Jelly Cooper: Alien (20 page)

Marks
head recoils as if I’ve spontaneously combusted. 
Ha!
  I instruct the flames to flare once, magnificently, and then die.  I blink and they’re gone.

Marks
moans; a small wretched noise from the pit of his stomach.  I release him and he scrambles to his feet and lurches through the crowd.

I watch him go, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. 
A smile that promptly dies as I catch sight of Trisha.  She stares at me with pure loathing.  Melissa is clamped to her one arm and Rhiannon has a firm hold of the other.  Trisha fights like a wildcat to free herself and Rhiannon’s swift glance in my direction barely hides her concern.

“
Bitch,
” hisses Trisha.  “You’re gonna to pay for that you stinking little -

Melissa narrows her eyes at me and, leaning closer to Trisha, whispe
rs something in her ear.  Trisha stops struggling and smiles.  The sneer holds such malice that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.  Trisha, it would seem, really, really hates me.

“Watch your back, Cooper
,” Trishia growls, “this ‘aint over.”

“
Aint it?” I reply, mimicking her nifty ‘go girl’ head movement and everything.  My impersonation talents are not appreciated.  Shaking herself free of Melissa and Rhiannon, Trisha turns and stalks away.  Melissa runs after her like a good doggy and, with one final exchange of glances, Rhiannon follows.

Agatha materialises at my
side.  “She won’t forget that.”

I shrug.  “So she’s got a problem with me.  What’s new?”

Humphrey, glad that the busses have arrived and people are drifting away, walks over in a daze.  He frowns at me – at least he tries to, but it’s not at all convincing with the corners of his mouth curling.

“I don’t know whether to be scared, relieved,
outraged or just plain amazed,” he mutters.

I poke my tongue out and Humphrey roars with laughter. 

“Imp!  Come on,” he sniffs, wiping his eyes.  “We’d better go.”

“I’ll catch you up,” I say with a smile.  “I’ve left my bag in the art room.”

The smile still on my lips, I climb the steps into the main building.  Travis Jenson, slouched against the doorway, watches me closely.

My breath catches at the look on his face.  His stormy eyes glitter and
my stomach flips as they travel the length my body.  I shiver.

Marks
is Travis’ friend and I’ve just made him look like a monkey in a dress in front of half of the school.  I don’t want to know what’s running through Travis’ mind right now.

His hooded eyes hold mine.  Despite the stern talking to that I’m busy giving myself, I start to feel intimidated.  Our relationship is just
too
weird.

Repeat after me, one hundred times, ‘you are
not
having a relationship!’

Abruptly, his lips twist into a wry smile.  He tips two fingers to his head in a mock salute to my playground victory and disappears into the depths of the hall.

***
              ***              ***

Three minutes later, stood on the riverbank, I stare into the water and tick things off in my mind.  After a while, I arrive at a very annoying conclusion. 

No matter how much I don’t want him to be, Travis Jenson is the Hunter.

It all makes sense.  He’s new to the area, male, physically fit (
why
does he have to be so physically fit?) and suddenly intensely interested in me.  It all adds up.

It’s a bit of a slap in the face
to realise that the only reason he’s interested in me is because he wants me six feet under.  I feel a bit hard done by.

I bet Travis
convinced Marks into having a go at Humphrey just to goad me into a display of power. 

Thinking of how close I came to falling for it, and for him, makes my skin crawl.

Turning away from the glittering river, I head home, deflated but determined.

“I should have known those tee
th were too perfect to be true.”

Chapter Sixteen

Life is like a tunnel.  Most days, you race through it and strive forward, out into the brilliant sunshine.  On other days, the shadows linger, reluctant to let go.  Occasionally, the shadows’ grip is too strong and you remain in their clutches, deep in the belly of the beast.

As I walk to meet the others at Gregory Thorn’s house, I feel like I’m entering a new tunnel, full of unknowns, and I don’t know if I’ll make it out the other side.

The Hunter is closing in, I know it, and sooner or later, probably sooner knowing my luck, it’s going to be me and him; one-on-one.  In situations like this, it always ends one-on-one.

As I scurry through the streets
of Seabrook, I remember that mum is at home, waiting for me, and I stop walking.

I can’t go back.  Not now I know what I am and what
he
is.  He’s out there, waiting for me, looking for me, smelling the air for my scent.  It’s happening tonight and I have to see it through.  Mum will just have to understand.  I hope Dad’s home and she’s not alone.

I try to squash the little voice inside my head that whispers that I will never see my family again.

***
              ***              ***

I knock on Thorn’s door, once.

Made it.

Gregory Thorn opens the door and ushers me into the hallway.

“Humphrey and Agatha are upstairs.  They got here five minutes ago.  So did Rhiannon Miles.”  He studies me with concern.  “Are you OK?”

I nod, letting my eyes roam over the picture-strewn walls of his home.  I don’t recognise any of the faces other than Thorn himself.

“Are they
Kavalrion?”

He glances at the
mixture of sepia, black and white and colour photographs that line the hallway.  He nods, a faraway smile on his lips.

“Which one is Cal
Sakiiri?”

Gregory plucks one of the framed pictures from the wall and hands it to me.  He points to a
white-haired man sat in the centre of a group of merry people.  The man stares out of the photograph, his eyes burning with intensity.

“That’s
Sakiiri,” says Thorn.  “And there’s Maurice, Eustasia and Megan.  The others you see around you are members of Kavalrion.”  He gestures to the other photographs hanging on the wall.

Gregory Thorn is focused on the pictures, his eyes alive with emotion.

“You, ah, you care a lot for them, don’t you?”

His gaze doesn’t flicker.

“Oh yes.  A great deal.  I can’t wait to see them again.”

I stand, uncomfortable in the silence.  When it stretches with no indication of ending, I clear my throat.

Still no closer to being a group hug girl, then.

“Right
,” Thorn takes the photograph from my outstretched hand and hangs it back in its place, his fingers brushing Cal Sakiiri’s face.  “Shall we go and join the others?”

“Sure.”
 

I follow him up the stairs, nervous at the thought of training.  That’ll be one giant egg
on my face if I fail, but hey, at least I’ll be too dead to feel the shame.

“I think that I know who the Hunter is
,” I blurt out. 

So much for keeping a cool head.

Gregory stops, his foot resting on the step.  He turns to me, his face pale. 

What is it with the men in my life?  Half of them have no confidence in me and the other half want me dead!  I see the fear in his eyes.  He’s frightened for me.  He doesn’t think I’m ready.  He doesn’t think I can win.

I can’t tell you how much that takes the wind out of a girl’s sails.

“Who?”

“I think that it’s Travis Jenson.  He’s new to the area, and…”

Thorn frowns.  “Travis?  Travis Jenson?  Are you sure?”

Just how is it that the sporty types get away with so much?  Honestly, it’s one of the world’s great unexplained mysteries.  I open my mouth to protest (and explain), but Thorn turns away before I can answer, muttering to himself. 

“I didn’t realise that you knew Travis
,” he throws over his shoulder.

“I, um, I don’t.  Not really.  It’s a hunch, I suppose
.” 

Now who feels like a prize idiot?

Embarrassed,
I dawdle on the stairs, which are also lined with photographs.  I study them as I climb.  At the end of the landing, Thorn pushes open a heavy wooden door and turns to me.

I have a major case of the butterflies.  My feet are
planted
and I am not moving.

Thorn
seems to know me all too well. He comes back and takes my hand.

“Relax, you’ll
walk it.  No problem. You, me, your friends; we’ll all work together.  We can do this.”

I’m surprised
at how much I need to hear the words. I squeeze his hand and head for the training room, groaning when I see a skipping rope lying on the dusty floorboards just inside the door.

“Skipping!
  Oh
man
!  I hate skipping.  Can’t we do something else?  Anything except skipping.  This isn’t Rocky, you know.”

“I know.”

I walk into the room and frown.  He could have left
some
furniture.

“Guys!
  The floor is
minging
!  Get up.”

Agatha’s eyes bulge.  She nods her head at something to the left of my shoulder.  Her jaw works frantically against her gag.

This is one freaky way to train.  What does he want me to do?  Am I supposed to free them?  Is this a test?

It could be a test, except that I’m pretty certain that Humphrey and Rhiannon are unconscious.

It’s a test.

It’s a test – that’s it.

It’s a test.

Agatha seems OK. 
Petrified, but OK.

This isn’t a test.

‘No.”  The light finally goes on in my very stupid brain.  “No.”

Thorn
cackles
.  If I need confirmation that my life is over, then that is it.

“What…what’s going on?”

My mind knows full well what’s going on, but it doesn’t seem to be linked to my mouth anymore and I can’t stop it.  I turn to Gregory Thorn.  His eyes are laughing at me.

“What’s going on?  What’s going on?” He chants gleefully. 

He stares at me with what can only be described as hunger and the only thought in my stupid head is: why is Travis Jenson behind him?

I close my eyes. 

Blood rushes in my ears and I start to tingle from head to foot.  Alarmed, I realise that I’m about to faint for the first time in my life.

I open my eyes.

Travis is gone.

Thorn is in the doorway
.  The landing stretches out behind him; empty.  The image distorts before my eyes, twisting out of shape like a Salvador Dali painting.

Frozen, I just can’t get a handle on what’s happening.

Thorn takes one step towards me.  His green eyes flash as I step back.  It’s instinct that governs the movements of my feet.  It’s in no way down to my brain, which has melted.

“Jelly, Jelly, Jelly
,” he shakes his head, smiling his manic smile.  “You still haven’t put it all together, have you?”

I take another faltering step backwards towards my friends and try to ignore the screaming in my head. 

“But you can’t be.  You can’t be him.”

Thorn can’t contain his glee.  He laughs a wild, high-pitched, cackling laugh.  A shiver runs down my spine. The sound is most definitely not human.

“But I am, Camille.  I am him and you’re going to pay dearly for your
incredible
stupidity.”  His gaze travels past me.  “But not before I have a little appetizer.”

Oh God, no.

“Good, aren’t I?” He gloats. 

He sucker punched me and I didn’t see it coming.

“You see,” he preens, “I’ve been watching you, Jelly Cooper, since the day I arrived in this tawdry little hole.  I knew who you were the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

“Then why…”

“Why go to the trouble of befriending you?”  Thorn snorts.  “That was a mistake.  But in the end, it worked in my favour.”

He fidgets, as though the admission of making a bad judgment call causes him pain.

“At first, I was mystified,” he continues.  “You weren’t using your power at all.  I figured that being the
great and powerful Camille
,” he laughs, “you couldn’t risk unleashing yourself here on Earth, so I hung back.”  He shrugs.  “There seemed little point in venturing into the unknown when I had all the time in the world.”