Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy (12 page)

Principal Sharpe was muscular and toned,
but in his transformed state, he had the bottom half of a goat, making him
significantly smaller than the Minotaur.

The Minotaur froze at the sight of the
Satyr. It seemed to growl something at Principal Sharpe, who growled back with
much more ferociousness. The Minotaur backed away. I wondered why since it
looked as if it could take Sharpe easily. Maybe it would go back where it had
come from.

But then the Minotaur seemed to have a
change of heart because it stamped its hooves at Principal Sharpe. The Minotaur
charged him, tackling him to the ground.

The Satyr was smaller, but also faster and
more limber. With one sharp movement, Principal Sharpe grabbed the Minotaur’s
head and twisted it, resulting in a sickening snap. He made it look so easy. It
was hard to believe this was the same man who did the morning announcements and
handed out detentions for running in the hallways. The Minotaur rolled to the
ground and then lay still. A hush fell over everyone looking on.

Principal Sharpe turned to me and
Fletcher. “Get out of here now.”

I didn’t need to be told again. We raced
for the carnival’s exit. Police cars and fire trucks careened into the parking
lot. The lot was full of people still hanging around trying to see what was
happening. We found Imani sitting cross-legged on the hood of her car.

“What happened to you guys? I wanted to go
look for you, but they wouldn’t let me back inside. Why’d you run off like
that?”

Fletcher cleared his throat. “I saw
someone I knew and I wanted to say hello.”

Imani looked at him curiously. “Okay. Did
you see anything? What’s happening in there? People are saying they saw some kind
of monster.”

He shrugged. “That’s crazy. Maybe it was
somebody in a costume just trying to scare people. Remember, like that zombie
we saw in the haunted house. Anyway, we didn’t see anything. Can we go home
now?”

Imani frowned, but nodded.

As we opened the car doors, Wiley’s truck
pulled up on the way to the exit. The passenger side window rolled down and
Ranson poked his head out. “Yo, Dust, just for the record, this was the worst
date I’ve ever had.”

The feeling was mutual, but sadly, it was
the first and only date I had been on. I didn’t have the strength or energy to
hate Ranson right then. Two men had died right before my eyes. Somewhere in me,
I had the power to prevent their deaths, but I had no idea how.

The police ordered everyone to clear the grounds.
Imani kept asking questions we refused to answer and then thankfully, she
stopped talking and we rode in silence.

 The next morning on the news an
anchor reported that a wild ox had somehow wandered onto the carnival grounds,
trampling a security guard and carnival worker to death. Anything to keep the
residents and visitors of Everson Woods calm, but this time dozens of people
had seen the truth.

The kids on the roller coaster. The people
who’d run away from the Minotaur when it was first spotted. How were they going
to keep all those people quiet? How would our creature world remain hidden
after that?

Sunday morning, I called Fletcher. I
wanted to see him in person, but he wasn’t allowed to have company. I didn’t bother
asking why. Nothing about his family made much sense.

“You could have stopped it,” Fletcher told
me as if I didn’t feel guilty enough. “Those people would have still been
alive.”

That was one time I didn’t appreciate his
bluntness. “You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t been up all night
thinking about it? I tried, Fletcher, but I don’t know how. What was I supposed
to do?”

“You know how, it’s just like what you did
with the locker, you’re just not strong enough. Keep practicing, but after your
. . .”

“My Gemini dies?”

“Right. After they die, you should be able
to use those powers whenever you want.”

I’d wanted to have the conversation
face-to-face but I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had to get things off my
chest. “Speaking of Geminis,” I told him. “I met Rose.”

Fletcher was silent for a moment. “What?”

“Yeah, I met her. It was very interesting
actually. She told me that I
wasn’t
her Gemini. As a matter of fact, she
had never even seen me before. Guess what. I totally believe her, but if that’s
the truth, everything you told me was a complete lie.”

Fletcher coughed. “You actually went to
look for her?”

I pulled on a strand of my hair. This was
one of the most uncomfortable conversations I’d ever had to have. “Of course I
did. What did you expect me to do?”

“Not that. I never expected you to do
that. Arden, I had my reasons for lying.”

“What reasons?” I demanded.

He sighed heavily into the phone. “Just
reasons.”

Fletcher and I couldn’t go back to that
place—the place where he told me lies and spoke in riddles. We had been through
too much for him to start keeping things from me again.

“Fletcher, we’re not doing this. You told
me Rose was my Gemini. I might have killed that girl for no reason. How could
you do that?”

“I know you, Arden. I knew you would never
kill her, even if she were your Gemini. It’s not in you. I can’t believe you
actually went to look for her. I’m sorry, but I honestly thought you would just
let fate have its way since you seem to be winning anyway.”

Fletcher sounded disappointed in me, but I
didn’t have time to dwell on that. I didn’t want to go into Mr. Mason’s threat
of tossing me down into the tunnel. “If Rose isn’t my Gemini, that means
whoever it is, is still out there.”

“Yeah,” Fletcher said. “Keep your eyes
open. If they’re getting weaker, they’ll probably be looking for you. Taking
you out is the only way they can survive. I have to go now.”

We hung up and I dragged myself out to the
backyard to clear my head and get some fresh air. Resting my back against the
picket fence that divided our yard from the neighbors.

Sheba, Paige’s white Persian cat wandered
around the trunk of our large oak tree, rubbing herself against the bark. I
tried to ignore her, but when she spotted me, she went on her haunches and
hissed. I hated that cat, something was wrong with her. Or maybe she just
sensed the creature in me.

I crouched on my knees, glaring at her.
Sheba stared at me for a moment and then pounced. “BRRROWWWWWW!”

She scratched me across my cheek and then
bounded back to the tree. Sharp pain from her assault made the whole right side
of my face throb. I was furious. Sheba settled at the base of the tree watching
me, basking in her triumph.

My gaze wandered to a branch above her. I pictured
the branch breaking, falling, and crushing her tiny body. Squinting my eyes and
concentrating on the branch, a crack formed between the branch and the tree’s
trunk. I focused all my energy on it, blocking everything else out as it
continued to break. The branch separated from the tree and soared toward the
ground. Before I could even think about it, I moved forward, scooping Sheba
into my arms just as the branch collided with the ground. She hissed again,
taking another swipe at my face, but missing. I dropped her and she scurried
away.

I fell back against the fence, breathing
deeply. Maybe the branch had been about to break on its own, but who was I
kidding? Just the night before I hadn’t been able to make anything happen. Now
I could. I was getting stronger.

The Monday after carnival weekend was
always a Teacher’s Work Day. I wanted to take advantage of my day off and sleep
in, but instead I spent a great deal of time staring at my ceiling and talking
to myself.

“You are not a Wendigo. You are not a
Banshee. You are just a girl. There is not a colony of monsters living under
the school. You did not kill your best friend.” Maybe saying these things over
and over would make the past months only a horrific dream.

When I checked my phone, I had two missed
calls from Imani and a text that read:

N the kitchen

What?

I forced myself out of bed and opened my
bedroom door. It was blocked by the armoire, reminding me that my life was real
and not just some extended nightmare as I’d hoped.

“Dad!” I yelled. “I need to come out.”

Footsteps pounded up the stairs. “Sorry,
honey,” he said as he grunted, pushing the armoire out of the way. “Forgot.” I
wondered how long it would have taken him to realize I was still barricaded in my
bedroom. “You have company.”

So Imani really was downstairs. When I
stepped into the kitchen, Sheba who had been settled next to her food bowl,
screeched, shot around the kitchen island, and vacated the kitchen.

Imani giggled. “Hey, Arden. What was that
about?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Sheba hates her.
Anyway, let me finish telling you about my dress.”

I went to the pantry for a jar of olives
and watched the kitchen table. Imani sat in my place, listening to Paige gab
away. Her braids were pulled up into a bun with a yellow and purple scarf
wrapped around it that matched her purple tank dress. Mom and Quinn were in
some deep conversation while Dad drowned his pancakes in syrup. I hated
pancakes. Each of them had a small stack on their plates. The whole scene
reminded me of how much I didn’t belong and how replaceable I was.

I settled onto a bar stool at the kitchen
island and started in on my olives. When Imani dropped her empty plate into the
sink, she leaned over and whispered in my ear. “I heard my parents talking
about what happened at the carnival. There’s like some kind of conspiracy
cover-up or something.”

I sighed. Of course there was. Those kids
had seen a Minotaur and a Satyr with their own eyes. Were they just supposed to
forget that? I screwed the top back on the olives. I wasn’t even that hungry.
“Let’s go to my room.”

Upstairs, I locked my bedroom door and the
two of us settled on my unmade bed. “What’s going on?” I asked, trying my best
to play dumb.

Imani’s face brightened at the prospect of
another mystery. “First, it all started with Lacey. She called me last night.
She said she was stuck on the roller coaster and saw how the whole thing had
gone down.”

My heart sank. That night, I had no time
to focus on who was actually on the ride, but of course Lacey Chapman of all
people would have been one of them. Why did she have to be there? People
listened to her and believed anything she said. “Okay,” I said, hoping I
sounded bored.

“So Lacey says it wasn’t an ox at all like
they’re saying. She said it was some kind of monster. It had horns and a man’s
chest and arms, but the legs and head of some kind of animal. She said it was
definitely not an ox.”

I laughed it off. “You don’t believe that
do you? Lacey must have been drunk or on something.”

Imani shook her head. “That’s what I
thought at first. That, or her mind had been playing tricks on her, but that
was only until late last night when I heard my parents talking.”

I went to my closet to pull out a dress. I
didn’t want to hear anymore. People couldn’t know about creatures. They needed
to believe that a wild ox had killed those two men.

“My dad was telling my mom what witnesses
were reporting to the officers in their interviews, and you know what—their
stories matched Lacey’s. She wasn’t lying. I believe there really was some sort
of monster there that night.”

I stood in my closet and changed out of my
pajamas and into the dress I’d chosen. “Imani, you sound ridiculous. Do you
really believe in monsters?”

“Yeah,” she replied. I hadn’t expected that
answer. “The attacks that happened before, I don’t think it was simply a wolf
doing that. I think it was something else. I think there are some kind of
strange creatures living in the woods around us that no one knows about.”

She had no idea how right she was. I ran a
brush through my hair, still trying to appear uninterested. “That sounds
ludicrous. There’s no such thing as monsters. You need to stop watching so many
scary movies.”

Imani’s voice was almost a whisper. “Maybe
you believe in them too.”

I froze. “What?”

“Remember that story you told me about
monsters living under the school—and then a monster shows up at the carnival.
That’s a huge coincidence, don’t you think?”

That stupid story. Why had a told her that
story? I wished I could take it back.

Imani
raised herself from my bed. “Well, maybe it is a coincidence. I know it sounds
unbelievable, but I feel it in my gut and my gut is always right. Something
weird is going on around here and I’m going to find out what it is.”

After Imani left, I couldn’t help but feel
relieved. Something about the way she looked at me made me feel she would
discover my secret at any second. I had to get my mind off Imani and her
theories. I needed to get to Fletcher’s to share the progress I had made the
day before.

I rang the doorbell at the Whitelock’s. It
took a while for someone to come to the door and I almost thought no one would
answer despite the cars in the driveway. Finally, Mrs. Whitelock appeared,
looking different than usual. Dark circles had formed under her eyes. Her
auburn hair was a mess as if she hadn’t brushed it in days.

“Arden, hi.” She didn’t look happy to see
me at all.

“Hi, Mrs. Whitelock. Can I see Fletcher?
Just for a minute.”

She looked me up and down. “You look
well.” There was the smallest hint of bitterness in her voice.

How was I supposed to look? “Thanks.”

She clicked her tongue. “Fletcher’s not up
for company, dear. He hasn’t been feeling well lately. I knew we should have
kept him from going to that carnival, but he insisted. He didn’t want to let
you down.”

A knot of guilt formed in my stomach.
Maybe the carnival had been too much for him. I hated that he had pushed
himself for me. “Why is he so sick all the time?”

Mrs. Whitelock brushed some loose curls
back from her face. “Don’t be cute. You know exactly why.”

I wasn’t a doctor. How would I know? “I
don’t know what you mean. I don’t know why he’s always sick.”

She leaned against the doorframe, folding
her arms over her chest. Something dark flickered in her features. “You’re
getting stronger, aren’t you?”

How did she know? “Well, yeah, but . . .”

Mrs. Whitelock lifted my chin, forcing me
to look her in the eyes. Her fingers were ice cold. “You’re not that dense. Put
two and two together, Arden.”

The world came crashing down on me all at
once. Realizations flooded my mind. How Fletcher was always cold while I was
warm. How he was getting thinner and paler while I was gaining weight and
getting stronger. How his wounds would no longer heal right away. How could I
not have realized this before? I was the twin eating all the food in the womb,
sucking the life from him. I was the one who was killing him. Fletcher was my
Gemini.