Born Dark

by H G Lynch

  Suddenly drained, too tired to keep thinking, Ember yawned once again and got ready to swing down from her branch. She was eager to go back to bed. But then she heard voices, in the distance, but heading her way. She thought of how helpless she was out here all alone at night, too far from the dorms for others to hear her scream.

  She scrambled up the tree, not waiting to see if the people coming posed a threat or not. Nervous, she perched twenty-five feet up, clinging to the trunk like a koala and looking down. In the flickering light, the dimming and lightening moonlight filtering through the clouds, she had a strong sense of wrongness. Below her, she could quite clearly see four girls, carrying what appeared to be branches and grass. She couldn’t tell for sure which one was which, but she knew Croppy was at the front. Only her shorter hairstyle made it easy to tell. The others, Ember would have to guess at in the darkness.

  From this height, she could hear them speaking softly but she couldn’t make out words this time. The girls stopped just to the left of her tree and dropped their bundles to the ground, making a distinct clattering noise, as of wood.

  Ember watched in baffled fascination as the group of girls set out the branches in some sort of shape. It looked vaguely like a circle with a star inside, but she couldn’t be sure. Clouds had moved over the face of the moon, darkening the small clearing at the base of the tree.

  After that, the strange girls lined the shape with pebbles - God knows where from because there wasn’t a beach for miles around here. They were still talking in low voices as they spread some of the grass… No, it looked more like flowers: poppies, maybe? Or violets?

  Then the girls sprinkled some grey - could’ve been white - petals over the bizarre construction they’d laid out on the ground. And, to Ember’s surprise, they set fire to it all. She didn’t see how they did it, it was like the whole thing just spontaneously combusted. The flames licked along the wood and outlined what was indeed a star inside a circle - a pentagram.

  Ember suddenly felt more than just uneasy, but really scared. This was the kind of thing you heard about people doing, cults that did ceremonies and chants, but it was frightening to watch. The girls below joined hands around the circle and began chanting in some foreign tongue. They chanted over and over, getting louder and louder until Ember could clearly hear the words:

  “Nai e Pai da noite,

  imos traer o poder,

  lanzan sobre os demos,

  a maxia de vincular a vontade.”

  The girls chanted it with growing force, almost shouting the words until something incredible happened. Something Ember was sure she’d never forget as long as she lived.

  The fire burning in the shape of the pentagram suddenly flared into a raging inferno, and four tongues of flame shot out, each hitting a girl in the chest, the orange and yellow ribbons dancing and rippling into them. Yet the girls continued chanting, staying at that near-shouting volume, putting the force of their whole beings into the words. The flames writhed on, lifting the girls off the ground.

  Ember was too astonished to gasp, to breathe or scream or twitch, as the girls began floating inches off the ground. She had to be seeing things but between the firelight and the moon, now uncovered from the clouds, there was plenty of light for her to see by. She couldn’t be imagining this, but she had to be.

  And then, abruptly, everything was silent. Or not quite… the girls had stopped chanting, but there was a strange humming in the air, almost inaudible but most definitely there. Ember could feel it vibrating against her like pressure waves blasted from a concert speaker. A gust of wind that felt like it had come straight off a glacier came sweeping down, blowing out the fire in a puff. Tendrils of dark smoke rose from the ashes of the destroyed pentagram. The girls on the ground stood in silence for a long moment and then began muttering to each other, looking from one to another of their group in apparent confusion.

  Again, Ember couldn’t make out words but it sounded like another chant, uttered quickly in anxious tones. From her perching spot, Ember suddenly saw each girl whirl round, putting themselves back to back like they were expecting an ambush. They made strange hand gestures, light pooling in each of their palms like glowing orbs. Ember was beyond the point of shock anymore and simply stared, incapable of coherent thought.

  Out of the shadows, she could see four more people approaching. No wonder the girls looked like they were being ambushed; they were being ambushed.

  The intruders were distinctly male in their shapes and sharp movements, but Ember couldn’t see their faces. Seeing as the lack of fire dimmed the lighting considerably, she could barely even make out their hair colours. Three of them had dark hair, one had lighter hair, but whether it was blond or just light brown she couldn’t be sure of. That one though seemed to be on edge, crouched and ready to spring at the girls.

  One of the guys was speaking in a low voice and Ember could only tell he sounded threatening from the tone. A girl spoke back. Ember guessed it was Croppy, judging by the way she stepped forward and made some crude gestures at the boy. Another boy replied from the far corner, but Croppy didn’t turn to look at him.

  Some distant part of Ember’s mind was going through notions of helping the girls, wondering what these guys wanted from them. But mostly, she was just too stunned and frightened to move or think clearly. She was caught in a daze, sure she was dreaming.

  The group below her was continuing to argue, the girls holding glowing balls of light in their hands, and the guys all dropping into battle stances, coiled to spring at the girls. Suddenly, Croppy threw her light at the first boy to have spoken - Ember assumed he was the leader of the boys’ group - and the boy dodged with incredible speed, almost too fast to track.

  And then there was chaos. The girls threw light and zaps of energy around and the boys dodged and landed blows to the girls with deadly speed and accuracy. Ember had established some time back that she was still dreaming, had never really woken up after her dream about Reid, so it had all stopped surprising her now: the superhuman speed of the boys, the impossibility of the girls and the devastating destruction of the area around them. None of it was real. It was like watching a Harry Potter movie.

  Suddenly, there was a ripple of energy that felt like a shock blast, hitting her in the chest and jarring her bones. It had a much more extreme effect on the girls, who suddenly dropped to the ground like birds shot from the sky, and began writhing in agony. Their shrieks were easy to hear, and hard to listen to as the boys closed in. They secured the screaming, thrashing girls with what looked like minimum effort, holding their wrists behind their backs and forcing them to kneel. One boy produced four lengths of, what seemed to be to Ember, thick rope.

  The boys hog-tied the girls and propped them up against the tree opposite Ember’s. There was more shouting and shrieking and thrashing, but nothing that surprised Ember anymore. Until one dark-haired boy nodded to another and then pounced on one of the girls - Rainbow, Ember thought vaguely. Not that it mattered. The boy was nuzzling at her neck, but the girl was screaming like she was in agony. Brutally, the boy grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head to the side, her hair falling out of the way.

  Then Ember gasped.

  There was dark liquid running down the girl’s neck, spilling onto her pale top. Ember refused to believe what she was seeing - it was just a dream after all - but everything seemed to hit her at once. Her other dreams rushed back to her; Reid warning her about himself, telling her he was dangerous because of what he was, and the way his eyes glinted when he got angry, the way he appeared out of nowhere sometimes. Her dreams linked together and, although it didn’t mean a damn thing in the real world, she at least understood her dreams once again. She finally saw the picture they’d been painting to her.

  Unfortunately, that gasp that had escaped her lips drew the attention of the boys or the three dark-haired ones at least. The fair-haired one

  was gone. Ember looked around desperately, hoping to spot him in the shadows some
where, but all she saw was the darkness retreating into the trees. He’d been there, with his friends, only a moment ago, Ember was sure, but now, he’d vanished.

  This chilled Ember to the core, sending a creeping feeling down her spine. And the way those boys looked up at her suddenly, focusing on her so easily and certainly, with shock and hunger written across their features, was terrifying. Yet, that wasn’t the most horrifying part of this endless dream because she recognised the boys now.

  Brandon. Perry. Ricky.

  Ember felt dizzy and sick, her mind sluggishly working through a haze of fear. Because she knew who the fair-haired, missing boy was and she had a feeling she knew where he was right now.

  She stayed frozen, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall to the earth below. Her heart hammered in her chest and she had the quick, sure impression that she wasn’t dreaming. Impossible as it seemed, she suddenly knew this wasn’t a dream. It was a living nightmare.

  And she knew she was right about where the fair-haired boy had gone when she heard the whisper of breathing behind her. There was a thick, sturdy branch right behind her and she knew it; she’d used it to climb higher in the tree that same day. Or rather, the previous day, since it is after midnight, her mind corrected stupidly. Ember could feel every cell in her body pulsing and bleeding fear. It felt like ice water was being poured into her veins and there was an invisible hand crushing her heart and lungs.

  The girls were looking up at her now, their expressions in the moonlight were almost sympathetic, but Ember could see them shifting and whispering to each other. Trying to find a way to escape while the boys were distracted, she guessed. Whether this was a dream, a nightmare or reality, Ember had to keep the boys distracted and give those girls a chance to get free. She didn’t know what the girls had done to piss off the four most popular boys at Acorn Hills, but she was sure it wasn’t worth them getting their heads ripped off.

  “Reid. I know it’s you behind me so stop trying to be sly.” Ember put as much belligerence in her voice as possible, summoning up every ounce of bravery she had. That wasn’t much though, and her voice shook.

  “What are you doing here Ember? You shouldn’t be here!” That voice, Reid’s voice, was sharp and cold, almost a hiss.

  “I came to find you,” she replied instantly, the words spilling out before she thought them through. There was a silence for six heartbeats. Seven. Eight. She waited, every muscle tense, listening to the whistle of the wind through the whipping treetops and the uneven breathing of the boy behind her.

  “What do you mean you came to find me?” Reid asked harshly, suddenly appearing on the branch in front of her. The branch he perched on was lower than hers, forcing him to look up at her. In the light, she could see him clearly. His expression was dark and icy, but his eyes glinted dangerously like fire reflecting off a sword, and he had, honest-to-goodness, fangs. Real, long, delicate fangs, biting into his soft lower lip.

  If she hadn’t been so terrified, if she hadn’t been so sure this was all real, and if Reid hadn’t been looking at her like she was the thing he most loathed in the world, she would’ve said the fangs were sexy. After all, she had a sort of obsession with vampires. But right now, the fangs just terrified her more.

  “What do you mean you came to find me?” Reid spat viciously, speaking as though she was mentally impaired. That condescending tone sparked irritation in her, and she glowered down at him.

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid. You’re the one who was giving me cryptic little clues! You told me to come here!” She was aware of how insane it sounded, Reid’s expression showing clearly that he thought she was utterly nuts. Ember wanted to hit him, and she would’ve if she hadn’t been so scared of him.

  “I haven’t spoken to you since you told me you were tired of me on Monday! What the hell are you talking about?” he roared back, bitterness underscoring his words. Ember was feeling less frightened and more irritated by the second. How dare he sound so hurt? How dare he look so angry with her when he was the one who’d forgotten to mention that he was a freaking blood-sucking, mythical creature of the night?

  “In my damned dreams, you were telling me you were dangerous and you could hurt me! And there were flashes of you like this.” She waved a hand in front of his face. “Except without the fangs. And then, in my dream tonight you were saying I had to find you. As if I would want to! As if I didn’t get enough of you during the day, you just had to pop up in my goddamned dreams!” Ember slammed her fists into her knees, hard enough to bruise, growling. She didn’t care that she sounded insane, she didn’t care that none of this made sense and that, if this was indeed reality and she honestly wasn’t still dreaming, it changed everything she’d ever believed was real. She just wanted to figure out what the hell was going on between her and the blond boy currently staring at her with a mix of hatred and shock.

  “Damn it! This is why I hate dealing with guys!” she spat at nobody in particular, thumping the tree trunk with the side of her fist so hard it hurt. Reid just continued to stare at her with a half-cold, half-shocked expression.

  Ember glanced down to find that everyone else had vanished, and there were drag marks in the dirt. The boys must’ve dragged the girls off before they could escape. So much for me helping to save the girls, Ember thought bitterly, tiredly. Her head was aching.

  “You hate dealing with guys because you expect them to, what, turn out to be supernatural monsters?” Reid asked scathingly. Ember just glared at him, curling her fingers into her palms until her nails dug into her skin.

  “Shut up. Just shut up, Reid,” Ember replied, biting off the words.

  “No. I don’t think I will. I think I have a right to know what you think you’re doing out here,” Reid replied savagely, gritting his teeth. The wind blew his fair hair around his pale face, and for the first time, Ember noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and the faint lines of his veins at his temples.

  “No, you don’t. And anyway, I already told you! My dream told me to come out here, so I did.” She paused, hissed through her teeth, and squeezed her eyes closed. “If, if you’d just freaking left me alone in the first place, neither of us would in this position and you wouldn’t be hurting and I wouldn’t be going insane and…” Ember had no idea what she was saying, but it seemed that whether or not they were in the real world, she was speaking uncontrollably like she did in dreams. She huffed, her breath making a white cloud in the freezing air.

  Reid looked taken aback, and she could swear he even blushed. Between the blush and the fangs, he looked a hundred and ten per cent sexier than ever. Furiously, Ember pretended she didn’t notice, told herself she didn’t care how sexy he was.

  “Uh… who told you… who said I was hurting?” Reid said it as if it were not only an impossible, but also a ridiculous, idea. Only, his voice came out a little choked.

  Ember sighed. “Ricky and Sherry. I got a whole lecture for being a bitch to you, and then Ricky came and started telling me how much you apparently like me. Oh, and he said I should tell you how I really feel, as if that would help anything,” Ember scoffed. She shook her head, tipped her head back to look up at the sky. She couldn’t believe she was having this discussion, couldn’t believe she was telling him this. But, she supposed, it was a lot less senseless than the idea of Reid being, you know, a vampire. Because, really, that’s what he looked like right now. That’s what her instincts were screaming at her, along with the word RUN!

  She guessed that it didn’t matter what she said anymore, because this whole thing was just too insane and she was going to get locked up in an asylum the minute she climbed out of this tree. She’d always known she would snap one day, but she hadn’t expected it to be like this. So, this is my new reality, Ember thought to herself, Welcome to Crazyville.

  “… and?” Reid gazed at her with deep, almost pleading blue eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness.

  “And what?” she snapped, folding her arms and si
ghing.

  “And… are you going to? Tell me how you really feel, I mean?” He looked uncomfortable and dropped his gaze, still perching on his branch like an owl. For a second, Ember thought she’d misheard him. There was no way he was asking that… but he was. Astounded, Ember stared at him.

  “I wasn’t going to. At first, I didn’t think it would help you any because I was fairly sure I hated you. Or at least, disliked you intensely. Then I got to thinking, and…” She paused, shook her head. “But considering all of this,” She made a wide gesture to indicate the whole chaotic situation she’d just witnessed. “I have no freaking idea if I’m even sane anymore. In fact, I’m not sure I’m even really awake.”

  Reid’s eyes narrowed. “You’re awake. Trust me,” he said quietly.

  Ember rolled her eyes. “Why the hell would I trust you? If I’m not insane, and I’m not dreaming, then you’re really a vampire, right? I don’t trust anyone who might want to, you know, eat me.” She arched a brow, folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. Reid’s lips curled in a faint smile, a spark of amusement lighting his face. But it faded quickly, and he looked entirely too serious again.

  “I’m not going to eat you. I won’t hurt you, Ember,” he said softly, his expression willing her to believe him. The thing was, she didn’t need him to tell her that; somehow, she already knew it.

  “I know,” Ember replied gently. “Plus, if you tried, I’d just stake you,” she smirked.

  Reid didn’t answer right away, so she decided she was tired of sitting in this tree. She slipped down to hang onto the branch by her hands, swinging slightly. As she was dropping onto the next branch down, though, Reid caught her wrist and pulled her back up with one hand.

  “Hey! I’m trying to get down from here!” she protested. He frowned at her, a crease forming between his brows.

  “How can you be so casual about…?” He didn’t have to say it so Ember did, watching him flinch at her choice of words.