My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 24



We walked into a graveyard. It was really the school gymnasium decorated to look like a cemetery, but it was still creepy. I looked around and counted no less than thirteen zombies dancing on the covered hardwood floor. They were surrounded by seven witches, three devils, and a plethora of costumes ranging from Darth Vader to the devil himself. The three of us looked better than all of them. Huh, I hope they have a costume contest this year.

“I’m going to go get some punch,” I told Jess and Claire.

Claire started laughing. “What is it with school dances, boys, and punch? It’s like genetically encoded for you to ditch your date the moment you get into the dance and go get fruit flavored beverages. I swear boys are morons. You stay here with Jessica. I’ll go get the punch.”

“Thanks, Claire,” Jess said with a musical giggle. I tried to hide behind her. “You were completely wrong about her you know. She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Except for you of course.”

“Nice save,” I whispered in her ear and kissed it for good measure. She laughed and bent her head to keep me from doing it more. “Oh, somebody’s ticklish!” I buried my face in her neck as she squealed.

“Knock it off, Sullivan.” I looked up and saw Coach Cobb standing in front of us.

“Sorry, sir.” I straightened up but left my arms around Jess.

He nodded and moved on.

“You ready to dance?”

I looked down at Jess in horror. Thank God, she can’t see me. “Um, we have punch coming.”

“Which will be here after we’ve danced a little. Come on, Connor. It is a dance.”

“Oh, yeah.”

I sighed, put on my big-boy pants, and led her out onto the dance floor. I could feel hundreds of eyes on us as we began to move with the music. Okay, Jess started moving with the music. I just fought very hard not to look epileptic. I’m sure I failed miserably.

“You’re a good dancer,” Jess said with a smile.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you could see me,” I said lightly trying to make a joke. From her frown, I guess I didn’t do such a bang up job. “Sorry, Jess,” I said and kissed her cheek.

“It’s not you. I just really wish I could see you. This is sort of my first dance.”

I nearly stumbled. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Don’t tell me you’ve gone to tons. I’ll call you a liar, Connor Sullivan!”

“Well, no. This is my first one, too.” I said it both to make her feel better and to make her smile. I don’t think she did either of them. She did lean in, wrap her arms around me and begin to sway as the DJ switched to a slower song. She sighed against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. I could feel her start to relax.

“Your heartbeat is slow, but it’s almost making my head bounce back and forth. I always knew you had a big heart.”

“It’s not mine. It’s yours.”

“No, my heartbeat has always been fast. I mean your heart. I’m listening to it.”

“I know what you meant, Jess. I’m saying the heart beating in my chest isn’t mine. It’s yours. I gave it to you.”

A flash of lighting and a loud thunderclap outside shook the gym. Several girls around us gave out a yelp of surprise. I looked down at Jess and she stared up at me. I couldn’t see her eyes behind her sunglasses.

“What did you say?”

“I said I gave you my heart. It’s not mine anymore.”

She reached up and pulled the glasses off her face. She stared at me with milky green eyes. I could see tears glistening in the corners of them. She tucked her glasses in the front of my pants. I'd been trying to be sweet, not make her cry.

Either way, I won. She ran her hands up my chest and cupped my face to pull me down until my lips met hers. I felt the power of her kiss from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

“Sullivan!” I heard Coach Cobb’s voice from across the gym, even over the music.

I pretended not to hear. Jess started laughing at all the ooh’s and ahh’s around us. I ignored them, too.

“Connor, will you take my heart in exchange for yours?”

“It would be my honor,” I said and another clap of thunder shook the walls around us. There were a few more cries of surprise, but I ignored them again. For the first time in my life I danced with the music. I held Jess close and didn’t care how I looked while I was doing it.

The song ended and we kept dancing. When the DJ started pumping electronica, I looked up and saw Clarisse standing there holding three glasses of punch and wearing the saddest smile I'd ever seen.

* * *

My feet hurt.

The thought kind of surprised me. I'd battled Clarisse using trees as weapons, walked miles and miles my whole life, and could leap twenty feet into the air. I couldn’t believe dancing for a couple of hours caused my feet to scream in agony.

“You want to take a break? I’m getting tired,” Jess said with her face against my chest.

“I’d love to, but only if you’re tired.”

“Ha! I can feel you slowing down, too, Mr. Macho.”

I laughed and led her over to where Clarisse sat. “How come you’re sitting down? I thought you had a date tonight?” I looked around for Matt Briarson, but I didn’t see him anywhere.

“He never showed up. Oh, well. He’s kind of an asshat. I don’t feel like dancing anyway.”

I heard Jess give a little gasp next to me. “Bull crap. Come on, Claire. Come dance with me.” She reached down and grabbed Clarisse’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

Clarisse laughed and said, “Okay, but I’m leading.”

Jess started laughing uncontrollably as the two of them headed out to the dance floor. Oh, sure. Clarisse can make blind jokes, but I can’t.

“Ha! Connor’s girlfriend left him for another girl!” I could tell it was Brian Anderson’s voice behind me. I didn’t care. I was good at ignoring a*sholes.

Clarisse must have heard him, too. I saw a flash of red in her eyes. She'd been holding Jess’ hands in both of hers as they danced. She dropped one of them and held it out to me from across the dance floor. Jess tilted her head, a frown on her face. She must have heard, too. They both motioned me to come join them. I didn’t need to be asked twice. I shot Brian a cocky grin over my shoulder and went to join the two women in my life. One my girlfriend, and the other my best friend. The thought of that made me stop in my tracks. Even with as much crap as she gave me on a daily basis, Clarisse really was my best friend.

I smiled when I heard the cries of dismay from the group of jock-straps hanging around Brian.

The three of us danced and laughed. I spotted my sister entering the gym dressed as a fairy princess. She stuck her tongue out at me and walked to where the cheerleaders congregated to make fun of everybody’s dresses. I ignored her and concentrated on having fun.

Which we did.

The distinct bang of the gymnasium doors being kicked open rang over the loud music. A hundred pairs of eyes shifted their focus to the source of the noise. Because of the crowd, I couldn’t see much, but I spotted Jeremy's floppy mop of hair. I'd recognize that anywhere. The kids closest to him gasped and backed up, giving me a little better view. He was pale white and had streaks of red all over his face. That must be one hell of a coustume.

I gave a smile and walked toward him to get a better view. That's when the screaming started.

The others around him ran, screamed, or doubled over losing the contents of their stomachs onto the hardwood floor. My smile faded as I started running instead of walking. I dodged the crowd and stopped in my tracks. Confusion was replaced with horror.

From the neck down he was completely covered in blood. In his arms he held the limp body of Kelly Richards. Her neck had a gaping wound in it and the front of her chest looked like she'd lost a fight with a bear. Blood and bone glistened grotesquely under the dimly lit stage lights set up for the dance.

Jeremy tore his eyes from Kelly's gaping wound, looked up at me and started crying. “In…in…the park…parking lot. We were…attacked,” he said and fainted.

The teachers rushed forward and pushed the students back. One of them pulled out a cell phone and frantically started dialing 911. I looked back at Jess and Clarisse. I nodded at Jess, but didn't take my eyes off Clarisse.

She knew what I meant. Take care of her. She nodded back and held Jess’ shoulders as she strained to hear what was going on.

“I’ll be back,” I said, knowing Claire would be able to hear me even over the screaming and yelling.

“Be careful,” I heard as I ran through the double doors.

I stopped as I emerged from under the covered entrance and into the parking lot. The moon was full overhead and filled the lot with brilliant light. Unfortunately, moonlight casts shadows. The area between the parked cars was completely black. I focused my eyes and everything became clearer.

Over by Jeremy’s beat up pickup truck I could see a pool of blood by the passenger’s side door. I ran over and bent down to get a closer view. I could see it already drying in the night air, but no bloody footprints could be seen anywhere. I sighed. The problem with movies and television is they make everything seem so easy.

There was no trail of blood, the killer didn’t leave a card to taunt the authorities, and I didn’t have a magic ring that would lead me to his secret lair. I was screwed.

Or at least so I thought, until the clawed hand raked across my face. Blood filled my eyes and I couldn’t see. I heard laughter fill the night air around me. Last time I checked, bears didn’t laugh. There goes that theory.

I spun in circles trying to figure out where the laughter came from. As far as I could tell, the killer was running around me in circles. Very fast circles. At least I knew it was a he.

“Silly demon. You can’t hurt me! You shouldn’t have come out here,” he said in a sing song voice. He struck me again, this time in the back, right along my wing joint.

I hissed in pain. I'd never felt anything like it. I’ll admit it, I wanted to cry.

“Who are you?”

“I’m your worst nightmare,” he replied in a very, very bad Stallone impersonation. Very bad.

I heard him behind me again and I spun, swinging my fist. He laughed as he ducked under it to slice open my side. I could feel his talons hitting my ribs.

I breathed in pain as the sting from the wound took my mind off the slice on my back and my facial wounds. I wiped the blood off my eyes and tried to blink the red cloud filling my vision. It didn’t help. He must have caught my eyes with his talons. Maybe Jessie and I can start a club.

I immediately felt ashamed for thinking it. At least I wasn’t panicking. I blinked a few more times and began to see blurry images of dimly lit surfaces. The cars were coming into view.

The strike to my left leg slightly diminished the joy from my returning vision. His insane cackling filled my ears.

Personally, I wanted to rip his head off just to get him to shut up. If I could just get away for a few seconds, maybe my eyes could heal.

Wings. Duh.

Without another thought I jumped into the air. As I brought my wings down in a powerful stroke, the wound along my joint started screaming. Or maybe it was me. Either way it hurt like a sumbitch.

“Where you going, little demon?”

Oh, great. He does Russian impersonations, too.

I hovered twenty feet above the parking lot. I figured that would put enough distance between us for my wing to heal.

What they don’t teach you in Fallen school is that sometimes the bad guys can jump. Really high.

He grabbed my legs in a crushing grip and I struggled to keep both of us in the air. I probably could have done it until he let go with one arm and started punching me in the gut. Hard. A lot. The air escaped my lungs as I took the beating of my life.

I kicked him as hard as I could. With my returning vision, I almost saw him arc in the night sky and crash into a tree on the outskirts of the parking lot. Almost. Mostly I just saw a blur I hoped to be him crashing into the tree.

“Very good, demon! Don’t worry, we’ll meet again!”

He took off in a blur. This time I did see him. He was just that fast. I tried to fly after him, but it wasn’t any use. I was in too much pain. I crashed into the top of a 1969 blue Mustang.

Brian is going to be pissed. Blackness overcame everything else, even the pain.