Stalked
An Inkling of Magic - Chapter 10
Elspeth struggled to sit still and listen to her history teacher droning on about something she didn't have the faintest interest in. Her mind had been carrying her away all morning and she'd hardly been able to catch a single word any of her teachers had spoken. For what had to have been the millionth time that morning, Elspeth's eyes drifted to the clock that hung above the classroom door. There was still another whole hour to go before classes let out and she was free to do what she willed.
The weekend had come and gone and, with it, her hopes of discovering what had happened to Mr. Grimmlich before her brother accosted her again with questions she didn't know how to answer. Frustration bloomed inside of her and she had to grip her pencil to the point she feared it wold snap to keep from screaming out loud.
“Figure it out yet?” a voice said quietly from behind her. How was it that, even with a simple question, he still managed to sound so irritatingly smug?
Not in the mood to deal with him, Elspeth concentrated all the more on the creature that she was doodling where she was supposed to be taking notes, Mr. Prickfield's voice now little more than indistinguishable background noise.
“I'll take it from your studious ignoring of me that that's a 'no,'” Derek said when she didn't reply.
“Mr. Grimmlich's still missing, so, no, I haven't figured it out yet,” she bit back in the same hushed tone.
Behind her, she could her his exasperated sigh and she felt herself tense in anticipation of his next words.
“That's not what I was referring to, Elspeth, and you know it,” Derek replied with irritation matching her own. “How is it you could visit Granny O'Rourke and still not understand a single thing?”
She froze, a coldness washing over her.
“How did you know I went to see Granny?” Elspeth asked, her voice trembling slightly. How did he know? She'd not seen anyone during her walk there nor when Kieran drove her back.
“Derek?” she pressed, but he didn't reply. Leaving Elspeth to spend the rest of class in quiet unease.
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An hour later when she was walking home from school, and the unease still hadn't let up. With a test to study for, she'd planned to go straight home, but, instead, she found herself staring with pained longing at the 'closed' sign hanging limply in the window of Grimm & Barrett. Her fingers toyed with the key she still carried with her and, for a moment, she considered going inside.
What good would it do? The despondent question whispered in the corners of her mind drawing a sigh from her. She'd combed through his office all weekend and, despite not leaving a book unturned, she still was left with the same set of questions as before. More in fact, if she were to include the matter of the noxious liquid and Mr. Grimmlich's mystery pet. Still, she couldn't help the feeling that something important had been staring her in the face and she'd missed it.
After checking that the door was indeed still locked, she reluctantly, and with feet full of lead, turned away from the sullen store and resumed the walk home.
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It was a rare, beautiful mid spring day when the sun was shinning without falseness and the warmth of its rays against her skin should have been enough to melt the chill she felt after Derek's last whispered words in class. And yet, even though the birds were singing their unending, melodious songs of spring unhindered by the sounds of voices heard, but never seen, Elspeth was unable to shake the feeling of dread that weighed down her every step like an iron chain.
With her shoulders aching from the unnatural tension that had them as rigid as a mannequin, she paused near an alleyway to look behind her. Looking this way and that, she hung her head and let out a sigh and humourless laugh.
“You're being paranoid again, Elspeth,” she muttered caustically, shaking her head in disgust with herself.
“Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean you're wrong,” came a matter-of-fact voice from nearby.
Elspeth screeched, her head shooting up with so much force that it made her dizzy. Stumbling backwards a little to find her balance, she frantically searched for who had spoken. A groan pulled from her throat when, leaning casually against a building just a few feet in front of her, she spotted him.
“Don't you have anything better to do than stalk me?” she asked.
Derek rolled his eyes but didn't budge from his position against the wall.
“I'm not stalking you.”
“Really?” her biting tone giving way a little for disbelief. “Because, from where I'm standing, it sure looks that way. How else do you explain knowing about my visit to Granny's?”
“I followed you,” he admitted with a shrug.
“Yes, and that's not at all the same as stalking,” she replied, dripping sarcasm.
“No, it isn't. Stalking would imply that I was also watching your every move up until that point, and I wasn't, I merely happened to be in the area when I saw you leave and decided to see where you were going,” he explained with quiet confidence, “besides, don't you know it's dangerous to wander alone?”
This time it was Elspeth's turn to roll her eyes.
“This is Hydendale, nothing ever happens here,” she said. Well, that's not strictly true is it? A voice whispered in her head reminding her of the recent break-ins around town.
Derek's lips twitched a little, as if knowing what she'd just thought of, and he raised an eyebrow in silent challenge of her rather definitive statement.
“Not usually anyway,” she amended.
“All the same, perhaps it would be best if you had a little company to see you home,” he said.
Elspeth pursed her lips. The last thing she wanted was to spend any more time in Derek's company, but, judging from the look in his eyes, it was very obvious he'd already made his mind up and he wasn't really asking her permission. Even if she charged passed him, he was likely to just follow her anyway and make snarky remarks from behind her just to rile her.
“Fine,” she said with much reluctance. “But, if you know what's good for you, you'll make yourself scarce before Farren sees you.”
The second the words left her mouth, Elspeth wished she could retract them. Derek's eyes lit up with triumphant satisfaction and danced with an impishness that frightened her. To make matters worse, the smile that had been just faintly tugging at his lips had grown into a full blown smirk and she had half a feeling he would linger around after escorting her home just to provoke her brother.
“Good, then I suggest we start moving,” he said, pushing himself off the wall, “We won't get you home by standing around here.”
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To Elspeth's surprise, since falling into step beside her, Derek had barely uttered a word to her. In fact, despite his strange insistence in accompanying her, he seemed more interested in their surroundings than in her. Not that she wanted him to be interested in her.
From the corner of her eye, she watched him sneak a furtive glance across the street. He'd been doing it the whole time they'd been walking and it was really starting to grate on her nerves. When she saw him do it again, just seconds later, she'd finally had enough.
“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked brusquely, bringing them both to halt.
“Doing what?” he said with a smile that didn't ring true.
Elspeth's lips pursed in annoyance. The falseness that radiated off of him was almost palpable and she was really getting irritated with his constant evasiveness whenever she asked a question. An unfamiliar sense of determination welled up inside of her, brushing aside her usual timid fearfulness.
“Don't play, stupid, and that smile of yours may work on others at school, but it doesn't work on me.”
She watched as Derek's eyes darkened as they had that day in Mr. Grimmlich's store when he lashed out at her. This time though, she held her ground and didn't let the way they sparked dangerously frighten her as they had before.
Elspeth tensed when he opened his mouth to reply, bracing herself, but just when he was about to say something, his eyes darted behind her and his mouth just as quickly clamped shut again. Before she even knew what was happening, Derek had grabbed her hand and began pulling her along behind him as he resumed a fast pace walk in the direction of her home that had her struggling to keep up with.
Her irritation growing to the point of bursting, Elspeth lashed out.
“What are you doing!” she yelled, trying to pull her hand free from his and wincing as all that she accomplished was his grip tightening around her wrist.
“And what was that noise?” she asked hearing what sounded like a low growl.
“It's nothing, just a loose house cat, now keep moving,” Derek replied, his voice low and bordering on a growl as he, as usual, skipped over her question.
Pushed to her limit, Elspeth craned around backwards to see what had him dragging her like a madman through the streets of Hydendale.
“No, don't –” he said with mild panic, but his warning came too late as a scream tore from Elspeth's mouth before he could say another word.
“What is tha...!” she started to ask, but, turning back to Derek, the words died on her lips as she could only gape at what she saw next.
“Your.....,” the words struggled to come as she stared wide-eyed at his decidedly pointed ears and wondered how on earth she could have missed such a thing before.
“Of all the times to start believing, Elspeth, you would have to choose the worst!” he growled with exasperation.
“Your....”
Again, her voice failed her.
“Yes,” Derek huffed, “and we'll both be very dead if we don't keep moving!”
At that moment, as if to punctuate Derek's frantic proclamation, a feral yowl pierced the air behind them.
Over Derek's loud objections, Elspeth turned again to see the monstrous form of a cat that looked like a tiger crossed with a tabby cat streaking towards them.
“That is not a house cat!” Elspeth said when she could finally find her voice again.
Derek rolled his eyes.
“It's a cat the size of a house, ergo, 'house cat',” he told her drolly, “now run!”
Not needing to be told a second time, Elspeth twisted her hand around within Derek's hold and held on tight to his wrist as they both peeled off down the street at an unnaturally fast pace. The dark-grey and black stripped cat with its ruff of long black fur that ran from the nape of its neck half-way down the ridge of its spine blowing wildly in the wind as it continued to chase after them.
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“Ah, hello, Elspeth, Derek, where are you two off to in such a hurry?” a man coming out of the hardware store asked as they raced past him.
“Sorry, Mr. Blake, can't talk now!” Elspeth replied, expecting to hear his shocked gasp any minute as the creature chasing them went past him. Only the cry never came.
“He can't see it,” Derek said out the blue, answering the perplexed look that must have been on her face.
“What?” Elspeth asked, not following his meaning.
“Mr. Blake, he can't see the over-sized house cat chasing us. Not unless it wants him too,” he explained.
Elspeth's brows scrunched together as she tried to make sense of it all.
“Is that why we can see it?” she asked.
“No, no that's something entirely different,” Derek said with laugh that sounded more like a scoff.
“I can see it because I'm fae,” he added with a sigh that spoke to his annoyance at Elspeth's dissatisfied glare, “and you, well, you're something else altogether.”
She frowned at that last part, not entirely sure she liked how he said that as it sounded far too much like an insult. However, she let it go for now and, instead, focused on his admission.
“If you're fae, then aren't you supposed to have some sort of magical abilities?” Elspeth enquired dubiously.
“Yes, what of it?”
“Then why aren't you doing anything to help us?” she asked with no small amount of snark and accusation.
“I am, why do you think it hasn't caught up with us yet?” he barked in response.
“And there isn't something else you can do besides making us run at break neck speed!”
“Yes, because a fireball in broad daylight hurtling at a creature nobody else can see isn't at all conspicuous,” he retorted, “while they may not be able to see the cat or that I'm not as human as I appear, they would most definitely be able to see that.”
Before Elspeth could saying anything more, she was jerked sideways by Derek pulling them down an alleyway she wasn't familiar with. Although greatly tempted to ask just what it was he was up to now, she instead held her tongue – clamping her jaw down so hard to keep from spouting something else at him, that it was seriously beginning to hurt.
She tried to figure out where it was they were going, but she didn't recognize anything. It's not that Hydendale was an especially large town, but there were plenty of areas that she simply had had no need to go to and so had continually ignored. This alleyway apparently being one of them.
“Brilliant,” Elspeth muttered as the end of the alley way came into view. It was a dead end.
“Oh, I wouldn't despair quite yet,” Derek said, a hint of sly smugness in his voice as a smirk pulled at his lips.
Whirling them both around to face the way they'd just come from, Derek released her wrist only to wrap his arm around her waist and haul her close to him. His other hand reached out to touch the cold wall of the brick building beside them and, as his palm made contact with the brick, the air around them began to shimmer.
“What are you....,” she started to hiss before being shushed by Derek.
“The illusion only works if we both remain very still and very silent,” he whispered, the warmth of his breath tickling her ear as he said it.
Despite her discomfort of being held so closely by the boy turned fae that had tormented her so zealously over the last couple of years, Elspeth ceased her squirming and tried to hold still.
Her breath caught in her throat as she watched the giant cat appear at the open end of the alleyway and pause. For what seemed like forever, the cat just stood there with its nose raised high sniffing at the air as it tried to pinpoint where they had gone. Its brilliant yellow eyes gleamed like miniature suns as, unseeing, it turned to stare at them, but, at last, it let out a yowl and sprinted off down the street and away from them.
“What even was that?” Elspeth asked breathlessly as she fought to bring her racing heart under control.
“A mngwa,” came Derek's mumbled reply, barely audible as, exhausted by the energy expended during the chase, he stumbled back against the brick wall and slowly slid to the ground.
With his arm still wrapped tightly around Elspeth's waist, he pulled her down with him. His green eyes looked dull and faded as they drifted shut, silencing whatever Elspeth was going to say next.