by Rue Volley
“I jumped from that?” I asked him.
“Yea… I woke up and you were gone. I tracked you and I found you up there yelling at someone. You were alone, Rue,” Josh said.
I shook my head and pushed myself up on my knees. My shoulder hurt. I rubbed it, remembering that I hit the water pretty hard. I stood up and swayed a little. I looked up at the cliff and back at him.
“Sleepwalking… I was sleepwalking again,” I said to him.
“What the hell?” Josh said as he stood up and rubbed his head,
“Yea… I used to do it all the time,” I said as I rubbed my face and looked around.
“No good, Rue,” he said.
I shook my head and water flew from my hair. I stopped and looked at the sky.
“Who the hell were you yelling at?” he asked me.
“Me,” I said.
He tilted his head and grinned.
“You?” he asked me.
“Yea… I woke up and you disappeared”
He flashed to me and touched my head. I stumbled back from him.
“Damn it Josh! Use your words!” I yelled at him.
He stared at me and shook his head.
“So you hurt me,” he said.
I shrugged my shoulders and started to walk. I didn’t respond to that. He obviously saw the whole thing, so why should I? I looked back at him and had a moment where I wanted to talk, but then I decided to just walk. What do I say? I don’t know. How annoying that he just took that memory from me. I guess we lost some ground somewhere.
He caught up to me and leaned over.
“You feel bad about being a bitch to me,” he said.
I stopped and looked at him.
“What?” I said.
“Uh huh, you are sorry, aren’t you?” he said.
“I am not a bitch,” I said.
Josh laughed and pushed his hands into his pockets.
“Why else would you dream about being a demon?” he asked me.
I shook my head and sighed.
“I think I need to eat,” I said as I felt my stomach growl.
“Nice dodge,” Josh said.
“I am starving,” I muttered.
“Starving or not… you are sorry. I accept your apology,” He said.
I stopped and looked at him. He turned with the cutest smile on his face.
I really wanted to gripe, but he looks so pretty… damn it.
“Fine,” I said as I started to walk again.
Josh walked beside me and I glanced over at him.
“Fine, what?” he asked me.
“You know what,” I said.
He laughed under his breath. I stopped and looked at him.
“You said that you wanted a break… A ‘break’ by definition would include no talking serious stuff… or apologies,” I said to him.
“I didn’t mean it,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
“So this is a ‘take back’?” I said as I crossed my arms on my chest.
“What is a ‘take back’ exactly?” he asked.
I raised my eyebrows and grinned.
“A ‘take back’ consists of you being sorry for being an ass to me,” I said as I looked down.
“Oh,” he said.
“Oh? Really? That’s it then?” I said.
He looked around us and started to walk.
“Wait,” I said as I caught up to him.
“What?” He said as he scanned the woods.
“I need more than just ‘Oh’, Josh,” I said.
“What do you want then?” he asked me.
“I want you to say, ‘I’m sorry, Rue, I won’t do that to you again. I was stupid’,” I said.
“No,” he said as he started to walk again.
I grabbed his arm and stopped him.
“No?” I said.
“Yeah… no,” he said to me.
I shook my head and started to walk quickly out in front of him.
He caught up to me and leaned forward, trying to look me in the face.
“You are adorable when you are frustrated,” he said to me.
I stopped and pointed my finger at him.
“You are the most aggravating person in the entire world. You drive me crazy!” I yelled at him.
I poked him in the chest and started to walk again.
“What?” he said as he raised his arms up and shook his head.
I stopped and looked back at him.
“You have no idea how to have a relationship with a girl, do you?” I said, more as a factual statement… than a question.
“Wait a minute, Rue. I know how to have a relationship,” he said as he stared at me.
“No… no way you do. You just grab stuff and stick your tongue in my mouth and you think that we are good to go,” I said.
“No… that is not true. I said the love stuff,” he said. I frowned.
“The ‘love stuff’… really, Josh?” I said.
“Oh my god, what do you want from me?” he asked.
I turned and started to walk again.
“I don’t know,” I muttered to myself.
He flashed up behind me and grabbed my arm. He spun me around and touched my face.
“I am a creature of habit, I know that, Rue,” he said.
I looked up at him and watched water drip from his hair onto his face. In my teenage anger, I totally skipped the fact that he had just dragged me out of the water. I felt a little weird for griping at him about his words. Perhaps Josh was better at showing how he feels, as opposed to saying the words. I sighed.
“I am being a turd, right?” I asked him.
He shook his head “yes” at me.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Why do you torture me like this?” he asked me.
“Me? Torture you?” I asked him.
He ran his finger across my lip and I closed my eyes as it felt like a vibration ran from my lip to my stomach. I sucked my breath in under his finger and his hand trembled. I opened my eyes to look at him. He had a softened look on his face as he watched my mouth. I knew that we were at a point where it was walk or lay down where we stood. I backed up and cleared my throat. I looked behind us and then back to him.
“We need to find a bed,” he whispered.
“No… we need to get home, Josh,” I said to him.
He smiled and took my hand in his. I could feel the excitement coming from him in my palm. It almost tickled as his heightened energy vibrated from his hand to mine. I grinned as he pulled me along with him.
“You are humming like an engine,” I said to him.
He laughed and shook his head again.
“You have no idea how you get me going,” he said.
My heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when we finally found the right moment, the right place. I could only guess, thoughts of his mouth on mine, his hands touching me, just keep flashing in my mind.
“Would you settle down please?” he said to me.
I giggled. I guess he can feel me too. How annoying.
He stopped and looked at me as he sighed.
It was a new look on his face, one that made me feel vulnerable.
“If you cannot control your feelings, I am going to lay you down right here and show you things that you can’t imagine,” he said.
I sucked my breath in as he went from a softened look to a wicked grin.
I blinked a couple of times, trying to push the sight of his half naked body out of my mind.
“Really?” he said to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I looked down at my hands.
He stepped up so close to me, it felt like a wave of warm vibrating water rolled over my body.
“Please, I cannot keep you safe if you make me want you this way,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on something else. Suddenly clowns popped into my mind and my energy shifted. He felt it too. He touched my face and laughed.
“Cl
owns?” he asked me.
I opened my eyes up and grinned at him.
“They freak me out,” I said.
“Okay then, keep thinking about them, at least until we are safe,” Josh said as he continued to laugh about my “clown” distraction.
Josh looked out into the woods.
“We need a car,” he muttered.
“A car?” I asked as I let the clown thought leave me and the thought of him laying on top of me flashed into mind.
Josh shuddered and let my hand go.
“No me laying on you, please,” he said as he shook his hands out. I laughed.
“Sorry, the car kinda made me do it,” I said.
He shook his head and rubbed his hands through his hair.
“You will be the death of me, I swear, Rue Volley,” he said as he walked towards the trees.
I ran up behind him and let the clown just saturate my thoughts.
I touched his hand and he smiled at me.
“Clown good,” he muttered as we shot forward through the trees, hell bent on finding a car to jack.
***
Theodore flashed up to the house and felt Jonah moan on his shoulder. He shook his head and ran inside. He laid Jonah down on the couch and stared at his face. Black lines had started to form on his skin. A terrible indicator to his energy being drained from the protection he had disregarded.
Theodore picked up the book and started to leaf through the pages quickly. He looked up when he felt a strange vibration coming from the hallway. He closed the book and flashed to the hallway. Johnathan lay there, slumped against the wall. He leaned down and saw that the closet door was open and Sara was missing.
“Johnathan Graph!” Theodore yelled at him.
Johnathan’s eyes started to blink and he looked up at Theodore.
“What?” Johnathan muttered to him.
“Where is Sara?” Theodore asked him as he stood up and flashed into the closet.
Blood was on the walls, obviously a leftover from Sara thrashing around in the small space.
“She begged me to let her out,” Johnathan said as he held his head and started to push himself up.
“I would guess that in your lack of reasoning, you did just that,” Theodore said as he looked at him and held out his hand.
Johnathan took his hand and pulled himself up the rest of the way.
“She was crying and babbling about what a bad friend she was; she begged me.”
Theodore shook his head at him and touched his hair.
“Human hearts are so unpredictable,” Theodore muttered.
Kai slammed the front door open and brought Lily into the room.
Theodore and Johnathan ran into the living room and stared at him.
“What the hell?” Johnathan asked as he looked at Jonah on the couch and the girl slung over Kais shoulder.
Theodore looked at Kai and waved him into the kitchen.
“Where is Samantha?” Theodore asked as Kai laid Lily down on the table and stepped back from her.
Theodore touched her face and then took his hand from her quickly. Her skin was cold and clammy. A sharp pain ached through his hand. Kai stood there and stared at her.
“Samantha is checking out the border. She wanted to make sure that nothing else slithered into town,” he said as he tilted his head and stared at Lily.
“Go and find her immediately. Sara has broken out and she could be lurking along the border,” Theodore said. Kai looked at Johnathan.
“Way to go d-bag,” he muttered to Johnathan.
Johnathan held up his hands.
“She was crying!” he yelled at him.
“That’s what they do… Girls cry, it’s a trick, you asshole,” Kai said as he flashed from the house, in a panic to track Sam down.
“I didn’t mean to let her go,” Johnathan muttered.
Theodore continued to stare at Lily.
She hissed and arched her back up as color started to swirl on her skin.
“Oh my,” Theodore said. He looked at Johnathan.
“Come here and try to redeem yourself.”
Johnathan sighed and shook his head as he walked up to the edge of the table and looked down at Lily.
“She is pretty,” Johnathan said as he tilted his head to the right and stared at her face.
Lily fluttered her eyes and cried out, her teeth all pointed and treacherous.
“Oh god!” Johnathan said as he backed away from her and held his hands out in front of him.
Theodore looked at him and shook his head slowly.
“You need to assist me Johnathan. She is barreling towards death here,” Theodore said as he placed two oversized rubber gloves on, intended to be used in working with toxic cleaning supplies.
Johnathan stepped forward and took a breath.
“Okay… what are we doing here?” he asked him.
“We need to turn her over. She is injured, fatally. I would assume poisoned by the blade.”
“Here,” Theodore said as he threw black rubber gloves to him, and then touched Lily’s face.
Theodore pulled her eyelids open and watched the black swirl across her eyes.
“This is very powerful,” he whispered as he inspected the whites of her eyes.
Lily shuddered and cried out.
“Mortalis!” she screamed as she started to thrash on the table.
It sounded like she had several voices coming out of her.
Theodore looked at Johnathan and waved him over. He ran to the table and grabbed her arm
“What was that?” Johnathan said as he tried to hold her down.
“She said, ‘Destined to die’, Johnathan. She can feel death taking hold of her. We have to move quickly.”
“Just great, and why are we saving her again?” Johnathan asked him.
Theodore looked up at him as he started to turn her over on the table.
“Because we protect, Johnathan, Jonah will be no good to us if his sister perishes.”
Johnathan helped turn her and Lily started to mutter, her words all jumbled.
“Jonah!” she screamed out.
Theodore tore her dress open on her back and they both stared at the hole in her back.
It was black and moving.
“Oh my god… that is just gross,” Johnathan said as he frowned at it.
Theodore pulled his blade and ran to the stove. He turned on the flame and held the metal over it until it glowed red. Lily started to push up and Johnathan tried to hold her down.
Theodore looked back at him and yelled, “Climb onto her back and hold her down!”
“Oh Geezus,” Johnathan muttered as he hopped up on the table and straddled her back.
He held her arms down as she started to thrash around.
“Could you hurry up?!” Johnathan yelled as Theodore turned with the glowing blade in his hand.
Theodore closed his eyes and started to chant. Small sparks started to glow around the blade. Wind picked up in the house and Johnathan struggled to hold her in place. She tried to push up and he popped up like he was on a horse.
“Any time now, Theo!” Johnathan yelled at him.
Theodore ran to the table and grabbed Johnathan’s hand.
Johnathan took the blade with a confused look on his face.
“What?” he yelled at Theodore.
Theodore made a stabbing motion as he held her arms above her head.
“Oh shit...! Really?” Johnathan asked as he held the blade.
Theodore shook his head “yes” as the wind continued to rip through the house.
“No time… stab her!” Theodore yelled at him.
Johnathan held the blade up over his head and stared at her bare back with the nasty black mass squiggling from it.
“Right at the point of injury!” Theodore yelled at him.
“Fine!” Johnathan yelled as he plunged the blade right through her at the site of the cut.
Lily cried out in a sonic boom. A light flashed
in the room and it knocked Johnathan off of her and into the fridge. Theodore flew backward and hit the wall, falling to the ground. Lily started to pull herself up, the blade jammed into the table under her. She reached around and held the hilt of it as she jerked herself up. She stood up on the table, with blood streaming down the front of her dress. She swayed and fell off the table onto the floor. Theodore shook his head to clear the blow. He pulled himself to her and touched the hilt of the blade. He watched the black mass absorbing into the metal. He started to whisper in Latin as he pulled it out of her slowly. The black mass followed and wrapped itself around the blade. He tossed it out from him and a glow welled up in his palm.
The bright flash brought Johnathan back to his senses. He shielded his eyes as a light as bright as the sun filled up the room. Johnathan blinked and pushed himself up. He watched as the blade started to melt into the floor. He stepped forward and looked down at Theodore who was inspecting Lily’s face. She started to open her eyes up and she grinned at Johnathan. He stepped back, at the sight of her pointed teeth.
“Okay… maybe not so cute,” he muttered.
“Help me get her to a bed,” Theodore said as he started to pull her up with him.
Johnathan reluctantly took one of her arms and they walked her towards the stairs.
Theodore stopped and let her one of her arms go.
“Carry her up to your bed,” he said.
“What?” Johnathan said.
“Yes… she needs to rest, or do you want her to wake down here and find you irresistible to not eat?” Theodore said.
Johnathan sighed and picked her up. Lily grinned, blood on her teeth. He nervously grinned at her as he carried her up the stairs and into his room. He laid her down on the bed and she slowly took a snapping bite at his arm as he pulled his arm away from her.
He pointed at her.
“I am not food,” he said with a nervous look on his face.
She muttered something as he walked to the door and closed it behind him.
He stood in the hallway for a second and sighed.
“Really?” he asked himself.
He ran down the stairs and watched as Theodore leaned over Jonah. Theodore looked at him.
“You did well,” Theodore said.
“Thanks… I guess. She tried to bite me when I put her on the bed.” Theodore laughed.
“Well, you should be pleased that she finds you so tasty.”
“No… it will be a thousand times worse when she is better,” Johnathan said as he shook his head.