Shadow Hills

by Anastasia Hopcus

  Zach pushed against the blocked doors, straining with the effort. They didn’t budge.

  “Phe, stand back!” he yelled, his eyes fierce.

  I hopped off the soda machine, moving as far to the side as I could, and pressed my back against the wall, wishing I could shrink into it.

  Zach shoved with all his strength. The door didn’t move an inch. He pulled back, then ran at it like somebody in a movie, slamming into it with his full weight. The sound reverberated through the building, like a crack of thunder, but still the doors didn’t move. The soda machine was too heavy.

  “Shit!” Zach slammed his palms against the doors.

  The figure started toward me again, slow and deliberate.

  “Zach?!” My voice rose.

  “Phe, get back!” Zach’s voice was sharp. “You need to be farther away from the door!”

  I forced myself to edge down the hall toward the intruder. I wished I’d grabbed my purse earlier so that I’d at least have my pepper spray.

  I waited, expecting Zach to batter in the doors with something, or maybe break one of the windows. But Zach stood completely still. Even from this distance, I could see the intense concentration in his eyes. He held up his hand, palm pointed at the doors. I stared. Down the hallway, the sound of the intruder’s footsteps halted, and I suspected that he was watching Zach, too.

  The air around me felt strange, the hairs on my arms rising, like I was standing too close to a TV set. My skin prickled with goose bumps.

  The soda machine flew away from the entrance and righted itself all in one swift movement—landing back in its original spot on the wall with a loud clatter. I jumped at the sound. What the hell …?

  The guy in the hallway turned and ran as Zach finally burst through the front doors. The intruder slammed out the back, and the lights flickered, then came on.

  Zach pulled me close, wrapping one arm around my torso, the other arm enfolding me, protecting my neck and face. I nuzzled against his warm chest, the feel of his hand on my head calming me. I could hear his pulse hammering faster and harder than anyone’s heart should beat. He pulled away, holding my shoulders, inspecting me.

  “Are you all right? Did he do anything to you?”

  “No. I think he was afraid of you. As soon as you did …” Suddenly, I was shaking all over. “What did you do?”

  “Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Zach ignored my question, brushing my hair away from my face, searching for bruises or bumps.

  “I’m fine, I promise. Just freaked out.” I looked up into his worried face. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know.” Zach glared down the corridor at the back door.

  I knew he was thinking about going after the guy, and I grabbed his arm. “Please don’t. I don’t want to be by myself.”

  Zach enveloped me in his arms again. “I won’t leave you.” He held me, his pulse gradually slowing. I relaxed, letting him support my weight as I tried to pull my scattered thoughts together. “What happened?” Zach asked after a moment.

  I described it with as much detail as I could recall through my fear-addled memory. “He was so fast and strong. He was behind me, and then all of a sudden, he was at the front door, and he turned over the vending machine!” My voice was rising, and I forced myself to take a slow breath.

  I leaned my head against Zach’s chest, and his steady heartbeat soothed me. We walked back to the darkroom, and I sat down on one of the stools with Zach across from me, still holding my hand.

  “Who could that have been?”

  Zach shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  “How could anyone move that fast? Or turn over a soda machine?”

  “I’ve heard of people tipping over soda machines. They may weigh a ton, but they’re top heavy.”

  “Okay, but what about the lights?” My mind was racing, full of suspicion. “Why did the lights suddenly go out when he appeared? Why did they flicker like crazy first?” I looked straight into Zach’s eyes.

  His eyebrows went up as he caught my implication. “You think it was a BV?”

  “Who else do you know who can manipulate electricity like that?”

  “I don’t know. But it couldn’t have been one of us,” he protested. “Why would a BV want to hurt you?”

  I hesitated. “Maybe they don’t want to hurt me. Maybe they’re trying to scare me off because they don’t like me.”

  “No offense, but most of the BVs don’t know who you are, much less know you well enough to decide they dislike you.”

  That stung a little, but I had much bigger things to worry about than being popular.

  “Really, who would hate you enough to go to the trouble of setting this whole thing up?” Zach asked.

  “I can think of two people right off the top of my head. And you’re related to both of them.”

  Zach considered this for a moment. “Trent’s an ass, and he might do something because he resents you, but he’s not a very big guy. And his upper-body strength is pathetic. I can’t see him being able to topple a several-hundred-pound machine under any circumstances.”

  I mulled this idea over for a second. I’d barely been able to see the outline of the figure, but it did seem a bit bigger than Trent. Corinne was a different story, however. She was tall—and not willowy tall, but Amazon tall. Based on her build and personality, I figured she was also fast and strong.

  And that strong vanilla scent … It seemed unlikely for a guy to be wearing such a syrupy cologne.

  “Do you think it’s possible that it was Corinne? That she was playing a prank on me?” I hastened to add. I didn’t want to piss Zach off, but she did seem to be the most likely suspect.

  “Corinne was on the phone with me just minutes before I heard you yelling. Besides, she may like to intimidate people, but she would never chase someone down and corner them.” Zach’s tone was more than a little defensive. “Especially not you—she knows I … she knows that I care about you.”

  I didn’t want to tell him, but that was exactly why I thought it might have been her. The fact that Corinne didn’t want me around Zach was no secret, and I wasn’t sure how far she would go to keep us apart.

  “We should tell someone,” Zach said. “The police or the administration.”

  “What would we tell them? I can’t describe the person; it was too dark. And he didn’t actually do anything.” I couldn’t imagine the police would be much help.

  “I guess I’ll hold off for now.” Zach frowned.

  “So I think you have some explaining to do.” I crossed my arms and put on a stern look, but my tone was teasing. I did it partly to change the subject, but also because I wanted to know how the hell Zach had moved the soda machine.

  He gave me a puzzled look.

  “You know,” I prodded. “The whole ‘shoving a several-hundred-pound object just by looking at it’ thing? You never told me about that particular ability.”

  “Oh.” My question seemed to throw Zach off balance. “Yeah, well, I’ve always been able to do telekinesis stuff. When I was a kid, I’d move things without consciously meaning to. As I got older and gained more control, I stopped doing it. It made me feel like a freak.” He ran his thumbnail along the metal counter.

  “I wasn’t actually sure I could still do the telekinesis,” he continued. “And I definitely didn’t know if I could move something that heavy. But when I saw you trapped behind those doors”—Zach’s jaw worked under his skin—“the look of fear on your face … I’ve never felt more anger in my life. Nothing else mattered except getting you safe. I think I could move a bus if I needed to get to you.”

  “Zach …” I reached out and laid my hand over his. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. Emotions were bubbling up in me in a way that I couldn’t express.

  He glanced up, and the look in his eyes took my breath away. “Everything’s so different with you. I feel things … do things I’ve never done. Never thought I could do.”

  “Lik
e that dream the other night?” I wanted desperately to know if my suspicions were right.

  “Then you did dream it, too.” He let out a sharp breath. “I thought you had, the way you wouldn’t look at me at lunch on Monday.”

  “Well, you’re the first person I’ve ever had invade my dreams. I’m still trying to adjust to it.”

  “I swear I’ve never done it before, not until you came here,” he assured me. “I didn’t know I could.”

  “I don’t understand. How is it even possible?”

  “It has to do with the Akashic field.” Zach paused. “Do you know what that is?”

  I shook my head no. Zach immediately went into science mode like he had when he first explained the BVs. The look on his face was so serious—it was insanely cute.

  “It’s a strong electromagnetic field in the earth’s atmosphere. Supposedly information passes—in these patterns like radio waves—from a person out into this field. BVs who’ve worked at advancing their abilities say that they can tap into the Akashic field and get into the subconscious minds of people who are sleeping.” He shrugged. “At least that’s the theory.”

  It made about as much sense to me as quantum physics.

  “I know. It’s hard to understand,” Zach agreed.

  “So if you’d never done it before, how’d you know what to do? Why did you do it with me?” I realized too late how that sentence sounded. “I mean, um …,” I floundered.

  “I didn’t try to do it. It just happened. I was thinking about you when I went to sleep.”

  The image of Zach lying in bed sent a shiver through my body.

  “And all of sudden, there I was in your dream. I asked Corinne about it the next day, and she said you’re very accessible when you dream; your subconscious is wide open.”

  And now I was severely creeped out.

  “So Corinne was really there in my dream with you?” I asked, my voice rising.

  “She was apparently tailing me in my dream, and she followed when I went into yours.”

  Great. That’s not mortifying at all.

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” Zach responded to my unspoken thought. “She’s the one who shouldn’t have been there. That was between me and you.”

  I slipped off the stool, not looking at Zach. “Do you want to do your pictures? Mine are probably dry.” It seemed ridiculous to talk about class projects after all that had happened, but they were still due.

  “That’s okay. I’ll do mine tomorrow. Why don’t you grab yours, and we can go over to the SAC—if you want.”

  “I want to,” I assured him. Truthfully, it didn’t matter anymore if I was doomed to get hurt, or if Zach and I were fundamentally incompatible. At this point I couldn’t stop myself from falling for him.

  I went to the dryer and began to pull my prints from it. As I set the first photo in my folder, I noticed that there was a faint ring of light around Zach, like a body-wide halo. I frowned. I looked at the next photograph, then the next. They were all the same. When I had first done darkroom work, I’d had some problems with overexposure, but it never looked like this.

  “Uh, Zach …”

  “What?” He turned, and I held up the pictures.

  “Oh.” He sighed. “Yeah … well.” He shrugged. “It’s the electric-field thing.”

  “So you always look like Our Lady of Guadalupe in photos?” I turned, laying the pictures out on the cabinet side by side.

  “No. It doesn’t normally show up. I can sort of meditate to bring my body’s energy down.” He paused, then added, “It’s you.”

  “Me? What does that mean?”

  He came over and pointed at the prints I had lined up on the cabinet. I was very aware of how close he was to me. “If you look at them, you can see that it gets brighter in every picture.”

  It was true. “Okay. But why?”

  “Because I have trouble controlling it.”

  I gazed up at him, suddenly breathless.

  “The longer I’m around you, the less I can control myself,” Zach whispered, his face just inches from mine. He ran a hand under my hair, his fingers lightly skimming over the back of my neck. A tremor ran through me at his touch, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe. Zach brushed his thumb across my cheek and I shivered again; this time I had no doubt he had seen it. Zach’s eyes darkened. Every second was excruciatingly long, yet I didn’t want it to end.

  He bent his head to mine, and every thought I had evaporated. His lips were velvet. I pressed myself against him, wanting more. His mouth opened slightly, and a fire burned through me, urgent and new.

  It felt like I was spinning dizzily, like if Zach’s hands weren’t in my hair and on my waist, I would collapse to the ground. I melted into his body, and he lifted me off my feet as though I weighed nothing. The energy poured off us in waves. When he set me back down, my head was swimming, but in a wonderful way.

  “We’ve only got fifteen minutes until curfew.” Zach brushed my mussed hair back into place. “Want me to walk you back to your dorm?”

  What I wanted was for Zach to be kissing me again; I wanted him never to stop. But that obviously wasn’t an option.

  “Okay.” I could barely get out the word, my brain was so jumbled.

  He interlaced his fingers with mine as we walked down the hall to the door. All my senses were heightened; even the night air on my face felt like silk. Nothing was ordinary anymore. The feel of Zach’s palm, his fingers shifting with every step we took, his skin softly rubbing against mine. It was more intimate than I would have ever thought holding hands could be.

  Kresky Hall was far too close, and my heart sank a little as it came into view. I didn’t want this to end. I wanted to stay with Zach through the night, just to be close to him, to feel his chest rise and fall with every breath.

  “I know.” Zach stopped walking and turned to me. “I wish I didn’t have to leave.”

  My steps became awkward, the movements jerky and out of sync.

  “I thought you couldn’t read my thoughts all the time.” I stopped walking and crossed my arms over my chest, consequently pulling my hand from his.

  “I can’t—your emotions are just so strong right now.” Zach took my face in his hands.

  “But you don’t have to be embarrassed.” He placed a soft kiss on my lips, and they tingled as blood surged to them. Zach’s breath quickened, and I could feel the warmth of it against my cheek. At that feather-light touch, everything inside me responded, and I pulled him closer. I wanted to bind our bodies together so we could never be apart.

  When we finally made it back to Kresky Hall, I was five minutes late for check-in. But Ms. Moore’s stern expression couldn’t wipe the smile from my face.

  I remained in a state of euphoria all day Friday. Since Friday was our short day, I didn’t see Zach at lunch or photography, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Kissing Zach had been incredible. I wasn’t sure if it was because of all the extra energy flowing between us or if this was the way everybody felt when they were falling in love. Either way, it was amazing. I couldn’t imagine ever kissing anyone else again. As I left the library that afternoon, I was still reliving every second of our evening together.

  “Hmmpf.” I’d been so involved in my own daydreams that I had blindly walked straight into someone.

  “Better watch where you’re going, Goldilocks.”

  Trent.

  “You wouldn’t want to get yourself hurt, now, would you?”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled as I brushed past him. He reached out lightning fast and grabbed my wrist.

  “You’re not sorry yet.” Trent’s tight grip burned my skin. “But you will be.”

  I tried to wrench my arm away, but he was much stronger than me. “Let me go,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “What?” Trent gave me an innocent expression. “It’s okay for Zach to touch you, but I can’t?”

  “Exactly,” I spat the word out, hoping I looked pissed inst
ead of scared. “Now, I told you to let me go.”

  “You can tell me anything you want, Goldilocks.” Trent’s tone was menacing. “But I’m the one with the control. You should think long and hard before doing something I won’t like.”

  “Excuse me?” I stared. Did this guy seriously think he could tell me what to do?

  “I guess you changed your mind about going to the dance alone.” Trent went on, then deliberately looked me up and down. “It’s too bad you chose Zach; he won’t even know what to do with you.”

  Revulsion and disgust flooded through my body, nauseating me.

  “How’d he hook you, anyway? Did he give you that whole sensitive loner-guy act?” Trent asked mockingly. “Or are you just too scared to go out with a real man?”

  I wanted to bend over in pain, the way my stomach was churning, but I wouldn’t allow him the pleasure of seeing me squirm.

  “Answer me!” He squeezed my wrist so tight it was cutting off the circulation to my hand.

  “Why would I want to be with scum like you when I can be with Zach?”

  “Zach’s not as perfect as you think.” Trent’s eyes narrowed. “He’s no different than—”

  A flash of movement caught him off guard, and suddenly Zach was between us.

  “I don’t care what your problem with me is, but you leave her out of it.” Zach’s formidable stature dwarfed Trent, and he let go of my wrist.

  “You afraid of what I might tell her?” Trent taunted, but I noticed he took a step back.

  “Everyone knows you’re full of shit.” Zach was clenching his fist tightly by his side. “But if you ever touch Persephone again, I will end you.”

  “You’re willing to beat down your own flesh and blood over some slut from Los Angeles?” A vile smile spread across Trent’s face, as if something had just occurred to him. I felt sicker at the sight of it. “She’s dirtier than the streets of the city she comes from. Fifteen years old, and she’s not even a virgin.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The second the words were out of Trent’s mouth, Zach’s fist slammed into his cheek. I jumped back as a spray of blood flew from Trent’s face.