Five: Out of the Dark (7 page)

We’d begun perusing the local papers for anything that seemed out of sorts. Seth perked up, then waved a hand in the air as if signaling a teacher.

“I’ve got something, you guys. Listen to this.” Seth cleared his throat. “’Suicide Rate at Edwards High School Skyrockets,’” he began. “’The Seattle School District reported today that there has been a sharp rise in suicides among adolescents attending Edwards High School. Edwards has a student body of just over 1,800 and is known for its strong academic focus and stellar sports programs. But, over the last three weeks, seven of its students, five boys and two girls, have killed themselves in violent manners, including gunshots to the head, jumping from an overpass, jumping in front of a train, and a wrist-slashing that was so deep it was almost an amputation of the hand.’”

“Oh, wow,” Halli whispered.

Seth grimaced, then continued. “’Principal Brand Jorgenson is clueless as to what could have brought this horror to his school. He said in a comment to the press: ‘The suicides of seven of our students is beyond tragic. We are all completely devastated. The school is taking this very seriously and the district has dispatched every available counselor to Edwards to speak with each student individually about the suicides and to assess each student for possible suicidal thoughts. We can find no connections between these seven students; they are of varying ages and our investigation has turned up nothing to link them to each other. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims.’”

The rest of the article contained statistics on teen suicide, signs to watch for, and the numbers for local suicide prevention hotlines. We sat in stunned silence for a few minutes.

“There is definitely something going on there,” Johnathan stated, breaking up our shared silence. “I think we should go take a look around that school.”

“What are we going to look for?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I just think we need to go there and check things out, see if we get any unusual feelings from the place. I think we should go now, but not all of us need to go.”

“I’ll go with you,” I volunteered, then added, “why don’t the rest of you stay here and get some sleep? We’ll buzz you if we need help.” I know the others were probably thinking I volunteered only so I could be alone with Johnathan, and they were partly right. Okay, mostly right. But, I also cared about whether or not they got enough sleep, and we had walked a long way on patrol that evening. It was close to three a.m.

Alec smirked knowingly, but before he could open his big mouth, Johnathan said, “That’s a good idea. Halli’s already asleep …”

“No ’m not,” she mumbled from her curled-up position on top of her sleeping bag.

“Okay, sorry. Halli is
almost
asleep, and you two look like you’re exhausted. Paige and I can handle this one. We won’t be long. Like I said, I just want to get a feel for the place.”

Alec just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. “I know what you really want to get a
feel
for …” he said, a little under his breath. Then, he looked at me, smiled and winked.

I started to reach for my channeling rod. I thought,
toad
. A big, ugly, green toad with warts all over its body. I had no idea whether or not it was possible to change someone into a toad, but I was willing to test it out on Alec. Johnathan stepped between us, however, and gave Alec a light smack to the side of his head.

“Go to sleep, Alice. Put up the wards behind us. We’ll take them down when we get back.”

My heart fluttered when he turned to me with a cute smile, dimple creased cheeks and full lips pulled across his snow white, slightly crooked teeth.

Johnathan shook his head. “Let’s go, Paige.”

My heart nearly beat out of my chest when he put his hand on the small of my back as we turned to go out the broken-down doorway of the condemned shop we were staying in that night. His hand felt so warm … and so
right
. I leaned in a little, so our sides touched. I’d never dared act upon my feelings for him. I was never sure how he felt about me. He was always nice and gentle, but had never really made any advances toward me. Unless you counted his confession of love after the changeling bit him. I didn’t think that counted, though. I still wasn’t sure if the hand to my back was just him being nice, or if it meant he really had feelings for me. I was just happy to be alone with him.

We headed out toward Edwards High School, which was clear across the city from where we were. The walk would be very long, which made me smile. I almost cried when he moved his hand from my back to conjure up a
star-bright
so we could see our way to the nearest exit from the Underground.

Johnathan extinguished the light just before we sneaked through the abandoned building at street level. For the first time since we’d met, he reached to hold my hand. My pulse quickened and my palms broke out in instant sweat. I looked down at my feet to make sure they were still in contact with the ground—it sure felt like I was floating. I could not keep the smile off my face as we walked hand in hand, fingers entwined, through the lamp-lit streets of Seattle. Butterflies sprang to life in my stomach. Johnathan stopped and looked down at me.

“Is this okay? That I hold your hand?”

I swallowed. He bit at his bottom lip. Was he really so clueless as to think it might
not
be okay with me? I really did try to answer him verbally, but the words stuck in my throat, so I just smiled, nodded, and squeezed his hand tighter. He must have understood my voiceless reply because he let out a relieved breath and smiled back at me. Ooh. That smile did things to me. And the butterflies. His dimples were like a super-mega jolt of caffeine to those puppies.

The warmth of his hand and how perfectly mine fit with his made me forget about the ache in my feet during the long walk. We actually talked about things other than fighting Demons and stuff.

“What would you eat if you could have anything you wanted right now?” Johnathan asked.

“Steak, and crab legs, and garlic mashed potatoes. What about you? What would you eat?”

“Hmm … steak, definitely. I’m not so sure about crab legs, though. I’d have to go with fried shrimp, and a baked potato with tons of butter and sour cream.”

We laughed about not being able to watch movies or use cell phones or other electronic gadgets because there was something about magical powers that seriously messed with newer technology.

Before I knew it, we were standing in front of Edwards High School. The darkness was thicker around the school—most of the outside lighting was turned off, or just wasn’t working. Johnathan let go of my hand to fish his channeling rod out of his belt. I grabbed mine, too. We didn’t necessarily
creep
toward the school, but we did step carefully. The closer we drew, the more uneasy I started to feel. My stomach dropped when I looked over at the school’s marquee and saw a giant pile of flowers, posters, notes, and stuffed animals in a makeshift memorial to the students who had killed themselves.

We tried the front doors first. They were locked tight and we couldn’t see any lights on inside the school. That seemed a little odd. Didn’t they usually leave a couple of lights on even when no one was there? We made our way around the side of the school, trying each door as we went, and peering into windows for any signs of … I’m not sure what signs we were looking for, really. My main goal was to stay close to Johnathan.

We reached the back of the building, where there was a fenced-in area for the metal shop supplies. It looked more like a prison yard than a school, though. The chain-link fence was reinforced with barbed wire spiraling across the top; three chains with heavy-duty locks kept the large gates closed. Johnathan aimed his
star-bright
through the fence and gave it an extra dose of his will to make it shine further. Nothing there seemed out of place; all we saw were just the usual oxygen tanks for welding, scrap metal and sheets of metal, various tools, and half-finished projects.

Johnathan’s light fell on a couple of metal tanks hooked together with coils and wires. It resembled something from a chemistry set—on a much larger scale. There were also some glass beakers attached to one side and some sort of carvings around the base of the entire contraption, carved into the metal there. Beneath it all, stood a couple of big propane tanks hooked up to some heavy-duty burners to heat whatever was in the metal tanks.

“Wow. What is it?” I turned my head sideways to observe it from a different angle. “I’m trying to picture what experiments you would do with beakers and Brunson burners that big. Imagine the damage an overzealous freshman could do with a lab gone terribly wrong.”

“We need to get a closer look at that thing,” Johnathan whispered. “It doesn’t look like something that should be at a high school. And those carvings around the base look like runes. Did you ever master that unlocking spell?”

I looked at the locks and bit my lip. “I mastered it on the simple lock I practiced on. I’ll give it a try.”

I put my channeling rod back in my belt, placed my right hand on the first lock, and concentrated with all my might. The delicate spell involved telekinetically moving the inside locking mechanisms in the correct sequence to align them so the lock would open. It wasn’t necessary to know the inner workings of the lock—that would make it impossible, since every lock was a little different than the last. I just needed to know what it felt like to have the mechanisms align.

So, I concentrated while Johnathan stood lookout. I was surprised to find that this lock wasn’t as complicated as it’d looked. I felt the mechanisms slide into place after only a couple of minutes of intense focus, and the lock came open in my hand. One down and two to go.

The other two locks were just as simple. It was well worth my effort when Johnathan gave me a quick, celebratory hug before he pulled the chains free from the gate and pushed it open.

He knelt beside the odd contraption we’d spied from outside the fence. The carvings around the base were definitely runes of some sort. The tanks each had a large rune carved into the side that faced away from the gate. The thing had a definite feel of Dark Magic about it. And it made me nauseous.

My heart leapt into my throat when I heard the faint echo of footsteps coming from inside the building. Johnathan apparently heard them, too, because he turned to me and put his finger to his lips. He really didn’t need to; I don’t think my voice box was working at that moment anyway. The door leading out into the lot from the school creaked open, and a man’s voice drifted out. Luckily, we stood on the opposite side of the contraption and our legs were mostly hidden by the propane tanks. There was no way we could have made a run for it without being seen, as the gate was directly across from the door where the voice was coming from. So, we just stood as still as statues, barely daring to breathe, straining to hear what was being said.

“I know we don’t need the publicity, Mr. J., I’m not an idiot! We’re working on tweaking the formula again … I know, Mr. J… . We will! As far as the media knows, there’ve been seven suicides and that’s all they will ever know about. We’ll take care of the other parents, don’t worry.” The man took a couple steps toward us. Johnathan reached for my hand and slid his channeling rod back out with the other.

“Now? Are you kidding me? I really need to check on this new formula. Okay, okay! I’m on my way.” He hung up the phone and cursed before turning back into the school and slamming the door behind him.

I let out the breath I’d been holding. Johnathan squeezed my hand. We stood still for another minute just to make sure the coast was clear. After Johnathan chained and locked the gate as quietly as he could, we left the way we’d come.

The walk home was a somber one. Johnathan was lost deep in thought. He continued to hold my hand; this time he played with my fingers absently while he thought—no doubt planning our next move.

Dawn was breaking when we ducked into the abandoned stairwell that led back to our hideout. Johnathan stopped just before we reached the doorway behind which the others were most likely still sleeping. He turned to face me, then put his hands on my shoulders. His gentle grip was warm and strong. I looked up into his dark eyes, so soft and tender as he looked into mine.

“Other than almost getting caught snooping around tonight, I really enjoyed being alone with you for once. I’d like to take you on a
real
date someday … soon, if that’s okay with you?”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I was definitely in love with him. I’d been waiting to hear something like this from him since the very beginning.

“That would be wonderful, John. Say the word, and I’m there.”

When you’d waited this long for a boy to ask you out, you didn’t waste time playing hard-to-get. And, we didn’t exactly lead normal teenage lives. So something normal like a date sounded amazing.

Johnathan smiled and his eyes lit up.
Wow, he is SO hot!
His hands on my shoulders tightened. His smile faded slightly and he licked his lips, making me think—hope—that he was going to lean in for a kiss, but, he didn’t. He smiled again instead, and then turned to take down the wards so we could safely go inside our home-of-the-week.

I fell to my sleeping bag, exhausted, and drifted to sleep with a smile on my face.