Something Deadly This Way Comes

“Good God, Jennifer,” Tammy said. “What is it with you comparing boys to food?”

“So what?” the loud voice protested. “I’m going to see it again tonight. With Chris. You want to come? We can invite Dan and double date.”

“I’ve got homework,” a new voice said from right behind me, sort of a soft, quiet voice that sounded like it belonged to someone who had been beaten down one too many times by her friends. I knew that voice. It had never been mine, but I knew it.

“Homework,” Jennifer snorted. “I knew you wouldn’t come. I was talking to Tammy.”

Beside me, Nakita started fiddling with her amulet. I glared at her, not wanting her to draw her sword. Barnabas would have a fit.

“Come on, Tammy,” Jennifer coaxed. “You like Dan, right? Now’s your chance to find out how good he can kiss.”

“Uh . . . my mom . . .” Tammy started, and Jennifer laughed.

“Ple-e-e-ease!” she moaned. “There is no way your mom will find out. She’s working.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I can sneak out with Johnny around. The little brat will tattle on me.”

“So wait until he’s asleep. We’re going to the late show, anyway.”

The image of a burning building drifted before my eyes, and again, the terror of Tammy seeing the quietly flashing ambulance with its small, covered stretcher filled me. I turned my head just enough so I could see Jennifer leaning over the back of Tammy’s seat, her arms dangling. Her expression was mocking, and I recognized that pissed look Tammy was now wearing. I’d been goaded by people I thought were my friends, too. She was going to do it, not because she wanted to sit in a dark theater with Dan, but because she didn’t want Jennifer to think she was chicken.

“Look,” Jennifer said, gum snapping, “wait for your mom to call at nine, like she always does, and then come out when bug boy is asleep. Easy peasy. You’ll be home by twelve thirty.”

The girl who had begged off with homework had her lips pressed, silently telling Tammy to say no. Jennifer saw it and pulled back a little. “You’re chicken,” she said derisively.

I sighed, knowing what was going to happen next.

“Am not!”

I held the edge of the seat as we took a corner, looking away when Jennifer’s eyes met mine for a second. “Then I’ll see you at ten thirty,” the girl said, and I could feel her eyes on me still.

“Fine,” Tammy said, and the memory of her terror hit me again.

“You can’t!” I exclaimed, turning in the seat.

The three girls and Nakita stared at me, Nakita in wonder, Jennifer in anger, and Tammy and her last friend in bewilderment.

“Who asked you, you freak?” Jennifer said loudly.

My face warmed, but it wasn’t like I could just turn back around. “I . . . uh,” I stammered.

“Madison is not a freak,” Nakita said hotly. “She’s trying to save Tammy’s soul.”

My eyes shut, and I cringed. When they opened, Tammy’s eyes were wide, and the girl with her looked afraid. Jennifer started to laugh. I was mortified. God, did Nakita even have a clue how lame that sounded? Even if it was true?

“What the hell?” Jennifer said. “Are you some kind of Bible school reject?”

My temper got the better of me, and I squinted at her. “Honey, the stuff I’ve done and gotten away with would put your daydreams to shame,” I said, anger shoving my embarrassment to the back of my mind to deal with later. “So listen to me when I tell you sneaking out isn’t worth it.”

The sound of the fire roaring was echoed in the bus’s engine, and I stifled a shiver as I looked at Tammy. Seeing her new resolve, I realized that speaking out had done more bad than good. She wanted freedom. She wanted to make her own decisions. But she clearly thought that making her own decisions meant doing the opposite of what her parents said was good for her. I’d call her a fool, but I’d been the same way myself. Until I had died trying to make a point that I was no one’s little girl.

They were still staring at me. Maybe I should try a different tack.

“Look, all I’m saying is that stuff goes wrong sometimes,” I said. “What if your little brother gets hurt? A burglar could break in, or the building could catch on fire. He’d be all alone.”

Jennifer flopped back into her seat. “In this town? You gotta be kidding me. Nothing happens here. Mind your own business.”

Nakita reached for her amulet, and I gently kicked her ankle. Her gaze shot to mine, her eyes seeming to say, “I told you so.”

I was hot with anger. I don’t know how, because I was dead and didn’t really have a body, but I was definitely warm. Disconcerted, I turned around, very aware of them still staring at me.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Nakita. I didn’t want her to be right. There was no way that I was going to spend the next thousand years sending out assassin angels to end lives in order to save souls. I stood when the bus lurched to a halt.

Nakita rose with me. “We’re getting off? What about . . . her?”

My eyes were fixed on the front as three kids filed off. “Tammy will be fine until tonight. We need to leave before I shove my amulet down Jennifer’s throat.” I looked back at Nakita, who still hadn’t gotten into the aisle. “Come on. We know where she lives. Or Barnabas does.”

Nodding, Nakita followed me to the front. “We’re leaving?” Josh said as I touched his shoulder, but he immediately picked up his gym bag and stood.

From the back of the bus, Jennifer said in a mocking falsetto, “Going home to play tea party with your dolls?”

Josh winced at my pressed lips and warm cheeks. “Time to leave. Gotcha.”

“Before Madison learns how to use her amulet and scythes the wrong girl,” Nakita said, clearly amused.

“I can’t believe I just blurted it out like that,” I berated myself. “I am such an idiot.”

“Didn’t go well, huh?” Josh asked as he filed out behind Nakita, and we all got off the bus.

“That’s one way to put it,” I said, hands on my hips and staring at the bus from the sidewalk. Tammy was watching me, and Jennifer was making angelic faces looking heavenward. I hated that they were laughing at me, especially with Josh watching.

Nakita and Josh were beside me, and I held my breath as the bus drove away. The three kids who got off with us gave us a long look before heading down the sidewalk.

“Madison?” Josh asked, and I exhaled.

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to get rid of my anger. I hadn’t handled it well, but it was only my second scything. “We know who she is, and what she’s doing tonight. That’s more than we did ten minutes ago.” I glanced at my watch, surprised to find out it had only been just that long. “Barnabas is probably a few houses up,” I said as I put my hands in my jeans pockets and started to follow the bus’s route. “You want to just walk it?”

Josh immediately shouldered his bag and fell into step beside me. Nakita, though, lingered behind, head down, arms crossed over her middle—thinking.

Chapter Three

The loud bang of the Laundromat’s door hitting the wall brought Barnabas’s eyes up from where he sat with an untouched vendor-dispensed coffee before him. I watched the woman who just left drag her bratty kid to the busy street, not even using the crosswalk to dart over the six lanes to reach the apartment complex on the other side. The building was the same one from my flash forward—minus the fire trucks. The air-conditioning was on in here, but it was humid from the dryers, and it smelled like bad coffee and fabric softener. The place was empty now, apart from us, and Josh leaned over to open the dryer that someone had left going. The heat billowed out to warm my feet, and slowly the noise died to nothing.

Josh slid from the dryer, sighing as he went to stand before the concession machine. He jiggled the change in his pocket before exchanging it for a double-stuffed, massive cookie the size of a plate. I looked at it enviously as he