Harbinger

by Emme DeWitt

  The dean tried to argue, but Ms. Xavier put her hand out, freezing the dean’s tongue.

  “Let me finish,” Ms. Xavier said. “If you’re not going to look out for the students, I will. Noah is leaving with me. She’s going to be in my office working on cataloging my research materials. If anyone needs to speak with her, you better unearth a parent of some sort for consent.”

  “Ms. Xavier,” the chief said, the backpedaling he was about to perform evident on his overwhelmed face. “I’m sure we can all work together to resolve this matter civilly. As a witness, it is very important to hear from Noah what she saw last night. It’s imperative to the investigation.”

  “Oh, she’s a witness now?” Ms. Xavier replied.

  “Of course,” the chief said. “She’s free to go as soon as she’s given her statement.”

  “Who is it we’re talking about exactly?” Ms. Xavier pressed. “I’m not impressed if your only lead comes from students finger pointing to get out of trouble.”

  “Sean Rector,” the dean said. “Several students volunteered that they had seen Sean and Noah speak on multiple occasions.”

  “She’s been here a week,” Ms. Xavier retorted. “What qualifies as multiple occasions? Twice?”

  “Ma’am, if we could hear from Ms. Young herself, I’m sure this would go faster,” the chief offered, trying to toe the line between the warring glares from the dean and Ms. Xavier.

  I hope she isn’t planning on getting tenure, I thought. Standing up for me was going to have ramifications.

  “I’m sorry, but I’m still getting to know people,” I said to the chief. “The only Sean I remember is the one who carried around a guitar with him everywhere. He and I grabbed breakfast about the same time every morning. Is that who you’re talking about?”

  The chief looked to the dean, who nodded.

  “Did you ever use the practice rooms in the basement?” the chief continued, making a short note in a small spiral notepad.

  “I got lost down there one day trying to find my guitar class.” I feigned intense thought. “I wasn’t assigned a practice room, though. Sean told me once they were all assigned at the beginning of the year.”

  “That is correct.” The dean bristled. “Are you sure you’ve never been down there otherwise?”

  “What’s the point if she doesn’t have a practice room?” Ms. Xavier interrupted.

  “Did you say Sean’s dead?” I said, drawing the attention of Ms. Xavier. The dean was ready to shoot lightning bolts from her eyes.

  “Yes, dear, I’m sorry to say,” the chief replied.

  I let the color drain from my face. Ms. Xavier reached out to steady me, laying a hand in between my shoulder blades.

  “Noah, are you all right?” she asked, genuine concern softening her features.

  “I—”

  My throat closed up, and I couldn’t finish my train of thought. I swallowed hard, trying to keep my emotions firmly behind a locked door. If I let any more out for effect, I wasn’t sure I could rein them back in.

  “I just talked to him last night,” I managed, trying to give just enough information to satisfy the chief without giving anything else away. Evangeline had mentioned a master plan, but having improvised my part, I didn’t want to get any more reckless without knowing what my part was supposed to be.

  “When?” the chief pressed, eliciting a sharp look from Ms. Xavier.

  “I saw him after dinner,” I replied honestly. “We crossed paths after I had a fight with Mags. He asked if I was okay, but I didn’t want to talk about it. He went back to practicing once he made sure I was okay. I didn’t see him after that.”

  “You fought with who, sorry?” The chief scribbled in his notepad.

  “Margaret O’Brien,” Ms. Xavier offered happily, initiating a fresh stare down with the dean. “She’s one of the dean’s student assistants. I’m sure she’d be happy to confirm Noah’s story.”

  “She also happens to be Ms. Young’s roommate,” the dean replied. “Ms. O’Brien would definitely be the one to confirm Ms. Young’s story. Especially where she went after meeting Mr. Rector.”

  “Lovely,” Ms. Xavier said. “Now that you have something better to do than hang Noah in the court of public opinion, we’ll leave you to it. If you have any more questions for Noah, feel free to come to my office.”

  Ms. Xavier pressed her hand against my back, guiding me away from the interrogation squad and back toward Evangeline. I expected to be pulled back by the officer who had escorted me, but he stepped aside without a word. As soon as we approached Evangeline, the other officer stood, helping Evangeline stand next to him.

  He handed her off to me with a polite nod, making sure Evangeline didn’t trip over the bench as she climbed over the barrier. Once she was held up by my bracing arm, the officer returned to his partner.

  A rush of whispers assaulted my ears with a pop, and I winced at the eyes glued to our backs.

  “Keep walking, and make sure Evangeline doesn’t fall,” Ms. Xavier said through the side of her mouth.

  I nodded, placing all my focus on Evangeline. I worried at her pallor, wishing we could have kept the interview shorter.

  She’d known what was coming and had run straight into the fire anyway. The timing was impeccable with Ms. Xavier, and a wave of appreciation rolled through me. I had no idea how I would have survived without her.

  Don’t make me blush, I heard Evangeline say.

  My eyes had been locked on her face, and she hadn’t moved a muscle on her own. I shook my head, worried the stress had finally melted my brain.

  “Noah? Everything okay?” Ms. Xavier held the door to the outside open for Evangeline and me.

  “Yeah.” I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. “I’m just tired.”

  “You’re a horrible liar,” Evangeline croaked, her color improving upon breathing in the fresh autumn air.

  “I get by,” I replied, relieved Evangeline was no longer in zombie mode. “Not holding my breath for an Oscar or anything.”

  “The amount of narrative chatter in your brain makes me wish it would melt,” she retorted dryly, earning her a backward glance from Ms. Xavier.

  I froze.

  “When did I say that?” I frowned down at Evangeline.

  She tapped the side of her head knowingly.

  “Jailbreaks only work if you move away from the jail,” Ms. Xavier called from several paces ahead of us. “And I, myself, am dying for a coffee.”

  “Ooo, coffee,” Evangeline cooed, breaking away from me and jogging to catch up to Ms. Xavier. I watched the pair of them glide across the academic quad, while I was rooted to the cobblestones in shock.

  What on earth was going on at this school?

  Twenty-Five

  “So I’ve worked it out with the dean.” Ms. Xavier leaned against the open office door. “You’re going to keep a low profile until the investigation is over. Campus will be closed for the next few days, so stick to the office when you’re not sleeping.”

  Ms. Xavier’s phone had begun to ring as soon as we entered the safety of her office. The dean’s timing was eerily on point. Evangeline and I had stayed in the hall until the conversation was over.

  “For a jail break, this feels an awful lot like jail,” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth. My phone tapped lightly as I spun it on rotation on top of the desk. The endless loop comforted me, even though it remained silent.

  I really wanted to talk to Adele. I didn’t know what I would say. So much had happened since I’d arrived at Windermere that I didn’t even know where to start. When we were hopping states on the West Coast, I could go months without an episode with my voice. Meeting a night visitor in real life used to be an anomaly, but now I lived with a constant low-grade nausea alerting me to their proximity.

  Avoiding the dining hall and the rest of campus for a few days didn’t sound like such a bad thought after all.

  Evangeline snorted.

  “It sounds good
now,” she muttered, looking up from her attentive petting of Ig on the floor of the cluttered office. “Wait until it’s long term.”

  “Hey, what did I say about digging around uninvited?” Ms. Xavier said, her eyes glancing at me purposefully.

  “Sorry,” Evangeline said, color rising to her cheeks.

  “Both of you need to quit pouting.” Ms. Xavier stood from her perch. “You’ve got plenty to do to keep you busy. No Elevated monkey business while I’m gone.”

  “Fine.” Evangeline sighed, waving at Ms. Xavier as she disappeared down the hall.

  I stared off after her.

  “Did she just say Elevated?” I asked, my throat tightening.

  “Yeah, best keep that between the three of us though.” Evangeline looked down at Ig and back to me blatantly. “If we’re under the radar, Ms. Xavier is in deep cover.”

  “I don’t know how. Not sure how much you caught in the dining hall, but Ms. Xavier threw down the gauntlet with the dean,” I said. “If I hadn’t been accused of murder, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a little more.”

  “Oh, it was just as dramatic in here.” Evangeline tapped her temple. “The commentary from the police officer next to you almost broke me.”

  “Why is Ms. Xavier in deep cover? The dean doesn’t seem the type to let anything slide on her watch,” I said. “She must be someone important.”

  “The more you learn about the Elevated community, the more you’ll notice it’s a tight knit, almost incestuous bunch.” Evangeline’s fingers were still trailing through Ig’s thick coat. “Everyone’s always related to somebody. Ms. Xavier is posing as a relative to someone powerful. That person is too secretive to come forward to say anything though, so the assumption remains unchallenged.”

  “That’s pretty brave of her,” I said, my phone pausing in my hands as the gears of curiosity cranked with this new piece of information. “Seems a little Shakespearean.”

  “And reckless enough that she tries to remain as neutral as possible. If she doesn’t make a fuss, the dean has no reason to look any further into her background,” Evangeline said. “It’s surprising the dean hasn’t sought her out for her Elevated abilities sooner. That does make me nervous. Like the dean doesn’t trust who Ms. Xavier says she is.”

  “Why all the cloak and dagger business?”

  “Windermere is such a small slice of the Elevated pie, but it shows you what’s going on. Shady, shady business,” Evangeline said. “We’re just trying to get a better understanding of what’s going on and stop it before any other Elevated get hurt.”

  “By hurt do you mean dead? I feel like there’s a lot of dead people popping up,” I asked. “Sean wasn’t Elevated though.”

  “True,” Evangeline said. “But that didn’t stop him from getting caught in the crosshairs.”

  “Because of me,” I sighed. “Maybe banshees really are bad omens.”

  “We just have to stay under the radar a little while longer. Play the long game,” Evangeline said, mostly to herself. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  Evangeline bit her lip, her hand pausing as she lost herself in thought.

  I slid a pile of fresh notecards toward me, deciding to be productive during my house arrest. At least copying information was more gratifying than talking to myself. Ig sneezed, hopping down from Evangeline’s lap to stretch. Even he was getting restless.

  He jumped in surprise as Evangeline flew into motion. She leaned over and grabbed the nearest volume, snatching the highlighter from my hand. I tried to protest, but she threw me a mean look, begging me to shut up.

  I heard a syncopated series of footsteps round the corner, and Ig shot out of the office in the opposite direction. My fingers found a pen in enough time to finish the notecard just as a shadow fell across the open doorway.

  Evangeline looked up first from her fake skimming of a random chapter. Her eyes darted to mine a millisecond before the faces turned for me to recognize them.

  Officers One and Two from earlier had found us.

  I looked up from my work, cocking my head to the side in obvious surprise. The officers shared a look, and I waited for them to answer my nonverbal question.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, too impatient to have a war of wills with the police officers.

  Evangeline’s face darkened. Her eyes rolled back toward me.

  “So much for a subpoena,” Evangeline said dryly. “Apparently all it takes is some finger pointing to get suspected of wrongdoing around here.”

  The officers shifted uncomfortably. As much as they were just trying to do their jobs, I hated the showmanship being flaunted right now. Let me leave, only to pull me right back in.

  “Ms. Young, if you would follow us, please.” Officer One stepped into the cramped office.

  “I would rather not.” I pulled another book toward me.

  “Ma’am?” Officer Two was giving me an out to change my answer.

  “You heard me,” I replied, enunciating each word. “I’m not going.”

  I flipped the cover of the book open, leafing to the copyright page to scribble down the information I needed. The officers watched me fill out an entire card without interruption.

  “Are you going to watch me fill out every single card?” I asked the room.

  “Ms. Young, please step outside,” Officer Two said.

  Evangeline snorted from the floor.

  “This day keeps getting better,” Evangeline said sarcastically to the small audience. “You might as well give up now. She’s not going to budge.”

  “Evangeline, could you pass me the highlighter?” I asked, my hand reaching out without looking up from my notecard. “I need the orange one for this topic.”

  “Ms. Young, you need to come with us now,” Officer One repeated.

  I looked up, locking eyes with Evangeline.

  “Why?” I asked, keeping my gaze firmly locked on Evangeline, hoping my mind reading comment from earlier wasn’t too far off from the truth.

  “You’ve been requested by the chief for further questioning. That’s all you need to know.” Officer One placed his hand on his belt.

  Evangeline turned to look at the second officer, the one who had sat with her during my interrogation in the dining hall. She looked intently at him, her eyebrow rising in surprise after a moment of concentration.

  Colm woke up this morning, Evangeline’s voiced tinkled in my mind.

  Her eyes slid from the officer to mine.

  I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, crossing my arms to cover my reaction to Evangeline’s insight.

  And he was screaming your name.

  Twenty-Six

  When I count to three, Evangeline said in my mind. Run.

  I stood, seemingly to follow the instruction of the officers. They didn’t question my sudden compliance but rather looked relieved that I was finally coming of my own accord. I tucked my phone in my back pocket, ready to sprint as soon as I got the go ahead.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked, inching out of the small office and past the officers.

  “Straight to the dean’s office. We should be able to escort you back as soon as they’re done questioning you about what you saw last night,” Officer Two volunteered.

  I glanced back at Evangeline before I lost sight of her, and she flashed an okay sign with her fingers.

  The jangling of the officer’s belts gave me a good idea where they were in relation to me. I dragged my feet, making them slow their own pace so as not to crowd me. Their first mistake.

  We finally made it to the stairs, and the grand decent began. Normally, I appreciated grand staircases, especially in older buildings. This time, I was cursing the slippery marble and curved descent. The lecture hall was directly across the base of the stairs, and we would have to pass by it before we could go out the main entryway to the quad.

  An aerial map of campus popped into my head, and I stumbled on the stairs. I grabbed the handrail, steadying myself bef
ore the nearest officer could reach out to help.

  “I’m fine.” I tried to keep focused while Evangeline narrated the plan in my head. She lit up the route I was supposed to run. It wove through campus, doubling back to the infirmary that was directly across from the lecture hall entrance. I tapped the railing nervously, wondering if the plan would work.

  One.

  My foot hit the ground level. The officers were two stairs behind.

  Two.

  I sped up as the officers oriented themselves.

  Three.

  My legs pumped, getting several lengths ahead of the officers before they realized they had a runner.

  A real runner.

  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. After only two minor maneuvers in the science building, I’d successfully lost my tail. Either they weren’t trying, or I was getting more help than I was expecting.

  The handlebar of the old emergency exit smacked loudly as I barreled through it and up a small flight of stairs back up to ground level. I slid along the edge of the outer wall, peering around the corner to make sure I wasn’t running into an ambush.

  The quad was deserted, and I sprinted for the door Evangeline had highlighted in my mind’s eye. The sign in the lobby helpfully pointing me to the third floor for the infirmary. I laughed to myself, hoping I never needed an emergency. I didn’t wait for the elevator, preferring the freedom of the stairs.

  My shoes squeaked as I took a turn too fast, the noise echoing back at me in the tight stairwell. I paused at the top landing, pressing my ear to the cold metal door. The soft patter of voices leaked through the door, but I couldn’t tell how many speakers there were.

  I darted through the door, walking a normal pace as I scoped out the hallway. Oddly, I felt like I’d been teleported to a hospital. Each room had its own hospital bed, EKG monitors, and IV stands. Each stood dim and empty, pointing my feet toward the main desk at the juncture of the two hallways. Two nurses stood talking to one another, their voices light and playful.