Authors: Alivia Anders
glance over towards Ursula just in time to watch her face turn to a
violent hissing mask of rage.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Gabby and I both did it. You know, one
does the first half while the other does make-up, then we switch,"
does the first half while the other does make-up, then we switch,"
she giggled, her smile growing more with each word she spoke.
"And," her voice dropped low, "if you need anyone to talk to
about, you know, al that weird stuff that happened in New York, I
know a few of the student councilors."
Weird stuff. Good to know the rumors were stil flying
around like hawks for the kil. "Weird stuff?"
"Yeah," someone else piped up. I recognized him from
Math, Dalton was his name. He seemed to hesitate for a second.
"But it's al just rumor, right? You didn't realy get bit by a vampire
and take off out the window with wings from your back, right?"
A redhead who I didn't know made a noise. "I heard you
were bathed in dead animal blood. That's why you ran from the
Bio classroom, or so Jessica said."
The blonde alongside the redhead, Jessica I presumed,
shook her head. "No you idiot, I said she ran because the
dissection reflected what was going to happen to her once the ritual
began." Her chest sweled up as she tried to look important. "A
god can only wait so long for a sacrifice."
I listened to al of it, watching as each one speled out a
different rumor. One had me as a hybrid human, another as an
alien, some even thought I was probed by aliens. Any mythical
creature, both the known and unknown, were caled into the air. It
was al I could do not to laugh myself to death. Abigail on the other
hand, was in hysterics.
"What about angels?" one voice caled out. A couple heads
turned as I strained to see who it was that had asked. Across the
bonfire, dressed like everyone else, stood a familiar face. Too
familiar. I already knew without having to stand beside him that his
skin was a dark olive color, perfectly unblemished. His eyes could
be whatever color his heart desired, but grey and black were the
only two I'd ever imagined in my halucinations.
I had gone too far.
"Excuse me, who are y-" Ursula started to snip.
"I asked the girl. Essalie, is it?" The demon gave me the
best harmless smile his vicious features could manage. A wolf in
sheep's clothing.
Al eyes turned from the demon to me. He wasn't just a
halucination this time, I realized. Everyone else could see him, too.
In one decision I had inadvertently placed every person in my
contact directly into his hands. Hands with claws like steel, ready
to rip flesh off like tissue paper off a gift on Christmas morning.
My mouth was dry as I spoke. "Yes, Essalie. Who are
you, again?"
"Who I am is not important."
I shook my head. If he was wiling to interrupt my life to
slaughter those around me, I'd stal him as long as I could in my
only gutsy move. "Oh no, boy, it is. Tel me your name and then
we'l begin the game."
Abigail beside me whispered 'Game?' into my ear, but I
ignored her. My eyes were locked onto the demon, waiting for the
slightest hint of movement. He let out a smal, infuriated sigh and
ran his fingers through the short black hair on his head, but his smile
never faltered. If anything, it only grew larger across his cheeks. "I
never faltered. If anything, it only grew larger across his cheeks. "I
love games. What game wil we be playing, Essalie?" He purred,
letting his s's rol.
"War," I said, picking the first game that came to mind.
"For the last time, you are who?"
His eyes smoldered, seeming to burn hotter than the fire
between us. "Kayden."
Al around us I felt each pair of eyes bouncing back and
forth, a never-ending tennis match of words and hidden exchanges.
"Alright, Kayden. The answer is no, no one has suggested angels.
Pretty sure that's the opposite of sacrifices and buckets of blood.
Especialy when the guy who tried to kil me used a demonology
book, not the Bible."
"Actualy," Jessica snuck back into the conversation,
"there's tons of sacrifice and blood in the Bible. It's just not actively
capitalized on."
The demon, Kayden, cut her off. "Save the Bible Study
chat for Sunday School, little girl."
"Excuse me," Ursula growled, the shiver of fear from
Jessica fueling my own inner fire. "We don't tolerate playground
bulies around here. Or party crashers for that matter. Leo's
buddies wil escort you out."
Two of the footbal players from our school stepped close
to him. Kayden looked from one to the other, a sly smile creeping
on his lips. As one of the players grasped Kayden's upper arm,
Kayden ducked underneath and between the guy's legs, using his
other hand to pul him down face first into the mud.
In another move, he stood in front of Ursula, pitch black
In another move, he stood in front of Ursula, pitch black
eyes piercing into hers. "Essalie," he caled, never looking to me.
"I'd let your little friend here in on the secret you learned the first
time we met."
A could stil grasp onto the beads of courage inside my
chest, but barely. My skin started to turn cold, the hairs standing
up on the back of my neck. Somewhere inside I knew the answer
to my question, but I asked regardless. "What secret?"
When he turned to face me for al of one second, it took al
of me not to scream. His face had transformed into a mask of
horror, scales lining his previously unblemished skin like craters.
Little horns of pure onyx encircled his face as extra nostrils
covered his nose. But I was solely focused on the needle-thin razor
teeth, yelowed from time, and the set of pure black eyes that
encompassed nearly half of his face, the insides bubbling crimson
vats.
Only one eye blinked, specks of blood flicking off his short
eyelashes. "That I pick my teeth with weaklings like al of you."
As fast as the mask had shown itself, he returned to
perfectly normal. No one else seemed as terrified as I was, so I
knew he only let me see the gruesome face. Slowly he stepped
back, his eyes trailing over every person huddles around the
bonfire. The flames had suddenly began to die, glimmers of the
wintry frost of Maine coating the corners of each log.
He was threatening to kil every one of them, just like he
had Chase.
Al because I had associated with them. Because he
couldn't touch me for reasons unknown.
couldn't touch me for reasons unknown.
Rage began to build inside my chest. How dare he try to
take away the only remaining pieces of a normal life I had left? And
for what, so he could eat me? Adrenaline pumped through my
veins, and it was al I could do to not see red. The burn of untamed
energy spread through my body once again, building in my
fingertips like pressure points ready to burst. No more mercy, no
more running. I was done.
"Go ahead and try," I hissed and stepped closer to him.
Behind me I felt the flames from the bonfire burst skyward with a
gust, blowing concentrated heat over my shoulders.
Kayden's smirk slipped, an emotionless mask faling in
place. He opened his mouth to speak when a scream sounded
behind me.
I turned. Jessica was laid out on the ground, eyes roled up
in the back of her head. Her body quivered and shook involuntary,
limbs splaying out every which way. Abigail, Ursula, Leo, and the
others immediately moved to her, holding her down and keeping
her head in place. "Someone cal an ambulance!"
Ursula had her phone cradled against her cheek, giving the
operator Leo's address. First responders would be on their way in
minutes, along with the local Belfast police chief, Jessica's father.
I turned back around. Kayden was gone. But where he
stood the grass was missing, only scorched ground remained.
F I V E
The next morning seemed darker, drearier, almost as if
someone had puled the curtains over the sunlight and left
everything obscured in the holow of an abyss. It seemed to seep
into everyone, myself included.
I stood outside Abigail's locker just before lunch. She
continued to rifle through the same pack of papers crammed into
the corners of her locker, grumbling under her breath with each
shove of stuff. I couldn't help but feel Kayden had something to do
with the gloomy attitude lingering over the school.
No. I was not about to go there. Excusing a poor weather
day on a supernatural creature, if they even realy existed, was not
something I was going to start doing. There was always a real
reason for the way things happened, like physics and psychology.
Kayden was probably just some figment of my imagination
everyone else was engaging with last night out of pity. Or maybe
last night never happened at al.
"So how bad was the third degree when you got home?" I
asked Abigail to try and keep my mind off the creeping thought of
Kayden. And the idea that I was completely bat-shit insane.
"What?" Abigail stuck her head out of her locker, cussing
in a low breath. She waived a hand dismissively at my face. "Oh,
please. Like my Mom cares if I come home. She's too busy trying
to bed some other man to 'give me a father.' What about you? I'm
sure Jayson didn't go easy."
sure Jayson didn't go easy."
Didn't go easy barely touched his reaction. After having the
wonderful pleasure of him being one of the first responders to
show, things weren't realy smooth between us, but more like a
cluster of grunts and the words 'grounded' mixed in with al kinds
of other lovely phrases.
"Let's just say if I go missing in the next few weeks make
sure Jayson is investigated and the backyard dug up," I said. Inside
her locker, Abigail snorted.
"He's just protecting you. You know how it is in the
movies. The older brother's always afraid his cute little sis is going
to choke on the marshmalow or drown in her closet of clothes,"
she cracked in between giggles.
I smacked the back of her head and she swore.
"Seriously? He's more afraid I'm going to choke on air. I think he
even glued my window pane shut the other night just in case." Not
that I wasn't guilty of tripping into things, but at least I could say I
had never falen out of a window open or closed.
Swearing again, Abigail slammed her locker shut, kicking it
for good measure. "Come on, we're going to be late for lunch. And
while we're on the subject, think of a good excuse as to why I can't
find my Bio paper so Whitley doesn't fail me."
"Tel him you had to work the corner last night to get over
your Daddy issues," I suggested to Abigail's glare. "Sorry, I got
nothing. Last night's stil running around in my head."
"Circles or sprints?" She grinned but shook her head as we
walked into the Cafeteria and took our usual seats. Like always,
we were the last two, and no one was in the mood to offer any
we were the last two, and no one was in the mood to offer any
form of communication with me around. Abigail yanked out a
bagged lunch of tuna on wheat, a blueberry muffin, and a mug of
stil-warm cocoa. "Anyone hear any news on Jessica?"
I sat back with a notebook on my lap, listening as Thomas
spoke first. "She's stil in Portland running CT scans and looking for
why she had the seizure."
The girl on his side I met last night, Emily, chimed in.
"Think it had anything to do with that Kayden kid?"
I stopped in mid-Algebra equation and looked up, my
palms suddenly sweating. "What about Kayden?"
"Why don't you tel us, Essalie?" Thomas chalenged,
narrowing his eyes. "You were the only one there who knew him."
"There's no need for the hostility, Thomas," Abigail chided.
I put my hand out in front of Abigail, shaking my head. "I
got this, Abby, thanks. Thomas, what to do think? That I knew he
was going to crash the party? I know him just about as much as al
of you. We've only met once."
"Funny," he said. "You two flickered like two halves of a
flame coming together again."
I pursed my lips. "Your attitude is realy uncaled for.
You're making me out to look like I intended for him to fight with
me and cause Jessica's seizure."
"I'm just a little surprised how wel he knew you." He
leaned forward, implications screaming from his eyes. "I'd love to
ask him just how it got that way when you claim you've only met