Chapter Forty Two

I came to as I was being pulled through the gap in the fence by my arm. I wasn't sure how long I'd been out, but the crowd in the field had thinned. My vision was blurred, so I made that determination based on sound. The night was quieter. I could hear the grunts of whoever was hauling me away.

I didn't freak out because the grunts sounded familiar, so did the voice that kept assuring me that he was taking me to get help and that he only wanted to talk. It wasn't until I was sitting up against the trunk of a tree on the other side of the gap—in the darkness of night—that I realized this person wasn't a friend.

The night was cold enough to induce shivering on its own, but the sudden realization that I could be in danger made me erupt in tremors.

The man touched a gloved hand to the side of my frosted cheek and pressed his lips against mine.

"Settle down. Everything is fine, you passed out. I saved your life," he said.

His tone was nerves, false kindness and thinly veiled frustration, making it difficult to place. I could imagine a serial killer speaking to his first victim in the same way. It frightened me to my core. It took the whole of my willpower to nod instead of wiping off my lips or spitting at him, but I managed. I wasn't ready for a fight or flight. I had to be compliant until my sight recovered.

"Why did you block me on Snapchat, after the perfect date?"

It was Jin. That was the only person it could've been. I strained my eyes in the dark to look at him. I could tell his shape much better with my left eye closed, but it was too dark to discern features. I opened my left eye and saw gray, wispy blots in my vision. Three turbulent clouds. They had to be the spires, but this reveal was unlike any before it.

The pain had never been worse, but the strange part was seeing clouds at all. In the past, the spires had always been limited to my terrible vision. This time, I could tell where they were beyond what I could see in the darkness. One was between the field and the school while the other two were inside the school.

Jin grabbed me underneath my arms to pull me away from the tree, he shoved my head to the ground and climbed on top of me. This wasn't the charming guy with the slim faced symmetry I remembered.

"I asked you a question," he said, "tell me where I went wrong."

I couldn't, not if I wanted to live. The truth would've came across as a challenge. "There's someone else," I said. It wasn't entirely a lie. He couldn't blame me for respecting my relationship enough to eliminate outside interference. "I started dating Saylor. We've been friends for ages. Honest." I couldn't have said Juice. It would've given him something to blackmail me over.

"Really?" Jin asked, "The same Saylor who posts on IG daily about how much he misses his friend?" I shouldn't have underestimated Jin's stalking prowess and I should've, at the very least, prioritized my life over keeping Juice's sexual preference a secret. Jin pinned my wrists down at my sides and pressed his nose against mine. "Stop lying! You lied through your teeth our whole date. Tell the truth for once."

He started grinding his forehead against mine. I tried to squirm around without making my resistance threatening, but I could hardly move. I was taller than Jin, but he was much stronger than me before the cold and my headache sapped my strength. I was pinned down, helpless and scared.

"I c-can't. I'm afraid of what you'll do to me." I started sobbing quietly underneath him. I muffled my cries, so they wouldn't scare him into acting recklessly. There wasn't anyone around to overhear us, so being loud would only put me in danger.

"Just tell me the truth and I'll take you inside," Jin said. He got off me and moved to the side, as if my words or crying had returned him to his senses. I was hopeful, but I didn't believe him. I sat up on my elbows and slowly edged away. It was dark enough to create a little space without him noticing. "I already know. I played the date over in my head a thousand times. You changed the moment I got off you in the park. You wanted me to keep going." He hopped back on me. My freedom was so short lived. "Admit it, right now!"

He was wrong. He'd lost me before we ever left Starbucks that day. Jin held me by my collar and started kissing me, forcing himself on me. I winced my eyes closed and held still. I felt him perk up again as he took his weight off me. I saw a change in his eyes, as if he suddenly realized I was honestly scared and clearly wanting no part in his domination fetish. Although my cheeks felt frozen and numb, I'd never been more relieved to feel a rush of cold air blow across my face.

"I love you, cute ghost boy," he said. My face froze in expression. I never thought such an endearing nickname could sound so horrifying. Jin helped me up to my feet. His tone instantly changed to one of concern. "You must be freezing. Let's go to my car and get warmed up."

He put an arm around me and started leading me toward the parking lot near the gym. I looked around for chances to escape. We had to pass between the field and the school on our way out to the lot, but without separation from him, I had no chance of getting away.

"My friends are expecting me. I'll let them know I'm fine and come back," I said.

I tried to sound casual, but I must've failed miserably. Jin's dubious expression showed me exactly how badly. I ignored it. I spotted the spire as we were closing in on it. I thought about how they had worked in the past.

Whenever I walked across one, it had resulted in good luck, but according to Esmeralda, it could lead me toward loving Jin. That was the last thing I wanted. The other option was getting Jin to cross it himself. The spires usually resulted in bad luck for anyone other than me who crossed them.

When the spire was above the ground in front of me, I veered off to the left, toward the school to make a run for it. Jin acted accordingly, stepping through the spire as he gave chase. I broke out into a sprint. I turned back to see if anything happened, but he was fine.

Of course, he was.

The stupid spires weren't guaranteed to act right away and I shouldn't have been surprised that it hadn't. The only thing that happened was that Jin lost a shoe. It made catching up to me slightly more cumbersome than it would've otherwise. I felt his fingers smack my shoulder, but I dipped to evade him. His fingers smacked against my other one and gripped the padding of my suit. I turned. He let go.

Jin's face contorted into the most unconvincing fake smile I'd ever seen. The cause: a freshman was coming out of the door I was heading for. I walked briskly and gestured for them to hold it open. I slipped through and pulled it shut, locking Jin outside.

The door led to a hallway with the locker rooms off to the left and vending machines, to the right. Further down, there were framed inspirational quotes hung on the wall, followed by a cove with glass cases filled with trophies earned over the years. Across from them, the gym. I could hear electronic dance music blaring from the sound system. I saw purple, flashing lights shining out into the hall from the opened doors.

I walked past the men's locker room and stopped. The only thing I could think about were the two remaining spires. The closest one was in the locker room. The other, in the gym. I thought of how Esmeralda left Mom. I thought of Juice and Saylor. I didn't make a decision based on choosing one over the other. I wanted to save them both, so I spun around and darted off into the locker room. It had a row of red lockers embedded in concrete, directly in front of the entrance, but facing away from it. It gave the room privacy and forced entry through the sides.

The room was booming with sound. The football players were high off their huge win and were soaking in the moment, quite literally. The chatter was non-stop and more than a few songs were competing for airtime over cellphones and the hiss of shower heads.

The room was also hot and steamy in both senses of the words. The air was as thick with steam as it was the sweat and stench of soiled clothes and unwashed athletic gear. The spire I detected from the hallway was bolder now. Instead of a turbulent cloud, it appeared as an inverted triangle in my vision.

There was one more wall separating it from me: the enclosed shower area.