The Soul Thief

Chapter 21

There was a long pause as Blake allowed my words to sink in, his expression not giving anything away.

"If you think," he said slowly, "I give a damn what you are, then you're a bigger fool than I am for risking everything I am by choosing you."

"How does choosing me make you a fool?" I asked, a little hurt by the choice of wording.

"You just have no idea the danger it puts both of us in, and I cannot explain it to you." He sighed, pressing his forehead to mine.

Before I could formulate my reply, a scream split the air, and my blood ran cold. I knew without a shadow of a doubt what that scream meant, and so did Blake. Something had killed another student.

The wall opened up with a crunch of rock moving against rock and the school spit us both out of the passageway, so we tumbled into a familiar hallway near the dorms. "Wait, it might not be safe." Blake said urgently, catching my upper arm.

I didn't listen to him, shrugging off his touch and taking off running in the direction the sound had come from.

The screams were louder now, and I was rounding on them when Blake came alongside me. "Stop, I'll investigate. Just go back to your room or something." He pleaded.

I snorted. As if. "You don't know me that well if you think I'm going to ignore someone in distress."

It had been one thing I had struggled with most. On the streets, we pretended not to see or hear anything and we certainly avoided getting involved, but something about screams of terror pulled me in. Just as when the last girl was found, I felt a weirdness in my chest. A sense of wrongness that my body recognised even if I couldn't.

We rounded the corner to find a girl pressed against the wall. The hand over her mouth was doing nothing to muffle the screams as her eyes remained fixed on the body slumped against a doorframe.

It was a boy this time. His arms positioned unnaturally in his lap and his mouth hanging open in shock. I didn't have to touch him to know that he was dead, but I still moved closer. Taking in those wide glassy eyes, fixed on something that horrified them.

Whatever he had last seen had terrified him and whilst that should have scared me, it did nothing but fuel a rage in me. I didn't recognise him, wasn't even sure he was in my year, but I felt a fury for a life cut short.

Up close, I could see the thin spider web of blue veins bursting out around parted lips. A sharp inhale beside me had me glancing round at Blake.

I could hear footsteps hurrying through the hallways now and the screaming girl had switched to sobs, curling in on herself as though hoping the smaller she was, the less real this situation was.

"I need to go." Blake said, eyes fixed on the body and brow pinched with concern. "You should too. We can't get caught out of lessons."

"I'm pretty sure teachers won't be concerned about lessons with a student dead." I pointed out.

"No, but they're going to be concerned about who did it, and I can't get caught up in that." He backed up a couple of steps as he spoke.

I tilted my head to the side and took in his retreating form. "Are you seriously running?"

He shrugged. "Are you seriously not?"

Before I could reply, he took off at a run that made him almost blur. Just in time for the approaching people to round the corner.

I didn't recognise the teacher at the front, but she took in me two steps from the body and the girl huddled on the floor behind me and reacted.

I saw her lips moving, but couldn't hear what she said as my body jerked upright and my arms pressed against my sides.