Odin's Murder

The girls look at me and I shrug. “You start. I have no idea what is going on.”

Cherry rubs the ink on the inside of her wrist. “Sonja received a package. It was in our room. But she lives nearby, so Faye and I decided to take it back to her mom’s house, and find out where she was.”

“You just decided to walk off campus?”

She scrunches her nose. “No, we skipped like school girls. Yes, we found her house. And we went in.”

“Was she there?” Julian asks.

“No one was,” I say.

“We totally broke in!” Faye kicks her feet in the air. “It was awesome!”

“What?” Julian glares at me.

“The door wasn’t locked and no one was home,” his sister says. “I just wanted to see what was going on and where Sonja went. You have to admit, Jules, it’s weird that she never showed up. And she hasn’t posted anything on-line either, not since the first day of camp.”

He sits own at his desk chair. “Did you find anything?”

“Yeah. Her mom, or whoever, has an entire room dedicated to crows.” Memory smirks as his eyebrows rise to his gelled hair. “Paintings and wall paper and little trinkets all over the place. Ethan has pictures.”

“Yeah, I hope they come out right. Let me check them out and send them to everyone. My camera’s being funky.” I say.

“Why were you following us, anyway?” Memory asks.

“Because I knew you were up to something. Good thing, too, or you two would probably still be in there.” I turn to her brother. “And thank you, man. That was good work with the guard.”

“Did you find anything else?” Julian asks. He’s still pissed.

“I went in Sonja’s room while Ethan took the pictures. She has definitely gone somewhere else. No laptop on the desk, the bed was made but the pillows were gone, and her bathroom had no personal products in it anywhere,” Memory says, sharing a glance with Faye.

“Okay,” I say. “So the house is weird. And since we’ve had this crow project it seems like all we can see is black birds. But let’s just cool down a minute. Maybe it’s just us thinking about them. Like wanting a certain kind of car and suddenly seeing it on the road everywhere. Or wishing for a pair of shoes and everyone has them but you.”

Memory and Julian are the ones exchanging looks now, and there’s a weird tension in the air. Faye unwinds the sweater from her waist, pushes her arms through the sleeves, looking at no one.

“Couldn’t this be a coincidence? Maybe Dr. Anders wanted Sonja in our group knowing her interest in crows.” I expect Julian to agree with me but when I look to him for support I see him give her the slightest nod. “What?”

“Julian and I have something we should probably tell you both,” she says.

That tight feeling twists in my stomach again, as I wait for her to speak.

12.

Marks

I spin my little silver mood ring around on my finger, stalling, and then take a deep breath. “There’s something you should know. About my brother and me. We’ve never told anyone. I didn’t think I needed to bring it up before, but now...”

A foot comes down on mine, light pressure on my toes. Julian says, “Just tell them, Mems.”

“You know those stories of twins having a connection? Like psychically?” I look at my brother, who is staring back, face calm, the strong one for once. “Julian and I share dreams.”

“Dreams, like what you hope to accomplish someday or what you have at night when you sleep?” Faye asks.

I shake my head. “The things at night.”

“Those nightmares?” she asks.

Julian and I both nod. “Right. Those,” he says. “Since we were kids we’ve had these cross-over dreams. Me in her head or her in mine.”