Chapter Seven: White Spells Danger

The last couple of weeks before Christmas at school were awful and the only thing that kept me going was thinking of Daniel. I wore his gift to me every day and to hold it between my fingers somehow made him feel closer. I was being grossly unfair to Mike, I was well aware of that. But as Daniel was a secret from everyone for fear of, well… more warning notes, I fooled myself into thinking that the duplicity was OK.

It became general knowledge that Mike and I were a couple and our friends seemed really happy about it. I smiled at their congratulations, but I was constantly wary that someone would ask why my smile didn't quite reach my eyes. Thankfully, I had the excuse of some really tough days. The school was not a happy place. Tensions were high and behaviour standards according to Bill were at an all time low.

"I don't think I'll manage to do anything other than sleep through Christmas." Grumbled Bex, at the end of a particularly tough day. A fight had broken out at lunchtime and that had been the catalyst for an afternoon of skirmishes everywhere. It was no surprise to find that Silversmith was in the thick of it. Bex and I, along with half a dozen other teachers, were despatched outside at the end of the day, to make sure there were no further incidents as the students left campus.

Mike caught up to us as we came in from the parking lot. "Do you fancy a movie tonight? There's something decent playing in Port Angeles for once. Bex, you and Todd up for it?"

Yeah, that would be great." She said.

Mike looked at me. "Don't tell me you're grading tonight, we're three days out from the end of school, you can't possibly have anything that can't wait."

"No." I smiled. "I'm not grading, a movie would be great."

I kind of knew what would happen and it did. Daniel called with the same idea and I had the heartbreak of telling him that I was already going with Mike.

He laughed. "He's always getting in before me."

"Yeah? Well call earlier," I laughed. "I'm up from 5am."

"You are? That's good to know. I'll get my requests in earlier then."

I met Mike, Bex and Todd outside the movie theatre. Mike placed a large tub of popcorn between us and put his arm around my shoulder. The empty seat beside me was suddenly filled and I didn't have to look to know from the distinctive cologne, that it was Daniel. I turned my head a little to look at him. He faced resolutely ahead but I could see the hint of a smirk on his face. Ever so slightly he turned in my direction and raised his eyebrows. I smiled back and Mike's arm tightened around me as we settled back to watch the film.

Mike saw me to the door of my building and he took forever to be done kissing me goodnight. I was almost checking my watch. Finally he left, but as I got through the door of my apartment, the chime went on the external door.

"Hello?"

"It's me, your stalker." I laughed and pressed the door catch release for Daniel to come up. He bounded up the stairs and into my apartment. "Once I knew you'd be there I thought I might as well go. I wanted to see the film anyway and when I saw the open seat you beside you, it was too good to resist." His eyes twinkled with mischief and he threw himself onto my sofa as if he belonged there. "So, we got to go to the movies together after all. Maybe I should tag along all the time?"

"I didn't think we were supposed to be seeing one another?"

His countenance looked like I'd punctured his good mood. "True."

"Any progress on that?"

"No, we're no closer to knowing." He sighed.

I tried to sound encouraging. "There's been nothing for weeks now, perhaps they've stopped?"

"I don't think so. Do me a favour, would you?"

"What?"

"Keep your relationship with Mike really public. Go places, be seen together. Don't give the impression that I'm any part of your life."

"But I can still come to Astronomy, yes?"

"Absolutely, but we should keep that strictly pupil, teacher; just as you would at school. I don't want to give whoever this is, anything further." His wonderful mood of only a minute ago was gone, he looked deflated and I kicked myself for having said what I did. "I should go." He said, looking at this watch.

"Don't go, you're always rushing off."

"But you're right, we're not supposed to be seeing one another." There was almost agony in his face.

"What's the matter?"

"I want to be around you, but when I am, it means that I could be putting you in greater danger. I should stay away."

"No. Please don't. They can send me all the notes they want, but you're my friend and I don't give up my friends easily. You told me that if I stop doing what I like doing, then these people will always win. I like seeing you and you're welcome here anytime."

"Thank you."

An angry squeal from Lyra ripped me from sleep and set every atom in me on edge. I sat up in bed, disorientation quickly giving way to fear. I almost cried out when from the living room next door there was a crash. I grabbed my phone on charge by the bed and fumbled through the contacts for Daniel's number. I hit it and he answered on the first ring.

"Stephanie?" His voice was anxious; there was no way I should be calling him at this hour.

I struggled to get the words out. "There's… somebody… in… my…"

"I'm coming over!"

His phone went dead. Help was on its way, but until then I was left to deal with whoever this was.

I got out of bed shoving my feet in my moccasin boots. I looked around for something to use as a weapon and hit on the base of my bedside light. I unplugged it, ripped the shade off and wound the power cord around the base. It was heavy and long enough for me to use it two-handed like a baseball bat. I went to the bedroom door and listened. I heard nothing. I turned the handle and peeked through the crack. Still nothing. I opened it fully and noticed the cold immediately. One of my windows was wide open and Lyra, fur all puffed up in alarm, was sat on the window ledge. The crash had come from the vase that had been on there and it now lay in pieces on the floor.

"Lyra! I hissed. We were three floors up; if she fell she'd die! I inched forward, trying not to scare her, calling her to come down. By some miracle she did and scooted off. I went to the window, stuck my head out and looked down. The alleyway behind the building was deserted. I looked at the window and noticed with horror that the lock was broken. It had been forced.

It felt like an eternity until the external door chime went. I let Daniel in and opened my apartment door. He got to me in super-quick time, paused briefly in the doorway with a facial expression that looked like he was snarling; before striding over to my desk, picking up an envelope I hadn't noticed on it and ripping it open.

"I didn't see that." I said pathetically, wanting so very desperately for him to take me in his arms and hold me. "The window's open. The lock's been forced…"

"It's for me."

"The note's for you?"

"Yes." He handed it to me.

Mr Mitchell,

This should give you a better idea of what you're dealing with. Leave her alone, before we make you.

"I don't understand, how's this supposed to give you a better idea of what you're dealing with?"

"Clues." He said enigmatically and sighed.

Lyra appeared from somewhere and started hissing and spitting at Daniel.

"Oh stop it! I snapped, went over to her and picked her up to put her in my room, but she scrabbled wildly in my arms and as she leapt out of them she scratched me. "Ow!" The four inch scratch started to fill with blood.

"You'd better take care of that." Daniel said. "I need to step outside to make a call."

I dealt with the cut. When I went back into the living room, Daniel was still outside and my apartment door was ajar. I went over to it to listen to what he was saying, but he was speaking too quietly for me to hear.

I glanced at the time; it was coming up to four thirty. There was no point in going back to sleep now, I might as well start my day. I went into the kitchen and started the coffee going, pulling out two cups. Moving over to the refrigerator to get some milk I stopped dead, looking at the message that had been written on the dry-wipe board on the door.

Roses are red, danger is white.

Please heed our warning, run for your life.

I stared at it for a moment, before taking the pad and rubbing it off. A slight movement out of the corner of my eye made me spin round. It was Daniel, he looked sad.

"I saw what they wrote." He said quietly.

"I'm not running anywhere; you're not the one making me scared."

"That's because you don't know me."

"You've been nothing but nice to me, why is it so important that we stay away from each other? What do they think I'll do, sell state secrets to North Korea? Do you know who this is now?"

"I don't know who it is, but I know what I'm looking for."

"You got a clue out of that note?"

"Yes."

"Well I'm assuming your line of work is code-breaking then?" He looked at me with a furrowed brow. "OK, I know you can't say anything to that."

"No."

"Coffee?" I indicated.

He shook his head. "No. I'll take a look at the window."

He inspected the broken catch and looked outside into the alleyway. To my surprise didn't just look down but up too. Of course, whoever this was could quite easily have abseiled off the flat roof. He pushed the window back down and came back over to the kitchen area.

"Do you want me to get someone to fix that?"

"No I can do it."

"I can have somebody here this morning and it'll cost you nothing. I'm the reason it's broken so I'd be grateful if you'd let me pay to get it fixed."

"OK."

"You'll need to leave me your key. Do you trust me with it?" He smiled a little.

"Yes." I reached over to the hook where I kept them and removed my door key.

"I'll leave it at the school office for you."

"You can just push it under the door."

"No, leaving your keys around is not a good idea."

"True." I smiled.

It was a fortunate that I went into every day with copious notes, because I couldn't think straight enough to pull this stuff out of my head. I phoned my classes in, delivering the information without thinking and spending a lot of time playing with the pendant he'd bought me. Touching it made me feel more secure, although heaven knows why. Daniel was incredible, but seemed to come with incredible danger. Was he worth it? Only time would tell.

At lunch, Mike kept asking what the matter was and I made up some excuse about not sleeping well. Tomorrow was the last day before the Christmas break and everybody apart from me was in high spirits. I hoped my visitors took Christmas off, because I didn't want to explain to my Mom why strange messages were appearing and why gorgeous men showed up to my apartment in the middle of the night. In light of what Daniel had said about keeping things very public, I was going to introduce her to Mike. I had the sinking feeling that this was going to be a long few days.

I stopped by the office on my way back to class at the end of lunch to find Chief Swan arriving with my key. "All done." He said.

"Oh." I was taken aback that it wasn't Daniel and then I realised that he worked nights. He was most likely asleep.

"Could I have a word, in private?" He continued. We found a quiet corner. "Look, I'm not at liberty to talk about it. But I just want to reassure you that everything possible is being done to find out who this is. I know it's impossible not to, but please don't worry about this."

I smiled, somewhat lamely. It was impossible not to worry, but it least it had reignited my efforts to get out of the apartment and buy myself a house.

Back in my room I thought again of the message on the dry-wipe board. Danger is white? That wasn't difficult to figure out; Daniel was the palest man I'd ever seen. All this working at night wasn't good for him. He needed to get some sun and get some colour in his skin. With that golden hair of his and a tan to match, it would be even more game over than it was now. But what danger were they referring to? From the little I'd gathered I'd extrapolated that we were talking about the military or government. I tried to keep things in perspective and decided that if I really was in serious danger, then I'd have been hustled into something like a witness protection programme. He could joke around enough to pitch up to the movies and sit next to me. I couldn't wait until the time it would be possible for me to lean the other way and nestle up against what I'm sure was a fabulous body under his clothes. His intense dark eyes were distracting enough and I was already trying to imagine what it would be like to kiss him. Would all this be worth it when I finally got to do that? Or would this turn out to be yet another tale of gorgeous guy turns out to be a total schmuck, as Scott had?

Mike's sudden arrival ripped me from my reverie. "Hi," he said. "I came to see how your day's going." We exchanged a brief kiss.

"OK." I said.

He eyed me curiously. "That good huh?"

"I have twelfth grade next so the day still has the potential to descend into smoking ruins. But right now, OK is as good as it gets."

"Just one more day to go."

"I know and then my Mom arrives."

"I'm looking forward to meeting her; perhaps you guys could come over for dinner whilst she's here?"

Mike still lived with his parents, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted his Mom and my Mom getting together. From what I knew of Karen Newton, she'd most likely have a wedding pulled together by the end of the evening. "I'll see what she feels about that, Mom's not a great socialiser."

Famous last words.