Chapter Two
Two Years Later
Acrack spiderwebbed through the pavement, spreading to the end of the sidewalk and continuing through the street. I glued to that crack, letting the honking horns, rumbling tires, street chatter, and city noise wash over me.
Blue loafers blew past my vision, surrounding me in seconds.
“Oh, look. It’s a Harry girl. Shame about that tragic, shit-brown uniform.”
“How about we brighten it up for you?”
I raised my head.
Their paint balloons hit the sidewalks in successive splats, decorating their shoes.
“Fuck, not her!”
“Get away from her!”
“Run!”
The Victoria Day kids scattered in every direction like they thought I was going to chase after them.
Picking up my feet, I continued on to school.
Four stories of red brick, white columns, and large double-paned windows loomed ahead. Students streamed in from everywhere. Running up the steps, climbing the fence, reclining on the steps, breezing through the double doors and breezing out—Haris Day was a sea of brown.
I stopped at the foot of the steps, throat tightening. I could turn around now. Walk away and say fuck you to my senior year. Mom paid the full four-year tuition in advance. Administration had been happy to keep their tight fists around the money for the two years I didn’t attend. They shouldn’t care if I was absent for the third.
Or so I tried to argue.
Principal Jeager claimed she wouldn’t accept virtual school credit anymore. If I wanted to graduate, I had to put on my hideous uniform and attend classes with everyone else. I no longer had an excuse not to.
Do I want to graduate?My grip tightened on my backpack straps. What’s it even matter if I do?
Mom wanted me to,a small voice whispered. She gushed on and on about the amazing graduation present she had planned for me. I can’t let her down again.
Letting out a long breath, I climbed the stairs, hanging my head low. I just needed to get through the double doors and into homeroom. Then I’ll be just another quiet student in the back who only speaks when called on.
I made it to the top of the stairs. Only ten more feet to go.
“What the fuck’s this? Are you kidding me?”
My head snapped up. Wide eyes beheld the group of four girls and three guys that surrounded me—coming up so fast I had no chance to get away.
“Jeager can’t be serious.” Dina sneered. “What the fuck is she thinking letting a murderer back into our school?”
“This has got to be a joke,” Kylie said. “The killer bitch must be here for one of those assemblies when they have the criminal trash lecture us on going down the right path so we don’t end up like them.”
“No chance of that,” Dina replied. “Because we won’t go psycho, kill our own mothers, and then blame it on three-headed dogs and mermaids.”
My expression was as blank as my soul staring at my two best friends in the world. The last couple years had been good to them. Dina grew out her hair and dyed the ends silver, something she’d always wanted to do, but her mother wouldn’t allow. Turning eighteen gave her the freedom to do that, pierce her nose, and stamp a butterfly tattoo on her ankle. She looked more mature and beautiful than she ever had.
And the same had to be said for Kylie. She filled out in all the right places. Her shoes were Louboutin. Her makeup enhanced her full lips and brought more attention to her jewel-tone eyes, and the guy on her arm was just the right amount of popular, handsome, and adoring.
Justin Lewis nibbled on her neck and smirked at me while he did it.
“Let me through,” I said flatly. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Then you shouldn’t have come here, Lizzie B,” one of the girls taunted.
“Lizzie B?”
“Lizzie Borden,” Dina helpfully clarified. “Trouble is all a murderous bitch like you is going to get.”
I tried sidestepping and going around, but they snapped in tighter around me, boxing me in.
“You’re not even going to deny it?” Kylie scoffed. “I told you. I said it was her. She was pissed because she’d been bragging all day about the amazing, expensive gift her mom was going to give her, then she opens the box, and it’s just a rusty old knife.”
I balled my fist so tight my nails pierced my palms, coating the tips a deeper red than Kylie’s nail polish.
“You should’ve seen her face,” Kylie went on. “She looked like she was going to stab her right then, but she was smart enough to wait until we left. Well, not smart. Couldn’t come up with a story for why she was holding a bloody dagger in the middle of a horror scene, except that monsters kidnapped her mother.”
“She obviously went Lizzie B on the cheap hag and hid her pieces in the fertilizer. I overheard her that day, you know.” Justin was grinning pretty big for someone recounting a tragedy. “She was threatening to attack the Victoria kids if they paint-ballooned her. Said something about destroying them.”
They all gasped like this was shocking, damning information.
“Please move.”
“Admit it.” Dina shoved me. “Irida was the coolest, sweetest person ever, and you lost it and did something terrible to her. It was so bad, your mind snapped just like your crazy daddy. We all heard the story of the gladiator wannabe battling bicycles in the park.”
My teeth gritted. “Get out of the way.”
“Oooh, look out,” Justin cried, throwing his hands up. “She’s getting mad. Careful, everyone, or she’ll chop us up into pieces too.”
“Is that why you’re ganging up on me seven on one?” I asked. “Because you’re afraid of me? Well, you got nothing to worry about. I’m just here to go to class, finish my credits, and graduate. I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine. You won’t even know I’m here.”
I tried again to get past. Dina shoved me back again. Harder that time.
“Why won’t you admit what you’ve done? We know. The cops know. All of America knows the truth,” Dina said. “You think you got away with it? You spouted all that crazy crap about three-headed dogs and only got two years in the loony bin. Now you’re free and clear.”
“Think again,” Kylie hissed. “If the law won’t make you pay, we will. Every day here will be hell for you. No body, no crime, my ass. No way is a murderer sitting next to me in English like nothing happened. We’ll beat you out of here and into the back-alley dumpster you belong in.”
I swallowed hard. Tears prickled behind my eyes, and it was all the strength in me not to let them fall. “Why are you doing this?” I rasped. “We used to be best friends. What happened to you?”
Her eyes flashed. “What happened to me? Any one of us would’ve traded our moms for yours in a heartbeat, and you got rid of her because you didn’t like your birthday present. You’re the evil bitch, Aella. Not me.”
“It wasn’t about the birthday present!” I screamed, blowing all seven of them back. One guy put his fists up like I was going to attack. “I loved the present. It was from my dad. And I love my mom no matter what she gives me for my birthday. I wouldn’t have cared if she gave me a steaming bag of dog shit!”
“Liar,” Dina screamed back. “I saw the look on your face when you opened the box. You hated that dagger, so you plunged it in her chest.”
“Exactly,” Kylie chimed in. “I thought you were going to smack her right then. I’ve never seen you so angry.”
The others bobbed their heads along—humming and uh-huhing. Brainless fools weren’t even there.
“I’m not doing this with you guys anymore,” I replied. “I said all I had to say two years ago, and you didn’t believe me. Instead, you twisted everything, spreading lies and gossip that ruined my life—as if it wasn’t enough of a shithole disaster.
“Is that how you two became so popular? I saw all your news interviews in the weeks after my mom was taken. Apartment destroyed, blood everywhere, Irida Vanda vanished, and the only witness was clutching a dagger and crying about monsters.
“Everyone wanted to know all about the sixteen-year-old suspected murderer and how she went bad, and you two were only too happy to spout all the lying garbage the reporters asked of you. I’m sure they paid well.” I flicked to Kylie’s eighteen-hundred-dollar shoes.
“You milked all that attention right to the top of the social ladder. Meanwhile, my mom is still out there—in trouble and waiting for me to save her. But because of you, the whole world thinks she’s dead! Because of you, everyone believes I lost it over a birthday present and went nuts! Because of you, I’ve been locked in a psychiatric hospital for two years when I should’ve been searching for my mother! Because of you, I’ve lost everything,” I screeched, blowing her eyes wide. “So no, Kylie, the evil bitch is still you!”
Pain exploded in my left cheek. My head wrenched around, spinning me off my heels and into two of their lackeys. They threw me back and I caught Dina’s next punch on the nose.
“Don’t talk to my friend like that, schizo cunt! You don’t scare us anymore.”
Blood poured from my nose, running along my lips and down my chin. It wasn’t the first time I’d taken a hit. I’d gotten my fair share of bruises from my roommate at Sunny Breeze Psychiatric. Trixie kept mistaking me for her stepmother, and she really, really hated the woman.
All the same, her punches never packed the same power. Looked like Dina picked up weight lifting within the last two years.
I clapped my hands over my face, screaming into my palm. My nose was broken. No question.
“Good hit, Di.”
“She deserved it. Going psycho on Kylie because she told the truth.”
Shove.
“Killer bitch doesn’t belong in our school.”
Shove. Shove.
Their hits were coming from everywhere. Shoving my shoulder. Slamming their book bags into my back. Kicking my shins. It was getting out of hand fast, and by the growing crowd of watchers, no one was coming to my rescue.
I bolted to the right—diving through the gap between Justin and one of his teammates. Moving fast, they snapped their shoulders together and I bounced off their hard chests—flying back in their grips.
“Admit what you did!”
“Where’s the body!”
“Get out of our school.”
They were shoving, shouting, and kicking all at once. I couldn’t get free. I couldn’t steady the spinning bodies and buildings to see where freedom was.
A hard shove struck my back, and I went flying.
“Ahh!”
I cracked my shoulder on the concrete step and kept falling.
“Oh, shit!”
“What did you do!”
“It wasn’t me!”
Down the steps I tumbled, hitting every body part on the unforgiving steps on the way down.
Black flooded my vision—swallowing me and the world whole. I fell through the empty space—pain crumpling my forehead and drawing my eyes nearly shut. Through the slits, strange golden squiggles floated in the gloom.
Squiggles? No. No, that looks like—
I reached out—desperate to grab on to something and stop myself falling.
My hand closed on the thread.
“Oh, look. It’s a Harry girl. Shame about that tragic, shit-brown uniform.”
“How about we brighten it up for you?”
I looked around, blinking.
Paint balloons splattered the sidewalks.
“Fuck, not her!”
“Get away from her!”
“Run!”
The Victoria Day kids took off running—again.
What the hell? What happened?I looked around. Where were Kylie, Dina, and Justin? Was I knocked out falling down the stairs, and someone carried me all the way out here, dumping me on the sidewalk like trash?
No.
I trailed a hand up my shoulder. Eyes widening, I lifted it up and down. I felt it—heard it—as I fell. Something popped in my shoulder when I hit the step. Even more things broke.
That thought made me grab my nose. Nothing.
Seconds ago it was bleeding and broken.
“What’s going on?” I backed away, head whipping around. “How did I get here?”
How would I explain it? Any more wild stories about teleporting and magically healed wounds... and they’d send me right back to Sunny Breeze.
“No!”
Turning my back on Haris Day, I ran.
MY LUNGS BURNED. LEGSached. Stumbling to a stop, I propped against the wall, straining to catch my breath.
My feet carried me here on their own power. The memory in there both powerful and haunting. They took me to the one place I wanted to be for two years.
“Home.”
Lips trembling, I took in the boarded-up windows, foul graffiti, and faint marks in the stone where Mom’s sign used to be.
Irida’s Garden was gone.
With Mom gone and me locked away, there was no one here to run the place. All the plants and flowers my father planted, then my mother nurtured—gone. In one night, I lost the only thing I had of both my parents.
I traced the window board, imagining what it used to be on the other side.
Despite my friends’ lies and the cops’ suspicions, they couldn’t arrest me when there was no proof of a crime. Instead, they dumped me on the grandparents who cut off all contact with Mom when she married the penniless, jobless man she met in the park.
Grandma and Grandpa spent ten minutes listening to me ranting about three-headed dogs, snake women, and us needing to find out where the beasts took Mom before they rang Sunny Breeze and asked if they had an open bed.
I’d been living there ever since that morning when they finally had to discharge me... because it was my eighteenth birthday.
“Happy birthday to me,” I whispered. “I wonder what you had planned for us today, Mom. I bet it would’ve been wild, over the top, and perfect. I miss you.” Fingers skimming the brick, I walked around the corner. “I love... you...”
My brows snapped together. Sitting in front of our old side-delivery entrance was a package.
What was it doing there? Didn’t the boards on the window clue the delivery driver in? No one lived here anymore.
Crossing through the alley, I got a closer look at the package. A small, brown rectangle no bigger than the palm of my hand. It was clean and untouched by the elements. It was also still here, meaning it hadn’t been sitting there long enough to catch the attention of porch pirates.
I glanced at the label.
Aella Vanda
I bent to grab it and stopped. There were an infinite number of reasons I shouldn’t go around opening random packages. I got mountains of hate mail when Dina leaked my address at Sunny Breeze. I asked my best friend to visit, needing to see a friendly face who believed in me.
What I got was her spit in my face and the whole world finding out my own grandparents chucked me into a facility rather than dealing with me.
I was sent so many awful and disgusting things, I gave the staff permission to put my mail directly into the garbage. This would only be more of the same.
Picking it up, I carried it to the dumpster.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I whipped around. “Who’s there?”
“Stop your flailing around, girl. Look down. I’m in your hand.”
Frowning, I looked down. What was going on? There was nothing in my hand except—
“That’s right. Open me. Be quick about it.”
“Ahh!” I flung the thing away and tore across the alley before it hit the ground. No! No more. No more tricks, lies, or smooth words from slick doctors determined to make me believe I’m delusional. Whatever asshole is going around putting speakers in packages can go fuck themselves! “Leave me alone! I’m not crazy. My mom was taken and I’m going to prove it. I’ll find her no matter what it takes. That night was real. It was real!”
“Of course it was, my dear.” The voice slithered in my ear, burrowing deep into my head.
I was ten feet from the package then, but it sounded like the person was right next to me. Not a speaker.
“Everything about that horrible night happened exactly how you remembered it, but tragedy of tragedies, Mommy never did get to tell you who you really are or where you come from. She’s been waiting for you all this time... but you don’t know where to go.”
I slowed my retreat, shoes glued to the pavement. “If you want your precious mommy back, you know where to find us,” I rasped, repeating the words that burned into my memory exactly two years before.
But I didn’t know where to go. Every time I was allowed inside the computer room, I searched for everything the internet had on three-headed dogs, snake women, and where they took their victims. All the internet had for me was Hogwarts and hades.
“Would you like to know where your mother is, sweet Aella?”
I came closer, rapid pants bouncing my chest.
“Would you like to save her? Bring her home? Show the world you’re not crazy or a killer, and get your perfect life back to how it was? When you were a happy young girl, living in the back of a flower shop with two best friends and a mother who loved you more than air.”
“Yes,” I whispered, unable to stop myself.
“Of course you would, dear child, and you can.”
“H-how?” I was shaking so hard, I dropped the box twice trying to pick it up.
“Oh, the answer to that is very simple. You must open me up, put me on, do everything I say. If you do, I’ll lead you to your mother.”
I hesitated, fingers halting on the tape. Could this be real? Was I so desperate to get Mom back I was standing in a dirty alley hallucinating? Wasn’t it possible I wasn’t as sane as I wanted to be? Normal people didn’t have three-headed dogs or half-snake women break into their homes and kidnap their mothers—as fourteen psychiatrists, six nurses, two grandparents, two former best friends, and the entire world all told me.
Maybe that’s what Mom was trying to tell me that horrible night. Maybe that’s what she’d been trying to tell me for a long time. My dad was different. He saw monsters that weren’t there too. That’s why he stabbed bicycles in the park.
I put the package back down.
“Irida Vanda is still alive.”
I froze.
“She’s in Olympia, where she’s waited for two years, never losing hope. Every day, she says it will all be all right... because her little warrior is coming for her.”
Snatching it up, I ripped the box open.