Darkness of Light (7 page)

He seemed to be keenly aware of his body. Not in an arrogant way or in an awkward uncomfortable way, but with an assured gracefulness. And, even though there was a slight limp in his walk as if his leg had been hurt at one time, he still moved with a self-assured strut that made my heart thump harder in my chest. His presence demanded attention.

He turned to face us, and I couldn’t help the small gasp escaping my lips. 

When our eyes instantly locked, it was like fire had shot through my frozen veins. Still shadowed under his hood, his eyes shone unnervingly bright, like someone left two lights on in a pitch-black room. 

His face was not what people would consider classically handsome. He was too manly to be considered pretty. The word that came to mind was smoking hot. He looked like that disheveled, rough, bad boy with an animalistic quality, which drew me to him and scared the crap out of me. Two deep scars lined the left side of his face, cutting into the stubble growing along his strong, chiseled jawline. His disheveled, light brown hair skimmed over the top of his shoulders. 

My hands ached, wanting to reach out and touch him, to feel his hair between my fingers, but his face held such harshness that it made me step back. My reaction didn’t seem to go unnoticed. His eyes darted between the two of mine and a whisper of a sardonic smirk crept across his features.

I couldn’t believe I was face to face with the guy from the police station. 

If he was shocked to see me, he didn’t show it. I was pretty sure he recognized me. The same hate I saw before at the station was there today. I couldn’t fathom why he regarded me with such disdain, but I was used to people fearing or hating me for no reason. 

Someone else stirred behind me. A tall, model-thin girl bumped my shoulder as she walked up to where the guy stood. She smiled and squeezed his arm in the comfortable, familiar way you would with a close friend or boyfriend. He broke our eye contact as he turned and looked at her, giving her a small smile. I felt stupid for being surprised. Of course he’d have a hot girlfriend, if not several. Someone like him would not be single. And she was beautiful—breathtakingly pretty. She was dressed in black skinny jeans, a plain white t-shirt with a scarf looped around her neck, sweater, and pristine green and yellow-checkered rain boots. She was what you’d picture on the cover of a GAP catalog, not at a school for troubled-teens. There was something almost unreal about her, and she seemed at home in the forest even though her clothes screamed the opposite. She looked to be in her early to mid-twenties. She was a bit taller than me, with beautiful, long, red hair, light blue eyes, and porcelain skin, all of which made me incredibly jealous. 

Her eyes caught mine and she smiled at me. I could have sworn the clouds parted. I half expected bunnies and deer to come out of the forest to dance and sing around her. I didn’t know if I liked or hated her. She was too pretty and sweet looking to be here. Her hair was unfazed by the dense mist swirling around us, which made mine look like an electrocuted poodle.

I looked around and saw I wasn’t the only one drooling on their boots. The unbelievably sexy couple enraptured everyone. I had to laugh watching the girls’ (and maybe a few guys’) eyes move salaciously over his body. The guys (and probably a few girls) looked dumbstruck and goofy, their eyes and pants bulging as they stared at her.  

She took a step forward. “As you noticed, your old O.A.R. leaders are no longer here. We will be your new team leaders. My name is Samantha Walker and . . .” She turned to the guy next to her expectantly. 

“Eli Dragen,” he said reluctantly. His voice was deep and husky, sending vibrations through me. His eyes narrowed in disgust at me before he looked away again.

What the hell?

“We will be building community gardens,” he continued. “Some of the food we grow will be used in our cafeteria and the rest will be sent to a homeless shelter. We will be using compost from our kitchen here at Silverwood to help grow the plants. We need to build the planter boxes first. We’ll be splitting into two groups, each group building five boxes.” When he spoke, I swore I heard a flutter of sighs from the girls, and, yes, definitely from a guy or two. The more the girls reacted to him, the more upset I got, which was stupid. I didn’t know why I felt angry. I barely knew him, and it was clear he didn’t like me, nor I him.

This immediately put me in check. What was I doing? This guy could be some creep, who might have been outside my bedroom window, watching me a couple nights ago. He could have been stalking my house, wanting to kill me in my sleep. Okay, the last bit might be a little over the top but better safe than sorry, right? 

There was no way I wanted to be in his group. I started towards Samantha when Eli’s sharp voice filled the space. “You guys will be with me.” He waved his hand around a group of people, which included me. His dislike for me was clear, so why would he pick me to be in his group? He stared at me, his expression emotionless and hard.

The girl from the cafeteria stepped closer to Eli, her voice twirling like honey in a flirty, girlie tone. “But, I want to be in
your
group.” I rolled my eyes. I had seen this girl stab a guy with a plastic fork at lunch. There was nothing sweet or girlie about her.

“Fine,” he replied sharply. “Let’s go.”

Ten

Josh and I followed the group across the street to a cleared area where remnants of an old garden still remained. We stopped in front of a garden shed. Wheel barrels, hammers, drills, gloves, and other supplies were bundled in piles in the small building.

“Okay everyone, grab gloves.” Eli nodded towards the pile.

Right then, I saw something skitter deep in the shadows at the far end of the shed. The thing moved to the wall and scuttled towards the entrance. I squinted, trying to make out what it was. A large brown rat stopped and turned to look at me. 

“Ewww—gross a rat!” a girl screamed. 

I could have sworn I saw the rat’s eyes narrow, glaring at the girl. “Well, I don’t find you much to look at either.” The voice was tiny and gruff. 

My breath caught in my throat as I froze with fear.
Holy shit.
I looked around. No one else seemed to be reacting to the fact a rat had just talked. I turned back to the rodent. 

A hazy glow surrounded the rat, and I found I was no longer looking at a rat, but at a tiny woman, dressed in a long, green skirt and a white blouse. Her brown hair hung next to her face in two thick braids, and on her head was a tall pointed green cap. She tilted her head and frowned at me, then turned, and hustled out of the shed, towards the forest. 

Without a thought I started after it. I wasn’t sure why. It was a knee-jerk reaction since I knew the rat-woman was just a hallucination. I needed to go back on medication. 

I continued after her, and for as small and stocky as she was, she was insanely fast. “Wait!” I called out. 

Adrenaline pumped through me as I ran after her, barreling through the old, dried-up garden. She stopped, and I came to a sudden halt as she turned and faced me. Her hands were on her hips, her stocky little frame all puffed up and angry. I could see her face more clearly now. She was younger than I had first thought, but she still looked weathered and tough. Her eyes were squinty and her lips were thin and pinched. Her hands were burly and thick, her patchy skin coarse and cracked. She looked like she had worked extremely hard her whole life.

“Get out of my garden,” her little, but strong, voice rung in my ears like sharp bells. 

“Oh Jesus,” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the small woman. 

The tiny, homely woman stomped her foot. “Did you hear me? Get your tall, scrawny ass out of my garden.” 

“Em?” 

My head jerked up to see Josh and the rest of the class standing behind him, looking at me like I had grown two heads. I continued to stare at him dumbfounded. Didn’t they see the small person standing in front of me?

“Em, are you okay?” Josh’s tone was full of wariness. I looked to where my hallucination had been, but the tiny woman was gone. 

I closed my eyes, sucking in a deep breath. “Yeah. Just terrific.”

When I reopened them, Eli’s piercing eyes drew my attention. I couldn’t make out the expression on his face, but it was intense and made me want to hide behind Josh.

Samantha walked up to the group, her gaze fixed on me. Something about her stare made me shift uncomfortably. “Let’s leave the wildlife alone, shall we?” She smiled thinly, and then turned around to face the rest of the students. “Come on, let’s get to work. Grab some gloves and a hammer.” She gathered up the group, who continued to observe me with wary expressions, but she soon distracted them with tools and plans for the new garden.

Eli maintained his stance, his scrutiny still focused on me. I looked down, trying to ignore the burning sensation his gaze sent into my skin. 

My mind was reeling with the embarrassment of letting people see me splinter from reality. Hallucinations weren’t new to me, but it had been awhile since I had been caught by other people while having one. No one knew that right before my school in Monterey burned down, I had thought I’d seen my awful math teacher turn into a troll, with a huge, thick nose protruding from its hairy, ugly face. Dark, beady eyes had gleamed as it watched me. It had felt so real, more real than anyone else in the room. It was a secret I kept locked up deep down. When I was younger it was easier to brush these off. My mom would laugh, telling the neighbors that I had an overactive imagination and abundance of imaginary friends. I couldn’t do that so easily now.

Eli turned away. “Today we will be building the planter box frames. We only have two hours so we better get started,” he said, motioning towards the stacks of thick boards. He rambled on, but after a while I tuned out. 

“That also means
you
.” Eli stepped up to me. It took me a moment to realize everyone else had moved on and was starting to work, but I still stood there, staring at the spot where the tiny woman had disappeared. “Hey,
girl
, do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?”

My gaze snapped to his. “This
girl
has a name, you know?” I shot back. I was irritated by the way he had said “girl,” like I was something off the bottom of his shoe.

“And what would that be?” He crossed his arms, as he looked down on me. “Please tell me it’s something like Tiffany or Brittany.” 

“It’s Ember,” I said as heat filled my cheeks.

“Ember.” He repeated my name and a slow smirk formed on his face. “Of course it is. Ember what?”

“Brycin.”

He looked at me patronizingly. “Well, Brycin, let’s see if you can handle a hammer or if I should find something easier for you to do.” 

My eyes narrowed as we glared at each other. What was this guy’s problem? What had I ever done to him? The other students had stopped what they were doing, sensing the tension, and looked between us like it was a ping-pong match. I was waiting for someone to do a low whistle like you hear in all the standoff-scenes in the old cowboy movies. 

I scooped up a hammer, gripping it tight in my hand, and stomped off towards the woodpiles. He scoffed in amusement as I walked away. I almost,
almost
, showed his face what I could do with a hammer, but I decided it might not help my case for getting out of here.

“All right, everyone, get back to work,” he said, and stomped away.

 Josh leaned down and whispered in my ear, nodding towards Eli. “Okay, that was weird.”

“Yeah.” It was the only response I could come up with as I grabbed a handful of nails, imagining it was Eli’s face I would be hammering them into. At that thought, a smile broke out over my face.

The two hours went by fast. Our team got into a good rhythm. The only thing that bothered me was every time I looked up, Eli was staring at me, glaring actually. I tried to ignore him and concentrate on my work. My arms felt like they wanted to fall off, but I didn’t stop once. I didn’t want to show him any weakness or that he could get to me. 

After we’d returned our tools to the shed, Josh and I headed back to Silverwood. He had a curious look on his face. “So Ember, what’s up with you and that guy Eli? You guys have some past history or something?” 

“No, I never met him before.” That was technically true. “I don’t know what his problem is.” I didn’t feel like telling Josh about the police station incident, plus that didn’t even really count as having history with Eli, right?

“Really? That’s strange. I thought I picked up on some vibe there.” His eyebrows furrowed, and he shrugged.

“Nope, just some old-fashioned, predetermined dislike for me.” 

Josh smirked, looking like he didn’t quite believe me. We got back to the main building, and Josh headed off for the dorm. He was one of the students who could no longer remain at home. “I’ll see you tomorrow. And welcome to Silverwood. I’m glad you’re here. You’re already making things a whole lot more interesting.” He gave a slight wave before disappearing down the hall.

I smiled, shaking my head, and then headed in the opposite direction, towards the classroom. I was exhausted. With no homework yet, I decided to spend the time relaxing and drawing until Mark showed up. 

As I walked into the main classroom, I stopped short. I instantly recognized Eli’s body from the back as he talked to Samantha.

“What the hell was that earlier?” Samantha demanded.

“Nothing you need to worry about, Sam,” he said tartly. 

Her blue eyes looked up at him in longing. “You sure?”

She was stunning, captivating, and beautifully feminine—everything a guy would want. Obviously, it was what Eli wanted. From the way she looked at him, there was no doubt she felt the same. They were beautiful together; they had that bad boy/good girl stereotype thing going on. My chest clenched as I watched them. Why did I have to notice every perfect detail of his body, especially his ass and strong broad shoulders? Fury stormed through me, but I turned it on myself. I shouldn’t be thinking this way about him. It was demented. He was scary and rude and clearly didn’t like me. That was now reciprocated. I pivoted, wanting to flee the room. Instead I ran straight into Mr. Kemp.