Aeron was standing at the first row of lockers as soon as they walked into the building. “Ah, can you believe we have almost the same schedule! I`m so glad we get to share some time together!” Jackie was chatting and giggling while Alyss smiled and occasional spoke up as well. Both girls walked right past the boy and his smoky scent but Alyss seemed to find him invisible with the force of her grievances against him powering her icy treatment. His servant, however, was fully affected when he turned to glare at her for a moment, obviously blaming her for the result of his continued efforts to stay on her enemies list and not happy she hadn’t been able to make the girl forget he beat up her favorite person in the whole world somehow. He mouthed to her that he was going to have to talk seriously with her later, as if she couldn’t tell how that revulsion clearly rankled him without the added communication. Jackie shivered. When Alyss asked her, in concern, what was wrong, she hemmed and avoided answering. Aeron`s icy glare followed her around the corner.
She replayed the scene to Alyss in homeroom. She twisted her hands, back and around, and looked around them. “We can`t talk here, come on!”
She dragged her down the hall while the other ruefully thought of how this being pulled around like a dog on a leash was becoming a far too common occurrence in this town. Jackie would pause, peeking into one room after the other, as she continued flitting around the halls. People heckled her from their seats each time she poked her head into an occupied class, asking questions about her doings and musing more and more creative reasons why she might be holding someone by the hand to peek into the wrong class, the wrong hall, the wrong year. “Just checking pep rally day class attendance, seems good in here,” she`d cheerfully answer with a lie to each curious face and disapproving teacher before they left to the next room. Finally she lit up at one of the rooms and tugged Alyss in. Chairs were stacked up in a corner, and paint splattered canvas covers lay dusty and forgotten draped over a globe featuring the Soviet Union and a teacher`s desk. She closed the door with a snap. The resulting rush of air stirred the dust motes to dance around the silent room and she nervously glanced around the room once more, then crossed to the windows to pull down the blinds to block any view of them. She knew it was always best to be cautious of her employer’s spies and what tales inspired by this scene they might bring to him didn’t bear thinking of.
Alyss stared at her strange behavior. “What are you do-“ but she was cut off.
“Of course you don`t like him, but you can`t antagonize him,” she whispered. Alyss had known the girl was upset but to see her so abrupt and out of sorts helped her listen more carefully.
Still, she was pacing back and forth in front of her friend, hands fluttering in agitation as her feet wore through the floor boards. “It`s not safe, Alyss!”
Alyss looked at her doubtfully. Sure, she’d just decided to listen well, but seriously- what could one little creepy kid really do? They had adults, and the police. There were military boarding schools, and local schools for federally sentenced delinquents. Heck, there were even normal public schools. If he was so dangerous why was he still allowed at such a supposedly prestigious school? Why not send him and his problems away? If there was reason to be so scared about him why not just fix the problem and make him go away? If he’d actually done something real, actually hurt someone, the students or teachers or even the principal surely wouldn’t see the problems, the violence, and let it lie still and stagnant no matter how many people got hurt? She left the questions unasked, but they still rolled through her gray matter.
Jackie growled at her again, snapping her fingers in front of her friend`s face in irritation at her obviously drifting thoughts.
“I didn`t want to tell you this. I`ll get in more trouble.” She finally let out a reluctant sigh. “I’m already in trouble at this point though, so I might as well put my neck out a little more if that means helping the both of us.” She looked over at the other’s doubtful expression and snorted. “Clearly it doesn’t matter if I want to tell you or not because I have to. You obviously don`t really understand how big of a situation we`ve got here, and you just don`t act properly cautious around him.” Alyss urged her to continue, and finally it burst out, like a great river that had been kept behind a dam for too long. “Look, people have disappeared, ok? We had a Mrs. Hutchins for this class last year. Mr. Kirk had to step in when she disappeared last Winter, and he`s been here ever since. People who anger him somehow manage to fail out of the school, or their parents lose their jobs…Or they die,” she muttered.
Alyss raised her eyebrows. “Well if he’s killing people like you say then we need to call 911 right away,” she said
