The Glass Harmonica (Custos Trilogy, Book 1)

Chapter Twelve-Robert

"What are you talking about, Robert?"  Her voice is molasses sweet; too sweet.  It gives me eerie and unexplained chills.

"I thought you said that you weren't attending sixth forms?"  Suspicion is growing deep in my heart with every passing moment that I am in front of this girl.

"You were mistaken." Natalie scoffs as she takes a swig from her bottled tea.  "Then again, I may have left out the detail of me returning back to school.  I wasn't going to sixth form up until this past year.  Sorry if it slipped the old noggin."

She points at her head and laughs as if she finished a clever joke.  The tone of her merriment is almost sickening and causes my stomach to turn with waves of nausea.  What happened to the Natalie that I remember?

"Is there a problem, Robert." The way she speaks my name causes my fine hair to stand on end.  I'm going to be sick.  "It seems like a certain Prince is madly in love with another student."

The cold sweat trails my suddenly pale white complexion.  I don't think I can hold it in any longer.

The bell ending our lunch hour rings throughout the school ground as I get up from the seat trying to contain the vile acids within.  Natalie simply grimace as she moves from her seat and speaks once again, "Please, excuse my intrusion on your personal affairs.  Just making an observation.  Like always Robert, it's been a pleasure."

As she moves away into the school I am frozen on the spot with pure dread.  My insides are contorting into something grotesque.  I stagger back into the school trying to hold everything in and keep my balance.

Down the corridor, Peter and James see my struggling form and quickly rush to my side trying to help with my balance.  Peter speaks in an obvious terrified voice, "Prince Robert, is something wrong?  You look extremely ill.  Should I take you to the infirmary?"

            At the sound of his false and conditional concern, anger flushes through my whole body.  I push Peter away from me as dispersing students stop and stare at us.  I harshly whisper, "Leave me alone."

            "LEAVE ME ALONE!"  My enraged scream echoes throughout the somewhat crowded hall.  Everyone in the area stops and stares at with their mouths and eyes wide open.  I need to get out of here.  I could bloody careless about classes.  If I stay here any longer, I might literally die.

            I glare at the frozen audience and stalk off through the doors.  I walked through the school yard to the entrance. 

            From behind, I hear familiar voices, "Robert!"

            Paranoid, I whip my head around to see the four mystics rushing towards me.

            "What the bloody hell happened, mate?"  Lionel speaks with a true sincerity unlike Peter and James.

            At the sound of his calming voice, the tension in my stomach starts to reside away some.

            "I have no idea."  I heavily heave as I speak trying to get out every single word.  "I was talking to a friend.  It seems as if there is something different about her."

            "What friend?"  Isis narrows her eyes filled with suspicion.

            "Natalie.  She's a maid at the estate."  I try to recall everything that happened in my conversation with her but the details keep slipping away.  "I was asking her why she is here and I can't remember the rest.  I just had the intense feeling that I was going to die."