We Shall Be Monsters Read online

  He set the ball on the desk. “Anika, I enjoyed this chat, but I’m a busy man. Can we continue this another time?”

  “Tomorrow, after school. I’ll head right over.”

  Dravovitch was a terrible father and awful human, but he was brilliant and savvy. He created a highly successful laboratory and business, was a tremendous scientist, and discovered the secret to eternal life. Perhaps he would take over the world someday.

  Dravovitch flashed his pearly teeth. “Yes. I’d like that.”

  Anika smiled. If things had been different, if she hadn’t been the one being discarded like medical waste, maybe he would have convinced her to join him. Could she have worked by his side as he did great and terrible things? Would she have become that person? She honestly didn’t know. “Tomorrow then.”

  Anika left her bag open and walked to his shelf. From the layout of the lab she’d drawn up, including the secret lair underneath, she was fairly confident that the door to the elevator was accessible from this room. Perhaps something opened up, like the bookshelf. She fiddled with a snow globe.

  “We both know the truth,” she said.

  “Oh?” He stood up. “Please enlighten me.”

  Crap. She went too far. Abort. Abort. “Um, I…you work too much.”

  He sat on the edge of his desk and picked up the purple dog. “That is truth. I…well, I never thanked you for bringing George home. Even though I was upset you lied and put yourself in jeopardy, I was grateful.”

  “I never intended to deceive you.”

  Her father raised his eyebrow. Great, Anika, don’t get cocky. Don’t blow it now.

  “I didn’t tell you things, sure, but you weren’t around, so I didn’t have a chance to let you know I was going to do something ridiculously dangerous.”

  He chuckled. “Please tell me you’re going to play it safe for a little while.”

  “Dad. Seriously?”

  “What?”

  “I can’t promise you that. Your town isn’t somewhere one can sit idly by, waiting for good news to knock at the door.”

  He tossed the plush dog into her backpack. “Perhaps you’re right.”

  “Perhaps?”

  Her father collected the other toys from his desk and tossed them in her backpack. “I’ll redouble my efforts to keep you safe.”

  Great. That’s not what she wanted at all. “It’s not me I’m worried about. I want you to keep everyone safe.”

  “I shall make it a priority.”

  “And what about George? Are you going to kill him? Corky seemed to think so.”

  His lips curled up at the name. Did he know her then? Likely.

  “I may have to end his misery,” he said. “It’s not fair to him to keep him around as he is.”

  “Think about using my blood, okay? I think something is odd about it. Margery says that I’m special. Maybe that’s what I was born to do, you know, to help people.”

  Lay it on thick, Anika.

  He handed Anika her backpack. “No doubts about that.”

  Dad of the flunking year. Anika’s heart leaped in her chest. On the desk, right in the open center, lay the neon-green jelly shoe. Could he have missed it? Anika reached around him and picked it up. Dravovitch’s eyes narrowed.

  She held up her hand, the shoe resting on her palm. “It’s nothing, see.”

  He stared at her hand. “You’re a strange child.”

  She dropped the shoe, and it bounced silently on the carpet. Her father didn’t react at all. Anika picked up the shoe again. “Dad, I think you passed the test.”

  “Oh.”

  “When are you going to make me pancakes?”

  He returned to his seat. “Soon.”

  Anika skipped out of his office. “See you tomorrow.”

  Misty eased Esposito down the steps to the garage, his smelly armpit way too close to her face. Pansy Bolton, at the other armpit, grunted under his weight. Akwete hefted Esposito’s backside by his back pockets. Billie sat on the hood of her bright yellow Volkswagen bug, in the dent, twirling the keys around her finger.

  “I don’t see why I need a blindfold.” Esposito’s legs buckled underneath him, but the girls managed to keep him upright.

  “We’re protecting the people who kept you alive,” Misty said. “Part of the deal.”

  “I want to thank them.” He winced. “Not hurt them.”

  They maneuvered him to the open passenger side door.

  Bolton furrowed her plucked eyebrows. “It’s not that we don’t trust you…”

  Billie slid off the hood and helped Akwete swing his backside into the car. “We don’t trust you.”

  He collapsed into the back seat with a grunt and a long moan. Plastic covered the upholstery and floor. Misty peered inside. Plastic covered the ceiling, too. She scrunched up her nose. This wasn’t the business she’d signed up for.

  “The girls are taking you to a hospital.” Bolton fastened his seatbelt and closed the door. “Hang on a little longer.”

  Billie tossed Misty her keys. “I’m not sure she’ll ever be mine again, but take good care of her anyway, okay?”

  Misty opened the front door. “I’m not making any promises.”

  “You’re kind of like the runt of the litter,” Billie patted her shoulder, a huge grin on her face. “But I like you best.”

  “Thanks.” Misty pushed her away, affectionately. “Sidekick.”

  “Hey,” Billie said. “No need to be rude.”

  “Girls!” Bolton stood with a hand on her hip. “Can we get on with it?”

  “Fine.” Misty got in the driver’s seat. “Galaxy Trucker tonight?”

  “Can we play Catan?” Billie asked.

  “Just cause you hate losing.”

  “Truth.”

  “This is crazy.” Bolton ran her hands through her perfect hair. How did she get great locks? Anika got the short, split ends out of that deal.

  Misty waved as she pulled out of the garage and into the road. She took a deep breath, angled the rearview mirror so she could keep an eye on Esposito, and drove. She felt sorry for him, for what was coming. He seemed too kind to be a monster. Perhaps those were the most dangerous.

  “Why don’t you take me to the lab?” he asked. “They can fix me up there.”

  Misty didn’t answer. He grumbled as they passed the “Leaving Moreau” sign and sped out of town. Misty flicked on the radio and tapped the steering wheel with her thumbs. Esposito pulled off the blindfold. “What hospital are you taking me to?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Can I make a phone call?”

  “No.” She kept one hand on the wheel and leaned over to the glove box, pulling out a thin nightstick. She doubted he’d have the energy to attack her, but she wasn’t going to take any chances.

  His raspy breathing turned into a fit of coughing. She handed him a box of tissues. Tissues? What were tissues going to do? He took a few and held them over his mouth. When the fit ended, he dropped the bloodied tissues to the floor and leaned his head against the seat.

  He didn’t move for the next twenty miles. She couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. Perhaps it would be better if he was dead.

  Misty pulled onto a side road in a lush swampy area.

  Esposito stared out the window. “We were never going to the hospital?”

  Misty stopped the car near a black SUV. “Nope.”

  He snarled. “This is a dangerous move.”

  Three women wearing all black clothing and ski masks got out of the vehicle. Misty got out and walked up to them. Gloria, which was the name they called Anika’s mother, reached into the back seat.

  “How’s he holding up?” One of Misty’s sisters, Missy, held out her hand for the keys.

  Misty kept the keys tight in her fist. “Not well.”

  Anika’s mom approached them and put a hand on Misty’s arm. “You don’t have to come. Let one of the others drive.”

  Misty grit her teeth. “I�
�m not the weak one.”

  Her sisters glanced at each other. “We know.”

  “I’m not going to stay behind while you go gallivanting around. That wasn’t the deal.”

  Gloria scratched at her ski mask. “This is going to get messy.”

  “Good.” Her sisters had experienced so much of the dangerous world Anika’s mother lived in every day. They had changed, drifted too far apart in their personality from Misty. She didn’t want to be the constant or the baseline. Not anymore. “I need to catch up.”

  Her sisters nodded and got back in the SUV.

  Misty stared at Gloria until she nodded and headed around the car. Misty got back in the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview mirror to see a little more of the backseat.

  Anika’s mom sat next to Esposito.

  Misty drove farther into the swamp.

  Gloria pulled off her mask, her long auburn hair spilled out around her bruised face. Her left eye was bulging and bloodshot. Her jaw was wired shut and her cheek was held together with staples.

  Esposito gasped, struggling to cross the back seat. Nowhere to go. He wheezed and gave up.

  “My old friend,” Gloria said. “Didn’t you miss me?”

  His wide eyes examined her as he pressed his back to the door. “Get away from me.”

  “That’s no way to get reacquainted. The last time we met, you were so friendly.”

  Esposito struggled for breath. “That was a long time ago.”

  “For me, yes.” She leaned closer. “But for you it’s like yesterday. Isn’t it?”

  “What do you want?”

  “Oh, I think you know.”

  “I’m not involved in his work. Not anymore. I had nothing to do with your daughter.”

  “Oh, I’m not worried about Anika. She’s doing fine.” Gloria held up a small dagger. “I want to know why Dravovitch has a butcher running a high school.”

  Esposito attacked.

  Anika’s mom deflected his arms and grabbed his face with her gloved hand. He collapsed back in his seat and groaned.

  Misty realized she’d been holding her breath and exhaled. She drove Billie’s car deeper into the swamp.

  Esposito whimpered. “I’m the principal.”

  She grabbed his injured arm, squeezing. “We both know that’s not true.”

  He grimaced, glancing at Misty, pleading with his swollen eyes. “Help me. She’s insane!”

  Misty’s heart raced. If a third of what Gloria had said about Esposito was true, then he deserved this fate. Anika needed all the information she could get about the lab and what was going on in the town. But Misty didn’t want to be judge, jury, or executioner.

  Gloria held out her hand.

  Misty picked up the flower-print pliers in the passenger side seat and handed them to Gloria. “Tell us what you know,” Misty said. “Choose the easy way.”

  Gloria held the pliers next to Esposito’s face. “I was telling Misty how proud you always were of your perfect teeth.”

  Esposito spat blood in her face. Some splattered on the rearview mirror.

  Gloria climbed on top of him, jabbing the pliers into his mouth. “What are you planning?”

  He screamed. The car shook as they struggled.

  Gloria sat back, a bloody tooth at the end of the pliers and a devilish grin on her scarred-up face. She deserved revenge, but she seemed to enjoy it a little more than necessary. Misty shivered. What did she get herself into?

  Esposito had passed out. Gloria was splattered with blood.

  Misty stopped the car and slammed it into park. “Did you do that for fun?”

  Gloria inspected the tooth. “Back in the day, Dravovitch liked to implant things in his minions’ teeth.”

  “Like what?”

  “Microchips or cyanide. When I ran away shortly after Anika was born, I had a tracker in one of my molars. So many close calls before we found it. Dravovitch has since moved on, finding too many of his associates without their teeth.”

  Misty nodded. “You’ve been at this a long time.”

  Gloria tucked the tooth into her pocket. “Finding the right tooth isn’t easy. Dravovitch’s oral surgeon was an artist. He told me which one to take out right before I killed him.”

  Misty turned back around, gripping the steering wheel to keep her hands from shaking. Gloria was as much a monster as anyone else. Now Misty wished she’d handed the keys over to her sister. “If Esposito won’t respond to torture, how are we going to break him?”

  “Easy.” Gloria opened the car door. “We leave him to die.”

  Misty got out and walked around the car. She’d parked next to a small pond, covered with a film of green moss. The road they were on led to an abandoned weather station. No one would ever come through here.

  Gloria got out and stepped toward Misty with a cloth in her hand. She pointed to Misty’s hair. “May I?”

  Misty reached for her hair and froze. Blood had splattered on everything else, of course it would be in her hair. A chill ran down her spine. “Please.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut as Gloria cleaned blood out of her hair. This was crazy. She wasn’t expecting…she hadn’t…she didn’t want this.

  Gloria glided away, stuffing the cloth in her back pocket. Her smile was terrifying. “Shall we?”

  What else could she do? Misty opened the back door. Maybe her sisters were right. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this business. They could be the hard ones. She could still live a peaceful life.

  But Anika needed her now more than ever. Hawking, Linh, Jackie, Yoko. They all needed her to be tough. Someone had to do the unpleasantness.

  Together, they heaved Esposito out of the car and dragged him over to the water.

  Misty stared into the pond.

  There. She spotted a pair of beady eyes studying them. If Anika was correct, the alligator was keeping tabs on them through every other alligators’ eyes. Misty had long given up on impossibilities—she being among them.

  Gloria splashed water in Esposito’s face. “Come on, dear. It’s time to tell us everything.”

  Esposito rolled onto his side, and his eyes widened as he stared into the pond. “Why are you doing this?”

  Gloria kneeled. “What are you planning to do with the children?”

  He shuddered as blood dripped from this mouth to the dirt. “I was protecting them.”

  Misty stumbled forward. This wasn’t right, but Esposito knew things that could help them. “Protecting us from what?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”

  Gloria pounced on him, fish-hooking her fingers into his mouth, holding him over the water. Blood splashed into the pond. Snot bubbled from his nose as he cried out.

  “Stop.” Misty yanked Gloria away from Esposito. “This is too much.”

  Gloria grabbed Misty and pulled her toward the car. She was a little ball of muscle, dragging Misty through the dirt. She leaned in and whispered, “This is how I survive. I don’t expect you to understand today, but I might be able to keep you alive until you do.”

  She pointed at Esposito, raising her voice. “I didn’t tell you everything he’s done. What he did to me would give you nightmares.”

  Esposito pushed himself up. “I’m sorry.”

  “Come on, dear.” Gloria patted her jacket pocket. “I have everything we need from him. The rest we can learn from his grandbabies.”

  Rage boiled out of Esposito as he tried to stand and failed. He tried to swear, but instead sputtered blood into the pond. Of course, he had family. This was a war of families.

  Misty stared at the gator in the pond and pointed at Esposito. “Him you can eat.”

  The alligator swam forward. Two other splashes in the water followed—two other gators swam toward him. Esposito whipped around, staring at the water. He tried to scoot away. “No. Please. You can’t leave me here.”

  Misty and Gloria got in the car. Esposito held out his hand, a final plea for mercy, as Misty backed th
e car down the road.

  Anika arrived in the morning to an empty school. She tried to flag Boulsour down, but he’d sped off the instant she got out of the car. Someone should have told her that school had been canceled.

  She got a text from Billie:

  Scooby meeting in cafeteria

  We gots planning to do, yo

  Bring donuts!

  Anika skipped into the building. With Pankina gone, Anika actually felt safe in the school, in spite of the eerie silence. The lights were off except for the hallway toward the cafeteria. She hustled to the doors and flung them open.

  “Surprise!” The entire school waited inside, and a wave of applause washed over her.

  Billie rushed her, grabbing Anika’s hands and pulling her inside. Her friends clapped, pointing at her—no doubt due to the dumb look on her face. Ms. Bolton and the other teachers applauded, too. The students cheered.

  Anika beamed.

  A huge sheet cake with yellow and white frosting lay on the table.

  People were swirling around her, slapping her on the back. Maybe she was swirling. Maybe it was a dream. Her stomach fluttered. Someone handed her a piece of cake—cream cheese frosting and raspberry filling—and it was delicious. She didn’t wake up.

  As they ate cake, Ms. Bolton introduced Vanderbleek as the new principal. He’d still teach chemistry in addition to his new duties.

  Vanderbleek gave Anika an award, an etched glass star with a wooden base. It read:

  Exemplary Performance Award

  Anika Dravovitch

  Did they know the real reason for the award? Did it matter? The students applauded again. Even the ones who hated her: the cheerleaders, the jocks. And B-14, her locker neighbor.

  Surreal.

  And then it was over. Everyone went back to class.

  Anika shuffled along, Misty on one arm and Billie on the other. They’d won. Faced death and lived another day. She didn’t blame them. For the party. But nothing had changed for her—Anika, the walking dead.

  Sasha patted her on the back. “One more day.”

  Anika skipped with Billie down the hall. That all depended on how today went.