The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

night. The McLennas had contacts, after all. They would not have to do the dirty deed. They could pass it on to others and make her death look like a tragic accident. Then there was the FBI to contend with, after all. And, of course, was Jafarr and those living with him. They could also be a danger. Especially if they had seen what Todd had seen. Zormna felt sick to her stomach.

As she took another desperate step forward, a frigid shift in surrounding tone struck Zormna’s ears and her train of thought shifted immediately.

She lurched to a stop.

A pocket of noise unusual to that neighborhood entered the air. Turning her head just slightly, Zormna listened.

The bushes along the fence rustled, but no wind blew them. The low hum of a car engine resonated in the generally quiet suburb, but no car passed by.

Stiffening, Zormna stepped off the street and onto the sidewalk. She looked back to see if the car she was hearing would pass. Behind her a pace, the blue sedan that had been following her for weeks rolled towards her with its headlights decidedly off. Inside she could make out shadows of men in suits.

Fury swelled inside of her. They just would not let up. She had half a mind to stomp over and give them what-for. But that inclination came and went as she turned to face the vehicle. The car had continued to approach with no sign of stopping…and they held none of their usual sheepish embarrassment after being caught. Instead, that ominous shiver that she had been feeling since she first spotted that car on the curb ran down her skin.

Another rustle in the bushes stirred at her right, along a fence.

Zormna froze.

Instinct and training switched on. Within her peripheral vision Zormna could see she was not alone. Even under the cloud cover she saw shadows. And in them she spotted people waiting with too many eyes on her. Counting them, she marked around nine individuals. All in black, they would be hardly visible to the untrained eye. If it weren’t for a bit of shiny plastic here and there from their machinery, even she might not have noticed them. Nine in the dark was eight too many.

Two choices were before her. Pretend she did not see them and wait for when they would pounce, or run immediately to safety.

But where was safety?

The school came directly to mind. At the school. In public. Where she could be seen. Maybe she could stay with Brian’s family overnight. They were that kind of people.

With a jolt, Zormna sprang for the nearest alleyway. Running through the cans of garbage, she charged towards Pennington High.

They moved when she did.

Breaking from the bushes without a whisper, the nine charged into the alley right after her.

Zormna skidded across the leavings from the garbage cans, darting between the fences and garbage. Popping noises and footfalls echoed after her.

Thuck, thuck, clang, slup, thuck!

Zormna had only a peek at one of the darts that struck the fence not far from her head.

Pop, pop, thuck, clang!

A trashcan at her left rattled. A small something fell to the dirt.

Two more dull thuds struck the fence. Scattered clinking sounds speckled the ground she had just rushed over. All she had to do was jump a fence into a yard and she would be gone.

Two sharp pin-thick stabs struck into her left shoulder just near her neck. Zormna looked over at them, her eye catching on bright reddish plumage. Another sharp pinch then sunk into her right calf.

Limping to a halt, Zormna cursed under her breath. She panted. These folks weren’t playing this time. Game over.

Yanking the dart out her leg, she swatted off the ones from her shoulder then hopped again into a run—though she only made it four steps farther.

Her vision rapidly went blurry.

Shaking her head to clear it, Zormna jerked out another dart that had just jabbed into her back. Another pop echoed from the end of the alleyway, quickly stabbing a feather-ended dart into her side through her tee shirt.

Zormna stumbled to the fence, leaning on the nearest trashcan.

No more hollow shots sounded in the air. No more clanking tin or thudding wood. Only feet jogging silently to catch up to where Zormna swayed. Her consciousness turned to mush. She lost her balance and dropped onto a half-full black trash bag, and slid off to the dirt.

It can’t end like this. It can’t. Zormna cursed through heavy breaths.

Pushing herself up with her arms to her knees then her feet, she staggered farther into the alley. She had to stay awake. She had to get someone in the neighborhood to see her. She just had to get over a fence. Then she could get away. Over a fence.

The feet followed slower now. She slipped again. This time she couldn’t move at all except to roll onto her back and blink at the tree branches hanging over the trashcan path. The shadows were growing darker in the clouds. The sky rumbled.

Then more shadows gathered over her, hiding faces she did not know anyway. Their feet halted at the edge of where she lay. Silence enveloped them as they paused and peered down at her. It didn’t last long, though. Their dark arms reached for her sprawled, drained limbs, heaving her up out of the dirt. They carried her together back the way they had come. And though Zormna had counted nine men earlier, now there seemed to be less. The only strength she had left for fighting was in remaining awake long enough for the trip back to the road where the sedan waited. The others around them collected the stray darts.

With labored breathing, all living awareness leaked from Zormna’s mind. She writhed as much as her lack of energy allowed—and that was very little. By the time they reached the curb, the sound in her ears muted to a dull ringing. She did not even hear the car trunk open before they heaved her inside. And when they closed it over her, encasing her in a space hardly big enough for an adult though perfect to fit a child, she no longer remembered why it was she had been fighting. It was a warm space—a warm space that only made her think of sleep. Sleep felt good then.

Zormna closed her eyes.

*

A dark blue FBI sedan rolled out of the neighborhood, its engine barely murmuring as the sky rumbled overhead. Jennifer saw it as she dashed around the corner to Hayes Street, wondering if they were searching for Zormna as well.

She ran up the walk to the old house Zormna owned, pounding on the front door.

 “Zormna! Zormna! Let me in! We gotta talk about this!” Jennifer twisted and yanked on the door knob. Not a budge.

No answer either. Just the mild patter of rain on the porch roof.

“Zormna!” Jennifer yelled again, banging hard on the door. “Unlock this door! I’m not like them! I want to be your friend!”

Nothing.

The rain poured harder with bigger, fatter drops. The sky rumbled louder like it was having a stomachache. Or maybe that was just her. Jennifer stumbled to the edge of the porch and threw up.

Her parents were aliens.

Her parents were aliens.

Her parents were aliens.

And so was she.

Or—and Jennifer tried real hard to believe this—Zormna really was from some remote part of Ireland that…

No. She shook her head, sobbing. That Kevin said it was safer for Zormna to remain on Earth. As in the planet.

And that whole thought made Jennifer dizzy sick.

She slumped against the door. A billion terrible thoughts now struck her. Zormna had told her nothing about her troubles to keep Jennifer out of it—not, as she had first presumed, to be mean and anti-social. But to keep the FBI from knowing what her family was. Zormna must have known since the first day. It was why Zormna had said it was a bad idea for her parents to be speaking that language. If the FBI had overheard it….

Jennifer’s face drained. She almost vomited again, but she held it together. She really had to talk to Zormna.

Going to the window, Jennifer cupped her hands around her face to block out the light. She peered in. No light inside. No sign of movement in the shadows. Nothing.

With a shudder, Jennifer staggered from the porch and down the front steps. She peered up at the higher windows, hoping to see any sign of life. No light. Zormna hadn’t come that way after all.

But Jennifer would have bet everything that Zormna would have come to the old woman’s house first. She was sure of it.

Swearing under her breath, Jennifer dashed to the alley nearby, peering inside just in case she had made it there before Zormna had arrived. But with one look she saw it was empty, only littered with the cans and garbage.

The rain continued to fall. It stirring the dust of the alley with every drop, until it congealed into a dark mess of trash and mud. With a stomp into the muck, Jennifer charged in, going up and down the alley twice before returning to the corner near Zormna’s house.

It was just not possible. How could that girl vanish that fast? Was she playing a game like she had with the FBI? There was no telling what a distraught alien/Irish-ninja would do—especially someone like Zormna Clendar. Then a darker thought presented itself, one that twisted Jennifer’s stomach in to knots. Maybe something worse had happened to her. Maybe those hunting Zormna had found her. Like with her parents, maybe all those people needed was to see was that mark on Zormna’s arm. Maybe Zormna was already dead.

Collapsing to her knees at the mouth of the alley, Jennifer burst into tears.

 

Darren Asher pushed his head out the front window to his house and shouted, “Hey Jennifer, what are you doing? It’s pouring!”

Immediately lifting her eyes to the voice, hardly seeing Darren for the rain, Jennifer wiped her face with her hand. If anyone would understand her worry, he would. She called up. “I can’t find Zormna anywhere! She ran this way, I’m sure. Have you seen her?”

Peering at how Jennifer’s hair dripped, sticking to her ashen face, Darren shook his head with bemusement. “No. Is she missing?”

Jennifer winced at the prospect of getting Darren involved, especially since he was such a blabber-mouth about all things alien. And there was no way she would tell him anything about what she found out about her own family. Keep it strictly about Zormna, Jennifer told herself.  

“I think she might be in trouble,” Jennifer shouted.

Darren’s eyes widened. “I’m coming out.”

Relief washed over her, though she was also drenched with rain. Staring up at the sky, Jennifer cursed at her bad luck. Why was the town freak the only person who could help her?

But within two minutes Darren had an umbrella and a raincoat, rushing out his side door. He jogged up to Jennifer on his long legs, handing her the open umbrella.

“Thanks,” Jennifer said, wiping her eyes.

Without explaining what happened except to say her parents and Zormna got into an argument and Zormna ran away, Jennifer led Darren in a search to every place they could think of that Zormna would hide. He offered a good number of suggestions, but in the end he was the one to propose they head back to Pennington High School.

*

Todd felt wretched. He could not enjoy the dance at all.

The faces of his parents, the looks in their eyes, their manic anger—all if it had really freaked him out. He could hardly pretend he was having fun when he felt so unsettled. But he tried to put his worry out of his mind.

The dance was going strong inside of the gym. Everybody else was having a great time. Among the party streamers and balloons, a few rolls of toilet paper hung down from the ceiling. It was dark except for the colored lights from the disco balls and mini dance-party