by Dawn Jansen
I tried getting Frankie to snoop around in her head and find some intel that I could use to help me seduce her, but he said that ever since she took the psychic defense class, it’d be impossible to go into her mind without her realizing it was him. So I’ve had to rely on the old-fashioned approach, which hasn’t even gotten me to first base yet. The only thing keeping me going is my frequent fantasies about how totally boss it’s gonna be when I finally do score with her; she’ll easily join the ranks of my top five lays, and then I can finally move on to acing the Test and graduating from this suck shack.
I have to hand it to her though; one week in and she’s already getting invited to parties. The perks of being the hottest girl at the Academy, I guess. She mentioned Rush was the one who invited her, so I guess that’s another name I have to add to my growing list of rivals.
Rush is pretty cool for a jock. Aside from being able to smash the shit out of anything he runs into, he can also get us alcohol, which is officially banned at the Academy. Fortunately for us, however, Rush is sleeping with Ms. Tuttle, who doesn’t mind bending the rules for her favorite student and smuggling some alcohol in. I heard Rush joined the Academy before he had a chance to attend college, but nonetheless he’s your textbook frat boy through and through. He doesn’t seem like Mazzy’s type, but weirder things have happened, so I’ll try to make sure they don’t get too close tonight.
I’m headed to the cafeteria now, where I’m about to chow down some dinner before going back to my room to get ready for the big night. I’ll be aiming for third base, but second would suffice.
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It’s almost ten o’clock when I see Mazzy approaching from far away.
I’m standing by the outdoor archery range, cloaked in the comforting shadow of a big oak tree where we agreed to meet. It’s a warm July evening. The nearby Atlantic is blowing a cool, oceanic breeze across the mansion grounds and the grass is faintly illuminated by the full moon.
Blood surges to my nether regions as Mazzy’s form draws closer and I can make out more and more details of her perfect bod. I’ve abstained from any kind of sexual activity for more than a week, and now even the contour of Mazzy’s shapely legs is enough to make my pants tight around the crotch. She’s ditched the Academy sweater in favor of a white buttoned shirt and a pleated skirt. Once she’s up close I can see the buttons of her shirt straining to keep her breasts contained, stretching the fabric to its limit, and I can make out the lace of a red bra in the openings between the buttons. What gets me going the most, however, is that she’s done her hair up in pigtails, bringing the whole schoolgirl look to perfection.
“You might be the first girl to ever make me wait on a date, Blondie,” I say to her.
“Who said this is a date?” she replies, smiling.
“Do we really have to get caught up in semantics? I’m just glad I get to see you cut loose finally,” I say as we begin making our way to the lake, treading across the archery range away from the mansion.
“I know,” she says with a sigh. “I’m surprised I made it this far. I need to congratulate myself.”
“I heard you had your evaluation. Pretty creepy, huh? How they keep track of all of us so closely?”
“The Architect is a very... interesting woman,” Mazzy says.
“Yeah. Worst part is, once we graduate, she goes from being your dean to being your boss. There’s no escaping her, really.”
“What’s with the pink hair anyway? Did she used to be in a punk band or something?”
“Beats me. I’ve heard enough rumors about her to fill a barrel, and I don’t think I believe any of them. So what’s up with you and Rush? You guys pretty close?” I ask.
Mazzy lets out a big laugh in reply, which catches me off guard. “I didn’t think you were capable of jealousy, Tristan.”
“How’s that jealousy?” I say, my face turning red. “It’s just you guys seem like two opposite ends of the spectrum.”
“I dunno. I think he just wants to get in my pants.”
“You dumb broad,” I feel like saying to her, “of course he wants to get in your pants. Every guy in the Academy does.” Luckily for me, Mazzy’s not a psychic, or she’d probably slap me for having that thought.
“What about you?” she asks. “I hear you’re quite the Lothario.”
Usually that’s a point of pride for me, but for some reason I don’t want Mazzy to think that way about me. “That’s just talk,” I tell her. “Nobody here knows the real me. They just see what they want to.”
“Who is the real you then?” Mazzy asks, tilting her head to look up at me.
“Yo, Mazzy!” somebody calls out from up ahead, interrupting our conversation.
Crash comes running over and takes Mazzy by the arm.
“Tristan,” Crash says, throwing me a quick wink.
We make our way over to the edge of the lake, where there are about two dozen students mingling. There are little student gatherings like this every now and then at the Academy, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with so many people. Not only are Rush and his usual crew assembled, but Crash has brought some of her weirdo friends too. It’s pretty happening, and I wonder if this is Mazzy’s first taste of how wild the students here can get. There’s a menage making out by a big pine tree that have already started removing some of their clothes, and there’s another group skinny dipping nearby that look to be getting pretty touchy with each other too.
Rush comes over and hands two cans of beer to me and Mazzy.
“Surprised you came, Maz,” Rush says jovially.
“Maz”? He calls her Maz? I get that weird feeling that somebody you like has a secret life that you know nothing about.
“This is pretty rad,” Mazzy says, popping open her beer.
Right after she says that, somebody turns on a boombox and Billy Joel starts blasting.
“I’m not saying Billy Joel doesn’t rock,” I tell Rush over the music, “but are you sure this is a good idea? If we get caught with alcohol out here, we’re all in deep shit.”
“Relax, numbnuts,” Rush says, patting me hard on the shoulder. I catch the alcohol on his breath. “I happen to know they’re running a big mission out in Pakistan or some shit tonight. The last thing they’re gonna do is come check on us out here.”
We go join a big group of people who are drinking closer to the lake. They’re all pretty wasted and they’re cracking up at a show the Puppeteer is putting on. He’s a student who can order inanimate objects to do his bidding, and he currently has a few empty beer cans doing slapstick comedy for everybody. Nearby, Hemorrhage—who can control and make weapons out of his own blood—is seeing if his blood shield can withstand fire blasts from Scarlet, a pyromancer. Other people are placing bets on what things Rush can try to ram into. Basically, everybody’s getting wild.
I’m relieved to see that Rush seems to care more about his frat boy antics than trying to hit on Mazzy, who has stayed near me the whole night so far. After only one drink, both of us are feeling pretty loose, which I guess is natural when you drink as rarely as we do.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel somebody pinch me from behind. Turning around, I see it’s Medusa, a student with incredibly strong, prehensile hair.
“Tristan!” she squeals excitedly.
This isn’t good. I was halfheartedly pursuing Medusa before Mazzy came to the Academy, and I’m worried about what she’s going to say in front of Mazzy. Times like these are when you need a wingman, but I’ve always preferred to fly solo, so I’m gonna have to handle this on my own.
“Why’d you stand me up last week, you big hunk?” she says, punching me in the arm. I can tell she’s already had a few drinks.
“Medusa, I didn’t expect to see you here,” I say, trying to avoid her question altogether. “This is Mazzy.”
Medusa shakes Mazzy’s hand. “Be careful around him,” she says to Mazzy jokingly. “He’s a heart-breaker.” After that she gives a
loud chuckle and turns back to me. “Let’s put the past behind us, Tristan.” She says, stepping closer to me and batting her eyelashes. “I’ll forgive you for disappearing You can do all the things you said you wanted to do to me...”
Not good. I have to get Medusa away from us or she’s gonna give Mazzy the wrong idea.
But it’s already too late.
“You know what?” Mazzy suddenly says in a serious tone of voice, “I better leave you guys alone. Nice meeting you,” she says to Medusa, and then abruptly turns around and charges off.
Yeah, a wingman would have been nice...
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Once I manage to pawn Medusa off onto another guy, I look around, but don’t see Mazzy anywhere. The thought that she might have gone back to her room, leaving me with no chance to explain myself to her, fills me with an anxiety that I’ve never felt before. I’ve been anxious about things that happening to me before, but this time I can tell I’m anxious because I don’t want Mazzy to feel hurt.
The party is really in full swing now, and nearly half the people have their clothes off. Crash is making out in the water with Scarlet, something which I’d normally want to watch (or join in on), but all I can think about is finding Mazzy now.
I look around everywhere, dodging stray beer cans hurled through the air and staggering EMPs, until I finally spot Mazzy. She’s off a couple yards away from everybody else, sitting on her own beneath an elm tree. I take a deep breath and start walking toward her.
At first she’s startled when I show up beside her, but she quickly realizes it’s me. The noise of the party—the music and the cheering—seems so far away from here.
“What are you doing all the way over here?” I ask, trying to hide my excitement at having found her.
“Just chilling,” she says plainly. “I haven’t drunk in a long time and I chugged that beer pretty fast, so I’m taking a break.”
“Mind if I join you?” I ask.
“Are you sure ‘Medusa’ won’t miss you?” she asks back. “Shouldn’t you be accompanying her? Or did you just need a quickie?”
“You didn’t take her seriously, did you? She’s wasted. There isn’t anything between her and I.”
“I don’t care,” she says with a huff. “It’s not like we’re dating or something.”
“What if we were?”
I have no idea why I just said that—it goes against everything I’ve ever known about myself—but it just suddenly came out of me.
Mazzy looks just as shocked as I am.
“Look, I know you probably think this is just one of my tactics, but I have to get this off my chest...” I say, and then take a deep breath before continuing. “You mean a lot to me. And I can’t keep pretending that you’re just like all the other girls I’ve tried to get with.”
Both her and I are quiet for a while. I still can’t believe what I just said, and Mazzy is just looking at me.
“You sure this isn’t one of your tactics? Cause that would be pretty impressive,” she says, but I can tell she’s being playful now. I sit down next to her in the grass beneath the dark elm tree.
“The scary thing is,” I say, “is that I couldn’t make this up even if I wanted to. I’m still trying to figure this out myself. I’ve never felt this way before.”
It feels good to just be totally honest with Mazzy. Even I hadn’t realized these feelings have been building up these past few days, growing stronger every time I walk with Mazzy in the hall or have dinner with her, and now that I’m finally expressing them, I feel like I’ve just shaken off a pair of heavy shackles.
“So if I’m not like ‘all the other girls,’ what am I?” she asks, tilting her head at me.
“You’re somebody that I can be myself around,” I say, and then reach out to grab her hand.
Unlike in the past, I’m not going through a series of routines to try and get Mazzy into bed with me; I’m just being present with her, in this moment. The warmth of her skin melds with the heat of my own body, and even though we’re just holding hands, I feel closer to her than any of the other partners I’ve been with in my life.
“There’s something about you, Tristan,” she says. “Something that makes you so easy to trust. When you’re being sincere, I mean.”
She smiles and bites her lip, and I find myself automatically imagining what those lips would feel like against my own.
“We must look like a couple of grade-schoolers,” I say. “Holding hands under the school tree.”
Mazzy laughs. “I wouldn’t know. I never had that kind of childhood... What about you? What was little Tristan like?”
“We shouldn’t talk about that,” I say. “It’d ruin the mood.”
I’ve never told anybody at the Academy about my past.
“I don’t mind,” Mazzy says. “Maybe I can relate. I don’t know who my parents are. I bounced around foster homes until I was 16 and I’ve been on my own ever since. Not exactly an idyllic childhood. What about you?”
“I knew my parents, but they died when I was five,” I say. I’m surprised how easily the words come out. I’m usually so guarded about this aspect of my life, but I want to share it with Mazzy.
“I’m sorry...” Mazzy says, stroking my hand with her thumb.
“That’s how I discovered my power, actually,” I tell her, looking out into the distance as I remember that day. “It was a home invasion. Totally senseless. I hid under the bed, where it was all shadows, cowering while they killed my parents. At some point as they were going through the house, my breathing was too heavy and they noticed me underneath the bed, and that’s when I just... disappeared into the shadows. All I knew then was that I had to get away. I wanted to conceal myself from them completely, and the next thing I know, I was plunged into the shadow realm.”
“What was it like?” Mazzy asks, her voice bringing me back to reality.
“It was terrifying. The shadow realm is a weird place. I understand it now, and I love being in there, but my first time I had no idea what had happened...”
Mazzy and I are both quiet for a while, but our silence is punctuated by the distant sounds of music and revelry near the lake.
“Is it true?” Mazzy suddenly asks. “That you might be able to bring somebody with you into the shadow realm?”
“Mr. Heaton thinks it should be possible... Why? You wanna try?”
Mazzy seems delighted at the idea. She perks up.
“I do, but... didn’t he also say you would need an emotional connection with the person you try to bring?” Then she’s quiet for a while before adding, “Do we have an emotional connection, Tristan?”
I’d have to be as thick as Gate to not get the signals Mazzy is sending me. I didn’t even notice, but this whole time the both of us have been inching closer to one another, and now our faces are only separated by a few inches.
I make the first move, closing the distance between us. When our lips first touch, sparks travel through my whole body, sending a tingling sensation not only to my groin, but throughout every nerve ending I have. With our lips pressed together, I take in Mazzy’s full scent and feel her soft blond hair caressing my own cheeks as we lean deeper into our kiss. As she presses forward, she places one hand on my thigh for support, perilously close to my crotch. A surge of blood pools into my eager cock in reaction to her touch, thickening the shaft in my pants.
Just as I reach for Mazzy’s shirt to begin undoing the buttons, a shrill whistle from the direction of the mansion cuts across the air, followed by the sound of barking dogs.
It’s the Academy guards. I knew Rush and his idiot friends shouldn’t have been partying so loud.
Mazzy and I immediately break off our kiss as panic spreads among the students at the lake. The flashlights of the guards are moving closer toward us. Everybody starts running, but they’ve got dogs and probably some teachers have tagged along as well, so escape is highly unlikely.
“Looks like we’re officia
lly boned,” I say, knowing there’s gonna be a serious punishment for everybody they catch out here.
“Maybe we should split up?” Mazzy says, but when I hear the fear in her voice, something clicks inside me.
“No,” I say, grabbing both of her hands, “there’s a way. Come with me... into the shadow realm.”
Mazzy looks at me somewhat bewildered for a second. The guards are just about at the lake now, though—there’s no time to hesitate.
“Do you trust me?” I ask Mazzy, looking straight into her eyes.
“Yes,” she replies. There’s still some fear in her eyes, but I can tell she really does trust me.
I don’t know how this should work, but I hold on to Mazzy tight and think about how much I don’t want to lose her—how much I want her to stay safe with me—and if these emotions are strong enough, maybe they’ll be able to carry us both through.
Right as a guard reaches the other side of our tree, I go for the plunge, praying that Mazzy gets taken with me.
Chapter 9
Mazzy
I don’t know why I held my breath. I guess I thought entering the shadow realm would be like diving into a pool.
Well, that’s a lie actually. The truth is that I didn’t expect it to work at all. Mr. Heaton is the director of powers research at the Academy, so one would assume he knows his stuff, and he said if Tristan were able to bring someone with him into the shadow realm, it would have to be somebody closely connected to him on an emotional level. And even though Tristan has been slowly growing on me this past week, I guess I just didn’t expect us to have such a strong connection by now.
Just as the guards were drawing in on us—I could hear their shouts and the growling of the guard dogs getting closer—it felt like the ground suddenly disappeared beneath me, and I found myself falling downward. All I could do was hold on to Tristan as tightly as possible.
The shadow realm is—as one would imagine—incredibly dark, nearly pitch black in fact. I think for a moment how horrifying it must have been for five-year-old Tristan to suddenly enter this place without having any idea what was happening. It’s already scary for me, and I was somewhat prepared for it even. And on top of that, I have a guide: Mr. Shadowwalker himself, Tristan.
