Tremble (Denazen #3)(16)
“And if someone is inside?”
He shrugged and shuffled down the drive. “We’ll deal.”
The door opened with a shrill squeal, gears in desperate need of oiling announcing our presence like a fire siren in a library. There were no cars in the garage, but it wasn’t empty. On the far wall there was a series of shelves, each stacked with cardboard boxes of varying sizes and colors. Some were labeled in black marker, noting kitchen or bedroom, others said living room—one simply had a smiley face with its tongue sticking out.
On the floor against the walls were various types of yard equipment. A lawn mower, weed wacker, shovels, and other assorted gardening tools. Pretty much your typical variety of garage inhabitants.
Typical…except for the blond girl hanging from the door track in the middle of the room.
“Shit,” Alex cursed, taking two steps inside.
I turned away, not wanting to see the vacant, dead look in the girl’s sallow eyes, but it was too late. I’d seen it—and it was something I’d never forget. “We can’t just leave her like this. You have your cell?”
He hesitated, looking from the girl to me, then back again. “It’s in the car.”
“I’ll wait here. Go call Ginger. See what she wants us to do.”
He stepped in front of me, strong hands latching onto my shoulders and holding tight. “We knew we weren’t going to get them all, Dez. Why don’t I wait here and you go back to the—”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, pulling away. I didn’t need to be babied. He should know that. “Just go call Ginger. I’ll be out in a sec. I just—I just need a minute alone.”
He hesitated but knew better than to argue. With one last look, he ducked back under the door, leaving Conny and me alone.
One dead Supremacy girl to another.
“I’m sorry we didn’t get here in time,” I said, turning back to face her. Whoever she’d been, she deserved that much. I didn’t know if she’d done this herself or if someone helped her to her end, but either way, this wasn’t her fault.
She had short blond hair and a pixie-like face, and I found myself imagining what her laugh might have sounded like and what kind of jokes she thought were funny. Her eyes, wide and unseeing, were a vibrant green. Had she been the popular girl? The loner? Maybe she was the quiet, artistic type with a small, close circle of friends that had been together since kindergarten. The kind who expected to grow up and old together, neighbors until they were wrinkled and gray.
That would never happen now.
I dragged over a large crate, climbed up so we were eye level, and ran my hand along her forehead and over her eyelids to close them. She was ice cold, indicating she’d been like this a while. Even if we’d gotten here sooner, she probably would have been gone already. “Whoever you were, you didn’t deserve this. None of us do…”
I heard the door connecting the garage to the house open as I stepped down from the crate. “She can’t hear you.”
Kale.
I didn’t bother turning around. Looking in his eyes would only make this ten times harder than speaking the words. “Did you do this?”
His footsteps echoed against the concrete, the sound bouncing off the garage walls as he came around to stand between Conny and me. “No.”
Today Kale was dressed in black jeans and a dark purple T-shirt. He was wearing a leather jacket and for some reason, the sight of him almost sent me into hysterical giggles. I’d seen Kale in a leather jacket once. For the costume party at Sumrun. It was a good look for him, but now it looked wrong. So out of place…
I knew I should be afraid of him after what I’d seen at the Nix rave, but the idea that Kale could—would—hurt me seemed so absurd. Even now, with his movements stiff and expression so cold. “But you came here to kill her?”
“If the opportunity presented itself, I was supposed to take her out. Obviously I wasn’t needed.” His tone was neutral. Not angry or aggressive. If one were to ignore the actual words, someone would simply see two people casually talking.
“And how many have you killed so far?” I took a deep breath. “How many innocent lives have you taken?”
“The Supremacy experiments are not innocent.”
And that’s where my control started to slip. “Do you even hear yourself? They’re people, Kale. Not experiments.” There was a lump forming in my throat. The guy in front of me was wearing Kale’s face. He had Kale’s voice and his amazing blue eyes, but everything else was alien. “This isn’t you.”
“How do you know?” He stepped forward. There was something in his eyes that screamed of eerie familiarity. Something dark that reminded me of the day we first met. Kiernan and Samsen attacked us at the amusement park. Kale tried to hide it, ashamed over his lack of regret for Samsen’s fate, but that look was in his eyes again. Back then, I’d seen it—and hadn’t cared. I had a fairly good idea what he went through at Denazen—feeling anger and wanting revenge was only natural. But now? It scared me because the good parts of Kale seemed to be buried and I wondered what that left exposed.
“I know more about the real you than you do,” I whispered. A spark of boldness washed through me and I stepped forward. Closer to him. Closer to danger. “They’re lying to you. Everything they’ve filled your head with isn’t real.”