Sally Singletary's Curiosity (The Sally Singletary Book 1) (28 page)

They’d decided on using one of the small closets next to the control room. He drew the symbol using chalk, so he could erase it if it didn’t look right. After seven tries, he felt he couldn’t get it any better.

“Looks good.” But Sally’s expression didn’t quite match her enthusiasm.

“Yeah right.” He smiled.

“Here.” She took the chalk. “A little shift in this line… Tweak that a bit, and…voila!” He’d been too distracted by her closeness to see what she’d done. It was when Sally cleared her throat he realized he hadn’t been paying attention. His cheeks grew warm and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He wiped them away anxiously and glanced at the symbol. “Much better than mine.”

Sally handed him the chalk. If she’d noticed his embarrassment, she gave no indication. “If this works, we may be able to go back and forth to the school whenever we want.”

Yasif fanned himself. “I hope so, we’ve already missed a lot of school. I’d be surprised if they even let us graduate.”

She gave him with an odd expression. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Her phone rang, interrupting the conversation.

“It’s Idric. Are we ready?”

Yasif nodded.

She pulled him away from the door. “He said to step back.”

They both watched, waiting for something to happen. Yasif did his best to keep himself focused, though Sally’s presence seemed to envelop him, locking him in a euphoric haze. Fortunately, the symbol lit up as if traced with light, giving him something to ground his focus.

It grew brighter as the room filled with a strange sound as though air was being sucked through a small vent. Wind whipped around them as lines of light traced the edges of the door.

The sound grew louder, the air moving more violently as light burst from the door in an intense flash. Yasif shielded his eyes. When the illumination faded, the door creaked open slowly. On the other side, Idric was in his dorm room, smiling.

“Holy cow!” Yasif approached the doorway, his jaw wide open.

It was as if Idric’s room had always been on the other side of this door. Yasif examined the frame itself. One side was the cold black metal in the switching station, the other the familiar greenish color of all of the school’s dormitory closet doors.

Yasif touched the frame. “This is amazing!”

“I can’t believe I pulled it off!” Idric said excitedly.

“Good work, Idric,” Sally complimented. “Now let’s get moving.”

Yasif grabbed his bag, the bow concealed inside. Sally checked to make sure the end of her crossbow was well hidden. It didn’t retract like his and stuck out the top, but she’d been clever enough to conceal it by covering the end.

Yasif stood at the opening, hesitating before stepping through. He stuck his hand out to make sure it was safe.

“Just go!” Sally pushed him.

He rushed forward, a slight tingle his only indication he’d just traveled thirty miles. It was as if he’d simply gone from one room to another. He glanced back to see Sally behind him.

“How long does it last?” she asked.

“We can open it whenever we want as long as the symbols are there.” Idric closed his closet and the light from the symbol faded.

“Sweet!” Yasif was just happy he hadn’t been vaporized or lost in some alternate dimension.

“Okay,” Sally said. “Yaz, get to the server room and start the rewiring.”

He stared at the closet door, only vaguely registering what she’d said. He couldn’t help but be curious by what had happened to the connection in the doorway.

She continued. “Idric, you know what to do. I’ll head to the gym.”

Unable to contain himself, Yasif opened the closet door to find the things one would expect in the closet of a fifteen-year-old boy.

“You have to use one of these.” Idric handed them each a deep dark stone. “Don’t lose them. I don’t have any more obsidian right now.”

Sally looked it over, then pocketed it.

Yasif could tell she was overwhelmed at the thought of all this magic. He knew her obsession with things making sense. It was amusing to think how much around them wasn’t rational at all. It must have been driving her crazy!

“I don’t know about you,” she said. “But I’m ready to get this over with.”

YASIF MADE HIS WAY
to the server room, trying to attract as little attention as possible—which was easy since the halls were empty. All the students were in class, oblivious to any of the strange events of the past couple months. His only problem was he couldn’t get his mind off Sally. Their time together at the station lingered in his thoughts the entire trip. By the time he reached the switching station, he felt the need for a cold shower.

Once he entered the room, he set down his bag and distracted himself with creating an interface into the school’s computers. He needed to link TESSA directly. After creating the physical connection, he set to work on the software side. He wished he’d accepted Jake’s offer for help—he wasn’t as good as Daniel with coding.

Yasif finished and tested it. Once it was verified, he set up the connection for the wireless cameras. He had to admit, Sally’s plan was brilliant. Now all they needed was to make sure it worked.

After all that, came the really tricky part. Hacking Mrs. Padilla’s email. In order for TESSA to search for irregularities, she’d need direct access to the account. The school’s servers were unfortunately not hooked to Jake’s routers. He needed to circumvent the school’s firewall and give her direct access. If cameras didn’t work, the idea was TESSA might find something incriminating they could use.

Once the confirmation went through, he congratulated himself, then began unplugging the wires, but before he’d finished, the door opened and Mrs. Conley walked in.

At first, she hadn’t noticed him, but he wasn’t exactly in an inconspicuous location. Once spotted, she put her hand on one hip. “What exactly is it that you think you’re doing, young man?”

It was the first time he’d seen the imposter. Everything about her looked exactly as it should, from her short reddish hair to her aging complexion, everything was exactly as it had before the disappearance. For a split second, he doubted himself. What if she’d returned? What if this was the real Mrs. Conley? There was no way for him to know for sure.

“I’m just running some maintenance on the servers.”

“I don’t think so, young man.” She wagged a finger at him. “Mrs. Padilla gave strict orders that you and your little lady friend were not allowed on campus.” She advanced toward him, grabbing his arm, but he managed to yank free. “I’m warning you, young man!”

He ducked to one side and went straight for his bag. Before she could do anything, he had pulled out the bow, extended it, nocked an arrow, and aimed it directly at her. His hands shook and his heart had begun beating faster than the wings of a hummingbird.

She eyed him, gauging his reaction. “You wouldn’t dare shoot a teacher!”

Yasif smiled, though he couldn’t help the nervous twitch in his voice. “Now see, there’s only one problem with that logic. In order to get in trouble for shooting a teacher, you’d have to actually be our teacher.”

With that, he loosed the arrow.

There are times when things happen so fast the brain has difficulty registering. This usually occurred with something unexpected, such as a car accident, or an extremely emotional experience such as finding out about a severe illness or a surprise pregnancy.

In the case of his arrow, Yasif had a set of expectations he knew would take place. He’d release the arrow, it would fly through the air, the creature would jump or dodge, and the arrow would lodge itself into the wall on the far side of the room. He never expected to actually hit Mrs. Conley. She was a shape-shifting creature after all; she was bound to put up a fight.

Unfortunately, what took place was nothing like he imagined.

The arrow penetrated her arm just below the shoulder, her body forced backward by the impact. He gasped as she was thrown into the wall. Blood seeped from the wound and began soaking into her blouse.

“How dare you!” she hollered.

The door opened again and in rushed two security guards. That was way too fast. It was as if they’d been waiting outside for this to happen.

“He shot me!” Mrs. Conley had a pained expression on her face.

“What? No! I…” But what could Yasif say. He was standing there with weapon in hand while the bolt he’d just released was still lodged in his teacher’s shoulder.

“Put him in hand cuffs or whatever it is you do in situations like this.” Once the guard turned from her, she smiled.

One of the security guards grabbed the bow from Yasif while the other twisted his arms behind him. “No! This is a mistake! That woman is not Mrs. Conley!”

“Save it!” The guard cuffed him, then marched him toward the door.

As he passed, Mrs. Conley brushed her hands together, wearing an evil grin. Just before entering the hall, he swore he’d seen her yank the arrow out.

They crossed the commons, clumps of surprised students watching in awe. When they’d reached the office, Yasif was even more convinced the whole thing was a set-up.

“In there.” Mrs. Padilla was standing at the doors as though expecting him. How would she even have known unless this had been planned?

Mrs. Padilla dismissed the guards, and before Yasif realized what happened, Mrs. Conley was closing the door.

Flashbacks erupted in Yasif’s brain, memories of what the Division 51 agents had done to him. His hands began to shake, his throat went dry, and he already felt sweat trailing down his temples.

Mrs. Conley didn’t seem to be in much pain. The wound was gone.

“Did you really think you’d get away with this?” Mrs. Padilla crossed her arms. “I don’t know who you think you’re dealing with, but I assure you, you cannot win.”

Yasif stared at her defiantly.

“I should have gotten rid of you when we had the chance, but the boss seems to think you’re somehow useful.” Mrs. Padilla smiled.

Mrs. Conley broke in. “We could claim it was an accident.”

Mrs. Padilla laughed. As she did, her body changed into the bear creature that had chased the van. It faced Yasif and let out an ear-splitting growl.

Yasif knew they were toying with him, but couldn’t stop his insides from becoming a mass of jelly. Even as his body violently shook, his nerves on high-alert, a realization had settled in based on something Padilla had said.

Her boss wanted them alive. Van der Haak hadn’t been trying to kill them at Mt. Holly. That confirmed their suspicions. It had been a set-up from the start. They’d been used to start the fire.

It didn’t make sense. Throwing the stick was an accident. How could they have known he’d react that way? Or that the convergences would misalign? Those were all random events. They somehow knew. He didn’t know how, but it was the only thing that made sense.

If that were true, they were really in trouble.

THE FIRE ALARM FLASHED
and the siren echoed through the halls, hurting Jake’s ears. He glanced at his watch—Idric was right on time.

The students instinctively scrambled to their feet and began filing out of classrooms. Jake jumped in behind them with Lani and Stephanie nearby. As they all filed out, he, Lani, and Stephanie slipped down the hallway toward the gym. They needed to make sure all the students were safe before they could pull off the rest of their plan.

“It’s about time,” Jake said when Idric arrived.

Idric raised an eyebrow.

They arrived at the gym where they found Sally waiting inside.

“Cameras are set up. Where’s Yasif?”

Jake shrugged. “He’s not here?”

Sally shook her head. “Is everything else ready?”

Jake nodded as the doors burst behind them.

They spun to find the two female shape-shifters striding confidently into the gym.

Sally gasped.

Jake realized then, Mrs. Conley had a hold of Yasif’s shirt.

“I’m really getting tired of these meddling creatures,” Mrs. Conley commented.

Sally saw the yellow stone hanging from a leather strand around the woman’s neck.

“I’m inclined to agree.” Mrs. Padilla’s voice was no longer that of their former headmistress. It was deep and treacherous. “I think we need to rid ourselves of this nuisance.”

Sally squared her shoulders. Jake had to admire her bravery. “It’s time for you to leave our school.”

“Is that so?” Mrs. Conley barked. “And do you actually think you can stop us?”

“We will stop you,” Jake said, trying to match Sally’s gall.

Mrs. Padilla smiled. “You are not capable of understanding the forces at work here. Your insignificance is matched only by your ignorance.”

Sally huffed. “Ignorant? We’ll see about that.” With that, she gave Jake a nod.

Jake pulled out the makeshift flamethrower he’d pieced together from the parts Sally had given him. He hadn’t had time to properly test it and hoped it would work. When a plume of fire burst forth from the nozzle, he could barely contain his excitement. It had only been meant for show, but seemed to have the desired effect.

The two women were caught by surprise, their attention focused on the ball of flame. Idric flanked them as Sally raised her crossbow. She shot Mrs. Conley, the arrow lodging itself in the woman’s hip, and she went down.

Idric was there waiting. “I’ll take that, thank you very much.” He plucked the Aashr key from her neck, then darted away.

Anger flashed on Mrs. Conley’s face as wings sprouted from her back. Her body shifted and changed, her skin becoming thick and dark. Standing before them was the creature that had attacked at Mt. Holly.

Jake’s stomach fell.

“It was you!” Sally stumbled back.

Mrs. Conley screeched in response.

Mrs. Padilla had also changed, her body now nearly twice its size. They’d faced this creature as well, the bear that chased them from the school.

With the two shape-shifters focused on Sally, Lani had managed to get to Yasif. She’d pulled him away, and set to work freeing him from the handcuffs.