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“Needy? Needy?”
Needy jolted awake suddenly, confused for a moment about where she was, why she felt so sore — before realizing the soreness must have been from sleeping hunched over, her cheek against the hard surface of her desk. She didn’t remember falling asleep in class, but she must have, because it was cleared of students now, just Needy and her teacher, shaking her awake.
“Oh my god, Mr. Wroblewski, I’m so sorry,” she gasped, straightening her glasses and scrambling to get her things shoved into her bag. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, I just—“
“Needy, it’s okay,” interrupted Mr. Wroblewski, his scarred face creased with concern. “I don’t blame you for feeling tired. You’ve been going through a lot. With Chip, and Jennifer…”
“Yeah,” mumbled Needy, feeling suddenly unable to look her teacher in the eyes. “It’s been a lot. I should go—“
“Have you seen anyone, about Chip?” the teacher pressed. “I’m sure the guidance counselor could get you in contact with someone, to talk about the grief—“
“My mom has me seeing a shrink already,” blurted out Needy, eager to have this conversation over with. “Not that I don’t appreciate it.”
It was a half truth. Twice a month she did indeed see some middle-aged woman with greying hair and too many bracelets, Dr. Whatever-her-name-was. It wasn’t much help, how could it be — but it got her mom off her back. She just lied to the doctor, like she lied to everyone else. No more telling the truth for Needy Lesnicki. Why bother, if no one ever believed her? Even Chip hadn’t believed her, and look where it got him.
“Good, that’s good. Well if you ever need someone else to talk to, my door is always open. It doesn’t have to be about Chip, just whatever you need to get off your chest. I promise, there’s nothing you can say that can shock me.”
Yeah right. “I’ll remember that, Mr. Wroblewski. I really do have to go, though…”
“Of course, of course.” He waved his prosthetic hook in dismissal, and Needy tried to bolt for the door, but he stopped her again. “Oh, and Needy?”
“Yes, Mr. Wroblewski?”
“I know it’s scary, with your friend being missing. But don’t give up hope, okay? She’s probably just out partying with some boy to cope with everything that happened. She just needs to get it out of her system before she comes home. I’m sure you’ll see Jennifer before you know it.”
Oh, thought Needy, if only he knew. “Thanks,” she said. “I think I’ll see her again soon too.”
As she turned to leave, Mr. Wronlewski called out, “And be safe getting home, Needy.”
She stopped, the words stirring something in her. “I will, Mr. Wroblewski,” she said. “But… have you noticed how there haven’t been more killings? Since Jennifer ran away?”
He gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean, Needy?”
“Nevermind. It’s probably nothing. Just a coincidence.”
And then Needy finally escaped out of the classroom before the teacher could question her anymore.
Devil’s Kettle’s public library’s occult section was not big, but that was where she had found the book on arcane spells and rituals that now lived permanently in Needy’s book bag. It was long overdue now, probably occurring fees like crazy, but Needy couldn’t bring herself to care. She didn’t care about library fees anymore, didn’t care about school, didn’t care about anything anymore.
Except Jennifer.
It was in that overdue book that she had found the spell necessary to bind a demon. It wasn’t an easy read, literally. Something about the book gave her a headache if she tried to look at its pages for too long. But she had found the binding spell there, so she endured the migraines, sure that the next spell she needed was in its pages somewhere. She just wasn’t quite sure what that spell was, yet.
She thought about the book, jostling around in her backpack next to her T1 calculator and three ring binder, as she took the now familiar walk from school, to the abandoned pool. Her mom thought she was staying late for yearbook club, but really, Needy had quit yearbook. Her mom would freak if she found out, and she would freak even more if she knew where Needy was actually going. “ Don’t go back there, ” she had told Needy, begged her. “ Don’t torture yourself, please. ”
She had lied when she talked to the police. She told them that she had been going to meet up with Chip for a little pre-dance hook up in the abandoned pool building, only to find his body instead, mutilated by the unknown killer that terrorized Devil’s Kettle. Her tears had sold the story, real emotion making her fake story believable. In reality, it had been so much worse.
By what seemed like coincidence, that was the same night Jennifer ‘ran away.’ Her mom found a note in her bedroom, claiming she had met a guy online and was going to meet him. Some of her clothes were missing, and a few other personal items. Other than that, there was no trace of her. Jennifer’s mom had called her mom when she found it, distraught, and Needy had not had a hard time convincing her that this was the first time hearing about it too.
Of course, neither of their moms knew that Needy knew how to copy Jennifer’s handwriting perfectly, and how to sneak into the Check house without anyone noticing. She had helped Jennifer sneak out enough times, after all.
What no one knew, was that Jennifer hadn’t ran away at all. She hadn’t even left Devil’s Kettle.
“Well well, look who it is,” drawled a familiar voice as Needy finally made it inside the old abandoned pool. “My captor. You know, I think you need to actually be around if you want Stockholm syndrome to start kicking in.”
Needy sighed. “Hi, Jennifer.”
“Hi, Officer,” responded Jennifer mockingly. “Here to check on your favorite prisoner?
She was laid across the floor, staring up at the decrepit ceiling, hand dangling off the edge of the pool above scummy water, her dark hair fanned out on the concrete. She was wearing some of the clothes Needy had snuck out of her room for her, and from far away, she looked entirely normal. It wasn’t until she got closer that she saw the dark circles under her eyes, the hollowed look of her face.
She was getting hungry, Needy knew. I’d had been weeks since she had eaten last — since Needy had found her, and Chip, and all the blood—
But Needy was trying not to think about that.
“I brought you sour Skittles,” she said instead, fishing them out of the front pocket of her backpack.
“ ‘I brought you sour Skittles, ’” repeated Jennifer mockingly, sitting up to take the offered bag of candy. “Gee thanks, Needy, that’s so nice of you. It almost makes up for the fact that you’ve locked me up in this shithole to starve to death. God, you’re just so generous .”
Angrily, Jennifer threw the bag of Skittles into the pool as hard as she could, filthy water splashing gloopily. Needy sighed.
“I’m not going to let you keep eating people, Jennifer,” she said flatly, like she had said many times. It was like a mantra.
“Like you let me eat your boyfriend?” sneered Jennifer. And for a moment, Needy’s blood ran cold.
Because that was true, wasn’t it? You can only bind a demon when it’s in the act of feeding… She had known that she would have to sacrifice one more life, let one more person get eaten, but she had never imagined that she would actually choose Chip…
“Yeah,” she said solemnly, turning away to set her stuff down. “Like that.”
Clearly annoyed that she didn’t get a bigger rise out of Needy, Jennifer pushed herself onto her feet, unsteady with how weak she was. “You know, I figured you were a dyke, Needy, but I didn’t think you were the ‘lock a girl in your basement’ sort of dyke.”
“You won’t have to stay in here forever.” Taking the book out of her bag, she ran a hand over its worn leather cover. “Just until I figure out what to do. Until I can find a spell that can turn you back, or—“
“You can’t turn me back!” exploded Jennifer. “I keep telling you, it’s not possible to turn me back! You’re so fucking stupid sometimes!”
“Then I’ll figure something else out! Something— something else you can eat—“
“There is nothing else Needy,” growled Jennifer.
“How do you know that?!”
“I just know things! I can’t explain it, I just do! I know I need to feed, and I know I’m fucking hungry.” Jennifer gave her a cold, unblinking stare, licking her dry lips. “Maybe if I get hungry enough, I’ll eat you.”
Needy swallowed hard, trying to sound sure. “You won’t eat me.”
“Wanna test that?” She took a threatening step toward Needy, then another — until, before she knew it, her back bumped against the vine covered wall. “Come on, don’t pretend that you haven’t thought about it. Me eating you.”
“You won’t eat me,” repeated Needy slowly, refusing to be affected by the taunt. “Because if you eat me, you’ll never get out of here.”
Jennifer’s face twisted in fury, her eyes going white and demonic, and before she could react, Jennifer had grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her hard against the wall behind her, making her shout in pain as her head spun. It was hardly the worst thing Jennifer could have done to her, even in her weakened state, but it hurt like hell, and would probably bruise the hell out of her back. Another thing to hide from her mom.
“You act like I’m such a fucking bad guy, and you’re little miss perfect, don’t you Needy? You act like I’m such a bad friend and a bad person — but what about you? You’ve always acted like you were smarter than me, better than me, and then you ditch me for some loser on the drum line?” She had Needy pinned to the wall, leaning in to snarl right in her face, eyes still inhuman. “He didn’t even like you that much, you know. He said I was better than you when we kissed.”
“Shut up,” snapped Needy.
“He also told me he was going to dump you. He just didn’t know how cause you were such a headcase that he didn’t want you to go all cuckoo’s nest when he finally ditched you. He said he was tired of having such a freaktarded, needy girlfriend who wasn’t even good in bed.”
“Shut up! That’s a lie!”
“Well, I don’t suppose it matters anymore, does it, since you killed him .”
“Shut up!” This time, Needy surprised herself, lunging forward and tackling Jennifer as hard as she could, knocking her hard to the concrete. Her own glasses spun off her face, clattering to the ground next to her, but Needy wouldn’t have the thought to make sure they weren’t broken until later. “Shut up! You’re the one who killed him, you, you-“
“You could have stopped me from eating him,” growled Jennifer, voice distorted and monstrous, struggling with surprising strength as Needy tried to pin her wrists. “But you let him die for your little Sabrina the Teenage Witch routine. So you could capture me .”
(It was true, it was true, she had chosen Jennifer, despite everything she would always choose Jennifer—)
“I want to keep you safe!” shouted Needy as she wrestled her former best friend, arms struggling against Jennifer’s as she tried to keep distance between them, because Jennifer’s teeth were long and sharp, and Needy wasn’t entirely sure she still wouldn’t bite her. “I want my friend back! I’m— I’m going to save you, Jennifer! I’m going to save you!”
That made Jennifer pause, and her face shifted back to her human appearance as she looked at Needy, like she was studying her, her own expression inscrutable. It was a look Needy had seen many times. Whenever Jennifer looked at her like that, Needy always felt like she was looking into her soul, or maybe at her bones and intestines and stuff, with some kind of Superman x-ray vision. And now, it made her think, she must be in there still, she must.
“Oh Needy,” sighed Jennifer after a second, voice all fake sweetness. With surprising fluidity, Jennifer slipped a hand out of Needy’s grasp, reached up towards her neck — but instead of attacking, she slipped her fingers under the thin chain she wore around her neck, pulling the BFFs necklace that Needy still wore from under the collar of her shirt. She toyed with it a second, wrapping the chain around her finger, looking at the heart shaped charm like it was an item of great fascination, and not just some cheap mall jewelry that Needy had bought for the two of them when they were eleven.
Needy held her breath as Jennifer’s icy blue eyes turned up to hers.
“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe… I don't want to be saved?”
Then, Jennifer’s hand was around the back of her neck, pulling her down — and then Jennifer’s mouth was on hers.
Jennifer’s lips were chapped, and cold, but they were so soft, and she still smelled like Jennifer, still tasted like her, and soon enough, Needy was lost in it. Jennifer’s tongue was in her mouth, her hands in her hair, Needy’s hands on Jennifer’s waist. She was drowning in Jennifer, drowning, desperate—
And then Needy screamed, half muffled by the way Jennifer’s mouth was still on hers, biting hard into her lip. Shoving Jennifer away, Needy scrambled back, hand up to her bleeding bottom lip — and Jennifer started to laugh. She laughed, and she laughed, and she sat up grinning, mouth stained red with Needy’s blood.
Her eyes looked brighter, Needy realized, her face less hollow. “Well, what do you know,” she drawled, licking her bloody lips. “I feel refreshed. Maybe you can help me, hmm?”
Needy’s heart beat fast, band she didn’t know if it was in excitement, or fear.