Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series (9 page)

SIXTEEN

I walked up to my room and stopped short of opening the door all the way.  The voices were muffled, so I couldn’t tell who was there until I was able to peek inside and see who it was. Hunter had a grip on Benjamin’s neck, pushing him against the wall.  As soon as I laid eyes on Hunter and Benjamin, their voices became clear.

“I warned you to leave her alone!”  Hunter growled.

“As you can see, I’m back and I’m not leaving.  No one orders me around!”  Benjamin tried to push Hunter away, but Hunter didn’t move at all.

Benjamin glanced toward the door, stared right at me and laughed, then he looked at Hunter and in a sarcastic tone, he said, “Wish I could stay and watch you explain this, but time to go.”

As he often did, Benjamin vanished and Hunter turned to find me, now inside of my room, with the door shut behind me, and completely speechless.

Hunter still looking at me said, “Sorry.  I will go.  He should stay away for a while, and even if he doesn’t, seems like you are able to see him again, so you will be fine.”

He walked toward me, well, really towards the door.

“Wait!  You can’t go that way.  Kelly and Andrew are downstairs.”

“They won’t see me leaving,” he assured me.

“No, wait,” I practically begged him.

“I asked them about… you know, my real dad.”

“Good.  What did you find out?” he asked.

I looked at him, sure that I had something to my advantage, something to bargain with, “How about you tell me what you are and I tell you what I found out?”

He looked pale and annoyed.  He started walking toward the door again.  “You clearly don’t want my help.  I’m leaving.”

“Ugh.  No, wait.”

He stopped walking but didn’t say anything.

“You know, you can’t expect me to trust you with this… stuff…if I know you are keeping secrets of your own.”

“Well, if you want my help, it doesn’t really seem that you have a choice.”

“Fine!”  I snapped.

“Okay, so are you going to tell me?” he asked, so sure that I was ready to spill all my family secrets and beg for help.

“No, I’m not.  But if you ever feel like answering my questions, I might answer yours.”

“Alright.  Your choice!”

He opened the door, but before he walked out, he turned to me and said, “Carolyn needs your help.  I’m sure you are not that selfish, to just leave her trapped where she is now, are you?”

I just stared at him, not giving him the satisfaction of answering to that.

He slammed the door and left.  He must have been more cautious once he actually left my room, because Kelly and Andrew had both still been downstairs and neither one of them came bursting through my door wanting to know what Hunter was doing there…

Hunter was right though.  I wasn’t selfish, at least not to that extent. 

This was a time I could have used Hunter’s help to keep Benjamin away while I summoned Carolyn.  It took me a while to focus on her, mostly because I was afraid that Benjamin would sneak up on me.  After a while, and I mean a loooong while, I was able to hear her, but not see her.

“You are going to have to focus much harder than that,” she said in a weak voice.

“But I put much less effort into calling you the other times.”

She sounded desperate.  “The other times I wasn’t trapped like this.  This time, I just can’t find my way back to you
or anyone else outside of the O
therworld.  I always end up in the same place and…” her voice started cutting in and out and at that point I couldn’t make out anything she was saying.

After a couple of hours I gave in and called Hunter’s cell phone.  He may have not answered because it was too late, but I assumed that most likely he was just trying to teach me a lesson… Until he just showed up in my room.

Of course, I almost had a heart attack and I was mad that he kept sneaking up on me like that.  Sometimes it was even worse than Benjamin.  At least with Benjamin, I expected it.

He sighed.  “Look, Benjamin keeps trying to get back here, so last chance.  You either talk to me and let me stay here or you are on your own.”

“Umm.  Did you just suggest you stay in my room?”

“Yes,” he said with a serious expression.

I laughed.  “Ha!  For how long exactly?”

“Until he is taken care of.”

“You are gonna have to do better than that.”

“Fiine!  You think you can handle it, you still have no idea what Benjamin really is, do you?”

I shook my head.  It is not like I didn’t try to find out… but most of my research led to unreliable information… fiction stuff.

“He is a demon… that is why he is stronger than most, that is why he is able to touch things when Carolyn can’t.”

“Right!  You are just trying to scare me so that I will let you stay.  What do you care about what happens to me anyway?”

I could tell he was tense and he sounded angry when he answered me.  “Let’s say it is because I got a conscience.”

“You are only staying here if I can trust you, and the only way is for you to tell me what happened to you.”

He mumbled something, sounded like he was cussing.

“Fine!  A word about this to anyone and I wash my hands of anything that happens to you.  Understood?”

“Sounds like the trust issue goes both ways.”

“Yeah, well, guess I will have to take a chance.  But I need to know what you found out about your dad so that we can maybe figure out what Benjamin wants.”

I agreed.  “You go first.”  I said.

He shook his head in aggravation.

“Do you remember Chase?

My mind was blank until he mentioned middle school and summer camp.

I nodded.

Chase used to be Hunter’s best friend back in middle school.  One summer they went on a camping trip with Hunter’s brother, who I hadn’t heard much about after that summer.

Story is… Hunter’s brother, Mark, took them on this summer camp.  One day he apparently had too much to drink, because later on he was charged with child neglect among other things.  Point is, he wasn’t keeping an eye on the boys who ended up going for a swim and Chase didn’t come out alive.  Apparently, neither did Hunter…. At least not right away.

SEVENTEEN

As I sat there listening to Hunter, I felt sorry that I basically forced him to tell me about what had happened. 

Hunter tried to help Chase, but Chase was freaking out and ended up taking Hunter with him.  They both drowned.  Hunter said he didn’t know for how long he was out, but that it had been long enough.  He ended up in the
Otherworld
, trapped in the same place where Carolyn was, and he explained that was why he kept insisting that I help her and apparently I was the only one who could help her.

“Trust me, Kayla.  Y
ou don’t want to leave her there
…
  And she has already been there for too long.  It is just too risky.”

“Risky, how?”

“That place is like nothing that you can even begin to imagine.  Just try to picture being trapped in dark place, knowing that you will never see anyone you love ever again, because for one thing… you can’t cross over, and if you come back here… well, you are stuck in the same way, unless you can find someone like Carolyn found you.   But anyway, the risk is, that sadness, those lost souls… it is only a matter of time before they really get to her, and when they do, she won’t even try to be released anymore.

“Is there a way to help her, getting past that… umm dimension?  Like, crossing over?”

“I’m sure there is, but I don’t have the answer to everything.”

“What about the person who helped you?  Would he know?”

“Likely, but I’m not going back to that place, so for now, you need to work on bringing her back here.”

I hesitated before asking him my next question, but I couldn’t help myself.

“How did you get back?”

He sighed.  “I don’t even know that myself.  That place just deceived me.  It seemed like reality at first, and then I just got confused and well, I really couldn’t tell you.   Someone at the camp ground got me out of the water and revived me, but it was almost as if someone else had guided me back.”

“Okay, so that doesn’t help with getting an answer on how to get Carolyn back…”

He put his hand over mine, which I didn’t feel the need of pulling my hand away.  It felt comforting, reassuring, especially when he said we would find a way.

I glanced from our hands to his eyes.  He slowly pulled his hands away.

“So, do you trust me now?” he asked.

“Yes, but how do you do that?  I mean, showing up and disappearing as if you are one of them?”

He shrugged.  “Let’s just say that is a side effect of my little experience.”

“And this place you keep talking about.  What is this place?  If
they
can help, why can’t we go there?”

He sighed.  “That place… the Academy, let’s just say that if you enter it, you are likely never leaving.”

“But you did.”

“I did… under very special circumstances.  I have an agreement with my mentor.”

“How did you get there in the first place?”

“They found me.  After I came back, someone talked to my mom and didn’t take much convincing that they would be the ones to help me.  I was really messed up back then.  They taught me how to deal with what I’ve become.”

“Which is what exactly?”

He shook his head and sighed.  “The Academy… we call it the Academy of the Fallen.”

“Okay, now you are just messing with me.  You are trying to tell me that you are a fallen angel?”

He laughed.  “No.  I would hate to be one of them.  Others go to the Academy…  There are the haunted ones, who the fallen attempt to protect from demonic figures like Benjamin.  That is how they get their second chances, which if you ask me, half of them don’t deserve.”

“This is insane!”

“Yes, that is what I thought at first.”

“But the haunted… they are human, right?  What you just did… is not.”

“No, I’m not.  But I was told that I have angel blood running through my veins.  They treated me as if I was one of the haunted because I’m able to see and talk to demons and ghosts…  So can the fallen, but I could never pass for one.  I’m an immortal, Kayla.  That is what the angel blood that brought me back turned me into.  I will always stay frozen at the age when I died and was brought back.  Call me a fangless vampire with a heartbeat, if you will.”  He attempted a laugh that was nothing but awkward.  “My mentor kept me ‘labeled’ as one of the haunted because my being the only of my kind at the Academy could have changed things.”  He paused.  “So, do you trust me now?”

I nodded.

“Now my turn,” he said.  “We both know that whatever Benjamin wants likely has something to do with your biological dad, and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of him being around.  So, what did you find out?”

I hesitated.

He noticed it right away.  “Look, whatever it is, you can tell me.  Yes, it is clear that you HAD trust issues with me, but think of what I just told you about me as leverage.”

I laughed.  “Right, who in their right mind would believe your story?”

He smiled, but it was an innocent smile, as if he had just realized how crazy it all sounded.  Although if he ever told anyone about me
,
I could easily say it
was
all lies…

“Okay.  I guess a deal is a deal… All I found out was that he had mental issues for interacting with people who were not there.”

“Do you know what name he used?”

I thought the question was strange, but didn’t comment.  “Nope.  That is all I know.”

“We are gonna have to find out more.  Maybe Benjamin was one of those who he was in contact with…”

“No!”  I stopped him.  “I don’t want to know more about him and I’m certainly not going to hurt Kelly and Andrew by asking any more questions.” 

He looked at me as if he understood.  Honestly, the only reason I didn’t want to find out more was because I was afraid he was in a mental hospital, afraid of seeing him like that.

“Would you be okay with me looking into it?”

“I – I’m not sure…”

“It may be the only way of knowing what Benjamin wants.  I may be able to find out what Benjamin’s connection is to him.”

I knew that wouldn’t work, that I wouldn’t be able to keep my curiosity to myself, but I agreed.

“What about Carolyn?”  I asked.  “When and how am I getting her back?”

“We will go get a few things tomorrow after school to help you contacting her.  Besides, there is nothing you can do until you rest anyway.”

“I can’t exactly rest w
ith Benjamin around, you know…”

“Don’t worry about him.  I will be here.”