Devil's Creation

Chapter 12

I jumped back about a solid foot, my hand pressed against my chest. How did I not hear him?!?

I closed my eyes and focused on slowing my racing heart. When I was finally done and my heart was at a normal speed, I opened my eyes and was met with an amused expression on Axel's face.

"You scared me." I said, while dropping my hand and scowling at him.

He let out a loud laugh. "You should have seen your face."

I rolled my eyes and walked past him. I was angry of course, but his laugh seemed to melt a bit of the furiousness away. I continued down the hallway, heading towards the exit, not bothering to see if Axel was following or not.

He caught up to me easily. "So what do we have planned for today?" When I didn't say anything, he continued, "are you seriously mad at me?"

"You shouldn't just sneak up on people like that. You could have given me a heart attack." We were now outside, and heading in the direction of the woods.

There's this very nice grassy spot at the edge of the woods under a tree. Personally, I think it's the best place to sit at lunch. No people, shade. It's amazing. This is not exactly on topic, but there was this squirrel that stayed with me during lunch one time. I wasn't exactly sure if it was because they wanted to be acquaintances or because of the nuts in my bag, but anyways, it was the closest thing I got to a friend.

"Well then, I'm sorry." He said mockingly with an eye roll.

I sat on the grass with my back against the trunk of the tree and took my pencils and sketchbook out of my bag, to do some drawing. Axel then swung his bag off of his shoulder, throwing it onto the ground, and sat down in front of me. His left leg was stretched out in front of him while his right was bent with his right arm resting on it. He had a smile on his face as he twirled a few blades of grass between the fingers of his left hand.

"Where did you go on Tuesday? After what happened with Elijah." I asked, remembering all the confusion I had felt as he walked away and deeper into the woods.

"What do you mean?" His brows came together, looking confused.

"You walked the opposite way of the school, and if I can recall correctly, there's only woods in that direction."

His expression changed as he smiled. "I wanted to explore the grounds, that's all." But his eyes were the ones to give him away. He looked slightly worried as he stared at me.

"Huh." I say, unconvinced. I then opened my sketchbook and looked down at the blank piece of paper.

"So, what are you planning on drawing?" He asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know. Do you have any ideas?"

"You could always draw me." He raised his eyebrows and gave me a huge smirk.

My heart hammered out of my chest as I squinted my eyes and leaned in closer to inspect him. "Hmmm, I don't know. I don't wanna ruin my paper."

I sit back with a laugh, Axel joining not too long after. Then all of a sudden, he stopped. I looked up at him while my laugh faltered into silence. His skin was already pale, but now it was completely drained of color, his dark eyes looking threatening as he looked right past me, and at whatever was behind the tree.

I looked behind the tree, expecting to see Jessica or one of Elijah's goons, but no one stood on the other side.

"What?" I ask, looking back to his very pale face.

"Um, I have to go. I-I'll see you in a little bit." With that he picked his bag up and quickly walked away in the direction of the school, all without another glance at me.

I watched him in confusion, as he rounded the corner and out of sight.

I looked back around the tree again trying to see what made him leave, and frowned after finding nothing. What the hell was that all about?

I shouldn't complain that much though. He probably realized or remembered that he shouldn't be around me, and should instead hang out with one of the pretty girls of the school. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm more mad at him or me. Him cause he just ditched me, or me cause I had the audacity to think he would want to be my friend.

I stare down at my blank paper with angry tears threatening to spill. What the hell.