Emotionless: (Prototype: Zero book 1) Page 25

  “I doubt it is up to you. Eileen has a mind. She can make her decisions for herself. And again, you two are not coming to my place.”

  “Head Mage agreed to let us in if you’re not there or say no, Soooo . . .” They trailed off with wicked grins.

  “Diabolical,” Lawliet, and I agreed, the same word but we were referring to two different mages. I was talking about Donte and Nixon. Lawliet may be talking about Donte and Nixon as well, but it was most certainly Mika. “Did Mum and Dad speak to you?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. It was hazy,” Nixon admitted with a scratch of his head.

  Lawliet and I looked at each other, and he heaved a profound dramatic sigh and muttered, “You can stay as long as you don’t break, morph, manipulate, hover, gravitate, conjure, create anything inside my home.”

  “It’s cool. We will come back here to torment Hopper and Isilies.”

  “How unkindly,” Hopper sighed and then turned towards me. “My Mistress, I am not saying this because your parents will disapprove, I am saying this because of my own thoughts. Don’t go. Please, I am begging you.”

  Reaching out, I placed my hand on his cheek and breathed out softly. “When they leave, I will come back.”

  “Promise?”

  “Ok.”

  “He is so under the thumb,” my brothers snickered and was back to their old evil self.

  Hopper stepped out of the room as well as my brothers. With devious grins, they ran into their room, and I assume to pack their clothes. Lawliet went to sit down on my bed, the exhaustion of meeting Hopper, Donte and Nixon together plain on his annoyed face. That is until I opened my drawer with unmentionables. He turned, twisted towards the door and marched out with his face glued outwards. He didn’t focus on me who was picking up bras and underwear.

  “I don’t think a girl should be staying in a boy’s place,” glancing up for a moment, I cringed slightly at Rebecca who was leaning against my door. She was staring at her manicured fingernails. Why do mages openly invite themselves into my home? “I have my own dorm room. You can bunk with me.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Yes, my Mistress!” Hopper said in a cheerful voice. “Rebecca is that lovely mage that patched up your wound. Surely you can stay at hers until we get this family feud resolved.”

  “I don’t mind,” Lawliet had said a perfectly executed lie. He minds. Having just my brothers in his home doesn’t seem to appeal to him at all. “You can sleep there and come hang out at my home during the day. It might make things less complicated.”

  I find that I am in rather an impeccable position. Rebecca is the least likely person I would want to sleep around. I would rather settle for Charlie and all her girl talk. Except, Rebecca doesn’t seem to be having my refusal one bit. When I finished packing, she grabbed my bag with two manicured fingers and made a clucking sound with her mouth. Whirling around, she gave disgusted looks to the boys and waltzed out dramatically. Shrinking lower, I unwillingly followed. The only reason that I am is that before I packed, I placed my grandfather’s book down the bottom. Trailing after her, she rounded corners I wasn’t all too familiar with. Going to the café and up two flights of stairs and down a dim red hallway. The walls were velvety smooth and were dripping in crimson. Some doors that were a dark mud brown flew open and teenage girls came out distraught. Stragglers that were late for class, as the sound of the bell chimed above heads.

  Rebecca produced a key, twisted the lock and pushing it open. Dropping my bag with a thump on the ground, she whirled and collapsed on the unkempt bed. The other bed had many flung and sprawled clothes and shoes all over it. Merely waving her hand airily, she wanted me to grab the clothes and dump them in the corner. Squamish, I stepped beside my bag and looked around.

  How Rebecca portrays herself is exactly how her room looks. This place looks like the girls’ room out of that comedy movie my brothers dragged me to the other night. Her room was flourishing in light pink walls, pink lipstick stains covered the wall and some smeared while others were perfectly outlined and coloured. There were pictures of male models? Mage models? Some stood weird and barely wore any clothes suitable for their surroundings. Is that a hurricane? And they are only casually standing in it with no wind that was billowing in hair or anything. How mediocre.

  The only strange things in her room are the suspicious amount of stuffed teddy bears she was leaning on that are on the bed. They were hard to look at because I wanted to touch their ears and see how fluffy they were.

  “So, I guess I am the only one who still doesn’t have an alibi,” Rebecca smirked wearily. “Your Highborn parents came knocking on my door before I went to your home. Wanted to see if they could ask my parents’ permission to place a memory rune on me. I told them that my mum is deceased and don’t talk to my Dad and that if she wanted permission to speak to my aunt who took me in. But, Eileen, your parents are the organisation, hey?” She asked, and I nodded as I tried to sit awkwardly at the edge of the other bed. “They would know about me before seeking me out. So, what is their game?”

  “Lying Game,” I murmured and tugged at my sleeves. “They will ask something that would be wrong but see if you lie about it. If you lie easily, they will search and believe you lie all the time. In my home, it has been forbidden to lie to one another.”

  Therefore, if Mum and Dad asked Donte and Nixon if they murdered Rokk, they should believe the answer. Not shift through so many horrible memories.

  “God, if they contact my Dad, I am fucked.”

  “Why?” I asked, merely out of boredom than anything else.

  “Some mages overthink, and those thoughts should never be elaborated in real life. Like, using your daughter as a test subject until I grew the vagina I needed to run.”

  Chuckling on the inside, I blinked, the humour raw, however, it is impolite of me to laugh at this moment. Her father was a curious mage, one that pushed forward, and was ignoring rules and regulations to use his own daughter as a Guinea pig. It is a sick and twisted individual, however, isn’t the most irregular thing that has become of a mage. I have heard of worse cases. In her case, however, her father would have been taken into custody, again, the rune my mum and Dad did on Lawliet, and I assume my brothers would have been done on him. If Rebecca were telling the truth, he would be stripped from any tattoos, have at least two strikes and refused into any magic based land for the remainder of his years.

  “Think this is funny, droid?”

  “The use of vagina in a serious conversation should never be said in the same sentence,” I answered, and she broke into a crooked grin and giggled.

  “Christ, little Highborn, who would have thought to be friends with you could be fun. But, anyway,” she rolled over and gave me a level look. “Do you think I am a murderer?”

  “No,” I answered honestly and in a straightforward matter.

  “Then who, if it wasn’t me. Indeed it wouldn’t be your brothers or lover boy.”

  I shook my head and stared down at my boots that tapped lightly together.

  “I think you all were set up to take the blame.”

  “Why?” she asked. “Why would someone do that?”

  With a shrug, I said, “I don’t know, but I want to find out.”

  Chapter 23

  Curious walk filled with strange creatures – Eileen,

  “Where are you going, Droid?” Rebecca asked.

  “Where are the girls’ showers?”

  “Two doors down and that way,” she pointed left before she rolled back around and tugged the blankets over her head.

  It was empty at night in the girls’ dorm. Most lights underneath doors were off. Only a few lit up down the darkened hallway.

  I opened the second door on the left, and a darkened pink coloured bathroom shined brightly and made me close eyes and adjust. It was a cute little-sized one. It was apparent that there had to be more than one of these bathrooms because there were only five showers and a few cubicles. The back wal
l lined with a few sinks and with a long mirror that looked at my rugged horrible complexion. I wanted to grimace at the sight of me. I had bed hair.

  Placing both hands on either side of the head, I smoothed down my hair and then went to have a shower.

  When I finished showering, I went to the mirror when the window in the corner caught my eye. It was chilly, but I hadn’t noticed that it was cold until I got out of the shower. The hairs rose on my arms, and the back of my neck rose because of the window. When I went to close it, the woods at the back caught my attention for a fleeting moment. Something moved in the snow. It is hard to see, but when I did focus enough, I felt suspicion at the snow fox that was lurking in the dead winter trees. As soon as it noticed that I was looking, they ran through the trees. I had the strong urge to follow, so I did.

  After I had dressed, I slipped out the window and looked down at the severe drop to the bottom. I was lucky that I brought my boots. I always feel naked without them.

  Planting boots on the side brick exterior of Mage Academy, I raised arms and felt the tension tighten my abdominal. I wobbled slightly and knew that if the rune I touched up were to fail, I have my jump rune that I know will save me for backup. With those thoughts in my mind, I walked down the building while I still looked around for that suspicious fox.

  Winter foxes are common. However, I found it strange that I recently saw one on the excursion. It made me realise that I have become suspicious, but because of my parents and strange mages who were coming into the Academy, this fox may not be just a fox but a shifter.

  I landed on the ground with a thud and hugged arms. It was warm inside the Academy, but out here, there was a bite to the winter air that numbed fingertips.

  Now at the back oval where I spotted the fox, I stood at the break of trees. It was quiet. The air has stilled, and the sky has opened up to reveal stars that shimmered in the night. It was illuminating.

  A frost breath lingered out. A snap of a twig possibly caught my attention a second after my breath, and I turned to the noise. I found the tail. It's smooth brown fur blurred past almost as if it wanted me to follow to lure me away.

  I touched the runes that were on my hands defensively and looked around. The deeper that I walked, the more suspicious I grew. I usually follow my instincts, but I wasn’t sure if these were the ones that I wanted to follow. I should have gone back to Rebecca’s room, even knowing that I still wouldn’t get any sleep because I didn’t trust her enough.

  Something suddenly moved to my right, and I turned based on instinct when I felt time slow down, but this time, it didn’t feel as if I was doing it intentionally or at all. My eyes widened a fraction at broadening darkness that expanded out into wings. One single blink and the image of the midnight wings vanished, and I fell forward onto the cold crisp snow.

  There was a tightening in my chest that wouldn’t let go. Fingers dug in, and I straightened up when I heard a low-pitched growl. A chill drew up the spinal cord, and I turned slowly to see a light grey wolf crouched low behind me. Its mouth curled up into a vicious snarl. Its yellow eyes were glowing in the night as it prowled forward.

  With a soft breath, I stood and stepped back slowly. My feet dragged across the ground, as with every move, I drew. I was creating an ice barrier that would give me enough time to escape if the wolf jumps to attack me. Veins heightened with the threat.

  The wolf stepped forward again, but this time I noticed a difference. It wasn’t looking at me. It was looking behind me. I turned quickly, and the disconnection to the rune that I was creating broke as I hit someone from behind.

  “Hey?” they spoke in a whisper.

  I stepped back flustered and felt my veins diminish as soon as I saw who it was. With a breathy sigh, I looked back, but the wolf was no longer in my sights nor was the fox that I believed was luring me into the woods.

  “Are you ok?” he asked, and I nodded slowly. “Come on. I will take you back home.”

  “Girls dorms,” I murmured and looked up at those dull brown eyes. “What’re you doing here, Spencer?” I asked.

  “My ball,” he grinned and raised his hands that had the soccer ball in them. “I kicked it out of bounds, went to grab it when I noticed you. Thought you must have jumped so high again using that rune, but you looked petrified.”

  “Looked?” I questioned dully but wanted to laugh pathetically. “I cannot express happiness. How can I show fear?”

  “I know,” he murmured softly, almost to himself. “Look, Eileen, I’m sorry about the other night.”

  “Other night?”

  “The excursion,” he rephrased.

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” he stopped which made me stop and look at him. He looked upset. His eyes wavered, cheeks flushed, and he looked different to the Spencer that I have seen this whole time. It triggered a strange sadness inside myself, and I didn’t understand why. “I acted on my own emotions and feelings that night without caring for yours. You’re right. You don’t know me that well this time so I would like you to get to know me more, that is unless you’re dating Dragon.”

  “I’m not,” I replied softly. “But what if I was. What would you do?”

  He shrugged, and it made me understand what Lawliet was saying. How it annoyed him whenever I shrugged and looked away.

  “What would happen if I was, Spencer?” I pressured the conversation.

  “It would complicate things for me, don’t you reckon?” he smiled weakly.

  I believe I knew what he was getting at. He likes me. I doubt I would want to talk to Lawliet if he were to have a girlfriend.

  I looked away from Spencer and firmly nodded.

  He touched my back, gently pushed me forward and said, “Let’s get out of here before we cause any unwanted attention.”

  “Ok.”

  Chapter 24.

  Eileen – heated.

  At the lunch table, hovering in the air, legs tucked up and arms wrapped around, I sat with Rebecca, Charlie, Kent, Lollie, Donte, Spenc and Nixon. The table has grown, with various new people who were talking and was pretending that they never downsized Highborn mages in the first place. Rebecca was one of them, and her minions stopped talking to her because she talks to me. She says she isn’t bothered and only hung out with them because they did as were told, but she was getting bored with it. It was probably true.

  Charlie, Lollie and my brothers still didn’t like the idea of Rebecca being my friend. Sometimes I am the same way. Staying in her room last night made me on high alert. She slept soundly while my eyes flew open every few minutes whenever she breathed a little too loudly or moved more than she should. In the end, I made myself tired for not trusting in her. How could I? I find the only one I trust is Lawliet as well as my brothers and Hopper. I don’t see the point in inviting or extending the invitation to someone else. Trusting four mages is enough. Trusting four mages is safe.

  “It is quiet without Rokk here. Usually, there would be an argument between him and Lawliet,” Kent spoke softly to everyone at the table.

  “Didn’t he go missing?” Charlie asked. “And Lawliet is the main suspect because no one saw him that day?” they all looked at Charlie, dumbfounded. “What? When I was in the faculty lounge complaining about my D in science, I overheard Mr Mc’ornet talking to Mrs Robertson about it last night.”

  That would explain why I saw her in the hallway close to my tower. The faculty lounge is on the other side of the hall, close to the entrance of Mage Academy. Teachers can be as bad as students can. Their mouths never close.

  “Sounds like something Dragon would do,” Spenc whispered to Kent and Kent agreed silently while Charlie chatted on and elaborated a dramatic story that didn’t make sense.

  “He was seen,” I wanted to snap at them, but it came out barely audible over every other sound. “He bought me a book of the time of the murder. He is safe and not a suspect.”

  “Really?” Lollie said. Her eyes widened. “I am surprised
someone saw him. He does tend to go unnoticed when he wants to.”

  “Who cares,” Charlie rolled her eyes dramatically. “As long as Eileen’s boyfriend is in the clear, that’s the best thing, right?”

  “I knew it,” Spenc muttered and stood. The table dropped and slammed onto the ground. My legs wobbled slightly. “I am going to class now, anyone coming?”

  Everyone stood beside Rebecca, Donte, Nixon and Lollie. After finishing her meal quickly, Lollie left the awkward silence, and it made Donte and Nixon kick back and sigh. Calculating their tenacious thoughts vocally, Rebecca is witnessing firsthand how devious these demonic beings are. In the clear of not being a potential murderer, they are back to their own antics. Harsher than ever.

  “What are we going to do?” Rebecca asked. “After what you said, I kind of want to sneak into the teacher’s faculty lounge.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “They keep our files in a portal file room in there. They will have information on Rokk,” she whispered excitement. “Are you in?”

  “We are,” Donte and Nixon moved into the conversation with Rebecca, “We can be the distraction. We always wanted to throw our new masterpiece into a room filled with teachers.”

  “Really?” Rebecca grinned as wickedly as they did.

  No, the reason they said that was to convince us to bring them so they can plot their evilness all over Rebecca’s idea to sneak in a place. Unfortunately, Rebecca leant closer to them, and a genuine nature of Rebecca came out. A crazy evil diabolical side that was frightening me made Nixon and Donte’s grin broaden, as their eyes light up majestically towards Rebecca.

  “Droid is small. She can probably slip through the classroom wall and on the other side without getting noticed. Do you think you can do a rune?”

  “Of course, she can,” Nixon praised unconditionally.

  “Why not Lawliet?” Donte asked. “I would rather have him caught than Eileen. No offence.”

  “Yeah, if he gets caught, Mika will handle it,” Rebecca said with a grin.