by Rachel Jonas
She simply nodded before walking away, not saying another word. I felt a strange sense of relief having another valuable resource on my side to help me figure things out. Right now, I needed all the help I could get.
—
Chapter Eighteen —
Nick
I hadn’t caught a single word that left Mr. Tambs’s mouth last hour, nor was I tuning in now as Mr. LaCroix rambled about who-knows-what. Instead, I stared out the window across the courtyard at C-Building, where Evie should be now. Being eager to see her, I forgot she even mentioned having to work on something in the lab after English and I made it halfway to walk her to her next class before remembering. My thoughts were a mess; the good sliding into the bad.
Evie. Pain.
The party. Shifting
Being close to her. My bones breaking, snapping like twigs.
It all ran together.
“Mr. Stokes,” LaCroix crooned from the front of the class.
He got off on calling out kids who weren’t paying attention, forcing them to humiliate themselves in front of the class, using math as his torture device of choice.
Today, I was that kid.
“I’d love for you to show everyone how to solve this equation using the trapezoidal rule formula.” The smile on his face was sickeningly broad.
I eased my way out of the too-small desk and straightened my blazer.
“Let’s go, Stokes!” Chris called out from his seat on the other side of the room. This prompted our other three teammates taking Calc this hour to hoot and bark like we did to amp each other up on the field.
I held in a laugh when everyone else let theirs out, the look on Mr. LaCroix’s face keeping me in check. The last thing I needed was him calling home to tell my parents I’d given him trouble on top of everything else I had going on.
On my way to the chalkboard, I ran through the steps to the problems from Thursday’s homework assignment. It was still pretty fresh in my head, so the joke was on LaCroix today because I actually knew what I was doing.
I stepped around his desk as one last kid whistled and I grabbed the chalk, only getting to make a single mark on the board before a noise from outside stopped me. The entire class, including Mr. LaCroix, turned their attention toward the courtyard.
“What the heck is that?” and “Where’s it coming from?” were among the questions being whispered. LaCroix moved toward the window, intrigued like the rest of us as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks. We stared, watching, waiting for the source to come into view, falling silent when it finally did. A massive, dark shadow covered the grass and fountain like a storm cloud was moving in. The noise continued, sounding like the ocean had made its way to Michigan, sweeping over us in one massive wave.
And then we saw them, the living, moving shadow.
Birds.
Hundreds of them.
No, thousands.
I’d never seen so many at once. One by one, students rose from their seats as our town seemed to suddenly be cast under a night sky in early afternoon. It was ominous, to say the least. No one spoke. The only sound was that of the birds.
The question that hung in my mind was: What are they trying to get away from?
But then, just as suddenly as it came, the wave passed and the sun returned as the last few stragglers disappeared over the Athletic Building. Almost like nothing had happened.
“Okay, you can all return to your seats now. I believe Mother Nature is done with her show for today,” LaCroix said. He settled against the vintage radiator beneath one of the windows before gesturing toward the board. He opened his mouth, I believe to tell me to continue, but… he never got the words out.
It started as a deep, quiet rumble, kind of like a stampede running toward campus in the distance, but then it grew louder. I stared at my feet when the ground beneath them began to vibrate. The monitor on Mr. LaCroix’s desk trembled at first, but then the gentle sway turned to violent shaking the next second when the entire building felt like it was being uprooted.
The sounds of screams and chaos filled the air, a deafening metal-on-metal, stone-on-stone tug of war as the integrity of the building was tested.
Mr. LaCroix shouted instructions, yelling for us to all get under our desks as dust and bits of plaster fell from the ceiling.
Evie…
Her name came to me like someone spoke it out loud. While my instinct should have been to hide and wait this thing out with everyone else, it wasn’t. Glancing toward C-Building from the window, sections of its stone façade had already begun to crumble. It was the oldest building on campus; the first, built nearly a century before any of the others. Being dated was the reason it was mostly used for storage and overflow classrooms, some of which had been converted into science labs about a decade ago. So, if I had to guess, it was mostly empty.
Mostly.
Aside from the one soul I knew for a fact to be under that roof.
I had to find her.
Lockers shook hard and fast, the closed doors clamoring against their frames. Within each classroom, the scene was exactly the same as the one I just fled—scared students and faculty screaming, hiding.
I was the only idiot hustling down the stairs toward the first floor. I burst through the entrance and felt the speed kick in again, this time not shying away from or questioning it.
Instead, I embraced it.
It was the reason I made it across the courtyard and into the building so quickly. There were so many doors. So many rooms she could have been in. There were four labs on each floor and I had no idea which was hers, so I set out to scour them all.
As a safety precaution, all classroom doors were made to lock from the inside, giving teachers the option of opening them versus strangers being able to walk in without being invited. Today, that added safety precaution was costing me time. Time I didn’t have to waste. I needed to find her.
Kicking in the first door, I searched beneath the granite-covered, lab tables, surprised to be staring into the panic-stricken, tear-stained faces of other students. I honestly hadn’t expected anyone else to be here. They were terrified. I was, too, but not so much because of the earthquake itself.
More so because of what I stood to lose if I didn’t move quickly enough.
The very next second, the building’s foundation groaned and it didn’t sound good.
“Go! Get outside!” my voice boomed, pointing toward the door. No one questioned me, not even the teacher, as a sea of bodies flooded from inside the classroom, headed toward the exit.
I went to the next, slamming the sole of my shoe into the bare space beside the knob, watching wood splinter before joining the rest of the debris that had already started to accumulate. Keeping myself balanced was becoming harder and harder as the shaking intensified. I braced myself against whatever stationary surfaces I could get ahold of as I followed the same process as before—dipping my head beneath each table to see if she was there. When I got to the last, frustration set in and I didn’t even realize what I’d done until the corner of the granite slab crumbled where I gripped it. Luckily, the room was empty so no one witnessed it except me, but I was reminded of what my brothers said, about having to relearn the measure of my strength.
Apparently, that part was no joke.
I rushed out, standing in the middle of the empty, disintegrating hallway, paying little attention to the stones and drywall falling onto my shoulders and hair. My only concern was finding Evie, getting her to safety.
I never expected things to escalate to this today, ever. How had an ordinary day turned into complete chaos? The rain, the temperature changes, the sinkholes… and now an earthquake? They were so rare in Michigan I’d gone my whole life without experiencing one. Until today. Deep down, I knew this signified a major change, but couldn’t yet slow down long enough to process it all. The only thing I could focus on was her.
I felt desperate, like I’d fail if I didn’t come across her in the next few sec
onds. What would that do to her parents if I didn’t get there in time? What would it do to me? The last thing I said to Evie before we parted ways a couple hours ago was: ‘I’ll find you’.
‘I’ll find you.’
The words echoed in my head and, in that instant, a wave of determination swept over me. I’d do whatever it took to get to her.
The rage… the kind I felt the night I shifted, the kind that made me feel like I wasn’t myself, it filled my chest with heat and anger so intense I could never describe it even if I tried. It was like, when it came, I shared my body with someone else; the beast that dwelled inside me. The one that lie dormant until that night.
My breaths came quick. Quicker than they should have, but I didn’t bother steadying them despite what I believed to be coming next. It felt like my body was doing what it wanted to. Or, perhaps, it was just doing what it needed to in order to find Evie.
Instinct.
But then I remembered something my brothers said, about the clan being all too willing to ‘put me down’ if I exposed myself, exposed what I am. Fear rocked me to my core at the thought of not being able to stop myself from shifting right here. Which was exactly what I believed was happening—whether I liked it or not.
Breathe…
Fight it…
I couldn’t afford to get caught.
The sound of my skull cracking and breaking apart from someplace deep nearly sent me to my knees. Staving it off was more painful than just… letting it happen. But I forced myself to stay calm, trying to hold on to the parts that made me faster, keener, but keeping the physical changes at bay. That was the key. I had to control it instead of letting it control me.
Breathe steady.
Find a quiet place inside your mind.
Forget about everything else for just a second.
You can fight this.
Slowly, I began to feel the fog lift. The crunch inside my brain stopped and, just like that, I found it, the stillness I needed, visualizing myself in the eye of a storm. There was peace there, enabling me to extinguish the pain that spread through my body like wildfire.
And there, in that quiet place, I heard it; that now familiar rhythm. The steady bass drum that brought awareness to my eyes again.
Evie’s heartbeat.
It was racing wildly now. She was afraid. Sensing her fear, I was able to use it to access parts of my gift I hadn’t been able to before. For one, I was now sure she was the last living thing in the building. It had nothing to do with my normal senses—sight, hearing, smell. There was just this… knowing.
And I felt her. She was close, above me.
I raced toward the stairs and took them by twos, some by threes, hearing the door bend on its hinges when I lurched it open, determined to find her.
I paused for a second in the hallway, listening harder, trying to hone in on her sound above everything else. I picked it up again, feeling her frequency pulse through the air in waves, gently vibrating against the right side of my body. I turned that way, running as fast as I could, faster than humanly possible, until I felt her on the other side of a doorway. I could see nothing inside, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind she was in there.
I slammed my foot against the door, only needing to kick it once to gain access to the classroom. This side of the building was taking more of a beating than where I’d just come from. Every window had shattered, leaving a random spray of glass stretching from one side of the room to the other. And creeping up the wall was a large fissure, one large enough to stick my fist inside, and I didn’t like the look of it. This building had become completely unstable.
“Evie!” I searched beneath each table, desperate to see a set of beautiful, brown eyes staring back at me, and each time I didn’t, I panicked a little more.
Maybe I got it wrong.
Maybe this is the wrong room, the wrong floor.
The sound of stone grinding against stone was deafening, loud enough to avert my eyes toward the far corner of the room for a moment, confirming my suspicions. This area wasn’t safe and I needed to find her and get her out of here.
At the back of the class, I came to the first of the last two tables. When I gripped the edge, my heart pounded against my ribcage like thunder at the thought of staring into another empty space when I leaned beneath it to check for her.
But, instead… I found exactly what I was looking for.
I crouched to touch Evie’s arm, staring at her huddled beneath the table. She’d pulled herself into a tight ball, hugging her knees as her forehead rested against them. She was trembling. However, at my touch, her eyes traveled up to find mine. She reached out the next second, taking me around my neck as I pulled her to her feet.
“I have to get you out of here,” I yelled.
Her eyes were wide with fear and shock, but she didn’t say a single word. She simply clung to my arm as I led her toward the door in a rush. We needed to get to the fountain where I sent the others. It seemed like the safest place, right in the center of the courtyard where there weren’t any tall structures looming. So, I headed that way, back toward the stairs, hoping we made it out in time.
Hoping… but not necessarily believing.
I held her close as we descended, making sure she didn’t lose her footing. The long stretch of hallway at the bottom of the steps was the way to freedom, the bright light at the end of it marking the exit of this building.
We moved quickly, but I had nearly brought myself down to half-speed to keep from leaving her behind. Stones fell around us, large ones that had been in place since the school was built centuries ago. A pain hit me in the center of my chest and I recognized it right away.
Worry.
I was deathly afraid I wouldn’t be able to get her out of here fast enough.
Fear that I’d lose her. Based on what I knew of my strength and indestructability, I had this crazy notion that I stood a chance of surviving if this place went down with us inside, but… beside me, Evie looked so fragile.
Desperation surged through my body. This need to do whatever it took to get her to safety. I stopped dead in my tracks and faced her. There was no time to ask for permission or to ask if she trusted me, there was only time to act. Sweeping one arm beneath her knees and the other across her back, I scooped her up from the ground with ease and pulled her close, cradling her against my chest as I gained speed. Wind whipped against my face as tile broke beneath my feet from the sheer force of my steps.
Contrasting all the harsh sounds and images, a warm face nestled in the crook of my neck as she gripped me, trusted me with her life. The gentle thrum of her slowing heartbeat told me so, the moment panic left her body. It let me know that, despite the building, literally, coming down around us, she knew she was safe with me.
In my arms.
The sun was blinding when we emerged, still surrounded by dirt and dust from inside. I didn’t slow down until I was sure I had her out of harm’s way. The students I sent out were huddled together, watching as C-Building was brought to its knees behind Evie and I. A plume of debris erupted from one side where the wall caved inward.
The wall of the classroom where I’d just found Evie.
Trees swayed for several seconds after the shaking ceased and everything went eerily quiet. You didn’t hear birds chirping, no one spoke, just… silence. I think people were afraid to move.
Things like this never happened here. And, if they did, they were minor tremors no one even noticed. But this… it was unexpected, it was powerful, and I sensed it was a turning point.
Evie’s warm body was so close I could smell the scent of jasmine and smoke she carried with her today. She took my thoughts away from the carnage and destruction as I placed her feet on solid ground again. She didn’t move from my arms, though, just breathed deeply as she held on, neither of us ready to let go. I don’t know if it was fear or something else that kept us locked together, but it felt like she needed to stay close just as badly as I did.
&nb
sp; It took several seconds for her eyes to find mine, but, when they did, they centered me, brought me back to the here and now, helped me accept the fact that this was all really happening. Before, it only felt like a dream.
She was overwhelmed, too, and I saw it long before the tear slipped down her cheek, clearing a thin streak on her skin where dust had once settled. She moved her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, she leaned into my chest again and, for whatever reason, she seemed to find peace there. At least for now.
Everything before this event, seemed like a precursor. Even this earthquake had hints of only being the beginning of something bigger, something far more destructive. At the thought of whatever was to come, I squeezed Evie tighter.
I had no idea what lie ahead of us, but I was sure of one thing…
It was coming.
—
Chapter Nineteen —
Nick
Two new blog posts were shared on Behind the Falls. One that went up last night, another a couple hours ago.
The first, perhaps, intrigued me the most. I skimmed it earlier when it was circulating around school and only read it in bits and pieces now, too, taking breaks to text Evie. I needed that, periodic pauses from the words and images the post evoked. It was difficult to get through.
…because it was about me.
No, ChadTheUnscensoredOne had no clue what, or should I say who, made those ‘creepy’ noises in the woods, but I did. That was the night I shifted. And, with this article going up, and with the fifty or more comments it sparked compared to its usual two or three, I felt oddly uncomfortable despite still being afforded the luxury of anonymity.
I recalled my brothers trying to keep me quiet, going as far as to gag me with Ben’s shirt. But I resisted and this was the result.
Exposure.
I propped my feet on top of my desk as Evie’s text came through. We hadn’t said much after the quake, not even during our walk home together when practice was canceled. It wasn’t that we didn’t have anything to say. I actually think it was the opposite. We had too much to say. About the quake, about what I suspected she felt when I carried her from the building.