Indelible (8 page)

“My internship’s at the Alumni House. Great. Not only do I possibly have to deal with Sophia, but I get to drive back from downtown Corona in rush hour traffic every day.”

“Me too,” Cherie said grinning. “Maybe we can carpool.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad,” I said.

The receptionist waved to get my attention, then held up a finger, signaling me to wait while she finished her phone call.

“I believe you’re thinking of the old Alumni House,” she said when she hung up. “You’re assigned to the new Alumni House.”

The shoulder muscles I didn’t know I had been tensing, relaxed. “There are two?”

The receptionist nodded. “They’ve been renovating the old sports house over the summer. When it’s done, the alumni will have a place to meet and stay when they come to visit.”

I felt like I had been hit in the face with a frying pan. “The old sports house?” I repeated. “The one that had the fire decades ago?” There wasn’t any other “old sports house” lying around campus, but it was too horrific to be true.

“Yes, that one,” the receptionist said with a bright smile, gathering up a stack of folders. “Excuse me.” She headed toward the back of the office and out of sight. I stared after her, speechless.

The old sports house, or as I called it the old pool house, was now the new Alumni House. The infamous place where Thomas had murdered his first victim and covered it up by starting a fire. The birthplace of the Pendrell Curse.

“I think I’d rather take the angry ghost,” I said to Cherie. My vision tunneled and my stomach rolled. I turned back to the receptionist desk and raised my voice. “Is it possible to request a different internship?”

The receptionist reappeared with a confused look. “But that’s one of the most sought-after assignments. You’re lucky to have it. You’ll be able to rub elbows with our most successful and powerful alumni. A recommendation letter from them will be a huge boost to any college application. Only two students were lucky enough to get that internship.”

“Right. Of course.” I knew it was true, but I didn’t like it.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Cherie whispered with forced cheer. “Thomas is trapped in the vial.”

“I know.”

“The curse is over.”

“I know.” When I thought about it logically, I knew it wasn’t a big deal, but it felt like my vital organs were shutting down. I leaned heavily against the wall.

Brent finally broke away from his conversation with Steve long enough to see my distress. He took the letter from my hand.

“It can’t be that bad.” He read it and grinned. “That’s where I’m assigned too. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from Sophia.”

His words were like a burst of sun on a cloudy day and hope squished the sense of doom that had been building inside me. “You’ll be working there too? That’s the best news I’ve had all day.”

“Brent, did you hear the receptionist explain where the new Alumni House is?” Cherie asked pointedly.

“No, where?” Brent took my hand and guided me to a bench further down the marbled hall.

“The old pool house.”

Brent sucked in a breath of air and then slid onto the bench next to me. “Oh.”

“Some luck, huh?” I sighed as a seedling of an idea pushed through my mind. “What are the odds that both of us were picked at random?”

Brent closed his eyes. “Not very high.”

“Do… do you think the alumni might know what happened last year?”

Cherie slid down on my other side while Steve crouched down to our eye level.

“How could they?” Cherie asked.

Brent didn’t answer but loosened his tie.

“Still . . .” I licked my lips. “Isn’t it odd that the summer after we get rid of Thomas, they somehow know to restore that particular building. Do you think this is what that DJ guy was trying to say?”

Brent took my hand in his. “It could be a coincidence. Even if the alumni knew, why would they care? If anything, they’d be grateful.”

My leg started to shake but I forced myself to at least feign optimism. “Okay, you’re probably right. I’m just a little paranoid these days.”

“Yeah, well, dying will do that to you.” Brent snaked his arm around my waist and I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I hate that place as much as you do, but at least we’ll be together. Right?” He pressed a kiss to my temple.

“Right.” Knowing Brent would be there really did help. But even then there was a feeling in my stomach that nothing was going to make the situation all right.

v

For the rest of the day, I kept thinking about Thomas and everything that had happened last year. I ached to drop into my bed and doze off into blissful unconsciousness, but that night, even sleep eluded me. I tossed and turned for an hour before I finally gave up.

I snuck out of my dorm window and down the fire escape, then made my way to Brent and Steve’s dorm. I counted the windows on the fourth floor. The lights were still on so I climbed up the fire escape to their window. Before I knocked, I hazarded a peek through the window, hoping that no one was lying around in their underwear.

Their room was pretty much like ours. They had posters of action movies, rock bands, and sports teams adorning their walls. A picture of Brent and me at prom stood framed on his dresser. Their beds weren’t made and their desks were pure chaos, of course: papers, schoolbooks, and empty soda cans. A large pile of dirty clothes sat in one corner. Brent was sprawled on his back, propping a textbook on his chest. Steve sat at his desk playing a game on his laptop. He grinned as he noticed me and shoved the window open. A classic rock song played on their sound system and it smelled like an unpleasant mix of Steve’s cologne and beef jerky.

“Hey, Yara,” Steve said, easily detaching their screen. “Come on in.”

“Thanks.” I slid through the window.

“Missed me that much, huh? Can’t say I’m surprised.” Brent released his book, folded his hands behind his head and crossed his ankles as if me stopping by his room happened every day, which it didn’t.

“Oh, get over yourself.” I fought a smile. I plucked his book from his chest. “I came to, um… I need to see the vial.”

Brent immediately sat up. “Why?”

“Just…. I need to make sure he’s still in there.”

“This is about the Alumni House, isn’t it?” Brent rested his elbows on his bent knees.

“Yeah,” I admitted sheepishly.

Brent frowned, but nodded and stood up, heading over to the pile of clothes in the corner. He bent and shoved aside the stack of laundry to reveal a small personal safe, which he carried with him back to his bed.

I scrunched my nose in disgust. “The school year just started. How did your dirty clothes pile already turn into Mount Washmore?”

“Added security,” Steve said proudly, not taking his eyes off whatever was happening on his screen. “No one wants to dig through smelly laundry.”

I stayed silent while Brent opened the lock, and wrung my hands together as he swung the door open. He held the safe out to me.

“Do you want to do the honors?”

I held my breath, reached in, and closed my fingers around the cool cylindrical container.

It looked the same as I remembered it: clear glass with a cork stopper stuck in the top. The inky mist of Thomas’s spirit swirled around inside the tube. Just touching the glass I could feel the darkness of his soul, the kind that would swallow whole any brightness in its path. The vial reflected no light at all, but absorbed it in its tar-like smoke.

“What exactly are you looking for?” Brent asked.

I held the vial up to the light. “I’m not sure,” I said, bringing the glass closer to the light. “I just felt this need to . . . ” I turned toward Brent, my heart suddenly in my throat. “Does this look like it’s cracking to you?”

My shaking hands extended the vial out to Brent. Steve jumped up from his desk, game instantly forgotten, to examine it also. Their eyes narrowed at the fine, spidery cracks in the glass.

“We haven’t been checking it the way we should,” Steve said. “That was a good catch, Yara.”

“He’s trying to break out,” I whispered. Even having suspected something like this, I hadn’t been prepared for the reality of it. Fear ripped open the wounds that had only recently scabbed over. I needed to sit down.

Brent must have understood my emotional upheaval because he pulled me into his arms. I relaxed against his muscled chest, his warmth and strength giving me the comfort I needed.

“Maybe the glass just expanded in the summer heat,” Brent suggested, but he sounded as unsure as I felt. “Do you still have those same herbs that we used in there before?” I nodded. “Good. Tomorrow we’ll go to the science building and get a bigger vial. We’ll put this one inside the bigger one and fill around it with the herbs. I’ll watch it constantly until then. It’ll be okay. I promise.”

“Okay.”

I glanced at the vial in Brent’s hand and half expected to see a pair of glaring green eyes materialize, but the mist continued to swirl around inside the vial the same as it always had. Seeing the vial was supposed to put my anxiety to rest, to make me feel more secure, but it didn’t work. If anything, it made me feel worse. I now had visual confirmation that Thomas was trying to escape.

Brent handed it to Steve, then slid his arm around me. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your room.”

The full moon lit the campus so well that we could have found our way even without the Victorian lampposts. I snuggled into Brent as we walked, enjoying the breeze and the music of the crickets chirping around us, the only sounds in the quiet night. For a moment, it felt like a romantic midnight stroll and I could almost forget about the evil spirit in Brent’s room. Then another sound joined the crickets and our footsteps.

Thump. Thump. Thump
.

At any other time, the sound of footsteps behind us wouldn’t have been cause for alarm, but after curfew, when everyone on campus was supposed to be asleep, it made my breath catch in my throat and brought my feet to a halt. I grabbed onto Brent’s arm and he stopped too. I put my finger to my lips in a shushing motion and tilted my head behind us.

I looked back but found nothing but darkness.

“Yeah, I heard it too,” Brent said.

“Security?” I whispered.

Brent shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

I glanced back once more. A portion of shadow shifted, then stilled, as if in wait. Maybe my paranoia was on high alert after finding the cracks in Thomas’s vial, but my palms grew clammy at the uneasy feeling roaring through me. I swallowed hard and pressed myself closer to Brent, who had taken a step nearer the shadow.

“Don’t be a hero right now,” I begged. “We don’t know who’s out there.”

Brent’s eyes darted between the darkness and me, looking for anything and everything before hurrying us onward. After a few random turns Brent pulled me into an alcove.

“I think we lost them. Let’s wait here and see if they pass by,” Brent whispered, his lips against my ear. The wind rustled by and a tree branch groaned, but other than that, nothing. After a few minutes of straining our ears to hear any movement, we deemed it safe and started again down the walkway. Immediately, the footsteps resumed behind us. Pursued by the sound of labored breathing, we picked up our pace. Brent tightened his grip on my hand and turned us left, navigating us down several paths. Then he darted inside a bush and pulled me in with him.

Branches scraped my skin and caught in my hair as we crouched in the dark, letting the leafy limbs fall in front of us, wrapping us in the smell of freshly-turned earth. My chest heaved and Brent rubbed the small of my back, urging me to calm. The heavy tread of steps slowed and a long shadow stalked right past us. Though the moon was bright, our pursuer hid his features in the shadows, his dark clothes blending with the night. I peeked out between the leaves and held my breath as he passed. I started to climb out, but Brent held me still as another pair of footsteps came from the other direction.

“Did you find the Silva girl?” a husky male voice asked.

Brent’s hand stilled on my back. Someone had been following us. Following me.

“No.” My pursuer responded, his voice high and nasally. “Are you sure she has it?”

They continued walking, their conversation fading out as they moved farther away. I quivered, despite Brent’s warm body huddling close to mine; my trembling had more to do with my pursuers’ words than the chill of the night air. We squatted there until my knees ached and my legs burned. After what felt like hours, Brent motioned for us to climb out. My legs had fallen asleep and I half dragged myself out of the bush.

Brent checked around every corner as we headed back to my room, making certain we’d lost whoever had been following us. He walked me clear up the fire escape to my dorm room window and held me tight for a few heartbeats. Promising to call as soon as he reached his room, he waited until I locked my window before heading back to his dorm.

I pulled an extra blanket over me as I crawled into bed, but it wasn’t enough to stop the shaking. Tonight’s encounter hadn’t been random; they had mentioned me by name. They wanted something; they thought I had something, and I had no idea what it was.

Chapter Five

The next afternoon, Brent and I made our way to the new Alumni House. The area looked completely different. A new, wide sidewalk now cut through the groves, allowing people to walk easily from campus to the renovated building. The front portion had been finished, but the scaffolding that wrapped around the back of the building suggested that the construction remained ongoing. The red, steep-gabled roof contrasted sharply with the turquoise sky and white fluffy clouds. Tall, multi-paned windows broke up the expanse of the pink-tinged sandstone exterior. It all appeared welcome and inviting, innocent. But it didn’t fool me. I had no desire to go in there. I fiddled with the button on my sweater as we neared its entrance until Brent captured my hand in his.

“Your hands are sweaty.” Brent let go of my fingers and dried his hands on his black pants. “Are you really that scared?”

“Sort of.”

“Yara, Thomas is trapped, and all the curse victims are free. That building is just a building.” He placed a finger under my chin and lifted my face until I looked him in the eye. “It’s cleared out. It’s sterilized of ghosts. Good conquered evil. The war is over. End of story. Steve already put the vial inside a new one, packed with the herbal stuff. We’re all set.”