The Stranger Inside (36 page)

Zack smirked, shaking his head slightly, obviously onto my refocusing ploy. I went ahead with it anyway, opening the note. Then I started shaking. Bad.

“Jodi, what’s the matter? What does it say?” Zack took the letter from me, reading it aloud. “Come to my classroom tonight at ten. We have a lot to discuss, a lot in common—like the love for the mountains at night and falling stars.”

Zack furrowed his brow. “Son of a …”

I felt like I was going to fall out of my chair. I clutched on to it for support. Obviously Mr. Daniels knew what Kenzie did. He must have been there. Must have seen. But that meant …

“Mr.
Daniels
was the guy Lindsey was waiting for?” Zack seemed just as stunned as me. . “He was the guy who stabbed her in the woods? Took her bloody body?”

I clutched my stomach as I puzzled it together. “He saw Kenzie push Lindsey. But … he thought it was me.” Suddenly, I remembered the shadows in his classroom—they had been there more than once. Hanna had said the shadows could only search a place once—unless the place was evil. But I’d seen the shadows there a lot. Mr. Daniels was evil.

 “Okay, let me think,” Zack said, seeming to forget he was a wicked monster, bent on attacking Kenzie. Instead, he seemed to be trying to help me. “Sawyer! Come here.”

Sawyer?

Relief! Finally, Sawyer came into the kitchen. Where had he been? Why did he look mad? His fists were clenched like he was trying to stay in control, but I could tell he was fuming. He eyed Zack impatiently. “Are we going to do this or not?”

“No. Not right now,” Zack said. “Give me the gun.”

I blinked. Gun?
Gun?                                                                    

Sawyer gave me a sheepish look, then handed Zack the gun. The look he gave Zack wasn’t sheepish, though. It was angry. Furious, even.

“Chill,” Zack said. “This will work.”

“What will work?” Sawyer asked through gritted teeth.

I just sat silent for a second, unable to speak, my heart pounding, ready to explode. I had no idea what was going on. But they had a gun. A
gun
!

It took me a second to react. I shot up from my seat, the chair scraping the floor behind me. “You guys are pychos. What were you going to do with the gun?” I started to run for the front door, but Sawyer caught me and forced me back into my seat.

His eyes were full of concern, even as he held me down, forcing me to stay and listen to him. “We had a plan to scare Kenzie into running away—running to your only friend besides us: Grey,
in New York
. But see, we couldn’t tell you our plan. Anything we told you—Kenzie would hear. And for all we know, she can sense your feelings. So, we even had to scare
you
right now—a little bit—so Kenzie wouldn’t be suspicious, thinking we were scheming with you.”

“It was Sawyer’s lame butt plan,” Zack said. “I didn’t want to scare you.” Then a slow grin crept on to his face and his dark eyes gleamed. “But I knew I could—you freak out whenever I look at you. So, I kind of used that.”

I looked from Zack to Sawyer, my heart feeling funny. What a strange plan. But it made me feel bad. Of course they were only trying to help me. I should have been able to figure that out. I guess they were only telling me now because the plan seemed to have changed. Now Zack seemed to want to use the gun to scare Mr. Daniels instead. At least that’s the way it
seemed
. But it didn’t seem like a very good plan. It seemed like a very bad plan.

At least Kenzie didn’t hear what they had schemed up—I could kind of tell when she was on alert now. We were starting to kind of “coexist.” Trips to the cemetery seemed to drain her. Made her weak. She would still pop up now and then after a cemetery visit, but only for little bits of time.

Sawyer squeezed my hand, his eyes full of concern. “You okay?”

I nodded.

“Okay, the
plan
,” Zack said, like we didn’t have time to coddle. “Mr. Daniels wants Jodi to meet him at his classroom at ten. Let’s meet him at ten.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going there. You’re crazy if you think I’m going there. He tried to kill Lindsey. And what does he want from me?”

Zack shrugged. “To blackmail you for sex.” He said it like,
duh.
“He thinks he can because he thinks you killed Lindsey,” Zack said. “But see, if you
record
him trying to blackmail you, we can blackmail him. Maybe get the money Lindsey was trying to get—or not, whatever. But the thing is, just because you don’t show up tonight doesn’t mean he’s not going to still come after you. I mean, he’s still going to come after you. It’s just right now we have a gun, and we can protect you. And Sawyer has all kinds of recording stuff for the band. So, let’s just meet the psycho now. Get it over with.”

I looked at Sawyer. Zack’s idea was scary, but it seemed like it might work.

Sawyer shook his head at me. “Jodi, it’s not a real gun.”

“Oh.”

“But it
looks
like a real gun,” Zack said. “And feel it.” He handed it to me. It was way heavier than I expected. “It feels real, doesn’t it?”

I nodded.

“That’s because it is.” He looked at Sawyer and smirked. “What? Dude, fake guns look fake.”

Sawyer smacked him upside the head.

“Check it out, it has no bullets,” Zack said. “I don’t own bullets. I have no bullets.”

I rubbed my forehead. “So … we have an empty gun.”

Zack flicked me a look. “Yeah.” He chewed on his lip. “But there’s three of us. And two of us are going to be hiding—so there’s the element of surprise.”

Kenzie’s voice suddenly came out of my mouth—“I’m not going to do it.”

“Oh, great,” Zack said. “
Now
she comes out.”

Wow, how did he know that was Kenzie and not me?

“Look Kenzie,” Sawyer said, trying to sound reasonable. “Mr. Daniels has something on you. We have to get something on him.”

Kenzie shook her head—
my
head. “I’m not going near that classroom. Not near that guy.”

Zack growled under his breath, then grabbed the phone, calling Jeremy to come over and talk to Kenzie. Meanwhile, Sawyer wired me up for recording. Kenzie protested the whole time. “Fine, wire me up,” she said. “Knock yourself out. But we’re not going. No way, no how. That guy is wacko. He
took
Lindsey’s body.”

When Jeremy found out what we were planning to do, he freaked. “No way,” he said. “You’re not doing it.”

“Look,” I turned to him, “it’s the only way to get your girlfriend off the hook.”

Jeremy blinked. “My girlfriend?”

“Yeah. Kenzie, she’s your girlfriend, right? Right now there’s a psycho teacher trying to blackmail her for sex. Do you want him to blackmail her for sex?”

Jeremy stared into my eyes. “No.”

“Then talk her into doing this and lets go.”

The guys all looked at me with surprise. I’d turned sort of forthright lately. They still weren’t used to it. Neither was I, but we were in a hurry.

Jeremy looked hesitant, like he wasn’t going to do it. Then reluctantly, he took my hand. “Come on Kenzie,” he said with grim resign. “I guess we have to do this incredibly stupid thing. But you keep the gun, not Jodi.”

I tried to not be insulted he didn’t want me to have the gun. Tried to convince myself that what he meant was Kenzie probably had experience with guns, probably knew how to use one—after all, she was a
murderer
.

But you know, you really shouldn’t give a murderer a gun.

CHAPTER 43

The plan was to get to Mr. Daniels’ class early, before Mr. Daniels. So, the guys could hide in the closets or something. But the lights were on in Mr. Daniels’ room when we got there.

We all stopped outside the door, a few feet away. Zack stated the obvious. “I guess he’s already in his class.”

“Okay, let’s forget it.” Jeremy tugged at my arm. “It was stupid anyway.”

“No,” Zack said, latching on to my other arm, trying to pull me back. “It’ll still work. We’ll just be right outside the class. If Jodi needs us, she can scream. Besides,” he added. “Jodi has a gun.”

“Yeah,” Kenzie piped in. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Everyone stared up at her/me, looking puzzled. She sure changed her tune all of a sudden.

“We’re going to blackmail him for money,” she said.

No, we weren’t. But I didn’t tell her that. She was right. We should just get it over with—come to him rather than him sneaking up on us any time he felt like it. I didn’t want a psycho teacher breathing over my shoulder for the rest of my life. Or leave him with leverage he could use to send me to prison for the murder he had meant to commit.

Jeremy shook his head. “Jodi, don’t do it.”

I looked away from his pleading gaze, my eyes blurring. I was touched by his concern. He looked so worried. But I didn’t seem to have a choice. “I have to.”

“Okay,” Zack said. “Just get him to admit that he took Lindsey’s body and then get out of there.” I nodded, but he interjected, “Or that he knifed her up. That would probably work too. Then run.”

“Alright.” I took a deep breath.

But Jeremy moved in close. He blocked my way, taking my hand. “Jodi, I’m begging you, don’t do this.”

“Jeremy …” I slipped my hand away, not saying anything else. I had to go in there. I had to do this. Mr. Daniels was a sleazy monster and I had to get him off my back. Now. I would do the same with Kenzie and the shadows—I would—I would ditch them any way I could.

At least I had a way to ditch Mr. Daniels.

I took another deep breath, then on shaky legs I went into Mr. Daniels’ classroom.

He was sitting at his desk, grading papers. He smiled at me when I came into the room. “Hello Jodi,” he said. “Have a seat.”

He was sounding just like a teacher. A normal one. Friendly, but professional. I wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted to stay by the door, cling to it. But Mr. Daniels sat waiting expectantly.

“Have a seat,” he said again.

So, reluctantly, I limped over, taking the seat he gestured to across the desk from him. As soon as I sat down though, he got up. He walked to the door, talking teacherly as he did so. “The reason I called you here today was to discuss your grades.” He locked the door. “No, just kidding.”

My heart slammed against my chest.

I swallowed, trying to not to look as terrified as I felt. But I was shaking. I couldn’t stop. Still, I had to go on with the plan. There was no going back now. I swallowed again, trying to speak without croaking. “Mr. Daniels, when I—”

“Did you ever see my vat?” he asked, interrupting my lame attempt to get him to talk about Lindsey’s body.

“Your what?”

I just wanted to forget the whole thing. Just run. I could see shadows now: creeping, scattering. Hear them whispering. “Kenzie? Kenzie?” It made me unable to even focus on Mr. Daniels—on what he was saying. Dad’s warnings were going off in my brain. Hanna’s too.
Watch out for the shadows. Watch out for the shadows.

And I was. I was watching them. Watching them scatter on the walls like roaches. I sat frozen, having a massive heart attack. And Mr. Daniels went on talking.

“My vat of chemicals,” Mr. Daniels said, taking the lid off his garbage disintegrator. “I showed it to Lindsey just the other night.”

I gasped, leapt for the door. On wobbly, unsteady feet, I plowed to it. But frenzied shadows were gushing from the walls, gushing and gushing. They covered the knob, covered the whole door. And they weren’t even whispering anymore. They were screaming, howling for Kenzie.

“Kenzeee! Kenzeeee!”

I covered my ears, backing away.

Dad’s words were ringing in my head—loving, but demanding, urging me.

“There’s no Kenzie here!” I cried out.

The shadows disappeared, instantly. But I could still hear their voices; hear their howling. And in that horrifying instant, I remembered Hanna’s upset insistence that day in the office. “I can’t go in Mr. Daniels’ class.”

It was evil. Evil calls on evil.

Something horrible happened in this class—Mr. Daniels.

I twisted the knob.
Tried
to twist it. Tried and tried. My heart pounding harder and harder until my chest ached. But somehow the door was locked. Locked from the inside as well as out. Frantically, I pounded on the door, banged on it with all my might. But it was no use. None at all. I couldn’t get out.

“Your friends can’t break that window on the door,” Mr. Daniels said. “They can’t get in. And they can’t help you.”

Shaking, I pursed my lips, playing my only card. But my hands were sweating and trembling so bad I could hardly hold it.

I turned to Mr. Daniels with my gun pointed at him, and he smiled. He had a gun as well. Pointed right at me. And his probably had bullets.

I swallowed.

“Put down the gun,” he said.

I could hear the guys banging on the other side of the door, hear them yelling.

Mr. Daniels cocked his gun. “Put. Down. The. Gun.”

I was about to drop it, when suddenly a school laptop came crashing through the classroom window. The outside one, from two stories below. Obviously, one of The Clutch had thrown it.

While Mr. Daniels whirled around in surprise, I threw my gun at him, smacking him in the head, clipping his eye. Blood gushed and he dropped his gun, screaming in pain. I grabbed a chair and threw it at him, then grabbed another, ready to beat him with it as I scrambled for his gun.

“Give me the keys to the room.” I gripped the gun, pointing it right at him. “Give me the keys or I’ll kill you.”

Mr. Daniels whimpered in pain and made a move like he was going to get his keys. But then he moaned, rising a bit. “You’re not going to kill me.”

Instead of pulling keys from his jacket pocket, he pulled out a knife.

He was probably right. I wouldn’t kill him.

But Kenzie would. She pulled the trigger as soon as he lunged at us. She fired again and again and again. Mr. Daniels lifeless body slumped down, falling over his vat of chemicals, plunging half of him into the sea of acid, disintegrating his head and torso.