Chapter 192

Hot herbal tea, I sat down at Asher’s computer to write a statement.

“I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted.

He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Just write what you know. Be honest. Stick to the facts. They will handle the rest.”

With his help, I wrote honestly about what I had witnessed on the website, as well as some vague details from my own personal experience.

I didn’t include names or places, to protect myself, but did include enough of what happened that the situation could be understood. Due to the existence of this website, run by Academy students, I had been attacked.

That should be enough reason for the Academy to act.

At the bottom, I included the website address and Lamar’s login.

I decided to submit this anonymously in an attempt to keep the attention off of me. I wasn’t exactly sure what the Academy would do, and I didn’t want anyone to find a way to tie it back to me in case they decided to do nothing.

When the statement was complete, Asher printed it out and folded it into an envelope.

“What now?” I asked.

We waited until dawn, then crossed campus to the Student Affairs Office. They weren’t open yet, so I slipped the envelope through the mail flap.

With it gone from my hands, I sighed in relief.

It had been a simple thing, typing a letter and delivering it here, but I felt like I had achieved a monumental task.

Asher pulled me into a hug. “I’m proud of you,” he whispered in my ear.

I was proud of me too.

I spent another hour with Asher over breakfast, but then I needed to go back home to get ready for the day. I had classes today, and I couldn’t afford to miss them. Not with the deadline of my academic exam quickly approaching.

“You sure you’re going to be okay?” Asher asked me.

We stood on the sidewalk, ready to part. Neither of us seemed like we wanted to walk away yet, no matter the necessity.

“I have to be,” I said.

He frowned. He didn’t like that answer.

My heart filled with fondness for him. “I’ll be okay,” I amended.

That seemed to only marginally appease him. But he didn’t press me.

He looked back at me twice as he walked away. I knew because I watched him the entire way.

Only when he had turned a corner and disappeared did I begin my own way back to my dorm.

At the start of class, we took a quiz like always. I had been doing really well lately, acing most of my tests.

However, this time, when the professor returned my graded quiz, a bright red ‘B-’ was written on the top.

Despite my best efforts, my grades were starting to slip again.

How could this be? With all my studying, all my hours spend in the library, how could I backslide so badly?

If I couldn’t ace these quizzes, what hope did I have to pass the much harder, much longer transfer exam?

My worries distracted me for the rest of class. By the time it was over, I felt defeated and ashamed.

I left class in a rush. I needed time alone, but didn’t think I’d make it the whole way to my room without breaking down.

Instead, I walked as quickly as I could to the bathroom.

I went straight to the sink and splashed cool water on my face, hoping to help fight the tears.

It didn’t totally help. They seemed set on falling.

“Cynthia?”

Aimee came in through the door behind me. Seeing me at the sink, she hurried over to me. “Are you okay?”

I wasn’t. “I got a B- on the quiz.”

Aimee would understand why that would be enough to upset me. If I had passed the athletic exam, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about grades. But because I had forfeited my chance at being an athlete, I couldn’t just pass classes.

I had to excel.

“It’s okay,” Aimee said.

“It’s not. The quiz was easy. I should have aced it.”

“You’ve experienced a trauma, Cynthia. It will take time to recover.”

Squeezing my eyes closed, I vehemently shook my head. Fear curdled within me, spiraling ugly, shaky roots through my limbs.

“I don’t have time, Aimee. You know that. I’m going to fail the transfer exam, and then I’ll have to leave school, and then –”

Aimee’s sharp gasp made me open my eyes.

Lamar stood just inside the door, looking at us.

Aimee squared her shoulders. “How did you get in here? How did you get out of jail?”

The blood drained from my face. I thought I might be sick.

“Get away from us!” Aimee shouted. Rushing Lamar, she attempted to slap him, but her hand went straight through him without making contact.

She looked at her hand a moment, confused, before turning to me. “Cynthia, your power!”

My… power?

Oh. My projection.

Lamar wasn’t real. This was another apparition.

I quickly closed my eyes and released the projection. When I looked again, Lamar was gone.

My tears refreshed. My body quaked with new fear.

“It’s okay,” Aimee said, returning to me. “Everything’s okay.”

But it wasn’t. Not at all.

This was so much worse than my accidental apparitions of Asher. To stop those, I only had to distract myself from thoughts of Asher.

But this? I hadn’t even been thinking of Lamar, and he’d appeared. I had only been… scared.

Did this mean that every time I felt afraid in the future, I risked Lamar appearing?

Distractions wouldn’t work this time. How would I combat fear?

I was crying fiercely now.

Aimee stepped closer. “Can I hug you?”

“Please,” I sobbed.

So she did.

“We’ll find some way to stop this.” Aimee sounded so confident. “If we all put our heads together, nothing can stop us, right? You, me, Asher, and Nicole. We’re like a dream team.”

She was trying to make me smile. I wasn’t quite ready for that, but the thought did bring me some measure of comfort.

“We’ll help you,” Aimee said. “You aren’t alone.”

Before the Academy, I had to stand all on my own. Even my first few months here had been difficult, with only Joseph to rely on.

But now, I had so many people around me – friends, willing to help me however they could. Their concern and their kindness had helped me overcome so many obstacles already.

Together, there didn’t seem to be anything we couldn’t accomplish.

“Do you think I can still pass the exam?” I asked, voice low and trembling. I didn’t want leave the Academy, the place where my friends were.

Aimee laughed a little. “Pass it? I think you’ll ace it.”

This time, I did smile. It was small and shaky, but it was real.

Her confidence in me seeped down into my bones and ignited my own.

Aimee had been right about everything. I had been through a trauma. It would take me time to get through it.

But I could survive this. I could pass the transfer exam and continue my dream.

And my apparitions of Lamar…

A now-familiar twinge of fear shivered through me. I pushed it down.

I would find a way to overcome this obstacle too.

I had to.