School of Secrets (The Perkins School for Self Improvement #1)

Chapter 8

"Wait, what?" I demand, staring at her with the disbelief displayed clearly on my face. Amber scurries over to me. clamping a hand around my wrist and dragging me toward the only closed door in the hall.

"Not out here! The nurse will hear us and run one of us off."

Amber opens the door, stepping inside and all but pushing me toward a chair. Derek sits solemnly in the one next to me. Creighton is sprawled across the bed, and I can't help noticing that she's still quite pale.

Amber closes the door, turning to face me.

"You've heard of all the crazy superpowers that people have in the movies?" Amber stands in front of me, her gaze never leaving mine, "Well, a lot of them don't just exist in the movies. Exhibit A, Creighton has visions."

"Someone told me that," I admit, "but how do you know there's not another logical explanation for ... for this?"

Amber shrugs, but she doesn't back down.

"Well," she says, "I guess if you're a skeptic, you can make a case that anyone can claim to have visions. People dream about all sorts of things, don't they? Most people's dreams don't really come true that often, though, and they can't make accurate predictions all the time. Since you look as though you're about to try coming up with another argument, I'm moving on here. Derek over here's Exhibit B. He can heal other people's injuries, but since no one's bleeding I don't see a way to prove it to you. So, that leaves me. I don't have time to explain why or how any of this is possible, so I'll just show you the sound evidence that the supernatural does exist and call it a day."

Amber looks to the glass of water resting in the center of the bedside table. She's only focused on it for a  couple seconds when it's carried off the surface. She allows it to hover in the air for a second before landing it back where it started out.

Neither of her hands move during the demonstration.

I stare at her in complete disbelief, not sure if I should be fascinated or afraid.

"That's what happened to my clock," I suddenly realize, "you never touched it, but you ..."

"I moved it with my mind, because I wasn't focused on controlling my ability." Amber finishes, looking at me again.

"That's ... Wow." Is all I can manage.

Amber nods.

"Well, that went better than I expected it to. Now maybe I can figure out why I'm supposed to die and who's going to kill me." She says it in a lighthearted tone, but her face is painting a different picture. She frowns, playing with the ends of her hair again.

Next to me, Derek sighs.

"That's going to be difficult," Creighton admits, "I didn't see how they killed you, only that you were definitely dead. There wasn't any blood, so they did it without leaving a mark of any kind. Whoever killed you knew what they were doing, because they were wearing some sort of mask when they ran away."

"Well, she dies alone, doesn't she?" Derek says. Despite likely having heard it all before, Derek sounds almost as startled as I suddenly feel.

Amber's got a bit of a temper, but she couldn't in a million years be classified as an awful person. Nobody, I think, could ever want to harm a chick like her.

Creighton nods in response to Derek's question.

My roommate forces a smile, looking from Creighton to Amber.

"Then it's simple, right? Amber dies alone, so we never leave her alone. I mean, one of us walks with her at all times." Derek reasons, "We watch her back on the way to class, and we never let her go to the east side of the recreational building by herself. Especially not two Saturdays from now, around mid-afternoon."