Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend (7 page)

I would confront Cresida for the truth; the other
option was to risk my mother’s safety. After what had
happened to me I shuddered to think what would be
done to her, and Sophie was fragile at best.

In anticipation I hesitantly slipped a knife in my
pocket from the kitchen drawer and left without saying goodbye to Sophie.

I found Cresida, sure enough, in a corner of the
library. I didn’t waste any time.
“What are they?” I blurted out as I thrust the
note left for me at her -“and who locked me in a
store closet?” I was trying to whisper and yell at the
same time.
“Sshh,” she raised a finger to her lips, urgently
quieting me. She nodded toward the exit. “Let’s talk
outside,” she coaxed with a serious stare. The thinner
librarian was frowning at me, so I followed her, with
the note in my hand.
She led me out the door. “Grab your bag,” she
said low at me though we were outside and no one
was around. I touched the knife in my pocket through
the cloth of my jumper subconsciously and let it go.
“Are you going to get yours?” I gestured. I assessed her. She was wearing a brown jumper, which
didn’t seem to fit. It was a v-neck, similar to one my
grandfather would have worn, which was far too big,
and the same pinstriped pants as yesterday. Her eyes
were still hard and expressionless, the same as when
she had approached me in front of my house.
“Why should I go anywhere with you?” I added
in a rush “What the hell is going on here!” As my
voice heightened she glanced around, obviously wary
of others. She looked distracted then her eyes glazed
over, frozen like a deer hearing a predator approach.
What was she hearing? I wondered - or was this all
part of a drug-induced psychosis?
Fed up, I said, “You have exactly two minutes to
explain to me what’s going on, Cresida-” My voice
was riddled with panic and it felt strange to actually
say her name aloud - “or I am going to report you and
your friends to the Principal.”
She smiled as though my threat was as hollow as
it sounded. It didn’t strike me as a nervous expression,
it was a smirk across her thin lips and the expression
frightened me.
“What do you think is going on exactly?” she
questioned, obviously intrigued now, instead of cautious. She seemed to resume relaxed movement, as
though her previous action was a seizure. I decided
to cut to the chase.
“Either there’s some cult going on here or they
really are werewolves or this school takes practical jokes to a whole new level - are you on drugs?” I
added.
She scoffed. “I wish,” she murmured, smiling to
herself.
“That isn’t helpful Cresida. If you think this is
funny-” I turned to leave - “I am going to Mr Crealy.”
“Don’t,” she called. “You don’t know what you’re
doing - let me explain. I don’t want to-” she huffed
frustrated - “but it’s inevitable, you are destined for
trouble, but you need to figure this out for yourself.”
My forehead creased in a frown. What a bizarre
thing to offer me as an explanation: a prediction?
“I want to show you something, come on,” she
urged with her teeth gritted and she gave an annoyed
glance.
“Is this supposed to scare me, or something.” I
stiffened. This was getting trickier than I’d imagined.
“Look, Cresida I am giving you an out here. You can
go with me, tell everything and we can really get
them to stop all this…teasing, this hazing, if that’s
what is even going on here?” I frowned.
I waited for her reply.
“Come with me,” she said in a calm voice. “I
shouldn’t be showing you this,” she said, almost to
herself.
I automatically started to walk with her and then
thought better of it.
“Is this the part where they get me in a secluded
area and jump out in masks?” I accused - I wasn’t falling for it. I pulled up short, grabbing her by the arm
she raised one eyebrow. She spoke before me.
“Lila.” She said my name with familiarity. “They
want to make you one of them,” she said firmly, wide
eyed.
“With hazing?” I felt unsure if this was where she
was headed. She didn’t reply.“I am not going anywhere with you Cresida, you’re really fucked up,” I
said with a hint of sympathy.“I can help you – let’s
go and we can explain everything to the teachers, because I’m not going anywhere with you, - whatever is
going on isn’t right.” There, I had said my piece.
She huffed and shook her head in disbelief.“Good,
go home,” she said sadly. I wondered if she meant for
me to go home to Horkum, back to the relative safety
of the city, away from Shade. Like the note still in my
hand had suggested.
“I will.” I began to walk away as though I wasn’t
afraid. “After I go to the principal’s office on my way,”
I said quietly to myself as I walked at a steady pace.
Surprisingly she let me walk away without as
much as a word. I gulped. This was going to be easier
than I had anticipated.
As I rounded the bend to the principal’s office,
standing in the door there she was! I wasn’t walking
slowly. I wasn’t sure how she could have made it there
before me? I managed to look disgruntled instead of
surprised but she didn’t seem to care, as she casually
slouched in the doorframe. I narrowed my eyes and
pinched my lips.
I could see the office wasn’t even open yet. In a
standoff we glared at each other. She reminded me
of an Anime warrior. The black backpack over her
shoulder could have been replaced with a gun strap,
her jumper was off revealing a different too large, cutoff t-shirt that read Bali Hang Five and strikingly far
too muscular arms, tanned and ripped with a silvery
scar sweeping across her forearm and a matching one
which swept from her shoulder under her upper arm.
I wondered what could have done it.
“I’ll just wait until he gets here,” I said in my
toughest voice, folding my flimsy arms.
“I know,” she replied in a deeper tone than mine.
There was a moment of silence as three juniors passed
us. They seemed to sense the tense atmosphere and
hurried past. Or perhaps it was my imagination. She
looked at her watch. “Since you’ve got nothing to do
for the next 30 minutes how about you just humour
me.”She seemed to be pleading, doing her best to not
sound as threatening as she looked, I guessed.
“I don’t want to humour anyone.” Especially at
my own expense, I thought. I had been sympathetically aiming to get her on my side and it seemed she
was trying to do the same.
“How’d you get that scar.” I glanced at her arm.
She shrugged. “In an accident.”
We were silent for a few moments.
“Look, do you know who forced me into the store
room?” I barely whispered, as though I had thought
it aloud.
She started walking. “Yes, I’m sorry…please
come outside, we’ll be safe there,” she said robotically
staring ahead as though she was having one of her
seizures again.
“Fine, I’ll walk with you – outside,” I added, feeling claustrophobic in the building, a result of the
residual crawling fear from being trapped in the
storeroom. I needed to get out into the open. I hoped
this wasn’t an ambush. Not that I was actually deluded enough to think anyone would stop them if
they gathered around me in broad daylight….
We walked in silence down the hallway to the
nearest door.
Cresida stopped then and stared like a stunned
animal, not gazing but listening, or so it seemed. She
snapped out of her trance quickly though and sniffed
the air like a deer. Her oily hair caught in the breeze.
She sniffed.“I’ve missed two to save you, keep you
safe. I can’t keep it up,” she said walking on out into
the daylight, seemingly not caring if I understood.
“ Two
what?
” I enquired.
“Angie and Shelly Bealy.”
I backtracked, trying to ignore her strange behaviour. “Missed them?” I asked staring at her pale elfin
features. I knew I could understand if she gave me a
chance.
She stretched, arching her back to the sun, arms
out she looked decidedly more feminine. She was
taller than me.
“It’s safe,” she assured me and I wondered, safe
from what, exactly?
I thought,
What have they done to get this fear
from you?
“Ha, do you think I’m afraid? That I am afraid of
them?” she said snickering madly. (Only later would
I think back and realize the humour it must have
tickled in her). “I don’t think it should be my job anymore, they are using you as a distraction.” Her eyes
didn’t look at me when she spoke.
I ignored her gibberish. “Why are you warning
me away?” With force I remembered, shuddering. I
hoped she didn’t see the goose bumps on my arms as
I tensed my body. I swallowed.
“I showed you why.”
I knew she meant the footage. “Are they really
wol…wolves, Cresida?” My throat was dry. I waited,
genuinely interested to know what she would say.
Her answer was a question. “Do you think they
are? Do you think I am?” She stared wide-eyed at me.
I shifted under the intensity. “What?” I rolled my
eyes. I wasn’t going to say it.
I tried to tell myself to stick to the plan, keep her
talking then get to the office as soon as it opened,
with or without raiding her bag, which contained the
incriminating USB footage. I did not like the idea of
fighting her for it.
“Tell me why you’re not friends with them
anymore.”
“Let’s just say I’m one of them, but not friends
with them, or you.” She looked me up and down.
“And you don’t have a clue what you are.”
I wondered what she thought that was.“Okay,
Cresida. Let’s say they are wolves acting like humans,
okay? What interest do they have in me?”
“Lunch,” she suggested quickly, as though the
idea had just struck her.
“Where did you get that footage?” I was curious.
“I follow them closely.”
“You spy on them?”
“Yes, it’s my job –was,”she corrected with disdain.
“What did they do to you?”
She looked away then. I’d struck a raw nerve. I
knew sadly that it couldn’t be her ‘job’ to watch these
kids and that she was delusional, she hadn’t filmed
it. She had been given it or taken the video from
someone. I was fearful for myself then. I began to
believe she was schizophrenic, I’d seen kids like her
on Documentary Television. I wondered if she was
violent and remembered the knife in my pocket and,
suddenly feeling clumsy next to her, I knew at once I
wouldn’t be able to use it.
I thought of something to say. “Did they pay, or
tell Tealy,Monica and Angie to not show me around?”
“
Very
perceptive.”
The words sounded hollow, she wasn’t impressed.
“Just as well, Angie is taken.” She shrugged. Her
eyes were clear and steady. “This has taken a few
twists and turns but they want you in their group
-I want you to infiltrate. I can’t fight it, it’s inevitable.” She sounded sad, surrendering even. “Sky, Reid
and I will watch you, it’s safer, then I can watch the
town, keep it safe from the other pack, until you
figure it out.” She sighed. I wondered what it was
she wasn’t saying.
“But, I’ll be watching, now they have all decided
to have you join them.”
She sounded broken. I knew she needed help.
“Did they haze you?” I asked sympathetically.
“No.”
This was more than the first time a bullying theory had been shut down, first by Giny then by Tealy.
If it wasn’t teasing or hazing, what was it that was
going on?
“You will take them down from the inside, it’s
perfect-” She seemed inspired, adding -“when you
figure it out.” She seemed to be thinking intently in
the silence after she spoke. “I’ll protect you, remember?” She looked into my eyes, maybe searching for
confirmation.
I blurted, “Cresida, are you nuts?” I realized my
comment might anger her.
She glanced at the angel tattoo on my wrist.
“Think about it, think about who you are.” She
waited for an answer. In the short silence she concluded, “I’ll be watching.” With that she took off. I
didn’t try to chase her for more answers; she didn’t
make any sense, nothing she said had. She was living in another world. It was nearly office opening
hours. I headed back into the school, down the hall.
If I couldn’t convince Principal Crealy of anything
else, apart from Cresida’s need for physiological help,
then that is what I would do. The only thing that
really bothered me was whether or not they had
caused her to go nuts. Would the school send her
away? I thought. Was the clique taking advantage of
her mental behaviour? If they were, this situation was
possibly worse than I had contemplated.
I guessed my future wasn’t here in Shade Public
High, I doubted I could integrate, and I didn’t want
to. Maybe mum could send me to boarding school. I
thought maybe dad could pay. I knew they would be
livid whether I was doing the right thing or not. A
ringing sound jolted me then, but it wasn’t the school
bell. The fire alarm had gone off as I walked back
into the office. I turned around again and strolled
back down the hall and out the front of the building.
Everyone had to evacuate.
“This is not a drill,” boomed the loud speaker.
“Please evacuate calmly.”
As a small panic ensued, kids spread out the front
and drew together in groups. An interested crowd
was gathering. I walked past the bus stop and towards
home. Students running up the path who passed me
on the way to school were in an excited flurry saying
things like: “-the sprinklers are going to come on!” -
“Hey, a drill!”, “
was
there a break in?”
“Oh, my God, I hope my project doesn’t get
burnt!”screeched an agitated junior girl to her friends.
“Is it a real fire?” replied her friend. I knew Principal
Crealy would be busy this morning, too busy for the
crazed accusations of a non-existent hazing, from the
new girl, who had promised to avoid trouble here.
Rigidly I walked away from the gathering crowd
and further than was necessary. I stopped at a corner store a few streets from the school. A fire truck
screamed past towards the high school and I watched
from inside the store as it as it sped past the shop
window, lights flashing.
I picked out a snack.
“You don’t happen to know the high school kids
around here?” I asked. The lady behind the counter
pushed buttons on a keyboard and glared back at me.
“That’ll be four-eighty,” she said, then sighed.
“Which ones?” Her tone made me think she’d seen
a few.
“Sam, and Giny?” I enquired “And their boyfriends…Sky and Reid.” This wasn’t accurate but I
doubted she cared. I didn’t know or recall their last
names, and then I remembered “Harton, Davies…
Sam Thompson’s friends?”
She seemed to relax. She bent down and grabbed
something out from under the counter. A book was
plunked in front of me on the counter top.