Sharp Like Shadow: Book 1 of A Wrath Unseen

Chapter 1

The sun burned into the city like hellfire on the day Alice heard a dead man speak.

She didn't know he was dead at first. He sat in front of the principal's desk in the tiny administrative office of her downtown Pittsburg high school, looking very much alive. Her death-visions had stopped many years ago, when she was still a little girl, and now, at sixteen, she'd managed to put so much distance between herself and that terrible part of her childhood that she could hardly remember what it felt like to look at the face of a stranger and see death and decay staring back at her. Walking into the principal's office, Alice was not expecting to relive those horrible days. And the possibility that death might soon come for her, stepping out of her visions and into her backyard, was the furthest thing from her mind.

Alice smiled at Mr. Hadler, the school secretary, as she breezed into the reception area.

"Another note," She said. "Model Rocket Club this time."

Mr. Hadler rolled his eyes into his prematurely receding hairline.

"I wish that fossil would learn how to use the intercom." He motioned Alice forward. "I mean, he's a science teacher. Shouldn't he be good with technology?"

"Only if it's been collecting dust on the lab tables for the past twenty years," Alice said. "I'll be quick."

Alice moved toward the principal's closed office door.

"Well, he's in a meeting," Mr. Hadler said. "But I don't think it's important. I suppose you could pop in and make your delivery."

"Thanks." Alice smiled again, knocking on the principal's door, then opening it.

Mr. Berringer, the school principal, sat behind his desk, a sickly-pale light-skinned man in a rumpled suit. He held a manila folder in one hand, fanning himself against the oppressive heat, and his face glistened with a thin sheen of stale sweat. The dead-man occupied a second chair facing the principal's desk. He was a sharp contrast to the other man with his coal-dark skin, fleshy rolls, and flawless pinstripe suit. Both men paused their conversation as Alice stepped into the doorway.

"Yes, Alice?" Mr. Berringer frowned at the interruption.

"I have a note from Mr. Weissman." Alice said, waving the scrap of paper in her hand as proof. "It's about Model Rocket Club, I think."

It was her third week working as the science teacher's aid, and Alice was enjoying the job. Wandering the school while everyone else was in third period made the time pass quickly, and the position would look great on her college applications. As a junior in High School, class of 1987, Alice was expected to be considering her future, which was difficult to manage when her present included playing caretaker for her thirteen-year-old brother, Royce, and their ailing grandmother. But she did her best. That was what Grandma had always taught her. "Do your best and God'll do the rest," she would say. Grandma had always been a little preachy, but Alice didn't mind. She took the lessons to heart and they kept her motivated. This new extra-curricular was the latest in a list of school involvements that offered plenty of opportunities to put her grandma's advice into practice.

"Yeah, okay." The principal waved Alice in with an impatient hand. "I'll take it."

Alice stepped into the cramped room, shifting to the side and allowing the office door to swing shut behind her. Mr. Berringer's office was cluttered with two enormous filing cabinets on one wall and a large organizer on another, in addition to the battered desk. Every available space was stacked with paperwork and file folders. Like the rest of the school, the room was not air-conditioned, and walking through the stuffy space was like wading through a swamp, the air thick with heat and sweat. Alice was eager to make her delivery and get back to the relative cool of the hallways.