“Felix, I liked you even before I realized that I liked guys as a general concept. That part was a lot harder to accept, actually. If it had just been you, there would have been less pressure.”
Felix finally pulled back, looking flattered. “Really?”
“Really. I’m bi, but I’m also very much into you. Do you want to be with me? Or is this just an adrenaline thing? There’s a lot going on right now.”
“I want to be with you,” Felix said, the words tumbling over each other as they left his mouth.
“That’s settled, then.”
For one peaceful minute, Felix let Kasper kiss him, and then he pulled away to ask, “Can we tell the others?”
Kasper looked over his shoulder, where Rima was walking up behind them. “I think it would be hard not to.”
She let out a squeal. “You guys! Are you – is this…?”
Kasper couldn’t help the grin that broke out on his face. “It is.”
Felix made a tiny, embarrassed noise.
Rima gasped again. “I can’t believe this is finally happening. Felix! Oh my god! It only took you almost three decades of pining to get your man!”
“Three decades?” Kasper said, surprised, just as Felix said, “Shut UP, Rima!”
Rima’s eyes sparkled. “He’s been completely gone on you for the whole time I’ve known him. He used to stare at you in the dining hall while you ate your porridge.”
“Since we were alive?” Kasper asked, stunned. He wasn’t sure he’d even known what emotions were for back in freshers’ week.
“Since, like, freshers’ week.” Rima wasn’t about to let it go.
Felix, mortified, made claws of his fingers, dragging them down his face. “Rima,” he moaned. “Rima, stop, no.”
Kasper leant in and whispered in Felix’s ear, “I’m glad you waited for me.”
Felix melted against him.
“Are you two going to do this all day?” Leah called from Rima’s bedroom. “Because we’ve got a serial killer to deal with. We need to find Qi, so she can take Harriet down to the basement when we use the eyelid to subdue her. Do you, like, remember?” she added in a Valley-girl drawl.
“If that was supposed to be an impression of me, it is not accurate. I will not respond to it!” Rima yelled back.
“No rest for the wicked,” Felix said, ruefully.
“Don’t let Harriet hear you say that,” Kasper said. “Come on. Let’s work out what terrible things we’re going to have to do next.”
“What’s got into you lately, anyway? You’ve changed so much.”
He kissed Felix’s shoulder. “I’m just happy.”
Kasper wasn’t ever going to tell him about the fear thing, if he could help it.
HARRIET
“You killed my parents,” Harriet repeated, unable to believe it. Norma looked away from the basement door. “You mean you didn’t already know? I was sure that you’d guessed years ago. It seemed so obvious.” She sounded genuinely astonished.
“You put something in their food. You’ve – I know you’ve tried to do it to me, too. All those times I passed out after eating your cooking. You used to say that my body just needed a long nap, that I must be coming down with something, that I had a sensitive stomach. You were trying to murder me.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Harriet. It was nothing bad, just some natural herbal remedies. I was teaching you a lesson. You’ve never known how to behave yourself. What happened with your parents was an accident – it got out of hand, that’s all. I’m not a murderer.”
How had Harriet not seen this before? Had she really been so under her grandmother’s thumb that she hadn’t even recognized the abuse for what it was? Or did Harriet somehow, deep down, hate herself so much that she thought this was all she deserved?
Why had she ever wanted to go back to this woman’s house?
“An accident,” Harriet repeated. Her grandfather had died before she was even born. Hadn’t the circumstances been mysterious then, too? Some kind of problem with medication after surgery? What had he done to deserve that – threatened to leave as well?
“It might have been an accident the first time,” she continued. “But you’ve been doing it to everyone, for years and years. What about your husband?”
Norma shook her head. “You never listen. Just like your parents never listened. Like your grandfather. None of it would have needed to happen if you’d all just done as I told you.”
“Mum – Dad – they—”
“They knew,” she confirmed. “They tried to keep you as far away from me as possible. But they couldn’t keep their guard up all the time, I suppose. And then it was just me and you.”
Harriet took one furious step towards her. “You sadist.”
Harriet knew first-hand how easily power could turn into something worse. She’d inherited her dark desires from her grandmother, after all. Harriet had never known anything else. She had reflected that back on Rima and the others, because that’s what she had always been taught.
Norma grabbed her chin. Her voice was hard, unamused. “Where did you think you got it from? Did you really think that you were an original?”
Harriet could let this go. It would be easier to forget about it, to keep the peace and save her last remaining family bond. But she was going to spend eternity being tortured by this woman.
Harriet spat in her eye.
Norma froze, and then carefully wiped it away. She pinched Harriet’s cheek with a sharp finger and thumb. “Don’t pretend any of this comes as a surprise, young lady.”
Harriet gasped. It wasn’t just a pinch this time. Now, Norma was pulling the energy out of her. She was leaching it through her fingertips.
“No—” Harriet tried to tear away, but she couldn’t make herself move. Even now that she knew the truth, Harriet was the same person who’d spent her whole life trying desperately, hopelessly, to please her granny. She still loved her.
How did her gran even know how to do this? She’d only died a few hours before, and now she was stealing energy? None of this could really be happening.
“I hate you,” Harriet said through clenched teeth. “My parents hated you, and so did your husband. We were all willing to die to get away from you. Nothing you do will keep me here with you. I’d rather walk outside and disintegrate right now than spend eternity with you, I swear on it.”
Norma’s eyes blazed with rage. She went completely still, and then lunged forward and bit into Harriet’s neck.
The pain spurred Harriet into action. She wrestled her, breaking free and sprinting for the stairs. But Norma had the energy of a fresh young ghost, not an elderly woman. Before Harriet could make it across the foyer, Norma leapt on her back and pinned her to the ground.
She squirmed, pushing a dizzying kaleidoscope of emotions into Norma – pain, anger, sadness, lust, grief, one after the other. Norma just gritted her teeth, and bent Harriet’s head backwards. A bone at the top of her spine snapped.
“Give it to me,” she crooned. “That’s a good girl. You’ve collected so much energy for me, haven’t you? Now let it all go.”