Elysium's Love Triangle (4 page)

“Not right now,” I answer as we walk out together.

The truth is I would go anywhere he asked me.

This is why I’m not able to
just
say ‘no’ to his suggestion.

I never can refuse when it comes to him. 

It’s a weakness, not something I can help.

“What are you thinking about?”  He asks as we walk through the halls.

“Nothing!”  I reply far too fast, surely giving away my guilt.

He gives me that mischievous grin that I am learning to love.

My heart skips a beat.

It does that a lot when he’s around.

*

The night comes again.

Angelica is reading a book about spiders.  She is cutting out the pictures and sticking them into a scrap book.

It is full of pictures of spiders, them and frogs.

I don’t even comment.

I talk breezily to her about the dance
we have coming up
.  Tomorrow night
all of us
new additions to the school will be attending the ‘Fresher’s Ball’.

I have a short pink dress all ready to be worn.  I can’t wait.

Angelica seems more interested in frogs, frankly.

She thinks she has a dress to wear, she’s not sure.  If she doesn’t she shall go to the ball in he
r school uniform and wellington boots
.

I have no idea if she’s joking or not. 

I begin writing in my diary.

I find myself writing about Daniel.  He didn’t sit with Class B at lunch today.  Instead he joined my group.

It was very noticeable because no one else from Class B mixed at all.  They band together like some strange kind of family.  I noticed a few of them giving him looks, as if he was betraying them somehow.

He happily i
gnored them and seemed to have
great fun with us. 

H
e and Greg got into a debate about which of them is better at gymnastics.  The two of them are trying out for the school team apparently. 

Greg bet ten dollars that he could beat Daniel easily.

Daniel just smiled knowingly.
He accepted the bet.

Again I got the feeling
that
I was missing something here.

Daniel and Greg
knew each other before today. 
Greg told me that they attended the same summer camp
when they were young.

His tone told me that the two of them didn’t get along, that well, back then.

Tanya was trying to hog Daniel’s attention the whole way through lunch.  She kept dropping hints about the dance.  It was obvious to
me that she wanted him to ask her
.

She seemed just as struck by his looks as I am.

At the end of lunch I suggested to Daniel that he should sit with us again tomorrow.

He just smiled and said that he might just do that.

Angelica jolts me from this memory when she takes out her shark book again.

“I think I’m going to go to bed now,” I say quickly before stuffing my diary under my bed.

I go to our bathroom and begin brushing my teeth.

“Wow,” Angelic
a
says, “Hey, Katy.  Did you know that Great Whites have
rows
and rows of teeth?  They just launch at their prey, like some kind of rocket!  Amazing, isn’t it?”

I look in the mirror.  I can almost see the fear in my eyes.

“Yeah . . . amazing,” I reply.

I swear it’s almost like that girl knows what scares me.

I am staying awake tonight.  If she leaves I will follow.

I am going to find out what’s going on around here, whatever the cost.

It takes my room-mate until half three to leave.  I have opened my eyes, roughly ever
y
fifteen minutes, for the last few hours.

She has always been
here, until now.

I am amazed.  I didn’t
even
hear her leave.

She couldn’t have opened the door
,
or closed it, surely, without me hearing.

Then I see it. 

The window.  It is wide open, the wind blowing in through it, creating a light breeze.

I don’t understand.  She couldn’t possibly have left that way. 

We are three floors up.

I get up and look out through the window.  I can’t see anything out there, it’s so dark.

I sigh; there is no way to follow her now.

I am walking back to my bed when something stic
ks to my foot.  I peel if off and
find that it’s a picture.

A spider of course.

This isn’t
what interests me.  The words, written on the back of picture, are far more intriguing
.

The Gymnasium.  Four O Clock Sharp.

I almost laugh. 

This is most definitely where she has gone.  It’s a message from one of the others.

I look at the clock.  I now have twenty minutes to get there before the stated time.

Throwing on a pair of jeans and a blue tank up takes me half a minute.

Then I realise my predicament.  I can’t leave out through the window, even if she
somehow
managed it.

I will have to sneak through the school.

They have hall monitors here.  If any of them catch me I am dead.

I open the door and sneak out quietly, making sure to close i
t behind me.  The monitors will
definitely know
that there is something awry if I leave
it ajar.

I check
around every corner before I dare go around it
.

The flights of stairs seem to take eternity to get down.

There is no-where to hide on them.  It is impossible not to make noise on them.

I get to the bottom of the last one and let out a sigh of relief.

The front door is so near.

I wonder whether making a run for it would be a good idea.  I would be out quicker; on the other hand going slow would probably be quieter.

In the end I make a mad dash
for it
.

I pull on the
front
door.  To my horror it is locked.

I hear some voices.

The M
onitors.

I look around, panicking.

I quietly make my way into the science room and close the door behind me
.  I pray that the M
onitors will just walk on by.

I recognise one of the voices as Krein.  He tells the other
M
onitor of some ‘disturbance’ in the boy’s dormitory.

They both run off to deal with this emergency at the other end of the school.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

I concede defeat.  I will have to make my way back up to my room.  The front door is locked, there is no way out.

Just then a butterfly takes my attention.  It has lovely pink wings and has just flown in through the window.

I almost yell with delight.  The mission isn’t over after all.

The W
indow.  It’s open.

I climb out of it rather awkwardly, having to work hard to keep balanced.  I definitely wouldn’t give Greg or Daniel a run for their money in the gymnastics stakes, that’s for sure.

I make my way over to the gymnasium, again keeping quiet. 

It is not a nice night.  The air is still and heavy.  Dark clouds are hiding the stars
and
the moon from view.  The whole earth seems dull and lifeless.

I get the horrible feeling that there are dangers lurking out there.

The M
onitors are not the only ones to be wary of tonight.  I am sure that this group, whatever they are up to, would not welcome spies among them.

There is one upside to the darkness.  It will at least make it harder for them to see me.

I soon f
ind myself a window to peek in through,
at the back of the
gymnasium
building.

One look inside confirms one thing for me.  T
his is a party for the blue eyed
people only.

They don’t seem to be up to much yet, other than standing around talking.

Daniel is there, so is his sister.

They are at opposite ends of the room. 

They really don’t seem to be very close.

I never
had a sibling myself.  I often imagine what it would be like to have a sister.  W
e’d be ever so
close, like best friends.  S
he would braid my hair and we’d stay up late telling secrets and stories.  We’d share our clothes and get into silly arguments over silly things.

In the end we’d always make up because, at the end of the day, we’re still sisters.

It’s just a fantasy of course.  I never will have a sister.

The ‘incident’ made sure of that.

I peek into the window again.

Something is about to happen.  They are all standing in a circle now, with joined hands.

I am beginning to think
that
my idea about them being a secret society is correct.

I keep watching.

A boy with black curly hair and lizard tattoos walks in through the entrance. 

In his arms he is holding Tanya.  She is fast asleep.

The others all look to him in unison.  They’ve been waiting for this.

I gasp and put my hand to my mouth.

What are they doing with her?  Why isn’t she waking up?

I am completely frozen.

T
here is a chair
in the middle of the circle they’ve formed
.  They place her on it.

S
he holds herself in the sitting position
, despite being asleep
.

All of them keep
t
he
i
r eyes on her.

I cannot believe what I’m seeing.

It’s like they’re performing some weird ritual.  The kid with the lizard tattoos steps forward
and stands beside Tanya
, “Okay, you guys, what nightmare will I give her?”

He is obviously the ringleader
here.  They’ve all been silent
since he walked in, completely respectful.  Most are looking at him in admiration now.

Angelica answers, “I dunno
,
but make it a scary one.  I’m hungry tonight.”

“You’re always hungry,” he answers rolling his eyes.  “Has anyone sensed what she’s afraid of?”

Again Angelica answers, “Yes, snakes.  Make the dream involve them.”

I don’t understand.

What did Angelica
mean when she said
that
she was ‘hungry’?

The ringleader is talking like he can literally
control
Tanya’s
dream.

It doesn’t make any sense.

Daniel is looking rather regretful.  It makes him stand out, the rest of them look excited.

“Okay,” the ringleader says, “Everyone ready?  It’s dinner time.”

He puts his right hand on
Tanya’s
forehead.

This doesn’t wake her up.  She starts twitching anxiously.

She begins talking in her sleep.  Her words are telling ‘it’ to go away.

There are thousands of them, she shrieks.

Most of the blue eyed
people have closed their eyes.  It’s like they are all trying to concentrate again, like they are soaking up something in the air.  Angelica seems especially happy.

The ringleader’s hand never leaves Tanya’s forehead.

She begins screaming in fear.

Her nightmare is obviously getting worse.  He is somehow forming it in her head.

The more she screams the happier, and more satisfied, the people around her seem.

I wonder why she isn’t waking up.

The ringleader swaps his hands, now resting his left on her head.

This brings back a memory for me.

Last night.  T
he feeling that someone
,
or
something
,
had just been with me.

The awful nightmare.

I almost stagger back.