Seven Minutes to Midnight

25

I woke the next morning tucked in my bed with the sun streaming through my windows. My fingernails had dirt underneath them as I reached out to turn my digital clock to face me. One o'clock in the afternoon.

Every ounce of me wanted to throw an arm over my eyes and go back to sleep, but a sudden thought had me sprinting to the bathroom.

In the mirror I examined every inch of my neck and chest. Aside from some smudge of dirt, I saw no marks. Nothing like the hickeys Veronica had, and Frank might have had. I pulled at the dark circles under my eyes, then washed my face and prodded my skin again. It was pale, as usual, but didn't feel any different and certainly didn't look any paler.

So Lane hadn't done anything to bind me to him as he had Frank and Veronica. Why was he toying with me? I glared at myself in the mirror. Well, if he was going to play games, I would need to learn how to play, too.

I couldn't think of anyone personally who might know anything about mind control, so after I showered, I rushed down to the library on my bike (with newly inflated tires, after last time). I had just enough time for a quick search on the catalog computer and to grab a stack of books that seemed likely. For good measure, I added a couple of books about vampire lore to the pile.

That was a fairly hefty pile to be carrying home from the library on a bike, even with the help of my messenger bag.

Back at home, I sat down and cracked open the first book, with featured a black cover and an evil eye staring out at me. I couldn't help but imagine the paranoid conspiracy theorists this sort of book might cater to.

Several books I simply leafed through, looking for some kind of "how-to" section. One book I actually started reading, as it spoke of the techniques used by the Nazis. I was deep into a book called The Necromicon when I fell asleep.

***

The next day I tried again. This time, I knew better than to try reading this stuff. I searched YouTube and found a couple of video lectures on the topic and fell asleep listening. At least my subconscious was learning.

***

By Monday morning I was still tired, but I was determined to go to school. Whatever had kept Frank and Veronica from school hadn't happened to me (I was pretty sure, anyway). And I wanted to try out some of what I'd learned about mind control.

Veronica and I walked over to where Lane was standing by Frank's locker as usual.

In my head I pictured a brick wall, covering the area of my skull behind my forehead and focused everything I had into only thinking about the brick wall.

As you can imagine, this made concentrating on little things like where I was going and following the conversation babbling from Veronica's mouth fairly difficult. I ricocheted off of a few other students, who threw comments of "Watch where you're going, freak" in my direction. Some smart-aleck yelled, "Zombie on the loose!"

Which made it quite difficult to keep my concentration on the brick wall.

Lane took one look at me and laughed. I barely heard Frank and Veronica's echoes—Lane's laugh wasn't a mocking one, as theirs were. It was gentle. "Silly Amy," he said, then added (for everyone else's benefit, I suppose), "You know vampires don't behave like that. Are we a coven of zombies, then?"

My wall of bricks crumbled a bit.

"Amy, seriously, you should see your face!" Veronica exclaimed.

Frank did an imitation of me, staggering around with his brow furrowed and a blank stare on his face, slamming into the lockers. Veronica was holding her stomach as she laughed. Meanwhile, Lane watched me with an amused smile.

Do you really think you can keep this up forever?

The foreign thought appeared in my head, and completely obliterated that brick wall. Still, I struggled not to bend to his will. I'll try as long as I can, I thought back at him, my words spear-sharp. I don't like people controlling me.

But I want you, Amy. I want you to want me, too. His blue eyes shone with calculated sincerity.

Wouldn't you prefer to capture me without all your supernatural powers? I crossed my arms and leveled my gaze at Lane. ...I wonder if you could even do that.

Lane gave Veronica and Frank each some command with his eyes. I imagined his voice, Stop that, you look like fools, because they immediately stopped and hung back, looking all the world like children caught with their hands in a cookie jar. Then Lane stepped closer to me.

And he took my hands in his.

This time I did not feel that thrum of power that made me weak in the knees. "I accept your challenge." His eyes met mine with a steady gaze. "I could not bear to see you running into the welcoming arms of the Other."

He gave me a chaste little kiss on the cheek, then linked his arm in mine.

"How charming," I said dryly. Yet relief washed over me.