Eve of Destruction Read Online Free PDF

disconnected haze?”
    Marisa couldn’t hold her stare as Mrs. Goring silently slipped her hand into a pocket and took out a glass vial of liquid. Whatever was trapped inside was black. She pointed the end in our direction, and we saw that it was the kind of glass container used for holding a blood sample.
    â€œGross,” said Alex. “You’re carrying blood around in your pocket?”
    â€œShut up, Alex.” Connor had sat back down—they all had—and he was leaning forward on his elbows, looking seriously at the vial. If there was a shred of hope he might be restored to his former glory, he wanted to know every detail.
    â€œThis is not just any blood,” Mrs. Goring answered. “It’s my own, and something more.”
    She held it up to the light, sloshing its contents back and forth, and I got the sense that what was inside was thicker than blood. It looked like old motor oil.
    â€œYou’re not the only ones who’ve been cured,” she said. “A long time ago, before any of you were a bad idea in the minds of your dim-witted parents, he cured me, too.”
    â€œNo way,” said Ben. “Were you two like, you know, together?”
    â€œWe really don’t need to hear about this,” said Alex, obviously grossed out by the idea of Mrs. Goring and Rainsford disrobing each other.
    â€œOne of you is missing,” Mrs. Goring said, ignoring both boys. “Avery. She’s the new me, you see? He’s taken her for his own, at least for a while. But time will pass, and when it does, she will grow old. They both will.”
    â€œBut he’ll do this to seven more people like us,” said Kate. “Is that what you’re telling us? And Avery will end up just like you: old and bitter and alone.”
    â€œAnd here I was actually starting to like you,” said Mrs. Goring. “You should learn to tame that wild tongue of yours.”
    Kate had gotten under Mrs. Goring’s skin and put her in an even worse mood. Perfect.
    â€œTell me what you were going to say,” said Connor. He’d been wobbling back and forth a little bit, having one of his spells, but he was back now. “About getting back what he took from me.”
    Mrs. Goring observed Connor with a contemptible pity, and it seemed she was having a hard time deciding whether to answer his plea or continue fighting with Kate. The negative energy in the room suited her, a long-missing fuel pumping into her hollowed-out soul.
    â€œThis vial is filled with my fear,” she said, pointing the tube violently in Kate’s direction, while answering Connor’s question. “It’s the essence of what passed between me and Rainsford, or more accurately, the sludge created out of the cure. I’ve carried it around a long time. Avery carries hers, too. It’s our burden to carry the curse of young love around in our pockets so we never forget what fools we were.”
    She turned her head slightly and stared at Connor. “But your fear is somewhere else. Your vial is hidden away in a secret place.”
    â€œWhat about mine?” Alex prodded.
    Mrs. Goring snapped her attention to Alex, then Ben, then me, and finally Marisa.
    â€œAll of your fears are hidden away. But I know where he keeps them. And if you bring them to me, I can give back what he took from you.”
    â€œYou mean no more pain in my hands and my back?” Ben asked, who suffered daily from debilitating arthritis. “That problem would go away?”
    â€œYes, that would go away. You’d still be stupid, but the pain—that I can fix.”
    Kate laughed and turned to Connor, expecting him to join her, but he was all business.
    â€œWhere do we sign up?”
    Commanding an army of shoulder-padded Neanderthals across the goal line again made up the sum total of his dreams.
    â€œI would need them all,” she stammered. It seemed to me she was surprised to have gotten