The Watcher

“Good,” he said, but his expression was unreadable.

When we arrived at school, the parking lot was already full so Michael pulled the car into a no-parking zone around back to drop me off. As soon as the wipers stopped, rain pelted the windshield, making it nearly impossible to see outside. Sitting beside him in a parked car, I was close enough to smell his skin. It reminded me of our kiss the day before, and I wanted to be close to him so badly it made my head spin. I had to get out of the car.

Gathering my things, I opened the door and stepped outside. The rush of cold wet air forced a gasp from my lungs. I ran for shelter.

Michael followed. “Wait.”

I stopped, and he slowed his pace as he approached, taking shelter under the wooden awning.

“About what happened yesterday,” he said. “It’s for the best.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. On one hand, I knew the stakes were high, but on the other, I couldn’t bear not seeing him. “You’re not going to ignore me again, are you?” Like my dad does.

I’d lost my dad the day he chose another woman over our family. Bill had a life of his own at school, and Mom was always working. Maybe I was destined to lose people no matter what I did.

“Of course not,” he said, folding his arms protectively across his chest. “But I can’t change what I am.”

I let out my breath, not realizing that I’d been holding it. “I don’t want you to,” I said, and opening the door I ducked into the school.

When I arrived at my locker, Elaine was shaking water droplets off her umbrella. I said a polite, if cool, hello. Her mousy-haired friend Lor joined her almost immediately.

“Did you hear about Fiona?” Lor asked, her face shining with the excitement of new gossip. I flinched.

I thought about turning back to my locker and pretending not to listen, but I didn’t. Instead, I made my eavesdropping obvious, as they tried to ignore me.

“God, the way she left—on a stretcher. I mean, everyone saw her.” Elaine gave a big dramatic shudder. “I’d be mortified.”

“How can you talk about her like that?” I snapped at them. Elaine wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate any way she could, but I didn’t care. “She was nice to everyone, even you.”

“Get a grip,” Elaine said all high-and-mightily, then turned to Lor. “We were just sayin’ it won’t be easy for her to come back. Now that everyone knows.”

“Whose fault would that be?” I said, straining to keep my voice down. “You’re the one who’s been saying shit, spreading lies about her.”

“We don’t spread lies,” Lor protested.

“We find out the facts that people want to know,” Elaine said. “But if someone’s life is a total screw-up and people want to know about it, we can’t help that.”

“Fiona’s life’s a what? You don’t even know her!” I wanted to choke both of them so badly my hands were shaking. I balled them into fists.

Elaine grabbed Lor’s arm and, even though I was at least two inches taller, she somehow managed to look down on me. “Come on, Lor. We don’t have time for her issues,” she said, and they headed down the hall, arm in arm, snickering.

As I grabbed my books from my locker, I remembered those horrible black things—minions—that Arielle had shown me the night before. Perhaps Elaine had one of them on her. If they attacked Fiona, surely they attacked other people as well. With those bitches Elaine and Lor around, coming back to school wouldn’t be easy. Fiona was going through enough. There had to be something I could do to help.

Maybe there was. I had an idea. I only hoped Michael would go for it.

***

In math class, I realized I’d forgotten to text Heather back about my “date.” She was so curious she texted me as soon as our teacher’s back was turned.

I replied with a quick message that said didn’t happen.

When she read it, she mouthed the words What happened? at me. I shrugged, not wanting to get into it in class.

After class, Heather caught up with me and walked with me to my locker. “So, I thought you and Damiel had a date?”

I tensed at the mention of his name. “We did.” I was afraid to let on too much. Damiel might not have any records because he didn’t technically exist, but he was still real to everyone here. If people knew he came over, they might get suspicious. Not sure who could be listening, I kept my voice low. “But Michael came by first, and we hung out instead.”

“You blew him off? For Michael?” When I nodded, she continued, “How did Damiel take it?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. She wouldn’t come up with the truth on her own. After all, it’s not every day that you narrowly escape dating a demon. “Okay, I guess,” I replied, bluffing. “It wasn’t serious or anything.”

“You got any idea where he is today? He hasn’t been around.”

Hell? I thought as I shook my head.

“I guess you wouldn’t. I’ve already heard a few girls whispering about him.”

I resisted the temptation to tell her my thoughts. She wouldn’t believe me if I told her the truth about him. The word demon was hardly in Heather’s vocabulary, but I did wish I could talk to someone about what was happening to me. Someone other than Michael.

“So, Michael, huh? I’m glad. He’s way more your type than Damiel. The bad-boy thing is really only good for exploring the Jungian shadow side of your unconscious.”

I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. “Jungian what?”

“Carl Jung believed that everyone has a shadow, or dark side to their personality.”

“Oh.” I didn’t think Carl Jung, whoever he was, could explain Damiel’s dark side.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Anyway, I knew you really liked Michael ever since that day we went on the hike.”

I remembered that day, how his carrying me seemed so close, so intimate that it scared me. Now, I couldn’t get close enough.

“Has he kissed you yet?”

I didn't want to answer her question, but my face gave it all away.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She gri

“No,” I said, blushing. “It’s not what you think.” How could I explain how complicated things were? That he and I had been in love before, and I was so in love with him now that it hurt to think about it? If Heather thought there was a chance between us, she’d only look for ways to set us up, and that would only drive him further away.

***

When I didn’t see Michael all morning, I began to worry. If he was still battling hellhounds, there had to be a lot of them. Were other people getting hurt? Was Michael? What if they got to my mom? I thought of her lying on the ground outside our house, unconscious, while those creatures feasted on her flesh. The image haunted me so strongly that when I finally saw Michael in the hallway before last class I rushed up beside him.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“It’s fine.” He leaned toward me and our sides touched. It was electric, and he backed away slightly, as though he felt it too. “We got all the hellhounds, if that’s what you mean.”

I let out the last of my breath, and the knot that had formed in my stomach relaxed.

“Hey,” he said, leaning in again. “Are you okay?”

“I was worried about my mom. You know, in case…”

“She’s fine,” he reassured me. “Arielle and I double-checked your place.”

“Thanks.” Hearing Arielle’s name reminded me of what I wanted to ask him. “Arielle told me what happened to Fiona.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

We reached the door of my Latin class. I lowered my voice, looking around to make sure no one could hear us. “She showed me those minions—parasites, whatever—that get on people, the ones Damiel sent.”

“She showed you that?” he asked.

“Yeah, and I thought maybe we could tell Fiona…”

One of my classmates, a tall, freckled blond guy whose name escaped me, wanted to get in the room. Michael backed me out of the doorway into the hall. “Tell her what, exactly?”