Read Online Student Bodies by Sean Cummings - Free Book Online Page B

want people sitting three desks away from me.
    Wow… Am I that shallow?
    â€œBecause I don’t want to become him,” I said quietly. “I guess that makes me a terrible person.”
    A pulse of my mother’s magic caressed my senses and, in the world of my shared memories, I turned to face her. Her shadow image gazed at me with a look of understanding in her eyes. “It makes you human, Julie. That boy could be the loneliest soul at your school, but even back in my day, high school was hard work. I’d have likely felt the same way that you do. But it wouldn’t kill you to at least throw him a friendly ‘hello’ every once in a while, just to let him know that he isn’t entirely alone in the world. Now, what else did you see?”
    The memory-sound of the restaurant manager shouting at Travis Butler filled my ears. I directed my gaze at the front counter. I caught the tail-end of Travis heading out the door and I froze the image in my mind.
    â€œThere goes Travis,” I said in a near whisper. “Out the door and straight into traffic… And I couldn’t save him.”
    Mom’s hand squeezed mind again and she said, “Look, he’s covered with larvae.”
    Suddenly my mental pairing with Mom ended. She released her grip and I slowly opened my eyes to see her staring hard at the parking lot outside the restaurant.
    â€œThis confirms our suspicions,” I said with a hint of dread in my voice.
    She nodded. “That boy was most certainly infected with Soul Worms. We don’t have any physical evidence other than the residual magic here, at the spot where Travis Butler died and at the C-Train Station.”
    I nodded and glanced at my watch. “I need to corner Mike Olsen… I think this is where we part company for now, Mom. If you show up on his doorstep alongside me, his parents will probably think that Mike got me pregnant or something.”
    Mom snorted and her lips arched up into a thin smile. “Please, Julie, one crisis at a time! Go there now, talk to this boy and see what you can find out.”
    Â 
    Mom dropped me off a block and a half away from Mike Olsen’s house. It was beginning to get dark outside, and I knew that as soon as the sun went down the temperature would plummet another ten degrees.
    Did I mention that I hate winter?
    Thin plumes of white smoke drifted high into the air from the chimneys of each house on the street while multi-colored Christmas lights twinkled in the gathering darkness. After about five minutes of crunching through the snow, I spotted Mike Olsen’s house. His family has some money. Parked on their triple car driveway was a BMW SUV, a brand new Ford pickup truck with a pair of shining new snowmobiles strapped onto a platform atop the box and Mike Olsen’s snow-covered Audi A-4.
    And there was a city police car with the engine running.
    I stopped dead in my tracks. “What the hell?” I whispered.
    I reached for my phone so I could text Marcus about what I was seeing, but then I remembered that Mom had zapped it. I couldn’t stand outside on the street all night and it was clear there would be no chance to question Mike Olsen if the cops were going to be hanging at his house for any length of time. I was just about to head back home when I felt a faint tingle of magic, like a draft sneaking in through a crack in a wall. I dashed behind a snow bank and snapped my charm into my Shadowcull’s band. Instantly the tingle of magic became more pronounced, pulsing every few seconds like a faint heartbeat.
    Somewhere nearby was another practitioner and I knew that whoever it was couldn’t be a white witch; the sharp tang of evil tainted the air. I stretched out my hand to home in on where the energy was the strongest. A minivan drove by, kicking up a spray of ice and snow in its wake as I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth together in concentration. I pivoted my body on the balls