by Jon Jacks
Iain coughs and splutters, unable to move away from the swirling mist as it worms its way towards him.
But the denser part of the cloud still chaotically whirls around Lamia’s head.
Unseen within it, she screeches and howls.
Iain drops to the floor with a painful thump, the spiralling coils weakening, thinning, losing their substantiality and becoming mist-like themselves.
In the confusing haze of the vapours, the serpentine loops suddenly appear to be shrinking, retreating, like the tendrils of a poisoned plant filmed in superfast motion.
With a last lamenting wail from Lamia, she dissolves, disappearing as she rapidly merges and becomes as one with the billowing cloud.
Then the cloud turns in on itself, like a black hole sucking up a universe.
It’s incredibly quiet in the room.
Iain rewards me with a weary yet thankful smile.
I grin back at him.
‘You did it Steph, you did it!’ he says happily.
But he’s exhausted.
He drifts off into a restful, child-like sleep.
Moving closer, I lie down beside him.
I’m exhausted too!
I need to sleep, just a quick sleep before we head off bac–
*
Chapter 29
‘Steph? You okay?’
I slowly open my eyes, still in a bit of a daze.
Even so, I recognise Iain’s caring voice.
He’s leaning over me, stroking my hair tenderly.
He’s smiling down at me.
‘Iain?’
I reach up for him uncertainly. Touch his cheek.
‘This isn’t a dream is it? You are here, aren’t you?’
He leans down, kisses me delicately on the lips.
Yes, he’s here.
‘We did it? I’m back?’
‘Yes, you’re back,’ another voice I recognise declares confidently.
I twist my head slightly.
Dave and Jassy are alongside me, grinning like a couple of Anime cartoon characters.
‘Dave? Jassy? You’re here too? You’re sure this isn’t a dream?’
‘We’re sure this isn’t a dream,’ Jassy assures me.
‘You’ve been asleep for a while, sleepy head!’ Iain chuckles. ‘We left you; we thought you deserved it after everything you’ve been through.’
‘But how did you get here?’ I ask Jassy dully.
‘How did I get here?’ Jassy repeats with a puzzled laugh.
Dave leans closer towards me.
‘You’re here, Steph,’ he says. ‘Back at Heartache High.’
*
Iain had woken up in his own room, just down the hall from mine.
He’d been bewildered at first, just as I had been.
When he’d walked out onto the lawns, however, he’d seen me, fast asleep on the grass.
Once he’d seen me, it didn’t take him long to see the others worriedly clustered around me.
It should have surprised him, of course; but after all he’d been through, what was so odd about ghostly students appearing and solidifying before him?
I laugh as he finishes explaining why we’re all still out on the lawn.
I reach up with my arms, curl them around his head, draw him close, kiss him.
‘Wait!’ I say, suddenly letting him go. ‘That doesn’t explain what we’re doing here, does it?’
I look about me urgently.
‘Panthia! Where’s Panthia?’
They were no longer holding her prisoner, like they had been when I’d last seen them all.
‘We couldn’t hold her,’ Jassy apologises.
‘We think, now, that it was all a trick; that she let herself be captured.’
Dave pulls a disheartened face.
‘A trick?’ I sit up on the grass, reaching for Iain’s hand, grasping it tightly. ‘How could it be a trick?’
‘Well she suddenly threw us all off, no problem at all, saying, “Mother’s finished”. Then she vanished.’
‘Mother’s finished? Lamia’s dead, you mean?’
They all shake their heads sadly.
‘We don’t think so,’ Dave says. ‘We think she meant it as in finishing whatever it was she set out to do.
‘I remembered another gift that Zeus had granted Lamia, see,’ Jassy adds ashamedly. ‘When she takes her eyes out? It’s the gift of prophesy.’
‘So we figure she more or less knew how things would eventually pan out, even if the details were sketchy. The main thing is, they wanted to draw you out; to see want you were capable of.’
‘With Iain being so in love with you, he could see Panthia wasn’t the real deal.’ Jassy adds to Dave’s explanation. ‘They needed to see how much of a threat you both were.’
‘Which wasn’t much of a threat at all, seeing as we’re both here now,’ Iain says with an incongruous grin.
‘But how? Why is Iain here?’
‘Ah, well, see,’ Jassy says unsurely, ‘we reckon Lamia took over Iain’s body.’
Before I can say that’s ridiculous, Dave jumps in.
‘See, one of the girls here, Lizzy Harding, she vanished. After being here over forty years.’
‘And she was mixed race.’
‘And very beautiful.’
‘And, in the real world, almost sixty, no matter how well Lamia had managed to hold everything together for so long.’
‘So she gets a young, handsome boy as a new body.’
‘And,’ Jassy says with a poor attempt at a smile, ‘wipes out a potential threat at the same time.’
*
Chapter 30
It was tempting to start a new series of classes setting out everything we now knew about Heartache High’s relationship with the real world.
But how would everyone take being told that the people they loved were probably being slowly devoured by succubae and incubi?
Only a carefully chosen few were initiated into the new findings.
Even so, rumours will always circulate.
‘Excuse me; Stephanie?’
‘Yes?’
It was the girl I’d seen wandering around outside the school’s porch when I’d first studied the list of classes.
I hadn’t realised then just how beautiful she was.
She had been in a bewildered, miserable daze.
Now, when she smiled, she looked as if she could be posing for a Vogue cover.
How could a girl like this have her heartbroken?
How could any boy resist someone so impossibly gorgeous?
‘I’m Gillian,’ she says, offering me a perfectly formed hand. ‘I wondered if you knew any way I could help my boyfriend – the boy I’d wanted to be my boyfriend – as I think he’s in trouble.’
‘Gillian,’ I say firmly, resolutely determined to tell her the truth.
Then I relent, saying instead, ‘Sure, let’s have a chat shall we?’
How can I tell her the truth?
How can I tell that no one ever leaves Heartache High?
*
Thing is, I’m luckier than most students at Heartache High.
Because at least I now have Iain here with me.
And sometimes, you know, as we walk hand in hand across the lawns, or kiss beneath the shade of the trees, I wonder if I could wish for anything more.
Was that against the rules of Heartache High?
That you should find happiness here after all?
You know what?
I don’t think there is a rule against it.
End
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Available soon!
Be sure to read:
Heartache High: The Primer
Heartache High’s Primer for Students,
as written by Stephanie Johnson,
Heartache High Permanent Student
Chapter 1
At some point in their lives, most people enrol at Heartache High.
But anyone who enrols can never leave.
Chapter 2
You know how it is; you fall for a guy, you work out the wonderful times, the amazing future you’re going to have together.
You know; nights out at the movies. Or staying in, watching that sitcom you both fall about laughing at. Weekends spent down the mall together, or out with a group of friends who think, wow, are they the real item or what?
Oh yeah, but you forgot one thing, didn’t you?
You forgot to check it out with this guy if all this was all right with him.
The big flaw in your plan, yeah?
Don’t worry; we’ve all been there.
We all understand.
Sure, we get it; you just sort of haven’t got around to asking him yet.
But you’re meaning to ask him, right?
Any time now, in fact.
Or maybe you’ll just drop him a few hints.
Hoping he’ll pick them up.
Knowing he won’t.
But then, why should you be the one doing the running?
Why is it you that has to drop the hints?
That’s not how it’s supposed to work, is it?
The girl asking the boy.
It’s gotta be the boy asking the girl!
We can’t just go turning that old tradition around now can we?
Ah, but there’s the problem, see?
What’s a girl got to do if a guy’s too shy to get around to asking?
Or worse, what’s she gotta do if a guy’s way too confident?
That’s far far worse, yeah?
Because, let’s face it, he’s not really shy, is he?
Not when it comes to other girls, anyway.
Thing is, you’re not really getting the vibes that he’s in too much of a hurry to ask you out, are you?
Fact is, he’s not really even talking to you on the sort of level that might mean he’ll even get around to it.
No, it’s more on the level of, ‘Hey, you; you seen Jemma/Chrissie/Kassy around?’
Thing is – we’re sure you’ve noticed – is that when it comes to these other girls, he doesn’t even seem to have to actually ask them anything, right?
You can’t quite work out how it works, but, hey, what do you know, it just seems to happen between this guy and these other girls perfectly naturally.
Ouch!
You just wish it would work that way for you too, yeah?
Chapter 3
You’d be surprised just how many girls who enrol for Heartache High actually enjoy being here.
They don’t think they do, of course.
The think they’d rather be anywhere else but here.
But really, they’ll accept the agony just so they can enjoy those odd flashes of joy when, their imaginations working overtime, they dream of how it all might have been if only, if only…
They enjoy feeling sorry for themselves sometimes, too.
So you see, Heartache High is a very happy place, in its way.
How else do you explain all these people who leave each semester, only to come back the next?
Excerpt End
If you enjoyed reading this book, please remember to click that you liked it on the Kindle Rating icon.
You may also enjoy (or you may know someone else who might enjoy) these other books by Jon Jacks.
The Caught
The Rules
Chapter One
The Changes
Sleeping Ugly
The Barking Detective Agency
The Healing
The Lost Fairy Tale
A Horse for a Kingdom
Charity
The Most Beautiful Things
The Last Train
The Dream Swallowers
Nyx; Granddaughter of the Night
Jonah and the Alligator
Glastonbury Sirens
Dr Jekyll’s Maid
The 500-Year Circus
P
The Endless Game
DoriaN A
Wyrd Girl
Coming Soon
Heartache High: The Primer
Heartache High: The Wakening