That had been a long time ago, and Carol McCarthy said almost nothing anymore, and whenever she did, her words were slurred. Becca heard her mother talking slowly now, but her words most likely didn’t mean anything. She was trying to defend Robbie, but Becca didn’t know that for sure.
Instead, Becca turned away from the stairs and headed back to her room.
Kent was bent over, looking at his paper. The problem looked as if it was solved correctly, but Becca couldn’t muster an ounce of care for it at all.
“Hey,” Kent said.
Becca turned to him, seeming to not even realize that there was someone else besides her.
“I’m sorry that all of this happened to you,” he said. He looked back down at his Regent’s prep book and continued drawing. Downstairs, the men were yelling at one another again.
“Yeah,” Becca said, “me too.”
****
Chapter Seven
Of all of the NaUs, Danni is an interesting one. The girl was gifted with incredible strength. She can lift cars and topple mountains if she wished. However, there is a rage at the center of all of it. A wave of anger I can sense under the surface. The anger was there before and now has only intensified into someone dangerous.
-Robbie’s Journal
“You alright, Matt?” Peter said.
Danni swerved a little in the road, trying to avoid a rabbit. All four of them were jam-packed in Danni’s car, all still smelling like the Washington County Fair.
“I’m fine guys, really,” Matt said, looking out the window. “We didn’t have to leave.”
A look from Jolie in the rearview mirror said to Danni that, yes, they needed to leave.
“It’s alright, Matt,” Peter said. “It was getting late anyway. We wanted to avoid the traffic.”
Danni already knew Matt’s response, and it made her roll her eyes slightly in advance.
“You guys didn’t need to take a car,” Matt said. “I could have come along fine. It’s only a few miles.”
Matt was wearing his undershirt. His sweatshirt had been covered with red drool that started to turn brown and crystalize to the cotton exterior. Jolie took it off of him before his inner shirt could get as ruined as the exterior one.
“It was a small attack,” Matt said. “I got excited. That’s all.”
The car was silent; the only sound came from the air being whipped into the car as they drove. The McCarthy’s lived on the edge of town, if one were to even call Greendale a town. They had moved into an old barn house that Danni thought might have been owned by Matt’s mother and father a long time ago. Back then, Nigel hadn’t been so much of a hard-ass. Back then, they might have been happy.
Not anymore.
Danni pulled up to the house and saw two cars in the driveway. Matt saw them too.
“No, please,” Matt said, his voice getting higher in pitch. “Please don’t take me home.”
Danni pursed her lips. He didn’t need to look into the back of the car to feel Jolie’s eyes on the back of her head.
“You need to go home,” Danni said, pulling up to the house.
“He’s here,” Matt said. “I can’t see him like this . . . please no, please no.”
Nigel being here only made things worse. Matt’s old man was a prick. Seeing his father right now would be the last thing that Matt would want. The plan was to take Matt home and let Doctor Rob see what was up with him. No hospitals or anything else. Besides, these sorts of events were becoming more common than anyone involved in them would prefer them to be. For all Danni knew, Matt might have inherited more aspects of his biology from his mother then the same eye color.
The steering wheel vibrated under her hands as Danni looked up at the house. It was a big house, at least by Greendale standards, and perhaps it had been pretty once. She looked back in the rearview mirror at Matt.
He was leaning up against the window. His skin was pale and seemed to hug his bones.
“I’m sorry,” Danni said, “but you have to go home.”
“Can’t you at least wait until he leaves?” Matt said. “He’s probably drunk and won’t be here long.”
He started coughing again. A few splatters of blood landed on the back of Danni’s neck.
“No, you’re going home,” she said, pulling ahead. As much as she wanted to bring Matt to Pete’s house and the three of them could have an impromptu sleepover (anytime Danni could sleepover with Pete was a good night, at least in her opinion) she couldn’t risk Matt’s safety. If he was sick then, putting him through this ordeal would be worse for him then a mental beating from his father.
Besides, it’s not like Nigel could hit him with the belt anymore. The man was harsh, but he wasn’t ruthless, and if there was one good thing about being in a wheelchair, it was that your alcoholic father might hesitate before hitting you.
She pulled into the driveway and turned the car off.
Jolie was out of the car and heading to the back. Pete started to take his seatbelt off, but Danni stopped him. He shook his head. Jolie opened Matt’s side of the door and helped the boy into his wheelchair.
“Have a good night, Matt,” Danni said. Pete moved to get out again, and Danni likewise stopped him again.
Nigel was known for having pretty bad beliefs when it came to people like Danni and Peter, and seeing the two of them with his son, given how bad his son currently looked, wouldn’t help any of the people involved. Peter let go of Danni’s hand and opened the door.
“I need some air,” he said. Danni undid her seatbelt and followed suit.
The air outside was humid and filled with the sounds of chirpers and cicadas. Danni thought she heard a fisher cat in the distance, screaming its high yell for all to hear. The fisher wouldn’t get close, though, unless it was full of rabies. Danni
