Chapter 51
We form a lopsided little triangle: Isabelle, Rasmus, and me.
Isabelle is facing the woods with her hands on her hips. Her glittery rubber boots are in stark contrast to our surroundings.
“What are you doing here?” Rasmus asks.
How much has she heard? I frantically try to think back to what we’ve been saying. How much does she know?
“I heard you on the boat,” says Isabelle, “making a plan to meet here. I was curious.”
She is so obviously pleased with herself that it makes me furious.
“We don’t want you here. Can you just go away?” My voice comes out a little louder than intended.
“Why should I?” Isabelle says, smiling again. It’s not a kind smile. “I’ve already heard everything you’ve said. Why leave now? I want to know how it ends.”
“You haven’t heard a single thing,” snarls Rasmus.
“You wish,” Isabelle retorts. Then she tosses her hair in her usual smug way and glares at us. “But I did. Every word.”
Her eyes are cold and empty. Like a dead fish.
“You guys are so cutesy it’s disgusting.”
I feel a primitive urge to hurt her. I want to push her off a cliff, press her face into the moss until she stops breathing. Wipe that grin off her face.
Stop it, stop it, stop it.
“Get out of here, Isabelle,” I say. “Just go away. You have no idea what you’re talking about, and you’re being pathetic. It’s like you’re obsessed with us.”
Isabelle’s eyes take on a cruel glint. “Why would I be obsessed with you? You, of all people. You’re deranged.”
Before I can think of a comeback, Rasmus steps forward.
“Shut up,” he says coldly. “Just shut your mouth, Isabelle. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Merfolk? What’s that?” Isabelle spits out the words and gives me a shove in the chest just like she did in the cafeteria the other day. “Are you really so crazy that you feel the need to invent your own little world? Runmaro’s answer to Harry Potter?”
She bares her teeth. She has something orange stuck between her bottom teeth.
“Is that why you did that to Axel? To offer him as some sort of sacrifice?”
It dawns on me that Isabelle actually believes what she’s saying. So far, I’ve assumed it was mostly just malice, typical petty mean-girl stuff. Now, for the first time, it occurs to me that she seriously believes I hurt Axel. That I really did kill him.
“I haven’t done anything, Isabelle!” I sound desperate. I don’t even want to think about what she might do with the information she just overheard.
“I didn’t hurt Axel.” I appeal to her with clasped hands. “You don’t know what’s going on. You don’t understand what you just heard. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“They’re going to lock you up, you know,” Isabelle says, brushing a few strands of damp hair out of her face. “You’re completely insane.”
“Isabelle.” Rasmus moves toward her, but Isabelle holds up a hand to stop him.
I can’t move a muscle.
“You’d better be really careful,” she says, but the tremble in her voice reveals that she’s scared. “Or I’ll scream so loud that everyone in the school will hear. I’ll say you dragged me out here and tried to kill me, just like you did with Axel.”
Her eyes are blazing.
“Social services will come and get you,” she says. “You’re both going to be locked up. I hope you never get out. I hope you rot in there.”
“Why are you doing this?” says Rasmus.
“What happened to you?” Isabelle says, her voice suddenly breaking. “We used to be friends, didn’t we? How can you spend time with her? She murdered Axel. He was your best friend. Did you forget that?” She wipes her nose with her hand.
“How can you encourage her sick fantasies?” she sobs. “She’s crazy. Why don’t you tell the police the truth? You were out here with Axel. You must have seen what happened.”
Now she is openly crying.
“Or maybe you were in on it. Maybe you helped her kill Axel and buried him somewhere no one can ever find him. That’s the only explanation. I just don’t understand. I don’t understand how you could do this. With her.”
Rasmus looks like he is in a state of shock.
“What are you saying?” he finally manages.
Isabelle takes two steps back, increasing the distance between them again.
“You’re just as crazy as she is,” she says, and now she sounds venomous, as if she’s regained composure. “I can prove it.”
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a cell phone with a gold-colored case. A quick tap and I hear a tinny recording of my own voice:
“I’m not really human.”
Isabelle stops the playback and clutches the phone tightly in her hand. “I’m going to play this to everyone. Do you hear me? To everyone at school and the police. Then they’ll all know it was you. I hope they lock you up forever.”
I can’t stop staring at the phone. It seems ludicrous that something so small could have the potential to ruin my life.
“You can’t do this,” I whisper.
“What are you going to do about it? Kill me too?”
She sounds calm, but her darting eyes and the muscle twitching in her cheek make me wonder who the crazy one among us really is.
“I’ll scream,” she warns again. “If you do anything. Everyone will hear. I told Kristoffer where I was going.”
It’s impossible to tell whether she’s bluffing or her threats are serious. I try to catch Rasmus’s eye, but he has frozen in place.
It’s hopeless. We have to stop her, but there’s nothing we can do.
It’s too late.