I grin as Caleb’s face loses all color again. “I’m not crazy!” He shakes his head, stops his pacing. “You know what, its fine. The job is next week, and then I’m out of here. I’ll move somewhere else.”

            “You’re still doing the job?” Nakia says disbelievingly. “After all of this? After killing her drove you insane. You think you’re seeing a ghost, Caleb. You’re nuts. And frankly, I don’t feel at all bad for you. You deserve it…”

            Caleb is across the room before I have time to blink. Whatever Nakia had been about to say is cut off as he grabs her by the throat, slamming her backwards against the wall. The soda can crashes to the ground at her feet and rolls away. The plate shatters on the hardwood.  She lets out a strangled shriek as he growls in her face, “You are not on her side. You are on my side. We’re going to do the job like we planned it, and then we’re going to get out of here.”

            Nakia is gasping for air, frantically clawing at his arms. But Caleb is perfectly still, his arms shaking with the effort of pinning her to the wall. I run forward almost blindly in my panic, striking out at him, my hands swiping uselessly through his back. I can’t do anything to help her, I go right through him. He’s still yelling in her face, “Larry thinks you’re going to crack! He thinks you’re going to tell the police what happened, but not me. No! I defended you. I said you weren’t weak, you just needed some time. Tell me I’m right.”

            Nakia’s face is going red, her scream dies in her throat and her struggles become weaker. Caleb screams, “Tell me I’m right!”

            She nods, still gasping, and I jump forward when he releases her. She slumps, falling through my arms, crashing to the ground, knocking her head on the floor. She stays there, curling her knees up to her chest, whimpering. I crouch beside her, and this time my scream is filled with an animal rage. The living room lights flicker once, and Caleb backs away nervously, retreating to the kitchen. A lot of good I am.

I’m on my hands and knees beside her now, blinking back tears. What good am I? I can’t communicate with my own parents. I can’t even save my friend. All I can do is jump out and yell boo. But when that stops scaring people, what am I supposed to do?

            It’s three o’clock in the morning, and there’s a noisy poker game going on in the den. I don’t know how Nakia is sleeping right now. There’s too much noise. Throbbing base rap music, clinking beer bottles.  The boys laugh loudly and slam cards down on the table.

            I retreat to the corner to listen, staying clear of the clouds of smoke that wreath them. Larry is in fine form tonight. He laughs manically, raking in the chips, telling his friends they’re losers. They all lean back in their chairs like it’s nothing, but I see a muscle jump in Caleb’s jaw. He shakes his head and snags a cigarette from the pack that Derrek holds out, shoving it between his teeth, and inhaling the smoke deeply to mask the anger seething beneath the surface. Caleb doesn’t like to lose. Mentally I pit him against his friend. Who is the more psychotic one? Who would win if they decided to go at one another?

            “So.” Larry exhales in a long stream, and smoke trickles out from between his thin lips. “You went over to the house today, right?”

            Caleb flicks the ashes from his cigarette into his empty beer can. He shrugs. “Yup. They’re leaving for Toronto next weekend.”

            A slow, unpleasant grin spreads across Larry’s face. “For the entire weekend?”

            “As far as I know.”

            “Perfect.” Larry folds his arms across his thin chest. “We can clear it all out then. Damn, we could even bring a truck and just load stuff in. It’s so far back from the road and hidden behind trees. They don’t know she gave you a key, right?”

            “Don’t think so.” Caleb shakes his head. “Don’t think she ever told them, since they don’t like me.”

            Larry laughs and slugs Caleb on the shoulder. “Don’t like you! What? I can’t think why.”

            Caleb grins and rubs his shoulder. “Whatever man. Anyways, it’s all good to go.”

            “And Nakia? Is she all good to go?” Larry’s expression is suddenly serious, and when Caleb hesitates he frowns.“What?”

            “I dunno. She’s all pissy about it, and she refuses to help with any of it. The other day when the police were here she totally froze. She looked guilty as hell.”

            Larry sucks on his cigarette thoughtfully. He sticks out his bottom lip and blows smoke at the ceiling before saying, “She gonna crack and tell someone?”

            Caleb hesitates again, and Larry flips idly through the cards. Derrek and Ben are both watching him, like they’re waiting for him to make some sort of proclamation.

            Finally he says, “I could kill her for you, you know.” He says it casually, like he’s offering to make Caleb a cheese sandwich. His face is smooth, and looking at it makes my insides writhe. Caleb doesn’t look alarmed at this bold statement. He doesn’t even look particularly surprised. He says, “No, that’s all right. She’ll be fine. I’ll just work on her.”

            He’ll work on her. What exactly does that mean? I bite my fingernails nervously. The boys are still talking.

            “Try to keep her away if the police visit again,” Larry says, “or give her something to say next time, as long as it doesn’t sound rehearsed.”

            Caleb grins. “I think the police are busy with Toronto. There were some mysterious purchases there on her credit card. They think she’s run away to live in the big city with her real dad.”

            Larry laughs and smacks him on the back, “My man, I’m not even going to ask what you did or how you did it.”

            I snort, thinking that Caleb looks awfully relieved that his friend didn’t ask. Admitting that you’ve brought your mother in on a crime doesn’t exactly make you sound like a bad ass. And admitting that you freaked out and called your mother crying like a little girl about the ghost in your house doesn’t sound cool either. Of course, Caleb doesn’t mention his problems with me. He doesn’t want Larry to think he’s cracking.

            The conversation turns back to more mundane things, booze and girls, and none of it is pretty to listen to, so I drift out of the den and down the hall. Nakia’s bedroom door is shut, and there’s a thin strip of light shining into the dark hallway. I shut my eyes and walk through the door, holding my breath like a diver submerging. Doesn’t matter how much I do it, I’ll never get used to walking through things that are supposed to be solid.

            Nakia is sitting on her bed, wrapped up in her comforter.  She has headphones on, and I can hear cheerful pop music blaring out of the speakers. She’s probably trying to drown out the morons down the hall. I stare at my old best friend, and Larry’s words ring in my ears,

            I could kill her for you, you know.

Nakia’s face is slightly pinched, like she’s guessed what they’re discussing down the hall from her, and she’s trying not to imagine it. How much does she know? Would she ever guess that Larry just offered to kill her, that Caleb barely batted an eye at the suggestion, aside from a mild “no thanks”? She’d be horrified if she knew.

            I can feel cold sweat breaking on my skin. I have to warn her to get out. Somehow I need to tell her to get out of the house, to get somewhere safe. To go to the police if she has to. Trying to whip myself into a rage, I think of all the horrible things Caleb has done to me. He killed me and took me away from my parents. Anger courses through me. He’s still planning to rob my parents. I grind my teeth together, hard. He’s planning to somehow convince Nakia to keep silent, and maybe kill her if she doesn’t. I feel the rage uncoiling in my stomach, a cobra flaring its hood. The lamp on the bedside table flickers slightly, and Nakia glances over. Her face goes pale, and her blue eyes are wide and scared.

            Instantly my anger is gone, replaced by guilt. I’m scaring her. Sighing in frustration I back up and stand against the wall. Nakia continues to stare at the lamp for a moment. She takes off her headphones and looks around the room, lip trembling slightly.

            “Bree?”

            “Yes.” She can’t hear me of course, but it still feels good to answer her. Pretend she can hear me. Maybe I can pretend to have a conversation. “I’m here.”

            She’s sitting up in bed, her back ramrod straight. “If you’re here, is there something you want to tell me?”

            Yes. I feel like shouting. Instead I just stand there staring at her miserably. Apparently the only thing I can do is cause destruction. I don’t want to scare her, but apparently it’s my only means of communication. Nakia continues talking, and now her voice is conversational,

            “You’re probably mad that those assholes are here, huh?” Her voice, quavering before, strengths a little after she realizes that nothing else is going to happen. The light from the lamp is steady, and no shadows show up on the wall, nothing is pushed over with a crash. I’m listening, and somehow she knows that. “I’m so sorry you have to see them,” she says, “I hate them so much. I can’t believe that Larry guy has the nerve to show his ugly face here.”

            I can’t help but smile, it’s too much like listening to the old Nakia, who always had something to say about everyone, and it was always funny.

            “God, that guy is nasty,” Nakia continues, “He looks like he ran into a parked car or his mother dropped him on his face at birth.” She bites her lip and stares at the wall. “I hate all of the guys he hangs out with. You know, I don’t know what either of us ever saw in him, Caleb I mean. He’s just…completely different than I thought he was.” Then she says, as if recognition is suddenly dawning, “He’s a coward, Bree. That’s what he is. He made horrible, terrible mistake and the reason he’s covering it up is because he’s too chicken shit to own up. He’s too cowardly to admit his mistake and take the consequences,” Nakia puts her hands over her mouth, her face crumpling, close to tears. “How am I any different than him?” She jerks her hands away from her face and clenches them into fists. “How am I different if I just sit here and stay silent?”

            My heart is beating fast now. Part of me is elated. I want to dance and sing. She’s going to tell! But the other part of me knows what she’s talking about is dangerous and wants her to shut up. I glance over my shoulder. Of course the door is closed, even if one of the boys was listening outside her door, they wouldn’t hear her hushed voice, would they? What if she said this stuff to Caleb? She knew better, didn’t she? She wouldn’t do something silly like threaten him.

            Nakia is curled up on her side now, staring at the wall, obviously deep in thought, and I drift through the door and back into the hallway. The boys are still talking about the girls they’ve been with or the girls they want to be with, in graphic detail, so I keep going, ending up in the kitchen. I stare out the window at the forest. I should go visit Sam.