by Heidi Acosta
“I never said that. I just thought you might like to come in out of the rain.” I stumbled over each word.
He wears a disdainful smile, amused by this little game he is playing. “Really?” he asks in a mocking tone.
“I–I–I … no. I don’t like you like that. Maybe we could be friends,” I manage to choke out. I’m grateful that the dark covers the heat rising in my cheeks.
“I don’t want friends,” he replies in a bored tone.
“But I … everyone needs a friend.” I reach out for him, but let my hand drop to my side. Why am I reaching for him? Embarrassment blisters inside of me.
“Not me,” he says.
At a loss for words, I open and shut my mouth.
“Look, this game that we’re playing will end up with someone hurt, and you’re a nice girl.”
I hate the look of pity he’s wearing. “Stop saying that! I’m not a child, and I do not play games.”
He gazes at me for a few minutes, his eyes scanning me over. I know what I must look like a desperate little girl. The T-shirt I wear hangs on me like a dress weighed down from the rain, the leggings are soaking wet, and my dad’s rubber boots are too big for my feet.
“Perhaps you’re not playing the game.” His face becomes unreadable.
“I don’t like you,” I blurt out again, wanting him to be sure that I wouldn’t want more than a friendship, if even that.
“Whatever you say, Ace.” He pushes past me and heads down the dark driveway, blending in with the night. It’s spooky how he does that.
When I no longer can see him, I grab the two bags left in the car and sprint to the house.
“I thought I was going to have to call the Coast Guard,” Essie announces when I burst through the door. “You’re soaking wet! What the heck was taking you so long?”
Trying to catch my breath, I lean against the door. “I thought I saw something,” I explain.
Essie’s face turns from amused to fear. “Something? What was it?” she asks, panicked.
I shrug. “Who knows? Maybe it was an animal. Don’t worry.” Telling her not to worry is pointless. I can see that her mind is already spinning images of fictional creatures lurking in the dark, ready to abduct us. I cringe as Essie goes into panic mode. I was stupid I should have just told her the truth.
I follow her into the kitchen as she mumbles under her breath. “Essie, it’s okay. I’m sure it was just a raccoon,” I say, trying to reassure her.
She opens a cabinet, removes a pot, and hands it to me. “Put this by your window,” she orders.
“Essie, I don’t think—”
She doesn’t let me finish. “It is iron, and aliens cannot cross over it. It burns them.”
“Isn’t that faeries?”
She straightens and stares at me for a moment before suddenly laughing and shaking her head in disbelief. “Eden, there is no such thing as faeries. Now, go put this by your window.”
Chapter Thirteen
I’m running through a forest, and a thick blanket of white snow covers the ground, silencing every step. Thin, finger-like tree branches reach for me—tugging at my hair and clothes. A thud, like a heartbeat, pulsates through the woods, growing louder and louder until it drowns out my own heartbeat. Stopping, I press my hand to my chest, making sure my heart is still beating. The heart beats in sync with the forest, becoming faster until it is no longer a steady beat but a high-pitched noise from behind me. I turn as a black arrow lined with golden feathers spins in my direction. I step out of the way just in time for it fly past me, but a golden feather slides across my cheek, slicing it. Blood drips onto the pristine snow, turning it crimson. The ground begins to give way, and I’m falling into a deep black nothingness.
I sit up, gasping for air and reach for my cheek, but my hand comes away clean. My cheek stings with the remembrance of where the arrow cut me. I flop back to the bed, pulling the cover over my face. It was just a nightmare. Essie has the heat off again, and my breath comes out in small white puffs. It explains why I was dreaming of snow. A sickening feeling settles over me, and somehow, I know that the heartbeat belonged to Jaxson. I rub my bare feet together, trying to forget, but wanting to remember every detail of my dream.
I need coffee. It makes everything better. I tug an old sweatshirt on over my nightgown and go downstairs. Every light in the house is on, which can only mean Essie did not go to bed last night. Not good. It also means she probably skipped her meds.
I stop short on my way into the kitchen. Paint covers the living room wall in a sloppy red line from ceiling to floor with an arrow the middle of it. It drips off the coffee table and onto the floor from a tipped over can. I back out of the room, but my eyes stay fixated on the disturbing picture on the wall.
I can hear Essie banging around upstairs. I want to go back to bed and redo the last twenty-four hours over again. I would begin yesterday with making sure she had her medicine. So much for the coffee. Drink abandoned, I grab her medicine out of the kitchen and race back upstairs.
Her bedroom doesn’t look much better than the living room, and the same sign is painted on her walls. Clothes are tossed across the room, a toppled light blinks in the corner. Essie sits in the midst of the destruction, cross-legged and mumbling something I can’t make out. She looks as if she hasn’t slept in days. Her eyes are bloodshot and rimmed in red. Her hair sits on top of her head in a ratty bun. I move closer, taking a seat across from her.
“Take wary steps along the dark and twisted road,
Listen to wings that beat between evil and good,
A sacrifice will be made,
One of heart that will beat no more,
Blood will spill if let along,
Fire will burn and ice will reign,
Death will be the only way,
If not for love the only cure.” She repeats over and over, and I have to fight the urge to run out of here.
Chapter Fourteen
The doorbell rings repeatedly. I set the rag down that I am using to try to clean up this mess.
“Are you avoiding me? I tried calling you like a million times. Okay, so it was only like five times, but I started freaking out when you didn’t answer. What’s going on?” Liv pushes past me in a whirlwind, of leggings and cashmere. “I’m beginning to think that … Oh.” She stops, staring up at the monstrosity on the wall.
“Yeah, oh.” I stand next to Liv, and the painting seems to loom over us.
“When did she do it?” she asks in a low voice, still staring at the wall.
I want to cover it up, and hide Essie’s madness, but this is Liv. “Sometime between last night and this morning.” I suddenly feel tired.
“Hand me a rag. This is not going to clean itself.” Liv pushes up her sweater sleeves and heads to the kitchen with me trailing behind. “Is that coffee?” she asks as she searches under the sink for cleaning products.
“Cream, no sugar?” I ask. Fighting back tears, I pour her a cup. We might not have been on the best of terms the last few days, but I know I can always count on her.
“Babe, you know me so well. Now put on some music! This somber mood makes me feel like I just walked into a funeral home or something. Trust me, what’s on the wall is nothing compared to what the twins can do if they get ahold of some cherry-red lip gloss.” She says as she passes me with a soapy bucket of water and bumps me with her hip.
Liv’s energy quickly rubs off on me as we scrub the wall together to the tune of an old Spice Girls song. We sing at the top of our lungs, bumping into each other as we go. Finally, Liv tosses her rag back into the bucket and looks up at the wall with a frown.
“I don’t think we’re going to get it off without repainting the whole damn wall,” she says.
The wall is stained pink, the markings still visible to anyone who might happen to come over. Luckily, that only consists of Liv, and she has already seen it.
“What do you think it means?” she asks, running a prune finger over the marki
ng.
I turn down the iPod and stare at it. “With Essie, it could mean anything. Most likely something to do with aliens, or maybe a mark she saw on the Internet.”
“It’s like a doomsday sign or something,” Liv whispers.
“Come on, let’s get out of here, go do something fun for a change,” I say, tossing my rag into the bucket. I don’t want to be in the same room with the daunting symbol.
“Well, I need a dress for homecoming. Shopping is fun,” Liv sings and spins toward me on her tiptoes.
“I said something fun.”
“That is fun! Come on, pretty please with a cherry on top,” she begs.
“Fine, but only if you promise to buy me a double cheeseburger from Top Burger’s.” I know there is no way she’ll agree to that.
“If you choose to poison yourself, that is your business, but I cannot contribute to your death or the death of poor, innocent animals.”
“Have fun shopping for a dress by yourself,” I say.
She stomps her foot. “Fine. The things I do in the name of fashion.”
###
We sit in the center of the food court, so we have a view of the entire mall from our table. I order the double bacon cheeseburger, much to Liv’s disgust, while she orders the only safe thing on the menu: a portabella sandwich.
“I think Jamie is cheating on me,” Liv blurts out as she dips her sweet potato fry in ketchup.
“Not this again!” I groan. “Liv, he is obsessed with you. I really don’t think he would ever cheat on you,” I reassure her.
“He has been spending a lot of time with Juliet. They’re working on a history project together,” she explains, drinking the remainder of her water.
“So?” I shrug, not seeing the big deal.
“You know how Juliet is. She has to try to one up me on everything.” She groans. “I trust Jamie, but I don’t trust her royal skankiness. She is pure evil in pink lip gloss with a body to kill for. Eden, are you listening to me?”
I’m only half listening to her because, out of the corner of my eye, I see Jaxson. Seeing him at the mall is strange enough, but it’s who he is here with that makes my stomach turn. Pure evil with blonde hair and pink lip gloss—Juliet.
Her arm is draped over him as they walk. I swallow down the lump forming in my throat. Are they a couple? No, they can’t be. Jaxson just told me last night he didn’t want friends, but that doesn’t mean he does not want a girlfriend.
They stop at a sunglass kiosk, Juliet picks up a pair of glasses and tries them on. He must have said something witty because she tosses back her head and laughs. Her long, hair falls in a perfect golden waterfall down her back. I tug self-consciously at my own thin, mousy brown hair. Juliet is wearing skin tight dark washed jeans and an equally tight sweater. How can she even breathe in that?
A French fry hits me in the face. “Hello. Earth to Eden. What are you looking at?” Liv asks.
I wipe the grease off my cheek and point to where Jaxson and Juliet stand. “Look.”
“Oh, my god!” Liv gives me a look of pity.
Even though I haven’t spoken it aloud, she knows I liked him.
“Eden, if he is going to sink as low as Juliet, then it is better you find out now. Who else knows what else is wrong with him? Eden?”
I stand up. “I have to know what he’s doing with her. Let’s follow them.”
“You can’t be serious?”
Liv looks offended as if I just asked her to commit a crime, which this might be borderline stalking. “Come on! Please, Liv. I would do it for you,” I beg. Jaxson’s back disappears, and I can no longer see them. “Please.”
“Fine, but you owe me.”
We follow them, darting behind a large potted plant. Apparently, they’re on some sort of date. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why. Jaxson is not Juliet’s type. She usually goes for the rich and popular, not the isolated and emo kid that is far from being on anyone’s radar. We are too far from them to hear what they are talking about, but apparently, Mr. Doom and Gloom is full of laughs today, since Juliet cannot stop giggling and flicking her hair. I imagine cutting off all of her pretty blonde locks so she cannot flick it anymore.
We lose them in a busy department store. “Let’s split up and see if we can find them,” Liv suggests. “We will meet back here in front of the watches in fifteen.”
I agree, and we go separate ways. I scan the store, looking for any sign of them, unable to believe that they are together. I shouldn’t care, but I do.
I spot Juliet by the dresses, holding up the light blue dress I had tried on earlier. Ugh. Of course, on her, it will look amazing. The dress also matches Jaxson’s eyes perfectly. Are they planning to go together? I never took him for a guy that would go to a school dance. Then again, I know nothing about him, except what I imagined.
“Why are you following me?”
I yelp and fling myself backwards, knocking over a rack of dresses. Jaxson stands over me with his arms crossed. I scoop up a handful of dresses as I try to gather as much composure as I can, but my heart is racing wildly and my mind is blank.
“I–I–I.”
“You were just spying on my friend and me. Have you met her yet? Let me introduce you,” he says. Juliet is by the fitting rooms now with an armful of dresses.
“No, please don’t.” I grab his arm to stop him and electricity sparks at the touch.
He glances down at my hand that rests on the cool leather. Did he feel that too? I quickly pull it back, trying to explain myself.
“I know Juliet, don’t call her over. We’re not on the best of terms.”
“Only if you tell me why you were following me.”
Just then, Juliet turns to wave at Jaxson. I drop to the ground and cower behind some sequined dresses. In this position, I come to Jaxson’s knee. He waves back and then kneels down to my level.
“I wasn’t following you,” I hiss
“That’s a lie. You’ve been following us since the glasses kiosk.”
My mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water. “I–I want to know why you’re with Juliet.”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
With Juliet safely in the fitting room, I stand back up. “It seems like there are a lot of strange things happening lately when it comes to you, and I am concerned for her safety.” Another lie.
“Tsk tsk,” he says, shaking his head at me as if I’m nothing more than an annoying child. “I thought we went over this, Ace. I don’t like you like that.” His laugh is harsh and cold. “You also thought I was your attacker. Now you’re following me? These delusions are really starting to get out of hand.” His words are like a slap across the face, and his eyes dance with glee. “These games that we are playing are starting to get tiresome, don’t you think?”
“I’m not playing any games,” I snap, getting angrier by the second.
“But aren’t we?”
When he speaks in riddles, it makes my head spin.
“Oh, my gosh, there you are! You found it! The perfect homecoming dress.” Liv reaches across me, plucking the first dress off the rack.
Both Jaxson and I turn toward her, and my head stops spinning. Jaxson narrows his eyes, his face pinched in irritation. I know he doesn’t buy the bit that I was trying to find a dress for Liv, but he doesn’t say anything. He just slinks away, back to the fitting room with an aggravated look on his face.
“Oops, did I interrupt something?” Liv calls in his direction.
He doesn’t flinch, just stares at us with his unnerving gaze.
“Let’s get out of here,” Liv puts the dress back on the rack. “That was really intense. He looked like he wanted to either make-out with you or like eat your soul or something freaky,” she whispers as we hurry away.
“More like make me question my sanity,” I admit.
“You are kidding me, right?” she gasps.
“No.” I qui
ckly steal a glance back in Jaxson’s direction.
Juliet is spinning in front him in the tulle dress, but he is not looking at her. He is looking right at me, and his eyes are glowing a bright blue.
Chapter Fifteen
“You’re doing it again.” Liv shuts the truck off and frowns at me.
“What am I doing?” I drop the piece of hair I was twirling and sit up straighter.
“Since we left, you’ve been going to some far off land that no one else is invited too.” She makes her voice sound light, but she is not teasing.
I know she has been worried about me, but how do I tell her about Jaxson? I tried to explain it away, but there are only two logical answers I can come up with. One, that Jaxson was in some sort of nuclear accident that gave him glowing eyes and such a charismatic personality and the government covered up. Two, I’m going crazy. I’m hoping for the first, but still doubt that I might not be that different from Essie plagues me. I don’t want to be sick like her. Schizophrenia is hereditary after all. No, I can’t be like her, but how else do I explain why I’m seeing boys with glowing eyes.
“You’re thinking about what happened again, aren’t you?” Liv bites at her bottom lip nervously.
“A little.” Since she doesn’t believe me anyway, it’s best to not tell her what I saw.
“I know it’s hard for you that there are no leads on the attack.”
She flips her long, red hair over one shoulder, reminding me of Juliet. If Jaxson didn’t have something to do with the attack, maybe he might just know who did. It can’t just be coincident that both he and my attacker have glowing eyes. There has to be a logical explanation to all of this—the glowing eyes, the attack, the stones Essie gave me. I can’t help believing it’s all connected somehow.
“Eden?” Liv’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “What’s wrong? Please tell me you are not thinking about him.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what is it?”
“I can’t stop thinking about that night. No matter how many times I try to forget, the attack comes back to me. Every time I close my eyes, I see his face in shadows and …” I squeeze my eyes shut, but glowing eyes are all I can see.
