"What do you mean I can't stay here?" I asked, suspicious. He turned to Simon.
"You need to find dad. You're the one with the tracking spell. And Chloe," he stated, looking over to me. "Can assist, that way you guys have each other's backs."
"Wait, wait. Why do I need to leave?" I asked impatiently. He glowered and looked at the ground, shifting a bit.
"As I've said before. There are too many coincidences here. And after what happened with Tori…"
"Wait. What happened with Tori?" Simon asked, looking between the two of us. I glared at Derek, outrageously upset and betrayed. He said he would keep that between us, and I don't think it had slipped out on accident.
"Nothing." I said, gritting my teeth. "Nothing happened. Just some idle threats."
"Yeah…..idle." Derek muttered rolling his eyes. Simon caught the look and genuinely looked nervous.
"What did she say? How bad were they?" he asked, turning to me. I turned away from Derek to calm him down.
"Simon, I'm fine. I promise. But I guess Derek does bring up a good point. I don't feel comfortable here. And if you would like, I think I'm willing to help you find your dad." I said giving him a small smile.
I didn't like the thought of running away, but I was left with pretty much no choice. Aunt Lauren would never believe me, and Dad was leaving soon anyway, if he hadn't left already. And since Simon's dad (Kit, I later learned) was a sorcerer, maybe he knew some things about necromancers. Maybe I could finally get some real help.
Simon smiled back, nice and wide. "Of course! But are you sure? It's not going to be easy, we'll be sleeping in the streets, hiding from the nurses, exploring a whole new world…." I laughed a bit at the last part.
"Okay Aladdin. I understand." I paused for a second, Liz's face popping up in my head. I turned back to Derek, my voice becoming icy.
"Did you ever find out about what Liz might be?" I asked. Derek shifted a bit before nodding. "Yeah… I was reading that some half-demons have telekinetic abilities. It's possible that whenever she's angry, her mind subconsciously uses the power to attack. It would make more sense than her having a poltergeist that you can't see or being a shaman that can't remember when she popped out of her body."
I nodded slowly. "I think we should take Liz too. She's here for the wrong reason, and maybe your dad can help her too." I looked over to see Simon thinking it over.
"It would be beneficial to have someone who can throw things with her mind."
Derek shook his head. "We don't know if we can trust her not to tell the nurses."
"I know she won't." I stated. This just earned me a glare.
"She might not mean to. She could slip in front of Tori and then Tori could tell them."
This sounded more likely to happen, but I wasn't going to back down. "She needs to come with us. I can tell her what we are planning to do, but I won't tell her until the day we're leaving, as well as leave out most of the details." Derek and I glared each other down until Simon interrupted.
"Derek, she's got a point, and her plan's pretty good." He said quietly. I turned toward him and gave him an appreciative smile as Derek sighed in defeat.
"Fine. But don't tell her anything until the day of." He snapped.
"Fine. And what day will this be? Do we need to work out a plan?" I asked. Derek shook his head.
"Already have one. Pack up what you need in a small bag that you can hide from the nurses. The day with the least amount of nurses will be on Monday, so you'll be escaping that night through the back door."
"The code?" I asked, remembering the cameras and the keypad-locked door.
Derek waved his hand. "Already know it. By the time they check the cameras, you guys will already be far enough away."
I was thinking back to all the escapee movies that I knew of, trying to think of anything that needed to be planned.
"Is there some place to lay low for a couple days? Somewhere the nurses or police are unlikely to check?"
Simon smiled. "That's a pretty good question. Luckily Derek over here has been scouting around at night for just that reason. There's a huge old factory about a mile from here. Only half of it is being used anymore. We could stay at the other half, and the police wouldn't think to look there because of the fact that most of it is still in use."
I nodded. "Alright. You guys said Monday night?" I asked. My gut wrenched a bit, knowing that Tuesday would be the anniversary of my mother's death. Maybe Simon would let me sneak out to visit her.
"More like Tuesday. You guys will have to leave pretty early to make sure that everyone's still asleep. 2 or 3 A.M. should work." Derek grumbled.
That made sense. It was a decent plan for a few teenagers running away on such short notice. It would also give the nurses the idea that we've been away long enough to make it farther than where we actually planned to be. The only thing left was to convince Liz to come with us. I didn't know too much about her family background, but maybe she was willing to give it a try just so that she could get out of there.
Simon began to get up and stretch, groaning loudly. "Now that we officially have a plan. I vote on going to grab some lunch. Would you guys like to join me?" I gave him a small smile.
"I will, I just need to talk to Derek for a sec." Derek stopped in the middle of getting up, looking up to see my glare before he huffed and sat back down, crossing his arms.
Simon looked surprised for a second before shooting Derek a sly grin. It reminded me a bit of a fox.
"Ooooooooo, look who's in the dog house." Simon laughed as Derek's expression turned even more sour than usual. Simon made a run for it as soon as he saw Derek reach for the basketball that was left forgotten on the ground. He watched Simon run for a second before chucking the ball at his brother, hitting him squarely on the back of his knees. Simon gave a small "oof" as he fell, and I couldn't help but give a snort at how he looked. He got up and brushed himself off, flipping off Derek as he continued to make his way inside.
Derek moved back to his spot and sat, tapping his fingers on his knee as he waited for me to start. I could tell his impatience was growing by the second, and I relished in the silence, eagerly waiting to get a rise out of him.
He lasted about ten seconds before he finally snarled. "What?"
I smiled evilly at my victory before settling back down to a glare.
"You know, I was starting to wonder why you had taken a little interest in me. Too bad for you that I don't really like playing the part of the 'pawn'."
Derek looked back up at me, confused. "What?"
"The pawn? In chess? Using me as a tool to convince Simon to leave?" He looked shocked for a second before turning away, plucking at the grass.
"Why are you so upset? I'm getting you out of here with Simon. I'm sure he'll be forever grateful for you helping him out. You'll forever be on his good side." He stated, looking up at me with a condescending smirk. I felt my eye twitch.
I put on an exaggerated smile and clasped my hands together in front of me. "You really think so? Oh, it'll be so romantic! We'll be on the run from society, holding hands and counting the days that have passed since our last shower. And if we're caught, we can show the world that love is possible even when we're locked up in separate padded rooms." I let my voice drop in anger as I unclenched my hands and crossed them.
"You think this is going to be some sappy romantic adventure? For a smart guy, you're running low on common sense. I'm running from a place that I don't feel safe in, from the family that I have left. We're going to be busy tracking leads on your dad. I'm going to be busy ignoring all the ghosts and monsters breathing down my neck. I don't have time to play out some stupid chick-flick." I huffed a bit in annoyance and continued.
"Why go through all of this trouble anyway? Don't want to bother going yourself to find someone who isn't really your dad?" Derek's head snapped up so fast that I almost felt worried he would suffer from whiplash. He had back on his usual glare.
"You just found out about what I did back in Albany and you still think I should be out there?" He said, raising his voice a bit before gesturing outside the fence. "I ruined a kid's life. I took away his ability to walk without even a moment of hesitation. I almost killed him. I...I basically killed him." He stood up, towering over me. "I bruised you just by pushing you to sit down. One wrong move, one slip up, and I might do permanent damage. Even knowing that, you still think I should be allowed to roam free?"
I stood up to him, about to say something back, when a voice called from the doorway. We looked over to see a concerned Mrs. Talbot and Rae.
"Rae said she heard shouting. Are you okay, Chloe?" She scanned me up and down, looking for any sort of damage while Rae glared Derek down, making her way over to me to pull me back to the house. I stopped her and looked at Mrs. Talbot. She was watching Derek suspiciously.
"Do you need to talk to Ms. Gill, Derek?" I froze for a second, a thought suddenly coming to mind.
They're all scared of him….
And they automatically made him the bad guy.
No wonder Derek's thoughts were so negative. Everyone here acted like he would explode at any second and kill someone.
I felt another tug from Rae. I quickly brushed her off before calling the nurse's attention. "We're fine, M-Mrs. Talbot. W-w-we were just arguing about the m-math homework he's making me do. I-it's my fault really. I-I r-r-really hate doing it, but it can't be avoided forever, r-r-right Derek?" He looked over at me, surprised, his clenched hands relaxing. I gave him a small smile, and he turned back to the nurse.
"Yeah...I'm her tutor. I can't let her get away with skipping math." He grumbled, looking away from her and Rae. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and for a second, I felt bad for yelling at him earlier. But I shoved that guilt away. He was using me, he told Simon something he shouldn't have, he deserved to feel my wrath. At least for a little bit.
Mrs. Talbot had the decency to blush at her incorrect judgement. "Oh my, I'm sorry, it sounded much more harsh than a simple lecture. Maybe next time don't be so aggressive, alright?" Derek gave a slight nod before she turned to me. "Now, Chloe, don't be a hassle for Derek. Do what he says, alright?" I huffed in slight annoyance and said that I would, but I gave Derek a look that said otherwise.
I turned to Rae to see her still glaring at Derek. I nudged her and gave her a small smile, but she only nodded at me before turning away, walking towards the door without me. I watched her in confusion before turning back to Derek.
"One last thing." I said, maintaining my glare. He just crossed his arms and looked down at me, waiting.
"I told you that I didn't want Simon to know what happened. I meant it. You had no right to bring it up." He rolled his eyes.
"It's not like I said anything specific. Just enough to - "
"To convince him to play the role of white knight?" I snapped. He turned away and slightly nodded.
"Well, you got what you wanted. Next time though, if I say don't tell anyone, I mean it. It was my problem, and I want it to stay that way." He looked at me then. His eyes brighter than usual as he narrowed his gaze. His fists seemed to tense for a second before relaxing. Watching him and waiting for an answer, I realized that he still looked like he was running some sort of fever. I made a mental note to revisit that later. I didn't want to care right now, I was supposed to be angry.
"If I recall, it was my problem too." he muttered. Now it was my turn to look away.
"You know what I mean. Just… don't tell anybody until I'm ready to talk about it." I muttered. I turned and headed toward the house, ready to hole myself up in my room and sleep the day away until dinner.
