It’s Not Real
I dreamed of him again. The boy with the golden eyes. He was standing over me smiling, offering me his hand and without a moment of hesitation I reach out for him. Walking hand and hand to where the water meets the shore. I can feel the cold wind brushing against me, the water rushes over my feet and I feel scared. what is going on, where are we going, and why am I following this boy, this boy I don’t know but trust with every fiber of my being? The sun is high in the sky and it should hurt my eyes but it doesn’t. He smiles at me and walks into the ocean never letting go. I cannot take my eyes off him, he has me captivated. Suddenly a wave rushes over my body and we are now standing face to face with each other, his eyes burning into mine. He kisses my hand; his lips are soft and wet and I fell this urge to wrap my arms around him and hold him close to me, but I hold my ground, his breath is hot and burns my skin. He gently lays my hand down against my sides, stepping back away from me, further and further away I feel this great need for him, I don’t want him to go, I want him to stay with me, stay with me always. I try to reach for him but my arms refuse to work and I feel paralyzed my body feels as if it is made of stone. He goes further into the rolling waves, ever peaceful, smiling at me, like everything is fine, do not worry I am right here. A wave comes over him and I feel sick to my stomach, I want to shout for him to Stop, that this isn’t what I want but like my arms my voice is lost in the wind. He turns his head away looking behind him and then back at me. “I love you.” he says then another wave comes and he is gone and I am alone. Standing in this dark abyss, his face burned in to my mind, it is silent, the light is gone and I am in darkness. My mouth fills up with water and it awakens me, the roof of the cavern looks like a wall of precious gems from the light reflecting off the pool. Another rush of water engulfs me and fills my mouth with salt water.
“Damn it”
I briskly sit up, spitting water out, splashing it everywhere. I had fallen asleep in the cave off of Cobble Beach just below our house. Swiftly I get to my feet, dripping wet, the breeze whisking in from outside smelling of seaweed and rosemary. The morning tide again comes rushing in knocking me back. It is still a bit dark outside but I see a hint of light coming up. I sprint out the entrance, looking around just to be sure no one is there then down the beach and up and over across our lawn till I am standing below my bedroom window on the second floor. To the left of me I can see the lights on in Harlan’s kitchen, but no movement, doesn’t surprise me that he is already up. I take a moment to listen to my surroundings, No one around, good but everyone will be getting up soon. I leap up on to the window seal of my bedroom pulling myself inside the slightly opened window.
I fell asleep again, I thought to myself as I removed my wet clothes and threw them into the basket next to the door of my bathroom, grabbing a white dress dangling next to my closet, tripping over the journals flung across my floor. Katherine must have laid this out for me last night, I bet she was not happy about the state of my bedroom. She had mentioned a few hundred times about the condition of my room. I pull the dress on over my head and zipped it up. It clings to me and doesn’t exactly stand out against my pale skin, looking in the mirror I realize I look like one of those mannequins you see in one of the high-end department stores. It is also strapless I notice and I will need something to go over it. I rifle through my closet pulling out a shirt, white, long sleeve with hole cut out in the ends for my thumbs and a hood. It will do nicely. I pull it on, covering my head with the hood, that will cover my hair till it dries. I pick up some of the books and papers and toss them on my bed. That’s a little better at least you can see what color the floor is. I have a few minutes so I decide to lay back down, not because I am tired, but it will make my bed looked slept in, better to be safe than sorry. Rolling around a bit and smashing my pillows, that looks pretty good. I can hear movement below me and the sound of Emery’s voice, The sound of Liam’s Stereo across the hallway, Margret shuffling around upstairs and the mundane ticking of the clock on the wall. This is one of those moments that I wish my hearing wasn’t ridiculously good. the mixtures of sounds can sometimes grate on the nerves. I lay there for a while watching the light through my window dancing on the ceiling like fireflies.
Why had I dreamed of him? Who was he? And why did he mean so very much to me? No one meant as much to me as my family did. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liam crossing in front of his bedroom door. Liam was my twin a rarity among our kind. Though just being born was a rarity. Not many of our kind could give birth, with the whole never aging so never changing thing, but here we were. Liam and I were special most of us don’t survive. If we don’t die right after birth along with our mother then we were killed out of fear. We were identical in all but a few ways both tall and slender with dark brown hair, except for a band of blonde that ran down the side of our heads, Liam’s on the right and mine on the left. If we stood next to each other it matched up perfectly. The girls in town found him quite handsome and I heard a few say how he smelled like jasmine. It always made me laugh. I never smelled that and I have a perfect nose. Better than any human’s. In another life, He was once a very accomplice Cellist and I a ballerina. Those days are long gone since we’ve moved to the Americas, we can only practice within the confines of our home now. Our father worries that someone might take unwanted notice of us or worse recognize us and become suspicious. Though I don’t know how anyone here on this little island would ever know who we once where, but we respected his wishes he had kept us safe for over a century, there is no reason to question him now.
When we moved here two years ago we were outsiders but the town has since excepted us and they allow us to keep to ourselves for the most part. We have learned to blend in and have even made a few friends. They do still think of us as outsiders but that’s for the best, since we won’t stay here forever. After a while someone will be begin to notice our obvious differences, like the fact that we never grow old. By the time that happens though we will be long gone, thankfully that hasn’t happened yet, I do sort of like it here so far. I will miss it one of these days. Below my window I hear Harlan whistling one of his silly little tunes while he does his daily rounds around the property. Harlan Alexeev is our caretaker, and the only human to know what we truly are. His family has worked for us for longer than I can remember which is quite long since I am over a hundred years old. He can trace his lineage all the way back to when we were still in Russia. He was more than just our caretaker he was like family and we trusted him with our life.
I heard him mumble something about footprints in the wet grass, the man had a good eye. He was in his early forties and still had not produced an heir to pass on our care to. Though there were a few women here in town that I think wouldn’t mind. He would have to do it soon, most of the males within his family had long had an heir and were grooming him to take on his duties. I had heard my father and he speak of it from time to time over the years, Harlan seem to focus more on us and not taken time to ensure his own bloodline. I heard him start to walk away, I hope he doesn’t say anything to Michael, I have already been lectured several times about staying down there.
I could hear it plain as day in my head, my father’s voice, “What if someone saw you.” he would say.
“your actions don’t just affect you, they affect all of us. What you do puts all of us in danger.” I knew he was right, but it was never intentional, I just found solace there.
A place of my own where I could think. Besides I wasn’t the reckless one in the family that title was left to my oldest brother, Emery. We have had to move a dozen times because I him, being a bit of a hot head. I have never exposed us I could say that.
I roll over on to my side, knocking one of my journals off the bed. “You’re not sleeping.” I hear inside my head and realize I didn’t hear the book hit the floor.
when I open my eyes I see my brother Liam standing at the end of my bed holding it in his hands. “I wasn’t and don’t stare at me.” I answer back.
Liam and I had the ability to talk to each other with our minds, we could only do it with each other but it came in handy when we didn’t want to be heard. Though we did do it often. We preferred it to talking a loud. Liam grins at me “I am not staring at you, I only came to see if you had made it back”, he says as he glides down onto my bed, sliding my journals over so gently, like they were pieces of glass. “I don’t know what you mean by that.” Closing my eyes again. I feel his hand on the top of my head as he pushes my hood back to reveal my wet hair. “I thought so, the cave again huh.”
I shake my head lightly and sit up, climbing off my bed and crossing my room to the bathroom. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, it was an accident.” That was a flat out lie and he knew it, we don’t just fall asleep, we don’t really need sleep but we can chose to sleep if we wish, it did have sort of the same effect for us as other creatures allowing our body to recuperate and recharge so to speak... I quickly ran a brush through my hair and watched Liam get up and cross the room straight out of my bedroom, stopping at my doorway.
“Well I won’t tell father but you better have your hair dry before you come downstairs.”
Before I could say anything else he was gone. I took his advice and waited a bit before going down to join the others. I decided to get my stuff together, luckily my hair will dry quickly. I sort through my journals on the floor beside my bed and found my newest one and stuffed it in my bag along with my science book and Calculus book I had brought home, so not to rouse suspension. Mr. Granger and Mrs. Roberts had given the class a lot of homework. I had already done them of coarse but I couldn’t turn it in the same day and if I hadn’t brought them home someone might of noticed, the same reason I carry a backpack. Everyone carries a pack I couldn’t be different. I also sorted through my CDs on the self, an
outdated practice by today’s standards along with my portable CD player, with smartphones and such, people didn’t really use these things now days and don’t get me wrong I had a smartphone myself like all the other kids, but I still liked the practice myself and a little bit of uniqueness was not a bad thing, many people looked at me funny at first but now it had become who I was, “Old School” my friends would say. I noticed as I rifled through them that they were running off onto the floor, I would need to get Emery to build me a bigger shelf, I quickly grabbed what I needed and stuffed them in my bag. I took a moment and returned to the bathroom and pulled my hood back over my hair, it wasn’t completely dry but it was good enough for now and the hood would disguise the rest. I searched the desk and found my sunglasses, it was supposed to be sunny today and I would need them. Of all the stories throughout history told about our kind, they get many things wrong, like that a stake will kills us. My brother Emery says it hurts like hell but it won’t kill us. He would know he has been staked several time is his hundred and twenty years. We don’t heal quickly from a stake wound though it does make us weak. We won’t burst into flames if you touch us with a cross or holy water, though holy water does stink to us, smells funny, like raw sewage. We can enter a church, they really have no power over us and we don’t have to be invited to enter a private residence. The biggest is that we can’t be in sunlight. We can of course, not for very long, too long in direct sunlight and we will get very ill, and our eyes are sensitive to it, but sunscreen and sunglasses take care of those problems. I stuff the glasses in the front pocket of my backpack and double check for my sunscreen, I think that’s everything. I can hear Emery and Katherine trying to whisper as I go down the staircase, and as I walk down the hallway towards the kitchen the whispering stops.
“They Know.”
I heard as I came around the corner, Liam sat perched on the counter to the right of me twirling a first addition of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
“I thought so by the whispering.”
I tell him, which makes him laugh under his breath, Emery’s head pops up from the book he was pretending to read. Emery was the brute of the family. Always down for a fight, he was an excellent sword fighter when he was very young. Still likes a bit of fencing now and again. He was much bigger then Liam and I with brood shoulders and a wide frame. His hair was longer, just below his ears and Jet black, he looked very old world like Michael. He smiled at me like the cat that ate the Carney which should have given pause for concern but I knew he would never rat his own sister out to Michael. There were far too many things I knew about Emery for him ever to betray me to our father. Katherine stood behind him and did not look my direction but instead stood facing the windows staring out towards the coast. She was holding her coffee cup rather tightly I was concerned she might just break it into tiny pieces. She looked quite fragile but she had the strength of a bear. She was exactly the same height as Emery, also with jet black hair that was cut very short and spiked out the back. Her neck was very long and thin, she was once a ballerina herself, that’s how they met. She was in Swan Lake and Emery took one look at her on that stage and knew he had to possess her. Of course he didn’t turn her against her well. She loved him as well and was willing. She looked to be much older than me but really she was thirty years younger. She was very thin and looked like the picture of perfection standing there in the window. She was very elegant looking always, very put together, wearing a pale gray camisole and a matching shin-length skirt, I noticed she looked taller than usual, all thanks to those black stilettos heels she was wearing.
I threw my bag on to the counter next to Emery, which blew the pages of his book everywhere. Katherine still never turned to look at me, was she mad at me, and was it about, my room or the cave I never knew. She was good to me but she had a tendency to be very moody at times and a bit self-involved.
“Good Morning Katherine.”
She looked over her shoulder but didn’t turn around, “Morning Elisabeth, do you like the dress?” the irritation in her face was apparent but she did look a little please to see me in the dress she had set out for me.
“It perfect thank you.” I said with a smile, I think the worse is over.
I grab my wrist and realize I had forgotten my favorite bracelet upstairs on my dresser. Damn it. Liam looked at me to my wrist and understood. Holding the strap of old black leather with a cello string woven in to it up off his neck, Our father had, had them made for us when we came to America. I shot him a sarcastic smile and ran back upstairs.
As I entered I was thankful I had to come back, I had forgotten to close the window. That would have given everything away, though I am not sure what difference it will make now apparently everyone knows. As I reached the bottom of the staircase again with my bracelet in toe, intertwined in my fingers, a ballet slipper charm dangling beneath, I heard footsteps behind me, and as I stopped so did they, I turned around to see Margaret, my mother standing in the middle of the staircase with a look of suspension on her face. She looked quite beautiful standing there perfectly still, like a fallen angel, her long black hair hanging over one shoulder, her dress clinging to every curve, a bit too long so you couldn’t see her feet. Her eyes a vibrant shade of Amber. She was hungry, but that was not anything new she was always hungry. That was part of the reason that she never left the house. Half the island thought she was a recluse and the other half assumed she was very ill and could not come out of the house for her health. Harlan and the local sheriff were the only other people besides us to ever see her. It was better that way, she didn’t have the ability to control herself around them like the rest of us did. So, it was perfectly fine if they thought she was ill it kept them away. It didn’t keep them from asking about her. At least once a day one of us got asked how she was, if she needed anything? Could they do anything? We always answered with she is well, and no thank you but you’re very kind. It seemed to satisfy them. They could feel like they were being good neighbors. The butcher’s wife in town used to send chicken soup home with Harlan every day, now it’s only once a week. Maybe she figured out our mother wasn’t eating it.
She didn’t say anything to me, didn’t even looked at me as she continue down the stairs only caressed my face and smiling as she went by. It was warm and very smooth like marble, to most people it would have been ice cold. For a moment I lost my train of thought and tripped over the vase sitting to the left of the stairs. I caught it with a movement of my hand before it hit the floor, that was a close one Michael liked that vase. It was his favorite. I continue down the hallway behind my mother, who seem to glide, not walk into the kitchen.
Liam was sitting in the chair in front of my bag on the kitchen table now, holding his watch above his head and flipping through his book, he was trying to tell me we will be late.
Harlan was standing outside the door talking to my father Michael, about fixing the dock. It seemed that something, he didn’t know what had knocked it lose from the shore and it had taken him four hours to catch it and bring it back and another two to catch our sailboat.
“Michael, something would have to be really big and extremely strong to rip that away from the shore, I only know of one thing” Michael held his hand up and Harlan immediately stop talking.
“I know Harlan your right. Something would have to hit that very hard.”
he patted him on the back lightly “See what you can do my friend, anything you need, you know that and we will discuss this a bit later.”
“Yes Sir, will do.” Harlan responded as he walked off the porch, Michael shutting the door behind him.
When he turned around he hadn’t changed his expression. “He looks worried” I said to Liam. "I know, I know." He didn’t smile this time but only looked from Michael to Emery and back at his book.
I tucked my hair into my hood and walked over to Liam who was still pretending to read and leaned my chest against his back. He had read that book a hundred time, he knew it by heart and there wasn’t anyone here we had to pretend for. When you live for eternity like we do you have nothing but time and we fill our time with education and lots of it. What else would we do? Emery and Katherine couldn’t pass for anything younger then maybe twenty so they never attended school with us. Emery was taking college classes right now, I think he was getting his Doctorate in world affairs this time. He and Katherine were thinking about going back to Europe for a bit, we had a few blood banks all over the world along with other businesses and a few regular banks. It came in handy, a human bank would begin to notice that our accounts last forever and we never die. Having our own finance intuition made it easier.
Emery patted me on the back, walking across the room to the dining table taking a seat beside Katherine who was now sitting down instead of standing in the window like a statute. I laid there for a bit longer listening to Liam read, Emery and Katherine discussing their plans for the day and what car they would take. I had to laugh a little when Liam called to me, “not my car, that’s not happening.”
Emery peered over his shoulder at us. “You know after a hundred years the twin mind talking gets a little annoying.” Which made us both laugh, this time out loud for Emery’s benefit. I could hear Michael pacing in the hallway, he and Margaret were discussing something, their tone was too low for even me to hear which I think was the point. His steps were heavy which usually meant something bad. Michael was rather a tall man, with a large stature, I listen to him as he walked back into the kitchen, brushing his dark brown hair back away from his face showing how ruggedly handsome he was. His eyes a vibrant shade of jade. He had recently feed. Liam, Emery, and Katherine’s were the same. My eyes were different from everyone else, the one thing that really set me apart from even my family. Only one of my eyes were that vibrant shade of jade, the other was a constant shade of amber. Amber was usually a sign of hunger but mine never changed, no matter how much I fed it stayed exactly the same. It made me unique I thought. I didn’t mind it so much.
“I love you”
The voice made me jump because it wasn’t Liam’s, but I knew it, of course I knew it I had been hearing that same voice for a week now. It was the boy with the golden eyes.
My jump must have been bigger then I realized because Liam quickly turned around in his chair and grabbed my arm, the look on his face was one of concern and a little confusion.
“Did you sense something?”
this time it wasn’t in my head and before I could respond Emery and Michael were standing on each side of me, with the same look as Liam. Emery laid his thick, gruff hand on my shoulder and shook me a little bit, I shot an annoyed look to Liam, who clearly didn’t notice or didn’t care because he was still squeezing my arm. I could see Margaret and Katherine standing side by side on the other side of the island directly behind him. They looked as if I was about to give some huge revelation or something.
“No” shaking my Head, “No I am fine” I looked from Emery to Michael and back at Liam. “I didn’t sense anything, I promise” I mustard a smile. I felt as if my hands were sweating though I knew that was entirely impossible. Emery squeezed my shoulder, “yeah that sounded very convincing.”
I tilted my head away from him and with my best sincere face said “if I had I would have said something.”
Emery seemed to be satisfied with that answer because he pouted his lips and let me go. Then I realized I had made myself a new problem, I had tilted my head towards my father, who was standing directly on the other of me. I knew it was the beginning of the end.
“Why do you smell like saltwater Elisabeth Anya Ivanov?” he said without letting me go. I did not have to look at his face to know what it was, the tapping of his fingers on the counter, the pressure on my arm and the look of everyone else’s face as they slyly walked away was enough to tell me I was in trouble and that his eyes were a very dark shade of Amber. I bit my bottom lip and tried to explain quickly, “I go down there to think, I wasn’t planning on”
He suddenly held his hand up and I felt like Harlan, I knew what it meant, but at least he let me go.
“I have told you, you are NOT to be outside at first light.” his face stern, “I have asked you a hundred times to not stay down there, what if” I quickly tried to argue but it was no good.
“No but Elisabeth, what if a fishing boat would have seen you.”
He slowly stepped forward towards me, I slowly stepped back and positioned myself behind Liam, who had earlier moved out of our father’s way. “No one saw me, I checked before I left the cave there was no one out in the water, and I looked around before I climbed back in my window, I was in faster than a human could blink.” That last part I knew when I said it, it was completely the wrong thing to say. My window was on the second floor. This did not make him any happier but after a moment his eyes returned to their calmer shade of Jade and I figured it was safe to come out from behind my brother. He still looked a little unhappy but I decided to risk it and threw my arms around him. He couldn’t resist the charms of his daughter.
“I will try and not let it happen again.”
“Your action affect all of us Elisabeth, remember that.” I heard Katherine say behind me. Michael looked over my shoulder and then back at me. “She is right Elisabeth, and I notice there wasn’t a bit of, it won’t ever happen again, in there.” he said with a slight grimace. I gave him my best smile, for a moment he did not say anything then suddenly he held my face in his hands and kissed my forehead. “You better be off to school.” he said with a smile, “both of you.” looking over me to Liam, who was tapping his watch. I had put it off long enough, I kissed Michael’s cheek and turn to grab my bag, which Liam was already holding in his hand. I took it and my sunglasses and walked out of the kitchen and down the hall to the garage with Liam right behind me on my heels. Each of us grabbing an umbrella on our way out into the garage, better to be safe than sorry.
I stared out the window of Liam’s Audi R8 and pretended to watch the trees go by. Watching trees was not that fun. I wanted to talk to Liam about my dream, but I was trying to figure out how to start the conversation. Liam was the only one I could truly talk to. Any of the other might read too much in to it, but it wasn’t like I wasn‘t, I was the one that could not get it off my mind. It was all I could think about. I fidgeted with my fingers in my lap a bit and then mustard up the strength to clear my throat, never taking my eyes off the passenger side window. I could see his reflection in the glass as he turned to look at me.
“What is it Lizzy, do you have something you want to say?” He said, with little sarcasm, I was impressed.
“I had that dream again, the same boy, the same beach.”
I bit my bottom lip as I said it like I was ashamed I had a dream, why should I be ashamed of a dream. It’s only a dream. Though we weren’t supposed to dream which is why I only shared this information with Liam and none of the others. He seemed to know what I was thinking “you can’t help what you dream Lizzy, you have no control over that.” He said with a slight smile. I rolled the window down, I liked the smell of the trees here, they smelled new.
"I know him Liam." I said with some concern in my own voice. His head sharply turned towards me, his eyes looked more surprised than worried. "You know who he is?"
"No", shaking my head in disagreement, "in my dream I know him. I can’t explain it exactly." I was trying to figure out how to say it without coming out completely and utterly crazy. “I think I love him Liam, at least in my dream I do. I am scared, scared of losing him.” He doesn’t say another word for what seems like forever and then he takes my hand in his and squeezes it. “It is only a dream Elisabeth, nothing more.”
He tries to smile but it doesn’t come out quite right, I can see he is worried. “Could it be a Premonition?” I say trying to make more sense of it.
“You don’t have Premonitions.” He says quickly and kisses my hand, “it’s nothing I promise.” Nothing, right, I hope so I think to myself. Nothing at all.
As we approach Vinalhaven High School I could see two young women standing by the entrance to the parking lot waving our direction it was Amelie Kale and Julia Danvers, for all intent and purposes considered two of my best friends. I gave them a wave back, trying to look as excited as possible, that’s what teenage girls do, I thought, wave crazily to their girlfriends. They also act excruciatingly stupid around boys of there or around about their own age. I had not figured out how to subject myself to that just yet. Which was just fine since why in the world would I ever want a human boy? They should be thankful I don’t want them. Suddenly out of the mirror I see them following behind the car as Liam pulls into the parking lot.
Every eye scans the car as we go. We had the nicest cars in town, maybe to nice but that was a luxury that my father and brothers would not considered giving up. Michael worries about my actions, but Liam and Emery driving overpriced cars stands out a bit more than my cave sleeping. "Here they come", I hear Liam says as Julia knocks on my window. “If she breaks my window I will eat her." He smiles looking up at Julia peering through the window.
“Get out of the car Girl.” She says with an annoyed smile.
I look over at Liam who is grinning from ear to ear and gave him a nasty look, “Liam Ivanov, you can’t eat her, and it’s not even funny.”
Liam looks down, letting out a light laugh just as I open the passenger side door and step out. Julia lightly hugs me as I barely get the door shut, then preceded to the other side of the car towards her true intent, my brother. Julia had a thing for Liam since we first moved here and never wasted a moment to share with me and anyone else who would listen about how beautiful and perfect he was and how she loved him with all her being. She was an average girl really, with curly brown hair that she wore back most of the time, a petite frame, quite tan and very busty. My other best friend Amelie was a little more subdued more like me. It made me more relax. She was quite genuine and I always enjoyed her company. I had found that making friends made it easier to blend in and people were less suspicious of us. Of course they never came to our home that was a safe haven for us. It was easy to explain why they couldn’t, with a crazy sick mother. No one really ever pushed the issue.
“Hi Liam” I heard Julia say, and as I turn to look, it was almost like she was about to start jumping up and down. Why do girls react to him like that? Liam being his polite self, was always nice to my friends, he was nice to everyone for the most part, though he did make some mean remarks about them. He tolerated them and agreed that it wasn’t at all terrible to have some friends. I had to laugh a little bit to myself. He was doing his cool guy stance. I think he worked on it, he was leaning against his car with his arms folded on top of the roof. He gave her his best toothless smile, he was getting good at it. I had to be impressed.
“Julia, nice to see you.” he said, giving her a nod and turning back to look at me, rolling his eyes only slightly.
Liam knew what Julia thought about him, he could hear her plain as day whenever she thought she was whispering to me or Amelie. How embarrassed would she be to know the truth? She should count herself lucky that my brother doesn’t want her since he has threaten to eat her on a few occasions, Amelie on the other hand, I had caught him staring at more than once a day. Was he tempted by her, or was she the Katherine to his Emery? This thought intrigued me. Why had I never thought of it before, it is quite obvious. Amelie, yes, she would be lovely, tall like us, thin a bit on the paler side for a human, long blonde hair and very dark emerald green eyes, I did have to admit she is quite beautiful in her way and I do like her very much. This thought invaded my mind and I didn’t hear Amelie asked me about Friday’s homework, I felt a shake and realized Amelie was staring at me.
“Where did you go?”
What? Nowhere sorry.” I said, sounding sincere, I was sorry I wasn’t listening. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liam come around to our side with Julia in toe, holding three backpacks, she must have convinced him to carry hers or maybe he offered. He stood beside Amelie who was not paying attention to him, and was more engrossed in talking about the Calculus assignment with me. He stood there watching her for a minute, he did like her I realized, finally clearing his throat making Amelie nearly jump out of her skin and on to his car. She whipped her head towards him, holding her hand against her chest. Her heartbeat was strong, very strong. A feeling of need came over me for a moment and then it was gone. What was that? I had never felt that before, I caught myself staring through her hand at her chest. I shook my head and focused on her face, which looked nervous, she gave Liam a sour face, and I thought she might scold him,
“Tell someone when you are standing right next to them.”
His smile became bigger and I thought he was going to laugh, “I did, just now.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit but the right corner of her mouth came up in to a smile.
“How about a, hey Amelie next time.” she said
This time he did laugh and their eyes stayed locked together, I was starting to feel nausea. I had to stop this insanity before it got to out of control.
“We will be late for class.” good one, I thought to myself, it was good to because it got a nod out of everyone, Liam put his hand out to take Amelie’s book bag, which she graciously handed to him and then intertwined her arm with mine pulling me towards the center of the parking lot, Liam stepped in behind us with everything in toe. Julia continue to chat as we walked down the parking lot to the stairs leading into the front of the school. With all her yammering I couldn’t think which maybe was a good thing. Then something came to me, something I had completely forgotten about and should not of, what friend forgets the death of another friend’s family member. Amelie’s Aunt Leah, was a colorful sort quite eccentric, she owned a local Herbalist shop here in town and some people referred to her as a witch, Amelie said her Aunt used to get a good laugh at how foolish people could be, and she didn’t really seem to mind it too much because it did help her business.
Michael had said there was no signs that she was a witch, but was just very good at natural remedies and someone who was one with nature. She had passed away, a terrible deal. She came up missing from her garden a week ago and was found only a few days later in the woods near the preservation, she looked to have been mangled by a wild animal. Very strange, I remember Michael saying that it didn’t make any sense, there are no animals of that size on this island, if there was we would have seen them by now. Poor Amelie had been left alone again, first her parents died, then her brother left and now her poor Aunt. Michael had said we would attend the funeral, it being a small town and her being my best friend it would not look right if we didn’t attend and it may cause us added grief, both things were not desirable. I was happy to go, not because of us and our security but I did genuinely care for her. I had also realized I hadn’t asked how she was doing today.
" Liam" I called in my head.
Yes, I head back. It was as clear as if we had said it aloud. Man, this gift came in very handy. We cannot forget that Amelie’s Aunt passed away. I said as I looked over my shoulder at Liam, who was now staring at the back of Amelie’s head, with a look I had never seen before? I think he cared about how she felt. I saw him narrow his eyes a bit, “How are you doing Amelie, I was sorry to hear about your aunt.”
I turned to look at Amelie, her eyes widen and began to look a little glossy. Her bottom lip shivered a little bit, she was still arm and arm with me but her pace was slightly slower, so I felt as if I was dragging her a little bit. Her eyes stayed focused on the ground, as if she was afraid to look up in case she missed something in her view and tripped. Finally, she spoke softly and with a bit of sorrow, “Thank you very much Liam that is very kind of you to say.”
“Are you holding up okay.” he said with a little bit of resistance.
Still watching the ground she sighed lightly, “As much as can be expected, she was much older.” Finally looking up at me with a smile, a very fake smile “It was bound to happen sooner or later.” This was the moment I should step in, I had seen it coming.
“Anything we can do, don’t be afraid to ask we are here for you.” I said without a moment of hesitation, I was impressed.
“Well an upside to all of this is, my brother is coming back.” she said with a smile. And I could tell she was trying to change the subject, which was fine by me. “Your brother? Is he coming back for the funeral or to stay as well?” I said, smiling back at her.
“When will he get here Ames?” I heard Julia say over my shoulder. I was glad to hear her join the conversation she was good at filling the holes. I didn’t have to talk as much if I was with Julia.
“Oh, I think Tomorrow actually and the funeral is the day after that, and both, he is doing both. I have to finish school, he knows that.” she said, her mouth falling open as if she had just remembered she forgot something. I could smell her breath, it was sweet like fresh cut apples and suddenly that feeling of need came back, it remained a little longer this time, was it the smell of her that was doing this, but that didn’t make any since I was always this close to her and it never bothered me before. I couldn’t deny that I could smell her blood and that it smell good to me, it did of course, everyone’s did, but it was always easy to push out of my mind, we had gotten very good at controlling it. Liam and I were lucky we had never lost our will, never taken a human’s life. Liam had said he had come close before, had the urge but he could repress it, he was stronger than it was. I had never had such an urge, well I didn’t think I had. I took a very big gulp and it was gone, I felt normal again, like myself. Julia tapped me with a smile. “He left way before you guys got here, so you don’t know him but Mason Kale is trouble, sexy sexy trouble.”
I raised my eyebrows in attempt to fane interest, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Amelie roll her eyes. “you don’t know him either really, you were eleven like me when my brother left, how do you know he was trouble or sexy?” she asked with some irritation in her voice.
“My oldest sister told me, she used to talk about him all the time when she was in high school.” Julia said with a shrug, the fact that Amelie sounded annoyed didn’t even phase her, I wasn’t even sure she had even noticed.
when we finally got to the top of the stairs we went our separate way, Amelie, Liam and I to Chem lab and Julia to Drama.