Whispers in the Dark (13 page)

“And I understand that, Adrian,” Denise continued, “but God speaks to all of us,
and it's up to us if we listen or not. But He told me to tell you to leave! Please,
you have to listen to me.”

I could see the concern in Denise's eyes. I had never seen her like this before.
Her eyes watered as she continued, “Adrian, remember when I told you to pray for
clarity last night? Well, I prayed for it last night, too, because there are a lot
of things that I don't understand. The Lord's voice was as clear as day to me when
He told me this.”

“Well, how are you gonna tell me to leave, when you haven't left yet?” I questioned.

“I haven't been told to leave, Adrian,” Denise explained. “So I must still have a
purpose here.”

The bell rang. I frowned as I thought about what Denise had said.

“No, I thought you were on my side. I thought we were going to figure this situation
out together. Leaving would be the easy way out,” I said. “Remember I said that maybe
my purpose for being here was to find an answer to what's been going on and to stop
Robin from doing the things she's been doing? I know I have a purpose here, Denise.
God speaks to me as well, and He hasn't told me to leave.”

“Adrian,” Denise said calmly. “He just did. Through me.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't,” I said, walking away from her.

“Adrian, you have to listen to me!” Denise called out to me.

I ignored her and walked back to my classroom, frustrated more than ever now. It
felt like everyone was against me, but whatever. I fought to get this position, and
now I was going to have to fight to keep it. No one was going to make me leave. As
much as I've been through, I could handle any challenge that came my way. I just
had to stay strong and positive.

I walked back into my classroom and noticed that Isabelle and Robin were both gone.

After the final bell rang, I took attendance.

“Alicia,” I called out.

“Here,” Alicia answered.

“Cali,” I called out.

“Here,” Cali answered.

“Miranda is here. Dorian isn't here,” I continued, reading off the attendance sheet.
“Raven is here. Raven, where's Robin? She was here earlier.”

“She's here,” Raven answered. “I'm not sure where she went, though.”

Isabelle was the last name on the attendance sheet, written in by hand. With everything
going on, I had forgotten to check on her in the system.

“Isabelle,” I called out. “Does anyone know where Isabelle went?”

No one answered. A few students shook their heads.

After taking attendance, I started passing out the instructions for today's assignment.

“I smell something burning,” Miranda said, looking up.

“Yeah, I do, too,” Cali added.

“All right, you guys, I want you all to take one and pass it back,” I said, handing
out some papers. “Today we're going to look at the—”

The fire alarm went off.

“Is that the fire alarm?” Alicia asked.

“Yeah, I believe it is,” I answered. “Must be a drill. All right, everyone in a single
file out the door.”

Brent reached the door first and pulled the handle. As he opened the door, it suddenly
slammed shut. Brent pulled at the handle again. “It's locked!” he said.

“What?” I exclaimed, walking to the door.

“Oh, my God! Look!” Cali cried out, pointing to the air vent. Smoke had started pouring
into the classroom.

What was going on? I tried my hardest to twist the handle on the door, but it wouldn't
budge. But how could it lock on its own? This door never locked.

“Hurry up, Mr. Ramirez!” Miranda demanded, as she began to cough. “We have to get
out of here!”

“Okay, everyone,” I said, calmly. I could feel my anxiety rising. “Calm down. Where
are my keys?”

My hands were trembling heavily as I looked for my keys. I couldn't find them. More
smoke poured into the classroom.

“Mr. Ramirez, we have to get out of here!” Miranda repeated.

“I know, just give me a second,” I said, irritably.

Some of the students were starting to panic.

“Hurry up, Mr. Ramirez! Help! Somebody help!” Cali cried out. “Can anyone hear us?”

“Cali, shut up!” I yelled at her. “Just give me a second.”

“What about the window?” Raven asked.

Why hadn't I thought of that? I ran over to the window and tried to open it. No luck!

More smoke started to billow into the classroom. More students started coughing and
banging on the door. My anxiety was starting to get the best of me.

This wasn't good. I picked up my desk chair and started to break the window. I pounded
as hard as I could on the window until it finally broke. I took off my blazer and
covered the bottom of the window so none of the students would get cut climbing out.

“Okay, come on.” I motioned for the students to climb out the window. I helped each
one out, trying to avoid the shards of glass left behind.

Everyone climbed out the window, one by one. Several teachers were outside, and they
ran up to the students and comforted them. I finally climbed out the window. I could
hear distant sirens of fire trucks.

I ran to one of the benches outside and tried to catch my breath. I was breathing
so heavily that I didn't even notice Denise when she ran up to me.

“Adrian, what happened?” she asked.

“I don't know,” I told her. “One minute I'm talking to the class, then the next thing
I know I hear the fire alarm and the door slams shut.”

Denise looked stunned as she listened. The rest of the students at the school were
all outside now; I heard their teachers calling attendance.

“And it had to be Robin,” I explained. “She and Isabelle were the only ones who weren't
in there, and I don't see them out here either.”

“So you don't know where they are now?” Denise asked.

“I don't,” I responded. “I have to find them.”

“I'll go get Robin's sister,” Denise said. “Maybe Raven knows where she is.”

Before I could tell her that Raven didn't know where Robin was, Denise was already
walking toward Cali, Miranda, and Raven, who were huddled nearby. The fire trucks
arrived, and the firefighters got their equipment and ran into the main building.
This was starting to be too much. The students and I could have been killed just
now.

“So, you think I'm crazy?” a voice next to me said, calmly.

I turned to my right, and Robin was standing there. I was so stunned that I couldn't
even reply.

“I'll show you crazy,” Robin threatened, then she started to walk away. “Oh, and
you should listen to your girlfriend. So much can happen when you're at home by yourself.”

“Hey!” I yelled, and jumped up, grabbing her arm. “I swear if you lay one hand on
Lea, I'm gonna—”

“Ahhhh!” Robin screamed.

Immediately, everyone looked over at us.

“Let me go!” Robin cried out, helplessly.

“Mr. Ramirez!” Mrs. Ramsey yelled and came marching over toward us. “Let that student
go!”

“No!” I yelled back as Denise and Raven came up to us. “She did this! She's the one
behind all of this!”

Robin broke free from my grip and ran off.

“Robin!” Raven called to her sister, then ran after her.

“Adrian?” Denise said, coming up to me.

“It's her, Denise,” I told her. “She's threatening Lea. I have to go. I have to check
on Lea.”

“Mr. Ramirez, I want to see you in my office right now,” Mrs. Ramsey demanded.

“I have to check on Lea,” I told Denise, ignoring Mrs. Ramsey. “She's gonna hurt
Lea.”

“My office, now, Mr. Ramirez!” Mrs. Ramsey yelled. Everyone turned to stare at us.

“No!” I yelled back. “I don't know if you can comprehend or not through those thick
glasses, but that little devil child is gonna hurt my girlfriend!”

I ran off before I said anything else. That probably just cost me my job, but I didn't
care. I needed to get to Lea.

I tried calling Lea's cell, but I didn't get a response. Her phone just went to voice
mail. I knew Justin and Greedy were both at work, so I texted them to meet me at
the house. I got in my car and sped off.

As I drove toward the campus entrance, I saw Robin walking further down the lane.
I gunned the motor to catch up to her. It was Raven, instead. She turned around in
a panic when she heard me coming. I slowed and rolled down the window.

“I don't know where she went,” Raven said, confused.

“Just keep looking for her here,” I instructed. “I've gotta go home and check on
my girlfriend.”

“Let me come with you,” Raven said.

“No, you stay here and keep looking for her,” I told her.

“No, Mr. Ramirez! You have to let me help you!” Raven pleaded. “If she's on her way
to your house, then maybe I can talk to her and stop this!”

She was right. She was the only person who could possibly talk some sense into Robin.

“Okay, get in,” I said, opening the passenger door.

“Mr. Ramirez, I'm so sorry,” Raven apologized. “I don't know what to do or how to
stop her. I tried and tried talking to her, but she just doesn't say anything.”

My focus wasn't on anything Raven was saying. My mind was on Lea, and praying that
she was okay. Robin must have been the one in the house when we pulled up that night.
How had she gotten in, and how was it that the police didn't see her?

When we pulled up to my house, Raven anxiously looked around for her sister. I ran
in the house and called out, “Lea! Lea!”

I turned to the right and saw Lea lying at the bottom of the stairs.

“Lea!” I cried out to her.

“Oh, my God!” Raven said as she rushed into the house.

“Call 911!” I ordered. “Hurry!”

I held Lea's head up. She was still breathing. It looked like she had fallen down
the stairs.

“Lea, it's gonna be okay,” I said, comfortingly. “It's gonna be okay.”

Minutes later, the ambulance arrived, and the medics placed Lea on the stretcher.
Raven and I followed the ambulance in my car to Piedmont Newnan Hospital.

We sat in the waiting area, anxious for the doctor to come out and tell us how she
was doing. I heard the entrance doors open, and Justin came rushing in. “Hey, man,
I got here as quick as I could when I got your text. Is she okay?”

“I don't know yet,” I told him. “We're waiting for the doctor now. She was lying
on the floor when I got to the house.”

Justin looked shocked, and then said, “And it was that girl you were telling us about,
right?”

“Yeah, her sister,” I said, gesturing to Raven. “You heard from Greedy?”

“I've been meaning to tell you about Greedy,” Justin said. “He hasn't talked to you
about his situation, has he?”

“What situation?” I asked.

Before Justin could answer, the doctor came through the double doors.

“How is she?” I asked, anxiously, looking at his name on his white coat. “Dr. Alves.”

“She's going to be fine,” Dr. Alves answered. “She's conscious. The fall down the
steps just left a bruise on her head, and it looks like she fractured her arm, but
she's going to be okay.”

“Can I see her?”

“She's getting ready to have some X-rays done right now to see if she sustained a
concussion,” the doctor informed me. “Then she'll need to rest for a while.”

“Doc, let me just see her for one minute before she goes for the X-rays,” I pleaded.
“I promise it won't take long.”

He thought about it for a moment, then agreed. I followed him back through the double
doors and into Lea's curtained area. She smiled when she saw me. “Hey, babe.”

“Lea, I'm so sorry this happened,” I told her. “Was it Robin who did this?”

“I don't know what it was,” Lea said. “I was upstairs and . . . I heard a noise downstairs.
I stood at the top of the steps to see if I heard the noise again, then the next
thing I know, I felt something pull me forward down the steps.”

“Something pulled you?” I asked.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it's true, Adrian,” Lea said.

I felt guilty as I listened to Lea. This whole time she had been right. “I'm so sorry,
babe. This is all my fault. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you.”

“Let's just go, Adrian,” Lea said softly.

“We will, babe,” I said. “Are you in any pain?”

“Just a little, but I'm gonna be fine,” Lea said. “But I don't want to go back into
that house.”

“We won't,” I reassured her. “We're gonna find Robin and make sure she's placed somewhere
where she can't hurt anybody else.”

“Be careful, Adrian,” Lea warned.

“I will. I love you, babe,” I told her.

“I love you, too.”

I kissed her, then went back to the waiting room. Greedy was there now, standing
next to Justin and Raven. I could see the concern in their faces, but I assured everyone
that she was going to be okay.

“Come on. I've got to get Raven back to the school,” I told them.

“I think I know where she is,” Raven said. “But we have to hurry.”

Chapter 12

J
ustin and Greedy rode with Raven and me back to the school, hoping to find Robin.
They left their vehicles at the hospital, since we'd be going back to see Lea. Raven
sat in the front seat as I drove, while Justin and Greedy sat in the back, looking
out the windows for Robin. It was late in the afternoon when we got to the school.
Most of the students and teachers had left already.