Vicious Memories

Chapter 19

I stared at Arun through the orange flames of the bonfire.

Alice had only just joined us - when Arun first tried to get us all to leave the shade of the monkeypod tree in favor of the bonfire, she had refused to go before finishing her slow and delicate placement of stones around Sirus's grave. The funeral had been another emotional affair.

The rest of the villagers had already gone back to the caves to sleep now, but not the guards. Arun had gathered us up for a brief meeting here in the middle of the clearing. There were fifteen in the group, me included, which made up over a third of the village. Apparently Gabriel was well aware of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - this group was in charge of them all.

A few of the guards stood stiffly around the bonfire, a few sat on the grass. Four of them weren't present as they had drawn the first of two night shifts and were patrolling the village in pairs. Clouds obscured the moon and stars above us. Every few minutes one of the huge logs on the fire would crack and splinter loudly, sending a column of sparks spiraling skyward. The humid night reminded me of a summer at camp, staying up past the usual bedtime, sneaking out, feeling alive and free and invincible.

But of course I had no memories of ever being to camp. Nostalgia for a life I couldn't be sure I had ever lived seeped through my veins.

Arun stood across the circle from me, Scott to his right, his reddish hair aglow in the firelight. Next to Scott stood Cooper, followed by Mohammed. Between me and Mohammed was a tall blonde woman with Nordic features whom I had never spoken to before. Three men stood on my right. Christopher sat with his arms hugging his knees, a large shiny spot visible on the crown of his head. Salvador was overweight, carrying an extra fifty or sixty pounds, which made me wonder unfairly what qualified him to be in this group. Perry was taller than even Gabriel by a couple of inches. Beyond Perry stood Tanafriti, or "Tana" as she had told me to call her on our walk over, whose striking Egyptian features were set into a scowl as she stared at the ground between her feet. Rounding out the circle, Alice stood between Tana and Arun. The shadowy orange light from the fire played over the freckles on her nose and cheeks, making her face dance.

"We'll keep this as short as possible," Arun kicked us off. "Now is not the time to be dancing around with words—"

"That's a new one," Cooper muttered.

"—And we have a lot to do tomorrow. If anyone," Arun shot a hard look at Cooper, "needs to be reminded of what's at stake, all you need to do is walk over to the monkeypod tree and take a look at what's lying underneath it."

Cooper clasped his hands behind his back and looked properly chagrined.

"Gabriel was thorough in the town hall today, but he left out something important." Arun pitched his voice lower and the group unconsciously took a half-step inward, closing ranks. His next words were a whisper, and he grimaced as they came out. "Based on the evidence, it seems likely that whoever killed Sirus, and probably Jessica, was from this village."

I made sure to track reactions, looking for anything off. Every single person outside of Arun and myself looked absolutely thrown.

"One of us is the killer," Arun said to hammer the point home.

"Bugger me," Cooper hissed.

"Damn."

"Impossible."

Tana put a hand to her heart. Scott shook his head slowly. Alice looked irreparably sad.

"This obviously changes the situation," Arun said. "The fear and damage caused by betrayal would be worse than anything else. Gabriel is planning to tell the rest of the village in the next day or two, but we think it will do more harm than good." He took a deep breath. "It may feel like this is an insult to Jessica, and I don't mean it that way, but if we weren't motivated to find the killer before, we have to be now.