A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy) (29 page)

“We have to stop them,” hissed Coach H. Both he and Headmaster B tensed. But even as they sprung to move, they were too late.

Heathcliff and Catherine’s lips met, and suddenly the ground beneath our feet started to shake.

“What’s going on?” Hana shouted.

“It’s
them
,” Miss A shouted back. “Together,
they
are opening the portal.”

Before her words were out, I could see the gleaming gold light opening beneath their feet. The shining splinter that would grow to a doorway to another dimension. Sydney had been right. Together, Heathcliff and Catherine had the power to make entire buildings disappear. Their intensity, their
love
, was such a great force that they were upsetting the balance of everything. It was as if together, they were as powerful as gravity.

That just made it worse. Wasn’t it bad enough they’d crushed my heart? Now, they had to destroy the world, too?

I found myself moving toward them.

“Wait,” I said, my voice barely a croak, but it was enough. Heathcliff jerked away from Catherine. She glanced up at me, a look of surprise and then annoyance flitting across her face.

I stopped when I was a few feet away from them.

I could feel the eyes of every one of my friends on me. They hadn’t seen Catherine and me in the same room before. They didn’t know how much alike we were. 

“Miranda,” he began, his eyes desperately trying to tell me something. Was he trying to stop me? Warn me? I didn’t care. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Not now. My shock was melting away and in its place surged a hot and furious anger. I had no better place to put it, so I decided Catherine was a fair target. My sack full of books was heavy on my shoulder. I slipped it off, letting the vault books land with a clunk on the floor. No one spoke or moved, now that Catherine and I were standing facing one another. 

“This ends now,” I said. Overly dramatic? Maybe. But it was true. I’d had enough and I was going to stop this. 

Catherine just laughed. She threw back her head and cackled, as she curled her arm protectively around Heathcliff. He had the good sense not to meet my eye and instead looked down at his feet.

“I’m not nearly through with this world or yours,” Catherine said. “There is
much
I’d like to see.”

Another tremor shook the library, and small cracks in the stone appeared in the support beams holding the ceiling in place.

“You won’t get the chance,” Coach H said, sounding sure, as he and Headmaster B and Miss A approached us slowly. “You’re going back to fulfill your destiny.”

“You mean die young in childbirth?” Catherine threw her head back and laughed. “No, I don’t think I will.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“Oh, I think I do,” Catherine said. “And it’s all because of Miranda.” I must have looked confused because Catherine stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. “Since
you
are so in love with the things I love…” She glanced at Heathcliff when she said this. “I can only assume you
want
to be me.”

I tugged hard at Catherine’s grip, but she held me fast. Her eyes were dark and full of menace.

“I will never be you,” I shouted, tugging hard.

“Oh, yes, you will,” Catherine said. “At least for the last few days of my short-lived life. It’s time for you to pay the price for coveting what
wasn’t
yours.” Somehow, Catherine spun me around and now had her arm around my throat, the crook of her elbow choking me a little. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to fight her. “And you were so kind to bring yourself
and
the book with you. This has saved me quite a lot of bother. Heathcliff, get the book.” Her voice left no room for argument.  I realized with dread what she meant. She planned to send
me
into
Wuthering Heights
. I was going to live out Catherine’s life, which was pretty much the same as a death sentence. The idea made me light-headed and nauseous all at once. 

Heathcliff stiffened by Catherine’s side. My friends froze. Coach H and Headmaster B hovered nearby, exchanging a look. Miss A looked severely pained and helpless. Nobody wanted to make a sudden move and make the situation worse.

Beside me, I saw Heathcliff dip to pick up my book bag.

“No,” I gurgled, but then Catherine tightened her grip, sealing off any chance I had to speak. I struggled, but it was no use. She had me tight. She was surprisingly strong.

Heathcliff reached in and grabbed the book. I looked at his face, really
looked
at him, and he met my eyes. I tried to plead with him silently not to do this, not to sentence me to death, to a life as a ghost. Tears slid down my cheeks. He grabbed the book, a frown on his face. I desperately tried to imagine my way out of this, trying to clutch at any scene that might not be this one, but I couldn’t concentrate. Catherine’s hand on my throat and Heathcliff holding the book; I simply couldn’t block out those images in my head, no matter how much I tried. I wouldn’t be able to wish myself out of here. And then, my vision clouded with stars. I was going to pass out soon. Catherine was choking me. I couldn’t breathe. 

 “Let her go,” shouted Sydney. His voice was enough to distract Catherine long enough to loosen her grip a little.

“You’re wrong, Catherine,” said Ryan. He stood beside Sydney.

“Excuse me?” she dropped me to the floor and I started sucking in air. The stars that had clouded my vision receded a little. “Who are you?”

Even Catherine wasn’t completely immune to Ryan’s charms. After all, he was a handsome guy. Catherine took note.

 “You don’t really believe in all that fate crap, do you?” Ryan asked Catherine as he moved closer.

She was momentarily taken aback. I was sure not many people talked to Catherine like that, especially not boys that looked like Ryan. Everything I knew about Catherine told me that any boy she came across fell instantly in love with her. Someone like Ryan must’ve been a rare find.

“Nobody’s life
in the real world
is written out ahead of time,” Ryan said. He took another step closer. Catherine released her grip on my throat. As I wheezed in air, I took the opportunity to speak, my voice barely a croak.

“Heathcliff, you aren’t this person,” I managed to choke. “You’re better than this.”  It’s what I always believed, and I realized a part of me still believed it. I still believed Heathcliff was not the monster he was destined to become, that there was still time for him to be redeemed. 

At least, I hoped so.

He met my eyes then, and glanced down at the book in his hands.

“You don’t know him at all,” Catherine declared, her attention turned squarely back on me. “Heathcliff is
not
an honorable man. He’s not a romantic hero. He’s not whatever you’ve built him up to be in your mind. Only
I
truly know him for what he is—a villain through and through.”

Heathcliff’s head lifted slightly, and he looked at Catherine. I wondered for a second, just a split second, if she was right. Was he as bad as she thought he was? Could he kill me? And how could she love him if she really thought he was that rotten to the core?

I could almost feel the indecision in the room. My friends and teachers didn’t know what to think, either.

“Heathcliff isn’t bad,” I said, stubbornly, as I pulled myself to my feet. “He’s like the rest of us. He gets to decide what he is. He makes decisions. Good ones. Bad ones. He decides his destiny. That’s the way the world works. The
real
world, The one that you so badly want to live in. We don’t have scripts. We don’t have predestined endings. We just have lives, and we live them the best we can day to day. That is what it means to be in
our
world.”

I thought it was a good speech. At least if I was about to bite it, I could at least go out on a high note.

“You can’t save him,” Catherine hissed at me. “You’ve tried and failed.”

“You’re right,” I said. “I can’t save him.” Heathcliff’s eyes met mine, searching for my meaning. “Only Heathcliff can save himself. Only he has the power to do that.”

Heathcliff glanced down at the book he still held in his hands. 

The ground shook again and a large crack split the tiled floor beneath our feet. I hardly noticed it, since my full concentration was on Heathcliff. I waited—the whole room waited—for his decision.

And then, he held the book out to Catherine. My breath caught in my throat. My heart folded in on itself with dread. But just as Catherine reached forward to grab it, Heathcliff snatched the book away from her and grabbed her by the wrist. In one fast move, he spun her away from me and in the next instant tossed the book up into the air to Headmaster B. She reached out and grabbed it, even as Catherine went sprawling on the ground.

Heathcliff scooped me up in his arms and moved quickly away from Catherine. Headmaster B was already opening the book and summoning Catherine into it. I saw over Heathcliff’s shoulder, the screaming and furious Catherine trying to crawl away. She clawed uselessly at the floor but it was no use. The forces calling her back into the book were too strong and she couldn’t resist them. In seconds, she was gone, swept back to the place where she belonged, inside the pages of her destiny.

I looked in Heathcliff’s face and he met my eyes. He had saved me, again, and this time, he’d saved himself, too. He touched my cheek gently. I looked up and saw my Heathcliff there, the tender boy I knew who loved me.

“I told you I would take care of this,” he said, and he smiled at me, and in that moment, that one second, I knew that this had been his plan all along. Somehow, he had been looking for a way to send Catherine back. The dramatic pause he’d taken in making his decision had been an act to fool Catherine. “It took you long enough to find me.”

“How did you know… that I’d be here? With the books and just at the right moment?

“I trusted you’d come,” he said. “And I was right.” He pulled away from me. “You didn’t really believe I’d go back to Catherine?” And then he quirked an eyebrow.

“I did, actually.”

“Then, I’m a better actor than I thought.” Heathcliff smiled. A tremor, however, shook the floor beneath us. “Although, I admit,” he added as the ground rumbled. “Maybe I didn’t have the best plan.”

“You think?” asked Lindsay as she tried to steady herself.

“You caused us all a lot of grief,” Sydney said.

“And it’s not over yet,” Lindsay said, looking at the ceiling, which was starting to crumble.

“Catherine had to be stopped,” Heathcliff said. “I realized too late what her plans were, and after what happened to Bard…I had to go along until I found a way to send her back to
Wuthering Heights
. I was trying to find a way to keep Miranda safe. That’s all.”

I wrapped my arms around him, tears of relief slipping out of my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. I was just happy to be alive, and
here
, and that the nightmare was over. Well, almost over.

Another rumble shook the ground and I clung to Heathcliff. Apparently, Catherine being sent back to
Wuthering Heights
wasn’t enough to stop the monumental shifts happening in the Bard library. Large pieces of cement and brick crumbled and peeled away from columns and walls. Sconces tumbled to the ground. The earth shook. Heathcliff held me fast, and he was running, and it felt, for a second, like I was flying. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blade and Samir scrambling to the exit with Lindsay and Ryan and Hana not far behind. I wanted to help them. I wanted to turn back, but there was no fighting Heathcliff and his single-minded desire to get me out of harm’s way. He would not be stopped. He was running full speed. I buried my face in his shoulder and clung to him. He held me. And he ran out the door and down the steps. We got to the bottom of the steps in time to see one of the stone lions cracked straight down the side, and a big paw clattered to the ground and broke into large clay pieces, which scattered in every direction. The steps were crumbling, and a crack appeared near the bottom, tearing through the stone. Heathcliff fell to the ground and so did I. Heathcliff went one way and I went another, and as we scrambled to our feet, Headmaster B appeared, as if from thin air, standing between us.

I saw her face, saw the intent in her eyes, as she held aloft her copy of
Wuthering Heights.
In that instant, I knew exactly what she planned to do.

“No!” I meant for it to be a shout, but it came out as a sad-sounding croak. 

“It’s his time to go,” Headmaster B told me. 

“No! There has to be another way,” I pleaded. My eyes were glued to Heathcliff as if I could keep him in this world by sheer force of will. He got to his feet slowly, carefully. I thought at first he was considering his options, considering a way out that might involve brute force, but his body didn’t tense for fight. Instead, he relaxed his shoulders and put his hands out palms up. He looked like a tired fugitive who’d been caught by the police. He stood there, holding his hands out, as if he planned to surrender quietly.

Lindsay ran down the collapsing stairs, with my friends not far behind.

“What’s going on?” Blade asked, as she and Samir skidded to us. Ryan and Hana were on their heels. Everyone saw Heathcliff and Headmaster B, and, more importantly, the book she held in her hand.

“We have to right the wrongs,” Headmaster B said. “We have to restore the balance.” 

The whole front of the library shook. The big white columns popped and cracked under the pressure. One large chunk of a column fell with a crash about five feet away. Samir jumped back several feet. Headmaster B turned to look and I lunged. I was aiming for the book, but I missed by inches. I toppled to the floor, my hands empty. And then Coach H was there, standing above me. He blocked out the moon, the night sky, the library, everything. “We have to do this,” he said to me. “There’s no other way. Nothing will be stable again unless Heathcliff goes back. We can’t save Bard any other way.”

Tears filled my eyes.