by Anya Breton
I stared after in mute shock.
He was right. I wasn’t normal.
Questions crowded my head. How did he know? And what did he mean by “us”? Had the director told others about what they’d seen on the videos? Did everyone on the documentary know I was an even bigger freak than they first thought?
I didn’t know what to do now. I was torn between fear of another confrontation with Alex in the classroom and a fear of being alone in the dark room where he could easily get to me. In the end I returned to the light and sat quietly at my usual seat.
Alex was nowhere to be seen.
* * * *
The bell’s ringing and change of scenery helped little. I couldn’t concentrate on drawing. My still life was nearly ruined before I recognized I’d been messing up more than I was improving. I made myself stop working on it.
Gruffly I thanked Stan for his music CD before heading down the hallway to my final class of the day. Soon enough I would find out what the director had seen on the footage but first I had to get through another class with Alex Chattan.
Lingering in the locker room killed enough time that I was spared the embarrassment of being picked last for the teams. Thankfully I was assigned to the team opposite the new kid. More than once I caught him eying me suspiciously but he didn’t come near and he certainly didn’t greet me. Whatever friendship we’d had for a few days was officially over. But why?
The whistle was blown to signify the end of class. I stayed behind to help pick up the mesh shirts and was the last off the field. The locker room was empty by the time I walked in. Though I knew the final bell of the day had already rung I wasn’t in a hurry to leave.
My assigned cameraman awaited me impatiently at the door. On my way to the lunchroom he nearly tripped over me twice because of my unusually slow pace. After readjusting his speed, he kept his distance as we walked. But when we reached the lunchroom for my meeting with the director the camera guy disappeared seemingly into thin air. I felt alone and scared now without him.
Mark Green was reading today’s newspaper at a table by himself. He had a large moleskin notebook in front of him that he opened as I neared. A smile spread across his thin lips. I couldn’t tell if it was faked or not.
His tanned hand gestured to the seat across from him without losing the smile. “Have a seat, Aeon.”
I sat stiffly in front of him but kept my backpack on so I could leave at a moment’s notice. It wouldn’t take long for him to tell me I was a freak and I was fired, would it?
His chemically whitened teeth spread in a warm smile that made me even more ill at ease. In a seemingly conversational tone he asked, “How has it been going?”
“Um,” I said in confusion. My eyebrows knit as I scanned his face for an idea of what was going on.
Mark seemed to sense my uncertainty because he offered up an explanation. “I’m meeting with everyone today to get a feel for how the project is going so far. We’re going in alphabetic order so we’re starting with you first.”
The smile seemed to extend to his eyes. Was this truly only a progress report meeting?
“It’s going okay, I guess,” I managed to answer while glancing around nervously.
He adjusted his pose in his seat so that he appeared more relaxed. “Is your cameraman getting in the way too much? Are you comfortable with him?”
“I’m starting to forget he’s there,” I admitted. At least I had been starting to forget he was there until he’d nearly been killed.
The director pressed, “So you’re comfortable with him?”
I lifted my shoulders in my usual noncommittal gesture. “I guess.”
Mark’s head bobbed. “Good. Good. We have a few alternates for vacations and days off. If you wanted to try someone new…”
“No, he’s fine,” I interrupted in a rapid pace.
The last thing I needed was to freak out more than one cameraperson. They would talk and perhaps come to the conclusion that something was off about me.
My brain screeched to a halt on the previous thought. If this meeting wasn’t about last night’s accident, if I hadn’t been called onto the carpet to explain strange footage, then what had Alex been talking about in the darkroom?
“Are you okay?”
I shook myself mentally and glanced back up at the director. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m just tired.”
“I bet,” he chuckled. “I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t really sleep last night. That accident really did a number on you, didn’t it?”
I stared at him in silence for a moment. He’d noticed I hadn’t slept but he hadn’t noticed I’d stopped time.
Uneasily I said, “I guess.”
Mark stood to offer his hand with that same smile stretched across his tan features. “I won’t keep you from work or homework any longer. Thanks for meeting with me. We really like what we’ve been seeing so far. Keep on acting normal.”
If I hadn’t been shocked into silence I was certain I’d have laughed in his face. It was a good thing I hadn’t because that would have been difficult to explain.
I stood from the bench and walked to the door. My head remained down and eyes on the ground. A glance up at the door showed me that Alex was waiting. My frame stiffened with worry.
His eyes darted away from me like he had wanted to be caught looking at me. My spirits lowered as he turned to go into the lunchroom without a word.
* * * *
I took my time walking home because I didn’t have to work and because I wanted to give my cameraman a chance to walk without panting. The repetitive sound of traffic made it easy to get lost in my thoughts.
I came to one jarring realization: Mark Green had said they liked what they were seeing so far. That meant they weren’t going to replace me with another girl.
I stopped suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk and slumped over dramatically. The videographer crashed into me. Unable to maintain my balance, I fell over, skinning a knee beneath my jeans on the cement.
“Are you okay?” The videographer sounded nearly as frantic as my mother had the night before. I looked up to find him standing with the camera lowered, staring at me with widened brown eyes. “Are you sick?”
I burst into laughter from the combination of his concern and my stupidity. “No,” I assured him.
He offered me a hand.
I took it without a thought because I was still too amused by his reaction to consider declining.
Next he asked, “What happened?”
He was actually speaking to me. I’d assumed that was against some documentary rulebook. Given that he was actually talking and there wasn’t an accident involved, I felt the need to answer.
My mirth faded to a half smile. “I just realized you guys aren’t going to let me out of this documentary thing.”
He gave me a crooked frown. “Well, that explains your friends’ comments.”
“You mean about how unfair it is that I was picked?” I bobbed my head. “Yeah, it does. It’s no secret I never wanted to do this.”
His head tilted a hair to the right. Confusion crinkled his eyes. “Then why are you doing it?”
I shrugged in answer and turned back around to start for home. I heard him scramble to get the camera back in place. It amused me.
“What’s your name, camera guy?”
“Guy.”
“Guy, the camera guy. Okay.” I chuckled again because that sounded funny to my ears. “Well, hi, Guy, nice to meet you.” With a glance over my shoulder I added, “If you’re going to be following me around for the next six months then maybe we should get to know each other.” He didn’t argue so I posed a question. “Got any kids?”
“No,” was his quick answer.
“Wife? Girlfriend?”
“Kind of difficult with this gig.”
I let out a light laugh. “Yeah. I can imagine. What made you want to be a professional voyeur?”
He inhaled a quick breath, perhaps a snort or a laugh. “
A girl your age isn’t supposed to know terms like that.”
I sent a sharp look over my shoulder at him. “Aren’t you a little young to be turning geezer on me? You gonna regale me with tales of walking barefoot up the mountain in the snow both ways next?”
“No,” he replied but I could tell from his breathy tone that he was amused as well. “I saw Psycho in high school and decided I wanted to be in film.”
“So is camera guy your ultimate goal or do you want to be the next Hitchcock?”
“I want to master the camera before I try anything else.”
“That’s cool.” I said, deciding it was. “I’ll do my best not to mess this gig up for you, Guy. But you have to try not to get hit by cars for me. Okay?”
He inhaled again. “Okay.”
At the apartment door I turned to face the camera. “Good news, Guy. I’ll be doing homework all night. So you get to get off work early. Go have fun, or at least as much fun as you can have in this town.”
He lowered his camera enough to smile at me. “Good luck, Aeon. See you tomorrow.”
Secure in the knowledge that I was safe from drunk drivers and new kids, I settled down in front of the television and began on my homework from the week. At six I made something to eat, devoured it far faster than I ought to, put the leftovers away for another day. I fell asleep in front of the television until Mom woke me at ten.
She forced me to relay the entire conversation with Mark Green before going to bed. Her worries had been squashed and smiles were once again prevalent on her face. I knew she’d sleep better because of it.
I only wished I could say the same.
CHAPTER SIX
I wanted my money back. This was the worst waste of time and cash since the carnival had come to Junction Hill over the summer. Ashley had horrible taste in movies. She might be content to sit through a B-movie horror film simply to watch the actors from a teenage television drama on the big screen, but I certainly wasn’t.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Melissa, who was also my ride, before standing up in the middle of the darkened theater. “Just going to the bathroom,” was said for Guy’s benefit as I made my way across the aisle then to the door at the back.
My step faltered upon finding a familiar set of steel blue eyes watching me from the back row. I pretended as if I hadn’t seen Alex Chattan by staring forward to the doors. My pace was practically a run to the ladies’ room once I’d hit them.
When I emerged five minutes later, the concession area was free of anyone but the people who worked there. The theater’s back row was empty of steel blue eyes. Moments later I stiffly sunk down into my seat.
I saw no one who looked like Alex when I glanced around next. But it was difficult to identify people in the dark. I could have been mistaken. Maybe he hadn’t been there at all.
As we walked to the parking lot after the movie let out, I contemplated how a girl with a camera on her twenty-four hours a day could still feel uneasy about being watched. It was ridiculous.
“That was so good,” Ashley gushed once we’d broken through the glass doors. “Brandon is so hot.”
“It wasn’t bad,” Melissa said by way of an agreement.
I rolled my eyes. On a scale from one to five, I’d have given the movie a negative two for the fact that it was two hours of my life I could never get back. Melissa had been yawning throughout the movie. That usually meant she was bored. As usual, she didn’t dare disagree with Ashley.
“It was awful,” I said bravely, earning me the glare of Ashley Dyall’s pale blue eyes. I continued with an explanation because it was only fair. “Bloody for no reason, gratuitous sex scenes that made no sense, and what little plot there was had so many holes it could easily have been confused with Swiss cheese. Actually, no, it wasn’t even good enough to be considered cheesy.”
Jenny chuckled and echoed, “Cheesy. That word always makes me laugh.”
Instead of insulting me, Ashley turned her ire on Jenny. “It would.”
Everyone shut up before Ashley started on them. Once she’d reached her Jeep Cherokee, she turned to us and spoke as if nothing had happened.
“I’m meeting William tomorrow,” she declared with a lift of her blocky chin. “He’s taking me to dinner and the ballet in Burlington.”
This was our cue to ooh and ah over her fortune. No one had ever met this mysterious William whom she’d met over the summer at a camp for gifted children, even though I’d seen her twice at the grocery store while she’d supposedly been out of town. Melissa was the one who responded with the appropriate reaction.
“What ballet?” Jenny butted in.
It had apparently been on a list of unauthorized questions because Ashley glared at her again. Her nose lifted in the air. “He won’t tell me. It’s a surprise.”
“Cool,” Melissa responded for us all. “You’ll have to tell us how it went.”
“And get pictures. I love the ballet!” Jenny added.
Ashley answered coolly, “My camera is broken.”
I saw the hooded figure seconds before he would have reached us. His face was hidden but his hand was shoved in the front pocket of the hoodie he wore. I went into panic mode. We were about to be mugged in the theater parking lot!
Without thinking, my hand went out in front of me. And then before my eyes the scene froze! Again!
My heart pounded in my chest as I glanced at each of the mannequin-esque figures around me. Two nights in one week of using my power couldn’t be good. Surely I was breaking a cosmic rule.
“What are you?”
My scream echoed across the parking lot. The hooded figure was in front of me before I’d finished blinking. Beneath the black fabric I could make out the steel blue eyes of Alex Chattan.
Frantically I looked around for help but noticed that my friends were still frozen. Jenny was midway through a blink, Melissa’s mouth was open as if she were about to speak and Ashley looked like she’d sneeze at any second but I knew otherwise.
No one would move until I fixed this.
“How are you doing this?” Alex roared angrily with a finger jabbed at my unmoving friends.
I stared at him in disbelief. How was he able to move and talk while everything else was frozen?
He grabbed me by the arms and shook me violently. “Answer me!”
His aggressive shaking successfully intimidated me into answering. “I don’t know! It just happens. Okay?”
The growling voice coming from his throat was almost animalistic as he shouted, “What are you? Tell me!”
Frantically I responded in hopes that he’d believe me this time. “I don’t know. I don’t know!”
“You have to know! How did you get this power?” His finger pointed back at my motionless friends again.
Slowly I was gaining some of my sense back. There was no mugger. There was only Alex stalking me. “How are you able to ignore it?”
“I’m the one asking the questions,” he snapped out.
My eyes narrowed at him. “Why? Why do I have to explain anything to you? You’re the new person in town! Not me.”
He let go of my arm but didn’t step away. I didn’t like his proximity but I didn’t want him to grab me if I made a move.
In a low voice he replied, “Because if you don’t tell me, others will investigate and they may not be as nice.”
A harsh noise escaped my throat. “This is you being nice?”
His answer was spoken in a tight voice. “Yes.”
“Is that why you were nice to me for three days? Did you get impatient because I didn’t just come out and say ‘hey, I’m a freak, nice to meet you’?”
“No.” He glanced behind him at the immobile figures. “How long will it stay like this?”
My arms folded in front of me. “I don’t know.”
The steel blue eyes focused on me once again when his head righted. “Do you really not know, Aeon? Or are you just telling me that?”
I contemplated h
ow best to answer. Here we were, two people carrying on an argument while time was frozen around us. I didn’t think I had much of a choice but to tell him the truth. He now had seriously damaging information about me.
“I really don’t know,” I insisted.
He took a single step back as if he trusted me enough not to bolt because he believed me. “You don’t know how you got this power?”
But I couldn’t admit that. “No,” I lied.
Alex inhaled noisily. “You’re lying.”
My eyes rounded at the low declaration he’d made. Uneasily I said, “What?”
“You may not know how it works, but you do know how you got it.”
How had he known? I added a kernel of truth to test him. “I just woke up one day and I had it.”
His lips thinned but he didn’t instantly discount what I’d said. “This is serious, Aeon. The more you tell me, the safer you will be.”
“Safer?” I exclaimed. “Safe from what? The only thing that is dangerous right now is you! I thought you were a mugger!”
“There are others like me, others who won’t be stopped by your magic. They don’t like it when people mess with the status quo.”
“Magic,” I echoed in slow disbelief. “What are you talking about?”
Alex shook his head and paced a few steps away. “You’re not a Time witch?”
I felt the space between my eyes crinkle into a deep wrinkle of serious confusion. “What’s a ‘Time witch’?”
“How can you halt time and not know what a Time witch is?” Alex swore quietly but offered up a definition. “A Time witch is a witch capable of manipulating Time, just like the name sounds.”
My head was already shaking in disbelief. “I don’t believe in witches or magic.”
“Well, sweetheart, this is magic.” He gestured to my friends.
His condescending tone rubbed me all wrong. Eyes narrowing I snapped, “Don’t call me sweetheart. This isn’t magic, this is just some weird fluke.”
“A fluke you control at will? I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “Are you really as clueless as you’re acting or is this just to confuse me?”
“All right, that’s it.” My foot stomped petulantly like an angry toddler. I waved him away with an equally pettish gesture. “Get out of here now before I undo this and scream like the girls in that movie we just watched.”