Life Lines

10: Just Enough Time

"You know what?" I walked over to my bag and picked it up where I dropped it on the floor. "Keep your excuses. I don't want to hear them."

"Yes you do." Jesse clasped his arms in front of him. "You've wanted to know for the past three years why Cyrus was taken from you. I have the answer, I can tell you but not until Saturday."

"Keep it," I whispered. "I don't want your explanations."

"You're never going to stop blaming me, are you?"

"No, actually, I'm not."

"That's not the point right now," Caroline said. "Plouton is circling and he's gunning for her."

"Caroline," Jesse said. "Enough."

"Pluto, really?" I said. "Are we talking about the planet or the God?"

Jesse's whole body tightened like a wire ready to snap. He turned, very carefully, to face me.

"How..."

"She did a report on the planet when she was twelve," Cecil said. "She knows everything there is to know about both the planet and the god."

Several of my classmates looked at me with a new consideration.

"What?" I said. "It was my favorite planet. Still is. Its complete crap they declassified it as a planet because..."

"Enough," Jesse said sharply. "It doesn't matter. She can't know until she has the marks."

The classroom door opened and every single one of them looked in the direction. The whole thing was eerie like one of those Nazi videos. I half expected Mrs. Harrmon to walk through the door but instead it was someone I'd never seen before but looked oddly familiar. Like I saw him in a dream once before or something. Maybe he was a member of the country club...

"Ah," he said. "I see."

He came in and closed the door with a distinctive click.

"Who are you?" I asked as he walked into the room, all of the Elites moving out of the way for him and remaining silent.

He tilted his head to the side and stopped a couple feet in front of me. The studying bit was starting to get really annoying and I glared at him. He was tall, taller than anyone in the room but as I tried to get a good read on his height, it seemed to change. His whole appearance would change the second I got a lock on one miniscule detail.

"Well, you're not how I imagined, but you'll do."

"Excuse me?"

He smiled, the whole thing mischievous beyond reproach. "Oh, I'm not going to touch that one. How much does she know?"

Jesse stepped up so he was standing next to this mysterious man, both of them looking me over. "Nothing really."

"Good. It will remain that way until she's changed. The Sickness is already rooted and will need time to grow. Thankfully we have a week for that to happen. We're keeping tradition until then." He took a hold of my wrist and splayed it up. "Very nice line definition, all of it easily rewritten."

I yanked my hand away and took several steps backward. The room was filled with crazy people.

"Who. Are. You?" I demanded.

"I have many names, most of which you cannot pronounce yet. For now you may call me Logios. That will suffice."

That name sounded familiar but I couldn't remember where I heard it before.

His features shifted again just as I got a good look at the shape of his nose. This one I recognized. "You're...you sat in the coffee shop last night. I remember you."