Dark Eden by Patrick Carman Page B

those fears, she’d never go through with it. As crazy as Fort Eden was, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I might be robbing her of a cure.
    “How did you know what Ben was afraid of?” I asked.
    “Rainsford made us tell.”
    “What do you mean, made you tell?”
    “That’s not right—I meant he got us to tell. He’s a very persuasive guy that way. Everyone told, all but one.”
    I could see them, sitting in a circle at the table under some kind of twisted spell, spilling what they knew. And I also knew that of the six, there was one who would never say what she feared.
    “Avery,” I said,—another mistake. How should I know who would and wouldn’t tell?
    “Yeah, Avery.” Marisa didn’t skip a beat; and what was even better, she moved closer to me on the couch again. “She’s so quiet, right? But I’m starting to think it’s more than that. She said something about when it was her turn that gave me the chills.”
    I knew what Avery had said. I’d heard her say it a dozen times already.
    You can’t cure me. No one can.
    I asked Marisa what she thought Avery was afraid of. She shrugged, turning quiet and thoughtful, so I went back to Ben Dugan.
    “Ben went into a room and talked for a while, but I couldn’t hear him. That’s something I didn’t mention before. I can only see some things. I can’t hear anything at all. There’s no audio for the monitors.”
    “So they’re like security cameras,” Marisa said, and she seemed to mellow about them, her concern turning to intrigue. I couldn’t hear what people were saying, so it was at least 50 percent less intrusive. “I bet the room you saw was where we can go to talk to Dr. Stevens. There’s one on each side in the back, one for girls and one for boys.”
    “Whoa, hold on. Are you saying Dr. Stevens was talking to Ben?”
    “Yeah, she’s there if we need her. We can go in there and talk about how we’re doing. Ben did that before he got cured.”
    “But she’s not here. She left.”
    “I don’t mean she’s in the room. It’s a monitor. She’s back home. We call; she answers. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. I haven’t tried it.”
    My eyes had adjusted to the dim light, and I asked her about the other rooms in Fort Eden. She said that there was a study on the far side of the stairs, but the door was always locked. Behind us was a library, which reminded me of the book she had set on the floor.
    “What are you reading?” I asked.
    She picked it up and handed it to me. Now both of my hands were full, one with a water bottle and one with a book. If she’d wanted to hold my hand she couldn’t.
    “ The Pearl ,” I said. “Pretty good book.”
    “Yeah well, we’re all being forced to read it, so I hope you’re right.”
    “Wait, you’re all reading The Pearl ? What for?”
    Marisa shrugged. “Rainsford put a box in the middle of the table and asked us to put all our electronics inside, including phones. Not like we were getting a signal, but it was hard. It reminded me of this youth group I used to go to. We’d show up, and this twentysomething youth pastor would pass around a cardboard box asking for phones, which he promised to return at the end of the night. By the time he got it back, that box was overflowing. Anyway, Rainsford said it would bond us, reading the same book.”
    In the back of my mind I was thinking, Why The Pearl ? But instead, I said something really stupid.
    “I read it once before. I think you’ll like it.”
    I’d already made this mistake before, making it seem as if I was something special. Why of course I’ve read it; Steinbeck and Hemingway are my homeboys.
    Marisa didn’t reply. She snatched the book out of my hand and turned to the side, staring at the cover instead of staring at me. Then she said something I was completely unprepared for.
    “Tell me what you’re afraid of, Will.”
    The question came out of nowhere, and it rang in my ears like a shot from a cannon. Marisa