by Jamie Gray
Mr. Seaton, the school principal stood before her, his office door slammed closed behind him. “Ms. Danvers,” was all he said, before waving his hand for her to follow him into his office. A part of her wanted to mock him, bring a smile back to her face, but she knew she would only be digging a deeper grave for herself. Before she followed him, she took one last glance out the window. As her gaze landed on the tree, her heart dropped. The silhouette was gone. There was barely even a shadow to be seen from her position. She swallowed hard and, with a straight spine and shaky hands, she stiffly walked into Mr. Seatons office.
He told her to sit in the chair across from his desk, and with her limbs still quivering from what she saw, she plopped into the cushioned chair. Mr. Seaton went on to talk about all sorts of things, mostly about how she hadn’t been showing up to school, but most of his words flew straight through her head as she listened to none of it. Fear pumped blood through her heart, as she debated checking the window again after she was allowed to leave. If she saw that silhouette under that tree again, she had no idea what she'd do.
Suddenly the door behind her burst open, revealing Adrian. His face was bright red as he wiped his cheeks and sucked the snot from his nose.
Mr. Seaton practically leaped from his chair, his face fuming. “Mr. Miller, what on Earth are you doing?!”
“Forgive me, Mr. Seaton, but I have terrible news.” Adrian was doing one of his bits, she was sure of it. She’d seen him do it a million times before, and by now she figured she could spot it a mile away.
Their principle sighed, but allowed him to continue. “What? What’s wrong?”
Adrian pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ve just received a text from Lexi’s mother, saying her dog has just died, and that she must come home immediately.”
Lexi pretended to be surprised as she dropped her jaw. Softening her eyes as she acted as though tears were on the horizon. She had never once owned a dog. “Oh no, not… Ralph.”
“Yes, Ralph,” Adrian sighed, frowning mournfully as he nodded.
Mr. Seaton crossed his arms suspiciously. “And why did her mother call you, and not Lexi directly?”
“I-don’t know. She said she couldn’t reach her,” Adrian replied, glancing to Lexi for help.
“My phone’s dead,” she chimbed in, strategically showing the principal the back of her phone instead of the screen.
“How was her dog killed?”
“With a speeding car,” Adrian quickly replied, clearing having practiced this part of the story before bursting in.
Mr. Seaton paused, his expression starting to soften as he looked at them both with a troubled expression. “I am sorry to hear that, Lexi. You know, my first dog, a small chihuahua, was run over by a van. Never even saw the poor guy, he was so small.” The man pressed his lips together, looking down at his desk as he thought. “Alright, I’ll let you go, but I’m going to call your mother to confirm. Just give me a moment to find your file.” As their principal rummaged through drawers in his desk, Lexi looked back at Adrian with a light smile. She had never been more grateful for his improvisation skills.
Once Mr. Seaton found the file he was looking for, he layed in on the desk and flipped through the pages until he found where Katherine Danvers number was listed. He read it aloud to confirm, and Lexi nodded, doing her best to hold back a devious grin. As he dialed it into the wireless phone on his desk, she tried to refrain from making eye contact with her principal. He put it on speaker phone.
“Hello?” the phone spoke. Lexi knew exactly who had answered the phone, and it was not her mother.
“Hello, Mrs. Danvers. This is Greg Seaton, your daughter's Principal from Steven Grant High School. How are you doing today?”
“Not well Steven. I was meaning to call you earlier to request an early release for my daughters, Lexi and Brooke. Our dog has died tragically in a car accident, and my husband and I would like them to come home.”
Lexi had to hold her breath to keep from laughing. Despite the younger sounding voice, the studious tone, well spoken words, and matching story appeared to be enough to convince the principal. It also helped that Mr. Seaton had never actually met her mother before.
“I am so sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do for you and your family?”
“No. Just-send my girls home, now… please and thank you,” the voice replied, speaking at a quicker pace.
“Yes, yes. Of course. And again, I give you my full condolences.”
“Thank you.”
Mr. Seaton hung up the phone, telling Lexi that he would schedule a time for them to meet in the future. Giving both kids a nod to dismiss them, he slumped back into his chair, rubbing his forehead like it had grown sore from recalling tearful memories of his chihuahua. Lexi and Adrian didn’t think twice before scurrying out of the office, never looking back as they closed the door behind them.
“How did you know?” she asked with a beaming smile across her face, as they both began walking down the hallway.
“I saw him bring you into his office. I figured you had gotten in trouble for something, and I became the superhero who saved the day,” he replied smugly.
They both laughed as they rounded the corner, bumping into Kadence and Brooke.
Kadences face had turned pink, her purple cased phone clasped tight in her hand. “I am never doing that again,” she hissed, shaking her phone. “I still can’t believe you put my name on your form.”
Lexi shrugged. “Because I knew I could rely on you.”
“But are you sure Mr. Seaton bought that Kadence was mom?” Brooke asked, sounding timid as she continuously peaked around the corner. “I don’t want to get into any trouble.”
Lexi smiled assuredly. “It’s fine, Brooke.”
“Yeah, and Mr. Seaton totally bought it.” Adrian chuckled. “Maybe a little too much.”
“Besides, it was Anastasia's fault,” Lexi growled, crossing her arms.
“You know, one of these days, you’re going to provoke the wrong person,” Kadence advised, turning to continue down the hallway.
“Well, now that we’re all out of class…” Lexi trailed. “I could use some help looking for something I lost last night.”
Chapter 5
Lexi, Kadence, Adrian and Brooke all sat in silence at their small local cafe, tired and frustrated. The air smelt of fresh coffee and fresh baked goods. The cafe only had a few small tables, with some booths along the walls, as well as a tall thin table along the sidewall with five backless spinning chairs, where different types of drinks and smoothies could be made and served. There was a family sitting in one of the back booths, where the both kids could sit between their parents and a wall, blocked from standing up to run around. On the other side of the cafe, sat a trio of twenty-something year old boys. They appeared to be in their early twenties, but mostly kept to themselves besides a few loud laughs here and there.
Lexi, Kadence, Adrian, and Brooke all sat together in a booth in one of the far corners, away from the other two parties. The table had a white granite countertop, and the seats had bright red cushioning. Lexi and Brooke sat on one side, while Kadence and Adrian sat on the other, each of them holding their head down in defeat. They had finally come back from searching the streets and sidewalks all around their neighborhood, retracing Lexi and Brookes steps from the night before, but there was no trace of Lexi's necklace.
She couldn’t believe what was happening to her. It was like the universe was playing some kind of trick on her. Like someone was playing a sick prank on her. First she feels some terrifying shock when she touches some guy on the street, then she has a dream about getting kidnapped by him, and now her pendant is gone. It was like everything was slowly being ripped away from her. Her pride, her strength and peace of mind, and now her connection to her birth parents. Lexi only feared what would be taken from her next.
"I apologize for not being able to locate your pendant, Lexi," Kadence was the first to speak since sitting down.
Brooke perked her head up. "We can go look again tomorrow... we'll ask around, maybe someone picked it up."
Lexi refused to make eye contact with anyone. She only held her head lower as defeat as her hope had only drained from her further. Brooke had always been one to reinstall faith into her, but not then. She felt herself spiraling down an endless abyss of her own fears and insecurities as her ongoing thoughts screamed louder in her ears than ever before. "No. There's no point," she replied sharply, shaking her head as she glued her eyes down at the food-stained table. She wanted to cry and scream all at the same time, but she knew in the end none of it would make a difference. Her necklace, the only connection she had to the people who gave birth to her, was still gone. "It's gone," she stated as her eyelids hung heavy, and her shoulders slouched down. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened to it. Maybe that guy really did take her necklace. Maybe her “dream” hadn’t really been a dream at all. She found it impossible to tell the difference between real and fake anymore. It was like she couldn’t trust her mind to distinguish the two things.
"I'm sorry, Lexi," Adrian mumbled sadly. She could hear him shifting around in his seat, and his stare pressing against the top of her forehead to probably get her to look at him, but Lexis refused to turn her gaze from the white countertop.
There was a long pause, causing the group to fall into an eerie silence as all could be heard was the grinding of the coffee maker, and the jagged hum of people talking.
In a sudden burst, Adrian's energy spiked as his expression filled with excitement and his face lit up. "But on the bright side, we still have the spring dance on Monday to look forward to."
Brooke rested her chin on her fist, a sombre expression staining her face. "Yeah, except I still don't have anyone to go with," she mumbled under her breath, clearly seeing the dance in a less than exciting light. Lexi would have said something, but she was in no mood, nor did she think she had it in her to make someone else smile, especially when all she could do was saulk.
Adrian shook his head, pursing his lips reluctantly. "You just haven't found the right person yet. Don't sweat it. You'll bump into your soulmate eventually."
Brooke didn't respond as she repositioned her head to rest on its side, leaning on her knuckles as she now faced Lexi. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked under her breath, speaking as if she was trying to privately whisper to her. "We can go look for it again later."
Lexi quickly shook her head. "No, no, it's fine," she lied, blurting out what she knew they really wanted to hear, as she forced herself to make eye contact with them all to further convince her friends of her lie. "It's not your fault. If the cops hadn't shown up, then we wouldn't have been late getting home, and we wouldn't have had to be in such a rush while running... and I never would have bumped into..." She was left speechless when the very boy she ran into, and dreamed about, stepped into the cafe right before her. He didn't notice her as he walked inside and calmly made his way to the smoothie bar where he took a seat at the long extended table. It didn't look like he was ordering anything. He just sat there, his head low, and his back hunched over as he rested his elbows on the white marble countertop. He was wearing the same outfit he was wearing the night before. His back was turned to her, but she couldn't look away from him. Her heart was racing as she debated going up to him. This was her chance, her chance to find some answers, but what if somehow everything that happened in the dream was real? What if he remembered it as she did? What would she say to him? She stayed seated as she watched him from a distance.
Adrian must have followed her gaze as he chuckled aloud. "Ohh... smoking hot mystery boy, three o'clock," he mocked, biting his lip as he too spotted the boy with dark black hair and white, pale skin. "He's alone," Adrian stated in a deeper tone, excitedly whipping his gaze back to Lexi, as Kadence shook her head.
A bright smile spread over Brooke's face as she rapidly poked Lexi on the shoulder. Her entire face was beaming with light as she whispered, "Hey, that’s the guy you bumped into. Maybe he picked up your necklace," she whispered, but Lexi had already stood from her chair. She locked her focus on the guy as she forced her feet to march towards him, weaving between rows of tables to reach her destination. With every step she took, her heart beat faster, and her mind overflowed with a fresh wave of troubling thoughts.
Lexi casually took a seat next to the mysterious boy, causing him to jerk. As he whirled around in his spinning chair, his eyes grew wide and his arm raised defensively. Was he scared of her? She was shocked, motionless in her seat as she stared at him. After a moment of unbearable silence between them, she cleared her throat and extended her hand. "Hi. I'm Lexi.” She spoke in the most relaxed voice she could muster. She wanted to test if she would feel the same shock again when he shook her hand.
To her dismay, he merely glanced down at her hand, noticeably frozen in his surprised position. "Um… Daymian," he hesitated, speaking in the same English sounding accent as in her dream, as he looked her up and down as if she was a complete nutcase.
"Wait, really? I got that right?" she mumbled, talking to herself.
"What are you talking about."
"Who knew my dreams were so accurate. I even got the accent right."
He shook his head, trying to call back her attention. "You weren't dreaming.”
"What?"
He exhaled loudly. "Trust me, I wish it was all just some figment created by the mind, but unfortunately, that is not the case."
"Wait, wait, wait. All of it? Like, all of it?" she gasped.
He nodded.
She was at a loss for words. Like a lizard catching its prey with its tongue, she zipped her arm out and grabbed his hand. Upon touching his bare white skin, they both exclaimed with pain, and she whipped her hand back as if pulling her hand away from a hot stove.
"What the hell?"
"What are you doing?" he asked sternly, his voice gruff and quiet as he held his hand close to his chest.
"What's your problem," she snipped at him, similarly quieting her voice. All of her anger from the night before suddenly came rushing back. "Are you stalking me or something?"
"Wha-"
"Don't you dare lie to me!"
His shoulders sank as he let out another long breath. "Alright, fine. If you must know, I was watching over you. I wanted to make sure you were fine after last night."
Her face turned bright red, raging with fury. "Are you serious? You pervert." She wanted so badly to scream at him, punch him off of the chair, and that was still a promininant option in her mind, but she didn't want to cause a scene if it wasn't necessary. Still she fisted her hands in preparation to take such actions if he tried anything.
"Oh, I assure you, it wasn't anything related to that,” he replied, shaking his head wildly. “I simply wanted to make sure you didn't go to those buffoons you refer to as law enforcement," he grumbled, scowling at her. “They really are quite ineffective.”
Who does this guy think he is? "Maybe I should have," she snapped to him, fully intending on calling once she sat back with her friends. She'd tell them, and then they'd turn this guy into the police. "You're insane!"
"Go ahead. Turn me in. Expose me. Let your soldiers hunt me down with their mediocre weapons, and inadequate skill set. Those hot heads won't know what hit them, with their arrogance obstructing their view. But know that your' friends', Kadence and Adrian won't be far behind."
She paused, caught off guard as her expression softened. She tilted her head as though she had misunderstood what he’d said. She had no idea what it was supposed to mean, what point he was trying to get across by saying it. Why would he think that law enforcement had their eye on Kadence and Adrian, nevermind why they’d want to arrest them. How did he know Kadence and Adrian's names? She looked at him with sharpened eyes, ready to stab him at any moment for speaking about her friends in such a way. "Excuse me?" Her voice had become noticeably quieter than before as she sat about half an arm's length away from Da
ymian, watching every inch of him with keen focus. "You don't know anything about me, or my friends.”
"Except I do," he responded calmly, his eyebrows raised. "Those people aren't your friends, Lexi. They're not who you think they are."
She quieted for a moment, remembering exactly what they’d discussed the night before. Supernatural powers, that I’m from another dimension. She couldn’t help but smile at the memory. "What? Are they from that other world too?" she chuckled sarcastically. None of what he was talking about could be real, so what was to say he wasn’t some crazy person making up stories, trying to get her and her friends into trouble. It was all quite amusing to her, as it was far too ridiculous sounding to actually take seriously.
He didn't answer. His gaze reached deeper into hers as he sat with a half open mouth.
It was as if he had been robbed of his voice and could only speak through his eyes. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to try and read them. She was so sure of herself, and feared to ever falter. She shook her head in protest. "No… No. You're insane!" she blurted, leaning away as she spun her seat to step off, but he reached his arm out, taking hold of her chair to block her path. She froze, clenching her jaw as she turned only her head towards him.
"Lexi, please listen to me," he pleaded urgently, holding his arm straight and stiff to keep her trapped on her chair. "They're deceiving you," he warned, prohibiting her to leave until they were done talking.
She let out a loud exhale. Now she had no choice. She would need to face the truth. Despite her distrust and denial, there was an explanation to be had about what was happening between them. The weird shadows and lights, the shock they keep experiencing when they touch bare skin, this other world Daymian kept talking about, and now this problem with Kadence and Adrian. She never knew she could just as equally want to know the truth about something as dismiss it entirely from her life. She slowly crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, resting it on her shoulder. "Are you being serious?" She expected a proper answer this time around.
