The Willows

by Krystal McLaughlin

  Sevren grinned for a second before turning serious. "Well from the looks of it, I am saving your cute little ass, honey."

  I frowned. "Don't call me that, I don't even know you."

  He laughed. "You are very feisty. Is that why you stood up my brother?"

  I pushed at his chest again, desperate to get down from his embrace. I was feeling uncomfortable physically because of the force of his arms, and emotionally because of the eerily familiar way his eyes were penetrating me. It felt like an invasion.

  "Your brother?" He raised his brows. Then I remembered that Remy had told me that they were brothers that night, "oh, yeah. Well I didn't mean to, something just came up."

  He sighed, "well that is not acceptable."

  He said it almost like he was teasing me, but still, something in his voice, in his eyes, in his very demeanor spoke to me of violence; of consequences.

  "Please, put me down." Even to my ears my voice sounded weak, scared, dominated. It made me sick. By the look in his eyes I knew that he knew it too. He had me.

  "Mmm," he pulled me closer with one arm and with the other ran it down the side of my face, cupping my cheek and then resting on the side of my neck. I wasn't even sure how he was holding me up with one arm free and figured I could wiggle free. I couldn't. "I think I like you. There's something about you that just sets me on fire. Remy must feel it too. Damn guy's practically obsessed with you."

  I cleared my throat, trying to put some force in my request. "Put me down." I decided leaving off the 'please' made me sound a little more in control.

  He laughed again. "No, I don't think you really want me to."

  Just like in my dream, his eyes held mine. It was like I didn't have a will of my own, like I didn't have any desire to look anywhere besides at him. He captivated me. His eyes spoke to me in ways that words never would. It was like they could see every secret inside of me. It was like I wanted them to. It was like he owned me. In those seconds I was pretty sure he did.

  When he lowered his mouth toward mine, I didn't even try to pull away. I just let my lids drift closed, aching for the moment his lips would touch mine. When it came, I whimpered. Seconds later he deepened the kiss. There was something warm and metallic tasting on his tongue and I couldn't get enough of it. After a few seconds he pulled away from me and laughed.

  "That's enough of that." When I pouted, he smiled, "for now. I don't need a zombie following me around."

  I was confused by his words, but then I felt his lips on my jaw, my ear, the side of my neck. I moaned. I couldn't help it, I had no control over my body or my emotions.

  His tongue snaked out and moistened my neck. Fingers of excitement and heat licked through me. All of the emotion that had been threatening to bubble out of me for months seemed to expand and throb inside of me. I whimpered again.

  Teeth, sharp and slick, nibbled at my skin. It was arousing. It was erotic. It was... painful.

  My eyes flew open when I felt the pointed incisors dig into my flesh. The throbbing feeling that I experienced when he licked me, intensified into a sort of pleasure pain sensation causing emotions to explode inside of me. Fireworks went off inside of my mind. Streaks of color flooded my vision. Laughter bubbled up out of me, loud, boisterous and explosive.

  When I felt Sevren began to suck on the small puncture wounds on my neck, tears filled my eyes. Hot liquid despair spilled over my eye lids streaming down my face, drowning me in months of sadness. I wept while he licked, sucked and drank from me.

  Lastly, anger and frustration fought for dominance and dried up any other emotion I was feeling. They started as a heat inside of me that spread through my body, through my veins and out of my skin. I was shaking with them. I was growing strong from them.

  I put both hands on Sevren's chest and pushed. This time, I barely had to exert any pressure and I was falling back away from him. As if it had a mind of its own, my body leaped in a perfect show of acrobatics and landed me on my feet.

  He laughed. In the brightness of the day, I could see the steak of red that my blood had left across his lips. He wiped at it. I was confused. My eyes saw every pore, every hair, every ripple of his skin. Yet, I realized that it wasn't yet day. There was a darkened shadow over everything, proving it was still night.

  I frowned and he laughed again. "Exciting, isn't it?"

  I tried to answer, but my tongue felt heavy. My eyes were getting heavy. My body was getting heavy. It reminded me of being on medication. That feeling you get when cold medicine starts to take over and you fall into oblivion. I was falling. I never hit the ground.

  "Sleep. Tomorrow everything changes."

  I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't budge. I tried to say something, but my mouth didn't work. I just succumbed to him. Gave myself over to him as if I were an infant and needed him to take care of me.

  In the darkness, the blackness of total slumber, my dreams began to combine with realty, making me wonder what was real and what wasn't. Remy dancing with me. Sevren dancing with me. Sevren looking down at me. Remy smiling at me. Sevren sucking on my neck. Remy obsessed with me. Sevren wiping blood off of his lips. That boy wiping something off of his lips when we saw him in the woods with Hallie. Mr. Gates missing. Jane trying to kiss me. Sevren's tongue on my skin.

  When my alarm clock went off, I was more confused then ever. Had that happened? I didn't remember getting up and I didn't remember going back to bed. So did that mean it never happened? It was all a dream?

  The first thing I noticed was the smell. There was coffee brewing. I normally loved the smell and taste of coffee, but today it made my stomach turn. I groaned and rolled out of bed. My head was killing me. Probably from my nightmares. I grabbed clothes and a towel and stomped out of my bedroom. Mason was just getting out of the bathroom and I glared at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Did you have to make the coffee so strong today? It’s making me sick.” I snapped out at him.

  He raised his eyebrows, “it’s the same as any other day.”

  I rolled my eyes and brushed past him, “whatever.” The bathroom door slammed in his face.

  The heat from the shower spray revived me. My head began to feel better and my muscles loosened up. I stood there far after I was clean and just enjoyed the slick feel of the water rushing over me. It felt more invigorating than usual and I loved it.

  When I got out of the shower, I had to squint my eyes against the sunlight coming down through the skylight. Geez it’s bright out today. I got dressed and walked back down the hall to my bedroom to fix my hair. The house was quiet so I assumed Mason left for work already. Fine by me, I was still feeling a little raw about yesterday and I wasn’t sure facing him would be such a great idea.

  Finally, when I was done getting ready, I made my way into the kitchen in search of some breakfast. There was a note on the table from Mason. It said simply: I’m sorry about everything Evie. Please forgive your big brother for trying to protect you. The keys to the jeep were laying on the table next to it. I smiled. Freedom.

  The drive to school was almost too slow for me. There was an energy running through me and I needed an outlet. I was surprised that I was feeling so revived after having nightmares all night, but I wasn’t going to question it. I felt amazing. It was like everything was clearer this morning.

  The parking lot at school was already filling up and I parked toward the back, not really wanting to talk to anyone. Landon was just getting out of his car and when I saw him, I had an unbelievable urge to go to him. I had never really been a person that gave in to her urges, but it was almost like I couldn’t control it; like I needed him to hold me, to kiss me.

  “Hey there stranger.”

  He jumped when he heard me and narrowed his eyes. “What do you want, Evie?”

  I pouted, “can’t I just say good morning to my boyfriend?”

  “Your boyfriend?” His raised his brows, “it’s been a long time since I’ve felt like that.”

>   I grabbed his stack of books from him and balanced them on one hand. It distracted me for a second because they were so light and I wasn’t expecting that, but when he grabbed them away from me, my distraction turned to annoyance.

  “What’s your problem anyways?” I asked him.

  “I don’t have the problem, you do.” He started walking away from me, but then spun back around. “I can’t believe you are doing this to me,” he said sadly.

  I rolled my eyes at his back and watched him walk away from me. Whatever. It was his loss. I saw Jane watching me from closer to the school, but when she saw that I had noticed her, she turned and hurried into the school. This is so lame, I thought. School is highly overrated.

  First period was a strange experience for me. I had been so disconnected these past few months that I hadn’t noticed just how noisy school was. Along with my teachers voice talking about the French Revolution, I could hear whispered conversations all around me. Mrs. Peats must be getting deaf in her old age if she couldn’t hear what I heard. I spent half of the class laughing to myself about the conversations I was hearing and the other half pressing my hands against my ears trying to drown out the sound.

  Halfway through the day, I realized that people were looking at me strangely. If I hadn’t sort of liked the attention, I would have been annoyed. At lunch, I decided to forgo my typical ‘alone’ time on the picnic bench and instead, went in search of my friends. That was, if I had friends anymore.

  Jane was no where to be found, but I didn’t even care about that. Not after I found Landon and Emma. I have heard that expression ‘I saw red’ before, but I had never truly understood what it meant until that moment. I found Landon and Emma alright. What I found was Landon sticking his tongue down Emma’s throat at a table all to themselves.

  The cafeteria got quiet. It felt like all eyes were on me. This time I wasn’t annoyed at all. I was furious. I was so mad that I got hot and my body began shaking. I was a volcano ready to erupt. No one better stand in my way.

  Noticing that everyone around them was quiet, Landon and Emma finally broke apart and started looking around. When their eyes landed on me, both of them stood up and began backing away. Emma tripped on a chair and fell backwards onto her butt. A few people laughed, but when it became apparent that I didn’t find it funny, the sound died out.

  Landon threw his hands up in front of him. “Look, Evie, I can explain.”

  I raised my brows, “oh really?” I laughed cruelly, “let me guess, it’s not what it looks like.”

  “Evie, come on, it’s not like you guys have really been dating, not since your parents died.” Emma said from her spot on the ground.

  “How long has this been going on, Em? Is this why you haven’t been here for me? Too busy screwing my boyfriend to be my friend?” I took a step toward them and they both moved back, Landon taking a step back and Emma scooting back on her butt.

  She gasped and her face got red. “How dare you? Do you really expect me…”

  “Oh grow up Evie,” Landon interrupted. “You haven’t been around. What was I supposed to do? Wait forever?”

  Tears burned behind my eyes. “I would have.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he said under his breath.

  That’s when it happened. I’ve never been a violent person. Then again, I’d never been driven to an anger so intense that it inspired violence. I pushed the closest person to me out of their chair. I heard them hit the floor with a thud and a snap, but I didn’t care. I grabbed the chair and threw it as hard as I could at Landon. I wanted to hurt him, I wanted to make him scream in agony.

  He ducked.

  Our cafeteria had floor to ceiling windows along the back wall. The table where Landon and Emma had been making out, was at the back of the room. When he ducked, the chair sailed over his head and crashed through the glass behind him. Shards of sharp broken glass rained over anyone who was close, along with the tables that were in the general area.

  Screams tore through the room. Alarms began squealing. Footsteps pounded on the ground as teachers ran into the room to see what had happened. I stood, frozen, unable to move or even to think. What had I done? And more importantly, how I had done it?

  “You stupid effing freak!” Emma screamed. I looked down at her and gulped. She was covered with little dots of blood where the glass had nicked her skin.

  Blood. Something about seeing her blood was making my mouth water. Images began fighting for dominance in my mind. My nightmares were replaying in mind. Had I really dreamt all of that? I reached up to my neck and placed two of my fingers perfectly over two small puncture wounds.

  Sevren.

  Bile rose in my throat. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, but it helped get my body into motion. I took a few running steps toward the now open air where the window had once been and leapt over the broken glass. I had left my backpack in my locker for lunch, and cursed when I ran to the Jeep because my keys were in it.

  “Damn it!” I yelled, punching at the Jeeps exterior. My fist left a small indention in the side, I backed away from it, tears streaming down my face. What was happening to me?

  A car honked behind me. I spun around. It was Jane. I had never been more relieved to see someone as I was in those moments. Especially when she opened the passenger side door from inside the car and motioned for me.

  "Get in," she yelled.

  I obeyed. With my freakishly heightened sense of hearing, I heard sirens off in the distance. I was pretty sure I knew where they were heading.

  "We have to get out of here."

  Jane just nodded and sped out of the parking lot. Behind us, kids were beginning to stream out of the building. I felt like I was going to be sick. Who knew how many people I had hurt back there. It was disgusting. It was unforgivable. It was a tragedy.

  "Where do you want to go?" Jane asked me, looking at me sideways.

  I chewed on my lower lip. As much as I wanted to say home, I knew that would be the first place they would look for me. Before I could do that, I needed some answers. "The diner in Willow Grove."

  Jane nodded as if she figured that I'd say that. She kept her eyes on the road, deep in thought. I wanted to say something more to her, but there were too many unsaid words between us and I wasn't sure which ones should be said.

  As soon as Jane pulled up to the diner, I was out of the car before she even had it in park. I didn’t care that I probably looked like some crazed maniac. I didn’t care that I was probably going to sound just as crazy. All I cared about was the bloody mess I had left behind me.

  The bell on the door chimed happily despite my angry mood as I slammed through it. There were very few people in there since it was the middle of the day and the middle of the week. A quick scan showed that Hallie was not at the counter, nor was she anywhere visible to me. Her mom was, however, and the look she had on her face said that she was not happy to see me.

  I started walking toward the counter, determined to find out where Hallie was, just as Jane slammed through the door behind me. Hallie’s mom had been wiping down the countertop of the bar and threw her rag down as we came closer, wiping her hands dry on her apron.

  “Where the hell is Hallie?” I knew that my tone was rude and angry sounding, but I didn’t care.

  She raised her brows and sucked on her teeth. “I don’t take too kindly to people coming on in to my establishment and speaking to me that way.” She smiled nastily, “especially a young ignorant girl like yourself.”

  “I apologize, ma’am,” I said through gritted teeth, “but can you please tell me where I can find your daughter. I really need to talk to her.” When she only stared at me, I felt my eyes tear up. Where had all of these emotions come from? “Please,” I pleaded, “it’s an emergency.”

  She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I swear, you kids thinking you know everything about everything, when all you know is nothing.” She looked over at a hunched over old man who was leaning on the doorway from the kit
chen to the bar area. “Clive, you keep an eye on things out here, would ya? I need to have a talk with this girl.”

  He nodded and she motioned for me to follow her. When Jane tried come too, she shook her head. “It’s fine,” despite the awkwardness between us, I hugged her, “I’ll be right back.”

  I hurried to catch up with Hallie’s mom. She walked me through an old but clean kitchen and then up a set of stairs. “My Hallie wasn’t feeling too well yesterday so I didn’t even go in to wake her this morning. I figured she needed the time off to rest. You know that baby of hers is due any day now.”

  I didn’t know, but I nodded. “Do you guys live up here?”

  She nodded. “It’s not much, but it’s home.” She stopped on the step just before the door and stared off dreamily. “I had plans for Hallie, you know. She was going to get out of this town, make something of herself. Then that Dan had to come and knock her up. Now look where she’s at. Still sleeping in her same old room with no man around to help her.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? Isn’t her boyfriend helping?”

  The keys fell from her hands as she fumbled with the lock. “No.” She opened the door. I wanted to ask her more because I was confused, but she ushered me into the living room and then closed the door behind us.

  The apartment was much like the restaurant below it. It was old, but very tidy. For the most part, it smelled well cared for and clean, but there was something underneath that; a smell I couldn’t quite identify, but that was familiar somehow.

  “Hallie’s room is right through there. I’m going to sit down here for a bit, but you’re welcome to go on in.” She sighed and sunk down onto a comfy looking recliner. “I warned you not to get involved around here,” she mumbled more to herself than to me.

  I ignored her and walked quickly to the door she had pointed to. The scent that I had been curious about, grew stronger with each step I took. I knocked first, wrinkling my nose against the confusing smell, but no one answered.

  “Hallie? It’s me, Evie. Can I talk to you for a second?” I waited, straining my ears for any sounds or movements, but none came.