Blackout

Chapter 25 of Banished for Love

Devin’s Point of View

 

I rocket deep into the earth, down to the place I once called home. I stand tall and walk through the caverns to my father, ignoring the bows of the demons around me. My father is distracted when I walk in, performing an execution on one of the little red men. For what, I do not know, though I wouldn’t put it past my father to be killing him simply for s***s and giggles. My father notices me then and with a flick of his wrist casually discards the demon into a pit of lava before addressing me.

 

“What brings you down here my boy?” my father asks, shrinking down to take on a human form.

 

“I need a favor. Something to help me get Kelsey to turn to her darker side,” I reply.

 

“What can I do for you?” he asks.

 

“Can you whip up a bully of some sort? Some girl to push Kelsey around,” I inquire.

 

He strokes his chin, thinking. As he does, he reverts back to his big bad monster form. He reaches into another cavern, plucks out a hulking, squirmy demon, and drops it to the ground before him. My father waves a hand over the demon, causing the creature to quiver. It falls to the ground groaning and twitching violently. The demon then begins to morph into a human form. Still a hulking form, but human nonetheless.

 

“There,” my father says, looking satisfied. “She is yours to command.”

 

The girl rises shakily to her feet, then turns to me and gives a little bow.

 

“Perfect,” I say with a rather devious grin. I bid farewell to my father and take the demon back to my house above ground.

 

“Tomorrow you will go to school. There you will do your best to bully and pick a fight with this girl,” I project Kelsey’s image into the creature’s head. She bows her head respectfully, understanding her objective.

 

I feel a pang of guilt for conjuring this creature that could potentially hurt Kelsey, but squelch it as best I can. I need to be the one to do this. If not me, my father may pay Kelsey a visit. And he would be far less merciful than I.

 

***

 

The next morning, Jeremy’s sick feeling has passed and we are off to school. We leave early so Jeremy can attempt to give me a crash course in driving his stick shift. After finding out how I got to and from school while he was sick, he had insisted I learn to drive his car so, as he said, I wouldn’t be stranded without him. I knew it was really because he would do anything he could to limit my exposure to Devin. I stall a few times at first, trying to get the shifting rhythm down, but by the time we make it to school I seem to at least have the basics down. I pull gingerly into a parking space and I spot Brittney’s bug pulling in just a few cars down. I grab Jeremy’s hand and pull him toward her.

 

“Hey Brittney,” she looks up to me, surprise clear on her face.

 

“Oh, hey Kelsey. Sorry, guess I’m not used to having a friend yet,” she laughs nervously, looking down at her tall red suede heels.

 

“Where are you headed?” I ask her, smiling.

 

“Math,” she replies, finally looking up to meet my eyes.

 

“So are we, we’ll walk with you,” I say, linking elbows with Brittney and pulling her and the shocked into silence Jeremy along with me. We enter the math building and make our way through the halls. Brittney had released herself from my arm and was trailing a little behind us now so we aren’t taking up the whole hall. My shoulder bumps into someone going the other way and I turn, immediately contrite, to apologize. I look up, and up, and up into the enraged face of a monstrous girl.

 

She stoops down to my eye level. “Watch where you’re going!” she screams in my face before turning away and stalking off.

 

“Jeez, she was more of a b***h to you in ten seconds than I’ve been all year,” Brittney observes, staring down the hall after the girl.

 

I shake my head, trying not to let the girl affect me and tow the both of them to our respective first periods.

 

***

 

“Be careful, you could run into that girl anywhere,” Jeremy says worriedly as he walks me to my second hour.

 

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself,” I smile and kiss him softly. The warmth of his lips on mine is somewhat comforting; for though I exude confidence on the outside, I’m shaking like a wet Chihuahua on the inside.

 

Jeremy releases my hand and heads off to his class, casting one more worried glance my way. I step into history and take my seat behind Devin. I sink a little lower in my chair when I see who is sitting in front of him.

 

The hulking beast of a girl rakes her beady brown eyes around the classroom disdainfully. When her eyes fall on me, they stop, her nostrils immediately flaring wide with hate. Devin turns to see my deer in the headlights look, seeming shocked as well as amused.

 

I am relieved when Mr. Fosselman (a fitting name for a history teacher) calls the class to order, releasing me from her harsh gaze.

 

“Class, we have a new student joining us. Meet Margaret.” Mr. Fosselman says, gesturing to the girl, who grunts in response.

 

“What did you do to piss someone like that off?!” Devin asks quietly, still looking amused.

 

“All I did was bump into her in the hall. It was an accident,” I whisper, staring straight at my desk, eyes wide.

 

“Must’ve been one heeluva bump,” Devin chuckles.

 

After class I hurry out the door, chin tucked down to my chest. I bump into someone’s back just outside the door. After stumbling backward from the impact and murmuring my apology I look up to see that, of all the people I could’ve bumped, it had to be the brute who already had it in for me.

 

“You’re going to regret bumping me again,” she sneers in a calloused voice. Before I know it, I am thrown hard into a set of lockers against the wall. I wince at the sound and slide down to the floor, knowing that will leave a bruise. Devin rushes out of the classroom to kneel beside me and I spot Jeremy rushing from far down the hall through a fast-forming crowd.

 

“What are you doing? Fight back,” Devin says, helping me to my feet.

 

“Are you kidding? She’s a beast!” I feign fear, knowing I have fallen angel strength and agility on my side.

 

Devin grins knowingly. “You’re one tough cookie. You know you can take her.” He winks and slips my backpack down my shoulder, slinging it onto his. I look nervously to the girl’s condescending sneer and step up to face her.

 

“Bad move,” she says and takes a swing at my head.

 

Time slows as instinct kicks in, dark and menacing. I duck her crushing blow and send a jab of my own at the side of her knee. I hear a sickly crack, knowing her knee has been sent out of alignment. The girl stumbles forward out of shock then whips around to face me, eyes swimming with fury. She rushes at me, seeking to catch my throat in her massive fists, having seen this coming, I duck out of the way. Before she has time to process that I’m no longer in her path I grab the back of her head and smash her face into the lockers before me. Another deafening crack lets me know her nose caught the impact and shattered. She falls to the ground and flips onto her back, face gushing blood. I am on top of her before she has a chance to get up. I sit on her stomach, pinning her arms to her sides with my knees, and wrap my hands around her throat. She writhes helplessly under my vice like grip. Her eyes grow wide with shock and rage, pupils quickly shrinking to mere pinpoints.

 

“Kelsey, stop!” Jeremy yells, rushing to grab me from behind. He pries futilely at my hands. “Kelsey, you need to stop, you’re killing her,” he says softly in my ear. My actions and his words seep through the dark haze in my mind and my grip loosens. Jeremy pulls me off the girl, who is now coughing and gasping for air like a fish.

 

I look around me, dazed. A crowd had formed around us, gaping stares shifting from me to the girl on the floor and back again repeatedly. Jeremy’s arms are still wound tightly around my waist, as if to keep me from jumping back on her. A strangled noise escapes my lips. I cover my face with my hands and twist in Jeremy’s arms to press my face into his chest, horrified at what I’d done, and almost done. I had very nearly killed that girl.

 

Devin clears his throat. “Alright, move along. Nothing more to see here.” I hear the hesitant retreating of my classmates.

 

“C’mon,” Jeremy says, stooping to pick up my backpack, which Devin must have left as he is suddenly nowhere in sight, and slinging it over his shoulder. He pulls me off to art in a near catatonic state.

 

“I don’t know what came over me,” I murmur, bemused.

 

Jeremy kisses my temple. “I know, it wasn’t your fault. She started it.”

 

“Yeah,” I respond meekly. “And I almost ended it.”