Chapter 11: The Burial

"Anomaly," I said. "What's an anomaly?"

"Something that isn't supposed to happen," Ambrose said behind me.

"I know what the word means. What does it mean here?"

He was quiet a second too long. "I've never seen it in this house."

We went down to the front hall together, me in his robe, him with his head still on.

Half the guests were already there, crowded around the silver tray.

They went quiet when they saw his face. Most of them had never seen it on his shoulders.

Kyle stood by the tray holding up a white card between two fingers.

One word, in black ink. ANOMALY.

"Your boyfriend know what this is?" Kyle said.

"No," I said. "Do you?"

He didn't answer, which meant he didn't.

Then the woman with the pillow pushed through from the back.

Her name had never come up. In my head she was just the brave one, the first to walk into the nursery.

"Where's the man in the green jacket?" she said. "He was on Kyle's team. He's not at breakfast."

Everybody looked at Kyle.

"He went to the conservatory," Kyle said. "On his own. I told him not to."

A skinny guy at the back of Kyle's team made a noise.

"You said there was fruit in there," he said. "You said the rule was only for after midnight."

"The card says after dark," the brave one said.

"I know what the card says!" Kyle snapped.

"Then why'd you send him?" I said.

He looked at me with such hate my skin prickled.

"Because somebody has to keep the house busy," he said. "Better him than me."

Nobody moved.

He'd finally said it out loud, in front of all of them.

The skinny guy walked across the hall and stood next to Penny.

Kyle's team was down to three.

They found the man in the green jacket among the orange trees, face down in the soil.

Ambrose carried him out to the garden behind the hedge maze.

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