Beautifully Designed

Chapter 12-How Coincidentally Odd

Emptiness.

The feeling took over as soon as my eyelids dropped. Now that I was no longer looking, the urge to see something was fighting with the single command I had received.

Close your eyes

Three simple words have never left me on the edge of my seat like this before.

A part of me wanted to defy the command, but the other half thought it best to obey. I was never one to listen to the rebellious side anyway.

When I was young, every time something bad happened I would always close my eyes. Whether it was mom and dad fighting, or someone getting hurt, it was always the first reflex.

Close your eyes, and nothing was wrong. Everything would be okay, because you couldn't see it. Almost as if it had never even happened, but it was only a figment of your imagination.

If only that were true.

As reality began to unfold, the only sounds in the hall were numerous grunts and even a few cracks, as if bones had been broken. Another sound came forth as well, almost as if pounding a fist against a solid metal door. There was one moment that I felt the presence of someone standing directly in front of me, but the sensation soon disappeared and I didn't think about it too much.

The noise ceased entirely after a few minutes, and a cool hand slipped into my own. The cool hand pulled me forward but I refused to open my eyes. The creak of a door opening was the only sound as I was carefully lead outside, and sunlight poured down over my eyelids.

"You may open your eyes, Spencer." The deep melodic voice instantly pulled me from the blindness just as he released my hand. Jason had led me to the quad just outside the front doors, which was absent of teenagers today.

Jason's face greeted me with a shy smile, the rays of sunlight gleaming against his smooth skin. The edges of his features looked sharper and more pronounced with the added light. His dark brown hair was reflecting the rays, giving it a somewhat lighter appearance. Stubble was sprinkled along his jaw, indicating a missed shave this morning.

Not that I didn't mind.

"What hap--" I stopped myself before finishing the question.

Did I want to know what happened?

A quizzical look appeared on Jason's face before he spoke, "Do not worry, they will not bother you." he rested a hand on my shoulder, piercing my gray eyes with his intense green ones.

Now I did want to know.

"Wait, I don't understand, there were four of them ready to brawl and you're not even bruised? Bleeding? What are you, the karate kid?" I scrunched my face up in confusion as Jason let out a chuckle.

"Is standing here before you, uninjured, such an inconvenience?" The amusement was clear as crystal in his voice.

Bewildered, I took a step back. "Yes, actually, your clothes aren't even wrinkled."

Jason looked down at his long sleeve before picking off a piece of lint. "My mother ironed it this morning."

With an eye roll, I pursued the strange phenomenon. "You're avoiding my question, what the heck did you do?"

"You don't really want to know the answer to that." Jason said, free of emotion while pulling a straight face. "So I'll say it again, they won't be bothering you."

The words should have comforted me, but they held a strange coldness to them that sent a shiver down my spine. There was a subtle change to his speech, it made him sound less formal and more...dangerous.