Her Curse

Chapter 20 - Heaven and Hell (pt. 1)

   "Adelina! Wake up! Come eat some breakfast before you head to school." I heard my dad call from downstairs. I sat up and lazily rubbed the sleep from my eyes before calling back, "Coming." I pushed my blanket off of me and got out of bed, getting enough energy to fight the urge not to crawl back into bed and fall asleep. I walked out of my room, ready to get today over with. I was so tired.

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   After I got dropped off at school, I walked into the building and felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. "Hey babes," Lucas said coolly, pressing his chest into my back. His voice sent shivers down my spine and I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. 'Wow, Adelina. You're too easy to make blush,' the disembodied voice taunted. I ignored the voice and looked at Lucas, "Hey you." I kissed his cheek and felt Lucas give a deep rumble of pleasure from his chest.

   "Does today seem a little off to you?" Lucas asked. Why would today feel off? "Not really, why do you ask?" I started thinking of the many different ways today could be different from any other day.

   "Look around," Lucas said. With that, I looked around at all of the bustling students. It looked pretty normal, if anything, it felt less crowded in the hallways than usual. "A lot of students are missing today. I haven't seen Ginger or those three football players yet. I haven't seen Chase either." Lucas was right. Many faces I normally see in the busy hallways of the school aren't present. "Weird..." I mumbled. It's normal for like three or four students to miss a school day, but for over 30 kids, Ginger, Chase, and the Three Stooges to not be there? It was odd and set off all kinds of alarms.

   "I think we should keep our guard up. Ginger might be up to something," Lucas whispered into my ear. I nodded my head in agreement. "Just act normal. C'mon, let's head to our chemistry class." I took Lucas' hand and led him through the hallway and up the stairs. It was unnervingly quiet on the second floor of the school. I looked around, seeing only a few students here and there. 'I don't like this,' the voice stated. 'Neither do I. But, we have to act like nothing's wrong if we're being watched,' I responded. The voice didn't respond back, so I could only assume that he understood. I felt more and more on edge as we got closer to our classroom. Lucas tightened his arm around my hips.

   "Don't think too much about it, Liner. You're shaking," Lucas said in a reassuring tone. I took a deep breath to calm myself down - it didn't help much. But, it was going to have to be enough. 'We just have to make it through the school day, that's all,' I reminded myself. 'It's going to be a long day,' the voice said to me.

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   School took longer than usual to end. The day had dragged on longer than any other day. Both Lucas and I were tense, we barely spoke the whole day. When we did speak, it would only ever be about Ginger. We were both worried that she would do something during school hours that would both catch us off guard, starting an unfair fight, and expose our Nao secrets to our families. Luckily, nothing happened.

   Lucas and I walked into the woods in a tense silence. I gripped my arm tightly, preventing it from shaking. I looked at my hand to see that my knuckles had turned white from me gripping my arm so hard. Lucas didn't say anything, he just held my free hand in an attempt of comfort - but I think it was more to comfort him. I didn't mind it either way, I was just on edge as Lucas. We continued walking until we reached a field on the other side of the woods. It wasn't our usual meeting place, but we could never be too careful now.

   "There you two are," Kiel said as we approached him and Teotwawki. I looked around and saw Kiel's Demon army and our pack members talking amongst themselves. I assume they were getting acquainted with each other. "I finished the necklaces, but I didn't get a chance to test my theory," Teotwawki stated as he handed me a gold chain necklace with five small peridot gems strung on it. I took the necklace from Teotwawki and looked over the gems. "You made the two stones into pendants?" I asked. I looked at Teotwawki as he nodded his head.