The Evil Lives! (3 page)

Amanda frowned. “I didn't think I had to.”

“You don't.” Dustin slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “But I thought you'd want to,” he added, nuzzling her neck.

Amanda glanced across the table. Victoria grinned. Janine rolled her eyes. This is so embarrassing, Amanda thought. Why does Dustin have to act like he owns me?

“Well, it doesn't matter now, right?” Dustin murmured, his lips against her ear. “I found you.”

Janine cleared her throat loudly. “Guess what, Dustin? There are two other people at the table.”

Amanda shrugged Dustin's arm off and straightened up. “How did the rest of practice go?” she asked.

“Great. The basketball part, anyway,” Dustin replied.
He grabbed a fry from Victoria's plate and chomped it down. “But you should have stayed. You missed the fireworks afterward.”

Victoria propped her elbows on the table. “What happened?” she asked eagerly.

Dustin gave a snort of disgust. “Luke and Brandon got into it again. What else?”

Janine frowned. “You mean another fight?”

Dustin nodded. “They both want to start against Lincoln Friday night. The whole thing has turned into a major battle.”

“Who started it this time?” Amanda asked.

“Hard to tell. Brandon laughed because Luke missed a free throw. According to Brandon, he was laughing at something else.” Dustin shrugged. “Anyway, as soon as practice was over, they started pushing each other around. Then Luke threw a punch. He missed, but Brandon punched back. And Luke wound up with a bloody nose.”

Janine gasped. “What happened then?”

“Luke went nuts. He plowed into Brandon and tackled him to the floor,” Dustin continued. “It was a real mess—blood all over the place. And then Natalie got into it again.”

“Whoa.” Victoria sighed. “Natalie to the rescue.”

“Yeah, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Coach Davis finally came out of his office and broke it up.”

Dustin grabbed another fry and slid out of the booth. “Come on,” he said to Amanda. “I'll give you a ride home.”

“I have my own car.” Amanda started to tell him good-bye, then changed her mind. “But I'll walk you
to yours,” she added. Now is as good a time as any to break up with him, she thought. Get it over with, and you'll feel a lot happier.

Amanda stood up, fished the money for her Coke out of her bag, and said good-bye to her friends.

Outside, Dustin draped an arm across her shoulders. “Want to walk around a little?”

“Sure.” It'll give me time to figure out exactly what to say, Amanda thought.

It had snowed a few days before. Today had been sunny, warm enough to turn the frozen ground to slush. But as Amanda tried to think of a good way to break up with Dustin, she shivered.

Dustin immediately tightened his arm around her. “What's wrong? It's not very cold.”

“I know.” Amanda sighed, feeling uncomfortable.

They walked past Dustin's car, to the end of the block. As they stopped at the corner, Dustin turned Amanda toward him and kissed her.

Amanda pulled away.

“What's the matter with you?” he demanded, gripping her shoulders. “You're acting weird. And you're so quiet.”

“I'm just . . . thinking,” Amanda replied.

“About what?” Dustin gazed at her and suddenly frowned. “What were you and Judd talking about at practice, anyway?”

“Nothing. Just stuff.” Amanda took a deep breath. “But Dustin, I think you and I should just be friends.”

Oh great, she told herself. Just blurt it right out, why don't you? “I mean, I think we should go out with other people.”

Dustin dropped his hands and stared at her.

“I'm sorry,” Amanda told him. “I didn't mean to say it like that.”

Dustin kept staring at her, his eyes totally blank. No expression on his face. No reaction at all.

Like he's made of stone, Amanda thought with a shudder. “Dustin? Say something.”

Dustin stood still. Frozen.

“Say
something,
please,” Amanda cried. “You're
scaring
me!”

Dustin stared for a moment longer. Finally, his thin face relaxed. But his eyes remained blank, and icy cold.

“Dustin?”

“Whatever,” he murmured in a hollow voice. He brushed past her without another word and walked casually back toward his car.

In spite of the warm afternoon sun, Amanda felt chilled to the bone. It would have been better if he'd gotten angry and yelled, she thought. Or argued with me. Or at least acted upset.

Anything would have been better than that blank, frozen stare.

Dustin's car pulled away from the curb. Amanda hurried back to The Corner to tell Janine what had happened.

Their booth was empty, though. Janine and Victoria had left.

Still feeling shaken, Amanda climbed into her car and drove home.

In her room, she dropped her bag on the floor, picked up the bedside phone, and punched in Janine's number.

A busy signal.

Probably talking to Brandon, Amanda thought. Which means she'll be on the phone for hours.

Sighing impatiently, Amanda hung up and glanced around. Her duffel bag lay crumpled in the middle of the floor. She should wash her gym shorts and socks and T-shirt. She didn't have any more clean ones.

As Amanda pulled her sweaty practice clothes from the bag, she remembered the wooden box with the papers folded in it.

Evil Inside,
the warning had said. Maybe the papers explained what it was all about.

Amanda yanked out her shorts and a dirty yellow towel and peered into the bag.

At the bottom lay a couple of rubber bands and a half-eaten candy bar.

Nothing else.

The wooden box with its strange, frightening warning was gone.

Amanda pawed through her practice clothes. Maybe the box was wrapped up in them.

No.

It was definitely missing.

Amanda sat back on her heels. I must have left it at The Corner. Great. Now I'll never know what the rest of those papers said.

As Amanda gathered up her clothes, the phone rang. Janine, she thought. Now I can tell her about Dustin. She dropped the clothes in a heap and snatched up the phone. “Hello?”

A soft breath came across the line.

Amanda frowned. “Janine?”

Another breath. And then a low, husky whisper. “Amanda.”

Amanda's skin prickled. “Yes? Who is this?”

“This is the evil spirit, Amanda,” the low voice whispered.

Amanda's heart began to thud.

“I'm alive,” the voice continued. “I didn't drown. I'm coming for you.”

A
manda clutched the phone tightly, picturing the warning on the box.

When we opened it up, did we actually let out some kind of evil? she asked herself.

“Watch out, Amanda,” the voice whispered. “Watch out before you fall for another joke like this one because I'll tell everyone at Shadyside High!”

Huh? Amanda pulled the receiver away and stared at it. She knew that voice. She clapped the phone to her ear. “Keesha!”

“Wow! Were you slow to catch on!” Keesha cried as she burst out laughing. “Hel-lo! Earth calling Amanda! I really had you fooled, didn't I?”

Amanda sank onto the bed, embarrassed. But relieved, too.

“Okay, you fooled me,” she admitted with a grin. “I should have known it was you. But wait—how did
you
know about Corky's letter?”

“Janine took the little box with her when she left The Corner,” Keesha explained. “She called me up a few minutes ago and told me all about it.”

“Scary, huh?”

“Weird, you mean. And the other papers inside—somebody had a really twisted sense of humor.”

“Janine read them? What did they say?”

“They're instructions on how to call up the evil spirit. Can you believe it?” Keesha asked.

Amanda felt her skin prickle again. “I wish I'd never found that box,” she declared.

“Oh, come on. It's kind of fun,” Keesha replied. “And you know what? We should do it.”

“Do what?”

“Call up the evil spirit,” Keesha declared. “We have the instructions, right? Why not?”

“What a horrible idea,” Amanda told her. “What if—”

Keesha snorted. “Don't get all superstitious, Amanda. The whole thing's a joke. There is no evil spirit.”

“But what if there is?”

“Then we'll
use
it. An evil spirit might help us beat Lincoln Friday night.”

Amanda had to smile. “I don't think an evil spirit works that way.”

“We'll never know if we don't call it up,” Keesha said. “Anyway, Janine wants to make the spirit turn Natalie into a frog or something.”

“I bet she does.” Amanda laughed. “Okay. I'll tell
Janine to bring the box when we meet at Victoria's tomorrow after practice.”

“Great. It'll be fun, you'll see.” Keesha paused. “You know, we've really got to do something about Natalie and Janine.”

Amanda sighed. “I know.”

“Janine is really upset about the way Natalie keeps bad-mouthing Brandon,” Keesha went on. “She took it okay for a while. But now it's getting to her.”

“You can't really blame her,” Amanda pointed out. “I mean, Natalie takes the whole competition between Luke and Brandon way too seriously.”

“Yeah, and now Janine's starting to get into it,” Keesha agreed. “If the two of them keep fighting, it will wreck all the good feeling on our squad. We'll start messing up our routines and ruin everything.” She paused. “Can't you talk to Janine?”

“Why Janine?” Amanda asked. “I was thinking of talking to Natalie. She's the one who started it all.”

“I know. But she's not exactly easy to talk to,” Keesha replied. “Janine is upset. But she doesn't want this feud the way Natalie does. And Janine is your best friend. She'll listen to you.”

And Natalie would probably just get angry, Amanda thought. “Okay,” she agreed. “I'll try. Maybe we'll go to a movie tonight and I'll talk to her after.”

“No good,” Keesha told her. “Janine was on her way out with Brandon when we hung up.”

“Oh.” Saturday night. And I just broke up with Dustin, Amanda told herself glumly. No date. “What are you doing tonight?” she asked.

“Going out with Andrew, naturally. Got to take a
shower,” Keesha added. “See you at practice tomorrow. And remember our plan for tomorrow night—we call up the Evil!”

With a wicked cackle, Keesha hung up.

Amanda gathered all her dirty clothes together, then took them to the laundry room and put them in the washing machine. She took an apple from the bowl on the kitchen table and munched it as she headed back to her room.

Soft music drifted into the hall from the bedroom next to hers. Amanda stopped at the door and poked her head in.

Her older sister, Adele, sat at her desk. One bare foot was propped on it as she carefully brushed her toenails with bright red polish.

Amanda grinned. “I thought you had a research paper to do.” Adele's college hadn't started up after the holidays yet.

Adele jumped, painting a red slash across three of her toes. “Amanda! Don't creep up on me like that.”

“Sorry.” Amanda chomped on the apple. “What about your paper?” she mumbled.

“Finished.” Adele grabbed a handful of tissues from a box and wiped her toes.

“How come you're doing your toenails?” Amanda asked. “It's winter. Nobody can see them.”

“Because I felt like it.”

Adele blew on her nails and lowered her foot. She capped the bottle, then ruffled her fingers through her hair. Like Amanda's, it was a thick, curly auburn, but she wore it short. “How did cheerleading practice go?”

“Fine.” Amanda crossed the room and sat on the
bed. As she started to take another bite of the apple, she thought of something. “Hey, Adele. When you went to Shadyside, did you know a cheerleader named Corky Corcoran?”

Adele gasped. Her face turned pale. “Oh, Corky,” she murmured. “Oh, poor Corky.”