- They were servants of the darkness and for the longest time, Harlow Alden was reasonably content with being peculiar... Though that was until the day she met the boy who made her feel less peculiar...
The Alden family was atypical, gifted with po...
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JASPER HALE WROTE IN STRAIGHT, NEAT LETTERS. She found herself transfixed by the motion but a small, sweet giggle from the widow dragged her attention away-- Harriet was taking great amusement from her distraction. She was waving her legs back and forth where she sat and whistling to herself. They were mentally the same age but Harriet would forever be trapped in a children's body and her maturity was unmoving no matter the time that passed. She found it in both parts entertaining and disgusting that Harlow was so transfixed with the gorgeous pale boy.
"Harlow?" he asked and she frowned, turning her attention back to him-- she'd slipped through the veil a degree, dissociating from the room to pay attention to Harriet. To Jasper, it must have appeared that she was in a deep daydream. Snapping back to reality, Harriet's laughter decreased as though she'd been submerged in water and the sounds of the classroom rang in Harlow's ears, making her cringe for a moment. The Shadow World was calm and silent, beautifully silent compared to the chaotic real world.
"I am sorry, did you say something?" She wondered, careful to shake herself as though she was resurfacing from a daydream and on the one hand, she had been. She must have looked away in her own little world, staring out the window. It was only her first day and she was already isolating herself as the weird kid in the close-knit school. Jasper stared at her for a second longer, as though he was going to say something entirely revealing but instead, he just shook his head slightly.
"You seemed distracted. I was wondering if you'd like to work together on this," he gestured to the workbook and she looked across at it, scanning her eyes back and forth.
"Um, yes. That would be great, thank you," she frowned, shaking herself off as she assessed the book in question, doing her best to ignore Harriet as she jumped off the windowsill. As much as she wished to banish her little sister to the Shadow World while she was busy, she couldn't bring herself to do so. It felt so cruel to do so, even though Harriet had died long ago and the Shadow world was where she belonged.
"What answer do you have to question one?" Jasper wondered and she looked at her blank page, and then up at the clock. She had done it again-- time had slipped away from her beyond the veil. It happened far too often, time travelled differently there. It had been twenty minutes already.
"Oh um, I don't have anything yet," she shook her head and laughed. "I'm sorry, I'm not usually like this."
"First day jitters, I'd expect," he smiled politely and slid his sheet of paper toward her. Harlow was shocked but not about to argue when the page revealed a stream of relevant information on the topic.
"Thank you," she sounded more shocked than she'd been expecting and he laughed slightly.
"Anytime, Harlow," he nodded when he said her name and she was in slight awe at the way he'd pronounced it. There was a hint of something different in his tone but she couldn't place it. Instead, she chose to return to her work and time thankfully continued to speed on by as she did. She did her best to ignore the incredibly good-looking boy at her side-- the word boy didn't quite seem to fit when it came to Jasper. Her powers continued to jump with him at her side, more erratic and outside of her control than usual, as though he was a charge for them, increasing them.
