The Reaping of Norah Bentley (6 page)

“We just met not too long ago,” I ventured, then paused to gage Luke’s reaction. His expression didn’t so much as twinge. “I guess you could say we’re friends.”

Luke nodded once, a painfully slow motion that set the speed for that next minute of silence, which seemed to tick by with a weighted deliberateness in each second.

Finally, Eli cleared his throat and got to his feet.

“Well,” he said with a glance at the clock, “I was just about to leave. Miss Brandes will be back in a minute, if you need anything else.” His gaze took mine for a brief moment. The lights warmed his face again, and all the brilliance returned to his eyes. I caught a flash of my reflection in them just before he turned away, and for a terrible moment I was back in the auditorium, seeing myself, my double, up on the stage.

Doppelgänger.
I repeated the word silently to myself.

“I guess I’ll see you later, then?” I asked. Something like hope might have slipped into my voice at the last second. Eli nodded, a sliver of a smile passing over his lips, then turned and headed toward the door.

Luke sat stiffly, without speaking, until Eli disappeared into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Then he leaned back and plopped a hand on my knee.

“That kid was weird.”

I tried to laugh—like Luke was undoubtedly the crazy one here.

“What are you talking about?”

“I dunno. Something weird about him.” He traced a finger along the frayed edges of a hole in my jeans, just above my knee. “I don’t like him.”

“You like everybody,” I said.

“Everybody but him,” Luke said with a shrug. With Eli out of the room, Luke’s easygoing tone had returned, and I realized there was no point in arguing in Eli’s favor—Luke didn’t care whether I agreed with him or not. I’m not even sure why I felt compelled to defend Eli in the first place. I guess I didn’t especially like him, either.

I didn’t dislike him, though. He was strange, that was for sure, and there was that veil of uncertainty hanging over him that would have made any sane person a little uneasy. But as long as I my sanity was already up for debate, I might as well admit that something about him was comforting, too. He’d saved my life that night, for one thing. And hadn’t he just saved me again? From those awful screams, from whatever I’d seen on that stage…

It’s gone. It’s not coming back, not now that I’m here.

The thought of his words paralyzed me with a sudden, intense fear: Eli was gone. What did that mean? My head jerked toward the closed door. How far away was he? When was he coming back?

“So are you coming or what?”

“Huh?”

“To the nurse’s office,” Luke said with a frown. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Yeah, sorry. I was just...thinking about something.” I looked back at the door, fighting the urge to bolt.

“About what?” The stiffness was back in Luke’s voice as quickly as it had left it; I forced attention back to him, intent on explaining myself— but I could barely think, much less speak. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. Luke took my hand, and against the steadiness of his grip, I realized how badly my hand was shaking all of a sudden.

And then I could hear them again. The screams. They were distant, somewhere back in the hollows of my mind, maybe the hollows of memory— but it was a vivid, persistent memory that was getting louder every second.

Shit. Not again.

I stood up and pulled my hand away from Luke. I couldn’t keep my balance on my own though, and my hand fell to the armrest instead. I dug my blunt nails into it until the skin underneath turned a creamy white.

The screams were getting louder. Closer. I needed to get out of this room.

“Are you okay?” I heard Luke ask.

It was kind of a stupid question, I thought. I just shook my head and pushed away from the couch, then stumbled toward the door.

“I’ll be right back,” I called over my shoulder.

I heard Luke’s protests over the static in my mind, but I ignored them and jerked the door open, stepped out into the harsh florescent light of the hallway. It was completely deserted, so there was nothing to get in the way of my desperate flight. I sprinted aimlessly down the hall, not sure which way Eli might have gone, but not willing to stop long enough to try and make an educated guess about it.

The faster I ran, and the further I made it down the hall, the quieter the screams seemed to get. So I pushed myself harder and harder still, until my chest burned and I was almost dizzy from lack of breath. When I rounded the corner at the end of the hall, I was ready to collapse, and I got lucky—because Eli was there, thank God he was finally there, and he braced just in time to absorb the impact of my suddenly unresponsive body.

The second we touched, there was silence in my head again. Perfect clarity.

What the hell?

“Wait,” I panted. “Wait, please don’t go…” My head dropped against his chest. It was like someone had taped a magnet to my forehead and then hidden a metal plate underneath Eli’s shirt; my head had to fall there and there was nothing I could do about it, and once there I couldn’t pull it away, even as Eli shook me gently and tried to push me back far enough to see my face.

“Hey, calm down…” he said, smoothing my hair with timid fingers. I closed my eyes, slipped down along his smooth voice and into a safe place where nothing could reach me; a room where ten-foot impenetrable walls kept out ocean waves and auditorium ghosts and all the people who were staring at me and wondering if I losing it.

I wanted to stay there in that safe room. But Eli was insistent. He was shaking me again, a little more urgently now. Finally, his arms stiffened and held me steady in place, and then he took two steps back from me. My body wobbled a little, so suddenly on its own and still weak from my school-length sprint. I lifted my feet, one by one, and forced them into submission, planted them firmly on the green-speckled linoleum. I stared at my feet until my balance started to make a comeback, then slowly lifted my head to look Eli in the eyes.

“What’s going on?” I pulled my arms away from his and hugged them against my chest. I felt numb all over. He looked confused, so I asked, “How did you make them stop?”

“Make what stop?” His voice was barely audible, even in the thick silence of the empty hall. His eyes were flittering nervously, from me, down the hall, to the corner I’d hurtled around, then back to me.

“…The screams,” I said. “You make them go away, whenever you’re around.” My voice was shaking. I tried to hold his gaze as I spoke, but I couldn’t. It was a strange feeling, to need to be next to somebody so desperately as I did now—especially when you barely knew that somebody. It was overwhelming. Embarrassing. I looked down, started counting the different colored specks in the linoleum. I’d counted twenty-seven grey specks by the time Eli finally spoke again.

“You hear screaming?”

“I did. In the auditorium and…and when you left just a minute ago.”

“In your head?”

“Yes.”

As I spoke, his face turned the same shade of ash as it had in Miss Brandes’ office. His eyes had stopped their dancing around; every time I glanced up now, their glassy blue reflected the still horror in my green ones.

“I’m sorry, Norah.”

It wasn’t what I expected to hear. “What are you apologizing for?”

“This is all my fault,” he said. “And I’m not sure how to fix it.”

The clicking of heels, followed soon by the murmur of voices, distracted me from my reply for a second. After searching the halls for the source of the noise, I turned back and saw Eli staring into the distance himself, the nervous look on his face again.

“We should go,” he said suddenly. “Before somebody sees you talking to me like this.”

“Why?”

Turns out it didn’t matter why, because it was too late to go anywhere anyway. A small herd of teachers rounded the corner and almost crashed into us. I didn’t know any of them by name except Mrs. Sheppard, the band director. She was a squat, constantly smiling woman who almost always dressed in blindingly bright colors; today she had on a flowy dress in shocking lime that clung to her in all the wrong places. Her shoes—two-inch heels that were probably the source of all the clicking—were bright green too, and made out of some sort of fake-looking reptile skin.

“Norah! How are you dear?” She cupped a pudgy hand over my shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “We’ve missed you at lessons these past few weeks.” Mrs. Sheppard’s husband taught guitar lessons, which I’d been taking since I was ten.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I said quietly. I tried to return her beaming smile like I always had before, like there was nothing strange going on here. There was an uncomfortable moment of silence between us in which she seemed to be searching me, trying to figure out what was underneath the mask I’d put on my face. I was thankful when another voice interrupted.

“Norah? Norah Bentley, by chance?” Mrs. Sheppard and I both nodded at the man who’d spoke. I recognized him as one of the P.E. teachers, though I’d never had him for class.

“I was just talking with Nurse Roberts,” he said. You couldn’t see his mouth when he spoke, for all the mustache all around it. “I think she said she was waiting on you. Have you been to see her yet?”

I swallowed, trying to combat the sudden dryness in my throat.

“No,” I said. “My friend and me…we were just about to head over there.” I pointed toward Eli as I talked, feeling the need to explain him and what he was doing here.

“Ya’ll were?” Mrs. Sheppard looked from me to Eli, her smile fading a little. “Who is this now?” she asked, nodding towards Eli with a confused look on her face.

“Elijah,” I said, suddenly feeling as uncertain as Mrs. Sheppard looked. “He…he’s interning with Miss Brandes.”

“Miss Brandes.”

“The counselor.”

“Yes, yes I know.” She looked away from Eli and her smile lifted a little, though it wasn’t nearly as bright as before. There was a twinkle of something like sympathy in her beady brown eyes. “Norah, sweetie, are you sure you’re doing okay?”

I was so tired of being asked that question.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“Do you want me to come with you to Nurse Roberts office?”

“No, thank you.”

“…Okay.”

“I should get going,” I said pointedly.

“Yes, it is getting a little late, isn’t it?”

I nodded and started to walk around the group of teachers, who’d started whispering amongst themselves. Eli and me had only made it a few feet, though, when we heard Mrs. Sheppard’s voice again.

“Norah?”

I glanced reluctantly back over my shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“Maybe…maybe you should introduce Eli to Nurse Roberts.” Mrs. Sheppard had a funny look on her face, like someone had stuck a cup of sour milk under her nose and she was sniffing it out, trying to decide whether it was too far gone to drink. And she was pointing to where Eli and me had just been standing, her finger moving up and down like someone trying to give directions when they really didn’t know what they were talking about. The other teachers exchanged concerned looks.

I nodded slowly, an impossible realization settling over me as I turned away from them. I felt Eli’s hand on the small of my back, guiding me. I didn’t resist, and I didn’t stop my slow march until we’d rounded the corner and he’d led me into a small hallway off to the side, lined with the locked doors of janitor’s supply closets. Eli waited until the voices in the other hall had faded away before asking that pointless question,

“Are you okay?”

My back was still to him, and I kept it that way as I spoke, staring only straight ahead at the cluster of brooms leaning together in the corner.

“They couldn’t see you, could they?” My voice came out in a whisper. It wasn’t intentional, but I’m glad it did. I didn’t want anybody to hear this crazy talk.

Eli didn’t answer for a long moment, not until I turned and looked at him. He gave a single nod.

“…I can explain.”

As it turned out, that hallway wasn’t as abandoned as we’d hoped. Eli and me barely had time to exchange another glance before we were interrupted by a bald, stocky janitor who gave me a funny look; probably wondering what I was doing standing around back there “by myself”. He shooed me away, muttering something I barely understood thanks to his thick Yankee accent, and I hurried out of his way with Eli trailing just behind me.

The two of us didn’t talk. Didn’t look at each other as we made our way down the hall. I walked straight to Miss Brandes’ office and grabbed my stuff and, luckily, she wasn’t in there so I didn’t have to talk to her either. Luke was gone from her office, too. He’d sent me a bunch of texts already—each one shorter, more abrupt than the last—asking where I’d gone. What was I doing? What the hell was my problem? I’d ignored every one of them, even the last one he’d sent before going completely silent on me, which simply read: “we need 2 talk.” Yeah. Yeah we did.

But what was I going to say? I needed to talk to Eli, first. School wasn’t especially conducive to the conversation we needed to have, though, so I reluctantly agreed to meet Eli later that night. We’d said sometime around eleven.