chapter two

SAINT'S POV

I don't remember when it happened or how I knew what it was. I just knew it was never wrong.

Ever since I was little I've always had this hunch. Just by looking at someone, I can tell how good of a person they are.

It's like this, I can sense the aura of goodness radiating out of people.

On average most people radiate about 70% goodness. Some range to about 55%. But when I saw Luci Black for the first time, I didn't find any.

When she walked past me, my mood suddenly changed. I could sense a depth of nothingness radiating out from her. It was at that moment I felt like the judge; the one who should condemn her for her undisclosed crimes.

How dare she have no goodness, not one ounce. And yet she pretended to be this lovely goody-two-shoes girl that never did any wrong.

She walked no, she practically strode down the hall with a soft smile on her face. Luci only spoke when spoken to, and never gave teachers attitude. A wolf in sheep's clothing, and it was up to me to unmask her.

When I first met her on the first day of high school, I immediately hated her. Everything from her red coils to her dark brown eyes. The way she forced delicate mannerisms to make herself appear innocent to the way she dressed in soft colours as a diversion from her true self. She infuriated me, which is why I decided to make every day for her a living hell.

There was nothing special about her there couldn't be. From what I knew after years of observation, she was just this chubby, superficial, low-income girl who carried a used thrift store camera and occasionally worked at Rugrat Diner after school.

There was no substance to her. She simply existed in the world; not a morsel to be noticed.

"Mom, I should go or else I'm gonna be late."

"Okay well I don't want you taking that bike of yours to school, please use the car. Or better yet let Rod take you to school," she suggested.

I turned to the right to see my stepdad sitting languidly in his chair. His black hair was a scuffed and his t-shirt was littered with coffee and unidentified stains. I cowered in disgust and mentally rolled my eyes.

Roberto put it quite plainly was a loser. He married my mom when I was 5 and had my twin brother and sister. I never got too close to him since I always believed that my mom deserved better. He didn't work, never did chores, or paid any financial assistance we needed in the house. If it weren't for my mom's job as a real estate agent, we would've never been able to afford anything.

"No thanks, I think I'll just take the car if you're so worried."

"Alright, honey." She said, "oh I almost forgot, the doctor called today and said he was going to prescribe you some pain medication for your back pain."

"Oh alright," I replied and grabbed my backpack, pushed in my chair and headed towards out the door.

Swirling my keys around my ring finger, I reluctantly passed my dirt-bike and headed towards my car.

I pulled up to school quickly and parked in the parking lot.

I only had one agenda today: I was going to find Luci and demand her to tell me what or who she was. She wasn't going to get away with burning my hands. I won't let her.

"Saint!"

I turned my head and saw my friends standing by each other's cars. I walked over to them typically and sat atop Greyson's Tesla.

"Hey guys," I replied.

"Where were you last night? Emma was totally pissed that you didn't show up." Greyson chuckled, running his hand down his light brown hair.

"I would've gone, but I had to get this fixed up a bit,"

I rolled up my sleeves and showed my charred burned hands. Greyson and Bryce gasped as they examined my hands in disgust.

"What the hell happened?" Bryce asked. "The red-haired bitch happened," I sneered. "No way, what did she do?"

I couldn't explain to them yet what had happened. It would sound too far-fetched and would take ages for them to believe me. "Don't worry about it," I began, "just help me get revenge."

Greyson smirked and came over to my side of the car. He put his hand on top of my shoulder and pointed to the far side of the parking lot.

"She's over there with Celia and Marcus as usual. Do you wanna do something about it now?"

"No, we should wait until after school. There are too many people." I suggested.

"But it would be better with an audience," Greyson looked to both his sides before pulling out a cigarette from his brown puffer jacket and motioning to Bryce for a lighter.

"Listen," he said as he took the lighter and flicked it on, "I don't know what she did this time, and frankly I don't care. We can get your revenge now, in front of everyone and it'll humiliate her more."

"I don't know," I reply, "I think after school would be better."

I needed to do this alone. I had to confront her about by myself so that I could get an answer of what I saw was true. I looked at the far end of the parking lot and noticed Luci was still talking to her friends her only friends. Marcus and Celia were the only two people in the school who liked Luci. I wasn't sure why but they were also the only two who didn't fall for my charm or like me as everyone else did.

I noticed Luci had her hair up in a bun today. It didn't really look like a bun though. It resembled more like a big spiralling twisty red bush. Her outfit in contrast to Celia's was dull. Luci wore a light blue tank top with a white hoodie and plain blue jeans as well as new black glasses. Whereas Celia wore a green corset top with a thin black jacket as well as a black mini skirt paired with long black platform boots and fishnet tights.

I didn't realize how long I was staring until dark brown eyes made contact with mine. Luci however, quickly looked away and went back to her conversation.

I clenched my fist in response and turned my body away from her direction.

"What do you think about that Saint?" Bryce asked.

Snapping out of my thoughts I turned to see my two friends looking at me.

"What are we talking about?" I asked.

"I was just saying how we could get Emma and her friends to dump her stuff in the pool again?" He said.

"Or we can dump her in the pool," Greyson added, "I heard black girls have something against getting their hair wet."

"God her hair looks a mess today. Does she even take care of it? It's like one giant haystack patched together in some awful red shade." Bryce examined Luci's hair more and turned away in disgust.

"I have an even better idea," Greyson added, "look what she's got in her hand."

Reluctantly I turned back to Luci and noticed her small black digital camera. She always carried it around and guarded it securely. I noticed she would take pictures of everything from the dead flowers in our school's parking lot to the students walking in the lunch area.

"Since she messed with your hands," Greyson began, "we mess with her camera."

I really didn't want to do it in public but the way she stood calmly as if nothing happened yesterday pissed me off. Staring at her for too long started up a wave of indescribable anger within me. I could feel something stirring up in me and a wave of coldness seeped into my veins.

"Let's do it."

We stalked over to the unsuspecting group and Greyson instantly hovered over Celia.

"Looking good as always, Celia," he dragged his eyes over her body and paused to stare at the gaping holes in her tights.

Celia stood at eye level with Greyson as her platform boots gave her a five-inch boost. She squinted her eyes and glared at him.

"What do you want," she spat out.

Marcus stood next to her and both of their bodies blocked Luci who had now wrapped her camera strap around her neck and gripped it tightly.

"Nothing, we just wanted to talk," Bryce replied sweetly.

I kept my eyes on Luci who stood behind them. She looked tense and refused to meet my eyes.

While Bryce and Greyson conversed, I noticed Luci slowly backing away and heading towards the school building.

Instantly I went after her. She wasn't going to get away with this. She turned her head and notice I was following her and picked up her pace from a walk to a stride.

She entered the school building quickly and pushed passed the flock of students parading the hallway. I did the same and tried to catch up with her when she started to sprint and turn the corner to the other side of the hallway.

And shit was she fast.

I picked up my pace and started to run after her when she made a turn into a somewhat empty hallway. I finally caught up to her and grabbed her arm.

She tensed up. Without saying a word I dragged her into the custodian closet a few feet away as she tried to pull away from me.

Mustering my strength I grabbed her by the neck and pushed her into the closet. I quickly locked the door and leaned against the wall for support to catch my breath.

"Here's how we're gonna do this," I stalk over to her grabbed the camera wrapped around her neck and pulled her towards me.

"I am going to talk, and you are going to answer every single question." I spat out.

She began vigorously shaking her head and tried to push me back.

I clenched the camera harder and once again I felt the coldness infiltrate my entire body. I removed the camera from her neck and held it close to her face.

"You should see how you look right now." I switched the camera on and focused it on her face.

"Say cheese," I snapped the picture just as tears spilt from her eyes and turned the camera screen towards her, "You look so cute in this,"

"Now," I grabbed her by the throat and squeezed the sides to block her airflow, "Do you want to explain to me how the fuck you burned me yesterday?"

She opened her eyes wide and I felt her swallow. "I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered.

I laughed. Quite loudly. She looked up at me in horror and I increased the pressure I had on her throat. She squealed and shut her eyes. "You know if I didn't know any better, I would think that you liked being choked."

Her eyes widened in response and averted her gaze towards me. "Shame it has to be in these circumstances,"

I pulled my hand off her throat and she let out a gasp for air. She coughed and rubbed her fingers against the red mark that formed around her throat. While she recuperated I sneakily took the memory card out of her camera and slipped it into my back pocket.

"Since you won't talk-" I began before she cut me off.

"Y-your h-hands are so cold," she stammered out. I ignored her comment and backed away from her and held up her camera in the air.

"Since you won't talk," I forcibly gripped the camera and slammed it towards the ground, "then maybe this will make you."

She let out a piercing scream and thankfully the bell rang at the same time drowning out her cries. She dropped down to the drown and tried to scoop up the remnants of her shattered camera.

I kicked pieces away from her and crouch down to her level. I picked up her chin and wiped her tears away. "Don't be sad," I cooed, "that camera was cheap quality anyways."

I stood up and leaned my back against the door. "Now, talk."

"Let me out of here," she said lowly, "or I'll burn you again," she got up slowly and back herself against the shelf of cleaning supplies.

I shook my head and smiled to myself, "No you won't,"

"You wanna bet?" She side-eyed me and I could see flickers of sparks begin to protrude from her fingertips.

"You won't do it because this time I'll tell everyone. And we both it's my word against yours,"

She took and deep breath and exhaled greatly; repeating the sequence. I didn't know what she was doing until I saw the sparks that formed against her fingertips start to grow. Her eyes were glued to her chest as she kept her breathing steady.

My body seemed to react to hers as I felt myself getting cold. Really cold. It was like my body knew what to do and how to respond.

Before I could even react, Luci held up her hand a small surge of fire erupted towards me.

On instinct, I dodge it and the ball or fire hit the wall behind me burning it and leaving a big black stain behind.

"What," I said lowly before standing up, "the fuck."

I walked over to her, grabbed her throat and used my other hand to bind the other two behind her back. I gripped her hands tightly and glared into her eyes. "And to think, I was being so nice to you up till now,"

I kept glaring at her. I couldn't even think. My whole body was sending signals to me to hurt her, but I was too infuriated to comprehend. Lost in my thoughts I didn't notice when her eyes went wide until I saw her throat turn blue and ice starting to form around it.

Immediately I let go of her throat and her hands. | stepped back and examined my fingers and saw that my fingertips carried detailed ice crystals on them and the rest of my palms, which were covered in burns before, were now stained with ice.

| looked up to see Luci's throat engulfed in ice and her hands that I had held were still bound together and frozen inside a big ball of ice.

She looked up at me, and gasped and started to back up further against the wall.

"D-did I do that?" I asked. But it was more of a question to myself. I looked down at my hands once more and saw the ice begin to melt into water.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Luci screamed. She sprinted passed me and attempted to unlock the door but her hands were still frozen shut into a ball of ice. She banged her hands against the door handle attempting to break the barrier.

She slammed her hands over the handle until pieces of ice started to break off her hands.

Frozen in place, I watched hers slowly but surely break off the ice. She stretched her hands out and rubbed the remaining ice and water off her shirt before opening the door.

She took one last look at me, cleared her throat and said, "I guess we both have secrets," before dashing out and running towards the hallways.

My mind was racing, and my brain didn't even know where to begin. Yes, it seemed like we both had secrets.

The only difference was, I didn't know what mine was.