Lies

waiting for the cold-eyed mutant creep Caine to step out of the house any moment. “Kids. We are a family, right? And we stick together, right?”
    No one seemed too sure of that.
    “And we survive together, right?” Sanjit pressed.
    Long silence. Long stares.
    “That’s right,” Virtue said at last. “Don’t worry, you guys. It’s going to be okay.”
    He almost seemed to believe it.
    Sanjit wished he did.

    Astrid could feel the arteries and veins and tendons in Nerezza’s neck. She could feel the way the blood hammered trying to reach Nerezza’s brain. The way the muscles twisted.
    She felt Nerezza’s windpipe convulsing. Her entire body was jerking now, a wild spasm, organs frantic for oxygen, nerves twitching as Nerezza’s brain sent out frantic panic signals.
    Astrid’s hands squeezed. Her fingers dug in, like she was trying to form fists and Nerezza’s neck was just kind of in the way and if she just squeezed hard enough—
    “No!” Astrid gasped.
    She released. She stood up fast, backed away, stared inhorror at Nerezza as the girl choked and sucked air.
    They were almost alone in the plaza. Mary had led the littles away at a run, and it had signaled a full-fledged panic that drew almost everyone in her wake. Everyone was pelting toward the beach. Astrid saw their backs as they ran.
    And then she saw the unmistakable silhouette that sauntered after them.
    He might almost have been anyone, any tall, thin boy. If not for the whip that curled in the air and wrapped caressingly around his body and uncurled to snap and crack.
    Drake laughed.
    Nerezza sucked air. Little Pete stirred.
    Gunfire, a single loud round.
    The sun was setting out over the water. A red sunset.
    Astrid stepped over Nerezza and turned her brother over. He moaned. His eyes fluttered open. His hand was already reaching for the game player.
    Astrid picked it up. It was warm in her hand. A pleasurable sensation tingled her arm.
    Astrid grabbed the front of Little Pete’s shirt in her sore fist.
    “What is the game, Petey?” she demanded.
    She could see his eyes glaze over. The veil that separated Little Pete from the world around him.
    “No!” she screamed, her face inches from his. “Not this time. Tell me. Tell me!”
    Little Pete looked at her and met her gaze. Aware. But still, he said nothing.
    A waste of time demanding Little Pete use words. Words were her tool, not his. Astrid lowered her voice. “Petey. Show me. I know you have the power. Show me.”
    Little Pete’s eyes widened. Something clicked beneath that blank stare.
    The ground split open beneath Astrid. The dirt was a mouth. She cried out and fell, spinning downward, down a tunnel in mud lit by neon screams.

    Diana opened one eye. What she saw before her was a wooden surface. A spilled Cheerio was the closest recognizable object.
    Where was she?
    She closed her eye and asked herself that question again. Where am I?
    She’d had a horrible dream, full of gruesome detail. Violence. Starvation. Despair. In the dream she had done things she would never, ever do in real life.
    She opened her eyes again and tried to stand up. She fell backward a very, very long way. She barely felt the floor when it smacked her in the back of the head.
    Now she saw legs. Table legs, chair legs, the legs of a boy wearing frayed jeans and beyond the splayed, scarred legs of a girl in shorts. Both sets of legs were tied with rope.
    Someone was snoring. Someone too close. A snore from an unseen source.
    Bug. The name came to her. And with it the shock of knowing that she was not dreaming, had not dreamed.
    Better to close her eyes and pretend.
    But the girl, Penny, her legs strained against their ropes. Diana heard a moan.
    With clumsy hands Diana grabbed the chair and pulled herself up into a seated position. The urge to lie back down was almost irresistible. But hand over hand, and then numb foot over numb foot, Diana pulled herself back up and into the chair.
    Caine slept. Bug snored loudly and invisibly on the floor.
    Penny blinked at her. “They drugged us,” Penny said. She yawned.
    “Yeah,” Diana agreed.
    “They tied us up,” Penny said. “How did you get free?”
    Diana rubbed her wrists, as though she had been tied up. Why hadn’t Sanjit tied her? “Loose knots.”
    Penny’s head wobbled a little. Her eyes wouldn’t quite focus. “Caine’s going to kill ’em.”
    Diana nodded. She tried to think. Not easy in a brain still slowed by whatever drug Sanjit had