bouncers, and seven-year-olds, he didn’t
know
anything was wrong.
But that didn’t make it all right with me.
“I’ve read that this diamond has special properties,” he said. “It’s supposed to protect its wearer from evil, possibly even help her detect it. Which is good because true evil often wears the most innocent of guises. Sometimes our closest friends can turn out not to have our best interests at heart. And we never have the remotest suspicion…not until it’s too late.” He was speaking with a bitterness that suggested he’d had personal experience in this area.
“I can’t think,” he went on, in a different tone entirely — now he sounded slightly amused — “of anyone who needs something like this more than you.”
I still had no idea what he was talking about.
All I knew was that the stone, which I’d been watching him hold in those callused fingers as he spoke, had been doing something strange…turning from almost black in the middle to the palest of grays, the color of the downy fluff on a tabby kitten’s chest.
This was going way too fast for me. I had never even been to a movie with a guy. For all of Hannah’s efforts to get her brother’s friends to notice her — and dragging me along with her during most of her attempts — none of them ever had.
And now I was in this incredibly sexy guy’s room, and he’d given me this necklace, and I didn’t even know where my clothes were.
I ducked out from beneath his arm and said, leaping from the chair, “Well, thank you very much, John. But I should probably be going, because I’m sure my mother must be looking for me. She’s probably very worried. You know how mothers are. So, if you’ll just tell me how to get home from here, I’ll go.”
A part of me knew it was futile. But I had to try. Maybe there was car service. My dad always said wherever I was, if I called for car service, he would pay, even if it was from New Jersey.
“Then,” I finished, “you can get back to whatever it is that…you…do.…”
My voice trailed off as I watched the expression on his face go from mildly amused to grimly serious.
“What?” I said. I did
not
like the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He was frowning now. “Pierce, I thought you knew.”
And then I heard his voice reminding me of how I had tripped and hit my head, had fallen in the pool and drowned, and that’s why my clothes had been wet, and…
Dead.
That was the main word I heard. I was dead.
That’s where I stopped listening.
I suppose a part of me had known all along. But actually hearing him say the word —
Dead. I was dead
— was the biggest shock of all. Worse than the blow to my head. Worse than choking on the water. Worse than lying at the bottom of that pool, knowing my dad was never going to come in time to save me, and that I’d died because of a bird. A
bird
!
A bird that hadn’t been hurt at all but just stunned by the coldor something, because it had flown away as soon as I hit the pool cover. I’d seen it as I drowned.
Dead. I was dead.
So many things made sense now. That’s why no one’s cell phone had worked. Their cell phones were dead.
Just like we were.
I felt frozen. All of me. Like I was still at the bottom of that pool, in that icy, icy water.
I was only fifteen. Just a few hours ago, I had been talking to Hannah on the phone. We’d been planning on going to the mall to see a movie later. I’d managed to convince her to have her mom drop us by the stables to visit Double Dare first —
Mom! My mom didn’t even know where I was. I had to let my mother know where I was.
“I…” My tongue and lips seemed to be the only parts of me that weren’t frozen. “Thank you,” I said to him, interrupting whatever he’d been explaining. Because John was still talking. Who knew what he was saying? He looked nervous again. “Thank you so much for everything. But I have to go now. Good-bye.”
I
know
anything was wrong.
But that didn’t make it all right with me.
“I’ve read that this diamond has special properties,” he said. “It’s supposed to protect its wearer from evil, possibly even help her detect it. Which is good because true evil often wears the most innocent of guises. Sometimes our closest friends can turn out not to have our best interests at heart. And we never have the remotest suspicion…not until it’s too late.” He was speaking with a bitterness that suggested he’d had personal experience in this area.
“I can’t think,” he went on, in a different tone entirely — now he sounded slightly amused — “of anyone who needs something like this more than you.”
I still had no idea what he was talking about.
All I knew was that the stone, which I’d been watching him hold in those callused fingers as he spoke, had been doing something strange…turning from almost black in the middle to the palest of grays, the color of the downy fluff on a tabby kitten’s chest.
This was going way too fast for me. I had never even been to a movie with a guy. For all of Hannah’s efforts to get her brother’s friends to notice her — and dragging me along with her during most of her attempts — none of them ever had.
And now I was in this incredibly sexy guy’s room, and he’d given me this necklace, and I didn’t even know where my clothes were.
I ducked out from beneath his arm and said, leaping from the chair, “Well, thank you very much, John. But I should probably be going, because I’m sure my mother must be looking for me. She’s probably very worried. You know how mothers are. So, if you’ll just tell me how to get home from here, I’ll go.”
A part of me knew it was futile. But I had to try. Maybe there was car service. My dad always said wherever I was, if I called for car service, he would pay, even if it was from New Jersey.
“Then,” I finished, “you can get back to whatever it is that…you…do.…”
My voice trailed off as I watched the expression on his face go from mildly amused to grimly serious.
“What?” I said. I did
not
like the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He was frowning now. “Pierce, I thought you knew.”
And then I heard his voice reminding me of how I had tripped and hit my head, had fallen in the pool and drowned, and that’s why my clothes had been wet, and…
Dead.
That was the main word I heard. I was dead.
That’s where I stopped listening.
I suppose a part of me had known all along. But actually hearing him say the word —
Dead. I was dead
— was the biggest shock of all. Worse than the blow to my head. Worse than choking on the water. Worse than lying at the bottom of that pool, knowing my dad was never going to come in time to save me, and that I’d died because of a bird. A
bird
!
A bird that hadn’t been hurt at all but just stunned by the coldor something, because it had flown away as soon as I hit the pool cover. I’d seen it as I drowned.
Dead. I was dead.
So many things made sense now. That’s why no one’s cell phone had worked. Their cell phones were dead.
Just like we were.
I felt frozen. All of me. Like I was still at the bottom of that pool, in that icy, icy water.
I was only fifteen. Just a few hours ago, I had been talking to Hannah on the phone. We’d been planning on going to the mall to see a movie later. I’d managed to convince her to have her mom drop us by the stables to visit Double Dare first —
Mom! My mom didn’t even know where I was. I had to let my mother know where I was.
“I…” My tongue and lips seemed to be the only parts of me that weren’t frozen. “Thank you,” I said to him, interrupting whatever he’d been explaining. Because John was still talking. Who knew what he was saying? He looked nervous again. “Thank you so much for everything. But I have to go now. Good-bye.”
I
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