Guardian of Atlantis (The Children of Atlantis) (5 page)

“I—” Raven looked down at her clothes. She felt her hair. It was all dry. Her jaw dropped, but she quickly closed her mouth and wiped the surprised look off of her face. “There’s no one in here.
Just me.”

“I heard another voice,” insisted the janitor.

“There’s no one here but me and you. And you aren’t supposed to be in here when students are. It’s against the law for an old man to be in the girls’ restroom. And it’s even worse because I’m a minor.” Raven figured there had to be a law, a school rule, or something that forbid a male from being in the girls’ restroom.

“I heard you talking to someone and now they’re hiding in here.” Marley had a strange, almost wild look in his eyes. He shook slightly as he stared at her. “Who else is in here?” He ignored Raven.

“Elizabeth Watson was in here earlier. But she left. I was talking to myself. Maybe that’s what you heard.
Or maybe, you’re just hearing things.” Raven looked at Marley. “W
hy were you eavesdropping at the door of the girls’ restroom? Don’t you have better things to do?”

Marley turned red. He stepped toward Raven, staring at her like she had grown three heads or something. “You’re in so much trouble. Suspended! That’s what you’ll be.”

“For being in the restroom before school?
Give me a break! There’s no such rule in the handbook.” Raven picked up her bag. “I ought to know. I’ve read enough school handbooks over the year
s.” Raven
stepped around the old janitor.

“And where do you think you’re going?” asked Marle
y. He st
ared at the necklace around
Raven’s neck.

“The cafeteria to get some breakfast.”
Something about Marley’s behavior frightened her.

With the agility no normal old man could have, he stepped in front of her, blocking the only way out of the restroom. “You’re not going anywhere.” A faint smile flickered across his lips but his eyes remained dark and cold. “I’ve waited too many years for this moment,” he growled as he reached over to the deadbolt on the door and gave it a twist.

The soft click of the deadbolt ricocheted off the tile walls, sending cold shivers of dread down Raven’s spine. She could’ve sworn an icy finger was trailing its way down her back.

“Give me the key codes!” growled Marley. His steely gray eyes shifted to a glowing red.

Fear sent a rush of adrenaline through Raven’s body. She jumped back, putting a good six feet between her and Marley. “What key codes? I don’t know what you’re talking about." Her voice squeaked.

“Don’t play stupid with me. Give me the key codes! I know you’ve got them. Why else would you have that necklace? Only a guardian would have it.” growled Marley, baring a set of fangs at her.

“What are you talking about?” Raven, staring
in disbelief
at the fangs hanging out of his mouth, she took a couple of steps back but bumped into the counter and couldn’t go any farther. She glanced around the room looking for another door or window, even though she knew the only way out was through the door b
locked by the growling,
Marley. Raven shook her head. “This isn’t happening. Werewolves aren’t really.”

“Werewolf?
You think I’m a werewolf?” Marley laughed.  “I’m much worse than a storybook werewolf. I’m a Hellhound.”

“Hellhounds aren’t real either. They’re just mythological creatures. This isn’t real.”

“Oh, I’m real.” Marley sneered, pulling his lips back so Raven could get a good look at his fangs. “Someone kept you a little too sheltered.
Too bad for you.
Just makes it easier for me.”

A weird heat rippled through Raven, making her tremble as if she were cold.

“Now, give me the key codes and maybe, just maybe I’ll let you walk out of here alive,” the old man sneered.

“Get out of my way right now. I really think the office needs to know about your creepy behavior.” Raven lowered her voice, hoping she could keep the quiver out of it. “Move out of my way!” she demanded with an energy she didn’t know she possessed.

All expression left Marley’s face. His red eyes glazed over, but it didn’t last long. “Mind tricks don’t work on me, but you would have known that if you hadn’t of been sheltered.” He shook his whole body, not just his head.

“Trick?
What trick?” asked Raven. “All I did was to tell you to get out of my way. If there’s any trick, it’ll be you actually moving out of my way.”

Marley snarled something unintelligible. He lunged at Raven, his hands out in front of him. The spidery fingers curved until they looked more like the claws of a monster than the fingers of an old man.

Raven let her bag slide off her shoulder. Gripping the strap tightly in her right hand, she
swung it like a bat at Marley. It connected with his right shoulder. The impact jarred her arms and she almost let go of the strap, but it sent the old Hellhound flying into the wall. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Raven ran to the door and yanked on the handle. It rattled against the deadbolt but didn’t open. Raven grabbed the lock and twisted it, but it refused to turn.

“You stupid, little witch! You broke my arm,” screamed Marley. The pain he was feeling poured through his voice.

Raven winced and felt sorry for him, but only for a second. She glanced over her shoulder. He was slowly getting up off the floor. Frantically she tried to get the deadbolt to turn.

“I’m going to make you pay for my arm. I’m going to break every finger of your grubby little hand,” he threatened. “And then, for fun, I’m going to rip off your limbs and tear your pathetic, little heart right out of your chest.” His eyes were black with rage. His right arm dangled useless at his side.

Raven tried turning the lock again as she pulled on the door.

It turned.

The deadbolt’s raspy click reverberated through the door.

Waves of relief washed over Raven.

She was free.

The pain of a hundred needles jabbing her head wrapped around her.

Using her ponytail, Marley jerked her backwards. “Don’t know why Zeus or anyone else is so worried about you. You’re not a threat to anyone. You’re just a pathetic, scared little girl who is clueless about her powers
and everything else. That gives me an almost unfair advantage.” He laughed.

Raven felt his warm breath in her ear. She smelled ammonia and other cleaners coming off his clothes, and the stench of something else. Something like wet dog fur, old chewing tobacco, and rotting eggs and flesh all rolled up together. She tried breathing through her mouth instead of her nose, but it didn’t help much. She still gagged. Somehow she had to get away from him.

“Now give me the necklace
like a good little girl.” Marley growled in her ear.

The close proximity made the foul odor worse. The bile crawled up Raven’s throat with each breath. Balling her hands into fists, Raven ignored the pain of Marley pulling her hair and swung around. Her right fist connected with his left jaw forcing him to grunt and stagger. Raven yelped as pain exploded through her knuckles. Ignoring it, she hit Marley again, this time in the nose causing him to let go of her hair.

But Marley quickly recovered and slapped Raven across the face with such force it sent her reeling and she fell hard to the cement floor on her
hands and
knees. “So, you like playing rough. How do you like that?” growled Marley. He kicked Raven’s thigh. “Not quite the scared little mouse, are you?”

Raven screamed as pain shot through her leg. She saw the second kick coming and rolled until she could get her bag between her and Marley. The old janitor howled with rage and frustration when his foot connected with the hard book bag instead of the soft flesh of Raven’s leg.

Raven dragged herself to her feet. Pain radiated up and down her leg from the spot Marley had kicked. She knew her leg wasn’t broken, but the bruise probably went all the way to the bone. Her right hand was a different story though. The knuckles were swelling and growing stiff fast. There was no way her hand could hitting Marley again.

“Give me the key codes. NOW!” roared Marley.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I d
on’t have any
key codes.” Raven rubbed her hand down her leg, carefully avoiding the spot where Marley had kicked her.

“The key codes are in your necklace. Give it to me. Atlantis is too much responsibility for a child like you. Someone strong and powerful n
eeds to control it all,” said
Marley.

“No,” she whispered.

“What did you say?” Marley stared at Raven as if she had suddenly turned into some weird bug.

Raven blinked several times before she looked up. “No,” she repeated. “You can’t have it. No one can have it,” she added. She blinked several more times. Her eyes felt weird. They weren’t watery. They felt like they were filled with sand. Her fingertips tingled and her hands itched.

Marley snarled and bared his fangs as his face twisted into a mask of pure fury. His broken arm dangled uselessly at his side.

Raven stared at the arm, fascinated at how it hung at such odd angles and how Marley now seemed oblivious to the pain it was radiating. As she stared her eyes got grittier. If she didn’t know better, Raven would have thought she was standing in the middle of a sand storm with her eyes wide open. The tingling moved up her arms and across her shoulders. The itch in her hands was almost unbearable. Beads of sweat popped up across her forehead.

Marley threw his head back and let out the most horrible sound Raven had ever heard. Somewhere between a howl and a growl, it set her ears to ringing, and she knew she should run but she couldn’t look away. Marley’s mouth and nose pushed out into a grotesque animal snout though the rest of his face was still human. Fangs hung down over his bottom lip. The smell of rotten eggs filled the air. Marley launched himself at Raven. The hand on his good arm now supported a wicked looking set of
gleaming black
claws coming out of his fingertips.

Raven managed to twist away from the claws. She
grabbed his broken arm. L
iquid warmth flowed through her arms and out of her hands, wrapping itself around the Marley’s broken arm.

Marley screamed an unearthly howl of agony. Startled, Raven let go of his arm and jumped back. She blinked several times. The gritty feeling in her eyes was gone.

“My arm!
Look at what you did to my arm!” bellowed Marley.

“I didn’t do anything,” whispered Raven. Her eyes widened. Her skin grew paler with each passing second.

“What did you do to
my
arm?” moaned Marley. He tried cradling his arm but it wouldn’t move. From his shoulder down through the oddly twisted broken section, all the way to the finger tips, the arm was stiff as if it were made of plastic or stone. “Undo what you did,” he demanded. His face went from pale to ghostly white. Marley’s legs buckled underneath him and
he landed hard on his knees.

“I don’t know how
it
happened. How can I undo it? Maybe it was something you did.” What little color left in Raven’s face
faded.
“I—I didn’t do it. I can’t help you,” she whispered. Raven grabbed her bag and limped out of the restroom. She knew he didn’t believe her, and deep inside something told her, he was right.

And it terrified her.

The hallway was empty even though the clock on the wall said it was five minutes until the first bell of the morning. Raven looked both directions. She decided the cafeteria wasn’t the safest place to go. She needed to go home and hide until her mom got home from the interview. They definitely needed to talk.

Decision made, Raven headed for the front doors of the building.

Every step she took sent pain shooting through her injured leg, but she didn’t dare stop, even though the front doors seemed further away. Raven clenched her teeth together. The pain clouded her brain’s calculations on the distance. Not good.

“Give me the key codes!” shouted Marley. He used the corner just outside the girls’ restroom to hold himself up. Angry red splotches covered his pale face. “You can’t get away from me.”

A classroom door flew open and Meritus Myers stepped into the hallway. She looked from Raven to Marley. “What kind of problems are you causing, Marley?” she asked.

“Go back to your cave, Meritus. You’re not needed here,” snarled Marley.

“Obviously I am.”

“And what are you going to do? Protect her? Don’t make me laugh.”

“I’ll do what’s necessary,” said Meritus. “Raven, go into my room and wait for me.”

Raven shook her head. “I’ve got to go home.”

“That’s not a good idea. If you go into my classroom, Marley won’t hurt you.”

Don’t trust anyone.
The warning flashed through her head. And from yesterday’s experience, she knew the woman did not like her.

“You need to decide.” A strong wave of energy wrapped around Raven.

“
If I give her the necklace, it’ll be over and
I can go back to being normal,” a voice said in Raven’s head. It
sounded like hers, but something about it wasn’t right. Raven shook her head. She took a couple of steps toward the exit.