Paying the Piper

Eleven: Human or Otherwise

At six in the morning on Sunday, my phone woke me up.

Jolted out of sleep, I reached for my phone out of instinct, trying to make the noise stop. I jammed my whole palm at my touchscreen, and when the ringing stopped, I settled back into the covers, already half-sleep.

"Hello? Faye?"

I jerked. "Wh—?" When I saw the light coming from my phone screen, I realized I must have answered a call instead of silencing my alarm clock.

"Hello?"

"Faye, I'm so glad you're all right!"

Hannah. Sitting up in bed, I tried to wake up my brain enough to remember recent events, especially the lies that certain people needed to be told.

"Thanks. Sorry I didn't call you yet..."

"Oh, it's okay, I'm sure you've had a lot to deal with. Did you have to talk to the police?"

Just remembering their direct stares and pointed questions made my back tense. "Yeah. Not fun." Slumping lower into the bed, I stifled a sigh. Across the room, I caught the gaze of my old stuffed bear. He was the one tattered stuffed animal I hadn't gotten rid of yet. We'd been inseparable when I was younger. Some kids attach to blankets, but I had attached to my bear. Mom said I often couldn't sleep without it, and Dad swore I used the bear's name, "Kale," to comfort myself to sleep, murmuring his name over and over.

"Well, what happened, anyway? You got lost in the woods?"

Already, my lie felt elusive and wispy in my brain. What exactly had Ryland and I decided was the best way to explain my lost time? I pulled tiny threads free of the mess of my mind. "Yeah, those woods are huge. I got turned around and slipped and fell at one point. I wasn't even sure what day it was when I finally found my way out."

My heart beat as if I had just run a lap around the track. But a moment of pride surrounded me as I recalled the words of the lie—it wasn't even a very difficult lie, so I knew I'd fail miserably at anything bigger.

"Did you get hurt?"

I padded over and retrieved my stuffed bear. "No, not really. They checked me over, but I'm fine. Unlike the body I found." Looking down at Kale's black glass eyes, I wished his fuzzy presence offered the same consolation it had when I was seven.

As I continued talking and watching my words with Hannah, I realized there was only one person I wanted to spend time with because he was the only one who knew the truth.

Scratch that. I had momentarily forgotten about Cale. I sat up, suddenly eager to turn the tables and question Hannah.

"Say, do you know someone named Cale? Callen? Strange guy with two-toned hair, silver and black? I thought he would've gone to our school, but I haven't seen him."

"Gayle?"

"No, KAYL."

"Never heard of him. Where'd you meet him?" Before I could answer, she added, a smile obvious in her voice, "Why? You like him?"

"Hannah! Why is that always your first thought?" I flopped backward onto my bed, hating that my face burned even though I was alone.

"Because I'm sixteen, Mom would say. Because I have a case of teenager hormones, Rhia would say. Because I'm boy-crazy, Dad would say." Then she took a breath. Quietly, she added, "Because then I'd know for sure you didn't like Ryland."

And the silence that had befriended me for years betrayed me at last, as my hesitation was just long enough to echo with the cracks of a breaking heart. Did something in my previous actions make her think I might like him? I scanned over our past interactions, but I couldn't figure how she could have thought such a thing.