Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Yeah,” Gabriel followed suit. “What took you so long?” he mocked Michael’s English accent perfectly. He received a strange look from Michael and shrugged. “Couldn’t help it. Hey.” He noticed the flower in my hand. “Is that a black rose? Where did you get that?”

  I stared at the petals, touching them and realizing they were softer than anything I’d ever felt before. I was sluggish to say, “The funeral.”

  “You took a flower from the casket? Kass, I had no idea how disturbed you were.” Gabriel smiled at me, despite the solemn air that hung around us.

  I didn’t smile back. I couldn’t, so I simply said, “Something left it for me on the casket.”

  “Umm, Kass…you know everyone leaves the flowers on the casket for the dead person, right? Someone should really teach you these things,” Gabriel deadpanned, crossing his muscular arms.

  Too bad I wasn’t in the mood to laugh.

  Michael fixed his glasses. “Did you get a look at them?”

  I shook my head. “No. And I told you, it was something, not someone.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t a person?” Gabriel cocked his blonde head, studying my every move. It was clear he was worried about me, after everything we went through.

  “Whatever this thing was, it was fast. Too fast to be human. I didn’t see it come and leave this, and I didn’t hear it, either. And I was never more than five feet away from the casket.”

  The room went into an awkward silence because no one knew what to say. It was Michael who finally spoke, “Maybe it was John telling you it’s all right. Maybe it was his way of saying he doesn’t blame you for what happened.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Right. Because ghosts are real.” The sarcasm was evident on each word.

  Michael opened his mouth, like he was going to say I was wrong, that ghosts were real, but I didn’t want to hear it.

  “Whatever,” I said, stamping up the stairs to my room and shutting the door loudly. I dropped the rose on my dresser, beside the necklace Gabriel gave me on his birthday.

  If ghosts were real, then I was the Queen of England.

  And I was definitely not the Queen of England.

  “Kass…”

  Oh, no. This was how it started last time.

  So the fact that I had a similar dream to the ones I had before, when they were relevant, surprised me. However, the fact that I knew I was dreaming in the first place surprised me the most. That never happened.

  I stood in my house, by the front door. My hand reached out, opening it. I stepped out of the house, taking in the sight of the night sky. The stars shone abnormally bright. As I looked back down, I saw John, standing there talking to another me. John said something and I listened, holding my rose blade and not acting too thrilled to be a part of the conversation.

  The wind picked up, and I shielded my eyes as a light spiraled to me. The other me. It was about to reach me, go inside me, when John grabbed me and spun around, taking the full blunt force of the light. Osiris’s light.

  I soon realized that I was watching what happened—exactly what happened on the night I killed John. I had to say, it was way different watching it than being in it.

  When that was me over there, it was like everything happened so fast. But standing here, watching as an audience would, it seemed to last forever. It felt like I stood there for hours before the other me shoved my sword into John’s heart.

  I winced and looked away, but that didn’t stop the deafening thud that his body made when it hit the ground. My eyes squeezed shut, and I prayed to God to wake up and get out of this torturous dreamscape.

  But I didn’t.

  When I opened them, I stood in the cemetery, in front of John’s grave. Bizarre, since no one knew he was really dead. I blinked and the dirt before the gravestone disappeared. There was a huge, coffin-sized hole instead.

  Great. That was always a good sign.

  I peeked over, seeing nothing but the emptiness of the jet-black hole. The relief I felt of its emptiness disappeared instantly, for there was a presence behind me—I felt it even before I turned around.

  And I stood staring at John, at the rose blade stuck in his chest.

  “Kass…” John managed to choke out, blood spilling out of his mouth. “You…killed me…”

  I shook my head no, even though he was right. “No, I—”

  He took a mechanical step toward me. “You killed me,” he said a little more vehemently. “How could you, Kass? How could you kill me?”

  “I—” I backed up, hoping to avoid him, escape this confrontation. “—had to. You were…you were going to turn into Osiris…I had to kill you.”

  He was three steps closer now. “No. You didn’t…but you did…”

  If I took any more steps backward, I’d fall into the pit. I didn’t want to do that, so I held my ground, fists clenching tightly.

  John snarled and twisted the sword out of his chest. Blood spewed from his heart and dripped from my sword. It stained his hair, his teeth, his clothes. There was a lot of blood. More than I’d ever seen at once. “You.” He held up my sword to my chin. “Bitch.”

  And with that, John shoved me down into the pit, and it seemed like I fell forever.

  “Kass.” Gabriel had a firm hold on both of my shoulders as he shook me awake. “Are you alright?”

  I sat straight up, inadvertently headbutting him slightly in the process. I frantically glanced around. It still felt like I was falling, my heart miles away from my chest. That was one of the worst feelings I had ever experienced.

  “Are you alright?” he repeated as he rubbed his bruising forehead.

  I nodded, even though I felt like throwing up. Glancing at the clock, I found that it was two-thirty in the morning. I had four more hours of sleep before school started—though I was not sure if four hours was what I was going to get on account of the nightmares.

  “You want to talk about it?”

  I stared at his bed head. Even though it was pitch-black in my bedroom, I could still see his blonde hair sticking up in every direction possible. “I fell…” I said softly, like if I spoke any louder someone else would hear me.

  “You fell?” Gabriel repeated, as if he didn’t quite understand why that was such a big deal to me.

  “John pushed me…” I felt like I should be fearful, like I should be sad. John did deserve someone to mourn him, after all. I wasn’t certain if I was that person, though.

  “Oh.” Gabriel lifted my chin up so I stared squarely at him. “Listen, I know it’s going to take some time, but you have nothing to worry about. He’s gone, and his angry spirit or whatever can’t get to you. And if, by some weird chance, his furious soul does come after you, it’ll have to go through me first.” He smirked, dimples appearing in the darkness.

  For the first time in the last few days, I smiled. It was a very light, possibly nonexistent smile, but I felt a few of the muscles around my mouth working, so it had to be a step in the right direction.

  Gabriel smiled in response. “There’s my Kass.” He hugged me and tucked me in, as if I was a child, and he my big brother.

  “Gabriel?” I stretched my arm out of the covers and at him.

  “Yes?” He turned on his heel and knelt by my bedside. He grabbed my outstretched hand, strong and sure as he held onto me.

  “Thank you,” I whispered quietly.

  “Anytime,” Gabriel said right before he gently kissed my hand. “My dear raccoon.” Without waiting for an answer, he walked out of my room.

  My dear raccoon. I was going to—my thought didn’t finish before I fell back asleep.

  Chapter Three – Gabriel

  My alarm sounded, ringing to tell me that it was time to wake up for school. I got out of my warm and comfy bed after hitting the button to make the awful jarring noise stop. I walked to my closet, wondering what I should wear. It’s not like it mattered.

  I finally decided on a close-fitting T-shirt and some dark blue jeans. My normal clo
thes. I went to the bathroom and set my clothes down on the marble countertop.

  I peeked out, looking at Kass’s door. It was closed and I sensed no movement behind it, so I figured that I had better wake her sorry butt up. I tore open her door, being as obnoxious as I could and yelled, “Sleepy head, get up!”

  Truthfully though, I was as sleepy as her.

  She bolted upright, giving me the evilest glare she could muster. It was a frightening sight: newly-woken Kass. Her hair was a frizz ball and her eyes could barely stay open. But instead of acting scared, like she wanted, I laughed and lunged on her bed. I started jumping up and down, like I was a five-year-old who just got his first trampoline.

  Note to self: buy a trampoline.

  “Stop it,” Kass whined as she continued to give me her death glare.

  “I don’t think so,” I said slyly. And I didn’t plan on it…except that’s when she decided to give me the sad puppy dog look, complete with lip trembling. The look that said, haven’t I been through enough lately, Gabriel? Why must you torture me so?

  I stopped immediately. That look. It was that look, I swore. Every time she gave me that freaking look, I melted and did anything she wanted. She definitely had me trained. You wouldn’t catch me saying that about any other girl.

  “Okay,” I said, giving up and landing next to her, hard. To hide the puppy look, I rumpled her hair. “Go to school like that, I dare you.” I gave her a toothy grin while doing the finishing touches on her wild hair, moving a tendril over her upper lip and giving her a hair-mustache.

  She laughed. It was a deep laugh, one that surprised me. I didn’t think I’d heard her laugh like that since before the whole John incident.

  As she continued laughing and saying “No,” I sat back and watched her. She was trying to fix her hair, and she did not succeed, but it was very entertaining to watch, I’d be the first to admit.

  I swore to myself. I could sit and watch her forever. But that might creep her out. And it would creep me out too, actually.

  “Hey.” Kass stared at me when she finally got her hair under control. “What did you do to your hair?”

  What was she talking about?

  “What do you mean, what did I do to my hair?” I placed a hand on my head, making sure I didn’t become bald overnight. And…nope. I didn’t, so what was she talking about?

  “Your hair…it’s—”

  I jumped off her bed and ran to her full-length mirror. A gasp escaped me.

  Kass appeared next to me in the mirror, saying, “See? I told you—wait. You mean you didn’t do this to your hair?”

  It took me a few moments to answer, because I was dumbstruck. My hair…what happened to my hair? It was blonde—which was what it always was. But it was blonder than normal. Like I highlighted or bleached it. Both of which I would never do. This was all natural. “I have no idea…”

  “Well,” Kass paused as she made up her mind. She stood on her tiptoes to reach my shaggy hair. I was silent as she softly touched it, tugging on it to make sure it was genuine, which it was. “I kind of like it.”

  I began to say something, except I lost my train of thought as her fingers touched my forehead. She was so soft, so gentle. How did she get her skin that soft? I’d never seen her use lotion before in her life. How did they end up like this, so soft? I wanted to take her hands and rub them all over me.

  That sounded a lot creepier than I thought it would.

  She was still playing with my hair, making me go insane, so I grabbed her arm and told her “Get ready for school, missy.” Before I went crazy and did something stupid.

  Like kiss her like I did three years ago, when I hoped the simple act would solve all of our problems.

  Chapter Four – Kass

  I ran downstairs, eager to get this stupid day over with. What if Alyssa came to school today and asked questions about John? What if everyone else knew he was missing, even though he’s really dead?

  I had been prepared yesterday for these questions, but the dream I had last night freaked me out. I wasn’t sure if it was just a dream or if it was a dream dream, like the dreams I had last time. The ones that hinted at the future.

  Gabriel sat at the table eating a Poptart. He glanced up at me, asking, “Want one?”

  I thought for a moment. Was this a trick? Gabriel never offered me the second Poptart. He always ate them both like the hungry teenage boy he was. I nodded, figuring there was nothing else I could eat, and I wasn’t that hungry to begin with. A Poptart would be the perfect sized meal—

  Without another word, he took the second one out of the wrapper, licked it, and handed it to me.

  Yes. He licked it.

  “You jerk.” I shook my head at his hand, which was still extended with the licked Poptart. I watched him shrug and then stick the second Poptart in his mouth. I took my stare up to his spiked hair.

  It was odd to see it so blonde. It was a few shades darker than white. Gabriel had no idea how it got like that, and neither did I. Before it had been more of a dirty blonde, but now it looked like he dyed it platinum, which I knew he would never do unless he was forced.

  He noticed where my gaze was and spoke, “It’s strange, isn’t it? Like, how did this happen to my hair overnight?”

  “I don’t know, but I really do like it,” I spoke the comment before I realized how he would take it.

  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed at me, like he thought I made fun of him. “You said that already.”

  “Sorry,” I reassured him, “it’s just a nice change. It suits you, makes your eyes look even bluer.”

  For some reason, he chose to ignore that comment of mine and say “Maybe Michael will know what’s up with—”

  As if on cue, Michael strolled into the kitchen carrying his tea and a newspaper. “Maybe Michael will know what’s up with what?”

  “My hair,” Gabriel mumbled, looking a bit self-conscious as Michael jumped a little when he saw his offending hair.

  “It,” Michael spoke slowly, taking his good old time, “it looks like you bleached it. I hope you didn’t follow another YouTube how-to video again.”

  Gabriel dropped his arms on the kitchen table hard. “But that’s the thing, I didn’t. I didn’t touch my hair with any kind of dye. I just woke up this morning and it was like this.”

  “Oh,” Michael became quiet, leaving Gabriel and I to exchange some worried glances. “Well…then that’s bloody weird.”

  Gabriel smirked at me and said, “That’s what I’m saying.”

  Alyssa was here, at school today. That meant one thing: I had to face her. I supposed I should be happy to get it over with, but I wasn’t. I was actually very afraid and nervous.

  I was early to first period, for once not having trouble with my locker, but I didn’t feel like talking to her, so I went straight to my seat. The only problem with that was that she came to visit me and sat in the seat in front of mine before what’s-his-name arrived.

  “Hey,” her soft voice said.

  Could I barely hear her hey, or was I just trying to block her out?

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, confident that my voice wouldn’t shake. “You’ve been missing school a lot.” Hooray for me for stating the obvious.

  “Yeah.” Alyssa nodded and looked down, causing her black curly hair to fall into her face. “I was out looking for John. He still hasn’t come home.” She looked up at me, a hopeful expression on her face. “Have you seen him?”

  Have I seen him? Have I seen him? Of course I had seen him. I’d seen and killed him. Only I didn’t tell that to Alyssa, because that would have been bad.

  I didn’t go into a tirade about John; instead I just shook my head no.

  Her small, heart-shaped face twisted in confusion, like she truly believed that I knew where he was. “Darn. I thought that, if anyone, you would know where he is, because he really likes you.”

  My stomach lurched. “Have you asked anyone else?”

  She shook her head sli
ghtly. “No, we’re trying to keep this low-key.”

  “Low-key?” I echoed, dumb. “Why?”

  “Because we don’t want people to know that he’s missing until we’re sure. We don’t want to worry the whole town. This…has happened before.”

  “We?” I asked, prying for more information while hoping I wasn’t giving it away that I was, indeed, prying for more information. “Your parents want to keep this under wraps?”

  “Well, not exactly,” Alyssa answered me. “We don’t live with our parents. It’s just me, John and Kirk.”

  Kirk? Who was Kirk?

  So I decided to pry some more. “Kirk?”

  “Yeah.” She was great at dodging my questions. “Say,” Alyssa leaned in closer after seeing that the kid who sat in front of me had entered the room, “I was wondering if you could come over after school today and help me with this class. John used to…but, you know.”

  I nodded, before I realized what I was agreeing to. Wasn’t she super smart? She didn’t need my help, did she?

  “Thank you.” Alyssa jumped up for Ken, who stood there waiting for her to move. “Sorry,” she apologized to him and turned her attention back to me. “The car’s parked in spot forty-two. Meet you there after eighth period. See you at lunch.” She smiled sadly, waved, and ran back to her seat while Mr. Wood started writing a complicated equation on the chalkboard.

  Oh, great. What did I get myself into this time?

  The bell rang, indicating that it was time for third period to begin. Physics. Without John. Again. It wasn’t the same. And the fact that I had to work by myself now sucked. Majorly.

  A student, looking meek and scared, walked in holding a slip of yellow paper, which meant one of us was being called down to the principal’s office. I hoped with all my heart that it was me, because frankly, I wanted to burn this dumb marble shooter. And then I wanted to force feed the ashes to a Nightwalker—and then I wanted to purify that said Nightwalker, meaning there would be absolutely nothing left of this shooter on the planet.