by C. S Luis
He shook his head. Only when Joseph stepped up behind him did he release me. I spun around and headed through the office door, but I didn't get far. Michael was standing right in front of me just outside Joseph's office, blocking my exit.
“Claudia, thank god. I've been looking all over for you. Mr. Thomas told me you were here.” He looked up at Joseph. “I hope she hasn't been a problem.” Michael wrapped his arms around me, and I fell into his embrace. His hands tightened around my back, and I knew he was suddenly concerned. “You scared me,” he said, and when I looked up, I thought I saw tears in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I'm sorry,” I whispered, and he kissed the top of my head.
“Oh, not at all, Michael,” Joseph replied.
'Claudia?' John was still trying to reach me, even now.
“Mr. Thomas said she was on the roof,” the principal offered.
“What were you doing up there?” Michael asked.
I wanted to tell him, but first, I wanted to get out of here. “I'm sorry.” He cupped my cheek.
“It's okay, Michael. We had a long discussion, didn't we, Miss Belle?”
I turned slowly around. John looked pained; I felt him wanting to comfort me, and I felt his rage toward Joseph. The last thing I wanted to do was to come between them. So I only nodded in response.
“I figured a few hours of detention in the cafeteria or working in the main office would help set her back on track.”
Michael looked surprised, and I sensed that he thought it was a little harsh, given that I was the assistant principal's ward and the late principal's granddaughter. “Is that really necessary? It's her first time breaking the rules, and she's never been in trouble before…”
“I agree,” John said. “Isn't that a little too much?”
“Now, now, nephew. We can't be too soft on kids. You know this. Michael. We do have to set an example, and rules are rules. If I give one student a pass just because I know her guardian, someone might consider that favoritism.”
Michael glared at the man and forced himself to say, “Yes, of course. I apologize for the intrusion, Dr. Müller.” He moved to leave.
“It's quite all right. Please call me Joseph. I had the impression we were on a first-name basis by now.”
“Yes. Absolutely, Joseph.”
'Claudia…' John tried to reach me again, but I spun away to avoid him.
Michael politely nodded and ushered me out. I felt John tugging at me again and I pushed back. Leave me alone!
I thought I heard him stumble in Joseph's office, but I didn't turn around to check.
In the hallway, Michael stepped quickly up beside me. “Maybe I was wrong about that man. A little. I think that's way too harsh a punishment.”
“I'll survive,” I muttered.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?”
I looked up at him and wanted to tell him everything. But I didn't. Maybe I wanted to protect Michael from all this strange information, and I definitely didn't want to make things worse than already were.
“Still,” Michael added, “I can't just let this slide completely, Claudia. I have to ground you.”
It was definitely a good call not to have told him what I was going through. I frowned. “Grounded? Why?”
“Why? You were cutting class, Claudia. On the roof of the school.” I veered away from him, but he followed me, radiating disappointment. That was the last thing I wanted him to feel about me. “You are grounded…” he repeated. All I could do was offer him a scathing glance. “And I don't want you hanging out with Alex Burton anymore.”
“What?” That was definitely going too far. “You can't tell me who to be friends with.”
“I'm your guardian, and I'm responsible if anything happens to you. I don't want you talking to her again.” It sounded so fake coming from Michael, like he was trying extra hard to make his voice sound strong and firm.
“But she's my friend, and we're going to a party on Saturday. I've already made plans with her.” It rushed out of me, and then I wished I hadn't said anything.
“Well, then maybe you should have thought about that before you wandered off and skipped class.” He didn't say it as firmly as the first time. I knew he wanted to take it all back, to un-ground me and apologize and just hold me. But he felt he had to say something, to be strict and firm so I didn't walk all over him.
“That's not fair,” I snapped, pulling away from him. I felt him nearly give in as I turned and headed for the stairwell.
“Where are you going?”
“To class! Now leave me alone.” Then I hurried away.
“Claudia, please understand,” Michael called after me as I stormed up the stairs. “I'm only trying to keep you safe.”
I ignored him.
Chapter 26:
Denial
After my eventful visit to Joseph's office and Michael's lecture about skipping, I made it to my first class of the day. And after that, it was time for PE.
I wanted to talk to Alex about John but wondered if I should reveal what I knew about him—about what he was. She already knew what I could do, so I figured she wouldn't be as surprised to hear about John as most people would.
In the locker room, I got dressed in those awful, tacky shorts and gym shirt. Then I saw Rachel and her girlfriends looking in my direction, whispering. And I could hear them.
“She's so weird.”
“Just like her grandpa.”
“Why is she still here after what happened?”
The lights overhead flickered, followed by a moan from the old pipes. It sounded even to me like something was coming to live in the school. Rachel and her friends scattered.
“Freak!” one of them yelled. The girls giggled and headed into the gym. I buried my face in my hands. What I really wanted was to let myself cry, but I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing—or hearing—me. The pipes groaned again.
'Claudia…'
I raised my head and glanced at the back of the locker room. A shadow moved up the wall, its arms extending and growing longer as its body followed. I stood from the bench and raced out to join my PE class.
Everyone was taking a seat on the cold gym floor, and the PE teacher watched us all before beginning.
Rachel and her friends were staring at me again. I took a deep breath, looked away, and slowly let it out. Control. I reminded myself to keep everything under control. I'd gotten plenty of lectures on that from my father.
'Claudia.'
I glanced back toward the door to the locker room again. Whoever called me—whatever called me—was there, a part of the shadows, climbing the walls like a spider and reaching out from inside the locker room. The lights flickered in the gym as we waited for the teacher to give us directions. She took a quick look up and motioned the girls out onto the basketball court one row at a time. I just wanted her to hurry. I took another breath, and the shadowy thing disappeared beneath the locker room door again.
My row was called, and I stepped up with the rest of the girls to follow the teacher outside to the track field. Our stretching routine consisted of stretching high and low, bending over to touch our toes. My hair kept falling in my face; I should have tied it back. The ridiculous shorts made me feel way too exposed, and I had to pull them down more than once. To say the least, this was not my favorite period.
Then an electrifying charge consumed me. I didn't have to look for more than a few seconds before I found John standing next to the water cooler, staring at me. Three other guys were with him, but I didn't care about them. He smiled at me, and I turned away.
His voice weaseled its way into my head again. 'Claudia.' Why wouldn't he just leave me alone?
I bit my lip and shoved him away, and his laughter rang in my head, mocking me. What did I have to do to get him to stop?
'Talk to me. Please.'
I don't talk to people who lie to me. I pushed back again, but he seemed to think this was some kind of a game.
/>
'I didn't lie to you. I should have mentioned everything, though. It just wasn't my plan to… I like you, Claudia. A lot. Please talk to me. I'm not going away…'
And I'm not buying any of it, I told him. He was either toying with me on purpose or thought I was a complete idiot. Rachel approached him and handed him a note. Then the teacher called the first group of girls back inside with her to grab and set up the volleyball net. The rest of us had to run. I stepped onto the track with five other girls and started jogging.
'Come on, Claudia…'
I ignored him and kept moving.
Claudia!
The boy's coach called for the guys' class to return inside, and I was instantly relieved. John didn't call me again as I ran, so I assumed he'd finally gotten the hint that I wanted nothing to do with him. Still, I couldn't help a little smile at the thought that a guy as good-looking as he still wanted to be around me.
A few of the other girls ran past me, and I slowed down a little. The next thing I knew, John was running around the track right next to me. I picked up the pace again, and he stayed right by my side.
“You know you can't outrun me, Miss Belle.” He grinned.
I frowned at him before glancing back at the track again. “How do you not realize I don't want to talk to you?”
“Look, I don't know what my uncle said—”
I shot him a scathing look, hoping he really wasn't still trying to sell me that lie too.
“Joseph,” he said, correcting himself. “But it's not how I feel, and it's not who I am. I like you…” His rush of emotions hit me hard, and I knew he was telling me the truth.
I stopped and turned to face him. I couldn't believe that after everything, I still felt something for him—connected, like John and I had been cut from the same cloth somehow. “Joseph made it very clear what you are.”
“Do you believe that? Look at me and tell me you believe it. You know me, Claudia. You can see that in me. I can't hide any of it from you.” I glanced at his watch as he dialed it back. Now he was completely open to me, just like that first time—fully exposed without a piece of machinery to keep him hidden.
“Now you can see it. Whatever Joseph told you, you have to know that none of it's real.”
Complete honesty—that's what I felt. So why was I still so afraid?
“You know there's something between us. Something we can't deny…” A charge shuddered up my body, the same force radiating from him in waves. I was afraid to admit this between us, because something else was there. Something we hadn't seen, and I still couldn't see it. But I had no idea what would happen if something came to take it all away.
“Why are you scared?”
“I don't know if we should do anything, you and me.”
He cupped my cheek, and the instant he touched me, his eyes pulsed a dull light with the energy running through us. It was a blissfull charge, making us giddy and alive. The only thing I could think about was that when this was over, I'd wake up and realize it wasn't real at all. Or I'd wake up and find that John was something I actually did need to fear and to stay away from at all costs.
“Why do you want me when you can have someone like Rachel?” I muttered.
His pupils danced, that gold color returning and spreading into the bright green of his unnatural eyes. “I don't want her.”
“What about Joseph? I don't want to come between you two or get you in trouble.” His grin made me blush, my blood pulsing fiercely through my veins.
“Joseph does what I tell him.”
“What?”
“I'm his boss.”
That was definitely not what I had expected.
“He stepped completely out of line in saying anything to you.” John caressed my face, both of us riding the current of this energy, and he let out a huge breath. “Claudia, give me a chance to prove how much I care about you. To prove that you can trust me.” The PE teacher blew her whistle and called my group to come inside for the volleyball game. John slipped his hand around mind and held on. “Think about it. Please.”
“I have to go,” I said. Our fingers slowly slipped apart, and I left him to run back to my class.
After PE and dealing with the stares from Rachel and her minions, I headed to lunch, hoping to avoid anyone else for the entire day. I did want to see Alex, though, to explain what was going on. John's plea to give him a chance had left me feeling more alive than I could remember, which was odd. I couldn't keep denying whatever it was between us that wouldn't let us be.
I tried to imagine John—the boss—telling a big guy like Joseph what to do. It just didn't fit. Joseph had been especially menacing in his office. I wondered what he would say if he saw me with John again after that little meeting. At the very least, he had no idea what I could do. If he did, though, what would he do next? Would he take me to the people in the lab coats? Or would he have to follow John's orders?
Without John's touch distracting me now, I could go through all the things I'd seen in his mind when he'd dialed back his watch on the track field. John had been keeping Joseph away from me. I saw a portion of their conversation in his memory—of John defending me against Joseph's insults. He'd even slapped the man in the face. Then why was I so afraid of what would happen if John and I let ourselves grow even closer to each other? I didn't want to be afraid anymore, and I didn't want to deny myself what I wanted. The only problem was that I just didn't know exactly what I wanted.
I stepped into the cafeteria and looked around. The group of my so-called friends were sitting at their regular table, but Alex wasn't there. I stepped back out into the hall before any of the others saw me. The library was as good a place as any to eat my lunch. And I could be alone.
When I turned around in the hall, there was Joseph, heading right toward me. Shit. I ducked into the stairwell on the other side of the cafeteria and ran up to the second floor. It was quiet and empty up here, and it gave me an eerie feeling that the silence hid something else. A green light on the smoke detector above me blinked quickly over and over. The school really needed to get on changing those batteries.
When I reached the middle of the hallway, I planted myself on the ledge overlooking the library and thought about what I would do. Would I take John's offer? I hadn't thought so, but that choice didn't make sense when I couldn't help but smile whenever I thought about him.
'Claudia…'
I jumped and froze on that ledge. Below me, the library was completely empty, but the lights rising from it made the darkness up on the second floor less frightening.
'Claudia…'
“Who are you?” I whispered.
'Do you know what you are? Do you know what you can do? Why you're so important to me?'
“What do you want?”
There was a long pause, then I saw it. Within the darkness on the other end of the hallway lurked two bright, sparkling eyes, lighting up like stars or radiant diamonds lost in an ocean of endless black.
A part of the darkness stretched toward me, running along the walls in both directions and up across the ceiling. When it reached the blinking smoke detector, I realized the thing had now detached from its base and dangled there, alternately blinking in a red and green. That didn't feel right, either.
The dark arms reached toward me along the walls, the ceiling, the floor. 'He can't protect you. He can't protect what's not his. He can't protect what is mine to have. Come with me. Help me. Join me…'
I screamed.
“Claudia, wake up!”
I gasped and bolted upright. John was looking down at me, his hands on my cheeks. I wrestled away from him and looked around, very likely looking and acting like I was completely deranged.
“Are you okay? Look at me, Claudia.” He grabbed my shoulders, trying to snap me out of it. “Hey. Look at me.”
Finally, I looked up into his beautiful, emerald-green eyes.
“Are you okay? What happened?” I didn't know what to say. He cupped my face again, and I fina
lly stopped trembling.
“I saw something,” I said. “Something dark and evil right here in the hall. It was coming for me.”
“You're safe. It's okay. Tell me what you saw.” John stroked my cheek.
“You've seen it before,” I said. “That vision we shared in the hallway?” I wrapped my arms around him, wishing I could just forget all of it. The bell for second lunch period rang.
John held me tightly beside the ledge overlooking the library. Then he pulled me by the hand down the hallway to an empty classroom. He kicked open the door, then led me to a table and lifted me up onto it. “Wait here.” He closed the door again, pulled the thick curtain down over the window, and walked across the room.
A few classrooms in Milton High had been empty for a while just because they needed repairs and hadn't gotten them yet. This room didn't have working lights. In the far corner of the room, John turned on one of the lamps, illuminating his face. Behind him was a door into an attached office, which made me think this used to be a science lab. I glanced to the other far end of the room and found sinks in the back tables.
“You okay?” John asked. I nodded. He stepped across the classroom and took my face in his hands again. “I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, Claudia.”
“You believe me?” I asked, surprised that he hadn't questioned whether I'd just had a bad dream.
“Of course I believe you.” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and grabbed my hand, placing it on his chest. “We're connected, you and I. You know that. Not only here.” John pointed to his head, then his heart. “But in here, too.”
I wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you. I'm so glad I found you,” I whispered. He was the only one that could see the things I could see, and he was right. We were connected far more than mind and body. I dropped into his arms, feeling weak, my eyes struggled to remain open, but it felt like all the energy had been instantly drained from me. John's presence didn't make it any easier. Our energies connected, the current flowing between us, neither of us wanting to let go of the circuit. Things went dark fairly quickly, and I heard my name one last time.