Chapter Eight:
Melissa stood outside the school building once the bell rang for the blissful end of the day. Pleasure at long last.
She leaned against the brick wall of the school and leaned her head back. Rex hadn't been in school all day. She tasted the air once more just to check. She nodded to herself. No where to be found. She opened her eyes and looked around. Kids were trudging through the school gardens, a few choosing the more humane route of the sidewalks, to rush to their buses. There was Constanza Greyfoot surrounded by her peppy friends Jen, Liz and Leah. They were going on and on about some shopping adventure. Yeah right. Melissa closed her eyes again and took her adventure into her mind. She had a ton to think about.
She decided to walk home today, which would give her more time to think things through. She needed to sort through her memories and find something that might help her piece together Rex's secret. Melissa waited for what felt like forever until most of the middle school kids had left to go home before beginning her walk.
Melissa thought back to when Rex and she had first met. She had found him in his yard, wandering around, dazed and talking to himself. Melissa forgot what it was exactly that he was saying; only that he thought the frozen world was a dream.
And then he had seen her and nearly fainted, her in those stupid pink pajamas with those stupid cowgirls lassoing on it.
The next morning, Melissa had thought that Rex was a dream, until she saw him at school the next day. They had been best friends since.
Nothing there triggered any inner stop signs that pointed to Rex's mystery bully.
"The next year or two were just hazy recollections of exploring midnight, killing their first darkling, finding and memorizing the lore and becoming better friends. Melissa tried to bring the hazy shapes of thoughts back but couldn't. She supposed that nothing really important had happened during that time that would trigger her "inner Rex sensor" so to speak.
Melissa finally arrived home, still trying to piece together the puzzle. Without so much as a passive hello to the parentals, she locked herself up in her room and sifted through her blurry mind. She thought as she dutifully did her homework (even though it was Friday and she had the whole weekend to do it), tidied her room (to give her something to do) and read a book. It was a book she unwillingly read, she didn't usually read (that was Rex's job), but it gave her body something to do while her mind wandered. On the plus side, she could use it for the end of term book reports instead of using Spark Notes. It was a book on cloning and the scientists torturously tested on animals instead of humans (which made Melissa convert to vegetarianism). The scientists were most interested in copying the spider, seeing as it had eight legs and if they could get all eight legs it would be a huge break threw!
Then a memory crashed distinctively into Melissa's head. Two years ago, Re and her had walked down the street as she shamelessly tested her talents. She recalled that every time something miserable was said, Rex would tremble like a leaf.
And then he innocently reached for her hand.
Melissa distinctly remembered a feeling of itchy hairy legs crawling on her and a feeling of fear, coming directly from Rex's mind.
Tarantulas were on his mind.
Tarantulas.
And then Melissa remembered picking up rex in the blue time, once long ago, and walking across the threshold of the house and past a teranium of tarantulas, his father's tarantulas.
Somebody was hurting Rex.
Someone who wasn't Timmy Hudson.
Someone closer to Rex.
That someone was Rex's father.
"Oh my gosh." Melissa whispered.
