concealing ➸ tomlinson

xlviii

kris was worried.

there was a little voice inside of her telling her to go for it. this was monumental, something to aid those she cared about. if people could know and accept their existence, there would be no further cases of children being orphaned or disgraced. no more modern-days rapunzels waiting to be freed.

but that same emotion had been what convinced her to work with jacob the first time not long ago. it had certainly lost a few credential points.

with a vaguely frustrated exhale, kris decided to make a path towards the ugc. her throat was drier than it usually was. the adolescent paranoia that festered in the back of her mind began to resurface again. what if she was wrong about being able to cooperate with him, what if she was digging herself into a deeper hole?

she and louis could always run off again. even if they wouldn't refer to what they'd done before as that specifically, the situation still fit the definition. if she could just convince him, they could run until they hit the precipice of the earth. nothing would be able to stop the two of them.

a hand tapped against her shoulder. kris jumped. she glanced behind her, heart pounding. rather thankfully, it was only calum, who appeared a little thrown off by her tense reaction.

"uh, hi." he smiled briefly, awkwardly.

kris smiled in the same manor. she could recall them ever having a proper conversation. "hi."

"so, uh," calum looked anxious, but whatever doubts he had he managed to force back down inside. "how'd your talk go?"

kris frowned. "what?"

"with jacob."

her stomach turned suddenly. "wh-" she glanced over her shoulder, then at calum again. "how do you know about that?"

he smiled again, though a bit more subdued and tapped his index finger against his head. "i see things, remember?"

that much she should've remembered, kris felt a slight pang of guilt. it mixed in surprisingly well with everything else she was feeling. uncomfortably, she crossed her arms over her chest. "what do you know then?"

calum shrugged. "you talked to jacob in the hidden room. for, uh, first time?"

kris nodded. "yeah, why?"

"n-nothing. you're gonna be fine then."

on practically a dime, he turned around and started to walk away. kris stood there, blinking, then started to hurry after him. "hey!" she grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around. "what do you mean, what's going to happen?"

calum shrugged, the same heavy eyes as before. " 'm not supposed to say."

"w-what does that mean, what's keeping you from telling me?"

"because i've tried before; it doesn't matter if i tell someone or not. no matter what i do to try and stop something or fix something, nothing ever changes." he chewed on the inside of his lip rather harshly. "you learn to roll with the punches."

again trying to walk away, kris grabbed his arm and held him in place. "give me at least a hint."

calum closed his eyes, looking like he wished more than anything he could scream. he exhaled, opened his eyes again, and turned around to face kris.

"you're not going to go with the answer you think you're going to, okay? i don't- i don't know what you're going to answer, okay? i didn't get that far into the details. that's the extent of what i can tell you, okay?"

his chest was moving rather rapidly. after a moment, kris dropped her hand.

"sorry." she exhaled. "i'm... stressed, i guess."

calum rushed a nod, then started down the hallway. kris opened her mouth, not intending to further pester, but decided against it. standing there for a while, debating with herself, kris spun back the way she'd been coming from and headed towards the hidden door.

without second thought, she began to rap against the wall where the door was. to anyone about to come in- hell, anyone within ear-shot- probably wondered what she was doing. kris hesitated for a moment, holding her open palm inches away from the wall.

what was she supposed to answer when she found jacob again? yes? no? if what she thought was the right answer was really the wrong answer, what was she supposed to say? if no was what she assumed to be right, was yes the correct answer? how was what calum told her supposed to work?

just as she raised her hand to start slamming her hand against the wall again, it slid open. a rather angry-looking jacob was behind it.

jacob stared at her. "hey."

slightly panting, kris swallowed, despite her drying mouth, and spoke. "i'll do it."

--

calum cracked his knuckles a lot. especially when he was nervous.

once he'd walked away from kris the final time, he'd worriedly begun to walk to his room, cracking his knuckles until it actually began to cause pain. he didn't mind.

after closing the door behind him, calum sat down on the side of his bed, cringing a little as he popped his thumbs. after that, he moved his pillow aside and pulled out a little leather-bound journal. he'd found it there the first night; the first few pages had a few abstract, meaningless words on them. of which calum had no problem tearing out and using the rest of the pages for his own purpose.

his handwriting was really shaky from years of being out of practice. but his journal was his only ability to keep track of his visions, especially when he woke up in a cold sweat, all memories fading with every passing second. after looking over what he'd written the night previous- with some assumptions, as he couldn't distinguish some letters from others- he added a note at the bottom of the page;

'  i'm scared. i know she's going to say yes, i've known it but i couldn't have said anything or intervened. i don't know what's going to happen next, not yet, but i know no one can stop it. all i can do is prepare myself.  '

--

 *no authors note this update im lame af*

stats;

date- october 14, 2014

words- 1,039

reads- 3,286

comments- 15

votes- 69

extremely unedited sorry