opened, and a short figure slipped out of the door to the Human Lounge. They both watched as he walked quickly past them, directly toward the chapel and the cross.
It was Evan.
“Okay, buddy,” Peter said to him softly, watching Evan disappear into the fog. “We gotta come back from that now—”
Aiden spat on the ground at his feet. “Gimme it. Now.”
Peter pulled the bag of Apex from his pocket and dropped it into Aiden’s palm. It was half as full as it had been three days ago. Aiden threw it in his coat and marched away from the school.
“What’re you doing?”
Aiden ignored him, allowing the buzzing in his head to take control as he stalked after the hood in front of him.
Neesha.
ZAZA DIDN’T GET to finish his sentence. Footsteps started to creep up from the fog in front of them. “Are you meeting someone?” he asked.
“Yes,” she blurted. “You should go.”
“Shit.” He looked around. “I’ll hide.” He ran up the stairs and moved behind a pillar just as Evan entered the clearing.
“Okay, let’s go,” Neesha said to Evan, starting toward the forest before Zaza could notice Evan.
“Wait,” Evan said, trying to stop her.
“What?”
“We need a signal to warn one another. Do you know SOS in Morse code?” he asked.
“Why would we need to communicate in Morse code?”
“In case we find trouble. It’s three short beeps, three long beeps, and three short beeps.”
“Why can’t I just say ‘help’? Come on, we have to go—”
Evan stared doing the noises with his mouth, sharp repetitive beeps, and she turned just in time to see Zaza stepping out from behind his pillar.
Evan froze.
For a second, it looked like Zaza might hit Evan, but then Zaza turned his attention to her.
“I’m sorry, what the fuck is this?”
She swayed nervously. “We’re working on something.”
“You’re meeting him? Is that why you’re out here? Neesha, this is the kid I told you about! The one who—” He swallowed the rest of the sentence. “Look, whatever this kid has convinced you—”
“Has nothing to do with you,” she finished for him.
“It’s not safe! He was stalking her!”
“No, he wasn’t!” she screamed. “He’s been helping me, and he’s gonna help me find her!”
“Neesha,” Zaza said, lowering his voice to pretend like he was rational. “This is not a good idea. Now is not the time to be out looking for her—”
“Do you fucking hear yourself? You’re doing it again! I’m not going to apologize to you for wanting to do something about my situation. You know what you are? You’re inert.”
“What?”
“You wedge yourself into compounds, and then you just sit there, inactive. You’d rather quietly exist than try to do anything to change the world around you. You’re a scared, inert little boy, and I’m not like that.”
“You’re—” Zaza started to boil up, his hand rubbing across his head faster and faster, but he couldn’t even sputter out a comeback. “I’m not—”
“See?” she said. “Nothing.”
He spun and began to walk away but turned back after three steps. “They use the inert gases to prevent toxic chemicals from creating harmful reactions, you know that, right?”
“Give it a rest, dude. The metaphor is dead.”
Zaza’s mouth hung open. He looked ready to apologize, ready to shove his tail between his legs, but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps galloping up one of the center paths, quietly at first. Neesha thought it might just be some students passing in the distance, but the footsteps quickly got louder, and by the time the three of them fully appreciated their size, speed, and direction, Aiden Mallet was ripping out of the fog, grabbing Evan by the back of his hoodie, and throwing him to the ground.
“No!” Neesha shouted, but it was too late. Aiden collapsed on top of Evan like a wrestler, pinning his whole body from the midsection, ruthlessly controlling his arms and staring into his face. “What did you do to her?” Aiden shouted, spit dangling. “Where is she?”
“I—I—I don’t know!”
“Aiden!” Zaza tried to intervene, but Aiden was in his own world.
“Wrong answer!” Aiden swung his head forward, straight for Evan’s cranium, connecting with his skull and rocking both of them backward. Neesha screamed. She’d always assumed people could only head-butt like that in movies and judging by Aiden’s cross-eyed reaction, she might have been right. A small pool of blood formed on Evan’s forehead. He was shrieking as Aiden geared up to hit him again. Before he could, however, another large body came screaming out of the fog, pile-driving Aiden off Evan