Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 44: Paralysis

"Well, that didn't work out so well," muttered Corrie.

Dawn sighed in frustration. "I hope she doesn't hate us now. I don't want to have to prove to her that faeries are real by leading her into the woods."

"Oh, it won't come to that. We can touch her with the four-leaf clover in class and let her see Professor Lal."

"Oh, no." Dawn laughed ironically at the mental image. "I think that might just make her hate us more."

"But at least she'd have to believe us."

"True." A breeze rippled the grass and raised goosebumps on Dawn's arms. She shivered. "Can we go find Edie now?"

"Sure. She might even appreciate being rescued from the flirting boy. Did I tell you my theory about him?"

"No. What is it?" As they walked back up the path to where Corrie had left Edie, the former explained her theory about Marlin being a repressed homosexual to Dawn. It cheered her up slightly.

"Oh, there they are," Corrie said shortly, pointing to a spot just off the path. Then she gasped. "What the hell?"

Dawn looked at where Corrie was pointing. At first she was about to say that she only saw Edie, though her friend did look to be angry about something. Then she squinted and looked harder at where Edie was facing. There was definitely someone there, but she couldn't seem to focus on him. He just looked perfectly ordinary and uninteresting, even though she was actually very interested. "What--that's Marlin?"

"I think... hold this for a minute," said Corrie in confusion, thrusting the four-leaf clover at Dawn. She took it carefully. As soon as the clover had left Corrie's hand, she let out a squeak. It would have been funny if she hadn't looked so scared. "That's Marlin! He--" She grabbed the clover back from Dawn, tearing it slightly in her haste.

"Careful!" gasped Dawn.

"Sorry--it still works--he's a faerie! I... I can't really see him anymore..."

Dawn felt paralyzed for a moment, then took off running, quickly covering the few yards between her and Edie and the faerie. As she approached, she was able to fix her gaze a little better on Marlin. Now she knew why she'd never noticed him when he ate with them: she hadn't known he was there, so she simply hadn't looked at him. However, as she crossed the last few feet, Marlin suddenly reached out and grabbed Edie's arm.

Corrie had apparently been paralyzed for a moment longer than Dawn, but she was swiftly there behind her. "Let her go!" she shrieked at Marlin.

"No!" snarled the faerie, his voice startlingly real and solid compared to his appearance. "I chose her, she's mine!" He wrenched Edie's arm down. She screamed. Dawn grabbed at Marlin's arm, trying to get him to let her friend go, but she couldn't seem to get any purchase on his flesh; her hands slipped off as though he was made of solid mist.

Thankfully, that seemed to confuse him as much as he did her. His grip didn't seem to loosen on Edie, but he turned his face toward Dawn. Well, she thought it was a face, anyway. He had no features, except for two dark spots where there would be eyes. They looked like holes in the mist. She shuddered and took a step back, holding her hands out in front of her to ward him off. She had a moment of deja vu, but she couldn't place it.

The faerie laughed and turned back to Edie. "Your friends can't help you," he said. "I'll ask you one last time. Will you be mine or won't you?"

"Marlin, I don't understand!" Edie said desperately. "I told you days ago I'm a lesbian! And I'm--I'm with Leila now!"

"You think I care about that?" he said.

"Edie, he's a faerie!" Corrie screamed.

"What?" Edie's eyes, already wide with fear, went even wider. She tried to pull her arm out of Marlin's grasp, but he held on. "Let go of me!"

"I'm giving you a choice!" he shouted, seemingly oblivious to her protests. Dawn was amazed that no one could hear them arguing out here--or if they could, no one was coming out to help. She knew the entire school wasn't asleep; it was very late at night, but it was Friday night, and this was a college campus. Was he using magic to keep anyone else from hearing them? Or was everyone else simply too frightened to come near? "Yes or no?"

"No, Marlin!" Edie cried. "What are you--" She screamed again. At first Dawn thought he was just clutching her arm so hard it was turning purple. Then she realized, to her horror, that the color around his fingers on her arm wasn't purple: it was grey. It was stone.

"Stop it!" she cried impotently. Corrie threw herself at Marlin, and she, too, tried to pull him off of Edie, but she didn't have any more success than Dawn had. Dawn felt absolutely helpless. Being able to see his true form wasn't useful at all. All that her Sight and Corrie's clover had done, apparently, was to allow them to see exactly what was going on but be unable to help.

Then there was someone coming. Dawn heard footsteps, the sound of someone running on the concrete, a woman wearing heels. She turned.

It was Professor Lal.