The Cupid War Read online

  “This hair looks dry,” the gorilla said, grabbing a handful of Trina’s hair. “Did you shower?”

  “I don’t have time, Miss Labonski,” Trina said. “I have to get to my next class.”

  “You know the rules,” the gym teacher said. “Back you go. Take your shower.”

  “But … ” Trina protested.

  “Go!” Miss Labonski barked, and Trina went back in.

  Fallon made a rude gesture at the gym teacher’s face, then turned and followed Trina.

  All the girls went silent as Trina re-entered the changing room. As soon as she reached her spot in the far corner, the hushed whispers continued.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Fallon told her.

  “Skip it,” she mumbled back. “It’s just high school.”

  The other girls finished changing and began filing out. Trina undressed slowly, waiting for the others to leave.

  “I’m gonna go,” Fallon told her. “I don’t want to embarrass you any further. I do need to talk to you, though. Can you meet me later?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Meet me after school.”

  “You got it,” Fallon said, and he left the changing room. He was halfway across the gym when he saw one of the other girls talking with a beefy jock in shorts and a T-shirt. More boys came from the changing room across the gym—clearly it was time for their Phys Ed class.

  Fallon approached the girl and boy. She’d been one of Trina’s tormentors and didn’t deserve what he was about to do, but Fallon needed more Love and this was too good to pass up. He put his hands into their hearts and felt mutual interest. Perfect. He zapped them both, and smiled when their eyes widened ever so slightly.

  “To the happy couple!” Fallon cried, raising a mock glass in a toast to the rest of the gym.

  Which was why he saw the black form slithering into the girls’ changing room.

  “Suicide!” Fallon cried, and charged after it. There was an already very miserable girl in the changing room.

  Fallon ran through the wall in time to see the Suicide enter the showers. Terrific, he thought, but he knew he could not stop.

  Trina was standing under a nozzle at the room’s far end. The Suicide made straight for her, and Trina spun around and covered up.

  She senses us, Fallon thought as he closed in on his prey.

  “Trina, it’s a Suicide!” he yelled. “Duck!”

  Trina ducked. The Suicide spun around and had just enough time to register surprise before Fallon plowed into it, driving it over Trina’s head and through the wall.

  He immediately realized his mistake. A physical attack on a Suicide was stupid; any contact with it would only harm himself. He could feel the cold hand of despair clutching his soul even as he shoved the dark creature away.

  They landed in the school’s main lobby on the other side of the wall. The Suicide regained its feet first; Fallon was slowed down by depression. The creature lunged for him, but Fallon got his hands up in time.

  “Back off!” he shouted, blasting the Suicide with a full burst of Love. The creature fell back and Fallon managed a smile. He was going to kick this thing’s ass!

  And then his Love ran out. Fallon felt the most intense hunger of his life and afterlife, even as his fingers stopped their barrage. He also felt exhausted, in no shape whatsoever to continue the fight.

  The Suicide, who had thrown its arms up in a defensive posture, lowered them slowly. Then it smiled.

  It knows, Fallon thought. And he turned to run.

  15

  Fallon ran across the school’s main foyer, the Suicide right behind him. His only hope was to get back to the Cupid Center, where the Suicide wouldn’t be able to follow. Then he could eat some Love and come back to kick its depression-sowing butt.

  If he made it back.

  Fallon raised his hand and was halfway through opening the portal when the Suicide caught him. He fell to the floor, the dark creature on his back, trying to fight it off. It was hopeless; for every second the Suicide remained attached to him, Fallon’s will slipped away. Deep sadness filled him, made him weak.

  I’m done, Fallon thought. He was dying a second time, and this time felt worse. He realized he’d gotten to like being a Cupid, even thought he was getting good at it. Now he’d never know how good he might have been …

  Something slammed into them, flinging both Fallon and the Suicide backward across the foyer. Fallon landed on his back and his head fell to the right, so he was able to see two Cupids running toward him.

  I’ve been rescued, he thought. Yay. Fallon thought he should be more excited, but the attack had left him emotionally numb.

  One of the Cupids leapt over Fallon and chased after the Suicide. The second one stopped and knelt at Fallon’s side. He recognized him; it was Owen, who he’d stolen from the last time a Suicide had attacked him.

  “Are you okay?” Owen asked, looking at Fallon closely. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “Hi, Owen,” Fallon replied without enthusiasm. “Thanks for the rescue.”

  “You can thank Jada for that,” Owen said, all concern gone from his face. “Can you move?”

  “I don’t know,” Fallon said.

  “Get yourself back and eat some Love,” Owen said. “We’ve got a Suicide to catch.”

  He ran off and vanished through the nearest wall. Fallon tried to get up, then lay back down again.

  Lying down felt good. His Cupid body didn’t need to sleep, but Fallon had fond memories of slumber and felt sure a good rest would solve all his problems. Unless Louis came and saw him. Boy, he’d really tear him a new one! It wouldn’t matter to him at all that Fallon was the victim of a Suicide …

  Fallon struggled, groaned, forced himself to sit up. He felt knocked out because of a Suicide, he wanted to sleep because of a Suicide, and he’d died because of a Suicide. He’d be damned if he’d let a Suicide have the last laugh.

  Of course, that was easier said than done. He tried to stand but could not, so he started crawling. It wasn’t as hard as he’d feared, and gave him the first glimmerings of hope.

  And then, someone stepped in him. The foot landed squarely in his back; the walker stopped suddenly, and Fallon felt the familiar feelings of gloom overtaking him.

  It’s the Suicide, he thought, looking over his shoulder. It wasn’t the Suicide, he noted with wide-eyed shock.

  It was Susan Sides.

  “No … ” Fallon gasped.

  She looked down at him. She squinted at first, but then her eyes widened. She smiled. There was recognition in her eyes, and not a little bit of pleasure.

  She remembers me, Fallon thought, and he tried to crawl away. It was like dragging a sack of bricks through glue now, and the despair was getting worse. Still, he managed to pull himself away from her foot, and as soon as he did, the depression flow stopped.

  But Susan was on to him now. She took another step and planted both feet through him, and Fallon lost the ability to move.

  She had him. And she was going to destroy him again. Fallon felt his world dropping off, the way he’d dropped off the Pape Street Bridge that fateful day. He felt as if he were tumbling down a dark hole, or perhaps the world was falling up and away, stranding him in blackness. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could barely think, and hope and happiness were gone forever …

  “Young lady! What are you doing out of class?”

  Fallon’s closed eyes were too heavy to open, but he heard loud footsteps approaching. He couldn’t believe his luck; someone had caught Susan skipping!

  “I was just going to the bathroom, Mr. Mehta,” Susan said.

  “You and I both know that’s nowhere around here,” Mr. Mehta said, his lightly accented voice sounding more amused than off-put. “Come on now, your principal wasn’
t born yesterday, you know. Where are you supposed to be?”

  “English class,” Susan said.

  Just take her away, Fallon thought.

  “Then that is where you need to be,” Mr. Mehta said. “Come along now.”

  “But I … ” Susan began, staring down at Fallon. “I was … ”

  “I can’t have students roaming the hallways during class time,” Mr. Mehta said as he gently but firmly led Susan away. “If I did, you wouldn’t learn anything, and then where would we be?”

  Susan cast one last glance over her shoulder at Fallon, giving him a look that promised things between them weren’t over. At that point, Fallon couldn’t have cared less. Emotionally he was a non-entity, and his mind was almost numb. He lay unmoving on the floor, his eyes fixed on the corridor Susan and the principal had gone down, and his world was nothing except the images he saw. He took in every detail of the hallway doors, of the walls around it, of the soft drink dispenser next to them. However, none of those details mattered in the slightest.

  A tiny part of him wondered if he was still alive.

  Time passed. How much, he couldn’t be certain. Eventually he saw a pair of pink-clad feet appear in front of him, then another pair; Owen and Jada, he guessed. The two Cupids talked, and the feet walked out of his view just before he felt hands lifting him in the air. Owen and Jada slung Fallon’s arms over their shoulders and began walking forward. Fallon’s head faced downward and his neck had no strength, so all he saw was floor.

  They left the school, and then they were back in the Cupid Center; Fallon saw the pavement of the school walkway change to the familiar white flooring. That flooring went by for a short while, then they crossed a threshold into a room.

  A new pair of hands took hold of Fallon and guided him gently down onto a small platform a meter off the floor. Fallon found himself looking up as he was laid down on his back. He saw Jada’s face, looking down on him with genuine concern. Owen stood next to her, staring down at him with disdain.

  What’s his problem, Fallon wondered, before realizing he really didn’t care.

  A new face entered his field of vision, an old yet wise face that regarded him kindly. He’s my friend, Fallon thought, then realized he didn’t care about that, either.

  The man with the kind face went away. Jada said something to him and took her hand off his arm—Fallon didn’t remember her placing her hand there—then she too turned and left. Owen was long gone.

  He lay there, staring at the ceiling, thinking of nothing. And time began to pass.

  pARt 3

  16

  Fallon didn’t sleep. His Cupid body didn’t need it. Still, as he lay on the slab in the special room of the Cupid Center, he felt more relaxed than he’d ever felt in his life. Or his afterlife.

  His mind drifted. Sometimes he closed his eyes, sometimes he kept them open. Other Cupids came to visit, but Fallon hardly noticed them. He felt good. There was warmth all around him. He thought he could lie there forever. For all he knew, he had.

  Then, slowly but surely, his perceptions began to change. He started to take note of the people who visited him. Jada. Caleb. Even Louis, though he never looked happy about it. As time passed, Fallon began to pay attention to what they were saying to him.

  Soon he felt restless. He still loved lying there, but he also felt an itch to move around. Still later that itch became an actual desire, and he twitched his arms and then his legs.

  “Well, someone’s coming around!”

  The voice came from over Fallon’s head. He tried to turn to get a look, but that kind of movement was currently beyond him.

  “ … who … ?” he managed to say. His voice sounded very foreign to him, raspy and hoarse.

  “Don’t try to talk just yet,” the stranger said. “Just rest. You are on the road to recovery.”

  Oh, Fallon thought. That’s a relief.

  He closed his eyes again, and his mind drifted some more.

  Fallon paid attention again when he heard raised voices. Not surprisingly, Louis’s voice was one of them.

  “How I run this place is not open to debate, Caleb! I made a call, and it was the right one.”

  “Your call nearly cost Fallon his soul.”

  “Nearly,” Louis said. “He’s gonna make it.”

  “A few seconds more,” Caleb said, “and he would have been lost.”

  “That’s the risk that comes with the job.”

  “Did he know that,” Caleb asked, “when you sent him to that school?”

  “It was my call,” Louis said. “Everyone survived, and the Suicide was destroyed. End of story.”

  “That’s not what you said about Sandra,” Caleb said softly, and there was a pause.

  “That was different,” Louis said.

  “Was it?”

  “You got no business bringing her up,” Louis said. “You close your mouth, Caleb. You close it now, or … ”

  “Or what?”

  There was another pause, and then Fallon heard footfalls walking away. He opened his eyes and saw Louis storming out of the room.

  “I think you hurt his feelings,” Fallon said.

  Caleb spun around sharply and looked down at him. “Fallon! You’re back with us.”

  “Yep,” Fallon said, enjoying the joy on Caleb’s face. His teacher had obviously been very concerned for him. “So,” he asked, “what was that all about?”

  “How much did you hear?” Caleb asked.

  “Pretty much all of it,” Fallon said, attempting to sit up. To his surprise, he succeeded.

  “Easy, son, easy!” said a voice behind him, and firm hands took hold of his shoulders. “You’re not going anywhere until I say.”

  Fallon looked behind him, and immediately recognized the old yet kind face he’d seen when he’d been brought in.

  “I’m just sitting up,” he said. “Who are you, anyway?”

  “This is Alexander,” Caleb said. “You might say he’s our doctor.”

  “I’m a healer,” Alexander said, easing his grip on Fallon’s shoulders. “You’re in my Healing Chamber. When one of you suffers a severe Suicide attack, I’m the one that brings you back.”

  “Oh,” Fallon said. “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure,” Alexander said. “You’re not quite healed yet, so don’t think of getting off this table.”

  “I’m a lot better than I was,” Fallon said, and he stood up. The moment his bum left the slab, he nearly collapsed. Caleb caught him and eased him back down.

  “I did warn you,” Alexander said.

  “The table”—Caleb rapped his knuckles on its surface—“channels Love directly into your body. Alexander directs it through you, healing you.”

  “But the process can’t work if you aren’t on the table,” Alexander said. “So don’t move.”

  “Gotcha,” Fallon said. “I thought I just needed to eat some Love. That’s what I did last time.”

  “Your last attack was considerably less severe,” Caleb reminded him.

  “Oh, been attacked before, have we?” Alexander said. “You’ll have to learn to defend yourself better. Next time I might not be able to save you.”

  “I ran out of Love,” Fallon explained. “Besides, if I’d known there was a Suicide in that school … ”

  “No excuse,” Alexander said. “You should always be prepared to deal with Suicides.”

  “Even if I’m used as bait?” Fallon asked, turning to Caleb.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Caleb said. He looked away, as if he were ashamed. “Louis has some … unorthodox schemes for apprehending Suicides. That one at that school has eluded us for some time … I’m sorry, Fallon. It should not have gone badly for you. Jada and Owen were sent to watch your back and intervene the mome
nt the Suicide appeared.”

  “Well, they didn’t do a very good job, did they?” Fallon said.

  “They captured and destroyed the Suicide,” Caleb pointed out.

  “Maybe they did,” Fallon conceded. “But they only caught one.”

  “There was another Suicide?” Caleb said, meeting his eyes once more.

  “Worse,” Fallon said. “The second one wasn’t a dead person. It was my old friend, Susan Sides.”

  “That’s not possible,” Alexander said. “A person becomes a Suicide after death, never before.”

  “Well, it’s true,” Fallon told him. “She’s the one that nearly finished me.”

  “Fallon,” Caleb said, “what you are suggesting … ”

  “Not suggesting,” Fallon said. “Telling.”

  “ … is entirely without precedent,” Caleb finished.

  “Then I’ve got a first for you guys.” Fallon said. “I was on the floor, and she stepped in me. Literally stepped in me! The second that happened, it was like she suddenly knew I was there. She could see me, too! And she knew she was destroying me.” His voice sounded more defensive than he wanted, but he couldn’t help it. If these two wouldn’t believe his story, what chance was there that anyone else would?

  “I must report this to Louis,” Caleb said at last. “He’ll want to hear what you have to say.”

  “I doubt that,” Fallon said. “Say, Caleb? Who’s Sandra?”

  Caleb, who’d turned to walk out, stopped and hung his head.

  “Sandra is Louis’s daughter,” Caleb said. “Please don’t mention her to him; it is a very painful subject.”

  “How come?” Fallon asked, though he had a fairly good idea.

  “She killed herself,” Caleb said, then he turned and left the room.

  It didn’t take Caleb long to find Louis. The Cupid boss stormed into the Healing Chamber ten minutes later, glaring with visible impatience.

  What a shock, Fallon thought as he sat himself up again.

  “Caleb tells me you’re making up stories about live Suicides again,” Louis said. “Get it straight—there ain’t no such thing, got it?”