Fate's Exchange (Twisted Fate, Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Eight

Alyssa

Rushing out of the locker room after gym, I ran up to Suzie and asked, "Have you seen David?"

"Who?" She glanced to her right to look at me but didn't slow her pace.

The only thing I hated more than her model thinness and flawless beauty was her model height. That is, assuming I ignored what she did and how she spoke. But when she walked fast, it was hard for my short legs to keep up with her long strides. At least when we had been friends she had made the effort to slow down so that I wouldn't endure a workout when we went places, even if it was just walking through the halls at school.

"David. My boyfriend? He was supposed to be in gym with us."

"Right—the hottie," she said and nodded. "I saw him a while ago, yeah. Just before gym started, I think."

"Where?"

She stopped, almost causing the group of freshmen behind us to slam into her, and her gaze flitted upwards as she tried to recall whatever she'd seen. "Uh, I think he was by the weight room, heading out the back doors."

"By the woods?" My stomach dropped. Already breathless from chasing Suzie, it felt like I couldn't breathe at all. "A-are you sure?"

She nodded, pinching her lips, completely oblivious to what I was feeling. She smiled like she was doing me a favor. "Positive. I never miss a pretty face."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?"

Suzie rolled her eyes, waving her hand in the air between us. "Well, yeah, but looking at other guys is how I appreciate the one I got." She shrugged. "Deryk is fine with it as long as my looking doesn't turn into touching." She laughed. "Just don't tell him I said that, because the last time I did it in front of him, he wasn't as 'understanding' as he'd said he would be."

"Huh. Well, thanks for your help," I said, rolling my eyes at her logic. There wasn't a guy alive who could make me want to look at him more than I wanted to look at David, and right now, continuing this conversation was stopping me from making sure he was okay.

Pivoting on my heel, I felt Suzie watching me as I began navigating through the hallway towards the back doors. My steps slowed during the final stretch, apprehension screaming at me to stop, reminding me that today was D-day—again. But I could do this. If I stayed clear of the woods, the rocks, and the Elixir students.

If I saw them—even their shadows—I would run back to safety.

When I reached the door, I hesitated, needing to gather the courage to walk through. The memories of the events leading to my first death were still so fresh, too vivid to cast aside. I might be okay with the field and the woods, but seriously. It was D-Day. My feelings for David were stronger than my fear, but I wasn't stupid. Getting my mind to tell my body to walk into what it knew would lead to danger wasn't something that I could do without pause.

I pushed open the door, immediately bathed in sunlight so bright it blinded me.

"David?" I called, trying to visor my eyes with my hand. "Are you out here?"

I scanned the edge of the woods and sighed with relief. Nothing. The field, with freshly cut lawns that made me want to spit its mossy taste from my mouth, were empty. My brow furrowed in confusion and I stepped out further. The door escaped my grasp and I turned too slow to catch it before it slammed shut behind me.

The lock clicked into place.

Licking my lips, I stared at the door and then nodded, gaining the courage to turn away. I took a deep breath and looked down, and then forced my head up. It's just an empty field. At least all the warm weather this time around allowed the lawns to be mowed. That had to be a good sign.

"David?" I called again, starting towards the right side of the building, wanting to get away from where Josh and his friends had found me the first time around. "Where are you?"

Was I crazy to think he was out here? Resorting to talking to myself to keep my thoughts from becoming clear? No. I jerked my head to the left to look towards the woods, and then paused to listen. Nothing except the wall and gate, closed for the first time since I could remember, was out there.

It's just your imagination, I told myself, and began walking again. Dust rose in the air with each step as I kicked at the ground. David had seemed so different, but in the end, he was like any other guy. Not that I had much to compare it to, but I watched T.V. David was just as inconsistent as all the heartthrob's girls oohed over, and considerate only to himself. But if he was like all the other guys, he would have stuck around until he had gotten a lot further in our relationship—taking it easy would have never been mentioned.

How could I lose faith so quickly?

He had done so much to prove himself and nothing to make me question him. It's not like he knew I was looking for him, though he'd have to be an idiot not to guess after that missing gym class. If this was where my thoughts would go whenever I didn't know where he was, I never wanted to be apart.

My thoughts were like a rollercoaster: up and down, up and down.

He found somebody better.

Is he okay?

What if he's hurt?

Rounding the corner, I heard the sound I thought I'd imagined again, only this time it was louder, more distinct. Grunting. The direction it came from was clear now, and before my brain registered what was in front of me, more reflexive than instinct after the times I'd failed to use it, my phone was in my hand and my fingers were dialing for help.

"David." Everyone turned to look at me, and I froze with my mouth still hanging open.

Swallowing, I darted my eyes around the group gathered, and tried to hurry my fingers across the keypad without looking away. All five of the students who'd tortured me were there, the largest—meanest—squared off against David.

Josh.

"Alyssa, go inside!" David screamed, distracted.

Josh, who was just as big and burly as I remembered, took advantage and swung, his hand connecting against David's jaw. David twisted sideways and fell to his knees, blood splattering the air, and then he looked down and spat a mouthful onto the ground.

"David!" I took a step forward.

"Don't come over here, Alyssa," he said, pulling his torso up and raising his hand in the air while he crawled to his knees to spit on the ground again. He looked up, his eyes pleading. "Go inside."

He sounded desperate, like having me see this was worse than having to deal with degenerates in the first place. But I knew who these kids were. If David thought he would withstand their attack until a limit of brutality no human conscious could cross without incentive was reached, he was wrong. This group, their leader, had no limits. Killing me had suggested that, though it was questionable if that would have happened if they hadn't been blitzed out of their minds.

Looking down as my phone began to murmur with voices, I lifted my hand to my ear. "Please send officers to Royal Academy, on the right-hand-side of the building. We're being assaulted by five of the students from Elixir High School. Three of their names are Josh, Sarah and Duke. Oh! And Christa. I don't know who the last one is, but I'm pretty sure that two of the boys are who you had at the—"

Josh, moving faster than someone his size should be able to accomplish, grabbed my phone out of my hand, along with a fistful of my hair, and threw it to the ground, crushing it to parts beneath his foot. My mind flashed to the memory of being dragged across the ground, watching as my hair fell through the air after being ripped from its roots, and I screamed. Pain shot up my back as though the memory brought back the agony of my flesh on my back being scraped away by the rocks on the ground.

"Bitch. What the hell did you do?" he snarled, the acrid stench of his breath hitting my face like I'd stuck my head into a bowl of musty, week-old beer someone had blown smoke into using a straw so that it bubbled from the bottom-up.