Forewarned (BEING REWRITTEN)

Pizza Party!

(Please tell me if this is confusing in any way o-o)

I don’t know how long I sat there, frozen as I tried to comprehend what had just happened to me.

How long has that creep been following me around? Forever? The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I thought of something watching my every move. Then I remembered in the cave, when my shadow had tried to take off the wristband. That wasn’t my shadow.. that had to be him! What had he been doing? If he was trying to help me, why was he trying to get me kicked out? What if it was my own shadow that had a conscious? I would be like Peter Pan. I felt a shiver worm down my spine.

Then it occurred to me to ask Caedmon, who said he’d been playing with the ‘bad shadow.’ I looked around, before patting around for him. “Caedmon?” I said, surprised when my voice came out as a hoarse whisper. No answer. “Caedmon!” I hissed, my heart catching in my throat. Once again, my heart began to throb inside me, my blood pounding in my brain. What if..

Suddenly the door flew open and a bunch of kids walked in. Their combat boots crunched on the floor inches from mine as they spoke excitedly. Something about going to town. But I didn’t listen as I looked through the jungle of combat boots trying to spot my tiny little dragon.

“Hey,” I heard a familiar voice before someone crouched and I found myself staring at Merman, his glowing copper eyes a startling contrast to his dark skin. “Hey Justin,” he said, concern pinching his features. “You doing alright man? What are you doing under there?” He held out a hand.

I stared at it for a moment before taking it, my breath releasing shakily as he pulled me out of there. “I.. well…” I didn’t even know what to say. If I told him the truth it would sound crazy. “Been a long day.” I said finally. A few of the other cadets looked at me strangely and said “Hey Justin”,  “Why were you under the sink?” or “You okay?”. But I ignored them, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

His copper eyes scanned my expression for a moment before he nodded slowly. “General Landin chewed you out pretty bad huh?”

I nodded slowly.

“But.. you get to stay right?” He asked quickly, his lips pursing.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. The others who were watching us drifted off to do their business or wash their hands, all duly ignored by me.

“No wristband?” He looked down at my wrists.

“Nope,” I replied, rubbing where the wristband would have been.

He exhaled. “Good. Let’s go to lunch. Heard we’re having pizza and cheese sticks,” he said with a big grin, before pausing and looking at my neck. “Hey, where’s Caedmon?”

I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know, I was trying to find him. “ I admitted, the worry evident in my voice.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him,” Merman said firmly, like the good friend that he was. “Maybe he already smelled the pizza and was on his way?” He guessed.

“Maybe,” I mumbled, slowly walking out of the bathroom, doubting that pizza would be on his mind at the moment.

“Hey Justin, he’ll come back to you. He always takes little hikes every once in a while. You just gotta trust him,” Merman said, adjusting his collar.

Yeah. Trust him. When there’s a shadow guy on the loose that’s been playing with my dragon like some sort of creep. Exactly what I was thinking.

But when we opened the door to the cafeteria, we were met by a whole barricade of overturned tables, where a bunch of gold-eyed Riders were huddled together, ducking their heads into safety. Merman and I shared a glance before looking at the huddled bunch. “What’s going on?” we whispered at the same time.