She hadn’t always gone to this school. Her parents couldn’t afford a private school. She went to the local district school of West End until…
Back then her life was simple. She always relied on a few things: spring always followed winter, the sun would rise every morning, and her parents loved her and would always be there.
The memory of the day everything changed flooded her mind, drowning her all over again. The day they told her that her parents were dead. Her world had shattered like a glass orb, nothing reflecting as it should anymore, and she had slipped into the dark cracks between the pieces. Spring might always follow winter, but her sun had never come up again.
Her knuckles went white as she gripped the gates.
“What’s wrong?” Israel asked.
“This place.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
She could sense Israel’s eyes on her. “You don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to. I could go in and get the globe while you wait here.”
The kindness of his offer dislodged more stupid feelings and the backs of her eyes prickled. She shook her head, trying to stamp all these cursed emotions down. “No. I’m fine. I just…” She sucked in a breath and raised her eyes to the monstrous stone building and the memories waiting for her beyond these gates. She would not let them win. “Let’s go.”
She let go of the bars and was startled when the gates swung open with a low creak as if invisible hands were moving it.
As they walked the long silent driveway she found something inside her loosening. She had never told anyone about her experiences at this place after she’d left. Not even Elysia who had remained her friend at the public school, only seeing each other when she snuck off of school grounds.
“After my parents died, I was left to my uncle’s care, my mother’s older brother. He didn’t know how to raise a child.” It was obvious that he preferred the steady logic of business and numbers rather than the maddening chaos of a family, especially one thrust upon him. “After the funeral he sent me here where I lived as a boarder. I don’t blame him. Well, I did,” she admitted. “But I know now it had been the best he could do.”
“Were the students horrible?”
She shrugged. “It was like any high school, I guess. The popular clique, the bullies, but most of them were okay. The teachers were worse.”
“The teachers?”
“Ms. Bezebel. She was my English teacher and my boarding mistress.” She shivered at the image of a stern-faced matron with deep scowl lines and a stern, boyish haircut, hovering over her. “She told me once that my parents died because God was punishing them for some sin they must have transgressed.”
Israel made a rude noise in his throat. “What a bi— I mean, what a horrible cow. I hope karma got her.”
Alyx sent a sly smile over to him. “I poured glue over her chair. She was stuck to it for hours.”
He let out a laugh. “You didn’t!”
“I did.”
“I would have liked to have seen that.”
“She was determined to see me expelled. Constantly hovering over me and searching my bags for illegal books whenever she got the chance.”
“Illegal books?”
She nodded. “Somewhere in the school’s history someone had decreed that all stories and fiction were a waste of time. That children were better off learning than getting lost in books about magic and adventure. So stories were contraband. We had a tiny library containing only textbooks and non-fiction.”
“What a horrible place,” he said, echoing the sentiment in her heart.
“I still read them though.” It had been her only form of rebellion. Mr. Brown’s face appeared in her mind; ruddy cheeks and earthy eyes. “Mr. Brown, one of the librarians, smuggled books to me. After he’d finished reading them.” Books on faraway places where demons existed and magic ruled the lands and warrior-like angels fought against evil. Books that had been the only reason she survived these dark years.
“How did you not get caught?”
She couldn’t help the tiniest of smiles. “I sowed a secret pocket into the bottom of my school bag. I kept any illegal books in there.”
She stared up at the building looming up above her as they neared, the familiar feelings crushing down on her. Here she had learned to swallow everything down. All the pain, all her loneliness, and the feeling of being adrift, of having no one left in this world to hold on to. She had fought against every instinct inside her to stand up against the school’s outdated rules and dictatorial style of teaching. Instead she withdrew, she become invisible, she stopped speaking up. Somewhere along the way, it seemed she had swallowed her own voice.
Israel covered her hand with his and she was startled out of her thoughts. He gave her fingers a quick squeeze. It’s okay. I’m here, his gesture seemed to say. Relief flooded through her and the vice around her chest and shoulders released. She was older now. She had moved on from school. This place, her past, didn’t have to own her.
She glanced over to him. He smiled at her and she found herself giving him a small smile back. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He let out a wistful sigh. “I am kinda amazing.”
She snorted. “Cocky much?”
He raised a suggestive eyebrow.
Her cheeks flamed as she realized what she had said and what it had sounded like and the way he was looking at her like she had been thinking about his c— “Oh God, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Oh yes you did.”
Her attention was caught by something so odd she forgot her embarrassment. “That was never there when I went to school.”
There was a wooden structure nestled in the trees. She pushed her way through the bushes to it, Israel behind her.
The floor of the structure was a flat platform made entirely out of wood, the ground layered in thick brown mats, spongy under her shoes. Its wooden roof was held up by four pillars, and thick vines with tiny violet flowers curled around the structure as if they were part of it. From some of the beams hung large boxing bags the color of dried meat.
“What do you think this is?” Israel asked.
Alyx traced a finger across the glass shielding a case filled with weapons—real-looking weapons. She peered closer, her nose almost to the glass. There were blades, swords and knives in there that seemed to shimmer. She had never seen weapons like these before, in her studies, at work, or otherwise. “It looks like some kind of…training area…”
“Concentrate, Alyx.”
Underneath the darkness of her blindfold, Alyx held on to her swords and waited. She placed the position of four warriors around her by their breathing and the way the material of their clothes rustled when they shifted.
She felt the shift of air on the back of her neck. She ducked as something whistled past her head and twirled around, her sword an extension of her arm, and smacked her attacker aside. In the same breath she kicked out and slammed her foot into the stomach of another.
She blinked and the memory was gone. What the hell was that?
“Alyx…what do you think that is for?”
She spun and found Israel pointing up to the roof. She lifted her gaze up. Across the entire ceiling was a chaotic web of silk ropes.
“It looks to be some kind of obstacle course,” she said. “But why would it be up there?” She let out a nervous laugh as something tickled the ends of her memory. “You could only use it if you could…” fly.
An arena, a voice inside her whispered. My favorite.
She shook her head and cleared her throat. This place was unnerving her. Something rustled in the nearby bushes, snapping her attention to it. “Did you hear that?” she whispered, her eyes scanning the area for signs of an ambush.
Israel nodded. “We should keep moving.”
With their swords out, they pushed through the bushes and back to the driveway before running to the front entrance, a giant wooden door with black iron studs and a wooden mermaid figurehead stickin
g out from the top of the frame like on the prow of a ship. Under the iron door handle there was a brass key dulled from age just sitting there in the lock. Israel stood back to back with her, keeping an eye out as she turned the key, unlocking it with a loud click.
Inside the main school building the lobby was an open atrium spanning up the three stories, branching out into several hallways and winding staircases. In the ceiling above them was a mosaic stained glass skylight that let in hues of red, yellow and orange, which always reminded Alyx of a setting sun.
“This looks like a big place. Where do you think the globe is?” Israel asked.
Alyx ran over the riddle again. “In a place of memories old, of distant lands and lessons told… The history classroom.”
He nodded. “Lead the way.”
She led him up the stairs to the third floor and down a corridor, all the while expecting her memories to step out in the flesh, lashing out with old taunts, reopening old wounds. But everything remained silent except for the clack of their boots and her heart thudding in her ears. It was just an empty school with empty rooms and empty halls.
Finally she stopped in front of a classroom door, one that she knew well. History had been her favorite class. She turned the door handle, pushed open the door and stepped—
“Wait!” Israel grabbed her and pulled her back.
Her stomach dropped when she looked down at where she’d been about to place her foot. Gnarled tree branches had smashed through the floors and the classroom gaped open, dropping down all three levels into what looked like a forest floor below. The carpet hung like rags over the edges where the floor had broken away. Only a few students’ tables and chairs remained perched on sections of the remaining floor. It was as if two worlds had crashed together. “What the hell?”
Israel pointed to the head of the class. “Look.”
There, upon the remaining teacher’s desk was an antique world globe in a stand of brass. A world within a globe.
“That’s our globe.” Alyx glanced around at the room. “I think I can see a way to climb around to get to the table.”
She made to move but Israel placed a hand on her arm, stopping her. “I’ll go.”
She pulled out of his grasp, tension growing between her brows. “I’ll have you know I am very good at climbing trees.”
“I’m sure you are. But that’s not why I’m offering.”
“Then why—?”
“If I fall, I wake up in the real world, if you fall…” His face screwed up. “I couldn’t live with myself if you fell. Let me go.”
Alyx opened her mouth. Then shut it, a small knot forming at the base of her tongue. She cleared her throat. “Okay. But be careful.”
He gave her a half-smile that made her stomach flip. “I’ll be back here with the globe before you know it.”
She watched from the open doorway, her nerves pulling tighter and tighter, as Israel began to make his way across the room, sidestepping along sections of remaining floor and climbing across jutting branches. Every time he jumped, her heart did too.
Finally he stood on a branch that reached out past the left side of the teacher’s table. This was the only way he could get the globe. He grabbed a branch above him and reached out with his other arm. His fingers missed the globe by inches.
“Just a little farther,” she called.
“I’m trying.” Israel reached out again, closer, but he still missed.
“You just need to stretch out a little more. Stretch.”
He readjusted his grip on the branch above and leaned out across the table, his fingers reaching…
The front leg of the table slipped across the edge of the flooring. “Israel, watch out!”
His fingers brushed the globe just as the table toppled over. The globe slid out of his reach. Israel let out a cry as his foot slipped out from under him. The table and the globe crashed down into the depths of the forest floor, cracking and ricocheting off branches as they fell. Israel hung by one hand from the branch, swinging.
“Oh my God, Israel!” Her stomach twisted into tight, painful knots. What could she do? There was nothing she could do from here. But she could see the path to get to him, to help pull him up to safety. If he could just hang on…
“I’m coming. You better not fall, damn you!” She scrambled to make her way over to him. He couldn’t fall. He couldn’t. She couldn’t lose him. She needed him to make her smile, to take charge when she wasn’t sure what to do, to squeeze her hand to remind her that he was by her side. She didn’t think she could escape this place without him.
“Alyx,” Israel’s voice sounded strained, and the panic in her stomach grew wings and began to flutter violently about, “I don’t know if I can hang on much longer.”
“Don’t you dare let go. I need you.”
“What?”
“I said I need you, dammit,” she cried, her voice cracking. Tears blurred her eyes as she reached for another branch.
Israel began to laugh.
Laugh? He was laughing at a time like this?
She turned her head to look at him, still hanging by his fingers. Maybe he’d gone mad from fear? “Why are you laughing?”
“Alyx, I’m okay. See?” With extraordinary strength, he swung his feet out onto a stable branch.
“You…”
He grinned at her. “I just wanted to hear you admit that you need me.”
Alyx spluttered. She gritted her teeth and continued to make her way towards him. “Stay right there. I’m coming to push you off the branch.”
“You can’t do that. You need me, remember?”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
He stared down into the void. “We’ve lost the globe.”
“We? You mean you.”
“I mean ‘we’. We’re a team, Alyx.”
“Okay, so what are we going to do about it?”
“I’ll climb down after it. I’ll grab it from the ground floor and I’ll meet you at the entrance.” He began to climb down the tree.
“I’m coming too.” She thought she could see a way down from here.
“No, you’re not.”
She snorted as she reached out for a handhold and lowered herself down the tree. “You just said that we are a team. Well, this team is retrieving the globe together.”
“I don’t think you realize how far down it is.”
“I don’t think you realize how good I am at climbing down trees.”
“God, you’re stubborn, aren’t you?” She heard amidst the rustling of leaves. But she could swear she heard pride in his voice.
Alyx clambered off the branches and onto the second floor. The tree she had been climbing down turned into a smooth trunk so she would have to find another way down from here.
The second floor classroom was as thickly overgrown as the third floor had been, only sections of this old classroom looking reasonably intact. If she remembered right, this was the old Spanish classroom. She picked her way around the second floor classroom. She couldn’t see or hear Israel climbing down anymore so he must have reached the ground floor already.
There was a rustle from above. She froze, her heart slamming into her throat and her hand going to her hip. Two figures fell, God knows from where, into the bushy section in front of her. She unsheathed her sword. This would be a very good time for her to remember how to use the damn thing.
Leaves rustled. “Get off me,” a curt female voice called out from within.
There was a male groan. “I landed on something.”
“Yeah, me!”
“I think I broke something.”
“I’ll break more of you if you don’t get. Off. Me. Now.”
There was a snort and more rustling. “Relax, I’m getting off. Geez, who put a snapper demon in your underwear?”
“It’s just your pleasant company, my dear Balthazar. It’s enough to make any day hellish.”
What was going on?
The two of them stood up, brushin
g off leaves and sticks from their clothes. She was a tall, lean yet muscular woman with piercing sapphire eyes set into a pale pixie face and a shock of blonde hair so light it looked almost silver. She was wearing a black leather jacket and black pants like Alyx was.
The male was chocolate-skinned with a prominent nose and thick dark hair, wearing jeans and a brown bomber jacket. She couldn’t help the sense that she…knew them somehow.
“Who are you?” Alyx demanded, her sword pointed between these two strangers.
The woman grinned. “God, I’ve missed you, Alyx.” She gave Alyx a once-over. “Look at you. Still the same kickass, sword-wielding—”
“Er,” the male frowned at Alyx. He turned to his companion. “Does she know she’s holding her sword wrong?”
“Shush.” She glared at him. “She’ll soon figure it out.”
Alyx took a hard swallow. She was holding it wrong? She shifted her grip on her sword but she kept it pointed at the strangers, trying to appear as confident as she could. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”
The two gave each other a look that Alyx couldn’t decipher. “The Elder sent us,” she said. “We’re here to help. I’m Vix. And this is Balthazar.”
“The Elder?” The image of the stone dragon came to her mind. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine.”
“Just a bit crumbly,” said Balthazar.
Vix rolled her eyes. “Ignore him.”
“You’re here to help us get through the city?” Alyx’s heart lifted with hope. With more help, her chance of escaping increased.
Vix gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry. We can’t actually stay long.”
“Yeah, it’s costing Jordan lots of energy to even get us in here,” said Balthazar.
“Who’s Jordan?” Alyx asked.
“Really? I would have thought maybe you’d have remembered at least a little bit of Jordan considering that you and he used to—”
“Stop getting off topic.” Vix let out an exasperated sound. “You’re just confusing her.”
“I’m not confusing her.”
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 262
