The Hidden

Because Vincent liked redheads. And Vincent obviously wanted to play.

As soon as I got home from school that afternoon, I told Caspian about the perfume bottle left in my locker.

“Any idea who put it there?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. But the look on my face must have spoken for me.

“So you think it was him?”

“I think that I saw him there too. After lunch. He was in the hall and he grabbed my hand.”

Caspian jumped up. “Do you still have the perfume? Where is it?”

“I threw it away.”

He started pacing. “I can’t believe this. He’s stalking you! How am I supposed to protect you? We need some backup. I need to let Kame and Uri know about this.”

“What are they going to do? Follow me around?” I groaned. “I don’t want that.”

Caspian stopped pacing and looked me in the eye. “From now on, I’m going everywhere with you. When your mom drops you off at school and picks you up, I’ll be there. Hell, I might even start going to class with you.”

I put my hand out, next to his. “You don’t want to do that. You’ve already gone to high school once. Who wants to repeat that experience?”

“I just want to make sure you’re safe,” he replied.

“So come pick me up. Every day, if you want. Like glue?”

“Like glue.”

Chapter Nine. NOW OR NEVER

… he summoned up, however, all his resolution …

– “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

On Wednesday I found a pile of broken glass surrounding my locker. I wasn’t sure if it was something left behind by Vincent or just the remains of someone who’d been careless with a Snapple bottle, so I told the janitor about it, and when I came back after my next class, it was gone.

Everything changed on Friday, though. On Friday … it got weird.

I was trying to open up my civics book to page 352 in class, when it fell across my desk with a heavy thump and opened to a page on its own. It opened because there was something stuck inside it.

I leaned in to get a better look.

There was a pile of small crescent-shaped crusty-looking things sitting there. Almost like dried-out pieces of hard candle wax. All of them were yellowed, except for one. It was bright red.

Picking up one of the yellow pieces, I examined it. Is this earwax?

That thought grossed me out, and immediately I put the yellow thing down. Using my pencil, I poked at the red one. It was shiny, and had a slightly rounded tip. That can’t be earwax. It almost looks like a …

Fingernail.

It looked like a fingernail.

And then I saw the words scrawled across the pages:

they keep growing even after you’re dead

I slammed the book shut and stood up so hastily that my chair hit the ground behind me, and everyone turned to look. I couldn’t tell if they were looking because of the noise the chair had made, or because of the noise I had made. Something between a gasp and a scream.

Ms. Huffner stopped writing on the chalkboard. “Is everything all right, Miss Browning?”

“No … I … It’s …” I just stood there, looking down at the pile of fingernails someone had put in my book. “I need to …”

It wouldn’t come out. My words were stuck inside me and the room was spinning, and why was Vincent doing this to me?

“Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”

I guess I nodded or something, because she said, “Go on, then. You are wasting everyone else’s valuable time.”

Leaving the book behind, I fled the classroom. Out in the hallway the air was cooler, and the world stopped spinning. Sliding down against some lockers, I inhaled deeply and then leaned over to put my head between my legs.

With my eyes tightly closed, I tried to rationalize it all away.

Those weren’t actually fingernails. They were probably just petrified pencil shavings. Or old pieces of glue and eraser. Or bits of paper. Nodding meant that I had to agree with those thoughts, so I did. It was easier that way.

Standing up slowly, I pushed myself away from the wall and detoured to the bathroom. I’d just go hide out in there until the bell rang.

At the end of the day, I went outside to hang out by the curb to wait for Caspian. Cyn was there, smoking a cigarette, and I sat down beside her.

“We’re always running into each other,” I said. “Have you noticed that?”

She exhaled and then shrugged. “That’s what happens when you have nothing to do in a small town and a mother who makes you wait for a ride. You?”

“About the same.”

She offered her cigarette to me, and I blanked. I’d never smoked before. Had never really felt the urge to, so it wasn’t something I’d thought about.

She extended her wrist farther. “Are you going to take it, or just stare at it?”

“I’ve never … I don’t smoke.”

“First time for everything.”

The cigarette butt ashed, and then the ash flaked away. It looked kind of gross, but she had a point. And it was now or never. It wasn’t like I had my whole life ahead of me to change my mind.

I took it from her hand and placed it to my lips. It was thin and papery-tasting. Smoke wafted up into my eyes, and I inhaled deeply. I didn’t know if I was supposed to count to ten or something, but finally Cyn said, “Whoa, whoa. Exhale.”

I think I swallowed some of the exhale, because it felt like my lungs were going to explode. I coughed and choked, smoke wheezing out of me in little gasps.

Cyn laughed. But it wasn’t a mean laugh, and as soon as I was able to, I was laughing too. It suddenly felt like I’d just done something monumental. Like climbing Mount Everest, or hiking the Great Wall of China.

She took the cigarette back and demonstrated. “Like this.” After inhaling for a second, she pulled the butt away and tipped her head to the side, exhaling a stream of smoke.

“Let me try it again,” I said, reaching for it. She handed it over, and I mimicked her actions.

The second time wasn’t so bad, and I coughed only a little bit as the smoke leaked out of me. It was a strange feeling. One I wasn’t entirely sure about.

“That one’s almost out,” Cyn said. “You want another?”

Little pieces of ash sprinkled down onto my jeans, and I glanced down, brushing them to the side. “No. I don’t think so.” I ran my tongue over my teeth. They felt funny. “My mouth tastes gross, like a combination of-”

A shadow fell over me, and I looked up.