Her Curse

Chapter 8 - All Bark, All Bite

   She was back. All of my problems had to come back to school. I'm agitated - no, I'm beyond that. I'm on a whole new level of anger. I can barely control it... Her very existence is a thorn in my side, "Adelina... Adelina..." Luca's voice sounded miles away from me. Thoughts of Ginger and all the pain she's caused me and my friends swirls through my mind like a hurricane. I'm drowning in the rage and pain.

   "Adelina!" Lucas shook me and everything came rushing back to me: music class, rehearsing our music, I have a guitar, Lucas has one too, but why is everyone staring at me in shocked silence? 'You don't think they heard our thoughts right?' The voice in my head actually sounded concerned for once. Are my thoughts that dark?

   "Adelina... What was that?!" Lucas's face lit up as the rest of the class began to clap. 'What?' The voice is as confused as I am. "What? Huh?? What are you talking about?" I look at Lucas in complete confusion. All of a sudden, I hear a recorded guitar solo. A guy walks up to me and shows me the video playing on his phone, and to my surprise, its me playing the solo with my eyes closed. I heard that song before, but I can't remember where exactly. The guy walks away and turns up the volume more, allowing everyone else in the classroom to hear my solo, some students started to dance while others bopped their heads. I look over at Lucas, who was dancing around and trying to get me to join in on the small party we had started.

   I took his hand and pulled him closer to me. "Lucas, doesn't that song sound familiar to you?" I said in a low whisper, I'm not even sure why I whispered that. Lucas smiled at me and answers, "Yeah, babes. It's your favorite song you listen to after something makes you angry. You don't get angry often though, so I'm not surprised that you didn't recognize the song." Lucas then looks at me with worried eyes and pulls me close by my waist, our lips only inches apart. "Is something on your mind?" I looked up at him as the thoughts from before trickled back into my mind. Her royal pain, all of the rage I felt and didn't let loose, all of it. I had to tell him.

   "I was thinking..." The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I was distracted by how close Lucas was to me. Suddenly, I'm frantically trying to grab at my thoughts as I try to tell him. "About..?" Lucas's face was steadily getting closer to mine, making everything I thought about before disappear into thin air. If only my rage could disappear with my thoughts as well. "I-... Um, I-I was thinking a-about Ginger and everything she um.. She did before." I am too distracted, I can't even hear that pesky voice in my head. Everything around me sounds muffled, like I'm underwater.

   Lucas tilts my chin up gently as his lips ever so gently brush over mine. "Don't worry about her anymore. We won, and now she wouldn't dare bother us again.." Lucas said that in such a low, soothing tone that it sent shivers up my spine. I know he tried to reassure me, but this time it didn't work. His voice had hit me, but his words didn't ease my rage. Lucas closed the distance between us, at that moment everything around us became a whisper. I couldn't hear the music, the party, or anything, everything was fading away from me except for Lucas. He was the only solid thing I could still hear and feel in that moment.

   After what felt like an eternity, I had to break the kiss. I was getting too absorbed into him. I look up from his lips and meet his gaze. Suddenly, I hear Ginger's sharp words in my head, 'This isn't over, Mutt!' I looked away from Lucas. I know she's up to something, I can feel it. But, what is she planning, can I stop her, and who is she planning on hurting? I don't want her to hurt Lucas or Chase. Why does she target us? We didn't do her any harm before, and now it's an ongoing war every time we walk into school.

   "Hey..." Lucas gently places his fingers under my chin and tilts it so that way I'm looking at him again. "Let's play another song. It'll get your mind off of Ginger for a while." He smiled softly at me and kissed my forehead before letting me go and grabbing his guitar. It felt cold without his touch, but I brushed it off and readjusted my guitar. "I know just the song." I smirked at him before strumming my strings. The recorded me suddenly stopped playing as Lucas and I began to play together. A girl sat at the drum set and started to play along with us. Every student in the room started cheering and dancing already as our music teacher looked at us. I think he's just pleased by the fact that we're playing songs. For the rest of class, we played songs and danced, we had fun, and I had let my problems fade from my mind for a while. At least until the bell rang.