Mortal Kiss (12 page)

He stepped closer, towering over them, and smiled back. “You’re lucky it was me who came along,” he told them, lowering his voice so that the sound of his words seemed to blend with the cold wind. “There are all sorts of bad people around. You two girls should be careful. It can be dangerous out here.”

Liz dropped Faye off and headed home, rehearsing what she was going to say to her father. Glancing at the clock on her dash, she realized that their trip into the woods and the flat tire had taken longer than she’d thought—she was an hour and a half late. She was in big, big trouble, for sure.

The first thing that struck her as odd when she pulled onto their street was that the house seemed to be in total darkness. Usually there was at least one light on somewhere, and tonight the house should have been blazing, especially with Poppy at home for the weekend.
Surely they can’t all have gone to bed already? Though in a way, that would be good
, she thought. She could sneak in without her dad seeing her and get up early for school in the morning. Maybe a day’s work would make him forget all about today?

Liz switched off the engine and climbed out of the car, shutting the door as quietly as she could. She headed for her front door. It wasn’t completely dark yet—there was still enough light that she could see into the living room. And there, standing in front of the fireplace, was her dad. Liz could just make out his figure. He didn’t seem to be moving. He was just standing there. Her heart sank. He was obviously waiting for her to come home. This was going to be worse than she’d thought. Liz tried to imagine how long she was going to be grounded, and a horrible thought occurred to her. The Battle of the Bands was coming up! What if her dad decided she had to miss it as punishment? He knew how excited she was about it—she’d told him everything she knew that morning at breakfast, before he’d gone to the Morrow mansion.

Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the front door softly and walked in, heading straight for the living room—and her dad.
Better get it over with
, she thought
to herself.
And maybe I can explain. After all, I did have a flat! I would have been home in time if not for that
.

He stood there with his back to her in the middle of the room and didn’t turn around as she came in.
Omigod … he’s really mad!
Liz thought. She could see his face reflected in the small mirror mounted over the fireplace but couldn’t read his expression.

“Hi, Dad!” she said, putting on her brightest voice. “You would not believe the evening I’ve had! I know I’m late, I’m so sorry—I hope you guys didn’t wait too long before you ate I tried to call, but I think there’s something wrong with my cell—or maybe this weather has broken one of the towers? Anyway, I couldn’t get a signal.”

She paused, waiting for him to say something, but he still didn’t turn around. She rattled on.

“Anyway—look, I know you’re probably mad, but before you start yelling, just listen for a second. I got a flat! It was awful, really scary. I don’t know what caused it, but it was a true blowout—we could have had a terrible accident! But I did what you taught me to do in that kind of incident, and we were fine. But there was no way I could drive on the tire, so we had to change it. And I remembered everything you taught me, too! How cool is that? I managed to change it all by myself! Well, Faye helped a little,” Liz added, suddenly wondering if it was just too implausible to suggest that she’d done it all herself. But she didn’t want her dad asking too many questions—and if he believed she’d managed to solve the problem herself, she hoped he’d be too pleased with her about that to ask just where she’d been.

Sergeant Wilson still didn’t move. Liz stepped forward, wondering if he really could be that mad. Then she realized that he didn’t have his head bowed, as she’d first thought. Sometimes he did that—if he was thinking hard about something, he’d
stand there with his arms crossed, staring at the floor. He was staring at his reflection in the mirror.

“Aren’t you proud of me?” she said, trying to get him to respond. “Isn’t that great? So anyway, that’s why I’m late. So I hope you’re not too angry. Because it really wasn’t my fault and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. Even if I’d left earlier. Not that I left late … the place … where we were. OK? So please don’t ground me. And if you do … please don’t make me miss Battle of the Bands. It’s, like, the biggest thing to happen here in decades. Please, Dad? Please?”

Sergeant Wilson still didn’t answer, and Liz began to wonder if he’d actually heard any of what she’d been saying at all. He was still staring into the mirror. And then, as Liz looked closer, she realized that he wasn’t really staring. He was watching something. His eyes moved around the glass as if following something that was happening inside it.

Liz looked, trying to figure out what he was searching for. And then she saw something. Something dark, like a shadow. It moved from one side of the mirror to the other quickly, so quickly that if she had blinked, she would have missed it.

She gasped, and her dad finally turned around. Liz looked at his face, but his eyes were glazed over as if he was focused on something very far away.

“Dad?” she asked shakily. “What’s the matter?”

He ignored her, brushing past her as he stepped out into the hallway. Liz was suddenly very cold.

“Dad?”
Liz asked again, panicked. This was so unlike her father. “Dad? What’s going on? Where’s Mom? And Poppy?”

“It’s late,” he said. His breath made clouds in the icy hallway. “It’s time for bed now.”

Liz stood at the bottom of the stairs, shaken. She watched her father disappear into his bedroom and shut the door. And then, though she could hardly believe her ears, she heard him lock it behind him.

A few days later, it actually seemed as if things might be getting back to normal. For the first time in weeks, Faye woke to clear skies and a warm sun. Looking out her window, she couldn’t remember the last time the streets of Winter Mill had not been piled with fresh snow. The thought that the strange early winter might be over lifted her spirits, and she got ready for school quickly. She stopped for a breakfast of coffee and toast with Aunt Pam before pulling on her coat and heading out, carrying the large pile of books she had to return to the library.

The turn in the weather seemed to have affected the rest of the town, too—people waved and smiled at each other or said a cheery hello as they passed. Faye felt happier. There was surely a rational explanation for everything that had happened over the past few days. Just because she couldn’t explain it didn’t mean there was something scary and strange going on. And whatever was happening in the woods—whatever creatures were haunting it right now—there must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for that, too.

Liz was waiting for her on Winter Mill High’s steps, looking great, as usual. She’d borrowed more of Poppy’s boho clothes and was mixing them in with all the new items she’d bought from MK. Faye was always amazed at how Liz managed to come up with a gorgeous new outfit so easily. She loved coming up with new looks herself, of course, but it seemed like second nature to Liz.

As she got closer, Faye saw that her friend was staring into the distance, a faintly worried look on her face.

“Hey!” Faye called as she got closer. “Everything OK?”

Liz smiled when she saw her, and they walked into school together. “Oh, yeah. It’s just my dad. He’s acting really weird.”

Faye winced. “Oh no. He hasn’t grounded you for Sunday, has he? I thought you said that so far he hadn’t mentioned it at all.”

“He
hasn’t
! That’s what’s so weird.”

“You’re complaining that he hasn’t grounded you?” Faye teased. “Has someone done a body swap with my Liz? Who are you, and what do you want?”

“I know, I know,” Liz laughed. “But seriously, I don’t know what’s with him right now. He’s hardly talked to us all week.”

“You didn’t manage to find a way of telling him about the wolf?”

Liz shook her head. “I tried, but it’s hard to find a way without letting on that we both went up there. And to be honest, I’m not even sure he’d listen. Sometimes it’s like we’re not even there. I think Mom is worried too.”

“That is a bit weird,” agreed Faye. “But maybe he’s just tired? There’s been a lot going on recently. I think the snow has gotten to people. Especially with that poor guy dying in it out in the woods. You don’t really think of snow as being dangerous, but it is. And we’ve been surrounded by it for weeks now. Your dad’s probably been preoccupied with all of that, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” decided Liz. “Anyway, like you said—if it means I’m not getting punished for something, why am I complaining?”

“He’ll snap out of whatever it is soon enough, you’ll see.”

Liz nodded. “You’re probably right. Which means I should commit as many teenage misdemeanors as I can right now!”

Faye shook her head and smiled. “Look, I’ve got to go hand in these articles. I wrote about all our findings in the piece about the woods. It might get me into trouble, but I think it’s worth it. And I finally finished the Mercy Morrow one, too. It’s so late—Ms. Finch is going to
kill
me!”

“Nah,” said Liz, waving her hand dismissively, “she’ll be fine. She’s the softest teacher in school. I’d better get to class, though. I’ll let Mr. Petrus know where you are. Or do you need help with all those?” Liz asked, nodding at Faye’s books.

“No, I’m fine. I’ll be along in a minute.”

Faye headed for the school newspaper’s office, which was up a flight, near the science labs. It was unusual for her to be late delivering an article, but then it was unusual for her to be nervous about handing in what she’d written, too. She had done as Ms. Finch had asked and produced a biographical article on Mercy Morrow. Even though she hadn’t really wanted to write it, Faye had figured it was a good exercise in journalism. After all, she wouldn’t always be able to choose her assignments. But she’d also done a longer, in-depth piece on what had been happening in the woods, from the bikers’ arrival to her more recent discovery of the animal carcasses. She’d left out the part about her being chased—for one thing, it was too personal for an objective newspaper article, and for another, she didn’t want anyone to know she’d been up there at night, even after being told to avoid the place. She also didn’t want to get Finn into trouble. Faye still wasn’t sure what the rest of the Black Dogs’ involvement in all this was, but she was convinced that Finn had nothing to do with any of it.

She was about to shoulder open the newspaper room door when someone beat her to it from the other side. Jimmy walked out, a puzzled look on his face.

“Morning, Jimmy,” Faye greeted him. “How’s things?”

Frowning, he shut the door carefully, pulling her to one side. “Ms. Finch is in a r-really odd m-mood today,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?”

Jimmy shook his head. “I mean
o-odd
, Faye. She’s usually so … b-bubbly, even first thing in the morning. But today, she’s like a b-brick wall. I t-tried to talk to her about this week’s issue. I think we need to include a b-big feature on the Battle of the B-Bands—competitor profiles, judge b-bios, stuff like that. B-but she j-just clammed up. Do you know if something’s h-happened?”

“Nothing that I’ve heard about,” Faye said quietly. “She’s probably just got a headache or something. Or she’s in a bad mood.”

Jimmy raised his eyebrows. “Since wh-when have you known Ms. Finch to b-be in a b-bad mood?”

“Never,” admitted Faye. “Well, I’ll try to find something out. I’ve got to go deliver these articles anyway.”

“Good l-luck,” Jimmy whispered, opening the door for her before he headed to class.

It was dark inside the office. The blinds on the windows were still shut, and none of the lights had been switched on. Faye could see her teacher sitting at her desk in front of her computer.

“Uh, morning, Ms. Finch,” Faye began as she walked toward the desk. “I’ve got two pieces for this week here. I’m really sorry they’re late. I hope you like them.”

There was no response from the teacher. She seemed engrossed in whatever was on her computer screen. Faye thought maybe she was reading—as the newspaper editor, there was a lot to get through on top of her regular teaching duties each week. She put down her books and took her papers out of her bag.

“I worked really hard on the second one,” Faye added as she got closer. “I know you told me not to write it, but I think it’s a really important story, and I hope you’ll at least—”

She stopped. Ms. Finch’s computer was not turned on. The screen was blank, just reflecting the edges of the windows behind them where the blinds had not shut out all the morning light.

“Ms. Finch?” Faye whispered. “Are you OK?”

Ms. Finch didn’t answer. Her eyes were set and glazed, and maybe it was the lack of light in the room, but to Faye they seemed darker than usual. It was as if the light in them had turned into something hard and black.

Suddenly scared, Faye dropped her assignments on the desk and backed away. “I—I’ll come back during recess, Ms. Finch,” she said. “I can see you’re busy.…”

Faye scooped up her books and made it to the door before she heard Ms. Finch’s voice behind her. Except it wasn’t Ms. Finch’s voice, not really. It had something hard and closed about it, like her eyes.

“I thought I told you to stay out of the woods, Faye,” said the voice.

The skin on the back of Faye’s neck prickled with fear. Instead of answering, she opened the door and rushed through it, pulling it shut behind her. She stood in the light of the corridor, waiting for her heart to calm, and as she did so she looked out the window.

The clouds had closed over the sun again, and it was snowing.

Catching her breath and pushing her fear away, Faye set off down the hall. Her head was full of questions that she knew no one could answer. She was so wrapped up in what had just happened with Ms. Finch that she wasn’t paying attention as she turned the corner. Someone walked right into her, sending her pile of books flying and almost knocking her over in the process.