"Ash, why do you want to do this so bad?" I asked her.
"My mom." Was all she said.
"What? Your mom is-" I stopped my self in mid sentence. I knew it was still a fresh wound for her.
"I know, but if I can- What do you know about the ghost world?" She asked me.
"Not much why?" I asked her.
"I read that ghost are in contact with one another, and they can see things that we can't."
"Like?"
"Our future, our deaths, all the lies were told, our regrets, fears, dreams... all of it."
"What does this have to do with your mom?" I asked her. She stayed silent for a long time.
"Have you ever had a dream that you die and it feels so real? I keep having this dream that I die over and over and over. I figured that the only one that can tell me their meaning and how to prevent it is my mom. However theirs a bit of a road block..." She said.
"So by helping Avery you'll be able to...." I trailed of.
"I'll be able to see my mom." With that said she got out of the car and made her way towards the school. After about a minuet of watching her make he way to the school I got out as well. I walked into the school building to see ash pulling out a small vial and swishing it back. I then looked down the hall to see Terrance closing his locker shut. Ashlin stormed over to him with a pissed off look o n her face. Terrance turned around to see Ashlin storming towards him. Terrance sneered at her and said,
"What the hell do you want?" With out even answering Ashlin grabbed his face , and crashed her lips to his. She forced his mouth open with her tongue and my keen eyes could see a blue tinted liquid drip down his chin. She push her mouth harder against him and forced him to swallow. As soon as he did she tore away from him and whisper in his ear.
"You will not breath the names Avery and Jericho, and you shall not think of them. " With that she pushed away from him and walked down the hall way towards me Tyler, and Allen. I thought she looked pissed before but now she looked deadly. She whipped her mouth with her sleeve and walked up to Allen. She threw her arms around his neck and crashed her lips against his. I looked away felling as if I was intruding and waited for them to finish.
"Well you knew what you were doing." Tyler said to Ash. Ashlin turned around to face him.
"I grew up with that spell." She said. Allen instantly stiffened. Ashlin laughed and playfully punched him in the shoulder.
"I didn't do the spell my mom did. How do you think I got through element school?" I then recalled a little girl with pig tails always getting into trouble but never being punished.
"Anyway don't worry that was the worst kiss I ever had." She says as she leans into Allen. We all snickered. We then heard a loud shriek of exitment and saw a human girl named Lily walking towards us. Lily was on the dance team and was part of the "in" crowd like the four of us. However we prefer to stick to ourselves.
"Oh my god Ashley what was that?" She said as she tried her hardest not to look over at Tyler. Poor guy.
"It's Ashlin." Ashlin corrected her under her breath.
"It was part of a dare." Allen said.
"Then why did you do it?" She pressed.
"For fifty bucks." Tyler said as he reached in to his wallet.
"Tyler, you are so mean!" She squealed. I flinched at her high pitched voice. I then saw four others walking over to us. Annie, Mikaela, Trent, and Taylor. Taylor's eyes wandered over to me and that same hurt yet still loving look gleamed in them. Taylor and I dated almost on year ago. I dumped her for cheating, yet she swears it meant nothing. I drowned out the sound of the chatter of the others as I scanned the hallways for a little redhead girl. But I didn't see her. But I knew that If Terrance was here then she must be as well... unless shes out again. My wolf whined at that thought. I was ripped out of my thoughts when I felt a soft hand on my arm.
"Hey..." I looked down to see Taylor looking at me with longing eyes.
"Can we talk?" She asked me. I shook my head at her as I brushed her hand off,
"We have talked, and the answer is still no." I told her.
"But I've-" She was cut of by Ashlin.
"Taylor give it a rest. You screwed up, he found out, and now he's moved on. Your making your self look pathetic and needy." Ashlin has always and I mean always
hated Taylor. Even when Taylor and I were dating. Taylor looked at her with a stunned look.
"Your such a bitch." she said in almost a whisper. She knew Ashlin was right, we all did. Taylor walked away once again acting hurt and claiming to be the victim. I shook my head and said,
"I'm gonna go." I said as I walked away.
"Jericho!" Allen yelled after me. I turned and looked at him,
"Yeah?" I asked.
"I saw her in the classroom." He said. I knew who he was referring to.
Truth
I walked into the science room and saw her sitting in her usual spot reading her book.
"Avery." I said. She looked up at me. I noticed a glassy and unaffected look in her eyes and then she looked back down at her novel. What the hell? Was she ignoring me?
"Avery?" I said as I walked towards her. She didn't look up.
"Yes?" She answered me not removing her eyes from the book.
"Is everything alright?" I asked her. There was a long silence.
"Everything is fine Jericho." I stiffened when she said my name with no emotion at all.
"It doesn't seam that way." I told her. She slammed her book shut and looked up at me. Only now her brow was tightly knit and the green eyes were cold and hard.
"I said everything is fine. Are we done here?" She snapped at me. I was taken back.
"Yeah we are." I said. I sat down in the seat next to her in frustration.
"What the hell are you doing?" She asked me.
"Sitting with my friend." I told her. She groaned and gathered her stuff and moved to the front of the room. If I remembered correctly just last night we were getting along fine. I did thee same and moved to the seat next to her. we did this about five times before I had enough of this game. I grabbed her wrist a little to tight as she got up to move again. She winced at the pain. The way she winced was not from me squeezing her wrist. I saw tears well up in her eyes I instantly let go of her hand. I then absorbed her appearance. Long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, and finger less gloves. I grabbed her arm and lifted it up. The gears in my head started turning.
"No!" She yelled. This only edged me on. She tried to yank her arm away from me but it was hopeless. I quickly slid the layers away from her wrist. I was in shock at what I saw. It took all my will power to contain my wolf from shifting right then. Her small wrist was surrounded by a thick black and blue ring. I tilted her wrist to see that three other half rings circled her wrist as well.
"Who did this?" I growled. She didn't answer. I studied he as she looked out the door at what seemed like thousands of people.
Avery
Jericho roughly dragged me by my arm out of the classroom. I gripped the frame of the doorway and yelled at him as I wanked my arm away from him,
"Wait! What about class?" Jericho looked around at the people surrounding us.
"Fuck it." he said as he grabbed my arm again and pulled me down the hallways and out of the school. Why was he doing this? Because he saw my wrist and wanted answers. He pulled me to the dumpsters behind the gym. The gray concrete walls were decorated with graffiti, and an old bench sat up against the wall. Most likely the smokers had dragged it here.
Jericho turned around and faced me. His face was agonizing he looked so hurt and in pain.
"Avery , please... who did this to you?" He asked me. I stayed silent and silently debated within my self weather or not to tell him. Could I trust him? He swears to me that he cares about me, but is that true? I bet he says that to all his fake friends. Let's say I did tell him... how would he react? Would he be repulsed at how weak I am and leave me. As much as I hated to admit it my heart constricted and felt heavy at that thought. I didn't w
ant to be left alone. If he did I would be more alone then be for. That scared me senselessly. What if he told someone? Oh God that would not do at all. What would I do if he told? That would mess up everything! Let's say if, and I mean if
I did tell him. Then what? Would he pity me? Would he hate me? Would he see me any different then he does now. All these questions buzzed around my head relentlessly. The gears in my head turned and looked at every angle and possibility of the out come.
I don't want to be alone.
I Don't.
But could I trust him? That was my main question. I had a plan and if I told him that might alter things.
"Avery... pleas say something." He pleaded. I began to tremble. I stumbled towards the bench as my knees quaked underneath me. I sat down on the bench and squeezed my eyes shut. Could I do it? Could I tell him? Should I tell him. I felt Jericho sit down next to me and take my hand in his.
Trust him.
I heard a warm a smooth voice say. The voice gave me a sense of Déjà vu. My head instantly shot up and I looked all around me in search for the voice. I anticipated to find Angela somewhere, but she was no where to be seen. Angela was the one who gave me confidence and guidance at moments like this. However at this moment she was absent and I was left to make the final decision. I looked into Jericho's eyes. Could I trust him? Was he going to leave me more alone then before? There was only one way to find out. I took a deep breath and said,
"All of them." I felt his grip tighten on my hand.
"All of them who?" He growled.
"My family." He grasped my hand and brought it to his forehead as if he was praying.
"How long has this been going on?" He asked me.
"Since I was fifteen so roughly almost four years." I told him slowly and calmly. I Heard him curs under his breath. The was along and tense silence after that.
"Pleas... don't- don't tell anyone." I begged him. As soon as I said this he dropped my hand.
"Why would you say that? Avery it's dangerous. We need to get you out of there." He said frantically.
"You think I don't know that? Where would I go? Even if I did leave they would just hall me back to that hell hole and that would make things even worse. My best bet is to wait till I'm eighteen." I told him.
"Why can't you leave?" He asked me.
"Trust me I tried. I almost made it to the boarder, but Ben's on the police force so the police didn't help me. I told them but they just told me Ben would never do something like that. So they sent me back and things became worse." I told him.
"Then what are you going to do?" He asked me. I shook my head at him.
"At the moment there's nothing I can do. Before I leave I'm going to press charges against them, but I want to wait until Terrance is eighteen as well. That way he can be charged as an adult. But until then... I have to wait it out." Jericho wrapped his arms around me and brought me close to him.
"Listen to me. As soon as you get home lock your door and don't come out unless you absolutely have to. If any thing and I mean any thing happens then call me and I'll pick you up. It will be alright." He said in a shaky voice. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my face in the crook of his neck.
"I will." I promised him. He pulled away from me and exhaled.
"Now, why did you act like that this morning?" He asked me.
"Oh... sorry. I guess I do that when I'm on edge or trying to hide something. I just didn't want you to see the bruises." I said as I rubbed my wrist.
"I guess that makes sense. Why didn't you want me to know? He asked me.
"I didn't want you to pity me. The last thing I need is for people treating me different because I have a not so perfect life. So really can you blame me?" I told him.
"No I really can't." He said. He then reluctantly stood up and stretched his hand out at me.
"Now, we have a science class we are missing." And just like that I took his hand and we walked back towards the school.
Aftershock
Word cannot describe what I am felling right now. Perhaps relieved? I felt like I had been rid of a small fraction of my troubles. Only a little. So much still remained. I also felt thankful to both Jericho and myself. To myself: for letting my walls fall. To Jericho: for caring about me and not walking away like so many others have done. I glanced down at my wrist and remembered the whole event. I couldn’t help but smile
I currently sat across from Angela on my bed. We sat facing each other with our legs crossed. Her large dark doe eyes stared at me intently. Her dark hair fell in multiple ringlets. She wore a raspberry red scope cut neckline dress with floral lace skirt. When I look at this beautiful girl… my heart sinks. No matter how many times I ignore it or talk to her I can’t help but to remember that sh’s dead. It pains me to think that my best friend is one day going to move on and I will be alone.
“So?” she edged me on. My mind was ripped from my train of thoughts when she spoke.
“So what?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes and said,
“What happened with Jericho?” she said.
“Oh.”I said. Looking down at my lap.
“I told him about well….” I trailed off. She raised her eyebrow at me and smiled.
“about what?” she asked me.
“About- He saw my bruises so I told him how I got them. The truth I mean.” I said.
“That’s good.” I heard her say. I looked at her in shock.
“What?” I asked her. She sighed and said,
“Avery, if you haven’t noticed … I’m dead. There isn’t much I can do to help you. I know that it kills you to do all this alone. You need to come to terms with the fact that I’m not human.” My heart clenched at her words. I hung my head not wanting to accept the fact she was dead. I wasn’t ready to face it.
“You were human.” I said under my breath.
“This isn’t about me this is about you trusting him.” She said. My eyes drifted up to look at her.
“Am I ready?” I asked my elf out load. She smiled at me and said,
“You need to. In more ways than one. I said this earlier, I can see things you can’t. Trust me Avery, you need to trust him.” She told me. That’s the thing… I don’t know if I can.” I told her.
“What do you mean?” She said in almost a whisper.
“I’m blind to him.” I told her.
“Well isn’t that a good thing? At least for a while?” She asked me. I must admit this did comfort me.
“Is it?” I asked her doubtfully. She sighed and said,
“It depends on how you look at it. It may seem hard to trust him because of it, but it might be the only time you will have to trust him. Meaning no more of the freaky Long Island Medium crap.” I laughed at that. I gently fell backwards on my bed and relaxed as I stared up at the ceiling.
“Maybe your right.” I whispered. After a long silence she spoke again.
“Another thing… There are things about him that I want to tell you but it’s not my place to. He’s going to tell you soon and when he does you need to believe him.” She said.
“Again with the trust?” I sarcastically asked her.
“Trust me your going to need a lot of it with him.” She said. After that it was silent once more. My mind danced around with thoughts. I could see Jericho, I could see what he was doing right now. I saw him sitting on a large couch with a small girl on his lap that looked about four. I then saw Ashlin who was sitting by herself surrownded by books simply reading. I then remembered the look on Angelas face when she saw Ashlin the other day.
"Angela," I said.
"Yes?" She answered back.
"How do you know Ashlin?" I asked her.
"I use to babysit her until she moved away." She told me.
"I think you should talk to her." I finally said.
Dreamer
Jericho
I was jerked awake by the sound of a pitter-patter going past my room followed by the sound of an elephant running down the hall. Ah...
Ashlin and Allen are up. I rolled out of bed and dragged myself to the stair well to see what the fuss was about.
I peered from my place on the stairs to see Ashlin with tears running down her face as Allen tried to calm her down. He was falling however.
"Come on Kitten it was just a dream. Nothing more. I'm still here and so are you." He cooed in her ear. Ashline pushed away from him.
"Your not the one having them! Do you know what its like to see yourself die a painful death evrynight? Do you even remember what happenes if I die? You die to! Only twice as worse and I'm sick of watching it! I'm not upset about me dieing, it's you! I just can't handel the thought of seeing you die like that. It gets worse every night. I can't-" She then crumbled to the floor sobbing harder then before. Allen instantly picked her up bridal style and held her tightly against his chest.
"I know. I know. I would have your nightmares for you if I could." He said gently. I couldn't help but smile at this. He knew Ash better then anyone. He knew that her only fear was death, and he knew how to comfert her, her knew how to care for her. He walked slowly up the stairs with a withered Ashlin in his arms. I walked ahead of them and pushed their door open for them. Allen nodded at me. After he had tucked Ash in he walked out of the room to talk to me.
"Is she okay?" I asked. He brushed his fingers threw his hair,
"Yeah, she'll be fine. But even if she was normal dreams like that every night can take a tole on you. I've had enough of it as well, we need to figure out how to end them." He said.
"Erika says she plays with Ashlin evry day in the library, presonaly I think she's already looking into it." I told him.
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