Night School

He blew out the candles and the room plunged into darkness.

As she walked towards where she thought the door might be Allie tripped over something in the darkness. Carter caught her. For just a second they stood face-to-face. Though he was wreathed in shadows, Allie thought he looked almost sorry.

But I’m probably wrong about that.

‘This way,’ he said, leading her by the hand through the dark room with the confidence of somebody who’d done it many times. His fingers felt warm and strong against hers, but she really didn’t want him touching her right now – she moved stiffly beside him.

By the time they emerged blinking into the lights of the empty hall his face was studiously expressionless.

‘It’s eleven, Sheridan. You should hurry. You don’t want detention again.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Blood and gore we can have. But Allie out after curfew? That would be a disaster.’

‘Good night, Sheridan,’ he said, firmly.

She turned for the stairs.

‘Whatever, Carter.’

‘You have to trust me, Allie.’

Carter’s eyes looked into hers intently but she resisted.

‘Why would I trust you? You don’t trust me.’

They were standing in the great hall. It was filled with lighted candles – they glittered on windowsills, table tops, and in hugely tall candelabra. The heat they gave off was intense.

Carter’s eyes glittered in the light. ‘But I can help you …’

Someone banged on the door loudly. Threateningly. Allie felt her heart pound.

‘They’re here,’ he said.

The banging came again, more insistent this time. The noise was almost deafening and Allie covered her ears.

‘Who is it? Who’s here, Carter?’

His voice was urgent. ‘You have to trust me. Do you trust me?’

Over his shoulder she could see the door was cracking under the strain of the pounding.

‘Yes!’ Allie cried, reaching out for him. ‘Yes! I trust you.’



Gasping, Allie sat up in bed clutching the duvet in tight fists.

A loud bang made her jump but it was only the wooden shutter thrown against the wall by a stiff breeze coming through the open window.

Climbing up on top of the desk to look out the window, she saw a storm had blown up during the night – the trees swayed, and leaves, freed from their branches, rode the wind high above her.

The air smelled fresh as she latched the window tightly into place and climbed back into bed.

Pulling the covers up she muttered aloud, ‘Get out of my head, Carter West.’





NINE


When classes resumed on Monday, Allie had the discomforting sense that none of the weekend’s events had actually occurred. Everyone took their normal seats in class at the normal time. And Jerry and Zelazny treated her exactly as if they’d never seen her wrap a bandage in the pouring rain.

Sylvain wasn’t in English class, but Carter arrived late as usual and just smirked when Isabelle gave him an exasperated look. If he hadn’t still been wearing a bandage on his forehead she might have thought she imagined the entire thing.

Between classes, she met Jo in the library and they talked in whispers about what had happened after they’d parted. Jo told her Gabe hadn’t even needed stitches in the end, and that the nurse had commented approvingly on Allie’s bandaging technique.

‘Now Gabe really wants to know how we ended up at the summerhouse, but … since you told me not to say anything about Ruth, I haven’t. Why don’t you want me to tell him?’

Allie leaned closer. ‘I can’t … It’s just … important that you don’t.’

In fact, she’d been up half the night trying to decide what to tell Jo. She would not lie to her only real friend at Cimmeria, but she’d promised Carter not to tell.

‘I don’t know how to explain it. I just heard that Ruth could get into trouble or something.’

She watched Jo’s face as she considered this explanation.

‘OK, but if I don’t tell him the truth, what reason do I give him for us being there?’

Allie twirled a pen anxiously between her fingers so that it spun without stopping between every finger on her right hand until it reached the pinkie.

‘We could say that we were playing Truth or Dare, and kind of spying on them. Or that I wanted to go for a run in the rain and you tried to stop me.’

Jo tilted her head to one side. ‘Of those two very poor options, the first one is slightly less crap.’

Allie smiled. ‘Thanks Jo.’

Over the next few days, rumours were rife about what had occurred down in the woods that night. Everybody knew that several people had been hurt, but there was widespread confusion over just what had happened. Students were forbidden from going out onto the grounds, and that only made the gossip worse. Nobody seemed to know that Allie and Jo had been there, and the most common rumour was that the boys had run afoul of the same fox Jo and Allie had encountered, although everybody seemed to think it very unlikely.