Reapers Kiss

THE PROFESSOR

Professor Lee walked through the door to his classroom, and elicited the same reaction he always seemed to get, especially these last few months. Female students, male students, it made no difference. From some, looks of shock followed by adoration. Others just seemed to wish that they could crawl underneath their seats and not be noticed. If only he could do what he wanted-- he would just gut them all, but hell would have to freeze over, and then there would be no more fun. Not even in the slightest .

This is all so tedious, he thought as he caught the usual chatter: “God he’s hot...” “Yummy!” “I would love to practice making baby’s with him”. Ach, it was amusing at first but now it was just plain boring. Mmmmmm, I wonder what they would do if they knew what I wanted to do to them. He pictured blood, gallons of it running, dripping, coating him... he struggled to get his imagination under wraps.

“WOW!”

As Professor Lee heard the breathy whisper, his head snapped up. That voice sent a tickle down his spine. Looking around the room, not wanting anything to seem amiss, his eyes skimmed over the newcomer. The dean did say something about two new students joining class.

Professor Lee’s skin started to tingle as a delicious zing traveled through his body. The handsome professor looked towards the back of the room as the student was trembling. He licked his lips, and smiled. Oh this just might get interesting after all… He watched the student steady herself, and another glorious sensation rippled through his body. Suddenly, the student bolted out of the door, as if she felt the same sensation through her body. Perhaps a little distraction from all of this tedious boredom.

Oh yes, this is going to be a semester to remember.

Gabe

As I look back at Jess, because she is clearly not gasping at the hottie that is our Prof, I realize that she is out in la-la-land. And not the happy fun-time la-la-land where I am enjoying a little imagination time.

She is trying to stand up, and something is definitely not normal, so I reach out to steady her. She seems to want to fight me off, but, well, I’m holding her up, and she’s doing a piss poor job of it. Both fighting me off and achieving a vertical event horizon, so to speak.

There is something extra going on here, I can feel it in the air, in the way she is suddenly drawing strength from my touch. I’ll have to keep a little watch on that ability. Is it her, or me--?

Crap, there she goes…

Jess .......

I try to fight Gabe off but he is helping my balance, as I finally right myself I am able to shake him off and break for the door.

I can’t see the looks of alarm, or amusement, on our classmates’ faces. I am about halfway down the hall when I hear: “Don’t bother telling me to go back, I simply won’t listen.” Gabe’s grip is firm and steadying.

“What’s. Wrong.” he repeats, this time less of a question and more a demand. Gabe is so annoying when he is being gallant, but I am beginning to panic, and I DON’T panic.

“It’s Rorie! Something's wrong! She’s scared. Terrified! I have to find her. I thought it was weird that she wasn’t in class yet, she’s never late for anything…” I realize that I am beginning to babble when a sudden wave of fear crashes over me, forcing me to double over in anguish. A suffocating fear, the kind that doesn’t let you move or breath.

There is a gentle hand, Gabe’s warm and calm hand, cradling my chin.

“Snap the hell out of it, Jess!” The concern in his voice reaches me, I can feel concern radiating from his hand, but I still can’t move.

“JESSICA LEE JORDEN! Since when have you become such a pansy-ass?” Gabe’s venomous tone breaks through.

I can finally breathe, and air hisses out. I shake my head. “That cleared my head a little.” Gabe knows what buttons to push, and when. “We need to find Rorie!”, NOW!

The fear subsides a little as she starts to run. Soon, she is moving as fast as her legs will carry her lanky body. Her only thought is to find Rorie, and find her fast. So intent on her inner thoughts, Jess doesn’t notice something spilled on the floor, and then careens through the wet patch. Desperately trying to right herself, she ends up elbow deep in the glass trophy case.

RORIE .....

“Are you ok?”

“Jess? Is that you”

“Uh, noooo... was she here?” asks a timid voice.

I find myself lying on the cold tile floor of the bathroom. I try to slow my breathing, and my heart feels like it’s about to pound its way out of my chest.

In and out, in and out, breath slower. It was not a real deep breath in, and as I try to breathe out, a razor sharp pain rips through me. I bolt upright with a different kind of fear all together.

Jess is hurt!

I get up shakily, knees not doing as they’re told. I unlock the door and whip it open so fast it bangs against the wall. Students talking in the dorm hall turn and stare. The girl who asked me if I was ok asks again, and all I can do is mumble something about being over tired and wave her off. I can’t help but to start running down the corridor.

As I turn the corner, I peer through the sets of doors leading out of the dorm toward the quad that leads into the academic halls. Over by the first set of doors is a group of people standing around and appearing to talk in whispers.

I could already hear my sister’s big mouth yelling that she was fine. Gabe sees me first, which isn’t hard when I stand 6 feet 2 inches and touer over most my class mates. Gabe and Jess walk toward me, and Jess bellows “MOVE IT!” as I slam out of the dorm and sprint into the lecture hall.

* * * * * * * *

A look of pure relief washes over Rorie’s face as the wrinkles disappear from her forehead and her eyes open wider. The look of outright fear is dispelled, like when the sun comes out from behind a cloud. Jess is not totally surprised, and realizes Rorie wasn’t in danger, but had a panic attack. Jess had felt the terror grip her, as it had gripped Rorie. Pain was easier to deal with, it only hurts for a few seconds. Fear means you have to go along for the ride, until whatever is scaring one of us is over.

Rorie stopped thinking about stuff that was beyond her control, as she glanced down at Jess’s arm.

“Rorie, I’m fine! Just give me a bandaid and we’ll call it good.”

“You are gonna need a really big bandaid if you pulled that out of your arm!” Jess was gingerly holding a shard of glass covered in blood. As I looked back up from the hand pinching the extremely sharp looking dagger of glass, I saw that the blood was still streaming down her arm. I looked at her sternly, “Gabe, go get my car please. It’s in the east parking lot.” I tossed him my keys, and he bolted, probably to avoid the scene that Jess would be about to make. “Let’s go, Jess. We’re taking you to get that looked at. Uh, instead of gawking-- can someone go get a custodian to clean this up, please.” Rorie snapped. I put my arm around her waist, as I realize that she must have lost quite a bit of blood, since there was no argument yet.

As I steadied her, she began a small protest. Tryed to push away “I’m ok,” she started to say as she swayed toward the broken case.

“Put your arm around me,” I try not to hiss, as Gabe streaks back through the wooden double doors. “Just hold the door for me, please!” It was September and unusually hot upper 70s and 80s The sweat was already beading at my temples as we were leaving the comfortable cool of the hall. I don’t remember how we got Jess in the car, but the traffic was ridiculous.when we finally hit the road It was lunchtime, and traffic was tedious. Jess was in the back seat just ranting and raving. “It’s September! It’s not supposed to be this frickin hot! My god who the hell died there is never this much traffic And you BETTER not be taking me to the health center, I don’t want some half-ass nursing student or QUACK doctor looking me over!”

“One we live in Ny state the weather is bipolar, 2 we are taking you into the hospital stop your whining ”

“Maybe we should move somewhere preferably where mother nature is not alway PMSin it 24-7 And I meant what I said about the ‘Well-ness’ Center.”

“Jess, our school is here, our friends are here, and our jobs are here. Basically, our life is here, now. We’re not going anywhere, except to ‘RMC! Stop being a little drama queen just because we’re taking you to go get your arm checked out!,” Oh goodie i’m so lucky it's not really bad id’e bleed out in the waiting room.