Read Online Rupture by Curtis Hox - Free Book Online Page B

for a few more minutes before the disharmony overtook her. “You’re way out of sorts, Joss. It’s still in you.”
    He whimpered. “I know. I need to fix this. I can’t live like this. Help me.”
    She inhaled a deep breath, knowing her mother would be up her butt about this, but decided to do it anyway. “You didn’t win. You’re a victim. I’ll try to help you. Just be brave.” A desperation in the set of his eyes arrested her. She thought she looked directly at the Great Enemies and that they looked back at her ... and they wanted her. “In the clinic, when I asked why you were here, you said you changed. You never told me what you changed into. Tell me now. I need to know what kind of entity you channeled. It’ll let me know what’s got you now.”
    As if he might tell her what he’d had for lunch, he said, “It was nothing, although it freaked everyone out who saw it.” She waited. “I looked flat.”
    Simone stepped back again.
    She stared at him as the horrible truth dawned on her. He was, indeed, under the eyes of the Evil Ones. She felt her heart ache for him because of how far he’d fallen. To have channeled such an entity of illogic meant they had been after him for some time. She was centered enough she didn’t cry out or show her anguish in any way. But she had to state the truth so that everyone could hear.
    “Joss Beckwith, you are a Child of the Dark Void, the Frozen Gulf, the Endless Abyss and the Twelve Hells of the Mind. You are caught in the Storm of Turmoil. You have been claimed by the Blood Tricad—Dagons and Persens and Rigalens—the Army of Unreason and their Seeds of Discord. You are my sworn enemy, and I will save you from the Great Enemies of Mankind, or destroy you. May the Unnamed Blessed Lords of Order and Right and Goodness guide me.” She didn’t have to push herself through the crowd after they heard that.
    Principal Smalls stood with his mouth open. Coach Buzz looked at her like she’d sprouted horns. The student body stared with fear and loathing. They knew what they had heard. Simone had declared herself one of the Alters who believed the earth was a place of conflict between supernatural beings from across the universe. She was an advocate of what smart peopled called the Crazy Thesis.
    She couldn’t help herself, annoyed as hell by their looks, and their inability to see what he was, so she stopped in the middle of them. “I’m going for my second ice cream of the day. Anyone want to join me?”
    A few students backed away.
    Kimberlee appeared. “I could go for another. I want to try the caramel swirl.”
    Arm in arm they moved through the group and walked away.
    “Thanks,” Simone said. “I think I just blew my chance of winning the Senior Send Off, didn’t I?”
    “Maybe not,” Kimberlee said. “You might grow on them. I can’t believe what happened to Joss.”
    They moved even closer together and walked away from the horror that was Joss Beckwith. Simone’s mother and brother would soon be there, as would members of the Alumni Association Council, and then the real fireworks would start.
    * * *
    When the first of new, but discreet, limousines pulled in, the students mingled around the main campus, happy the day’s activities had been cancelled once again. A wave of excitement rippled through everybody as they watched Principal Smalls greet a tiny, elderly woman who looked like she might need a walker to get in the building. She also looked like she might have once taught Home Economics—a course never offered at Sterling—with her chaste gray dress buttoned to her chin and her hair up in a tight bun. A large bodyguard with a blank face who looked strong enough to tip over the car escorted her inside.
    “Mrs. Ogilvey,” Principal Smalls said, “welcome back to the Sterling School.”
    She looked around at the campus and smiled. “You’ve expanded since I visited last.” She waved the bodyguard back to the car.
    Principal Smalls guided her