The Teacher's Pet

Chapter Sixteen

James Levine:
"He hates me..." A sweet girl's voice speaks, the voice of my girl. Katherine! I want to scream her name at the top of my lungs, I want to yell for her, pull her into my embrace, but I am unable to move. My feet are stuck into the ground and my voice is muted, no matter how hard I scream.
"Kat, he doesn't hate you, and if he did, that's his loss, he's your teacher you shouldn't be with him." Another girl's voice speaks, this time of her friends. Her name is Cassidy, I know this, because I have been keeping a close eye on her and her friends since I started working here. That's how I know her friends don't really like me. Which I don't care about, as long as Kat likes me.
"He hasn't called back in 6 days, how can he just leave like that? Why did I fall for him... I should've just picked another guy."
The familiar feeling of rage boils up in me again. If I could I would scream no to her, and tell her if any other man ever touched her, he dies. But that's unfair, I'm the one ignoring her for 3 days. Wait... She said 6.
What day is it?
What time is it?
Where am I?
Why is everything so blurry?
A nauseous feeling washes over me, removing the rage I've been feeling, replacing it with this sickening feeling. I would rather be raging mad than angry.
"Baby, I'm right here, I'm sorry I left you for so long, I wish I didn't but I didn't know what to do with myself... I thought this would be better and..." There are a million more things I want to say to her, but yet again my voice is cut off.
Kat looks up and around.
"Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I think James is here."
"Come on Kat, don't act like a crazy person now, we don't want you ending up in the mental hospital now, do we?" Her friend Mary laughs at her. But she did hear it right, I tried reaching out to her. She heard me.

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"When do you think he will wake up?" The voices are suddenly so much different, they're male now, but still familiar.
"Come on man! It has been 3 whole days, how much did you give him?" The voices echo in my head, through a large white tunnel, a tunnel that fills all of my vision. "No, don't answer that, the answer is way too much." Another short pit of silence, where I get the chance to inspect this tunnel of light. "That's your brother right there, if he never wakes up again, you killed him, you do realize that right? You could've killed your brother!"
"Father, he was trying to kill you!" This voice is one I recognize out of a million. Silas speaking to Dante. Silas... The one who injected me with this weird stuff that makes my body feel like it's paralyzed, that makes me see these visions. I will kill him myself when I wake up, Dante doesn't have to do that for me.
Light comes in through the crease of my eyes, slowly but surely I allow my eyes to open more and more, not fully open. The bright light hurts too much. Not just in my eyes, my head feels like spinning. A stabbing pain all throughout my head.
"He's waking up." That's very clearly the voice of Dante.
"I can see that, I'm not blind father." Always the savage and stubborn Silas.
"Silas! Treat your father with some respect."
The first thing I see is my brother's expression. It says 'I want to tell Dante to shut the hell up, but he'll hit me if I do.'
"Are you okay son? How do you feel?" The fact that he still cares for me after I tried to kill him warms my heart but somewhere makes me feel guilty. I turn around, not wanting to face him and the bright light shining through the windows yet. A groan slips away from my lips.
"How long was I out for?" I say, ignoring the question Dante just asked. My voice still being groggy and dry, it takes a lot of effort to even speak a single word.
"Ask Silas," Dante says from behind my back. Silas had just walked around the bed, to look me in my eyes with an apologetic look.
He sucks in a rush of air before speaking. "Listen, I am really sorry, I made a mistake in the heat of the moment, I grabbed the wrong injection, the stronger one and I may or may not have emptied everything..." He squeezes his eyes shut, waiting to get punched in the gut like I usually would have. But right now I don't have the energy, the fluid isn't fully out of my system yet. It feels like my legs are still floating in space like my head is still in heaven and only my torso is down on earth, pressed tightly into this bed. Not my bed... My eyes scan around the room, looking for familiar signs, there are none. I have never been in this room before.
"Where am I?" This time the grogginess in my voice makes me cough.
This room doesn't look like part of the society at all, neither does it look like my home. I wish I had a home this beautiful. Paintings are all spread out over the wall, they look ages old. Every painting telling its own story, every person in these paintings is beautiful. The paintings come in front of the black wall. Red carpet is spread out all over the floor, making the dark look entirely complete.
"My room."
"The society?"
Dante nods. Never in my 30 years have I seen this room, while it looks ancient old.
"I have never seen this room before." My voice mumbles on its own, my mind can't hold in its own thoughts anymore.
"That's because it's hidden, people are quite mad at you for attacking me and Diana, the new girl. We wanted to make sure no one could find you."
A shock trembles through my body, the shock of betrayal, would my own kind really harm me? Heavily I shake my head. "They wouldn't,"
"We can never be sure James, we need you to tell us if you have any side effects. Any nausea? Any dizziness? Can you stand up?"
"I..." I stutter, never in my life have I had trouble speaking. I don't get nervous, I don't get anxious, I don't get scared. But right now I'm stunned. "Can't feel my legs."
Dante gives Silas a look of concern.
"Just... keep still, things will be okay in a couple of hours. If not..." Dante doesn't finish that sentence. My eyes drift around the room again, looking at the same paintings again. This time my eyes catch on the colors of the bookshelves, it's the only color in the whole room. Slowly the colors blur into one, I turn away to look at something else, what is also blurry.
"I can't see anything."
"He's fading out again." Dante's voice. "James, I need you to stay with me, open those eyes, we are not going to sleep yet." Multiple hands touch my body, my shoulders, and my chest to feel my heartbeat, which slowed dramatically. I can barely feel it beat away in my chest, almost as if it stopped completely.
"James!" This time Silas's voice, why he would care doesn't make sense to me. He did this to me, he hates me, he would be glad to know I'm gone.

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"Mary... It has been a week and a day, you would think he would reach out right? I haven't heard anything. His calls go straight to voice mail, he doesn't even read my texts, what if something happened to him? I have to go look for him." Kat gets up out of one of the cafeteria chairs, when her friend Mary pulls her right back down. The rest of her friends are nowhere to be found.
"Listen Kat, you need to calm down, he is a grown man, he will be fine on his own. And him ignoring you, is for the best, you don't need any more drama in your life." The words of her friend hit me, maybe I am just drama for her. But if I am, I can't stay away any longer, I need to see her. Yet, my feet are taped to the floor again, my hands glued to my side and my lips sealed onto each other, unable to speak or even move, worse than last time.
"Do you really think he's just ignoring me?" Kat lays her head in her hands, tears streak down her face. In the middle of the cafeteria, she's crying, crying over me. Wasting those beautiful salty tears over a guy like me. My dad was right when he told me I should never love anyone, if I'm anything like him.
"What else?"
"I don't know Mary, suddenly he stopped teaching too, without any warning, don't you think that's suspicious?"
Mary simply raises her shoulders to her ear as a sign that she doesn't know. She doesn't really look like she cares either.
"If I haven't heard anything from him yet by tomorrow evening 8 PM, I'm going looking for him."
"How will you do that?" Mary says, she's right. I have never given Kat my location and my phone is very protected against hackers, it has to be if I'm part of the society.

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Sounds of slow and soft footsteps come closer and closer, until finally, they come to a stop, right in front of me. Someone is standing in front of me. And I can't possibly open my eyes. Where are these damn beautiful paintings, these black walls, the red carpet? Dammit James, open your eyes.
The presence lingers closer, so close that I can smell it. I thought Dante said it would be safe here. Would he lie to kill me? Even though he is my stepfather. Maybe he always wanted me gone. Hundred of hateful thoughts pass through my mind, none of them making me feel more reassured.
The smell of this person hanging right above me grows stronger, not a smell I recognize. It's very feminine. Her breath falls upon my cheeks, leaving a tingling feeling behind.
In the rush of adrenaline, my eyes shoot open, they grow as large as silverware. The girl has beautiful orange hair, it's Diana...
As I open my eyes, she squeals and jumps back, when she is about to run away far from this room I ask her to stop. Diana comes to a stop, right in front of what looks like a hidden door. The colorful bookshelf that was in the same room I passed out in. I'm still in the same room. Same colors, same bedroom, I haven't moved a muscle.
"I... I didn't mean to harm you."
"So what did you mean? You meant to kiss me but it went wrong?"
My face turns into pure disgust at the thought of kissing her, my lips belong to Kat, and Kat only. Her sweet mouth on mine is all I want for the rest of my life, that's all I want to feel, all I want to taste, all I crave. No sun could shine brighter than her eyes, than her heart.
The thoughts fade away in a haze, I blink, and suddenly Diana is gone. She didn't care for an explanation, not that I actually had one.
My phone laying on the table indicates that it is Tuesday, a full week since I saw Kat. If I don't return by 8 PM tomorrow, she will come looking for me. She won't be able to find me... Maybe then she'll let me go. But I can't. I can never let her go. I will forever hold onto her.
She is my now. She is my forever.