Silas Read online

  The Academy

  The Ghost Bird Series

  Meeting Sang: Silas

  ♥

  Book One – Alternate Opening

  The Boys’ Version

  ♥

  Written by C. L. Stone

  Published by

  Arcato Publishing

  Published by Arcato Publishing

  Copyright © 2017 C. L. Stone

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  www.clstonebooks.com

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Silas | 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  Also By C. L. Stone

  Silas

  1

  Just outside Silas’s closed bedroom door was the sound of shuffling footsteps.

  The sound drifted, starting from the far end, where there were more bedrooms. It carried down to the very edge of the hall, stopping just shy of the adjoining hallway that turned into the living room area.

  He paused there. Silence filled the apartment.

  Silas sat up as quietly as he could and planted his feet on the floor. Listening, he tilted his head toward the sound. He stared blankly at the wall as he focused.

  Slowly, the footsteps started again, returning down the hallway, back to the bedroom.

  Silas sucked in a deep breath, holding it in his lungs as if to stretch them out. He brushed sleep away from his eyelashes.

  Theo, his brother, was too chicken to ask for a light for his cigarette. He’d already been yelled at last night for burning more holes into his mattress. Silas pictured him walking the hall, trying to get up the nerve to ask their father.

  Silas let out the breath in a puff through his lips. It was eight, a little late for Silas to be sleeping in anyway. How long had Theo been pacing silently through the hallway? He was going to wear down the beige carpet.

  Their father held a rule in the house: Charlie was the only one Theo could ask for a light. It was a rule Theo didn’t always follow, because he’d keep lit cigarettes constantly to have something burning, even if he wasn’t smoking them. Sometimes when Charlie wasn’t at home, he’d use the stove.

  It was Saturday. Charlie was home for the day from work, so either Theo asked, or he didn’t get his cigarette. It’d be a long weekend if he didn’t ask.

  Maybe it’d be good if he stopped for a couple of days. Smoke seeped out of his bedroom, and while he kept an air filter near the door, it still leaked out. Every day. Every moment. Except when Theo fell asleep and the burning cigarettes eventually went out.

  It was difficult to keep clothes and other items from smelling like smoke. Gabriel had been over several times to spend the night, figuring out what worked and what didn’t to keep the smell at a minimum.

  Silas pressed a palm to his chin, feeling the scratch of coarse hair. He needed a shower and to shave, but he didn’t want to get involved in this.

  Silas stood, went to the closet, and rummaged for a pair of jeans and a baseball shirt. When it was time to go, he wanted to get out quickly.

  His cell phone rang from the bed where he’d left it. He dropped the clothes across the bed and scooped up the phone.

  The name displayed across the screen: North Taylor.

  Silas slid a forefinger across the screen to answer.

  “Did you get a letter?” North asked.

  “What letter?”

  “Something about new crops and shit. Old school Academy job recruitment letter.”

  Odd. Wouldn’t an email be less noticeable compared to an actual paper letter? No one got letters anymore. “Haven’t checked the mail.”

  There was a knock on Silas’s bedroom door, and Theo popped his head in.

  Theo’s long, black hair hung around his chin, and he wore pajama pants and a T-shirt too big for his thin frame. It was possibly Silas’s. Theo’s eyes had heavy shadows underneath.

  When was the last time he even slept?

  Silas grunted, only feeling a little put off that he was naked and his brother just barged in. He must be pretty desperate. “What?” He pointed to the cell phone, indicating anyone could hear him.

  Theo blurted out, “Échete énan anaptíra?”

  Wanting a light. Theo knew better. Silas didn’t keep lighters or anything that could set fires anywhere except in a small emergency kit in his car. Theo would scavenge his room to find them if he wasn’t home otherwise.

  “No,” Silas said, not bothering to cover the phone for North. He’d hear it anyway. “Just ask Dad.”

  Theo groaned and didn’t bother shutting the door. He shuffled to the living room. He’d get a lecture about using English instead of Greek, about smoking when he should quit, and about getting a real job, like plumbing. Silas got lectures on a regular basis, too, only not as harshly as Theo.

  Theo needed to be kept under control, and Charlie knew it.

  “You really need to get him to quit,” North said.

  “Don’t start.”

  “Is he going to therapy?”

  “Not really.”

  “He’s going to spiral. He doesn’t have any direction in life. We’ve got to do something about him.”

  Silas sighed, partially wanting to defend his brother and still agreeing with North. Theo had it pretty hard over the last few years. He didn’t have direction because he didn’t want to be here, in America.

  Even his father missed Greece. He said so all the time.

  Silas kept them here. A new start for Theo. A new life for all of them. His dad had work, where in Greece, he wouldn’t. But America still wasn’t home.

  Keeping his brother and father here where they weren’t happy left him constantly feeling pangs of guilt. They just didn’t understand. Theo’s return to Greece meant he’d probably get into more trouble and a trial for the accident.

  Also, Silas wanted to be here. This was his life now.

  “Do you have time tomorrow?” North asked. “That’s why I called. Uncle wants to buy that church to turn into a diner. But I’ve got to go downtown to see about licensing... if we can even get permits before he’s signed a lease agreement.”

  “You know I don’t know anything about diners. Don’t we need some help?”

  “Uncle’s in over his head, but you didn’t hear that from me. It’s one thing to be head chef in a diner, and another to run the whole thing.” Pause. “Your dad could get hired to handle some of the plumbing, right? Kitchen and new bathrooms?”

  “Sure.”

  “Text me your schedule for the next few days later.” North hung up.

  Always to the point. Silas appreciated it, but North didn’t call him just to hang out. Always a project.

  He sometimes missed the days of just hanging out on the couch, watching a game with nothing to think about other than who was winning and when the pizza was going to be delivered.

  Maybe he missed days when he wasn’t as worried about his brother, among other things.

  Silas put on the jeans and the baseball shirt and looked for his socks and boots. He needed to be ready. Kota and Victor should get in soon.

  ♥♥♥

  That thin layer of cigarette smoke was starting to build up again in the apartment when Silas thought he heard Kota’s voice outside his bedroom window. The advantage of having a bedroom near the outside walkway was that he could hear anyone coming.

  Silas stood and picked his phone up off the bed. He tucked it into his pocket and walked out into the hall.

  He paused and checked in
the direction of Theo’s bedroom. His brother’s door was closed. There was music, Greek, playing on a stereo. Other than that, Silas couldn’t hear much.

  Silas stumbled over the words to say to him. North was right. Theo needed help. Therapy. Socializing. If Theo made a connection with someone, like Silas had done, maybe he could feel inspired to do more than sit in his bedroom all day.

  The front doorbell interrupted his thoughts, and he moved to answer it.

  He was ready, lips parted, to tell the guys to get going. He didn’t want Charlie coming up behind him to ask a bunch of questions about where they were going and why. Not that Charlie would care, but he’d have something to say about going to a mall and not being productive.

  Words faded on his tongue when he spotted her standing just outside the door.

  She appeared to be alone, a teenager, but it was hard to pin down exactly how old she was. Her dirty-blond hair was pulled back away from her face. She wore a gray, pleated skirt and matching blouse. Her lips were tiny and pink. Some of her hair had fallen out of the clip and crossed over one of her cheeks, like a picture frame.

  Her eyes widened at the sight of him.

  She was unfamiliar, and she stared at Silas with her tongue moving but saying nothing.

  Was she new to the apartment complex? Or more than likely, she was looking for someone else. There was no way she was here for him.

  “Do you have the wrong place?” he asked.

  Her eyes widened further, and her cheeks turned as pink as her lips. Those lips twitched, again like she wanted to respond but didn’t know what to say.

  Silas’s fingers flexed, and he struggled to figure out what else to say, too. She was pretty. They clearly didn’t know each other. If she had the wrong place, he wasn’t upset. There was no reason for her to be so nervous.

  “What a pickup line.” Victor’s voice emerged from nearby.

  Silas leaned out of the doorway.

  Victor was propped against the wall. The teasing smirk on his face broadened. His arms were folded on his chest, stretching the sleeves of his expensive, white shirt.

  Kota stood behind him. He flattened his palm against the back of his head and shrugged, his lips closed tightly like he didn’t dare laugh.

  Was this some sort of joke? “Who’s she?” Silas asked.

  “I’m Sang,” she said.

  She had a tiny voice, and it was soft. He wasn’t even sure what she said exactly. It didn’t sound right to his ears.

  “Huh?” he asked. “Say that again.”

  “My name is Sang,” she said.

  ‘Sang’ didn’t register as a name, so he was pretty sure that wasn’t even correct. Not that she didn’t know her own name, but he wasn’t sure he was thinking of it correctly. He didn’t want to ask her again and embarrass her. Her name was Sang, like singing?

  Her accent was a little different to Silas’s ears. He had gotten used to Kota or Victor or some of the other guys who had variations of Southern accents. He couldn’t pick out her accent at all. Maybe something Midwestern.

  “She moved into a house down the road from mine,” Kota said. “She’s coming along.”

  This really didn’t make any sense. Their group had an appointment to be fitted for some suits. Why would they invite her along?

  Silas didn’t normally question whatever Kota was doing. Maybe it struck Silas as unusual because she was a girl. And somebody would’ve said something if she belonged to the Academy.

  Silas huffed and waved his hand in her direction to get her to step out of the way. “Let me close the door,” he said.

  Everyone turned toward the stairs that led to the ground floor. Victor’s BMW was parked nearby.

  “We’ve got to work on your people skills,” Victor said. “You’re supposed to at least say hello when you answered the door.”

  “She looked lost,” Silas said. He looked over his shoulder at her and found her staring at him.

  Her cheeks turned that shade of pink, and she looked away quickly. Did he appear intimidating? It was something Kota often warned him about.

  “I didn’t scare you, did I?” he asked.

  She shook her head but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t quite sure if he believed her.

  When they got to Victor’s car, Kota opened the passenger door for the girl and waited for her to get in.

  “Silas should take the front seat,” she said. “He’s got longer legs.”

  Silas wanted to laugh. He’d been in the back of Victor’s car many times. He didn’t quite understand why she was concerned about it. “I don’t mind,” he said.

  “Neither do I,” she said, unflinching.

  Why insist? Was she being nice, or was there another reason?

  Victor got behind the wheel. “Someone get in,” he said.

  Kota threw a silent look at Silas. Silas wasn’t quite sure what he meant other than go along with it.

  Silas got into the front seat and buckled in. Maybe she wanted to sit in the back with Kota. Was she a girlfriend? If so, he had never talked about her before, not that he had ever talked about any girl before.

  After everybody buckled in, Victor started the car and pulled out of the lot.

  Silas remembered the letter North mentioned getting that morning. He wanted to ask Victor and Kota about it, but if Sang wasn’t in the Academy, then he probably shouldn’t mention it. Maybe it could wait. If it came by mail, they probably had time to consider a job offer of some sort.

  Hopefully, it wasn’t any sort of emergency, but it didn’t seem time sensitive.

  Victor turned onto the road, and the car fell silent. Silas fiddled with the volume control on the radio. Classical music flowed out of the speakers. He reached for the buttons to change the station.

  Victor slapped at his hand. “Hey, when you drive, you get to pick.”

  “Sang wouldn’t like this stuff,” Silas said. He glanced back at her through the rearview mirror. He meant it as a joke and to get her to speak up to find out what she actually wanted to listen to. Only, she wasn’t really looking at him at the moment.

  “She already said she did,” Victor said, his eyes blazing. He carried that smug smile when he knew he was right.

  Silas wasn’t quite sure if he was fibbing just to get him to leave it there. He raised an eyebrow and turned in his seat to look at her this time. “Is he shitting me?”

  She pushed her finger toward her lip. “I, uh...”

  “She likes it,” Kota said.

  “But I like rock, too,” she said. “And some other stuff. I like a lot of different types of music.”

  Silas flashed a smile at Victor. “You’re outnumbered. Kota likes rock.”

  Victor did an eye roll. “Kota likes anything.”

  Silas changed the radio to a popular rock station. As Victor drove, he listened for a little while and then made comments about how squeaky guitars were and how they were playing at such high volumes. The moment the song was over, Victor used control buttons on the wheel to change it back to a classical station.

  Silas left it alone for a moment, trying to understand why Victor liked violins and classical music so much. He often complained about playing the same music at his concerts.

  He relaxed his head against the headrest. “This type of music makes me want to go to sleep,” Silas said.

  “Then go to sleep,” Victor said.

  He didn’t want a nap. When the song was finally over, Silas reached out and changed it back to the rock station.

  When both stations had commercials going, they swapped it out for a pop station. It was sort of a compromise.

  On occasion, Silas glanced at the rearview mirror. For the most part, Sang seemed content with staring out the window and appeared oblivious to everyone else in the car.

  It gave Silas a chance to examine her through the mirror without her noticing. Her outfit seemed plain, something Gabriel would say made her look like a block of marble. Silas hadn’t been sure he’d ever paid atten
tion to what Gabriel said about clothes, but something must have seeped into his memory. He could already hear Gabriel laying down opinions and recommending something else.

  The longer he looked at her, the more he thought it odd that she was sitting so close to the door. She stared out the window at trees and cars and neighborhoods as they passed. If she’d wanted to sit next to Kota, she was sitting as far away from him as possible in the backseat. Kota was doing the same, staring out the window.

  If they liked each other, they weren’t showing it.

  Maybe he had the wrong idea. From the way they were acting, she didn’t seem like a girlfriend. So... why was she here?

  2

  The day was only partially cloudy after the rain from the night before, and it wasn’t feeling as humid. Traffic was light this morning.

  Victor pulled the car off of I-26. A few left turns later, they were in the mall parking lot. As soon as they parked, Silas jumped out and opened her door for her.

  She said thank you quietly, but she barely looked at him.

  Silas shut the car door, wondering if he should back off a little. He meant to be polite, but she seemed very distant.

  Victor had parked next to one of the larger department stores on one corner of the mall. When they entered, they were glanced at by tired looking employees stocking shelves and tidying up displays.

  In the concourse just outside of the department store, there were only a handful of people walking around. Some stores hadn’t opened their security gates yet.

  Silas checked for the time on his phone as they walked. They were a little early.

  Silas was going to suggest they maybe check out another shop when Kota picked a direction and started walking.

  Silas caught up and walked next to him, leaning in. “Is she going with us to the appointment?” he asked quietly.

  “It shouldn’t take too long,” Kota said. He focused ahead. “I’m hoping we’re the first. We’ll be out sooner.”

  Victor appeared on the other side Kota. “Hey,” he said, focusing on Silas. “Go easy on Sang. Don’t ask too many questions right now.”

  Was he not going easy on her? “Why?” Silas asked.

  “Just trust us for now,” Kota said. “Try to show her a good time today. I’ll explain it all later.”