Immortal Light: Wide Awake (10 page)

“
Nothing. He sad hi, I said hi,
that was it.”

“
Stop it, Luce. Don’t lie to me.
What happened? And I don’t mean, ‘what did you say?’”

“
Nothing … really.”

There was silence on the other end.

Lucy continued, “Okay, okay, I like him a
little; so what?”

“
So what? This is huge. You’ve
been all about Mark Thompson for six years. Now, all of a sudden,
you like the new guy?”

“
It’s circumstantial. I’m still
all about Mark.”

“
Okay,” Kat said. She didn’t sound
convinced. “You want me to come over?”

“
No, you have your date with Dave.
Trust me, there’s nothing going on. I just hope you’re right about
Mark.”

“
I’m right, Luce. Just don’t get
distracted, okay?”

“
Yeah, I won’t.”

“
I’ll see you tomorrow,
then?”

Lucy smiled. “Yeah, tomorrow.”

She was beginning to feel better
already. Benjamin was the new kid. Mark was solid and she knew him.
She was practically in love with him. Benjamin was a flash in the
pan compared to Mark. The only problem was that Lucy knew for near
certain if she gave Benjamin one more thought, she would fall madly
in love with him.

Chapter
5

In spite of the catastrophe of the
previous day, Benjamin Raven was all Lucy could think about as she
pulled onto campus; he was all she had thought about for months.
The parking lot was nearly full as she drove around looking for a
black motorcycle. It would be difficult to spot, and she was forced
to slam on her brakes more than once to avoid hitting someone. It
was ridiculous to try and find him with everyone milling around.
She needed to get to higher ground.

From the top of the stairs, she scrutinized
every space in the lot. With her hand raised to her forehead, she
looked for Benjamin’s dark hair towering over the other kids, but
it wasn’t his hair that located him. It was Samantha Morris’ voice
from somewhere behind her that pinpointed Benjamin’s
location.

Turning around, she saw immediately that not
only did Benjamin seem to be having a grand time with Samantha and
her minions in pleated skirts, but Samantha was draped all over him
under Lucy’s oak tree and on Lucy’s bench. Dejection and
disappointment welled up inside her and she wished she had the
nerve to just walk over and slap Samantha across the face. Lucy
balled her fist and from deep down, she felt like she could
actually do it. She felt she could for once and for all walk over
to Samantha Morris and teach her a lesson.

“
Lucy, over here!” Kat’s voice
sounded from a grassy area to her right.

Looking over, she saw Kat sitting with Dave in
front of one of the nearby buildings. She looked back to Benjamin
and Samantha. “Ah, screw it!” she exclaimed under her breath and
walked over to where Kat and Dave sat. She forced herself to appear
composed and approached them.

“
Hey,” Lucy said, smiling with
such fake enthusiasm that Kat was instantly suspicious.

“
Hey, Luce, you okay?”

“
Yeah, great, why?”

“
You look sort of
tense.”

“
No, fine.” Lucy’s smile was tight
and forced. “You ready to go?”

Kat furrowed her forehead at Lucy.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” She jumped up, grabbed her bag, and turned to
Dave. “So I’ll see you later, then?”

Dave stood and Kat hugged him around the
middle. “Yeah, I’ll see you at lunch,” he said.

Kat smiled and winked at him. Dave smiled back
and walked toward a group of football players by the office
building.

“
Okay, what’s the matter?” Kat
locked elbows firmly with Lucy as they walked past the oak tree and
the reek of Samantha’s perfume.

“
I hate her,” Lucy growled under
her breath.

“
I thought you only liked him ‘a
little’,” Kat said sarcastically, holding up quotation
fingers.

“
That’s not the point. It’s not
him, it’s her.”

Kat shot a skeptical glance that went
unnoticed.

“
It’s like she’s deliberately
trying to get in the way of me even trying to get to know a guy.
It’s been years. You’d think she’d get bored.”

“
I know, she sucks, but who cares?
Mark is showing serious interest. Don’t forget him because you
think you might, maybe, sort of, like another guy ‘a
little’.”

Lucy heaved a frustrated sigh and
shook her head. “If I have to smell that rose scented crap she
wears any more, I’m going to seriously hurt someone.”

“
Okay, I have to head this way,”
Kat pointed across the quad. “Remember, Mark likes you now. And if
you’re going to hurt her, do it where I can see.” Kat smiled and
hugged her friend. “Be good; we’ll talk at lunch. Love
you.”

Lucy nodded and slunk off toward class. She
didn’t go directly because she needed to cool off. She detoured
around the gym as the first bell sounded. She had five minutes to
bring her heart rate down.

The hallway was clogged with high school
students racing to get to their classes as she neared Mrs. Roth’s
room. She didn’t want to go in. For a moment, she paused outside
the door to take a breath, when she felt something very strange. It
was a warm feeling, like a blanket being wrapped around her. It
felt a lot like someone had come up behind her and wrapped their
arms around her, and she liked it. Her heart rate sped up a little
as the sensation brought to mind the image and presence of one
single person in a way that she knew she couldn’t
resist.

Lucy cautiously walked to Mrs.
Roth’s room and looked through the door. Her peers were scattered
all over; they were standing in small clusters, sitting alone,
walking from one side of the room to the other, but Lucy was
looking for one person. The sensation from the hallway was almost
guiding her to her target. It had every characteristic of Benjamin
Raven, and her heart sank when she found him sitting next to
Samantha.

“
You’ve got to
be kidding,” Lucy whispered to the cosmos. She shook her
head.
It’s not fair. Why does he have to
feel so great?

Lucy dropped her bag from off of
her shoulders and walked to her seat. Throwing herself in the desk
she thought about Mark and it made her smile inside, even if just a
little smile. But all she could feel in that room was Benjamin’s
presence and the disgusting aroma of rose perfume. She tried to
clear her mind and just forget about Benjamin.

She closed her eyes and thought about Mark
again, but that only made her think about Benjamin. What she needed
to do was clear them both out of her head. She needed a new
distraction. Trying hard to think of someone or something powerful
enough to drive Benjamin away, she thought of Kenny.

Perfect,
she thought.

With a little bit of
concentration, she washed out everything to do with Benjamin and
Mark and replaced them with Kenny. Images of him stealing glances
at her in the library raced through her mind. She thought about how
creepy he made her feel at times because he would try to talk to
her about her personal life. He was just so weird and didn’t really
seem to have any social skills or even any interpersonal
relationships. As she allowed Kenny to dominate her thoughts, she
unconsciously started closing off the classroom around her and was
a little surprised when she found herself suddenly back in the
rainforest.

For a moment she thought about trying to get
out. She looked around for a way to do that, but she knew deep down
that she didn’t really want to leave. She wanted to see him again.
She wanted to see Benjamin. Emerging from the forest, she was back
near the precipice she knew so well.

“
Benjamin!” she yelled. “Benjamin,
are you here?”

She looked over to where he had
been the last two times and she watched as he stepped from behind a
tree to face her. He had a curious look on his face. She opened her
mouth to speak but he held up his hand. They were twenty or thirty
yards apart and Lucy froze.

His worried expression mixed with
confusion. His hand moved abruptly and quickly to his waist,
flinging aside the corner of his jacket where he grabbed the hilt
of his sword.

As she squinted to comprehend better the
details of his face, she suddenly felt both of her arms restrained
from behind. She tried to look around to see what had taken hold of
her, but she couldn’t see it. She thrashed around trying to break
free, when all of a sudden she was dragged backward and terror
spread throughout her entire body.

The force that held her felt cold through her
shirt and she looked to Benjamin to help her, but he was fading
into the distance. Her heart began to race and she felt tears of
terror squeeze out from the corners of her eyes. When she noticed
she was slowing down, Lucy did the only thing she could think to
do.

“
Help me, Benjamin! Get it off of
me!” she screamed.

Benjamin didn’t move. He stared, seemingly
bewildered by what he saw.

“
Help me, please!” Lucy screamed
again as the distance between them grew wider.

Benjamin still didn’t move.

Lucy tried to break free,
but the grip was too tight. Around her torso, she finally saw what
had her: it looked like black smoke wrapped around her like a thick
snake, but it flowed more like water or the gas from dry ice. It
scared her even more and she looked up to see that Benjamin was
some fifty yards away.
What is he
doing?
she thought.

She wrenched her shoulders around again but
the grip tightened. There was nothing she could do; she felt
helpless and terrified, so she tried again the only thing she could
manage.

“
BENJAMIN!”

The scream resonated off of
anything that would sing it back and Benjamin snapped out of his
trance. With a lightning fast flick of his wrist he drew his sword
and broke into an instant sprint right toward her, running with
breakneck speed and determination.

It took no time for him to start
closing the distance between them. As he got closer, Lucy could see
that the look on his face had changed from bewilderment to what
could only be described as anger: his eyes were narrowed, and his
jaw was visibly clenched so that his gleaming teeth showed as he
breathed heavily through them.

Suddenly, and without any warning, she
stopped. Benjamin was only a few yards away, still sprinting, not
stopping, ferocity evident on his face. She waited anxiously for
freedom, but he wasn’t slowing down. Lucy’s eyes widened and she
watched as he raised his sword, charging right at her. Without
warning, and before Lucy could say anything, he drew back, and as
swiftly as he had drawn it from its scabbard, he plunged the sword
straight through her chest, causing a piercing bolt of pain to
splice her sternum in half. In her mind she heard a sickly
screeching howl.

Lucy’s violent gasp was just
enough to cause most of the room to turn instantly and look in her
direction. Her heart raced and she breathed heavily through her
mouth. Her body was gripped with shock and terror as she
looked
around the room. All she could see
were the faces of her classmates glaring in her direction; some
mockingly sniggering, and others acting thoroughly disgusted. Lucy
ignored them all as she turned to find Benjamin. When she found
him, a shuddering chill shot up her spine and her hand went
immediately to her chest, as she could still feel the pain of the
sword piercing her. Benjamin’s eyes were somewhat wide like so many
others in the room, but his expression was stone.

From the front of the room, Lucy heard the
sound of Mrs. Roth’s voice. “Sleep is a home activity, Ms.
Higgins,” she called out, obviously annoyed.

Lucy didn’t say anything as she tried to
arrest her heart rate.

“
Ms. Higgins, do you
understand?”

Lucy looked up again. She barely understood
that she was the center of the classroom’s attention and she had to
respond.

“
Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry,” she
managed in a weak voice.

The class returned to its lesson.
Lucy wrestled with the difference between her dream and reality.
Despite her own will, she could still feel Benjamin’s presence in
the room. She had to get away from him. She grabbed her things and
examined her exit route. It was all the way across the room. The
clock read 8:20 AM, five minutes left in class. She would have to
wait.

***

Fighting the concourses of students in the
halls, Lucy finally found Kat, and there was no hiding her frantic
behavior.

“
Lucy, what’s wrong? Are you
okay?”

“
I need to talk to you,” Lucy
replied, quietly taking Kat’s arm.

“
Okay. Let’s go.”

The two girls walked downstairs and out of the
building.

“
What’s going on? You look
terrible.”

“
Will you skip the rest of the
day? I need to tell you something.”