LAMIAE

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: ALAN'S INTRIGUE

"It's your fault," she said, stepping away from him to regain her wits. "If you only told me the truth, I would definitely know you better."

"When you are the one who prefers to believe that I'm lying to you. One way or another, it will change someday", he said with conviction, as if he had the gift of predicting the future or reading tea leaves."

"In the worst scenario I'd have fallen," she muttered, just to change the subject.

"Fallen, bruised," he began to list while entering the hole. "You could've dislocated something, broken it, strained it, twisted it. I prefer not to risk."

And she preferred not to think about what kind of klutz he thought she was, especially since he disappeared into the darkness and she could only hear his voice:

"You know, you're different than I expected."

"What do you mean?"

There was a pause while she thought about how others might imagine her. She was sure that her grandmother was talking about her non-existent virtues. After all, that's the domain of retired grandmothers - bragging about their grandchildren.

"Not to my taste," came to her ears.

She felt strange. On the one hand, so unwanted and unattractive, even though she never complained about her appearance. On the other hand, his words awakened the dormant, aggressive side of her personality that didn't like it when someone underestimated her.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll keep that in mind once I get to know you and you seem even more repulsive to me than you already are."

He made no comment on her words.

"Now it's your turn."

She tried to climb down again, but when she put her first foot on the rung, she hesitated, involuntarily glancing down the hole. Of course, she didn't see anything, not even Alan's blond hair, so she stood still, as if paralyzed.

"Come on," he urged her.

How does he know I'm not coming down? she thought, but then she realized that he must have simply observed it from below.

So she started walking again, this time completely unconcerned by the fact that she couldn't see anything. She was so lost in it that she completely forgot that she didn't know where the end of the rungs was. The only good thing about Alan being downstairs was that he reminded her of this, telling her to slow down. She obeyed him, jumping off the last bar and onto the solid ground beneath her feet.

"Now follow me," he gave an order like a lieutenant giving a command and she followed him like in the army. It was still dark, except for occasional flashes of something like fireworks. She didn't find out what it was - she didn't speak to Alan and he wasn't eager to talk either. She also didn't look around because she didn't want to lose sight of him, although if he wanted to, he could easily disappear into the darkness. She felt a horrible smell, but instead of showing dissatisfaction with where she was, she chose to start breathing through her mouth. When she heard some sounds echoing on the stone walls, she whispered:

"Is that...?"

But he hurriedly put his hand over her mouth and instead of answering, he nodded.

"Be quiet, or they'll hear you," he muttered, and then he did something she never expected. He stopped camouflaging and made his presence known.

"I think the only person missing is me," he said rather cheerfully, going somewhere forward.

Dagmara was dumbfounded, having absolutely no idea what to do. Should she run away or, like Alan, join the company? But it wasn't like her to run away once she was somewhere. And joining seemed stupid - after all, Alan had brought her here incognito for some reason.

"In my opinion, you shouldn't be here," said a girlish, rough voice that Dagmara recognized as Sandra's.

"Good thing you're the only one who thinks so, right Arleta?" Alan asked, and after a few seconds Dagmara knew that Arleta was really here. She heard he blonde's laughter.

"Sandra's joking, I told her you'd come," said a thinner and sweeter voice.

"Sandra's NOT the only one who thinks that you shouldn't come..." Dagmara was speechless after this sentence. While staying in the tunnel suited the dark Sandra and the peculiar Arleta, she was shocked by Casper's presence. What were they all doing under the school?

"I feel unwanted," Alan said with mock regret. "But it's nothing compared to what a certain brown-haired girl who lives with her grandmother must be thinking. Do you want to ask her what it's like to be lied to by her friends?"

"You talk as if she was here. Very funny", Casper burbled, but in his voice you could sense confusion and a kind of guilt. It was clear that the boy didn't believe Alan.

"Actually, not really," Alan denied. "I don't understand you. Why don't you just tell her the truth? Are you that afraid of this twisted Genevieve?"

"I know why you're doing it, but you won't succeed," Casper interjected again.

"And what am I doing?"

"You're not doing this for Dagmara. From the very beginning, you don't like having to obey auntie, so now that you have an opportunity in the form of her unsuspecting granddaughter, you want to take advantage of it. But it's not going to happen, stay away from her."

Only now did Dagmara notice how tightly she squeezed her fists. She didn't understand anything anymore, she didn't believe in anything and she didn't trust anyone.

"In addition, you're a hypocrite," Sandra added obsessively. "You're implying that she's missing here, so why didn't you bring her? Why didn't you go with her on the train from Warsaw, you just packed your friends there, huh? I'll tell you why, because you don't need her. What's more, it's like Casper says, you're just using her to hurt auntie. As soon as you do that, she'll start to bother you."

Dagmara leaned against a nearby wall, touching her forehead with a cold hand. She seemed to be trembling all over her body, but what was going on inside her head was too absorbing for her to worry about bodily problems.

It was clear from Sandra's bitter words that she was a kind of pushover being manipulated by Alan. However, there was much more behind her words; at least one thing she hadn't noticed before was that she was constantly being followed by someone. Only now, when she heard it, did she finally understand that for some reason she was never alone. Whether at her grandmother's residence or on her way to and from school, even during lessons, someone was constantly watching her. Today she couldn't find Arleta, so in a magical way Alan found her who happened to know where she was. Thinking back to the earlier events, the situation repeated itself - she gave up on PE, and so did Nikolai, taking her to her grandmother's house. But is it possible that she wouldn't be left alone even on the train? Could it be that the two boys who were in the compartment with her were Alan's friends? After all, she saw Alan's car and its owner in front of the station, it was impossible for it to be there by accident. Coincidences like this don't happen.

"Or maybe... I've brought her here?" Alan's quiet voice jolted her from her troubled thoughts. "What if she's standing right next to you and listening to you talking behind her back? He said and Dagmara froze.