Mage of Shadows (25 page)

We all but fell in and turned the corner to where the front desk was, looking over our shoulders worriedly due to the very distinct possibility the cops would think to follow us inside the dorm. We would need to move qui-

"Nick?" A voice, familiar, interrupted my thoughts.

I turned, open mouthed, to stare in disbelief at the only person at the desk. It was Sarah, Tammy and David's friend. She looked as surprised to see us as I was to see her. Well, no chance that David wasn't going to hear about Swann and I rushing for APA. I'd get another lecture/interrogation in the morning.

Before I could say anything, we heard the first doors of RT slam open, and the three of us shared horrified glances.

"Hide us, please!" I said desperately, and despite having no idea what was going on, Sarah nodded quickly to us and pointed to the closet just behind the desk. We fell inside so fast that it could have been the doorway to heaven. We could hear the officers turning the blind corner and trying to open the second set of doors which had automatically locked behind us when we entered the building.

Sarah buzzed them in after a second, and I could just hear what was being said.

"Can I help you, officers?" Wonderful girl, she sounded completely calm, if a bit confused.

"We were called in to check out a disturbance at structure five, a possible robbery-homicide." I recognized the voice, to my disbelief. It was definitely Officer Rodriguez… did she never take a night off? Some people seriously needed to get a life. Coming from me, that was saying something.

"Homicide?!" I heard Sarah say, the shock in her voice very real.

Rodriguez soothed, "It appeared to have been a prank call. But there was some sort of disturbance at the structure- it appears to have been some sort of hazing ritual. Three of the students ran this way, and we thought they might have come into the dorm…?"

Sarah almost immediately replied, "Oh! Officer, you just missed them! I saw them just a second ago through the far window over there, but I didn't understand… there were three of them running, they looked like they were heading towards the student center!"

"Right, thank you." Rodriguez replied quickly, then apparently turned to talk to the other officer with her, "Let's rejoin Jameson, they didn't stop here- we can still catch them."

Pounding footsteps, the thumping slam of a door shoved open, and then silence. Forget pharmacy, I needed to convince that girl that she had a career in acting!

"Okay," I heard Sarah say a heavy breath later, "They're gone, you can come out now."

We ducked out of the closet warily, like caged animals newly released. Sarah watched us from her position leaning against the edge of the front desk. Her arms were crossed, but the slight smile on her face and the sparkle in her eyes betrayed her amusement.

"So," The girl pushed an errant strand of dark hair behind her ear, "I'm guessing you guys have a really good story to tell me about why you're practically naked and invading my dorm at three in the morning?" She seemed a bit too eager to hear about it, and I remember pegging her as a bit of a gossip. It probably wasn't just David and Tammy that would hear about this… I hadn't doubted that by the next day it would be all over campus.

Jimmy and our new friend both looked at me expectantly, as if it were my duty to explain.

"Yeah," I sighed heavily, "It's an excellent story…"

"University of Detroit in Midtown Detroit has recently fallen victim to a string of very strange pranks of the numerical variety. The school, which boasts a student population in the tens of thousands, has come under attack on multiple avenues in the past week or so. Some of the most notable incidents were so spectacular that they were given individual press…"

I smirked into my cup of coffee as everyone at Starbucks listened to the sixth news report being given to what was largely being called APA's 'Late Rush Week.' No one was quite sure exactly how APA had gotten out of any form of punishment from the school after a prank 911 call led to several streakers getting caught outside of structure 5, swearing that it was a hazing by the secretive fraternity. It was easy for me to see where resentment for the frat came from, when they were put above the rules like this.

"…Such examples as early in the week, when the number 42 appeared painted overnight across the face of the popular student dorm University Towers, so large that it is still being cleaned..."

A video recording of my handiwork played across the screen for several seconds, and I felt a sense of pride. Mine possibly hadn't been the best prank, but it was the first to garner media attention.

"Also notable are the very strange few hours when every student or teacher attempting to log into the wireless internet on campus, found themselves bombarded with the UD homepage covered in 5's and a tinny rendition of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. And of course, no one will forget about December 3rd for a very long time, when fifteen of the Detroit Zoo's chimpanzees were released into the classrooms and hallways of State Hall during the night, all strangely spray painted with the number fifteen."

I made a noise halfway between a sneeze and a laugh, sniffling a bit as I grabbed a napkin to wipe my nose with. I was still getting over the terrible flu I had suffered through for three days at the beginning of the week due to our little hazing debacle atop Structure 5. I honestly wouldn't have cared that much if it wasn't for the fact that the very next week was finals week.

Do you know how hard it is to study when sitting up straight makes you dizzy? Its damn near impossible. I just hoped my final paper for English didn't suck too badly, but I had written it in three hours while practically high on DayQuil. Not to mention my Classics exam the same day, but I had been prepping for that for a while, so I was pretty confident that that particular test would turn out okay for me. Luckily, Bio lab had finished the final practical the week before, so now I just had to do my best to cram in as much as possible for my cumulative final in the next day and a half and I would be set.

I sneezed again and looked up to meet the suspicious gaze of Eliza, who had her own Bio textbook open across from me at the comfortably small yellow wooden table we had claimed for ourselves at Starbucks to get coffee and some studying done away from the library.

"What's up?" I sniffled.

"How did you do it?" She asked for the umpteenth time. The curly haired girl didn't wait for me to answer before continuing, "I know Jimmy had the number 5 and his is obvious, but how the hell did you pain the number 42 on UT like that?"

I smiled mysteriously, but the affect was dampened by my runny nose and reddened eyes. Eliza didn't seem too impressed, "How did you do it?" She pressed yet again.

"Magic." I responded honestly, which of course, she rejected as an answer.

"Fine, don't tell me." Eliza huffed and glared back down at her textbook and missed the grimace that passed across my face for a second.

What was I supposed to tell her? The whole truth?

Well gee, Eliza, I was inspired by my new frat-mates' impressive jump off the roof of the parking structure, and remembered a little trick me and my unfortunately deceased friend Alyssa used to pull in high school- I took a plywood board and floated around on top of it using my secret telekinetic abilities, painting my dorm with my specified number in the dead of night.

Not very creative if you understand the trick, but to be fair I had been horridly sick and it was finals week. I thought Jimmy's was by far the best prank, which in itself was funny since he had been panicking about what to do when we escaped to RT and took refuge in Libin's single-person room for the night. This had been after explaining the terrifying escapade to Sarah- with no mention of magic of course.

Libin, by the way, had been the skinny Indian guy that I scuffled with in the scramble to grab our stuff from the street before trying to outrun the cops. Pretty nice guy when he wasn't trying to steal your jacket. He was the one who had stolen the chimps from the zoo, and I still had no idea how he managed it with no car and one night. When I asked him how…?

"Magic." He responded with a mysterious smile. What a jerk. It was different when I said it, of course. I wasn't hypocritical at all.

Studying was going surprisingly well with APA out of the way for now, I just wished I had a bit more time before the exam. It was cumulative and worth forty percent of our class grade- so it would either make me or break me. It would be very easy for me to end up with a B in this class, even if I had aced the last two exams, got a B+ on the second, and dropped my first failed exam.

What they said was true, I guess. You never stop worrying about a class you care about until you get the final grade.

Eliza tried a new avenue of attack, "Where were you yesterday?" She said, tapping her pen against her book impatiently.

"Give me your arm."

Thin writing, invisible anyone who wasn't staring very closely, suddenly throbbed along the length of my forearm, a subtle reminder of the events of the previous night. The night that Libin, Jimmy, myself and Nishi were inducted in. Nishi's pledging was apparently secret, the females conducting it alone. She seemed embarrassed and uncomfortable talking about it. She wouldn't even tell Swann, much to his aggravation.

"What?" I said, as if I didn't understand.

"Where were you?" She repeated, "David said you didn't come home until nearly 4 am."

"Do you swear yourself, your power, your ability, your life? Do you give yourself to our cause? Will you become the mind, the blade, the soul of this coven? Repeat it, and swear it on your power."

"I do swear. I will become the mind, the blade, the soul of Archanos. I so swear it on my power."

I had been bound, and in more than words. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't even realize it was possible. It was as if I had locked myself in a cell knowingly, and thrown away the key. I said the words last night, and even if I didn't wholly believe them… swearing it had been enough. I felt it in the power of the ritual, in the binding of my soul.

Trapped. And I wasn't sure if I could ever get out of it.

To Eliza, I shrugged nonchalantly and lied, "I was busy. Studying for bio, you know how it is."

She muttered something that was nearly incoherent. It didn't completely escape my ears, however. My gaze sharpened and focused on her, and I felt my temper rising.

"What did you just say?" I said suspiciously, "Repeat that."

The girl glowered at me, "I said you're lying to me. You weren't at the library. David was right, and this whole fraternity thing is changing you and not in a good way. Keeping secrets about stupid stuff, pulling pranks instead of focusing on your schoolwork- this isn't you, Nick. You should quit it."

I leaned forward in my seat, the coffee shop suddenly feeling like the heat had been turned up too high, "You don't even know me, Eliza." I replied incredulously.

She actually rolled her eyes at me, "You think you're so complex and deep. That's so pathetic- I'm sorry, I have to say it. There's nothing special about you Nick, you're just like everyone else! If you focus on this frat stuff you're just going to start failing classes and lose the only realfriends you have. Someone has to tell you, because David and Raj are just ready to let you ruin yourself-"

"Oh now you're talking behind my back with David and Raj?" I turned the tables and accused her, now seriously getting pissed, "Well since this is a conspiracy I might as well tell you to send a message back to your masters, back off. I'll do what's best for my life and I don't need any of you to run it for me. Got that?"

"I hope I'm not interrupting something." A familiar voice said to my left, sounding far too amused. My patience already tested with Eliza, I sent a glare at Carmen for good measure.

"Hello to you too." I said snippily to the dark-haired girl who had been ignoring my existence for the past week. Not that I was bitter about it, or anything.

Carmen ignored my tone and tilted her head to the exit, "Come take a walk with me, Nick. We need to talk." The other User looked at Eliza as if seeing her for the first time, she added, "You understand, don't you?"

"Of course." Eliza replied stiffly, "You can leave your stuff here, Nick."

Still angry with her, I packed up quickly and shrugged into my bright red jacket, "No thanks." I said haughtily, "I'll probably get more done away from you, anyways. Tell David and Raj if they want to say something to me, they can say it to my face instead of sending you."

She looked hurt, but I was too angry to care at the moment. I stalked away and let Carmen follow me instead of the other way around. If I hadn't wanted an excuse to get away from Eliza and the stupid argument, I probably would have turned the other girl away.

Like every day of December in Michigan, it was decidedly cold out, but my thick poufy jacket protected me from most of it. Bless its gaudy maroon soul.

Carmen eyed it with distaste as we exited Starbucks, "Can't you wear something that doesn't make you look so stupid? You look like you're about to take ski lessons and you need something that'll cushion your inevitable fall."

Already irritated I was in no mood to be insulted, "What do you want from me, Carmen?"

The confident mask slid from her face and she looked particularly vulnerable. Viciously, I crushed the sudden sympathy that reared its head. I was angry, I didn't want to feel sorry for her, not when she hadn't as much as looked my way for days.

"I'm sick of you playing games with me." I added aloud for good measure, more for myself than her.

The girl was wearing a pink woolen cap that covered her long hair down to her ears, and she played with the sides of it anxiously, "I'm not playing games with you, Nick, I promise." Her expression was pleading, "Look, I was mad you for not listening to me before the hazing- but that's over now. You've been sworn in, and I want you to be prepared for what that's going to mean."

"Mehdy can tell me." I replied stiffly, "I was planning on meeting up with him after my Bio final, before I went home for winter break."