The Thrashers(59)
Jodi stood slowly. “I’ll meet you outside,” she said to them. “I just want to ask one more question, if I can.”
Nan smiled wanly and nodded.
Paige and Bette exited, talking about fro-yo.
As soon as the door closed, Nan grabbed Jodi’s arm, nails sinking into her like claws.
“Are you not safe?”
Jodi stared at her, breath frozen in her chest. “What?”
“Every single energy in this room wants to protect you, Jodi.”
“Me?”
“Are you in danger in some way? Everyone here is very loud and no one likes each other, but they agree on you. Emily is…” Nan shook her head. “I don’t like her energy. She didn’t want to talk to Paige at all. She barely wanted to use me. She just wanted to be near you, Jodi.”
Nan’s fingers on her arm—her left arm—drew away the sensation in Jodi’s fingertips.
“She rides very closely on the lines between our worlds, and I know that doesn’t mean anything to you, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you felt her presence more fully than a usual spirit.”
Jodi’s throat was dry. She nodded. “She’s been … I think she wants to kill us.” Saying it out loud pushed tears out of her eyes that she hadn’t known she was holding back.
“No.” Nan lifted a warm hand to Jodi’s cheek. “At least, not you.”
Something flashed in Nan’s hazel eyes—clear blue skies after a rain—and then it was gone. Nan dropped her hands from Jodi’s skin. Her left arm felt dead. Just a limb.
“Call me,” Nan said, pointing to the card in Jodi’s other hand. “I can’t talk about why now. But if you have questions this evening, I want you to call me.”
Jodi stumbled away from her. She grabbed her bag and left through the door. Her heart hammered as she flew down the stairs. Not you.
Them? Emily did want to kill them?
She stepped out onto the sidewalk and found Paige on the phone, her hand over her mouth and tears pouring down her face. Bette was rubbing her back.
Paige looked up at Jodi, her eyes wide in terror and pain.
The absence of feeling in Jodi’s fingertips spread up her elbow, to her shoulder, and into her chest as Paige whispered, “Julian got hurt during water polo. He’s not breathing.”
Case No. 4512420
Excerpt from the journal of Emily Mills
Entered into evidence 6.08.2024 by Det. Chelsea Harding
MAR. 5, 2024
JULIAN HOLLISTER DOESN’T LIKE ME. NO MATTER WHAT I DO, IT SEEMS.
LAST WEEK IT WAS GOING TO THE MOVIES, THIS WEEK IT’S THE FOOTBALL GAME. HE CAME BACK FROM THE TICKET BOOTH WITH FIVE AND WHEN PAIGE REMINDED HIM IT’S SIX OF US, HE GLANCED AT ME AND SAID, “I ONLY SEE FIVE PEOPLE HERE.”
THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THAT WAS THAT ZACK WENT WITH ME BACK TO THE TICKET BOOTH AND PAID FOR ME, LIKE A DATE.
BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT JULIAN. I ASKED ZACK WHY THEY’RE FRIENDS, AND HE SHRUGGED. LIKE HE DIDN’T ANSWER. I WISH ZACK KNEW HOW GREAT HE IS. HE DOESN’T NEED PEOPLE LIKE JULIAN HOLLISTER TAINTING HIM. HE’S PERFECT ALREADY. SOMETIMES I WISH IT WAS JUST ZACK, ME, AND JODI. I’D LOVE THAT.
I ASKED JULIAN AFTER THE GAME WHY HE DIDN’T LIKE ME. BOLD, RIGHT? I’M TRYING TO BE BETTER. I THOUGHT HE WOULDN’T ANSWER, BUT THEN HE GRINNED AT ME LIKE A SHARK AND SAID, “THE FACT THAT YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE ENOUGH TO SPEAK TO ME. THAT’S WHY I DON’T LIKE YOU.”
HE’S SO MEAN TO JODI, TOO. I CAN SEE IT. IT’S LIKE, ME AND JODI ARE ON ONE SIDE OF A LINE, AND JULIAN, PAIGE, AND LUCY ARE ON ANOTHER. AND ZACK IS IN THE MIDDLE. I WANT HIM TO CHOOSE US. I CAN’T LET JULIAN WIN.
I KNOW GOD WON’T FORGIVE ME FOR THIS, BUT—I’VE NEVER WANTED A PERSON TO DISAPPEAR LIKE I WANT JULIAN HOLLISTER TO. I WANT HIM GONE.
Chapter Seventeen
Jodi sat in the back seat of Bette’s car as it sped toward the hospital. She felt like she had whiplash. Everything happened so quickly.
Paige was praying under her breath, eyes squeezed shut in the passenger seat. Bette had turned the music off and just let the car be quiet.
Zack and Lucy suspected Julian had gotten a concussion early in the game. At one point in the fourth quarter, he didn’t come up for air. The coach dragged him from the pool and performed CPR until the paramedics arrived, but the ambulance took him without a pulse.
Paige snapped her head to Bette after five minutes of fervent silence and said, “When she said there was a new presence—a male presence—did she … Was that Julian?”
Bette shook her head, but her lips opened and closed like a bass fish.
“Was that why she couldn’t talk to us?” Tears flowed freely down her face. “Because he was dead and we didn’t know yet?”
Jodi blinked at the back of Paige’s headrest, hearing words but not understanding them.
Emily is very pleased about something.
Paige didn’t wait for the car to come to a full stop before jumping out in front of the emergency room. Bette went to park, and Jodi and Paige ran inside. Paige screamed for information from the front desk, while Jodi stood next to her in a fog. She barely registered a hand on her arm. A hug around her shoulders.
Zack and Lucy were at their sides.