Todd Strasser - Wish You Were Dead

Lucy died of dehydration .

“I’m so cold,” Courtney whispered. Her teeth were chattering.

I looked around for a way out of these pens but I doubted I’d find one. They looked like they’d been there for a long time.

“Get me out of here, Madison,” Courtney whispered.

“I’ll try,” I whispered back, with no real idea of what to do. “How’s Adam?”

Courtney shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“When did you last see him?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “It’s hard to remember.”

It was getting darker, and colder. The vapor of our breaths seemed to thicken. The wire fencing went over the tops of the pens. The doors were latched from the outside and wide rectangular metal plates prevented anyone from reaching the latch from inside.

I sat on the hard wet concrete and pulled my knees up against my chest, feeling the vein in my neck beating hard with fear, the dampness soaking in against my butt. Why had I insisted on coming here with Ethan? What had I been thinking? How stupid had I been? By now my mother must have come home. She’d see the broken glass and that my car was gone. She’d call the police first and then Dad in London. Then, while Dad raced in a panic to find a flight home, and the police investigated, she would lock herself alone in her bedroom where no one could see, and silently go hysterical.

How could I be such an idiot?

The cold continued to creep through my clothes, and I shivered uncontrollably.

“Courtney?” I whispered, but she didn’t answer. Hoping it might be a little warmer in the doghouse, I crawled inside. The smell made me want to gag and I was glad that in the dark I couldn’t see what I was lying on. I just lay there curled in a ball, trembling, unable to sleep, miserable, alone, alternately furious with myself and terrified of what was going to happen next.

Friday 4:46 A.M.

IT WAS EARLY in the morning, maybe an hour before dawn. I’d never been so cold in my life, lying on my side, curled up tight, shivering, my teeth chattering so hard I had to concentrate to keep from biting my tongue. Suddenly there was loud thrashing in the woods nearby, followed by muffled grunts. They sounded human, but I couldn’t be sure. Then came more grunts and muttering and the sound of something heavy being dragged through the sticks and leaves.

I got to my hands and knees and peeked out of the doghouse. In the predawn moonlight Ms. Skelling was dragging someone. Her arms went around his chest and she walked backward with his heels scraping the ground. It was too dark to see who it was.

“They’re really starting to come out of the woodwork,” I heard her say.

“Very funny.”

“Seriously, it’s time to go.”

“I know. There are just a few things left to take care of.”

She opened a metal gate, dragged the body into the empty pen across from mine, and let it fall with a thump. Then the gate clanged shut.

“What happened?” The whisper in the dark caught me by surprise. It was Courtney.

“She caught someone else,” I whispered back.

The hour before dawn isn’t just the darkest. It is also the coldest and loneliest. I sat up in the doghouse, knees pulled under my chin, teeth chattering, icy tears dripping down my cheeks. The sky was just beginning to grow light when I heard a long, low groan. I looked out. Tyler lay in the pen across from mine. He pushed himself up on one elbow and pressed his hand against his head.

“Tyler?” I whispered.

He looked up sharply, surprise turning into wonder. “Madison? What is this?”

I pressed my finger to my lips, then whispered. “A dog kennel.”

Tyler looked over at Ethan, who still lay unconscious. His eyes widened, then narrowed. Somehow I knew that behind his closed lips he was gritting his teeth. “Well, well,” he muttered.

“He didn’t kill your sister,” I said.

Tyler shot me a questioning look. I gave him a brief account of how Ethan had come to my house and told me what had happened and why he’d been on the run.

“You believed him?” Tyler asked dubiously.

“Sometimes you know when someone is telling you the truth. Besides, we know it was Skelling.”

Tyler hung his head. I guessed he was realizing that he’d made a mistake. He’d followed Ethan to Soundview, thinking he was the killer. Meanwhile Ethan had followed the real killer here.

Tyler looked up. “What about the others?”

I pointed at a nearby doghouse. “Courtney’s in there, dying of thirst. Adam’s in even worse shape. I’m so scared, Tyler. I think Skelling’s planning to go soon. I don’t know if she plans to kill us first or just leave us here to die.”

He didn’t answer, just looked around as if sizing up the situation.

“How did you find this place?” I asked.

“Maura. So Skelling just leaves you out here until you die of thirst and exposure?”

I wondered if he was thinking about how his sister must have died. The sky slowly continued to brighten. He stared at the latch holding my pen closed. I could tell from his face that he was formulating an idea.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“These pens were built to keep dogs in,” he whispered back. “Not people.”

“So?”

“Dogs don’t know how to help other dogs get free.” He crawled into his doghouse. I heard a loud crack! and the doghouse shook. Then another crack! and another. He was kicking at the wall from inside.

The knob on the door from the house started to turn. “Tyler!” I gasped.

The door flew open and Ms. Skelling stomped out, eyes darting left and right, looking for the source of the sound. In one hand she carried a small black device about the size of a TV remote. In the other was the pipe she’d hit Ethan with. I cowered in my doghouse as she walked between the two rows of pens, her head swinging back and forth. She stared in at me, then turned and poked the pipe at Tyler’s doghouse. “Come out!”

Tyler stuck his head out of the doghouse, pretending to blink and yawn as if he’d been asleep.

“Did you make that noise?” Ms. Skelling asked.

He shook his head and pointed at me.

“No!” I gasped. Ms. Skelling pressed a button on the device in her hand. The jolt felt as if someone had kicked me in the neck, knocking me back and making me cry out. Through eyes quickly filling with tears, I stared up at her blurred image.

“Whatever you were doing, don’t do it again,” Ms. Skelling threatened. “Next time will be five times worse.”

Tears spilled out of my eyes. I felt totally betrayed. Why had Tyler pointed at me? He had to know what Ms. Skelling would do. Meanwhile, the madwoman moved to the pen where Ethan lay on the ground. She stuck the pipe through the fence and poked him. Ethan moaned slightly but hardly moved. Next she stepped to Courtney’s pen and banged the pipe against the doghouse. Courtney peered out, shivering and trembling. “I need water,” she rasped.

“Of course you do,” Ms. Skelling replied with fake sympathy. “I’ll get you something to drink very soon.”

She turned to the pen where Adam lay and poked at him. “Wake up.”

I heard the dull thud of the pipe against flesh but no response of any kind. Not even a groan.

“Wake up!” Ms. Skelling prodded him harder.

Through my tears I saw her reach for the control and heard the spitting sound of the electric collar. But Adam didn’t flinch.

“Well, well,” Ms. Skelling muttered, opening the pen. “Just in time.”

I started sobbing harder. Not Adam! Oh, please! Not Adam!

The next thing I knew, Ms. Skelling was dragging Adam’s body past my pen. I tried not to look. I heard the door to the house open, and she dragged his body inside. I was still sobbing, for Adam, and out of shock and fear and confusion by what Tyler had done.