Mason moaned loudly. I screamed and released him from the Memory Lash. My knees gave way and I fell, shaking violently, tears streaming down my face. My scalp burned from the memory of the matches, and the smell of gasoline was everywhere. Mason’s memories still surged in my mind. They boiled, forcing themselves to the surface, but I pushed them back.
I shook my head, my mind cleared, and I stayed in control. I had finally mastered the Lash. Then my eyes focused, and my moment of triumph dissolved. Mason was on the ground curled up in a ball, whimpering like a savagely beaten animal, sobbing and hiccuping, and I realized that the Lash still sucked.
“What’d you do, you freak!” Rubric had dropped Bobby. He pointed at me, terror in his eyes. “You killed him! You killed him!” He turned, slammed into a tree, and fell on his butt. Then he picked himself up to stagger off through the park, disappearing into the woods.
Bobby limped toward me and helped me to my feet. I leaned on him. He felt surprisingly strong for someone so small. “Are you okay, Rinnie?”
“Yeah,” I said with no confidence.
“Was that the Memory Lash?”
I lurched, and must have given poor Bobby a pretty nasty look, because his eyes got huge and his jaw dropped.
“K-Kitty told me,” he stammered.
What? The one person I trusted! Kathryn’s hopes of ever being a Whisperer had totally crashed and burned. I would deal with her later. I pulled away from Bobby. “Come on, we have to get out of here.”
“I don’t think it’ll work on him.”
I looked down at Mason. He was babbling, sobbing softly, and every so often he mumbled, “Mommy, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” then started whimpering again.
Bobby was wrong. I had never seen the Lash have that effect on anyone. Not even Mason Draudimon deserved the agony of that nasty weapon. I knew too well what it felt like. And I finally understood Mason. He looked up at me with huge, soft eyes, and for a moment, seemed to know what I was thinking.
“He’ll be all right,” Bobby said. “Kathryn told me it wears off quickly. Especially when you aren’t capable of remorse. And I can’t imagine anyone less capable. Let’s go.”
“We can’t just leave him here like this,” I objected. A low moan made me spin around.
Chuckie was regaining consciousness. He pushed upright slowly, his face distorted with confusion, an enormous bruise already showing on his cheek. He shook his head, then his eyes grew wide like he had just realized why he was facedown in the dirt. “Whoa, babe, you are a major butt-kicker!” He struggled to his feet and tottered toward me. “I’m impressed.”
Before he knew what had happened, I grabbed his thumb, twisting his hand into a wrist lock. Chuckie yelped. “Babe, like, I meant what I said. I’m on your side, now, ’cause I don’t want nobody to know a girl kicked my butt. You won’t tell, will ya?”
“I told you not to call me babe,” I said softly.
“Hey, that’s cool…Rinnie.”
I released Chuckie from the wrist lock. “Take Mason home.”
“The Shadow Passage isn’t open yet.”
“Were you born this stupid, or did you take supplements?” I looked down at Mason and shuddered. “Take him to his dad’s house.”
Chapter Twenty
Hunter Becomes Hunted
“Oh, boy.” Andy rubbed his forehead with both hands. “Here we go.”
“What? Was I wrong?”
“You did what you had to do. Under the influence of Psychedone 10, Mason might have killed your friend. I’m just afraid. The past has a nasty way of repeating itself.”
“Why would he be so stupid, Andy? Mason wasn’t into drugs of any kind. Why would he take something so nasty?”
Andy shrugged. “Like you saw in his memory, he wanted to prove that Bobby was wrong. Mason so badly wanted the Class Project to be what he needed it to be that he took a stupid chance.”
“What did he need it to be?”
“A miracle. A cure for his past. His second chance.”
I felt so bad for Mason. “He didn’t even realize he was under its influence. He tried so hard to disobey Rubric.”
“On the plus side, we know Mason didn’t kill his mother like we all believed. And you kicked some major butt in that park. Three at a time!”
“Two,” I said, feeling my face turn red. “Art ran into a tree.”
“The forest is our friend. Okay, hand over the papers you stole from the police station. Let’s see what Amos didn’t tell us.”
“I didn’t steal them.”
Andy raised one eyebrow and cocked his head sideways. “My apologies. I meant to say purloined.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Yes.” He held his hand out. “Give.”
I opened my backpack and dug around for the envelope. “Andy, does the Memory Lash ever get easier? I can’t stop thinking about what happened to Mason.”
“You controlled it this time.” He pursed his lips. “An obvious result of my brilliant instruction.”
“Have you been hanging out with Dr. Captious?”
“No, he’s too self-absorbed. He’d rather talk about himself than about me. Can you imagine?” Andy suddenly became serious and cupped my face in both hands. “The Lash…was never intended to be easy. Just powerful. Rinnie, it’s the only weapon known that can change a person’s heart. Do you understand how difficult that is?”