Fever Page 6

  ‘Do you want to hear some non-plague-related gossip?’ Eve asked after she paid for her food. ‘But before we go sit with everybody.’

  ‘God, yes,’ Jess said.

  ‘It’s about Luke,’ Eve told her. ‘And me,’ she added as they loitered near the condiment counter so they could have some privacy.

  Jess raised her eyes. ‘Well, don’t stop now.’

  ‘He kissed me.’ The words weren’t nearly good enough to express the actual experience.

  Jess clearly didn’t think so either. ‘I need many more details than that. When? Where? What were you wearing?’

  ‘Last night – late. My kitchen. My new pyjamas,’ Eve answered.

  ‘I knew those were a good purchase,’ Jess said. ‘Go on.’

  ‘I was upset about … everything.’ She wasn’t going to tell Jess she’d been freaking over the idea that Jess could have contracted the plague from kissing Seth. ‘And Luke hugged me. A friend, comfort hug. But then, all of a sudden, it just changed and we were kissing.’

  ‘And then what?’ Jess demanded.

  ‘And then nothing,’ Eve said. ‘A cat let out this horrible yowl, and we jumped apart, and then—’ She shrugged.

  ‘You guys remembered that for some ridiculous reason you should be friends and friends only,’ Jess said.

  ‘I guess,’ Eve agreed. Maybe her reasons for not wanting to get involved with Luke were ridiculous. Maybe he was only a player because he hadn’t found a girl he wanted to hang with all the time. Maybe she was that girl. Maybe – but this wasn’t the time to be thinking about it. ‘Let’s go eat.’

  People weren’t sitting in their usual groups and tables. Too many kids were gone for that. Eve and Jess walked over to the table where Rose, Dave, Phoebe and Bet were eating. Eve didn’t think she’d ever shared a lunch table with Dave Perry or Phoebe Abbott. Not for any real reason. They just hung with different groups. A glance out of the window showed her that Luke and a couple of other guys were eating out on the lawn.

  ‘You heard about Jenna already, right?’ Rose asked as they sat down.

  ‘Jenna’s sick?’ Eve cried. From the expression on Rose’s face, it couldn’t be anything else.

  ‘Didn’t even make it through homeroom,’ Rose replied. ‘Sweat popped out all over her forehead and she started to slide out of her chair. It was awful. Ms Fraser asked for volunteers to help her to the office, and for a minute nobody moved. And you know how usually everyone jumps up if there’s a chance to get out of class.’

  ‘Everybody’s scared,’ Jess said.

  ‘Yeah. Yeah,’ Rose repeated, as if there was nothing more that could even be said. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. I just need to get something from my locker. Watch my stuff, OK?’

  ‘Sure,’ Eve told her.

  ‘How many of them do you think there are now? Sick people from school, I mean,’ Phoebe asked.

  Eve suddenly wished she had her safety mask on. She’d worn it in the classes where people were sitting close to her, but it wasn’t like she could keep it on and eat.

  ‘Look around,’ Dave said to Phoebe, using his fork to gesture at the empty tables around them. ‘I heard that they’re going to close the school today. Not enough teachers. Not enough kids.’

  More time to research. That would be good, Eve thought. And who could concentrate anyway, with so many of their friends sick?

  ‘I heard the CDC is going to order the school closed,’ Bet added. ‘Too dangerous to have this many people congregating.’

  ‘Do you think it’s because of the way the disease is going?’ Dave asked. ‘You guys heard that people with it have rotting skin now, right? It turns all black and then falls off.’

  ‘What?’ Bet exclaimed. ‘WHAT?’

  ‘It’s a new symptom,’ Jess explained. She frowned, ‘Seth … Seth actually has it. The skin really does slide off, no exaggeration.’

  ‘That’s so horrible!’ Bet cried. ‘They’re never going to be the same, even if somebody figures out a cure. After the skin thing, they’ll all have horrible scars, won’t they?’

  ‘I couldn’t handle that,’ Phoebe told them. ‘Maybe that’s shallow, but I couldn’t.’ She ran her hands up and down her arms. ‘I’m all itchy now. I want to leave and go lock myself in my closet until this is over.’

  ‘There’s a janitor over there,’ Eve said. She didn’t recognize the man, but there’d been some new people around, filling in for plague victims. ‘I’m going to ask him if the school is really closing today.’

  ‘I’m coming,’ Phoebe said. ‘If it’s not closing, I’m just going to ditch. Suddenly I feel like the air in here is disgusting. I don’t want it in me. Way too many people from school are sick.’ She and Eve stood up.

  Jess did too. ‘Watch Rose’s stuff, OK?’ she asked Dave and Bet.

  ‘Will do,’ Bet answered as Eve and the others started towards the janitor.

  Eve hesitated, then turned round. ‘If school is closed, come over to my house tomorrow if you want. Around three. We can hang by the pool where there’s fresh air,’ she said impulsively. ‘Tell people.’ She knew her mom would be annoyed at her for getting a group together when they could so easily be passing this plague around, but they were all in this together. Some people might not want to be alone. She didn’t.

  ‘Cool,’ Dave said.

  Eve, Jess and Phoebe hurried over to the janitor. ‘Um, excuse me,’ Eve said. ‘We were just wondering if you know whether or not they’re closing the school today?’

  The man just gave a little grunt, not bothering to look up from his mopping. ‘Hey!’ Jess protested and he slopped the mop over her Stella McCartney sandals. The janitor didn’t apologize. Instead, he lumbered away, dragging the mop awkwardly behind him.

  ‘Let’s go to the office and ask.’ Jess rolled her eyes. ‘That guy is clearly useless.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Eve answered.

  The school secretary looked wary as the three of them walked into the office. ‘Ms K, you always know the scoop,’ Jess said, putting both hands on the counter. ‘Is school closing today?’

  ‘I’m getting asked the question again,’ Ms Keener called towards the principal’s open door.

  A few seconds later, Ms Allison stepped out, looking like she hadn’t slept in for ever. ‘I’m going to make the announcement right now. No classes after lunch. No school until further notice.’

  ‘You girls go get your things together,’ Ms Keener said. ‘I can’t believe it’s come to this.’

  ‘Luke beat us here,’ Jess said as she and Eve turned down their street and saw him waiting outside Eve’s house.

  ‘Figured it would be easier to just come here with the madness at school,’ Luke explained as they reached him. ‘I didn’t see you two at your lockers.’

  ‘Good call,’ Eve told him.

  The school had been crazed as soon as the principal’s announcement had come over the intercom. Pretty much everyone had heard the rumours that the school was going to close, but the fact that it was actually happening seemed to make some people realize how truly scary the situation was in the town. Somehow, going to school every day had made things seem a little normal, a little safe.

  Some people tried to stuff every single thing they had accumulated in their lockers into one backpack, although, really, none of it was necessary. There’d been crying and hugging. Regina Fortes fainted in the hall. Everyone – including Regina – thought she was the latest plague victim, but she’d been having a panic attack.

  Jess unlocked her front door and ushered them in. They headed through to the kitchen and for a few minutes they occupied themselves choosing drinks and snacks. It was a tiny little piece of ordinary, and Eve appreciated it. ‘Any ideas on what to research?’ she asked when she had picked out a can of Hansen’s Tangerine Green Tea.

  ‘Plagues and freak high temperatures at the same time,’ Luke suggested.

  ‘Demons that cause plagues,’ Jess said.

  ‘Not so much to
go on,’ Eve commented. She looked over at Luke. ‘You think it’s time, don’t you?’

  ‘I think we might find the info we need if we ask the Order for help,’ Luke answered.

  ‘OK, let’s call Callum,’ Eve said. Callum was a high-level member of the Order. They’d met him when he came to Deepdene to retrieve Payne’s body. Eve had told him the truth about herself, about her powers, about being the current Deepdene Witch. Payne had told his superior parts of her story anyway. Eve thought the Order might as well know the rest.

  ‘It’ll be faster if I just call Alanna. She’s lower level. She’ll be easier to get in touch with than Callum.’ Luke pulled out his cell. ‘I’ll put her on speaker.’

  ‘Wait. You have Alanna’s phone number?’ Eve asked. Alanna was a twenty-something member of the Order, a protégée of Payne’s. She’d come with Callum to Deepdene, and while she was there she’d made it clear she didn’t like Eve. ‘The card Callum gave us didn’t have her contact info on it.’

  ‘She called me once,’ Luke said, suddenly seeming very interested in the bowl of trail mix in front of him. ‘To see if we were having any more problems.’

  ‘Huh.’ Eve was not going to ask Luke why he hadn’t told her about the call. She’d sound like a jealous girlfriend, and she and Luke were so not a couple. They’d kissed one time. That was it.

  ‘So. Alanna?’ Luke asked.

  ‘Go ahead. Faster is better,’ Eve said. She thought she’d managed to keep the irritation out of her voice. She couldn’t stop herself from watching him use the cell though. He didn’t have Alanna on speed dial. That was something.

  ‘Luke, hey, good to hear from you,’ Alanna said. ‘How’re you doing?’ She was one of those girls who sounded like she was flirting no matter what she said. She shouldn’t be flirting with Luke. She was way too old for him.

  ‘Not that great,’ Luke answered. ‘That’s why I’m calling. We think we might have another demon situation in Deepdene.’

  ‘We’ve been following the extreme temperatures you’ve been having and the outbreak of Flu X. We haven’t found anything to indicate demon involvement,’ Alanna answered.

  ‘Nice of you to tell us that. Finally,’ Eve snapped. She shot an outraged glance at Jess, who looked almost as angry as Eve felt.

  ‘Oh, I’m on speaker,’ Alanna said. ‘I thought this was a private conversation, Luke.’

  ‘Eve and Jess are here too,’ Luke told her. ‘We—’

  ‘I’m definitely here,’ Eve cut in. ‘We live in this town, remember. And we’re the ones who told you about the portal. You demon experts didn’t even know about it. As soon as you decided to investigate, you should have called me.’

  ‘You’re the demon hunter,’ Alanna shot back. ‘You can even smell them, as I remember. I wouldn’t think you’d need our help detecting demonic presence.’

  Eve suspected Alanna was jealous of her ability to kill demons without one of the special swords. That made her feel a little better.

  ‘We want to do some research anyway. We all believe there’s a demon here,’ Luke said. ‘If you come across anything we can use as a starting place, will you let us know?’

  ‘If you’re nice,’ Alanna replied.

  ‘When am I not nice?’ he asked.

  Was he flirting back? He’d kind of flirted with Alanna when she was here. But, come on, she was waaay too old.

  ‘Luke’s always nice. To everyone,’ Jess said pointedly, getting Eve’s back.

  ‘Absolutely everyone. You’re nothing special,’ Eve added. Luke raised an eyebrow at her and she gave an apologetic shrug. That hadn’t been exactly necessary – or nice. But she’d enjoyed it.

  ‘So you’ll call, right?’ Jess asked. She tapped her fingers on the kitchen table.

  ‘I’ll call you, Luke,’ Alanna said, with just a touch of emphasis on the ‘you’.

  Luke said goodbye and hung up.

  ‘Well, that was helpful.’ Jess took a sip of her soda.

  ‘Infuriating,’ Eve agreed. ‘I cannot believe she didn’t contact us. Or any of the Order.’ She turned to Luke. ‘Can you?’

  ‘Definitely not cool,’ he answered. He tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. ‘So I guess we go online and start researching demons, and plagues and heat waves.’

  ‘Oh, my!’ Jess said. They all laughed at her Wizard of Oz joke, even though it wasn’t that funny. Laughing felt like it sucked some of the stress out of Eve’s body.

  ‘Sounds good to—’

  Eve was interrupted by Jess’s brother Peter, barrelling into the room. ‘We’re going on lockdown.’ He grabbed an enormous handful of trail mix and stuffed it into his mouth.

  ‘I want to say “what?”’ Jess said. ‘But I don’t want to see you talk with your mouth full.’

  Peter opened his mouth as wide as possible and gave them all a good look. Eve could have predicted that move. She’d known Peter for ever – he was basically her surrogate little brother.

  ‘OK, so the whole town is going into lockdown,’ Peter said after he’d swallowed, with the aid of a swig from Luke’s soda. ‘Starting at ten o’clock, no one is getting in or out.’

  ‘That can’t be right,’ Luke told him. ‘It’s completely unconstitutional for one thing.’

  ‘If you say so, but look.’ Peter flipped on the TV and there was the WELCOME TO DEEPDENE sign, and next to it a small booth with a guard inside – a guard in a hazmat suit. The image changed to an aerial view showing a five-metre wire fence being erected around the whole town. The workers erecting the fence were all wearing hazmat suits too.

  Luke swore softly under his breath. ‘It’s like we’re watching one of those post-apocalyptic movies.’

  Peter didn’t say anything. Not typical. Although he was the one who’d told them the news, Eve thought actually seeing Deepdene being locked down had hit him hard.

  ‘It went by too fast, but I think that guard had a rifle.’ Jess’s eyes were wide. ‘Are they actually going to shoot people who try to leave?’

  A terrifying thought exploded in Eve’s brain. ‘No one can leave,’ she said. She looked at Luke and Jess. They didn’t get it yet. ‘No one can leave,’ she repeated, and the horror on Luke and Jess’s faces made it clear that this time they understood. If their suspicions were correct, they were trapped in their little town – with a demon.

  ‘I just thought of something else. It didn’t hit me until now,’ Luke said as Jess powered up her laptop a little later that afternoon. She’d positioned it in the middle of her bed so she, Luke, and Eve could all see it. ‘The Order won’t be able to send anyone in if we need them. There’s no way for them to get in with the guards and the fences.’

  ‘We don’t need Alanna or the Order,’ Eve assured him. ‘We just need us – you, me and Jess. The three of us have taken on demons alone before.’

  Luke didn’t remind her that Payne had sacrificed his life when they were battling the wargs together. He wasn’t sure any of them would have lived through that night without the Order.

  ‘I just put in plague and demon and got many, many, many hits,’ Jess told them.

  Luke checked the screen. She wasn’t kidding. ‘Try doing heatwave with those two,’ he suggested. His cell buzzed as Jess added the word to the search. He checked it, and relief swept over him like a cool breeze. ‘Text from Callum. He says he’s sent me an email. Maybe the Order found something useful.’

  ‘They have been incredibly helpful so far,’ Eve snarked. Luke agreed that the Order should have told them they were looking into the strange happenings in Deepdene. But he was sure they would have if they’d uncovered anything. Probably Alanna and the others didn’t want to call to say they had nothing to say. That wouldn’t have been incredibly helpful either.

  Jess turned the laptop towards him and Luke quickly logged on to his gmail account. He clicked on Callum’s message. ‘He sent us a link,’ Luke told the girls. ‘He says it might be useful, but he’s dubious.’


  ‘I can just hear him saying that. “Dubious” is a Callum kind of word,’ Jess commented.

  ‘What’s the link to?’ Eve asked.

  ‘An article on an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll from some university I’ve never heard of.’ Luke began to skim the article. Eve and Jess moved in closer so they could read it too.

  Briefly, Luke was distracted by a whiff of fragrance from Eve. A mix of coconut and sunshine. A mix of suntan lotion and her. It made him want to kiss her again.

  Man, why had he let a cat screw things up between them? A cat. But the kiss had happened so spontaneously. And after the cat, there was just too much time to think, to wonder if Eve had wanted him to kiss her in the first place. She’d certainly bolted out of the kitchen pretty fast. Not that he hadn’t. He—

  ‘Demon!’ Jess exclaimed, returning Luke to the subject he should have been thinking about all along. She pointed to the word near the bottom of the first page. Clearly she’d been skimming too.

  ‘The warning on the scroll is believed to refer to a demon often called Many Faces but sometimes referred to as Amunnic,’ Luke read. ‘The demon lives by drinking human blood.’

  ‘Back up,’ Eve said. ‘What warning are they talking about?’

  ‘Back up,’ Jess said. ‘The thing drinks blood?’

  ‘That’s what it said. Blood,’ Luke answered. ‘There’s a translation of the scroll and one of the lines says “Ye shall know him by the coming of the plague”. That has to be the warning.’

  ‘Sounds like a warning to me,’ Jess said.

  ‘So this Many Faces or Amunnic brings a plague, is that what it’s saying?’ Eve asked. ‘That sounds sort of like Malphas. He brought bad dreams to weaken his victims with lack of sleep. That way, it was easier to feed on them. Maybe Many Faces wants weak victims too and that’s what the plague does.’

  My dad, Luke thought. A demon could be preparing my father so it can feed on him. All the others too. His gut began to churn. His dad was a minister. If he knew he was giving a demon strength that would horrify him more than dying from the plague. ‘Now that we have a name, let’s see what else we can find out.’

  Jess did a search for Amunnic and Many Faces. Only three hits came up. ‘I hope one of them says why he’s called Many Faces – that’s freaky.’