Page 21

Penny

EVEN NIGHTMARES CAN BECOME ROUTINE. THAT’S WHAT PENNY learns over the next few days, as she, Ron, and Naomi figure out a schedule for visiting Anita in the hospital. Penny is there every morning while Ron manages the café. They switch in the afternoons. If Penny can’t go back in the evenings, Naomi goes to the hospital instead, sometimes with her parents and twin sisters.

But Penny never gets used to it. Not really.

It’s been almost two weeks since Anita’s accident. During a slow afternoon at Horizon Café, Penny is standing behind the counter, staring off into space. That happens a lot these days. Sometimes Penny doesn’t even realize it—she’ll sit at green lights until the car behind her honks, or the cashier at the grocery store will have to politely tell her that her groceries are bagged and it’s time to pay. Penny’s mind is like a boat on messy currents; she can’t control where it goes.

The bell above the door jingles, and Alonso walks in for his cleaning shift, snapping Penny out of her latest mind trip. He nods at her in lieu of saying hello, and for once, Penny is grateful for his standoffishness. Forcing herself to act normal around the customers is hard enough; at least Alonso leaves her alone, preferring to mop the floors with noise-canceling headphones on, the music so loud Penny can always identify the song.

But today, when Alonso is about to leave, he says, “You look like shit.”

“Thanks.”

“I tell it like I see it.” He gestures vaguely toward the parking lot. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride home.”

“My car is here.”

“Leave it. You shouldn’t drive when your eyes are that puffy.”

There it is again—it’s like that moment at Corey’s party, when Alonso asked how her summer was going.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Alonso asks.

“Nothing.”

“Come on, what?”

“I don’t know!” Penny sighs. “Sometimes you’re really… nice.”

He grins. “Shocking, huh?”

“Kind of?” Penny wrings her hands. “That probably sounded mean, didn’t it?”

Alonso laughs, his voice husky. He’s wearing a loose tank top that probably had sleeves once, and his biceps flex as he pulls his messenger bag over his shoulder. “C’mon. Give me your bag.”

Penny clutches her purse to her chest in protest. Alonso shrugs and opens the door for her.

“So nice ,” Penny teases, and Alonso mutters something about not getting used to it.

Alonso’s car engine sounds like the lungs of an old smoker, which is good, because it gives Penny an excuse to stay quiet during the three-minute drive. When he pulls up to Penny’s house, she doesn’t get out.

Alonso raises an eyebrow. “You gonna accuse me of being nice again?”

“Actually, I have a question.”

Alonso considers her, eyes roving her face in a way that makes Penny want to look away. “So do I.”

“You first.”

“Why were you in the woods that day?”

Penny doesn’t have to ask what day he means. She fiddles with a loose thread on the hem of her skirt. “Because I found the cat.”

Alonso’s jaw drops. “ You found her?”

“She was in our backyard. We thought she got into a fight with an animal. I was going to bury her in the woods.” Penny can still see the kitten’s dead eyes.

Alonso drums his fingers on the steering wheel. “Her name is Nimble. She’s my familiar now.”

“Your familiar? Like a guardian?”

“Yeah. She’ll live a lot longer than the average cat, or the average human, which is cool. And sometimes she just… shows up. She has an Alonso beacon.”

“That’s incredible,” Penny says.

“And annoying.”

Penny swallows. “So you can bring dead things back to life.”

Alonso’s smile falls. He shifts his body so that he’s facing her—his fighting stance, Penny is learning. “I brought her back to life. That’s it. It wasn’t even on purpose.”

“But can’t you do the same thing for people?”

“No,” Alonso says immediately.

Penny’s heart drops. “But why not? We don’t know if we’ll be able to break the curse. If we can’t, I thought maybe you could—you know.”

Alonso squeezes the bridge of his nose. “When I brought Nimble back to life, I had to cross the Veil. That left a channel open to my body.” He leans closer. “Did you know poltergeists are real? They all hang out across the Veil, dreaming of the day they can hop into a living body again.”

“Which means…” Penny remembers the episode of Amityville High when a ghost took over Olivia’s body, and Francois had to use his poltergeist powers to banish it. “You could be possessed?”

“Exactly. And then I would’ve been stuck across the Veil with someone else piloting my corpse.”

Penny gasps. “Then you would’ve died?”

“Worse. Poltergeists are ghosts with grudges that keep them in the Second World forever. They’ve been reduced to bundles of powerful energy, and they spend all their time thinking about getting back to our world to get revenge on the living. There are way too many instances of poltergeists possessing witches and creating large-scale disasters. My mom made me read all about it… the start of World War I, a whole bunch of massacres across different countries, and even some of the most effective witch hunts in history were triggered by poltergeists possessing witches and fucking everything up. If I wasn’t a stupid kid when I found Nimble, I never would’ve brought her back. Who knows what could’ve happened.”

Alonso looks out the window, a vein throbbing at his temple. Penny tries to picture what would happen if the wrong kind of spirit possessed him—and got access to his magic.

“Your family could get hurt?” she says.

“Everyone in Idlewood could get hurt.” He looks at her. “Including you.”

Penny laughs. “Yeah, tragic.”

“Don’t even say that,” Alonso says, looking down at his hands. “I already cause enough problems. Don’t need to add ‘vessel for an evil spirit’ to that list.”

Penny clears her throat. “Sorry I asked.”

“It’s fine. But I’m not crossing the Veil again. Ever.”

They fall silent. Penny’s window is down, and a breeze rustles a necklace hanging from the rearview mirror. It’s a small silver charm, and in the center there’s a metal braid ending in three points. She wants to ask what it’s for, but she’s done enough damage for one day.

“Thanks for the ride,” Penny says, opening the door.

“Hey,” Alonso says, and Penny turns back to him. “I’m going to try my best. That’s all I can do.”

Penny nods. “At least we have the ward.”

Alonso’s brow furrows. “What ward?”

“The one my mom is wearing?”

Alonso’s jaw drops. “Your mom got a ward? How?”

“It belongs to the Barrions. Why? Is that bad news?”

“Get in the car,” Alonso says as he turns the key in the ignition.

Penny barely has time to get in and shut the door before Alonso pulls the car out of her driveway. She slides in the seat, grabbing the dashboard to keep herself in place.

“Where are we going?” Penny asks.

“The hospital.”

The engine roars as the Shelby’s tires screech down the road.