Pretend With Me (Midnight Society #1) (22 page)

For the second time in the same day I found myself
lost in my head, remembering my old life back in Trinidad.
I remembered my very first Carnival with Daren, Kris, and
Danny. They’d literally dragged me out of my warm, cozy
bed before the sun had risen, into the streets to witness
what ‘mud mas’ was. It had been amazing. There were
people by the hundreds, all caked in mud and paint of
every color you could imagine. It had been like a massive
party on the streets, with everyone dancing and just having
fun. Then every few hours or so, huge trucks loaded with
speakers and DJs would clear a path through the dancing
bodies, blasting music, and the DJ on the stage would stop
his music until they’d passed by. Sometimes the trucks
carried steel pan bands, with people banging on their
drums, filling the streets with the sound of nation’s
instrument. It had been so otherworldly, yet at the same
time pure Trinidadian culture at its finest.
I was jolted back into reality when everyone at the table
started to pack their stuff up. Without saying anything, I
did the same. We then paid the bill and left, going back to
school. “What subject do you have next?” Charde asked
when we were back and walking through the corridor
towards our lockers.
I thought back for a minute. “I think psychology with a
Mr. Mano,” my voice came out unsure and questioning
even though I could remember exactly what was on my
time-table. What had me frowning was that I remembered
it, yet I must have glimpsed at the paper once this
morning. I was remembering things better now, another
one of the more subtle changes Eric had told me about.
“Oh cool,” Emily said, “that’s Noel’s next class… and
Mr. Mano is hot.” My eyebrows went up at that - she was
taking her cover to an extreme. She almost seemed like an
average teenager when she spoke like that.
We walked out of the hall, and then went our separate
ways, Noel leading me to our classroom. Emily was right;
Mr. Mano was hot. I walked up to the teacher and gave
him my slip to sign. He then directed me to the back of
the class - as all the seat in front were filled with girls - next
to a boy he called Ryan.
Ryan was short, blonde and built from what I could
tell. At the first glance he looked like one of those typical
rich, pretty boys. A few months ago, I would have deemed
him an idiot, but since meeting Eric - who was also a
pretty, rich boy - I didn’t. Instead I stretched out my hand
towards him.
“Hi,” I said turning to face him and suddenly found
myself staring at a pair of piercing dark eyes. At once, I
dropped my hand, a bit freaked out and turned to face Mr.
Mano who had already started the lecture.
The class dragged on and Ryan’s stabbing eyes never
left my face. It made the class long and torturous, and each
minute that dragged by, I felt as if a giant hole was being
slowly carved into my head. Finally, I could take it no
more.
“What is your problem?” I snapped, suddenly in his
face. He jumped back immediately, startled. “Stop staring
at me, it’s weird and annoying so quit it,” I sneered
through clenched teeth. Without waiting for him to react I
turned around, glaring angrily at the white board in front
of the class.
A minute later, I felt his eyes on me again, and
automatically a low, deep growl escaped my throat as I
turned to him, about to start separating his eyeballs from
his head. “I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “You just look
so familiar. I’ve seen you somewhere.”
“I don’t see how you could know me, I just moved
here,” I replied.
“I know…” was all he said and I didn’t bother to reply.
Some minutes later the bell finally rang and immediately I
began to gather my stuff.
“What’s your next class?” he asked just as I was about
to stand up.
I froze and then turned to face him. “Literature.”
“I’m heading there,” he suggested as we both walked
out of the classroom, and I couldn’t help thinking that I
just made friends with a crazy person that’d spent an entire
hour staring at me.
My last two classes flew by in a blur and before I knew
it, the final bell had rung and the teacher dismissed us.
Everyone had already gathered their stuff and was leaving
even as the teacher continued to talk about our
assignments. I remained in my seat and took my time
packing away my books. The corridors were going to be
too crowded and I didn’t want to get stuck there. When
the classroom was empty, I stood up and started for the
door.
I had barely made it out of the classroom when
something wrapped around my arm and pulled me to the
side. Instantly a scream built at the base of my throat, and
my heart launched off in overdrive.
The first thought to enter my head was that he found
me - he found me and he was going to finish off what he
started the night he killed Daren and Brandon. Without
thinking, I lashed out at the person. My hand yanked itself
away immediately.
“Jen, I’m sorry, it’s me,” Eric said, his hands turning
my body to face him. When he saw the expression on my
face, he instantly dropped his hands at his side, staring at
me cautiously. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.
I swallowed loudly, my eyes never leaving him as the
fear continued coursing through my veins. I was shaking,
the room had suddenly gone ice cold as I stood there, not
knowing what to do or how to react. Eric it seemed was
lost for words too.
I dropped my eyes to the shiny polished floor under
my feet and then whispered so low that I could hardly hear
myself. “It’s fine,” I lied. “I’m fine.” Then without waiting
for him to say or do something I walked away, heading for
the car park.
Eric was right on my heels and during the short walk,
he didn’t say anything or attempt to touch me and I was
happy for that. When we were outside, I continued
walking down the stone path as Eric stopped in his tracks.
“I have something to show you. It won’t take long.”
I froze and turned to face him deliberating for a
moment, then sighed and walked back towards him.
“What?”
“Our house,” he smiled and a deep frown pierced my
face instantly.
“We have a house?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he nodded, holding out his hand to me. I
didn’t take it. I was still nervous and jumpy about him
grabbing me and when he realized I wasn’t going to, he
dropped his hand wordlessly. “Come on,” he said and
started walking out of the school and down the street.
We walked for just over two minutes in total silence,
and then he stopped directly in front of a huge hotel-like
building, grinning at me. I could do nothing but stand
there dumbly, staring up at the gigantic concrete monster,
rising tall and over powering in front of us.
“This,” I frowned at him, “is not a house, Eric.” When
he said that we had a house, I was expecting an actual
house, not an entire building.
“Ours is on the top floor,” was all he said as I once
again turned towards the building, staring up the length of
it. I could hardly see the top floor from the ground, and I
wondered how many floors the building had. “So you're
ready?” he grinned excitedly and grabbed my hand, leading
me into the lobby. I forced myself not to yank my hand
away and followed him wordlessly.
The lobby was huge as well. Everything in here
screamed expensive and elegant. There were five elevators
in a semi-circle at the back while a white, soft and
comfortable looking couch set was laid out at the front for
visitors. A huge marble counter was at the side of the
room, stretching along the wall.
Eric walked over to the counter where someone was
sitting with a newspaper blocking everything but small,
delicate long fingers which held up the papers. “Avril,”
Eric said and the newspaper dropped a notch revealing a
pair of liquid, green eyes. As soon as the person saw Eric,
the newspaper was discarded on the counter and a short,
fair-skinned girl was suddenly standing in front of us.
“Oh, Eric,” she chimed hugging him. “I’ve been
waiting all day for you, I was so bored that I even offered
to fill in for Joe, and I actually read the human newspaper,
but finally you’re here,” she cheered and kissed him on his
cheek.
She then held out her hand to me. “I’m Avril, you’re
Jenifer. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Without waiting for
me to react, she took my hand and shook it, and then
pulled me into a hug. Instantly I felt my body tense up at
the contact. “I live one floor down below you, and I’m
your witch,” she released me, smiling.
I looked at Eric, frowning. “She is helping Dean and
Katalin,” Eric explained and I nodded. He then turned
back to Avril. “Very subtle,” he said, sarcasm coating his
words.
“Oh shut up, Eric,” she glowered and I couldn’t help
laugh. “Here are your keys,” she said but held out an
empty hand in front of her. “And the wards on the
building are up.” Suddenly black smoke began to rise from
her hand and then in an instant, two key cards materialized
in the middle of her palm, as though it had always been
there. She held them out to us and Eric took them at once.
“Thank you,” he smiled and steered me towards the
elevator. I hated elevators. It was too small and sealed in.
Ever since that night, I couldn’t be in one. It always
reminded me of being locked away, and that was a feeling
and memory I didn’t care to relive ever again.
My foot rooted to the ground directly in front of the
blue door with the words ‘STAIRS’ written on it. “I don’t
like elevators,” I commented when he turned to face me.
“But it’s not dark in there,” he frowned and I pulled
my hand away from him, taking a step back, confused and
surprised. Eric misunderstood though and said, “It’ll be
fine.” He smiled encouragingly, pulling me to the
elevators. I followed zombie-like, too shocked to stop my
feet, my eyes never leaving Eric’s.
“How’d you know I didn’t like the dark?” I whispered,
my voice small and so low that if it wasn’t for his
pureblood hearing I didn’t think he would’ve heard me.
Eric turned to me, studying my face for a while. Then
finally after several long seconds he opened his mouth,
answering my question. “You would rather stay outside,
than go into a dark room… Some sort of light must be on
for you to sleep comfortably… if I take it off you always
turn about or wake up… It’s almost as if you can sense
it… your breathing gets uneven and hard, you make tight
fists…” he trailed off staring at me.
I literally couldn’t remove my eyes from him. I didn’t
know I did all those things in my sleep and yet Eric knew.
I had tried so hard to hide my fears, but he was slowly
figuring them out.
Just then the elevator doors opened in front of us and
Eric entered turning around to face me. “It’s so closed in,”
I commented still eyeing the blue door.
Taking a step towards me, he took both my hands in
his. “It’s going to be fine, Jen, I promise.” I stood still and
silent for a short moment and then I nodded slowly. Eric
began to step backwards pulling me with him. He then
released one of my hands and entered the code for the
penthouse.
Immediately the air around us thinned. My breaths
were coming fast and shallow now, and my chest suddenly
tightened as if an unbearable weight was placed there. My
throat closed and I could feel panic beginning to set in. I
couldn't breathe anymore. I had to get out. Just as I was
about to, the doors closed, sealing me inside.
I swallowed loudly, trying as hard as I could to calm
myself. “What…” I began in an attempt to distract myself,
“what’s the wards?” I asked, slowly breathing through my
mouth.
“It’s a shield around the building. No one that means
you harm can enter… It’s the same principle with the
made vampires entering a human house, they can’t unless
they’ve been invited in… Just in the case of the wards, if
the person means to harm you in any way they’ll be
blocked. It’ll be like walking into an invisible wall,” he
explained.
“Okay,” I nodded, searching for another topic that
would take my mind off the small confined space that only
seemed to be getting smaller by the seconds. “So there are
witches too?”
“Yeah… not as ugly as humans portray them, but they
exist… Witches are the guardians of nature. Their spells
and magic comes from the natural world, and in return
they’re supposed to protect it.”
The elevator pinged to a stop then and before the
doors could fully open, I dashed out of the room inhaling
deeply. My hand flew to my chest as I felt air enter my
lungs, and I drank it in hungrily.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Eric sighed at my side. I refused
to even respond to that statement. He was never getting
me in another elevator again, not unless he whacked me on
the head with a bat and I was either unconscious or dead.
When I had calmed down enough, I forced myself to
look at where we were and found myself in an open space
roughly about the size of a bedroom with plain white walls.
Double glass doors with golden, fancy knobs stood
watching us expectantly. Eric turned to me then, rubbing
the back of his neck nervously.
“So it’s not furnished or anything. I thought you might
want to choose the furniture and stuff,” he mumbled. My
only response was a light nod in his direction as he walked
towards the double doors, holding the key card in his
hand. Eric stopped in front the doors and then without
opening it, he turned to me with a guarded and strange
expression on his face that I couldn’t quite place.
“You grew up in a multi-cultural country, right?” He
asked frowning at me uncertainly. “Trinidad is mixed with
different cultures?” he said before I could answer.
“Umm… yeah…” I trailed off as I wondered where he
was going with this. “But I grew up with a Hindu
background,” I then clarified a second later.
“I know,” he whispered. “Jen… I know you wanted a
traditional Hindu wedding, and I can’t give you that… but
I can give you this tradition…” he trailed off staring at me
nervously. Eric then turned, unlocked the doors and in a
single movement pulled open both doors.
The image that met me shocked me to the very core.
Tears immediately filled my eyes as I stared at the scene,
not being able to look away. A huge, bright grin plastered
my face at once as my heart raced off in my chest,
threatening to burst right out of my ribcage.