Crush

and grabbed my arm and swore he’d be cool, and I was just so upset, I kept saying, ‘Leave me alone.’

“He got really angry then. He said I should know better than to piss him off. Bad things happened to people that pissed him off. And he said if I didn’t believe him, I should ask Ox. It was a total threat. I didn’t get it because I didn’t know about Ox.”

Jonathan left his place at the doorjamb and crossed the room. He put his arm around Kirsty, who was now very near tears. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Kirsty pushed in close to Jonathan, resting her head on his chest. “I was so scared,” she whispered. She sniffed quietly and snuggled her cheek against him. “I walked home. I was on Dalrymple about to turn onto Remington, when I heard this weird sound, like a flag snapping in the wind. I looked up and saw these shadows, but they weren’t really shadows because there was nothing in the sky to cause them. They were just dark smears in the night, and the only reason I could see them at all was because the stars weren’t as bright behind them.

“Then I saw that one of them had a face. A terrible face. It looked like it was in so much pain. And it looked angry. I screamed. I totally screamed my head off and started running. I knew I wouldn’t make it home, though. So I ran to the closest house, and one of those things slid up my back. It felt cold and moist, like a slug or something, and I totally freaked out. I fainted and woke up on the sofa of a family named Myers. They called my mom, and she came to pick me up.”

“God, you were so lucky,” Jonathan said, wondering if fainting had saved Kirsty’s life or if something else had spared her the suffocating embrace of the Reapers. “You shouldn’t have even left the house today,” he said.

“I know, but when I came out of it, and that family was staring at me, I figured I’d just scared myself. I thought it was all some kind of hallucination, or maybe a nightmare I had after fainting. I was so confused; I just didn’t know what to think.

“I woke up this morning thinking it was all just a mind screw, but as soon as I got outside, I started getting scared. I started to think about Mr. Weaver and Toby and I wondered if what David said was real. I mean, can he really control these things? I thought if anyone knew, you would.”

“I didn’t know he could do this,” Jonathan said. “Killing people? I mean even if I thought he could work magic, I’d never have thought he could actually kill someone.”

It was impossible, a tiny voice in the back of his mind whispered. This is David you’re talking about.

“Well, maybe it isn’t him,” Kirsty said, pulling away from Jonathan. “Maybe he was just trying to scare me because I hurt his feelings. Boys do weird stuff. Like when they’re being rejected, their egos get all crazy. It might not be him at all.”

“It’s him,” Jonathan said, the sickness in his stomach turning hard and cold. David had hurt Emma and killed at least three people. It didn’t seem real, but it was. “Now we just have to figure out how to stop him.”

13

“We have to check the doors and the windows,” Kirsty said. “If one of those things got in here, we’d never even see it.”

Jonathan looked around the room and had to agree with her. The walls were too dark; the textured paint on them would provide excellent camouflage for those things. He followed her through the house, checking windows and doors, making sure the house was sealed tight from basement to roof.

“When’s your mom get home?” Jonathan asked.

They stood outside a door on the second floor of the house. Kirsty paused with her hand on the knob. “My room’s a mess, okay?” she said, not answering his question. “Can you wait here?”

“Sure,” Jonathan said.

Kirsty slipped through the door and closed it quickly behind her. He leaned against the wall and looked at the door. The knob was made of iron, more of a handle than a doorknob. The door itself looked heavy, not one of those cheap plywood things he had at home. That was good. If those things got in, they couldn’t just break the door in. But Jonathan looked along the frame and down, and he didn’t like what he saw. A wide gap, nearly half an inch, separated the bottom of the door from the floor. These things, the Reapers, were flat. Could they slip through a hole that size? He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

When Kirsty emerged from her room, Jonathan said, “We’re going to need a few things.”

They sat on the sofa in the living room. Jonathan stared at the fireplace. He’d made sure the flue was closed, but the hole in the wall made him nervous. On the cushion next to him, Kirsty spun a roll of duct tape on two fingers. Next to her was a bag that held towels, two flashlights, a hammer, some nails, and Kirsty’s cell phone. It was an emergency kit. Jonathan figured they could use these things, and he didn’t want to have to search the house if they needed them fast.

“You never told me when your mother would be home,” Jonathan said.

“Well, that’s the other thing,” Kirsty said. “She’s gone for a few days on business. I couldn’t tell her about those…those things. God, I didn’t want her to go, but I didn’t know what to say to make her stay. So I’m alone.”

“You’re not alone,” Jonathan said.

“I would be, without you,” she replied. “What are we going to do, Jonathan? We can’t hide in here forever.”

“I know,” he said. But he honestly didn’t know what they could do. It wasn’t like they could just kill David.

“Why don’t we run away?” Kirsty suggested. “I’ve got my car and enough money in the bank. We could just run away. David would never find us.”

“We can’t do that,” Jonathan said, though the idea was appealing. There wasn’t anything keeping him here, especially now that his best friend had gone psycho. “David will just hurt other people. We have to stop him.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I’m not exactly Harry Potter. I don’t know anything about magic or the supernatural, except for crap I’ve seen in movies.”

“Did you ever see anything like this in a movie?”

“No,” he admitted. In movies he’d seen vampires, werewolves, mummies, witches, slashers, and a thousand creatures without names, but he’d never come across anything like the Reapers.

“And you have no idea what they are?” she asked.

“Hell no,” he said. “Why would I?”

“It’s just that you two were such good friends. I thought he might have said something to you, maybe mentioned a book of spells or something.”

“A book of spells?” He remembered The History of the Occult, remembered David explaining his belief that magic was the first science, the first religion.

“God, I don’t know,” Kirsty said, her tone angry. “I’m just scared, okay?”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m scared too.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes. Jonathan’s thoughts raced as he tried to figure out what to do. He could try talking to David again, but if he was freaking out before Kirsty dumped him, Jonathan couldn’t imagine what David felt now. Besides, if Jonathan admitted what he knew to David, he might become a target himself. Though who was to say he wasn’t already? David had snapped. He’d blown a gasket and spun out of control. Three people were dead, and he’d tried to kill Kirsty, and those were only the crimes Jonathan knew about. They couldn’t go to the police. What would they say?

Hi, officers. There’s a kid who’s controlling these ghost things that smother people. And, well, yeah, he’s being a pain in the ass so could you maybe arrest him, please? Cool. Thanks.

Kirsty’s mother was out of town, and Jonathan’s parents might as well be. They didn’t give a damn. Hell, if anything happened to him, it would probably take them a week to notice he was gone. Kirsty’s suggestion to run away was looking better and better.

“I’m going to talk to David,” he decided.

“You can’t,” Kirsty said, clutching his arm. The roll of tape she’d been spinning flew from her fingers and rolled across the floor. “He’ll kill you.”

“I’ll meet him after school,” Jonathan said. “There’ll be like a thousand people around. He won’t try anything.