The Paladin Prophecy

DR. ROBBINS

Anxiety gnawed at Will like termites as he ran. He never let up, glancing over his shoulder only once. No black car, no Prowler, no more texts from Dad. And no other runners: Will arrived at school alone. He hit his stopwatch and was shocked to see that he’d covered the 1.2 miles from the diner to school in 3:47.

His best times shattered, twice, in less than an hour, and he’d hardly broken a sweat. He’d always known he was fast. He’d found out he could run like a deer at ten, when a dog chased him and he discovered he had another gear. But when he told his parents about it, they’d been dead-set against letting anyone see him run. They wouldn’t even let him try out for cross-country until this year, and only after he promised to hold back in practice and meets. Will still didn’t know how fast he really was, but based on this morning, he could have crushed every record in sight.

Will was already halfway dressed for class when the Rangers staggered into the locker room almost two minutes later. Gasping, a few threw strange looks his way.

“What the hell, West,” whispered Schaeffer.

“Sorry,” mumbled Will. “Don’t know what got into me.”

Will hurried out before anyone could ask more questions. If nobody else on the team had kept time, maybe by this afternoon they’d forget how fast he’d run. He would hang back in practice, in line with his mediocre standards, and they wouldn’t give the torching he’d just laid down another thought.

But he still couldn’t explain it to himself.

Will hustled through the halls and slipped into his seat a minute before the start of history class. He checked his messages one last time. Nothing. Dad had either gone into a breakfast meeting or headed out for his morning run.

Will switched the ringer to vibrate as the bell sounded. Classmates trudged in looking cranky and sleep deprived, fumbling with their phones as they digitally wrangled their frantic social lives. No one paid any attention to him. They never did. Will made sure of that. The perpetual “new kid,” Will had long ago learned how to cork his emotions deep inside, showing nothing but a bland mask to his peers.

OceanofPDF.com