Scorpio

Chapter XII

"Katrina—did you say that was her name, the girl they found on the train tracks?" xe asked me, crouching down so we were at eye level.

I nodded.

"You were right to not believe their lies," xe told me.

"Do you say that out of pity?" I asked.

"No, I say it because it's the truth."

"How do you know?" I nervously picked at the sleeve hem of my loaner sweatshirt.

Xe glanced down into one corner with a disgruntled scowl. "I know."

I sighed and let my arms fall to the side. Slowly, I unwound myself and released the tension I'd been holding in that tightly curled fetal position.

"I tried for a very long time to figure out what had happened," I said, "but I'm no Sherlocks. After a while, some people thought I was crazy."

"You're not crazy," xe replied. "They're just lazy, believing what they're told without questioning anything."

"I tried to ask the people she knew, but no one would really say much except to give their condolences with a look of pity. I don't need any condolences—they don't amount to squat—I need the truth."

Xe avoided meeting my eyes, choosing to stare out the window instead. Outside, it was preternaturally bright and joyous.

"This is going to make me sound completely wack," I laughed bitterly, "but the night she disappeared, she gave me a flash drive at her diving meet and told me to keep it safe for her. I thought I'd see her again the next day at school, so I didn't think too much about it that evening, but when I heard that they had found her——"

I broke off and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and continued, "——I thought that it might have clues. Why? I had no idea. Probably just full of the essays we have to write for English, but I thought beyond all hope that it might contain something. Crazy, right? And I spent a while trying to hack in, but it's password-protected, so nothing I tried worked..."

"Don't ever doubt yourself, Ari," xe said, turning back to face me. "If you want to see what's on that flash drive, I can help."

"How?" I asked.

Xe grinned and wiggled all ten fingers in the air. "Magic."

~ ~ ~

We were sneaking around the side of my house so we could break in—well, I don't know if "break in" is necessarily the correct term because I technically lived there—anyhow, obtain forcible entry into my room. The reason we were executing this furtive maneuver instead of striding through the front door like normal people was that I didn't want Grandma to see me finally come home after too many hours, towing a stranger she had never seen. The demands for explanations that would have followed would have been harrowing, and I wasn't a super-glib liar, so climbing into my room through the window it was——

——except the windows were locked from the inside.

But, as usual, Xanexa was unconcerned and told me to not worry. Xe held one hand up to the outside of the window latch and pressed xyr hand close to the metal frame. A gentle buzz sounded, and xe flicked xyr wrist to one side. I heard the latch click open. Xe repeated this procedure with the other latch, and then used both hands to slide the window sash up without actually touching it.

I was shocked when I found myself standing in front of a now-opened window, and I hoped my mouth wasn't hanging dumbly agape.

"Good thing it's metal," xe said happily. "Come on, get in."