Dr. Saltzman's office was full of tension, and for some reason the garbage can was full of puke.
Kyle sat and tried to ignore the smell as he waited, and waited, and waited some more for the Headmaster to come back, but it was taking forever. Even worse, he wasn't alone. Hope refused to go away after she lead him back there to wait.
He couldn't be sure, but Kyle thought Hope was kind of stressed out, too. She kept looking at the door every 10 seconds waiting for it to open, but it didn't.
What the hell was she so stressed about? He wondered. She lit that thing on fire with her mind!
Yes, it hadn't worked, but he had seen firsthand that she had other tricks up her sleeve. The girl could handle herself.
He wished she would at least go change. She was still wearing the ripped shirt from the fight earlier with Lizzie, and the way she had her arms folded around herself was causing vast amounts of boob flesh to spill out of the revealing top.
Kyle was deathly afraid after the attack from the creature, but he couldn't help getting an eyeful of her breasts every 5 seconds. Finally, he turned away in the chair just so he could concentrate.
What the hell was that thing? And why was he an imperfect copy?
Now that he had turned away, he felt suddenly conspicuous. He took a look at the large window behind Dr. Saltzman's desk. At this time of night with the lights on in there it functioned like a mirror.
Hope was staring directly at him.
What the hell is she looking at? He thought. The girl was downright beautiful, but Kyle had to admit she freaked him out.
Then their eyes met in the window reflection, and Kyle quickly adjusted the direction of his gaze.
At least she didn't catch me staring at her boo… His thought was interrupted when the door burst open and Dr. Saltzman strode in, crossbow still in hand.
"Kyle," he said, "let's go over every—" He broke off when he saw the Hope was in the room.
They both looked at each other for a second too long. Kyle had no idea what was going on here.
"Ah, Hope…you didn't need to wait. You can go get some sleep if you want." He didn't look her in the eye. He made a show of walking past her and unloading his crossbow on his desk.
Hope never took her eyes off of him.
"I thought Kyle could use some protection." She said, and her voice was flat.
"Um, ok." Dr. Saltzman turned and pointedly focused in on Kyle.
"Kyle, you said it told you it wasn't your grandfather?"
Kyle nodded frantically. "Yes! It said my grandfather was him, and I was an 'imperfect copy' of both of them."
Dr. Saltzman rubbed his chin. "Imperfect…"
Hope opened her mouth to say something, but then appeared to think better of it, and she stayed quiet.
"Not much to go on, but it's still a clue, and it's more than we had."
"It said something to me" Hope said. "Or it was about to."
Kyle turned to Hope. "That's right! It looked at you and it said 'You'.
"YOU?" Alaric said. "Do you think it recognized you from before?"
Hope shook her head. "Probably, but it wasn't like it recognized me, it was more like it was going to say something, but then…"
Kyle finished. "…then you set it on fire," he was pointing at Hope, "and when that didn't work, then you tried to shoot it with a crossbow bolt!" He pointed at the Headmaster.
Hope looked up at Dr. Saltzman under half-lidded eyes. "My hero." She said, but the tone was not jovial.
Dr. Saltzman avoided Hope's eyes and did not respond to her. "Well, I think we need a little more than that."
Another voice broke in. "I've got a little more." It was the black man that had showed up to fight the creature earlier. He strode in through the open door holding some printed papers.
"That's good news, Dorian, what do you have?" Dr. Saltzman seemed to remember himself then. "Oh, Kyle this is Mr. Williams, he's one of our best faculty members."
"One of…?" Dorian said, laughing, and he elbowed Hope in the side. She actually smiled.
"Anyway," the man got serious again. He spread the papers on the desk. "Check these out. We were on the right track. It isn't his grandfather, it's his great-great-great-grandfather!" He jabbed a finger on a photo. It was a poor photo from the 1800's, but the likeness was shown nonetheless.
"Phineas M. Carter." Dr. Saltzman read the caption under the image.
"He does look exactly like my grandfather. But I've seen pictures of my grandfather when he was around my age, and he didn't really look anything like me."
Hope spun the picture so it was facing her. "Maybe that's why he said you're imperfect?"
She went on. "But what's the point of making an imperfect doppelgänger?"
Dorian snapped his fingers. "That's just the thing! My guess is that it's a mistake, and Phineas is just going to make do with the crap doppelgänger that he has." He looked at Kyle. "No offense, kid."
Kyle didn't know what to say. But Dorian went on.
"By the look of the skin on that thing and the general state of its body, I suspect it was in some kind of suspended animation - either by choice or not, and it went on too long."
Dr. Saltzman crossed his arms over his chest. "Right. A lot of times doppelgängers are the key to creating immortal beings, or at least a part of it. Maybe Phineas just screwed it up somehow?"
Dorian jumped back in. "We're going to have to hit the library hard tonight."
Nodding, Dr. Saltzman said "Kyle, why don't you and Hope go on to sleep for tonight, and we'll let you know what we find in the morning."
Hope's face showed clear disappointment at those words. "But I can help —!"
Dr. Saltzman cut her off, though. "I know you want to help, but we'll take it from here. Have a good night."
Dorian said "Well actually, we could use her to —"
"NO." The word was forceful, and Dorian looked taken aback. Dr. Saltzman was looking at Dorian, and Hope was staring intently at Dr. Saltzman. Dorian's eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them, but he said nothing.
Then Hope spun and stalked out of the room without another word.
It remained quiet for a few moments, then Kyle spoke.
"How am I supposed to get to sleep tonight with that thing out there?!" He tried to sound casual about it, but he knew the fear was evident in his voice.
Dr. Saltzman came over and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know you were attacked, but that was out there. That thing won't come in here. We've strengthened the wards on the house itself to actually block strange magic, instead of just warn us. We'll keep it that way until we solve the problem. Ok?"
Kyle nodded.
"Then go and get some sleep. You know how to get back to your room?"
Again Kyle nodded his assent.
"Alright. We'll update you tomorrow." Then Dr. Saltzman and Dorian started talking in low voices, so Kyle walked out the door of the office.
He was half-afraid Hope would be there waiting on him, but she was long gone. Feeling relieved, he walked off toward the room they had given him, and he was hoping they were right about those wards.