Scroll of Starlight

Chapter Twenty Three

            I'm not too sure about this. I looked at Dean warily, but he just nodded. "I can be there. Branwen?"

I could tell he was trying to get me to comply and I almost declined. But we needed to get somewhere with this situation. We were stuck at a road block. So I just gave him a wary look, but nodded. "Alright. I just have to tell my Mom, but I'll be there."

            Adrian raised a brow at us, but gave the small piece of journal paper back and straightened out his shirt, giving us a wild grin. "This should be fun."

The bell rang shortly after and we headed to get our belongings from the locker room. He ran out in front of us and I glanced over to Dean, who seemed to be deep in thought. His green eyes were stuck forward with furrowed brows. 

            "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, what if he finds something out?" I asked, not wanting to put a negative spin on this, but anything involving these secret societies could be dangerous to anyone involved. Including an innocent bystander like Adrian. 

            "If he finds out something, then he'll be helpful." Dean said, slowly starting to walk towards the locker rooms. "If he doesn't, then he won't be involved. I hate doing this as much as you do, but he'll be on a need to know basis."

            I nodded slowly, the fear starting to creep out of me. "And if he does prove to be helpful? How are we going to hide everything?"

            The moment I finished the sentence, something seemed to shift in him and Dean stared at me, eyes seeming to go a little dark. "Then I'll tell him everything. I need to finish this, Branwen. I can't let my father control my life anymore. He's been like a ghost following me since he died and I'm tired of the skeletons. Especially when it comes to the new people in my life."

            Oh, Dean. I sucked in a breath and looked down, nodding carefully. "Alright. Let's see what he comes up with." I was tired of this situation, but I don't think I've ever stopped to really think about how this affected Dean. Dealing with this since he was a child, not able to really have a childhood and the markings that were stuck to him. I glanced at him once more and let out a deep breath.

            We headed down to our individual locker rooms and as I changed, everything passed through my brain. The different symbols and how they interacted while thinking on the picture of Esmeralda at the Eiffel Tower. Time Travel, a voice sounded from the back of my head. What if it is true?

~

            "Alright, buckaroos! Let's get digging!" Adrian hopped onto his desk chair and spun around, landing with his hands on the desk. "Dean, put that paper you have in the scanner."

            After gym, we instantly headed down to the Cave, as Adrian said. Finally, something had stuck on. Now, we were at the side of the room, where his desk was set up. Apparently when you join the school newspaper, each person gets a desk with a school computer. Now, the school didn't have many computers, but there were 5 desks set up. Adrian's was the most put together, surprisingly. The other desks were all over the place, but Adrian's was set up right near the interview station.

            Dean hadn't sat down yet, so he trudged over to the other corner of the room and slid the paper in the scanner. Instantly, the machine started working and the file had made its way over to Adrian's computer.

            "Alright, I'm going to try to do something a little different here." Adrian explained, his eyes trudging up from the computer from time to time. "There's a thing called a reverse image search. I can place the symbols separately in the search using photoshop magic."