Page 131 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“So what’s going to happen to her now?”

“I have no idea. Nothing bad, I’m sure.”

Norma’s final assurance was so unconvincing that Will practically ignored it. Nothing bad? Christine had lost her parents. She might remember that they died by her hand. Maybe not, but that didn’t make the situation any easier. She wasn’t coming back to school, so she probably wasn’t even in this town anymore. Will doubted that cooperating with the Agency was her choice, since she hadn’t been aware of what was happening to her. None of it sounded like an offer of help.

It sounded like an attempt to get rid of a problem.

That terrified Will even more. The realization that in this world, victims didn’t always receive the support they deserved. That sometimes they were treated as a threat. Norma could pretend everything was fine, but Will was willing to bet she had no real idea what happened to the people taken by the Agency. Because it was easiest not to think about it. He himself would have gladly taken comfort in the knowledge that someone was taking care of Christine, if he wasn’t so terrified that he’d be in her place at any moment.

Paranormals didn’t have an easy life. They had to hide what they were, which meant practically living a lie, constantly pretending and controlling themselves at every turn so as not to expose their true nature. But Will was beginning to see that ordinary people, who accidentally got entangled or were dragged into the affairs of the Different, were in an even worse position.

Will left the exam in under forty minutes, unsure if he’d answered all the questions. His thoughts kept returning to Christine, and he analyzed his own situation through her lens.

Instead of going straight home, Will found a secluded hallway and sat on a windowsill. He took a deep breath, looking out the window, with no real idea what to do. Just yesterday, he’d been telling himself he would keep it a secret for as long as he had to—that he would just wait it out, as if things would resolve themselves. Because if the demon became active, someone would notice, right? And then they’d cast it out, and Will would have no say in any of it.

But what he’d heard today… That Christine had murdered her parents… Well, the demon had murdered them, using her body to do it, but she hadn’t been able to fight back, even when it came to people so close to her. What if Will did the same? Even if he killed a stranger, he wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt, so how would he feel if he did it to someone he cared about? People from his small group? His grandparents? Danny?

It was too much.

At one point, he heard footsteps. He only looked up as the person was passing him. It was Blake. Alden glanced at him but didn’t stop. Well, not at first. After a few feet, something must have occurred to him, because he halted and turned back.

“What’s with you?” he muttered, walking over to Will.

“Nothing,” Will replied weakly.

“Did you fail?”

“How should I know?”

“If you don’t know whether you passed or not after leaving an exam, I wouldn’t count on much.”

Will closed his eyes for a moment. He was in no mood for Alden’s bullshit.

“Are you feeling sick?” Blake’s next question had a note of concern.

And Will really wanted to brush him off, but the situation was so overwhelming that he couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I think… I think I might be possessed by a demon,” he confessed, watching Alden carefully.

He expected shock, but Blake didn’t even seem surprised. On the contrary. The look on his face seemed to indicate it was something he had suspected or at least considered.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I have weird powers that I have absolutely no control over?” Will snorted bitterly.

“Like many beginner wizards.”

“They don’t belong to me. I don’t use them consciously. And not subconsciously, either.”

“How can you know what you’re doing subconsciously?” Blake asked condescendingly.

“I just know they’re foreign, okay?” Will couldn’t shake the feeling that Alden wasn’t so much arguing against his theory as trying to gather more information. “Back when that psycho kidnapped me, I was only half-conscious. Dazed by some incense, and then suddenly I felt this shiver…” Blake stared at him intently. “Like something inside me woke up and was trying to wake me up at the same time. And the power cut the ropes, even though I didn’t even think about doing it. And then I attacked him, with no control over it at all.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“And there’s the first day of school, half of which I don’t remember at all. That sounds like someone else was controlling my body, doesn’t it? Besides, I changed completely after that.”

“In what way?”