Chapter Seven:

A Night Out

Feeling great about my victory of getting on the team but aching all over, I collapsed on my bed back at the dorm.

Thank God it's a weekend, I thought. Can't imagine going to classes after that.

Just then, Vi burst into my room and ran over to me. "Geezus, Kayce! You're not gonna believe this!"

I turned my head so I could look at her. "What?"

"Trish got attacked!" Vi grabbed me and hefted me onto my feet. "C'mon! We have to go see 'er!"

I blinked. "W-What? Attacked? How?"

"Happened yesterday," she explained quickly. "Some of the faculty found 'er lying on the ground. She's pretty beat up, they said." Vi shook her head. "Whatever bastard did this positioned themselves so they'd be in the camera's blindspot. I went back in the files, but…"

"And people wondered why I argued with my old school about putting cameras in the blind spots," I grumbled disdainfully. "C'mon; we should definitely go see 'er."

By "We", I meant Violet and I. Of course, considering that my screaming muscles were part of me, they had to come too.

But, when we arrived at the infirmary, we weren't allowed to see 'er.

I wasn't happy. Not one l'il bit.

"Hey, what's going on?"

I turned and saw Jay stroll into the infirmary. He looked almost exactly the same as when we'd first seen him. Almost, because now it looked like he was spending more time outside.

"Trish…" Vi shook her head. I rolled my eyes when I realized she was trying to be dramatic. "She's been attacked…" God, she was going to use sympathy to reel him in?

Jay's mouth dipped slightly. It almost looked like he was sad, but he had a natural smile that heavily impaired it.

"Sorry to hear that. We may be on different teams, but I always admired her. I wonder why someone would attack her?"

"Actually, on the first day, the reason we were lost was because we—I—saw Trish being attacked, but they were long-gone by the time Kayce and I got there. But it looked like Trish was handling herself well…"

"How'd you be able to see that?" Jay asked, placing a hand under his chin in thought.

Vi smiled. "I can tap into electronics. In that case, security cameras. No electronic is ever safe from me. Just ask my microwave."

Jay shook his head as if he was laughing. "That's an interesting power. Not one I've really seen anyone else do before." Jay lowered his hand from his chin. "I hope your cousin's injuries aren't going to interfere with tonight?"

"Of course not! They said it wasn't that bad, anyway." My eyebrows rose. They actually hadn't really told us anything.

"I'm glad to hear that." Jay looked at me and smiled. "Will you be coming along?"

I shook my head. "Nope. You guys have fun; I'll be practicing some basketball instead."

"You joined the team?"

"Yep."

Shrugging, Jay left the infirmary. I watched him go, not because I exactly wanted to, but I was kind of distracted by the way he kept looking over his shoulder at me… or was it Vi?

I finally gave Vi a "look". "What? I'm sure that her injuries aren't that bad. Call me evil, but that boy is fine."

"D'you remember when I called you a horny bitch?"

"Aw, c'mon Kayce! Don't be like that!"

I shrugged it off. "Whatever. You should get ready for tonight, anyway."

"Are you really just going to be playing basketball?"

I shook my head. "No. I'll probably stay in and play some video games with Nicholas."

Vi put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm gonna give you some friendly female advice, 'kay? Don't let that boy become just another one of your video game buddies. I'm serious! I remember all the hot guys at school hung out with you because you were the gamer chick! So don't let Nicholas become one of those hot guy-friends!" She shook her head. "God, you're an idiot in the female ways! Get him to play basketball or something!"

"I don't even like Nicholas in that way!"

Vi glared at me. "Lemme put it to ya this way; you look exactly like your mom did whenever she hung out with your dad when she was young. Your heads both become tomatoes!"

I blinked. "Hey, how'd you know how my mom… reacted to my dad?"

"Oh, please. My dad loved to trail your mom and dad when they were dating. He'd record them from the shadows. Learned most of his moves to get with my mom from your dad and watching those videos."

"You know my mom's going to murder your dad, bring him back to life, rip out his guts and kill him again if she ever finds out, right?"

"Oh, I know. But then I'd never get to see those videos again."

I shook my head. "God, you guys're weird."

She shrugged. "It's a talent. Now let's get back to the dorm. You can help me pick out an outfit!"

"No."

"B-But I played basketball—!"

"No way in hell."

In the end, I decided to take a nap while Vi picked an outfit for her "almost-date" with Jay. I'd chill with Nicholas later on, and yeah, maybe I'd get him to play basketball with me. My eyes fluttered for a moment, letting me know how tired my muscles were and how I shouldn't get up early on a weekend, before they closed and let me dream.

Or, let me have nightmares.

"You don't understand—I can help your powers grow!"

I fought to keep my rapid breathing steady. How did I not see this coming? How could I have missed such a vital thing?

"Please, Kayce. I can help! You don't want to become powerful off of anyone's fear anymore, do you?"

"Leave me alone!" I screamed, and charged into the forest.

"You can't run away from me!" he yelled after me, and started running.

I was fast. Let's get this straight now—I'm a goddamn race car when I move. But the way he closed in on me when I was sprinting at top speed made me rethink taking track later in the year. He pushed me as soon as he reached me. Pushed my back so hard that I tripped.

I hit the tree, and then he was on me. He squeezed around my throat and kept one of my arms pinned to my side. I struggled to breathe as he smiled and then pressed his lips against mine.

My eyes snapped open faster than I'd ever believed. My heart was thundering in my chest and threatened to break free of my ribs. Immediately, I got to my feet and had a quick drink of water. When I looked at the clock on my bed, I saw that I'd only been asleep for an hour. It was about 7:00pm.

"Goddammit I'm going crazy," I grumbled. "How stupid…"

I felt a bit better though, after resting, and decided that I'd take Vi up on her suggestion. I would go and ask Nicholas if he wanted to play some basketball.

I changed into some shorts and a T-shirt and jogged down the steps of the girl's dorm into the living room. Nicholas was studying for a test we had on Monday; his notes were everywhere on the couch.

"Oh, hey!" he greeted. "Practicing?"

"Yeah. Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to help?" I held the ball out to him.

And, thankfully, he took it. "Yeah, sure. I can definitely do that. I need a break from this stuff, anyway. Felt like my head was about to explode." Nicholas stood, scattering some of the notes on his lap. They floated down to the floor. "I'll pick this up later. Everyone headed out to town, anyway."

"Town?"

Nicholas chuckled. "The government created a town that'd welcome Conduit teens. You can't expect everyone to stay cooped-up on campus, right?"

I agreed.

Nicholas and I, as it turned out, were almost completely evenly matched on the court. I would try to get past him, and he'd block me. But it was the same thing the other way around. In the end, we were both tied at only four points—two scores for both of us.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed breathlessly. "I thought you weren't interested in basketball!"

"That's what I said," Nicholas confirmed with his careful smile. "But I never said I wasn't any good."

I sat on the grass beside the court to catch my breath. "Well, you really helped out. Thanks."

"No prob." Nicholas sat on the grass beside me.

And that's when I realized something. "Where's your pendant?"

Nicholas frowned. "It went missing. Dunno when or where, but it did. Sucks too. It was one-of-a-kind, from my dad."

"Sorry to hear that," I told him with a small shrug.

"No big deal. Maybe it'll turn up. To anyone else, it'd be a piece of junk, so maybe they'd want to find the owner."

"Are you close with your dad?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Not really. When I was little, he'd let me go to work with 'im. As I got older, I wasn't really interested in his line of work, so I dedicated myself to other things. He wasn't entirely happy when I told him I wanted to be in the army. I mean, yeah, a kid in the army brings a lot of good stuff on their family, but my dad wants me to take over for 'im, y'know?"

"I guess. I haven't really given it much thought as to what I wanna be when I get older…"

"History major?" Nicholas suggested. "I mean, Mr. Nelson absolutely adores you. I think you're the only one who could match 'im when he was talking about a certain period in time, like the High Middle Ages."

"I wonder what kinda Conduit Mr. Nelson is…" I wondered aloud absently.

"I dunno. I'd guess beast Conduit, but I've never seen one like him. Maybe you should ask; I don't think it'd be offensive, really."

I nodded. "Maybe I will. I'm pretty sure it'd be interesting."

"And I'll be with you. I'm curious too." Nicholas shrugged and smiled his careful smile. "Well, it's late. I should clean up before the other kids come back to the dorm and yell at me for being 'disorganized'."

I chuckled as Nicholas got up. "Have a nice night then."

"You too."

I decided to stay outside with my thoughts and look up at the sky. If I really tried, I could see the faintly glowing outline that domed above us.

I'll visit Trish first-thing tomorrow, I decided. Talk to 'er, she how she's doing. Maybe see if she got a good look at the person who'd attacked her.