Insidious: (The Marked Mage Chronicles, Book 1)

by Victoria Evers

  A sly smile crept across his face. “You really don’t know?”

  Even though I didn’t regret not eating more from the cafeteria, my stomach certainly did. I’d dumped my tray with most of the food still on it, forcing me to take refuge with the vending machine. Sure, the snacks were far better tasting, but it really didn’t do much to crave my appetite. Reese seemed to be suffering from the same problem, because we both practically tackled the machine the moment lunch let out.

  “Sugar works best to fend off the cravings,” he whispered, grabbing a Mountain Dew and two packs of Skittles. “It still doesn’t work as well as having a solid meal, but it’ll hold you over.”

  “Is that what’s wrong with me? Is my blood sugar crashing?”

  “Sort of. Our bodies heal so quickly because our systems run faster, including how we process things. So we need to eat and drink more frequently. Think of it as having a metabolism on cocaine.”

  Lovely.

  He tossed one of the packets of Skittles at me. “Any more questions, you know where to find me, Princess.”

  His boyish smile was undeniable. He really wasn’t teasing me. The moniker was that of…approval. The skin atop of my left hand began to tingle as I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine. By the time I got down the hall, the sensation dulled. Ducking into the bathroom, I took off the glove from my hand, seeing the ink glowing ever so slightly. It wasn’t the same symbol that had been acting up yesterday, and nothing strange seemed to happen with this one, so I guessed that was at least worth something.

  Things really weren’t shaping up to get any easier though. The light dimmed down by the time I made it to my next class, but I had to wait until the very last second to slip into Calculus, as to avoid being barraged by God only knows who for my little lunchroom indiscretion.

  “What the hell?” Vanessa mouthed as I took an available seat, purposely on the other side of the room from her and Eric.

  I didn’t answer, fixing my gaze on the blackboard. The moment class let out, I bolted. I couldn’t seem to escape everyone, because Kelsey tentatively approached me a few minutes later, dialing in the combination to her locker a few feet from mine. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  Please, don’t say it. Please just don’t say it.

  “Listen, about lunch…”

  Crap.

  Kelsey could be worse than Carly sometimes when it came to gossip and social status, so I imagined my fuse would blow after about ten seconds. “Let me guess, you think I should stay away from Reese, because I’m popular and he’s apparently bat-shit crazy?”

  “No.”

  I preemptively rolled my eyes before my brain managed to truly process the answer. “Wait… ‘No’?”

  She gave a small smile. “I think it was kind of cool, actually.”

  My jaw dropped so far, I could have kicked it with my shoe.

  “Reese seems like a decent guy from what I’ve gathered. Sure, he’s got a chip on his shoulder, but can you blame him? With all the elitist, holier-than-thou bullshit that goes on around here, Blackburn’s treated like he’s a Sith Lord or something. Just because you’re from the ‘other’ side of the tracks doesn’t make it the ‘wrong’ side.”

  “Wow…” I tried to say something—anything else—but I couldn’t find the words. It was honestly that shocking.

  Kelsey gave a halfhearted laugh. “Yeah, I know. You’re probably thinking you’re hallucinating, hearing me say this, but you know how it is. If my mom caught word of it, she’d shipped me off to get my head examined.”

  “I hear ya’.” Another warming sensation crept across my chest, and I looked down the hall just as Reese came around the corner. Dr. Fritz immediately flagged him down, handing something over to him in a small, brown paper bag.

  “Those your meds?” barked out Trace Bolton, Mystic Harbor’s epitome of the dumb-jock stereotype.

  His buddies joined in on the running commentary, and my stomach roiled. Dr. Fritz shooed them away to no avail before she disappeared into the stairwell, leaving Reese once again at their mercy.

  “So what are they for, Buffalo Bill?” Bolton further taunted. “To quiet the little voices in your head? To fend off delusions? You see little green men?”

  The rest of his posse kept the remarks coming, and Reese just shook his head.

  “Come on, Barnabas Collins,” snickered Trace. He threw a beefy arm around Reese’s shoulder, plucking at the collar of his rakish dress shirt. “Tell us, what’s your deal, man?”

  Reese immediately shrugged him off. “You know how they say, ‘every village has its idiot’? Well, I was told the pills would help me see only one.” His gaze drifted across the entire lot of them. “Appears they’re not working, because I can’t keep count of you guys.”

  A few bystanders laughed, until Trace shot them a daring glare.

  I shrunk back, leaning over to Kelsey. “Has it always been like this?”

  “With Reese?” Kelsey winced as she stole a look behind us. “Yeah, but it’s still not as bad as it used to be. When we were younger, Trace really gave it to him.”

  “Are you serious?” My stomach roiled at the thought. If the guy was even half the size he was now, I couldn’t imagine…

  She nodded. “Yeah, and trust me. That guy was never small.”

  I grimaced all the more.

  “Along with the relentless name-calling, Trace and all his friends thought it would be funny to make Blackburn into their new dodge ball target. So during recess, they used to grab him and throw him up against the side of the building where the teachers couldn’t see. They started pelting Reese with the equipment. It wasn’t anything new. Trace did this to him all the time. But on one particular day, Bolton decided that dodge balls wouldn’t cut it. His whole posse started nailing Reese with basketballs, and Trace even pitched a baseball at him. Cracked his ribcage.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “The rest of us were afraid that Trace would go off on us, so we stayed out of it. Out of nowhere, Bolton wound up on the ground. Nobody saw what happened exactly, but Trace ended up with a busted lip and a broken front tooth. He claims he tripped and fell. Rumors started, and certain bitches like Ava Ashford couldn’t resist taking advantage of the incident. You know how everyone’s all weird and superstitious when it comes to Reese?”

  I nodded.

  “Yeah, well, Ava told everybody that Reese used ‘black magic’ to attack him. After that, Blackburn was deemed the local leper. It’s stupid, but considering his…peculiarities, the stigma stuck, even after all these years.”

  “Explains why he doesn’t trust anyone around here,” I mumbled. “Were any of the guys a part of Trace’s group at the time?”

  She outright cringed. “Daniel always felt bad about what happened, but Eric and Mark just shrug it off as juvenile stupidity.”

  Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. It made sense now why Reese had such a gripe with my friends. Why he did everything to avoid them. Why he judged me for hanging out with them.

  The warning bell sounded off overhead, so Kelsey and I started making our way to History. Adam was leaning against the desk beside mine as we entered the room, and that weird force inside of me yanked backward, urging me to run out the door. After the other night, I’d made it a point to avoid him, but it seemed he had other plans.

  “We need to talk,” he said lowly as I approached.

  Had he somehow seen my runes? My stomach broke out into nauseating somersaults. “What about?”

  “You know who. Privately.”

  “No. Just say what you want to say.”

  Adam stole an annoyed glance over at Kelsey, seeing her still standing at my side. “I just think you should keep your distance from Blackburn is all.”

  “Is that right?”

  “I don’t want to see you get hurt-”

  I scoffed. “That’s rich coming from you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 
“If you’re really that concerned with who your ex is spending time with, then maybe you should have worried about that before you pushed her away.” It was a cheap shot, I’ll admit it, but he had really hurt me. The fact that he suddenly took interest now just left me suspicious and all the more pissed off.

  Adam’s jaw grounded. “Despite what you might think, I really am looking out for your best interest.”

  “Is that why you didn’t say anything to me about what happened after the accident?” He opened his mouth, but I pressed on. “You knew. You knew what was going on with me, and yet you said nothing. You did nothing.”

  He gave me a pleading look, so I finally relented, pulling him into the corner of the room.

  “You saw what I was going through, with the cravings. You treated me like I was just being paranoid when I told you about the guy in the hallway. You knew I would be hunted,” I growled.

  “I didn’t know for sure if you really had been changed—”

  “Bullshit. You attacked Reese at the mall without any evidence. You called your dad for reinforcements. You knew.” Tears threatened to spill over my lashes. “You were my best friend, and you abandoned me. I loved you, and you pushed me away. I trusted you, and you lied to me. I don’t care about what you think of Blackburn. He’s the only one here who’s actually been honest with me.”

  “Kat…” He reached out to me, but I recoiled.

  Kelsey seemed to recognize my discomfort, because she immediately darted to my side from across the room, hooking her arm around mine. “I think it’s time for you to leave,” she said to Adam. She then guided me away to the other side of the classroom when Adam made it clear he wasn’t going to move.

  “Thank you,” I mouthed to her as we took our new seats.

  It appeared I wasn’t the only one changing around here. For as long as I knew her, Kelsey didn’t put up a fight when it came to social construct. She did what was expected of her, and she always acted like a lady, even when you could see she loathed it. She never butted into other people’s business. Yet, here she was, telling off our star boxer.

  The theme from Dracula blared throughout the classroom, killing my moment of relief. I frantically dug into my purse, hoping to silence the phone before Mr. Hopkins came in and confiscated it.

  “Wonder if Reynolds will still be your white knight when he discovers the truth.”

  It was another text, from an unknown number. And there was a video file attached.

  “Stanley,” begged Mrs. Corvets’s voice off screen. “Stanley, get over here, and stop harassing the poor girl!”

  The spaniel cowered down at my feet. I was dressed in a familiar black dress. Vanessa’s. It was the one I borrowed for Blaine’s funeral. The feed seemed to be coming from the bushes lining the side of the house. Just as before, the crumpled, feathery body in my hand contorted, setting its snapped bones back into place, springing to life.

  “Kat? You okay?” asked Kelsey.

  I immediately threw my phone back into my purse, seeing more students file into the room around our desks. “Yeah.”

  “What was that?”

  Based on the angle I’d been holding up the phone, she couldn’t have seen the video, so I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “Just some ass-hat trying to harass me.”

  Whoever this was was definitely an ass-hat, but that’s not what scared me. The fact that this person was apparently stalking me, filming me, taking pictures…I couldn’t begin to fathom who would do something so sick. I needed answers.

  Thankfully, my anxiety was tranquilized after class began. Half the students wound up fast asleep halfway through Mr. Hopkins’s mind-numbing lecture about the Neolithic Revolution, and the rest of us barely managed to keep our eyes open, that is, until Chelsea Parker suddenly screamed.

  “No more marshmallows!” grumbled Duncan Hall, dazedly waking up from his nap. A loose sheet of notebook paper still clung to the side of his face from where his head had been resting on his desk. The room filled with a chorus of chuckles.

  “Ms. Parker,” annunciated Mr. Hopkins, still shooting an irritated glare over at Duncan, “care to share something?”

  Chelsea’s friend, Molly, appeared just as ill, looking at her own phone. And just like that, every other cell in the room started lighting up…except mine. Despite Mr. Hopkins’s obvious objection, even Kelsey caved into curiosity with everyone else and checked out the new notification flashing on her screen. Her free hand flew to her mouth, masking a gasp. Before I could ask, everyone’s eyes slowly settled on me in horror.

  Had my mystery stalker sent that video to everyone? What if this person had more damning evidence, like Reese killing that Hellhound? I contemplated bolting for the door, but instead grabbed Kelsey’s phone right from her fingers.

  “Kat, don’t-”

  It was another picture of me—from the accident. But unlike the previous photo I’d been sent, I wasn’t laying on the pavement. Here, I was still strapped in the passenger seat of Blaine’s Mustang, my lifeless, blood-spattered body slumped against the door. The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. I numbly set the phone back down on Kelsey’s desk, fearing my shaking legs would give out beneath me as I stood up. I could feel my own cell vibrate from inside my bag, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at it. Before Mr. Hopkins could object, I grabbed my things and ran.

  Chapter 15

  Alive

  Taking refuge in the bathroom, I tried collecting myself amid my phone blowing up with texts from everyone. I had apparently gone viral. Just as I was about to mass delete all the messages, a particular one caught my eye. Again, the sender was listed as Unknown.

  The attached image was all too familiar. Blood, shattered glass, crushed interior. The car crash. Only this time, it wasn’t a picture of me. It was Blaine. His limp frame sat slumped in the driver’s seat, his blood spattered face resting against the deflated airbag of the steering wheel. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

  My blood ran cold, and another weird tingling feeling prickled at my arm. I hiked up my sleeve to see a tiny P-shaped symbol glowing. The sight of it only made my heart beat faster. What the hell were these things? What did they do? I pinched my eyes shut, slamming my foot against the stall door.

  I only did it to blow off some steam, but it really only made things worse. The moment my heel connected with the door, it went flying. The door didn’t just kick open. It flew clear off its hinges, collapsing onto the damp tiled floor in front of the sink.

  Not only that, but the metal was dented in…from where my foot had hit it.

  What was happening to me?

  My heart rate kicked up to a tortuous thunder. My inner core now felt oddly cold. My palms were sweating. My chest was tightening. And my entire body was shaking. I couldn’t breathe.

  I needed to get out of here.

  Throwing inhibition to the wind, I took off running. Classrooms whizzed by me in a blur as I made my way to the ground level. Rounding the end of the hall, it felt like hitting a brick wall as I ran smack dab into someone.

  “Hello to you, too,” sighed Reese, catching hold of me before I wound up on my ass from the impact. His grip on me tightened as he pulled me back upright, and I had to blink several times to rid the blurriness from my eyes.

  My vision finally refocused, seeing Reese staring uneasily back at me. His thumb ran over my cheek, and that’s when I realized it. I was crying.

  “Hey…”

  I tried pulling away from him, embarrassment scorching my cheeks. But he wouldn’t let go.

  “Kat?”

  “I’m fine,” I blurted, the words coming out with a strangled yelp.

  “What happened?”

  Hot tears continued pouring from my eyes, and I knew if I opened my mouth again, I’d begin full-on sobbing.

  Reese’s hands were suddenly cupping my face, forcing me to look at him. He brushed the mess of hair from my eyes. “You wanna get out of here?”

  I
barely managed a nod.

  ***

  If someone told me last week that I’d be spending the afternoon with Reese, I would have found them the phone number to the local nuthouse. Yet, there we were, heading down Main Street in his rust bucket truck, on the way to his house no less. When I finally managed to collect myself, I showed him the pictures I received from the car accident and told him about the creep in the hoodie who just so happened to show up right after I got the first message. After throwing in the bit about the glowing red eyes, he didn’t need more persuading to agree with me that this wasn’t just a prank. Reese assured me he would do what he could to try and trace the sender’s location. I still couldn’t bring myself to tell him though about what happened in the bathroom.

  Passing the harbor, we drove down to Mystic Harbor’s boondocks where the magnificent coastal manors eventually devolved into kempt colonial subdivisions. I tried keeping my expression neutral, but my unease still didn’t go unnoticed by Reese. He stole several glances over at me with a smirk. It was void of any real amusement, but a look more of discomfiture. Given the grandeur of my home, I could only assume the ramshackle state of his own had left him with reservations of taking me there. I imagined most of the houses in the West End probably looked like something the police would raid on an episode of Cops.

  Century old elm trees loomed overhead, creating a leafy archway over the rural backstreets. The car took an unexpected turn onto a narrow gravel path, and we rode up to a quaint, two-story cottage resting at the end of the stretch. The lawn was immaculately groomed, encased around the thick collection of trees that bordered the property. There was even a small garden by the front porch filled with hydrangeas and some seasonal roses that accented the dormer windows and open veranda.

  “Wait…” I outright looked around, confused.

  “What?”

  “This is your house?”

  “Last time I checked,” said Reese, now clearly uncomfortable. “What were you expecting?”

  I tried not to laugh. “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s just…how everyone talks about the West End, I guess I pictured something out of The Warriors, you know? Some seedy underbelly where all the windows are barred and everything’s covered in spray paint.”