October Wind
an excerpt

The wind was howling outside, I knew it even if I was inside the school hallways and was prevented from hearing it beat on the stone building and swirl the falling leaves. I could feel it in my bones. A nervous tension ran up and down my spine and it made me twitch my fingers in a one-two-three tapping rhythm where I clutched my binder to my chest.
It was third period, one more class to get through and I could mercifully go home and pull the covers over my head. Two periods down, one more to go and then I had a spare – so far no sign of Tierr. I knew my luck wouldn’t hold.
Micci and I didn’t have any classes together on Wednesdays and I was beginning to need those free days with a desperation that scared me. If Micci wasn’t around – Tierr couldn’t reach me. The emotional tight rope I’d been walking was making me a nervous wreck.
I hurried down the math corridor, so nick named because all the math classes were held in the universally puke green rooms here, leaving my Math 20 class in a rush because I’d grabbed the wrong binder this morning and had to make a pit stop back at my locker. I’d made do with blank paper for Math, but I really needed my notes for the upcoming Social class.
I entered the main corridor and as usual it was jammed full of students, divided equally between those hurrying along the sides squishing their bodies tight to the wall trying to skim along the bank of the human river, and those who were lounging in groups taking their sweet time right down the middle of the wide hall.
Caught behind Trent Mensch and his football buddies, the center of the offensive line no less, I couldn’t go right without risking disembowelment on the water fountain, and I couldn’t go left without getting swept up in the tide heading through the big double doors of the library.
I forced myself to go at their pace, barely a breath behind them (I only had a few minutes to grab the right binder and head for the opposite side of the school) and as soon as they entered the intersection I needed I squeezed past them and turned into the hallway of lockers, intent on getting past without touching any of them and accidentally turning their attention upon me.
As soon as I rounded the corner and looked up a blast of icy air hit me and all the breath was sucked from my lungs. There he was. Lounging back against my locker, one foot up part way, his knee bent, arms crossed on his chest, head down. Irrationally as I stood there, my heart hammering painfully in my chest, I thought of a poster of Jimmy Dean I had seen once. Tierr was mimicking the pose almost exactly. All he was missing was the dangling cigarette.
Someone bumped me from behind and I had to make a grab for my purse before all the contents were emptied onto the busy hallway. When I looked up again, Tierr was watching me, his cold blue eyes expressionless, his face showing no pleasure, but thankfully no anger either.
I forced myself to walk to my locker, still clutching my binder to my chest like a shield, and as I approached he straightened up and moved away so I could open it. 20-7-21, my hands were shaking so bad I could barely enter the combination. I worried for a moment about Tierr seeing my combination but I knew he could open it anyway even without it if he really wanted to.
So I put on a show of bravado and opened my locker trying to be casual. By the time I had switched binders he still hadn’t said a word. It was a sick game he played, making no sound, waiting for me to unnerve myself. It felt like my heart was trying to climb up my throat and I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“What? What do you want?” I asked him still facing my locker. With exaggerated carefulness I closed my locker and reinserted the lock. I turned to face him only to find he’d moved beside me to face me, and now leaned with one shoulder on Micci’s locker beside me slouching down to meet me at eye level.
“You’re coming with me.” He was so close I could smell the cologne he used mingling with the tang of his leather jacket.
“No,” I cleared my throat and tried again. “I can’t.” I put all the sincerity I could into my voice leaning forward. He had to believe me. “I have a Social class next. I’ve missed the last two and if I don’t go I’ll be in real trouble.”
“I don’t care.” His voice, as usual, was just as expressionless as his eyes and I knew he meant it.
“Well I do. And I can’t go. There’s nothing I can do about it.” Insanity grabbed a hold of me and I turned my back on him to walk away.
“Silver”
“Don’t call me that!” I spun around and was actually hissing at the man, trying to keep my voice low. “And shut up, people can hear you.”
Tierr merely raised a dark eyebrow, he knew the weapon he had, and I knew he would us it. I waited and sure enough he brandished it.
“If you don’t come with me now, I’ll go myself. And I’ll leave Micci somewhere….” He didn’t finish the sentence and didn’t need to.
I was shaking so hard now and there was a cold lump in my stomach that made me want to throw up. I couldn’t miss another class, I just couldn’t. But I also couldn’t let Tierr walk out of the school alone.
Without a word I turned back to my locker and traded my binder for my coat. It was cold out today and I had no desire to be traipsing around downtown Edmonton in my Tshirt and jeans without the benefit of a jacket. Tierr I could see was in his customary black leather jacket and dark jeans. At least when he let Micci come back she wouldn’t freeze.
I sighed in resignation, trying to get my heart to calm down and headed quickly for the stairs leading down to an outside exit. I wanted to avoid the main stairs and tried to lead Tierr towards the back of the school where one of the lesser used entrances lurked.
“Hey Willow, Micci. What’s up?” I ignored Stacy as Tierr and I swept past, intent on getting outside quickly and trying to avoid Tierr opening his mouth and making things worse. As we neared the door Tierr grabbed my upper arm from behind and brought his mouth close to my ear.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” He said. I jerked my arm from his grasp, hoped like Hell Stacy wasn’t still watching and hurried down the stairs. I swear I could still feel his fingers locked around my arm and it ached where I knew bruises were forming.
Ten minutes later we were seated on the bus heading to the transit station, neither one of us saying a word. The grey concrete world of North East Edmonton in middle October slid past me, distorted behind the scarred plexi glass of the bus window. I felt just as grey and emotionless as the scenery. Only Tierr seemed to consist of any colour. A solid black presence beside me, I perched as far over as the seat would allow, terrified to touch him.
He was very warm, I could feel him even though we weren’t touching and I silently prayed for him to go away. My left hand began to thump against the seat in a steady rhythm and it wasn’t until Tierr ordered me to stop that I realized I was drumming again.
“I can’t help it”. I said belligerent. “You make me do it.” It was true. It was only when he was around, or when I was scared that I wanted to drum. I knew he hated it too, I knew it made it difficult for him to use his Vec and anything that hindered Tierr had to be good for me. In the long run.
But for the time I quit. It wouldn’t do me any immediate good to piss him off. All I had to do was keep him happy, do what he wanted, give him nothing and eventually he’d get bored or frustrated and just leave. He had in the past and I was counting on it today.