I nod, and we continue down the sidewalk. As we reach the last alley before the school, I suddenly pull Kateri into the shadow cast by the building and we vanish. I take her hand, gently caressing her fingers. She gazes into my eyes and I’m mesmerized by the swirling pool of colors in her eyes, the purples and blues fighting for dominance.
“Why don’t I just blow off school today and go do something fun?” I suggest.
“Sorry, can't. I'm in enough trouble with Father as it is. I'm not getting yelled at by your Mom, too,” she replies, shaking her head and grinning at me.
“What are you afraid of? She can't even see you,” I reply with a laugh.
“Somehow, I don't think that would matter. Besides, it's not good form to make your girlfriend's mom mad before you even meet her.”
My eyes open wide and I stand there, stunned for a few seconds.
“Girlfriend?” I manage to utter.
Kateri looks at me as a smile slowly builds on her face, her eyes sparkling.
“Yeah, if you think so.”
I stare at her without answering for a few seconds and then the bell rings. I grab my pack and dart out of the alley, with Kateri just behind.
“Well?” she yells down the sidewalk.
I look back at her and smile. “I think so,” I yell back, not caring if anyone else hears me or not.
As soon as I step through the doors, I spot Amanda at her open locker, exchanging books and stowing her lunch. I feel guilty almost the second I see her. She's my best friend, someone who's stood by my side through the good times, and the not so good times, and I ignored her the entire weekend. I've always shared everything with her and now that my life has taken such a dramatic turn, I can't tell her anything. She turns and sees me approaching, smiling like she always does when we first spot each other at school, but it doesn't make me feel any better.
“Hey Eve,” she says, still smiling.
“Hey Manda. How was your weekend?”
“Boring.” She rolls her eyes. “What about you?”
“Same.”
I want to tell her about Kateri. I want to tell her how amazing it feels when I'm streaming from rooftop to rooftop. I want to show her the Factory, introduce her to Father, but I know I can't, and it makes me sick. So instead, I lie to her. I tell myself I do it to keep our friendship alive and vibrant, but the truth is, every false word shakes the very foundation of our relationship and weakens it, bit-by-bit. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a dark shape moving down the hall. It only takes a moment before it comes into focus, and I recognize a Shayd from the Factory. I can't remember her name, but she nods and smiles at me before moving on. I notice she's carrying a full load of books in her arms.
“Eve,” Amanda says.
“What?”
“I asked when your Mom's coming home.”
“Oh, sorry. Her flight gets in around one or so.”
“That's cool,” she says just as the home room bell rings.
“Come on, we better hurry.”
We make it into class just before Mrs. Wallace starts taking role. After the announcements, the bell rings and we all flood back into the hallway.
“See you at lunch,” Amanda says as she starts walking away.
“Kay.”
We head in opposite directions; her to Biology and me to English. I make sure my phone's off before walking into the classroom. I don't need another speech from Mr. Copton about texting in school. As I take my seat, again I notice the presence of Shayds, three of them; two standing by the windows and one in the back of the class. Each has a backpack filled with textbooks, a laptop, and everything else one would need to attend class. I suppose they've always been here, I just couldn't see them up until now. The girl in the back looks at me and nods a greeting. I smile back, and wink before taking my seat.
The rest of the morning goes without incident. Except for the Shayds I keep seeing in the halls, classrooms, and even the bathrooms, it's a normal day. In fact, it's the first day in months I'm not distracted by mysterious voices and flitting black shapes. When lunch period finally arrives, I head to the cafeteria. Amanda is already there when I walk in. She has my seat saved, as usual, and a smile on her face as I sit down across from her after running the serving line. We both usually bring our lunches, although I completely forgot mine today.
“What's up with you?” she asks, before taking a bite out of a shiny, red apple.
“What do you mean?”
“Something's going on. I can tell. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but don't tell me everything's cool, because I know it isn't,” she says, without any hurt or anger in her voice.
For a few seconds I don't reply, I just look across the table at my best friend, who wants nothing more than to help me. I know she can't, and I'm not sure if I need help, but I also know I can't lie to her anymore.
“There is something going on,” I say, trying to figure out what I'm going to say as I go.
“I knew it,” she says, nodding and reaching across the table and taking my hand.
I smile at her, squeezing her fingers gently.
I don't know how much I can tell her. No matter what I decide on, it can't be the whole truth, no matter how much I want to bring her into the fold.
“I met someone.”
Her eyes pop open wide and a smile builds on her face that conveys everything she wants to say without uttering a word.
“No way.”
“Way,” I reply with a smile as big as hers.
She leans closer across the table, as if anyone might be listening. “Well, dish.”
“She's ... she's amazing,” I say, shaking my head. “I've never met anyone like her. She's smart, funny, so beautiful it hurts me when I see her, and a little mysterious.”
“And sexy, right?” she asks, grinning.
“Hell, yeah,” I say, nodding and smiling.
Amanda giggles and I laugh along with her. “Where did you meet her?”
“At the park the other day. I was walking and she just, sort of appeared out of nowhere.”
“Ooohh. Like stepping out of the shadows, huh?”
For a second, I'm stunned, but I quickly realize that it's just an expression. “You could say that.”
“So, when can I meet her?” she asks.
Oh sure, let's go after school so you can meet my new girlfriend. Oh yeah, I forgot, she's invisible, so you won't be able to see her.
“She's new in town, so let me talk to her and see.”
“Doesn't she go here?”
“No, she's ... uh ... home schooled. Her parents move around a lot for work.”
There I go lying to her again, but I don't have a choice. Maybe telling her about Kateri was a mistake, but it's too late to take it back now.
“What's her name?”
“Kateri.”
“Ooh, sounds exotic.”
“A little bit, huh?”
“So? Are you smitten?” she asks, making a funny face at me.
“I don't know,” I reply, looking down at the table for a second as I feel a blush run across my face, “maybe a little.”
“I think more than a little,” she says, smiling at me. “I'm so happy for you, Eve. You're a catch. It's about time someone saw it.”
I shake my head as tears fill my eyes. “Stop,” I say, as I try to hide my reaction.
“You stop. You so deserve this, more than anyone I know,” she says before standing and leaning over the table and pulling me into a fierce embrace.
A few seconds later, we both sit down, and she smiles at me.
“I didn't mean to push you to tell me,” Amanda says.
“You didn't. I've been dying to tell you.”
“What about your Mom? Does she know?”
I nod. “I told her last night.”
“And how did she take it?”
“She was good with it. I think,” I say, not even able to convince myself.
“Well, I'm sure when she meets her
, she'll like her.”
“Yeah, when she meets her,” I say, my words trailing off.
After lunch, we both head to our advanced algebra class. It's the only period Amanda and I have together. Most of my other classes focus on art and English studies, while hers are all science and math related. We take our seats and Mr. Zelinski, one of my favorite teachers, begins reading off the roles. With his crazy head of white hair, round spectacles, and bow tie, he's a modern-day Albert Einstein. One at a time, each student reacts to their name with a somewhat bored ‘here’ or anemic ‘yep’ to his rather old-fashioned attendance check. I know some of the other kids make fun of him, but he's a sweet old man.
“Okay everyone, we're going to tackle polynomial expressions today. I hope you all had a chance to read through chapters eleven and twelve over the weekend,” he says, with his back turned to us as he writes on the dry erase board.
Everyone turns and looks at their neighbor, including me.
“Did he give us homework on Friday?” I ask Amanda.
“Not that I know of.”
Mr. Z turns and frowns at us, before starting to laugh.
“Just kidding,” he says. “Gotcha, didn't I?”
A bunch of the kids start laughing and he smiles in that warm, grandfatherly way he has, pushing his glasses up a little. I just shake my head and he shoots me a little wink.
“Okay…everyone, open your books and we're going to start with a quick read through of chapter eleven,” he says, as he takes his seat behind the desk. “Nick, you can begin.”
Just as Nick starts reading, the fire station siren for the Collinsburg VFD goes off. I look toward the window for a moment before turning my attention back to the book. A few seconds later, I can hear the Robin Hill fire department horn join in. If you don't live somewhere with volunteer fire departments, then it's important to know that each VFD has a different sound to their alert sirens. The Collinsburg signal sounds like a fog horn; one long blast followed by two shorts ones while the Robin Hill VFD's is a single slow wail. They do it this way so if you're a volunteer, and you're out somewhere and you hear a siren, you'll be able to tell if it's your department, or a neighboring city.
It's not uncommon for both Collinsburg and Robin Hill to cooperate on a major fire, so once again, I turned back to my book, trying to pay attention to Nick. A chill runs down my spine when at least two more sirens go off, their added voices turning into a single, terrible shriek. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out as Nick stops reading. Before I can swipe the screen, Amanda touches my arm. When I look over at her, there are tears in her eyes.
“What?” I ask, more than a tremor of fear in my voice.
She just shakes her head as a few tears drop onto her desk. Lifting my phone, the first thing I see is a news alert:
1:03 PM- NY Passenger Plane Crashes At Pittsburgh Intl'
And my screams join the wailing of the sirens.
Chapter Seventeen
I feel Amanda wrap her arms around me as I scream. It's a sound from so deep down inside, it feels like it's tearing me apart. I can hear the voices of some of the other kids as they hover over us, but I can't make out what they're saying. Suddenly, I push away from Amanda, and stand. My heart is racing out of control, and my vision is clouded by tears and grief. She starts to move toward me, but I step back.
“Stop! Just stop!” I scream.
I can see the hurt on her face, but I don't care. I push through the crowd of concerned students, heading for the door.
“Ms. Torino, where are you going?” Mr. Zelinski yells after me.
Yanking the door open, I race out into the empty hall. As I run down the corridor, I can hear him just behind me.
“Ms. Torino! Stop ... you can't just leave!”
By now, some of the other classroom doors are opening; curious students and teachers peering out to see what's going on in the hallway. I rush past them, crying, sobbing, and screaming inside my own head. I turn the corner at the end of the hall, and I spot exactly what I need; shadows cast by trees just outside the windows. Stepping into them, I vanish in the blink of an eye. A second later, Mr. Zelinski races past me, disappearing around a bank of lockers at the end of the corridor.
I may be invisible, but I'm still inside, and I need to get out. Every single fiber of my being is screaming at me to get out. Looking through the glass, I can see the shadows run up the wall, across the sill, and down onto the floor. The windows are open about half-an-inch to let in fresh air, but without the crank it's impossible to move them any further. I focus on a spot on the grass about ten feet from the wall that's covered by shadow and take a small step forward. A tenth of a second later, I'm outside, standing under the tree. Now that I'm out, I have no idea what to do. I look off to the west and I can see a long, tall plume of black smoke rising from the direction of the airport.
“Mom,” I say as a pain begins building in my chest.
I stream across the street, onto the top of the little dry cleaners. When I come to a stop, I nearly stumble and fall off the edge of the roof. I can't stop crying, and it's affecting everything from my judgment to my streaming accuracy. I want to get to the airport, I need to get there, but I have to be smart about it. The front doors of the school burst open, and Mr. Zelinski steps out. He looks left and then right, shaking his head before walking back inside. I stand there for a few minutes, trying to calm myself. If my mom was on that flight and she's injured, she'll need me. I can't get killed streaming off the edge of a five-story building or smashing myself into the side of billboard.
I close my eyes for a moment and breathe slowly through my nose and then I realize what I really need.
“Kateri ... where are you?” I say quietly to no one as a few tears trickle down my cheeks.
A few minutes later, I stream two buildings over, and then link three more times until I've covered about half of the fifteen miles to the airport. Sirens and alarms are going off all over the place, as ambulances and other emergency vehicles race by my position above the roadway. I can see dozens of helicopters high above the airport in the distance. From here, I can smell the acrid odor of burning fuel drifting through the air. I start to stream to the roof of a building across the street, but instead, I collapse to one knee as tears overwhelm me again.
Closing my eyes, I start pounding my fists against the rough, patchwork metal roof, screaming as the tears continue to flow, unabated. When I finally open my eyes, I see the little piece of parchment lying on the ground beside my knee. It must have dropped out of my pocket when I fell.
I pick it up and open it.
Eve,
Do not go to the airport, please.
Wait for me ...
K
I close the little piece of paper and slip it back into my pocket.
Kateri, I need you ...
When there's no response, I slowly get to my feet and look across toward the black cloud rising above the airport. Streaming across the street, I immediately link twice more onto the rooftops of buildings until I'm nearly there. From my vantage point I can see the hundreds of emergency response vehicles scattered across the flat landscape of the outer edges of the landing field, but the one thing I can't see is the plane. The source of the smoke is a black wound in the earth a little distance from the gathering of the responders. It looks too small to be the impact site. How could an entire airliner disappear into such a tiny spot? I'm about to stream closer to the airport fencing, when something slams into my side, knocking me down. I scramble away from my assailant, my hands balled into fists as more tears burst forth.
“Get away from me!!” I half scream and half cry.
“It's me.”
I blink a few times and finally Kateri's face comes into focus. The telltale trails of tears streak her face. She reaches out and grabs me, pulling me into a fierce embrace and I feel all my strength drain away as I collapse into her with a wailing cry filled with agony, loss, and unimaginable pain.
When I w
ake, I'm lying in Kateri’s bed. She's next to me, her arms wrapped tightly around me, my head resting on her shoulder. Her eyes open and she looks down at me, the colors are muted and dark.
“Tell me it's not true,” I whisper.
She sighs quietly, and I know the answer without hearing the words. I bury my face in her shoulder as the tears burst out again. She pulls me closer and a few seconds later, her sobs join my own.
I wake up suddenly, sitting bolt upright, a scream clawing its way out of my throat. Sweat is pouring off me, and for a moment I think it's all been a terrible nightmare, but a second later, I know it's not. I look over at Kateri. She's sitting, propped up against the headboard, watching me in silence. My bottom lip begins quivering, and she reaches out and takes my hand, gently pulling me to her, pressing my head against her chest. The tears come again.
I've lost all sense of time. I don't know if it's morning or evening, and frankly, I don't care. My eyes open slowly. Kateri is lying next to me, wide awake. I look over at her and she smiles weakly at me.
“I don't know what to do,” I say, my voice cracking.
“Just take my hand,” she says, lifting her arm slowly off the bed.
I intertwine my fingers with hers and she squeezes gently.
“That's all you have to do.”
I try to smile, but I can't.
“Okay,” I say quietly. “Don't leave me.”
“Never,” she replies, and I can feel the conviction in her voice.
My world has collapsed.
It feels like my heart is suffocating under the terrible weight of the grief that lays heavily across me. I sigh, trying to keep from crying. Kateri is sitting up, leaning against the headboard again, her eyes closed.
“Kateri, are you awake?”
“Yes,” she replies, without opening her eyes.
“What time is it?” I ask, my throat feeling like sandpaper.
“It's around four.”
“In the afternoon?”
She nods before looking down at me. I can see dark circles around her eyes, like she hasn't slept in ... a very long time.
All Things in the Shadows Page 15