Chapter Three
Charlie slammed her locker closed, whirled, and sprinted down the hall. Her phone dinged with texts from Sienna.
“Where r u? Bus about 2 leave.”
For the millionth-time Charlie bemoaned that her last class of the day was across the entire length of the middle school and down two flights. Each afternoon was a race to her locker to get her books and a harried dash to the bus. Today was Friday and she was going to a sleepover with her two best friends, Ellie and Sienna. She couldn’t miss the bus.
Bursting through the double doors, Charlie took the concrete steps two at a time, hurtling herself onto the bus a few seconds before the driver yanked the doors closed with a loud whoosh.
Ellie and Sienna were standing halfway back on the bus, leaning over their seats, flailing their arms for her to hurry and calling her name—the dark head pressed to the golden one. Charlie hefted her backpack in front of her as she wobbled her way down the aisle, bumping into shoulders as the bus took a corner. She sank into the seat across from her two friends, digging around in her backpack and taking a big puff of her inhaler. All three girls looked at one another and erupted into laughter.
“Having gym last is a bitch,” Ellie said. She drew out the last word “beeeautch.”
Charlie was too embarrassed to say the real reason why she was late. Even though she’d been a seventh grader for six months, she still wasn’t used to stripping down in front of the rest of her class. Instead, she changed in a bathroom stall. Sometimes that meant waiting for a free stall and nearly missing the bus.
Feeling her face heat up just thinking about it, Charlie looked out the window, glancing away again when she caught her reflection. Her brown stringy hair and oversized tortoise shell glasses made her look like an owl or turtle, not the cute Emma Watson look she’d been going for.
Not like her friends across the bus aisle.
Ellie looked like she was sixteen—not twelve. She hid a few small red pimples by brushing her dark bangs over her forehead but none of the boys paid attention to that. They only noticed her boobs. And the girls only noticed her designer clothes. She was the most popular girl at Sanctuary Middle School.
Now, slouched in the bus seat, a doughy roll of white flesh flopped out between the tight waistband of Ellie’s jean shorts and her cropped shirt. Charlie quickly looked away before her friend caught her staring. She knew Ellie was self-conscious about her weight because her stepmother always made cracks about it, even though Charlie thought she looked fine.
Charlie snuck a glance at her own flat chest. Not even a tiny bump.
Like her friends, she scrunched down with her knees up against the seat in front of her, head bent, thumbs tapping her phone.
After a few minutes, Ellie sat up with a dramatic sigh and stuck out her tongue. “Oh, God, I’m so carsick.”
Charlie’s mother had taught her not to use the word “God” like that—but then again everything she’d taught Charlie about God and church ended up being a bunch of crap anyway. She was probably using the word “God” all the time with her new artist boyfriend in Sausalito or wherever they were living now.
“Speaking of sick, I was stressing out when you weren’t in first period,” Sienna said. “I thought maybe you weren’t feeling good and the sleepover was canceled.”
“No. I was just late. My dad ended up driving me to school.” Ellie looked away as she said it.
Sienna slipped off her hoodie, revealing a cropped shirt like Ellie’s, which girls weren’t allowed to wear at school. She didn’t have boobs yet, either. However, Sienna’s white blond hair, infectious giggle, and soft voice made all the boys in seventh grade sit up straighter when she was around.
It was her legacy. Every weekend, high school boys in letterman’s jackets and football jerseys flocked to the small Clarke house on David Avenue vying for their chance to take out Sienna’s older sisters, Lacey and Ivy—two ethereal blonds with silky pale hair, long tan legs, and flashing pearlescent smiles.
“I cannot wait to get home.” Ellie pulled herself up onto her knees and held onto the back of the seat in front of her. “I’ve got a surprise for you guys.” Her black eyes shone with excitement.
“I hope it’s leftover Easter candy,” Sienna said.
“No. Way better than that.” Ellie winked at Charlie. “Have to wait and see.”
A feeling of dread filled Charlie’s chest.
She almost hadn’t come tonight. She knew Ellie would want to get online and look at Shadow Man’s website.
But Charlie also didn’t want to be left out. Most of the time lately she wished she could hang out alone with Sienna, like it was before Ellie moved to town the summer after third grade. Before Sienna began following Ellie around like a little puppy, doing everything she said without question.
At Ellie’s stop, the other two girls were down the aisle without a backward glance. It took Charlie a minute to stuff her inhaler and phone in her backpack and hoist it onto her shoulder. By the time she stepped off the bus, her friends were already a block away at the corner. It was only when the bus pulled away in a huff of black smoke that Charlie hollered for her friends to wait up.
Ellie kept walking.
* * *
At Ellie’s house, the girls tore through the kitchen, flinging open cupboards and the refrigerator, grabbing a stash of cupcakes, candy bars and chips before racing up to Ellie’s second floor room. Charlie probably wouldn’t make herself so much at home if Ellie’s parents were ever there. But Ellie’s dad was at work and her stepmom was probably getting her nails done or something.
On their way upstairs, Ellie’s cell phone rang. She rolled her eyes as she answered. “Yes, Daddy. No, Charlie and Sienna are here with me. No, we’re totally fine. It’s super safe. I locked the front door when we came in. I promise I’ll call you if anything happens. Okay. Love you, bye.”
“What was that about?” Sienna asked around a bite of chocolate cupcake.
Ellie shook her head. “Just my dad being worried. God, I swear, sometimes he treats me like such a baby.”
Upstairs, Ellie settled in at her small white desk, flipped open her purple laptop, and logged on.
Charlie flopped onto a beanbag chair in the corner, fished her iPad out of her backpack and began playing Minecraft. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ellie bring up the dark page with the neon green words.
Shadow Man creeped her out. An eerily tall man in a black suit—nearly as tall and skinny as the stand of trees surrounding him—he didn’t have hair or a face, just a glowing white head. His elongated arms spiraled out behind him like a deformed octopus.
A tiny part of her wanted to call her dad to come pick her up. But that would be dumb. She was being immature. A website couldn’t hurt you.
“Join games?” Sienna said. She sprawled on the twin bed beneath the poster of Taylor Swift and tapped on her cell phone.
“I’m over by my summer house,” Charlie said. “I just made a pen for my pigs.”
Sienna sat up. “I love the pigs. I want some, too.”
Ellie looked over her shoulder. “Come on you guys, you can play Minecraft later. Let’s see what Shadow Man is doing.”
Her fingernails clicked on the keyboard and another page of the Shadow Man website popped up, this time showing his dark gothic mansion at night with several windows lit.
Charlie felt like something was stuck in her throat, something furry. The peach smell of the candles sometimes made her asthma act up. But Ellie insisted on lighting them whenever she was in her room.
“Let’s see what he’s asking people to do this week,” Ellie said, clicking on Shadow Man’s daily blog. A tattered looking scroll appeared on the screen with words scrawled in red ink. Ellie read it with her lips moving. Charlie stayed in the beanbag chair, trying not to watch, but sneaking glances at the screen every once in a while.
“Oooh, the Underlings came up with this one,” Ellie said. Shadow Man’s Underlings were teens who had run away to be with him. They spent their days playing video games and watching movies.
“He says that everyone should pull the fire alarm at their school Monday at eleven a.m. CST.”
“What does CST mean?” Sienna said, not looking up from her phone.
“No clue,” Ellie said.
Central Standard Time, Charlie thought.
“Whatever. I’m not going to do that anyway,” Ellie said. “My dad told me it sprays ink on your hands if you pull it. Totally busted.”
“If you don’t do what he says you can’t become an Underling,” Sienna said, twirling a lock of her blond hair around a finger.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got bigger plans than pulling a stupid fire alarm.”
“Like what?” Sienna asked, looking up from her phone.
“You’ll see.”
Although the website freaked her out, Charlie wasn’t entirely sure she believed in Shadow Man. But Ellie and Sienna did.
A few weeks ago, Charlie told her dad about him. He said it was nonsense and a joke and not to worry about it one bit—that Shadow Man wasn’t real.
But sometimes Charlie wondered.
Ellie stopped tapping at her keyboard. She gasped.
“Oh my God! He messaged me.”
Sienna jumped up and ran over to the desk. Charlie reluctantly got up from the beanbag chair.
“Hold on, hold on,” Ellie’s voice brimmed with an excitement that Charlie had never heard before. “Let’s see what he says. Okay. He read my post about my stepmom and he said we should … Oh. My. God.”
Sienna, reading over her shoulder, clapped her hand to her mouth.
Charlie came closer and hovered behind Ellie, peering at the computer monitor. The words swam before her eyes—green letters on a black screen.
To: ePrincess14
From: Shadow Man
Re: Evil Stepmonster
“My Underlings know that the key to the kingdom lies in freedom from oppressors. If she stands in your way, she should be eliminated.”
“Eliminated.” Ellie whispered the word. In the glow of the laptop, her eyes gleamed with a light Charlie had never seen before. One that made gooseflesh ripple down her arms.
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