Anything For You

12: What's Going On?

-Natalie's POV-

I froze. Everyone who was getting ready, bustling around like the busy museum subjects they were, decided to stop and stare at me as I entered, covered in snow. I probably looked like a wreck.

"What?" Silently, everyone turned away and went back to their busy lives. Sacagawea approached me.

"Come on," she said. Without waiting, she slipped away. I followed her, but it was really hard. She slipped like water between people; I believed they didn't notice her. I tried the same, but I ended bumping into Ciara.

"OOF! Oh, I'm so sorry, Natalie." She did a double take. "Natalie? Have you seen yourself lately?"

"What do you mean? No, I haven't." She took me by the arm and lead me over to Sacagawea. "What? What did I do wrong?" I asked. Ciara placed her face in her hands.

"Just take a look at yourself." Then she gasped. "What? Natalie? What is this?" She placed her hands on my arm. When she pulled them off, one was gold and one was bloody.

"What is this, Natalie? You walked in, covered in blood and gold dust. What did you do? Did someone hurt you?" Sacagawea asked urgently.

"No. I don't know what happened! It wasn't like this in the car!" I exclaimed. I looked at my arm. My shoulders were covered in blood, and at my elbow, the blood stopped in a perfect, neat formation. A straight line. Golden dust dusted the bloodsplit and ended at my fingertips.

"I'm going to wash it off. Ciara, can you help? I dunno if there's any on my back." Ciara accompanied me to the bathroom, where I grabbed a handful of paper towels and stared at myself in the mirror.

I looked like I had killed someone, and dumped a sack of sparkly flour on my head.

I soaked the paper towels in water and began to viscously scrub the blood and dust off my arms and shoulders. It streaked the pulpy brown paper, and it stung my skin, which itched from the material sticking to it.

Sparkling blood.

I had read a book called that. World ended the moment someone drank the sparking blood. Everyone died.

It went something like that.

I yelped, and I gave one final yank of the paper towels across my raw skin. They were scraped and pink and normal. I had used a whole entire roll of towels. Whoops. At least I got everything off.

"Natalie? Do you know what that was?" I shook my head.

"Excuse me, I'm going to change." Ciara nodded and exited.

She had her hair braided into a halo. I saw a mark at the top of her dress.

***

-Lily's POV-

Cara had dared me to see how the presentation went. My cousin was superbly demanding; I supposed I would get used to it.

Like, in a million years.

I had tickets to see Ed Sheeran. I wanted to see 5sos play, but Cara thought they were ugly.

Cara thought so highly of her friend Natalie. Natalie seems like a jerk. All fancy in her jacket and carrying a dress. So I tiptoed up to her. She was humming a tune out loud. I placed the capsule mixture I had brought for the job, and stepped back to admire my handiwork. She would never suspect me. She didn't even know me. All I knew was that I'd better go see a doctor soon. The mental sickness was getting worse.

I turned my back on the place.

Best let Cara think everything went fine.

***