The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe (14 page)

GABE TOLD THEM ABOUT THE GAME in the woods, about the altar of the crooked tree, about Seth and the explosives. He explained that, according to Seth, a boy in one of the younger grades had met him in the (
shadow market
) bathroom that day, weeks ago, and sold him the M-80s. And no, Gabe didn’t know who the younger boy was.

Even after everything that had happened, even knowing that Seth may very well have planted explosives in his locker, Gabe felt awful for telling on him. He had wanted to talk to him about it first, to get his story, to find out the truth, if that was even possible anymore.

Mr. Drover was disappointed. He couldn’t punish Gabe without first speaking with Seth. But Seth, once again, had called in sick.

Somehow, everyone learned quickly what Mr. Drover and Ms. Yorne had found in Gabe’s locker. As he wandered the halls, he could practically hear their unspoken question echoing through the school:
Did Gabriel do it?

Between classes, he avoided his friends by ducking through halls where he knew they wouldn’t be. He considered skipping lunch to bring his brown paper bag to the boys’ bathroom and hide out in one of the stalls. As he paused in the cafeteria’s doorway, he felt a tug at his elbow. He turned to find Mazzy standing beside him. He flinched—they hadn’t spoken since right before
the cake incident. He had no idea what to say to her. She looked concerned. “We need to talk,” she said, and pulled him from the door.

Gabe tried to keep up as she practically galloped away from him. At the end of the hallway, she barreled through a pair of doors that led outside to a deserted patio.

The air was cold, and Gabe, wearing a short-sleeve polo shirt and jeans, wasn’t dressed for it. The sky was the kind of pure blue that only belonged to the month of October. On any other day, the sight of it would have made him happy. Now, though, it looked like a lie. Everything beautiful seemed secretly poisonous.

Mazzy sat on one of the benches near a chain-link fence that cordoned off the tennis courts. She squeezed her knees together and leaned forward, sitting on her hands, staring at the ground. Gabe was too nervous to move, except to rub at the goose bumps covering his bare arms.

“I heard what happened,” she said. “Your meeting with the principal.”

“I didn’t do it,” Gabe said quietly.

Mazzy looked up at him. “I know that. I’m pretty sure
everybody
knows that. You were standing right next to me when the thing went off.”

“Then Felicia doesn’t blame me?”

Mazzy shook her head. “She’s telling everyone that she wants to
destroy
Seth Hopper.”

Gabe sighed with relief, but then thought about what Mazzy had just said. That wasn’t good either. “Felicia won’t do anything,” he mumbled, as if to convince himself.

“When I went next door to check on her last night, she could barely speak, she was so livid.”

“I would have been too.”

“Even if Seth planted the M-80s,” Mazzy said, “does he deserve to have Felicia show up at his house and break the windows? Or his knees?”

Gabe was confused. Why had Mazzy brought him out here? “I guess not,” he answered.

“You
guess
not?” Mazzy stared at him quizzically.

“What are you suggesting we do?” Gabe asked. “Rescue him?”

“You
know
there’s more to the story,” she said. “I understand that you don’t want to, but we have to talk to him again. At least to warn him about Felicia.”

“After the bake sale, I’m not sure your talking-it-out-with-Seth thing is working.”

Mazzy leaned forward, thrust her face into her hands, and groaned. She stayed that way for several seconds. Gabe sat down on the edge of the bench a couple feet from her. He reached out and touched her shoulder. “Why do you care so much about Seth?” he asked.

“Why don’t
you
?” She looked up at him in surprise.

“I do!” he said. “But he blew up a freaking cake! He hurt people, and he tried to get me in trouble for it! I care, lots, but I also care about myself.”

“Clearly.”

“Why are you mad at me? What did I do wrong?”

“Because you know what he’s going through. You might be the only one able to talk some sense into him.”

“I’ve tried that already. It didn’t work.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I-I get it,” he continued. “The Hunter’s game is Seth’s escape. I know what it feels like to need that. Last year, every day I wished for things to change. For people to just leave me alone. When my wish came true, when I
escaped
, it was
because my stupid house burned down. Not a fair trade. But I learned my lesson: If there is a choice between living in a fantasy world versus living in reality, then I choose
reality
. And that is something Seth just doesn’t seem to understand, no matter how much talking we do.”

“You think
eighth grade
is the real world?” Mazzy said, then burst out laughing. It was a cold sound. She sounded so unlike the girl he knew, his goose bumps only spread farther. “Please,” she went on. “This school, this town, is a holding pen. We’re like sheep pressed up against the doors. You know what I think ‘reality’ is? I think it’s the room on the other side. You sure you want to step to the front of the line?” After a moment, she slowly exhaled. “In a way, I’m like Seth too,” she said. “I seek out the fantasy in my own world.” She made her voice small and high-pitched. “
Hooping contests? Hooray.
”

Gabe couldn’t help but smile.

“And even though you try hard to hide it, I know you think the same way. Or else you would never have joined up with him in the first place. It’s what makes the three of us different from everyone else. You, me, and Seth. We’re explorers. We
know
. We’ve seen. We’ve encountered beasts. And we’ve escaped.”

Gabe tried to see through her suddenly cloudy expression. “We have?”

Mazzy bit her lip. “How do you think I got so good at the hula hoop? Plenty of time outside, away from my parents. Away from…a lot of things. Practice makes perfect.”

He suddenly felt sad for her. He wanted more than anything to lean forward, to wrap his arms around her. The breeze came from behind and rustled her hair. Mazzy sighed and ran her fingers through it, tucking it behind her ears. She stared off toward the athletic fields down the hill.

Gabe clasped his hands in his lap and said, “I just don’t want to play games with him anymore. With anyone.”

They sat quietly for a moment, then Mazzy stood and stepped toward the school’s door. Looking back, she said, “That’s too bad. I feel lucky that I’m still allowed.”

GABE STAYED QUIETLY TO HIMSELF until the last bell rang. Then, as usual, he climbed aboard the bus home. Of everything that had happened that day, he couldn’t get the argument with Mazzy out of his head. He tried to imagine what she’d gone through to call herself an
explorer
. What kind of beasts had she escaped? Gabe especially wondered if she was right about Seth, about the three of them being similar, and whether or not that made his former friend worth all this trouble.

When the bus pulled away from the curb at the base of Temple House’s long driveway, Gabe stood at the roadside, unsure which direction to go. Up led home. And down wrapped around the wooded hill toward the Hoppers’ house.

Mazzy was right about one thing. There was more to the story. And right now, Seth was probably the only one who knew what it was.

Gabe turned away from his grandmother’s driveway just as someone ducked behind the trunk of a wide oak on the corner. Stories of the shadowy figure that had been following kids home from school leapt into his brain, but Gabe forced himself to pause. “I can see you,” he called out.

A moment later, the figure, who was neither large nor shadowy, peeked out from behind the trunk. Seth. Of course. Gabe kept his distance, unsure of what Seth might do. Had Mr. Drover been in touch yet? Did Seth know that Gabe had told on him?

“Sorry,” said Seth. He sounded calmer than Gabe had expected. And even though his eyes were bloodshot and his skin was pale, he
did look happy to see Gabe. “I was waiting for the bus, but I didn’t want you to run if you saw me. Can we talk?”

Gabe pursed his lips, unwilling to share that he’d been about to head down to Seth’s house anyway.

Perched on Seth’s tightly made bed, Gabe kept his muscles tense in case Seth gave him a reason to run. He wished he’d thought to tell his parents where he’d gone. Would it be weird to pull out his cell phone right now?

Seth closed the door. “I don’t really have anything to offer you. My mom hasn’t gone to the store in a while.”

“It’s fine,” said Gabe. “I’m not hungry.” Looking up at Seth’s drawn face, he suddenly wondered when he had last eaten. “How is she?”

“Oh, you know…”

But Gabe didn’t know. He couldn’t imagine. Neither boy said a word for several seconds. Then, of course, they both spoke at once.

“Mazzy told me to come—”

“I’m sorry that—”

They paused, and in that moment, Gabe went on. “You’re sorry that what?”

Seth blinked. “I’m sorry about…a lot of things. But mostly, I’m sorry that I ever met you.” Gabe felt his face flush, but Seth held up his hands. “That came out wrong. I just mean…you’d have been better off. Lots of people would be.”

“Don’t—”

“It’s true. It’s like my family is cursed or something.”

“You don’t really believe that.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know—so much I have to tell you.”

Gabe waited, frightened that if he spoke, the walls would collapse and he’d wake up from a dream, never knowing the answers.

Seth sighed. “Principal Drover called my mom this morning. He told her what happened at the bake sale yesterday.”

“You didn’t already know?” The words came out before he could stop himself.

“He said that they found footprints leading to your locker,” Seth went on. “That they found firecrackers.”

“M-80s,” Gabe corrected.

Seth nodded, his skull heavy with guilt. “He said you told him I got them from another student. That I put them in your locker. But I didn’t. I would never do that.”

“But you’d do
other
things?” Gabe tried cautiously.

“I wasn’t at the bake sale. Or anywhere else you guys think I’ve been. But that didn’t stop Drover from suspending me for the rest of the week.”

“Wow,” said Gabe, shocked that the principal had taken his own word over Seth’s.

“But I
haven’t done anything
to any of you. Really, Gabe. I promise. The same things are happening to me. I’ve seen that shadowy figure. I’ve tripped strange traps in my yard.”

Seth stood and went to the window. He unlatched the lock and lifted the sash. Cold air rushed into the room. “I wanted to show you this.”

“Show me what?” Gabe asked, standing and shivering.

“Last Friday night,” Seth said, “just after I turned off my lamp and got into bed, I heard a noise outside. It sounded like something big stomping through the dead leaves near the woods. The noise scared me. Not sure why. There are animals out here all the time—deer, dogs, sometimes even coyotes. But this time, I could feel something watching me. Even through the wall. Like it was hungry.” He wrapped his arms around his rib cage.

“After a while, I couldn’t hear it moving around anymore. I went to the window and drew back the curtain. Almost immediately,
something hit the outside wall. The glass rattled. I crouched down. Two more times, it came. Wham. Wham. Right outside.” Seth glanced out into the yard. “I scrambled back to my bed. Got under the covers. My mom had taken something to help her sleep, so I knew I couldn’t wake her up. I lay there most of the night, staring at the ceiling, hoping that the noise wouldn’t come again. I peeked out here this morning. And I found these.” Seth waved Gabe forward.

Together they leaned out the window. Moisture swirled in the cool breeze. Night was approaching quickly, but there was still enough light left to see by. Three small protuberances that looked like broken twigs stuck out of the frame inches below the sill. Gabe reached out and touched the knobby, shattered wood tips. “What are they?” he whispered.

“Arrows. Old. Whittled by hand. I tried to pull them out, but they’d been lodged in so forcefully, the best I could do was break them off. So you see…you guys aren’t the only ones being hunted.”

Gabe didn’t know what to believe. He remembered what Mazzy had said earlier that day:
You might be the only one able to talk some sense into him.

“Is there anything else I don’t know?” he asked. Seth closed his eyes and nodded. “Then tell me now, Seth. Please…just tell me the truth.”