“No time! We have to get out of here!”
Jon Jon nods and helps me up to my feet. I scream through gritted teeth, blood dripping into my sneaker, and hobble across the room. Piper coughs and I push her near the window. It’s a two-story drop, the back of the house a jungle of vines and trees.
“Easy now, little one,” Jon Jon says to Piper with a prideful smile, lifting her onto the windowsill. He pulls a nearby branch. “Grab hold of this.”
Following his thinking, I climb onto one of the lower branches, my ankle screaming as I scoot forward and hug the trunk of the tree mercifully. I can’t climb down, not like this. Piper makes her way to me and we sit side by side.
“Hold on,” I pant, wrapping an arm around her. “Don’t let go.”
Face covered in a thin sheen of sweat, Piper looks back up at the window.
“Come on, Jon Jon,” Piper says, reaching for him.
But Jon Jon shakes his head. Not in a petrified way; his face seems more resolved.
“What are you doing? Come on!”
He shakes his head again. And I know what he’s thinking.
“No,” I snap. “You’re coming with us! They’ll understand. We’ll help you!”
Suddenly, a bright white light flashes on Piper’s face and she flinches with a scream, nearly falling.
“Hang on!” I shout, gripping her arm as the flashlight pings between us.
“Hey!” a man’s voice yells from the ground. “Hey, y’all! There’s some kids back here!”
Jon Jon backs away from the window, staying hidden. He won’t come. If we go out together, they’ll catch him, and the way the mob is riled up, they may not turn him over to the police.
“Hide!” I whisper, clutching Piper. “You have to hide!”
His eyes toggle between Piper and me, before running into the blaze, skirting around the edge of the giant hole, back down the stairs.
“Jump, girls!” the man below shouts, the crowd now with him. “Jump! We’ll catch ya! Just jump!”
I take one more look through the window, catching a glimpse of Jon Jon, running toward the tunnel . . . his clothes on fire.
Twenty-Six
POP-POP IS THE one who answers our desperate knocks at the door. He eyes us through his trifocals, unmoved. Piper scoots behind me, burying her face.
We reek of smoke, our clothes covered in black ash. The bite on my shoulder is bleeding through and my ankle is a bloody mess. Down the street, a mob is setting fire to another house, cheering as it burns. I wrap an arm around a shivering Piper and raise my chin.
“May we come in? Please.”
Pop-Pop mutters and widens the door.
Quickly, I shove Piper inside and limp straight to the bathroom. Yeah, our house wasn’t on fire (yet), but I definitely didn’t feel safe staying there alone. Pop-Pop shuffles into the living room, slippers scratching the floor, TV on the local news.
“Shouldn’t be letting in strangers this time of night,” he grumbles, slumping into his chair. “It’s crazy out there right now. Bunch of hoodlums running the streets.”
I take my sneaker and sock off, remove Jon Jon’s makeshift bandage, and dip my ankle into the tub, turning on the faucet. Air whistles through my teeth as bright blood swirls down the drain.
Piper sits on the edge of the tub, watching me, her face pale, eyes glassy.
“I thought she was my friend,” she sniffs.
“Yeah,” I sigh, grabbing a wad of toilet paper to dab the cut. “I know.”
She glances down at her hands before her voice breaks. “Why doesn’t anybody like me?”
The sight of a bawling Piper crushes my heart.
“Piper, I like you,” I say, sitting beside her.
“No you don’t! You hate me,” she cries. “I should’ve died in that fire. Sammy and Buddy got hurt and it’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault. She tricked you. Why should you hurt yourself because of a . . . mistake?”
The words ring true. Even for myself.
“But I don’t have any friends.” She hiccups a sob.
“Well, I’m more than just your friend. I’m your sister. We’re sisters. Which means we gotta look out for each other. We both gotta do better now because it’s us against everybody. Okay?”
She nods softly, drying her eyes, then points to my ankle. “Grandma says you need to clean boo-boos so they don’t get dirty or you’ll get sick.”
I smile. “That’s very true. You want to help me?”
We rummage through the sink cabinet and find some rubbing alcohol. I bite down on my fist as I clean the wound, then Piper wraps a towel around it, taping it. No sense in trying to make it to a hospital. I pop three Tylenols and pray my foot doesn’t fall off by the morning.
Back in the living room, I sit Piper on the sofa with a blanket and grab two cups of water from the kitchen.
Exhausted, my ankle throbbing, I fall into the sofa, vaguely aware of the bedbugs laying eggs on my arms but too weak to fight them.
On the news, the Wood is like a war zone, houses engulfed in balls of fire. A helicopter circles overhead, zooming in on people throwing bricks and neighbors trying to put the fire on their roofs out with water hoses. Not a fire truck or police car in sight. The headline reads: “Riots in Maplewood.”
A newscaster says, “Devil’s Night has come early to the Maplewood area of Cedarville. . . .”
Exactly what the Foundation wanted.
“Is Daddy okay?” Piper asks, staring at the screen, gripping the blanket.
That’s a good question; no telling where Mom and Alec are in all this mess. I was supposed to call when . . . oh crap!
The phone is still on the floor of Yusef’s room. No service. Can’t even send a text and the last one received was from Tamara.
DUDE? Are you okay? Maplewood is burning!
“Shit,” I grumble, rubbing my temples, slumping back on the sofa. My shoulder hurts and my ankle is bleeding through the towel. I can’t move again, need to keep it elevated. One thing’s for sure, I won’t be running anywhere anytime soon.
“Animals,” Pop-Pop mutters, staring at the screen. “Don’t believe in the Lord.”
The look I give him could fry the remaining hairs off his head. They’re not animals, I want to snap, not just at him but at anyone who would listen. This is all a game! Why can’t anyone see that?
Maybe that’s it. Maybe they can’t see what the Foundation blocks the world from seeing. How can you see above it when you’re drowning in it? But that ends today. I’m going to make sure, if it’s the last thing I do, that everyone knows what happened here tonight and why. I’ll let people know the real deal about this place, tell the truth the media left out, scream it from every corner. I’ll share all Tamara’s research, publish my own book if I have to. I’m going to save our home, our city, from being taken over. My mission is fireproof and it feels good.
Change is good. Change is not always necessary. But the right change is most definitely needed.
“Did they catch that Jon Jon yet?” Pop-Pop asks without looking at us.
Piper tenses and I tap her leg, shaking my head discreetly.
“Nope,” I say to Pop-Pop. “Not yet.”