by Lanie Jordan
“Meaning it could be a C&C for a demon from my Friend List?”
“Friend List? Ah, I see. Yes, she believes those from your Friend List would be less of a threat toward you than anyone else.”
“She’s very…thorough,” I said, deciding that was the safest word to use. The fact was, last I’d heard, Dr. Cherry was still hesitant to add demons to the Friend list, and even the Foe list, always saying she needed to run more tests to be as certain as humanly—haha—possible. The fact that she’d cleared me for a hunt was news to me. Good news, but still.
Greene seemed to read my thoughts, because his eyes darkened and he said, “Which is the one and only reason I’m allowing this.”
I’d take it. “Thanks.”
“Thank Dr. Cherry. Personally, I’d feel better if you weren’t going.”
“Always so cheerful, Director Greene.”
“What can I say? I’m a pessimist by nature. It makes me better at my job.” He smiled and bowed his head slightly, then turned to leave. He turned back after a few steps. “One other thing.”
“Yeah?”
“If or when you go on any C&Cs, I thought it prudent for you and Mr. Stone to be paired together. You and he work well together and trust each other, but I also have two other reasons for that decision. The first being your DNA. Even with Dr. Cherry’s assurances, I’d rather not have anyone else around in case the worst happens.”
“You mean, in case Dr. Cherry’s wrong and the demon tries its best to kill me.”
“Bluntly put, but yes. You and Mr. Stone are both well aware of the risks.”
“And the second reason?”
“While I’m sure no one would do anything to intentionally see you harmed, I can’t be certain those who—”
“Hate me?”
“—hold a bias toward you,” he said in a sterner tone, “can keep that to themselves. Under normal circumstances, I’d say this is a perfect chance to test that, but with your history and your DNA, I’d rather not take any unnecessary risks.”
“No arguments from me.” Considering my first hunt—with Felecia—ended with me being bitten by a vampire, I wasn’t in any hurry to have anymore ‘accidents’, either.
“Very well.” He nodded. “I’ll let you and Mr. Stone know if and when your help is required. I hope you enjoy your Christmas break.” He paused and his lips raised in a small smile. “Let me know if you’d like another holo-tree. I know you’re partial to them.”
“Thanks,” I said, laughing. “I will.”
He bowed his head. “Good day, Miss Hall.”
“Have a good day, Director Greene.”
I didn’t know if I’d have a good Christmas break (though I was sure Linc, Tasha, and Chris would nag me until I did), but I did plan on getting another holo-tree.
*~*~*
Dear Journal,
Christmas break was a lot shorter than expected, because Greene said we had too much ground to cover this year. But it was a lot better than I thought it’d be—Linc, Tasha, and Chris all saw to that. We spent a few days in New Orlando at some snazzy hotel, stayed up until the sun rose, and slept maybe four hours the whole time. Chris surprised Tasha with a fancy dinner somewhere Christmas night (after giving her a purse and some sparkly hair thing that she ooh’ed and ahh’ed over for an hour). I gave her some dangly earrings and Linc found her a bracelet with purse charms (there was a lot more ooh’ing and ahh’ing).
Linc and I opted to stay in and ended up watching some old Christmas movies—including some horror flick I knew Linc wanted to watch. By the time the movie ended, I began to think leaving home on Christmas wasn’t a good idea. Note to self for next year: don’t leave the CGE on Christmas. Or maybe ever again. Note to self #2: do not renew video subscription for Linc unless you want to watch horror movies!
Besides the subscription (which wasn’t a present and now only a regret on my end), I got Linc an antique bow and arrow and some throwing stars to add to the collection he’d started over the summer. There was more ooh’ing and ahh’ing, but Linc-style (which meant staring and petting things. Totally weird.).
Linc didn’t give me my present on Christmas and instead made me wait until the next day. He disappeared in the morning after breakfast, then came back a few hours later with a little decorated box. I snuck the wrapping aside again first (mainly to annoy him) before he could steal it. Inside the box—which had a cute little clear window on it)—was a butterfly resin pendant on a silver chain. He said he got it for me because he knew I was worried about my ever-changing DNA and that he hoped it served as a reminder that not all changes were bad. He said some changes—like butterflies—were good, beautiful, unique, and that even the worst change would be okay, because I’d make it work for me.
He said a lot of other sweet stuff, but that was definitely the best part. That was the part that had me falling in love with him all over again.
That moment made everything that happened so far worth it.
Okay, better go before Linc—
I grinned to myself and set the journal aside as my door opened and Linc appeared.
He shot me a strange look. “What are you grinning at?”
I scowled. “I always smile when you’re around.”
“Yeah, but this isn’t a smile. It’s a grin. A creepy grin. What, did you have another psychic moment on me?” When my grin only widened, he gaped at me. “You did, didn’t you?”
To answer, I picked up the journal again and, covering most of the page except the last sentence, held it up for him to see.
He squinted to read (due to my crappy cursive) and then shook his head. “We need to work this new psychic gig to our advantage, Hall. Predict something good—”
I laughed. “I think you showing up is pretty good.”
“No, something really good, like winning the lottery—”
“We can’t play the lottery yet.”
“Okay, fine. We can—”
“Get breakfast,” I said, laughing as I put the journal away. “And then get to class.”
Linc grabbed my tablet and tucked it under his before taking my hand. “We have Tracking.” He eyed me as he closed the door. “You know Tasha’s going to complain about it.”
I grinned again as he led me toward the elevator. Mrs. Fletcher had warned us that our classes would be more extreme after break. “Oh, yeah. She’s not gonna be a happy camper.”
“Side bet on how long it takes before she makes the first comment about it?”
“You’re on, Stone.” Because if there was one thing I knew, it was Tasha and her habits.
As predicted, Tasha did complain about class at breakfast. I won the bet, despite the fact I was almost certain Linc tried to cheat. (As soon as he’d seen Chris, he’d pulled him aside. When they’d finished talking, Chris had tried too hard to not look at me.) Linc complained about losing, which made Tasha glare at us all and demand to know what the bet was. When he told her, she’d asked what he’d lost (twenty bucks), then laughed at him for taking a sucker bet.
Linc scowled at me all through breakfast and didn’t stop until we left for class. I didn’t stop grinning.
The door to the garage was already open as we reached it. Inside, I could hear people talking about it being so dark. Sure enough, once we were inside, I saw what they were talking about. The only visible light was filtering in from the hallway and the side exit.
Mrs. Fletcher was already there, tablet in hand—along with one of the agents—standing near the ramp to the second floor. Beyond her, I could just make out a dull red glow in the darkness.
Mrs. Fletcher cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Today, we’re going to be doing some work with your senses—mostly scent, hearing, and touch. The class will be split into teams of two, with two teams working simultaneously. One pair will be with me on the second floor, and Agent Burk will take his pair to the third. We’re hoping everyone will get a chance to run the obstacle course today, though some might have to
wait until next week.”
“What are we doing?” Linc asked.
She smiled at him. “A demon hunt obstacle course. I’ll explain more when it’s your turn. I will tell you this scenario involves a hunter and a demon. The Prospect playing the ‘demon’ will have the advantage since the ‘hunter’ will be blindfolded.”
Tasha mouthed ‘blindfolded’ and shot me a wide-eyed, help-me look. “This is it, isn’t it? This is the class I’m finally going to manage to accidentally kill someone!”
I wasn’t the only one who heard her since a few people chuckled around us. Judging Mrs. Fletcher’s face, who seemed like she was trying not to laugh, I assumed she’d heard, too. “Breathe,” I whispered.
Chris stepped up beside her and took her hand. “Don’t worry. You’ll do fine. You haven’t hurt anyone in weeks—not even me.”
She glared at him angrily. “I broke your arm!” she hissed. “And I managed to do that without a blindfold. Oh, man. Is it too late to call in sick or dead?”
“Seriously, breathe,” I repeated, eyeing her cautiously as her breathing quickened. “You’re going to hyperventilate or something.”
“At least then I’ll be excused!”
“Tasha—”
“I’ve got this,” Chris said. He pulled her away from the rest of the class.
Linc looked at me. “Think she’ll be okay?”
“I hope so,” I murmured. But I wasn’t sure. After Chris had been hurt, her confidence had been knocked down a few notches. She hadn’t hurt him—or anyone—in a few weeks, but that was mostly because she’d stopped doing, well, anything. I’d gotten her to work with me while Chris healed up, but even then, she was still a bit of a nervous wreck. She was terrified she’d hurt someone again.
While Chris continued to talk to Tasha, Mrs. Fletcher called out the first two pairs to run the so-called obstacle course. She pulled them away from the rest of us. When she was done talking to them, she sent the agent to the third floor with his pair. “Stay where you are and keep quiet,” she warned us before taking her team to the second floor.
To my surprise, everyone actually did stay quiet. A few people whispered, but I think the majority were too busy imagining what kind of course we were actually going to be running.
It took twenty minutes for the first groups to finish, then another twenty for the second two pairs. To my disappointment, Linc was paired with someone else. I couldn’t fight the frown or the sinking sensation in my stomach. That meant I’d probably get stuck with someone who didn’t like me. My odds hadn’t been great before Linc’d been called, but at least until the moment his name left Mrs. Fletcher’s lips, I’d had at least some hope.
Tasha and Chris were up next. I tried not to be bitter that they were together, since it was safer for everyone that way. She still looked sick, but at least she wasn’t hyperventilating anymore. But she still mouthed ‘blindfolded’ again as she walked by me. I fought a smile.
When she and Chris came back down after their twenty-minute run, they walked over. “So,” I said, “any deaths to report?”
“She was magnificent,” Chris said, grinning ear-to-ear. “She—”
Mrs. Fletcher fixed him with a hard look. “Mr. Stevens?”
“Sorry. I wasn’t telling her about the course.”
She nodded, then called four more names. One of those names was mine. Another was Eric’s. I cringed inwardly—and probably outwardly, too. She didn’t explain things there, like she had with the others. Instead, she had us follow her up a bit, until we were between the first and second floors. “Go on. Wait for me up there,” she told the other two, staying behind with me and Eric. When the others were out of earshot, she turned back to us with a stern look on her face. “I know there’s animosity between you two.”
“She’s—”
Mrs. Fletcher held up her hand. “What she is, Mr. Reynolds, is a Prospect, just like you. The bottom line is this: yes, I’m pairing you together intentionally.”
“Why?” Eric bit out.
“Because your other teachers asked me to since you seem to have issues with each other. And because I’ve seen it for myself, though from what I’ve gathered it’s not as bad here. They—and I—want to see that you can work together, even if it’s on opposite sides. This might be just a training exercise to you, but working with people you don’t like is sometimes inevitable. As hunters, it’s bound to happen, even if it is rare. You need to work through your issues now, before someone’s—or multiple someone’s—life is on the line.”
“But—”
“It’s not open for debate. I’m not asking you to like each other, Mr. Reynolds,” she snapped. “I’m asking you to act like adults who can function in the same room together. If you can’t, I might just pair you two together for the rest of the Phase. I’m pretty sure your other teachers would follow suit without a problem. In fact, I think they’re already considering it, so maybe that’s something you can take into consideration today.”
My eyes widened at that. They were thinking of putting us together permanently? Did my teachers hate me? I almost asked but didn’t. What I wanted to do was argue and shout at Eric, because this was his fault. I’d never done anything to him. Ever. Hell, I hardly ever said a word to him unless I was forced to (well, that was mostly true). I’d even tried being nice on Halloween, hadn’t I? And what had that gotten me? Nada. Zip. Unless more attitude counted as something.
Instead of arguing or cursing the injustice of it all, I snapped my mouth shut, grit my teeth together, and nodded.
She laid out our plan, then added, “I want a safe run. You both know what you’re supposed to do and what you cannot do. There are cameras recording everything and Agent Burk will be watching over you. This is a serious obstacle course, and it can be dangerous, especially for Jade since she’ll be blindfolded. I don’t want any mistakes and I don’t want any problems. Understood?”
I’d never seen Mrs. Fletcher like this before. She wasn’t nearly as easy-going as Mr. Sheldon (who I suspected was her boyfriend), but she’d always been nice and soft-spoken.
I nodded again. “Got it.” I didn’t like Eric—everyone knew that. But even disliking him didn’t mean I’d do anything to get him hurt or in trouble.
Eric shrugged. “Okay.” He shot me a dirty look as he said it.
She motioned us forward. “Have a good run. You’ve got twenty minutes to accomplish your objective, Jade—or, in your case, Eric, to keep her from accomplishing it.”
I headed up the ramp, keeping a few steps behind Eric. Agent Burk was waiting for us on the third level. He took Eric aside and said something that had Eric’s eyes widening. He glanced at me as Agent Burk handed him a pair of goggles and a shirt. We’d used both before, so I knew the goggles would impair his vision slightly. The shirt was made from some weird material that was supposed to simulate a certain demon’s skin texture and scent. The agent directed Eric away, and as he moved to the opposite side of the room, Agent Burk came back to me.
“Your objective is to find the victim—a mannequin—and avoid the demon. Understood?”
“Got it.”
He tied the blindfold snuggly over my eyes, careful not to yank on my hair. “Ready?”
I nodded and tried not gulping. “Yup.”
“Ready, Eric?”
“Yeah,” came Eric’s echoed reply.
I listened as Agent Burk’s footsteps wandered away and then stopped. I hadn’t been nervous before, but now, blindfolded and in the complete darkness, my heart picked up pace. It wasn’t the obstacle course that worried me so much—it was who I was teamed with. He wouldn’t do anything too stupid, I was sure, because he had to know Greene wouldn’t be happy about it.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something sneaky.
Cautiously, I put my hands in front of me and stepped forward. I knew the layout of the room because we’d been studying it for the last few months, familiarizing ourselves with it. I basically had a map of
it in my mind, but that didn’t help me when I couldn’t see anything. I knew where things should be, but still. Knowing a big box was on my left didn’t tell me how far to my left. I hadn’t thought to run the course before or count steps, something that might’ve actually helped me.
I cursed when my knee collided with something hard. The darn box, I decided, reaching out and feeling along the lines of it with my hands.
Technically, my objective was pretty simple: get to the ‘victim’ and don’t get caught. Of course, when you added in being blindfolded, having to avoid a ‘demon’ and trying to find said victim, simple turned into difficult. And that was before you brought in the CMs that were scattered around, programmed to attack anything within three feet of it.
Basically, it was the demony equivalent of capture the flag…only in a minefield while blindfolded.
Once I passed the box, I took three more steps before one of the CMs hit me in the shoulder. I jumped to the side and got hit by another CM, this time on the leg.
I muttered, “For crying out loud,” under my breath and paused, letting out a deep breath. Despite having my eyes covered, I closed them anyway and tried focusing on my other senses. If you lost one, your others were supposed to kick into overdrive to compensate, right? I sniffed the air and could smell hints of the demon scent and plastic. In my mind, I could almost picture Eric—and the others—walking this way, leaving behind a trail of the scent.
I concentrated on sounds next. There was a soft hum coming from my left. Slowly, I reached out toward the sound—or where I thought it was coming from—trying to figure out how far it actually was. My fingers brushed against plastic. A CM. I ducked quickly, hoping to avoid another punch, but instead got kicked in the head. I shook it, frowned. Great, so now I know how to find them, but I can’t predict where they move. That’s…almost helpful.
Eric, if he followed the instructions, would be waiting for me on the opposite side of the floor. His only purpose was to guard the victim, not try to seek me out. He wasn’t as blind as I was, but his vision was still obstructed from the goggles. If I stayed quiet and low to the ground, I had a good chance of avoiding him. Okay, I probably had a good chance of avoiding him until I was near him, but still. I’d take what I could get.
