As Dead As It Gets

I reached out to touch her arm, and she jerked away. “No, I’m not—I’m trying to get away from something.”

Then she looked at me. Her eyes went wide with horror.

“I’m supposed to get away from…you, Alexis.” She looked down at herself. “Are you—are you doing this to me?”

Suddenly she went into a frenzy, like a trapped animal. She scrambled over the branch that was blocking her exit and gave me a hard shove.

“Stay away from me!” she cried. “Stay back! Leave me alone!”

“Elliot, listen to me,” I said. “This isn’t real! It’s not me you need to get away from!”

But it was too late. Elliot’s eyes clouded over. The air around her seemed to shiver, and all of a sudden, Lydia’s nearly-invisible form fell out of her body and landed in a heap, too weak to stand or float.

“Lyd?” I said. “Are you okay?”

Elliot started to trudge away, down the trail.

Lydia waved at me, her arm just a faint blur in the air. “Follow her,” she rasped.

I tried to plant myself in Elliot’s way, but she shoved me backward, toward a short incline behind me. I tried to steady myself, but my foot slipped on a patch of loose gravel, and I lost my balance and I fell back, landing hard on my side.

Elliot stood still, staring down at me.

Suddenly, her neck went slack and her head hung low, her chin touching her chest. My throat constricted as she raised her head and looked at me.

Her eyes were empty black holes.

She took a step closer. I went to back away, but my path was blocked by two big rocks.

Elliot kept coming toward me. Only it wasn’t Elliot.

“Laina?” I whispered. “What do you want?”

She didn’t answer. She stood a foot away from me, looking down. I could have reached out and grabbed her legs.

“Please don’t hurt my friend,” I said. “Take me instead. Please.”

From the darkness of the eye sockets, blinking eyelids emerged—Elliot’s terrified eyes. “Alexis?” she cried in a strangled whisper. “Oh my God—please—I can’t—”

It worked, I thought. Laina’s letting Elliot go.

“Hurry!” I said. “Run! Run away!”

“I’ll be back,” she said. “We need to get help.”

She made a move to go past me, down the trail.

Then, with a grunt of surprise, she jerked and started moving backward.

But not walking—she was being pulled.

“No!” she yelped. “No! Let me go!”

My body was frozen, and my voice was frozen, and my mind was frozen, watching Elliot struggle like an antelope being dragged away by a pack of lions. Her bare feet stumbled helplessly against the trail.

“Why?” she cried. “Why is this happening?”

I forced myself to my hands and knees, crawling up the hill.

“She’s getting away.” Lydia was too weak to move, but she urged me on. “Alexis, hurry! She’s getting away!”

I got to my feet, ignoring the shock of pain emanating from my ankle with every step I took.

I came around a bend in the trail and stopped short.

Elliot was standing at the very edge of a cliff, fighting against Laina’s hold on her.

“No,” I said. “Don’t.”

When Elliot saw me, she stopped resisting.

She looked at me with an expression of calm—almost acceptance. “This isn’t your fault, Alexis.”

Then she doubled over, like someone had punched her in the stomach.

And she plunged backward off the edge.

I heard screams, and I thought they were Elliot’s…

Then I realized they were my own.

I started for the cliff, but Lydia moved in front of me.

“Wait,” she said. “It’s no use. She’s gone.”

“No,” I said. “Don’t say that. I can save her. I have to go find her.”

“Alexis.” Lydia reached out, and I felt the weight of her hand on mine. “It’s like me, remember? It was too late to save me. And it’s too late for Elliot. She’s dead. You have to get out of here.”

“No,” I said.

I tried to move, but she held on to me.

“I’m sorry about before,” she whispered. “I wasn’t trying to save myself. I swear.” She faded almost all the way out, then back in again, like the heavy blinking of a person who’s trying to stay awake. “I…I have to go.”

And she disappeared.

I sat hunched over in shock, wondering where Lydia had gone, and if she was okay. Or had I bullied her into trying something she wasn’t strong enough to do and…

Had I really done it? Had I killed her again?

My hair, matted and tangled, hung in front of my face. My hands were scratched and cut, but I was too numb to feel anything.

The world seemed empty and useless. Even the landscape around me was alien and hostile—jagged rocks jutting out of the ground; rough, rocky cliffs and hillsides covered in cacti and weeds that would cut your skin like a paring knife.

There was no use imagining the worst at this point, or being afraid of it.

I was living it.

After a couple of minutes I forced myself to start moving again. I had to find Elliot. I believed what Lydia said, that I couldn’t save her. But I had to see for myself. So I limped down the trail until I reached a gentler slope that led me down into the narrow ravine. My ankle tweaked with every step.

I spotted her body from fifty feet away, lifelessly sprawled on the rocky ground. Her jaw was slack, her arms splayed out at her sides. She was very dead.

I knelt next to her anyway and reached up to brush a lock of hair away from her eyes.

She looked so peaceful—and that was horribly wrong.

Because Elliot was never meant to be peaceful. She was supposed to shine and blaze like a Fourth of July sparkler.

“I’m so sorry.” My voice was low, as if she and I were having a difficult conversation.

But of course there would be no more conversations.

Suddenly her hand shot up and grabbed my wrist.

Her eye sockets melted to darkness. She bared her teeth and pulled me down close to her face.

A rotten stench—the scent of death—puffed into my face.

“I’m doing this for you,” she hissed.

Then she fell backward onto the gravel.

I’m doing this for you.

Not to me. Not because of me. For me.

The sun was bright overhead and the inside of the car was growing warm.

I’d hauled myself up to the main trail and trudged back to the parking lot, but that was as far as I could make myself go.

I need water, I thought. I’m dehydrated.

But I really didn’t care.

The hills off in the distance began to blur together into a mass of rusty browns and dull grays.

Girls would just keep dying. There was nothing I could do to keep them from dying. And it was somehow my fault. Not that I would ever figure out why or how it was my fault, since Lydia was gone—which was also my fault.

There would be no answers.

There would just be more dead girls.

MORE CARS, CARRYING HIKERS, came and parked alongside me. That meant it wouldn’t be long before someone happened across Elliot’s body. I hoped they would. The sooner they found her, the less her family would suffer.

Finally, I started my car and drove home. I was so distracted that I nearly ran a red light and had to swerve to keep from hitting a guy on his bike.

I parked and wondered vaguely what my next step should be. Call the police? Call Agent Hasan? Turn myself in?

There was no getting around Jared’s being Laina’s power center. Aralt had been tied to the girls in the Sunshine Club as his power center, but he was governed by his libris exanimus, the book that contained him between stints with clubs.

Laina was just a ghost. I mean, she was a superghost (what that meant, exactly, I wasn’t sure), but as far as I could tell, she wasn’t controlled by any sort of book.

Or…was she?

My mind flashed back to Jared’s locked closet door. Did the closet contain something he didn’t want me to see? Something to do with Laina?