Her reply came back muffled. “No, I’ll catch up. Just a few more to try.”
I rolled my eyes and followed Brad out of the store rolling my shoulders to ease some of the tension caused by waiting in a hard plastic chair for more than twenty minutes.
“I didn’t think there existed a girl who didn’t love shopping,” Brad laughed watching my expression.
“Shopping’s okay if you can go in get what you need and get back out. The waiting gets a little boring,” I admitted. Brad smiled and nodded. He bought me lemonade and we sat at one of the tables people watching, which suited me fine. Mostly, I kept remembering the last time I’d stood in a dressing room with a pin poking my side. A pain tightened my chest. I missed him so much.
Brad reached over and laced his fingers through mine. The unexpected gesture took me by surprise, and I pulled back.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “You looked like you needed a friend.”
Quickly scrubbing my hands over my face, I wiped away the visual traces of my misery. “Thanks. I’m okay,” I lied.
Beatriz cornered me Monday morning. I should have known she’d find me when I hadn’t spotted her at the entrance.
“Let’s skip first hour and go to the library,” she said leaning against my locker.
“I just got caught up with homework,” I protested weakly.
She shrugged. I sighed and tossed my books back into the steel locker.
The librarian didn’t look up when we walked in. The one place they didn’t take attendance.
Beatriz led me to the overstuffed chairs near the back.
“So,” she whispered. “I’ve been patient, but now I need to know.” She looked at me expectantly.
“Know what?”
“What happened. Your mom said you didn’t say much before you went catatonic.”
I glowered at her feeling a true pinch of anger toward my friend. “Maybe it’s because it hurts too much to talk about it.”
She leaned forward. “There may be something you overlooked that can help us figure out…” she trailed off.
“If he’s coming back,” I finished for her. “The answer is no. When he first started driving me around on the motorcycle, he told me he could be hurt just like us. That morning, I’d just come out of the bathroom, ready for work. I thought I heard him outside on the front walk. It was Brian. A kid from my old school. He had a gun in his hand and asked me if he was there. He pointed the gun at me. His hand shook so much. He looked like hell. Like he hadn’t slept since…” I looked at Beatriz in astonishment. “Ahgred.”
Chapter 20
“You lost me,” Beatriz said confused.
“Ahgred is like Morik, but not. He’s bad. He’d been using people to watch me. Possessing them. Remember Ashley?” Beatriz’s eyes rounded. “I made a deal with Morik. Trading my freedom to keep Ahgred from using people to watch me or speak to me. People he used remembered everything. He’d been using Brian. When I saw Brian last, before the shooting, he’d been crying, curled in a ball in the woods. Morik said he got him help. I’m thinking Ahgred tried using Brian again. That’s why he showed up at the door. How else would he know where Morik lived?”
“Does that help us?” Beatriz asked clearly confused.
“Yes and no. It doesn’t give us an answer, but gives me a place to start asking questions.”
“Whoa, wait. Are you saying you want to talk to this Ahgred? Didn’t you just say he was bad?”
I chewed on my lip. Ahgred came out at dark or through other people during the day. I’d cut off the possibility of daytime contact. That meant nighttime contact only. I remember what happened the last time I’d seen him at night. He’d chased me. I could just image what would happen if he caught me. He’d finished burning his mark into my skin. I shivered.
“You’re right. I can’t. I’d rather die than let him touch me again,” I whispered truthfully.
We sat there in silence, each lost in our own thoughts until the bell rang.
After school, Beatriz gave me a ride home asking questions about Ahgred until she knew as much about his as I did.
“Maybe you could make a deal with him to get information,” she suggested pulling into my driveway.
“No. Whatever he could tell me isn’t worth the price. Like you said, either Morik’s alive, or he isn’t. Knowing won’t change anything.”
She sighed and said what I knew she’d been working up to for a week now. “You would know if you should start looking for someone else.”
“No, Beatriz. I won’t kill someone, so I can live. And I won’t pass on Belinda’s stupidity to another generation. It ends with me.”
She nodded, but didn’t look like she took me seriously. I got out of the car and waved as she pulled away. Down the road, a figure abruptly turned and walked away. I recognized the back of Brian’s head and felt a shiver of fear. He walked stiffly away, a slight twitch to his walk.
Belinda’s deal wasn’t the only threat to my existence.