Wilder Girls(64)

“I know what it does.” I wait for her to tell us, but she stands up quickly and brushes off her slacks. “Get inside.”

Julia looks at me, baffled. “What are we gonna do about—”

“I said get inside.” Headmistress is veiled with a deadly sort of calm. “Send Taylor out to me. And not a word to anyone. And, Hetty, I’ll have those keys.”

“Okay.” I drop them into her outstretched palm, and then I’m hurrying away from her. Julia’s not far behind. I snag Carson’s sleeve as we pass. Together the three of us move quickly up the walk, file through the double doors.

We forgot. Or at least, I tried to. About the girls who would be waiting for us. They’re clustered in groups around the main hall, and as the doors shut behind us, they fall quiet, the easy hum and chatter dying down. I remember that feeling. The excitement, the hunger gnawing bone-deep. And the dread too. The worry that one day there won’t be enough.

   Well, today they’re right.

I look to Julia. Don’t pass this weight to me. I can’t bear it.

“Food’s in the kitchen,” she says. “Gotta make do with what we have.”

Nobody moves. I’m not sure if anybody believes her. Julia isn’t exactly known for her sense of humor, and we’ve had a lot happen to us, but I can see girls start to smile nervously. One of the youngest ones in the corner giggles before she’s hushed by her friends.

“Well?” Julia says, her voice filed sharp. “I’m not your goddamn waiter.”

There’s a flurry of movement as girls get up and head for the kitchen, to claim food for their circle just like always. Except now there’s no Welch to claim it from, and Reese isn’t here waiting for me.

I take the pistol from my waistband, push it into Julia’s hands, and go upstairs, back to my room. Stretch out on my bunk. Try not to see Welch’s body when I close my eye.





CHAPTER 19


Dinner here and gone, evening coming in. It feels like years since Reese and I snuck out to follow Welch. But it’s only been a day. A day, and everything’s fallen even farther apart.

If Byatt were here, I keep thinking. She’d know how to fix it. She’d know what to do to make it right. But she’s farther away than ever. Welch dead, answers slipping out of reach.

It’s late, now. Nearing morning. I thought maybe Reese would sneak back in once she thought I was asleep, but nothing. Just silence in the hallways, and the nightmare sounds we’re used to now—a scream here, a whimper there, and under it a girl crying herself back to sleep.

And then, faint and on the wind, a low, jagged moan. It comes in stuttering pulses, the sound so deep I can feel it in my body. I’ve never heard anything like it. Not machinery, not man. That sound came from the wild.

   I get up, go to the window. The light is blue and rising, but from my window, all I can see is the courtyard and the north wing of the house. Nobody else is stirring. The whole house is quiet. Probably just something out in the woods, then. Or maybe I imagined it.

But I didn’t. It comes again a minute later. Clearer, longer, with an echo to it, a space inside.

Somebody else has to have heard it by now, so I head for the door and step out into the hallway. It takes a bit for my eye to adjust, and at first I think I’m alone. And then, farther down the hall. Reese, her hair creating strange shadows.

“Oh,” I say. I haven’t seen her since we ended things. She looks like she’s fine. Of course she does.

Reese doesn’t answer. She has her head cocked, and when I open my mouth to say something else, she holds up her hand. She’s taken off her sling, but from the pallor of her skin I can tell she’s still in pain.

That’s when we hear it a third time. Loud enough now that I can hear it trail off into a low growl. Whatever this animal is, it must be close.

“Should we get Headmistress?” I ask.

She won’t meet my gaze, but she sounds normal when she says, “Not sure.”

We haven’t seen Headmistress since this afternoon, when Julia, Carson, and I got back. She must be dealing with whatever’s in the canister, dealing with losing Welch.

Cat pokes her head out from her room near the mouth of the hallway, Lindsay lingering in the shadows behind her. “Hey. You guys heard it too?”

   “Yeah,” I say.

“What is that?” She rubs sleep from her eyes. “Has anybody heard from Gun Shift?”

I come farther out into the hall. “Nothing yet.”

“Some kind of animal. I think,” Reese says, and then she breaks off, nods toward the mezzanine overlooking the main hall. “Let’s take a look.”

We walk together, Cat and Reese ahead, me trailing behind with Lindsay. Lindsay’s watching me, I can feel it—she must know something’s wrong, with Reese sleeping all the way down the hall, but luckily, she doesn’t say anything. I don’t think I could stand it.

Across the mezzanine, and down the stairs. Ali’s on guard at the door.

“Hey,” she says when she sees us coming, her face relieved. “What’s that sound?”

“We were gonna go take a look,” Reese says. “It’s coming from outside, over that direction.” She points to the south corridor, toward Headmistress’s corner office. “You want to come?”