Evil (5 page)

I rolled my eyes, resigned. I understood Gus’ reluctance to help. Bradens didn’t help, not usually. And no one ever sought Kellan out, much less for us to help in his stead. Still…I’d started the day out with a theme of helping. I might as well continue…?

“What do you need help with?” I willed the girl to bolster her courage and just blurt it out.

“Um…” She still faltered and then rushed out, “My stepdad just got home from a business trip. He’s a drunk and he…”

And everything clicked. Even Gus perked up. We both knew what Kellan had offered to do. I finished for her, dryly, “And Kellan offered to rough him up if your stepdad hurt you, didn’t he?”

She nodded, grateful.

I felt Gus’ glee as she asked, “What’d he do to you?”

“Kellan?” Leah asked, confused.

Both of us flinched. “No, you idiot. Your father. What’d he do to you?” Gus cringed again.

“He did some stuff. Could you call Kellan for me? I don’t have his number. I don’t even know if he has a phone, but…I…it can’t happen again. Kellan said he’d stop him.”

“We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” Giuseppa was all smiles now. It wasn’t a sight Leah was used to, nor myself, but I was pretty sure it shocked Leah the most as she instinctually retreated three steps before she stopped. Her friends quickly moved backward with her.

“I…” Leah wasn’t sure what to say. Her eyes skirted between us again.

I smiled, or tried to smile, though I was a little apprehensive about what Giuseppa had in mind. “He’ll be taken care of by tonight.”

“You’ll talk to Kellan?”

“We’ll do it ourselves,” Gus muttered underneath her breath.

“He’ll be told. Promise,” I tried to reassure her.

“Okay.” Leah jerked a nod before she quickly melted among the rest in the hallway.

“We’re not telling Kellan, right?” Gus asked anxiously. She was the one to eye me nervously now.

“I just told her that he’d be told.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say when. Let me handle this, Shay. Please. I haven’t had fun in a while.”

I tried to figure out what my sister intended to do. I stared her down, despite the innocent look she flashed my way. I knew my sister, and I knew she wasn’t going to pray for him. I warned, darkly, “Do not kill him. Do not do anything that’ll bring attention to us.”

Gus rolled her eyes and retorted nastily, “Right, Shay. You should be the one talking after what you did today. And no, I don’t intend to do anything like that. But the guy will leave his stepdaughter alone after I’m done with him. Promise.”

“You’re not going to kill him.”

“Promise,” she repeated forcefully.

“Fine,” I relented and was rewarded with a flash of perfect teeth. As she turned to leave, I called out, “And no Vespar involved.”

Gus braked, didn’t turn around. And then continued, but not before I heard a few choice words.

The bell sounded, and I heeded. The rest of the day was like usual. I watched, silent, as everyone else played their social games. The quiet ones stayed with their cliques and sent furtive glances at the popular ones. The geeks did their own thing and managed to avoid all contact with any jock. The popular girls whispered together or hung off the arm of their boyfriends. I caught sight of Leah one time, and she managed a tight smile my way. All of her friends looked my direction and then bent their heads over their table. The guys looked and quickly averted their gazes.

I wasn’t a part of their social hierarchy. According to my bloodline, I was supposed to use them as pawns. I knew Giuseppa and Vespar did. I knew they loved the game. They loved the “mind screwing,” how they put it. And I knew Kellan did it, but his appetite seemed a bit deeper. I wondered if he was happy with the shallow mind playing with the Leahs in our school.

I’d never wanted to do that. I’d never felt compelled and, if anything, I wanted to do the opposite. I wanted to stop it.

I felt a burning on my wrist and touched my sleeve. I felt the tattoo burning my skin. I wondered if it was rotating or staying in place. It moved at times, like when it knew I was paying attention to it. And other times, it was just there, like a reminder for something. I just didn’t know what.

When I got to humanities, the tattoo stopped burning. Thank God.

I dropped my books and slumped into my usual table. We sat on the left side, by the windows, and in the middle. The populars liked to sit in the back, which was fine by us. It never mattered because my siblings surrounded me.

Vespar and Giuseppa slid into their table, just in front of me, and bent their heads close together. Kellan dropped his books beside me and slid into his own chair. He turned, studied me intently like he always did, and then lounged back in his chair.

Just then, Mr. Hawkins strode into the room and dropped his lecture book on the table before he took up a marker and turned to the board. “Okay, class. Tell me what you know about religion.”

Silence scattered over the class and their conversations. And then, after a beat of silence, Leah spoke up, “I’m Catholic. Is that what you mean?”

Another girl raised her hand. “Was this part of our reading? I thought we were supposed to read chapter seven in our book? I don’t remember any discussion on religion there.”

Mr. Hawkins ignored her and looked at Leah. “Yes, Leah. Catholicism is a form of religion. You’re correct. Now tell me about being Catholic.” He smiled encouragingly and pushed up his thin wire-rimmed glasses. He tugged down one of his sleeves from his white polo shirt. His bicep muscle flexed, momentarily, and then it relaxed as Leah spoke up, falteringly, “Uh…I guess…I give confession.”

“Purgatory!” Scott yelled out laughingly.

“Yes, Mr. Lorrells, but there’s more to Catholicism than purgatory. There’s so much more to religion than Catholics. Tell me something more class, please.”

Kellan looked at me, long and hard, and then spoke up, clearly, “It’s the intellectual battle for a soul.”

Everyone was shocked, just as myself. The Bradens didn’t talk in class discussions. We weren’t called on, and we were never even required during a class reading. And now, here Kellan spoke up, our leader.

After another beat of silence, Mr. Hawkins gathered himself and rasped out, “Yes, Kellan, but I was looking for something more.”

Kellan shrugged. “It’s the idea of where the soul goes after death. It’s about if the soul can be corrupted during life or not.”

“And what do you think?” our teacher challenged.

Kellan smiled tightly and glanced sideways at me. “I think everyone’s already corrupted, but there are some who don’t agree.”

Mr. Hawkins caught the glance and trounced eagerly. “Shay, what do you think? Do you think souls can be saved? Not corrupted?”

I was furious with Kellan, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I was caught off-guard, “I think souls are just a prize to some. I think they can be saved, yes.”

Both Giuseppa and Vespar turned around in their chairs, wide-eyed, as they looked at us, at me. I refused to flush underneath their scrutiny. Kellan had baited me for a specific reason. I wasn’t going to back down.

“Do you think they’re worth being saved?” Kellan challenged me further.

Everyone in class listened raptly. Never had a battle between the Bradens, much less Kellan and myself, been publicized. A pin dropping could’ve been heard in the silence between our dialogue.

“Am I worth being saved?” I asked him, no one else. I didn’t care the class could hear.

Kellan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but he replied, monotone, “Any soul has a choice, Shay. What do you choose?”

I grinned faintly. “Do I choose hell now and heaven later? Or do I choose heaven now, for the pleasure, and get hell as my reward? What would any sane person choose?”

“But that’s the issue of this discussion. No one is going to choose hell first. Everyone wants the easiest, the quickest. Everyone wants to be gratified now. You know they’re going to choose heaven first.”

“And get hell as their reward?” I asked lightly, a little hoarsely.

“That sounds like my diet,” one girl exclaimed.

“Bethany!” Mr. Hawkins laughed, a little relieved from the intensity in the room. “What does your diet have to do with our discussion?”

“Nothing, really, but it’s the same,” she piped up brightly. “I can choose to eat Dunkin’ Donuts now—heaven—or choose to eat my one serving of cottage cheese—hell—to get heaven later. What do I want to choose? The donuts, of course. What should I really choose? The cottage cheese.”

“Is that what you want, Bethany?”

“Hell no. I want to lose ten pounds, but those donuts taste like heaven.”

“It’s called discipline!” one of the boys shouted out cheerfully. “I might want to get laid now, but I’m hoping heaven is all sorts of sex!”

Another boy laughed. “That’s got nothing to do with discipline, Kent. That’s called rejection.”

“Well, if you’d put out, Brian, I might go to hell right now.” Kent laughed good-naturedly.

The insults flew between the two. Before long, the class had separated into their own conversations. Mr. Hawkins was called over to a table for personal questions, and it was soon chaos in the room. That was, until Kellan suddenly spoke up, another first—to initiate a discussion—when he asked, “What if there wasn’t heaven or hell? What if it’s all to play with our minds?”

Silence descended the room. Everyone turned toward Kellan and then to Mr. Hawkins, who narrowed his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and folded his arms. His toned arms bunched underneath his shirt as he asked me, “What do you think, Shay? The two of you seem like you’ve put the most thought into this. Do you think there’s a heaven and hell?”

I closed my eyes a moment. I felt my siblings’ gazes. I felt their own intensity at what answer I’d give. And then, as my tattoo started burning again, I opened my eyes and stared right into my brother’s authoritative gaze. “I know there is.”

“Well.” I felt Mr. Hawkins’ excitement at an actual debate, especially one between two Bradens. “Can you explain more on your matter-of-fact statement, Shay?”

“Yeah,” Vespar scoffed. “Those are big words coming from a high school girl.”

Someone sucked in their breath. Someone else whispered, “Holy cow.” Never had a Braden called out another Braden.

I felt Kellan’s anger brimming beside me and knew it wasn’t directed toward me. I also saw how Vespar glanced at his older brother, but he didn’t backpedal.

Giuseppa grew still.

I leaned forward and spoke clearly, “We both know I’m more than a high school girl.”

Vespar snapped his mouth shut, but not before he snuck another look at Kellan. Then he turned back around in his chair. The small challenge was officially closed, and I was the victor.

I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to be.

All hell broke loose after class.

Well, not immediately after class, but as soon we left school. Kellan told me to go straight home, that he’d deal with Vespar. However, when I drove down our long winding gravel road, I saw that he hadn’t quite “dealt” with our brother. Vespar was smoking, waving agitatedly in the air, and pacing back and forth by the river. Giuseppa sat on the bank, her knees drawn against her chest, and her head tucked between her legs.

I hadn’t gone farther than two steps before Kellan’s car zoomed and braked beside mine. Dirt flew in my face, but I didn’t see it. Some of it nicked my leg, and blood was drawn, but I was intent on Vespar. Never had a Braden disrespected another in public. It wasn’t going to fly now. I took another step and found myself hauled back.

Kellan was there. “Let me handle him.”

“No.” I shoved off his hand. “He pissed on me. I told the truth, Kellan. He didn’t like it, for whatever reason, and he humiliated me! Me! Not you.”

“I’ll deal with it. He won’t listen to you. He’ll fight. He won’t fight me. Let me do this, Shay.”

“No!” I was out for Vespar’s blood. I swung around, ready to charge, and found myself face-to-face with an equally enraged Vespar. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and when he shook a finger in the air, I saw the actual air move with it. I wondered if the trees swayed as well.

“You don’t say that! You don’t play with our lives like you did in class!” Vespar yelled at me. Giuseppa stood to the side, anxious, but still alert. Kellan fell to the side, and I surged forward. “He asked me a question. I told the truth!”