A Part Of Your Soul

Chapter 4

Kathrine had to drop me and Sam off at my house to get my backpack for school. I said that I could easily just ride my skateboard over, but she insisted that I stay safe and that she would drive me. I wished my own mother was like that.

I snuck into the house, not wanting to wake anyone, and grabbed my bag, darting out before I could be spotted. I sprinted across my lawn like a startled deer and slammed the passenger's door shut, eliciting a concerned look from Kathrine. Sam looked unconcerned about this behavior, but I knew that Kathrine could never understand my family life.

She dropped us off at the front of the school. We shuffled out and into the swirling masses of high schoolers. Giving each other grimaces, we split up to opposite sides of the sophomore hallway to go to our lockers. I pulled my gray beanie lower over my ears, trying to tune out the droning of the people everywhere. I found a song by Three Days Grace and turned it up louder, pulling out my chemistry book and shoving my backpack into my locker.

Walking upstairs, I met up with Sam and walked into chemistry class with him. I almost puked. Sitting in a desk, in the corner, sat the boy from the library. Sensing something was wrong, Sam turned around and quietly whispered to me "What's wrong?"

Trying not to stare, I whispered back, "He's here. The guy from the library."

Sam's eyebrows went up as he looked around the room. "The guy in the corner there?"

I nodded. Almost as if he could tell we were talking about him, the boy glanced up and caught my eyes. He quickly turned his eyes down and I couldn't tell what emotion had flickered across them before he looked away.

After a while, the bells rang, and everyone eventually got to their seats. I sat as far away as I could from him. Sam sat behind me, probably to keep an eye on me so I didn't do anything crazy.

Out of habit, I pulled out a small mechanism out of my backpack and fiddled with it, Turing it over and over and over and over and over in my hands until class was dismissed, school was dismissed, and Sam and I were safely on our way back to his house.

On the walk back, he kept looking behind his shoulder. Getting nervous myself, I cautiously questioned him "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," he responded, his eyes dark. "Just got a funny feeling."

He wasn't saying much about it, but from past experience I knew Sam had some kind of sixth sense about other people. It was his own gift, like my ability. It may have been what allowed him to see souls occasionally like me.

After a minute or two, his tense muscles slowly unclenched, and whatever was assailing him went away.

I had a sudden thought and began to rummage through my bag. We both stopped and Sam watched me as I pulled a candy bar-a snickers-out of my backpack and handed it to him.

"You're not you when you're hungry," I whispered to him jokingly.

Sam began to laugh. His soul, which had been so dark it was almost black moments before, instantly brightened and seemed to hum. We were so busy laughing we didn't see a figure in the distance come out from behind a bush and disappear around the block corner.

"I think I've located her, sir." The figure, a young boy, spoke into a phone. "Yes, she seems to have some ability...no, she hasn't developed any other abilities as far as I can tell...of course. I'll continue to keep an eye on her, sir." The person on the other end spoke for a moment. "Well, there is this boy. He appeared to have sensed me, but I don't think we have any record of him with any sort of ability...yes, absolutely, if he proves to be a problem he will be taken care of immediately. Yes. I will question him. Thank you. Goodbye." He hung up and placed the cell in his pocket. He had a mission to complete, and for the boy's sake, he sincerely hoped that he would not interfere.