Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 19

Officer Marshall eventually drives me back to Greenwood when I manage to prove myself as being innocent, for now, and by then I'm nearly delirious from lack of sleep.

I collapse into my bed, Tessa and Astrid still asleep and the time unknown but the world still dark as I toss the covers over my head and fall into a dreamless sleep that closes over me like a fist.

                                                                                              ****

It feels like I've only just fallen asleep when I am suddenly shaken awake by a rough hand. I blink my eyes open and squint against the sunlight that is now pouring into the room. Tessa is standing beside my bunk, her eyes wide and the expression on her face making me snap into full awareness as I sit bolt upright.

"What's wrong?" I demand.

She doesn't say anything as she presses a finger to her lips, motioning for me to stay silent as she points a trembling finger in the direction of Astrid's bed. I turn my head and freeze as the blood rushes out of my body.

Astrid is lying on her bunk on her back, the covers torn away to reveal that she's wearing a baggy t-shirt and plaid, fabric shorts. She's lying unnaturally still, her eyes blank as they stare towards the window, unblinking and unseeing as my heart thuds in my chest.

As I try to make sense of the situation, letters begin to scrawl across the wall in black ink.

"Murderer," I whisper as the last letter writes itself out.

The black letters turn a deep shade of red and begin to drip down the wall, making them almost look like...blood.

"You killed her," Tessa says, her voice sounding strange, like the words have been programmed into her by someone else.

Surely she didn't think that I did this.

"I didn't," my voice trembles, not helping my case as I try to get out of my bunk, but it feels like I've been strapped into it.

"You did," Tessa points down at my hands and I follow her gaze.

A knife is clenched in my right hand, the blade stained with blood. I drop the knife immediately and it clatters to the bedroom floor as I stare at my bloody palms.

"I...I didn't," I whisper.

Astrid suddenly turns her head and stares at me, her eyes glazed as a chill enters my veins.

"You're dangerous," she hisses, "Unfamiliars are meant to be wiped out, you're next."

                                                                                            ****

I jerk awake to find myself covered in sweat, my hair plastered to my forehead as I gasp in a ragged breath of air. Something flashes in the corner of my eye and I whip my head to the side to track the movement.

Tessa is crouched next to my bunk, her eyes rounded with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asks me.

I relax at her tone, she sounds like the same Tessa that I've always known as I wordlessly look past her at Astrid's bunk. Astrid is perched on the edge of it, the bed neatly made as she sits in a criss-crossed fashion. She's wearing the same clothes from my nightmare and I shudder at the sight of her as I look at the wall by her bed, almost expecting the word 'murderer' to be printed there.

"Kara-," Tessa begins to say and I blink a few times.

"Yeah?"

"You were nearly screaming your head off," she says as she reaches up and touches her wrists, which have dozens of bracelets encircling them.

I can remember then how she would wear them to school when we would have tests, the bracelets a gift from her aunt who lives in New Orleans. The ones she's wearing are the same ones, many of them having carved beads made out of bone as they are blessed with Cajun magic. Seeing her wearing them doesn't bring me much comfort as the situation reminds me of a priest clutching a cross or a rosary as they performed an exorcism, I myself feeling like the possessed victim.

I take a couple of breaths before I speak, "Finn Delacroix is dead."

"What?" Astrid sits up straighter from her place on the bed as she unfolds her legs and rests her feet on the floor.

"I...I went to the coven meeting last night," I say before I have to swallow against the lump in my throat and the tears that are rising in my eyes. "When I left the gymnasium, there was a scream and-, and he was..."

Astrid's eyes widen as she pushes off of her bed and walks over to me, "Kara-."

"He was lying on the sidewalk," my voice catches painfully, "dead."

"Dead as in...?" Tessa's voice trails into silence, like she's weighing the words.

"Dead as in he didn't have a pulse, I'm guessing," Astrid mutters.

Tessa shoots her an irritated glare, "I know that! But dead as in, like...shot?"

"Stabbed, I think," I whisper and shake my head, "I don't know, there was blood coming out of his chest."

They fall silent at this and Astrid crouches and sits back on her heels as she puts a hand to her forehead, like she doesn't know what to think. I don't even know what to think for myself, let alone for others. Tessa takes a few steps back so she's able to lean against one of the dressers as she lets Peace out of her cage and pets her familiar as she hops onto her shoulder.

"What happened after that?" Astrid asks as she looks back up at me.

"I can't really remember, I was suddenly in the headmaster's office and he told me that some investigators wanted to ask me some questions and a police officer took me down to the station and questioned me," I shudder at the memory as I say it aloud.

"So...the police officer knew about Greenwood being for witches?" Tessa inquires.

I nod, "I think that they're thinking...that they think that I'm responsible for Finn's..., for Finn's murder."

"Then we need to prove that you're innocent," Astrid says in a low voice as she stands, suddenly looking like a warrior about to go into battle even though she's a teenage girl who's still in her pajamas.

"What do you suggest we do then?" Tessa asks as Peace swivels her head in Astrid's direction.

Astrid gnaws on her lip for a long moment as her eyes narrow thoughtfully. A rueful smile twists her lips, like she knows a secret but isn't sure if she should tell it.

"I'm going to bring Finn back from the dead," she says solemnly.