⚜Guardian⚜

Chapter One

PROLOGUE

His eyes were cast downward as he surveyed what seemed to be a life or death moment. Every pair of eyes in the room was trained on Lacey, so he had two seconds to hatch a plan in the corner of his mind. Looking down at her then, he knew that time wouldn't be stilled for much longer. Above, they were being very generous in giving him this time to think. He also knew that this time meant they were trying to make him see something that he wasn't already seeing. He looked around again, searching for something, anything that would help him in this moment. It was then that he looked down, seeing where her gaze was directed.

It wasn't that he had forgotten that she would be scared. He had known that. What he hadn't known was how her eyes were so frightfully cast in his direction, silently pleading with him to save her. In that moment he knew he would never stop fighting for her, not if it meant she could live. Not if it meant it would kill him. It was in that moment that he decided he would be her guardian angel- from that moment until the second she died.

CHAPTER ONE

Walking into Orientation that first day was dreadful. The way the walls seemed to be closing in on her, no matter which direction she turned, seemed to be the only thought that she could dredge up to her conscious mind. Towards the back of her mind, she knew the tour guide Melissa was probably discussing vital information, tips and hints Lacey should have been paying attention to, but something about this particular hallway struck her as off. The walls seemed to want to crush her until she had been reduced to a bleeding, mashed pulp, with no witnesses.

"What was the name of this hallway again?" a dazed brunette asked. Lacey snapped out of her vision, realizing how silly it seemed. They were stopped in front of an ornate stained glass window. It gave Lacey the creeps, but the sunlight trickling in from the late August sun warmed her face enough that she could think regular thoughts again. The brunette seemed like a walking fire hazard, her Orientation folder already askew with papers slipping to the ground. Lacey wordlessly picked them up for her robotically.

"Thank you," the brunette smiled, taking the papers and shoving them back into the folder. Before Lacey could answer, the tour guide walked over, taking Lacey's job and helping the brunette fix her poor job of organization. Lacey dreaded this moment, the awkward silence that she knew was coming. The six people in her group did not seem all too friendly, everyone coughing and looking away instead of helping the brunette. Lacey assumed they felt the same way that she did, unable to make friends in such a horrible setting.

The whole boarding school idea had been her mother's, upon recommendation from Dr. Grimes, her therapist. After the court mandated therapy sessions she had hated him, but soon learned to love him, and therapy. It was great, how he seemed to always know how to make her seem calm. Of course, she probably wouldn't see Dr. Grimes again, now that she was sentenced to Hell via u Stratfield Academy for Juvenile Delinquents. It was a horrible, depressing, crumbling boarding school, with one brick building for dormitories, a slightly newer looking building for academics, and a small, two level building for athletics. They even had a sports field with interchangeable equipment, and a track built in to that field. She had liked the Athletics building, as she had been athletic herself before the incident. Of course, all of that had changed.

Lacey could still smell the acrid stench of smoke as she sat in the teacher's lounge, taking that biology make up test. Her teacher had given her permission to use the lounge, yet she was still one of the primary suspects. She could remember the feel of the matches in her hand, how they had felt so foreign, so unfamiliar to her waiting hands. She had wanted so badly to set fire to the whole school, but of course, that was only because she had been frustrated...

"Hey, are you coming?" the brunette asked, shaking Lacey lightly. The entire tour group was now watching her in sick fascination as they watched her space out. She shook herself out of the daydream, weaning away from the brunette's overly touchy gesture. As she leaned back, the brunette's folder fell out from beneath her arm and papers scattered everywhere.