Part 8.3

Sophie was deep in thought at the table, her arms folded. Under the table, Echo lay drawing. Sophie could hear her pencil as it moved across a page in Echo's new notebook. Abigail and Isabel could be seen through the door to the library. Lila sat in one corner, turning the pages in a very thick volume, muttering to herself every once in a while.

Sophie turned to the younger girl and said abruptly, “Where’s Cheyne?”

Lila replied without looking up, “I haven’t seen Cheyne. Nor do I wish to.”

Sophie retorted, “We’re all here, in here, all the time. How can we go without seeing one another?”

Lila glance at her with a look of contempt. “Don’t be stupid. You know how.”

Sophie shook her head. “No. How could she get out without any of us knowing about it?”

Lila shrugged, turning back to her book. “Somebody knows about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said it yourself. We’re all here, in here, all the time. Somebody has to know something. Now, could you please stop talking to me? I’m trying to read.”

Not bothering to apologize, Sophie got up from the table and crossed the room to the library door. She cleared her throat. Both Abigail and Isabel looked up from their books.

“Do either of you know where Cheyne is?” Abigail shrugged. Isabel shook her head.

Somewhere back in the hallway, a door slammed. Sophie stood in the center of the room, her arms folded again, waiting for Cheyne. Cheyne never failed to disappoint. She fell, more than walked, through the doorway into the room. Stumbled to Sophie and grasped her shoulders, holding herself up. She was laughing. Her arms were streaked with blood.

“Where have you been?” demanded Sophie.

“Out,” said Cheyne, still holding onto Sophie’s shoulders.

“Out where?”

“Outside,” replied Cheyne, looking up into Sophie’s eyes, her blue hair awry and falling into her face. Sophie grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her.

“We can’t go out.” Sophie said angrily. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Cheyne wrenched her arms free and pushed away from the older girl. She walked past Sophie and leaned against the wall. “Out,” she laughed. “Out out out out out.”

Sophie heard Echo’s pencil stop. She rounded on Cheyne. “Do you want to kill us all?” she shouted. “We can’t go OUT!”

Cheyne stopped laughing. But her shoulders were still shaking as if she were.

“Well?” challenged Sophie. She could see Abigail and Isabel standing in the library door, watching.

“Yes,” whispered Cheyne. She put both hands against the wall before her and then slid down to the floor, leaving two red streaks that gleamed like exclamation points.

“Yes?” Sophie prodded. “Yes, what?”

“Yes,” said Cheyne again. “Yes. Yes. YES!” She ended in a scream. Sophie saw Abigail put her hands over her ears. Isabel’s mouth was hanging open.

“Yes, WHAT?” Sophie shouted back.

For a moment Cheyne didn’t reply. She lay in a heap against the wall. When she spoke at last, her voice was muffled. “Yes. I want to kill us all.”

Sophie looked at Isabel, who shook her head. Lila turned her eyes from her book with a frown. Abigail had tears on her face. Echo, still under the table, couldn’t be seen.

“Well,” Sophie’s voice was hard. “At least we’re all on the same page now.”