Hunters of Chaos (10 page)

Ms. Benitez smiled and walked to the wall opposite the woven rug and flipped a switch. The back half of the room that had been draped in darkness came to light. There in the far corner was an object on a low pedestal. All four of us joined Ms. Benitez around it. It was a square vase with a large cat on each side. It occurred to me that the cats resembled the stylized one I'd seen on the vase at the Anasazi temple. The lid of this vase was shaped like a bat and was fastened to the base by four brightly colored stones.

“Are those real gems?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” said Ms. Benitez. “Rubies and emeralds, to be exact.”

I couldn't have been more shocked. I thought I'd seen every piece my aunt and uncle had ever bought. “I've never seen this vase before,” I said. “It looks like it's worth a fortune. Why would they have donated it?”

“I can't say for sure,” Ms. Benitez responded. “But they were quite insistent that the vase accompany you to the school.”

“Wait. You mean it showed up at the same time I did?”

She nodded. “Ladies, you should all be so proud of your respective cultures. All of the ancient civilizations that live on in you were known for having great power. In fact, many ancient peoples believed that power could be stored in inanimate objects and could be used for both good and evil. Now, if you follow me into the main room, I have one more very special object to show you.”

She turned toward the open door at the end of the foyer and walked into the utter darkness beyond.

The four of us looked at one another with wild eyes.
What the . . . ?
Maybe Shani was right and Ms. Benitez was nuts. But as weirded out as I felt, I was also curious. I followed her into the room, with Doli, Shani, and Lin right behind me.

Once our eyes had adjusted to the blackness, I could see Ms. Benitez taking out a row of tall white candles and lining them up on a table. “Sorry it's so dark,” she said. “I remembered the flashlight but forgot the batteries. We'll have to create light the old-fashioned way.” She struck a match and lit the candles one by one. Soon the room was filled with a soft yellow glow.

She blew out the match and walked over to a protective glass case, which she opened with a key. Slowly, she pulled out a golden orb. I could have sworn it was pulsing with light, but that was probably just the reflection of the candles. “Come closer, girls,” she said.

We inched toward her. I wasn't sure what Ms. Benitez was holding, but at least it wasn't an ax. As I neared, I could see there were etchings on the orb. “What is that thing?” I asked.

“In ancient times your ancestors were very powerful. If you look closely, you'll see that this orb outlines the territories of your people.” She pointed each one out to us, tracing her finger along the thin lines. “Go ahead, take a closer look,” she said, handing the orb to Lin. “Each of you take a turn and see if you can point out the territory of your ancestors that I just showed you.”

Lin gazed at the orb for a few seconds, then touched one finger to the area that represented China. A tremor seemed to pass through her body and her face paled. She quickly passed the orb to Doli and took a step back. Lin seemed shaken, but when she noticed me watching her, she rolled her eyes and said, “Okay, I'm done. Can I go now? Some of us need our beauty sleep.”

“Not yet,” said Ms. Benitez. “We're almost done here. Just wait till everyone's had her turn.”

While Ms. Benitez spoke, I watched as Doli took the globe from Lin and pressed her finger to the Navajo territory. It seemed like she, too, couldn't wait to pass the orb to Shani. After Shani touched her finger to Egypt, she held the orb out to me, her eyes dark and serious. I hesitated, suddenly not sure if I wanted to touch the orb, but Shani pushed it into my stomach, and I had no choice but to wrap my hands around it. I lifted it up and touched the territory that had belonged to the ancient Mayans. Almost immediately, I felt a tingle race up my arm. It was like the pins-and-needles feeling you get when your arm has been asleep for a long time and is finally waking up. I caught Doli's eye and she stared back, bobbing her head the slightest bit, and I knew: She'd felt the strange sensation too.

After the bizarre round of hot potato, Ms. Benitez replaced the orb in the glass case and led us out of the basement and back to the museum's entrance. Before she pulled open the door to let us out, she stopped and gave us each a long look. “Girls, I really want you to take from tonight that your ancestry makes you powerful. And don't forget that, if anything . . . well, unusual should happen. All right, you should get back to the dorms. It's late. Thank you so much for coming.”

With that she ushered us out the door and closed it behind us. I glanced at Lin and she swirled her finger near her ear. This time I couldn't argue. Ms. Benitez may not have been an ax murderer, but this evening she seemed completely insane.

Once we were safely outside the gates and far enough away from the museum that we felt free to talk, I said, “Unusual? What could be more unusual than what just happened?”

“I'm drawing a blank,” said Doli.

“That's because that was the weirdest, most bizarro event to happen in the history of the world. Like, ever,” said Shani. “And I'm speaking as someone who's seen what Doli looks like when she wakes up in the morning.” She shuddered as if she'd seen something hideous.

Doli lightly punched Shani's arm. “How long were we in there, anyway? It felt like years.”

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. It was only 9:15. I showed the digital clock to the other girls.

“Aw, are you kidding me?” said Lin. “I missed
Revenge
for
that
? Now
I
want revenge.”

We all laughed. Who knew Lin could be funny? We walked the rest of the way back to the dorm in a semifriendly silence. Right before we went in, Shani turned to us and said, “I vote we keep what happened tonight to ourselves. At least until I've had some serious therapy and can make sense of it.”

“Deal,” I said, throwing my hand out, palm down. Shani slapped her hand on top of mine.

“Deal,” Lin and Doli added in unison, adding their hands to the pile. I couldn't help but smile. Maybe we'd be at war with Lin again the next day. But for now, the super-weird evening had turned us into allies. At least until the sun rose and made this all seem like a bad dream.

B
ECAUSE
I
COULDN'T PUT IT
off forever, I went back to the room I shared with Nicole. As I stood in the hallway, preparing for round two with my roommate, I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. I felt odd, as though I'd eaten something that didn't agree with me. But dinner had been hours ago. Why would my stomach wait until now to revolt?

No. I wasn't sick. But I wasn't well, either. For starters, the lights in the hallways were so bright that I had to squint my eyes against the glare. And my nose seemed to be working overtime. I could smell everything—from the fruity scent of Nicole's mango shampoo to the faint hint of toothpaste and the remains of the grilled cheese sandwich that now lay at the bottom of the trash can downstairs. It was overwhelming. I rushed into my room to escape the almost painful sensory overload.

But inside the room was a whole different pain—in the form of a beautiful blonde named Nicole. I'd been hoping maybe she'd be asleep when I got back, but she was wide awake and lying on her bed, flipping through a magazine. When I entered, she sat up and put the magazine on her lap. “So,” she said, tossing her hair behind her shoulder, “how was Ms. Benitez's little party? Are you two sorority sisters now, or what? She's cray cray, you know. She can't find friends her own age, so she hangs out with teenagers. Total loser. But maybe you want that in a BFF.” She gave me a toothy grin, like a shark who smelled blood in the water.

Suddenly I wasn't just annoyed with my roommate; I was disgusted by her. It took all my strength not to get up in her face and hiss something awful.
What is happening to me?
I thought. Was I becoming like Nicole in the worst possible way? I hoped not.

I turned away from her, deciding to ignore her jabs. Instead I'd do something constructive—I'd e-mail my aunt and uncle again. Better yet, I'd Skype them. Right before I left home I'd downloaded Skype onto Aunt Teppy's computer, but she'd found the whole thing confusing. After a half hour of me trying to show her how it worked, she'd said, “What's wrong with a good old-fashioned phone call?” I was sure that by now she'd figured it out, though. At least, I hoped she had. I needed to see their faces and hear my aunt's voice. I grabbed my laptop off my desk and opened it, and was immediately hit with the overpowering smell of mocha latte, Nicole's favorite drink. I looked down and saw light brown liquid pooled into the spaces between the letters of the keyboard, dried stains forming on the mouse pad.

“Wh-what happened here?” I sputtered, shocked. “Did you spill coffee all over my laptop?”

Nicole craned her neck to see her handiwork. “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. It's just, the laptop was open on your bed, and I'm
such
a klutz that I tripped over the computer cord you left on the floor. You should really be more careful with that. I could've broken my leg, and a cast is so
not
the look for fall. The worst part is, I wasted a perfectly good mocha latte. Tragic, am I right?” She chuckled as if it were nothing and went back to her magazine.

I saw red. “You've ruined my laptop and you're worried about your cup of
coffee
?”

Nicole's head shot up when she heard the anger in my voice. “Chill, Ana. What's the big deal? Have the IT guy look at it, and if he can't fix it, just buy a new laptop.”

“Are you insane?” I yelled. “Laptops are expensive! I don't have that kind of money. This laptop was a gift from my aunt.”

Unfazed, Nicole put the magazine aside and stood up, widening her satisfied grin. “Come on now, Ana,” she said. “You don't have to be coy with me. Lin texted me about what happened at the museum tonight. I know that your family donated a priceless piece of art to the school. Did you honestly think I wouldn't find out about it?”

At her words, I felt the tiniest stab of betrayal in my chest. I couldn't believe Lin had told her. I knew we weren't exactly friends, but things had definitely felt friendly between us by the time we got back to Radcliff Hall. She'd sworn, just like the rest of us, to keep what happened at the museum to herself. Lin wouldn't break her promise less than five minutes after making it, would she? But I immediately answered my own question.
Of course she would, and she obviously did.
I was naive to think our one hour of friendship had changed anything.

“What does my family's donation have to do with my laptop?” I asked.

Nicole scoffed as if astonished by my brazenness. “Here I was feeling sorry for you because you had nothing. I even let you borrow my clothes. But if your family could just give something as valuable as that vase away, then they must be loaded! They're probably richer than any of our families.”

“That's ridiculous,” I retorted, my anger simmering to a boil. “My family isn't loaded. They're just . . . normal. And they happen to collect Mayan art because they care about our heritage.”

Nicole narrowed her eyes at me and closed the distance between us. “Whatever, Ana. You want to keep up this poor-little-orphan-from-the-sticks act? Fine. But don't expect any more sympathy from—”

Without a second thought I reared my arm back then whipped it forward, swiping at Nicole with my fingernails. I felt a deep growl rumble up from my chest. Nicole dodged the blow just in time and my fingers sailed harmlessly past her pretty face. Had she been standing two inches closer, though . . .

I stepped back in horror.
I just attacked my roommate!

Nicole slowly backed away too, covering her cheek with her hand as if I'd made contact and had left a nasty scar there. She was clearly in shock. “Have you even read your welcome packet?” she asked. “Temple has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to physical violence. Assault is grounds for permanent expulsion. If I told anyone what you just did—”

“No,” I said in almost a whisper. “Please don't. It was a mistake. An accident. I didn't mean to. . . . I'm so sorry.”

I reached out to touch her arm, but she flinched and backed farther away. Keeping both eyes on me, she grabbed a pillow from her bed and hugged it to her body like a shield. “I need some time to think. But I'd feel more comfortable if you slept somewhere else tonight.”

I opened my mouth to plead my case one more time, but the grip she held on the pillow told me that she wouldn't change her mind. All I could hope for was that she wouldn't report me. As quickly as I could, I gathered up my own pillow and blanket and stacked my soiled computer on top. With any luck, I could wipe it off and get it running so I could reach my aunt and uncle and ask them to help me make sense of everything that had happened since I arrived.

The second I entered the hallway, Nicole slammed the door shut behind me and I heard the snick of a lock. I hadn't even noticed that we had a lock; we'd never used it before, and I didn't have a key. I squinted my eyes against the overhead light and made my way to the stairs.

I figured I would go to the common room and sleep on the couch. It wouldn't be comfortable or private, but at least I'd be away from anyone I could hurt. I replayed the scene in my mind—Nicole's sneering face, my hand lashing out. The image played over and over again in my head, like a Vine. I'd never, ever, in my entire life attacked anyone. I'd never even been in a shoving match.
So what were you thinking?
I shouted at myself silently.