The next day I obtained a toilet pass from my first period teacher and lurked in the halls the entire day, looking for Spiral. Finally I saw him making his way into the art room during Lunch, and ducked in behind him.
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I paused in the doorway, watching as the short boy in front of me opened the cupboard, pulling a half-finished canvas out with some difficulty. It was only when I stepped forward and closed my fingers around the edge of the canvas did he notice my presence. Spiral stared wide-eyed at me through his choppy fringe. I smiled serenely at him, well aware that he was so uneasy around me because our last meeting had not gone well.
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Silently we placed the canvas against the stand, and I stepped back to admire his painting. Hundreds of wolves gathered around a large stone temple, mouths open in mid-howl. At the foot of the temple there was the wrecked body of a girl with curly brown hair and a man standing over her, bloodied knife held high. It gave me the shivers. Creepy kid… somehow this painting reminded me of the one hanging in that house Emma was trapped in.
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“What happened to your hand?” Spiral asked, as he stood with his back to me, pottering with the paints. Instinctively I touched my right hand, which I had wrapped up in a scarf.
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“Broke it in a fall,” I said, referring to my left wrist. I had gone to the family doctor immediately after the incident yesterday, bit my lip as he set the bone back in place and encased it in some sort of plaster. He’d warned me not to climb trees for awhile and I planned on taking his advice. After all, there had to be another way into that house and I was determined to find it.
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Spiral flashed me a quick look before turning back to his paints. He had been pouring different colors onto his palette, arranging them carefully before he gave it a decisive last swipe with his brush. He made his way to the painting, hunching over and studying the tiny figure of the girl. That made me feel sick and I looked away. The color he had mixed, I now saw, was a bleak dark brown. He dipped his paintbrush into the thick mixture before turning back to the painting to dapple the girl’s hair with the paint, adding highlights to her hair. After he was done with that, his paintbrush danced across the canvas, spreading the brown paint to various wolves’ fur.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡatDCHS7K6M
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It was mesmerizing to watch the painting seemingly shift under his hand, the little touches of paint here and there rendering it more alive. Spiral was so absorbed he seemed to forget I was there as I watched him work. There was a reason he was so admired in the school for his artwork. I just didn’t understand why all he ever drew was wolves.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAfFF4YE9Cv
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The more I stared at the painting, I imagined I could hear the wolves’ howl, taste the tension in the air, smell the iron tang of blood… my right hand gave an insistent throb and I let out a surprised cry. Spiral turned to find me clutching my hand to my stomach. I had bundled it in a bright colored scarf and told anyone who asked that it was all the fashion in New York.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqc6MSUqncF
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“Isis?” He enquired. I shook my head, cheeks heating up as he studied me intensely. His gaze reminded me of those same piercing green eyes from the night before… the ones I had dreamt about last night after creeping exhausted into bed. “Let me see your hand.” His tone had an odd, curious quality to it.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxz3XhlHWnT
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“No,” I stumbled. “It’s nothing really. I scalded it this morning…”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNx7mUkJI8
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Spiral moved so fast then. When I blinked, he had unwrapped the scarf and thrown it to the side. My hand seemed to glow a furious red under the fluorescent lighting and I turned my eyes away in shame as I felt his cool dry grasp on mine.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqfJDFiMvVq
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“Isis…” Spiral muttered, turning my hand over. “Do you have any idea what this means?”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡslDlGCA4i3
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I thought of the man with the piercing green eyes, how he had manhandled me and thrown me down when we touched and I felt the searing pain in my right hand. Had he felt the same thing? Had he been hurt as well? The image of him shielding his eyes from the light with his right hand had been forever burnt in my mind. Both our hands had been marked. But how?804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnZBK0PId8t
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“I found her, Spiral. I found Emma.” I told him. He dropped my hand and looked at me in horror. Now that I had told him it was like I couldn’t stop the words from coming out of my mouth. “You were right; she was in that house near the edge of the woods. I climbed a tree and looked in the window and she was right there, less than two meters from me! She was with a man and they… and they…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. I shook my head impatiently. “The stupid branch broke and I fell which is how I broke my wrist, and then I tried to get away but this brute of a man caught me and I fought back and when we touched… it was so weird, I felt this pain in my hand from nowhere and he must have felt it too because his hand was hurt too, like mine is… Spiral?”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxmUhB7y8h2
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He looked utterly distressed, and he was cleaning up the art materials scattered around the room in a hurry.804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUCNA0LFP4u
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“Spiral?”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpR0KjUyiqe
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“Isis. You have to go back to the house.”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRwWqlU7J3
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“Right now?”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZyXfo8YCtz
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“Right now.”804Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxjdRd6bvC
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“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all year.” I grinned at him.
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