For Evermore

CHAPTER 17

To the flightless bird who dreams of wings,

How far are you willing to go?

Would you rather forego your wings,

Or have them at any cost?

Would you really want them so,

Even if they were torn

Off the back of the reaper,

And stitched into your flesh,

Searing you with the pain,

Of every soul he's ever claimed.

                                                 -Katherine Ginsberg

I know a lot more now than I did yesterday. It's seven in the evening, and I'm done with my day's work and also with my chat with Jeremy. I finish writing in my journal and sit beside the window, gazing at the moon as I think back to my conversation with Jeremy earlier today.

It happened during the lunch break today. I saw Jeremy sitting at his usual table. He was eating a sandwich. I walked up to him and took a seat directly across him. He almost jumped up from his seat as soon as he saw me.

"Katherine, what are you doing here?" he exclaimed.

"I have questions," I said.

"I know, but this is not the place. Meet me in my room in 10 minutes," he whispered hushedly as he almost stuffed the sandwich in his mouth and walked away in a hurried manner.

"Okay," my voice seemed to hang in the air.

I bought a strawberry smoothie to go and went to his room while sipping it on the way. 

The door was half open, so I went inside. I found him sitting on the edge of his bed. He's changed into a black T-shirt and black jeans. It's almost like seeing two different people when you see someone in a dress shirt with a tweed jacket paired with perfectly set hair and then seeing them in jeans and a t-shirt with ever so slightly dishevelled hair.

Anyway, he looks up at me as I shut the door and move across the room towards him.

"Hey," he greets me.

"Hey," I greet him back.

"So, what questions do you have? I think I might have an idea but go ahead."

"Oh, answer me if you already know what I want to ask," I say in what doesn't come across as a casual tone.

"Hmm, let me think. I think you want to know how this secret society you so recently discovered fits into all of this."

"Ummm, yeah. I do want to know that. But there's something I should tell you."

"Tell me? Sure, go ahead."

"So this secret society lair, place, whatever you call it, Oliver knows about it. I mean, we found it together. We were in the library once and we stumbled upon it by chance. And we started hanging out inside and then we discovered that underground room and what was written on the wall, and we deciphered it together."

"What else does he know? Did you tell him anything else?" he asks through gritted teeth clearly showing that he's trying not to yell at me.

"Nothing. I did tell him that night that I saw you jump out of the window and that I saw a vulture by your window but he knows nothing more. He didn't even believe me. He thought I was too tired and was just imagining it."

"Hmm", he nods to himself, thinking deeply.

Then, he says, "Okay just don't tell him anything more."

"Alright, now tell me about this secret society."