Denial

by R. M. Walker

  “Calm down, Jake!” Drew barked in his ear. “Calm down, or I can’t help you!”

  “What’s going on here?” Mr O’Connor bellowed. “You! Johnston! Explain!”

  “Accidentally bumped into Cohen, and he went off on one, sir.”

  “That was no accident,” Nate snarled at him.

  “Well for goodness sake, are you six still?” Mr O’Connor kept his gaze on Johnston. “Go on! Get to class, and don’t let me catch you fighting again or you’ll be expelled and deported! Go! All of you!” Spit flew from his mouth, and Johnston reared back in disgust. He turned and walked off, sneering as Nate flipped him off.

  “Cohen!” Mr O’Connor snapped.

  “Sorry, sir, finger slipped,” he said, wincing as he straightened his glasses.

  “Did it now?” Mr O’Connor said dryly. “Right, they’ve gone. Seriously you lot, I expected more from you. Keep your heads down and your noses clean. You’re nearly through here. Don’t let some morons with straw for brains get to you so close to the finish line. Couple more months, and you can have your pick of universities. Just keep clean.”

  “Sir.” Nate acknowledged what he said with a nod.

  Jake shook himself free, and Drew stood back from him.

  “You go on, Arthur. I’ll catch you up,” Drew said. “I want a word with this lot anyway.”

  Mr O’Connor nodded and patted Nate on the shoulder before carrying on down the corridor. “Only a few months, boys!”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Drew instructed. “That was more than bumping into you.”

  “Just a misunderstanding,” Josh snapped.

  Drew caught and held Jake’s gaze. “Tell me.”

  “He was insulting Lily,” Jake replied.

  Josh snarled at him, and Jake flipped him off, touching his temple where he’d caught a fist.

  “What was he saying?” Drew kept eye contact with Jake and ignored the rest of them.

  “Reckons we’re all fucking her and that it gives him the right to fuck her too.”

  Drew stepped closer. “How dangerous is Johnston?”

  “What?”

  “You heard what I said, Jake. What are the chances of him doing more than talking?”

  “He won’t get within...”

  “Don’t bullshit me, boy.” Drew’s voice was ice cold, his eyes black chips of stone.

  “He’s all mouth, usually,” Jake replied.

  “We can handle him!” Nate snarled.

  “Can you?” Drew lowered his voice and looked around at them. “You’re leaving her wide open to gossip. She’s talked about, do you know that?”

  “What?” Josh frowned at him.

  “You think Johnston is alone in his assumptions? You’re all dating her, aren’t you? She’s dating all of you.”

  “It’s nobody else’s business what the fuck we do,” Nate snarled and got right into Drew’s face. “Especially yours.”

  The overhead bell rang again, but no one moved.

  “I know it’s not.” Drew agreed but didn’t back down. “But the funny thing with life is that no one ever seems to understand that. Whether you like it or not, people talk. They will always talk. And the more fuel you give them, the more they will fan the flames. If you want to protect her from morons like that, don’t leave her wide open to insults. You need to be more careful with her. You’re going to get her hurt.”

  “Why do you care?” Matt demanded.

  Drew laughed, but it was humourless. “According to you, I’m after her.”

  “Fuck you,” Josh snarled, stepping forwards. Drew pressed a hand onto his chest, holding him back.

  “Listen, you morons, she’s a kid. You’re all just kids to me. So get over yourselves and start thinking with those brains your grades would indicate you have but which I have yet to see any proof of!”

  “You’re a git,” Jake snapped.

  “I’ve been called worse, believe me. Stop putting her and yourselves into the spotlight. Discretion, boys, is the better part of valour. What the five of you do in your own time, and in private, is completely up to you. You’re all legal. Just stop announcing it to the rest of the world and expecting no one to notice.” He stepped away from them, breaking contact with Josh. “Now get to your classes.”

  He stalked away, leaving them standing there. He suddenly stopped and turned back to them. “How long have they given you trouble, Jake?”

  “Since we were six,” Jake replied.

  He nodded and walked away.

  “I fucking hate him so much,” Nate snarled.

  “He has a point,” Matt said.

  “I know! That’s one of the fucking reasons I hate him so much.”

  “What do we do?” Jake muttered as he crossed to pick up their bags, wincing when it caught his side that had been kicked.

  “What the hell was that, Jacob?” Josh snatched his bag from him. “One question from him, and you’re singing like a fucking canary!”

  “He asked. I answered, Joshua!” Jake snarled at him and shuddered violently.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Josh asked.

  “Nothing, someone walked over my grave.”

  “How did he know you’re Jake?” Matt asked. “Not many can work it out.”

  “He probably worked out who was who and kept track,” Josh answered before Jake could reply. “You know a few of the other teachers can do it if we don’t actively try and kid them.”

  “What about Lily? We’ve not been careful. One of us needs to be her boyfriend here,” Nate said.

  “Who?” Jake asked.

  “For cohesion, it should be Matt,” Nate replied.

  “It means no more walking around holding her hand, Jacob.”

  “I’m not stupid, Joshua! No matter what you think!” Jake snarled at him. “Look, sort it out between yourselves. I’m going.” He stomped away sullenly.

  “Jacob!” Josh pushed between Nate and Matt to hurry after him.

  “What’s eating him?” Matt asked, watching them go.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s miffed because it’s you that gets to hold her hand in public.”

  “I don’t think it’s going to matter; I think the damage has been done.”

  “Maybe.” Nate shook his head and looked over at the nurse’s room. “Reckon she heard?”

  “I don’t know. Look, we need to get going or we’ll be late. Let’s talk tonight when we take her home.”

  Nate nodded and went in the opposite direction of Matt. He checked his phone, but there were no texts from Lily or Jonas. There was nothing they could do until tonight.

  Memories

  Johnston slipped behind the cookery cabins. He was skipping out on class by himself, and it just made it easier. Drew waited a few seconds then walked around the corner casually, his hands in his pockets.

  “Fuck!” Johnston tried to make a run for it.

  Drew muttered under his breath and watched as Johnston tripped and fell heavily to the ground. He tried to get up, but Drew wasn’t allowing that yet. He kept him face down on the dirty ground with just a thought.

  “What the fuck? What the fuck?” Johnston was panicking at his inability to move, and it made his voice high pitched.

  “Well, you’re boring,” Drew drawled, crossing to put his foot on Johnston’s lower back. He leant forward, resting his weight on Johnston. “You’re the sort that annoys me. You’re a bully because underneath you’re just a scared little boy.”

  Johnston tried to struggle, but Drew muttered a spell, rendering him unable to move.

  Drew took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a thought. He drew a deep breath as he put the packet away then let the smoke curl from his nose.

  “You’re useless to me. You talk the talk, but when it comes to it, you’re all mouth,” he spoke around the cigarette.

  Johnston made a strangled sort of noise in the back of his throat, an
d the pungent smell of urine wafted through the air, making Drew shake his head.

  “You’ve pissed yourself,” he sneered. “And I haven’t even started yet.” He leant over him, the cigarette dangling from his mouth beside Johnston’s ear.

  “Do you know why I’m talking to you?” As Drew spoke, the cigarette wiggled, and hot ash fell onto Johnston’s cheek.

  Johnston made another strangled noise, and Drew smirked. The air reeked of fear, and Drew took out the cigarette to sniff deeply, his eyes closed in pleasure. Fear was one of the most delicious smells he’d come across, but he wasn’t here for that. He put the cigarette back into his mouth and puffed smoke from his nose as more ash rained down onto the terrified boy under him.

  “What’ve you been up to all these years with those boys, hmm?” Drew reached forwards and stroked his fingers through Johnston’s hair, a gentle move that belied his intent. He forced his way into his mind and was disappointed when there was no resistance. No willpower, no inner resilience, just fear. He sorted through memories of rugby games, drinking, taking drugs with his friends, causing trouble. He saw the neglect of his family; the pattern of bullying started with his father. He saw him and his friends gathered around much younger versions of the twins. Pushing them around, shoving them. Books being tossed into the dirt. The twins trying to fight back but physically not as strong. Nate being tripped in the playground, his glasses stepped on. Homework being destroyed. He saw it all, right up to the fight earlier.

  Drew withdrew from his mind and stood up straight next to him. He’d seen what happened, but he hadn’t seen why they were Johnston’s primary targets. Sure enough, others were bullied as well, but not as often and not with the same level of hatred.

  “Why them? Why those four?” he demanded as he released the spell.

  “What the fuck are you?” Johnston’s voice was little more than a squeak as he struggled to his feet, only to sink to his knees in rank fear. Tears and snot mingled on his face, mixed in with the dirt from the ground, making Drew feel mildly nauseous.

  “A history professor. Why them? You’re a narrow-minded moron, I get that, but why make those four boys your primary targets?”

  “Let me go, just let me go.” He had his hands raised in a protective gesture.

  “I will let you go. I just want to know why you picked on Nate and his friends.” Drew took the last drag of his cigarette then flicked the butt towards Johnston. He flinched, but the butt disappeared into thin air before it could reach him.

  “Why them?” roared Drew. “Talk to me, boy!”

  “They’re freaks, weirdos. No one likes them. Not really. They have no friends,” he babbled.

  “Why?”

  “They don’t have any friends except each other. Those twins are fucking freaky. They’re all weird.” His was voice fast and breathless with fear.

  “Being weird isn’t an answer,” Drew snapped and drew another cigarette from his pocket. He hated dealing with idiots like this, but he wanted information. He didn’t want to mess too much with him; it would be odd if he acquired a sudden broken arm but didn’t remember how. And Johnston wouldn’t be remembering any of this—well, there would be one thing he’d remember, but he’d get to that later. He still wanted to know about the boys.

  “They’re fucking weird, I tell you! Those twins, when we were in primary, they used to have rats in their pockets. Who the fuck keeps rats in their pockets?”

  “Lots of people keep rats as pets, you idiot!” Drew sighed heavily. “You don’t know, do you? You have no idea why you’ve picked on them, other than they were easy targets because they didn’t make friends except with each other.”

  “They’re cousins. They’re all cousins,” he said, wiping the snot that dripped from his nose onto his wrist. “They were always too close to make friends with anyone else. Wouldn’t let anyone else join them. Fucking too stuck up.”

  “Cousins?” Drew hadn’t picked up on that. It wasn’t in their school records, and none of them had the same last name, which meant their mothers were sisters.

  “Yeah, we all went to the same primary. They were strange right from the start.”

  “Strange?” Drew stepped closer, and the boy reared back.

  “Don’t hurt me!”

  “I won’t, stupid. I just want to know what you mean by strange, but you’re not coherent enough to string two words together. Keep still.” Drew didn’t give him a choice in the matter as he flicked his fingers and held him immobile again. He touched his forehead and went deeper, going right back to the first time he met the boys.

  There was a memory buried deeply under layers of magic that took him by surprise. He concentrated hard. Unpicking it was tricky but not impossible. He felt the last strand loosen, and he plummeted into the memory.

  He wanted to play marbles with someone. He wasn’t playing with Rob, he cheated worse than he did. The twins usually had marbles on them, and they weren’t as good as he was. They would do.

  He looked around and spotted them with their cousins crouched on the floor by the fence. He went closer, intent on calling out to them, when he saw a bird on the floor between them. A rush of delight went through him. What were they doing with it? It had a broken wing, that much was obvious. Had they done it? Were they tormenting it like he’d done with the spider the other day? That had been fun; pulling off the legs one by one, watching as it was unable to move. It had filled him with a sense of power that made him feel invincible.

  He stepped closer and watched as the twins picked up the bird gently, making stupid, cooing, girly noises. Disappointment filled him, they weren’t going to play with it after all. He started to turn away when he saw Matt stroke his finger down the bird’s wing, and unexpectedly, blood gushed from Matt’s nose. It startled him enough to keep him rooted to the spot as Matt shoved a cloth under his nose. None of the others were worried or surprised at his sudden nosebleed, and he was a little in awe at Matt not making a fuss. Then he saw the bird hop from their hands onto the floor. It did a weird strange little head bobbing thing, and then it flew away. It just flew away. Confusion filled him, how could that be possible? It wasn’t. How then? Matt had...

  It sank in, and his head went back. Matt had healed the bird. He drew in a breath to shout out, and a hand clamped firmly over his mouth, and he was dragged backwards.

  “Fucking hell!” Drew turned from Johnston abruptly and slammed his hand into the concrete wall beside him. “They’re fucking fae, and I didn’t see it!”

  Whoever had clamped a hand around Johnston’s mouth had known what they’d done and had stopped him from shouting. Whoever it was, they’d covered the memory with a complicated spell. But while the memory was forgotten, it had left an uneasy feeling about them. The uneasy feeling morphed into a fear that had slowly turned into hate. Johnston hated them, and he couldn’t even remember why.

  Drew hit the wall again. He’d missed it. They were fae—or at least Matt and the twins were, Nate probably was as well—and he’d missed it. His whole plan had come crumbling down around his shoulders.

  He’d looked into them! He’d watched them closely. He’d realised when he talked to Lily in the car that something was off. She’d told him her questions were academic, but he didn’t believe it. When he’d looked into the boys, there was no indication anywhere that they were anything other than what they looked like: regular, hormonal teenage idiots. And when Lily continued to show an interest in magic, he had assumed, stupidly, that it was just her awakening to her own powers.

  A strangled noise behind him reminded him that he had another problem to deal with. He turned back to Johnston.

  “Yes, you’re scared, aren’t you?” he hissed as he stepped closer. “Well, you should be. Fortunately for you though, it’s too much trouble to make you disappear.” He clamped his hands over Johnston’s ears. His lips pulled into a snarl as he lowered his head, making eye contact with the boy. He pushed himself back into his mind and
erased the memory of the boys with the bird then moved forwards and erased any memory of what had just happened. He wasn’t going to cover it with a spell, he wasn’t that stupid. He took the memory and ripped it from him, uncaring that he’d have a black hole where the last ten minutes should have been. He held him in a semi-conscious state and patted down his jacket pockets, finding what he was looking for. He opened the packet and took a sniff. It was a party drug. He shoved one to the back of Johnston’s mouth, making him swallow it. One would be enough for them to find why he was out cold on school grounds. He’d be expelled and away from Lily. Jake said it was all talk, but Drew wasn’t going to take the chance that he would hurt Lily somehow.

  His plan had been to plant a suggestion in his mind to avoid Lily. It was similar to how he’d tried to convince Lily she couldn’t trust the boys, but she had been stronger than he suspected. But he hadn’t been impressed with the way Johnston had spoken about Lily, and seeing the drug usage, disposing of him was safer for Lily.

  Drew released Johnston’s muscles and let him crumple to the floor heavily. He put the bag into his hand and stepped back. He wouldn’t wake for a while, but Drew would make sure he was found by someone before the end of the day. A suggestion pushed into someone’s mind to come here would be easy enough.

  He looked down at the bleeding, broken skin of his knuckles and winced. A glamour would have to cover that for now. He had bigger issues to worry about. Lily was surrounded by fae, and there was someone else involved that was either fae or a witch. It would be easy to find out who. The boys had been in a school playground, and the hand that had grabbed Johnston was an adult male. He just needed to go through who was at the school at the same time to find them. It stood to reason that whomever it was, if they were protecting them then, they would still be protecting them now.

  Drew was in no doubt that not only did those boys know what Lily was, but that she also knew, and she was looking to them for the help that he should be giving her. These boys weren’t just hormone riddled teenagers after a pretty girl. These boys were dangerous. They’d recognised one of their own and were guarding her like a dragon guarded its gold. Add in that they were all physically attracted to her, and she to them, and it was a recipe for disaster for him. The bond of magic could even fool them into thinking it was love and that would make them unpredictable and dangerous.