by Ash Night
"Was that as great for you as it was for me?" She asked when she finally let me up for air. I was flat on my back, most likely grinning like an idiot.
"Yeah," I nodded, the synapses in my brain misfiring. She giggled.
"I'm glad. I was so afraid you wouldn't like it." She was blushing like a schoolgirl and so unlike the sexy, confident girl who had just kissed me as if she'd turned kissing into an Olympic sport and she was a gold medalist.
I hugged her to my chest, picnic forgotten. She kissed me again. I closed my eyes and let her kiss me again. It was enchanting. I could barely believe she loved me enough to kiss me. What about her boyfriend? I smiled. I win.
My head was still swimming later that night. We'd spent the day kissing and holding each other. I was so happy that a bizarre heat wave struck AngelRose. I wadded in the river that ran deeper into the forest and held her. She jumped on my back as I swam the length of the river. She squealed with delight as I splashed her. She splashed back playfully. After the water cooled down to the point where it was almost icy, I laid on the grass. Zoey rested on my bare chest and smiled.
"I love you, Eli."
"I love you too, Zoey." I kissed her. She grinned.
My eyes rested on the daisy crown Zoey had made me and placed on my head. She was just like those flowers, sweet and gentle. Her kisses were like a whole different side of her. It was a side I liked. A side the monster liked.
I growled. The monster was rearing its ugly head. It wanted a fight. It wanted Zoey. It wanted her heart, body, mind, and soul. It would get nothing. I would make that absolutely clear.
Elijah, forget it. The monster will have her. It always gets what it wants. When it wants something, you have no control. You know that. the voice said.
"I can fight it." I replied. My mind raced with possibilities, none of which I liked. The monster was messing with my thoughts. I snarled.
Zoey had to go home. She couldn't stay here. I knew that. It was over. My happiness wasn't worth her safety. It wasn't worth her life. I had to try and get her home.
Chapter 21
“I know Eli wanted me to stay, but…” I was pacing in my room, the words I wanted to say stuck in my throat, clogged by tears. Sky was listening intently. She was looking much better. It’d taken her a few more days for her to recover than Eli, but she was fine now and as alert as ever.
My vision blurred. It wasn’t fair. My happiness was so closely linked with Eli, but being stuck in AngelRose was harder than I thought. It was already driving me crazy. I decided to take a walk. I’d be safe because Eli had placed a protective spell around me the other day so I could wander AngelRose all I wanted. I wasn’t going to stay cooped up in here all day until the end of time.
The sun shone on me briefly as I entered the woods. It smelled of the earth, rich soil and clean air. Something had changed since the last time I was in these woods. It wasn’t just the weather or the fact I’d been afraid last time, the whole atmosphere of AngelRose had changed. It was calm, but an unsettling kind of calm, like before a storm. Oddly, that didn’t set me on edge. I was light, happy, as I walked aimlessly.
A breeze rippled through the dead grass and the trees. I inhaled, tasting salty air being blown in from the beach. I wondered what was beyond AngelRose. Beyond the island, on the horizon, all that could be seen was fog. Even Eli had never been further than a few yards out.
I shivered as the temperature suddenly dropped to below freezing. I ran back the castle, slipping and sliding on the quickly-forming ice. “Eli!” The empty hall echoed my call. My legs buckled after running for what seemed like weeks and I collapsed. My breath came in great burning gasps as the air inside the castle seemed to freeze. What was going on? Ice formed on the walls and floor so it soon crystallized the entire castle.
I sat on my feet, shivering, trying not to cry. Ice crystals forming on my lashes stung my eyes each time I blinked. Tendrils of ice threaded through my hair. My chest burned as I struggled to fill it, each breath harder than the last. Even my heart felt cold as if it would stop at any moment. I was simply waiting for death now. Waiting for the ice to wrap around me. To turn me into a crystal doll.
Suddenly the door, nearly entirely encrusted with ice, was blown off its hinges by an invisible force. The noise seemed unwelcome in a room fit for an ice queen, almost as if it was expected to freeze with the rest of the room. “Leave, you damn ice spirits! You’re freezing up the place!” Eli came in, fire blazing in his violet eyes. I could barely believe he was here. He smiled brightly at me, unaffected by the sub-zero temperatures. I tried to smile back but I was losing all feeling in my body. Everything felt stiff, frozen in place. I was about to become a floor decoration.
“I said leave!” Eli snarled like his words were enough to melt the ice.
My eyes burned as I struggled to blink. It was getting harder to think, to function at all. Breathing slightly was the best I could do. It wasn’t enough air to sustain me. I was blacking out. Eli glanced worriedly at me a few feet away.
I swear I could hear my own heart stop. A strange stillness filled the air. I looked at Eli and saw a dark aura surrounding him. I knew at once it was that dark aura causing the air to still. Eli was baring his teeth, looking more evil than I'd ever seen him before. My world went black.
I woke up, water filling my lungs. Disoriented, I tried to breathe. A strong hand pulled me up and I sucked in a lungful of air. "Zoey? Are you okay?" Eli's face loomed over mine, looking like he might cry. "I'm so sorry! I don’t know how those damn spirits got in. There must have been a crack in the barrier. I promise I'll fix it. Just please tell me you'll be okay."
I coughed, unable to answer. Looking around, I saw we were in the big tub, scalding water pouring from the shower head. My head hurt. I guessed I cracked my head on the granite floor of the tub when I got in. I winced as I tried to nod.
"Good," I looked at Eli. His hair was dripping wet. His tie-dye shirt clung to his body, molding to his chest and ab-muscles. The pentagram necklace he always wore swung lightly when he moved. He hugged me tightly, crushing me to him. His voice came out muffled, pressed against my shoulder. "AngelRose isn't a safe place for you. You need to go home."
"Eli? Are you okay? You sound so sad." I rubbed his back lightly.
He lifted his head from my shoulder. I gasped. His eyes sparkled with tears. "You need to go home. I was wrong to want to keep you here. AngelRose is no place for you. You're in danger."
I hugged him, felt the fight go out of him. He was serious. "But why? You wanted me here."
"Your safety isn't worth my happiness." He said somberly, face as stoic as stone. I stared at him, watching unforgiving tears spring from his beautiful eyes.
I turned off the water and sat in the hot water, not saying a word. Eli sat beside me silently. We sat there wallowing in indecisiveness and tension. Tears filled my eyes. He hugged me and held me for hours until the water turned cold. I listened to his heartbeat. It was the most romantic music in the world.
Later that night, I lay in bed, torn between leaving Eli and going home. I couldn't get up the courage to ask him if he could come with me. The last time I'd asked he had jumped off a cliff. I knew he was stable now but with the recent turn of events who knew how long that would last? I fell asleep when I could stay awake no longer.
Chapter 22
I woke up with a start. Looking around, I knew exactly where I was. I wanted to scream, but Eli beat me to it.
"Where the hell am I?" He shouted. I looked from my bed. He was lying on the floor, his whole form, from his ink black hair to the paleness of his skin, was stark contrast to the hot pink of the carpet in my room.
"We’re in my room. We're on the earth plane." I explained.
Eli looked at me like I was crazy. "What? But I can't leave AngelRose...I was never able to. I was always stuck there..." He had the far-away look in his eyes.
"I can't believe I'm home!" I blurted out. "I was so happy to be in AngelRose, but I misse
d my home."
"I can't believe I'm in the real world..." Eli was looking around as if he'd never seen a room before. I had to stifle a laugh.
"Would you like a tour, Mr. Eli?" I asked. He nodded, opening the door eagerly. I laughed and led him into the kitchen.
Eli
I'd never seen any other house aside than my family home in London, England and AngelRose castle. Zoey's own house was very simple. The beige walls were sparse. Not one painting except for a fine copy of Picasso’s work in the center of the farthermost living room wall. Underneath the painting was a beige couch. The carpet was also beige. The only thing in the room that wasn't beige was the brown lining along the walls. A black TV sat perched atop a brown table. I plopped down in the beige leather recliner.
"Do you like the color beige, Zoey?" I grinned.
Zoey chuckled. "I haven't mastered the art of manifesting cans of paint."
I laughed. "If that worked here, I'd manifest a can of blue paint."
"I like the color in here, anyway. I don't think I'd change it even if I could afford paint."
"I like it too, Zoe. Don't change it." I said, flipping up the footrest. "And don't ever get rid of this recliner!"
She laughed. "I'll remember that."
I lay back and patted my lap. "Come sit down with me," Zoey hopped up in my lap, melding to my body as if she belonged there. I stroked her hair dreamily.
The trance was broken as the door clicked open. Zoey sprang from my lap as if shocked by an electric current. She stood tense like a soldier at attention, the lean muscles in her back taunt, stiff.
"Hello? Anybody home?" A young man walked in. I instantly hated him. He gave me more leniency. "Zoey! You're home! And who is this?" He hugged her, clearly restraining from kissing her in the presence of a guest.
"An old friend," Zoey replied, visibly relaxing. "He was in the States and he decided to stop by."
He shook my hand. "Hello, I'm Jake Thomas," I had an extremely hard time not crushing his hand.
I forced a smile, eliciting my English accent. "Eli Valentine,"
"You're from Europe?"
"Yes, I was born in London. I know Zoey from when I transferred as a foreign exchange student in second grade."
Jake nodded, closely leaning into Zoey, his lips getting closer to her cheek. I felt my anger flare up like a cloak. The light bulb in the lamp closet to Jake exploded, causing him and Zoey to jump. I smiled cruelly, feeling the malice in my mind unravel like a poison. It was like finding a key to a door and finally unlocking it.
The monster had been set free.
Zoey
I gasped when the light bulb exploded. Jake’s arms tensed protectively around me in a way that was so like Eli my brain began to blur the lines between the two.
“Are you okay, Zoey?” Jake asked, bringing me back to reality. The question struck me as stupid because the light bulb hadn’t been close enough to hurt me. Eli wouldn’t have thought to ask. He would’ve just said that was weird and then moved on to other things. I looked over at my dream boy. He wore a worried look. It was too overly concerned for him, for his personality. It set all my nerves on high alert. He dropped his gaze to the floor.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” I stuttered, my brain stuttering to decode Eli’s expression. Jake hugged me and relaxed.
He held my hand as he got up and unplugged the lamp. The lampshade was slightly shredded by the glass of the bulb. Jake grinned. “I know what to get you for your birthday next week.”
“Next week is your birthday?” Eli asked. His expression changed to cheerful as he looked at me again. “I’ll have to stop at the store.”
“You guys don’t have to get me anything,” I blushed.
“I want to!” Eli and Jake said in unison. Eli shot Jake a glare. He obviously didn’t care for my boyfriend. Jake must have not noticed Eli’s cold behavior because he stayed for another twenty minutes, trying to make small talk.
“You ready for our senior year tomorrow, Zoeybear?” Jake asked excitedly.
What? I’d spent my entire summer in AngelRose? “Uh…yeah.” I replied. It certainly hadn’t felt like three months in AngelRose yet somehow it had.
“I have my schedule,” Jake said. “Yours is on the table in with your other mail. I took the liberty of taking your mail inside. How is your great aunt?”
“She’s good,” I replied, shooting a quick grin at Eli. He had sent the letters. His promises were iron-clad.
“Zoey?” Eli asked in the darkness of my room.
“What?” I groaned. I was trying to sleep at midnight like the rest of the world.
“Do you think you’ll dream about me?”
“Yes, Eli, I will.”
“Good,” he fell silent for a few minutes. I was dozing off, in that place between wakefulness and sleep, when he spoke up again. “Zoey?”
“Yes?”
“I love you,”
“I love you too, Eli.”
I can’t express how great it was to wake up in my own room in my own house. My mom was downstairs making breakfast, bacon and eggs from the smell of it. I took a deep breath and reveled in the scent of home.
“Mmm…Something smells good!” Eli said as he roused from his spot on the floor where he had slept. I glanced from him to the door.
“My mom doesn’t know you’re here! You have to get out of here before she sees you! But how?” I scrambled to come up with an answer.
Eli just grinned and calmly walked to the window. “I’ve always fancied jumping out windows,”
I gaped at him, thinking his mind must’ve gotten stuck in AngelRose. “You can’t jump out a window! You’ll break your neck! That’s at least a twenty foot drop!”
“Easy,” he grinned wider. “I used to jump from tree branches way higher.”
“We aren’t in AngelRose, Eli! You can get hurt here!” I said, trying to keep my voice low so my mom wouldn't hear.
"If I don't make it, I leave AngelRose to you, Zoey, my love." He said with a grin and leapt off the ledge. I crammed my fist in my mouth to stifle a scream, my mind racing on hyper-drive to come up with an answer to why there would be a boy with a broken neck below my bedroom window.
Before I could come up with anything even remotely believable, that smart-ass twisted into a flip, then rolled on his ankle into the bushes. I stood in stunned silence, wondering just what the hell Eli was thinking when the doorbell rang. Jumping about a foot in the air, I raced downstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. Eli had flowers in his hand, talking pleasantly to my mom in the kitchen, perched on a stool at the snack bar as if he belonged there. He was every bit the perfect gentleman my mother would love for me to have as a boyfriend. Minus the crazy, manifesting anything he wanted, AngelRose part.
"Ah, Zoey, love, how are you?" Eli asked in his English accent. I hope my mom didn't notice the blush that crept up my neck at that. It was crazy enough to know a boy who, three months ago I thought was a dream, was real and I possibly loved him more than my already real boyfriend. Having that same boy in my kitchen, talking to my mother, was a step away from getting me carted off to the nearest looney bin.
"Fine, and you, Eli?"
"Just fine, love. My, you look lovely in the morning." Eli winked at me and my face blazed as I remembered I looked the same since I'd woken up. I must've been a mess in my rumpled lace nightgown and unkempt hair, thankful I'd at least worn a bra to bed.
"Eli was just telling me about his life in London. He is such an interesting young man." My mom gushed, oblivious to my embarrassment.
"I'll be right back," I replied quickly, running to my room. I swiped a brush through my hair and pulled on a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt.
When I sprinted back downstairs, Eli was eating breakfast. "Zoey, I may just have to steal your mother and take her back to London with me! These scrambled eggs are simply amazing! Care for a bite?" He held out a bite of egg on his fork toward me. I shook my head.
"I'm not that hungry, tha
nks."
"First day jitters, baby?" My mom asked as she set the flowers Eli had given her in a vase of ice water. She smiled at me sweetly. I smiled uneasily back.
"No worries, love! I'll be there every step of the way." Eli grinned, hugging me to him by my shoulders. I tried not to lean into him. I had a boyfriend here. I couldn't play games. I couldn't love Eli.
But I was dying to.
On the short walk to school, Eli needlessly kept up his London charade by yelling out the names of objects and how they differed from the American terms. He pointed to a truck. "That there is a lorry!"
"Don't you mean a truck?" I asked, shifting the weight of my backpack to my other shoulder. My mom, after she and my father had gotten back from their trip to Africa, had gone to the store at 3am this morning to buy my school supplies and fill my backpack, insisting she'd done it because she was too hyped up to sleep due to the different time zone in Africa and because it would be the last time she'd ever get to do it for me, but I knew the real reason. Through she could never imagine the real reason why, she knew I'd forget to go and buy my supplies myself. It hurt to think I'd chosen to leave her forever back in AngelRose, but I was back and I would never be going back, Eli had insisted. I wondered how much it had killed him to say that.
I gazed at him. He played into his lie so well. Looking at him as an outsider, I could see how he actually could simply be a foreigner from London in the States to visit a friend. It was so easy to believe. Just like it's been easy to believe AngelRose was paradise. How long would it be before this lie came crashing back to reality?
"Silly American," he said, a grin dancing on his lips, playing with fire in his dark eyes.
I smirked. "You better watch out before this silly American pushes you into a lorry."
"I'm quacking!"
I laughed until my ribs hurt. "You mean quaking, English boy."