The Dragon Within

Chapter 1

"What are you just standing there for?" a naturally thunderous, yet incredibly annoying voice came from his doorway. I turned to see my brother, Daxx, leaning on the frame, Dark hair a mess and eyes scarlet from just waking up. I glanced at the clock, 4:30 p.m.?

"Well evidently, being more productive than you, some of us don't have time to be sleeping all day" I sneered at him, throwing my hood up and pushing past him, at the same moment I bumped into a random girl in only a baggy t-shirt and pink lace undergarments. She was shorter than me, with a dainty and slender figure. She fiddled with her brunette ringlets; her brown eyes still big with shock. I stood there awkwardly looking at her fawn colored skin glimmering in the light, I glared back at my brother.

"Really another one? Let's see how long this one lasts." The poor girl; after that statement, She looked so pained looking back at Daxx. My brother must have somehow pulled off the whole "I'm a good guy act" and got exactly what he was looking for out of her. Daxx pulled her in for a kiss but his eyes were focused on me and solely me, it's like I could hear everything he was thinking, and it was cursing every letter of my name.

"Don't worry about her sweetness, she's just being a brat as usual" Daxx kisses her forehead and then parades back into his malevolent man cave. The girl turned, gave me a final uncertain look and disappeared; my shoulders shuddered. What a man-whore! watch I bet there will be a new one by tomorrow and then I'd never see the one from today ever again. Shaking it off, I carried on and walked out the front door and headed for the horse stables about a half mile up the road. As I walked a few paces I heard mother yell for me, and I took off running outside towards the neighbors.

Mr. Fredric Davis lived there with his niece and my best friend Abbie. They lived in a huge two-story cabin like house, with deep cherry colored planks and a giant forest green metal roof. They even had a porch and upper balcony that surrounded the floors, two porch swings perfect for late night giggles and star gazing; I envied them some days, I loved it. Abbie came to live with him after both her parents died in a car crash; she doesn't talk about them much.

I came up to the driveway and was greeted by Fredric, smiling ear to ear.

"Well it's nice to see you again Marie" Fredric greeted me with a big smile and a giant bone-crushing bear hug to match it. I smiled back and asked where Abbie was, and he pointed toward the barn. I ran there and was not at all surprised to see Abbie talking to her Pinto gelding Socks, whom acknowledged me with his usual high pitched whiney and nodding of his big head.

"Oh, hey Marie!" Abbie jumped down from the stable and hugged me even tighter than her Uncle did, who in the world knows how that's possible but it is.

"Hey, I thought I'd just stop by. I couldn't stand to be in that house anymore, I even ran into yet another victim of Daxx's evil charms" I wiggling my fingers spookily, glanced over at Abbie who for a second, looked dreamily off into the distance and then snapped back like a light switch. She has always had a crush on Daxx, but she doesn't think that I know.

"Well was this one at least pretty?" she piped up and tossed over a leaf of alfalfa to Socks. I stood there for a moment, thinking on it.

"Yeah she was pretty. She looked like a Latina princess, but thankfully she wasn't like the last one, that was just freaky." Literally the chick had a grungy style to her but not the cute kind. She wore red contacts, looked like she didn't shower, and she looked like she wanted to eat me. I'm not even kidding she came out of Daxx's room and looked at me and the first word out of her mouth was "Yummy" and I slammed my door in her face.