The Evil Within (10 page)

I cleared my throat. Twice. “Shayna, come on. We have to get out of here.”

There was no answer except for whooshing of the wind. My mind raced. I had heard her upstairs. I had seen the light. She couldn’t be pranking
me
. She’d been serious about the
dybbuk
, and Kiyoko’s murder. Mandy was the sadistic hazer, not someone like Shayna, who had suffered at Mandy’s hands.

“Come on, this isn’t funny,” I croaked. I sounded a hundred years old. I ran my flashlight over the front of the house, the gaping holes in the walls and the blackness. My heart sped into overdrive. I started backing away, squinting at the darkened windows, shivering in the snow. I pushed the button to check the time again . . . and instead, I opened up the picture I had taken a minute before.

The picture was a white blur, vaguely human-shaped. Maybe the bright flash had washed out the person’s features. Maybe it was just Shayna teasing me, or someone spying on us . . . or . . .

. . . Or . . .

Someone else had been in there with me.

Terrified, I turned and ran.

I RACED AWAY from the ruined old library, past beams of light flashing off the windows of the gym. It was coming from the statue garden, where eerie white marble figures of Greek gods and goddesses posed below the boughs of overhanging trees laden with snow. I avoided looking at them whenever I crossed from the dining commons to the gym. Despite their blank stares, they were eerily lifelike—and just one more thing about Marlwood that gave me the creeps.

So maybe that was it
, I told myself.
It was somebody behind you with a flashlight. Or they dragged a statue out to the library somehow. That was the noise upstairs—them moving it around. Shayna’s probably yukking it up with them right now, having a laugh at your expense.

I had trouble believing that, accepting it. Shayna had seemed so sincere. But I’d misjudged people before. Riley had been sincere.

Troy, too.

“Go, Charlotte, go!” someone shouted. There was laughter, some hoots, then a lot of shushing. I skidded on ice, nearly face-planting, not wanting to face them, to be the butt of a joke. I had to pull myself together. I was scared. And if Shayna had played me for a fool . . .

“
You know this is Mandy’s doing
.” Celia’s voice filled my head.

I jerked, hard. I was inside the pool area, standing on the low diving board, and staring down at her reflection three feet below me in the black water. Chlorine-laced mist rose from the surface, revealing her white face and her black eyes staring up at me; I could see them clearly even in the darkness. I was so startled I nearly tumbled off the board. Flailing my arms, for balance, I gave my head a shake. I didn’t remember pushing on the door that led inside the pool area, or climbing onto the board. But here I was, and the door was hanging open, blowing in the icy wind, revealing the falling snow in the moonlight.

“
You have to stop her
,” Celia added.

Then the wind slammed the door shut, hard. I yelled, but footsteps and laughter drowned out the noise I made . . . jostling and shushing and someone crying, hard.

They were coming in here.

I turned and ran-walked the length of the board, unsteady and anxious, jumping down and crouching behind the board, then scooting backward, into the shadows thrown by the dark green wood equipment locker where kickboards, noodles, and weights were kept. I crouched beside it, shaking.

They came through the same door that I had, whispering and laughing. A single flashlight blinked on, revealing Mandy, dressed all in black, wearing a black knitted cap, and drinking from what looked to be a bottle of champagne. Mandy was holding the flashlight, and Lara walked beside her, bundled up against the cold.

Then the pool lights flicked on—both below the surface, one at the far end of the pool and the other beneath the diving board. Otherwise it was still dark in the gym. Mandy walked toward the edge of the pool and looked down, the light giving her face a bluish cast that reminded me of Kiyoko’s face after she had drowned. A strange little smile flashed over her face and I glanced at the water. Had she seen Belle?

Next came Gretchen and Sangeeta, bundled in beautiful leather jackets trimmed in fur, and then Charlotte, flanked by Susi and Alis. Charlotte was wearing her steampunk coat and she was crying. Her red-streaked black hair was covered with snow. Julie walked behind her wearing a cute blue knitted cap, brushing the melting flakes off the shoulders of Charlotte’s coat like Charlotte’s valet. Julie’s face was ruddy with cold.

Then more girls pushed their way into the room, giggling and snickering. Their breath mingled with the steam rising from the pool. Someone bellowed, “Be quiet, you guys,” and there was more laughter and stumbling.

The door slammed shut. I was still hidden in the shadows, and I pressed my back against the wall. The snow on my clothes began to melt and I shivered.

“Oh God, that was so awesome,” Rose declared, swooping down in front of Mandy. Her profile was to me and alcohol fumes wafted off her. She bowed with her arms extended, making
I am not worthy
motions. Sucking up. I was shocked. “A work of art, lady.
How
did you do that?”

“It’s totally obvious. She replaced the statue,” someone called out.

“Ssh, whisper,” Lara commanded.

“Well, duh,” Rose retorted, whispering. “But it was so
perfect
. It looked just like the original, with the perky chi-chis and all. I can’t even figure out when you made the switcheroo.”

“Did anyone else think Athena looked like Ehrlenbach?” Alis murmured.

“I’ve always thought that,” Sangeeta replied. “Those statues are creepy even without turning them into robots.”

Mandy grinned, in her element as the center of attention, when it was Charlotte who was crying. Ida and Claire pushed through the crowd and gave her little hugs. Then Julie handed her some tissues and Charlotte wiped her face with them.

“So how did you do it?” Rose persisted.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Mandy waved her flashlight at the water in the pool as if she were drawing a picture, or writing words. Then she handed the flashlight to Lara. Lara played with it, holding it beneath her chin so that the light beamed upward, making her look demonic. Her eyes were hidden in their sockets; I couldn’t tell what color they were.

Mandy yawned. “Now, let’s finish this up so we can get
some
sleep before breakfast.” She smiled at Charlotte. “Mademoiselle, onward?”

“She’s totally traumatized,” Ida snapped, stepping in front of Charlotte and raising her chin, squaring off. I remembered when Shayna had done the same for Kiyoko. She wasn’t in the crowd, at least among the girls I could see from my hiding place. So where was she?

“Is that true?” Mandy asked Charlotte. “You want to bail?”

Sniffling, Charlotte shook her head. Then after another beat, she started unbuckling her coat.

“Take it off,” Lara murmured.

“Take it off,” Susi whispered. She nudged Sangeeta, who grinned, and echoed the words back to her.

More girls joined in. “
Take it off, take it off, take it off
.” The whispers rose like steam, like mean-girl energy made visible in the cold.

What possessed girls to do things like this to other girls, to themselves? Before I became a Jane-bot, I had been stunned by some of the really cruel things she and her friends had done, but at the same time I admired them because they were so subtle and effective. She’d drop a word here, make a suggestion there, and people’s worlds collided. She wasn’t a bully so much as an imp of the perverse. And she made it seem effortless, and even kind of classy. But what she did added to the chaos of making it through school, and wasn’t that already hard enough?

But then, once I became one of her followers, all that stuff we did had seemed not mean but funny. Figuring out what to do next—what prank, what hilarious “practical joke”—and who to do it to was like learning a new language. I got better and better at it, and I reveled in my bizarre sense of accomplishment. It stopped being about my victims and became all about me. About power. That was Mandy in a nutshell.

Charlotte was still crying as she took off her coat. Julie took it from her. Beneath, she was wearing black boots, black trousers, and a black sweater with a bronze clockwork design on it. Steampunk. She pulled off her boots and then her pants, which Julie also took, and stood in her black boy-short underwear and her sweater.

“
Take it off.
”

Charlotte hesitated, then pulled her sweater off over her head. She stood in her bra and underwear, looking miserable and determined, and climbed onto the diving board—where I had been standing ten minutes before.

“Wait. First, give me back the locket,” Mandy said, reaching out her hand. Charlotte climbed back off the diving board and went back to Julie, who held out her coat. Shivering, Charlotte dug into the side pocket. She frowned slightly, and looked in the other one. She looked at Mandy.

“Um, it’s not . . . let me look again . . . ”

I looked over at Mandy. Her eyes narrowed and she pulled her lips back from her perfect white teeth. She looked a little crazy.

“You’d better have it,” she said tightly.

“Let me check,” Julie murmured to Charlotte. “Maybe in your pants . . . ”

“Charlotte?” Mandy walked toward her. “
Where’s my locket?
”

Charlotte felt in her jacket, checking the sleeves. She was shaking with cold. “I don’t know! I had it . . . I thought it was in my pocket.”

Now Ida joined in, searching through Charlotte’s clothes. Mandy yanked the coat from them and turned it upside down, shaking it. Julie put Charlotte’s sweater over Charlotte’s shoulders. Charlotte barely noticed.

“If you lost it . . . ” Mandy said, and she looked back over at the pool.

A terrible icy feeling washed over me and my mind filled with the memory of Belle pushing me—correction, pushing
Celia
—under the water in the huge tub in the bathroom. Forcing Celia’s head down, on the verge of drowning her.

I looked at Charlotte, and at Mandy. My heart skipped a beat. Mandy . . . Charlotte . . . the pool . . .

I was about to step from the shadows and yell at them to stop when the door slammed open. Snowy wind rushed in. There were a few gasps; someone said, “Oh God.” I heard Sangeeta whisper, “Is it Dr. Ehrlenbach?”

Then Julie said, “Shayna?”

I left my hiding spot and quietly joined the group. At five-two, I couldn’t see over Julie, so I gave her a nudge. She glanced at me, looking surprised, then made some room for me.

Lara aimed the flashlight at a figure in the doorway. It was Shayna, dressed in jeans and striped legwarmers, her silver puffy jacket, and a fur hat. She had on black gloves. Her eyes were bulging; her mouth was a huge O and she stared straight ahead, as if none of us were there.

“Hey, good one,” Rose said. A couple of the girls clapped.

Shayna kept staring.

“Oh, I’m so scared,” Claire drawled.

“Shayna,” I said, pushing through the crowd. There was a ripple of comments—no one had seen me, of course. I didn’t care. Something was very wrong.

Something in her face made me stop, dead. I was about two feet away from her, and I was afraid to get any closer. She stared at me; then she gasped.

“
Dybbuk
,” she said. Or at least that was what I thought she said. I wasn’t sure.

I yanked off my gloves and put my hands on her face. She was freezing. Her lips worked and her shoulders rose. She began to mumble.

“Shayna,” I whispered, aware that everyone was staring at us, not sure what else to do. I tried to ease her back outside, but she remained rooted to the spot. “Shayna, what’s wrong? Tell me.” I pressed my ear against her lips.

“He . . . he . . . ” she whispered. “He . . . ”

She made a strangling sound. I jerked my head, and she didn’t move hers back; we stood nose to nose staring into each other’s eyes. Now she stumbled backward, and shifted her attention over my shoulder, and exhaled in a ragged way, as if someone were repeatedly punching her in the stomach.

I turned. Mandy stood in Shayna’s line of vision. Lara, Susi, and Gretchen stood on her left, and Sangeeta and Alis were on her right. Their eyes were normal, but they were still scary. They looked like a glammed-out gang, the rich bitches of school.

Then suddenly, without warning, Shayna threw back her head and started screaming. That set off a chain reaction, girls shrieking, the tile walls echoing and magnifying the sounds.

“God!” Mandy shouted. She raced forward, knocking me out of the way, and clamped her hand over Shayna’s mouth. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Shayna flailed wildly, batting and kicking at Mandy. Mandy held on.

She’s smothering her
, I thought. I raced forward and tried to pry Mandy’s hand away from Shayna’s mouth. Then Shayna staggered backward and landed on her butt on the concrete floor. She heaved, whispering, panting. Tears rolled down her face. She saw me, grabbed at me, chattering at me in what sounded like nonsense. I bent down and she clung to me, jibbering.

“Tell me,” I whispered, “in English.”

“Call someone,” Julie said. “Get help!”

“No one’s phone will work,” Mandy snapped, sounding both frightened and irritated, and I wasn’t sure if she was reminding us or giving an order. Mandy squatted beside me and Shayna clung harder to my hands, gazing up at me with huge, pleading eyes.

“Don’t touch her,” I told Mandy. “She’s scared of you.”

“Oh,
right
,” Mandy sneered. “Get up, Shayna. Knock it off.”

“She’s having a breakdown,” Ida said. “She needs help!”

“We’ll take her to the infirmary.” Mandy looked over her shoulder. “C’mon, Lara.”

“No.” I said. “No way.” I eased Shayna to her feet, forcing Mandy to break contact. All expression left Shayna’s face and she stared straight ahead—not at me, not at anything. Her hands were icy. I squeezed them. “Shayna, it’s me.”

She didn’t respond.

Mandy raised a brow at me. “We need to get her some help. What do you think I’m going to do, eat her?”

“Oh, God, we’re going to get in trouble.” That was Gina Troyes, who was in Hanover Hall.

“We aren’t,” Mandy said, facing the group. “Not if we stick to a story. Lindsay, Lara, and I heard Shayna screaming and we came running into the quad. The
quad. No one else was there.
Right?”

The other girls shifted and looked at each other. A few were crying. Julie mouthed,
What is going on?
And I just shook my head.

Mandy glared at the group. “If you stick to the story, you’ll be okay. But if one person blows it, just one . . . ”

Then she frowned at me. “Let’s go.”

Lara held the door open and we crossed the threshold. The snow was coming down hard and I shivered. The door shut, leaving Shayna and me with Mandy and Lara, and the snow. There was no way I wanted to be alone with them, but I wasn’t going to leave Shayna with them, either. I turned to get someone who was on my side, but Shayna stumbled forward like a zombie and I had to hurry to catch up. Maybe as long as their eyes were normal, we would be okay. Or maybe I should yell for help, wake up an adult. But maybe that would escalate the situation faster than anyone would be able to get to us . . .