Whispers

Chapter Three

"So why are you still here?"

"Grading papers." Mr. Lance bent closer slipping his fingers under my chin and tilting it up. His eyes flitted across my bruising eye, worry evident on his face. "What happened to you?"

"Just a couple of assholes." I brushed his hand away. "I'm fine, really."

"You're standing in a closet that was locked until a moment ago with a black eye," he replied. "That doesn't sound like you're fine to me."

I slid past him and into the vacant hallway.

"Where are you going?"

"Home," I answered back. "Or at least what passes as home nowadays."

Mr. Lance was by my side in a matter of moments. "I'll walk you there."

"Thanks, but I should be okay by myself. It's not that far."

"That wasn't a request."

I gazed at him for a few moments, but he remained resolute. "It's not like I could stop you even if I wanted to, right?"

He smiled.

Together we made our way back to his classroom where I collected my messenger from behind his desk and we began our trek to the girl's dormitory. The soft thumps of the soles of our shoes against the tiled floor echoed throughout the abandoned halls.

"Where is everybody else?" I asked as we descended the staircase. Slowly, one after the other, the floors passed us by. "Students, teachers?"

"Everyone should be either eating dinner or home by now, I suppose."

"And yet you're here, just grading papers." Once we had made it to the first floor I spun on my toes to face him, the billowy jacket twirling around my legs as I continued our walk completely backward. God, this will look so much less cool if I end up running into a wall. I eyed the man skeptically. "What were you really doing here, Mr. Lance?"

Instantly his face flushed, caught in the lie. He wiped the emotion from his face as fast as he could but it was too late. I had already seen it.

I quirked a brow, silently pushing the question he had yet to answer.

"You never came back to class," he finally replied after a beat. "You looked very distressed earlier. I had originally figured you'd need some time to calm down and when half the class period had gone by I assumed you were skipping. Accept you had left your bag." When we approached the exit he held open the door for me and with a grateful nod, I slipped past him into the darkening twilight. "Most kids who decide to skip class don't leave their belongings behind."

"How Sherlock Holmes of you," I smiled.

"When the final class ended and you still hadn't returned for your things I knew something had happened. And in a place like this those somethings are usually bad." He shrugged. "So I went looking for you."

"How did you find me?"

"The hall pass was wedged behind one of the toilets in the men's room. Obviously, you hadn't put it there so I walked around the halls aimlessly for a while. I decided to make rounds every hour in case I found you wandering the halls but obviously I didn't. Then I heard the banging. And the screaming. So I swiped the janitor's keys off the cart and let you out. He's gone for the day so it's fine, I'll return them before I leave." He glanced at me. "But, honestly if you hadn't had done that I doubt I'd have ever found you."

"Then I guess freaking out when I did was a good idea," I replied with a wry smile. "Thank God I woke up when I did."

Before we were too far from the building Mr. Lance stopped us, his face once again filled with concern. "We should take you to the Office, so you could fill out a report about what happened."