Love's Cruel Redemption

by C. L. Stone

  Uncle came around from the driver’s side. North from the other.

  Uncle beamed. His bald head covered in a bandana. He wore a jean jacket and khaki pants. When he smiled, he formed wrinkles around his eyes and lips. “I don’t get out enough. This is actually exciting.”

  Mr. Blackbourne approached him with a hand extended in offering. “Thanks for coming out to do this.”

  Uncle took his hand, pumping up and down. “Sure, sure. I don’t know what I’m going to do with what you’re giving me.”

  “We have to source what’s wrong with what,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “There may be more in the city going around that’s off like it is.”

  “Right,” he said. “Good thinking. Do you want my team to handle it? Sounds like you’ve got enough going on here.”

  “We’d appreciate the assistance,” he said. “We’ll give you the warehouse we think it came from. It’s where the school’s food ended up.”

  “We’ll get on it,” he said. He turned to me. “Where’s Luke? He’s not with you?”

  Did Luke say he was with me? I wasn’t sure how much information he gave Uncle on where he was. Uncle was part of the Academy, as far as I knew, but I didn’t know how much Luke kept from his Uncle about what we were up to. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere,” I said, although I wasn’t totally sure where he was.

  One of the brown doors behind us opened up. Nathan stood with the same wagon Mr. Morris and the other woman had used to cart stuff around. Silas stood by him. He looked once toward me and then on to Uncle and North. “Let’s get this over with,” Silas said. He headed toward the truck.

  The truck was opened. Boxes were stacked high, taking up most of the space. “Since we don’t know what was brought in that could be the bad stuff,” Uncle said, “we’ll just have to replace everything. I think I have everything you’ll need for this upcoming week. Hopefully enough for two thousand kids.”

  “We should be back on track by then with another normal food delivery,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Are we ready?”

  Nathan waited by the door, holding it open. I walked past Nathan, heading inside, ready to help sort what was coming in with what was going out.

  The cold room fridge was open, some of the boxes already set aside to make room for the new stuff coming in. Each box was marked and inventoried, some in red for likely suspects of what was bad, since most of the comments from students had been about the hamburger option, but it was unclear what exactly it might have been, hamburger or toppings, that might have been contaminated. And who knew out of all the other food what else might have been bad as well.

  Victor was in the kitchen, leaning over one of the long metal prep counters, writing out something in a laptop, and monitoring some cameras around the school for anyone who may come by.

  I leaned over his shoulder, not really paying attention to whatever he was doing, just wanting him to know I was close.

  He jerked back the moment I touched him and widened his eyes. “Oh. It’s you.”

  I smiled at him. “A lot going on.”

  He smiled and motioned to what he was working on. “No kidding. I’m probably not getting any sleep tonight.”

  “Maybe you should. We all should.”

  He nodded slowly. He glanced over at the door, but no one was within eyesight. We could just feel the breeze from outside sweeping in. He leaned close to me, giving me a quick kiss on the corner of my lips. “Do me a favor?”

  I agreed to it before even knowing what it was. For Victor, I’d do anything. “Absolutely.”

  “Spend some time with Nathan?”

  The question had me curious. “Any particular reason?”

  He glanced back at the open door and then back at me. “Just...trust me? He might not be showing it, but...he needs it.”

  I did trust him, but it made me wonder what was going on. I’d spent days with Mr. Blackbourne and with school issues. Did something happen while we were busy? I didn’t ask. Instead, I tried to think of how to make what needed to happen, happen.

  They didn’t need me here. Not right now.

  I gave a quick kiss to Victor, squeezing his hand gently. I was grateful he was aware enough, even through all this, to let me know when I was needed.

  I walked back to the open door, and when I did, I yawned, a little loud.

  Nathan immediately picked up on it. “Tired?”

  “Mmm,” I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes. “I can stay up a bit longer.”

  Mr. Blackbourne turned his attention back to us during his monitoring of the food being loaded into the trolley. He took one look at me with a questioning glance.

  I silently motioned to Nathan with wide eyes and hoped Nathan didn’t notice me doing so. I needed Mr. Blackbourne to know I needed to talk to Nathan. No one else.

  “Mr. Griffin, I think we can spare you a few hours if you wouldn’t mind driving her somewhere that she can sleep.”

  “Taking her home?” he asked. He glanced quickly at Uncle, who could easily hear them.

  “Wherever she can get undisturbed sleep.”

  I was proud he knew exactly what I needed. Alone time with Nathan for as long as I could get.

  “Yeah,” Nathan said. “Sure. I’ll take her.”

  When Nathan turned to go inside, I waved shortly to Mr. Blackbourne, silently thanking him.

  We returned to the kitchens. Victor noted us coming in. He waved to Nathan but then spoke to me. “We’re having to work in shifts now. Maybe we need more people on the team.”

  Nathan stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “Why are we doing this delivery so late, anyway? Can’t we do this in the morning?”

  “We need it done before anyone else is notified about the food,” Victor said. “Better to do it now.” He paused as he typed at something on his computer. “Luke should be in the car now.”

  “Oh he’s coming along?” Nathan asked.

  Victor finally looked over his shoulder at him, an eyebrow raised. “You can just drop him off at the diner or the security office... We’ll probably need him later. That okay?”

  Nathan shrugged a bit. “Sure. Yeah. Why not?”

  The awkwardness in his tone was strange to me. Why wouldn’t it be okay for Luke to come with us?

  Nathan started heading toward the front of the kitchen, where we could cut through the school through the courtyard to get to the lot on the other side. I pause by Victor, putting a delicate hand on his wrist to get his attention. He immediately looked up at me.

  “Get Mr. Blackbourne to get some sleep tonight, too,” I said. “He has exams tomorrow.”

  “I don’t know if I can get him to do anything,” he said, “but I’ll try.”

  “And...” I said, recalling something else, “sometime this weekend, let’s do something. For your birthday. Do we have time?”

  Victor groaned and mumbled. “I can’t. My parents are doing a birthday thing for me. But you can come to that?”

  I smiled. I didn’t like the idea of possibly facing his parents again, but I wanted to be there. Maybe I’d deter a fight between him and his dad at this get together. “Yes,” I said. “I’ll make sure I’m there for that, okay?”

  He brightened. “On it.” He turned to Nathan. “Do you want to come, too?”

  Nathan inhaled and then let out his answer with his exhale. “Sure. Yeah.”

  My lips twitched at his answer, the same tone he’d had about Luke going home with us. What was up with him?

  We left Victor in the cafeteria, and Nathan led the way through the dark school. I’d gotten accustomed to the evening hours in the office, but it was a new experience to walk through the school when most of the lights were off this late.

  We crossed the cafeteria, to doors that led out into the courtyard. We walked through, for the brief moment outside, and then back in on the other side into the main hallway. It was darker than the cafeteria and courtyard. My eyes needed to adjust.

  I kept myself close to Nathan. “It�
�s a little spooky in here.”

  He chuckled once, and then picked up his head, looking around. “Just don’t go up the stairs if you see an axe murderer running at you.”

  I laughed at that. “Do you think I can get tomorrow afternoon off?”

  “I don’t think there’s anything. Mr. Blackbourne has exams. More research into what happened the other night. Victor and the others have to monitor the school.”

  Since Kota had spoken to me, I knew Nathan hadn’t gone to Lily, despite Kota saying he should. I wanted to suggest maybe we go to see her together, but I didn’t know how without revealing what Kota said to me. But I thought maybe at some point I could get Kota to come over and talk to him. And if Nathan had nothing else to do, maybe this time he’d go. I’d go with him if he wanted.

  “Maybe we can do something together,” I said carefully. Would it help if I said I wanted to go see her? If I suggested maybe he could take me along?

  Nathan slowed his walking. We were in the main hallway, right below the balcony where I’d jumped off earlier in the school year. He looked up at it, and then over to the stairs, avoiding my eyes. “I don’t know...”

  He paused at that.

  “Are you okay?” I asked softly.

  He kept looking away. “Yeah.”

  I waited. When he didn’t look or answer more than that, but continued to stand there, I turned to him more. “No,” I said. “You’re not. What’s wrong?”

  His gaze lifted until he met my eyes. His expression was deep, serious. “I’m just tired,” he said.

  My fingers and lips twitched, wanting to ask him further, knowing something was off and unable to pinpoint it. Did I dare press him any further?

  I let it go, motioning to the doors. We had all night and possibly tomorrow. “Should we go? We shouldn’t leave Luke alone out there.” Maybe after he slept, I could question him further about this. If he didn’t want to tell me now, I didn’t want to start an argument.

  “Probably a good idea,” he said, and he turned his attention to the doors. He stopped and frowned. “Shit. Fuck us.”

  I turned to figure out what he was looking at.

  On the glass doors, masks were hanging high and center, facing inward.

  Volto masks.

  My jaw unhinged. How did those get there?

  I spoke, “Maybe we shouldn’t go that way...”

  Suddenly the lights all around us went out. The space had been dim before but now every bit of artificial light was gone.

  The only light source was what came in through the windows.

  And the masks glowing an eerie green.

  Nathan marched over, ripping off one of them, and heaving it at the door. It bounced off and slid across the floor.

  He tried the door handle. He paused, and then shook the door again. “Locked.”

  Panic webbed up inside of me. I tried to stay rational. This was what Volto did. Frighten us. Get us to do what he wanted. I didn’t want to let him. “We need to get to Luke,” I said. “He’s out there by himself.”

  “Let’s go back and get the others,” Nathan said. “Let’s show them this.” He picked up another mask and stuffed it into his back pocket. “We need more than just us.”

  We jogged to the other side of the hall, back to the doors we’d come in front through the courtyard. We pushed against them.

  Locked.

  I pushed and pulled at the door again in disbelief. “He’s locked us in?”

  “We might just have to go the long way around instead of going through the courtyard.” Nathan pulled a phone from his back pocket. It was newer, without a case since it had been replaced. “I should call them.”

  I felt for my phone in my bra, ready to do the same and call or make some other use out of it.

  He and I backed away from the doors, examining the dark main hallway. I kept near him. Each end of the hallway seemed darker than where we were. Each side was without wide windows that allowed what little light from outside to shine in. I dreaded the thought of having to go around.

  He reached for my hand while he was holding the phone with the other. He pushed the green button and held it to his ear. He squeezed my hand as he held on.

  After a moment, he lowered the phone and looked at the screen. “What the hell?”

  He showed me the screen, presenting a distorted picture and the sound coming from it was static. On a cell phone?

  “He’s messing with them,” I said. “Turn it off.”

  He pushed a button along the side to shut it down completely. I did the same with mine. “There’s got to be a way out,” he said. He looked at the doorway through the courtyard again and kicked at it with a heel. It didn’t budge. “We’ll have to go around.”

  I looked down the hallway, where it led away from windows at all, and the darkness was thick and foreboding. “I’m not sure we should. I think that’s where he wants us to go.”

  “We can’t stay here and wait for him to make a move,” Nathan said. “He’s just trying to rattle us. They’re on the other side. We need to get around. We’ll need to stick together.”

  I had to agree with that, but with my heart pounding so hard, it was shaking my knees. I swallowed, pressing my hand into his tightly. “Let’s go.”

  We faced off with the dark hallway, with me leaning into Nathan, practically holding myself up with his strong body. I kept squinting, as if expecting to see something through on the other side.

  There were options to go around. We could go upstairs. We could take the hallway in front of the office. We could go into the office and call them from a landline.

  All of these options were the same to me. It meant going where Volto possibly wanted us to go to. But he couldn't be everywhere at once.

  Could he?

  We tiptoed forward to the shortest hallway that would lead us to the cafeteria. Nathan was right. We needed to get to them. At first, everything was silent.

  Then a wailing sounded. It was distant at first, but coming closer.

  Nathan's hand strengthened in squeezing mine. “It's the police. Someone called them.”

  Oh no. Not now!

  Nathan nudged me forward. “I have to get you out of here. We need to hide in the school. Somewhere they'll ignore in case they search the building.”

  “We can't just leave the others to handle this alone,” I said.

  “You have to.” He turned to me. “You've got to stay away from the police and any investigation.”

  I wasn't sure my ghost bird status was worth all this. What would they think of Mr. Blackbourne and the others making an exchange at this time of night?

  We looked down the dark hallway, which led around to where the others were. Police lights lit up the sides of the hallway. They were close, possibly in the parking lot.

  Nathan turned, and tugged me along, heading to the stairs. “Never go up the stairs. Sure. That's always it, isn't it?” he muttered.

  Despite what he was saying, we climbed. I was breathless at the top, from fear and from going so fast, but he urged me on.

  “Isn’t there a light on your keys?” I asked.

  He brought them out, checking but his light wasn’t working. “Battery died at camp,” he said.

  “We need to find someplace to hide,” he said. “At least until we can be sure they aren't coming for us.”

  “There's a closet,” I said. I examined the extending hallways around us and then picked a direction. There were loads of classrooms, of course, but it was too easy to take a look inside of them. The little dusty closet had a few places to hide, if they checked inside it at all. “I think it's this way.”

  With all the lights off now, including in these hallways, most everything was pitch black. We paused just inside the edge of a hall. Without any light, it was way too dark to see up here.

  He motioned to the edge of the hall where lockers were lined up. He pressed a hand to it and kept his other hand with mine. “We'll follow these. They'll get us to the end of the
hallway.”

  “Maybe we should use a phone,” I whispered. “For light.”

  “We can't give him the advantage like that,” he said. He tugged me gently. “Come on. We've got to go.”

  I clutched to him. I wasn't sure I could go through with this without him. He was much braver than I thought I ever could be.

  He stepped forward, keeping his palm against the lockers. It was the only sound aside from our footsteps. A clunking noise erupted as he hit one of the locks, and he changed position to avoid hitting them again.

  But he didn't stop. He kept a moderate walking pace, slow enough that we wouldn’t trip hard over anything left on the floor.

  We were halfway through when he stopped. I paused beside him.

  I didn't know what he was doing. It was too dark to see. Did he hear something?

  Suddenly, I smelled it.

  Jasmine. Lavender.

  It was the same scent Volto often carried with him.

  “He's here,” I whispered.

  Before Nathan could respond, there was a zap, familiar to me and yet weaker.

  A stun gun.

  Nathan jolted forward, releasing my hand. The sensation stopped instantly. “Go!” he shouted.

  I didn't want to. I couldn't leave him. But there was only one of Volto, and I needed to either hide or get to the others and stop whatever he was doing.

  I glanced back only once, spotting the green glow of a mask. It propelled me forward, wild fear taking over me.

  I ran. I needed to get to the others. For Nathan. I couldn’t take him on alone.

  There was a stairwell ahead of me.

  I used the lockers as my guide to get to the end of the dark hall.

  A body collided with mine, taking me down. I struggled, crying out and kicking.

  A bag went over my head, stifling my voice and blinding me completely.

  Vanished

  Nathan

  Her footsteps stopped somewhere in the distance. She cried out, followed by the sound of dragging. Muffled movements. Silence.

  The pain that had radiated out from his back had subsided, but his limbs were numb. The voltage had been set high. He breathed in sharply, crouching on the floor, palms against the tile. He resisted the urge to vomit, swallowing back bile to keep himself together. He’d been zapped hard before, but this was rough.