“Um… yes… I… um… came in early,” she said, thinking quickly. “I wanted to catch up on work.”
Mrs. Gardiner was definitely looking at the titles on her desk, and she saw her eyes widen in surprise.
“Is that one of our display window titles?” she asked, surprised.
Caitlin quickly turned and picked up the book, flustered, not knowing what to say. She had to think quick.
“Um… yes it is,” she said. “There were some occult titles I had to catalog, and I… um… wanted context in knowing how best to classify them…so I thought I’d take a look at everything we had on the subject.”
It was a lame excuse, and she hoped Mrs. Gardiner bought it.
Mrs. Gardiner stood there, pausing for a moment, and Caitlin felt a cold sweat break out on the back of her neck. She had never been in this position before, feeling like a criminal. Of course, she’d never thought about stealing a book, not in her entire career.
“Well, I trust you will put it all back when you’re through,” Ms. Gardner said, then nodded curtly and walked on.
Caitlin breathed a sigh of relief. It was a close call.
Caitlin turned, grabbed the loose page from her desk, looked both ways, and made sure no one was looking. She looked up at the ceiling, at the hidden cameras. She knew she was being recorded, so she conspicuously put the loose page back in the book she found it in.
She walked the book down the hall, back towards the stack, went to a place where she knew there was a blind spot from the cameras, then quickly slipped the page out of the book and into a manila folder she had brought with her. She then put the book away, and slid the manila folder into her bag.
Without waiting another second, Caitlin marched down the corridor, down the sleek-white steps, and across the lobby. She looked straight ahead as she went for the front doors, not daring to look at her colleagues, her heart pounding as she felt like she was walking out of a bank with a rare jewel.
She stepped outside with a breath of relief. She hurried to her car, and sat there, breathing deeply. She thought about her next move. She knew who she needed to talk to. Aiden. If there was anyone in the world who would know where to find the missing page, it would be him.
But she still couldn’t bring herself to call him. She thought again of his words, of stopping Scarlet, and something inside her would not allow her to speak to him.
Instead, she had an idea. If vampires were real, if her journal was real, then all those places she mentioned in her journal had to be real, too. And some of those were in New York. Like the Cloisters. If everything she had written was true, then she should find something there, some evidence, some validation, some trace of her being there. Some trace that vampires had existed. Maybe even a clue, or a lead. Maybe it would even show her where to go next.
Without another thought, Caitlin tore out of the parking lot, heading for New York City. She was determined not to return home until she found the proof she needed.
Chapter Fourteen
Scarlet walked with Blake and his three buddies, Vivian and her two friends, across the acres of fields belonging to their high school. She trailed behind. The small group was heading down to the woods, and as they walked, all laughing, jostling each other, as if the closest of friends, Scarlet couldn’t help but feel left out. She was beginning to think this was a bad idea.
Vivian clutched hard to Blake, practically sticking to him like a magnet as they walked, and her two friends constantly giggled and whispered in her ear, clearly trying to make Scarlet feel left out. Blake’s buddies weren’t doing much better, jostling amongst themselves, or trying to talk to Vivian’s friends.
Blake himself was the biggest disappointment. He walked with Vivian as if she were the one he’d invited, allowing her to clutch his arm as if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Scarlet was confused. After all, Blake had asked her to go. Was he that afraid of upsetting Vivian? Was he too weak to resist her? Or was he genuinely changing his mind, and starting to have feelings for Vivian instead?
Scarlet’s apprehension grew as the reality sank in of her cutting class, missing her last two classes of the day – and an important quiz – to be with this group. Had she made a mistake? Her entire reason for going was to be with Blake – and he hardly seemed to even care. He only looked back over his shoulder for her once or twice. With every step, Scarlet felt increasingly left out. But it was too late to turn back now: they were far from school, and had already entered a trail in the woods, which she was unfamiliar with. She followed them as they twisted and turned down the narrow path, feeling increasingly dependent on them to get back.
Finally, the trail ended and led out to the edge of a small, blue lake. Beautiful trees surrounded the water, and their foliage was strewn all around the shore, bright leaves floating in the water. The sight took Scarlet’s breath away: it was beautiful down here. She’d been here once before, and remembered it as a favorite place for kids to escape to on weekends. She had never been down here during a school day, though, and it was weird now, quiet and empty. It felt wrong to be here. She felt she should be back in class.
The group found a spot on the shore, close to the water, and they all took makeshift seats on various logs, stumps, and boulders. They sat in a loose circle. Scarlet went to sit beside Blake, but Vivian directed him to a small log, just big enough to hold the two of them, and Scarlet had to sit on the other side of him, on a rock, a few feet away. Blake looked over at her, and she could see that he felt a bit guilty. But still, he wasn’t doing anything to change it.
A cool breeze swept in off the lake, and Scarlet hugged her green, fall jacket tightly around her chest, starting to feel cold. She felt shaky, but didn’t know if it was from the weather, or from feeling so left out, so nervous to be with this crowd who she barely knew. She wondered how she got herself into this mess to begin with. She should have listened to Maria. She shouldn’t have come. A part of her just wanted to get up and leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to.
One of Blake’s friends skimmed rocks along the lake. Another reached into his jacket pocket and started rolling up small pieces of paper.
Scarlet blinked, shocked to see that he was rolling up a joint. Pot. She couldn’t believe it. It was Richard, Blake’s best friend, also on the football team, short and stocky, with bright blonde hair. She’d always known that he was trouble, but didn’t suspect he’d be smoking pot, especially during a school day.
In moments he had a joint rolled and lit; he took a deep hit and then, to Scarlet’s dread, he passed it around. Blake’s other buddy, another football player, took it and inhaled deeply. He coughed as he did, and Vivian’s friends erupted in sharp, mocking laughter. He turned red, embarrassed, but then inhaled again, determined, and managed to hold it this time.
He passed it along, continuing around the circle, counter-clockwise.
Scarlet’s heart started to pound as she realized the joint was being passed around and would head her way. Everyone else was inhaling it. She was the last person in the circle, and knew that it would come her way – and that Blake would be the one to hand it to her.
She felt more disappointed than ever. She hated peer pressure, had never smoked pot before, and didn’t intend on starting now. Sure, a few times she had sipped some beers or wine coolers at a party. But that was about it. That was where she drew the line.
But as everyone passed it around the circle, she felt more and more pressure. If she was the only one to say no, she would be so conspicuous, would look like a goody-goody. Which she didn’t want to look like in front of Blake. She was torn.
The joint reached Vivian, who sucked on it for an extra-long time, filling her lungs. She then turned, grabbed Blake by the back of his head, leaned in, put her lips on his, and blew into his mouth.