Undead Much by Stacey Jay Page B

quiet.
      But for some reason, I was afraid to break that silence. Maybe it was the fact that my mom was starting to cry, silent tears that leaked down her worried face. Or maybe it was the fact that, during her and Elder Thomas’s decidedly odd conversation, I’d seen the look in Mom’s eyes. It hadn’t been anger or confusion I’d read there-it had been fear.
      She was afraid of something. Afraid that Elder Thomas was right about me going over to the dark side? Afraid of whatever this “mistake” was? Afraid that the Enforcers would nail me to the wall whether I was innocent or not? I couldn’t guess, and she didn’t stick around to explain herself.
      “Go to bed, Megan. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”
      “But Mom-”
      “Just go to bed. Please.” She fled into her and Dad’s room and slammed the door, but I could hear it when she started to cry even harder. Then Dad mumbled something in his deep voice and the sobs were muffled. Probably by his chest. He was probably giving Mom a hug, and telling her everything was going to be okay.
      Meanwhile, I was out in the kitchen with no one, feet tangled in my overturned chair. Alone, the villain in this night’s drama even though I’d done absolutely nothing wrong. For a second, I thought about calling Ethan and begging him to come over and let me sob on his chest, but realized it would be useless. No doubt he was still busy with Protocol duty and would be for the rest of the night. And even when he was finally dismissed, he might have been given orders not to see me. Girlfriend or not, I was apparently now a suspect in a felony, and surely SA wouldn’t want one of their cops fraternizing with the enemy.
      In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I learned we were on a relationship time-out until this mess was sorted out. There would be no Ethan hugs, no Ethan kisses, no Ethan common-sense talks that always made me feel so much better-not even a big, warm Ethan hand to hold.
      The thought broke down the last of my upper-lip stiffness. By the time I got to my bathroom and turned the shower on, I was crying like someone had died.
      How could I have gotten in so much trouble for something I hadn’t done? Why was I the only suspect when I knew they had no evidence to prove I’d raised those RCs? Sure I was the only super-powered Settler in our part of the country, but there had to be someone else who could have done this, because someone else did do it. I couldn’t believe Kitty, at least, hadn’t started to consider other suspects.
      And what the heck was up with Mom and her “mistake” and this felony I’d supposedly committed? Trying to kill someone with zombies was a felony charge, but I was the one they’d been trying to bite! But then, the zombies would have tried to bite me if I was the one who raised them and a Settler had worked a reverto spell on them-a reverto spell sends them back to their maker for a bite of the blood that summoned them from their grave. So maybe that was why Kitty thought I was guilty.
      Still, there had to be something more or everyone wouldn’t be so sure I was the only one who could have done it.
      There were obviously things going on I didn’t understand. And whatever those things were, I was going to have to figure them out-fast. Sure, Mom seemed determined to stick up for me, but then, she was also withholding some kind of info and in her own room crying instead of in here rubbing my back. That just wasn’t normal Mom behavior. And if I couldn’t count on her for something as small as a back rub, how could I trust that she was going to keep me from going to SA prison for a crime I didn’t commit?
      The answer was, I couldn’t, which made me cry even harder.

      Wednesday morning dawned bright and horrible. My head felt like it was going to explode and my parents were still acting totally weird. I did my best to make a bunch of noise in the kitchen making breakfast, but