Eternity

by M.E. Timmons

  Chapter 20

  Without even thinking, I jumped in front of him. I could see Michael's expression change into an exact replica of what it was in my drawing as if in slow motion, but I was in front of him before Adrian's sharp teeth and claws made contact. He hit me instead.

  As we were falling to the floor I could see Ms. Coleman running toward us, also looking like she had in my drawing, though there wasn't much she could do. Adrian's claws had sunk into the skin on my shoulders, but I didn't feel any pain. His teeth snapped at the air in front of my face. I hit the ground hard, which knocked the breath out of my lungs, and Adrian kept going so that he was flipping into the air above my head. As he moved, his claws left my shoulders, but they cut my skin as they pulled out, leaving gashes going halfway down my arms that immediately began leaking blood onto the floor around me.

  I could hear the sudden noise of chairs scraping the floor as people stood, and voices as they expressed their shock about what was happening. I looked at my arms, and my first thought was that I didn't know I had so much blood. Adrian's human face entered my field of vision, and I could see the shock he was feeling.

  "Juliet!" he said, and he touched my face. I could see tears forming in his eyes. "I'm so, so sorry."

  Suddenly he was being pushed away. Michael was standing over me, his face pale. Ms. Coleman got to me, and she shouted something at someone, but I didn't hear what she said. She had some cloth in her hands. She bent down.

  "You're going to be alright, Juliet," she said, and she pressed the cloth against my arms to try to stop the bleeding. The pain was explosive then, and it sent me into a world of blackness.

  When I woke up the first thing I noticed was the aching in my arms. When I looked at them, I saw that they were covered in bandages that went from my shoulders to my elbows. Blood had soaked through a small area near my right shoulder. I tried to move my arms, but the ache turned to a shooting pain, so I let them relax.

  It took me a moment to realize where I was. I was lying in a bed that wasn't my own, and there was a curtain pulled out on one side. On the other side there was another bed that looked the same as the one I was in. Further away I could see a desk area, and seated there was Georgia Hughes. She looked like she was busy with paperwork, and there was no one else around. I realized I was in the infirmary, which I had only seen during the tour on my first day.

  I had only been to a doctor once before, and it was when I was twelve. There was a new kid at Pembrook, and his name was Max. He was older than I was, but he couldn't have been older than fifteen. On his first day he got in trouble for pushing Henry into the garbage dumpster. On his second day he managed to break a window, but he didn't get caught. On his third day he came after me.

  I was sitting under a tree in the yard reading a book by myself. I didn't notice him approach, so I was startled when I noticed him standing in front of me. He grabbed the book I was reading, which was one of my favourites, and he threw it up into the tree. It caught on a branch that was ten feet above the ground. Satisfied that he had caused me trouble, he laughed and ran off to interfere with a nearby game of jump rope.

  Of course, I had been in the middle of an interesting part of the book, and I wanted to know what happened next. Without a second thought, I grabbed a bottom branch and pulled myself up. I reached the book easily enough, and the way down looked simple. I was trying to pull myself toward a branch when my pants caught on a twig. The sudden interference in my movement caused me to lose my balance, and I fell out of the tree. I ended up with a broken arm, but I was lucky that it was nothing worse.

  My doctor then had been old and funny-smelling. He hardly said a word to me at all, which left me feeling afraid, but he fixed up my arm well enough. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and being in the infirmary kind of reminded me of that time, especially because of the smell of disinfectant.

  Dr. Hughes, as I learned she was, finally noticed that I was awake. She quickly finished up her paperwork before coming over to me.

  "How are you feeling, Juliet?" she asked as she started taking my vital signs.

  "Sore and thirsty," I replied. "Can I get up to get some water?"

  "Nonsense. You need to stay and rest for a while longer. I'll get you some water myself, and something for the pain." She started putting a blood pressure cuff on my leg, since she couldn't put it on my arm. It was an automatic one, so she let it work on its own while she went to get me a cup of water. I felt better after taking a long drink, though Dr. Hughes had to hold the cup to my lips since it hurt too much to move my arms. When she took off the cuff she told me my blood pressure was still quite low because I had lost a lot of blood, but it wasn't too low.

  "How's Michael?" I asked, after I had finished the water.

  "He's fine, dear. Everyone's fine except for you. I suppose Michael was lucky that you were there. Once he realized he had hurt you, Adrian turned back to human and went to you instead of continuing to try to hurt him. I heard Adrian was quite upset. The poor boy really needs to learn to control his temper."

  "Is he alright? He wasn't kicked out or anything, was he?"

  "Don't worry about Adrian, dear. Just get some rest." She started to walk back to the desk.

  "Wait!" I called, sitting up. I felt dizzy for a moment, but it passed. Dr. Hughes turned.

  "My goodness, girl," she said. "You're going to hurt yourself. Lie back down, would you?"

  "You didn't answer my question," I said. I was anxious and concerned about Adrian. I knew he had hurt me, but I didn't blame him for that. I was the one who had jumped in his path.

  Dr. Hughes sighed. "Adrian has not been expelled, but he's in a lot of trouble. He's on strict isolation from his peers, and he has to go to counselling on a daily basis."

  "Why would he be in isolation? He doesn't like being around others anyway."

  "It's because he has proven himself to be a danger to others. I doubt that it will be permanent. He'll be attending his regular classes still anyway, but his teachers will have to keep a close eye on him."

  "I see," I said.

  "Don't worry about it. No one will let him hurt you again."

  I was startled. "I'm not worried about him hurting me," I told her. "I'm worried about how he's feeling. I saw him before I passed out, and he looked so shocked. He probably feels guilty, and I don't want him to because of me."

  Dr. Hughes sighed and shook her head at me. "All the same, don't worry about it. You need to rest and recover."

  "It's hard not to worry," I said.

  Dr. Hughes gave me some pain medication and told me again to rest, but I refused to stay in the infirmary longer than necessary. I left while she was documenting my medication, though I was wearing a hospital gown. It was closed enough in the back that I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing too much. I walked to my room. I had to be careful not to swing my arms too much, and I needed help opening a door, but I got there in one piece, though I received a few stares along the way. I probably looked a little odd walking around in a hospital gown with bare feet.

  The room was empty when I got there, since it wasn't curfew yet. I tried to change out of the hospital gown, but my arms screamed in agony when I tried, so I just went to bed and promptly fell asleep.

  I woke up about an hour later when the other girls came into the room and started getting ready for bed, but I kept my eyes closed because I didn't really want to talk about what happened. They seemed to believe I was asleep, since they started talking about me.

  "Do you think she's okay?" I heard Heather ask quietly.

  "I hope so," Rhea said. "I don't think I've ever seen so much blood before. I hope that werewolf got kicked out. I can't believe he did something like that."

  "I think that werewolf is her boyfriend. He was after Michael, not her. Juliet jumped in front of him. I don't think I could've done that, even for someone as cute as Michael," Melissa said. "She has a l
ot of guts."

  "She's lucky she still has her guts. She could've been killed!" Heather exclaimed. I don't think I had ever heard her so upset before.

  "Melissa's right though; what she did was really brave. Adrian could've killed Michael. I wonder why he tried to attack him?" Rhea said.

  "Who knows?" Melissa replied. "That guy's got a wicked temper."

  The others agreed, and then all I could hear was the rustlings of blankets and bodies getting comfortable.

  When they were all in bed, Heather spoke again. "Do you think she'll forgive him?" she asked.

  "The werewolf? I hope not," Melissa said. "I mean, he seemed okay before, but what he did was pretty serious. I hate to think what could happen if he flips out again."

  "You met him before?" Rhea asked. "I don't think I've ever seen him around."

  "Yeah, he was out in the woods when we were playing with fire," Melissa explained. "I think we kind of got him into trouble, but he didn't seem to care. He was pretty good about it."

  "He's still creepy and dangerous," Heather said, yawning. "I don't trust him."

  Melissa yawned as well. "I guess we'll see what happens," she said, and that was the last thing I heard.