Page 50 of The Executioners Three
I’m fine. Mrs. Ferris is in the hospital. In quick, broad details, Freddie relayed what had happened. What she didnotrelay were the Very Strange things Mrs. Ferris had said right before she’d been attacked.
Nor did Freddie relay the guilt that was eating her alive. Maybe if she’d stayed—if she’d justtackledMrs. Ferris and forced her to go back home… Maybe the old woman would be safe right now.
And whileyes,Mrs. Ferris had survived whatever had attacked her, that was entirely thanks to modern medicine. Not Freddie. Even dream-Freddie had been more interested in making out with Theo than saving his grandmother.
Freddie knew, deep in her rumbling, roiling gut, that what had happened washerfault. Modern medicine could only do so much for an eighty-seven-year-old woman, and if Mrs. Ferris died…
No. Freddie would make this right. Somehow. She would get answers. She would figure out why deadly things kept happening in the City-on-the-Berme county park.
The truth was out there.
Halfway through class (after neither Freddie nor Divya had taken any notes), Zach Gilroy raised his hand and asked, “Does anyone else smell that?”
At once, everyone’s noses lifted. And yes, Freddiedidsmell something like rotting fish. She and Divya shared a glance. Divya looked frightened; Freddie felt sick.
“That smells like the archives,” Divya whispered.
“Yeah,” Freddie agreed, and she couldn’t help but glance at the fluorescent lights, expecting them to snap off at any moment. She swallowed, waiting. Waiting.
“I think it’s getting worse!” This came from Todd Raskin, who was now popping the cap off his inhaler.
“It isdefinitelygetting worse,” Carly Zhang replied.
Divya huddled close to Freddie. “What does your gut say?”
“Nothing,” Freddie admitted, her gaze still target-locked on the lights. And while Divya relaxed at this news, Freddie did not. Not because she didn’t trust her own gut…
But because why did she keep encountering this awful stench? Bowman had mentioned roadkill, and that would certainly explain the rotting death stink from the forest. And maybe from the archives too.
It would not, however, explain the stench right now in trigonometry.
The heat began to rise. Not just a low-key warming either, but a frogs-in-boiling-water kind of elevation.
“Stay here,” Mr. Gonzalez wheezed before ducking into the hall.
No one stayed. It stankso badlyand the room wasso hot. After fiveminutes, everyone had stripped down to their lowest possible clothing items. Then Zack started vomiting into the trash bin, and everyone got up and bolted. Including Freddie and Divya.
They found the hallway outside already packed—and alsojustas hot andjustas foul. Which was why all the students and teachers were charging for the exits. A vast parade of bodies trying very hard not to retch.
Right as Freddie and Divya toppled outside and blessedly fresh air poured over them, the intercom crackled to life.
“Attention Berm High,” Principal Tamura intoned. “There has been an issue with the furnace, and… it would seem…” Her voice choked, like she was trying to contain a gag reflex. “It would seem dead fish have been stuffed into the air ducts. Please note, school is now canceled for the remainder of the day.Go home.”
“Dead fish,” Divya hissed at the blue sky. Then again at Freddie: “Thank god. It was just dead fish. Maybe that was what we smelled at the archives too?”
“I don’t think so,” Freddie murmured. Clearly dead fish in the furnace was why Theo Porter had needed Mr. Binder’s key to the school. And clearly they had succeeded with their wicked plot.
“Well, if this is what Fortin Prep considers a prank,” Divya declared, giving a happy hip shimmy, “then they are terrible at it.”
Or ingenious,Freddie thought as she counted six separate students hurling onto the grass—and four teachers too.
Divya’s phone rang, and while she answered it, Freddie examined her own phone:10:03, the screen read—which meant she hadhoursduring which to accomplish her rapidly expanding to-do list. Now that she’d sucked it up and combed through her dad’s stash in the basement, she wanted to go to the library to dig up more newspaper articles.
Andalso,while she was out, Freddie really wanted to hit up the hospital and check on Mrs. Ferris. Then there was still the fact that Sheriff Bowman hadn’t returned Xena as promised—a truly unforgivable travesty.
Yeah, school getting canceled was actually a huge gift, and Freddie wondered if she might get a chance to thank Theo for it… She wonderedhowshe might thank him for it…
As Divya finished her call, she glanced at Freddie. ThenbehindFreddie. “Dr. Born. Ten o’clock.” She grabbed hold of Freddie’s wrist.
