He turns to look at me and I must look as bad as I feel because his face goes pale and his eyes wide. My vision starts to go grey as he rushes over to me, but it feels like everything slows down and he’s moving through syrup. My head is pounding so strongly now that my mouth waters and my stomach turns over again.
Gabe reaches me and places his hands on my shaking arms. My fingers go numb and the ax I’m still holding falls to the floor with a clang that echoes inside my throbbing head.
The others turn to face us then, but my fading vision is just for Gabe. He’s leaning in so close to me and trying to tell me something, but it’s lost to my defining ears. My body starts to feel hollow and full at the same time, and I’m not sure what is up or down.
But then everything shutters inside me.
My vision narrows down to Gabe’s light eyes before me and all I feel is tired. His eyes go even wider now, and I think he might be shaking me, but my vision goes black suddenly.
Everything disappears.
Chapter Fifty Eight
My eyes open to an odd sight.
I lay on my back, in the grass, on a sunny afternoon. I feel so calm that I might actually fall asleep. Not even the cool breeze that is moving my hair across my face could keep me awake. I’m starring up at the bright blue sky that is littered with white fluffy clouds, and I feel my eyelids flutter closed. Breathing out a sigh, I can feel my body sink further into the damp grass as I drift off to sleep.
Everything is about to fade away and I can feel sleep pulling me, when he interrupts my revere.
“
Hey look, that one kind of looks like an upside down elephant standing on a beach ball.”
Snorting out a laugh, I open my eyes and turn my head so that I can see him. I find that he isn’t looking at the sky at all, and is instead looking at me.
“
You little liar, you woke me up you know.”
I try to sound threatening, but there is a light tone to my voice, so I know I didn’t pull it off. He knows I’m teasing too, since he’s smiling at me and I can actually feel myself blush just from looking at him.
“
Did I? Didn’t mean too birthday girl.” He says
I’m about to say yeah sure, when he shifts closer to me and pushes up on his arms, so that he is almost hovering over me. His grin becomes heated as he leans into me, and I know he’s going to kiss me before I even feel his lips graze mine. At first the kiss is just a light touch, but we both push closer together and it gets deepened. I wrap my hands up into his soft curls of his light hair, and I pull him even closer to me. He’s gently easing me back onto the ground, when I have to pull back just to catch my breath. He leans back a little and grins down at me.
“
Is that my birthday present?” I say a little short of breath.
He laughs and shakes his head, making me smile at how beautiful he is.
“
I have to give you more? I thought the picnic was the present.” He says teasingly.
“
Hey, a girl only turns sixteen once you know. You’re lucky my mom didn’t sign me up for a debutant ball or something, you’d be sorry then.”
He chuckles as he falls onto his back beside me, and reaches to take my hand that I placed at my side.
His hand is warm in mine, and I decide that this is the best birthday ever. Not only is the weather actually nice for once, but I get to spend the whole afternoon with Matt alone. This is a very rare occurrence, but then I did have to sign away my soul to my parents. Who, by the way are making me go to a special dinner with them tonight, and Daniel too since it’s his birthday too. I told them I’m too old now for kiddie things, but they won’t let me have an actual sweet sixteen party.
So we compromised, and I get the afternoon to myself to spend it with Matt.
We’ve already been out in my backyard for a couple of hours. He actually surprised me with a whole spread of food, all take out of course, but still. I just assumed we go to a movie or something, but color me surprised. After eating some truffle thing, we ended up laid out on the grass and have been starring at the sky ever since. At first we were making crazy ideas about the shapes of the clouds, but then we just laid in silence for a while.
I’ve never been so content in my life, than I am right now. And I have to wonder if maybe this is what love feels like? I wouldn’t know I guess, but it sure feels like it. I know Claire would probably shun me if I were to ask her opinion, because she’s not exactly a fan of falling in love. Maybe I could ask Dan, he seems happy enough with Maria. I can’t really ask him either though, if he’s not with Maria, then he’s with his new best friend Gabriel. And no way am I asking about love in front of him, he already gives me trouble as it am and would only embarrass me.
“
What you thinking about beautiful?” Matt says softly, bringing me back to the moment.
I smile and turn so that I am facing him, instead of the sky again and like before, he’s already watching me.
“
Just about how perfect today is, and how I never want it to end.”
This is true too, all month it has been raining and today of all days, it’s finally sunny and warm. Or warm enough to be lying outside anyways. If I could freeze time, this would be the perfect time to do it.
“
I feel the same way.” He says as he moves his other arm behind his head to get more comfortable.
I’m about to finally take the plunge and tell him that I might love him, when something on his raised arm catches my eye. Just at the outside of his elbow, there is a dripping line of something red that looks like blood. Sitting up, I wonder how he got hurt, maybe a black fly bite?
But when have they ever drawn that much blood?
“
Matt your arm is bleeding.” I tell him in alarm.
He doesn’t seem all that alarmed though, and just slides his hand from mine and it joins the other behind his head. He won’t look at me now, and just glares up at the sky.
“
Your hurt Matt, let me see.”
I reach out for his arm, intending to inspect it since he couldn’t have a care. Except he flinches from me, and turns his glare from the sky and onto me.
“
Leave it alone Maggie, its fine. Nothing can be done about it now anyway.”
I stare at him in confusion for a moment.
Nothing can be done? How about cleaning it up for starters?
He can be such a weirdo sometimes. So ignoring him completely, I snag his arm and pull it out from behind his head, so I can get a better look. I literally gasp out loud ay what I see. There isn’t just a small dripping line of blood anymore, now it’s a large bite. Just on the outside of his elbow and going up his forearm is a chuck of his skin missing, and it’s so deep that I can almost see the hint of bone poking through.
How he is even laying there and saying he’s fine, I have no idea.
“
Matt, oh my God, we have to get you to the hospital!” I say as I am about to stand up, but he sits up and stops me.
“
Maggie, really it’s fine. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
He’s not glaring anymore, and now he just looks sad.
How he got hurt and how he could say he’s not hurt just doesn’t make any sense to me. Feeling something wet warm touching my kneeling legs, I look down and away from Matt. The blood from his arm is flowing from him now, and there is a pool of it on the grass that is spreading onto me. The afternoon feels suddenly cold to me, as I glance back up to Matt, and as I do I wish I didn’t.
He’s changed now and his face is pale and sunken in on itself.
His eyes are wide and so fully dilated that I can’t see the blue of them anymore. His mouth is open slightly into a snarl, and blood slides out between his lips. He’s making a low keening sound and moving towards me.
I start to get afraid.
“…
Matt?” I say in a soft whisper.
His movements are slow, as if he can’t get his body to cooperate, but his arms reach for me still.
Scooting back on the grass, I wonder if I should really be afraid of him, but something deep down tells me that I should. He’s almost up on his knees now and getting closer, when I notice something on his neck. Like the blood on his arm, there is a circling line around his throat and is widening like his skin is spreading apart. I’m so focused on the horror that is becoming of his body, that I don’t see him tense as if preparing to spring, in time.
He lunges at me, and I scream as his body careens us onto the blood covered ground.
I manage to get my hands onto his shoulders, and keep his mouth from me as he snaps his teeth. He’s too heavy for me though, and all too soon, is he getting closer and closer to the flesh of my shoulder. I have to turn my head away as he gets closer, and I scream as I feel his teeth almost grazing me. Then I see something that makes me scream for a different reason.
Kneeling beside us is another Matt.
This one is clearly alive though, and maybe even a little older looking; but it’s obvious from the unshed tears in his eyes, that he’s upset over something. His lips are moving, but I can’t hear what he says and I want so badly to call for him to help me; but then he disappears and I’m alone with the other Matt.
I know he’s going to kill me then, and I’m resigned to just let him.
But then, almost from far away I can hear someone calling out to me, but I’m too busy screaming to answer them. The voice gets louder then and tells me to wake up. Wake up? I’m not asleep, am I? Suddenly the weight of Matt is gone from me and I’m left holding empty air.
The backyard of my house disappears and all I see is darkness as everything fades away.
Chapter Fifty Nine
The first thing I feel when I start to wake up is pain.
My head is pounding so profusely, that I don’t feel the screams building until they are pouring out of my dry lips. The second thing I feel, are rough hands holding me tightly and pulling me in close. I have the sense that I am laying down, and by the cold hard surface, I’m guessing it’s not a bed I’m on. Beyond the pain in my head, I try to remember how I might have fallen down. As hard as I try to think, my head throbs even worse.
It makes me stop the screams so they can turn into a keening whining sound.
Sound is slowly forming in my deaf ears as a prickling static fills my head, and is sending shock waves through my entire body. As the sound turns into voices, I open my eyes and am afraid of what I’ll see. What I find though, is Gabe. Who is staring down at me so intently, I have to wonder what could make him watch me like that. He looks as if he is trying to tell me something, but his voice just sounds like static and I can hear what it is. From all the time I’ve known him, he’s never looked at me the way he is now, like he almost lost me or something.
But why would he?
All he’s ever done is teasing me and as far as I know I’m just his friend’s sister. I notice then that he looks different that when we arrived at Austin’s party. For one his hair is shorter, and his clothes are filthy. Wait a second is that blood on his clothes?
Taking my eyes off of Gabe I glance around the room we’re in and try to ignore the way my head throbs even more as I move. The room we are in isn’t a room exactly, but more like a lobby of some sort and is in no way part of Austin’s house. How in the world did we get here? We’re not alone either though, and the people around us seem to be in worse condition than Gabe. There is a guy slightly older than me that reminds me of Matt and looks worse for wear.
I wonder where Matt is and as I think about the dream I had, a memory tries to come to the surface, but it fades away before I know what it was. The Matt look-a-like is hovering near a pregnant girl, who looks like she could be his sister. There is another guy standing close to her, and the way he keeps close, I guess that he is involved with her.
Besides them, looking shell shocked and frightened, is Claire.
Her mother is standing behind her and looks just as frightened, and the both of them appear slightly rumpled and in dirty clothes. Everyone in the room is watching me, like I might sprout a second head or something. The thought of eyes on me waiting, tickles a memory, but it fades before I can grasp onto it. None of this makes sense to me, and I can feel hysteria building underneath all the pain. The static filled voices are getting clearer to me now.
When Gabe speaks, I turn back to look up at him. “Maggie, are you alright?”
Am I alright?
I have no idea, mostly because I have no clue as to where I am or how I even got here. And what is with the new people and the way they all look like it’s the end of the world? I really hope Austin’s party didn’t get busted or that we were in an accident or something. All I need is for my parents to find out and ground me for the rest of the summer. Of course, the way I feel right now, I wouldn’t mind a couple weeks in my bed. Gabe is still watching me his brows furrowing in worry.
Oh right, he’s probably waiting for me to reply.
“
I…”
I never get the chance to finish though, since I’m now coughing and shaking again. My throat is burning and feels so scratchy like I spent to long screaming, and maybe I have. Gabe looks even more worried as he lifts me up a little so that I can catch my breath.