The Power Field

Chapter 10

Hope hardly sleeps all night. Strange visions haunt her until the morning. The image of Josie dead, covered in her own blood, flashes before her eyes. Sometimes she herself becomes a victim of witches. Or the two of them die at the hands of the Triad.

In the morning, Hope can hardly count how many times she has woken up in the past night and whether she has actually woken up. Her head is buzzing mercilessly. She is about to go back to bed, but a sudden knock on the door makes her reluctantly get out of bed.

Sleepy and clearly unhappy, she opens the door.

"Hi, honey!" Her mom greets her, looking her daughter up and down.

Hope didn't even bother to wear anything more or less decent. She's still wearing her white tank top and shorts. The girl's hair sticks out randomly in different directions. She can hardly open her eyes. The bright light hitting her retina only makes her headache worse.

"I was sleeping." Hope mumbles, ignoring the greeting.

Hayley frowns and then enters her daughter's room, closing the door behind her.

"Actually, you have your first lesson in fifteen minutes." She replies, starting to pace up and down the bedroom.

Hope thinks about it. With all these experiences, she forgot that she was actually a student of this school. Hope knows that she has lessons soon, but she sincerely hoped to lie in bed a little longer. After all, she doesn't really need this stupid physics.

"And what?" She groans in displeasure. "I don't feel well. And anyway, why didn't you call? I have the right to my personal space." She folds her arms over her chest.

Hayley raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"What's wrong with you? And what do you mean, you don't feel well?" She walks a little deeper into the room and stops at the desk.

Hope immediately remembers that before going to bed, she left the letter and its contents lying in plain sight. Of course, she is going to tell her parents about him, but not now and not in this way.

The redhead quickly rushes to the place where her mom is standing. She ignores the throbbing pain in her temples, which seems to get stronger with every movement. Hope stands with her back to her mother, blocking her view. Then, with a quick movement, she scoops up the letter and its contents in the palm of her hand and throws them into the first drawer she sees.

The next second, she turns around, meeting Haley's curious gaze.

"What's going on, Hope?" The woman asks, still looking suspiciously at her daughter.

"It's all right." The girl replies. Her voice sounds too high. Hayley looks at her skeptically, but doesn't say anything.

"Okay." She drawls. "You said you weren't feeling well. What happened?"

Hope frowns. There's nothing criminal about her having a headache. But Hope can't explain it to Mom. She will start to worry, God forbid, she will call her father. He'll make another scandal. No, Hope definitely doesn't want to step into that swamp again.

"Nothing." She replies a little more sharply than she originally expected. "I just wanted to skip classes." She forces herself to smile. If only her mom knew how badly she really feels.

Hayley frowns in disbelief. Hope sees the muscles in her face tighten.

"Well, Hope, as a good mom, I have to tell you that skipping is bad. So get ready and go to class." She smiles affably.

The girl groans. She would rather spend a few more hours in hell than go to these boring lessons. Besides, Hope has no idea what Adrian is capable of. Maybe he's already told everyone about what happened between them yesterday.