CHAPTER FOURTEEN

At first, Arnie did not respond. His brain refused to process the words he'd just heard. They were impossible, blasphemous even, and there was no need to understand what could never be true.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you found out this way, but you needed to know," Miss Keller said.

"No," Arnie said firmly. He refused to look at her, because the tears in her eyes might make him stop fighting against her words.

"I trusted your father so much, but I was wrong, Arnie. He's a very dangerous man, and I knew that he'd take you away from me and hurt you if he found out about you. I was only a teenager... I couldn't take care of you by myself, and I was terrified of what might happen if he ever learned the truth... I was going to take you and run, but it felt wrong. I knew you needed to be raised in Salem, even though I didn't understand why. That was when I found the Gelmans. They were slayers, and they were such good people... I knew that they would protect you and love you as their own son. I didn't want to give you up, but I couldn't keep you safe from him. I wasn't strong enough to protect you."

"It's a lie," Arnie insisted.

"Arnie-" She began.

"You're lying to me." He stood up. "I have to go to class." He ran out of the classroom and raced toward the bathroom. He flung a stall door open and promptly vomited. After his entire system was empty of everything except for bile, Arnie began to cry. He sobbed until he couldn't breathe anymore. He wanted to scream, but no sound would come out of his open mouth.

Randy entered the bathroom. "Arnie?" He called.

"Arnie's not here right now," Arnie replied sarcastically as he finally found his voice. "Don't leave a message at the beep."

"Arnie, Beth had an empathic freak out because of you. She went completely hysterical, and all I got out of her was that you needed help. What happened?" Randy asked.

"I'm fine," Arnie stubbornly replied.

Randy finally found the correct stall. He held the door open and said, "You don't look fine. Come on, Arnie. Talk to me."

"Everything's a lie," Arnie whispered.

"What do you mean?" Randy asked in concern.

"Did Deenie come to school today?" Arnie asked.

"Yeah, she's here somewhere."

"Go find her. I need her. Tell her that I'll be in the basement."

Randy nodded and hurried off to find Aideen. Arnie headed toward the basement, locked himself in the boiler room, and slid down one of the walls until he was sitting on the floor. He pulled his knees to his chest and pressed his head against them, trying not to have a complete nervous breakdown. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his breathing was unsteady, but at least he'd stopped throwing up.

Aideen appeared a few minutes later. "Arnie, what happened?" She asked as she hurried to his side. She knelt beside him, pulling him into her arms to try to calm him down.

"Everything's a lie, Deenie. Every single thing," Arnie whispered, his voice trembling as much as his body was.

"You're not making sense, Arn," she replied gently.

Arnie took a deep breath and tried to speak a little bit louder. "Miss Keller just told me that she's my birth mother," he said. It still didn't feel real.

Aideen's jaw dropped as she stared at him in shock. "What?" She asked, unable to form a proper question due to the impossibility of what she'd just heard.

"She told me that my parents weren't actually my birth parents, Deenie," Arnie replied, starting to speak rapidly so that he could get the whole story out and try to make sense of it with his best friend by his side. "She says she gave me away because my father is some evil guy who she was afraid of, and she wanted me to be safe. I don't know what to believe..."

"Would she lie to you?" Aideen asked.

"I don't think so, but she has to be lying, right? She can't be telling the truth. My parents would have told me," Arnie insisted.

"Arnie... You were only nine. Maybe they didn't think that you were old enough to understand yet," Aideen replied gently.

"It can't be true, Deenie. It can't be. It changes everything."

"It doesn't change the fact that they loved you, Arnie. You were their son. Blood means nothing."

"I don't know what to do," he admitted. "I feel so lost, Deenie. How do I even begin to make sense of all of this?"

"Well, let's start with finding out if it's even true," Aideen suggested. "The Unit should have your birth record on file. We'll take a look at it and find out for sure."

"What if it's sealed?" Arnie asked nervously.

"Then we'll ask Shooter to analyze Miss Keller's energy. If she's your birth mother, he'll be able to sense it."

Arnie nodded. "That's a good plan," he admitted.

"That's the only kind of plans I have," Aideen replied with a grin.

"Alex would beg to differ. Don't you remember the time that you convinced me to infiltrate a secret goblin lair and we almost got eaten when we were thirteen? Or the time that you decided to play a prank on the Council of Uanie and we both ended up getting kidnapped? Or the time that you stole Jacob's favorite goblet before he threw that fancy ball so he'd have to drink wine out of a red solo cup in front of everyone?"

Aideen started laughing. "Hey, that was actually hilarious," she protested.

"Okay, that one was pretty funny, but Alex still freaked out because he was certain that Jacob was going to slaughter you for it."

"He never figured out that it was me, and I put it back where it belonged after the ball was over." Aideen paused as Arnie turned serious again. "Are you okay, Arn?" She asked.

He sighed. "I feel so connected to her, Deenie. What if this is the reason? What if she really is my birth mother?" He asked.

"Then we'll deal with it, one step at a time. It's going to be okay, Arnie. And look on the bright side... If she is your birth mother, maybe she'll take you in and you won't have to stay with those creepy Fosters you told me about on the phone."

"Speaking of telling people stuff, what's this I hear about us having a thirteenth member?" Arnie demanded.

"Oh, Evan?" Aideen replied. "Yeah, he's great. You'll like him. I'll introduce you later."

Arnie laughed. "You have a crush on him," he said.

"I do not have a crush on him," Aideen replied. "I lust for him. There's a difference." She grinned.

"Wanna cut the rest of the day and go to the Unit now?" He asked.

"Like I need an excuse to cut class," she replied with a laugh. "Besides, I've already been killed three times since school started."

"Wait, what? Why didn't you tell me?" Arnie demanded.

"You're already dealing with enough, Arnie. I'm alright. By the way, Nurse Cora's a warlock, but she helped me out, so I decided not to smite her."

"Hold on... Did you just say that the school nurse is a warlock?"

"Yep. I'm surprised we never noticed. Anyway, her secretary was a witch and she kind of decapitated me, so I killed her, and Nurse Cora helped me cover it up. It's been a really weird day, Arn."

"Yeah, that's one word for it..."

"My point is that three deaths in one school day is more than enough. I'm not eager to go for a fourth. Let's get out of here."

~*~

Skip was surprised when Arnie and Aideen showed up at the Unit. "What's up, guys?" He asked.

"Was I adopted?" Arnie blurted out.

Skip stared at Arnie for a minute before asking, "Where did that come from? Did he go after you? Are you both alright?"

"He? He who?" Arnie demanded.

"Your birth father," Skip replied cautiously.

Arnie cursed. "So it's true. Miss Keller is my birth mom..."

"Miss Keller?" Skip asked in confusion. "Are you talking about Dawn Keller, the new English teacher at Bishop High School?"

"Yeah, she'd be the one," Arnie replied as he struggled not to completely freak out. Skip might have pretty good blocks, but he was still an empath, and Arnie didn't want to drag Skip along on a panic attack.

"That's unexpected. I actually didn't know that she was your birth mother. Your record is missing some pages."

"Wait, do you mean that someone tore them out?" Aideen asked in surprise.

"Yes," Skip confirmed. "Arnie's birth certificate and some other early documentation is missing from his file."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Arnie demanded.

"We were going to call you later." Skip hesitated before he decided to continue. "Arnie... Your father left a note for you. It's why we started to suspect that you might have been adopted."

"What sort of note?" Arnie asked. "Can I see it?"

Skip shook his head. "I don't think that you should see it, and I have to warn you... We found this note at the Berlin house. Arnie, it looks like your birth father is a very dangerous man."

"Yeah, Miss Keller said that, too." Arnie paused as something horrifying occurred to him. "Did my birth father have something to do with the fire?" He asked.

Skip sighed. "Yes, Arnie... We believe that he was the one who set the fire."

Arnie froze. Aideen put her arms around him. "I'm so sorry, Arn," she said.

"Did he... Did he set the first one, too?" Arnie asked in a whisper.

"We believe that he did, yes," Skip replied gently.

"Oh Gods... It's my fault. All of this is my fault. He killed them because they cared about me!" Arnie said with tears in his eyes.

"Arnie, it isn't your fault," Aideen said firmly.

"If he did it because of me then-"

"Then he did it. You didn't tell him to kill them."

"Did Miss Keller tell you who your father is?" Skip asked.

"No," Arnie replied with a sigh. "I didn't really give her the chance. I ran off on her because I felt sick."

"We'll need to find out, obviously. I'll pay her a visit and see if she can give me that information."

"Tell her I'm sorry I ran off. I just... I couldn't handle what she was telling me."

"I'm sure she'll understand, Arnie. This can't be easy for you."

Suddenly, a sense of dread filled Arnie. He wasn't sure why until he felt a familiar pain in his heart. "Oh Gods," he said.

"What?" Aideen asked in concern.

"Melissa's in danger. Something's going to happen to her. I can feel it."

Aideen could have questioned him. Under the current circumstances, it would have been perfectly reasonable to assume that he was being paranoid because everything in his universe had just been flipped upside-down, but she recognized the look in his eyes.

"Alright, then let's go find her," Aideen replied firmly. "She should still be in school."

"We have to hurry, Deenie," Arnie said with fear in his voice.

"Take my car," Skip said, sensing the urgency of the situation. "In fact, let me go with you." He led the way out of the Unit and to his car. Aideen and Arnie both hopped into the backseat. Normally, Aideen would have called shotgun, but she knew that Arnie needed her to sit beside him and keep him calm.

"She'll be okay, Arnie," Aideen said softly as she squeezed his hand and silently prayed that they would make it back to Bishop in time.

~*~

Melissa was very surprised to see a familiar face approach her as she was heading for the girl's restroom on the third floor. "Hey," she greeted him cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"

Instead of answering her, he sent a burst of energy toward her. The energy hit her hard in the chest. The force of the magick sent her flying toward the window. Melissa crashed through it with such force she had no time to shield herself from the shards of glass that pierced her flesh, or to brace herself as she fell toward the ground below.