Spellweaver (6 page)

She glanced at her
watch: 9:39pm. The club would close in an hour or so. Felicity
wondered what she would do with that time. She wasn’t entirely
comfortable with being at the club, yet she was managing to remain
unnoticed so far. Eventually Hollie would return and the two of
them would head back, so she didn’t mind sitting and waiting for
her until then.

As she peered out into
the crowds, scanning the dance floor absentmindedly, she caught
sight of a face she knew looking back at her. He raised his hand in
a wave - it was Jamie. She felt obligated to wave back and,
apparently taking this as an invitation, he swam through the sea of
people and joined her at the bar.

“Hey!” he said
happily. “What are you doing here by yourself? Don’t tell me Hollie
has abandoned you.”

Felicity shook her
head. “No, she just wanted some time with Oliver.”

“So
she
did
abandon you.” Jamie shrugged. “Well, I’ll keep
you company if you like. Oh God, you didn’t see my dancing, did
you?”

“No, not
really.”

“Thank God!” he
exclaimed with a laugh, clearly relieved. “I have to say, Fliss,
that although I am a man of many talents, dancing certainly isn’t
one of them.”

Unsure of what to say,
Felicity just smiled and took a sip of her coke.

“You know, Fliss,
you’re going to get along fine at Greenfields,” Jamie said.
“Especially with Hollie as your friend. She’s a pain but she’s a
good person. She’ll look out for you. Oh!” He suddenly thrust his
drink into Felicity’s hand. “Hold that, will you? I’ll be right
back.”

Without giving
Felicity time to reply, he waded his way back into the crowds and
disappeared from view. Felicity placed his drink on the bar and
continued looking for Hollie and Oliver, but still she couldn’t see
them.

And then another
familiar face appeared from within a nearby group of boys. One of
them caught her eye and smiled. Felicity recognised him but
couldn’t remember where she had seen him before. He nudged his
friends, pointed at Felicity, and then the five of them began
heading her way. As soon as they got close she realised where she
had seen him - it was yesterday, as she had arrived at Greenfields.
The boy had been reprimanded for sitting on the old piano at
reception.

“Hey... Fliss, isn’t
it?” he said with a wide grin.

Felicity
nodded.

“Ah, you don’t
remember me, do you?” He put both of his hands to his chest. “I’m
hurt, Fliss, I really am.” His friends laughed, and then the boy
continued: “I’m Callum Johnson. We have History
together.”

Felicity hadn’t
noticed Callum in History, but she nodded slightly
anyway.

“You
don’t know my friends, though,” Callum stated. “They’re from out of
town. Go to a different school. This is Dan, Jack, Mikey and Liam.
You don’t mind if we hang out here, do you?”

Felicity did mind. She
minded quite a lot. But somehow, when faced with a group of teenage
boys who were all taller and bigger than her, she didn’t feel as
though she could say so. Not that it mattered, for Callum gave her
no time to answer. He simply took up the stool next to her whilst
his friends attended the bar.

“You know, Fliss,”
Callum said to her once he had sat down. “I heard something very
interesting at school today.” Felicity looked at Callum politely
but didn’t respond. “I heard that you used to go to boarding
school,” he said, smiling that wide smile again.

“Um, yes. I did,”
Felicity replied.

“So? Tell me what it
was like there.”

Felicity shifted
uncomfortably. She didn’t like questions that required such open,
seemingly endless answers and she didn’t like talking about her
past. “It was... it was all right.”

“That’s it?” Callum
laughed, and his friends joined in. “Come on, Fliss, we’re friends,
right? Remember, we have History together.” For some reason, that
remark prompted even more laughter from his companions, with one of
them even slapping the bar with his palm in amusement. Felicity had
already been feeling quite anxious, and this feeling suddenly got
worse. Her eyes flicked behind Callum, trying to locate Hollie or
Jamie, but it was too difficult to see in the dim light.

“So come on, tell me
more,” Callum said. “Was it an all girls’ school?”

Felicity glanced over
to Callum’s friends, who she suddenly noticed looked an awful lot
older than him, certainly above the upper age limit of that night’s
club night.

“Y-yes,” she replied
nervously.

“Oh
yeah!” Callum exclaimed, punching the air triumphantly with his
fist, and his friends joined him in his revelry, whooping and
cheering and laughing. And then Callum turned back to Felicity.
“Did anyone ever tell you how pretty you are, Fliss? No, I really
mean it.” He looked her up and down. “You look really nice
tonight.”

There was a burst of
badly stifled sniggers behind Callum, who ignored them and
continued to stare intensely at Felicity. She avoided his eyes and
swallowed uneasily. There was something about Callum’s behaviour
that she didn’t like, something in his grin that made her want to
run a mile.

“So
what do you say?” Callum asked. “You uh, want to be my
girlfriend?”

The warmth of Callum’s
hand on her thigh took her by surprise. She froze, her entire body
tensing up before she even realised, and then, without wasting
another moment, she practically fell from the stool and made a
stumbling dash for the nearest exit, ignoring the jeers and jibes
that erupted behind her. She pushed and shoved her way through the
stifling crowds of teenagers, forgetting how much attention such
actions caused. People exclaimed their annoyance but she paid them
no heed; she had to get out of there as fast as she possibly
could.

From the other side of
the club, Jamie exited the men’s toilets and just caught sight of a
redheaded girl causing a stir as she made for the door. He knew
instantly who it was, and glanced back at where she had been
sitting at the bar. Callum Johnson, surrounded by his gang, was
laughing uncontrollably at the retreating Felicity.

She didn’t stop, not
even when she reached the fresh, open air of the outdoors. The urge
to run was overpowering. Her legs moved faster than she ever
thought they could. Her pumps thudded against the pavement. She
didn’t know where she was running to and she didn’t care, not as
long as she was putting distance between herself and that
boy.

And then she could run
no more. She slowed to a halt and leaned against a nearby wall, her
chest heaving and her head pounding. Some strands of hair had come
loose from their grips and were hanging in disarray either side of
her face. Her cheeks were flushed, a stark contrast to her usually
pale complexion.

The sense of relief
that washed over her was invigorating. Just as she had little
experience with friendship, Felicity also knew very little about
boys and romance. But she hadn't enjoyed the way in which Callum
had looked at her, and his touch on her skin felt like a
violation.

She leaned her head
back on the wall and gulped in the cool night air, trying to forget
what had happened. She rubbed the sweat from her palms onto her
skirt and looked around. She didn't recognise this part of the
city; she appeared to be in an alleyway several streets from the
main road where the Talk was located, but she had no idea which was
the way back to her father’s flat. With a quick glance from right
to left, she continued further into the alley, where her thoughts
began to wander.

The incident with
Callum kept coming back as if to haunt her. The laughter of his
friends seemed to echo in her ears although its owners were back at
the club. She could almost still feel his hand. With a
shudder, she tried once again to shake the memories. As she tried
to think of something else, she wondered whether or not Hollie
would be worried about her when she found out she was no longer in
the club. No, she told herself. She was probably having the time of
her life with Oliver. But then, how could she be when Oliver was
standing there in the alleyway?

Felicity stopped dead
in her tracks as soon as she saw him, visibly surprised but also
relieved; although she and Oliver had never actually spoken, he was
a friend of Hollie and Jamie, and that was reassuring. She was
about to approach him when she caught a glimpse of his expression
in the dim lamplight and realised that he was staring that same
stare that had filled her with anxiety during Science that day. It
made her hesitate.

She swallowed
nervously. “Where’s Hollie?” she asked.

Oliver took a few
steps towards her, ignoring her question and remaining unnervingly
silent.

She frowned. “It’s me,
Felicity,” she said, thinking that perhaps he didn’t recognise her.
“You know, Hollie’s friend. From Greenfields.”

Still he didn’t
reply.

Confused, Felicity
stared, and as she did so Oliver did something that she did not
expect - he smiled. She was quickly learning that there were many
different smiles in the world. Some were kind, like the type that
Hollie used when she looked at her friends. Others were suspicious
and deceptive, like Callum’s. But Oliver’s was different still. It
wasn’t kind but it wasn’t deceptive, either; his intentions were
bad, and he wasn’t trying to hide it.

He didn’t answer her
question. Instead, he slowly lifted his hands up towards his chest,
his fingers outstretched. He closed his eyes and his face suddenly
became shrouded in darkness, even in the shadows of the alley.
Confused and somewhat fascinated, Felicity found herself rooted to
the spot, watching him intently in spite of the fear niggling at
her mind. He began to mutter something but she couldn’t quite hear
the words; they certainly didn’t sound like English. His voice was
deep, strangely deep. Felicity’s head began to ache as she looked
at him. She suddenly felt sick.

As he muttered,
Felicity felt the air grow cold. A breeze whistled through the
loose strands of her red hair. Her fear began to mount; she looked
around the alleyway and realised that it had grown quieter. The
sounds of the busy city streets had been muffled. Oliver’s
unintelligible words grew louder. She wondered if she ought to run,
but it somehow seemed like such a silly thing to do, so she stayed
where she was.

When she looked back
at him, she saw that a strange orb of light had appeared before
Oliver. It looked as though he was somehow holding it in his hands.
As she watched, it grew larger. As it grew larger, the alleyway
seemed to grow darker. Felicity took a nervous step backwards but
found the wall behind her. Her mouth became dry as her heart
thudded in her chest. Something was telling her that it was far too
late to run now.

“Fliss!”

The call came from the
entrance to the alley. Instantly, the glowing orb vanished and
Oliver fled into the shadows. The air, the light and the sound
returned to normal within a heartbeat.

The next thing she
knew, Felicity was looking into the worried faces of Hollie and
Jamie.

“Who was that?” Jamie
asked, looking in the direction that Oliver had gone.

Felicity couldn’t
respond.

“Was that Oliver?”
Hollie fretted, her voice filled with distress. “What was he doing
out here with you? We were dancing and then he - he - he just left
me and he was gone and then Jamie found me and -”

“Calm down, Hollie,”
Jamie said somewhat irritably, and then he turned back to Felicity.
“I saw you run off. What did Callum say to you?”

Felicity finally found
her voice. “What?” she croaked.

“Jamie said that Callum was with you at the bar,” Hollie
explained. “I’m so sorry, Fliss! If I hadn’t been with Oliver...”
Her voice was filled with regret.

“Look, Fliss,” Jamie
said, placing a hand on Felicity’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to
anything Callum Johnson said to you. He’s a nasty piece of
work.”

“He’s a pig!” Hollie
declared venomously. “He’s a total predator. He probably saw you as
an easy target and it’s all my fault. Did Oliver come to see if you
were okay? He could’ve said something. And why did he run off like
that?” She took a few steps further into the alley. “Oliver!” she
called.

“No!” Felicity
exclaimed so suddenly and loudly that it surprised Hollie and
Jamie. “No,” she repeated, more quiet and calm this time, and then
she covered her face with her hands.

After a pause, Hollie
approached her. “Fliss,” she said gently. “What happened? Tell
me.”

Felicity shook her
head. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing...”

Hollie and Jamie
exchanged worried glances. Though it was obvious that something had
happened, they knew better than to try and coax the information
from Felicity.

“Come on,” Jamie said.
“Let’s get you home.”

It was quite late by
the time that Felicity reached the block of flats that represented
home, and in spite of Hollie and Jamie’s protests, she insisted on
going in alone. They reluctantly let her go, making her promise
that she would see them at school the next day so that they could
all speak to Oliver about what had happened. Just what had happened
Felicity did not reveal, for she was unsure whether or not she had
imagined it. She spoke not a single word for the entire walk, but
this seemed to make the twins even more anxious and curious;
Felicity could tell that they would not let the whole thing go
easily.