The Watchers (17 page)

One overrode the rest.
Oh God, she could have been hurt! Where is she?
There! Thank goodness!

I looked past Amanda, who was still staring,
her thoughts a mess of depression, and saw Alex running towards me.
She threw her arms around me when she got to me, hugging me close.
“Don’t do that!” she chided.

“Do what?” I started laughing weakly, the
voices still dancing in my head.

“Get blown up!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“I know.” She released me. “Are you
okay?”

“I feel drained,” I told her honestly, “but
otherwise unhurt.”

“What happened?” Her eyes were a curious
mixture of confusion and understanding.

“You know about as much as I do,” I said
uneasily.

A lot had happened that I couldn’t tell her.
It wasn’t just my secrets I was protecting, not anymore. And I
would continue to protect those secrets until I had cause not
to.

“Did they let classes out?” I asked.

“Yeah, a building blowing up kinda puts a
damper on lessons…They’re saying you were at the pool with Daniel
when it happened.”

“Are they?”

“Yeah. What were you doing down there?”

“Talking about pools,” I replied
sarcastically.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll just nag until
you do,” she said.

I turned Daniel’s rock over in my hands. “We
got into a discussion about Superman and the Shadow.”

“The Shadow? Who’s that?”

“Google him,” I said, too tired to
explain.

“I will.” She paused pursing her lips.

That can’t be all they were doing down there.
I mean the whole school knows Daniel has a crush on her. It’s
pretty obvious. But I don’t know if she likes him back, not really.
She’s so hard to read! I wonder if Daniel knows? I would hate for
him not to act, because she’s afraid of falling for someone. Should
I say something? Would she get offended?

My heart missed a couple of beats. She was
going to ask something else about what we were doing down there
when she noticed my face.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I rested my head in the palm of my
hand and stared at the rock I held, twisting it slowly. Was she
right and he liked me? Or was she just seeing the charm?

She shrugged.
Weird reaction.
“Was that all you were doing down
there?”

Beyond Daniel stealing a kiss, and seeing
some strange vision, which could have been from his childhood, and
a fire that came out of nowhere? “Pretty much.”

The voices in my head cut off as quickly as
when I turned off the radio when rap was playing. I looked up
hopefully. He was walking toward us, his face serious, his wet hair
plastered to his forehead. In his hands, he carried our bags. I
looked at mine curiously, knowing I had left it in the girl’s
locker room. He hadn’t gone in there had he?

Daniel smiled at me, but his eyes were
guarded. “They said we could go provided we go in tomorrow and give
our statements.”

“Okay,” I said gratefully.

“How’d you do that?” Alex asked him. She
helped me stand, her breezy skirt billowing in the cool wind.
Daniel didn’t try to help as we started walking towards the parking
lot at the back of the school, avoiding the people who were
assembled on the school’s hilly front yard. We both knew why.

“Magic,” I answered for him, pocketing the
rock so he wouldn’t see I’d kept it.

“Huh?” She looked between the two of us,
confused.

I shrugged, leaning on her arm for support.
She moved her free arm to my waist, so I wouldn’t fall. Though
Daniel didn’t try to help me, my aversion to his touch obvious, he
kept a careful eye on us.

“How are you getting home?” Alex asked as we
walked past rows of cars.

“I’m taking her,” Daniel said firmly.

“I thought so.” Alex smirked.

“I could walk,” I said.

“No,” they both said.

“You’re both bullies.”

“We know,” they said at the same time.

Grumbling at them, I suddenly wondered if the
whole town had already heard about this, and how I would ever get
any peace after today. The thoughts would be everywhere;
inescapable and overwhelming. What I had experienced on my first
day here would be doubled, tripled. Maybe I could convince Ellen
into letting me home school myself. I stopped walking. What about
Ellen? Would she be freaking out? How could I have not thought
about her reaction?

Alex tried to keep walking, and I tried to
stay still. I pitched forward from her tug and stumbled sideways,
my exhaustion messing with my balance. Daniel dropped our bags and
caught me before I could face plant on the asphalt. I started
laughing, feeling slightly giddy from exhaustion and the bizarre
morning. His hands were gentle as he steadied me. There were no
visions, but I didn’t notice. All I noticed was the way his
electric hands felt on my skin. His touch released some of the
awkwardness between us.

“Sorry,” I said, trying not to giggle.

“Have you gone insane?” Daniel asked.

“You can’t go insane when you were already
insane to begin with. That would be redundant.”

“True,” he agreed.

I started walking again, ignoring their
concerned looks. I suppressed my giddy laughter with effort,
knowing it was a merely a reflex after the turmoil of my
morning.

“I need to call Ellen. She’ll have heard
about what happened by now. I know she’ll be freaking out. She’s
good at freaking out. She freaked out over an A-HA concert once. My
eardrums were sore for a week.”

“She freaked over an A-HA concert?” Daniel
asked.

“Yes, yes, she did.”

We reached Daniel’s Audi, and Alex opened the
passenger door for me. Daniel got in the other side and pulled a
phone out of the glove compartment. He handed it to me without a
word, offering me the chance to call her. I looked at the phone
wondering how he knew I never carried one. Ellen had bought me one,
but I never could remember where I had put it last. Perhaps, he had
noticed, or else he was just trying to be nice by letting me use
his. Either way, I was grateful.

Alex smirked as he handed me the phone. “Have
fun.” Before she shut the door, she gave me a stern look. “And get
some rest.”

I stuck my tongue out at her as the door
closed with a snap. She waved once before we pulled away, her face
smug as if she had just cured world hunger.

“This might take a while,” I warned
Daniel.

“That’s fine.”

I dialed Ellen’s number and waited. When she
picked up, she sounded breathless. She had heard about the
explosion and had been on her way out the door to come and check on
me. I told her I was fine, that a friend was driving me home, and
not to worry. It took me some time to convince her I hadn’t died,
but I knew from experience all the right things to say to calm her
down. Her fear lessened at my words, and she stopped talking at
supersonic speed. At one point, I heard Sam in the background, and
knew she had gone back to her desk to talk to me. I took that to be
a good sign.

She still wanted to come home and check on
me, but I told her that I would just be sleeping and that she
didn’t have to miss work just because of me. Around the crying and
the hysterics she agreed to stay at work for a while, so I could
sleep, but promised to check on me soon. I hung up finally and
found Daniel staring at me.

“What?” I asked handing him his phone
back.

“I thought you didn’t lie?”

“I don’t,” I replied.

He smirked. “That was a lie.”

“What am I lying about?” I asked
defensively.

“You’re not going to sleep. You’re going to
make me answer your questions; that’s why you didn’t want her to
come home.”

I blushed as he turned off the car. We had
been idling at the corner in front of my house, the heat blasting
from the vents. The second he turned the car off I remembered I was
wet and tired, and really wanted a nap.

“Says the best liar I have ever met.”

“We’re not talking about me.”

“I do plan on sleeping, so that wasn’t a lie.
Not telling the whole truth isn’t the same as lying though,” I
explained.

“A lie is a lie,” he said seriously.

A motorcycle flashed past us in a roar of
sound, cutting off my retort. The driver deftly pulled it along the
curb in front of Daniel’s car and cut the engine. I noticed two
tall figures on the impressive machine, both dressed from head to
toe in black. As they stepped off the bike, Daniel’s face hardened,
and he cursed.

“What?” I asked.

“Stay here for a moment.”

“You really need to stop bossing me around.”
I crossed my arms, knowing how childish I sounded even as I said
it.

Daniel looked daggers at me. He was obviously
not in the mood. The dangerous look he was giving me – coupled with
the wet hair plastered to his forehead – made his face look like a
skeleton mask. The only thing that stood out from his bleached
skull was his vivid eyes. The black swirled into the green
ominously. I pulled back, afraid, more afraid than I had ever been
around him. The car was suddenly a prison. What happened if the
blackness won? He obviously was thinking along the same lines. The
fire faded in his eyes and his face turned apologetic. “Would it
help if I said, ‘please’?” he asked.

I controlled my heavy breathing with effort.
“Yes.”

“Stay here,
please
.”

“Okay.” I didn’t try to argue. I was too
scared.

His wet clothes squeaking on the leather, he
opened his door then slammed it shut again. He crossed in front of
the car and went to meet two figures before they could approach the
car. The pair took off their heavy motorcycle helmets, and I was
able to make out their features for the first time. It was a girl
and a guy, the girl being the driver of the bike. They looked odd
against the stark realism of my very normal, old, house. Mainly,
because I had never seen people that looked so…odd.

The guy had shoulder length blond hair, which
framed his square face. His body was very tall and lean, but he
looked overwhelmingly large – not just from his rippling muscles,
but from the fact that his body never seemed to end. He had a
demanding presence, which was hard to ignore. I could only imagine
how demanding that presence would be close up. I knew I wouldn’t
want to pick a fight with him any time soon.

The girl was as close to being a fairy as
anyone I had ever seen. She had violet eyes and black hair, which
hung to her waist in gentle waves. Like the man, she was very tall,
but not nearly as large and never-ending.

They stepped over the curb and on to the
short lawn of my house. Their eyes swept the neighborhood and
Daniel’s car in dangerous alertness. The girl’s eyes kept coming
back to me, as if I were the most dangerous thing on the block. The
guy grinned at me as our eyes connected. The girl’s face remained
expressionless, but her eyes circled with inky black.

Daniel stepped between me and them. I got the
impression he was using his body as a buffer against what might
happen in the coming seconds. Were they enemies?

After a moment, the girl stepped forward and
raised her hand as if she was trying to give Daniel a high-five.
Their hands met across the short space. There was a long moment
while they stared into each other’s eyes, communicating wordlessly
through their touch. Finally, she nodded, the black fire fading
from her eyes. She dropped her hand slowly, her face changed. The
anger had faded, but I saw an inexplicable fear.

Avoiding my eyes, she tugged on the blond
boy’s hand to get him walking. Who were they? What was going on? At
least none of the neighbors were spying on us today. They were all
probably on their phones getting the news of the fire.

The guy winked at me, a mocking smile playing
across his face before he turned away. He playfully hit Daniel on
the arm as he passed, saying something I couldn’t hear. Daniel
smiled briefly, but didn’t reply. The guy and girl climbed back on
the massive motorcycle and the girl kicked the bike to life. A
second later, they roared off down the street, blasting by me.
Daniel returned and opened my door. He offered me a hand to help me
stand, but I didn’t take it. Wanting to support myself, I pushed
against the door.

“What the hell was that about?” I
demanded.

“That was Margaret and Jackson. Friends of
mine.”

“Friends of yours?”

“Is there an echo?”

“Why were they here?”

“I thought you were tired?”

“I am, but you can’t just act all weird and
expect me to be okay with it! We’ve known each other for a
while…how come I don’t know these friends? Who are they really?
What happened at the pool? Why aren’t we dead?”

I leaned back against the door, fighting the
tiredness, but resolved. What I had just witnessed was a catalyst
to all the questions burning inside me. More questions fought to
the surface as I searched for a way to voice them all before I
forgot.

“Can we talk about this inside?” he asked
quietly.

The desire to sit down tugged on my senses. I
looked around the neighborhood trying to decide if I felt like
letting him inside. I wasn’t sure how long the neighbors would stay
occupied by their phones. Going inside would keep our conversation
private at least…and I could sit down. It felt like the best
option.

“Yes.”

I stomped across the yard and let myself in
the front door. Daniel grabbed our bags out of the car and followed
me in. He shut the door, carefully locking it. I started up the
stairs, wanting to get out of my wet gym clothes and into something
soft and warm. He followed, but I stopped him with a look.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’m going to change.”

“Oh.” He looked around and hefted our bags.
“Where can I do the same?”