Part 9 (1/2)
”And if there is a note? I wanted to join your escape, Chloe, not your crusade to find Simon's dad.”
”B-but he'll-”
”Save the day?” She managed a sarcastic lilt. ”Rescue us from the mad scientists, cure us, and take us to a land of lollipops and unicorns?”
My voice hardened. ”Finding him might not solve anything, but right now, we're a little short on options. What are you going to do instead? Go back to the Edison Group and say you're sorry, it was all a mistake?”
”I'm doing what I planned all along. We needed each other to get out. But that's all I wanted from you. I'd help you find the note, but I won't stay until morning to do it. I'm going home, to my dad.”
That shut me up, if only because I was afraid I'd say something I'd regret, like ask if she meant her dad or her father. Did she know there was a difference? I doubted it.
”So your dad.... He's human?”
”Of course. He doesn't know anything about this. But I'm going to tell him.”
”Is that such a good idea?”
”He's my dad dad,” she snapped. ”When he hears what my mom did...? Everything's going to be okay. My dad and me get along great. Better than him and my mom. They hardly even talk. I'm sure they only stay together because of us kids.”
”Maybe you should wait a day or two. See what happens.”
She laughed. ”And join your band of superheroes? Sorry, but I'm allergic to spandex.” Her sneakers scuffed on the concrete as she turned away. ”Say bye to Liz for me.”
”Wait!” I tugged off my shoe. ”Take some money.”
”Save it. I don't plan to ever get the chance to repay you.”
”It's okay. Just take-”
”Keep your money, Chloe. You'll need it more than I will.” She took a few steps, then stopped. For a moment, she stood there, then she said quietly, ”You could come with me.”
”I need to get Simon his insulin.”
”Right. Okay then.”
I waited for a good-bye but heard only the slap of her sneakers, then the creaking of the door as she left.
When Liz returned from patrol, she said she'd seen Tori leaving. I explained, then braced for a chewing out. Why had I let Tori take off? Why hadn't I gone after her? But all Liz said was, ”I guess she didn't want to hang around,” and that was that.
We were both quiet for a while, then Liz said, ”I'm sorry I didn't believe you. About me being dead.”
”I handled it wrong. I should have made it easier for you.”
”I don't think there's any way to make that easier.”
We sat side by side in the darkness on a piece of cardboard I'd dragged over. My back rested against a crate. I'd stacked more around me, like a play fort. A small, dark, cold fortress.
”Why'd they kill me?” Liz asked.
I told her about the experiment and the genetic manipulation and what the file said about terminating us if we couldn't be rehabilitated.
”But I could could have been rehabilitated,” she said. ”If they'd just have been rehabilitated,” she said. ”If they'd just told told me what was going on, I wouldn't have been freaking out about poltergeists. I would have taken lessons, pills, whatever they wanted.” me what was going on, I wouldn't have been freaking out about poltergeists. I would have taken lessons, pills, whatever they wanted.”
”I know.”
”So why? Why? Why?”
The only answer I had was that we didn't matter to them. We were subjects in an experiment. They'd try rehabilitation because we weren't animals, but Lyle House had been only a token effort, to prove to themselves that they'd made some attempt to save us.
They said they killed us because we were dangerous. I didn't believe that. I wasn't dangerous. Brady wasn't dangerous. Maybe Liz and Derek, but they weren't monsters. Derek had been willing to stay at Lyle House just so he wouldn't hurt anyone else.
They played G.o.d and they failed, and I think what they were really scared of wasn't that we'd hurt people but that other supernaturals would find out what they'd done. So they killed their failures, leaving only the successes.
That's what I thought. ”I don't know” was what I said, and we sat quietly for a while longer.
Next time, I was the one to break the silence. ”Thank you. For everything. Without you, Tori and I would never have gotten away. I want to help you in return-help you cross over.”
”Cross over?”
”To the other side. Wherever ghosts are supposed to go. The afterlife.”
”Oh.”
”I'm not sure why you haven't gone. Have you...seen anything? A light maybe?”
A small laugh. ”I think that's only in movies, Chloe.”
”But you vanish sometimes. Where do you go?”
”I'm not sure. I still see everything here, but you can't see me. It's like being on the other side of a force field, where I can see-Well, I guess they must be other ghosts, but they seem to be just pa.s.sing through.”
”Where do they come from?”
She shrugged. ”I don't talk to them. I thought maybe they were other shaman spirits, but I...” Her gaze dropped. ”I didn't want to ask. In case they weren't.”
”Can you ask them now? Find out where you're supposed to be?”
”I'm fine.”
”But-”
”Not yet. Just not yet, okay?”