Page 24 of Facade

“I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up,” she said, sounding defeated.

“Hey, stop that. You had a vision, and that means you were led here for a reason,” Jace stated with conviction. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I think I already know,” Clarke said. “It wasn’t easy to clear my mind. Right before I went into the trance, a thought popped into my head that we need to find a place to meet covertly, and talk in private. That has to be why I was shown the basement door.”

“Ok, we don’t have a lead to Charlie yet, but this is good,” Jace said. “You’re learning how to call your visions, and what works to do that. It’s progress. This is also valuable. We do need a private place, and this is perfect for that. Since the tunnels can be accessed from any of the dorms, we can meet in the middle without anyone seeing us or being too far away from our students. It’s a great solution, Clarke.”

“You’re right. I need to see this as a win,” she said. “Honestly, I should be relieved. My mind was running through all the possibilities of what we might find if Dad was somehow down here. If we had discovered a dungeon or Satanic ritual site with a sacrificial altar, I would be freaking out.”

“Yeah, that would be worse,” Jace agreed. “The more I think about it, the more I like this, though. Discounting something breaking down in the middle of the night, the maintenance crew works day shifts during the week. We should be able to meet down here in the evenings and on weekends without being noticed.”

This really was a gift, given neither of them had a private place outside the dorms. Since he spent very little time off campus, Jace rented a room in Clementine, sharing a house with three other single guys. He couldn’t meet Clarke there.

Clarke nodded that she agreed. “Which is when we have more free time, anyway. It works.”

Clarke

She now knew that colored pencils seemed the best conduit for transferring her visions to paper. While two were duplicates of the first, Clarke had gotten four visions with the pencils. Paint and charcoal hadn’t been successful recently.

Focus was pivotal, both to call a vision, and direct the subject matter. Clarke pondered that on Sunday afternoon, thinking of ways to improve her concentration.

Jace was right that her most recent vision was both a learning experience and valuable information. Her hopes had plummeted when they hadn’t found anything in the tunnel, but she was over the disappointment, now. Having a covert meeting place would solve several problems.

Neither of them were resisting the bond. But, through no fault of theirs, they weren’t nurturing it properly, either. Colors would begin filling in the marks as they grew emotionally and physically closer. The colors would be accompanied by a sense of unity, belonging, and security.

That hadn’t happened yet. Having to hide who she was and their relationship was slowing down the process. Clarke felt crabby, restless, and itchy when she didn’t have some kind of proximity to Jace.

Those symptoms, combined with fearing for her dad, lack of sleep, and daily tensions, made it very difficult to concentrate. Clarke’s thoughts were scattered. She felt like she was being pulled in different directions.

Although he hadn’t said anything, Clarke knew this was harder on Jace than it was for her. His wolverine was an instinctual and tactile creature. He didn’t understand the necessity of hiding their connection.

Even if they could only meet in the tunnels for a few minutes at a time in the evenings, that would help. Clarke and Jace would have the freedom to touch each other, and nurture the bond.

She already felt somewhat better just having spent some time alone with him the previous night. Before returning to their dorms, they had simply held each other for several minutes. Having that physical contact made Clarke realize how keenly she had missed it.

Hopefully, there would be a respite from the drills. Being on constant alert wasn’t conducive to rest and relaxation. Sleep deprivation made everything more complicated.

Having one less thing to worry about would be a blessing. The absence of drills and being able to spend time alone with Jace removed two sources of stress. She would take it.

Fear for her dad, and frustration over the lack of clues was ever present. Added to that was the bullshit of daily life. She liked the students in her classes, and had no issues with most of the staff.

Mitch, Russell, and Ray, however, had become an irritation. They were like a rash that persisted in spite of her efforts to ignore it.

Ray was passive-aggressive. He was all grumbled insults, sullen looks, and glares.

Russell had no respect for personal space. He stood too close, touching her hands or arms as often as possible. It made Clarke uncomfortable.

The assistant librarian didn’t do anything aggressive, or overtly sexual, however. He was gregarious, and a font of information. Russell seemed to know something about everyone on campus. She had already learned a lot from his aimless chatter.

Since he could be a valuable resource, Clarke was careful about how she dealt with him. Russell’s disbelief was obvious when she told him that she wasn’t gay. Conversations with him were like a tennis match.

When he invited her out for drinks, Clarke said she wasn’t interested in dating. Russell parried, claiming that he wanted to be friends. She told him she had no spare time, currently, quoting responsibilities of her job.

He pointed out that she should have more flexibility on the weekends. Clarke explained that she should stay close to the underage students until she was confident that they were comfortable. That was mostly the truth.

Russell seemed to realize that it was a stall tactic. While his relentless pursuit was aggravating, Clarke found herself enjoying some of their talks. If the circumstances were different, and he knew she was female, they would probably be friends.

One of the most interesting things to her was Russell’s unsolicited advice on how to deal with Mitch. He seemed to be aware of exactly what the elemental monitor was doing. Clarke had to wonder how Russell had learned everything he seemed to know.