Change of Heart

Chapter 76

**

Making it home, Serine came running downstairs. "Hey, where were you today? You were suppose to help me with my project."

I let out a disappointing sigh. Crap, I completely forgot.. "Sorry, I had a, uh, few things came up, so I had to come home later than expected.

After I said that, she looked over at my cheek, and pressed her finger against my scratch. "Where'd you get that?" She notices a tiny scratch on my cheek. I'm surprised she hasn't noticed my changed shirt.

"A cat scratched me." Pushing her finger away, I rubbed my fingers over it. "It's nothing though, the cat was having a bad day."

"Good! I thought you may have gotten into a fight.." My heart skipped a beat as she said that. I hated lying to her, but what other choice did I have? I set my hand on her head, and started messing up her hair. Pushing my hand off, she started fixing her hair again. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Don't look so down. I told you, I'm alright. Ok?" She nodded and I helped fix her hair again. It's been a while, and I hadn't realized how long it's gotten. A couple years ago it was down past her shoulders, and now it's all the way down to the bottom of her back.

Serine split her hair in two halves, bringing it down in front of her shoulders. Before I could walk past, she stopped me again, and the look on her face suddenly went blue. I could already tell what it may have been... "It's another one of those images again, right?"

Nodding, she replied. "I only saw it for a split second, but I could still see it clearly."

"When did you see it?"

"Just now..." Her voice went low, and I turned around facing her.

"Hey," lifting her head, I smiled. "Go upstairs and I'll meet you up there. We'll talk more about it, alright?" Serine said nothing and I kissed her on the top of her head. Giving me once last glance, she ran upstairs, and my body shook. She hasn't seen one of those images in a while, so why is she seeing them now again?

Walking toward my room, a knock sounded at the door and I flinched. Who could that possibly be? We never have visitors of any kind. Approaching the door, another knock sounded, this one being a bit more frantic. "I'm coming." Opening the door, I came face to face with Bryce. It's been two years since I've seen him, and he looks even worse than he did before. "Bryce, what are you-"

"Caden, please, you have to help me!" He blurted out, and started looking around.

Without asking questions, I let him in. "Bryce, what's going on?"

"It's Zeke. I don't know what I did to piss him off, but he said it's time for him to kill me."

"Shh, not so loud. I don't want...never mind. What can I-"

"Caden, where-" Serine came running down and my heart fell to my stomach. Dammit...I didn't want him to see her. "Who is he?"

Bryce smiled at me and back at her. "My name's Bryce. I'm a...friend of Caden's."

A small smile appeared on my face, and I looked back at Serine. "Could you give us a minute?" I walked Serine over to the stairs, crouching down a bit so that we were face to face. "What's wrong? You seem paler than before."

"I saw the image again...this time it was longer and more..." Damn, I can't be dealing with two issues at the same time!

Looking back, I saw Bryce trembling, and I sighed. "Go back upstairs, alright? I promise I'll be up there. I just need to talk to Bryce for a little while." Kissing her on the forehead, she nodded and went back up to her room.

Letting out an upsetting sigh, I felt uneasy. Walking back over, I sat Bryce down. "Sorry about that, she-"

"She's your little sister, isn't she?" I nodded, looking away from him. "My guess is that you don't want anyone to find out."

"It's not that...I wouldn't mind but people talk, and..." Stopping for a moment, I just stared at Bryce, thinking of all that his brother could've done to him.. "...Zeke hates me, so I'm just afraid he'll..."

"You don't have to say it." Bryce smiled at me, reassuring me. "I'm not going to say anything, just like you did for me." His voice started to tremble. "And besides, I've got no one else to say it to anyways."

Scratching the back of my head, I asked. "So, what is it you need help with?"

He went dead silent, almost as if he was ridding all of his emotions inside him. This silence made me tremble, but his words made me shroud away in fear. "I want you to kill me."