Change of Heart

Chapter 6

**

School was finally over, but Alex was still on my mind. I tried my best to avoid him for the rest of the day. Today was already screwed up enough, and right now I just needed to forget Alex.

I waited outside by the car for Caden. About fifteen minutes passed before he finally came running out.

"Sorry, I got held up." He unlocked the cars doors and started the engine. Getting in, I reassured him.

"Don't worry about it." We exchanged smiles and started heading home. On the way, he was telling me how they were about finished decorating for the dance. Though I could care less about it, I still participated in his explanation.

All our talking made it seem like no time had passed when we reached the house. Caden pulled up in front of the house and set the car in park. "I'll be back later, I got to go pick up the last of the decorations so that we can finish it up tomorrow."

I nodded. "Oh, alright. I'll probably end up taking a nap anyways. Today's been...pretty hectic." As I got out the car, Caden rolled down the window.
"When I get back, I want to hear about what happened to you at lunch today."

Why did he have to bring that up? Just as my mind finally started to waver... "Uh, sure."

He grinned, and drove away. I watched the car grow smaller as it got further away. After is disappeared, I ran straight upstairs and into my room. Throwing myself onto my bed, I stared up at the ceiling. Right now all I can think about is Alex...kissing me.

**

I found myself dozing off. Some time had passed before I saw an image of us kissing again. His hands on my cheeks with my hands holding his. Tears filled my eyes rolling down my cheeks.

I launched myself up again and started breathing heavily. What just happened? Did those visions suddenly come back again? My head began to ache and suddenly a loud pitched tone screeched hurting my ears. I covered them both trying to block out the sound, but it was just too loud.

Throwing myself off the bed, I ran back downstairs and to the front door. As I reached for the doorknob, an explosion went off seconds after I was suddenly thrust to the side. My shoulder slammed against the hard floor and I screamed out in agony. The impact caused my shoulder to dislocate itself. As I screamed out, a hand was slapped over my mouth.

"Keep quiet." I couldn't believe my ears after I heard those words. That was Alex's voice. "If you talk, you'll only draw attention to yourself." His voice was only a whisper, but it was still his voice. I tried holding in the pain and nodded. I shut my eyes so tight they began to hurt as well.

"Just a little longer..."

I was tempted to open my eyes to see what was happening, but I was to afraid to. The high pitched tone was still screeching, though it wasn't as loud. If I saw, I might've just screamed again which would only worsen the pain at this point.

Some time had passed before the noises stopped, and I was pulled up to my feet. I screamed out again from the pain in my shoulder and again, Alex covered my mouth with his hand. "You need to stay quiet." He held me close, and in an instant I was in my room. My eyes widened from surprise. How did we get up here when we were just downstairs?

Alex pulled away taking a bandana from my desk. I had it just laying around for no reason. "Here, wrap this around your mouth."

I gave him a confused look and took a step back. "Why?"

"Fine, I'll do it myself." Alex came up and wrapped the bandana around my mouth. I brought my arm up to pull it out but he stopped me by grabbing my wrist. "Don't. You need that so that you won't be as loud. I'm going to relocate your shoulder."

I shook my head a stepped back again. Alex pulled me back once more and held my waist in place.

"Stay." He placed his forehead against mine. I swallowed hard as he moved to my side. I couldn't argue with him. Even if I had refused, he probably would've done it anyway. At least it's better than leaving it like this. Pushing my eyes shut, I bit hard on the bandana. I could feel his hands wrap around my arm.

An intense pain shot through my body as he relocated my shoulder. On instinct, I screamed but it only came out as a muffled squeal. My eyes began to drown in a pool of water.

"That should do." Alex led me to my bed directing me to sit. I sat. Once I finally calmed down, he removed the bandana and threw it to the side. "I need you to tell me what happened."

Shaking my head, I put my hands over my eyes. "How can I tell you when I don't even know what happened? I mean I see us kissing and suddenly this noise starts sounding off out of nowhere, and then you-"

"Wait!" Alex interrupted me pulling my hands from my eyes. "What do you mean by when you say you saw us kiss?" Oh crap...I forgot I told him I didn't have any visions.

I shook my head again and answered. "It was nothing...just, I couldn't get the image of you kissing me out of my head."

His grip tightened and I squealed. "Did you see where we were?"

"What does it matter?"

Alex looked back at my desk. So focused. He walked over and started going through my drawers. I jumped up and grabbed his arm trying to stop him. "What are you doing? Stop!" I couldn't let him see those drawing, I just couldn't!

He pulled out a stack of papers and I slapped them out of his hand. As they scattered like broken glass, both of our eyes widened; both for different reasons. They had been the drawings I made when I was younger. What's worse...they were the ones that looked like him.

Leaping over the papers, I gathered them in a pile trying to hide them from Alex, but he had already seen them.

"Aren't those all, of me?" He pulled me up by the arm. I winced looking away from him. "Answer me!"

"I don't know..." Why am I getting embarrassed? I mean they may look like him, but they aren't, right? So why? "These were drawn a few years ago, they can't be you. I've only just met you today."

Alex's eyes opened even wider. As he backed up, my arm came loose from his grip causing him to run into my desk. It was almost as if an earthquake was in motion. The way his reaction turned out, it kinda of scared me a bit. "Why? Why did you lie to me!? You told me you didn't see any images of me. So WHY!?"

I backed away from him. Now I wasn't just scared, I was terrified. Why was it such a big deal? "I-I don't know...I panicked..." I hesitated to give him an answer, but I managed to force it out.

He grabbed the drawings and started looking through them. Alex's eyes widened again as if he had just seen a ghost. We were both silent for a while.

"Do you have any other drawings?" Such a deep, serious voice.

All I could manage was a nod. I gestured back to the drawers and he started searching through them again. Alex threw all the drawings I had on the bed. He was looking through them so intently.

"Alex-" I started, but was cut off.

"Tell me...who was this guy in the images you saw?" He held up one of my drawings. A man with red and black hair, long and in a ponytail. He was dressed in a purple sleeveless shirt with striped pants. Though they weren't exactly pants, more like a mix of pants and shorts. He also had a tattoo running down his left arm, and his eyes were blood red.

"I didn't see him much, only a few times. Though when he showed up, only bad things around happened."

His fingers clenched, scrunching the edge of the paper. "Dammit!" I could hear him say under his breath.

I was starting to get an even worse feeling about all this. "Alex...do you know...him?"

As he nodded, my heart dropped. Alex threw the paper down on the bed. "I know him. We actually used to be best friends."

"What happened?" Hesitating to ask, the words spilled out of me.

Alex scoffed and faced me. "He became the king of hell."