Fever (7 page)

‘They would have told you if your dad had it,’ Eve reassured him.

‘She just said that they’re keeping it quiet,’ Luke snapped. He shoved his hair away from his face. ‘Sorry.’

Eve reached across Jess and touched Luke’s hand. ‘It’s OK. If my dad— It’s OK, Luke.’

Jess swallowed hard. ‘There were more splotches of it on Seth’s body. On his shoulder. On his neck. One of his feet was almost entirely black. I couldn’t even … I didn’t … I just turned round and ran. I ran, Eve. Seth is going to hate me! I acted like he was repulsive.’

‘He’ll understand,’ Luke told her. ‘The guy is crazy about you.’

‘Those spots, they’re so horrible. It’s like the people who get them are dying piece by piece, their flesh just … sliding off the bones,’ Jess said. ‘Seeing it, I think it has to be a demon thing. It’s so awful, it has to be.’

‘I think so too,’ Eve answered.

Luke nodded.

‘I don’t get how it got in though,’ Eve said. ‘The portal is blocked.’

‘Maybe that’s one of the things we should research,’ Luke suggested. ‘We should get started as soon as possible.’

‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to focus on anything but Seth,’ Jess admitted. ‘Maybe you two should just do the research without me.’

‘No,’ Eve said firmly. ‘We need you, Jess. We have to figure this thing out as fast as possible. It’s the best thing you can do for Seth, and besides, it will give you something to do other than worry.’

‘You’re right. So let’s meet up at my house after school and get to it. Seth might call on my home phone instead of the cell, and I don’t want to miss him.’ Eve could tell Jess was struggling to keep her voice bright and peppy. ‘I have to get home and change.’ She stood up.

Eve walked Jess to the front door. She gave her a hard hug. ‘See you at school.’ As Jess stepped outside, she caught sight of Mrs Brownlee across the street. She was wearing plastic gloves and a safety mask as she hauled overflowing bags of groceries up the driveway.

Eve noticed that the bags were from a store over in East Hampton. Could the Deepdene store be completely sold out? Had the panic buying gotten that bad?

She shut the door, overwhelmed by the feeling that things in Deepdene were getting worse by the second.
Jess, Luke, and I have already saved the town twice
, she thought.
We can do it again
.

‘This is just spooky,’ Jess murmured as she and Eve walked into the cafeteria for lunch a few hours later.

‘Spreepy,’ Eve agreed, the word for spooky-plus-creepy that they’d come up with back in third grade.

For starters, the caf was way too quiet. Everyone was talking in whispers. None of the guys were up to their usual shenanigans designed to get the girls to look at them. Sometimes Eve was amazed by boys. Did they really think getting a girl to notice them while they were doing something inane – like shot-gunning a soda – was a good thing?

The caf was also way too empty, just like every one of Eve’s morning classes had been. ‘How many people do you think are absent today?’ Eve whispered. There wasn’t a reason to whisper, except that everyone else was. But it felt wrong to speak at a normal volume when the big room was so silent.

‘I don’t know,’ Jess whispered back as they got in line – if you could call three people a line – at the lunch counter. ‘In art, it was almost half the class. But it wasn’t as bad in the other periods.’

‘I heard James Frankel’s family actually left town,’ Katy Emory said from her spot in front of Jess. She spoke in a normal tone, and it almost sounded like she was shouting. ‘He’s skiing in Aspen right now.’

‘Briony’s parents must be relieved that she took off to see her old boyfriend,’ Eve commented. ‘I bet they told her not to come back until after there’s a vaccine or antibiotics you can take.’

‘The Frankels probably got extra-freaked living next door to the Delawares,’ Jess commented, voice still low. She took a yogurt, put it on her tray, then moved the tray a little further down the metal rails. ‘Belinda was one of the first people to get sick, remember? And her brother got it a couple of days later.’

‘Oh, God, did you hear the latest about Belinda?’ Katy asked, this time bringing her voice down too. ‘There’s a rumour going around that pieces of her
face
are falling off. Shanna was telling me that her parents brought in this plastic surgeon to the stars from LA to see what he could do for her.’ Katy gently patted her cheeks as if to make sure the skin was still there. ‘Belinda was supposedly completely losing it every time she looked in the mirror.’

‘Who wouldn’t be?’ Jess asked.

‘True,’ Katy said. ‘I wish there was something we could do for them, for everybody. But signing a card or something like that seems almost pathetic, with everything so horrible.’

‘We should do it anyway,’ Eve said. She realized she was almost at the cash register and hadn’t chosen any food. She grabbed a turkey sandwich, an apple and a soda. She had to make sure she kept herself in top form. Fighting a demon while coping with a hunger headache was probably a bad idea.

‘See you guys later,’ Katy said after she’d paid. She headed off for a table by the windows, where Tim Bentley was clearly waiting for her.

‘Do you want to hear some non-plague-related gossip?’ Eve asked after she paid for her food. ‘But before we go sit with everybody.’

‘God, yes,’ Jess said.

‘It’s about Luke,’ Eve told her. ‘And me,’ she added as they loitered near the condiment counter so they could have some privacy.

Jess raised her eyes. ‘Well, don’t stop now.’

‘He kissed me.’ The words weren’t nearly good enough to express the actual experience.

Jess clearly didn’t think so either. ‘I need many more details than that. When? Where? What were you wearing?’

‘Last night – late. My kitchen. My new pyjamas,’ Eve answered.

‘I knew those were a good purchase,’ Jess said. ‘Go on.’

‘I was upset about … everything.’ She wasn’t going to tell Jess she’d been freaking over the idea that Jess could have contracted the plague from kissing Seth. ‘And Luke hugged me. A friend, comfort hug. But then, all of a sudden, it just changed and we were kissing.’

‘And then what?’ Jess demanded.

‘And then nothing,’ Eve said. ‘A cat let out this horrible yowl, and we jumped apart, and then—’ She shrugged.

‘You guys remembered that for some ridiculous reason you should be friends and friends only,’ Jess said.

‘I guess,’ Eve agreed. Maybe her reasons for not wanting to get involved with Luke were ridiculous. Maybe he was only a player because he hadn’t found a girl he wanted to hang with all the time. Maybe she was that girl. Maybe – but this wasn’t the time to be thinking about it. ‘Let’s go eat.’

People weren’t sitting in their usual groups and tables. Too many kids were gone for that. Eve and Jess walked over to the table where Rose, Dave, Phoebe and Bet were eating. Eve didn’t think she’d ever shared a lunch table with Dave Perry or Phoebe Abbott. Not for any real reason. They just hung with different groups. A glance out of the window showed her that Luke and a couple of other guys were eating out on the lawn.

‘You heard about Jenna already, right?’ Rose asked as they sat down.

‘Jenna’s sick?’ Eve cried. From the expression on Rose’s face, it couldn’t be anything else.

‘Didn’t even make it through homeroom,’ Rose replied. ‘Sweat popped out all over her forehead and she started to slide out of her chair. It was awful. Ms Fraser asked for volunteers to help her to the office, and for a minute nobody moved. And you know how usually everyone jumps up if there’s a chance to get out of class.’

‘Everybody’s scared,’ Jess said.

‘Yeah. Yeah,’ Rose repeated, as if there was nothing more that could even be said. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. I just need to get something from my locker. Watch my stuff, OK?’

‘Sure,’ Eve told her.

‘How many of them do you think there are now? Sick people from school, I mean,’ Phoebe asked.

Eve suddenly wished she had her safety mask on. She’d worn it in the classes where people were sitting close to her, but it wasn’t like she could keep it on and eat.

‘Look around,’ Dave said to Phoebe, using his fork to gesture at the empty tables around them. ‘I heard that they’re going to close the school today. Not enough teachers. Not enough kids.’

More time to research. That would be good
, Eve thought. And who could concentrate anyway, with so many of their friends sick?

‘I heard the CDC is going to
order
the school closed,’ Bet added. ‘Too dangerous to have this many people congregating.’

‘Do you think it’s because of the way the disease is going?’ Dave asked. ‘You guys heard that people with it have rotting skin now, right? It turns all black and then falls off.’

‘What?’ Bet exclaimed. ‘WHAT?’

‘It’s a new symptom,’ Jess explained. She frowned, ‘Seth … Seth actually has it. The skin really does slide off, no exaggeration.’

‘That’s so horrible!’ Bet cried. ‘They’re never going to be the same, even if somebody figures out a cure. After the skin thing, they’ll all have horrible scars, won’t they?’

‘I couldn’t handle that,’ Phoebe told them. ‘Maybe that’s shallow, but I couldn’t.’ She ran her hands up and down her arms. ‘I’m all itchy now. I want to leave and go lock myself in my closet until this is over.’

‘There’s a janitor over there,’ Eve said. She didn’t recognize the man, but there’d been some new people around, filling in for plague victims. ‘I’m going to ask him if the school is really closing today.’

‘I’m coming,’ Phoebe said. ‘If it’s not closing, I’m just going to ditch. Suddenly I feel like the air in here is disgusting. I don’t want it in me. Way too many people from school are sick.’ She and Eve stood up.

Jess did too. ‘Watch Rose’s stuff, OK?’ she asked Dave and Bet.

‘Will do,’ Bet answered as Eve and the others started towards the janitor.

Eve hesitated, then turned round. ‘If school is closed, come over to my house tomorrow if you want. Around three. We can hang by the pool where there’s fresh air,’ she said impulsively. ‘Tell people.’ She knew her mom would be annoyed at her for getting a group together when they could so easily be passing this plague around, but they were all in this together. Some people might not want to be alone. She didn’t.

‘Cool,’ Dave said.

Eve, Jess and Phoebe hurried over to the janitor. ‘Um, excuse me,’ Eve said. ‘We were just wondering if you know whether or not they’re closing the school today?’

The man just gave a little grunt, not bothering to look up from his mopping. ‘Hey!’ Jess protested and he slopped the mop over her Stella McCartney sandals. The janitor didn’t apologize. Instead, he lumbered away, dragging the mop awkwardly behind him.

‘Let’s go to the office and ask.’ Jess rolled her eyes. ‘That guy is clearly useless.’

‘Good idea,’ Eve answered.

The school secretary looked wary as the three of them walked into the office. ‘Ms K, you always know the scoop,’ Jess said, putting both hands on the counter. ‘Is school closing today?’

‘I’m getting asked the question again,’ Ms Keener called towards the principal’s open door.

A few seconds later, Ms Allison stepped out, looking like she hadn’t slept in for ever. ‘I’m going to make the announcement right now. No classes after lunch. No school until further notice.’

‘You girls go get your things together,’ Ms Keener said. ‘I can’t believe it’s come to this.’

‘Luke beat us here,’ Jess said as she and Eve turned down their street and saw him waiting outside Eve’s house.

‘Figured it would be easier to just come here with the madness at school,’ Luke explained as they reached him. ‘I didn’t see you two at your lockers.’

‘Good call,’ Eve told him.

The school had been crazed as soon as the principal’s announcement had come over the intercom. Pretty much everyone had heard the rumours that the school was going to close, but the fact that it was actually happening seemed to make some people realize how truly scary the situation was in the town. Somehow, going to school every day had made things seem a little normal, a little safe.

Some people tried to stuff every single thing they had accumulated in their lockers into one backpack, although, really, none of it was necessary. There’d been crying and hugging. Regina Fortes fainted in the hall. Everyone – including Regina – thought she was the latest plague victim, but she’d been having a panic attack.

Jess unlocked her front door and ushered them in. They headed through to the kitchen and for a few minutes they occupied themselves choosing drinks and snacks. It was a tiny little piece of ordinary, and Eve appreciated it. ‘Any ideas on what to research?’ she asked when she had picked out a can of Hansen’s Tangerine Green Tea.

‘Plagues and freak high temperatures at the same time,’ Luke suggested.

‘Demons that cause plagues,’ Jess said.

‘Not so much to go on,’ Eve commented. She looked over at Luke. ‘You think it’s time, don’t you?’

‘I think we might find the info we need if we ask the Order for help,’ Luke answered.

‘OK, let’s call Callum,’ Eve said. Callum was a high-level member of the Order. They’d met him when he came to Deepdene to retrieve Payne’s body. Eve had told him the truth about herself, about her powers, about being the current Deepdene Witch. Payne had told his superior parts of her story anyway. Eve thought the Order might as well know the rest.

‘It’ll be faster if I just call Alanna. She’s lower level. She’ll be easier to get in touch with than Callum.’ Luke pulled out his cell. ‘I’ll put her on speaker.’

‘Wait. You have Alanna’s phone number?’ Eve asked. Alanna was a twenty-something member of the Order, a protégée of Payne’s. She’d come with Callum to Deepdene, and while she was there she’d made it clear she didn’t like Eve. ‘The card Callum gave us didn’t have her contact info on it.’

‘She called me once,’ Luke said, suddenly seeming very interested in the bowl of trail mix in front of him. ‘To see if we were having any more problems.’

‘Huh.’ Eve was not going to ask Luke why he hadn’t told her about the call. She’d sound like a jealous girlfriend, and she and Luke were so not a couple. They’d kissed one time. That was it.