Chapter 6
He walked with her back to town, and just as dark was setting in, they found their way to The Garden. Ember looked at the sign and sighed. The thought of drinking didn’t bother her anymore. She was beginning to look forward to it.
As they slid through the door, Ember saw Isaac nod to someone across the room. He was already halfway to the bar when Ember spotted Kaylee’s blonde head amidst a group of other girls at a table in the corner. She swung her arms, not sure if she was supposed to follow him or not, until her eyes wandered to the other side of the room.
Acton was sitting at a table alone, staring down at a book on the table, with one hand raised in the air. Just as she saw him, and without looking up, he motioned to her with his raised hand. Ember smiled in relief as she went over.
“You look lonely,” Acton said to his book.
“You haven’t even looked at me,” Ember said, taking the chair across from him.
Acton slowly closed his book, frowning. “I can see loneliness across a room, especially when it’s radiating from Miss Ember Gillespie in visible waves. How have you been?”
Ember had clenched her fists and blushed when he said her name, enunciating each syllable like he was using it as a curse. “I think that pretty well covers it, actually.”
A smile spread across his face as he took her in. “Then you’ve come to the right place. Welcome home.”
Ember smiled, leaning forward in her chair. “So you’re not trying to impress the new girl anymore? What happened to your coat?”
Three glasses slammed down on to the table, and Asher slid into the chair next to her.
“It was destroyed,” Asher grinned, “In an unfortunate gardening accident.”
“A gardening accident?”
Acton scowled. “It was ripped while I was climbing a tree.”
Ember turned back to him. “You climb trees?”
“He does when I’ve stolen, and then hidden, something of value to him in said tree,” Asher said, pulling a glass toward himself.
Ember laughed as Acton glowered. “What did you take?”
“Something he holds very dear,” Asher said with a self-satisfied grin.
“In any case, it doesn’t matter.” Acton cleared his throat. “You’re not wearing the coat I gave you, and that’s a far deeper insult. Did you get the books I left for you?”
The table went quiet. For a moment, Ember wasn’t sure who the question was directed at.
“Books?” she finally asked in a quiet voice.
“Books,” Acton repeated. “You came out yesterday for books, but we unfortunately left the bookstore without you having picked out any. After leaving The Garden last night, a sentimental mood caught me, and I left you a few of my favorites on your doorstep. Do you remember?”
Ember paused. She didn’t remember seeing any books when she left, but then, she had been upset at the time.
“Perhaps you should look for them when you go back,” Acton offered. “Of course, that won’t be until tomorrow, with any luck.”
She couldn’t help herself and smiled. “I will. Thanks.”
He smiled again, but Ember could tell that he was disappointed. She tried her best to remember, but she still couldn’t see the books on the stoop in her mind’s eye. She had a fantastic memory, and she had walked right out the front door. If there had been books there, she would have seen them.
Between the window that she had thought was unbroken one second and covered over the next, and now the books, she was beginning to feel like she was going a little crazy.
“Isaac seems to be having some luck tonight,” Asher said, looking across the room.
“He deserves it.” Acton replied back to him, taking a drink.
“What books were they?” Ember suddenly asked. Acton’s gaze slowly turned back to her as he set his glass back on the table.
“Two old collections of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies,” he said, shifting in his chair as if she had caught him off guard. “Also, a few of my old paperbacks. Asimov and Heinlein, mostly—just what I had stored in the back room. I felt badly that you almost got locked out, and didn’t even go back with what you came out for.”
Finally reaching for the last glass on the table, Ember thought over her response. Old paperbacks were important to their owners. “Thank you. Thank you very much, Acton. I’ll have to read them, and then maybe we can talk about them.”
“Or not.” Acton shrugged. “Books are personal. They’re not all worth talking about.”
“Science fiction is,” Ember insisted.
“You’re both boring,” Asher said, excusing himself from the table.
“You’re familiar with the authors,” Acton went on, paying him no attention. “Do you like the genre?”
“It’s okay,” Ember said, trying not to sound too excited.
Another slow smile graced Acton’s face. “I agree.”
His expression changed as he caught sight of someone behind her. As Acton sat up a little straighter, Ember twisted around in her seat.
“Ember, this is Joseph.” Acton said in a quieted voice, as though he were telling her a secret. “He’s new to the island, like you. He’s also exceptionally lonely, as you are.”
He was big, and the coat he wore, and his oily, shaggy, overgrown hair added a layer of padding that made him seem more like a bear than a human. His shoes had lost their laces, and he’d fitted them to stay on with straps of duct tape across their tops. That crude but effective solution coupled with the lacerations on his calloused hands made her believe he was either a fisher or a lumberjack.
However, it was his lips she had trouble looking away from. They were too red, and too small for his round face. They were like puckered children’s lips after eating a cherry ice pop. Lips like those had no business on a full grown man.
“Hi, Joseph,” she said with a quick smile, turning uncertainly back to Acton. He had a smug look on his face, and Ember wasn’t sure why he was introducing her to the stranger.
“Joseph needs some company, so he’ll be around some,” Acton explained.
Ember slowly turned back to look at Joseph. He still hadn’t responded to her greeting, and he was staring at Acton with a sort of disgruntled hatred that made Ember uneasy. She sank a little lower in her seat as she turned back to stare at the table.
“Excuse us, Joseph,” Acton said with a wave. “Asher’s around here somewhere. He’ll keep you entertained.”
Ember’s eyes darted up to look at Acton’s face as she heard Joseph shuffle away, and for the first time, she was conscious of the fact that she wasn’t sure if Acton was a trustworthy person.
“Who is he?” she asked, shaking her head as she leaned forward over the table. “He’s old.”
Acton leaned his chair back so that he could bring his ankle up to rest on his knee. He looked down his nose with half-closed eyes to assess Joseph’s back.
“What if I told you that the two of you had met before?” he asked. “Yesterday?”
“No, we didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. You just don’t remember.”
Ember paused, and felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. Acton was telling her a thing of wonder, but she didn’t think that she liked the look in his eye.
“How is that possible?”
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Em, just as I promised,” Acton raised his eyebrows, leaning in toward her further. “I like you too much as a toy. Your mother has some good reasons for not liking me, though, and my affliction is at the top of her list. I have a very special gift, one that your mother calls a curse, because I can control what other people do. And my friend Joseph,” he pointed, “he has a special gift, too. He can rewrite people’s memories. Unfortunately, our gifts only work on certain people. Mine doesn’t work on you…but Joseph’s does. And using my gift to control his, we’ve been having a lot of fun with you at your mother’s expense over the last two weeks. In any case, I’m sorry you m
issed the books. I didn’t mean to erase that bit. I guess I’ll have to try to put it back.”
Ember swallowed, feeling herself start to shake. She stood up from the table and started to look for an escape, but everyone else in the bar went about their business like they didn’t even notice. Acton didn’t even move.
“That’s not even possible,” she said in alarm, looking back at Acton in panic. “I don’t believe you. Why would you do that?”
“It’s just what we do for fun around here,” he said with a shrug. “You’ll get used to it. And I don’t care if you don’t believe me. You won’t remember any of this, anyways.”
When Ember woke up the next morning, she followed what had become her typical routine. She cursed the cold and kept her blankets wrapped around her shoulders until the water in the shower ran hot enough for her to step in. She dressed herself and did her hair, and then started down the stairs for breakfast. It wasn’t until the last step, when she tried to collect her thoughts to respond to the inevitable question about why she had been out so late, that she had the sudden and sinking realization that she couldn’t remember the last sixteen hours of her life.
As her foot hovered over the stair, she had another stark realization. She wasn’t hung over. Adrenaline flooded her veins as goose bumps rose on her flesh, and she sat down on the stairs.
She remembered yesterday morning, and the fight with her mother. She had left the house, and hiked for a while, and then run into Isaac, and they had gone to the bar. She had spoken with Acton about books, and a creepy old guy, and then…
Nothing.
She pressed her hands to her head, wondering if it was possible to get drunk enough to black out, and then not have a hangover. She was almost sure it wasn’t possible.
An expression of horror spread over her face as she realized that she didn’t even remember coming home. She hadn’t taken her key with her when she left—that much she was sure of—which meant that someone had let her in. It had probably been Gina, and Ember didn’t even remember it.
She jumped back to her feet and raced back up the stairs. She couldn’t face Gina without at least having some idea what had happened the night before. If she waited, the memories would come back—they had to.
But as she turned the corner at the top of the stairs to go back to her room, she ran into Thalia, coming out of her room to use the bathroom.
“Oh!” Ember exclaimed as they collided. “I am so sorry—excuse me!”
Thalia only raised a hand to wave her off with a mild smile. “No problem.”
But before either of them could shut their door, Ember stopped.
“Hey…” she said quietly. “Shouldn’t you be down at breakfast?”
Thalia looked confused for a moment, and then walked over to stand next to her sister. Her eyes were filled with fear as she leaned in to whisper. “Lunch was three hours ago. And you’re welcome—I still can’t believe you climbed the trellis and got through my window while you were drunk. Just don’t do it again. Mom would really freak out if she knew, so remember your key next time.”
Ember felt dread in the pit of her stomach as Thalia examined her with wide, innocent eyes before she turned and left her. It wasn’t possible; there was no way she could have done those things if she had been drinking. She had trouble walking if she had been drinking. And if she had come in late enough to sleep three hours past lunch without realizing it, it must have been an eventful night.
And she couldn’t remember any of it.
Like a robot, she went stiffly back to bed. She laid on her back, staring at the ceiling, begging her brain to bring back anything that would tell her what had happened.