Seer

Timothy

He’s breathing, but not awake. I am afraid that I hurt him, by grabbing his mind that way. I had told Angel I would never do that again, after that first time I tried it, but there wasn’t anything else I could do. I had to stop Jonathan. He was going to hurt Natalie.

I didn’t really even think about it. I just reached out and grabbed his mind, to make him stop. It worked. He stopped. But I did not expect him to faint, or fall. I do not understand what happened.

I know that later Natalie and I will be able to ask Angel about it.

But for now, there is a big ruckus on the playground. Teachers are running over to us, and kids are running behind them to see what is going on. Natalie is sitting with Gabe, who is holding his ankle, and looking kind of pale and green. I can tell he is in a lot of pain, from the expression on his face.

Natalie looks like she feels terrible. She’s worried about Gabe, but even more worried about Jonathan. I can tell she’s trying to listen to Angel, but I don’t think it is really making her feel any better. I wonder what he’s telling her.

The vice principal gets here first, and looks at us all on the ground under the jungle gym. “What happened?” she asks.

I look at Natalie, but she’s too worried to say anything. Gabe is in too much pain. And obviously Jonathan isn’t going to answer. It has to be me.

I don’t think anybody but us even knows what happened. That’s probably good. “Jonathan and Gabe fell off the jungle gym,” I tell her. She doesn’t need to know about the whole Demon thing, or the fight. It wouldn’t help anything. “Gabe’s ankle is injured. Jonathan is breathing but unconscious.” I am just telling her the facts. Somehow it feels easier to do this than I would have expected. It makes me feel more grown up than I ever have before.

She pulls out her walkie-talkie and tells the office that two children are injured and they should call for an ambulance. Uh, yeah, I guess that has to happen now. Then she and a couple of other teachers duck under the bars of the jungle gym to get to Gabe and Jonathan. Some of the other teachers can’t, because they would be too big to fit through the bars. The bell rings, so they start telling the crowd of kids that is gathering to get to class.

Natalie and I are shooed away from Gabe and Jonathan. Natalie doesn’t want to leave Gabe, but I take her hand and pull her away. I know that Gabe is going to be okay, because the adults can take care of him.

So we slip back out through the bars of the jungle gym and go stand next to the swings. “What happened?” I ask her quietly, when I know nobody is listening to us. We keep watching as more people come over. The school nurse is under the bars opening Jonathan’s eyelids and shining a light into his eyes. Another teacher is helping Gabe scoot back through the bars so he is out from under the jungle gym.

She stares at everything happening while she talks. “Angel said that he and Guardian and Aaron, and even Lady and Knight, yelled as loud as they could at Demon to stop. So he had to stop yelling at Jonathan.” She finally looks away from the jungle gym to look at me. “He said that you are the one who stopped Jonathan? How?”

“I grabbed his mind. You remember when I first started trying to talk to Guardian, I was doing it wrong? Angel said it wasn’t a nice way to do it. But you were about to fall and Jonathan wasn’t stopping. So I had to do it. It worked, but I think it made Jonathan pass out. I’m afraid that I hurt him.”

Her eyebrows go up and her forehead wrinkles. “Angel said it isn’t a head injury. He doesn’t know what’s wrong.” She looks down at her hands. “There’s something else.”

“What?”

“Angel says that he can’t find Demon.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, apparently Jonathan’s guardian isn’t here any more. He didn’t just stop making Jonathan attack me. He left.”

“Why? Because they were all yelling at him?”

“He says they don’t know. They’ve never heard of a guardian leaving their human before, ever. They don’t know where he went. They don’t know what is happening, with Demon or with Jonathan.”

She and I look at each other. I even look into her eyes. We are both feeling the same thing. This isn’t just confusing. It’s scary. We don’t know what is happening, or what will happen next.

What have we done?

Gabe

I’m super worried about Jonathan. They won’t let me see him. The nurse and teachers are all crowded around him when the ambulance arrives. It drives right up over the curb onto the playground, and parks next to the jungle gym.

One of the teachers waits with me while the paramedics go take care of Jonathan. Obviously I can wait, even though my ankle feels like it is literally killing me. But why hasn’t Jonathan woken up yet? I know that he didn’t hit his head. I made sure of it. I have no idea how I was able to jump over there in time, but somehow I made it, and he crashed into me, before we both hit the ground. I’m pretty sure he was already passed out when he fell.

The paramedics put a neck brace on Jonathan, and very carefully lift him out of the jungle gym. One of them brings over a stretcher and they load him onto it. He still isn’t moving. I am starting to have an anxiety attack about him. “Can I talk to my sister?” I ask the teacher. She was watching Jonathan too. She looks down at me, and sees how worried I am, and she pats me on the shoulder.

“Of course,” she tells me, “you wait here.” She gets up and walks over to where Natalie and Timothy are waiting, staring at us, their eyes huge. She leads them back over to me. “You’ll be okay here with your sister, Gabe, I think? I want to go see if I can help with Jonathan. You stay right here. Don’t try to move.”

“Yeah, okay,” I say, relieved that she’s going to leave us alone for a minute. I am dying to hear Natalie explain what’s going on.

She knows what I want and starts right away, before I have to ask any questions. She knows we probably only have a minute to talk. Quietly, she says, “Angel and the other guardians all yelled at Demon so loud that he had to stop telling Jonathan what to do. But when Jonathan kept pushing me, Timothy used a method he learned to get into his mind to stop him. I know that sounds weird, but I’ll have to explain it later.”

I know my mouth is hanging open. “Uh, okay.” She can tell that next I want to know what is wrong with Jonathan.

“Angel doesn’t know why Jonathan is unconscious. He says you didn’t let him hit his head, so it isn’t that.” I see tears come into her eyes. “Thank you, Gabe. Thank you for catching him. It could have been so much worse if he’d landed on his head. Thank you.”

“I don’t know how I did it,” I confess to her. “It’s like I was moving faster than possible. It was very weird.”

She gets a thoughtful look on her face. “That might be something Angel can explain later. We’ll talk about everything when we all get home. You’ll know everything we know, okay?”

I nod. “Yeah, that’s good.” I still feel grateful that she has been including me in everything, although this is some freaky stuff going on. I’d rather know than not know.

The teacher comes back over to me, together with one of the paramedics. In the few seconds we have left before they get here, Natalie leans close to me and whispers, “One other thing. Demon is missing. Angel has no idea why.”

I lean back and stare at her. “Well, good,” I say. “We got rid of him.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not that easy. You can’t get rid of guardians. This is super weird, and Angel is freaked out by it. He doesn’t understand where Demon is, or what’s wrong with Jonathan. Something very strange is happening.”

Strange? Like this wasn’t all totally strange? How can it be even more strange? I stare at her, as the paramedic kneels down next to me. “You hurt your ankle?” he says. “Let me check it out.”