~ Late Night Incident ~
“Kristine,” someone hissed. I saw the great head of a mutant rodent coming closer. “Kristine, can I come in?”
“No...” I struggled to say as I began trembling with fear. “Luke?” I needed his help. It had to be him. “Luke, I need you.”
“I’m right here,” the red-eyed rat hissed as it began to dissolve. “Are you awake?”
I snapped out of it and sat up in bed, finally waking from my dream. “Harmony?” I whispered.
“It’s me—Luke.”
I grabbed his arm and pulled him onto my bed. Then I made sure the curtains were completely closed and turned my light on. His hair was a terrible mess. I figured I didn’t look any better, but middle-of-the-night hair never mattered before. “How’d you get in here?” I asked.
He twisted his arms inwardly and disappeared. All that was left was a hint of a shadow.
“You’re wearing shadow technology? Cool...Are you all right, though?”
“Yeah, I had that nightmare about my mom, and I thought since you’re here now—”
I grabbed the blanket he was sitting on and pulled, so he would move up to let me get it out from under him. Then I held it up so he could climb under.
He didn’t need to finish. Ever since the slaughter of his parents, he’d had these two horrifying nightmares. One where his mother is tied to a chair and the man who killed her has different things lying on the table in front of him—an axe, a chainsaw, a scalpel, and so on—and he’s just standing there, trying to decide what to kill her with. His mother is terrified and Luke’s frozen in a corner of the room, watching it all. He wants to save her, but his body won’t move. He always wakes up as the psycho’s getting started, and it takes him a minute to realize it’s over. The feelings of terror linger long after. The dad-dream’s even worse.
I pulled the blanket up over us and stared at Luke. We had to lie on our sides in the little twin bed.
“You’re a hero, you know,” I said. “You probably saved Rose’s life. That makes you North Haven material.”
We both looked up when we heard Harmony roll over.
“I wouldn’t have been much good to her if I hadn’t seen her on your con...Everyone’s saying a Northerner’s footprint was found in the boiler room. Is that true?”
“Yeah. A lot of people think a Cinder put on one of our suits and did it to make us look bad.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it could go either way. I figure a Cinder wouldn’t go anywhere near our stuff, since they hate us so much, but I can’t imagine anyone from North Haven hurting Rose. Headmaster has us checked out before we get recruited.”
“How’s she doing?”
I yawned and stretched my legs before I answered sleepily. “She’s still sedated for the pain, but she’ll live. Hopefully when she wakes up we’ll know who attacked her... A lot of people are scared. Whoever did it’s still out there.”
“You probably shouldn’t go anywhere alone.”
“The buddy system—That’s a good idea. I might bring it up with Headmaster.”
Luke put his arm under his head and stared at me for a minute. “I still can’t believe you’re here. Waking up from one of my nightmares with you around isn’t so bad.”
“You wanna watch cartoons?” I asked, sitting up on my elbow.
“It’ll wake everybody up, won’t it?”
“Not if we use my earphones.” I turned my light out and opened the curtain beside me enough to pick up my bag from the floor. I shut it back tight before I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the tiny headphones.
Then I felt for my con and let my bag slip off the bed as it began to open. “Kristine Con, silent.” When Connie’s face appeared, a message began writing itself across the bottom of the screen. “What can I do for you, Kristine?”
“What do you wanna watch?” I asked Luke.
“SpongeBob used to be our favorite.”
I plugged my earphones in and said, “Kristine Con, please turn on the Hash Slinging Slasher SpongeBob episode.”
“That used to be my favorite one,” Luke said.
“I know.”
He put one of the earphones in and held an arm out for me to lie on. That way we had enough room to lie flat on our backs and watch.
As the pirate painting began singing, “Are you ready, kids?” I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed these late night incidences. It almost felt blissful to be snuggled up close to him like that.
My eyes were soon heavy. I tried to fight off sleep so I could remain consciously with Luke for as long as possible. But it eventually won out and I let my eyes close. Somewhere between the world of slumber and wakefulness, I felt him kiss my forehead and whisper, “Good night, Kristine.”
* * * *
The sound of my curtains being opened woke me up. “Rise and shine, Kr—” Harmony gasped.
I realized someone was lying beside me, his arm draped over my waist. Luke was lying asleep in my bed.
“A Cinder’s trying to get Kristine!” someone screamed.
“No!” I sat up as Luke opened his eyes. The curtains on the other side of my bed were ripped open by Tracy, who slept in the bed beside mine. “He’s not trying to hurt me. We fell asleep watching my con.”
“But he’s a Cinder,” Tracy said.
“So? Luke, you have to go.”
He looked at me and moved his arms under the blanket—and then he was gone. I could feel him climb out of bed, but he was impossible to see until the light hit him. He looked like a shapeless shadow moving across the room. Everyone moved as far away from the strange apparition as they could, like he had some infectious disease. Once he entered the hallways, he would become invisible.
“What was he doing here?” Harmony asked. Any girl within earshot stared at me for answers, including Sassy and Nadine.
I got out of bed and went to my roommate’s bunk, deciding it was no one else’s business. Harmony and Nadine stood beside me and Sassy leaned in. “He had a nightmare, so we were watching cartoons. We must have both fallen asleep.”
“But he’s a Cinder,” Harmony said. “Second floor’s for North Haveners only during competitions. We don’t bother them, and they don’t bother us.”
“Headmaster said it was okay,” I said.
“Well, it’s not.” I looked at each of their faces, firmly set in agreement with what Harmony was saying.
I let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t like the Cinders much either, but Luke’s different. He’s changed a lot since we were separated, but he’s still the same guy inside. You’re just going to have to trust me on this.”
“So you’re going to keep seeing him?”
“Yes.”
“Aw, forbidden love,” Sassy cooed. “How romantic.”
“Forbidden friendship, you mean.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Nadine said.
“We’re your sisters,” Harmony said, “and we’ll stick with you no matter what. But any of us getting too close to a Cinder is a bad idea.”
But it was too late. I got too close to that Cinder when I was still in grade school, and there was no turning back now.
I reached out for a group hug, because this was proof that I could count on them no matter what. “Thanks, guys.”