Good vs. Evil High (14 page)

“I do want to have a life. At North Haven.
It’s home now and I don’t want to leave it. The world’s cruel.
North Haven is the only place in it that’s all good.”

“But...I thought they turned you out so you
can do good in the world, and they turn us out to undo it.”

“What?” I had to laugh. “That’s ridiculous.
We’re trained for whatever we want to do with our lives, with the
goal in mind to do whatever we can to make the world a better
place. I’m training to be an artist and to head the activities
committee at North Haven when I’m old enough...I guess I hadn’t
really thought about what you’re being trained to do. Is that
really what you’re here for? To undo any good we do?”

“No. We’re trained to undo any good, really.
That’s just how I’ve got it in my head.”

“But, Luke, you have so much good in you. You
were a straight-A student, and you were always there for me. How
could you spend the next three years being trained for that?”

He pulled his arm away and leaned forward
again. “Things changed after you were gone. I knew no one could
ever replace you, but I had to do something...I looked for
acceptance wherever I could find it, and the guys I found it with
liked to rob houses.”

I gasped in disbelief. Luke Knight could not
be a robber.

“That’s what landed me here. I was the only
guy in the circle the cops could never trace it to. I was smart
enough not to say too much to anyone and to use a fake name, so if
anyone ever ratted me out, no one would be able to find me. I never
trusted any of those guys, but I found my place in the world, and
they were it.”

I reached out for his hand. “I’m...sorry...I
wish things had gone differently for you.”

He squeezed my hand and gave me a little
grin. “Yeah, well, it got us both here, right? Everything worked
out.”

“No.” I shook my head, hating the words I’d
used, because nothing had worked out for him. He was still
surrounded by people he would never be able to trust, and I felt
responsible. If I’d ever called or found a way to get to his house,
things would have gone so much differently. But I felt helpless. I
wasn’t allowed to leave the orphanage for anything but school, and
as far as I knew, we didn’t even have a phone there. If only there
was a way to make things right. If only he’d been recruited to
North Haven instead. He deserved to be there, not here in darkness
and filth. As I thought of the crowd Luke had fallen in with and
how they’d done this to him, I began to understand why we hated the
Cinders so much. They were the ones who destroyed lives and drew
really good kids into the wrong crowd.

“What now?” I asked. “We never talk to each
other again after today, because you’re a Cinder and I’m a
Northerner?”

“Nah, you know that would never work for us.
We need each other now as much as we did before, right?”

I nodded, full of relief that he felt the
same way and that nothing had changed between us.

But what about when spring comes?
It
was an agonizing thought, one I would have to force myself not to
think about.

Luke put his arm back around me and I eased
into him, pulling my legs up and resting my knees over his lap.
Then he leaned over to look at my feet suddenly. “What was
that?”

“What was what?”

“That.” He picked up my purse and I heard it
too. Bubbles blowing and popping.

“It’s my con. I need to answer it.”

“Can’t you shut it off?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never needed to.”

He leaned his head back in exasperation.
People were staring. Luke stood up and grabbed my arm, dragging me
out of the room. “Sorry,” he whispered in the hallway, still
pulling me along. “It’s the only way to protect you.” He opened a
door to our left and hauled me into a bathroom where two boys were
peeing into urinals.

Chapter
Seventeen

~ Mysterious Attack ~

“Oh my gosh.” I closed my eyes and turned
away, not believing what I’d been forced to witness.

“What’s wrong with you, Knight?” one boy
asked angrily.

“Out!”

“Dude,” another voice said.

I heard Luke’s footsteps moving toward them
and then shuffling and someone banging into something. “All right,
all right,” one of the strangers said. “Come on, Hale.”

I waited for the door to close to open my
eyes. “Why’d you bring me in here?”

“So you could answer your thing. Now hurry up
before someone else comes in.” He grabbed the handle on the door
and held it shut as I pulled my con out.

When it had fully opened, Rose appeared and
the bathroom was full of broken screaming. She was lying on the
ground somewhere, obviously suffering torturous pain, with one eye
swollen nearly shut. “—NEED HELP...HE’S STILL HERE...SOMEONE HELP
MEEE...”

“Rose? Rose, what happened?”

“...I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING...IT’S SO HOT IN
HERE...”

“ROSE!”

“PLE-HEE-HEE-HEESE...”

“What’s going on?” Luke asked.

“Rose is hurt, but I don’t know where she is
and I don’t think she can hear me.”

“...WHY ISN’T SOMEONE COMING...I NEED
HELP...”

Luke let go of the door and came to stand
beside me. “Geez, everyone can probably hear her out there. Can’t
you turn the sound off?”

“I don’t know. Kristine Con, silence.” The
cries stopped, but Rose continued to look around in
desperation.

“There’s a pile of pipes in the back of the
room. I know where that is. Shut that off and I’ll show you.”

“Kristine Con, return!”

The second it fell in my hand, Luke ran out
the door and down the hallway. I raced as fast as I could behind
him, turning down bends, passing open doors I didn’t have time to
look in, running down two flights of slippery stairs, and through
more hallways. Finally I could hear her up ahead. Down another
hallway and through a heavy iron door. Her terrified voice hit us
almost as hard as the scorching waves of heat pouring out of the
room.

There was Rose, with her con floating behind
her head, lying in the middle of the room with her leg broken above
the knee. “Rose, Rose I’m here,” I said, running to her side.

“SOMEBODY HELP ME...”

“Can’t you hear me?”

“...PLEASE, SOMEBODY...” Her eyes looked
around wildly, but she still didn’t see me.

I reached in my bag and pulled out my con.
“Call Headmaster,” I commanded as it opened. “Now, call Headmaster
now!”

It only took a second for him to come on the
screen. “Kristine, where are you?”

“Rose is hurt. She needs help.”

“I know. She called everyone. Where is
she?”

Realizing I needed to keep Luke away from
Rose’s con so no one would know he was with me, I stood up and
walked to the doorway where he still stood. No one but Headmaster
would see either of us there. “I don’t know where I am.” I stared
at Luke, hoping he would help me.

“She’s in the boiler room.”

Headmaster stared at Luke for a second. “How
do I get there?”

“It’s too complicated to explain. Get my
headmaster and he’ll show you the way.”

Connie’s face appeared on the screen. “Can I
do anything else for you, Kristine?”

“No, thanks. Kristine Con, return.”

I went back to sit beside Rose. “Should we
get her out of this heat?”

“I don’t think we should move her since we
don’t know what we’re doing,” Luke said, moving to sit behind
Rose’s con.

“Rose Con, return,” I tried, with no
success.

I looked up at Luke. “Thank you.” He smiled
and nodded.

I took my notebook out and fanned Rose with
it, sweat pouring from my face and Luke’s until our headmasters
came running through the door with two men in white carrying a
stretcher. One pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and tried to
look in her eyes, but she wouldn’t stop screaming and thrashing
around. The other man took a needle out of his pocket and injected
her with something that put her to sleep. The first one held her
eyelids up and shone the light in them. “She’s definitely got a
concussion. We should have brought more supplies, but all we’ve got
is that stretcher.”

“We can’t get anything now. We’ve got to get
her out of this heat,” the other said. The two men began working
together to get her onto the stretcher and carry her out of the
room.

“Rose Con, return,” Headmaster said. Her con
moved to him obediently and closed into his hand.

“Come on, Knight. I need to have a word with
you,” his chilling headmaster said.

“Bye, Luke,” I said. He didn’t look back or
respond as he followed the long, dark figure out of the room.
Knight, I meant Knight. Dang it!

My headmaster put his arm around me and led
me out, too. We followed but stayed several paces behind. I could
hear the hissing whispers pass between Knight and his master, even
though I couldn’t make out anything that was said.

I reached into my bag and got out my con. “I
need a keypad,” I whispered to Connie before she could ask what I
needed. One came up on the screen and I typed, “Will Luke be okay?”
I watched Headmaster nervously as we began climbing stairs. He
pointed to Luke and I nodded. Then he typed, “He’ll be fine. My
brother’s just trying to learn what happened.”

Hoping it would work, I typed, “Kristine Con,
return,” and watched it begin to close.

We walked silently until we reached the
beginning of the hallway I’d started in. “Can you find your way
from here, brother?” Tobias asked.

“I believe so,” Headmaster said before he led
me past the different rooms, through the gymnasium, and then the
cafeteria, where we found a group of our kids huddled around the
door near the fireplace in the southwest corner of the room.
Everyone began talking at once when they saw Headmaster.

“It’s all right, it’s all right. Rose is
being given medical attention at this very moment. I will do my
best to explain everything as soon as I have answers. For now, I
really must speak with Miss Fayre.”

We worked our way through the students and
into the door behind them. I realized a plaque labeled ‘Headmaster
Trey Veziamo’ was attached to it as we walked into a small office
with a desk in the middle of the room, just like the one back at
North Haven. Books were stacked messily all over the shelves on one
wall.

“Am I in trouble for being with a Cinder?” I
asked when the door was closed.

Headmaster sat behind his desk. “Please, have
a seat so we can discuss this.”

I sat down and watched him nervously. What if
I was about to get expelled or something?

“You’re not in any trouble, Kristine, and
there’s no rule against you and any of my brother’s students making
friends. I’ve always hated the fact that no one from either of our
schools can get along. But it seems that things will always be this
way.”

“Yes, sir, and I’m beginning to understand
why. But Luke and I go way back. We were best friends once, and it
still feels like we are. So—”

The door was thrown open suddenly, whacking
the wall and shaking Headmaster’s books. Roman tore in and wrapped
his arms around me. “Kristine! Thank goodness you’re all right. I
saw you on Rose’s con and she wasn’t making any sense.”

“Mr. Armstrong, please wait outside until we
are finished,” Headmaster said, rising to his feet.

“I’m sorry, Headmaster, but I was worried
about Kristine.” He put one hand on my cheek and leaned down as if
he would kiss me. “If anything happened to you after we’d had that
fight, I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

Seeing someone approach out of the corner of
my eye, I looked over and saw Luke and his headmaster walking into
the office. I got out of my chair and moved away from Roman, not
even sure why I did it.

“You don’t need to worry about her. She was
with me the whole time,” Luke said smugly.

“He’s the one you were with?”

“You knew I was going to be with him today,
Roman,” I said.

“Mr. Armstrong, please wait outside until we
are finished,” Headmaster said again.

Roman bumped Luke’s shoulder on the way out,
setting Luke’s eyes on fire, but he dared not do anything with his
headmaster at his side.

“Knight tells me you two know each other very
well,” his headmaster droned.

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

“Please, Tobias. I’m as eager to know their
story as you are, but hearing Rose’s is far more important at the
moment. If someone dangerous is out there, we need to find them
immediately.”

“Very well.”

I knew I couldn’t tell Rose’s story, but we
all sat down and I told Headmaster everything I could.

Chapter
Eighteen

~ Late Night Incident ~

“Kristine,” someone hissed. I saw the great
head of a mutant rodent coming closer. “Kristine, can I come
in?”

“No...” I struggled to say as I began
trembling with fear. “Luke?” I needed his help. It had to be him.
“Luke, I need you.”

“I’m right here,” the red-eyed rat hissed as
it began to dissolve. “Are you awake?”

I snapped out of it and sat up in bed,
finally waking from my dream. “Harmony?” I whispered.

“It’s me—Luke.”

I grabbed his arm and pulled him onto my bed.
Then I made sure the curtains were completely closed and turned my
light on. His hair was a terrible mess. I figured I didn’t look any
better, but middle-of-the-night hair never mattered before. “How’d
you get in here?” I asked.

He twisted his arms inwardly and disappeared.
All that was left was a hint of a shadow.

“You’re wearing shadow technology? Cool...Are
you all right, though?”

“Yeah, I had that nightmare about my mom, and
I thought since you’re here now—”

I grabbed the blanket he was sitting on and
pulled, so he would move up to let me get it out from under him.
Then I held it up so he could climb under.