
was
just some sort of hazing?

“Thing is,” Nami went on, and now an edge of fear sneaked into her voice too, “I tried to open my window last night, as soon as they moved me from Solitary. The thing was stuck. Painted shut and not even budging. My roommate tried it too. No one could’ve got that thing open.”

I did.

But I kept that to myself. I wasn’t about to put myself at the center of this.

Then Maya did it for me. “Anyone else have a creepy drawing on the floor?”

The others looked blank or shook their heads.
Just us, then. Great.

“What kind of drawing?” Kel’s deep hazel eyes were alert, the green sparking in interest.

I thought about the blood-red symbol that’d seemed so familiar. But before I figured out what to say, the door opened.

Damion dropped back into the crouch, whispering, “If any of you did anything to me . . . If I find out it’s any of you, I will end you.”

Aunt clacked back into the room. “Back into your positions.”

Maya took in a sharp breath to say something, but Damion cleared his throat and she closed her mouth.

It really was torture to force our bodies back into that squat. But we sat there while the other students tromped down the hallways to lunch. We sat as the building went silent. We sat there, all our minds wondering about last night. And about what other punishments we’d be facing if someone found out.

Aunt kept on reading Holbrook propaganda. Until our knees were on fire. Our muscles shaking. Until finally the door opened again and I heard Freddy’s boots stomp in.

“Hurry up and get in line!” Freddy ordered. “Provided that’s okay with Auntie here.”

Even facing away from him, I could hear Freddy’s sneer when he said “Auntie.”

“Of course. I’ve done all I can for them. They’re in Dr. Mordoch’s hands now.”

Aunt smiled at us as we forced our stiff bodies to stand up. Her joyous expression made me wonder what else we were in for.

“I said, get up.” Freddy’s big boots made a step toward our Family and I saw the focus of his wrath.

Kel was still on the floor. He’d managed to get out of the crouch, but sat with his back braced against the wall, breathing slowly. Hair fell across his eyes, but it didn’t hide the torment contorting his face.

Do it.

Before I lost my nerve, I crossed in front of Freddy and held out my hand to Kel. My fingers slid over his, interlacing with his gloved ones. And again, in the instant when I touched him, something happened. Not pain this time, but overwhelming. Like being drawn into Kel.

My head filled with the buzzing of a thousand bees. Angry and treacherous, Kel’s thoughts swarmed around me. Poised to sting.

I’d never picked up thoughts at this kind of intensity before, and in my mind’s eye, I kept very still. They began landing, one by one, covering all that was me. My whole being vibrating and pulsing with their anthem.

Then, as quickly as it came, the deafening hum died. I was back in the classroom. Kel standing in front of me now. His face dangerously close to my own. His breath on my cheek. The peppery scent of ginger humming through me, making me dizzy.

Kel’s gloved hand wrapped mine tighter. Holding me up. His dark eyes held the same question I had.

What was that?

“Get in line!” Freddy jerked Kel away from me and shuttled us all out of the classroom. And only one thought consumed me as Freddy corralled us out of the old house.

Come back.

Because when Kel touched me, I was terrified. Terrified and so very alive.

We marched past the empty fenced-in yard and I craned my neck to look back at Kel. His whole body seemed to be shaking as we walked down the path to the Compass Rose. Freddy paused to talk to a Taker at the front door.

I forced myself not to look at Kel again. Desperate for distraction, I focused on the porch column in front of me. Tracing the pattern carved into it with my eyes. Lines and twists and—

The flying bird. The same winged-V from this morning was carved into the stone column, part of a complicated design weaving its way up the granite.

“They’re ready for you. Move it,” Freddy ordered.

The same unnerving sense of recognition immobilized me. It was like I was standing in the dorm room again, staring down at the crimson-streaked floor. I reached out and traced the symbol with my finger. The rumble of drums reverberated through my mind. Rising into a fevered pulse that crescendoed in a wave of memory.

Hands clawed at the red earth. Blood dripping down the fingers.

Kel’s cough brought me out of the vision. His eyes were looking at Freddy. The Taker was fingering his Taser like an Old West gunslinger. I shut the bloody image out of my mind, turned away from the column, and hurried into the Compass Rose.

I’ll come back for you
.

I didn’t let myself glance at Maya. Maybe she hadn’t noticed the symbol. Instead, I paid attention as Freddy led us to the cafeteria. A left turn. Then a right. Another left.

The bizarre layout of the Compass Rose gave it a lopsided feeling, like the entryway was just pasted onto the side of the house. I needed to learn my way through the maze of hallways connecting the front room to the rest of the building.

Like ants, we marched one after the other, down the dark, stuffy passageways. A right. A long hallway. Then a left. One more left, and we were at the cafeteria.

A hundred hungry faces glared at us as Freddy marched us toward Dr. Mordoch and her podium.

“The student body is whole again.” Dr. Mordoch started clapping, and all the Takers, Aunts, and Uncles lining the walls joined in.

Dread sat heavy in my stomach. What would the Consequences be? Was Dr. Mordoch going to lecture us in front of the whole school? Or would we get locked in Solitary again? Worry tightened across my chest, making me struggle for air.

“Now, I know you’re all hungry for lunch. But as I said earlier, these students need our help.” As Dr. Mordoch continued her performance, Freddy lined us up facing the students. Like prisoners facing a firing squad. On my right, Zach practically vibrated with anxiety. Every muscle in his soft body was pulled taut, like it physically hurt to be standing up in front of all these people. On my other side, Damion’s mouth stretched into a straight, grim line as he stared out at the students. The tables of day-glo green and orange jumpsuits looked absurdly festive against the mass of resentful faces.

“While all of you were engaged in Socialization this morning, learning how to communicate”—Dr. Mordoch’s voice projected out over the tables of students—“this Family was disrespecting the rules of Holbrook. And disrespecting you. At Holbrook Academy, as in life, one person’s behavior affects everyone else. While you were sitting here patiently, they were facing the first part of their Consequences.”

The other students didn’t look patient. The clock on the far wall said it was 12:41. Which meant they’d been sitting here, in silence, for more than an hour, watching their mac-and-cheese congeal into an orange, plasticky glob. They looked hungry and hot. And mad.

“Now we must wait a little longer as we all participate in the second phase of Family Five’s Consequences. As these students”—Dr. Mordoch stepped off her platform, microphone still in hand, and gestured to our Family with a dramatic sweep of her arm—“are learning to respect discipline, they must also learn to respect you, their peers. There is only one way to come through this journey, and that is together.”