Phantom Shadows

Chapter 5

The bus trip the next day was far different. Dex and I discovered that both Moxie and Alec caught the same bus as us so of course I sat with Moxie and Dex sat with Alec. It was weird seeing Alec just sitting there all normal as if he hadn't been killed and brought back to life by Niko's supernatural time powers less than 24 hours ago. The boys were talking about god knows what together, so I turned to Moxie.

"When are we gonna tell him?" I asked her.

"Bout what?" She questioned, staring down at her phone.

"Oh don't 'bout what' me. You know 'bout what'." I replied sassily, using air quotes around the 'bout what'.

"Look, I don't know. You have to ask Niko. He's kinda the one leading our group." She never took her eyes off her phone. I nodded, though I doubt she even looked up to see it, as the bus came to a stop, indicating that we'd arrived at school.

We all filed off the bus and headed to our lockers. I'd managed to get Moxie off her phone and we were having a rather amusing conversation about rubber chickens, don't ask me why because I seriously don't know. We arrived at the lockers and saw the others all standing there chatting. I'd found out last night that only Niko, Alec, Moxie and Esme are Hunters, Lucy and Sara are just normal, but they know about it.

"Hey Thea, I love your top." Sara squealed. I'd also found out that she was the girly fashionista of the group.

"Thanks, I guess." I replied as I joined the group. "Soooooo, what're we talking about. Better not be a continuation of Moxie and I's conversation." As soon as I'd said that, Moxie burst out laughing. Esme opened her mouth to ask but I stopped her. "You don't want to know." I giggled while a concerned look spread across her face. I looked around at the group and as soon as I looked into Niko's dark eyes I was swept up in another vision.

----It was different this time. This time it wasn't a make out session but rather we were fighting the Phantoms. Niko had the same long sword he had yesterday afternoon and I had a smaller, but just as epic, one and I must admit, I looked awesome. A hoard of Phantoms came running at us and as we slashed and fought, more came running out of the woods.

"We won't win this." I called out to Niko, stabbing a Phantom in the chest and watching as three more ran into its place.

"I know," He replied, trying to hold off the two that were attacking him. "But we have to keep trying. I turned to look at him for a second when I felt a harsh sting as a Phantom came at me from behind. I heard Niko screaming out my name before I fell into void-like darkness. ----

I came back to my own body to find Moxie and Dex fussing over me, making sure I'm ok. I opened my mouth to tell them I was fine, but my vision started going blurry and dizziness overtook me. The last thing I saw was Niko running over to me before the black engulfed once again.

"Nikolas, you have to go to class. I have a spare, I can watch her."

"Moxie, don't make me tell you again. I'm not leaving her."

"Please. You still need an education."

"Moxie!"

"Ok, ok. I'll go. I'll be in the library if you change your mind." The shuffling of feet and the closing of a door followed the small conversation.

"Niko?" I muttered groggily, sitting up and bit and opening my eyes. Nikolas shuffled forwards on his chair.

"Yea, I'm here." Where was here? I looked around, taking in the white wall and cupboards of first aid boxes. Nurses office. I turned back to look at him only to see a concerned frown forming on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. He took my hand in his and looked up to meet my eyes.

"There's one thing I may have left off about the visions." He said quietly.

"What?" I sat up and spun to face him. He sighed.

"They predict the future." He told me so quietly that you might think he hadn't spoken at all. For a few seconds I didn't realise, then it hit me.

"The future?"

"Look, I promise I won't let anything happen to you." Nikolas squeezed my hand and I looked at him with a half-smile. "We'll fix it." I nodded. "Now c'mon, if we hurry we can still catch lunch." He grabbed my other hand and pulled me up from the bed.

"For your information," I started once I was on two feet again, "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself." I smirked as Niko took my hand again and led me towards the agora.

"So," Niko smiled as he looked down at our intertwined hands, "Does this mean we're official now?"

"Shut up." I giggled as we entered the agora to join our friends. As soon as we sat down I was bombarded with 'are you ok's and 'what happened's but the one that stood out to me was Dexter with his rambling on about getting a sword.

"Please can I?" He begged.

"Woah! What's all this about getting a sword?" I asked, silencing the others.

"How else am I supposed to fight the Phantoms, Thea?" I stared at him, dumbfounded. "They said they'd told you about that."

"They have but if you think you're going anywhere near a sword, young man, you have another thing coming." Dex frowned and slumped onto the table as the rest of us laughed. We ate our lunch as we chatted about all sorts of things, swords were somewhere in the mix, until the end of lunch approached.

"Hey, does anyone else have a spare next period?" Alec asked as we all stood up, putting our lunch containers in the bin.

"I do. Wanna study?" I replied.

"Sure." Alec kissed Lucy goodbye as she and Sara went off to their class. Esme skipped off with Dex, I swear anymore of this and I'll start shipping them, and Niko and Moxie went off their own separate ways, not before Niko had kissed me on the forehead making me go a bit red. Alec and I then headed off in the direction of the library.