What Lies in the Dark Read online

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” she says as she unfastens her seatbelt. “Maybe she just lost her phone or turned the data off.”

  “Why the heck would she turn off her data?”

  “Maybe she found out you have access to the account and didn’t want you tracking her.”

  “Maybe. That still leaves me wondering why she wouldn’t want me tracking her.”

  “I was mostly kidding.”

  We climb out of the car and meet around the front.

  “Kidding or not, you could be right,” I tell her as we make our way up the sidewalk to the front entrance.

  All the businesses in the area are closed, the lights all off. With only a handful of lampposts around and the moon and stars out, darkness blankets the area. The air is eerily quiet, too, but that might just be me being paranoid.

  “It’s chilly tonight,” I remark as goosebumps sprout across my arms.

  “It feels kind of hot to me.” A crease forms between her brows as she looks at me. “Are you really that cold?”

  I shiver. “Um, yeah. Isn’t it obvious?” When she presses lips together, I lightly nudge her in the side. “What’s up?”

  “It’s nothing.” Seeming distracted, she shrugs. “I’m just wondering if getting the chills could be a side effect of the morphine.”

  “Do you really think I’d still be experiencing side effects?”

  “Um, yeah. Morphine is a pretty intense drug, Mak. Plus”—she fiddles with the necklace around her neck—“it might not have been morphine that was injected into you.”

  “Yeah, you already told me that.” I exhale a stressed breath as we arrive at the door. The lights aren’t on in the waiting room, but light illuminates from the back hallway where the examining rooms are. “I guess we’re about to find out.” I tug on the door, but it’s locked, so I give a few good knocks.

  After knocking for several minutes, Scarlett still doesn’t come to let us in. Giving up, I send her a text. When she doesn’t respond, I dial her number. Again, no response.

  “This is so weird,” I mumble. “Scarlett isn’t the sort of person to just blow me off.”

  “Maybe she’s running late.”

  “Then why isn’t she answering her phone?”

  When Ev has no answer for this, I scan the parking lot for Scarlett’s car, but it’s nowhere in sight. She usually parks in the back, so I motion for Ev to follow me as I head around the building.

  “There’s her car.” Relief washes over me as I spot it out back, making me realize how nervous I was.

  Get ahold of yourself, Mak. You can’t breakdown yet, I tell myself.

  “Now the question is: where is she?” I tap my finger against my bottom lip as I approach the back door of the office then tug on it. “Jackpot,” I say when the door creaks open.

  “Is it okay for us to go in this way?” Ev whispers as I step inside.

  I nod, motioning for her to follow. “My mom and I have used this way a couple times when we met up with Scarlett on her lunch break.” Knowing she’ll grow even more nervous, I don’t bother mentioning that Scarlett usually lets us in; that the back door is normally locked.

  After Ev steps inside, we close the door then head down the hallway, past the medical supply room and Scarlett’s private office. We’re nearing the front entrance when one of the examining room doors swings open and out walks …

  “Trysten?” The word falls off my tongue in surprise.

  He’s wearing the same outfit from earlier and aims the same unfamiliar smile at me. “Hey, Mak. Wait. Is it okay for me to call you Mak? I know only your friends call you that.”

  “Um, sure, it’s fine.” I flick a puzzled look in Ev’s direction. Her face practically mirrors how I feel inside.

  “Good. I’m glad you think of me as a friend.” He gives my shoulder a soft squeeze. “And if you need anything at all, let me know. Especially with cars.” He winks at me. “I’m excellent at fixing mechanical problems.”

  “Okay.” I fake a smile, trying not to squirm at the intense look he’s giving me.

  “In fact, I should probably give you my number, just in case.” He sticks out his hand expectantly.

  “Sure.” I’ve never been more confused in my life, which is saying a lot.

  Fishing my phone from my pocket, I unlock the screen, but make no move to hand him the phone, because hello, there’s too much private stuff on that phone and Trysten is seriously about one step away from being as creepy as Larry.

  “Just tell me what it is, and I’ll—”

  My heart jumps as he snatches my phone from my hand, then irritation simmers through me.

  “All right, dude, I played it cool when you hugged me in the hallway, even though we barely know each other, but taking my phone without my permission is where I draw the line.” I reach to steal it back from him, but he chuckles and sidesteps out of my way.

  Crap, where’s Embry when you need her? ’Cause he so needs an ass-kicking.

  “Relax, Mak.” He hurriedly types something onto my phone then returns it to me. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help.”

  What an odd thing to say.

  I clutch my phone. “Why are you even here, at the doctor’s office? It’s supposed to be closed.”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” He winks at me again then strolls down the hallway toward the back door. “See you around, Mak. And don’t forget to give me a call when you have some car trouble.”

  We nervously watch him walk away, waiting for him to push out the back door before either of us speaks again.

  “Okay, that was strange,” Ev breathes out.

  “I know. And his last words were super ominous.” I glance down at my phone. “I swear, if I go out to my car and it doesn’t start, I’m going to blame …” I trail off as I open Trysten’s contact and see the note he left beside his number.

  Have you checked your pocket yet? I left something inside there for you earlier today. Oh yeah, and make sure to delete this message when you’re done. Keep my number, though. You never know when you might need it.

  “What’s on there?” Ev asks, and I show her the message. “What on earth …?” She glances up at me. “Is there anything in your pockets?”

  “I don’t think so.” I check the back, and then the front pockets of my jeans. When my finger grazes the edge of a piece of paper, my thoughts drift back to when Trysten gave me that weird hug in the hallway.

  Is that what he was doing? Sticking whatever this is into my pocket.

  I pull the paper—no, card—out. The front side is blank, but on the back, scribbled in black ink is: BOX 1005.

  Ev leans over my shoulder to get a better look. “Is that a post office box?”

  I shrug. “I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this handwriting before.”

  “On what?”

  “On that note I found in my pocket after I woke up at the lake. I mean, I’m not positive, but I can check when I get home.”

  “Then, does that mean Trysten left you the note?”

  “Either that or he knows who wrote it.”

  Ev scratches her head, looking as lost as I feel. “Why does it feel like someone’s playing a game with you?”

  “Because I think they are.” I swallow hard. “I just wish I knew what sort of game, who the players are, and what the hell is at the end of all this.”

  Ev’s lips part to say who knows what, when Scarlett exits the room Trysten walked out of, removing a pair of latex gloves from her hands. When she sees us, her eyes widen in surprise.

  “Makayla, I didn’t hear you come in.” She glances at her watch. “Oh, my word, I completely lost track of time.”

  I want to ask her why Trysten was here, but I know she’ll just feed me a line about patient confidentiality. “It’s fine. We were a few minutes early.”

  She leans back in the room to toss the gloves into the trashcan. “Still, I’m sorry I made you wait.” When she straightens, lines creas
e her forehead. “How did you get in? I thought the front door was locked.”

  “The back door was unlocked.” I hitch my finger over my shoulder. “I tried to call and text, but you didn’t answer.”

  She pats her pockets, frowning. “Dang it, I must’ve left my phone on my desk.” She holds up a finger and gives me the most plastic smile I’ve ever seen. “Go ahead and go into the room. I’ll be right back.” She hurries down the hallway.

  “Is she always that scatterbrained?” Ev asks as we wander into the examining room.

  I shake my head. “No, not really. In fact, she’s usually pretty organized.” I roam around the room, peeking in the cupboards and drawers. “Her smile isn’t usually so creepy clown-ish, either.”

  “Yeah, it looked a bit odd to me, too—wait, what are you doing?” Ev hisses, quickly shutting the door. “You can’t just go through her stuff like that.”

  “I’m trying to figure out why she was seeing Trysten.” I peer inside the last of the drawers then move over to the computer and wiggle the mouse around. The screen lights up and … “Jackpot. I’m sort of glad she’s scatterbrained tonight.”

  Ev moves up behind me and adjusts her glasses as she squints at the computer screen. “Is that Trysten’s chart?”

  I move the cursor over Trysten’s full name at the top of the page. “Yep, sure is.”

  Most of what’s listed is written in medical terms that I don’t fully understand. But at the bottom, she’s listed Trysten’s current symptoms, which include hallucinations of his dead parents, hearing voices, and …

  “Jade poisoning?” Ev and I say at the same time.

  “I didn’t even know that was a thing.” I scratch my head, turning toward Ev. “Have you ever heard of it?”

  Ev shakes her head as she pulls out her phone. “Let me look it up.”

  “It’s creepy that his symptoms include hallucinations of his dead parents and hearing voices, kind of like me and you,” I mutter as I continue to search through Trysten’s chart.

  He just started seeing Scarlett, too. Tonight was his first visit.

  “Yeah, I know.” Ev lets out a shaky breath then sits down on a chair and begins typing away on her phone, the necklace falling out from the collar of her shirt.

  “Hey, did you by chance feel any heat coming from the necklace when Trysten was around?” I ask, recalling how hot the necklace got when he gave me a hug in the hallway.

  She shakes her head. “I haven’t felt anything yet.”

  “Oh.” I return my attention to the computer, questioning if the necklace only works for me.

  Well, either that or there was someone else in the school hallway earlier today. If so, where and why were they hiding?

  Chapter 8

  LOCATION: AN EXAMINING ROOM AT THE SHADOW COVE DOWNTOWN CLINIC

  TIME: 7:59 PM

  DATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD

  I don’t find anything else of interest on Trysten’s chart, but I make a mental note to find out how his parents died. Not because I have a morbid interest in it. I’m just curious if there were any strange circumstances surrounding their deaths, like Sawyer’s and Bria’s.

  Luckily, Ev has better luck than I do and discovers that jade can be mildly poisonous.

  “That still doesn’t explain how it poisoned him,” I say as I hoist myself up onto the examining table with my legs dangling over the side.

  “Unless he was walking around in the mountains where there are high levels of it,” Ev says. “But it’d have to be really, really high levels. And if that’s the case, I think we would’ve heard about that risk by now.”

  My brow curves upward. “Like we heard about jade being up in the mountains?”

  “I guess I see your point.” She sets her phone on her lap. “I know you’ve mentioned before that you believe Shadow Cove covers up a lot of the unpleasant news stories. I think I’m starting to understand what you’re talking about.”

  “About time you realized I’m always right.” I grip the edge of the table as a smile spreads across my face. The smile then falters as my fingers touch something sticky.

  Mak, Sawyer’s voice briefly flashes through my mind then fades away.

  “What the hell?” I lift my hand and gag at the sight of green, gooey substance coating the tips of my fingers. “Ew, what the hell is this? Alien shit or something?” Panicking, I jump up and rush for the sinks while Ev hurries over to the table and crouches down to look underneath it.

  I flip the faucet on then coat my hand with as much soap as possible. “Do you know what it is?”

  “No. There are a few droplets under here, and they look like they’re glowing.” She pushes to her feet, pulls open a drawer, and grabs a swab kit.

  “You gonna steal a sample?” I ask as I practically scrub my hands raw.

  Nodding, she squats back down in front of the table and swipes the cotton across a droplet of green goo. “I have a friend at the university in Mayfield who studies foreign minerals and substances. He could run some tests on this and find out what it is.”

  “Maybe it’s just slime,” I suggest with hope because, seriously, the last thing I want is to have stuck my hand in a foreign, gooey, glowy, green substance. “You know, like the stuff you can buy at toy stores.”

  “Maybe.” She sounds doubtful. “It smells funny.” She sniffs the swab before dropping it into a small, plastic envelope. “Like fish and moldy water.”

  “Can I smell it?” I ask as I dry off my hands with a paper towel.

  “Yeah.” She stands up and hands me the envelope.

  Forcing back a dry heave, I put my nose up to it and sniff. “It smells like lake water.”

  She snaps her fingers. “That’s exactly what it smells like, doesn’t it?” Her expression immediately plummets. “That’s not a good thing, is it?”

  “I don’t know yet. What I do know is that, only hours ago, I was left close to the lake after I was doped up. I also know that Sawyer’s body was found near the lake, and Bria’s.”

  “Have you ever seen anything like that at the lake before?” She points at the envelope.

  I shake my head. “But I’ve only been up there a couple times and haven’t endeavored farther than the shore.”

  “You think maybe we should go look around?”

  “Quite possibly.” Although, the idea of going back up there is giving me the heebie-jeebies.

  Before we can discuss anything further, the door starts to open.

  Ev snatches the envelope from me, tucks it into her pocket, then hurries back to the chair while I hop back up onto the table, avoiding the area where the slime is.

  A moment later, Scarlett walks in to the room. Then she claps her hands together and grins. “All right, Mak, let’s get this physical done.”

  If only things were that simple. Unfortunately, they never are.

  I smile at her, pretending to be as cool as a person who didn’t just stick their hand in questionable alien shit. My smile falters, though, when I glance at Ev.

  Her eyes are wide, and she’s clutching the bottom of the chair, her knuckles turning white.

  “Ev,” I whisper when Scarlett’s back is turned.

  Her gaze slides to mine, and she moves her hand toward her neck.

  That’s when I know what’s going on. She can feel the heat from the necklace, too. That means, not only am I not going crazy, at least with that, but it also means Scarlett can’t be trusted.

  Chapter 9

  LOCATION: THE WAITING ROOM OF THE SHADOW COVE DOWNTOWN CLINIC

  TIME: 9:07 PM

  DATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD

  “Maybe you could ask her what jade poisoning is?” Ev suggest as we sit in the dark waiting room about an hour later.

  Scarlett finished my exam about fifteen minutes ago, but told me to wait out here while she ran some tests on some blood she drew from me. She said some illnesses have been going around and she wanted to make sure I wasn’t infected. Honestly, the whole thing felt ver
y end-of-the-world-zombie-apocalypse to me, but that’s probably due to the fact that I’ve spent the day being burned by a necklace, ran into what I can only assume is a doppelganger of Trysten, stuck my hand in what seriously looked like alien diarrhea, and found out my mom’s lifetime friend might be working for the dark side.

  Yep, I’ve had a pretty eventful day.

  Scarlett was acting really strange during the entire exam. Forgetting things and saying the wrong names. Not to mention she kept giving me that overly cheerful, robotic smile.

  “I can’t,” I whisper under my breath to Ev. “It’ll seem too suspicious. Plus, the necklace went off around her, which means she can’t be trusted.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Sighing, her hand falls to her lap. “Sorry, I’m not thinking clearly. All this is just a lot to take in. My brain is still trying to process.”

  “That’s understandable.” I keep my voice low enough that not even security cameras should be able to hear me. “The stuff we’re dealing with is really out there.”

  She bobs her head up and down. “I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I spoke to my mom’s entity. Now this happens, and I feel like my whole structured world is spinning out of control.”

  “You want out? Because I’d totally understand.”

  “No way. Now that I know this sort of stuff exists, I want to find out more.”

  I hold out my fist for a fist bump. “That’s the knowledge seeker I know and love.”

  Chuckling, we tap fists. Then Ev’s smile erases as Scarlett emerges from the hallway. She winces, pressing her hand to her chest.

  Crap. That probably means the necklace is burning her fairly badly.

  “Well, I have great news.” A smile breaks out across Scarlett’s face. “Your tests all came back negative. And you passed the physical with flying colors.” She hands me the physical form. “Here’s your slip for the competition. You’ll have to let me know when it is. I’d really love to see you compete.”

  A drop of relief douses through me, though her potential untrustworthiness makes me question if I can trust the results. “It’s next weekend. I’m not sure what time, but I will message you when I find out.”