The Second Heart (30 page)

After a few tense, quiet moments, Meredith
leaned forward to peek around the barbeque again, her whole body
shaking with the force of her terror.

The woman was leaning over Miguel with her
back turned, a hood pulled up over the back of her head.

Meredith glanced toward the side yard. She’d
have to go at least fifteen feet out in the open before she was
hidden by the side of the house. If she ran, the protégé would hear
her footsteps, but if she tried to sneak, it would be much slower
going. If the woman turned around, Meredith would be caught. Time
was running out, and Meredith felt trapped in indecision. She had
to get to Vi and Josh and get them out before they were killed,
too.

Slowly, silently, Meredith rose to her feet
and gingerly stepped out from behind the barbeque. Her muscles were
so tense that she feared they would start spasming at any second.
She took another step, never taking her eyes off the protégé's
back. Another step. Meredith breathed slowly through her open
mouth, careful to not make a sound as she made her way toward the
side yard. She didn’t dare look at Miguel’s still form, or she
would lose her precarious control. There would be time for crying
later.

Another step. Halfway there. The woman’s
shoulders moved as she did something to Miguel’s body, her head
bent to the task. Desperation to break into a run tore at every
fiber of Meredith’s being, and it took every ounce of willpower to
resist. She was almost there. Only three more steps. Her lower lip
began to tremble, and she clamped her teeth down on it mercilessly,
tasting blood.

Finally, Meredith stepped into the shadow of
the house, dizzy with relief. The protégé hadn’t seen her. She
quickened her pace and slipped through the gate that led to the
front yard. As she put distance between herself and the woman,
Meredith found she could think more clearly now that she wasn’t
being overwhelmed by the malicious energy.

Around the front of the house, Meredith
quickly found the window to Vi and Josh’s bedroom. She tapped
lightly, hoping to wake them up without the protégé hearing. She
cupped her hands against the glass and peered inside. Vi and Josh
were sprawled out on the bed, dead to the world. Meredith tapped a
little harder, and Vi stirred in her sleep. Meredith tapped again,
more insistently. Finally Vi sat up, bleary-eyed, and looked
around.

Meredith caught Vi’s eye through the glass
and held a finger up to her lips. Then she pointed at Josh,
gesturing for Vi to wake him up.

Vi leaned down and shook Josh’s shoulder. He
woke with a start, and Vi shushed him immediately. She came to the
window and unlatched it, sliding it open. It made a loud whooshing
sound as it opened, causing them all to pause and listen. After a
moment, Meredith whispered, “The protégé is here. We have to run,
now
.”

“Where’s Miguel?” Vi asked.

Meredith shook her head tersely, tears
shining in her eyes.

The color drained from Vi’s face as she
realized what Meredith’s response meant.

Josh pulled Vi to the side and leaned against
the window screen, popping it out of its frame. It fell to the
grass with a muted thud, and then Josh held Vi steady as she
climbed through the window. Her feet had just hit the ground when
they all heard a door slam somewhere in the house behind them.

Heedless of pain, Josh hurried through the
opening without bothering to grab his crutches. The three of them
raced across the yard, though it was obvious that Josh wouldn’t be
able to get far hobbling on his broken leg. They would need to
hide.

Meredith tried the gate leading to the
neighbor’s backyard, but it was locked. There was no way Josh would
make it over the six-foot tall fence. She shoved her shoulder under
Josh’s arm to support him as they crossed the neighbor’s front
yard, the sharp landscaping rocks cutting into their bare feet.
Looking ahead, Meredith saw a covered boat parked in the driveway
two houses down. She pointed it out to Vi and Josh, who nodded
determinedly.

When they reached the boat, Meredith yanked
up the tarp and boosted Vi inside. Vi pulled her up next, and then
the two of them pulled Josh inside. Meredith straightened the tarp
as best she could as they all curled up on the floorboards.

“Give me your hands, both of you,” Meredith
whispered. She reached up and pulled the
thaelis
over her
head. They clasped their three hands together tightly as Meredith
wound the chain of the
thaelis
around their wrists. “Please
work, please work, please work,” she muttered to herself, having no
way of knowing whether it would. She could still feel the protégé's
presence nearby.

After a long while, the presence faded away,
but Meredith couldn’t bring herself to trust that the woman was
gone. In the quiet of the boat, she kept seeing Miguel’s still body
on the pool deck in her mind’s eye. Tears streamed down her face as
her body’s adrenaline wore off, leaving her weak and nauseated. Vi
stroked her hair gently while Josh lay staring at the tarp above
their heads, all wordlessly agreeing to wait for morning.

In the early
hours of the morning, Meredith choked out her story to Vi and Josh
between bouts of uncontrolled sobbing. Miguel had been brutally
murdered before her eyes. During her escape, Meredith hadn’t
allowed her brain to register that the dark, thick liquid on the
pavement was Miguel’s blood. But now, as the morning light
illuminated the tarp above their heads, it’s all she could think
about. The way it glistened softly in the moonlight. The soft
squishing sounds as the protégé cut out Miguel’s Second Heart. The
way she could feel him die as his magical energy faded away.

In a daze, Meredith followed along as Josh
and Vi helped her down from the boat and led her back to the house.
Meredith knew that the protégé was long gone, but she dreaded
setting foot inside, looking through the picture windows to the
backyard, and seeing Miguel’s still form sprawled out on the
concrete. It was an immense relief when Vi suggested that Meredith
wait on the porch while she and Josh went inside to call the
police. She sank down onto a bench next to the front door, still
wrapped up in her own terrified memories.

* * *

Vi closed the door gently behind her and gave
Josh a heavy look. “Mere is
not
okay.”

“Jesus, no kidding. Would you be?”

Vi shuddered. “Definitely not.” She thought
about Miguel’s body lying in the sun outside. “Should we… go look?”
she asked hesitantly.

Josh grimaced. “We can’t tell the police what
really happened, you know. We’ll have to say we found him like
that. We should go look so that we can… describe it.”

Vi’s stomach turned, and she hoped she
wouldn’t be sick. “Maybe… you could just go?”

Josh’s jaw tightened perceptibly, but he
nodded, giving Vi’s arm a reassuring squeeze. “Yeah,” he said
quietly. His feet seemed like they were full of lead as he
reluctantly crossed the living room toward the bank of picture
windows at the back. From there he had a panoramic view of the
entire yard. Then, in astonishment, he said, “There’s nothing back
there.”

“What?” Vi crossed the room in half the time
and stood next to him, her eyes scanning the yard. The pool deck
was absolutely spotless, bright white and clean next to the pool,
the water glinting cheerfully in the morning light. “Mere said his
body was right there,” she said, pointing to an empty place on the
concrete. “There’s nothing. No blood. Nothing.”

A crinkle appeared between Vi’s eyebrows as
she considered the possibilities. She had known Meredith since
seventh grade, and Vi had never seen her friend so distraught or
traumatized. Meredith couldn’t have made it up. So what had
happened to the body?

“We should call Eleanor,” Vi said decisively.
She spun around on her heel and went down the hall toward the
bedroom where Josh had left his cell phone. On her way down the
hall, she passed the open door to the room that Miguel and Meredith
had shared. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a still, dark
form tucked under the sheets in the bed.

Instinctively, Vi stopped to look, a small
gasp finding its way out of her open mouth. Miguel lay on the bed
with his eyes closed, as if he were sleeping. His arms were laid
neatly at his sides over the sheet.

“What the hell?” Josh exclaimed from over her
shoulder.

Vi stared hard, looking to see if Miguel’s
chest moved. It was perfectly still. After a moment, she asked,
“What do we do?”

“Leave him there, Vi. Don’t touch anything.
Go get my phone, okay?” Josh took her by the shoulders and pointed
her back down the hallway, and then he gently closed the door to
the bedroom.

Vi returned a moment later with Josh’s phone
in hand; it was already ringing on the other end. Eleanor’s voice
came on the line, and Vi quickly explained the situation.

“I need to see his body first, do you
understand?” Eleanor’s steely voice was all business. “We’ll call
the authorities once I get there. For now, just stay put, and keep
an eye on Meredith.”

They were all sitting on the front porch when
Eleanor’s weathered sedan pulled up to the curb half an hour later.
Vi thought that she must have broken every traffic law on the books
in order to get there that fast. Eleanor came up the front path and
stopped in front of them, gazing down at Meredith with a concerned
frown. She rested a hand on Meredith’s shoulder, giving it a long
squeeze.

Josh stood and showed Eleanor into the house
while Vi stayed outside with Meredith. She didn’t want to see the
body again, and Meredith shouldn’t be alone. Vi’s heart ached for
what her friend had gone through. Meredith had such a happy, bright
outlook on the world. Genuinely positive people like Meredith were
rare, and Vi felt fiercely protective of her. Vi was already jaded
and cynical. For Vi to become more jaded and cynical would be no
great loss to the world, but Meredith… It would cut Vi to the core
if Meredith lost her sunshine.

Eleanor and Josh were inside for several
minutes before they returned to the porch, beckoning for Vi and
Meredith to come inside to talk.

Vi took Meredith by the arm, murmuring in a
low voice, “Come on, Mere. Let’s go inside.”

Meredith wrenched her arm out of Vi’s grasp,
shouting, “You don’t have to treat me like an invalid, Vi! I’m
fine. I’m not the one who’s dead!”

“Whoa, chill,” Vi exclaimed, taking a step
back.

Tears sprang into Meredith’s eyes. “I’m
sorry,” she said, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath and
headed into the house.

Vi followed close behind, and no one said
anything until they were all settled on the long, curved sectional
sofa in the great room. Meredith’s eyes scanned the backyard in
disbelief. While they were waiting on the porch for Eleanor, Vi had
explained that Miguel’s body had been moved, but it was evident
that Meredith hadn’t really pictured it until she saw the pristine
yard for herself.

“I’ve examined Miguel’s body,” Eleanor said
after a moment. “His Second Heart is gone, though it appears that
whoever did it cleaned up very thoroughly.”

“What do you mean?” Vi asked through narrowed
eyes.

“Well, as you saw outside, there is no blood.
Furthermore, there is no incision.”

“That’s impossible,” Meredith cut in. “I saw
the knife. I saw…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the
sentence, fixing her eyes on the pool decking outside once
again.

“I believe,” Eleanor continued carefully,
“that medical examiners will conclude that he died of natural
causes.”

Meredith’s face contorted with rage as she
sprang up from the couch. “That’s bullshit!” she yelled furiously.
She cast around the room frantically for something to throw,
something to smash. “Are you saying that he was
murdered
and
no one will even know?” Her voice escalated into wild shrieks as
she grabbed a table lamp and ripped the cord from the wall,
throwing it as hard as she could at the flagstone fireplace. The
ceramic base shattered and sprayed sharp fragments against the
wall. Meredith wheeled around and glared at Eleanor. “Is that what
will happen to me? Will I be murdered in cold blood, too? And then
no one will
know
?”

Eleanor shifted in her seat, uncomfortable
with Meredith’s display of raw emotion. “Meredith, you need to calm
down.”

“Calm down?” Meredith laughed mirthlessly.
“Why should I calm down when my boyfriend is murdered and the only
person we can trust is keeping things from us?” At Eleanor’s
confused look, Meredith continued, “Oh come off it, Eleanor. Vi and
I know that you aren’t telling us everything! You’re not as clever
as you think! Right, Vi?” She turned and looked at Vi
expectantly.

Shit.
Vi waited to see if Meredith
would continue without a response from her, or if she would have to
say something. The seconds stretched on. “Um,” Vi stammered, buying
time while she formulated a diplomatic reply. “I, uh… Well, it does
seem like maybe you haven’t shared the entire truth.”

“Oh girls,” Eleanor said sadly. “Anything I
haven’t told you is for your own protection.”

“Ha! Yeah, Eleanor, we’re real protected, all
right.” Meredith sneered and her words dripped with sarcasm.

Josh stood up and quietly left the room while
Meredith continued ranting. A few minutes later he returned,
resuming his place next to Vi. He leaned over and whispered, “Her
parents are on their way.”

Vi felt immense relief knowing that the
Carpenters were coming, and she squeezed Josh’s hand gratefully.
Eleanor was weathering Hurricane Meredith with as much stoicism as
could be expected, impressing Vi with the extent of her
patience.

After a while, Meredith ran out of energy and
slumped down onto the couch, her body wracked with sobs. Vi no
longer felt envious at Meredith’s newfound gifts; her best friend
was obviously terrified for her life. The gift seemed more like a
curse at this point.