Into the Shadows (22 page)

Step, step, step through the deep snow. It was up to
her knees now.

And then it was there.

A small clearing appeared in the woods; in the
center was a small log cabin. The windows glowed brightly in the
darkness sending streams of light into the dark forest. A chimney
lazily trailed smoke into the air above.

Paivi instantly felt warmth flow through her, from
her head down to her toes. She was so hot — she couldn’t understand
why the snow around her wasn’t melting. She took a few more steps
forward, up the wooden front steps and across a wide porch to the
front door. She put her hand out to grab the door handle.

Paivi’s eyes flew open. She blinked, confused, not
believing she was only in her room. Exhausted, she gave up to her
tired body and drifted back to sleep.

Paivi awoke at noon, completely panicked due to the
fact that she had only five hours to get ready for the dance. Happy
that her parents were safe, she put the events of the previous
night behind her. Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Cardinelli had offered to
help her with her hair and make-up. After two hours of blow dryers,
curling irons, and roughly one hundred bobby pins, her hair was
done. It would probably take four days to get it out.

Paivi ran to her room, slipping into her dress and
grabbing her shoes. She stopped to look at herself in the mirror.
She felt like a princess. But she still needed jewelry. She
sprinted to the dresser, she had to find something quick — Jason
would be there any minute to pick her up. Paivi opened her jewelry
box and dumped the contents out on her dresser. On top of the pile
of necklaces and earrings, gleaming in the light of the lamp, sat
the ornate box that contained the gold and silver necklace that she
had gotten from her parents for her last birthday and popped it
open. She picked up the necklace and hooked the clasp around her
neck. The locket felt warm against her skin. She grabbed a pair of
earrings that caught her eye and shoved them in her ears as she ran
down the stairs.

The doorbell rang as she reached the bottom. Mrs.
Anderson let Jason in. He was dressed in a black suit with a red
and green Christmas-themed tie that pictured elves dancing in a
kick line like the Rockettes. The tie glowed with little lights. He
looked up at Paivi as she stood on the bottom step.

“Wow Paivi, you look really pretty.” He smiled.

“Thanks,” she managed as the heat spread through her
cheeks.

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson planted Paivi and Jason in
front of the fireplace and wouldn’t allow them to leave until the
camera was full. Paivi made sure to wait until after the pictures
to attach her EOS badge to the shoulder strap of her dress. It
glowed garishly but at least the red color complimented the holiday
theme.

Paivi and Jason finally made there way out to the
car, where Jason’s older sister, Jessica, was waiting for them. Her
dark hair, though much longer, and dark skin resembled that of her
brother.

“I was beginning to think I would need to come
rescue you!” she teased as they got in the car.

Jessica quickly drove them back to the Santos’
house. Due to Paivi’s unwelcome status in all shops and
restaurants, Mrs. Santos had invited Paivi, Michaela, and
Michaela’s date, Dan McIntosh over for dinner before the dance.
After another round of pictures and plates piled with steaming hot
homemade lasagna, it was back to the car and off to the dance.

Paivi and Jason followed Michaela and Dan down the
hall into the gymnasium upon arriving at school. Paivi could hardly
believe her eyes, the view was the same as her vision from so long
ago. Glittering snowflakes hung from the ceiling, brightly colored
Christmas trees sported bright twinkle lights. Giant, gift-wrapped
boxes served as seating around the gymnasium’s perimeter. Tables
with punch and trays full of brightly decorated Christmas cookies
stood at the back of the room. The deejay booth stood at the front
of the gym, bass pumping out of the speakers and reverberating off
the walls.

They had arrived right at seven o’clock, due to
Paivi’s curfew. They would have to leave at eight thirty in order
to ensure that Jessica could get her home by nine. She hoped Jason
wasn’t too disappointed about having to leave early, but he never
mentioned it. With finely dressed students continuing to arrive and
the dance floor still pretty empty, Jason and Dan decided a trip to
the sweets table was absolutely necessary.

They were standing over the long table, remarking on
tray after tray of brightly frosted sugar cookies, some shaped like
stars or Christmas trees, when a voice interrupted their cookie
discussion.

“Hi Jason.” The voice was light, but phony.

Paivi turned to see who owned it and came face to
face with Melissa, Jason’s ex-girlfriend.

Ugh, she thought to herself. This can’t be good.

“Hi Melissa,” Jason greeted her.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” she requested,
keeping her voice polite.

Jason took a bite of the snowman cookie he had
picked up.

“Sure.”

“Um, in
private
?” Melissa emphasized the
word.

Jason looked thoughtful. Paivi watched him
nervously, hoping he wouldn’t leave her.

“Um, no.” He bit the head off the snowman. “But you
could talk to me right here.”

A few of Melissa’s friends who had been pretending
to look at the cookies turned towards them. Michaela and Dan also
fell silent, listening carefully to the exchange.

“Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?” Melissa
urged, glancing coldly at Paivi.

“Nope. I’m good.” Jason casually popped the
remainder of the snowman into his mouth.

“Fine then.” Melissa seemed to steady herself. Her
two friends stepped up behind her, their arms crossed.

“Well,” she began, folding her arms over her chest
and cocking her head to the side. “I just wanted to make sure
you’re okay.”

“Huh?” Jason appeared surprised at her concern.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but you’re
kind of hanging out with some questionable people. I thought you
were, I don’t know,” she smirked,” having a hard time dealing with
our breakup.”

Jason snorted.

“Excuse me? I’m doing just fine, thanks. And I have
no idea what you’re talking about.”

He folded his arms over his chest and met Melissa’s
glare. Dan and Michaela stepped up behind Paivi and Jason.

“I was going to see if you’d like to get together
sometime? But you’ll have to stop hanging around with people like
that.” She nodded in Paivi’s direction.

Paivi bristled, but held her tongue. She had
promised her parents she would stay out of trouble. She could feel
the energy welling up — so much so that her necklace felt it was
burning into her skin. She sucked in a deep breath. As much as she
wanted to respond, she couldn’t risk and outburst, verbal or
otherwise. Instead she remained silent, clenching her fists.

“Really, Melissa, you must be mistaken. I had no
intention of going out with you again,” he chuckled.

Melissa’s face melted in anger and humiliation,
going from cute to ugly in a fraction of a second.

“If you really want to continue to associate with a
criminal, it’s your funeral. And that may not be far from the
truth,” Melissa pointed at Paivi, “she very well could be a
murderer. Have you asked her?”

Jason’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t talk about her like that. Where do you come
off? You’re just jealous.”

“Jealous? Of her? Please! At least I don’t have to
walk around with a giant glowing reminder that I help terrorists. I
heard you got beat up by the ATC agents in class last week because
of her. You just better hope she doesn’t get you killed.”

“I know someone who’s gonna get killed!” shouted
Michaela as she attempted to lunge at Melissa.

Jason grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back
so that her flailing arms fell short of Melissa’s face. Dan and
Paivi stepped in to pull her arms back.

Melissa jumped back, almost knocking over her
shocked friends.

“Come on Michaela, we don’t want them to throw us
out!” Paivi pleaded. “She’s not worth it.”

“You’re right.” Michaela glared at Melissa, her eyes
daggers. “You’re lucky they were here to hold me back. You may not
be so lucky next time.”

Melissa shrank into her friends, and they dragged
her away to the far side of the gym. Luckily, no teachers or ATC
agents had witnessed the exchange — they were all milling around
near the entrance. Paivi took a deep breath.

In the dark of the gym Paivi noticed a glow coming
from the entrance. She looked over to see who was coming in and saw
a large group of agents, maybe a dozen, strolling through the door.
She tried to get a look at their faces and realized they weren’t
regular ATC agents. They were faces of students that she saw in the
hallway and in her classes every day. There was Henry Blankenship,
star of the basketball team, and Mike Howard, Paivi thought he
played football. All of them wore the black ATC uniform, with big,
black boots. Their badges glowed with the letters YATC. Youth
Anti-Terrorism Coalition. Their recruitment posters had obviously
done the job. She was relieved to see that they carried no weapons
— just an air of authority — which she worried could be equally
dangerous.

Jason followed Paivi’s stare.

“They’re not exactly dressed in their Christmas
best, are they?” he observed. “It’s like a pack of Grinches.”

Jason was right — the atmosphere in the gym had
become more somber. The students spoke a little quieter and pulled
their groups a little closer. The boys in black seemed to puff up
at the reaction, standing a bit taller and pushing their chests
out. The group casually moved out to the dance floor with the
crowd.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I need a glass of
punch before we go out on the dance floor.” Jason steered them down
to the last table, where they dipped plastic cups into one of the
three punch fountains.

A popular song came through the speakers, causing
the students still standing along the walls to run for the dance
floor.

Jason grabbed Paivi’s hand.

“Come on, let’s go have some fun!”

Jason, Paivi, Michaela, and Dan made their way to
the dance floor, blending in with the mass of bodies moving in
rhythm with the music. Another fast song kept the crowd moving.
Paivi’s favorite slow song came on next. Jason twirled her around,
pulling her closer and placing his hands around her waist. She put
her arms around his neck. She looked around the room, taking in his
closeness and the ambiance of the glittering snowflakes and soft
glow of the thousands of twinkle lights. It was so romantic; it was
almost possible to forget the incident with Melissa and the YATC
convention that seemed to be going on around them. Paivi closed her
eyes, holding Jason close and giving him a squeeze, which he
returned. She laid her head on his shoulder, breathing in the fresh
scent of his cologne.

Opening her eyes, Paivi noticed that the dance floor
was rather empty. She pulled back from Jason to get a better view.
Couples were leaving the dance floor, some slowly, some more
quickly. Paivi could see the YATC students walking through the
remainder of the crowd, tapping people on the shoulder and pausing
to say a few words. She looked anxiously at Jason’s face. His was
an expression between anger and sadness.

“What are they doing?” Paivi whispered, biting back
tears.

“They’re singling us out.” His hands tightened their
grip on her.

Paivi saw there were a total of five couples left on
the dance floor. Of the couples, at least one member of each pair
was wearing a red glowing EOS badge. She could see Elena Pappas,
her former teammate, dancing with a boy and looking as horrified as
Paivi felt.

Around the perimeter of the dance floor, the YATC
had split up. As if someone had flipped a switch, they proceeded to
turn on their heels towards the walls, their backs turned to them.
The crowds of students standing in front of them followed suit. A
faceless wall surrounded the entire dance floor. And there was only
one opening in the great wall of people — into the hallway that led
to the exit.

They wanted them to leave.

The other couples looked confused, and then
humiliated as the realization set in and they understood what was
expected of them.

“Jason, maybe we should just go,” she whispered,
wishing she’d seen this in the dream.

“We aren’t going anywhere until we’ve had our slow
dance,” he said loudly.

“Jason, I’m so sorry,” she stammered, her eyes
finally overflowing with hot, angry tears that burned down her
cheeks. She noticed that Michaela was not on the dance floor and
scanned the crowd in panic. She knew Michaela wouldn’t have left
her without a fight.

“No Paivi,” he pulled her back, looking into her
eyes, “I’m so sorry, you don’t deserve this.”

He glanced around the small group at the others,
their EOS badges glowing red.

“None of you deserve this.”

Jason pulled her close, kissing her softly on the
head. She let the sobs loose then, crying into his shoulder.

The other couples moved closer to Jason and Paivi,
not wanting to be the first to leave the dance floor. The song came
to an end. The deejay didn’t start the next song. The gym was
silent.

The couples all turned to look at each other. The
boy with Elena, a tall red-head Paivi knew named Devon, grabbed
Elena’s hand and nodded to the others, walking towards the exit.
Each couple followed suit. Jason paused and quickly brushed Paivi’s
tears away with his hand.

“Come on, you can’t let them get to you. If you do,
then they win.”

He grabbed her hand, his chin high, eyes defiant.
Paivi attempted to mimic his look, trying to feel defiant or proud,
but not feeling like she was succeeding at either.