Chapter 11

This time when a knock on the door echoed through the house, it was expected, welcomed. Throwing away the peel, I picked up my backpack and opened the door.

“Morning.” He greeted me with a smile on his face.

His voice in actuality probably wasn’t any louder than normal but today it sounded like he was yelling into a megaphone. I brought a finger to my lips indicating he should quiet down.

“You feeling okay?” he whispered.

“No,” I grumbled, bringing a hand to press against my throbbing temple. “It feels like my brain is trying to escape my skull with a sledgehammer.”

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, placing my head in the crook of his neck.

“Are you sure you should go to school?” He asked, rubbing my back in comfort.

“I’m already behind from the week I was gone.” I sighed.

“Did you take any medicine?”

No.” I pulled back with a sigh. “The plan was to buy that stuff when we moved.”

He nodded in understanding. Then his eyes lit up like a light bulb, before looking through his bag. Finally, he pulled out a pair of sunglasses and placed them in front of my eyes.

“I know they aren’t much, but hopefully they’ll help.”

Thanking him, I allowed him to take my hand and start walking to school. Cameron didn’t bother making small talk, instead we walked in comfortable silence, save for the sounds of traffic. The sunglasses did more than I thought they would, dimming the brightness of the sun made the walk to school much more bearable.

When we got to the school the bustling hallways made my head pound. Without a doubt, today was going to be awful. Cameron followed me to my locker, simply watching as I grabbed my needed books.

“How’s your head doing?” He asked, smoothing my hair as I took off the sunglasses.

I shook my head in response, fearing that the sound of my own voice would be too loud no matter how quietly I spoke. I tried shutting my locker as slowly as possible to avoid making as much noise as I could. The longer I stood in the hallway the worse my head felt. Cameron then took me to his locker, and to our surprise someone was waiting there. Blonde hair falling in front of their face, shoulders hunched.

“Emily?” Cameron asked as we drew closer. “Why are you at my locker?”

Hearing her name, her head snapped up to look at the speaker. Her eyes went from Cameron to our joined hands, and finally to me. Before speaking she cleared her throat and directed her gaze back to Cameron; refusing to look at me.

“Um, I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

She looked at me for a split second, if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed it. I raised my eyebrows at the realization that it was me, that she wanted to speak to him about.

“Uh, it doesn’t matter.” She rushed out, standing straight and avoided any eye contact. “See you in class.”

And then she was gone. Lost in the sea of people in the crowded hallway. Cameron dropped my hand to open and use his locker, giving me that opportunity to rest against the nearby lockers.

“I wish I could apologize to her and her friend.” sighing I leaned my head against the cold metal. “But I’d have to admit that I did everything to the cafeteria.”

“I get that you aren’t supposed to tell people, and I totally get why, but…” Cameron said, closing his locker and leaning next to me.

I met his eyes, silently telling him that I was listening, and he could continue.

“Why did your mom tell me? People aren’t supposed to know so why me?”

I let out a quiet laugh. “I asked her the same thing, she said you have a pure soul, like my dad.”

“Well, that is the highest compliment I could ever receive.” He smiled.

It was then that the bell rang out signaling everyone to get to class. We went our separate ways and the day proceeded to feel like everything was going at a snail’s pace. I didn’t do much other than lay my head on the desk till lunch came around.

It was announced that the cafeteria would be up and running in the next 2 days, but for today lunch was again in the courtyard. I didn’t wait for Cameron, instead I sent him a text telling him I would be at the tree at the edge of the courtyard. The thought of standing for much longer sent a wave of nausea over me. So, I sat in the shade under the tree, sunglasses over my eyes trying to will the pounding in my head to go away.

When Cameron eventually came to sit next to me, he not only had lunch in a brown paper bag but also a plastic bag from the convenient store across the street.

“Head still bad?” He asks sitting down.

“Unfortunately,” I mumbled.

“Well, hopefully these will help.” He says holding up a bottle of water and Aspirin.

“You’re my hero,” I said, taking the bottled water from him as he poured a couple Aspirin into my waiting hand.

Popping the pills into my mouth, I gulped down the water. “Thank you.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder and prepared to rest there until lunch was over. We sat there quietly while he ate whatever he packed for lunch. When the teachers started bringing students in at the end of lunch the Aspirin had thankfully started to work and finally the migraine started to ease up.

Saying goodbye to Cameron we separated till art. The medicine has all but got rid of my headache, leaving me in a much better mood than I was this morning.

“You seem to be feeling better?” a voice said from the chair next to me.

Expecting to see Cameron, I turned, only to find Emily instead.

“Hey,” I said, “I don’t remember you being in this class.”

“I’m not, but I won’t be here long.” I could see anger and jealousy behind her eyes, so I wasn’t surprised when she leaned close with a sneer. “I don’t know how you got Cameron to fall for your tricks, but you don’t fool me.”

I leaned towards her, keeping my voice low. “Contrary to what you believe, I didn’t use any tricks on Cameron.”

It was as if she started to vibrate with anger as she stared at me. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here. Nonetheless, I didn’t back down.

“Wynter?” Cameron’s voice interrupted us. “Everything okay?”

Seeing him come to stand by me just made her angrier.

“What’s Emily doing here?”

“She was just leaving,” I stated. “Right, Emily?”

She let out an angry huff before storming out of the room, stomping her feet like a child. Rolling my eyes, I leaned back in my chair. Cameron took his seat next to me. “How’s your head?” He asked.

“Much better,” I smiled. “Thank you.”

He simply smiled and turned his attention to Miss Zeric, who now stood in the center of the room, giving out instructions. We made small talk as the class went on, he didn’t ask any more questions about Emily. Though I felt like he was just waiting till after school to ask. We sketched whatever Miss Zeric told us to, fruit, hands, among other things. I think we were focusing on perspective, or maybe it was shadows. I couldn’t quite follow the ramblings that Miss Zeric tried to pass for instructions.

The bell ringing made her jump out of her skin, though it didn’t faze anyone else. We all cleared off our tables and left for the day. As we walked out of the room, Cameron finally voiced the question that has no doubt been running in his head the entire class period.

“What was going on between you and Emily?”

“She came to confront me.” I sighed. “And before you ask, it had nothing to do with the cafeteria.

We stopped at our lockers grabbing our bags. “What was it about then?” he inquired.

“You.”

“Me?” He laughed.

“She thinks I used ‘tricks,’ as she put it, on you,” I said.

We had just exited the building when we were stopped by Emily, but this time she was accompanied by Sara.

“Hey Emily, Sara,” Cameron greeted. “Nice to see you back at school.”

People walked past us, not even the slightest bit interested in the conversation, only focused on going home. The girls in front of us stood side by side, like a wall to stop us from leaving. They didn’t respond to Cameron at first. They just glared at me.

“Uh, you guys okay?” he asked at their lack of response. Feeling the tension, he grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, putting himself between the girls and myself. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve fallen victim to her tricks,” Sara said, eyeing how his hand was interlocked with mine.

“And we’re gonna set you free,” Emily explained.

They started to open the bottles of water they were holding, and suddenly Cameron wasn’t standing next to me. He was standing in front of the two girls, a wrist in each hand. He wasn’t holding tight enough to hurt them. I knew that from their faces.

“Let me guess,” he spoke, voice low and angry. “One bottle for me, the other for Wynter?”

“How—”

“Despite what everyone thinks,” he interrupted, “I’m not stupid, and Wynter hasn’t done anything.”

Walking up behind him, I grabbed the bottles, and he dropped their wrists and wiped his hands off on his jeans. “How would dumping water on us do anything besides get us wet?” I questioned.

“It’s holy water! Blessed by a priest!” they shouted in unison.

“I’m a person, not a demon!” I laughed at the ridiculousness of their plan.

I heard Cameron let out an irritated sigh. “Look, I am going to say this one time, so listen closely,” he said, causing both girls to look at him with fear. “Leave Wynter and me alone. No spells have been cast, no tricks have been pulled, nothing.”

Backing up, he dumped the bottles and grabbed my hand, leading me around the girls who seemed too stunned to move. For once I kind of empathized with them, seeing Cameron so angry was a shock. I couldn’t help but feel bad that he was having a hard time because of me. We walked to my house quietly for a while before I had the courage to speak up.

“You know, all of your problems would disappear if you stopped hanging out with me,” I said in a quiet voice.

This caused him to stop walking and turn to look at me with furrowed eyebrows. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“Well,” I cleared my throat. “Your parents don’t want me around you, neither do your friends…”

“Emily and Sara are not my friends.”

“Seems like the only person in your life that doesn’t have a problem with you being with me is you,” I continued, ignoring his interruption.

“I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Until you tell me to leave, I am staying.”

I looked down, breaking eye contact, he brought his fingers to my chin making me look at him.

“Do you want me to leave?” He asks in a whisper.

“No.” I answered by shaking my head.

“Then no one else matters.”

We started walking again with a lighter mood, so much so that I didn’t even notice when we finally reached the house. We immediately went to the kitchen, placing our bags down. We go from school like normal teenagers to trying to track down centuries old missing journals. Oh, what a life I lead.

“So, have you got any ideas of where the journals are?” I asked, though I doubt he had any more of an idea than I did.

He just shrugged his shoulders while shaking his head. We sighed in unison and silence draped over us as we lost ourselves in thought. If I were Amelia and I had a lifetime of journals, where would I hide them? They would need to be hidden to the blind eye but in a place obvious enough that I wouldn’t forget where I hid them.

“Where would a teenage boy hide something personal?” I asked, nudging his shoulder.

“Teenage boys aren’t that creative with our hiding spaces.” He chuckled. “9 times out of 10 we just hide things under our mattress.”

“Yeah, I don’t think she would have hidden them in her bed.” I sighed.

My eyes started to wander, glancing at anything that caught my attention. As if I would see something that would tell me where they were. Mom said that the house is known to have hidden rooms, and Amelia’s necklace was more or less hidden in plain sight, behind a wall in a closet.

It was then that I got an idea. Getting up I went to the kitchen drawers and got out a butter knife.

“Making toast?” Cameron questioned, raising a single eyebrow.

“Nope,” I giggled. “My mom once told me that to help find something that is lost, ask a butter knife and spin it and it will point the way,” I explained.

“You’re going to ask a knife, where Amelia hid her stuff?”

“Think of it like a compass.” I dismissed his skepticism, and held the knife up to my lips, like I was telling it a secret. “Where did Amelia keep her journals?”

Placing it on the counter I gave it a good spin and watched in anticipation of where it would lead us. Eventually it slowed to a stop, the tip of the blade pointing out of the kitchen at the staircase leading up to the second floor.

“She hid them in the stairs?” he asked incredulously.

“Or on the upper floor,” I offered.

We both shrugged, it was worth a shot. Grabbing the knife, we headed upstairs. We pushed in all the floorboards checking for any loose planks. We found a few creaky spots, but they remained in place. When we turned our attention to the walls, we began knocking, trying to find any hollow echoes. We went in all the rooms, checking their walls until we made our way to Amelia’s portrait. So far, we were empty handed.

I looked up at the picture feeling frustrated, silently pleading for her to tell us. The thought occurred to me that she marked the wall she hid her necklace behind with a pentacle. I guess it would be safe to say that she most likely marked where she placed the journals too.

“Cameron?” I called out.

“Yeah?” I heard him answer from inside a nearby closet.

“I think I have an idea.”

I saw his head peek around the corner. “Search for a star inside a circle.”

“Okay, why?”

“Amelia, marked where she put her necklace with it,” I explained, crouching down to search the base of the wall.

I didn’t find anything in the hall and sat down dejectedly while I waited for Cameron to finish looking in the rooms. When he was done, he leaned against the banister looking at Amelia’s portrait while he was deep in thought.

“Hey, Wynter?”

“Hmm?”

“I think I found something.”

I looked over at him to find him leaning closely to the bottom corner of the frame. Curiously I stood and joined him, trying to see what he saw. And there, delicately carved into the wood was a pentacle. The intricate carvings of the frame itself caused it to mostly blend in. If you didn’t know what to look for, you wouldn’t even notice it was there. But it was there, meaning most likely somewhere behind this painting was a room filled with the missing journals of Amelia Morgan.