Moby Clique (15 page)

“She hit her head on the window and I thought I’d knocked her out. I was so freaked out by it, that I didn’t see that the light up ahead had changed. I ran a red light and a car nearly hit us. When I swerved to miss it, that’s when I hit the tree. And Rebecca, well, she never woke up.”

I don’t know what to say to this. It’s horrible. I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience something like that.

“I blame myself,” Ryan says. “I should never have shoved her. I should’ve just pulled over and tried to reason with her. I let my temper get the best of me.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say.

“But it is,” Ryan says. “Because I was driving. And that’s why I got sent to Bard. And that’s also why I try to help Parker, because Parker was Rebecca’s best friend and I feel like I owe her something. And if you don’t want to have anything to do with me anymore, I’ll understand. I killed her.”

“What are you talking about? Ryan, this isn’t your fault. She was acting insane and her death was an accident.”

“That’s not what most people think.”

“Well, I’m not most people,” I say, smiling. He returns my smile.

“But there’s something else. Something I didn’t want to tell you.”

“What?”

“It sounds stupid.”

“Believe me, I bet it isn’t. The stuff I’ve heard today…trust me, it can’t be worse than that.”

“I think my girlfriend, well, my whole life, was kind of like a book.”

I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. His life was like a book? And that was before he even came to Bard. That was out in the real world, where fiction isn’t
supposed
to come to life.

“What book?” I ask, my voice barely a squeak. There’s a loud rushing sound in my ears. I realize it’s blood pumping hard in my veins. Fear.

“Have you ever read
Rebecca
?” I shake my head. “Well,” Ryan continues, “it’s
just
like that book. I found it in Rebecca’s backpack after the accident and, I dunno, I just started reading it and…it’s so weird, but it really started to sound like her life and mine. But the even stranger thing is that Rebecca even
looked
like the girl on the cover of the book. They could be sisters or something, but it’s probably all just a coincidence, right?”

I am literally speechless. It is probably, definitely
not
a coincidence. Ryan’s Rebecca was the same Rebecca from the book, I’m more than certain of it. Somehow she’d become real. I’m suddenly taken by the knowledge that the powers of Bard extend far beyond Shipwreck Island. My mind is a whirl of questions. Does the faculty know about this? And what does this mean? When I go back home, will I have to face Dracula? Or William Blake’s tiger?

My mouth is dry and my stomach flops. I realize that while I’ve made my peace with Bard, I also took solace in the fact that I could leave it, too, that there’s a “real” world to go back to. One where crazy things don’t happen. One where everything can be explained and there are no such things as ghosts or boogey men or fictional characters living and breathing. The idea that I don’t have that refuge anymore makes me more than a little scared.

“Miranda? Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost,” Ryan says, concerned.

I can’t help it, I burst out with a nervous laugh. “Ghosts!” I exclaim, then snort another laugh again, thinking about the entire ghost faculty. “I see ghosts all the time!” And this suddenly makes me bubble up with nervous laughter that I can’t seem to stop. It’s official: I’m cracking up. Bard has finally driven me insane.

“Miranda, I know it’s a silly story, but you have to believe that it just seemed so real,” Ryan is saying now. Poor guy is trying to convince me
he’s
the one who isn’t crazy. I settle down now and get a hold of myself.

“No, no, it’s not you,” I say quickly. “I believe you. Really. I do. Honestly, more than you know.”

Ryan looks a little relieved. “So you don’t think I’m crazy?”

“No, I don’t,” I say. “In fact, I think there’s something you need to know.” I pause. I figure I have to tell him Bard’s big secret. He has a right to know. He’s been living it without even knowing it. I’m not supposed to tell, but Ms. W will have to forgive me once she realizes why I did it. Besides, he practically knows already. He just doesn’t realize it.

“The stories from books do come to life,” I tell him. “As do fictional characters. I used to think it was just here, on this island. You see, Bard isn’t just a school. It’s also a kind of purgatory. Our teachers aren’t our teachers. They’re really ghosts, dead authors who are stuck in limbo.” I’m talking fast, realizing that I’m in a rush to tell him this secret. I’ve been bottling it up for a year and it’s a relief to finally let him in on it. “I mean, they’re famous ghosts. Like Coach H is really Ernest Hemingway. And Ms. W is really Virginia Woolf. And Headmaster B is Charlotte Brontë.”

Ryan is just looking at me, expressionless. I suddenly realize I’m not telling this right. It sounds so farfetched. I backpedal.

“I mean, like, remember last year? The tiger that was loose on campus? That wasn’t just a regular tiger. That tiger came from William Blake’s poem. You see, it was fiction, but it came to life. And other fictional characters come to life, too.” Ryan’s face turns skeptical. My mind races, trying to think of another. “Heathcliff!” I exclaim suddenly, grabbing Ryan’s arm with both hands. “You see, Heathcliff is really the Heathcliff from
Wuthering Heights
. That’s why no one knows where he’s from. Because he really is from a book.”

Ryan frowns at the mention of Heathcliff’s name.

“And even me,” I say, rushing to tell him everything. “I’m part fiction. My great-great-great-grandmother or something was originally a character in
Wuthering Heights,
too. But she left the book, so she’s not there anymore and…well, okay, that’s too complicated, but anyway, I’m part fiction. So you see,” I barrel on, ignoring the darkening look on his face, “Rebecca might have been the real Rebecca from the book. You aren’t crazy at all,” I finish, realizing that my entire explanation sounds super lame.

Ryan is silent for a moment, taking it all in.
Please
believe me, I think. I’m telling the truth. One hundred percent. I give him a pleading look and squeeze his arm, but he shrugs away my touch.

He glances up at me, looking sad and more than a little hurt. “You don’t have to make fun of me,” he says at last.

“What? I’m not—”

“Seriously, Miranda. I open up and tell you something serious, and you just make a big joke out of it. Fine if you don’t believe me, but don’t make fun of me.”

Ryan gets up and shakes off a few dried leaves from his pants.

“Ryan, I’m not making fun of you, I swear. I am totally serious.” I try to grab at his hand, but he shakes it away. “I’m telling the truth!”

“Whatever,” Ryan says, not meeting my eyes. “It was real funny. Ha-ha. I’m sorry I bothered you. Glad you got a good laugh out of it.”

“I’m not laughing!”

Ryan turns his back on me just as Hana comes bounding out of the woods, looking a little out of breath.

“Parker’s gone,” Hana says, her face a knot of concern.

“What do you mean, ‘gone’?” Ryan asks, turning toward Hana and ending our conversation. Dammit.

“I mean
gone,
” Hana says, pointing to the place where Parker had been sleeping, but there’s still no sign of her. She hadn’t come back in the time Ryan and I had been talking and, for the first time, I notice her blanket is gone and her backpack, too.

“Could she have gone to the bathroom?”

“That’s what I thought, but she’s been gone a while,” Hana says. “I woke up because I thought I heard something. When I looked up, Parker was gone, so I tried calling her name, but she didn’t respond.”

Uh-oh. For some reason, I’m pretty sure this isn’t just one of Parker’s jokes.

“Maybe she went back to campus?” I ask, even though I know that’s probably not likely.

“On that bad ankle?” Ryan interjects. “She could barely walk on it.”

Hana and I stare at each other, neither one wanting to admit that maybe Parker’s been taken—by the same people who took my sister.

“Do you think…”

“I don’t know,” I say, not willing to say it out loud. “Did you find footprints?”

“There were too many leaves on the ground. I couldn’t really tell,” she says.

“What’s going on, guys?” asks a groggy Samir, waking up and rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, what’s with all the chattering?” Blade sighs, stretching and throwing off her blanket. The sky above our heads is getting lighter, thankfully. Dawn is coming and not a minute too soon, either.

“Heathcliff hasn’t come back and Parker is missing,” I tell them.

“I
so
told her not to mess with that Indian burial ground,” Samir says, crossing his arms. “You guys never listen to me, and see? I’m always right.”

“So what are we supposed to do now?” Blade asks me.

“We should go back to campus,” Ryan says, now not meeting my eyes. He’s still very mad. “Maybe Parker went there.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not leaving my sister out here.”

“Okay, am I really the only one who’s ever seen a horror movie?” Samir asks. “When people start disappearing from the group, it generally means they’ve been hacked to pieces and it’s time for all the people who
still have their limbs
to run as fast as they can!”

“You’re such a wimp.” Blade sniffs. “No one’s been hacked to pieces…that we know of.”

“It’s still a likely possibility,” Samir says. “And besides, Heathcliff was supposed to be our guide. We don’t even know where we’re supposed to go.”

“We could find it ourselves,” Ryan says, sounding confident. “We don’t need Heathcliff. Lindsay said the cove was on the far side of the island, so all we have to do is head east.”

“And just where is that?” Blade asks.

“Hang on,” Ryan says, whipping out a compass from his pocket. It’s a tiny one dangling from his keychain.

“How’d you get that past the Guardians at check-in?”

“Hid it inside my American civilization book,” Ryan says, as if it’s obvious. He stares at the compass, frowning at it. “Hmmmm. That’s weird.”

I lean over to look and see that the compass arrow is slowly spinning around counterclockwise. But it never seems to stop.

“Maybe it’s broken,” Ryan says, shaking it.

Hana and I look at each other.

“It’s not broken,” Blade says. “It’s the island.”

“You’re telling me this island has an electromagnetic force field?” Ryan asks, his voice skeptical.

“I’m saying that a compass won’t do you any good,” Blade says. “Anyway, east is that way.”

“How do you know?”

“Because the sun is rising that way,” Blade says. “Besides, I know we’re close.”

“How?”

“Look up,” she says.

I do and see seagulls circling above our heads.

“Okay,” I say. “But we should leave a note for Heathcliff in case he comes looking for us.”

“And one for Parker,” Ryan says.

Reluctantly, I agree.

Hana writes the notes, while I head back to the campfire to wrap up my blanket and get my backpack together. That’s when I look down and see the footprints. They’re inches from my blanket, from where I slept, and they’re not normal footprints. There’s one boot print and then a single round hole, as if someone with one leg was walking with a cane or a crutch.

A shiver goes down my spine.

“Um, is that what I think it is?” Samir asks, standing next to me, his voice cracking a little bit as he looks down at the footprints.

I nod slowly.

“Peg Leg,” I say.

Twenty

“It was probably just Parker
trying to freak you out,” Hana says, ever the voice of reason as she pushes her glasses higher up on her nose. Together we tromp through the forest in the direction we think is east.

“Of course, there is the little problem of Parker disappearing,” Blade says. “Who does a practical joke and then disappears? Wouldn’t she want to laugh at you?”

“Good point,” I say.

“There’s no such thing as Peg Leg,” Ryan says, sounding dismissive. He glances at me, and then adds for good measure, “Just like there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

So he’s still in denial. Fine, if he wants to be like that. I know the truth. If he wants to think I just made it up, then that’s his prerogative. I’m done trying to convince him.

“Whatever,” I shrug, not looking at him. If he wants to be mad, then I can be mad, too. He should’ve believed me. It shows he still doesn’t really trust me, after all. I can’t help but think that Heathcliff would believe me no matter what I said. If I told him the sky was orange, he’d believe it.

Of course, Ryan always has been skeptical of all things supernatural. It’s what makes it so surprising that he even allowed himself to believe that the accident had anything to do with
Rebecca.
Most of the time he’s just too practical and sometimes it’s just plain annoying. You’d think he would’ve caught on by now that something isn’t right with this place, but he’s totally clueless.

“You guys believe what you want, but I still say we should’ve headed back,” Samir says.

“You better stop your whining,” Blade warns. “Don’t you know the scared guy always gets killed first in horror movies?”

“Yes, and that’s exactly why I want to go back. Don’t you think I know I’m marked for death? I’m a minority
and
I’m a total wimp.”

At that very moment, the drums start up again with their rhythmic
thump, thump, thump.

“Is it just me or are they louder?” I ask Hana, who nods.

“We’re moving closer to them,” she adds, her voice a low whisper.

“What do you think they are?” I ask her.

“On this island? I’d expect anything. Cannibals, probably,” Blade says. I can’t help but notice that she sounds a little too hopeful.

“Does
anything
scare you?” Samir asks.

“Beauty pageants,” Blade answers right away, flicking her black-and-red spiking hair away from her eyes with her fingers, which are covered in silver skull rings and topped with jet-black nails. “And the color pink.”