Episode Five
1317 Words
I felt my pulse spike. I yanked my towel around my arm. This wasn’t normal. This had to be a dream.
“Breathe. Breathe,” I whispered shakily, forcing myself to stand up.
What the hell was happening to me?
“You okay, Red?” Mason was kneeling beside me. He reached for my arm, his fingers brushing the spot where the blood had just been.
He looked at the floor where a small smear of red stained the tile and then back at my perfectly smooth skin.
“I… I’m fine,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “I’m fine.”
“I saw you hit that bench, Red. You were bleeding.”
“I… maybe?”
Mason’s gaze sharpened. “That’s interesting.”
Before I could have time to process the situation, a soft gasp echoed a few feet away. Serena was on the floor, clutching her ankle.
“Mase!” she called out. “I think I twisted it.”
Mason hesitated a little. Then he turned and in a few seconds, he was by her side, lifting her up. Tending to her.
“That must’ve hurt.” Jackson appeared from nowhere, offering me a fresh towel. His eyes weren't on Serena. They were locked on the spot on my arm where the wound had vanished.
“Uhh, not… not really,” I stuttered.
He leaned in, his voice strained, his gaze drifting to the people around and back to me. “Yeah. That’s the problem, isn't it?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Piper, where are you when I need you? I turned toward Jackson, but he was already walking away… like he’d seen enough…
***
I tried to sleep, but sleep was eluding me. Different thoughts were running through my mind. Did I really hurt my arm, or was I just imagining things?
Why was I given a whole suite to myself and completely exempted from all extracurricular activities apart from swimming? And the intense stares? They’d only gotten worse. Then Mason… Jackson.
I sneaked back to the pool. I was going to find my answers one way or another, even though no one would tell me anything.
The silence of the empty building was the only thing that could quiet the screaming in my head. I slid into the water, letting the cold embrace me, but the peace didn't last.
“Couldn’t stay away, huh?”
I froze. Mason stood at the edge of the deep end, but for some reason, I could smell his aftershave from where I stood. His silhouette seemed a bit bigger, framed by the moonlight streaming through the high windows.
“I like it here,” I said quietly. “It’s the only place that feels... like home.”
He nodded but didn’t say a word.
The silence stretched between us, thick and heavy with things we weren't saying.
“About your ankle, what…?” Then he stopped abruptly. “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” he said.
“That’s one way to put it. You’ve spent most of the time glaring at me or acting like I’m a virus.”
“We’re two people with trust issues, Red. Maybe we should try opening up a little.”
We? “Fine. You first.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Your life story. Why everyone looks at you like you own the zip code. Why…”
He huffed out a quiet laugh. “ Easy Red, that’s a dangerous request. My story is mostly obligation…” He paused, his eyebrows lifted slightly. “What’s your story?”
I looked down at the rippling water. “Nothing special. Orphaned at a young age. Swimming. School. My friend Piper used to say I was boring.”
“Piper?”
“My best friend back home. She’d tell me I’m losing my mind right now.” I hesitated, then continued.
“Actually... she’d say something’s wrong with me.” My eyes darted briefly toward Mason, then back at the water.
“I fell earlier,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “And… ”
“And what?”
“I… I think I healed. In seconds, Mason.”
“You think?” he repeated, his body stiffening.
“Umm, yeah?… That’s not normal… is it?”
Mason’s expression went stone-cold. The warmth in his eyes flickered and died, replaced by something I couldn’t read.
“No,” he said curtly. “It isn't.”
Then under his breath he whispered, “I thought I was seeing things.”
“Uhhh, what’s your surname?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.
“Blackwood,” he replied, his eyes flashing for a brief moment.
“Mason Blackwood. It sounds like a character in a gothic novel.”
The shift in him was fast. He leaned over the water, his face inches from mine. “Don’t,” he said softly.
“Don’t what?”
“Say my full name like that.”
“Why?” I whispered.
“Because you’re not ready for what comes with it. You’re playing with a fuse you haven't even lit yet.”
He paused, his eyes scanning mine. “I want you to spend the evening with me. Tomorrow.”
I blinked rapidly. “What?”
“Something about you doesn’t make sense… and I don’t like things I can’t figure out.”
His gaze dropped to my ankle. “So tomorrow you’re mine for the evening… After that, we’ll figure out what to do with you.”
I blinked and he was gone. Gone. Vanished.
As I slowly walked out of the pool, a memory hit me… a conversation I’d dismissed as a joke months ago.
“Don’t tell me you woke up in the woods… again, Brookiee!” Piper exclaimed.
“Shh! It was just a sleepwalking thing,” I laughed. “I’m sure more people experience that than you know.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“That’s because you hardly remember things, Pipes.”
“Uhh, trust me, I’d remember if I woke up in the woods, Brookiee.” She paused, staring me down, and then moved to smell me.
“Ewww, you smell like dog poop.”
“No, I don’t,” I hissed, moving away from her.
“You know my grandma has powers,” Piper pressed, a small smile playing on her lips. “She says some people are born different. Just like her ancestry...”
“Oh, please,” I snickered. “Not again.”
“I could talk to her on your behalf. This world isn't what you think it is, B.”
I burst out laughing.
“So you really believe in all that witchy stuff? That’s really lame.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly as her voice dropped to a low octave.
“What’s lame is you thinking this world isn’t supernatural.”
“I’ll believe you when your grandma makes me rich… or makes you swim better than me.”
“Whatever, Brookiee. Dinner’s ready in two. Go change before my mum sees you… like that.”
I stood on the empty pool deck, my skin prickling.
“I’ll be damned,” I whispered.
The stares, the growls, the animal markings in the locker room, my unexpected speed at swimming, and even the healing.
Let’s not even talk about the way Mason looks at me like I was a prize and a threat all at once. Or how Jackson thinks I’m some kind of puzzle.
This wasn't just a weird school. It was a cage. A cage full of monsters.
And the worst part?
I didn’t know if I was trapped in it… or if I truly belonged here.
And for the first time, I had to ask the question that now terrified me most.
“What am I?”
- Writer
