One Was Lost(31)

“We should try to wake him up again,” I finally say.

The statement falls like a gauntlet. We all nod and look at each other because no one wants to get too close to Mr. Walker. He peed himself while the boys were carrying him. I saw the thin trail of liquid seeping out of one of his pant legs and onto the trail. I’d sucked in my breath, hard and fast, completely appalled, but Emily just stepped over the trickle with a shrug. So it doesn’t surprise me when it’s Emily who strides forward. She calls his name three times and then shakes his shoulder a bit. I think his brow furrows.

“Mr. Walker, we need you to wake up now,” she says. Firm, not angry.

“Tell him I’m going to kiss him if he doesn’t wake up,” Jude says, and Lucas smirks.

Mr. Walker’s face is definitely moving, his eyebrows and this time his mouth.

I step forward, feeling woozy. “Mr. Walker?”

“Mr. Walker, can you hear me?” Emily asks.

I stop where I am because he doesn’t smell good, but she scoots really close and squeezes his hand. His eyes flutter.

“Holy shit.” Lucas sounds awed.

When Emily says his name again, Mr. Walker’s eyes open. His pupils shrink tight, trying to adjust to the brightness, but he can’t seem to hold his focus.

And then he does. He licks his chapped lips and looks at the girl in front of him.

“Emily?”

He’s really awake.

Or was awake.

He’s out as suddenly as he woke, head drooped to the side and thin lips parted.

Emily keeps trying, but after a few groans and a few more slurred attempts at our names, he’s out cold.

“He’s still really druggy,” she says. “How long does Halcion last?”

“Like four hours,” Lucas says. “I can see it knocking him out but not keeping him out like this. My mom takes something else with it or she’ll wake up.”

“Then why use it at all?” I ask. “Seems like something else would be better.”

Lucas shrugs. “It’s strong. It’d knock him out. Maybe he was taking something else anyway. Or maybe whoever is doing this wanted him out longer and gave him something else.”

“He was taking pills when we woke up the first day,” I say. “For allergies, I think. But something prescription too, I thought.”

Emily nods. “If it’s a heavy-duty antihistamine, it might cause this kind of sedation, right? I mean, an over-the-counter allergy pill can knock me out cold.”

“Or whoever did this could have just given him a cocktail of sedatives,” Lucas says. “Or roofies. It’s probably a miracle he’s still breathing.” Lucas drops into a crouch, scoffing.

“Any ideas on how long a mix like that might last?”

“I think it should wear off if he doesn’t get more,” Emily says.

My head pulses with the promise of a ripping headache. “He was drugged last sometime before dawn, right? When the bear was there.”

“Yeah, and why the hell is that?” Jude asks.

Lucas tilts his head. “I’m not following.”

“I mean, I can’t figure out why Mr. Walker’s the only one getting drugged. Why are we being left alone now?”

“Because whatever crazy thing this is, it’s about us. He’s not part of it.” Emily tucks her hair behind her ears, her expression blank.

“He doesn’t have a word,” I say. I run my thumb beneath the Darling on my arm and look at Emily’s Damaged.

Jude tsks. “Since you brought it up, doesn’t it seem strange?”

Lucas brandishes his Dangerous. “Tell me the strange factor isn’t just occurring to you.”

“Yeah, but everything is about the four of us,” Jude says. “Why? What the hell do the four of us have in common? We might as well be strangers on a street.”

“We aren’t all strangers,” Emily says.

My gaze moves to Lucas, and he’s already watching me. I think of the first scene in The Phantom of the Opera—all those curtains pulling back, back, back. That’s what Lucas’s eyes do to me.

“But we really aren’t strangers,” I say. “We live in the same town, go to the same school. We obviously have things in common. Maybe we need to figure out what other things that includes.”

“Apparently, someone thinks we’re all messed up in some way,” Jude says. “Well, except you, princess.”

Lucas stands up. “All right, let’s think. Did the four of us ever share a class?”

We didn’t. We go down the line, offering every possible connection we can think of. Nothing matches. Not where we live, who we hang out with, where we’re thinking of going to college. There are connections but nothing that carries all the way through. Emily and Lucas frequent the Last Drop, but Jude and I hate coffee. Emily and Jude and I share Mr. Walker’s math class, but Lucas is on the other side of the school during that period.

The threat of a headache is culminating in a splintering throb behind my left eye. Please don’t be a migraine. Please. I lean back against the tree and try to take deep, slow breaths. Yoga breathing.

Mom’s face materializes in my mind’s eye, long black lashes and a wide, perfect smile. She’d position her mat across from mine and sit there like an older version of my own reflection. Mirror images of each other, she always said. She talked a lot about finding my balance and releasing negative energy. Of course, she didn’t seem to care about energy when she took off with Charlie, leaving a metric ton of negativity behind.