Tompkin's School (For The Extraordinarily Talented Book 1) (26 page)

“Why?” I shouted, pulling away yet again, “why don’t you care why I can’t tell you? It should bother you.”

“It should,” he agreed, “but if that means losing you...it’s okay. I don’t need to know.”

I just stood there stunned by his words. Why wouldn’t he just let me go? He had no idea what being around him did to me. Being constantly reminded that I knew exactly what had happened to his mother and he would never know the truth.

“Why won’t you just let me go?” I asked.

“Because,” he brought his hands to frame my face, “I love you.”

My heart skipped a beat as I let what he said sink in. I didn’t deserve this. He should hate me. He should want nothing to do with me. I needed him to be just as or more disgusted by me than I was.

“Why?” I whispered.

“Do you even have to ask?” He replied, “you’re always there for me, you’re kind, and selfless. But I don’t understand why you’re trying to push me away. I can’t lose you, too.”

“That’s just it,” I cried, “you don’t understand why, I can’t tell you, and you can’t ask me why not.”

We just stood there in silence for a moment, both of us knowing that neither of us were going to step down.

“If you knew me,” I whispered, “
truly
saw me for who I am...you’d think I was a monster.”

Izara,
I felt Kain’s growl hit me like a wave,
you’re giving away too much.

Can’t I just have one moment to myself?
My thoughts bellowed.

“But I do know you,” Lee said, “look, whatever this is you don’t need to worry. Whatever you’ve done I don’t care. I don’t need to know and if I did it wouldn’t change anything.”

I knew that that wasn’t true, but I couldn’t think of anything else that hadn’t already been said. Except the truth. But whenever I felt the urge to say something I felt Kain’s pull on my heart and I knew I couldn’t tell him.

“Are you finished with this nonsense?” He asked.

“Yeah,” I shrugged as he pulled me into a hug.

As I glanced passed him I saw a figure in the distance standing so still that it almost didn’t look alive, but as I continued to look at it I knew it was a person. I shook my head, trying to put the vision out of my mind. I had had enough of this hallucinating for one day. Probably for a lifetime. We headed back inside to join the others and soon the day was gone. Lee stayed with his dad that spring break while Kain and I stayed at the deserted campus. We were not going to go home as it would be more advantageous to stay and attempt to put together the pieces of whatever life we had found ourselves in than to spend it in our father’s house. Days seemed to pass by so slowly without any progress on finding out why we were here and who Amadeus truly was. I continued to see someone following us, but whoever it was kept their distance and I never was able to make out who it was. When I told Kain about what I had seen in the fields behind Lee’s house he seemed to come up with the idea that we were some sort of fallen angels. But wouldn’t we have remembered this? I mean, I could remember so vividly who my mother was and being a normal kid whose only concern was that the crusts be cut off her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Could it be a past life? I didn’t know what was true anymore let alone what was real, so why not believe that we had truly lived a life before ours?

“Look at this,” Kain said, suddenly jumping up from a nearby desk in the library.

We had been in this dusty old building for days studying the map we had acquired from Chuck, who hadn’t been seen in weeks. Probably out finding a way to prove we were his Uncle’s worst nightmare. We had determined that the map must have belonged to the Bartholomew brothers and so we decided to study it along with the blank journal in hopes to locate the real one.

“See these marks?” Kain asked, pointing to an example.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“It looks like,” Kain continued, “they were marking all of the possible places that the journal could be hidden and look what else is on here.”

I gazed at the large map a bit closer, unfolding one side of it and gasped when I realized what he was trying to say.

“They really did find it,” I said in astonishment as I looked at the mappings of the Tompkin mansion.

“And that’s the hidden passageway behind the painting,” Kain added, proudly.

“So, what does this mean?” I asked.

“It means,” Kain replied, “that they crossed us. I mean we told them to go and find the journal and they never got it to us.”

“Well,” I replied, “it could be that they couldn't find a way to communicate with us. Why would they purposely keep something like this away from us? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Do you remember Edwin?” He asked, “he seemed to hate us completely. He even used his power against us.”

“Okay,” I agreed, “but Lawrence wouldn’t do this to us.”

“How do you know that?” He asked.

“Because...” I paused, not exactly sure how sure I was in the first place, “...because remember how he stopped Edwin and was willing to help us? I don’t know, it just felt like he understood and really just wanted to help.”

“Fine,” he shrugged, “it could be that something happened that prevented him from getting in contact with us about getting the journal. But I’m skeptical because Lawrence did it once before.”

“Yeah, on accident!” I pointed out, “I mean he had no idea that I was going to go to Collings Castle that day.”

“It just seems like a huge coincidence,” he said.

“And they happen all the time,” I laughed.

“Okay,” he conceded, “so on another subject, do you think Chuck was looking for that journal in the forest?”

“Absolutely,” I replied, “I think he may want it just as much as we do. Or more.”

“Doubtful,” he said.

We sat in silence thinking about all the possibilities. I didn’t know how much I trusted Edwin, but it was apparent that Kain did not trust him. I could tell that he wasn’t sure yet about Lawrence, but he couldn’t deny that he was definitely more levelheaded out of the two.

“Don’t forget, though,” Kain said, breaking the silence, “they are brothers and like us both they will look out for eachother.”

“I know,” I agreed.

“V-v-ve’ll b-b-be closing in five m-m-minutes,” Professor Valkyrien’s shrill voice announced over the loudspeaker.

“His voice really is the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard,” Kain said, as he folded up the map.

“That’s for sure,” I laughed.

We headed out of the library and as we made our way out of the front entrance and into the rain. Suddenly, everything flashed and just like that everything around us changed. The rain disappeared and the dreary day had seemed to be replaced with a very sunny Spring day as looked as if it had been like that all day.

“What just happened?” Kain asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, honestly.

“Did you do this?” He continued with his questions.

“I said, I don’t know,” I said, looking back to the entrance of the library.

The building looked different....less old, if that was even possible. It looked as though we were no longer in our time.

“Come on,” I said, pulling the front door open.

“Wasn’t this door glass before?” Kain asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, not knowing what else I could say.

“Is this one of your ‘
interactions with the past
’ as Lawrence called it?” Kain asked, his words drenched in sarcasm as he put his fingers up in air quotes.

I just rolled my eyes and made my way through the front door of the library. When we entered the building we were no longer greeted by the ancient smell of books and dust, but a room that looked brand new. I heard the clickety clatter of a typewriter and the quiet sound of old time Jazz music coming from behind the front desk. Papers shuffled in the breeze of a cast iron desk fan sitting nearby next to a stack of newspaper articles. I pushed aside the junk that was on top of the paper and pulled it up so I could read it. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the date.

“March 22, 1911” I gasped.

“What?” Kain asked, grabbing the paper out of my hands, “We’re one hundred years in the past? Why’d you bring us here?”

“I have no idea,” I exclaimed, defensively, “it’s not like I have any control over this power.”

He threw the paper towards the table and I could sense his frustration as the paper tumbled to the ground.

“How are we going to get back?” He practically shouted.

“Are you children lost?” A shrill voice asked.

We spun around to find a tall woman who looked exactly like Principal Chomsky staring at us with a stern look. It was as though she hadn’t changed at all in a hundred years! She still looked the exact same way we left her in our time, from her blinding white hair to her pointy nose.

“Principal Chomsky?” Kain asked.

“
Principal
?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, “I think you mean Ms. Chomsky. As for the Principal, you will most certainly be seeing Principal Tompkin for this snooping. The library is closed now.”

We both took a step backwards as she walked towards us, abruptly turning towards the papers and picking them up. She seemed to hold the newspaper like it was valuable and something gave me the feeling as though she did not want us to see whatever that paper had to say.

“We don’t want any trouble,” I replied, “we’ll just be on our way out.”

“And what do you think you are
wearing
?” She asked me as she crossed her arms, “Just wait until I report this.”

We backed out of the library so fast we didn’t even bother looking over our shoulders.

“What the hell was
that
?” I exclaimed.

“This is getting weird,” Kain said.

“Well, if we’re in 1911,” I began, “then the Bartholomew brothers must be here. They’ll be able to help us.”

“Well, if it’s spring break then they could be anywhere,” he replied.

“Did Tompkin’s Academy even let students off for break in 1911?” I asked.

“Good question,” he shrugged.

We headed down the path to the path leading to the dorms, taking in the familiar surroundings as we did so. Almost everything looked the same, except instead of trucks and mustangs parked in the parking lot there were old fashioned cars and actual four legged mustangs. I chuckled at my own terrible joke, or whatever it was. Did people really ride horses around as their method of transportation when there were cars around? I definitely would prefer a car if I had the choice between the two.

“I wonder how fast those things can go,” Kain said.

“The horses?” I teased, “Probably pretty fast, I imagine.”

“The cars,” Kain said, rolling his eyes as he motioned towards the old automobiles.

“Not sure,” I shrugged.

We left the main campus behind us as we walked the dirt path towards the split.

“Now,” Kain began, “since we probably don’t have cell service, how do you want to do this?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Um,” Kain replied, looking at me like I was dumb, “I’m sure the rules about girls going into the guy’s dormitory hasn’t changed and probably is even more strict now.”

“Oh, right,” I said, “well, we could meet back here in an hour?”

“That works,” he shrugged.

“I’ll check out any leads on the girls side,” I suggested.

“See you in an hour,” he said, once we got to the fork in the road and headed our separate ways.

I reached the girl's dormitory and entered through the front door. The dorm had changed quite a bit, no longer having all of the Siberian decor. I looked around, making sure no one saw me as I didn’t want anyone checking what room I was in only to find that I wasn’t even enrolled in this school. I decided to find my room since that’s the one I had had a dream about. I remembered feeling Lawrence’s desire to kill that girl and I cringed as I realized I wasn’t too sure if I was going to meet her or not. I ran up the stairs to my old floor and checked the door numbers for S12. As I walked down the hall I saw a couple of girls giving me strange looks as they headed to their rooms. I tried to not make eye contact as I knew that I looked very different than what they were used to. I checked the doorknob and finding it unlocked I slipped through it into my old dorm room.

“You’re one of them,” a girl’s voice said from behind me.

I turned to find a girl who must have been a first year student standing there looking at me with an expressionless face.

“One of what?” I asked.

“Night walkers,” she replied, “they surround the school in the dark looking for students.”

“What if I am?” I asked.

“Are you here for me?” She asked.

“No,” I said.

Her deep brown eyes seemed to look straight and made me quite uncomfortable to look at. She spun on her heel and walked towards her closet.

“They came for Ruth,” she said.

She spoke so nonchalantly that she even scared me. I remembered that name from one of my dreams. That was the name of the girl Edwin had a thing for and the girl that Lawrence had murdered. I had seen the whole thing happen, but obviously I was not the only one.

“I can help you with clothes,” she said, pulling out undergarments and a long dress.

“How do you know who I am?” I asked.

“You’re not a student or a teacher,” she said, “so you must be.”

At this point I wasn’t so sure she was talking about what I was anymore.

“Do you know the Bartholomew brothers?” I asked, changing into the clothes she handed me, “They go to this school.”

“They killed his love,” she whispered, spinning around with a look of horror, “they killed her dead...Night walkers.”

“Will you help me find them?” I asked, getting frustrated.

I saw her tremble with fear and I could tell that she thought that I was going to do something terrible to her.

“It’s okay,” I said, stretching my hands out, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She looked uncertain, but seemed to relax just a bit. She took a seat on her bed, looking at the floor with a vacant expression.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Catherine,” she replied, fidgeting nervously.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked.

She just nodded in silence, still staring at the ground.

“Why do you think these night walkers killed Ruth?” I wondered.

“It has to be them,” she whispered, finally looking up at me, “they have done it before. Students they suspect to be monsters.”

“So, these night walkers aren’t the monsters?” I asked, starting to put it all together.

She shook her head, fervently.

“Oh, no,” she replied, “they are the academy’s army.”

So, much seemed to have changed over a hundred years. Or had it? Perhaps the night walkers still existed, but were much more quiet about it now than before? I would bet that Chuck would be the head of the whole operation if there was one.

“If you act different,” Catherine continued, “or say the wrong thing, they will take you into the woods and bury you.”

“How do you know this?” I asked.

“I saw it,” she whispered, shivering, “I saw them bury another classmate last month. They report it to the papers as missing students, blaming it on gangs. But they don’t let us look at the newspaper.”

My eyes widened in astonishment. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! This academy was murdering innocent students just because they were a bit different? All this to get rid of the monsters that flew at night. I felt the anger grow inside of me as the reality of what was occurring at this school set in.

“What time is it?” I asked, suddenly feeling like it was late.

“Nearly door closing time, I’m sure,” she responded.

“I’ve got to go,” I exclaimed.

“They’ll take you,” she warned.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said, grabbing the bag with my old clothes in them, “thank you for the dress. I’ll return it when I can.”

I rushed to the door, leaving the traumatized girl behind. Although I hadn’t found any clues as to where the brothers were, I still had obtained very interesting information about the school that would definitely help us. I checked the hall and found that it was empty so I ran towards the stairs and out towards where the paths met. It was dark outside and I could just barely see the path below me and I was worried that I might have stayed too long.