I put my hand out in front of Abigail, shaking my head. "I got this, Abby, thanks. Thomas, what to do think? That I knew he was going to crash the party? I know him just about as much as all of you. We've only met once."
"Funny," he said. "You two flickered like two halves of a flame coming together again."
I pursed my lips. "Your attitude is really uncalled for. You're making me out to look like I intended for him to fight with me and cause Jessica's seizure."
"I'm just a little surprised how well he knew you." He leaned forward, implications screaming from his eyes. "I'd love to ask him just how it got that way when you claim you've only met once."
I stood from my seat and placed my hands on the lunch table, leaning far enough to touch noses with Thomas. "You want to ask him, be my guest. Good luck finding him, though."
"He doesn't have to look far."
Thomas and I both turned to Emily. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably and pointed toward the double doors. "He's right there."
"What?" I turned around, part of me hoping Emily was bluffing, the other part wishing for a pickaxe. Dressed in jeans and a half-undone button up he blended right in with every other guy on the ads in New York. Compared to every other student he stood out like a sore thumb, his dark skin better than the orange look most of the girls sported but still foreign to the pale faces commonly seen.
And he was heading straight for me. Great.
"Abigail, give me something to hit him with," I growled under my breath, grasping for anything on the chair beside her. I locked my fingers around something heavy and as soon as he rounded the corner to our table, I threw it.
His hand came up and caught the textbook with ease and continued to walk over. He tsk-tsk'd once he stopped in front of our table, leaving just enough space between us that I couldn't reach for him.
"Nice to see you again, Essallie," he spoke smooth like melting butter, moving with the same smooth attitude as he deposited Abigail's book on her lap. "Shame you're resorting to primal violence to cover your emotions."
Against her better judgment, Abigail snickered. "What brings you to the small cavernous hole that is Belfast?"
His head tilted to the side, a playful smile stretching his lips. "Let's just say it wasn't by choice." Bells rang overhead, end of lunch. I wasted no time scooping up my things and making like mad animal to my next class.
But as soon as I stepped into the English Literature classroom, I knew something was off. Everyone was either standing or leaning against the walls with their messenger bags on the floor. Whispered conversations floated between the small clusters of people spread throughout the room.
I spotted Emily in the back, leaning on the windowsill with Ursula alongside her. Both sported bored expressions. "What's going on?"
Emily shrugged. "No teacher. Looks like a study hall day." She glanced over to the kids skipping out of the room. "Or an excuse to cut, it seems."
Go figure. The one day I actually need a little distraction in the form of Shakespeare and Allen Poe and I can't have it. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. Only two more hours left of school, might as well head home to avoid every chance possible of seeing Kayden.
Slipping out with a few others, I made sure to hit my locker for all my extra books and homework before I left through the Cafeteria. The small patch of outdoor picnic tables led me straight to the parking lot for students, leaving for a slim chance to run into anyone.
"Essie."
Or so I thought.
I didn't bother to look back. There was only one person who had that deep of a voice and who would conveniently know where to find me. My feet hit pavement as I kept my car in sight, focusing on the dull gleam of the back window.
"Essallie, hold on." The voice said, the brush of air hitting my ear and neck. I turned to see Kayden keeping an even pace with me, face close enough to count the subtle freckles dusting his nose.
I leapt back and swore. "How the hell did you catch up to me?"
The delighted expression in his eyes melted as his shoulders slumped. "Really? Any question in the world you can ask a demon and you ask how I caught up to you?"
"Cut it out with this demon crap. I hate when my brain plays games with me like this," I grumbled under my breath. "You're not a demon, you're either just a damn good projection of my imagination or some kid who really does have too much time on his hands to have followed me all the way from New York."
He stopped walking and fell behind. I kept pushing forward and ignored the nagging need to look back over my shoulder.
Black smoke suddenly materialized in front of me, coiling into sharp wisps. Kayden stepped out from the lingering smoke, dusting off his shirt and flexing his hand as color bled back into his features. Within seconds he looked as normal and whole as I'd left him behind me moments before.
"How long are you going to fight this? Because really, I may have an eternity, but your skin's already starting to winkle and thin," he lamented with an expressionless face.
For a second I stood there in shock, mouth agape. "Smoke and mirrors, just smoke and mirrors." I swallowed hard and shoved past him to the car door. Sweaty hands fumbled inside my jacket for keys.
He let out an infuriated sigh behind me. "Essallie, I can make this easier on you."
My messenger bag slipped off my shoulder, dropping to the ground with a thud. In one move I had turned around and locked eyes with him. He looked like he practically wanted to plead, beg on his hands and knees until the world crumbled around him. It only took one flashback to the leftovers of flesh and bone from Chase's body to plant me firmly back in the right frame of mind. I had to remember that he was here to kill me, not help me.
"Make it easier? Because death is so easy," I laughed darkly. "You're sick to think I'd even let you try to kill me for one second."
He shook his head, eyebrows mashed together in concentration. "No, you've got it all wrong. I want to help you."
"I don't understand."
He stepped closer and placed a hand on my car. "Haven't you ever wondered just what you really are?"
My brain stalled. "Nothing's wrong with me."
"I never said anything was wrong." He looked like he wanted to smile but held it in. "You mean to tell me you've never once been curious, not even a little bit?"
"What are you going on about?" I half-shouted back at him. My fists began to clench tight, warmth spreading out from my chest like it had the night before at the bonfire.
Kayden leaned in closer, his face centimeters from mine. He had no breath as he spoke, "I know what you are. Let me help."
Without thinking I gave him a push. Blue sparks of flame crackled under my fingertips, igniting a burst of fire on his clothes. Kayden stumbled back swearing and yelping. He smacked his chest like a mad man until the blaze was out.
I stood there, stunned. I looked down at my palms to see small kindling sparks dancing over the skin. Somehow it wasn't burning me. Somehow I was conducting fire. My head felt light, the world taking a curious spin onto an angle. I crashed into the side of my car, catching onto the side mirror and knocking it off with me.
My body shook as I spoke, scrambling to my feet and opening the car door. "You think you know me? You don't know a thing about me." I shoved my bag inside the car and got in, turning my neck to see Kayden standing several feet back. "There's nothing to find out, so stop. Leave me alone, Kayden, or I swear I'll-"
"You'll what? Kill me? You couldn't hurt a fly. If you had even an inch of how to control the power you have you wouldn't have hurt me even now."
"I don't have any power!" I screamed. Across the parking lot car alarms all went off at once. Headlights and taillights exploded and sparked uncontrollably. I shut the door and backed out, swerving the car until I could see Kayden.
Through the windshield I could barely make out his lips as they moved. I revved the engine. My threatening words from the night before came front and center in my mind, echoing with clarity.
&nbs
p; "Go ahead and try," the whisper barely came out as I floored the car and sped past Kayden towards the only safe place I had left. My little House of Horror.
S I X
Every day that followed it started the same. Kayden would be waiting outside my locker, leaning against the wall with a silent expression of rage fit for a man about to murder everyone in sight. One look in my direction and the features softened, but only a little.
I opened my locker and shoved in everything for my afternoon classes, refusing to make eye contact with him. He was, after all, the one who put this on me. He brought every painful memory with him. A bug, ready to be squashed.
My locker slammed shut. I stared straight ahead, focusing on the little metal flaps. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I didn't look to see. "I'm waiting, Essallie. Waiting for you to say you're curious, that you're ready. You know you only have to say the words, and you'll be that much closer to being rid of me for good." I felt his body shift closer, leaning into my stone posture. "So much for wanting a normal life, eh?"
I squared my shoulders tighter and turned, making sure to avoid even the faintest connection of our eyes. "Don't hold your breath, demon."
"Even if I wanted to, I'd be okay," he whispered, inching closer. "Demons don't need to breathe, you see. What about you, Essallie? Do you need to breathe?"
I bit my cheek. I wanted nothing better than to plunge my hands onto his chest and burn him back to wherever the hell he came from. His eyes were a shining obsidian when I stared back at him.
"Yes, Kayden, as a matter of fact I do. Humans need air for their lungs. You should know. Chase gasped for as much of it as he could when you used his skin to pick your teeth."
He shrugged. "Muscle gets wedged in there and flesh is the only thing I know to get it out. Sue me."
"You're impossible," I shook my head. "Nothing is going to change. Get used to the school system. You're going to need it if you plan on hanging around for the rest of my life." I walked past him, making sure not to touch the littlest bit of his body. If I wanted to start a fire I definitely didn't want to have it happen in a school.
Every day, despite repeated shutouts, Kayden remained persistent. He sat in every class, lingered around my locker like a lost creature, the Cafeteria, my car, you name it. Any chance he could to actively harass me into believing that I was something different, something not wholly human.
Sad truth was, part of me wanted to give into it. I had tried, and succeeded, in re-creating the fire in my room, bouncing a little ball of electric blue fire between my palms as if it were a regular bouncy ball. It felt like nothing, not hot or cold, but when it touched something it engulfed it whole until nothing was left.
One day after a particularly nasty screaming match in the hallway I was sure to be written up for, the rest of the day went like any other, and I moved from class to class with no interruption. Kayden had vanished, no doubt licking his wounds like the dog that he was. By the time I had made it to my car without a single sight of him, I was ecstatic. My words seemed to have finally sunk in. I went to bed grinning, feeling like I was going to have a better handle on everything, like my life was finally back on track.
My dreams that night were vivid, intensive. Long hallways with tall white pillars stretched on every side as I walked down an aisle. Grass blossomed beneath my feet, the sky above stretching to an everlasting horizon of melted purples and blues. It was a paradise, perfect in its own seclusion.
Tendrils of smoke curled behind me, licking up along the sides of my legs, twisting and trailing like slithering snakes. I ran forward, anything to avoid the smoke, for I knew if it took a hold of me it would be my end, my death. The pillars vanished under a dimming light, until suddenly I was standing at a precipice. Dirt escaped off the top of the edge, fumbling down into the endless darkness below. Somehow I knew falling into that abyss would be the same as giving into the smoke.
I spun around and fought back a gasp. The smoke had turned from small trails to a black mass, bubbling and growing, devouring all of the white light sanctuary left behind until nothing remained. It concentrated to one of my sides as the shape of a man stood beside me.
"This was all meant to be, Essallie," the smoke crooned as the two small flecks of light serving as eyes blinked with fluttered lashes. "Don't fight it. You were created for this." The smoke transformed into vines, sharp with thorns, and laced themselves around my ankles and legs, securing my wrists. It rushed over my skin in a thin cocoon until I was sealed off from the air. It pressed on my chest, forcing what was left of my air supply out until I had nothing.
I fought to move and scream, but my shallow attempt at a screech was lost under the folds of the dark matter. Fear ripped my insides as I thought of the possibility of dying. If you died in your sleep, did you die in real life?
Demons don't need to breathe, you see. What about you, Essallie? Do you need to breathe?
If I'd had any breath left I would have laughed. I had stopped moving and relaxed, letting the vines slice into my skin as they constricted tighter over my body. Heat flushed under my skin, fire curling inside my chest, a tiger waiting to strike. With the flip of a switch the fire spread like liquid lava through my skin, burning through my veins. I did nothing to hold it back as every pinprick with fresh blood ignited in a bright blue blaze, searing the vines off as if they were tissue paper.
The smoke-demon recoiled, bursts of red smoke exploding inside his chest and abdomen like a lightning storm in a summer sky. Horns spread from every inch of his body as he took solid shape, scales rippling his body. He lunged for me with outstretched hands coated in a shiny yellow liquid.
I dodged to the side just in time for him to scrape his hands on the ground. It instantly dissolved with a hiss and I knew it was acid. If it touched me I could kiss one of my limbs goodbye. I ran for the smoke, taking off into the darkness as far as I could run. An endless black stretched on every side, a satin curtain I couldn't find the end to. At some point I had to find a mark, a place to stop and hide. I was in the demon's playground now.
Laughter rippled through the darkness, echoing off every which way. I stopped, frantic, looking around for something, anything. But even the once grass below my feet had turned to a dull patch of dirt encrusted in dirty frost, leaving my feet frozen.
A wind picked up inside the dark, the force knocking me down onto my feet. Something charged for me as screams stretched into the black, and without thinking I threw out my hand. The dazzling flame ignited over it, illuminating everything around me. Hundreds, thousands of demons of the twisted smoke lingered above me, reaching for me, their fingers covered in the same yellow liquid.
The fire reacted before I could, shooting twisted bolts at the demons, instantly incinerating them. The smoke dissipated into thin air, showing me I where I was. The sky and ground were the same muddy brown color, the only separating factor being the frost covering the ground. Lightning struck the sky, a jet black arc spiraling for me. At the front of the lighting was the first demon I had seen, his face melting into the smoke with a final laugh.
The arc blew through my chest, knocking me to the ground as the fire in my hand died. Pain rattled my bones as I felt everything inside of me dying one by one. My body stopped moving, eyes shutting. I watched in horror as the demon came forward and leaned over, the long grin on his face revealing an endless supply of flesh-ripping teeth.
"And so it begins," he said just as he plunged his hand into my chest.
I woke up in a jolt, screaming as loud as I could. Everything around me was dark, too dark for comfort. I scrambled out of bed and smacked into my end table as I flipped on my bedroom light. Nothing but my own four walls, small assortment of sketch books and piles of dirty laundry. A pounding on the door made me jump and hit my end table again.
"Essallie, you okay? What the hell was that?" I opened the door to find Jayson standing there in a t-shirt, pajama pants, and a baseball bat in one hand. He look
ed flabbergasted when I started laughing.
"So, were you planning on using that at all?" I managed between laughs.
He did his best not to glare. "You never know, some of the boys in this town are rowdy as hell."
I put my hands to my ears and shook my head hard. "Oh no, nuh-uh, you are not saying this stuff in front of me. Goodnight Jayson." I pushed him towards the door but he stopped me. His face was pulled down into a sharp frown.
"What is that?" He pointed to my bed. I turned to where he had pointed and dropped my hands when I saw it. There were burnt marks on my sheets and comforter. I felt myself turn to ice. My mind spun and I sputtered the first lie that popped into my head.
"Oh, whoops. My crayons for art class must have gotten on there the other night while I was sketching." I pushed him back outside the door. "Don't worry about it, I'll do the laundry tomorrow."
"But-"
"Goodnight, Jayson," I said and shut the door in his face. As soon as I was sure he wasn't standing in front of my door did the hysterical breathing begin. Great, I was now conjuring fire in my sleep.
I pressed my back against the door and tried to even my breathing as I thought. It couldn't have been me, there was no physical way a human could create fire without matches, with gasoline, sticks, stones, whatever. You didn't just snap your fingers and create a mini ball of flame in your hands.
Raising a shaking arm out in front of me, I held my hand out and snapped my fingers. Twisted blue flame instantly ran over my fingers and hand until the whole thing was engulfed. I shook my hand and put the fire out, fighting not to scream or cry. The mirror across my room showed me, only what looked back didn't look like a scared little girl anymore. It looked like a person hiding an ugly truth. A person who wasn't human.
S E V E N
The week following my bizarre nightmare and setting the sheets on fire, my patience had been growing thin. Kayden had resorted to escorting me to every class, the same bitterly-twisted smile on his face that reminded me of the winter wonderland that was forming outside. Snow had been falling on and off for days, but the predictions had said in less than a week we'd be hit with a blizzard beyond all blizzards, calling for over five feet of pure sparkling white fluff.
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