Turning, Madeleine hurried out of the kitchen. The apartment was the same layout as Jenna’s, so she knew her friend was heading for the bathroom.A few moments later, she came back with a box of tissues, handing it to Jenna. Then she opened one of the overhead cabinets, coming out with a familiar box of fancy, gourmet hot chocolate.
“I think this calls for some cocoa, don’t you?” Madeleine said, shaking the box in Jenna’s direction and giving her a small smile.
Jenna used one of the tissues to wipe away the worst of the tears. “Depends. Do you have any of those organic little marshmallows?”
Madeleine turned back to the same cabinet the hot chocolate had been in, dug around for a few seconds before coming out with a plastic bag, brow arched. “Did you ever have any doubt?”
Her friend didn’t say anything while she got the cocoa ready, and Jenna didn’t either. Instead, she simply sat there at the kitchen table, wondering what the hell she was supposed to say. Madeleine wasn’t going to accept some generic series of excuses to explain why she’d been crying out in the hallway. Especially after she’d already admitted to learning something alarming.
Jenna wished she was witty and clever enough to come up with some lies and half-truths that would rationally explain this bizarre situation. But that simply wasn’t her. Even if it had been, there was a part of her that wanted to finally open up and tell her best friend the truth. Because she desperately needed to talk to someone. But how the hell wasshe supposed to dump all this on Madeleine out of the blue after lying to her all this time?
A mug of hot chocolate suddenly appeared in front of her, a dozen marshmallows floating on the top. It smelled delicious and was exactly what she needed right then.
Along with her best friend.
“I’ve been keeping something from you for a while,” Jenna finally said after taking a long sip of perfectly sweetened cocoa and letting the heat of the mug absorb into her hands. “I want to apologize for that first. I should have told you before now, but I need you to understand that I simply didn’t think I could.”
On the other side of the table, Madeleine got a worried look on her face. “What kind of things?”
“Things that are going to sound…well…unbelievable.” Jenna blew on her cocoa before taking another sip. “And coming from me, I know that’s pretty serious. But I’m telling you right now, everything I’m going to tell you is true. No matter how impossible it sounds.”
Now, Madeleine looked downright alarmed. But she didn’t say anything. Instead, she sat there regarding Jenna expectantly, her own cocoa sitting forgotten in front of her.
“First off, the guy who kidnapped my sister ten years ago—the one Trevor and I saw a couple of nights ago—well…the truth is…he’s not actually a guy at all,” Jenna said, not looking at her friendwhile she spoke. She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. “He’s a member of a supernatural species known as ghouls. They’re underground dwellers who live in small clans, digging tunnels through solid rock with their claws and occasionally kidnapping humans from the surface to use for manual labor but also possibly as a source of food.”
Jenna kept her focus on the mug of hot chocolate in front of her, afraid to see Madeleine looking at her with that all-too-familiar expression of pity. Jenna wouldn’t be able to handle it if she got that from her best friend. Like she’d gotten it from everyone else.
Maybe this had been a really bad idea.
“Your sister was kidnapped by creatures living under the city that eat people,” Madeleine said slowly. “And you’re just getting around to telling me now?”
Jenna lifted her head to look at her friend. She hadn’t expected that kind of response. But Madeleine was sitting there calmly as she waited for an answer to her question.
“Honestly, I didn’t become aware of exactly what kind of creatures they were until the other day,” Jenna admitted with a sigh. “I wanted to tell you, but considering the fact that I’ve been lying to you since I told you about what happened to my sister, it wasn’t like I could come out and suddenly spring the truth on you now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth from the beginning then?” Madeleine asked, obviously hurt Jenna had kept something like this from her. “I’ve known for years that you weren’t telling me everything.”
Jenna blinked. “You have?”
Madeleine nodded.
Jenna sipped her cocoa with a shrug. “Can you blame me? I had no reason to think you’d believe me. No one else ever has—not even my family. I didn’t want to lose the only real friend I’d had in a long time, so I took the easy way out and lied to you.”
It was Madeleine’s turn to sigh. “Okay, I guess I can understand that. I’d like to think that you could have talked to me about anything, even back when we first met, but if we’re being honest, I’m not sure I would have handled the whole supernatural species thing very well.”
Jenna studied her friend. “But you’re willing to buy it now?”
“What choice do I have?” Madeleine took a sip of cocoa. “It’s not like I’d ever call my best friend a liar. Besides, ifTMZcame out with evidence that half the people in LA were actually extraterrestrials or cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers, I wouldn’t be all that surprised. So if my best friend tells me that her sister was kidnapped by a clan of ghouls, I suppose I have no choice but to go along with it.”
It wasn’t exactly the same thing as Madeleine saying she believed her, but right now, Jenna would take it.
“Have you seen any of these ghoul creatures besides the one time in Skid Row with Trevor?” her friend asked, taking another sip of cocoa. “Except the first time you saw one. You know…back then.”
Jenna nodded, understanding what Madeleine was trying to say. “Um, since I’m being honest, then I should probably tell you that we ran into a bunch of them yesterday after I left you at the coffee shop. That’s actually how Trevor, my brother, and their teammates got hurt.”
“What?” Madeleine said in alarm. “You said Trevor got a scratch while down in those tunnels! Are you saying they were attacked by these ghouls…and that you were there?”
Jenna told Madeleine the whole story of how she, Esme, and Maya had gone looking for the guys and ended up getting involved in a pitched battle down in the darkness of the sewers and how they’d barely made it out before the tunnel had collapsed.
