“You destroyed them,” Rima said. She was clearly struggling to believe it.
“You told me that the Shells are close to disintegrating,” Harriet said. “It was inevitable. I hurried it along a bit, that’s all.” She was staring out of the window, watching a pigeon fluff its feathers on the sill. “It’s euthanasia, more than anything.”
“It’s murder,” Kasper said.
Harriet went very still.
“They only needed a bit of energy and they’d be just like the rest of us.” He had his head in his hands. “I told you that, when we went to find your phone. You can’t pretend you didn’t know.”
Harriet’s face twisted in a conflict of emotions. “It’s irrelevant now, anyway. I put them out of their misery.”
Felix was suddenly furious. Harriet was a liar. Nothing she was saying was true. She had never thought about anyone but herself, not once since she’d arrived.
“You made them disintegrate!” he shouted at Harriet. “That’s far worse than being a Shell. You can’t pretend that you did it for their sake, when all you’ve ever cared about is yourself!”
Harriet lunged at him, teeth bared and pure hatred in her eyes. Kasper was at Felix’s side in an instant, as Felix skittered back on his heels. He pushed Felix behind him as Leah leapt forward to block Harriet’s path.
Felix had a sudden vision of Harriet sending them all into comas. All she would need to do was touch them and she could knock them out, or take all their energy like she had with the Shells. He had to stop this before it got that far.
“Everyone, calm down. This isn’t productive,” he tried to say, but the air was so full of voices it was impossible to distinguish any words. Rima was yelling, and Harriet was hissing out threats, and Leah was muttering something ancient and lethal while Claudia wailed in her arms, and Kasper— Felix focused his attention on him; carefully attuned to his timbre after decades of practice.
“Harriet,” Kasper was pleading, “just stop. This isn’t like you. There’s something wrong. Someone’s—”
Felix brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a single piercing whistle. Immediately, there was silence. Rima sobbed.
Before Felix could speak, Kasper said, “Harriet, why didn’t you come to me if you needed help? Why did you go to the Tricksters instead? I thought we were—” He reached for her hands but she slipped her fingers out of his grasp.
“You thought what?” she said, calmer suddenly than she’d been throughout the whole conversation. “That we were going to be together for ever? This isn’t a love story, Kasper. You were a bit of fun. A means to an end.”
Kasper’s face crumpled. He took one step back, eyes begging her to take it back, to say it was all a mistake. He pressed the base of his palms against his eyes, hard enough that Felix saw his skin turning white. He inhaled, quick and devastated, and then dragged his hands down his face. When he opened his eyes again, they were glistening but resigned. “Right. Sorry. My mistake.”
“What happens now?” Rima asked, when nobody spoke. Harriet and Kasper were staring at each other. It was like picking at a scab – Felix couldn’t look away from them, even when it hurt.
Leah had her lips pressed to the side of Claudia’s cheek, rocking her back and forth reassuringly. She was glaring at Harriet with murderous intent.
“Look, there are obviously a lot of problems here that we need to address,” Harriet said.
“Problems that you created!” Felix yelled.
“Not just me!”
“YOU ALONE!” he repeated. “YOU.”
Before anyone could respond, someone walked through the door. Adrenaline made Felix jump in self-defence. To his surprise, it was Greg. He spent most of his time hunting rats while he waited for orders from the Tricksters.
“What do you want, Gregory?”
Greg smirked at him, wandering into the room. Felix took a step back, keeping carefully out of touching distance. You could never be too careful with Greg. He was a slimy person, always searching for the most profitable deals.
Harriet clearly didn’t know to avoid him, because she let him touch her wrist. “Harriet. It’s Rufus and Vini. They want to see you. They have something you need to hear.”
Chapter 13
HARRIET
As they walked down to the basement, Harriet listened to Greg’s chatter in a dreamy kind of calm. All of the fight had gone out of her as soon as he’d touched her. She was relieved to be leaving Rima and the others behind. She needed time to collect her thoughts before she carried on talking to them. Otherwise, she was likely to do something rash.
It was getting harder and harder to control her words, or focus on anything but the energy inside her. It was a miracle she could hold a conversation at all, when inside she was screaming.
She wished she’d left before Rima and the others had started asking her questions. She’d messed up. However much she had wanted to stay quiet, these horrible things kept tumbling out of her mouth, one after the other, until she was shouting at them. Their faces had grown more and more horrified the longer she’d talked and she hadn’t been able to find the right thing to say to fix it. They thought she was a monster. Harriet had ruined everything.
They wouldn’t help her any more. That was why she was so upset. It wasn’t because Rima would stop inviting her to sunbathe on the fire escape or celebrate Halloween with them. Harriet wiped a tear away from her cheek. Who cared if they hated her, anyway? They were nothing.
Besides, she’d got this new second power from the Shell. If she could control their feelings, she could force them to like her – or love her, even. They would be her friends whether they liked it or not.
Greg stopped outside the basement. “I’ll, er, catch up with you later,” he muttered. “Things to do, you know.”
“Yeah,” Harriet said, wondering what Rufus and Vini wanted to tell her. Did they have some new information for her? Maybe they’d found more Shells she could use, now she’d run through the supply on the fifth floor.
“See ya.” Greg bolted down the corridor. What was up with him?
Harriet stepped through the door, which lit up in that bright white light again. She was immediately pinned to the wall by Vini.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he spat in Harriet’s face, arm pressed up against her windpipe, so tightly he must be able to feel bone.
Harriet spluttered. What had she done? His lips were drawn back in a snarl, seconds away from ripping her cheek open with his teeth.
Behind him, the ghosts of the basement had stopped their game of pool to watch. Rufus strolled up to Harriet and hooked his finger under her right eyelid, pinching the flesh between his forefinger and thumb.
Her vision blew out, fear sending her blind with panic.
“Let go of her, Vini.” He spoke like mist.
Vini’s arm dropped from her throat. She held her head totally still, very aware of the fingers steadily holding her eyelid in place. The flat of his nail was touching her eyeball.
“What did I do?” she gasped. “I don’t know what this is about!”
Rufus dug his fingernails into her eyelid, squeezing until the skin tore and his fingers met. Harriet screamed. Nothing had ever been so painful. Blood began dripping into her eye.