Chapter Four - Curiosity

Again, when Soul got home from school, it was to find a very relieved looking Wes waiting for him. "Hey. What happened? There another murder or something?" For a moment he wished he'd stayed out longer. Getting attacked by a serial killer wasn't self-harm was it? He didn't think it counted.

"An attempted one, apparently," Wes ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "I want you to wait for me to pick you up at school from now on until this clears up, okay?"

"Fine ..." he agreed reluctantly, putting his schoolbag down. "So who got attacked and who did the attacking?"

"Seemed to be someone who was just passing through, not too far from the first one. Apparently it was too dark to get a good look at the attacker. He got away, but said that it seemed like something distracted the attacker, which gave him time to run."

"Weird."

"Yeah ..."

It was definitely suspicious that the next day Albarn was sporting a cut on her forehead, barely visible under her bangs. She was wearing leggings today, which hid the bruise on her leg and she was already sitting when he arrived, so Soul didn't know if she was still limping or not.

"Good morning," Soul found himself saying automatically in an attempt to get her to speak.

She blinked and looked up, "Good morning ..." she replied after a moment.

Soul walked by her to take his own seat. Her gaze followed him, piercing green eyes following his movements. He hesitated to look up for several moments.

She knew. Somehow she knew that he thought she had something to do with the murder and the attempted murder.

"You have a cut on your forehead," he finally commented.

"I fell," she replied easily.

"Again?"

"Yes. I'm a bit of a klutz"

Soul held her gaze for a few moments and then looked away. 'Liar.' He'd seen her move and he'd seen her fight the day she'd saved him and he didn't think he'd ever seen anyone better on their feet. It dawned on him that not once had he considered the possibility that it was she who had killed that person.

'No... It wasn't her.'

He didn't know how he knew that, but he felt certain. She was involved somehow, but she wasn't the killer. Something had distracted the killer so that the second victim could escape ... Had she gotten that graze on her forehead trying to stop another death? Had the bruise been from failing to stop the first?

Why would she risk her life on multiple occasions for strangers? How did she even know where to be in time? She was a fifteen year old girl, maybe even fourteen!

The bell rang to begin class. Soul gave a start and quickly started trying to pay attention

"Today we're going to be discussing some folk tales about our own area, including the legend that most of you probably know, about King Arthur and his Sword in the Stone, Excalibur-"

"WHAT?"

Everyone looked at the direction of the girl in front of him, who had stood abruptly and slammed her hands on her desk

"Is something wrong, Miss Albarn?" The teacher said, somewhat irritated.

Albarn clamped her hands over her mouth, and sank back into her seat, blushing furiously and shaking her head.

Soul raised an eyebrow.

There was definitely something odd about her.

"What's with that face?"

"What face?" Albarn looked up at him from the paper she was writing during lunch. Soul could hardly believe anyone was going to spend their lunch break writing their papers, but here she was, writing their report on King Arthur.

"You look disgusted."

"I don't like this subject, that's all."

"Why not? King Arthur's pretty cool."

"I have nothing against him," she made that disgusted face again. "He's actually pretty amazing, considering what he had to put up with."

"Put up with?"

"Ah! Nevermind. It's nothing," she shook her head. "Did you need something?"

"Nah. You were just making a weird face, so I was curious."

"Okay ..." Albarn shrugged and bent down over her work, eating her sandwich absently.

Figuring the conversation was over, Soul headed back to his spot to finish his lunch, but kept watching her. As he watched, she made another note, seemed to think about something, and made that same face. He couldn't help it.

He started laughing for the first time in a while.

Soul found himself curiously drawn to her in a way he couldn't explain. It wasn't just that she was strange and seemed to be involved in the recent murders. He couldn't describe it, honestly. It wasn't attraction - he supposed she was pretty, but that was another matter - it was just a strange pull that seemed to just get stronger, an extension of that sensation he got when she was nearby. Like flowers and wings and somehow it was in the key of G.

Over the next week he watched her more than the lesson, noting everything. How bruises sprang up whenever there was another murder or attempt, and sometimes during the week. How she sometimes seemed completely exhausted but refused to fall asleep in class.

She never seemed to notice, and he found himself getting more and more curious about her.

And, he decided that maybe what he saw that night hadn't been a drunken hallucination, after all.

A/N: This chapter had too much humour. Soul needs to angst more obviously. I promise more angst later. ALSO I PROMISE LONGER CHAPTERS ONCE WE GET TO MORE ACTION.