Paranoia (The Night Walkers) (15 page)

Addie growled and looked ready to fight me again, so I stared straight into her eyes. “Listen to me and I’ll explain. I’m not hurting him … I promise you, Addie.”

“He’s bleeding! You had a knife to his throat! To Finn!” Her voice choked off in a sob. “How could you do this, Parker?”

I’d never thought I was capable of something like this either. I nodded toward where the knife lay on the floor. “I don’t have the knife anymore,” I said, my voice ragged. “But I’ll sit right here. I won’t move until you let me explain.”

Addie picked up the knife with shaking fingers, and when she saw at Finn’s blood on it, her grasp on it tightened. She held it up. Her eyes were a sea of confusion and mistrust, but she was listening.

“This”—I looked down at Finn and then back up—“is not your brother. He attacked me.”

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head.

“You remember what Jack told us about the Takers?”

Addie’s eyes widened and she looked from me to Finn.

Mia, who stood behind her, spoke up first. “How do we know it’s not you who isn’t … yourself?”

“Watchers bodies can’t be taken over.” I kept speaking low and steady in spite of the turmoil inside me. The knife Addie was holding made me feel sick and kept my adrenaline pumping. Mia still held the phone in her hand, so I nodded toward it. “Ask Jack.”

Mia looked a little sheepish as she lifted the phone to her ear. “Did you hea—”

I heard Jack talking rapidly in the background, then Mia said, “Okay, hurry.” And hung up.

“He says we should move Finn to his room, gag him, and tie him up. He’s on his way over.”

“I don’t—I don’t know … ” Addie’s hands were shaking and it looked like she might drop the knife at any moment. Her eyes were still glued to Finn.

“Think of any question that no one but Finn could answer. And it needs to be something that happened before … ” I calculated in my head. Tuesday was the last day Finn had been normal, but I’d go further back just to be safe. “Think of something that happened before your vacation and ask him about it. I promise he won’t be able to answer you.”

Addie reached down with her free hand and pulled the dishtowel from Finn’s mouth. He immediately started talking.

“He’s going crazy, Addie. I don’t even know what he’s talking about. Don’t believe him!”

“Answer my question and I’ll help you.” She bent down until she could see his face, but she had to cover her mouth against the cloud of spices that kicked up every time Finn squirmed. “What did Grandpa Patrick call me before he died?”

Finn wiggled again and coughed for a while, but there was definitely a more forced sound to it this time.

“Answer her.” I twisted his arm a little further and he stopped faking.

“Okay—I just don’t remember. It feels like he’s been gone a long time … ”

Addie’s face paled three shades before she stood up and dropped the knife into the sink. “I don’t know who this is, but Finn would know our grandpa is alive and well in Florida. Let’s take him in the other room.”

Between the three of us, a rope from the garage for his hands and feet, and a new, more reliable, gag, we managed to get Finn into his room just before Jack showed up. Addie and Mia straightened up the kitchen while Jack and I pushed Finn into his closet and force-fed him one of Mrs. Patrick’s sleeping pills. Harder than you might think when the prisoner is trying extremely hard to bite fingers off.

Finn was nodding off when we left him. We
gathered around the kitchen table and tried to come up with a plan.

“We should take him to my house,” I said. “My mom is working all weekend, and it will seem weird if your parents come home and don’t see him.”

“Or find him tied up in his own closet.” Mia was biting her lip so hard I was afraid she’d start bleeding. I reached out and squeezed her hand.

“He’s going to be okay.” I glanced over at Jack, but was surprised to find Addie staring at my hand. Mia quickly pulled her hand away with an apologetic glance in my direction. I focused my attention on Jack again. “Finn wasn’t asleep when I got here, and it’s already dinnertime. If a Taker took him over last night, why didn’t Finn wake up today back as himself again?”

Jack rubbed his thumb back and forth across the stubble on his chin. “The Taker must still be sleeping. Remember, it’s about the Taker. When he wakes up, Finn will be free.”

“So the sleeping pill we gave him will wear off, the Taker will wake up, and Finn will wake up back as himself again, right?”

Jack nodded, but it was slower than I liked and there was definitely some hesitation to it.

“What?”

“No, nothing.” Jack frowned, but gave me a firm nod this time. “That’s what should happen.”

“Okay, so we need to get him back to my house. Since it was definitely one of us that Finn last made eye contact with, by morning everything will return to normal.” The girls agreed and I stood up, but Jack frowned so I sat back down.

“Dude—just say it.” I was trying very hard to be patient, but Jack was driving me mad lately just by existing. Even calling him for help felt superhuman. It was something I would only do when desperate—only to save Finn. I took a slow, deep breath before continuing with considerably less growl. “What are we missing?”

“I told you. It isn’t about Finn’s eye contact,” Jack said. “It’s just like with a Watcher. If you make eye contact with Mia at the end of a day, does it matter who she, the Dreamer, makes eye contact with after that? No. It isn’t Finn that matters, it’s the Night Walker. The Taker has to wake up and look into someone else’s eyes to break his connection with Finn.” Jack rubbed his hands across his face before finishing. “Someone has to go find the Taker, who I assume must be that Cooper guy. We need to wake him up and force him to make eye contact with someone.”

Addie’s hands were shaking, but she responded first. “Well, I thi—”

Jack and I interrupted her at the same time: “I’ll do it.”

“So Mia and I will be left alone in your house with an unconscious Finn in your closet?” All emotion had left Addie’s face. All I saw left was determination … and sarcasm. “Yeah, that won’t be suspicious at all when your mom comes home.” She stood up and pushed out her chair. “We’ll stay here. Once we’re sure he’s out, we’ll get him comfortable in his closet—still tied up, of course—and then I’ll lie and tell my parents he’s spending the night at your house. You guys keep your phones on. We’ll call you if there are any problems, and then you come back here when you’re done and we’ll decide what to do from there.”

Jack was the only one still seated. “I think Parker should stay here too.”

“Why?” Addie got the words out before I did.

“Because we don’t know where this search for Cooper is going to lead us. If we end up at the Takers’ base or they get an easy chance to take Parker, they’ll do it.” Jack frowned and slowly got to his feet. “I don’t want to give them an opportunity like that when I can do this alone.”

“First—you don’t even know what Cooper looks like. Second—Finn has been my best friend my entire life and I’m coming.” I started backing toward the door. “Third—if you try to stop me, I’ll go find Cooper on my own.”

Addie turned to Jack. I thought I saw a tiny smile curving up one corner of her mouth before she tilted her head to one side and I couldn’t see her whole face anymore. “Looks like he’s coming—and it will be safer with two of you there, anyway.”

Mia stepped over to me and lowered her chin as she met my eyes. “You two watch out for each other.” She glanced over her shoulder at Addie and Jack. “No more fighting. Finn needs you—
both of you
.”

twenty-one

The only thing we discussed on the car ride was where to begin. Since Jack still didn’t want to tell me where the Takers’ base was, and we didn’t know how connected Cooper was with the other Takers anyway, we decided that starting at Thor’s place would be the best plan. I parked the car up the street from the run-down house.

For all we knew, Cooper might not even be here, but if he wasn’t, Thor probably knew where he was. The fact that Finn had been here just a few hours ago, while under the control of someone else, made me pretty sure that Thor had a lot more to do with the Takers than I’d previously believed.

That thought made me want to put my fist through Thor’s head more than I’d ever wanted to in the past, and considering he was the biggest asshat I’d ever met, that was really saying something.

Jack held his finger up to his lips as I turned off the car and reached for my door handle. It was hard to resist the temptation to roll my eyes.

“Got it,” I whispered. I was pretty proud of myself for showing some restraint.

Hiding in the shade of a tree, we waited. I wasn’t sure what for, until I noticed that Jack’s eyes weren’t on the house but on the sky. The moon was out, almost full, and shining brightly down on this creepy little neighborhood. But there was a big cloud moving toward the moon and within a couple of minutes, it would be covered. The street would be darkened.

Time passed slowly, and I found myself thinking about the way Finn had looked coming at me with that knife. I knew it wasn’t him, but it was still a memory that would be hard to shake. Just like the memory of his blood on the blade in my hand. I shivered and Jack glanced over at me.

“You sure you’re up to this?” There was a slight smirk on his face, so I interrupted him before he could go on.

“Yes, I’m sure.” I straightened the dark gray jacket I’d borrowed from Finn’s closet and peered back up at the moon … almost time. “But if you want to wait in the car, I understand.”

Jack didn’t say a word, but the muscle flexing in his jaw was answer enough.

The moon finally slipped behind the cloud and the street sank into darkness. The nearest streetlamp was out—jagged shards of broken glass stuck out from the light socket that was supposed to provide safety from the shadows. The only illumination on the street came from a few windows and an occasional front porch lamp that still worked.

We stuck close to the trees as I led Jack down the street. When I got to Thor’s yard, we crept around the back. Every crackle of gravel, every snap of a twig beneath my feet felt amplified, over and over. It felt like a megaphone announcing our presence to every person in the homes surrounding us. But there was no response. No one noticed. No one cared.

When I got around to the back I could see one of those screened-in sunrooms they have on older homes. Thor sat in a spindly old rocking chair that really didn’t look reliable enough to bear his weight, and he was talking, but from my position I couldn’t see the other person.

“ … know if they can get more.”

“They’ll have to.” The voice was soft and low. I couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. My eyes scanned the shadows on the opposite end of the room. I could barely make out a figure there, but the only light came from inside the building and the figure was in a shade so deep they’d have to step forward for me to tell even how tall they were, let alone anything else.

“What if they can’t?” Thor’s voice sounded much younger and more vulnerable than I ever would’ve guessed. He also had a thick accent—Romanian? Or Russian maybe? I scratched my chin. The things you learn about someone when they finally stop growling and have a conversation.

“Then we’ll make good on our promise. Besides, we’re almost ready to start. We’ve gotten all the money we need for supplies and setup.”

Money … all the weird sleep issues in Oakville, the people
draining their savings accounts, even possibly the police
commissioner quitting his job so abruptly. All the dozens of snippets of news articles or reports over the last few months that I’d wondered about. The Takers had been behind all of it, and now they were ready for whatever was coming next.

The other person stepped forward and I recognized Cooper immediately. Good, he was awake. I also noticed that he didn’t have any sunglasses on and was looking straight at Thor. The only Taker I knew in town had just made eye contact with someone besides Finn. The connection should be broken now. This had been an easier job than I’d expected.

Jack grabbed my elbow and nodded back toward the car. I turned and started to follow him, but the next words I heard froze me mid-step and I barely kept myself from falling over.

“The chemist doesn’t seem to be all that cooperative.”

Chemist? Dad!

I’d always suspected that if there were Takers in town, it was related to Dad. But since Cooper hadn’t made a move to come after me, even knowing I was a Watcher, I’d started to think maybe Cooper wasn’t involved with Dad. After all, just because someone was a Taker didn’t mean he knew all the other Takers. Hell, I hadn’t even known there were other Watchers before Jack told me last week. But hearing them talk about “the chemist” made me certain that not only were Cooper and Thor heavily involved, they probably knew where Dad was that very moment.

Jack pulled hard on my sleeve but I ignored him, listening harder.

“He knows we can hurt them any time we want. He knows we aren’t afraid to kill. We can become anyone at any time. The people close to you have the easiest time crushing you. We’re on the inside. He can’t fight that.” Cooper was supremely confident.

Thor stood and walked closer to the screen. He could see me clearly if he just looked down. My heart pounded so hard my chest hurt. I’d waited too long, and now they were going to catch me. Jack froze, his fingers still gripped around my jacket. I could hear his breath coming in quiet puffs. The moon came out from behind the cloud just as Thor turned back toward Cooper.

“Parker shouldn’t be underestimated. That’s what got Jeff killed. You guys should’ve learned from that little experiment.”

The words “little experiment” rang in my ears as we snuck along the side of the house, into the front yard, and back out to the car.

I drove on autopilot across town back to Finn’s house. I thought I heard Jack call Addie to tell them we were on our way, but I didn’t remember a word he said. All I could think about was what kind of “experiment” could have been done on Jeff. Had he been under the control of a Taker when he’d trapped Mia and me and started the fire? If so, he’d been as innocent as Finn was tonight.

Memories of Jeff from years ago flooded back. So many times, we’d hung out behind the junior high. Went to the movies or kicked the soccer ball around after school. Had I killed a complete innocent? Was I responsible for the death of my friend?

Mia and Addie met us out front and snuck us around the back of the Patricks’ house, but I didn’t go inside. Instead I sat on the garden wall by the basketball hoop, feeling sick and needing to think. I needed time to sort this out.

This wasn’t like with Dr. Freeburg. I hadn’t attacked Jeff, but if I’d known he wasn’t himself … would I have tried harder to save him?

Could
I have saved him?

After a few minutes, Addie came out and sat next to me. “So, they didn’t say anything about Finn?”

“No. But they mentioned my dad.” My voice sounded hollow, even to me. “I think they probably even know where he is and what’s happening to him.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Her voice was quiet, hesitant. And the answer was no. I didn’t want to talk to her right now. I knew I’d screwed up and made mistakes, but she wasn’t the only one who’d been hurt. Right now, I needed someone I could trust not to hurt me again. More importantly, I needed someone who would be able to answer some of my questions.

“Thank you, Addie—but right now, I need to talk to Mia.” My words were soft, but I could tell from the way she pulled back that they still stung. I tried to soften the blow. “She’s the only one who was there … that night at school, with the fire.”

The tension drained out of her shoulders and she looked less angry, if a little deflated. After a moment, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll get her.”

A few minutes later, Mia sat beside me. She was quiet, waiting for me to be ready.

“I heard something at the house about an experiment on Jeff.”

Her body stiffened at Jeff’s name, but she inclined her head for me to continue.

“Do you think he could’ve been under a Taker’s control that day?” I didn’t feel the need to clarify further, and she didn’t ask me to. Even though we hadn’t really talked about what had happened, we both knew too well what day I was referring to.

We could never forget.

Mia bit her lip and curled a strand of hair around her finger for a few seconds before finally answering. “I don’t think so.”

It surprised me that she felt so sure. “Why not?”

“Because of all the things he said.” Her brow furrowed. “About his mom and the team, all the bitterness … that wasn’t some Taker out for a joy ride. Jeff really felt those things.”

“It wasn’t a Taker.” Jack’s voice came from the door of the house. I hadn’t realized he was listening, but it didn’t surprise or bother me. He was the one who knew about this world, and apparently the one who could really answer my question.

“How do you know?” I shifted my position so I could see him over my shoulder, but his face was still hidden in shadow.

“Because it was a Watcher.” Jack stared straight down at the ground between his feet. He seemed to shrink in place. “I know, because it was me.”