Five: Out of the Dark (29 page)

Mr. Grewa didn’t try to push me to answer; he didn’t get angry or annoyed or call BS. He just sat next to me and waited for me to collect my thoughts.

“I’m …
we,
are more than just teenagers, Mr. Grewa. We have special …
abilities
we use to help people. There are things of nightmares in this world, and people are unaware of the danger that constantly surrounds them. We protect as best we can, but we’re all new at this and we’re kind of making it up as we go along.” I suddenly became afraid he wouldn’t believe me, or worse, he’d think I was crazy.

Softly he said, “Such a large burden to be placed on those so young. Have you been able to learn anything? What can I do to help you? I’ve felt so helpless this last month and a half, I’ll help in any way I can.”

His sincerity was palpable and sent a crushing pain through my chest. “We’re so close to figuring it out. I just need information. The drug that’s causing this is being manufactured in a big tank thing—and I think it’s being kept somewhere on the school property. I’m a hundred percent positive Mr. Jorgenson is behind it, but I have no idea what he gains from turning kids into hallucinating zombies. Mr. Grewa, this is no ordinary drug he’s making—it’s made with
Dark Magic
.” I waited for him to laugh at me and tell me there was no such thing as magic. He didn’t.

“Magic … I’ve never really been a believer of magic, yet I can’t disprove its existence. I’ve realized, more so of late, that dark machinations abound in this world—and there seems to be a large concentration of them gathering at
my
school and destroying
my
beautiful students. Sasha, these special abilities you spoke of, are they
magical
abilities?”

I was afraid to answer that. The last grownup to find out about my abilities tried to confine me to a
treatment center
. So I said: “I’m not really ready to talk about that.”

“Okay, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just know that I trust in you and you can trust me. What else do you know about this drug?”

“It causes horrible hallucinations. They have it at all these parties and hand the drug out for free in the form of a drink. I’m pretty sure Mr. Davis, the Psychology teacher, is in on it. Someone told me he supplied some to … a student … here at the school after she’d had some at a party. What do you know about Mr. Davis?”

He glanced up at the ceiling for a few seconds before responding. “I don’t know much. Miss Lloyd was the Psychology teacher for the last fifteen years and had every intention of returning to teach this year, but when we got here the first day, she was gone and he was here—no explanation. He doesn’t associate with the other teachers. In fact, I’ve only spoken with him a handful of times. He is quite often with Mr. Jorgenson.”

“Tell me about his eyes. And his classroom.”

A shiver made its way down his neck and shoulders. “His eyes, now that you mention it, are odd. His pupils aren’t round, they are more like slits—like a cat’s. It’s so disconcerting that I can’t even tell you what color they are. I’ve never been in his classroom. I’ve been teaching here for seven years and I never even knew that hallway existed. In fact, if it wasn’t impossible, I’d say it hadn’t existed until August of this year.”

“It isn’t impossible,” I said to myself. “What about Mr. Jorgenson? Is he new this year, too?”

“No, not this year. He came halfway through last school year when Mrs. Hendricks, our former principal, suddenly died. Had a heart attack in her office one night when she was here late. The janitor found her when he went in to empty her garbage. She was only fifty-one. It was tragic.”

I was out of questions that he could answer.

“Sasha? Is there anything else I can answer for you? What’s your next step?”

I sighed. “My next step is to take all the information I’ve gathered today and present it to my friends. Then we have to make a plan to end this—soon, before anyone else is hurt.”

Mr. Grewa stood and offered his hand to help me up. It was warm and callused. I briefly wondered what had callused this gentle man’s hands.

“We’d best get back,” he nodded to his classroom. “Heaven only knows what’s going on in there without supervision.”

I barely made it through the rest of my classes before lunch. I was tired of just sitting around waiting for disaster to strike. I needed to see if Seth or Alec had any new information and then we needed to form a plan of action. There was just one problem with that—Brendon was already seated with them at a table off in the corner, and we couldn’t talk openly with him there.

I sat next to Seth and plopped my homemade lunch on the table. I scanned the lunchroom for the three thugs. I hadn’t seen them that morning and I was curious to see if they’d survived the wrath of Johnathan. The students were even more subdued than usual; even the girls at the cheerleader table were sullen. One of them perked up as I watched, she smiled and pointed to one of the entrances. Her fellow cheerleaders followed her pointing finger and they all smiled, too. I looked as well, then sucked in a breath as my eyes fell on Johnathan.

He’d stopped at the entrance and looked around the lunchroom. He spotted the waving cheerleaders, smiled shyly and waved back. The worried crease in his handsome face softened when he spotted us and he wasted no time getting to our table.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, remembering too late that I wasn’t supposed to know him very well; we’d just met recently as far as Brendon knew. I covered, lamely, with, “Your fan club is over there and obviously disappointed that you shunned them.” I nodded toward the cheerleader table.

He glanced their way and blushed when he saw they were all looking at him, at least one with an angry pout. “I prefer the company at this table.”

“I thought you were instructed to stay home and recover from the
accident
you had yesterday,” Alec said.

“I’m fine. I have an important assignment to do and it was just a waste of time to sit home when there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“What kind of accident were you in yesterday?” Brendon asked.

Before he could answer, though, Chari stepped up to our table and dropped her lunch tray next to my unopened sack lunch.

“Sasha, why do you sit here with all these boys? I feel like it’s my duty as a fellow female to sit with you and even things out a little—although, two girls to four boys is probably overkill. We
way
outnumber them in brain cells.”

I laughed and Brendon threw a French fry at her.

“You interrupted,” Brendon chided. “Johnathan was just about to tell us what happened to him yesterday.”

Johnathan made up some story about falling down a flight of stairs. I really wanted to continue the conversation Chari and I had started in first period, but I didn’t know how to bring it back to that subject without causing a major downward spiral in the mood at our happy little table.

I saw we had only five more minutes of lunch left. During a short lull in the conversation—centered around football, what else?—I looked at Chari and said, “You mentioned a new Psychology teacher this morning, a Mr. Davis? What’s he like? Where’s his classroom?” I admit, I could never be a news reporter; I suck at segues.

As I’d feared, Chari’s mood darkened, but she answered me anyway. “He gives me the creeps. I was in his class at the beginning of the year, but I checked out after the first day. His eyes are weird, like his pupils are elongated or something, not round. He spent the entire hour the first day just taking turns staring into our eyes without saying anything. It was too über-creepy for me. I’ll show you where his classroom is when you’re done eating if you want.”

Elongated pupils struck a chord; Mr. Grewa had mentioned the same thing. That detail was significant; the Fae people always had something different with their eyes—be it no pupils, all pupils, no white, funny-shaped pupils—they all had eyes that deviated from the human norm. I wasn’t sure what elongated pupils meant, but I needed to find out.

“Yeah, I’m ready whenever you are. I’m not very hungry today.” I tossed my unopened paper sack at Seth. “You can have that.”

I followed Chari down a dim hallway I hadn’t known existed. It was tucked between the boys’ locker room and the weight training room—two areas where I’d never had the need or desire to explore before. We reached Mr. Davis’ door just as the bell rang. I tried the knob; it was locked, of course. Sometime since Chari had watched Ashley disappear into the inner sanctum of his classroom, Mr. Davis had covered the window of his door with thick black paper, so I couldn’t even look inside.

“We’d better get to class,” Chari said. “This whole area gives me the heebie-jeebies. I don’t remember this hallway or room even being here before this year, and I’m pretty sure there was no construction going on this summer.”

What I really wanted to do was
unlock
the door and go exploring. I couldn’t do that in front of Chari, though, so I settled for a quick ward-check. I placed the palm of my right hand on the door and opened my senses. I instantly felt the magical ward that protected the door. I was shocked to find I could actually
see
the ward, too. That was not something I’d ever been able to do before. The intricate weave was made up of hundreds of different-colored blood vessels, still pulsing with life and blood. I slammed shut my senses with a shudder. The ward was made with Dark Magic that made my skin crawl.

Chari and I walked back to our lockers together. We talked along the way, mostly about Brendon. “Do you think Brendon likes me? I wish he’d ask me out,” she said.

“What’s not to like?” I asked. “I can suggest to him that he ask you out.”

Her eyes lit up. “Would you? Maybe we can double—me and Brendon and you and
Johnathan.
”

I stopped. “Uh … Johnathan, huh? Why do you suggest Johnathan?”

“Oh, come on. Any idiot can see the way he looks at you, like you’re the most amazing thing he’s ever seen. Like you’re a full-course Thanksgiving dinner and he’s a starving animal that hasn’t eaten in a week.
And
, you watch him with about the same intensity when he isn’t looking.”

I didn’t realize my infatuation was so obvious. She had no idea how close she was to the reality of the situation when she compared me to food and him to a starving animal. All I could do was laugh and say, “Okay, I’ll see what I can do about setting you up with Brendon.”

The laugh ended when a chill ran down my spine and a strong feeling of foreboding invaded my senses. My eyes were drawn across the hallway. Mr. Jorgenson stood there, watching us. His face was partially hidden in shadow; giving it an even stronger look of evil. He didn’t turn away or even try to pretend he wasn’t staring at Chari and me; he just smiled a disturbing smile and nodded his head like he’d just had the greatest idea since iPod.

That man made me furious. I wanted to wipe that vicious grin off his face, but right there, in the middle of a hallway full of students, wasn’t the right time to do it. So, I just gave him the universal I’m-watching-you sign—I pointed to my eyes with two fingers and then turned them slowly to point at him. I didn’t even try to hide the look of disgust and fury on my face. I did succeed in wiping the grin off
his
face—and I didn’t even have to cause chaos to do it.

His brows drew into an angry scowl and I could almost hear his teeth grinding together from clear across the hall. He took one step toward me—yes, I still stared him down—and then turned sharply and fled the scene.

I huffed out a small, mirthless laugh and caught up to Chari. “See ya later,” I said when she turned into the doorway of her class. We were both late; the bell had rung during my stare-off contest with the principal.

“See ya, Sasha. Don’t forget to talk to Brendon.” She smiled, her cheeks a little flushed.

I really had a hard time concentrating in Pre-Calc. I just wanted to get back home and start making some real plans. I had some information I hoped would help us end this madness and I wanted to get on with it.

Mrs. Penrod asked me to answer a question I didn’t even hear, so I just answered, “Pi-R-Squared?”

She shook her head in exasperation and called on someone else.

Finally Geography, my last class of the day, and the one class I had with Seth. I slumped into a seat and waited for him. In the hallway, between classes, I found myself looking over my shoulder to see if Mr. Evil was lurking somewhere, ready to turn me into a toad. Paranoia—even when it’s justified—is exhausting to the body and soul.

In a hushed voice, I gave Seth the rundown on my earlier encounter with Mr. Jorgenson. He shook his head and said, “You probably shouldn’t have done that, Paige. None of the rest of us are even on his radar—well, maybe I am, because I’m your
brother
—but you’ve been on his radar since day one. You’d think you’d try to get off it, but you just keep making even bigger
bleeps
on his screen.”

“He infuriates me. I just want to blast him off the face of the earth.” The lights in the room flickered and then went out.

“Settle down before you start shooting lightning bolts from your fingertips.”