Argent Eye

22

As I walked back, I couldn't help but feel excited about what just happened. Not only had Ronan and I broken into Greenwich Park after closing time, but we'd ended up getting caught and running away. Not to mention the fact that I was able to get a grasp on my fire wielding abilities.

When I got back into the flat, I noticed that Jake's door was still open, meaning he was still awake.

"Good night, was it?" Jake asked as I walked past. There was an irritated undertone to his voice that I didn't miss.

"Um, yeah." I said. "It was good, thanks."

"What did you do?" He asked, sitting in his spinning desk chair, with his hands clasped in his lap.

"Oh, not a lot. We went to Spoons and had a couple of drinks."

"Really?" He asked, totally not buying my story. "So your night had nothing to do with Greenwich Park?"

I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he knew exactly. I mean, how could he know?

"Um..." I began, but Jake didn't let me answer.

He stood up from his chair and stood right in front of me. "Nothing to do with meeting a guy?"

"Jake- "

Once again, he didn't let me speak. "Millie, I followed you." He said.

I looked at him. "You did?"

"Yes." He said.

"And what did you see?" I asked, very intrigued.

He put his hand on his head. "Something totally impossible." He said, and then turned back into his room. He slumped back down on the chair. "Something that I know I probably shouldn't have seen, but I did. And I know what I saw, Millie. So don't go telling me that I'm crazy, or that I imagined the whole thing. Because I saw."

I sighed a little, and then went and perched on the edge of Jake's bed. "I won't tell you that you're crazy." I said.

Jake looked mildly surprised. "You won't?"

"No." I said. "But you've gotta tell me exactly what you saw."

Jake took a deep breath. "Okay." He began. "So, I knew you were lying when you said you were going out with friends. So I thought, what harm could it do to just see where she's going? I was being nosy. So, I waited for you to leave the halls and walked slowly behind you. When you went past Spoons, I thought you might be going to the pub round the corner by the park gates. But then you went straight past that, and I saw you were meeting a guy.

"At this point, I realised I was being totally ridiculous." Jake chuckled a little. "I knew you were up to something, but I didn't even think about the fact that you might have a boyfriend. So I went to turn back and was ready to scold myself for being a creep and not letting you have your secrets. But then..." he stopped talking for a moment, and looked at me. "Then, I thought I was going mad. I saw this guy... like, one minute he was standing there, the next he was in the park. Like, he vanished. And then reappeared on the other side of the gate. I said to myself that I had to be seeing things. That it couldn't be real. But then... then you did it. Although, it was a little different. You had this black smokey stuff surrounding you. Then you walked through the fence. Like, through it. In what world is that even possible?"

Jake took another breath and was looking at me, trying to read me. I'm not sure if he was waiting for me to burst out laughing, so he could be assured that maybe it was all one big misunderstanding.

"I'm sorry I lied to you." I said, realising that Jake had seen enough. He'd seen too much for me to even think of an excuse or way to explain what had happened without telling the truth.