Innocent Devil’s Harem Ch. 129 (Patreon)

August 4, 2023

NOTE: Posting a little early. This chapter is primarily necessary to set up several things that are coming up soon.

Feel free to theorize!

<< Chapter 128 | Ch 1 (Book 1) | Ch 16 (Book 2) | Ch 31 (Book 3) | Ch 46 (Book 4) | Ch 61 (Book 5) | Ch 76 (Book 6) | Ch 91 (Book 7) | Ch 106 (Book 8) | Ch 121 (Book 9)

- CHAPTER 129 -

Thankfully, our first period teacher, Mr. Crawford, was very lenient with Avery, even though she was nearly fifteen minutes late to class. Helped that she was one of his favorite students. Also probably helped that he had a thing for Serenity, and thus wanted to remain ‘buddy-buddy’ with me, likely knowing it would sour my opinion of him if he gave my new girlfriend a consequence.

The latter of which became apparent at the end of class, when he asked if he could talk to me for a second.

I was well aware Mr. Crawford had taken too much of an interest in Serenity at an open house, when parents usually visited the school to meet the teachers. And it didn’t really help that they were basically the same age. But while he had been overly friendly since then, he’d never actually been bold enough to ask me directly ‘for help’ in getting with her.

But apparently it being the end of the school year, combined with me missing so much school the previous week, must have made him realize his window of opportunity to ‘connect’ with Serenity outside of the education system was rapidly closing.

Because he asked me directly for her number.

I was straight-up direct with him. “She has a boyfriend.”

My response made him flustered.

“W-What? Oh no, I wasn’t asking for that reason. I just wanted to check-in, and all. Make sure everything is going well at home, and that you guys didn’t need any help. I’m sure it’s been hard on her and all.”

“We’re good,” I said simply, not giving him any sympathy at all.

“R-Right,” he managed, letting me go after that.

Technically, I knew the office had Serenity’s contact information, both cellphone and work, so it wasn’t like it would be impossible to get her number, but I knew he’d actually have to fill out a form and provide a reason in order to get her information, since otherwise it was the office’s responsibility to communicate with parents and guardians.

Something that was usually more for the benefit of the teachers, since otherwise it would be a big headache for angry parents to be calling teachers directly on their private phones.

Avery was waiting for me in the hallway, a bit nervous about her next class for reasons I hadn’t even thought about in several days now.

In total, she had two classes with Trey, second and seventh periods.

He had ignored her the remainder of last week, after the incident in the locker rooms, so she really had no reason to be concerned, but for some reason she just had a bad feeling. All of which meant I spent most of my second period in her head, making sure that she was fine.

But she was.

Trey didn’t talk to her at all.

Just completely ignored her, like she didn’t exist.

If anything, he almost seemed extra cocky for some reason, though Avery couldn’t put her finger on why. She still had a bad feeling though, feeling a bit better once she got to third period, and then feeling even more relieved when we were meeting up again to go to our fourth period Pre-Calculus class together before lunch.

I was only partially focused at that point though, since everything seemed fine with the ‘Trey situation,’ and I’d forgotten that I was initially supposed to have a test the previous Friday in my third period class. Being that I had missed the test for a legitimate reason, thanks to my funeral pamphlet, my teacher wanted me to stay late after school to make it up, and I was debating whether or not to just accept the zero.

Avery and I had driven separately, so it wouldn’t be a huge deal for me to stay late, and I usually got home nearly two hours before Serenity. However, it was specifically because of Serenity, and the fact that we were resuming our normal routine, where it was just the two of us at home in order to maintain appearances for a while, that I kind of wanted to do something special for her.

To at least make dinner and maybe do something romantic, though I wasn’t sure ‘what’ exactly, and hadn’t thought much about it so that I didn’t tip Serenity off prematurely in the event that she decided to check in on my thoughts.

I’d been showing my funeral pamphlet to all my teachers, so I just automatically walked up to Mrs. Hayes in my fourth period as she wiped down the blackboard to start a fresh math lesson for our class. What I hadn’t anticipated though, was her reaction to me surprising her with my unexpected proximity.

The skinny woman, looking so short and small with her short pixie haircut, visibly flinched away when she noticed me, clearly startled, only for her face to instantly flush as she stared up at me like a deer in headlights.

And for the first time, I realized something I hadn’t noticed until now…

I was a bit taller than normal.

Or more specifically, given that I could grow twice the height of a normal man, I felt like maybe I’d subconsciously decided on a new setpoint for my regular human height, one that was at least an inch taller than I’d been previously.

Perhaps a reflex?

But when did it happen?

Because I felt like it was a recent change.

The last time I saw Mrs. Hayes was the previous Wednesday, the same day that Elizabeth dropped off that letter from my biological father after school, and I was confident that I now towered over her more than before. I doubted it happened at the funeral on Saturday, and I honestly felt like I’d been the same height when I saw Joseph and Rachel on Sunday…

So then, I supposed it must have been sometime yesterday evening. Or maybe even overnight, after dealing with Elizabeth’s situation, since I hadn’t noticed being taller than Gwen, who was otherwise the same height as me.

I wasn’t sure what the trigger would have been though.

Why I would have chosen to be a little taller.

I was glad Avery was in this class with me, because she was able to confirm that I did seem a little taller. Not something she had really noticed simply because she’d been too focused on actually being in my head when around me. But it at least meant our teacher hadn’t somehow shrunk an inch.

Still, probably the weirdest thing was that my pants fit perfectly, which actually left two possibilities.

Either it was something really silly, like the pants that Miriam bought me were an inch too long, and so I subconsciously grew an inch taller to accommodate them this morning without thinking about it.

Or it was something a bit less silly, like if it actually turned out that it was my torso that was longer than before.

But why would my torso be longer?

I was still very much proportioned either way, the inch not really making a difference in how I looked, so I decided not to worry too much about it.

And Mrs. Hayes was still staring up at me like a deer in headlights, even though I definitely had my charm reined in right now.

I held up the pamphlet.

“Sorry I was absent Thursday and Friday. Had a funeral to go to. Sort of connected with my biological family.”

She blinked a few times, reaching out to accept the paper as if I was handing her something extremely valuable, only for her to blink again as she finally registered what I said.

“Oh honey,” she said in surprise, focusing up at me again. “Was it someone you were close to?”

I shook my head. “No, never met the guy, but attendance was pretty much required.”

“I…I see,” she managed.

“Did you want to look at it, or…”

She focused down at the paper again, only for her eyes to widen. “Oh, no, I believe you.” She handed it back to me. “I assume you brought this to the office.”

“Yep. Did that first thing this morning.”

She nodded. “Alright, then if you’ll have a seat, I’ll bring over the notes you missed here in just a minute, after I finish cleaning the board.”

I smiled at that, not having the heart to tell her I didn’t need them. “Thanks,” I replied simply, sitting down.

Avery was immediately speaking up in my head. ‘You know, I feel like your charm is plenty bottled up. I’m not sure why she reacted that way.’ Her tone then became more amused. ‘I mean, you are breathtaking,’ she thought, imagining a tiny chibi version of herself forgetting to breathe and sinking to the ground as she turned blue…only for a ‘died happy’ flag to pop-up out of her cartoon belly.

I tried really hard not to laugh out loud.

I half expected for Natalie to interject, but checking on her and I realized she was taking a nap.

Though, not just a normal nap.

Knowing that Michelle was staying home too, I realized they were actually in bed together -- fully clothed -- but my blonde MILF was sitting at the head of the bed, gently stroking Natalie’s head in her lap as my blue-haired wife slept peacefully, sort of hugging Michelle’s legs, one of the mature woman’s feet against Natalie’s groin.

My blonde MILF didn’t seem to notice me checking on her, instead her affection focused intently on the girl resting peacefully on her lap.

I had no idea how they’d ended up like that, or what they might have talked about beforehand, but it seemed obvious they’d spent some serious quality time together. Thus far that morning, most of the times I’d taken the time to check-in on someone, it had been a quick peek at Gwen or Miriam to make sure they were okay, with the occasional peek into Delilah’s head to see that she was fine as well, having spent much of the morning on the road until about an hour ago.

I’d also checked on Gabriella once at work, but hadn’t been too worried about Natalie or Michelle, since they were safely home alone.

Avery continued once I refocused my attention on her, smirking even though she was sitting behind me. ‘But Mrs. Hayes seemed more startled than usual. Almost like she was looking at you in a different light. Like she was truly looking at you for the first time.’

I frowned at that. ‘You don’t mean, like, you think she knows I’m an incubus, right?’

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted silently. ‘She didn’t seem scared, but also looked at you like she was seeing you differently. Might be nothing. Might also just be because it’s the end of the school year and she realized it probably wouldn’t affect her job if she invited you over to her place after graduation.’

I tried not to scoff out loud.

‘Don’t even joke about that. I already don’t know what I’m going to do about the nurse. And I know she doesn’t talk about her spouse at all, but she’s definitely Mrs. Hayes.’

Out of all our teachers, Mrs. Hayes in particular, while really sweet to everyone, absolutely refused to talk about her family or home life at all. Something that never really seemed like a big deal since there was rarely any downtime to socialize in the advanced math classes, with her lectures often lasting the entire class period from start to finish.

But the ring on her finger further supported the fact that she was definitely married, even though I’d never heard her talk about her husband.

That certainly didn’t mean that Avery was wrong, but I just really didn’t like the idea that Mrs. Hayes would be having such thoughts about me, even despite having someone else in her life.

Granted, there could be legitimate reasons why that might be the case, such as them being separated, though I honestly just had no way of knowing either way.

Avery continued in my head. ‘Yeah, the nurse situation is a bit of a problem,’ she agreed. ‘I personally feel like it’s only fair for anyone you’re romantically involved with to know your secret, but that just means you’ve got to start saying ‘no’ at some point. Because you can’t tell your secret to every woman who glances your way.’

‘Honestly, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell her ‘no’ bluntly, except that she’s not just some random woman I’ve come across. She’s someone who I intentionally tried to influence, with my eyes, and I’m honestly not sure if she’s going to be able to recover from my rejection. At the very least, I figured she’d be over me by now, but instead it sounds like she’s more desperate than ever to reconnect.’ I sighed out loud. ‘Doesn’t help that her fiancé was cheating on her, although I’m not sure that would have mattered in the long run.’

Miriam unexpectedly chimed in my head, apparently having been paying attention, her tone cheerful, like she was looking forward to being helpful.

‘I could use my memory spell to make her forget.’

Instantly, without warning, my heart sank at just the idea. And not because I was sad about Tracey forgetting about me.

Rather…

Making someone forget…

Just messing with someone’s memory, in general.

Felt like a horrible thing to do to a person.

Miriam was immediately somber.

‘I’m…I’m sorry, baby. I wasn’t trying to make you upset. I just wanted to help. And…yes. It’s not my favorite thing to do. But it’s the only way I’ve been able to let people live somewhat normal lives after meeting me, to avoid them spending every waking hour thinking about me.’

How I was feeling must have really been fully displayed on my face, because Mrs. Hayes paused awkwardly in front of the class just as she was about to start her lecture, visibly looking concerned.

I immediately composed my expression, being careful to not go overboard so that it looked natural, frowning just slightly as my brow furrowed in feigned confusion.

I was about to speak up, planning on asking if she changed her mind about looking at the pamphlet, or something else to disperse the obvious awkwardness displayed in front of the entire class, but she recovered even faster. Clearly knowing if something was bothering me, I wouldn’t want to talk about it in front of everyone.

“Oh, I forgot to give you the notes for last week. Are you fine if I just give them to you at the end of class?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said simply.

She nodded, and immediately gave her attention to the rest of the class, smoothly starting the lecture, the entire mini-incident so quick that I only got a few stray glances from those I could see in the corner of my eye, everyone otherwise appearing to not think much of it.

I waited a few seconds before redirecting my attention to Miriam’s mind.

However, the interruption had caused my own thoughts to go in a completely different direction.

‘Hey…this is probably a dumb question. But you would never do that to me…right?’

‘Of course not,’ she thought seriously. ‘And honestly, I’m not sure it would even work on you.’

‘How come?’ I wondered, just out of genuine curiosity.

‘Well, in general, it hasn’t worked on nonhumans in the past. Including cursed humans. Like Dante, for example. Even if I could get him to hold still long enough to let me try it, I would be sincerely shocked if my memory charm worked on him, and even more shocked if it lasted longer than a few hours.’

‘Dang, not even a few hours?’

‘If it even worked,’ she agreed. ‘Which is why I never mentioned it as an option to try to cause him to forget where I live, in the event that we decided to let him leave my domain.’

‘What is he doing right now?’

‘No idea. Rosa is with him. Want me to send Gwen over to check in on them?’

I could sense in my bond with the blonde vamp that she was fine, and felt content right now, but I didn’t have the same access into her mind as I did with most everyone else, so I didn’t know the details. For all I knew, she might be standing in the sunlight right now, since it was about that time of day when she could do so, in order to show Dante what I’d done for her. Or it might be that she was having a pleasant conversation with him, or something else that just generally made her feel content. As if everything was ‘right’ in her world, in this moment.

Still, I did like the idea of Gwen checking in on them.

‘Yeah, wouldn’t hurt. Probably the hospitable thing to do, at least.’

‘Agreed. I’ll go tell Gwen.’

‘She already knows. She sensed we were talking and started paying attention.’

‘Oh, right. This is still so weird to me, even though we’re having this conversation right now. Weird, but also very nice.’ Her mental tone became amused. ‘I’ll try not to monopolize your attention too much.’

‘It is nice,’ I agreed, silently focusing briefly on Serenity for a second.

Unsurprisingly, she was combing through some case files and not at all paying attention.

Checking on Delilah resulted in a similar outcome, just in the sense that she was heavily focused right now. Specifically, she was talking with that blonde secretary right outside ‘John’s office,’ focused only partially on their conversation, her active thoughts actually a bit concerning as she processed all of her other interactions thus far.

Specifically, Delilah was puzzled by the fact that everything truly seemed like ‘business as usual’ right now. That no one seemed suspicious of my biological father’s absence, and no one even seemed overly concerned. She considered that maybe the cursed meat situation might have already set certain things in motion, like the possibility that my father might have been preparing to go into hiding and had made plans to do so, but she wasn’t sure at this point.

Elizabeth was in a meeting right now, and Delilah was hoping to talk to her around lunchtime in order to touch-base, but they were also making an effort to not seem suspicious. Because, on the one hand, it wasn’t too odd for them to talk to each other, but they also weren’t usually buddy-buddy either.

Not wanting to stress about it myself right now, I decided to check in on Gabriella, only to be surprised by the situation she’d found herself in.

Working at her job at the nail salon, she had a guy come in wanting a pedicure, specifically a guy who was clearly more interested in men than women, considering he was going out of his way to flaunt his sexuality as if he was trying to make it clear that he was just 'one of the girls.' A situation that apparently wasn’t too uncommon in itself, but this particular guy appeared to have some hygiene issues. It was obvious he was trying to make small talk with Gabriella as she worked, even trying to flatter her by asking how many boyfriends she had, but she was struggling to keep her composure due to being super grossed out by how bad his feet smelled, despite having soaked them already.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for her, wondering if it was because her nose was a lot more sensitive now. Made me wonder if she’d have a lot more bad experiences like this in the future, just because of her heightened senses.

Anyone who had halitosis, major body odor, or really stinky feet were going to make her job really unpleasant. In particular, with this guy, it was possible he had an Athlete’s foot infection or something similar, though she didn’t plan on bringing it up.

Not her job to try to diagnose him, and getting a good tip meant not offending the customer, which meant even just joking that he needed to go see a doctor was also out of the question.

I shifted my focus back to Mrs. Hayes when she met my gaze, only for her to keep moving her eyes up our row, asking the girl behind Avery a question. I didn’t hear it though, and not because I’d shifted my focus back to Miriam.

Instead…

A wave of that ‘scent’ hit me again.

Intense distress.

Coming from Claire.

It made me anxious, but I didn’t sense that she was in any danger, so I stayed firmly in my seat, not about to make a scene when there was nothing truly wrong. Or at least, when there was no true emergency.

Still, the sensation made me deeply concerned.

I strongly doubted Claire was the only person to be dealing with some turmoil today, out of everyone in school, which possibly implied that I’d grown more sensitive specifically to her for some reason. Of course, I could be wrong, and might discover that this sensation I was experiencing with my third-eye would be just as strong with some random person feeling what she was feeling. But I honestly didn’t think that was the case.

With Natalie, she had left a ‘scent’ of her distress in a specific location, something I only picked up on because I was in the location where she left a hint of her aura.

Alternatively, what I was sensing from Claire, all the way across the school, was something else entirely.

It was like the walls separating us didn’t matter.

Being in separate locations didn’t matter.

In many ways…

This was like my experience being bonded with Rosa…like how it originally was with Natalie…

The bond I had with them…

As their alpha.

As Rosa’s Sired Lord.

But Claire wasn’t a vampire or werewolf, or anything else for that matter, and I didn’t recall forming any kind of bond with her. Not to mention, the overall sensation was different, since this was very much like a smell my third-eye was picking up on.

Avery spoke in my head. ‘She has art class right now. Maybe the painting she’s working on got damaged or something.’ Her mental tone then became distressed. ‘Oh no. I hope she didn’t ruin it on purpose, because of what happened. She’s worked so hard on it.’

I was vaguely aware of the big project Claire was working on, knowing it was why she was rarely in our lunch period, but I hadn’t known previously exactly what it was. Certainly, I wasn’t too shocked to hear it was a painting, but wasn’t sure why something like that would require the amount of work she supposedly put into it.

Avery’s thoughts were amused.

‘You’ve never seen any of Claire’s paintings, have you?’

I didn’t respond right away, sensing that the distress I was feeling from Claire was getting a little better. Lessening, at least, rather than getting worse. Which I figured was a good sign.

I finally answered her question.

‘Well, no. She good?’

‘Let’s just say that, she could easily get a full-ride scholarship for art school.’

‘But she hasn’t gotten one?’

‘She doesn’t plan on going to art school. Views it as a waste of time. And honestly, I’m not sure if they could teach her much. She’s already so good.’

I found that a little hard to believe, and Avery wasn’t helping much, not wanting to tip me off to what her platinum-blonde friend’s art was like, feeling like it was better if I just saw one of her paintings for myself.

‘Do you think her teacher would mind me stopping by?’ I asked, beginning to wonder if Claire would end up showing at lunch after all.

A part of me wasn’t sure if I should get too involved with her situation, but another part of me felt like I just couldn’t keep myself away.

‘I don’t think he would mind. Mr. Fogle is extremely chill. Probably the most chill teacher in the entire school. And honestly, he might not even be there. It’s his lunch hour too, and I think he normally just lets Claire have the entire art room to herself.’

My thoughts were skeptical, since that was a bit unusual. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah, it’s kind of a unique dynamic in his class. It’s like he assumes that everyone who is in art is above average in terms of maturity, but the way he treats people feels like it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.’

‘How so?’

‘Well, in my art class last year, there were definitely a couple of guys who clearly joined just to have an easy period, and they definitely didn’t take it serious at first. But because he treated them like they could be trusted, they actually acted more mature. Took everything in that class more seriously just after the first couple of weeks.’

‘Huh. So then, do you want to go too?’

Avery thought about that for a second. ‘It might draw attention if we are both missing from lunch. People might think we snuck off somewhere to kiss or something. And I think what Claire really needs is just to talk to you alone.’

‘Won’t actually be a private conversation, since you can hear what is being said. And that’s assuming the art teacher isn’t there.’

‘Yeah, but she doesn’t know that. Might be that she just needs to hear it again from you. That she’s not stupid, even if you don’t go into specifics.’

I took a deep breath, only to grimace when I caught Mrs. Hayes attention yet again, due to the heavy sigh that ensued.

Hopefully she wasn’t taking it personally and thinking I was super bored of her class or something.

Thankfully, she didn’t focus on me long.

‘Yeah,’ I thought simply, refocusing my attention on the lecture briefly, and then refocusing on Miriam.

The short succubus didn’t say anything, though she was still very obviously attentive to my thoughts. Something that made me feel briefly serene and peaceful, just silently focusing on each other without direct communication, her own longing for me causing my own longing for her to spark.

A deep need for each other that had nothing to do with physical attraction.

Checking on Gwen’s mind, I saw that Rosa was, in fact, standing in the sunlight, enjoying ‘just existing’ in the warmth while Dante observed almost somberly from the shadows of a tree by the cottage. I suspected that seeing the impossible gave him a lot of conflicting emotions, especially knowing that he himself was standing at the precipice of his own fate -- one in which his own life might be very different starting tonight or tomorrow.

To him, the sight before his crimson eyes was that of a true miracle.

As if Rosa standing in the sunlight was equivalent to witnessing the divine itself.

And perhaps that wasn’t too far off the mark.

Not because Rosa was divine, or even because I was divine.

But because certain types of magic, like Miriam’s healing spell and no doubt the curse-breaking effect of my partly angelic blood, seemed to only work when ‘due respect’ was paid to the source of magic itself.

To the source of life itself.

And I suspected that part of the reason why it took me nearly three-thousand years to create a new body for myself…was because I’d been unwilling to admit that fact.

The fact that such a thing was impossible to do…

Impossible to do…without permission.

Thankfully, the ‘scent’ of distress coming from Claire seemed to only improve as class continued, with me beginning to suspect that she was probably painting, and that the act of painting was cathartic for her.

Still, I was a bit relieved when the bell finally rang.

Mrs. Hayes handed me the notes from last week without saying much other than ‘sorry about the funeral.' I felt like she wanted to say something else, but she left it at that, and I wasn’t of a mind to try to press her right now to speak her mind.

The art room was very close to the cafeteria, just down a short hallway around the corner, despite how secluded the area felt, so Avery and I walked together as we dropped our stuff off at our lockers, and only parted ways once we were nearly at the cafeteria.

“So are you skipping lunch entirely?” she wondered out loud under her breath, so that we were making a point to look like we actually talked to each other, rather than just ‘silently’ walking around together.

“Not sure yet,” I admitted. “But I’ll be fine if I skip lunch. I’ll just eat a big dinner.”

“I won’t,” she admitted. “My stomach feels like it’s in knots, I’m so hungry. Wish I didn’t have to worry about what others might think if I ate three or four meals.”

“Just grab something, scarf it down, and then go get seconds and sit with a different group of friends. Doubtful anyone will pay that much attention if you keep sitting at other tables each time.”

“That might work,” she said quietly. “Except, that I’m friends with all the lunch ladies too. They’ll notice I’ve come back for another meal. Just don’t want the pregnancy rumor to get started again. Should have eaten a bigger breakfast, but I was kind of in a rush to make it to school on time.” She giggled. “Learned my lesson I guess, since I ended up late anyway.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Bye for now,” I added a bit abruptly, since we were approaching the narrow hallway that led off to the art room.

“Bye,” she echoed, the two of us seamlessly splitting as I slipped through a break in the oncoming students to cross the hall and then headed casually down the smaller hallway as if it was my next period, instead of me having lunch.

At the very least, Avery noted that no one seemed to pay much attention.

When I got to the art room, I expected to at least find the teacher there, but there was no one in sight at all. The place was completely empty entirely, no doubt because they were basically the closest classroom to the cafeteria, likely the first ones in line, but even Claire was absent. All of which made me wonder if my initial gut feeling had been correct after all -- that Claire would end up attending lunch.

I frowned as I looked around the space, waiting for Avery to confirm whether or not she saw Claire in the lunchroom.

Unlike the other classrooms, the art room was completely lacking normal student desks, the main portion of the room instead filled with square tables that were only big enough to fit one student on each side, a total of four students per table.

Five such tables meant the technical maximum capacity for each class was only twenty students, but apparently that was never a problem, since not very many students ended up taking art for some reason. Possibly because it was more of a luxury class.

We had to have a certain number of credits to get our diploma and graduate, so often only Juniors and Seniors ended up taking art, such as drawing, or painting, or sculpture. There was no ‘general’ art class, with each one instead focusing on a specific form, and the class also had to be paired with something else, since it usually only lasted for a single semester, rather than the entire year.

Exceptions to the ‘single semester’ rule were sometimes made when a student very clearly was on track to graduate, and when they had solid grades, such as in Claire’s case.

I quickly found out from Avery’s head that she had been in the class all year, rather than just a single semester.

Toward the back of the room were black countertops like what I was familiar with seeing in my chemistry class, and on top of those countertops were canvas after canvas of various qualities of drawings and paintings. There were also a few paintings hanging on the wall, all of them ‘just okay,’ in my opinion.

There were then two doorways on the right side of the room, one closed and the other open.

The open one revealed a tiny room with a furnace, or I supposed ‘kiln,’ and a table full of wet pottery that had clearly not gone in yet. The room was only big enough that possibly three or four people could stand in it at once, barely being larger than a closet.

I didn’t hear anything coming from the second closed doorway, not even the low thump of a heartbeat, so I decided to move closer to the paintings toward the back, to see if I could identify which one might be Claire’s.

A few of them had signatures in the corner, but most of them did not.

Avery passively filled in the gaps of my lacking knowledge as she stood in the lunch line, silently noting that the teacher had a great memory, knowing exactly which painting belonged to who, even being able to identify the names of the ones on the wall, painted by students over a decade ago, and also that no one would dare mess with anyone else’s painting anyway.

I supposed that made sense.

I had amazing spatial memory, and I realized I too might find it easy to identify even a random person’s painting if I watched them work on it for several weeks, witnessing its evolution from start to finish.

Unfortunately, as I scanned the paintings, I wasn’t too impressed with any of them.

Not that I could have done any better myself, but they all just seemed like art a high schooler would be capable of. Nothing that seemed over-the-top special like what Avery claimed about Claire’s work. And unfortunately, without closing her eyes and focusing, Avery couldn’t fully perceive what I was perceiving, only able to assess that my objective opinion of what I was seeing wasn’t very positive.

Certainly not ‘art school scholarship’ worthy, even if a few of the paintings were somewhat decent.

‘Maybe it’s in the other room,’ Avery considered. ‘It’s a supply closet, but it’s bigger than the kiln room.’

I thought about checking, but could hear someone heading down the small hallway, the footsteps sounding soft and light enough to be female.

The intense despair I’d felt earlier coming from Claire had pretty much dissipated completely, very much like a scent blown away by the wind, so I had no idea if it was her or not, but figured it probably was.

Turning toward the doorway, I watched as Claire walked into the room with a lunch tray in both hands, her gaze downcast and somber, her platinum-blonde hair sharply contrasted with her suntanned skin and green eyes.

She didn’t notice me until she’d walked a few paces, seemingly lost in her own world, already halfway to a square table.

Unfortunately, her reaction was far more intense than I was expecting, even for someone startled.

The step she took, just as she glanced up, came down way harder than she initially intended, almost losing her balance, her heart instantly racing, visible fear filling her expression as the tray in her hands started trembling violently.

“K-Kai,” she stammered in complete shock.

I was briefly at a loss of words, not having anticipated her actually being afraid.

Why was she afraid, of all things?

I’d never given her any reason to be afraid. At least, I didn’t think.

I forced my voice to be extra gentle. “Hey Claire. I just stopped by to see how you are doing. Mind if I sit with you while you eat, or…would you rather I leave?”

She didn’t respond right away, just staring at me like she was about to turn and leave herself.

Visibly looking like…she was about to run away.

“I can leave if you want,” I emphasized.

She glanced at the second doorway now to my left, the one that was closed, and then focused back on me.

I couldn’t help but glance that way too, wondering the reason for the look, knowing there was no one inside and that it was just a supply closet.

I then sighed, speaking honestly. “Claire, I didn’t come here to make you feel uncomfortable. If you want me to leave you alone, I will.”

She finally lowered her gaze, her green eyes tight as she stared at the table ahead of her.

Taking a shaky breath, she then took a step forward and proceeded to sit down, suddenly seeming very uncoordinated as she got herself seated on a stool while placing her tray on the table.

I hesitated briefly before moving closer to her, watching as she briefly attempted to open her milk carton, only to abruptly give up and fold her hands in her lap as I stopped on the other side from her.

It was like she was waiting.

Waiting for whatever came next.

I reached down for the stool pushed underneath the table…

And slowly sat down.

Her heart was racing.

FEEDBACK: The next chapter should start to get really interesting, and I have some interesting plans coming up as well.

There are obviously a lot of 'moving parts' at this point.

Any theories?

(Such as theories about Mrs. Hayes, about the MC's height increase, about Claire, about Trey, about how things are going for Delilah and Elizabeth, etc. Some of the things in this chapter might just be random tidbits, and other things might be foreshadowing. I'm just curious to know which parts you think are significant and/or hinting at something 'more.')

Chapter 130 >>

LIST OF STORIES >>

LIST OF ARTWORK >>