Jo·nah (jō′nə)

     1. In the Bible, a prophet who was swallowed by a great fish and disgorged unharmed three days later

     2. One thought to bring bad luck 

Everything spun. The rain trickling down the window, the glossy picture of a black cat on Charlie's textbook, tail curled in an endless spiral—all of it spun and blurred into a wreckage of colors and shapes. The only thing untouched was him, same dark green eyes reflecting the earth he'd once vowed to reclaim.

Snapshots flickered through Charlie's head: blood dripping from his nose as he watched her from a distance, gaze brimming with equal parts interest and rage. The curved blade of a knife. The scarred skin on his neck he rarely let her touch. How he'd climb up the tree in the backyard to sneak into her room—one of many summer nights.

Mangled body on the concrete ten stories below. Limbs twisted in the most inhuman way.

The memories came to a halt, the final shot—broken legs, howl of the wind—superimposed on the whole of her reality, over Dr. Ortega's frame as she handed his enrollment form back to him.

"We're already ahead on the readings, but it shouldn't take you long to catch up," she said, then cleared her throat. "Well. Would you like to go on and introduce yourself?"

He turned towards the class, flashing them a grin as lightning struck outside and lit up the side of his face. "My name is Jonah Cavalcanti."

Alive.

Charlie clasped the edges of her desk. This must be death, she thought. Had it happened in her sleep? Had her stalker come to gut her? At what point had she crossed from her old life into this—him in her Survey of Gothic Literature class, grinning wildly as the other students stared like simulated demons from the first circle of hell? 

The only reality she could count on were her memories. His name. Cavalcanti. C-a-v-a-l-c-a-n-t-i... familiar even in the way he pronounced it with an Italian accent despite not speaking a word of the language. He was born in Amazonas, Brazil, and lived there until he was eleven. He told that to Charlie when they were thirteen. Almost two years before the humid November day they'd planned to be their last. 

Now here he stood, scabbed knuckles tightening around the handles of his crutches. His eyes landed on Charlie, but they quickly moved to someone else as if she was an afterthought, just another face among the students.  

Her breath turned to ash in her throat. She needed to wake up. Wake up.

This is what I deserve, she thought.

This is what I deserve for not stopping him.

(This is what I deserve for wanting to live.)

"We're doing our unit on Edgar Allan Poe," Dr. Ortega said. "You'll have to go to our book store and rent a textbook, but you can share with someone today. Any volunteers?"

Six hands raised, five of them belonging to girls and the other to none other than Quincy.

"No thanks," said Jonah—this Jonah. This taller, sharper-around-the-edges Jonah, this apparently-resurrected-from-the-fucking-grave Jonah. Charlie had seen corpses in movies, zombies with pale lips and blue veins, but his cheeks looked warm to the touch. Blood pumped in and out of his heart, bang bang bang like the skyrocketing rhythm of hers. "I'll be fine without one today."

"Excuse me?"

"I highly doubt that there is anything new you or some book will be able to teach me about this subject."

Dr. Ortega watched him skeptically. "You're telling me you know everything there is to know about Edgar Allan Poe?"

"Did I stutter?"

Charlie felt her heartbeat in her face, heard it despite the pounding of the rain. If anyone hadn't been paying attention to him before, they were now. 

"We're currently reading one of his short stories—The Black Cat," the professor said, crossing her arms. "What do you know about that?"

"Oh," he said. "The Black Cat. Right. Of course. Not his best work, but it does have some interesting ideas. Guy's kind of crazy, cuts his cat's eye out, later hangs the cat from a tree. Then he finds a new cat, tries to kill that one too, but in his rage, spoiler alert, he ends up killing his wife instead. He tears down his wall and puts his wife's corpse inside, and then he notices his cat's missing. Great, he thinks, now he won't have to deal with either of them! The police show up at his house, and everything's going fine until they hear a meowing from inside the wall. They tear it down again, and it turns out the cat was trapped in there all along with the dead wife's corpse. The guy is caught for what he did. The murder of his first cat, ladies and gentlemen, has been avenged."

The class was silent. All the thunder and lightning had been sucked from outside and now radiated from every inch of his skin.

"Now feel free to disagree, literature should always be left up to interpretation," he continued, and his eyes went to Charlie for a second, just one, but he averted his gaze immediately as if he had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do, something he hadn't calculated in advance. "But how I see it, the second cat was actually the first cat all along, who somehow came back from the dead with the purpose of getting revenge on its killer."

Ash in her lungs. A strangled gasp left her throat. She clasped her hands over her mouth and squeezed hard so she wouldn't scream instead. 

Dr. Ortega glanced at the brace around his leg. "That's one way to put it. Let's talk about it once we finish the reading, but don't think that attitude will help you pass my class. Have a seat."

The class progressed as usual, an imprint in the air where his words had been. He didn't speak again. It took every ounce of willpower, but Charlie refused to look at him as thunder cracked the skies in half. Don't throw another fit, her mother used to say. Don't cry. Be quiet and we'll tuck you in. Calm down.

Calm down.

Calm down.

Charlie shot up in her seat. She slung her bag over her shoulder as students turned to stare—the only one standing, the only one shaking as if at any moment she'd collapse.

As soon as she stepped out the door, she ran. 

●   ●   ●

jonah cavalcanti:

➼ scorpio sun, capricorn moon, scorpio rising ♏️ ♑️

➼ ENTJ 8w7

charlie reyes:

➼ libra sun, cancer moon, virgo rising ♎️ ♋️ ♍️

➼ ISFJ 9w8 

quincy king:

➼ gemini sun, libra moon, leo rising ♊️ ♎️ ♌️

➼ ESFP 7w8 

song for this chapter:

➼ ❝killer❞ by the hoosiers

you're flesh and blood, but what's underneath?