The Amulet of Kryshar

Chapter 3

I stood up to face Melanie. She was slightly shorter than me, which seemed to annoy her because she had to glance up a little now to look into my eyes. I turned to glance behind me: Lena was still busy reading through the notes we made together on the bus and everyone else was caught up in their own dilemma. No one paid any attention to us. Melanie leaned forward and glared at me. "Oh, so now you think you are so high and mighty, don't you?" I had no idea what she was talking about; I was only defending myself just now. Although Melanie still looked slightly flustered. "Well," at that point she leaned even closer to me until our noses were almost touching, "I wasn't kidding about your bad looks. What is it? Did you have one of those bad, bad dreams again? Did they scare you so much that you couldn't go back to sleep anymore?"

I huffed. I wasn't kidding about me not being a mirror either. Melanie could really say that to herself. Not that she would do that though. Her eyes had dark rings beneath them as if she didn't sleep enough and her face looked flushed for some reason. Judging by that appearance, Melanie looked as bad as I felt. But I still hissed back to her: "Whether or not I had any dreams is none of your business. Especially when it's a bad dream. Besides," I lowered my voice, "for all I know you could also be having these dreams. At least those rings beneath your eyes tell me that you haven't been having a good-night's sleep yourself. So you have no right, whatsoever, to stick your nose into my problems when you have problems of your own!" My voice has started rising in volume at the end of my little rant. I noticed with grim satisfaction that Melanie backed away a little. My head was punishing me for exerting myself too much by making the throbbing in my skull even more painful than before. I leaned on my table and exhaled. My hands were tingling. I closed my eyes; this was bad. The tingling covered both my hands entirely up to the wrists. It intensified to a cribbling sensation until it felt like I dipped my hands into boiling water. It sounded suspiciously like something I would do on accident. I gritted my teeth and tried to bite back the cry that was forming in my throat.

Melanie's face lit up with glee. She stepped forward again. "Aww, are you feeling sick, Ruby? Does it—" she started saying in a sickly sweet voice. I didn't let her finish that sentence. On a strange impulse I didn't understand, I suddenly growled and my burning hand snapped forward and wrapped itself around Melanie's wrist. I didn't know what to expect. Maybe I crushed her wrist. Maybe she would dissolve into smoke. Actually, thinking about it, I wouldn't really mind her dissolving into smoke. Or—I stared at my hand still tightly clenched around Melanie's wrist –nothing can happen at all. Fine by me. I breathed out sharply. I was actually kind of relieved that nothing happened; I wasn't totally losing my mind then.

When Melanie's voice cut through my thoughts, I almost wished that I would have lost my mind, just to see her dissolve into smoke. "Are you crazy?" she complained. "Let go of me, weirdo! Let—stop that! Ouch! Ahhh!" she screeched and started thrashing with her other arm. She slapped my hand. I was frozen in spot though. My eyes were glued onto my hand. The tingling had stopped, but instead I suddenly felt increasing heat radiate from beneath my palm. Melanie was still screeching and by now, we had attracted some attention from the other students in the room. Luckily, for me, the teacher still hadn't arrived, otherwise I don't know what Ms Rose would have thought about this scene. John and Carlson crowded around us.

"What's going on? Why is Melanie screaming like that?"

"I don't know, Carlson! You ask so many questions!" The boy who answered Carlson, John, had a very confused look on his face. He was looking from me to Melanie and back to me again. He looked like he was watching an intense tennis match. Carlson tried to keep up with him, but it was obvious that he had no idea what he was looking for. John stopped looking at our faces and instead fixated his attention on my hand, which was still clenched tightly around Melanie's wrist.

"Hey, um, Ruby? Is Melanie freaking out because you are holding her arm? Because if that's the case, then she is seriously exaggerating. Although," John snickered, "it is kind of funny. Yo, Lena! Come over here for a second!"

"Shut it, John! I'm busy!" she yelled back and paid us no further attention. Dear Lena, so observant.

This all took place in my peripheral vision. I wasn't even paying attention to them. I had no idea what my hand was still doing there. I tried to concentrate on letting go of Melanie's wrist but it was still stuck there, as if with One-Second glue. My eyes widened when I noticed Melanie's skin become red, as if it was badly burned. Was that me? But it can't be... No! That's not possible; I don't want it to be possible! Suddenly Melanie's screaming and thrashing cut off. I looked up at her face. It was still twisted in pain, but she shoved her free arm in my direction. What the...? Is that supposed to do something? I thought, when suddenly some invisible force immediately pried my hand away from Melanie's arm and pushed me down onto my seat. I stared, stunned, at the red burn mark on Melanie's wrist. I felt kind of guilty; even though I had no idea how I could have possibly done that, I still didn't intend to hurt her. No matter what Melanie said to me before that. I was also bewildered; how did Melanie push me back without laying even a finger on me? I didn't have much time to ponder what just happened because John and Carlson quickly sped past me to their seats at the back of the class room. Confused, I glanced up and saw Ms Rose standing in the door way, glaring at Melanie and me. Her curly black hair was pinned up in a tight bun on the top of her head. Her broad frame threatened to fill the entire doorframe. All colour left my face. How long had she been standing there? Had she seen everything?

"Ruby Tinkers and Melanie Campbell," Ms Rose's nasal voice cut through the constant hum of the classroom. Immediately, everyone became silent and all eyes were set in my direction. Even Lena glanced up and stared at me. For some reason, I had a feeling that she might have seen a bit of what happened despite not paying any general attention. I glared at her accusingly. Betrayal! Thanks for your help. She smiled at me apologetically and then motioned with a slight movement of her head to Ms Rose, who was still standing in the door frame, looking at me with narrowed eyes. Melanie was still standing frozen with a hand wrapped around the burns on her wrist.

I stayed quiet. I didn't know what to say. Melanie had other ideas though. "Oh, Ms Rose! Ruby hurt me! I was only talking to her but then she did this to me!" I clenched my fists when Melanie exposed the burn marks on her wrist. While she was talking, Ms Rose walked to the teacher's desk in the centre of the room and put a stack of papers down.

Ms Rose tucked a brown strand of hair behind her ear. "That looks like a burn mark to me, Melanie. I'm pretty sure that a normal human being wouldn't be able to burn someone with pure contact. Sit down at your desk. And you, Ruby," she turned to me and gave me a hard look, "you know that hurting another student will result in a visit to the principal's office, right?" She sighed. "I know you are a good student, so don't destroy that reputation.

"Alright, class! With that sorted out, it's time to start the math test! I hope you all studied for well for it."

I snorted. At least Lena was prepared.