Authors: Marissa Farrar
“Riley?”
He got to his feet and ran a hand through his scruffy, jaw length hair. He looked at me with his head tilted to one side, squinting. A graze ran down one side of his face, the sight of the blood making my pulse pick up a rate, my mouth running dry.
“Jeez, Icy,” he said bending to right his bike. His tone was cold, and I wondered if I should be the one calling him icy. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He unlocked a catch on the inside of the sphere and dragged his bike out.
I stared at him, still unable to believe what I’d seen him doing, but I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I asked him one of my own. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. I know what I’m doing. This is my job here.”
“I thought you worked the Waltzer?”
He huffed air out through his mouth, puffing away a lock of hair that had fallen in his face. “That night, I did. I was covering for someone who’d gotten sick.” His eyes narrowed. “You shouldn’t be here. You need to leave right now.”
Riley threw his bike to the ground. He turned and grabbed my wrist, meaning to pull me somewhere—away from the carnival, I assumed—but I planted my feet and refused to move.
His eyes widened in surprise at my strength, but he didn’t say anything. Once again, I noticed I hadn’t picked up anything psychically about him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “Not yet. I need to ask you some questions.”
“No. You need to leave. I’m not kidding.”
“So, it’s okay for you to come onto my turf, but I’m not allowed onto yours? Talk about double standards.”
He glared at me, but something about my expression must have convinced him I was serious. “Okay, fine. But we can’t stand out in the open like this. Someone could come along at any moment. My trailer’s on the outskirts. As long as we keep quiet, no one should notice us.”
“You live alone? I asked, fishing for information.
He gave me that narrow-eyed look again, the one that told me he was trying to figure me out. “Yeah, why?”
I shrugged. “Don’t want anyone else to know I’m here, do we?”
He dropped his hold on my arm, but my skin buzzed where he had touched me. For once, this had nothing to do with my vampire side, and everything to do with being a teenage girl.
“Okay, come on then. Follow me. But if I lift my hand, it means stop. Okay?”
“Sure.”
He set off at a fast walk, almost a jog, doing as I had only minutes earlier and staying close to the rides and stalls to avoid being seen. We were at the back of the stands now. The sound of voices and movement grew louder as we approached the large sprawl of trailers. Obviously wanting some modicum of privacy, the mobile homes were spread a fair distance apart, allowing for each of the carnies to live their home lives without worrying about being overheard by their neighbor. In fact, they had more privacy than I did in my dorm, or even most apartment-block living folks in town. A few people sat on foldout chairs outside their front doors, drinking or smoking, or sometimes both. They spoke in low voices, the mood somber, caused, I assumed by the fact they should have been working their concessions and earning much needed money, rather than hanging out. I tried to catch any sign of Brooke, or anyone who appeared on edge, or suspicious, but nothing caught my eye.
Riley had pulled up short right ahead of me. Distracted by the carny folk, I almost walked right into his back. I wondered what it would feel like to wrap my arms around his waist and press my cheek against his back, feel the soft leather of his jacket beneath my cheek, and inhale the scent of him. I shook my head at myself. Where the hell had that thought come from? I couldn’t think of him that way.
He nodded toward a rundown mobile home right of the outskirts of the circle of homes. It would originally have been white, with a green trim, but was now a dirty shade of grey, the paint flaking off. Dirt caked the outside of the windows, and I shuddered to think what the inside would be like.
Riley leaned back to me and kept his voice low. “Move quickly and stay down. We don’t want anyone to see us.”
I glanced around to spot if anyone was paying us any attention, but everyone appeared to be too caught up in their own conversations to notice us. Even so, I did as Riley asked. We ran, with Riley just ahead of me, between the trailers and up to his place. A couple of metal steps led up to the front door, and he jumped up them, pulling the door open. I noticed he’d not needed to use a key to unlock the trailer. Whatever else he thought, he obviously trusted the other carnies.
I followed him inside, eagerly taking in the sight of Riley’s home. The place was run down, second or even third hand cushions on the couch, which also served as a bench-type table. The material threadbare. A small kitchen was at the far end, the Formica tops scraped and scarred, many of the cupboards missing their handles. But the place was clean; no dirty dishes piled high in the sink, or overflowing trashcan as I had expected.
“Welcome to the palace,” he said, his voice filled with sarcasm.
I offered him a smile, wanting to say something to make him more comfortable, for some reason, but struggling to come up with the words. After all, I grew up in a huge mansion in the Los Angeles hills. I wasn’t naive enough to try to make out like Riley’s place was anything more than what it was.
“Where are your parents?” I asked, curious.
Something in his face tightened. “Mom died when I was fifteen. Dad took off when I was four, I barely remember him.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Wasn’t your fault, was it?”
He turned away from me, busying himself in the kitchen. I had a feeling it was his way of changing the topic of conversation. He grabbed two tumblers from the cupboard and then pulled out a bottle of whisky. He poured two shots and handed one to me.
“I’d offer you some ice,” he said. “But I don’t have any.”
I glanced down at the amber liquid and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you old enough to be drinking?”
“I’m twenty-two. I’m old enough to do whatever I want.”
“You must realize I’m not old enough.” I don’t know why I said it—certainly not out of some moral code—more to see if it would get a reaction out of him.
He shrugged. “What the hell do I care?”
We stood a mere foot apart, but it could have been a gulf. There was a wall around him, a space I could feel but couldn’t see. I don’t know why I wanted to bridge the gap so badly, but I did.
I reached up and touched the graze that ran down beside his eye, toward his cheekbone. He didn’t flinch away from me.
“You should clean that up,” I told him.
My fingertips were smeared with red. I resisted the urge to put them in my mouth.
His eyes locked on mine, those deep pools of blue I could so easily lose myself in. “It’s fine, Icy. Barely a scratch.”
“My name’s Elizabeth,” I said, trying to remember to breathe.
I wanted to touch him again. I couldn’t remember the last time I was with someone whose skin I didn’t have to avoid. My palms itched, my fingers tingling. I knew I should wipe my bloodied fingertips on my jeans, but a dark part of me wanted the blood to dry there, so later, when I was alone, I could lift my fingers to my nose, and inhale the scent of his blood.
God, I was such a freak.
“So what are you doing here?” he asked, breaking the moment.
I glanced away, and took a drink of the whisky. The liquid burned down my throat, settling to warm my stomach. I fought not to cough. “My roommate has gone missing. I think some of your people had something to do with it.”
He didn’t bat an eyelash. “Probably.”
I blinked in surprise. “Aren’t you bothered?”
“Why would I be?”
“Err, because men can’t just go around kidnapping college girls.” I thought of something. “And anyway, you came to warn me that I might be in trouble. Why worry about me, but not about her?”
His eyes narrowed slightly, a crease appearing between his dark brows as though he were pondering something. “I’m not sure. You seem different.”
That’s because I am.
I wondered on what scale he’d picked up on there being something different about me. Did it have to do with my prediction of the accident, or was it something more, a kind of subconscious lean toward the paranormal part of me. The vampires I’d met, including my father, had all been charismatic, and some even beautiful—a perfect way for a predator to lure in its prey. I’d never considered myself to be either of those things, but for the first time, I wondered …
I folded my arms across my chest and frowned. “I need you to help me find her.”
“Why would I do that, Icy?”
“Because I have no one else to turn to! The cops will laugh me off—”
His expression hardened. “You’re not going to the cops!”
“The hell I’m not! If my roommate is missing and your guys are responsible, you can’t actually expect me to just ignore it.”
“He’ll know if you do. Then he’ll come for you, and it won’t just be a warning.”
I was starting to get angry now. Angry was never good. I lost control of myself when my emotions ran high, but I couldn’t walk out now. “Who is ‘he?’ Tell me, dammit!”
“Bulldog Mackenzie. He runs the show. Folks round here call him ‘The Bull.’”
Of course, the guy who’d walked past me, the one with the non-existent neck and the tattoos on his knuckles. He’d strutted down the midway like he’d owned the place. He’d not been in my vision about Brooke being taken, but I assumed he was behind sending the goons who did.
“He’s got my roommate?”
Riley gave that nonchalant shrug again, and the red haze began to descend over my vision. My pulse thumped in my ears. I became hyper aware of the blood now drying on my fingers, and the blood growing dark and crusted on Riley’s temple. I needed to get a hold of myself or I was going to do something I would regret.
Abruptly, I turned and shot toward the door. It slammed open under my palm and I almost fell down the steps.
“Icy, hey, wait up!”
Riley clearly hadn’t expected me to turn and bolt in the middle of my questioning.
I ran back the way I’d come, skirting between a few of the mobile homes, before getting onto the midway and using the rides as shelter. I prayed Riley wouldn’t start shouting after me, so getting me noticed. I also didn’t want to bump into the guy I now knew to be the leader of the carnival, and the one behind Brooke’s disappearance. I was also sure he had something to do with the accident which I had intervened on. He’d wanted something bad to happen, but why sabotage his own ride? He must have known it would get the place shut down and under investigation.
I didn’t know, but I did know that I needed to get away from here. I might not be able to read anything about Riley, but something about him got my vampire side all hot and bothered. I needed to let my bloodlust cool down before I investigated any further. I wouldn’t do anyone any good if I attacked someone, and it ended up being me who was under investigation.
I
was standing on the road on the outskirts of Sage Springs again, the town stretched out before me, the forest at my back. Something was different about the town, though at first I couldn’t figure it out. The whole place was lit, bright lights glowing high into the night sky. But as I watched, the lights began to extinguish, at the furthest edge at first, but then creeping nearer and nearer, plummeting the town into darkness. A strange energy came from Sage Springs, an anti-energy, and I thought that if I got too close, it would somehow destroy me.
My heart beating hard, I turned my back to run away, planning on taking the road out of town, but the road was gone. In its place, numerous pine trees blocked my way, as if the forest had somehow closed in around me and swallowed the road.
I gasped and spun back around. I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. One place was still illuminated in Sage Springs. The carnival. The Ferris wheel was brightly lit, the huge wheel turning slowly, though no patrons sat in the buckets to enjoy the ride. The horses on the carousel lifted and dipped as they rode round and round and round, their backs bare, their nostrils flared and eyes rolling. I heard the clang of the bell as an invisible force hit the strong man game, and drove it home.
Lifeless. Everything felt lifeless. Empty. From the carnival that functioned as though filled, to the town left in darkness, to the empty people I’d seen before in my dreams. The only place that seemed to contain any depth, any soul, was the forest surrounding me, preventing me from leaving town.
I
woke in my dorm bed in a cold sweat and with the absolute, certain knowledge that something bad was going to happen in Sage Springs.
Sunlight poured in through the window, telling me it was time to get up. I could barely bring myself to think about class, what with Brooke missing and something bad going down at the carnival.
Movement came from the other side of the room, and I bolted upright, clutching my bedclothes to my chest. My first thought was that Riley had followed me and was in my room again, but as soon as I twisted around, I saw a familiar sheet of blonde hair and a curvy figure, pulling her long legs into a pair of jeans.
“Brooke?”
She turned her head to look over her shoulder at me. “Yeah?”
My eyes almost fell out of my head. As well as finding her back here, something else had changed as well. All over Brooke’s skin—the parts I could see anyway—her body was covered in symbols, intricately drawn onto her skin.
I sat up straighter and yanked off my blanket, swinging my legs out of bed to place my feet on the floor. In one swift movement, I was up and across the room. Brooke wore a light pink cardigan with her t-shirt, and I grabbed her, pulling at her clothing to try to find out if the markings were all over her body or not.
Brooke yanked away from me. “What the hell are you doing? Are you nuts?”
“Go and look in the mirror,” I said. “Then you’ll see.”
Her expression went from angry to scared as she hurried over to a small sink in the corner of our room and the mirror above it. She twisted her head from side to side, inspecting her face, the worry never leaving her expression. She lifted her face to her hand to gently tug at her skin, as if searching for wrinkles that were yet to materialize.
She turned back to me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My heart sank. She couldn’t see the symbols.
“Where have you been all night, Brooke?” I asked her. She hadn’t yet mentioned the carnies or the ordeal she’d been through the previous night.
She frowned. “I’ve been asleep, in bed, right here.”
“No, you haven’t. You weren’t here when I went to bed, and now you are.”
“You’re lying. Everything must have caught up on me, ‘cause I came over really sleepy at the social so decided to take myself to bed. I didn’t go anywhere else!”
“You were taken to the carnival, don’t you remember?”
Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Are you on drugs, or something?”
She didn’t remember. She didn’t remember who had put the markings on her skin—markings it seemed she, and probably everyone else, couldn’t see. I knew the carny people had something to do with this, but I didn’t know what.
My roommate shook her head, and then turned her back on me and continued to get ready for class.
I remembered the necklace I still had. I pulled open my bedside drawer and checked to make sure it remained where I’d placed it for safe keeping. The little silver chain was there, nestled at the back. I pulled it out, meaning to inspect the symbol again, but the minute I did so, the invisible marks on Brooke’s skin began to glow.
I stared at the spectacle.
“Would you stop looking at me like that,” she snapped. “You’re freaking me out.”
I forced my eyes away. “Sorry.”
Magic was involved here. I just had no idea as to what gain.
I held back from saying anything more to Brooke. She was bound to start telling others about all the strange things I did, and once again, attention would be drawn to me. Besides, I had class to get to.
Brooke didn’t speak to me, or even make eye contact, though I couldn’t help my own eyes being drawn back to all of the markings—circles with lines through them. A triangle with an extra line. Smaller circles joined together with more lines. A zigzag. An arrow. A circle with a dot in the middle.
I tried to compress them into my brain, planning to draw them as soon as Brooke left the room. I wanted more than anything to take out my smart phone and take a photograph of her, but I didn’t think she’d exactly agree if I suddenly wanted to take some kind of best friend selfie.
Clearly wanting to get away from me, Brooke barely finished applying her makeup before she grabbed her stuff and left. The moment I was alone, I grabbed the notepad I always kept beside my bed for note-taking of dreams and other ideas, and started drawing. I spent too long trying to perfectly replicate the symbols I’d seen on her, knowing they would be important. I made myself late, barely having enough time to brush my teeth, throw on my clothes and yank my hair into a high ponytail.
I made it to my first class, barely. I sat through the lecture, trying to keep my mind on what was being said, while my thoughts kept drifting to Brooke, Riley, and the other carnies. Something was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what. Was it possible Brooke had gone willingly with the carnies, and she’d lied about not knowing where she was? No, I’d seen her being dragged away in my vision. My foresight was a pain in the ass most of the time, but it wasn’t often wrong. I felt like I should tell someone—the police, perhaps—but I knew I would only come out of the experience looking like a loon.
My dream bothered me as well. The emptiness of the town and the people residing in it. The menacing sense of the forest. The hint that the carnival was somehow caught up in it all. I couldn’t tie it all together.
I’d brought the necklace with me, partly because I wanted to return it to its owner, but also because I figured it was connected to whatever the hell was going on. I wanted to find Melissa, the girl who’d had the fit at the party, and use the necklace as an excuse to ask her some questions. But also, I didn’t want to leave the jewelry in my room in case Riley or the other carnies came and took it.
Unconsciously, I’d been fingering the necklace, twiddling the chain from finger to finger.
A hand snatched the piece of jewelry from mine, making me jump. “Hey!” I exclaimed.
I looked up to find Laurel in front of me.
“What the hell are you doing with this?” she hissed.
I blinked in surprise at the anger written across her face. “I found it on the floor the other night. I think it belongs to the girl who had the fit.”
“I know it does.” She glared at me. “You’re not supposed to have it.”
“Why? What’s so important about it?”
For the first time, I considered whether Laurel knew something about what was going on around here.
“It’s none of your business, but you shouldn’t be taking other people’s stuff.”
“I didn’t,” I said, starting to get irate myself now. Laurel was acting as though I’d stolen it. “I found the necklace on the floor. I planned on giving it back as soon as I saw her again.”
Laurel’s fingers closed around the pendant, hiding the circle and star from my view. The fury that had been so apparent seeped away from her now she was in possession of the necklace. “No need. I’ll give it back to her.”
“How come you know Melissa?”
“I just do. She’s from Sage Springs.”
Hmm, something they all seemed to have in common. Everything strange I’d been faced with since coming here, had all originated with people from the town. No, that wasn’t true. None of the carnies were from town. They were outsiders, just like me.
K
eeping
my head down, my hands stuffed in my jean pockets, I headed toward the dining hall for lunch. My spirits were low, and I no longer cared if everyone was staring at me. Brooke, and probably her friends as well by now, hated me. Laurel had turned on me, probably because in her mind I was no more than a compulsive liar and possibly a thief. The whole town seemed to be hiding a giant secret, and I felt like I was the only person they were hiding it from.
I wondered again if coming here had been the right choice. I would never be like everyone else, no matter how hard I tried. At least with my parents, I’d been allowed to be myself.
Though I’d not eaten breakfast, food was the last thing on my mind, but I didn’t know where else to go. Besides, my mom had bought me a meal plan, probably worried that I wouldn’t eat if she didn’t, and I felt bad not using the meals she’d paid for.
The thought of hunger made my mind turn to the events of last night, of standing with Riley in his home, touching the blood on his face. Heat blasted through me, coloring my cheeks and burning my insides. A sudden, desperate longing to be with him again filled me. Here I was surrounded by all the perfect people, the prom queens, and jocks, and cheerleaders, but I didn’t want anything to do with them. With Riley, I sensed the darkness that so often coiled its way around me. I didn’t feel like an outsider when I was with him. I felt like I was home.
Unexpected tears filled my eyes, and I blinked them away. How could I experience such a longing when I barely knew the guy?
A voice called to me, footsteps slapping on the ground from behind. I looked over my shoulder, wondering who had taken an interest in me. To my surprise, Dana was running toward me, her red hair flying. She came to a stop not far from me, her cheeks flushed, breathing a little harder than normal. I braced myself, expecting her to challenge me on something, but she smiled at me instead.
“Beth, I’m so glad I caught you! Flynn has a swim meet after class today. Any chance you could go along and write it up? I’m going to send our photographer as well.”
I hadn’t yet handed in my last assignment about Flynn. “What about the report on what happened at the carnival?” I thought she’d wanted me to write that up next.
“Oh, don’t worry about that now,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Old news.”
The last thing I needed right now was the distraction of another report, especially since I hadn’t even finished the last one. I wondered why she hadn’t called me up on my tardiness, and why she wanted me around Flynn again.
“Are you sure I’m the right person to be doing the sports reports?” I said, trying to worm my way out of it. “To be honest, I don’t know much about swimming.”
“Oh, don’t worry. Flynn can fill you in on any of the details you don’t understand. Just add your own little sparkle to the words.”
Sparkle? I wasn’t sure I had any sparkle.
“Honestly, I’m sure someone else would be better doing it.”
“No, Elizabeth,” she said, her face hardening. “I want it to be you.”
I didn’t know why she was so insistent on having me as the reporter for Flynn’s swim meet, but since Dana was the only person speaking to me as though I was a regular human being—even though I wasn’t—I didn’t want to tell her no and make her mad at me. “Sure,” I relented.
“Great.” She paused and then said, “Hey, Beth, you’re okay, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, after the event at the carnival and everything. Being away from home for the first time. I know how things can get to someone when they’re feeling alone.”
I wondered what she’d heard about me that made her ask, but the fact she was being nice made me want to cry. “I’m fine, honest,” I managed, though my voice sounded choked.
Dana gave me another smile. “Well, I’ll speak to you later then.” And she turned and walked off, her red curls bouncing as she went.