Dominion

by Melody Manful

  She raised her arm, pointing the gun straight at my forehead.

  Great, now she was going to end up killing me, although a gun actually wouldn’t kill me.

  “You’re not here to kill me?” She sounded like she wanted to believe my words. Almost.

  “I don’t know why you’re scared of me,” I said, my voice not sounding like mine because it was a sad representation of my normal bravado. “I know you’re mad at me and—”

  Abigail angrily cut me off. “What gave that away?” I could hear her heart racing, but her voice sounded stronger, angrier. “You called me stupid.”

  “And I’m trying to tell you I didn’t mean it!”

  “Didn’t mean it?” she asked in disbelief. The gun still pointed at me. “You made me feel something, and then you called me stupid. I thought we—”

  “Just stop!” I shouted. I couldn’t bear listening to her say that whatever we felt wasn’t real. “This isn’t my scene. I hate this—feeling so…so human. I don’t do feeling guilty or thinking about a girl. And I certainly don’t do longing for someone to talk to me, so stop making me feel this way because you’re making me angry! And I hate getting angry at you because I—I want to be…to be with you, and…be—be happy…with you!” I had no idea why I said this. Abigail lowered her gun for a second, and then she lifted it up again.

  “If you wanted to be with me, then why did you call me stupid?” I was never going to live that down. “I wanted to be—” she started, but I couldn’t let her say anything more. I didn’t even give her a second to blink before I appeared right in front of her.

  “Don’t finish that sentence,” I whispered. I knew what she was going to say—that she wanted to be with me, too, but now she didn’t.

  “How did—you were…”

  No human could do what I just did, but I didn’t care if she learned of our existence. I just wanted to make her not hate me.

  Abigail’s gun pointed straight at my chest. If she wanted, she could send a bullet right through me—not that it could hurt me.

  “Abigail, put that thing away before you hurt yourself,” I said calmly. I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was for hers. I came to Earth to kill her, and now I wanted to protect her?

  “But you…” Abigail’s shock lingered. “How did you do that?” she asked.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I promised.

  Abigail didn’t look like she believed me, and I wasn’t sure I believed me either.

  HEREAFTER

  *Abigail*

  “Better to light a candle

  than to curse the darkness.”

  Chinese Proverb

  

  Gideon wasn’t human. I knew he couldn’t be—not after what he did to the lockers in the school hallway and his ability to move inhumanly fast.

  I couldn’t risk lowering the gun. In the back of my head, I wished Logan would notice that I was late for training and come for me, and then he would find Gideon.

  I wanted to run away from him, but I couldn’t, not when he was the Gideon from my nightmare. That Gideon caught me, no matter how fast I ran.

  This time, however, I was prepared and determined to fight him. I had a gun; he didn’t. I was shaken, but I was sure I could still pull the trigger if I needed to.

  “Abigail, I’m not here to hurt you.”

  So he kept saying. I might have believed his words before, not after what I had seen him do.

  “I didn’t mean to call you stupid. Tristan was being annoying, and I said the first thing that came into my head to get him off my back. I didn’t mean what I said.”

  A part of me wanted to believe him.

  “You still said it, Gideon.” His excuse made me angry and filled me with courage. “And then you—you did something to the lockers. And in my dream, you …” I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. I couldn’t say, “You killed me.”

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again.

  I jumped because Gideon’s voice was right beside my ear. I turned to see him standing behind me.

  “Stop doing that!” I shouted.

  Now I was one hundred percent sure he wasn’t human.

  Maybe I was stupid. Gideon had made me suspicious from the beginning, and yet it somehow didn’t bother me enough to stay away from him, to not hold his hand. Wouldn’t a normal person have tried to find out more about him?

  All I knew about him was that he moved here from Hollywood, he took my breath away every time our eyes connected or he touched my hand, and he was unrealistically beautiful. He was also funny, rude, a little weird, and sometimes charming. Did he have a family, a really cute little brother? Did he have a father who had married women fantasizing about him? Or maybe he had a dog? Where did he live?

  “It’s the only way I can get closer to you without you backing away from me,” Gideon said. He carefully took my hand, and I didn’t immediately pull away. “You hate me, don’t you?”

  Breathe, Abby!

  “Infinity times two,” I whispered and pulled away from him.

  “Good,” he said and smiled, but the smile disappeared a second later. He walked closer to me again and cupped my face in his hands. I still had my gun on alert.

  My heart leaped. Electricity flowed through my veins.

  His face was so close to mine. My eyes locked on his, and I held my breath. No, no, no!

  Looking into his green eyes, I felt his breath against my lips as my heart pounded violently. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to resist the burning desires. Suddenly I felt myself lowering my gun, letting it hang by my side.

  I wanted to pull myself away, but I couldn’t because the truth was that although I was scared and upset with him, I wanted him to kiss me.

  Knowing I wasn’t strong enough to pull away, I whispered, “Please do not kiss me.”

  I hoped that Gideon was strong enough to resist whatever was happening between us.

  After another agonizing second, he pulled away. “I didn’t come here to hurt you, Abigail,” Gideon said.

  At the sound of his sad voice, I instantly felt silly for thinking he was going to hurt me. I dreamt that he hurt me, but that didn’t mean he would hurt me in real life, did it? “I believe you.” The moment I said this, his whole body relaxed as if he had been holding his breath. He tucked the loose strands of my hair behind my ears.

  My body was still shaking. “Do me a favor,” I whispered, looking up into his green eyes.

  “Anything.”

  “Leave. Please.”

  Gideon looked stricken when I said this.

  I wanted him gone, far away from me, but Gideon stood still in front me. “I…” he paused, and my heart continued its rapid beat. Just being that close to him made me tremble. “I meant no harm, Abigail.” He sounded sad, and that light in his eyes was replaced by something else—something dark. He pressed his hand gently to my cheek. I lowered my eyes, trying to find the courage to pull away. He tipped my head up so that I had to look straight at him.

  I tried with every inch of my body to drag myself away from his gaze, but I couldn’t.

  “Goodbye,” he said, and then he was gone. I looked around, but there was no sign of him anywhere.

  I rushed over and closed all the windows in my bedroom when I was convinced that he was really gone. I had no idea why I bothered, when he could just appear and disappear into thin air.

  I sunk onto the floor after that, dropping my head into my hands and crying.

  Gideon wasn’t human—that much I was sure of. So, what the hell was he?

  I had wanted to remember my nightmare, to put a face on Gideon, but when I finally had a match, I wished I hadn’t.

  Maybe I misinterpreted the dream. Maybe he wasn’t going to try and kill me. Maybe he simply came to break my heart. But that didn’t explain what or who he really was.

  I heard Gideon’s voice in my head saying, That stupid girl.

  Of course I was stupid. No one had forced me to feel the
way I did around him. That day in the cafeteria, no one told me to give my heart away. That day in the library, no one told me to lose myself. That night on my bed, no one asked me to long for him.

  And, crying on the floor, no one made me wish I’d asked him to stay.

  THE STRUGGLE

  “It would be easier to break,

  but I’m going to keep my head high

  just to make you believe I’m stronger,

  so I can hurt in silence.”

  Melody Manful

  

  No matter what I did, sleep wouldn’t come. Instead, I stared at the red letters of the clock as they flashed the numbers of each passing minute.

  The next day, I stayed in bed until Sunday evening when my mother forced me to get out of bed to get some air.

  When Monday came, I lied and told my mother that I hadn’t been feeling well, so she allowed me to stay home. I was no longer crippled by my fear, but I was still unsettled and sad.

  When I woke up Tuesday morning, I felt better than I had in days. I decided if Gideon was going to kill me, he’d have done it by now. I still told my mother I wasn’t yet well enough for school, and this time, she decided to stay home with me.

  It didn’t take her long to figure out that I was upset rather than sick, because I turned down every medicine she tried to give me. She asked what was wrong, but since I didn’t want to drag her into my crazy world, I said it was nothing and that I had just needed some time alone. Her way of trying to cheer me up was for us to eat a lot of ice cream and to model the new dresses in her clothing line. At first I didn’t want to do anything, but once she convinced me to try on a few dresses, I found I actually enjoyed it because it kept my mind busy.

  My friends stopped by to visit after school. They assumed I was sick because I had already missed two days of classes. Tristan looked sad and distracted throughout the whole visit, but I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him.

  “I think something is going around school because Gideon is out sick, too,” Jake said.

  “He hasn’t been to school?” I asked in surprise.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” Tristan said.

  “Well, I’m fine now. I’ll be in school tomorrow,” I said.

  My friends stayed a little longer with me. Sarah and Tristan walked me through what I had missed at school. After they all left, I was left with tons of homework assignments and a mind filled with questions about why Gideon wasn’t going to school.

  When I went to school on Wednesday, I immediately regretted my decision because I spent the day jumping at every little sound I heard. Luckily for me, Gideon didn’t show up for classes. While I was relieved he wasn’t there, I wasn’t completely relaxed. When school ended for the day, my friends and I went shopping for Sarah’s dress for the dance. The boys quickly got tired of shopping because she was being so picky about the dresses and couldn’t decide which one Caleb would like.

  “At this rate, only Mrs. Cells could tell you how good you look and you’d believe it,” Danny said, exasperated.

  Sarah instantly gave him a hug. “You’re a genius,” she told him. “Let’s go visit the fashion goddess.”

  We all piled into one car and drove to my mother’s boutique. My mother was more than happy to help Sarah, and when she asked me why I wasn’t going, I lied and told her it was because I wasn’t up for it.

  Tristan offered to take me if I wanted to go, but I told him I was too far behind on my schoolwork and needed to catch up. I pretended I was fine that Gideon wasn’t around, but it was a lie. I missed him making fun of everything, and making me feel special. I missed how he made me laugh and how he always knew what to say. Remembering the good times didn’t stop me from thinking about the nightmare version of Gideon, though. I remembered how much he scared me, and I decided maybe it was better that he wasn’t around. Whatever he was, he wasn’t good for me.

  After the rather long shopping trip with my friends, they said goodbye and left. My mother and I drove home together. As soon as I got to my bedroom, Logan called me to come outside for training, since I had texted and cancelled our last training session after Gideon left.

  “Don’t look so down. You’re making up for missing practice on Friday,” Logan said the moment I stepped unto the field.

  Logan stood beside a table covered with guns, arrows, and bows.

  “Why did you call and cancel anyway?” He asked.

  “Like I told you before, I had a headache.” I walked past him. It was more of a heartache, but how was I supposed to tell him I went to ask a boy out only to find out he wasn’t human? He wouldn’t believe the truth anyway.

  One of the weapons on the table caught my eye. I walked over to it and asked, “Logan, is that an AK-47?”

  Logan smiled when he picked up the gun. “Yeah, isn’t it a beauty?” He handed the gun to me.

  I took it carefully. “Wow, that’s beautiful.” My voice filled with delight. “Hint, hint, my birthday is coming up.”

  “Girls ask for dolls, Abby,” Logan teased. He reached for the gun, but I shook my head. I wasn’t yet done admiring it. If only I could show the same interest in all the fancy dresses my mother bought me.

  “Screw the dolls. Let’s go blow something up,” I said as Logan handed me earplugs and shooting earmuffs. I put down the gun so I could adjust the ear protection, and then I picked it back up.

  “I’m guessing with the mood swings, you must have a guy problem?” Logan ventured. “You looked sad when you came out.”

  “What is this, Logan, a therapy session?” I hung the AK-47 around my neck.

  “All right, I can take a hint. I’ll butt out,” he said. “Oh, I looked over the footage from your balcony a few nights ago,” he told me as he pulled on his own earmuffs. “Definitely looks like you jumped. Dangerous, but cool.”

  “I guess I slipped,” I lied. I knew I hadn’t jumped off the balcony, but I couldn’t have Logan snooping around outside my room in case I wanted to sneak out again someday.

  “You should be careful though. It’s a long drop from your balcony.”

  “Got it, mom,” I teased, and then I aimed at the target at the middle of the field and fired. Some of the bullets hit the target, but others flew past it.

  “So, who is this guy you’re angry at?” Logan asked as he shot his own gun.

  I fired again. “I’m a little busy here, Logan!” I shouted over the noise. The bullet missed the target again.

  “Where’s your head, Abigail?” Logan asked. “You’re disgracing a very beautiful gun.”

  “My head is here,” I lied. My mind really wasn’t. I only came to training because I needed the distraction. I needed to get my mind off Gideon.

  “Let’s change guns,” Logan said and traded his gun for the AK-47. “And please, shoot the target and not the ground this time.”

  Even though I was trying hard to hit the target, once again, I only managed to hit its edge a couple times. Most of my bullets flew through the empty air and hit the ground. Logan let me get away with this for a few more minutes, and then he stopped me when I shot an arrow from the bow and couldn’t hit the target like he knew I could.

  “Abigail, your head isn’t in the game,” Logan said, and he sounded irritated. “I’ve told you again and again, this isn’t a joke. You can’t come here and not take this seriously.”

  “I am taking this seriously!” I shouted defensively.

  “You can go inside now,” Logan said, and then immediately he reached for the bow in my hand. He turned his back on me, and he started cleaning up, making it obvious that our conversation was over.

  I yanked my earmuffs off, put them back on the table, and then walked into the house and didn’t stop until I reached my bedroom. Logan had never sounded so angry with me before. I felt it would be best to just leave him alone.

  When I got to my room, I was angrier with myself than I was with Logan. I was angry that I couldn’t stop thinking about Gideon long enough to get my head i
nto training. He was gone, and still he remained a distraction!

  Thursday morning when I went to the kitchen for breakfast, my mother was already in there.

  “Good morning, Mom.” I gave her a kiss and then hoisted myself onto the kitchen countertop.

  My mother liked rooms with an open floor plan, so our black and white, modern kitchen, with its horizontal curved countertop and two huge glass cupboards, was airy and open. On the wall hung an oversize black and white photograph of me when I was little.

  I ate breakfast with her, and we talked about her new collection. We also talked about my father coming to visit soon, which made both of us happy. For once, I put my anger and fear aside long enough to feel happy together with her.

  Once again, Gideon didn’t come to school. My friends didn’t think it was a big deal. Jake and Danny said he went to a convention for bad boys. And Sarah said he wasn’t there because he found out he was too cool for school. For some reason, they all said he might have been sick the first day, but he was just milking it now. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t there, but I stopped being frightened of him. I actually wanted him to come back to school so I could make him answer all my questions.

  Danny and Jake finally asked two girls to the dance during lunch. The guys were fooling around, asking to borrow suits, and the girls couldn’t wait to wear their beautiful, one-of-a-kind dresses. I smiled and pretended to be interested in their conversations, but I felt a little sad to know I wouldn’t be shopping for a dress or even going to the dance.

  After school, I decided to try and move on. Well, move on, as in go home and let Logan find information on Gideon. That was if I could admit I had a guy problem and apologize to Logan for wasting his time during training yesterday.

  Later that afternoon, I found Logan outside. He was setting the place for our next training session. I asked him if he would help me find information on Gideon. At first he said no, but after I apologized for my lack of concentration during our last session, his face lit up.