22. Ollin
Ollin
This Seems Unprofessional
It has been more than two weeks since that night in the park and I can’t pretend I’m not a stalker anymore. I watch the security camera for Thea to leave the library. It’s nearly eleven, she has combat class early. She should leave soon.
I do a quick check on the rest of the cameras to make sure I don’t miss anything before going back to the library door. Thea and her boyfriend leave a few minutes later. They laugh a lot as they walk. Both look happy.
I don’t understand. I can’t stop thinking about this girl. But I’m also okay seeing her laughing with another guy. Dating another guy.
I track her on the cameras as she moves across the school, choosing to leave Otherfell through a side entrance. Then to her dorm. The boy peels off and heads to his. He didn’t kiss her goodnight. Maybe he isn’t her boyfriend.
My body relaxes as I turn the cameras back to their normal patrols. Then open my phone and play the video for the four hundredth time.
The scream didn’t make it onto the video, but I run towards it, my head splitting open. I reach the park and survey the damages, it looks like a magical bomb went off.
But in the crater in the park is just Thea. The goblin blade cutting into her skin and I don’t think she even notices. She looks small, broken and terrified when she sees me. I watch as I offer her a hand up. The moment my skin touched hers, the headache vanished like a memory.
I don’t know what happened to her that night.
But her fearful face is burned into my corneas.
“Ollin,” Denny greets as he enters the guard station. “Your girl make it home safe already?”
“Shut up.”
I really need to work on subtlety.
“Why don’t you just go talk to her?” he asks.
“Why don’t you go talk to anyone other than me.”
“You’re so prickly, kitty.” The glare I give him has him pressing his lips together.
“I’m just doing an investigation,” I remind myself.
“That’s off the books,” he points out.
“Something happened to her,” I argue again. “And she’s different. Every video I found of her before the incident, she’s walking, head down, alone and sad. Now every time I see her she’s with people, laughing and when she’s alone, she just, looks happy.”
“Then why are you trying to figure out what happened? It sounds like a good thing.”
He doesn’t get it. Yes, I’m happy that she’s so much more alive now. The old videos of her are so depressing. But the raw fear in her eyes, and the destruction. Whatever happened. It’s important. I just can’t figure out why.
“I’m gonna go get some air. You’re on cameras. Actually watch them,” I tell him, standing and stretching.
“Yes sir!” he chirps.
“That’s a good guard dog,” I mutter and head outside. The gravel crunches under my boots as I make my loop around the Otherfell campus. The school is mostly deserted at this hour.
I lean against a tree and pull out my phone. Watching the video again.
“Ollin!” Max calls out as he approaches.
I skip the pleasantries. “What did you find out?”
“Everyone I’ve met disliked Adora, said she was plain, forgettable and weak,” he says.
“Weak?” I ask, incredulous.
“That’s what the witches say. It makes no sense to me. In combat class she’s destroying us. Not only is she smart when she fights but creative. She’s half my size and landed a blow that almost knocked me out this morning.”
“She beat you?” I’m impressed. I’ve only beaten him twice.
“I said almost!” he reminds me. “I knocked her out.”
The growl deep in my throat is involuntary.
“Won’t make her stronger by going easy on her,” he reminds me of Coach’s motto. I wave and he heads off to bed. I finish my loop and radio Denny.
“All good here. Nothing going on.”
“Okay, I’m going to head to the main school for a few minutes,” I reply and head over to the main campus, not even pretending I’m not heading to the park. I drop down on my haunches and survey the area. Wishing I’d had more time to study it before calling in someone to regrow it that night.
I resume my meticulous search of the area. Trying to find anything that indicates what happened. Right where the tree is growing I see something. I step forward and find a small piece of blackened metal.
This is what she was hacking at in the video.
This is why she had the goblin blade and was bleeding.
Raising it to my nose, the curse on it nearly makes me vomit.
She broke an enchantment that night.
A powerful one.
One that people are not going to be okay with being broken.
She’s going to need someone to look out for her.