I’m not sure what they were talking about when I came back into the room, but their voices got all hushed. I did hear a few words, which didn’t make sense to me. I hurried upstairs to make sure it was okay with Luce if I came over for a while, wondering who Aaron had said probably went “back to Europe.”
Upstairs, I sent Lucy a text. “Can I come over in a few?”
She answered almost immediately. “Sure! Just about to text. And Em, too.”
“Cool. My dad’s driving me, so, maybe ten minutes?”
“Whenever. My mom’s shopping and my dad’s at the golf course.”
For some reason, I was glad her parents wouldn’t be there. It seemed like there was something important I needed to tell her, though I didn’t know what it was. “What about Daniel?”
“Are you kidding? It’s not even 10:00 yet. He’ll be asleep for another hour or two.”
“Hi, Lucy,” I said with a friendly smile. She narrowed one eye at me. “What’s up?”“Cassidy Elizabeth Findley, get in here.” She stepped out of the way and I entered into a foyer with floors made of marble and a grand staircase with ornate moldings cascaded from the second story behind my diminutive friend.Emma came bounding in from the adjoining living room, straightening her glasses. Her short brown hair was a little frizzy, and I thought about asking her if she remembered to use her conditioning spray this morning. Lucy and I have been trying to get her to understand different products we use, not because we care so much what she looks like but because we feel it is our duty as her friend to explain the purposes behind the things that we do that Emma doesn’t get or doesn’t care about. I pushed the thoughts aside and said, “Hi, Em.”Without looking at my face, she said, “Hi.”
Lucy cocked her head to the side, and Emma said, “Hmmm.” Then they looked at each other.“Seriously. Like, I found it, and I don’t know when I wrote it.” I was beginning to panic a little on the inside. What if I started to forget other things, too, like my friends or the days of the week?“Well,” Emma said, straightening her glasses as she got up and moved back to her chair, “I guess that means you don’t remember any of those things actually happening either?”It was a good question, and the short answer was no, I didn’t. But then, I’d just discovered this page before I’d come over, and I hadn’t really thought about trying to remember.“This is so bizarre,” Lucy said. “What would make you write something down and then forget it? Were you sleeping when you wrote it?”“I don’t know. I don’t remember writing it.”
My mom came to pick me up a few hours later. By then, I had gotten over the initial shock of realizing my parents had allowed some strange man to come into my house and brainwash me into thinking the death of my sister’s friend was no big deal, but I was still miffed. And confused. Why in the world would my parents want me to think that Drew’s death was just a blip in my existence and not something to worry about?Something very strange was going on, and I had no idea who I could talk to about it. If my parents were part of the conspiracy, then I couldn’t trust them. My grandmother also allegedly knew these people, though I wasn’t sure I could trust that either. As hard as it was, I decided to wait it out. My sister was supposed to return the next day. Maybe when she came home, she’d spew out some acceptable explanation for all of this weirdness and life would go back to normal.I wasn’t holding my breath.Saturday night, I tr
My mom shook her head. “That’s terrible. Cassidy, why don’t you….”I interrupted. I had no choice. “Poor Jack,” I said loudly, so that my mother sending me back to the car would be drowned out. “He’s probably having bad dreams, too. Has he said anything about that?” I wanted to add “or people walking on the roof” but didn’t want to be too obvious.“He has,” Steve said, looking at the ground. “But when he wakes up, he says he can’t remember what happened.”“It’s just awful. The whole thing.” Tears started to careen down Alice’s face again. “I’ve heard the other girls aren’t doing well either.” I assumed she was talking about Sidney and Taylor.“Who ever would’ve thought someone could lose their life rock climbing around here?” I wasn’t sure if Steve asked the question in such a
“Hey, Cass.” Jack’s voice croaked a bit, as if he’d had a cold and was just getting over it. I wondered if maybe he’d been sleeping too much.“Hey,” I said in return. He had always hugged me before, but this time he stood with his hands in his pockets, just looking at me. “I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to see you, make sure you’re okay, and give you this.” I extended the hastily put-together card. I had decided printing something off of the Internet was probably better than me trying to draw something, so it wasn’t horrible, but it was a little odd. They don’t exactly make cards that say, “Sorry your friend died. Are weird things happening at your house, too? Has my sister transformed into some sort of beast?”“Thank you,” he said, taking it. His fingertips grazed mine, and I almost jumped back. I wasn’t expecting his hand to be so cold. If his whole bod
Never in my entire life has my mother let me eat Sunday lunch upstairs, but all it took was mentioning that speaking to Jack had me feeling sad, and she agreed to let me fix a plate and take it to my room. I felt like she wanted to talk to my dad and thought it would be easier if I wasn’t there since this game of secrets was becoming more and more complicated with every passing moment.I grabbed a chicken breast, a helping of mashed potatoes, and a few roasted carrots, slipping a can of pop into my pocket before I headed up the stairs, my mom shouting at me to be careful on the carpet. My true purpose was to call Lucy as soon as I could. I needed to let her know what had happened at Jack’s.Unfortunately, I got her voicemail. I left her a message to call me and then jotted down a few notes in my notebook before snapping a picture and sending it to her.“Sunday: Went to talk to Jack Cook. He was acting odd. He seemed haggard and disheveled. His
From the top of the stairwell, I could hear my family talking. I took my time. If they didn’t know I could hear, they might just keep saying things that could be valuable to my investigation.My mom’s voice carried up the stairs. “We had always heard that Transformation was extremely painful, but now I guess they have some new method or something, and it’s not so bad? Is that right, or was Aaron just trying to make us feel better?”There was that word again. I knew for a fact now that my sister had undergone some sort of procedure, something that had altered who—or what—she was. The proof was in the blur I’d seen as she made her way to the house. And now my mom was confirming it.I wished there was some way I could wait until after my sister replied before I showed myself, but Cadence was facing the entryway from the stairs to the living room, so as soon as I stepped foot on the floor at the bottom of the stairwell
I realized I couldn’t risk calling Lucy because my sister might overhear, so I pulled out my phone, thinking I’d text her. There were quite a few missed texts on a three-way with Lucy and Emma, and I saw that Milo had called me, too. While I’d spoken to him a few days before, I was still in my crazy state of thinking that Drew’s death was no big deal when we talked, so I was eager to call him back to claim I’d been in shock or something.Noises next door told me Cadence was in her room, but she wasn’t particularly loud, and I hoped she’d fall asleep for a little while. After that, I hoped I’d get a chance to talk to her. There was so much going on all of a sudden, and I felt pressed for time, even though I had no idea why.I checked my texts first. The girls had discovered the car was a Lamborghini Aventador, which cost about $400,000. That number was from Emma, so I knew it wasn’t an exaggeration. I almost dropped