I hear Mom reach the top of the stairs, then enter my room. I breathe as normally as I can. In….out….in….out. I feel Mom touch my head. She’s moves a curl, and it brushes against my face. It’s damp with sweat. Although that was quite a workout, it wasn’t enough of one to make me sweat like that. It must have been from the nightmare.
Mom kisses me on the forehead, and leaves silently. I breathe a sigh of relief and, wrapping my blankets tighter around myself, I try to fall back asleep.
Chapter Eleven
I knock on the green painted door, and wait for Lukas to answer, the cold from the cobbled path leeching into my bare feet. He pulls the door open, and stares at me, eyebrows raised. I hold out the hand that has a muffin clutched in it, then the one that holds a glass of orange juice. “I brought you breakfast?” I say, wondering if he’ll buy it.
He takes the muffin and juice, then steps back and kicks the door open wider with his foot. “Come in Liv. I know you didn’t come here just to give me breakfast.”
I follow him into his small kitchen and drop into the chair across from his. “I had a dream last night….” I begin, then I relieve the dream and everything that happened after.
By the time I’m finished he is staring at the table, brow furrowed. “You’re certain your feet were cut up and bleeding? You’re sure you didn’t imagine it?”
“Lukas.” I lean forward and put my elbows on the table, then rest my chin in my hands. “I know I didn’t imagine it. I couldn’t have made myself imagine pain like that, or the blood, or the cuts.”
Lukas frowns. “If you’re sure-” I scowl at him. “then I’d say those dreams are probably visions.”
“Visions? Like….glimpses of the future?”
“Exactly. I don’t know what your vision means, but it’s going to come to pass, no matter what anyone tries to do. Now-”
“Liv!” Mom’s voice interrupts. “What are you doing? You’re going to miss the bus!”
I go out of Lukas’s house, and wave at Mom, who is glaring at me suspiciously. “Don’t worry Mom!” I call to her. “We’re just working on a project for school that we’re doing together!”
“Oh really? And what class is this project for?”
“U.S History!” I yell back.
I can tell she still doesn’t believe me, but she can’t find fault with my story, so she sighs and shouts “Well come on! The bus will be here in three minutes!”
I roll my eyes and start walking towards the house. “You know, I really need a car.” I say to Lukas, who joins me.
“I need one too, it’d be so much more convenient to get around places. Only” He shoots me a lopsided grin. “I can’t drive. I’ve been around so long, that just the thought of one of those…....cars......mystifies me.”
I snort. “Mystifies you? Really?”
When we enter the house Mom is sitting on a stool, glaring at me. “The bus is coming up the street.” She informs me, her voice laced with suspicion.
“Thanks Mom!” I give her my brightest smile, pull on my boots and pick up my backpack. “Have a good day!” She gives me her meanest glare as I hurry out the door.
Lukas nods at her, he really doesn’t smile all that much, but I can’t help but notice he looks a little worried.
“Liv, have you seen Dillon at all today?” Mer appears next to me in the hallway, her eyebrows creased in concern.
“Why the sudden interest in Dillon? Are you two dating?” I tease.
Mer shakes her head, utterly serious. “Look at that.” She nods to the piles of ash that still fill the library, the cracked floors and wires hanging all over the place. “Dillon caused that. The day is half over and I haven’t seen him once. Doesn’t that worry you?”
I shrug as I exchange books for my next class. “I have chemistry with him.” I shudder. “I’ll see if he’s there.”
“Alright.” Mer says, clearly still worried. “See ya later.”
“Bye Mer!”
I hurry to chemistry and slide into my seat just before the bell rings. My lab partner, a girl named Ella, looks up and smiles at me. As the teacher, Mr. Burnes, begins his lecture I glance around the room. Dillon’s seat, over in the corner next to Tim Wilkins, is empty. So is Lukas’s at the front of the room. I frown. Tim looks relieved, but I feel worry settle into my stomach.
“Ella.” I whisper, leaning closer to her. She glances at me out of the corner of her eye but, keeps her pencil moving along the page in her notebook. “Have you seen Dillon today? Or Lukas for that matter?”
“No.” She whispers back. “Sorry.”
I try to pay attention to chemistry, and the different types of acids and bases we’re supposed to be combining, but my mind keeps wandering. Dillon skips classes all the time, but never this one. This is the last class of the day and if he is always here for this class, it won’t look like he’s been missing any classes. At least that’s what Mer says, and she’s known him for…..for…How long has she known him?
“Liv!” Ella’s panicked voice interrupts my thoughts. “Be careful where you pour that!”
I glance down and realize that I’m tipping the beaker of red liquid in my hand down towards the beaker of clear liquid. “Oops!” I quickly change directions, and the red liquid splashes into the blue liquid, turning it purple. A cloud of smoke erupts from the now purple liquid and Ella sighs in relief.
I banish Dillon from my mind and try to focus on chemistry for the rest of the class, but as soon as the last bell rings I’m on my feet and running out the door. I drop into a seat on the bus and wait for Mer, a sliver of suspicion in my mind.
As soon as Mer sits down, I turn urgently towards her. “Mer, how long have you known Dillon?”
Mer pulls out Moby Dick, the book we’re supposed to be reading in english, and looks up at me. “A long time.” She says simply.
“But how long?”
“Since…..elementary school maybe.”
“Really? Are you sure Mer? Because I need you to be absolutely sure. Think back to when you first saw him in one of your classes, or in the hall.”
Mer closes her eyes, thinking, then opens them again. “I don’t know!” She sounds afraid. “How can I not know?”
I lean around the seat to look at the person in front of me. “Tyler, how long have you known Dillon?”
Tyler shrugs. “Years man. Ah doesn't knows exackly when ah met him.” He says, his accent coming out. I try not to let it annoy me.
“But was it in elementary school, middle school, the beginning of highschool?”
Tyler frowns. “Ah doesn’t …..know. Thet’s weird.”
“Exactly.” I say.
Mer grabs my arm. “Ohmygosh Liv, why did you never ask Lukas what Dillon is!?”
“What he is?”
“You know” She lowers her voice. “Earthquakes, and fire balls and unnatural strength, and why he was interrogating us about the ghosts?”
“Oh my god, you’re right!” I gasp. It’s shocking. I don’t know why I wouldn’t have asked Lukas why Dillon can do what he does, especially after Lukas told me the whole truth.
The bus pulls to a halt in front of Mer’s house and she stands up. “Ask Luke about Dillon when you get home........or Bree.” She adds as an afterthought.
I seat-hop to the seat next to Tyler, as the bus starts off toward my house, and he leans toward me. “Who’s Bree? Is she hot?”
“She lives…..um…….near my house. She’s homeschooled. As for the second question, you’ll have to find that out for yourself on Saturday, at my Halloween party. You’re invited.” I hand him one of the invitations I’d been passing out all day, and stand up as the bus slows to a stop.
“Thank ya Liv!” Tyler calls as I jump off the bus, and head inside.
As soon as I get inside I head for the back door. Max finishes pouring a bowl of goldfish and hands it to me. “Thanks.” I say, and ruffle his hair. He gives me a huge smile before running off. I grin, because I know he gave it to me
only because he must already have had more than he’s supposed to.
I jog down the deck stairs, and head toward the cemetery. A tingling feeling runs down my spine, and I change course for Lukas’s hut. “Looking for me Li-i-iiivvvv?”
I freeze, and look up at Lukas, who appeared in front of me, in the middle of the path.. The way he drew out my name made me shudder, and the look on his face is odd, but I swallow and try to act normal. “Yeah, you going somewhere?”
He leans closer, his face inches away from mine. “Why were you looking for me?”
I take a step back, and fumble for an excuse. Then I remember what I told Mom earlier. “I was wondering if you were ready to work on our history project?” It’s a test. I’m not actually doing a project with Lukas, I’m doing it with Mer. So if he acts like we do have a project then either he’s so overwhelmed with projects he forgot we’re not doing it together or……..he’s not Lukas.
“No, sorry. I’m actually about to head to a friends house.” He sounds like a normal teenage boy, but Lukas isn’t a normal teenage boy. He’s not even a teenager. Or normal.
“Um, ok. I guess we’ll work on it tomorrow?”
“Sure.” He smiles at me, and then walks away.
As soon as he’s out of sight, I turn and sprint down the path to the cemetery. “Bree! What’s wrong with Lukas?”
Breanna is floating in the middle of the cemetery, arms crossed, a scowl on her face. “I have no idea, but isn’t he supposed to teach you fighting today? Cuz I came to watch.”
“Breanna this is serious. You know my history project?”
“The one you’re doing with Voodoo Girl?”
“Yeah. Well, you know how I use it as an excuse for coming here all the time?” She nods. “So I pretended it was a real project and asked if he wanted to work on it, and he said tomorrow.”
“Maybe he just thought it was code for ‘let’s train’ or ‘let’s talk supernatural’.”
“He said he was ‘about to head to a friends house.’ Luke doesn’t have any friends besides you, me, and Mer. He was already at my house, and yours technically, and he would have told me if he were going to Mer’s…..or Mer would have told me.” I add, remembering Mer’s ridiculous comments about him liking me.
“Luke has lots of friends!” Breanna protests.
“Lots of ghost friends, but there was no one around. If he was going to see a ghost he would’ve told me.”
“So, what? You’re just going to forfeit weapons training today?”
“You could train me. We were going to practice swords today.”
“I don’t know how to use a sword, much less teach someone else to!”
“You just have to fight me.”
“The only way I can hold a real sword is if I levitate it, and that wouldn’t be a fair fight. So you want me to practice bare hands against sword?”
“Fine. We’ll do bare hands, but no powers.”
“No way I am I- a person with no substance- fighting you without my ghost abilities.” I roll my eyes.
“How about if we sort of...act it out?”
“Fine.”
We start to circle each other and I lunge at Breanna, spinning and aiming a roundhouse kick at her head. My foot passes through her neck, but it would have been a solid hit if she had substance. Her fist flies out and I duck, then I dart around behind her and jab at the backs of her knees. She humors me and drops to the ground, then rolls to the side and kicks out at my ankles. Knowing full well that if a solid person had kicked at my ankle, my feet would have been swept out from under me, I fall to the ground. She swings her foot out and catches me in the stomach, and I pretend to gasp for air. She pins me down, fists on my shoulders, and I knee her in the stomach. She pretends to double over, and gasp, and I grab her shoulder and roll. I come out on top, and press my elbow against her throat (or I would if she weren’t a ghost.) Without a lot of options, she simply goes limp and holds up her hands.
“Alright Liv, we get it. Lukas taught you well. Can we work on the things I can actually teach you now?”
I jump up and dust off my clothes. “Sure.”
She stands up too. “Let’s work on flying.”
I frown. “But we’re working on invisibility.”
She sighs. “You seem to be having trouble turning other people and objects invisible along with yourself, unlike with Phasing, that seemed to be second nature for you. Since this is harder for you, I think it would be better if you took a break from it, and I am the teacher after all.”
“Ok….” Well, I do want to learn to fly. “What should I do?”
“Well” She grins evilly. “I always tell you to imagine yourself as nothing, or invisible, but to fly you need to be aerodynamic, you need to learn the motions. So I was thinking a more….hands on approach.”
I groan. A ‘hands on’ approach with Breanna means “Walk through that wall Liv.” Or “Walk through the mall invisible Liv.” Risky stuff. “What sort of ‘hands on approach’?”
“You see that mausoleum?” She points at a beautiful mausoleum with raised lines crisscrossing the surface, making it look easy to climb. “Climb it, then jump off.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“Go!”
I sigh. “If I break a bone you are explaining it to my parents.”
I grab the first line and pull myself up. After that it’s easy. I climb the rest of the way up to the top, then look down at Breanna. “Anytime now!” She calls up to me.
I take a deep breath. I wish I’m as good at using my gifts as I am at fighting. Maybe I was actually meant to be a guard. After all, so far I’ve only displayed the ability to use two gifts. I release the breath, and jump. I feel the air whistling around my face as I fall, and my heart pounding. This is it. I never thought I would go this way. Especially not after finding out about my gifts.
I come to an abrupt halt, and take huge, gasping breaths before I open my eyes. I’m hovering in the air, only a few feet above the ground. I look down at Breanna who is grinning. “How do I fly?” I call.
“I told you, hands on experience!” I roll my eyes, then try to think. Bree said I need to learn the motions, so maybe……
I kick my legs and rise up into the air a little. Trying to suppress a grin, I press my legs together, and kick downwards. I rocket into the air and past the tops of the trees surrounding the cemetery. I straighten my legs and instantly stop. When I look down at the statues, and headstones, they are the size of accessories you might see in a doll house.
Breanna joins me and I smile at her. “I told you, hands on.” This time I laugh.
“Great, so how do I move around?”
“Just tilt your body in the direction you want to go.” She demonstrates by turning her shoulders right, and sailing off that way.
I try to copy her and I sort of drift right, but I’m wobbly and floating down a little. She laughs. “You’ll get the hang of it.”
We practiced flying some more but it soon became clear that I’d made all the progress I was going to make today. We’re working on invisibility, and Breanna has me trying to turn myself and a stack of textbooks invisible at the same time when a voice shouts “What is going on here!?”
My concentration wavers, and my image and the image of the books flicker. I am so startled that I drop the books. In a panic I Phase my feet, and the books fall through them. I look up to meet Lukas’ fierce black gaze, then look back down at my feet waiting for him to make a joke or a comment. His eyebrows raise when his gaze lands on the books sitting inside my feet, and he scowls.
It’s clear he’s still waiting for an answer so I take a deep breath and say “We’re training. I would have been doing fighting skills with you if you hadn’t skipped.”
His voice is dangerously calm when he says “And who exactly gave you permission to ‘train’?” I start to answer but he wasn’t done. “And why are you helping her with it?” He stabs a finger at Breanna, and closes the distance between the
m until he’s right it front of her. “Why would a ghost want to help a Halfling train?”
Judging by what I’ve been told, there are plenty of reasons why ghosts would help Halflings, and I’ve gotten so fed up with Lukas-Who’s-Not-Lukas that I’m about to state them for him, but Bree steps in. “I’m helping her because you asked me to. We’re training because you wanted us to. Are you feeling ok, Luke?”
She surprises me. I thought she was only doing this for Lukas and would run at the first sign of trouble. I didn’t realize she was so brave.
His features relax, and I wonder if he’s doing it to keep up the act. “Fine.” He says smoothly, all hints of a raging psycho gone. “Now anyway. I don’t want these training sessions to continue any longer.”
Breanna looks shocked and worried at the same time, but doesn’t say a word. Now it’s my turn to play the part. “But Luke, you wanted us to do them. You said they were necessary to make me stronger. Are you sure you’re ok?” I take a step closer to him, acting like a concerned friend, which isn’t hard, considering I am. “Maybe you should go lie down.” I reach for his arm and just like that, his expression changes.
His hand fly out and grabs my wrist, locking my arm in place. A startled gasp escapes me, as his hand tightens and I hear a faint crack. “You aren’t to train anymore. Don’t let me catch you doing it or there will be consequences.”
He lets go of my wrist and I fall back into a headstone, so startled that this time, I don’t even try to demolecularize. I look around and realize Breanna has disappeared. So much for her bravery. I struggle to my feet, and run my hand along my lower back wincing, as I hurry to the entrance of the cemetery.
Lukas hurries up the trail and as he goes I realize the boy I’ve come to know and trust, the boy I talked to this morning, is gone.
Seventh (The Hafling Chronicles Book 1) Page 7
