The Awakened (7 page)

FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
, my dad rushed off to work, promising to find out as much as he could about Madison. Her parents had been calling us all night, in between calling hospitals and the police. No one knew where she was.

Like clockwork, Ash showed up at my door less than an hour after my dad had left. He had been given a key (thanks, Dad, for making it possible for Ash to walk in on me naked), but I’d already thought about that and had secured the chain lock. As soon as Ash unlocked the door, it merely swung open a couple inches. I sat on the bottom step of the stairs and wrapped my arms tightly around my knees, my head resting against the banister.

Bandit went to the door, his tail wagging. He looked behind him, right at me as if wondering why I wasn’t opening the door.

“Zoey?” Ash sounded confused. “Let me in.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Go away, Ash.”

There was a long pause. “Come on, let me in, Z.”

“No.”

Ash laughed, his voice echoing through the small crack. “You’re being ridiculous.”

I felt the anger flare up in me, but I ignored it and took a deep breath to steady myself. “I said, go away,” I repeated.

Bandit barked softly, looking between the wood of the door and me, a confused look on his face.

“See, Bandit wants me to come in.”

I didn’t answer. That didn’t even deserve an answer.

“I told your dad I’d take care of you.”

“Shut up, Ash.” I gripped the bannister tightly in my hand. “I can take care of myself. Go take care of Heather.”

Ash laughed again. “God, I knew you were jealous. Last night was all fun and games, Z. There’s no need to get attached.”

I sprung up onto my feet and went stalking toward the door, my heart pounding loudly in my head. “Last night was not fun and games. My best friend is sick and was taken away, you asshole.” I slammed the door shut. “And I’m not jealous!”

I waited a moment for a response that didn’t come. I raced to the front window just in time to see Ash walk up on his own front steps. I collapsed on the window seat and sighed, my head in my hands.

I stayed in the house for days, going through each as if on autopilot. I was unable to do more than eat, sleep and watch a lot of TV. I couldn’t move, or function. We’d finally received some word of Madison but the barest of words. She was in the hospital, she was sick. No one, not even her family, was allowed to see her.

Ash came to my door three days in a row, knocking on the chain secured door. Each day, I sat on the stairs, waiting until he would eventually give up and go back home. On the fourth day, he stopped showing up. On the fourth day, everything changed.

On the fourth day, Madison died.

“You’re lying.”

My dad ran a hand over his face, looking tired. He had aged so much in the last few weeks; his skin was paler and looser, his dark hair filled with streaks of gray. “I wish I was, champ. But I’m not. We got the word today, myself and Mr. and Mrs. Wu. Madison passed last night.”

I swallowed hard, everything turning red in front of my eyes. “No. Dad, she’s not dead. She cannot be dead.”

“I’m so sorry, champ.”

“No!” I screamed, picking up my cup and throwing it against the wall. It hit the wall with a loud crash, scattering into a million pieces, across the counters, sliding on the floor, wedging underneath the fridge. I slid out of my chair, sinking to the ground.

He came down on his knees and pulled me into his arms. “You need to go, Zoey. I’m going to get you a car. You’re going to drive to Nebraska.”

I wiped the tears from my cheeks with shaky fingers. “No. Not without you.”

Dad hesitated, and I saw a brief spasm of pain flash across his face, the way it usually did with my mother. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Your mother and I…”

“I know what she did,” I said, viciously. “But I’m going without you. No way. I can’t go there. I can’t be around her without you.” I felt the hysteria bubbling in my stomach.

“Okay,” he agreed, quickly. “Okay. We’ll go Friday.” Three days away. “We need to get some things together, but we’ll go. Together.”

I hiccupped. “Thank you.” A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill over. “I just can’t…I can’t. Madison…”

He pulled me closer and rocked me back and forth. “It’s going to be okay, champ. We’re going to be okay.”

I didn’t know if we were going to be okay. I didn’t even know what that word meant anymore. Not when everyone was saying it over and over again. It was losing its meaning. Nothing was okay. Nothing could be okay again.

“Z!”

I froze in place on the couch, where I’d been watching a movie. I hadn’t heard from Ash in days. And now, I could’ve sworn I heard his voice. My heart was pounding in my chest. I’d been alone for a couple days and every noise, every tiny sound was amplified in the empty house.

“Z! Please!”

His voiced sounded pleading. I stood up and tiptoed to the door. I cursed the fact that the peephole was over my head. I placed my palms against the cool wood of the front door, waiting to hear more. I jumped when a loud pounding sounded through the empty entryway.

“Let me in. Please. I’m begging.”

I hesitated. He sounded different, almost as if he had finished crying or was about to. I had never heard that tone of voice from Ash in my life. “Are you sick? I can’t let you in if you’re sick.”

“I’m not, Zoey. I’m not.”

It was that, being called Zoey instead of Z, that changed my mind. I unlocked the front door and let him in. He pushed past me and went straight to the staircase and sunk onto the bottom step, his head cradled in his hands.

I looked at him in shock, unsure of how to approach him. Ash was the guy with the smiles, the one who made all the jokes. He could even make Ol’ Barb, the lunch lady, laugh. He was the easygoing, laidback football player. He was not this guy.

His hair was a disaster, unkempt and unwashed. There were distinct dark bags under his eyes, eyes which had lost the luster they normally possessed. His clothes were rumpled and looked like they’d been worn for a couple days. I heard a soft click of nails on the wood floor and saw Bandit coming into the room. He rested his chin on Ash’s knee. Ash raised his hand and patted his head absently.

“Ash, what are you doing here?” I asked hesitantly.

“I had nowhere else to go.”

“What about…” I trailed off, “what about Heather?”

He didn’t answer, and I felt my heart sink in my chest. I had a sudden feeling that Heather Carr was no longer a resident of this world. This still didn’t explain why he was here.

“Ash?”

He looked up at me, and for a moment, I saw nine-year-old Ash, vulnerable, as the new student in a small private school. “My parents,” he said, his voice hollow.

I stepped closer. “What about your parents?”

“They’re gone.” He sounded surprised, like he’d finally realized the truth of the statement. “They were sick, really bad. They kept begging me to take them to the hospital, but I couldn’t…not after Madison.”

I inhaled sharply, placing my fist against my trembling lips. I wouldn’t cry. I couldn’t cry.

“They came last night, the same people who came and took Maddie. I… He stopped and turned angry. “I hid. I hid in the closet and I just watched as they took them away. My parents. I just let these people take my parents.”

I waited for tears to come, for him to yell or scream, to hit something, but nothing came. He just sat on the step, shaking like mad. I moved forward (to do what, I’m not sure) just as the doorbell rang.

Ash froze. “Don’t answer it.” He stood up, suddenly alert.

“Why not?” I asked confused.

“Shit keeps getting worse, Z. You can’t trust anyone.” He eyed the door cautiously.

“You worry too much, Ash,” I said. “Neither one of us is sick. There is no reason for anyone to hurt us.” I stepped toward the door as the bell rang again.

Ash grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “I’m serious. Don’t. At least, let me do it.”

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t know how to feel about this Ash, a determined, protective Ash, but he wasn’t crying, and he wasn’t thinking about his parents. There was nothing that could be done about them, not right now, not ever, most likely. “I don’t need you to protect me.”

I went to the closet and pulled out the case that was stuffed in the corner. I punched in the code; it was my parents’ wedding anniversary, another sign that he’d never really moved on. I pulled out my dad’s handgun, making sure there were bullets in it.

The person at the door had switched from ringing the bell to pounding on the door.

Ash raised his eyebrow at the sight of the gun but didn’t say anything. I walked back to the door, the gun gripped tightly in my hand. I opened the door, slowly, peeking around the door to see who was standing there.

I gasped, terrified. I spun on my heel, slamming the door behind me. My fingers fumbled with the locks, my heart pounding in my chest. I’d imagined it; it couldn’t be real. She couldn’t be real. Lack of sleep was making me see things. Bandit started barking from where he was locked in the basement.

“What? Who is it?” Ash said, looking alarmed.

I looked at him, my chest heaving. I was going insane. “Madison.”

His eyes widened, locking on mine. “Madison is dead,” he replied, in a relatively calm voice.

“Zoey? Zoey, let me in.”

We both froze as the voice drifted through the door. It was thicker, a bit raspier but there was no mistaking it—it was Madison’s.

“Zoey, please. I’m so hungry.”

“She’s dead,” I said, looking at Ash, whose face had gone pale white. “I’m hearing things.”

“Then we’re both hearing things,” Ash whispered. He brushed past me to the window. His fingers shook as he slowly moved the curtain aside. He yelled, stepping back.

Madison’s palms were pressed against the glass and she looked awful. Her beautiful straight black hair was in a tangled mess, and her eyes were wide, wet and crazed. The same outfit I had last seen her in hung loosely on her impossibly small frame. But the strangest thing…her skin was a pale but distinct shade of blue.

“Aren’t you going to let me in, Zoey? I’m so hungry. Please. I’m starving,” she said, sounding like she was in pain.

I was having a hard time keeping a grip on the gun in my sweaty hands. “You’re dead. You died,” I said, my voice shaking.

“Who told you that?” she asked, sounding more like herself. There was a distinct tone of surprise in her voice. “They lied.”

“Madison, you were really sick,” Ash said, slowly, looking like he was going to be sick at any moment.

“I’m fine. I’m perfect,” she said, happily, a broad smile on her face. I shuddered at the sight of it. Each one of her tiny little teeth had been filed to a point, making her smile look scary as hell. She looked like a vampire, or a monster. I crept closer and noticed that her eyes were black: the pupil, the iris, and even the whites of her eyes were completely blacked. I bit on my wrist to keep from screaming.

I reached for my phone and remembered I had left it upstairs. I inched closer to Ash, hoping to take his phone out of his pocket.

Ash misunderstood. His arm came out and wrapped around my waist, pulling me tight against him. I was annoyed that he was constantly trying to protect me, but I couldn’t deny the warmth I felt coursing through the side that was pressed to him. I did feel kind of protected.

Madison’s creepy smile grew wider, and I had a sudden urge to bury my face in Ash’s chest. He looked down at me, the same shock mirrored in his own expression.

“You guys are so cute together. I’ve been saying it for years,” she said, clapping her hands together. They were covered in dry blood.

“You should go home, Madison,” Ash said, loudly. “Everyone thinks you’re dead. You should go see your parents.”

Madison’s face fell. “Don’t you want to see me, Zoey? Ash? Didn’t you miss me?”

“Maddie…” It was hard to recognize the person that was once my best friend, but there was still a part of her remaining, and it was tugging at my heart. I could never let Madison feel sad, and she was in obvious pain and sorrow, and I couldn’t stand it any longer.