by Lanie Jordan
A loved feeling.
Today hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but it’d been a lot better than I’d expected it to be. I got the same old crap from Eric, but what else was new? So maybe it hadn’t been the best day in the history, but I didn’t regret a second of it.
I smiled. “Thanks, Mr. Sheldon. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”
CHAPTER 05
The first weekend of November brought on the new weekend training Greene warned us about. It was basically the same thing we’d done during the summer, only intensified by about ten. By the time we finished for the day, we’d all be dripping in sweat (well, all but me, much to everyone else’s annoyance). Some sprawled on the auditorium floor and didn’t move. Others crawled a few feet away before collapsing. Tasha and Chris were among those who’d stayed on the floor, refusing to move until someone carried them away. No one did, though Linc and I did support their weight and walked them to their rooms. On the following Monday, people had still been exhausted.
In the middle of the month, Greene pulled everyone from their classes via the freaky wall panel thing. Everyone, including Mr. Sheldon, frowned. Greene sounded…not quite urgent, but definitely strange. We left our stuff on our desks and filed out. In the hall, other students were already heading downstairs. All the other Prospects and teachers looked as confused as the rest of us.
Linc, Tasha, Chris, and I headed for a staircase since there were already groups of people waiting at the elevators. None of us said anything until we took seats at the back of bleachers.
Chris, shaking his head and looking more worried than anyone else, said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I didn’t do it.”
Linc grinned at him. “Sure you didn’t.”
I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Greene stride out of the South Tower with Assistant Director Barnes right behind him. At about the same time, a dozen agents ran out of the North Tower and headed for the South.
“It can’t be that bad, right?” I said, turning back and pointing to the agents. “They all have their weapons but none are drawn, so that’s a good sign, isn’t it?”
Three sets of shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. I sighed.
Greene wasted no time with pleasantries. As soon as he reached the podium, he said, “We have a hurricane headed our way. The meteorologists thought it’d miss us, but it seems to have turned around, gained strength, and is now a category three. It’s expected to hit us early next week and they’re predicting it may end up a category four by that time. However, as this is a rather large system, it’s expected to storm over the weekend and well into next week.”
All throughout the crowd, people raised their hands or shouted questions and comments. There were so many people talking at once that the only question I heard was, “Isn’t hurricane season over yet?”
Greene held up his hand to quiet everyone. “It may not be normal for a hurricane this late in the year, but it’s not completely unheard of, either. I’m afraid this isn’t the time for a debate or questions. They’re ordering most people on the coasts to evacuate. We’re inland some, so we’re not under a mandatory evacuation order, but we’re going to have a rough weekend. With that said, I’ll need everyone here to help us prepare. Some demons, like animals, can sense problems before humans, and because of that, we’ve had a surprising number of demon sightings and attacks, so our hunters are very busy. I’ll need each of you to help the CGE prepare for this.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“I’m glad you asked, Mr. Stone. Classes are canceled for the duration, as are trips to the demon-housing facility. Tomorrow morning, a few agents and your instructors will be heading into New Orlando for supplies. I’m asking that a handful of Prospects volunteer to go with them and help. I’m sure we’ll have more than enough supplies as is, but it never hurts to be overly cautious when dealing with hurricanes. You will all be permitted to go. Be sure to pick up anything you might need for a few days since, once the hurricane hits, Prospects will not be permitted to leave the North Tower.”
At his words, half the Prospects groaned. The other half, I noticed, looked even more nervous about the storm. I’d been in Florida my entire life, so I knew what damage a category one could do, let alone a category three or four.
Chloe, one of Natalie’s friends, frowned. “What are we supposed to do locked up for days?”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something, Miss Irwin. Just because your classes are canceled, it doesn’t mean you can’t study, use the gym, or sit in one of the common rooms. You’ll manage to find a way to keep busy.” Greene smiled now. “If you can’t, I’m sure we can find something to occupy your time.”
“I’m good,” Chloe quickly mumbled.
“Very well.” Greene nodded. “The buses into New Orlando leave at ten tomorrow morning, so if you wish to go, you need to be ready by that time. I suggest taking an hour tonight to make a list of anything you think you may need. Once you’ve returned, Assistant Director Barnes or I will have our own list posted of tasks each of you will be asked to complete.”
“Are we going to lose power?” a girl shouted.
“Yeah,” someone else said, “or get flooded?”
“I can’t say what will or won’t happen, but if either of those scenarios present themselves, rest assured we’ll act accordingly. This is not,” Greene continued when another hand raised, “the CGE’s first hurricane, nor will it be its last. We’ve always taken every precaution to be prepared for the worst, so I’ll need you all to remain calm. The next week won’t be easy, but we’ll all survive.” He smiled now. “Hopefully with our sanity, but as long as we’re all alive and healthy, I’ll be satisfied.”
His words eased a few minds, I could tell. Most Prospects laughed with him. A few of the ones who’d looked the most worried (namely the P1s) seemed more relaxed, or at least relaxed enough to chuckle with the rest of us.
After a few more words and reassurances, Greene excused himself and went back to the South Tower with Barnes by his side.
Tasha and I exchanged glances. “Well, this oughta be fun,” she muttered.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Over seventy Prospects trapped in the same building for however many days? It’s going to be a blast.”
And it was a good thing Greene didn’t expect anyone to keep their sanity, because I was sure the majority of us wouldn’t.
*~*~*
By late the next night, the thunderstorms started, and the hurricane hit earlier than expected on Saturday. The wind howled like angry wolves, or maybe demonic trains (it was a close call between the two). Rain poured from the sky fast and hard, making it nearly impossible to even see the South Tower from my bedroom window. Those who weren’t originally from Florida either thought it was the coolest thing, or they swore the roof was going to blow away and take them with it. Considering the wind was, last I’d heard, close to one hundred and ten miles per hour, I wasn’t sure that particular fear was that far-fetched.
Most Prospects thought it was only the rain and wind they had to worry about during a hurricane, but it was tornadoes, too. We’d already had two within twenty miles of the CGE.
By Monday, only three days into the storm, most of the Prospects were going stir crazy. Some of the hunters had set up training courses in the auditorium to keep everyone occupied. There were sparring and weapons challenges, and crazy searches that reminded me of Easter egg hunts where Prospects went searching the North Tower for canisters of candy. Greene had Chris—under threat of expulsion if he pulled any stunts—set up some holo activities, too, like hide-and-seek, demon style.
Some of the teachers set up scenarios in the classrooms—things we could do for extra credit since our classes were canceled until the storm passed. I wanted to do them, but so far, Linc and Tasha hadn’t let me. We were getting, according to them, an impromptu break and we were all going to take advantage of it whether I liked it or not. I didn’t argue too much. It was hard enough to win an argument wi
th one of them, but both of them? Pfft. I’d probably have better luck convincing Hurricane Ingrid to go away.
When I heard loud tapping on my window, I glanced outside. Hail, ranging from marble size to golf ball size, bulleted to the ground. The wind made the rain seem like it was coming down horizontally. It was barely six in the evening, but the sky was so dark it looked closer to midnight.
In short, I thought, Mother Nature was not a happy camper.
And neither are those trapped inside, I added silently when someone let out a terrified screech as thunder boomed overhead seconds after a flash of lightning streaked outside the window.
Tasha and Chris were…somewhere. I actually didn’t know where they were.
Because he was restless, Linc wanted time in the gym to blow off some steam. He told me to come find him in an hour, so I grabbed my ID and headed out. I went to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor.
Thunder sounded again, this time loud enough to have the elevator trembling. The lights blinked once, twice, then they went out completely. Someone had mentioned generators would kick on almost immediately, but that they wouldn’t power everything, only essential rooms and important systems. Small, dim lights turned on a second later. I waited for the doors to open, because I’d reached the fifth floor seconds before the lights went out.
I kept waiting.
After two minutes, I discovered elevators weren’t considered important.
“Come on!” I gave the doors a solid kick and berated myself for being lazy. Shouldn’t I have known better than to trust electronics during a storm? Since kicking myself would’ve been stupid and ineffective, I kicked the door again instead.
Growling and muttering under my breath, I pressed a button on the panel to call for help. It was for emergencies, but being trapped was kind of emergencyish, right?
“Yes?” a deep male voice said.
“Um, this is Jade Hall. I’m kind of trapped in an elevator on the fifth floor.”
A moment later, someone chuckled in the background and muttered something about ‘knowing better than to ride an elevator during a hurricane’. The guy talking to me cleared his throat, obviously trying to mask his laugh. “You’re not hurt are you?”
Hurt? Only my ego. “No, I’m fine.”
“Claustrophobic?”
I sighed. “Only idiotic.”
Another chuckle. “It might be a few minutes before we get to you. Power’s out, and we think lightning might’ve hit the South Tower.”
“Oh. Is anyone hurt?”
“Don’t think so, but it’s being looked into. You sit tight, and we’ll get you out soon as we can.”
“Thanks.” Sighing again, I pulled out my music player and sat down. I leaned my head against the wall and prepared to wait.
‘Soon as we can’ turned out to be close to an hour. I jumped up, anxiously awaiting my release, and all but ran through the doors before my rescuers had them fully open. I wasn’t—thankfully—claustrophobic, but an hour in a ten-by-ten space was enough to have my nerves frazzled.
My rescuers ended up being two agents I didn’t really know. One of them—the younger of the two—gave me a slow smile. “Sorry it took so long. We’ve, ah, got some trouble.”
The older guy shot him a stern look that had me frowning. “Director Greene wants you to go back to your room until he announces otherwise. Understand?” the older guy said.
Before I could respond or nod, he turned away. I ran in front of him to stop him. “What’s going on?”
The two agents glanced at each other. Older guy shrugged and the younger one said, “A demon got loose. Director Greene wants everyone in their rooms until it’s found—especially you, Miss Hall. I’ll walk you back to your room if you’re worried.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. It’s not in here, is it?”
“We’re, ah, not exactly sure where it is.” His cheeks pinkened. “Probably not in here, but be careful, okay? If you hear or see anything strange, you might want to head in the opposite direction and call for help.”
They waved and walked away. I stayed and frowned. How the heck had a demon gotten loose in the first place? More importantly, how was it avoiding recapture? Granted, the South Tower had a lot of rooms—well over a hundred—but the doors had locks on them, didn’t they? I knew the ones that held demons did. I’d discovered that during my first phase when Felecia and I had snuck in.
To my thinking, that didn’t leave a lot of hiding places. Of course, that was assuming the demon escape was what had kept them from rescuing me sooner. But really, how many things could go wrong in one day, in the same freaking hour? A lightning strike causing some unknown problem, my elevator-trapping, a demon escape. I wasn’t sure what I thought about coincidences, but I was pretty sure Greene and Peter, and hell, probably even Linc, would say that was one coincidence too many.
And it doesn’t concern me, I thought. If Greene wanted me in my room, that’s where I’d go.
Halfway down the stairs, the hair on my arms stood on end. The strangest feeling washed over me, like someone covered me with a heavy silk sheet. My eyes clouded over and sounds dimmed until I couldn’t hear anything. By the time I paused, everything went back to normal.
Rolling my shoulders, I started down again. “Weirdest non-dizzy dizzy spell ever,” I muttered quietly, trying to laugh off the weird feeling that settled in my stomach.
As I pulled open the stairwell door on my floor, I let out a groan.
I’d found the escaped demon. It was scratching at my door like a dog.
I would’ve laughed, because it was just my luck that I would, yet again, prove the whole demon magnet thing true. A demon escapes, so of course it had to find its way to the North Tower and show up at my freaking door. How was I supposed to convince everyone else I wasn’t a demon when, at times like this, I wasn’t that sure they were wrong? I closed my eyes and sighed. How else could this have gone? It couldn’t have stayed in the South Tower (which raised a good question, like how it got out of there in the first place). No. It couldn’t have stayed there or gone to any other floor in the North Tower. It had to find—
The scratching sound stopped.
My eyes popped open and I found the demon’s gaze locked on mine.
“Uh uh. Not again.” I took a step back and hit the door.
It took a step forward.
“C’mon. You’re a good little demon. You don’t want to attack the stupid demon magnet!” For all I knew it did want to attack the stupid demon magnet, but I didn’t know for sure. It was a Burrower. They liked to dig and, though they were destructive, they were mostly benign around humans. But not always. So was it a demon that liked my DNA because it thought I was a friend, or was it one that wanted to eat me? Or was it an equal opportunity Prospect-eater?
The demon blinked at me.
“I don’t suppose you’d want to take a few steps back? You know, give me time to sneak into my room and call someone to come capture you?”
It made an undecipherable sound at me.
“Okay, I’ll take that as a no then.” I’d taken the stairs nearest to the gym, so Linc’s door was closer than mine. If I tiptoed… “Look,” I said, holding my hands up, “I’m gonna move forward a little, and you’re going to let me. I’m gonna knock on that door.” For all the good it did me, I pointed to Linc’s door. “Just…stay there, demon dude, until someone comes and gets you.”
With my heart racing, I crept one step forward, and when the demon didn’t seem to move, I took another step. I made it to Linc’s door without the demon moving much. It shifted around, like it was trying to keep me centered in its vision, but that was it. “Go back to digging,” I murmured as I tapped—lightly—on Linc’s door. Training and fear kept my gaze locked on the demon’s.
The longest seconds passed while I waited for Linc to answer. Was he even in there? For all I knew, he could’ve been in the gym still. Hell, he could’ve been anywhere when the demon escaped an
d been sent somewhere else—an office, someone else’s room.
But he opened a second later. “Hey. You know we’re in lock-down, right?” he said, and I could hear the frown in his voice.
“Call Security. Or Greene. Someone!”
“Why? What’s going—” I felt him brush against me, his chest to my back, so I knew down to the second when he saw the demon. “What the hell? Did you lure it here or something?”
I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, just long enough to send him a scathing get-real look. “Yes, I lured the demon here, Linc.” I bit the words out, part in frustration, part in unnecessary sarcasm. But really. He thought I lured it? “Idiot! Just call someone!”
I felt him a move. A few seconds later, he muttered a few words, including something that sounded suspiciously like “Jade found the demon”. I growled at that, but then I frowned because I realized it was kind of true. I had, however unintentionally, found the demon.
“Get in here,” Linc hissed behind me.
The demon was still watching me, but I nodded once. Don’t come after me, I prayed silently as I started moving backward. On the bright side, the Burrower didn’t seem all that unhappy with my decision to move.
But on the downside, it started to move closer, like it realized I was getting further away now.
I was, for the most part, entirely in Linc’s room. The Burrower was standing right outside the doorway, staring in.
Linc slammed the door shut. There was a full ten seconds of silence, so I closed my eyes and sighed. “Well. That was a little too close—” The demon started the scratching thing again on Linc’s door. “—for comfort,” I finished lamely.
Linc pulled his desk in front of the door. He paused for half a second and tilted his head to the side. “Had to say it, Hall, didn’t you?”
I glared, but I helped him move the desk. Once we finished, we moved away from the door and stood in front of his window. Over the scratching sound, the wind and rain battled against the glass.
