I was still in the outfit I had worn to school. I had never changed clothes when I got home earlier today. At least I think it was still the same day. But how did I wake up in downtown Rowan County?
All I could do was walk. I held myself against the cold of the night… and I walked. I walked down the main street as cars passed me by here and there. The shops were all lit up but there were no people around. I wondered what time it was. Then I wondered why it mattered.
What I feel was a good hour passed before I began to lose hope in the fact that I would ever fall back asleep. Usually I would pass out in a few minutes time and end up back in my room, the episode would end. But this time that wasn’t happening. I started to freak out more and more, silently, as every additional minute ticked by. I was still crazy. I was still insane. What normal person woke up halfway downtown in the middle of the night?
I broke down on an old, dirty bench ten minutes from my school. I sat there and I cried. I cried because I had reached my fill of fear, of sorrow, and I cried because nobody was around to see me. Oh yeah, and I cried because I was in the middle of Rowan County without any shoes.
But mostly I just cried to cry. I was frustrated with being so cut off from the rest of the world. I was tired of being in a room full of people and still feeling like I did right now… like the last person on the planet. I don’t know what I’m missing; I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Where do I go from here?
A pair of headlight beams shined on me and I raised my head. That turned out to be a bad idea because the damn things were blinding. High beams. Not that I could see anything with the tears, anyway. A car pulled up swiftly beside me and the driver side door popped open. My eyes widened, tears still staining my cheeks.
It was Albert.
“Get in.”
CHAPTER 8: LOST AT BEST, ONE REQUEST
I’ve never felt more like a child in my entire life. Insisting on making me feel ‘better’, Albert took me to a Sheetz right near the school and proceeded to purchase me an orange slushy, like I was a seven year old girl who needed to be coddled. It was awkward receiving frozen treats from an apparently supernatural stranger. However considering that I was very upset and my one weakness was indeed orange slushiness, I let him treat me. He was very persistent. We drove home from the store in Ms. Gray’s Prius as I sucked semi silently on my straw, thinking about how secretly glad I was that Albert had showed up at all.
I put my slushy into the holder the car provided.
“Something wrong with it?” he asked me.
“No, it’s really good,” I sighed. “So I need to get it away from me. If I keep drinking it I’ll end up shitting an orange tree.”
Albert laughed a laugh that drew all of my attention. It was an amazing sound. I’ve never heard such a fantastic laugh. I found myself just staring at him for a second. Then I realized how stupid I was being, so when he met my gaze I quickly and stupidly stared into my lap.
“So without you biting my head off… can I ask what you were doing out here, alone, at three in the morning?” Albert said as he stopped at a red light. He looked to me with those intense black eyes that seemed to meld with the darkness.
“Yeah… if I can ask you how you found me.”
The light turned green. Albert just sat there with his hands on the steering wheel. After a considerable pause he said, “Fair enough,” as he hit the gas and proceeded through the green.
I looked at him with a suspicious eye. He was wearing a red jacket and a pair of sweatpants. Even though he wasn’t wearing anything under the jacket I wasn’t able to see how bad his side was. I was curious about it, but more curious on how the hell he managed to get up, borrow Gray’s car and come all the way to this exact spot and find me. Especially when hours ago he was so critically injured.
“I was worried,” he started out saying. “I thought you would do something stupid and try to find Jessica. I was wrong… right?”
Yes, he was. “This wasn’t planned. I was sleepwalking.”
“I have a hard time seeing this as sleepwalking.” He gave me a smirk. “Do you want a second shot at a decent answer, or…”
“How did you find me? Seriously,” I asked with a mocking grin. “What, are you spying on me? Do you have your goonies lurking around every corner, is that it? Plant a chip in my brain?”
“If you’re done with the cliché movie theories, no, that’s not exactly how this works.” He came to another red light. “I was using my Tracking. It’s like sonar. It helped me to find you.”
“Tracking? That special thing that everyone somehow chastises me for not being able to do, yet never fully explains to me what it is?”
He shrugged, “Sounds about right.”
“So you have that too?”
A nod, “Yes, but it’s mildly different.”
“How so?”
“Tracking is the way humans detect Twined, since physically there are very few differences between our two species.” He looked to me and I couldn’t help but notice the light had turned green. “But for Twined, Tracking is different. It lets us search around us for a suitable partner. One we are very synchronized with. Basically it lets each species seek out the other.”
I shook my head, “Synchronized, you keep saying that. What is that?”
“If a Twined and a human are synchronized, when they are around each other their chemistries react more intensely.” Albert hit the gas after noticing we had stopped for quite a while. “Like when I was in class with you. I was Tracking to see who I was most… uh… let’s say compatible with. You had the biggest reaction… so…” he trailed off, unsure of how to finish that thought.
But I could finish it, “Wait… wait when I was freaking out in Briggs’ class… that was you?” I looked at him for an answer, and his face gave it to me. “That panic attack in class that freaked the hell out of me, that was all your fault wasn’t it?”
“Well I mean-”
I shook my head. The emotions from that day flooded back into me, reminding me all too clearly of the panic. “You unbelievable jackass! Is that how you get your laughs? By screwing with my head?”
“What? No,” his facial features turned soft, like his feelings were hurt; “It’s not sadistic, like sticking a cat’s paws into paper bags. I needed to find out where you were. We’ve never met; I had no idea what you looked like or if that was even your school. You can’t blame me for the reaction.”
“I don’t want to blame you. I don’t want to be around you,” I said harshly. “The goal of my life is to find answers, Albert. When you’re around all I have is questions.”
We were silent for a bit. And I had to admit I felt like the bitch of the century. But what I said was true. The last thing I need right now is more complications.
I sighed, “Look… I appreciate you saving my life.”
“Could have fooled me.”
I scoffed, “Hey, just because you come out of nowhere and swoop in to help me does not mean I’m obligated to do anything for you. Be that Joining or Tracking or letting you suck my face.”
“Oh for God’s sake. You’re never going to let that go, are you?” he said in irritation.
“I don’t want anything to do with you,” I said. “In fact, all this is your fault!”
“My fault? How the hell is this my fault?”
“She’s a Twined! She came after me because of you; she’s got everything to do with you!”
He almost laughed, “Because we’re the same species? Are you serious? So then I can properly blame you for all the idiotic humans fighting wars all over the planet, then?” He looked at me and shook his head “That’s stupidity at best, Avalin. And mildly racist to be honest.”
“Yeah, well evil bitches with claws tend to leave lasting impressions.”
“Oh of course, my apol
ogies. Sorry you’re so traumatized. It’s not like I had my entire side ripped apart or anything like that.”
We sat there in awkward silence, neither of us even looking at the other. I couldn’t stand him. He was so freaking selfish. He thinks that because he’s some super powered being, he can just snap his fingers and he gets me to himself? Hell with that.
After a time I finally said, “You don’t know me.”
He didn’t look at me. He just kept driving. So I kept going.
“I don’t know you.” I shrugged, “All you threw at me was my mother’s name. That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“I just thought that after everything that happened you’d at least hear me out.”
“I know what you are.”
“I told you what I am.”
I shook my head, “I know about the Joining. The partnership… you need me to survive. To unlock your powers.” I looked at him and he seemed to know that I caught him. “I’m not going to be your meal ticket.”
“You… you know about the…”
“You need me.” I looked at him, “But I don’t need you. I’m not handing you the power you want just like that. Find someone else to leech onto.”
“I’m not leeching off of you-”
“Oh really?” I asked, “What else do you need me for? Why else are you doing this for me? Just admit it Albert, you don’t want to lose me because I’m your best bet at becoming some immortal and all powerful being.”
“That’s not it-”
“You don’t have me fooled for a second. You’ve got to be, what, eighteen tops? You’ve got plenty of time to find a suitable other half. But me? I’m not it. I want you and every other Twined out there to stay the hell away from me!”
He shook his head, growing angrier, “It’s not just about the fact that I need you, don’t you understand that? What if Jessica comes back to find you? What will you do then? She wants you for a reason Avalin, and it’s not because of me. You need me just as much as I need you, if not more.”
I decided he had a point, but out of anger I foolishly chose to ignore it. “And that sir I will believe when I see it,” I said as we pulled into my neighborhood. I was actually surprised he brought me home and didn’t take me to some shack in the woods to torture me into Joining with him. I cursed myself after I thought that, hoping he wasn’t still into reading my mind. “Stop the car.”
He brought the Prius to a stop right in front of my house. I didn’t waste any time getting out of the car. I didn’t look back until I heard Albert following after. He just didn’t give up. I heard the door shut behind me but I still didn’t look back.
“Avalin. Wait, Avalin!”
I turned around. “Will you be quiet! Try not to wake up everyone in the damn neighborhood!”
Albert ceased to walk forward, as if my voice stopped him in his tracks. He looked at me with some kind of stare, some kind of puppy stare that I couldn’t stand. His face just changed. The emotion in his eyes… I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me. I know what he wanted from me and I also know why he wanted it. I wasn’t interested. I didn’t need anyone to protect me nor did I have any incentive to give him the power he wanted.
Albert walked a few steps closer. I just stood there, looking into his eyes. And it chilled me how he stared. Reminded me of yesterday, that protective gaze he shot at me when Jessica stared us down. Reminded me how he made me feel when he kissed me. He called it a Joining… but what I felt was unreal. I hated the idea of letting him read me… but as he closed the gap between us I found myself staying put. I wanted to walk away. Why wasn’t I walking away?
“Can I please just show you something?” he asked.
Frustrated and unsure of what that meant, I indulged him, “Yeah why not.”
He started taking off his jacket.
My eyes shifted down to my feet. “Oh, all right. We’re undressing now.”
He took off his shirt as I resisted the urge to stare. But a quick glance revealed something remarkable. As I traced his body with my eyes, I noticed that there was an extreme lack of bandages… and blood.
I looked at him fully now. “The… the gashes are gone,” I said, amazed.
He rubbed his side gingerly, yet no cuts or scratches showed. Not a scar or a single marking existed anywhere on his body.
“Three hours around you.” He pointed to where his injuries formerly were. “Did this.”
I crossed my arms, “How is that even possible?” With all that’s happened lately I’m surprised I was still asking that.
“We are so synchronized… that just being around you literally healed everything Jessica had done.”
He came even closer to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his now healed body. How did I have such an effect on his health? We hadn’t even Joined and I was able to completely erase critical wounds from his body easier than a summer storm washes chalk from sidewalks. I felt my heart beating faster and faster as he came closer and closer. I looked up at him as his face was hovering over me.
“I need your help,” he told me. “I’m not asking you to Join with me for my own self preservation. I’m no fool. If I truly wanted to simply live I would pick someone far less… frustrating to deal with. However… that’s not the case.”
“So you want the power. That makes everything justified?”
He couldn’t argue with me there, “I… I do need the power Joining with you offers. But it’s not for my gain. I need it to… I need it to make things right. I don’t like this any more than you and… what I ask will put you into dangerous situations, I’m not going to lie to you. But believe me when I say that I need you. A lot of people need what we could do together. There’s something sinister that’s lurking in this town, Avalin.”
That last thing he said chilled me a bit. He looked away from me. I didn’t know what to say to him. His expression, from what I could see, was pained, hurting, like he had just lost his best friend.
“I need to find out what’s going on.” He stared back at me, “Like you, Avalin, I need answers. The only difference is I can’t find mine on my own.”
Before I could even speak, he shushed me, “Just… think about it. That’s all I ask. If you decide to take me up on my request… if you decide to Join with me… I’ll come find you. If not, I’ll stay away from you. I’ll be out of your life… if that’s what you really want.”
He turned on his heel and walked out of my yard. I stood there for a good while as I watched him pull out of the neighborhood, staring until the lights of the Prius eventually faded in the distance. And when he left… I admit I felt a little emptier inside. Like the loneliness crept back and brought a sort of heaviness to my chest. I didn’t chase after him… but I didn’t go inside the house right away either. I just sort of stood there.
My world was spinning. I used to think that I was crazy, insane. I used to fear the looming, ever present madness that I was so sure would one day catch up to me. I feared that I was doomed to lose who I was to my own shattered mind. Now things were suddenly and dramatically different. My fears became tangible. I’ve been both hunted and saved by Twined, one of whom wishes for me to partake in a ritual that will unlock his power and give him the tools he needs to, quote, find his answers. But I didn’t know him, his agendas or his intentions. All I know for certain is that there are a million added variables… and I don’t know who to trust.
I stayed outside for a good long while as I looked at the stars in the sky. I didn’t need to go inside anytime soon. I was too scared to fall back asleep anyway.
CHAPTER 9: COST AND PRICE, SOUND ADVICE
It took a lot of strength to go to school this morning. Why a lot of strength? Well one reason would be that after Albert left last night I never got around to falling back asleep. I was too worried that I’d end up halfway across the co
untry by the time morning came around. I seemed to only “travel” when I’m asleep. I wasn’t going to take that chance again. The second reason would be the fact that the girl who tried to kill me only yesterday would most likely be at my school.
The third reason is due to the fact that I wouldn’t sleep, I was up pacing in my room going over all the pros and cons of seeing Albert again. I tried to factor in everything that had happened in the last day and a half. I even made a good old T chart to help me figure this crap out. I did two columns; one for the reasons to Join with Albert and the other full of reasons why I should stay the hell away from him.
I came up with a lot of cons. I don’t know him, I don’t trust him, he could do anything he wanted with the power I gave him, he might be using me, he just wants someone to leech life off of or he may even be in cahoots with Jessica herself. And yes, I even used the word cahoots. That’s how serious this was. I listed tons and tons of cons, things that could backfire and blow up in my face should things go wrong. But no matter how many downsides there were that I could think of… the very few pros are what stood out the most to me.
For one thing he’s extremely… dependable. He did help me when I needed it most. Although it wouldn’t have done either of us good if we’d had died, he was much stronger and faster than I. Jessica only wanted me, and only wanted him because he came to my rescue. He could have cut his losses and ran. He didn’t. That’s got to say something about his personality, right? I mean despite how furious he made me time and again, at least his morals were in the green. Maybe? I don’t know.
Pro number two is, uh… more of a shallow pro. He’s just… well… I don’t know exactly what to do with this pro. But his face, his body, the air around him, that feeling he gives me… it’s like I’m drawn to him. I don’t want to be drawn in, not in the least, but I can’t deny the fact that something about him intrigues me like no other. Maybe it’s just our chemistry, like he said. Maybe our bodies are literally craving one another, because that’s what it feels like. I craved him when he came near. And more and more the feeling would linger even when he was away. I didn’t like that… I didn’t like that at all. So as I said… I’m not sure what to do with this pro.
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