• Absolute •

][ VII ][

Sorry for the wait guys but here it is! Hope you like it ;)

++++++++++

I stared with shock, fear and uncertainty at the feather on my bed. This is a dream. . .it's not there. . .I repeated in my head as I squeezed my eyes shut, forming my hands into tight fists at my sides. My whole body was stiff with a mysterious feeling.

Opening my eyes, and hoping the unearthly feather would be gone, I sighed in resignation despite feeling unnerved and scared out of my wits. It was still there. But how? I recalled my dream from last night (or this morning) but that's all it had been: a dream. I'm sure it was beyond anything I learned in physics class. Teleportation? And through a dream? Well, Ezra was a angel. . .a fallen one. I suppose magic was true and real, and it surrounded the ones who believed in it.

"Rachel!" I heard my mother call from downstairs again. It wasn't a school day but I'm sure my mother had something planned for me. Ugh.

"I'm up!" I yelled just as my brother came lumbering into my room. Without hesitation, I quickly grabbed the feather, which was surprisingly soft and smooth, like silk, against the skin of my palm and fingers, and shoved it carelessly underneath my pillow.

"Yo, sis?" My brother jumped onto my bed, looking up at me from where he lay. "Want to cover for me. . .please?" He asked, batting his dark eyelashes and smiling sickly-sweet up at me. I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, looking pointedly down at my trouble-maker brother. He only acted like a good kid in front of teachers and family.

"For what?" I questioned, impatient.

"Um. . ." He mumbled looking down at his finger which twisted a loose strand of my coverlet. "Bradley and me are going out and um, we won't be back until tomorrow?"

"Where are you guys going?" I asked, my arms still crossed over my chest. Bradley had been my brothers best friend ever since the seventh grade. And ever since then, they both always did sneaky stuff and got into great amounts of trouble.

"Well if you must know everything, mother. . ." Jason rolled his eyes but continued anyway. "Bradley, me and Austin - the guy who sold us alcohol that one time back when Brad was turning 16 - and my other friend, Tyler, are all going up to this cabin."

"Are you serious. . ." I muttered and turned around, beginning to walk to my bathroom.

"Yep! It's going to be awesome. . .also, if Madison's parents call here, cover for her as well?" My brother called out. Madison was his girlfriend and she was just as tricky, sneaky and annoying as Jason and all his friends. Why did I always feel like the older child?

"Fine. Whatever." I groaned and shut the door on a smiling Jason.

"Thanks sis! You're the best baby sister ever!" Jason yelled and I heard his heavy, giant footsteps run out of my room.

"Ugh!" I groaned loud enough for him to hear. I heard his distant laughter as he walked away. Turning away from the door, I faced the reality of what my life had become. "Nope! I do not want to think about that right now!" I said to myself and turned on the shower. Without another thought about black feathers, angel boys and blue eyes, I stripped naked and stepped into the cold water of the shower.

. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : .

I was sitting on my bed, a book open in my lap and my finger in my mouth as I bit my nails unconsciously, when my mum walked into my room.

"Rachel, baby. . ." She started, trying - knowing - she would have to slowly pull me out of the world I was in when I read books.

"Hmm - yeah?" I distractedly spoke. I looked up at my mother and saw her smile fondly at me from where she stood, half in and half out of my bedroom.

"I have to go out. Urgent matters." She said, quirking an eyebrow and speaking in a mysterious tone. "We've run out of pasta! Which I planned to cook tonight." She added on, sounding bland. I smiled and nodded.

"Go ahead, mother. Do what you must." And with a resounding laugh, with her head thrown back, she walked out my room, leaving it open only slightly. How. . .normal from what my life has suddenly exploded into. I wish I could tell her that even as I joked with her, my mind was plagued with thoughts of Ezra and the black feather. The black feather! I suddenly remembered. Shuffling about, I turned to my pillow and hesitantly, as of the feather was live and could give a mean bite, picked up my pillow.

There it was. Sitting on my mattress. . .and staining my pale pink sheets black! As if it had seeped ink, the feather had smudged it's black colour on my pretty sheets.

"Eep!" I squeaked and quickly grabbed at it without thinking, so it wouldn't mess up my sheets and anything else anymore. Now in my hand, the feather began to drip. Literally, physically drip as if it was made out of black I've and the heat of my hand was melting it.

"No, no, no!" I whispered and wandered back and forth, corner to corner in my room, looking for a place to put it where it wouldn't colour anything else. The black liquid trickled down my fingers, over my knuckles and down my slight hand and over the big bones of my otherwise skinny wrist. I suddenly stopped freaking out and watched it, mesmerized. It didn't seem to leave any mark or stains on my pale skin as it moved on it.

"Huh. . ." I pondered in curiosity. It didn't seem that harmful - maybe more like a friendly, little, weird creature. Except (hopefully) it wasn't actually alive.

As it trailed down my wrist, along my forearm and down to the bones of my elbow, it suddenly stopped its moving. Again, I became weary and unsettled but my heartbeat slowed down once again when I looked on as the black fluid began to. . .puddle on my skin. On the inside crook of my elbow, where the skin was the thinnest and delicate, and where my veins looked like startling blue highways, the black inkiness began to form itself into a shape that vaguely resembled. . .a fricking feather. I gasped aloud as the fluid, after staining a picture on my skin, fell away, off my skin like normal water.

"Okay. . ." I said calmly. Then, I screamed.

++++++++++

*smooch smooch*