The Monster Within

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ETHAN and I made plans to meet up in the girls’ bathroom again during next period. He suggested we meet in one of the stairwells, but since most of the hall monitors that period were men, I figured the girls’ bathroom was safer. Besides, who would think another guy would risk getting caught there so soon after Dylan was taken away in handcuffs?

I waited in the bathroom, checking the hall for any teachers or other students. All clear. Ethan did a walk-by at first, but then he doubled back and slipped into the bathroom. We walked to the last stall again and locked ourselves in.

“Stealthy maneuver back there,” I whispered with a hint of a mocking tone.

“I wanted to be extra careful. Now, tell me what happened. What did that creep say to you? And why would he corner you in a bathroom?”

“Probably for the same reason we’re talking in the bathroom right now. He wanted privacy.” That was the wrong thing to say. Ethan’s face turned red. “Not like that!” I smacked his arm. “He wants to talk to me.”

“Why? How do you even know this guy?” Ethan was so worked up he couldn’t keep his hands still. He knocked the toilet-paper dispenser right off the wall. It fell with a loud crash.

“Hurry! Get in the next stall over and stand on the toilet so no one sees you.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No.” I pushed him under the stall and into the next one as a voice called, “Who’s in here?”

I stepped out of the stall, trying to look embarrassed. “Um, I am.” I bit my lip and pointed to the toilet-paper dispenser on the floor. “It fell off the wall when I went to get some toilet paper. I swear I didn’t do it on purpose.”

The woman was a science teacher. Not mine, but I recognized her. She nodded. “I’ll call a custodian to fix it. For now, use another stall.”

“I will.”

“What class are you in? I’ll let your teacher know you’ll be another minute because there was a mishap in the bathroom.”

I could only imagine what the other students would think the mishap was, but I nodded and gave her the room number. I had to get her out of here before she noticed Ethan. His stall door was locked, but since you couldn’t see any feet under the door, that was suspicious.

She nodded toward the next stall. Ethan’s stall.

“Um, that one is jammed shut or something.” I walked past it to the next one.

“Hmm, I’ll let the custodian know about that, too.”

I smiled and disappeared into the open stall. I waited for her to leave before I came out.

“It’s safe,” I whispered to Ethan.

He came out, looking nervous. “That was close.”

“Yeah, too close. You need to get out of here. I’ll check the hallway.” I peeked my head out and saw the teacher turn down the next hallway, toward my class. “Now.” I waved Ethan on.

“We have to talk about this guy, Sam.”

“Later.” That would give me time to figure out what I was going to tell Ethan.

“Later,” he repeated, giving me a look to let me know he wasn’t going to forget about this.

I sighed and walked back to class. I wasn’t sure what to tell Ethan. I didn’t have Dylan figured out. What if he was telling the truth? But Nora had said he was evil. He’d gone bad from using too much black magic or something like that. I couldn’t trust him. It was too risky. That’s what she’d said.

I glanced around, making sure no one was watching. We were taking a test on trigonometry. I wasn’t going to pass no matter how hard I tried, so I took out my phone and texted Nora under my desk.

Dylan was here.

I squeezed the phone tightly in my hands, hoping to dull the buzzing when her reply came. The second it shook, I opened the text to shut it up.

How? What did he say to you?

Trapped me in the bathroom. He knows what we’re doing.

Two seconds later, Go to the nurse’s office.

Why? He didn’t hurt me. I’m fine.

Just go!

It didn’t make sense. Did Nora think Dylan had done something to me? Was it possible he’d used a spell on me? Some dark magic that could make me sick?

I shoved my phone in my bag and raised my hand. “Mr. Malinowsky?”

He looked up from his desk. “Yes, Sam.”

“May I go see the nurse? I’m not feeling well.”

“Are you finished with your test?” He gestured toward my paper with his pen.

I stared at the half-blank page. It didn’t matter if I filled in the answers or not. They wouldn’t be right anyway.

“Yes.”

He waved me forward. I took my bag and my test paper. I kept my head down as I handed him the test.

“Sam, you barely answered any questions.”

“I know. I didn’t have enough time to get caught up on the chapter this weekend.” Okay, so I was playing the new girl card.

“If you needed more time, you should have told me before you took the exam.”

“I know. I’m still a little shaken up from what happened earlier. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “I heard about that. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, a little scared is all.”

“Understandable.” He sighed as he looked over my test paper. “Friday.”

“Excuse me?”

“You can take a makeup test on Friday. That’s plenty of time to get caught up.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Malinowsky. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. Given your special circumstances, I’ll allow it, but keep in mind I don’t normally allow extensions. I expect you to get caught up and stay caught up from now on.” He scribbled on a pass.

“Yes, sir, and thank you again.”

He nodded toward the door as he handed me my pass.

I headed to the nurse’s office, wondering what I was supposed to tell Mrs. Wentworth. That guy who cornered me in the bathroom was really a witch who has been following me around and threatening to tell people that I kill innocent human beings in order to stay alive. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.

I stopped in front of the office and took a deep breath before knocking. I heard footsteps, and the door opened. But it wasn’t Mrs. Wentworth.

“Nora? What are you doing here?”

“Get inside.” She pulled me into the office and peeked down the hall before locking us inside.

“What’s going on? Where’s Mrs. Wentworth?” I looked around the empty nurse’s office.

“She’s taking a nap.” Nora pointed to the cot behind a thin green curtain.

My eyes widened. “Did you…did you use magic on her?”

Nora shrugged. “It’s not going to hurt her. I just made her fall asleep. No big deal. When she wakes up, she won’t even remember meeting me.”

“So, you did some sort of mind control on her, too?”

“Only a little.”

I don’t know why it had never occurred to me before, but Nora must be a pretty powerful witch. “What else can you do?”

“Forget about that.” She waved me off. “Tell me what happened with Dylan. Every detail. Don’t leave anything out.”

I started pacing, needing to get rid of some extra energy. I still felt all charged up from draining Rebecca’s magic. It was like little bugs crawling under my skin, trying to get out. I wondered if that was what magic felt like, or if I was imagining it. Mom always said I had an overactive imagination.

“Well?”

“Sorry. Um, I was at lunch, and I went to the bathroom. I was standing at the mirror, making sure I didn’t have any food stuck in my teeth, when he started talking to me from the last stall.”

“What did he say?”

I gave her a look for interrupting me.

She rolled her eyes.

“Like I was saying, he told me he knew he’d find me in the bathroom. It was weird.” I’d totally forgotten how strange his first comment had been. Why did he know he’d find me in the bathroom of all places? And then it hit me. “He must have known Shannon caught Ethan and me in the bathroom together! But how? He doesn’t know Shannon.”

“Shannon?” Nora’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, she’s this really annoying girl who has it in for me for some strange reason. I never even did anything to her.”

“Let me guess,” Nora said. “She has long, almost black hair, right? Dresses like she’s auditioning for a spot in a music video?”

“How did you know? Have you met her?”

“Oh, we’ve met.”

“I feel sorry for you then. She’s a real bitch. And what I don’t get is that the entire school does whatever she says. How can someone so evil be so popular?”

“Because she’s a witch.”

“Exactly my point. Why—” I stopped, and the true meaning of Nora’s words sank in. “You mean a real witch, don’t you?”

“As opposed to a fake witch?”

“So people follow her around because—”

“They’re under a spell. One you somehow managed to avoid.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Which part? Her putting a spell on that many people or you avoiding it?”

“Both.” My mind was spinning. Shannon was a witch?

“It takes a lot of power to create and maintain a spell of that size. My guess is it’s taking all her efforts to keep it up. As for you avoiding it, maybe she doesn’t have enough magic to include you in the spell. She might be maxed out already.”

“Is she…evil? Like Rebecca? Will I have to…” I didn’t like Shannon. Not at all, but that didn’t mean I wanted to kill her.

“She’s worse than Rebecca. I brought you to Rebecca first because she was the weakest one of them. I wouldn’t have you go after the most powerful witch right off the bat. I’m not trying to get you killed.”

I needed to sit down. I pulled the green curtain aside and sat next to Mrs. Wentworth’s sleeping figure. My lunch was threatening to make another appearance. At least I was in the right place for getting sick. I put my head between my legs and took several deep breaths.

“Shannon was as socially challenged as her brother before the spell. She hated it. Half the school ignored her, and the other half treated her like the stuff you’d find on the bottom of your shoe. It drove her mad, so she tapped into some wickedly strong magic to put a spell on them all.”

If Shannon wasn’t a witch, I’d actually feel bad for her. Having no friends in high school was torture, but it didn’t give her the right to control everyone with magic.

“We’ll deal with Shannon later,” Nora said. “Tell me more about Dylan.”

“He said we needed to talk, which is what he always says. Oh!” I lifted my head to look at her again. “I almost forgot. Ethan got me a prepaid cell phone. A lot like the one you got me, actually. And somehow, only hours later, Dylan was texting me on it. He got the number, and I don’t have a clue how.”

“You aren’t quite getting this witch concept, are you?” She shook her head. “We can pretty much get our hands on anything if we really want it, and if we aren’t afraid to use black magic. Now, what did the text say?”

“There were three. All the same. Attack another witch and you’ll wind up back in your grave.‘”

“So, he knows.” Nora started pacing. “That means he found Rebecca.”

“That’s what I thought, too. There’s one more thing.”

She stopped pacing and looked at me.

“He told me you were lying to me. That nothing was what it seemed.”

She smirked. “I’m not surprised. He’s desperate. He knows you’re targeting evil witches like him, and he’s trying to freak you out. Trying to make you turn on me. He doesn’t want me helping you. I’ll bet you anything he’s the one who stole your necklace.”

“The funny thing is I actually thought he was the one who had given it to me. Before you told me the truth.”

“I’m sure that’s what he wanted you to think.” She took my hands in hers, and my fingers tingled. Was that magic I was feeling in her touch? “Listen to me. You can’t believe a word he says. He’ll say or do anything to save himself. I’m going to help you get through this, okay? You just have to trust me.”

“I do.” I had to. She was the only one I could turn to right now.

“Good. One last thing. How did you leave things with Dylan?”

A twinge of guilt stung my insides. “This girl I know came into the bathroom and called the teachers when she saw Dylan. The school cop took him away in handcuffs.”

“Unfortunately, that won’t hold him for long.” She bit her lip as she thought. “Don’t go anywhere by yourself. Not even the bathroom. Especially not the bathroom. If Ethan can’t go somewhere with you, call me.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Nora. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t helping me.”

She shifted uncomfortably, making me wonder if she wasn’t used to people thanking her. “How are you feeling? Any signs of an attack coming on?”

“No. I feel great. Really energized. And my arms have been tingling. It may sound dumb, but I feel like some of Rebecca’s magic is lingering inside me.”

“It will probably wear off.”

“When the next attack hits?”

“Most likely.”

I wondered when that would be.

“You probably won’t need to feed as often, though. A witch’s life force combined with the energy in their powers should sustain you longer.”

“So, I am stealing their powers, too.”

“I wouldn’t go trying to do spells or anything, but in a way, yes, you are.”

That seemed surreal. Their magic was healing me. Too bad I couldn’t drain their magic alone. It would’ve been nice if that were enough to sustain me without having to kill the witches, too. Still, Nora had been right. This was better than attacking innocent people. At least these witches were doing bad things. Evil things. Of course, so was I.

“Don’t feel guilty,” Nora said, making me think she really could read my mind with her witchy powers. “You’re saving people from them. In the end, you’re doing a good thing.”

I hoped she was right. I tried to tell myself she was.

I left the nurse’s office and went through the motions for the rest of the day, not paying attention and only half-caring if my teachers noticed. In last period, I started seeing spots. Luckily, I was sitting down. I didn’t want a repeat of my fainting in the diner. We were supposed to be reading from our science textbooks and figuring out this experiment that seemed completely impossible. I was glad we weren’t actually performing the experiment, only mentally going through the steps so we’d know what to do in lab tomorrow. I could just see me falling onto a Bunsen burner and singeing all my hair off.

I gripped the edges of my desk to steady myself in case I started to get woozy from the head rush the visions could cause. My sight disappeared, and I waited for whatever was about to show itself to me. It had to be Rebecca. Unless…

The curtain rose. There were flowers everywhere and a long red carpet. It was a garden. Someone was getting married. The wedding party was assembled in front of the audience. Their backs were to me, so I wasn’t sure who I was looking at. Was this Rebecca’s wedding—or at least the one she would’ve had?

The couple was exchanging vows now. I could see the girl’s face. It wasn’t Rebecca. That meant this had to be the mystery guy. The one I kept seeing. The guy who seemed familiar in some way. I begged the vision to zero in on him. If only he’d turn his head.

The couple kissed, and her head blocked my view of his face. It was torture not knowing whose life I was stealing. And why was I seeing so much of this one person’s future? All my other visions had been different. One glimpse at each victim’s future. But this guy—I was seeing different parts of his life, and he got younger in each vision.

The couple separated and turned toward the audience. My heart clenched in my chest. Oh, God no! I felt more than faint. I felt like I would collapse into myself. Fold up until there was nothing left of me. The mystery guy…

It was Ethan.