We finished eating, but both Shaylee and Aaron seemed oblivious. I could feel that Shaylee was dying to leave. I wondered why she hadn’t noticed we were all finished eating if she was so desperate to leave.
I kicked Aaron under the table. The sharp look he gave me when he looked up could have wilted the hardiest flower. Knocked out of his trance, he picked up his tray and stood.
“See you later,” he said.
I watched him walk away. It worried me that Shaylee hadn’t heard him and had yet to notice that he was gone.
“Shay,” I said.
“Yeah” she replied, looking up. She turned to where Aaron should have been sitting an I felt her sadness when she realized that he was gone.
“Ready to go?
She nodded and we left. The entire walk to our room was spent in silence. Once there, I got my homework out and started working. I thought it would be better to let Shaylee relax for a while before jumping on her about the dream. I could both feel and see that she needed some down time to at least pretend things were normal.
We worked in silence for over an hour. I was only partially focused on my homework. I paid more attention to how Shaylee was chewing on the end of her pencil, which I had never seen her do before.
I finished my homework, but pretended that I was still working. I waited until Shaylee closed her book and dropped it on the floor before deciding that it was time for some answers.
“Okay, Shay. Enough is enough. What’s up?”
“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied.
“You’ve been off since this morning. You acted like you really needed to see Aaron when he wasn’t at lunch and then at dinner you barely spoke to him and didn’t even notice when he left.”
“I was worried about him at lunch,” Shaylee explained, sounding defensive. “I don’t like being away from him. It’s weird and it’s too fast, I know that. It’s just how I feel. When he came to walk me to dinner, he was fine. I don’t need to be constantly talking to him to enjoy his presence.”
I could tell her defensiveness was only to draw my attention away from what was really bothering her. She was hoping to shut down the conversation. I couldn’t let that happen.
“It’s just not like you to be completely unaware that someone you’re close to was upset about something and left. Just like it’s not like you to chew on the end of your pencil.”
“I didn’t,” she said, looking offended.
I pointed to the chewed pencil still in her hand. She glared at it before tossing it onto the floor. She flung herself back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
“Talk to me, Shay,” I said, gently.
I could feel her apprehension lessening.
“It’s that dream,” she said so quietly that if I were human, I would have struggled to hear her. “I just can’t stop thinking about it. I feel like it was more than just a dream. Like it means something. I can’t explain it.”
She paused and closed her eyes. She began rubbing her arm and I sensed the fear that was running through her.
“It’s okay. You can tell me,” I said.
She sighed and sat up.
“It’s this…” She pulled up her sleeve and held her arm out to me.
I gasped and slowly got off of my bed. Sitting next to her, I gently took her arm and examined it. Just below her elbow was a bright red welt. I turned her arm and could clearly see that it was in the shape of a hand. I started reaching out to touch it, but stopped myself.
“It’s okay,” Shaylee said. “It doesn’t hurt. I didn’t even notice it until I was in the shower this morning. It’s just hot.”
I gently touched the handprint and understood what she meant. It burned under my fingertips and I pulled my hand away, unable to touch it any longer. The handprint scared me. As a Warrior, I didn’t have very much magic, but I knew enough to know that burn was supernatural and that it couldn’t be good.
“There’s more,” she said. “A voice.”
“What voice?” I asked.
“At dinner last night. There was a voice. It kept telling me to run. It was the same voice as the man in my dream.”
I froze, not knowing what to think or feel. I had to tell Aaron. Whatever was happening was getting very dangerous, very quickly.
“I knew I shouldn’t have told you,” Shaylee said, pulling away. “Now you’re going to be more protective of me than usual.”
“No, Shay. I’m glad you told me,” I said. “You can always tell me anything. I only worry about you because I love you. You’re my best friend. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
It felt good to reiterate the promise I’d made to Aaron to the person it was truly meant for. I knew Shaylee had no idea how far I was willing to go to keep that promise, but just saying it to her made it feel all the more real.
***
I quietly shut the door behind me. It had taken two hours and more than ten reassurances that I wouldn’t keep worrying about the dream for Shaylee to fall asleep. What she didn’t know was that I couldn’t help worrying about the dream, which was far more dangerous than Shaylee realized. I wasn’t sure how she was rationalizing the voice she heard or the dream. If I were in her shoes, I’d be convinced that I was going crazy.
I knew I wouldn’t feel better until Aaron knew the full situation. I went up to his room and knocked. After knocking for a third time, without an answer, I thought about going to look for him, but I had a feeling I would walk around all night trying to find him, so I
