Pretty Dark Nothing (27 page)

“Now, wait a minute. That’s not fair. Kerstin and I were just clearing up a few things.”

“Not fair? Oh that’s great, Jeff. Clearing things up, right, like you did with me after you dumped me? I don’t recall you ever clearing things up with me.” No one ever cleared things up with her, not her father, not Jeff, even Aaron had turned away never to look back, and she was sick of it. “Since when did you go all noble?”

Jeff grabbed Quinn by the arm and pulled her farther into the corner. “What the hell do you call what happened tonight?” He pulled her to him, pressing his cheek to hers as he spoke in hushed tones. The sweet scent of ginger ale and strawberries from the punch lingered on his breath, making her nauseous. She struggled against him, but he held tight. “Didn’t I make my feelings for you clear? Do you think it meant nothing to me? I mean, come on, Quinn, it was our first time.”

Evil laughter echoed through her head as the shadows trembled and flickered.
“Did he cheat on you? Kerstin said he’d been at her house.”

Quinn’s heart dropped into her stomach. Of course he had lied. He was still seeing Kerstin on the side, trying to have his cake and eat it, too. Just like her father. How stupid could she be?

“You mean
my
first time.” Tears flowed down Quinn’s cheeks. “Mine, not ours.” She jerked away from his vice grip and rubbed the red spot left by his fingers. “How could I have been so stupid? I can’t even believe I let you touch me after you’ve touched her.”

“Well, well, well, little miss virgin no longer.” Kerstin stepped around Jeff. Quinn shrank back. Kerstin’s clear blue eyes were gone. Giant black marbles stared out from sunken sockets, and a dark gray shadow surrounded her, pulsing with a life of its own, growing with every word Kerstin spoke. “Little miss perfect’s not so perfect after all. I didn’t think you had it in you, to screw up this much. What’s next, a little grand theft auto?”

The dark fog drew itself into a dense, swirling mass. It hovered over Kerstin like the grim reaper. Quinn trembled. The fog pulsed once, exploded with a blast of sulfurous air, and revealed a fully formed entity.

Unlike the others, this demon didn’t care about Quinn. It had its claws fixed on Kerstin. Dark, black hair covered every inch of its twisted, gnarled body. It fluttered down to Kerstin’s shoulder and turned its owl-like head to whisper to her. It opened its sliver of a mouth, revealing a set of long, pointy fangs and doubled tongue. Placing it in Kerstin’s ear, it licked at her flesh. Saliva dribbled from the gray whip-like tongue, dripping off her lobe and down her neck. Kerstin didn’t even flinch; she seemed to welcome it.

“So, Quinn, how did my leftovers taste? Sweet? Salty, maybe? Or more like spoiled?” They spoke in a round, the demon to Kerstin, Kerstin to Quinn, its words, its voice, overlapping Kerstin’s. It put the words in her mind and she repeated them like a parrot, like the crowd at the game with the moths. She flicked a glance at Jeff, but he had fixed Kerstin with an irritated glare that had nothing to do with the demon on her shoulder. Why couldn’t anyone else see them?

“I used to be jealous of you. But you’re just a pathetic fool, like me. We have way more in common than I ever thought. I can’t believe I envied you. Quinn: perfect, beautiful, smart, head cheerleader, and Jeff’s true love. You have no idea how much he talked about you last summer.”

“Kerstin. Don’t,” Jeff warned.

“Until we made love on the beach. Do you remember, Jeff?” She glared at him for a moment, daring him to stop her. “Our parents just happened to pick the same resort in Cozumel. What are the odds of that? We went out for a late night walk, just to get away from all the family fun. I shivered, and you put your arm around me, to warm me. We stopped in that secluded spot where the sands met the cliffs.” Kerstin paused as her demon bent to whisper in her ear. “You called my name that night, not Quinn’s. Mine.”

Clutching her stomach, Quinn backed away, shaking her head. Kerstin looked from Jeff to Quinn, studying their expressions, probing them for ammunition perhaps, or waiting for the demon to tell her what to say next.

Kerstin stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “What’s wrong Jeff? You mean you never told her?” She spoke in exaggerated baby talk. “Precious Quinn doesn’t know you cheated on her over the summer? Tsk, tsk, tsk, that wasn’t very nice now, was it?” Kerstin softened her voice and shook her head at Quinn. “I told him he should be honest with you, to tell you right away, but he made me promise. He said he would tell you when the time was right. Well, what better time than now?”

Jeff shoved past Kerstin and took Quinn by the arm. “I wanted to tell you. I tried to tell you.” He pulled her farther from Kerstin and grabbed her face to get her to look him in the eye. “I was weak, stupid, and it cost me more than you know.”

Quinn wanted out, but Jeff blocked her path to the left. She looked to the right. Kerstin and her demon blocked the path to the stage. Quinn’s own demons popped in and out between her and the door, laughing as a flowing fog gathered behind them.
“What is it you humans say? Once a cheater always a cheater?”

“He never told you I was there, did he? Jeff was heartbroken, leaving his precious Quinn for six whole weeks, but I comforted him. It didn’t take long to turn to me, did it?”

Kerstin cocked her head and folded her arms over her chest. She clicked her tongue as she studied Quinn. Her thin lips turned into a spiteful grin. “Now that he’s had both of us, which do you think he’ll choose?”

Quinn stumbled sideways and covered her mouth to swallow a scream. She turned her back on them, to run from the pain and confusion, but the fog trapped her. It engulfed the entire gym, the floor, the ceiling, the other students, everything and everyone except for her, Kerstin, and Jeff. Jeff stroked her shoulder. She cringed and jerked away, looking for a break in the smoky darkness.

“Quinn, look at me. I love you.” Jeff stepped around her until they were face to face again. The fog moved back just enough to accommodate him. Quinn wanted to believe the sincerity in his voice, the desperation in his wide brown eyes.

“I’ve always loved you.” Jeff pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair. “Please, Quinn. You have to forgive me. All I’ve ever wanted was you.” The demons were wrong; they had to be. Jeff cupped her chin and wiped a tear from her cheek. “Kerstin? A moment of weakness I’ll always regret. If you knew, you would understand. It was a mistake.”

“A mistake?” Kerstin shrieked at Jeff. “That’s all I was to you?” Eyes narrowed, she elbowed her way between them, getting up in his face. “Well, this mistake is carrying your baby!”

Was Kerstin for real? Crying pregnant to keep Jeff? Quinn shook her head and opened her mouth to defend him, but the look on his face stopped her cold. He didn’t look shocked at the news.

Kerstin turned to Quinn. “Did you hear me, Quinn? I’m pregnant with Jeff’s baby!” Kerstin screamed like a mad child, her words reverberating through the gym, overpowering even the rocking background music, an earthquake, shaking the very foundation of the school.

Quinn grabbed her chest as the news ricocheted through her, killing the last shred of hope.

The fog shook too, not in shock, but in joy. Mocking and cruel, the mischievous laughter echoed in Quinn’s mind the way Kerstin’s words echoed through the gym. Then the one fog separated into many, curling and dancing around the two girls like wisps of smoke from a burned-out candle.

Foolish, stupid, everything she’d done, everything she’d thought, played right into her enemies’ claws. She could see that now. The demons had tricked her, playing on her emotions, her insecurities, manipulating her into this very moment all along. And she’d let them. There was no such thing as making a deal with the devil. They didn’t deal; they did whatever they wanted. They would never let her go. Ever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

A crowd gathered around the tense battle waging in the dark corner of the gym. Silent, they converged on the oblivious threesome, jackals waiting to gorge on the leftover kill. Aaron, Teresa, and Marcus joined the pack.

“What are we watching?” Aaron asked Marcus.

“Probably the defensive line doing their version of YMCA.”

“I can’t see a thing over all these giants.” Teresa jumped to peer over the ocean of heads. “Come on.” She grabbed Marcus’s hand, cutting her way through the dense forest of bodies, Aaron at their heels.

Penetrating the pack’s front line, they saw Quinn huddled in the corner, Jeff grabbing her face, Kerstin gloating beside him.

“Man, I could use some popcorn and a Coke to go with all this drama.” The crowd shushed Marcus. “Hey, I thought this was a party, not a movie.”

“You think this is funny?” Teresa put her hands on her hips and glowered at him.

“Well,” Marcus started. “No, no, of course not. Do you think we ought to do something?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Distract the onlookers, so they can have a little privacy?”

“I’m pregnant with Jeff’s baby!” The concussion of Kerstin’s bomb thundered over the loud music. The audience gasped.

“I think it’s a little late for that.” Aaron moved closer to the turmoil.

Jenna appeared beside him. “Do you really want to get in the middle of that mess?” She touched him on the arm.

Getting involved was the last thing he wanted. If only he could kill this instinctual sense of chivalry, especially when it came to Quinn.

Quinn covered her ears and shook her head. Kerstin advanced on her, oblivious to the spectators. Jeff and Kerstin hurting Quinn, her date with Jeff a disaster, the whole school watching. Wasn’t she getting what she deserved?

Aaron loosened the collar of his shirt and reveled in the cool air on his neck. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his temples throbbed. Quinn burned bright hot in rage and humiliation. She was the sun, and he was trapped by her gravity, pulling at his soul, urging him to step in and save her once again.

He closed his eyes and conjured the thought of Jeff and Quinn kissing. He mulled the image over, reliving the pain until his anger replaced mercy and killed any urge to disentangle her from her current web. He opened his eyes, a mistake. Her tear-streaked face dispelled his anger quicker than the picture of the kiss took to contrive it.

Balling his fists and gritting his teeth, Aaron refused to give in, refused to let her control his every move. Whatever this spell she held over him, he wanted rid of it. He wasn’t her guardian, her knight in shining armor—neither of them wanted to be in the other’s life. A battle raged within him. Feelings fought against reason, instinct against fear, love against pain.

Quinn left him no choice. “Let’s get out of here.” Aaron grabbed Jenna’s hand, pushed through the crowd, letting the steel double doors slam behind them without even a glance back.

***

Quinn covered her ears to block out the bestial laughter. The wisps gathered around her, curling and uncurling, forming into beings. Mercurial demons surrounded Kerstin, too, but she didn’t seem to notice their creepy hysteria. In fact, she seemed blind to everything, even that the whole school stood shocked by her terrible little secret, staring at them like zombies.

Kerstin carried Jeff’s baby. Quinn had sacrificed everything to be with a liar and a cheat. And for what? Because some demonic delusion told her to? Even her so-called friends hated her. Look at them all now, standing on the sidelines ready to chew her up and spit her out.

“Covering your ears isn’t going to make it any less true.” Kerstin had exchanged her red-faced anger for serene smugness.

Quinn wanted to strike back at her. She wanted to lash out at Jeff, who stood there with his head down.

He didn’t even try to defend himself.

The laughing demons died down as the truth sank to the pit of Quinn’s stomach.

“
Fool
,” one whispered.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Quinn’s accusing tone startled Jeff from his stupor.

His eyes widened. “No. I didn’t. I-I mean … ” he stammered, reaching for her.

She swatted his hand away.

“
Stupid,”
another demon said.

“You knew when you came home from Mexico.”

“Blind,”
the demon added.

“That’s why you broke up with me. How could I have been so blind?”

“Fool.”
Her demons laughed.

“I love you,” Jeff said.

“
Does he really?”

“Do you really?

“Yes. More than anything.”

“
She’s carrying his baby
.”

“More than your baby? Jeff, she’s pregnant.”

“
Are you?
” The demon’s question slammed into her like an iron fist, knocking the wind out of her. Quinn struggled for breath. Sleeping with Jeff had been an act of desperation, a sealing of the deal. The demons promised everything would go back to normal, and she dared to believe them. But they lied. Or had she lied to herself? Her choices, her consequences, there was no one else to blame.

The room swirled before her. Colors collided together, growing, changing into the ominous blackness she feared, here to swallow her up. The dark, dense cloud whirled around her, a tornado of malevolent design. Shrieks of glee and torturous whispers emanated from its all-encompassing smoky spiral. Darkness encircled her body, above her, below her, ever churning, spinning, tumbling, pushing her to vertigo.

“Get away from me!” she screamed, but the blackness leapt forward. She was just a girl, tiny and afraid; she didn’t have the power to make it disappear. She groped for the wall, willing herself to find an exit. Her hand found the cool metal bar. She pushed it, delivering herself to the real tempest that raged on the other side of the darkness.

***

Aaron watched Jenna scarf down a third piece of veggie pizza. “What?” she mumbled, covering her mouth as she swallowed. “All that drama made me hungry.” She took a sip of soda to wash it down. “So, what was with the episode from
Young and the Restless
anyway?”

“Don’t ask.” Rain poured, coating the outside window like a second pane of glass. “I just want to forget it, okay?” He pictured Quinn, smiling, long lavender dress shimmering in the twinkling lights of the gym, blond hair framing her beautiful face.