Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One

by Amabel Daniels

  And kill me it would. This thing had to be real. Heck, maybe everything I’d ever “hallucinated” was real. Regardless, the lizardly mutant before me was living and bleeding. Blood had streamed from its wound so much to create a small river that trickled down to discolor my gray running shoes.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” I kept my hands out and raised them even higher, as though I was surrendering at gunpoint. Again, it flexed its wings out.

  Crap. Raising my arms was probably like a threat to it. I lowered them and held my hands palms up, at my sides.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” My whispers came easily. Soothing, placating phrases I’d thought of when working at the animal shelter numerous times.

  Trust me. I’m not going to hurt you.

  The only catch was if I could trust myself. Could I truly trust that this was real? That my visions of impossible beings were nothing to fear? I struggled to move past the old mantra I’d stuck to since childhood. This is real. It’s right there.

  And it was wounded. In pain.

  “Can I help you?”

  It cocked its head side to side and then awkwardly yet gracefully stepped back and forth. Pacing with a limp.

  “Let me help you.”

  Sure, like I’m some kind of fictional beast emergency doctor. What the hell do I know about first aid? I want to be a vet someday, but I haven’t even done my pre-med courses yet!

  It emitted another wail and backtracked a couple of paces.

  Wait! What did I do?

  I tossed a glance to the slowly lightening sky above the sheltering canopy. Well, hell. If it could sense my thoughts, my self-doubt wasn’t going to be reassuring. I stepped closer. “I’m going to help you. Let me see.”

  As I walked toward it, it lay down on the trail, right onto all of the blood leaking out of its limb. My heart had never hammered so furiously fast as I stepped closer. With each footfall nearer the beast, I sucked in a desperate breath.

  Stay calm. Stay calm. I meant it for myself, really. The creature lowered its head, maybe in a sign of submission.

  Just…take it nice and easy.

  Both legs shaking, I walked up to it. My red-stained sneakers were just an inch from the scaly, leathery belly resting in the bath of blood.

  Blood is real. My shoes are real. I’m real. This. Is. Real.

  In a careful move to defy everything I’d ever told myself, I touched it. I placed my palm over its shoulder blade and held my breath.

  Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

  I couldn’t pass out now. Not when it needed help. But…I was touching it. My fingers, my skin, I was touching this thing. It was real!

  “Well. No sense figuring out if you exist.” I exhaled a wobbly whoosh of relief at this pivotal confirmation. This creature was here. It was real. A hot, breathing, living being, its rough scales pushing against my hand. Up and down as its probably massive lungs rose and fell. A heartbeat. I felt the sturdy strum of a heartbeat with my hand on its back.

  It’s real.

  It’s alive.

  It wailed again.

  Okay, maybe the alive bit might be presumptuous. I had to stop the blood flow. Licking the back of my teeth, I focused. I’d taken first aid classes when I worked at the animal shelter. And I’d assisted Susan with plenty of trauma cases and animal wounds.

  God, if she could see me now.

  I knew it could be dangerous to remove an item puncturing a body, but the rod was all the way through its leg. Did that make it safer or more dangerous?

  “I’m going to get it out, okay?”

  Then stem the blood. Tie it up, and it should heal. It wasn’t like this metallic stick was protruding from its chest or head like with an urgent life-or-death dilemma.

  I slid my hand over to the wound, letting it know where I was touching it, and gripped the cold metal rod with my other hand. I wrapped my left hand around the site of the injury, clamped my teeth together, and pulled the rod out.

  Miserable, gut-wrenching wails filled the empty forest, but it lay still. It flinched as I removed the stick, but it didn’t lash out at me.

  “Okay. Okay. Okay.” I nodded and flung the stick to the ground. Blood gushed out faster, and I slapped my free hand over my other one. “Good job. It’s okay.”

  I wished someone could be over my shoulder telling me that. If this was a preview of what being a vet would be like…

  I shook my head. Nope. No. A normal vet would have staff to assist. Medical implements. Tranquilizers.

  “Good job, buddy.”

  It turned to look at me, and I frowned. Was it a girl or a boy? “And why does that matter?” All animals were a buddy until I knew otherwise, and even then, buddy still worked.

  Blood coated my hands and forearms, but the pressure of the stream wasn’t as strong. It was breathing just as steadily as it had been before I’d pulled the stick out, and its eyes were clear. As far as I could take stock of its vitals, it seemed all right. “Hold still. I’m going to wrap it up.”

  I removed my hands and took my sweatshirt off. It was half-bloody and dirty already. Besides, it wasn’t like I had much else to use. I made quick work of tying it in the best tourniquet that I could manage around a thick, muscled dragonish horse leg.

  “There. See? Much better, huh?”

  It growled. No, I bet that was a purr.

  I grinned and caressed its back like I would a domestic cat.

  “Just take it easy, okay?” After a final pat to its back, I retreated.

  It stood up and tested out its leg. A couple of shaky steps had me wincing for it, but with a few paces back and forth, it seemed sturdier on its feet. I remained still, watching it until it approached me. As he—yes, he, because when he walked, I saw his, uh, well, I knew the difference between boys and girls—came to me, I raised my arms. I didn’t have anything else to do with them as it shoved into my side, like a pet rubbing against my leg. Only, I was so short, and it was so huge, it was a full-body nuzzle.

  “Oh.” I smiled and then winced at the blood it smeared onto my thermal shirt.

  How am I going to explain all this blood?

  I had to step back as it purred and rubbed against me on a return path. My shoe landed on something slippery, and I nearly fell down on my butt. I reached down for the object and held the metal rod that had been embedded in this thing’s leg. Rolling it between my fingers, I studied the cold, solid piece of metal. At one end, a cracked edge showed what might have been a flatter barb or wedge.

  “An arrow?”

  Never mind the fact I’d saved a dragon-slash-horse-maybe-long-deer thing in the woods.

  Who would be shooting an arrow on campus?

  Chapter Fifteen

  I’m not crazy.

  I smiled as I stared at Mr. Alwin’s whiteboard full of markered scribbles. His handwriting was too terrible to ever read, anyway.

  Unbridled glee took over me as I lost interest in the lecture. I’m not crazy!

  It’d been hours since I rescued that beast in the woods and it still hadn’t sunk into my head. I’d felt its skin, heard it breathing. It thanked me, rubbing against me.

  It was real. And I’m not crazy.

  After it had gotten up, it nuzzled me a couple of times until it suddenly stilled and cocked a horse-like ear. Then it looked at me and took off running in the opposite way I had to go. I wondered what had startled it, but there were more pressing matters at hand. It had taken off with my sweatshirt. For a good cause, but it was one of my old favorites—Dad’s old theater one with a Shakespeare quote. It was a minor sacrifice, I supposed. But I was coated in blood that was slowly drying and caking to me.

  I ran off from the site until I found a puddle. It was sufficient to wash and wipe at my skin, but my thermal shirt was destroyed. All white microfiber—no murky puddle water was going to clear the red stains. So, a few feet away, I dug a hole and buried it. Even though I was way late to return, I came back to the Green dorms in my chilly
tank top, muddy shorts, and sopping wet shoes.

  Lorcan and Flynn had just exited their dorms when I approached, and I shrugged at their shocked expressions.

  Close call.

  If they asked later, I’d make up a lie that I’d fallen down the path. Anyone could have done that in the semi-dark woods.

  Now, at the end of the school day, I tried to get over the shock and comfort of knowing I couldn’t be crazy. It wasn’t a simple flip. I’d spent years lying to myself that strange creatures didn’t exist. I’d spent most of my life nodding along and pretending to just be normal. Knowing I was right all along wasn’t a little I-told-you-so moment. It’d take time to realize I hadn’t been honest with myself, so quick to listen to everyone else that I had to be imagining those monsters.

  Those two boys were waiting for me on the path leading to the dorms, and I just knew they wouldn’t go easy on me. They had to have known something was up with me returning like a drenched rat in too few garments for an October morning run. Fall off the path? Please, I wasn’t a klutz, and I couldn’t fake being one.

  “Hey, Layla, come to the cafeteria and get a snack with us,” Lorcan suggested.

  Uh, no thanks. Flynn’s stare was…demanding. “Um…”

  He strode toward me and draped his toned arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward Main Hall and the cafeteria. “Okay.” I took slight comfort in the familiarity of his scent, that spicy and sprucy cologne. It’d be foolish to think he merely wanted my company. His gaze held a very firm dose of determination and curiosity.

  Lorcan fell into step with us. When he glanced around, like checking who could be eavesdropping, I knew it wasn’t going to be a pleasant chat. “Why were you covered in blood this morning?”

  Damn. Never trust a puddle to clean up a crime scene. At least they were the only ones around at the time to see me. After I’d seen them exiting their dorms, I’d just barely managed to squeeze past Marcy inside and avoid her questions, too. Too close for comfort. “It’s…hard to explain.”

  Almost impossible to explain.

  “What are you getting up to during your ‘runs’?” Flynn removed his arm from me to show a single fingered air quote. Chilly air nipped at the back of my neck, and I hadn’t realized it was possible to warm to someone’s, well, warmth that quickly. Even someone as sharply suspicious as him.

  “Running.” I smirked at him. “You know, cardio.”

  “You don’t go running and come back covered in blood.”

  Lorcan rushed ahead and backpedaled in front of us as we headed to the cafeteria. “Are you injured?”

  I shook my head. But now I knew there was a possibility of injury. Why would anyone be armed with an arrow at Olde Earth?

  I remained silent as we took seats at our usual table toward the rear corner of the dining hall. Other tables had clusters of students working with their noses in books or their fingers swiping on tablets. After school time found the cafeteria as a quasi-study hall. No one was around us to eavesdrop, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t even know where to begin.

  “I think you’ve been snooping,” Flynn said as he hunched over the table and stabbed his finger at the table. I raised my brows as though challenging him. He had no proof. And seriously, I was just running in the mornings. The blood… Hey! I brightened at the idea of using my period as an excuse. Which was gross. And unbelievable since girls didn’t combust and sprinkle blood everywhere. Although, what does a guy really know about how periods work—

  “And we don’t want to be left out,” Lorcan added, dismissing his concern about the blood.

  Flynn nodded once. Like he’d made a final decision. “Let’s try it again.”

  I slanted closer and narrowed my eyes. “Try what again?”

  “Let’s sneak out again,” Flynn said.

  A gasp behind me had me whipping around. “Again?” Paige stared at us as she stood there with a bag of vending machine chips. “What do you mean again?”

  Even worse, we had two other eavesdroppers who’d been walking by behind Paige.

  Sabine and Aura clacked their heels on the linoleum floor as they rushed to us.

  “Who snuck out where?” Sabine asked in a sassy tone.

  “Layla,” Lorcan replied, gesturing to me.

  I gave him a look. Gee. Thanks, tattletale.

  “We all did,” Flynn said, pointing at himself and Lorcan.

  “No way.” Aura’s smile could only mean bad things. I cringed as the girls encroached around the table.

  This is so not going to end well. I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

  Paige dropped to the spot on the bench next to me. “Layla?” She laid her hand on my forearm. “You snuck out?” After she whispered the question, she looked around the cafeteria. “When?” She licked her lips and frowned hard. “How?”

  Sabine saved me, ironically. She propped her butt on the table and spun to face us all. “She did not. Layla’s so lame she wouldn’t even know how to break a rule.”

  “Did you?” Aura asked me.

  I kind of liked that she didn’t immediately take Sabine’s word as fact. Lorcan butted in before I could speak. “She did.” He pointed to Flynn. “All three of us snuck out.”

  “How?” Aura asked.

  Sabine huffed. “I’m telling you, she couldn’t have. If we couldn’t sneak out, there’s no way she managed to.”

  Oh? “You tried to sneak out?”

  Aura nodded and then pouted. “We’ve been texting this junior from the Gold dorms, and he asked us over to his room. But the stupid dog barked, and Old Bernie caught us and had us damn near under house arrest for a week.”

  Sabine leaned closer to me, giving the guys way too much of a preview of her cleavage with her blouse unbuttoned at the top. That look was back. The scowl of scorn she saved for me. “You snuck out?”

  Again, Lorcan answered for me, as soon as he managed to tear his stare from her chest. “She—we did.” His cocky smile at the word we blared an alarm in my mind. He wanted Sabine to be impressed he’d snuck out? Come on, Lorcan. Not Sabine. She’s poison. Fall head-over-heels for someone nicer.

  “How?” Paige and Aura repeated that tricky question in unison.

  I turned to Paige. “Why would you ask me how to leave the dorms?” I crossed my arms. “You leave every other Wednesday night to ‘meet up with your mom.’ How do you get past the doorway?”

  Paige paled, and I wished I could take back my words. I didn’t want to get nasty about it. But she was keeping secrets from me, and she’d been the one to declare we shouldn’t have any of those.

  Yet…I’ve got a vault of secrets. Like, oh, aiding an injured dragon-horse this morning. For such an easy out, deflecting the attention to her, I felt terrible. Why had I said that? Was jealousy simmering somewhere hidden in my soul—that I could envy Paige for the time she had with her mom? Heat spread from my neck and sweat beaded at the small of my back. Why did I say that!

  “Eh…um. My mom and I are close.” Paige smoothed down her afro. “We like to hang out a lot—”

  “She asked how not why,” Sabine said, not so gently.

  My roomie blinked at the tabletop and seemed to want to cower into herself. I’d only wanted to get the pressure off of me and how I had gotten past the guards. Stupid, Layla. Really stupid.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I slapped my hands to the table and pushed to stand. “It’s a bad idea.”

  Flynn shot me a glare that said, you don’t say…

  “I’m certainly not going to try to break curfew or sneak out when quarterly exams are in less than a week.” And then I left. Or I tried to. Flynn rushed after me and caught up to me in the hallway leading out of Main Hall.

  “Paige goes out on those nights too?” he asked.

  Too? Who else did? I tried to walk faster, and it hardly impacted him. His chuckle aggravated me, and I set my teeth together as I strode out of there as quickly as I could.

  “Come on. I just want…�
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  I stopped then and faced him outside in the breezy late afternoon sunshine. “What? What do you want?”

  He chewed on the corner of his lips as he gazed at me. For the first time, I got a tease of vulnerable Flynn. Gone was his laidback manner. He was after something.

  “Answers.” He flapped his arms out with the word and instantly shoved his hands into his pockets, as though he couldn’t trust himself to use them somehow.

  “I’m not a good source. Why would I know anything?” When he quirked a brow and started to smile, I jabbed a finger at his face. “And I don’t know anything.”

  “Says the girl who goes running in the morning and comes back forty-four minutes later covered in blood?”

  Forty-four? Was he— My jaw dropped. Was he timing me or something? How would he know I was that late? Jeez. Stalker much?

  “You know that Paige goes somewhere every other Wednesday night. Just like I know others do.”

  Dammit. Now he had me snagged and wanting answers. I crossed my arms. “Like who?”

  “Ren. He’s mentioned it. Nick, my dorm supe does.”

  I licked the backs of my teeth and fought to stay silent. Whatever Paige, Ren, whoever was doing, it wasn’t my business. I couldn’t dig into some selective student meeting mystery. I just couldn’t. I had no time to screw around looking for answers about Olde Earth when I had tests to study for, note to memorize, and creatures in the woods to save?

  “Paige…” Flynn looked to the ground for a moment before meeting my gaze again. “She’s a nice girl. Quiet.”

  Shy, yes. But quiet? Has he never gotten caught in a ramble?

  “Sweet.”

  She’s absolutely an angel…when she’s not being secretive.

  “Smart.”

  Well, with a librarian for a mom, I’m not surprised.

  “And she seems eager to help…”

  I deadpanned. “I’m not going to push her for answers.” I already hated myself for calling her out in the cafeteria like I had just minutes ago. That wasn’t me. I knew all too well how sickening it was to be put on the spot, whatever the purpose.