I struggled to my feet and wobbled as I walked over to my backpack. I put it on and left the locker room. The gym was eerily dark because the lights were out, and it had no windows. When I got to the hallway, I looked out a window and saw the rain was still coming down hard and lightning was constantly flashing. I wasn’t able to walk in a straight line as I made my way down the hall to the front doors; I almost fell over twice. The front doors were locked from the outside, but luckily, I could still open them from inside. Just before I opened the door, I heard a small crash that seemed to come from the second floor. No one was permitted to be inside the school once it closed.
I threw open the door and ran out into the rain with my heart racing. I looked around, hoping to find a guard still patrolling the area, but there was no one in sight. I was drenched from head to toe and had only made it about ten feet into the courtyard. My head was still throbbing as I sprinted through the school grounds toward the street. When I reached the small parking lot, I took a look behind me but saw nothing there. As I turned back, my foot caught something on the ground, and I crashed onto the pavement. I stood quickly, looked to see what I had fallen over, and almost threw up. There was a guard lying facedown with a puddle of blood around his head. I stumbled backward a few steps, then turned and ran as fast as I could, praying that whatever had killed the guard didn’t know that I was still at the school.
The five-minute drive to my house was going to take a lot longer on foot. Rain was crashing down into my face, and I was freezing. My breath was becoming shorter with every step I took, and my face was still a wreck. To top it all off, between the bursts of thunder I was starting to hear screeches and growling in the woods. The creatures were probably having a good time watching me suffer.
I only had to run down a straightaway now, but it was almost a mile long. My best mile run-time in gym was around six minutes, but when I ran that, I wasn’t already tired and cold like I was now. There was still no sign of any cars, so I just kept up the fastest pace I could. The horrible noises continued in the woods. I could hear them even over the thunder and, although I wasn’t sure, they seemed to be getting louder. I kept picturing one of the creatures leaping out of a tree and sprawling me to the ground, right before it stole my blood. With this in my head, I didn’t stop once until I was a few feet from the entrance to my street.
Lightning suddenly cracked, hitting a tree to my right. I fell over from the deafening bang. My ears were ringing, and if my adrenal gland wasn’t pumping enough adrenaline into my system already, it was now. I got to my feet and looked around one more time to see if any help was near. Standing only ten feet behind me was a creature dressed in torn jeans and a jet black hoodie that cast total darkness across its face. We were almost exactly the same height.
This was the closest I had ever been to a creature in my entire life. It took a step toward me, and I took a step back. The creature seemed to almost laugh at me, but it put its hand out as if to tell me it was okay. In my head, no monster was okay; they all wanted, and needed, blood to survive.
“Run, you idiot!” A female voice came from the hooded monster.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?!” I yelled back stupidly. “If you’re going to kill me, do it now! I won’t be part of some sick game!” She didn’t respond, and both of us just stood there in the downpour.
“This isn’t a game! Get out of here now!” she finally said. Then, with amazing speed, she ran into the woods. I didn’t know what she was doing, but I took it as my cue to escape. I turned and ran faster than I had ever run in my life. The adrenaline rushing through my body gave me new life, and I was able to make it all the way into my house without having to slow down.
I locked the front door as soon as I entered the house, then turned and peered out the window. A few seconds later, I backed away from the door and turned into the house. As I walked into the kitchen, I realized my entire body was shaking from exhaustion. The red light on the answering machine was flashing, so I hit the playback button. My mom’s voice filled the room.
“Jason, I’m so sorry that you have to be home alone for a little while. My meeting is going to be running late, so I won’t be home until four. I tried to get your dad or Billy to come home early, but they both had to work. I’m really sorry! See you when I get home. Stay safe!” So, no one even knew that I had been late. I couldn’t tell if I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to explain anything or angry that no one had noticed that I was almost killed.
I stood in the kitchen staring out the windows for an hour before I got up the nerve to move again. I got out of my wet clothes, took a quick shower, and finally looked at my face. My nose didn’t seem to be broken, and none of my teeth were missing, so that was a good sign. The only thing I could see was a light, black bruise on my forehead, and I could easily pass that off with a good lie.
As I was dressing, I heard someone opening the front door. My mom immediately called for me.
“Jason! Are you okay, honey?”
“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine!” I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. My mom was holding my shoes that I had taken off when I first got home. She was looking at them with a puzzled expression.
“Jason, how hard was it raining when you got off the bus? These things look like you were out in the rain for hours.” Then she looked up at me and saw my forehead. “What happened to your face?” she asked, dropping the shoes, which landed on the floor with a flop.
“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I tripped and hit my head on the corner of a desk; it’s no big deal. You won’t even see it tomorrow.” It seemed like she bought the lie because she didn’t say anything else about it. I didn’t dare tell her about what had happened to me because there was nothing she would be able to do, except get worried. I was saving both of us the extra stress.
I went to bed early, hoping the next day would go better, hoping that they would maybe close down the school when they found the guard dead in the parking lot. I also hoped Kyle and Jay would finally leave me alone after everything they had put me through already.
Sleep came surprisingly easy. I guess I was so stressed and tired that not even the thought of a monster waiting outside of my window could make me stay awake. But I did have a few minutes to think before I drifted off. I thought about the monster that I had talked to, who wanted me to run. It almost seemed like she had tried to help me, but those creatures didn’t help anyone but themselves. The only reasonable explanation was that she was protecting me so that she could kill me in her own time. If that was the case, Kyle and Jay were right. If that was the case, I had a monster hunting me.
Chapter 3
Preservation
I woke up with the worst headache I’d ever had. It was so painful that even the weak light from the rainy day outside made it hurt. My mom usually woke me up, so I rarely got up before she did. I sat up and looked at the clock on the wall. School started at seven thirty and my clock read seven forty-five. I figured my mom was being nice and letting me sleep, so I didn’t rush as I took my shower and got dressed. When I reached the kitchen, my mom, dad, and brother, Billy, were sitting at the table and looking very distressed. They looked up at me as I entered the room.
“What’s the matter?” I asked warily. They all seemed to wait for each other to talk, until my dad finally took the initiative and did it himself.
“There’s been a problem at the school, Jason.” I already knew what had happened. They must have found the body of the guard in the parking lot this morning. “There was a break in, and one of the Blood Protectors was murdered. They are sweeping the whole school and adding more guards so that you can still go. You only have a two hour delay, but we don’t really know what to do.”
“Just when we thought we were safe!” my mom chimed in.
“There’s nowhere we can ever be totally safe anymore,” Billy sighed. “There are only safer places to be, and this is one of them. Anywhere we go, we’re going to see an attack every once in a while.”
> “He’s right, Jane.” My dad forced a smile. “We’re just going to have to deal with it as best as we can until someone finally does something about these creatures.” He cleared his throat then looked at me. “So, Jason, I guess you should go to school today.” I was mad about that. I thought I had a good excuse to stay home, but I didn’t want to argue.
“Alright, I guess,” I said dismally.
“Good. Get some breakfast and hang for a little while. We’ll leave around nine.” He got up from the table and went to his study.
I was planning on keeping myself busy for the next hour, but it went a lot faster than I had expected. Before I knew it, my dad and I were on our way to the school. As we pulled off of our street, I saw the tree that had been struck by lightning. I could still picture the hooded creature standing in the road. A chill ran down my spine as I thought of her watching me from somewhere nearby.
By the time we reached the school, I had had a long enough time to contemplate the thought of the monster killing me and my father. Even though it was mandatory to build cars with many of the same protections as homes, like with the special windows and the symbols on the doors, they were much more vulnerable. With one short push, she could flip our car over, and then it would be easy for her to pull me out, drain all of the blood from my body, tear my head off, and then do the same to my dad.
“Jason?” my dad asked, forcing me out of my nightmare. “Are you okay? You don’t have to go today if you really don’t want to.”
“It’s fine, Dad,” I lied, but I was glad to be back in the real world and away from my sick imagination where I could think of a million ways for a monster to destroy me. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” I wasn’t fine, but I didn’t want anyone to know. No one else needed to carry this burden. I was going to die whether they knew about it or not.
I got out of the car and scurried across the large courtyard to the front doors of the school. It had already started to drizzle; another storm was due by third period. The hallway was wet and slippery from all of the soaking shoes that had already walked over it. My shoes didn’t help the matter much since they were still drenched from the day before. They squeaked all the way to English, and a few groups of kids gave me dirty looks, thinking that I was doing it on purpose.
Mrs. Sherwood was sitting at her desk when I entered the room. She looked up at me, and I noticed her eyes were red, probably from crying. The only other students in the room were Kyle and Jay. They seemed shocked to see me standing in front of them with new clothes and a face that didn’t look like it had been bashed into a locker. As usual, my bruises had gone away overnight. I realized only a few years ago that I rarely bruised, and when I did, they seemed to be gone within a day.
I took a seat on the opposite side of the room from them, but I still heard their rushed chatter about how I could possibly be sitting in the room with them after they had nearly killed me and left me stranded at an empty school. I hid the smirk that was trying to creep across my face as I thought about what must be going through their heads. I didn’t dare look at them; I knew both would have their eyes locked on me for the whole class, and there was no need to anger them further. They would probably try to get me again, and laughter would just be one more reason for them to do so.
The end of class came quickly. I was the first to leave and made it to History without being stopped by Kyle or Jay. Mr. Valentine gave me the work I had missed the day before when I was with Mrs. Sherwood. I took my seat in the back corner and was happy when April walked into the room and sat next to me. A wide smile crossed her face as she said hi. Before I could respond, Mr. Valentine started class.
“Listen up, everyone,” he shouted over his students’ conversations. “Pick a partner and begin working on page sixty-two in your textbooks. When you’re done, you can have the rest of the class to do whatever you’d like.” Small cheers erupted from the classroom as everyone bustled around to find a partner. “But keep it quiet, or I’ll split you all up!” Mr. Valentine added quickly.
I took out my textbook and opened it to page sixty-two. Before I could even reach for a piece of paper, another desk slammed into mine. April had pushed her desk next to me and was sitting down into her chair.
“Mind if I work with you?” she asked nicely.
I shook my head. “No, not at all.”
We didn’t talk about much except for the work we were doing. The page was long, but the work went fast, and we finished five minutes before the end of the period. I packed up my stuff and talked to April as we waited for the bell to ring. About a minute into our conversation, April looked up at the door and her face went cold. I followed her gaze and saw Kyle looking in at us. He was angry, very angry. The bell rang, and he left the doorway.
“Shoot, Jason. That really wasn’t good!” She got up and ran for the door. I grabbed my backpack and followed her into the bustling hallway. I could see Kyle’s head above most of the crowd. I knew April would be close behind him, so I pushed through the other students in an attempt to keep up with them. I saw Kyle turn a corner and start heading down toward the back of the gym where no one was usually around. I had to make a choice. Going down there could end up with me being knocked out and left in the school alone again. But if I didn’t go, April could get hurt.
I reached the long hallway to the gym, took a deep breath, and moved on, now able to clearly see both Kyle and April.
“April, wait!” I pleaded, hoping she would stop. When she didn’t, I quickened my pace. Kyle made the last right down the empty hall by the back of the gym. I could hear April trying to calm him down. They both disappeared around the corner, and I found myself starting to run down the last length of the hallway in an attempt to close the distance between us.
“Hey!” I heard someone yell behind me as I reached the corner. I turned my head to see Jay standing at the other end of the hallway. He threw his backpack aside and started to sprint after me. I turned my head back around and continued running toward April and Kyle. They were now at the end of the new hall that came to a dead end. This time I wouldn’t be able to just take my beating from Kyle and Jay. If I wanted to help April get away, I would have to fight back.
“Kyle!” I yelled as I got closer to them. “Get away from her!” I stopped running when I was about five feet away from Kyle, who was standing between me and April.
“Jason, what are you doing? Are you crazy?” April cried in panic as Kyle stared me down.
“Do you have some kind of death wish?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth. He seemed angrier than the day before, if that was even possible. He took a step toward me, and I heard Jay’s footsteps coming up from behind as he finally reached us.
“Kyle, please don’t…” April started to say, but Kyle turned and slapped her across the face, causing tears to immediately start falling down her cheeks. A sudden rage opened up inside me.
“Shut up, April! You can’t protect this idiot. If he wants me to kill him, I will.” He turned back to me and smiled with a devilish glare in his eyes. For some reason, I wasn’t afraid. I knew I was going to protect April from Kyle and Jay somehow, no matter what they tried to do.
“Don’t talk to her like that.” My voice was cold and flat. Kyle laughed loudly, and I heard Jay chime in behind me.
“Like what?” Kyle’s brow curved and his laughter broke off suddenly. “Like the worthless piece of garbage she is?” My fists tightened, and I almost hit Kyle right then, but I held myself back.
“April.” I looked past Kyle into April’s beautiful, hazel eyes. “I want you to run and get help.”
“Oh yes, April,” Kyle laughed. “Go and get help. No wait, I have a better idea. Jay, grab him.” Jay’s thick arms wrapped tight around my upper arms, pinning them to my sides. Kyle dropped down and grabbed my leg, then stood up, still holding it. The only thing keeping me from falling was Jay, and I knew Kyle would tell him to let me go in a few seconds, and that I would fall back into another brick wall. This time, I didn’t
think Kyle would stop attacking me, even if I was knocked unconscious.
I reacted quickly. Using Jay as a brace, I picked up my free leg and crashed my foot into Kyle’s face. He released my leg and stumbled to the side, holding his face with his hands. When both of my legs reached the ground again, I pushed back, causing Jay to smack into the wall behind us with all of my weight against him. He released me, and I was free. Kyle and Jay jumped into the middle of the hallway and blocked April and me from escaping. I could tell Kyle was trying to hide the fact that he was in pain. His eyes kept twitching, and the left corner of his mouth quivered.
“What are we doing, Kyle?” Jay asked nervously. Kyle tried to force a smile that came out looking awkward and crooked.
“We’re going to kill him!” We were far from the classrooms, but he had yelled so loud someone had to have heard him. “Come on, Jay! Get him!” Kyle yelled when Jay did nothing but stand and look at me. A second later, Jay rushed me. I saw him lift up his left arm to throw a punch but before he even swung, I ducked down to avoid the blow. Once the punch was behind me and Jay was at my side, still moving forward, I aimed a kick at his ankle. He fell hard onto the tiled floor.
I quickly looked back at Kyle to make sure he wasn’t trying to attack me while I was occupied with Jay. I almost laughed when I saw Kyle frozen with shock. He seemed to realize his mouth was open and shook himself out of his daze. A new look crossed his face. He was trying to look angry again, but instead of seeing a devilish glare in his eyes, I saw fear. Kyle was actually afraid of me.
He seemed more cautious, like he was waiting for the right time to attack. I stood my ground, planning on fighting only if he assaulted me first. I was able to read Kyle’s every move and knew exactly when he was about to throw a punch. Unfortunately, I had forgotten all about Jay.
“Jason!” April’s scream was the only warning I had before I was hit in the back of the neck with one of Jay’s heavy fists. A split second later, I was hit again, square in my right eye, by the punch I had seen Kyle getting ready to throw. I stumbled toward the brick wall for support and barely dodged another punch from Jay that cracked into the wall behind me. He screamed out in pain and backed away, holding his hand. I regained my full senses just as Kyle tried to kick me into the wall. I moved out of the way of his kick and threw one of my own. His leg was still up and I had the perfect shot to kick him right in the groin. I shot my leg up as fast and as hard as I could. He squealed loudly as my kick landed, and fell to the ground in what I could only imagine was the worst pain he had ever felt.
Descendant: The Protector (The Descendant Series) Page 4