The Seventh Sister, A Paranormal Romance

by Z. L. Arkadie

  I’m instantly hit by freezing cold air while standing in the doorway. I look up and down the narrow walk. There’s nothing there. Then I look downwards. There’s a red substance on the ground that’s now starting to freeze. I squat down and run a finger through the slushy fluid. Is it blood? Just as I examine my find, I feel a presence hovering. That’s when I look up to see three big guys glaring down at me.

  I’m stunned, frozen in place. Though I’m scared out of my mind, my instincts tell me to fake bravery.

  “Hey,” I say as I rise cautiously to my feet.

  Upon study, I can tell that these guys are definitely not from around here. They’re wearing crisp, high-end jeans, the sort the trendy boys in Manhattan wear when they go clubbing and their hair cuts are sleek. What I notice the most is that they’re not wearing coats, and they don’t look the least bit cold.

  “Look at her,” one says to the other.

  “Do you smell that?” the other one asks.

  They all sniff the air like animals and then look at me with gleaming eyes. I study the contours of their faces. All of them have an anemic, olive-skin complexion and shallow beards. They’re good looking for sure, but there’s something menacing about them.

  “She’s one of those…” the first guy who spoke says.

  I’m waiting to hear what I am, but they’re all just staring at me like I’m dinner or something. This is not going to end pretty.

  Then I hear another bang, but my instincts are on high alert so I don’t take my eyes off these three. Just as I thought, the first one rushes me, but what’s in me takes over. I shift to the right to clamp both of my hands around his torso, pick him up and throw him like a bowling ball into the two other guys.

  They all hit the snow, but I plant my feet, standing my ground. My fists are balled. Although I can’t believe this is happening, I’m in the thick of it now, and the only way out is to fight my way out.

  As the men find their footing, I glance down by the dumpster, and see the legs of someone lying against the snow on the ground in a dark crevice between it and the wall of the building.

  I turn back to face my opponents.

  This time all three of them charge me, and I go on automatic kick butt. There’s no training behind my movements. My limbs respond instinctively to the aggression and I’m strong. These guys are matching me blow by blow—and that’s really strange. I hit them and they come back as if I’m having no affect at all.

  I don’t want to hurt them too badly, but I know this a different kind of fight. They’re not schoolyard bullies. When one of them throws a kick towards my head, I know the intent behind that blow. If it had connected, I’d be hurt bad—not dead, it would take more than that to kill me. My right hand catches his foot and I throw him at least fifty feet out. Soon after, my left elbow cracks another one in the neck hard enough to send him to the ground clutching his throat and gasping until he’s out cold. One down, two to go. I have no time to assess what my next move should be. These guys are not giving up.

  Just when I’m ready to maim the other two as well, a white flash shoots through the air and right before my eyes, the two would-be aggressors are face down in the snow, but their bodies are twisted and mangled. Derek Firth is standing right beside me, glaring down at his kill.

  “What, how…” I can barely squeeze out of my voice box.

  Derek squats down beside one of them, flips him over and pulls open his mouth. He puts his finger on the guy’s teeth. “Selells,” he says, then frowns perplexed as he rises back up to stand, “but there’s something different about these creatures.”

  I’m blinking like crazy, wondering if what just happened really just happened.

  “What did you call these guys again?”

  “These are Selells.” Derek seems distracted as he stares over by the dumpster. “There’s another one.”

  He goes over, takes hold of this guy’s leg and pulls him out of his hiding place and into full view. I gasp shocked at first sight, there’s a seriously deep gash in his neck and blood is just pouring out of it.

  “Is he alive?” I ask, curiously craning my neck forward, hoping to see something that will look more logical.

  “Not really,” Derek mutters, keeping his eyes on the injured party.

  “He’s dead?” Then I look at the other three bodies lying around us like road kill. “Are they all dead?”

  “Those three are gone. This one isn’t—yet.”

  “What do you mean, yet? Are you going to kill him?” Because it sounds like that’s what he meant.

  I go stand over the guy, keeping my eyes on Derek’s hands, making sure he doesn’t slaughter this poor guy who’s already close to being dead in the first place.

  “I have to,” Derek insists.

  “No, you don’t,” I argue. “And what are you talking about in the first place? Listen to yourself. Are you a murderer?”

  He looks up at me. Why does he look so calm when I’m freaking out here? Then the guy on the ground groans.

  “These are not human beings, Zillael, and deep down, you know it. So help me,” he orders.

  I move swiftly over to shield the guy with my body.

  “No,” Derek shouts and reaches down to snatch me away from the guy.

  I go flying about ten feet in the air, but I land solidly on my feet. Normally, I would try to hide the fact that I’m able to do this, but something tells me I don’t have to keep this part of me from Derek Firth.

  “What is wrong with you?” I yell at him.

  “Stay away from him.” He uses himself as a wall between me and the injured boy, whose face I haven’t seen yet.

  “Is he a student here or something? I’m not going to get freaked out if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “He’s not a student here.”

  “That’s fine, but I know I can save him.” I try to make another move towards the injured party, but Derek blocks my forward progress.

  “Can’t let you,” he says while holding me by the shoulders.

  I frown at him. “Move.” I try to push him but he stands solid.

  “He’s a Selell.”

  “A what? What’s that?”

  He hesitates for a long time. “If you don’t know what that means, then I can’t tell you.”

  “You’re making zero sense right now,” I say as I look down. The guy is crawling deeper into the crevice. That’s good news, and if I weren’t sure of Derek’s intention to kill him, then I would say something. All I know is that there’s a life to preserve, Selell or not.

  I shift really fast without warning to shake Derek and dive to the ground, landing in a tight spot between the wall and the guy. He and I are now facing each other. I take his hand.

  “Does it hurt?” I ask.

  Derek stands over us, blocking the light, ensuing from a snow topped lamppost that’s slicing into the crevice.

  “Not anymore,” he whispers.

  His eyes are coal black and sincere. Skin matches the white of the snow his cheek rests on. His hair is as black as mine and altogether he has a dark, warrior look that’s probably passé.

  I don’t know why, but my fingers lightly stroke the soft skin of his straight forehead. However, more is happening between us though. It’s freezing cold out here, but I’m engulfed by warmth from the moment I touch him.

  I look up at Derek, who’s watching us, stunned.

  “We’re going to have to get help.”

  That’s when to my utter shock, Mr. Lux appears behind Derek as if he just dropped out of the sky.

  “Mr. Lux?” My tone is highly inquisitive, even though I’m happy to see him. Finally, the guy’s going to be safe, authority has arrived. However, I do notice that Mr. Lux’s blue eyes are actually glowing like light bulbs in the dark night.

  “The three behind us,” Derek says to him after a quick glance over his shoulder.

  Suddenly I see something long and on fire in Mr. Lux’s hand. Maybe it’s a sword of some sor
t. Still curious about what he’s going to do with that thing, I shuffle to my feet. As soon as the guy and I stop touching, I don’t get cold again.

  My eyes do not deceive me. Mr. Lux slices through the Selells on the ground and one by one they turn into ashes. My mouth is caught open in disbelief. Mr. Lux doesn’t intend to stop there. He puts those intense blue eyes on the guy lying by the dumpster.

  It all happens so fast.

  I want to shout, stop, but only have time to form the s when the Selell, as Derek calls him, flips up and on his feet so fast that I’m sure my eyes are playing tricks on me. Then, as Mr. Lux lowers his fire beam at him, the guy flips backwards avoiding the blade and the flips again before he’s gone.

  “I’ve never seen anybody move that fast, Lux,” Derek says to Mr. Lux as if their old friends and not teacher and student.

  “I’ll catch him,” Mr. Lux declares.

  “No,” I say. “Don’t.”

  I’m quite confused, of course, and Mr. Lux is glaring at me like I’ve done something very naughty.

  “It was her,” Mr. Lux says, pointing at me with those blue eyes of his. “She gave him the power.”

  “Me?” Now I’m really confused.

  “Do you think they’re attached, and that’s why he’s here?”

  “It’s happened with another Life Blood.”

  They both look at me.

  “When you say Life Blood, do you mean me?” I ask.

  Derek and Mr. Lux look at each other as if for the first time they realize that I’m actually present in the moment.

  “Get her back inside.” Mr. Lux says and shoots away faster than humanly possible.

  At the moment, Derek and I are two figures standing alone in the purple night behind the cafeteria. It’s as if reality reset itself, and none of what just happened ever happened. Three boys run across the wide-opened field that’s right next to campus. They’re throwing snowballs at each other and laughing loudly. To them, life is normal. Funny, but I think I finally feel the same way.

  Derek is studying my distant expression.

  “What about all the blood?” I say putting myself back in the moment.

  “There’s no more blood.”

  “What,” I study the area on the ground where the guy bled, and what was once blood has turned into a black tar substance.

  Then I look at the tips of my fingers from where I touched the blood earlier, again, black tar.

  Derek and I are just staring at each other. I’m trying to fully absorb this moment and him in it. Then I remember I have a job to do tonight.

  “I guess, I should get that punch back down to the auditorium,” is all I can come up with to say in the moment.

  “This was never supposed to happen,” he says to me.

  “It’s okay. I guess.”

  Again, he’s just staring into my face. I’ve never really looked at him before. He’s a lot like me in the sense that he doesn’t look like he belongs in high school.

  I thumb towards the door. “I’ll go now. We’ll talk later?”

  After a long pause, he nods. I go inside. He stays outside.

  The container filled with red liquid is exactly where I left it. First, I scrub the tar off my hand and then take the container by the handles and lift it out of the sink. It’s as light as a pail of straw.

  When I get back to the dance nothing’s changed. The boys are still holding up the walls. There are more girls dancing with each other than with someone of the opposite sex. And the music stills sucks. The good thing is no one’s standing around the refreshment table waiting for punch, which the girl with the short haircut who worked the table at the entrance has taken over serving.

  “Where have you been?” she scolds as I plop the container on the tabletop.

  “Busy as you can see.”

  She’s staring at me funny, at my cheek precisely.

  “Did you get into a fight?” she asks frowning, sounding still a little miffed that the task took me so long.

  “Why?” I touch the spot her eyes beam in on, and wince a little. It’s tender there. I guess I caught one in the face without even feeling it.

  “Who did you fight? Riley?” Her eyes are curiously shining.

  “No, it was three guys,” I say, believing she’ll never believe me, but it’s my way of saying mind your own business.

  Then she asks, “Three guys—who?” And really, she means it.

  “Tweedledee, Tweedledum and Frick without Frack,” I say sarcastically.

  She rolls her eyes at me. “You’re such a bitch.”

  “That’s a pretty brave thing to say to a chick who just creamed three guys.” I’m looking at her with the crazy grin.

  She grunts and then says, “Handle it, I’m done,” before stomping off.

  Of course as soon as she walks away, another little mousy faced girl steps up for a cup of punch. As I’m filling up the cup, I see Mr. Lux and Mrs. Lowenstein walk into the auditorium together. He’s saying something to her. She nods once and then heads towards me. I look down when I hear the punch spatter on the floor, and jump back.

  “Shoot,” I curse under my breath. I just overfilled the cup.

  I hand the girl the cup and she takes it. “Sorry about that,” she says, and I’m caught off guard by her saying that to me. That was actually nice.

  “We’re not all bad,” Derek’s voice says right behind me, but before I can turn to reply, Mrs. Lowenstein is already standing in front of me.

  “You can leave now. We’re all settled up on your sentence,” she says without that condescending smile, she usually wears when talking to me.

  I watch her walk away. I don’t know what Mr. Lux said to her, but I’m sure that’s the reason why she released me from what I already concluded would be an entire year of social event hell in Moonridge.

  “Go,” Derek says as he steps up beside me. “I’ll finish up here.”

  I swallow hard. Without looking at him, I trek across the high gloss floor but only slow down when Morgan Slater comes running to catch up to me.

  “Um, Riley wants to talk to you,” she says, as if the queen has spoken, and I should know it’s time to bow and comply.

  Unfortunately for her, these deep embedded senses in me were heightened after the fight and haven’t evened out yet. “Move,” I say, and barely shove her out of my way, but she goes tumbling to the floor and I keep walking. I’ll deal with the fallout tomorrow.

  A black car with black tinted windows, too she-she for this town, followed me from the faculty parking lot all the way to our driveway. Once I made a right onto our property it slowed down and stopped along the side of the road. I was a little nervous, thinking maybe it is friends of the three Selells, that’s what Derek called them. I hit the button to open the garage, drove in, hit the quick drop safety button, and the garage door took a dead drop when it closed. Deanna had the mechanism installed the day after we moved in. I thought it was a waste of money back then, really, who’s going rob us in this one-horse town? Nobody that I couldn’t take down in five seconds. Tonight’s fight cured me of being so overconfident.

  Once safely confined, I sat in the driver’s seat and waited for about another fifteen minutes. I didn’t know where my head was but I couldn’t think of anything to think of—if that makes sense. I didn’t know what was wrong with me at that moment.

  My eyes took notice of the rake, shovel and step ladder along one wall, the lawnmower in the corner on the other side and a table with bottled water, toilet paper, cleaning supplies and paper towels on top of it against the wall in front of me. From where I sat, it looked like real people lived here.

  I held on to that encouraging fact as I opened the side door to the garage and walked out of it.

  I looked towards the road.

  The car was still there. That’s when I fished the house keys out of my coat pocket and ran to the front door, opened it as fast as I could and locked myself inside. When I pulled the curtain to gaze out the window, t
he car was gone.

  Now I’m here in bed, in the dark, staring up at the ceiling and still unable to fully process my evening. There’s a reaction that’s evading me.

  Let’s see…Derek Firth finished off the last two guys and then showed me the two sharp fanged teeth in their mouths. Mr. Lux carries a sword that’s on fire and that sword turned them into ashes. Then there was the boy, maybe man—he looked to be in his early twenties but so do I and I’m seventeen. This person with his black eyes, black hair and wintery complexion lies on the ground injured. Then the next thing I know, he’s evading Mr. Lux’s sword and he’s out of there. Later, this guy’s blood turns to tar. What’s Life Blood? What’s a Selell? And what was never supposed to happen?

  Chapter 3

  The Wek

  The alarm is croaking, and I reach over and slap it off. I open one eye to read the time on the clock. The orange LED lights say it’s seven-thirty. School starts at eight-fifteen. It never takes me more than twenty minutes to get dressed and ready. I’m not one of those girls who wear makeup and I pretty much don’t try to get all gussied up in the clothes department either. After last night, I’m tempted to change this attitude I have against adorning myself for the male eye, which sort of scares me.

  I drag to the bathroom and look at my face in the mirror. That red bruise is still on the top part of my left cheek under the eye. There’s no way I’m ready for the stares and the possibility of having to explain what happened to Mrs. Lowenstein—gosh she irritates me.

  However, I do want to see Derek Firth today, like he said, we have a lot to discuss, but I don’t want to deal with Riley Sims, who’s always lurking somewhere in his shadow. I swear she has some sort of fatal attraction. That’s another thing I want to talk to him about. Either he’s leading her on, or lying to me—or maybe both, which appears to be inconsistent with who I believe he is as a person.

  However, as I take notice of myself in my powder blue tank top and pink and blue flannel night pants with a bruise on my face and hair all over the place, it dawns on me that a person who looks and feels like me ought to take a sick day off from that place called high school. Without delay, I march right back to my bedroom, climb up under the comforter and not long after, I fall asleep again.