Authors: Alivia Anders
once."
once."
I stood from my seat and placed my hands on the lunch
table, leaning far enough to touch noses with Thomas. "You want
to ask him, be my guest. Good luck finding him, though."
"He doesn't have to look far."
Thomas and I both turned to Emily. She shifted in her seat
uncomfortably and pointed toward the double doors. "He's right
there."
"What?" I turned around, part of me hoping Emily was
bluffing, the other part wishing for a pickaxe. Dressed in jeans and
a half-undone button up he blended right in with every other guy on
the ads in New York. Compared to every other student he stood
out like a sore thumb, his dark skin better than the orange look
most of the girls sported but stil foreign to the pale faces
commonly seen.
And he was heading straight for me. Great.
"Abigail, give me something to hit him with," I growled
under my breath, grasping for anything on the chair beside her. I
locked my fingers around something heavy and as soon as he
rounded the corner to our table, I threw it.
His hand came up and caught the textbook with ease and
continued to walk over. He
tsk-tsk'd
once he stopped in front of
our table, leaving just enough space between us that I couldn't
reach for him.
"Nice to see you again, Essalie," he spoke smooth like
melting butter, moving with the same smooth attitude as he
deposited Abigail's book on her lap. "Shame you're resorting to
primal violence to cover your emotions."
primal violence to cover your emotions."
Against her better judgment, Abigail snickered. "What
brings you to the smal cavernous hole that is Belfast?"
His head tilted to the side, a playful smile stretching his lips.
"Let's just say it wasn't by choice." Bels rang overhead, end of
lunch. I wasted no time scooping up my things and making like
mad animal to my next class.
But as soon as I stepped into the English Literature
classroom, I knew something was off. Everyone was either
standing or leaning against the wals with their messenger bags on
the floor. Whispered conversations floated between the smal
clusters of people spread throughout the room.
I spotted Emily in the back, leaning on the windowsil with
Ursula alongside her. Both sported bored expressions. "What's
going on?"
Emily shrugged. "No teacher. Looks like a study hal day."
She glanced over to the kids skipping out of the room. "Or an
excuse to cut, it seems."
Go figure. The one day I actualy need a little distraction in
the form of Shakespeare and Alen Poe and I can't have it. I
glanced up at the clock on the wal. Only two more hours left of
school, might as wel head home to avoid every chance possible of
seeing Kayden.
Slipping out with a few others, I made sure to hit my locker
for al my extra books and homework before I left through the
Cafeteria. The smal patch of outdoor picnic tables led me straight
to the parking lot for students, leaving for a slim chance to run into
anyone.
anyone.
"Essie."
Or so I thought.
I didn't bother to look back. There was only one person
who had that deep of a voice and who would conveniently know
where to find me. My feet hit pavement as I kept my car in sight,
focusing on the dul gleam of the back window.
"Essalie, hold on." The voice said, the brush of air hitting
my ear and neck. I turned to see Kayden keeping an even pace
with me, face close enough to count the subtle freckles dusting his
nose.
I leapt back and swore. "How the hel did you catch up to
me?"
The delighted expression in his eyes melted as his
shoulders slumped. "Realy? Any question in the world you can ask
a demon and you ask how I caught up to you?"
"Cut it out with this demon crap. I hate when my brain
plays games with me like this," I grumbled under my breath.
"You're not a demon, you're either just a damn good projection of
my imagination or some kid who realy does have too much time
on his hands to have folowed me al the way from New York."
He stopped walking and fel behind. I kept pushing
forward and ignored the nagging need to look back over my
shoulder.
Black smoke suddenly materialized in front of me, coiling
into sharp wisps. Kayden stepped out from the lingering smoke,
dusting off his shirt and flexing his hand as color bled back into his
features. Within seconds he looked as normal and whole as I'd left
him behind me moments before.
"How long are you going to fight this? Because realy, I
may have an eternity, but your skin's already starting to winkle and
thin," he lamented with an expressionless face.
For a second I stood there in shock, mouth agape.
"Smoke and mirrors, just smoke and mirrors." I swalowed hard
and shoved past him to the car door. Sweaty hands fumbled inside
my jacket for keys.
He let out an infuriated sigh behind me. "Essalie, I can
make this easier on you."
My messenger bag slipped off my shoulder, dropping to
the ground with a thud. In one move I had turned around and
locked eyes with him. He looked like he practicaly wanted to
plead, beg on his hands and knees until the world crumbled around
him. It only took one flashback to the leftovers of flesh and bone
from Chase's body to plant me firmly back in the right frame of
mind. I had to remember that he was here to kil me, not help me.
"Make it easier? Because death is so easy," I laughed
darkly. "You're sick to think I'd even let you try to kil me for one
second."
He shook his head, eyebrows mashed together in
concentration. "No, you've got it al wrong. I want to help
you."
"I don't understand."
He stepped closer and placed a hand on my car. "Haven't
you ever wondered just what you realy are?"
you ever wondered just what you realy are?"
My brain staled. "Nothing's wrong with me."
"I never said anything was wrong." He looked like he
wanted to smile but held it in. "You mean to tel me you've never
once been curious, not even a little bit?"
"What are you going on about?" I half-shouted back at
him. My fists began to clench tight, warmth spreading out from my
chest like it had the night before at the bonfire.
Kayden leaned in closer, his face centimeters from mine.
He had no breath as he spoke, "I know what you are. Let me
help."
Without thinking I gave him a push. Blue sparks of flame
crackled under my fingertips, igniting a burst of fire on his clothes.
Kayden stumbled back swearing and yelping. He smacked his
chest like a mad man until the blaze was out.
I stood there, stunned. I looked down at my palms to see
smal kindling sparks dancing over the skin. Somehow it wasn't
burning me. Somehow I was conducting fire. My head felt light, the
world taking a curious spin onto an angle. I crashed into the side of
my car, catching onto the side mirror and knocking it off with me.
My body shook as I spoke, scrambling to my feet and
opening the car door. "You think you know me? You don't know a
thing about me." I shoved my bag inside the car and got in, turning
my neck to see Kayden standing several feet back. "There's
nothing to find out, so stop. Leave me alone, Kayden, or I swear
I'l-"
"You'l what? Kil me? You couldn't hurt a fly. If you had
even an inch of how to control the power you have you wouldn't
even an inch of how to control the power you have you wouldn't
have hurt me even now."
"I don't have any power!" I screamed. Across the parking
lot car alarms al went off at once. Headlights and tailights
exploded and sparked uncontrolably. I shut the door and backed
out, swerving the car until I could see Kayden.
Through the windshield I could barely make out his lips as
they moved. I revved the engine. My threatening words from the
night before came front and center in my mind, echoing with clarity.
"Go ahead and try," the whisper barely came out as I
floored the car and sped past Kayden towards the only safe place
I had left. My little House of Horror.
S I X
Every day that folowed it started the same. Kayden would
be waiting outside my locker, leaning against the wal with a silent
expression of rage fit for a man about to murder everyone in sight.
One look in my direction and the features softened, but only a little.
I opened my locker and shoved in everything for my
afternoon classes, refusing to make eye contact with him. He was,
after al, the one who put this on me. He brought every painful
memory with him. A bug, ready to be squashed.
My locker slammed shut. I stared straight ahead, focusing
on the little metal flaps. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I didn't look to see.
"I'm waiting, Essalie. Waiting for you to say you're curious, that
you're ready. You know you only have to say the words, and you'l
be that much closer to being rid of me for good." I felt his body
shift closer, leaning into my stone posture. "So much for wanting a
normal life, eh?"
I squared my shoulders tighter and turned, making sure to
avoid even the faintest connection of our eyes. "Don't hold your
breath, demon."
"Even if I wanted to, I'd be okay," he whispered, inching
closer. "Demons don't need to breathe, you see. What about you,
Essalie? Do you need to breathe?"
I bit my cheek. I wanted nothing better than to plunge my
hands onto his chest and burn him back to wherever the hel he
hands onto his chest and burn him back to wherever the hel he
came from. His eyes were a shining obsidian when I stared back at
him.
"Yes, Kayden, as a matter of fact I do. Humans need air
for their lungs. You should know. Chase gasped for as much of it
as he could when you used his skin to pick your teeth."
He shrugged. "Muscle gets wedged in there and flesh is the
only thing I know to get it out. Sue me."
"You're impossible," I shook my head. "Nothing is going to
change. Get used to the school system. You're going to need it if
you plan on hanging around for the rest of my life." I walked past
him, making sure not to touch the littlest bit of his body. If I wanted
to start a fire I definitely didn't want to have it happen in a school.
Every day, despite repeated shutouts, Kayden remained
persistent. He sat in every class, lingered around my locker like a
lost creature, the Cafeteria, my car, you name it. Any chance he
could to actively harass me into believing that I was something
different, something not wholy human.
Sad truth was, part of me wanted to give into it. I had
tried, and succeeded, in re-creating the fire in my room, bouncing a
little bal of electric blue fire between my palms as if it were a
regular bouncy bal. It felt like nothing, not hot or cold, but when it
touched something it engulfed it whole until nothing was left.
One day after a particularly nasty screaming match in the
halway I was sure to be written up for, the rest of the day went
like any other, and I moved from class to class with no interruption.
Kayden had vanished, no doubt licking his wounds like the dog
that he was. By the time I had made it to my car without a single
that he was. By the time I had made it to my car without a single
sight of him, I was ecstatic. My words seemed to have finaly sunk
in. I went to bed grinning, feeling like I was going to have a better
handle on everything, like my life was finaly back on track.
My dreams that night were vivid, intensive. Long halways
with tal white pilars stretched on every side as I walked down an
aisle. Grass blossomed beneath my feet, the sky above stretching
to an everlasting horizon of melted purples and blues. It was a
paradise, perfect in its own seclusion.
Tendrils of smoke curled behind me, licking up along the
sides of my legs, twisting and trailing like slithering snakes. I ran
forward, anything to avoid the smoke, for I knew if it took a hold
of me it would be my end, my death. The pilars vanished under a
dimming light, until suddenly I was standing at a precipice. Dirt
escaped off the top of the edge, fumbling down into the endless
darkness below. Somehow I knew faling into that abyss would be
the same as giving into the smoke.
I spun around and fought back a gasp. The smoke had