Touching Darkness

9

11.10 a.m.

MONDAY BLUES

“Have you heard the excellent rumors?”

Jessica sighed. “Only the one that I crashed and burned on my physics test this morning. Of course, that’s more in the fact than the rumor category.”

Constanza Grayfoot frowned and pressed closer to Jessica’s locker, letting a pack of freshmen past. “Oh, Jess, that’s too bad. Maybe your mom will finally let you bail on some of those advanced classes.”

Jessica lifted the weighty tome that was her trig textbook. “Fat chance.”

“Weren’t you studying with you-know-who?”

“Yeah, I was. Except we kept… getting distracted.”

A radiant smile lit Constanza’s face. “Jess, you wicked girl! That kind of distraction doesn’t sound too bad.”

Jessica returned the smile, but the expression felt shaky. If the interruptions had been what Constanza was thinking, it might have been worth failing a physics test. But spending all last midnight looking for frozen stalkers around her house hadn’t left any time for the good kind of distractions or much studying. Rex and Melissa hadn’t even bothered to show up and help. Maybe Melissa figured a threat from a mere human being wasn’t worth her time.

“Well,” Constanza continued, “perhaps this morning’s rumors will distract you from your physics tragedy. So it turns out that someone’s mother works for the sheriff’s department She’s like a forensic expert, or a police psychic, or something like that. Anyway, there was some kind of demonic vandalism last night out in Las Colonias.”

Jessica shoved her trig book into her backpack, wondering what else she should bring to study period. “Demonic what?”

“Vandalism,” Constanza repeated, then added in a whisper, “but with weirdo rituals. What happened was, this family’s all asleep, and suddenly their burglar alarm goes off—right at the stroke of midnight.”

Jessica’s hand froze, the zipper on her backpack halfway closed. “Midnight?”

“Yeah. Someone broke into their house while they were sleeping—and did all this psycho stuff without waking them up.”

Jessica took a slow, even breath. “And this was last night?”

“Yes, last night,” Constanza insisted. “Pay attention, Jess. I’m getting to the spooky part. So when the burglar alarm goes off, the family wakes up and looks around, but the burglars, or demon worshipers, or whatever are already gone. It’s like they just disappeared.”

Jessica nodded slowly, getting the head-rush feeling she always did when midnight intruded on the daylight world. Constanza was the only real non-midnighter friend she had here in Bixby. Hearing her talk about events that could only have happened in the secret hour made Jessica dizzy.

“So what kind of stuff did they do?” she said.

Constanza looped her arm through Jessica’s and pulled her toward the library. “The weird thing is they didn’t steal anything. Just trashed the house and left all these psycho symbols. Like for one thing, there was this door with twelve knives stuck into it. And blood on one of them.”

“Twelve? Not thirteen?”

Constanza blinked. “Well, that’s what everyone’s saying. Why?”

“Just… you know.” Jessica shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant. “Thirteen sounds much more demonic than twelve.”

“Uh, I guess.” Constanza giggled. “Maybe they were demon worshipers who couldn’t count.”

“I hope not,” Jessica said softly to herself. It seemed pretty obvious where Melissa and Rex had been last night. The scary thing was, she hadn’t seen them at school all morning.

In the library Constanza’s table was already in full swing. Details of the previous night’s demonic vandalism were being traded and analyzed—silverware, pots, and pans arranged mysteriously in a computer room; spots of blood found on the carpet and on one of the knives; an upstairs window smashed from the outside or, alternatively, the front door broken down. But there was one thing everyone agreed on: there had been exactly twelve knives in the door. As Jessica listened to the gossip, she glanced at Dess seated in her usual spot in the corner. Jessica wondered if she knew what had really happened last night.

“Just the thought that they were sleeping while it was all happening,” Jen kept saying. “How creepy is that?”

“Maybe they were drugged,” Liz said.

“Maybe they did it themselves!” Maria suggested.

“What? The family?” Constanza looked dubious. “In Las Colonias? Those are some very nice houses out there. I think my cousin owns one. Not really a demon-worshiping neighborhood.”

Maria shrugged. “Sure, but it doesn’t make any sense if someone else did it. How could you do all that stuff in total silence?”

A voice carried from the librarian’s desk. “Speaking of total silence—don’t you girls have any studying to do?”

“Yes, Ms. Thomas,” Constanza answered, then rolled her eyes and whispered, “Speaking of demons.”

Jessica looked over at Dess. She was probably listening, her expression unreadable behind sunglasses. Come to think of it, Jessica had no idea what Dess had been up to all weekend. Did she even know about the stalker situation?

“Actually, I better get to work. Trig is my next big midterm.”

Constanza nodded slowly and glanced over at the corner. Jessica smiled faintly. Constanza had begun to notice how much time Jessica spent with Dess and the others, lunches as well as study periods, and was probably wondering what the appeal was. Except for Jonathan, the other midnighters were into the wearing-all-black thing, and their sensitive midnight eyes forced them to wear sunglasses whenever they could. They weren’t really the kind of people Jessica had hung around with back in Chicago.

She wished she could get to know Constanza better, but between being grounded and surviving the secret hour, Jessica hadn’t spent nearly as much time as she wanted with her. Like with Jonathan, midnight seemed to keep anything normal from happening.

“Dess isn’t really that bad,” Jessica said quietly, and immediately hated herself for putting it like that.

Constanza giggled. “Well, Jess, at least with her there’s not much chance of getting distracted.”

“You look like you’re in a good mood.”

Dess removed her sunglasses, revealing a serene expression instead of her usual Monday glower. “Had a really good weekend. Playing with a new toy, which is top secret, by the way—can’t tell you anything about it. And this morning is proving… interesting.”

Jessica looked back at Constanza’s table and lowered her voice. “You heard about the thing last night?”

Dess snorted. “Sure, but that’s nothing. Happens a lot in Bixby—rumors about kids doing random stuff, mostly based on the last bunch of rumors.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. What about the knives?”

“Twelve of them? Obviously a misprint. Anyway, who could it have been? I was busy. And Las Colonias is way out near the badlands. Weren’t Rex and Melissa in town, helping you guys look for your stalker?”

Jessica wrinkled her nose. “So you know about him?”

“Rex called me yesterday. Warned me to be on the lookout.” She shrugged. “Kind of weird, I guess.”

“Yeah.” Jessica leaned forward. “But here’s what’s weirder: Rex and Melissa didn’t show last night. And I haven’t seen them today either.”

“They didn’t? But Rex said…” Dess went silent, a faraway look in her eye that Jessica knew from doing trig homework together. It was Dess’s look of figuring all the angles.

“Well,” Dess said finally, “that means one of two things. Most likely, some moron along the rumor chain didn’t get the number right because most people don’t ever get the numbers right. So Rex and Melissa got into a rumble last night, got cornered, stuck thirteen knives in a door, and slept late this morning.” Jessica swallowed. “What’s the other possibility?”