This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Ten

Svetlana's mother pulled the car to a stop in front of the academy's main entrance. Svetlana said her goodbyes and hopped out, her boot pressing firmly into the fresh layer of snow. She was the first one at school, as usual.

She pushed open the front doors and made her way down the somber hallways. The corridors were still dark, only lit by the meager morning light that penetrated the cloud cover and found their way into the windows. The lockers that stood open on their hinges cast gaunt shadows across the tiled floors.

Svetlana's steps echoed as she walked. Inside her head, her thoughts echoed, too. Memories, premonitions, fear, all swirling and mixing in the great cauldron of her mind.

Out of the corner of her eye, a shadow slithered across the floor. Her eyes snapped in that direction, her hand clutching at her heart.

It was only a door, creaking on its hinges. 

Svetlana swore. "Why don't we buy sliding doors?" she muttered to herself.

Things like that had been happening to her all morning. She would think that she saw something, an obscuration or a shade, and when she looked, it was nothing. Her mind was playing tricks on her. The paranoia was beginning to set in. Her dreams were filled with the faceless visage of the shadow in the woods.

She shuddered. It can't get you here, Svet. It won't hurt you anymore. Get a hold of yourself.

She tood a deep breath, steadied her wringing hands, and turned down the hallway to her locker.

She entered the combination, removed her things, and turned to go to homeroom. 

Reya stood at her own locker down the hall, a smile brimming on her face as she opened her own locker.

Svetlana took another deep breath and walked towards her. "Good morning," she called out.

Reya looked up, and the smile on her face twitched, turning into a forced disposition of cheer. Most people would not have noticed it, but Svetlana had practice at reading other people's emotions. 

She had learned early on how to tell when her parents were really proud of her and when they only pretended to be. 

 "Good morning!" Reya called back. Svetlana noticed the forced exuberance. Reya was trying to make up for the forced smile.

So many subtleties and implications laid in human speech.

Svetlana ignored it. She brought a smile of her own to her lips. "How are you?" she asked, coming to stand before Reya at her locker.

Reya smiled again, and it flashed to one of earnest joy briefly. "Very good, actually. But how are you?" 

Svetlana shrugged. "I suppose I could be worse." 

Reya's face began to look worried. Genuinely worried.

"I mean," Svetlana quickly stammered, "I'm not bad at all, just a little shaken up, still..." Svetlana turned her gaze to look at the interlocking tiles that laced the floor. 

Reya nodded slowly, concern lingering in her features. "Yeah, I would expect. That must have been pretty intense for you."

Svetlana nodded. She looked back up and stared out a nearby window. The light was filtering in smoothly, tinted blue, soft and cool. Her eyes narrowed. She remembered a question she had wanted to ask. "Reya," she said softly, "how aren't you shaken up?"

Reya hesitated. Svetlana turned to look at her again.

Reya's face looked ashen and nervous. Her gaze was distant, her eyes out of focus, hazy.

Svetlana was patient.

"Svetlana..." Reya began.

Svetlana nodded, trying to coax the answer out of Reya's lips. She suspected the answer, but she needed to hear it from Reya.

The silence lingered as Reya searched for the words. "I've... I've met him before."

Svetlana sighed inwardly. As she had suspected.

"And..." Reya continued. "Well, he kinda saved me, I guess..."

"From me?" Svetlana asked.

Reya's eyes focused on Svetlana's. She seemed afraid.

Svetlana was beginning to feel the anger rising above all her other emotions, but she worked to smother it. Be logical, Svet. You threatened her. Her nostrils flared as she calmed herself down. Remember - this girl saved your life.

Svetlana tried to soften her own stare. Reya seemed to relax. 

"Yes, from you," Reya said. 

Svetlana nodded. "I'm sorry about that, you know."

It was Reya's turn to nod. "I know. Don't worry. I've gotten over it."

Just like that. No judgements anymore. Svetlana felt the tension ease. 

The girls were silent for a moment. Then - 

"As I was saying, I'd seen him before. Several times," Reya added.

Svetlana's curiosity piqued. "Mhmm," she hummed.

"And each time, he had just been standing there. He never even came out of the woods to talk to me. He was just... a shadow in the woods." Again, her eyes glazed over, and she reminisced. 

"Wait," Svetlana said. "He?"

Reya nodded. "I learned yesterday..."

Svetlana's blood grew cold. Reya had talked to the thing yesterday? Even after all that had happened?

Let it play out, she told herself. Be a bystander. Do not interfere.

"He never hurt me. He saved me from you. And then when I came to get you, he even gave you back..." Reya shook her head, as if awestruck. "Yesterday... Yesterday he told me why he was here." Reya snapped back into the real world and looked at Svetlana.

Svetlana stared back. "Why?"

"He said he was sent here to protect me."

Svetlana's immediate reaction was that the thing was only playing Reya, fooling it into believing it was her friend. Eventually, it would lash out, and Reya would be hurt. Perhaps killed.

But then, she wondered why.

Why would it lie to her? Why would it put so much effort into deceiving one teenage girl, one ordinary little girl?

And then Svetlana wondered if, perhaps, she was jealous.

The thought jarred her. Was she jealous that the shadow in the woods had taken such an interest in Reya, when Reya wasn't even important? Reya was not the top of the class. She was not bred to be a military genius. She was not even purebred Russian!

Svetlana was all those things and more. Why didn't the shadow protect her instead?

Svetlana pushed the questions aside. She would worry about them later.

Instead, Svetlana nodded slowly at Reya. "It makes sense," she lied.

Reya nodded in agreement. Then, the true smile reappeared on her face. "So exciting, don't you think?"

Svetlana smirked, caught off guard. "Yeah," she muttered.

Reya did not notice Svetlana's reluctance. She turned obliviously back to her locker, finished gathering her books, and shut the door, smiling the whole time. "I wonder what's going to happen," she trilled. 

Svetlana's eyes locked on the light streaming in through the window. So blue, so cold, so gentle. 

"Yeah, I wonder..."