Open Minds: The Fog

Chapter Eight:Lexi-In Which Hands are Held

Jeanie said nothing. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Yeah. You have two minutes."

Lexi drummed her fingers on the table. She was still sweating. This Spig scared her. She didn't know what she was dealing with, and clearly wasn't against using force to get what she wanted, or what she didn't. She opened her mouth but before she could say anything, several things happened at once.

The first thing was Taylor's little voice through the headphones, "Incoming, Incoming! Lex, wrap it up, it's coming your way! Incoming! I can't distract it!" Lexi stood and rushed towards the door.

Lexi's brain froze and sped up at the same time as she felt Caliph near.

Jeanie Lee stood up and knocked her chair over. She pointed at Lexi and yelled something.

A hand went over lexi's mouth and another held her hands to her back. They shoved her to the floor and she felt a weight as though someone were sitting on her.

She struggled and bit the hand on her mouth.

"Ow! What the fuck?"

Lexi rolled over and pushed off the person atop her. She was going stiff as Caliph drew nearer. "Shut up! Who are you? How did you get here? We have to leave!"

The other person stared at her in silence for a full thirty seconds. Then, "Shit! I- I'm sorry! Who are you? Freakin' kidnapper..." He closed his eyes and made a face that resembled constipation. Then, the feeling of Caliph disappeared.

Lexi looked up at him. He was tall, black, and his hair was shaved close. He stared back down at her in mild disdain.

"It was you! You make the feelings go away! You must be a spig! I- Oh my god, what's Allison gonna say? How did you-"

Someone banged on the door. "Lexi! Lemme in! Lemme in!" Lexi reached for the doorknob, but the tall boy grabbed her wrist again.

"Who is that? What does she want?" He glared at her and pulled her back.

Lexi pushed the boy off and removed the spell on the door. "She? That's Taylor, and he wants inside obviously." She opened the door and Taylor practically fell inside.

Upon recovering himself, he gawked and Lexi, Jeanie Lee and the boy. "Did we grow?" He jerked his thumb at the boy. "Who's this kid? Why are the chairs knocked over? Are they joining us? Was there, like, a spell on the door? Jesus, where's Caliph? Shoot, we gotta run, c'mon, lets-"

"I got it," The boy said. He stood up a little taller. "I can confuse the monster. Make him invisible. Or make us invisible to him. I dunno which."

Lexi threw up her hands. "And, Tay, that's why Caliph hasn't caught us-well, you-yet! This kid-"

"Corderoy"

"Yes, you. Wait, what? Your name is Corduroy?" Lexi paused in her frantic explaining to stare, puzzled at Corderoy.

Jeanie scoffed. "No, his name is Charles, but call him Corduroy. He turned the monster off. Keep talking.."

Lexi looked at her. She wasn't quite sure anything she said would get this girl to come with her. She tugged at her collar. "Lemme, uh...I know! Meet us in the back parking lot after school and we'll show you everything! We're like you, and you need us. Yeah." She nodded, satisfied and held the door open. "We'll leave two at a time, and Cha-Corderoy will stay with me?" It almost sounded like a plea. Please leave?

Taylor made a face at her as he ushered Jeanie Lee outside. She waited until they were out of sight and the library before turning to Corderoy. "You said you can get rid of Caliph's energy?"

He stared at her. "Yeah."

"Great." She stepped into the main room of the library and he followed. "Keep him off me for the rest of the day. Whenever he's close, he hurts my brain, and that makes it hard to rescue you." She walked quickly past Allison's desk, avoiding eye contact.

Corderoy stopped walking just outside the library. "No."

Lexi turned and glared at him. "What?"

The boy frowned irritation. "Holding him off is really tiring. And it works best if I touch you first." He crossed his arms. "So what're you gonna do?"

Lexi matched his annoyed stare. "I'm gonna hold your hand for the next class, obviously." She grabbed his hand; too tightly and she knew it; and walked stiffly to English.

She held her death grip across the aisle for most of the class, which she spent lazily imagining the praise Pule would give her. When the bell rang, she didn't let go of Corderoy until they parted ways in the hallway. She shook his hand, relinquished it and said, "Thanks. Keep it. Remember: back parking lot after school."

Lexi and Taylor stood anxiously by the Civic, waiting. Allison emerged from the school. She jogged up to them. "Why so solemn, Hon? Did she take it well?"

Lexi and Taylor exchanged a look. Suddenly, Lexi was nervous again. Two spigs. They didn't trust her. They were being chased by something impossible. Secrets. She opened her mouth, but no words came to mind. Taylor cleared his throat.

"There's actually two. One of them can make himself invisible. Y'know, his body and his Lihe. He can protect us from Ca-The spirit, too. And they don't quite trust us, so they're coming back here and we're gonna demonstrate our powers and talk about why they should come to SAEPTA." Taylor smiled up at Allison.

She smiled back, looking a little dazed. "I'm impressed with you two! I had no idea! When are they coming?"

Lexi exhaled loudly. "Should be now..."

The back doors opened again and Jeanie and Corederoy slunk out looking around suspiciously for ambush. Taylor stood on his tiptoes and waved ecstatically. "Over here! We're over here!"

Lexi turned to him slowly. "Taylor, our is the only car in the lot." He stuck out his tongue and grabbed her hand.

"We are gonna do so awesome and they're totally gonna get it and we're gonna be a team and it'll be amazing."

Glossary (In alphabetical order):

Lihe: Spirit Energy (pronounced: Lee)

SAEPTA: A company that hushes up Spiritual Activity among Barreds, trains Spigs, and does some other magicy stuff; The company Allison, Lexi, Taylor, and Mr.M work for; Directed by Pule (Spiritual Activity Erasure and Projection Training Association)

Spig: The generally used slang term for Spiritually gifted or Projection

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