Eternity

by M.E. Timmons

  Chapter 21

  Of course, I regretted it ten minutes later, after my anger had died down. I knew that Jack was trying to protect me, and I had treated him poorly. Still, even though he was looking out for me, I didn't feel like I was wrong. I really believed that Adrian could change because I knew that he wanted to. He just needed someone to help him, and I didn't think a therapist would be the best person for the job because he only ever listened to people he cared about. I knew he cared about me, and I was in love with him.

  I wasn't sure when I had come to realize that, but it was true, so I knew I couldn't walk away. He meant too much for me to be able to do that. I already missed his rare smiles and I missed talking to him, and it hadn't been that long since I had last seen him. What I wanted most at that moment was to see him and talk to him and tell him that I was okay. He was probably torturing himself about what happened. I hoped he wouldn't try to stay away from me for my own safety again, but I knew it was a possibility.

  I thought of going to look for him, but I realized that I had no idea where he was. I got the feeling from what I had been told that he wouldn't be in the west wing, and I doubted that he was allowed to do any regular activities. I figured I would have to wait until Monday afternoon to see him, since he was supposed to go to class as usual, though I didn't want to wait that long.

  I spent the rest of the day in the library. It was almost empty, so I didn't have to worry about everyone staring at me, which had seemed to happen when I was in the cafeteria. What happened the day before was the talk of the school. I felt like people were trying to get a glimpse of my wounds or something so they could tell their friends. It was a little unnerving.

  I managed to find an interesting book about werewolves. From it I learned that it was normal for young wolves to have tempers, but it usually subsided a year or two after they first started turning. There had been a lot of incidents throughout history in which a young werewolf attacked someone with little or no provocation, and some wolves were more violent by nature than others. I was glad that the myth about a werewolf bite wasn't true. You could only be a werewolf if you were born one.

  According to the book, what was happening with Adrian was normal, and he would grow out of it eventually. I didn't understand how other people could hate him for something that he had no control over. Judging by what Paul had said on the first day, it wasn't even the first time something like that had happened.

  I was looking for another book to read when Sydney came into the library, who I hadn't seen in a while. She excused herself from the friend she was with and came over to see me. Her friend looked me over from head to toe and sneered before going to sit down at a table. I was used to such looks from girls, so I wasn't bothered. I recognized her as the girl I saw sitting with Sydney on my first day at the school, and I had seen her with Sydney a few times after that. I don't think I'd ever seen her smile.

  "How are you?" Sydney whispered as she reached me. "I heard about what happened, though I wasn't there. Everyone's talking about it. You look a lot better than I expected you to. In fact, you look almost perfectly normal, aside from the bulges your bandages are making in your sweater." She pointed to my shoulder, where it wasn't hard to see that there was something there. "Does it hurt much?"

  "Not anymore," I answered honestly. I had gone to the infirmary before I went to the library to have the dressings changed, and the cuts were closed and healing quickly, as I had suspected. Dr. Hughes had put some more healing cream on them before bandaging them back up, and I could feel it working. The pain was almost gone.

  "That's good. You could always ask a god for help, if you need it. I remember one time when my sister was sick, and we couldn't find a healer. She had a brain tumour, but it hadn't gotten too big yet. My mother told us all to ask the gods for help with healing her, because they sometimes listen. Anyway, one day my sister woke up feeling completely normal, and there was a white rose lying on her bedside table. We took her to the doctor later that same day for an MRI to see if her tumour was growing, and it was completely gone! She's been perfectly healthy ever since, and my family gained a whole new outlook on life."

  I smiled at the happy ending to her story. "I just have a few scratches, not a brain tumour," I said. "I don't think I need any more help than I'm already getting."

  "Suit yourself. Just thought you should know, I guess, since you didn't grow up in the same way that most of us did, with parents who were like us and supported our gifts. I can't imagine what I would've done without my family."

  "What is your ability, anyway?" I asked. I had never asked before, so I didn't know.

  "I can manipulate earth," she said. "It's fairly common. There are lots of people who can manipulate an element. Even some vampires can, I heard."

  "My friend Melissa can manipulate fire," I told her.

  "Ah, I see. She was one of the people who got in trouble for playing with fire in the woods after hours, wasn't she?" She didn't mention my involvement, so I figured she hadn't heard.

  "Yeah, she was," I said.

  "How's your ability going? You can see auras, right? You must have no trouble reading them by now."

  "I actually have a few abilities," I admitted. "I've been working on the other ones lately. I don't really need help with reading auras, since I've been able to see them my whole life."

  "Wow, that's awesome! Most heroes only have one ability. How many do you have?"

  "Three, as far as I know. Two are easy enough, but one of them is a little more difficult to get the hang of," I said, referring to my drawing, which I was still learning to control.

  "Wow," Sydney said again. "I wish I had other abilities. It would be so cool to -"

  "Syd?" an annoyed voice interrupted. I turned and saw that the friend Sydney had come in with was there. She stood with her hands on her hips, and she couldn't resist glaring at me with her small dark eyes. "Are we going to find that book, or what?"

  "Sorry, Jackie. I'm coming," Sydney answered. She gave me an apologetic look and went off with her friend, leaving me to continue searching for a book to read.

  I found a book about Amun's time in early America that looked interesting. Not long after I sat down to read I was interrupted again, but this time by Patrick.

  "Juliet!" he exclaimed when he saw me. "Michael's been looking for you everywhere!"

  That was news to me. "Where is he?" I asked.

  "I'm not entirely sure. Last time I saw him he was in the ballroom, but that was twenty minutes ago. He could be anywhere by now."

  "Thanks for letting me know," I said, and Patrick nodded. I put my book away and went to go find Michael.

  I found him about an hour later in the music room. He was playing a soft melody on a guitar, and he didn't look up as I approached. Instead of talking to him, I went over to the piano in the corner of the room and started playing along. He looked up when I started playing, and I smiled at him. He looked relieved to see me, but he didn't stop playing, and neither did I, until the song was over.

  "You're crazy," were his first words to me after he set down his guitar.

  "I couldn't do nothing," I argued. "Things could have been much worse if I had." I stopped myself for a second. "Great. Now I'm talking about what could have happened like everyone else," I complained.

  Michael laughed at me. "Well, if everyone else has been giving you a hard time, I won't bother," he said. "Actually, even though I don't think you should have jumped in front of me, I still owe you a thank you. You probably saved my life, though I never would've wanted that to happen at any cost to you. I really should've taken you more seriously when you showed me that drawing."

  "You don't need to thank me," I assured him. "I'd do it again if I had to. I just wish I'd realized what was going to happen sooner, or that I'd been able to draw something that gave me more clues. I'm going to work as hard as I can at improving my ability."


  "Did you see exactly what you drew?"

  "Yes. I recognized the images from both drawings as soon as I saw them."

  "Well, if you tried to stop it and you saw it anyway, then maybe you can't change anything," Michael reasoned.

  "But what if I draw something horrible? I don't want to believe that I can't do anything to stop it. I couldn't live with that." I shuddered at the thought.

  "If the idea bothers you that much, then maybe you should stop drawing," he suggested. "It might be the easiest thing to do. You have other abilities that you can work on instead."

  "The easiest thing to do is not always the best," I said.

  "True enough," Michael replied. "I guess that's your choice to make. Want to play another song?"

  I agreed, so Michael went back to his guitar. He started playing a song that was familiar to me, so I had no trouble following along.

  When I left the music room a few minutes later I headed back to the library, but I ended up stopping along the way when I saw the door to the greenhouse, which I had never been in before. I thought that maybe Melissa was there, but when I peeked my head in, the only person I saw was Mrs. Espenas. I asked her if I could look around, and she said she didn't mind.

  The plants in the greenhouse varied from vegetables to types of flowers that I didn't even recognize. I stopped to admire some giant blossoms that looked like bowls, and a plant with beans that were pink and purple. Still, the roses were undoubtedly the most beautiful flowers in the whole greenhouse.

  "You know, Melissa cares for those almost by herself now," Mrs. Espenas said to me when I stopped to look at them. "She can be very gentle for someone who has so much passion."

  I smiled, knowing that she was right. "She loves her roses. She usually brings a few to our room for all of us to admire."

  "Yes, she asked if she could on the first day." She paused and studied me for a moment. "I'm sure you're getting tired of people asking, but how are you?"

  "I'm fine," I assured her. "Dr. Hughes gave me something that works wonderfully. I'll be healed in no time."

  "That's not what I meant, dear. Are you coping well with what happened?"

  I frowned. "It was scary at the time, but I don't think there are any lasting effects," I said. I wasn't really sure what else to say. Mrs. Espenas nodded and went back to watering the vegetables, and I continued on my way to the library, where I found the book I was going to read before I had gone off to find Michael. I settled in and lost myself in a different time.