Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 12

Her cheeks are stained with tears. "Haley", she whispers. "You could have saved me."

"Say the rest too!" all too familiar voice commands. "Just like we practiced, love. Don't be shy now."

She obliges and mutters: "You need to tell Nathan that you're seeing me in your dreams. It's no fun to play a game if the other players aren't completely invested in it. Come on, Haley. Play the game. Rules are simple. The longer it takes you to talk to Nathan and get the ball rolling, the more people are going to suffer. You wouldn't want that now, would you?"

The psychotic laugh rings in my ears as the scenery changes again. This time I'm high up on a cliff. The entire city, my city, can be seen from up here. Mist covers the town like a blanket and moon smiles down on me. Everything is serene. But of course that doesn't last for long. Behind me there's someone crying, the sound so hopeless that it makes the hairs in the back of my neck stand out. I already know who I'm going to face when I turn around but I do it anyway. I can't not watch, it's like he's magnetic and I'm a helpless needle to his pull.

That's when those blood red eyes turn to look straight at me like he could sense where I am. "Haley, are you there? I think you are. Enjoying the show, are we?" he taunts. He walks up to a screaming, pleading girl kneeling on the ground and smiles when he says:

"This one's for you, dear Haley. Come find me and stop me."

He looks at her and just like the man from before she seems to be in pain. Her face twists in agony and her screams fill my head as the same pain rips through me, making me shake violently. The man keeps at it until she's too tired to scream, she only sobs. Then, as if getting bored with her, the psycho flips her down the cliff. I can hear her screaming again right before I hear a loud thud and then there's no more screaming, no more crying, no more anything. She's dead. The silence is met with the psycho's words that keep spinning around in my head.

Come find me and stop me.

Come find me and stop me.

I wake up, my throat sore from screaming. This has been happening all weekend long. I haven't slept well in over five days. My sleep has been disturbed by countless nightmares, all less coherent than the previous one. Most of them revolve around that same red-eyed psycho. Now that he knows what I can do, he seems to crave for my attention and does his best to get inside my head. But the more he tries, the less clear my dreams become. Sometimes I only catch a few sentences he says or his victim's face. Tired of watching him torture and murder people I try not to fall asleep but that plan fails miserably. I'm already so drained that I keep nodding off and the nightmares just keep on coming like little mental missiles.

I want to do something to help those poor people but I don't know how to. It's not like I can just walk up to the first police officer I see and tell him that I see dreams that come true. They'd lock me up! And second, I don't know if my dreams show the present or the future. Maybe his sick killings haven't even happened yet. I saw one of his victims face on the paper, she was listed as 'missing'. I'm thinking about sending the police an anonymous message, a description of the psycho doing this. Perhaps he has already had some run-ins with the law. They could recognize him and that could help catching him. But then again in my dreams I've seen him do incredible, humanly impossible things. I doubt that everyday cops could bring him in.

My phone rings and I pick it up. "Hello?"

"So how are we going to do it?"

I frown. "Do what?"

"Kill my brother, of course. I prefer strangling but I'm open to suggestions."

A smile settles on my face. "Drea."

"Damn straight it is. Why the hell haven't you told me what a douche my big brother is? I mean, I knew he was annoying but this is something else. And I'm fairly pissed I had to find out from Callum what he did."

"Callum, huh?" I smirk. I knew Drea wouldn't be able to resist him for long. They have only been going out for a couple of weeks but anyone can see that they are both head over heels for one another.

I can practically hear Drea blush. "Oh, shut up, Haley. That is so not the point. The point is we are going to murder Troy."

Her matter-of-fact tone makes me laugh. "I don't think your parents would take too kindly to it."

"Who cares? Troy has been a complete tool and I'm embarrassed to call him my brother. Honestly speaking, are you okay?"

Am I okay? Hmm, let's see. I can't remember last weekend at all but during it Troy cheated on me, I broke up with him, I slept with Nathan Blood, I lost my memory about all that, then Troy tricked me, I skipped school to hang out with Amy, some psycho has taken a sick interest in me, tried to kill me which caused Nathan Blood to break down my door which led to my mom becoming close to paranoid and made her order three more alarms.

So all in all...

"I'm fine."

Andrea doesn't sound convinced but she knows better than to push it. "Uh-ha. Well, anyhow, are you coming to school today?"

After everything that went down with Nathan and Troy, I didn't feel like facing either of them. I knew Nathan's suspension ended on Wednesday so he'd be at the school. I didn't want to be interrogated about the psycho dude or hear Troy's endless apologies and/or attempts to compel me. I looked it up, it means "to force a person to do something". I haven't got a clue how he does it but considering that I can't remember last weekend, I didn't want to take any chances. So I stayed at home for the rest of the week, telling my mom that I was in agonizing menstrual pain. She didn't question it but I know my time is up. I'm just going to have to be strong.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

"Want a ride? I'll leave Troy's ass to walk."

"What happened to his car?" I ask. Drea and Troy both received a car for their 16th birthday so yes, they both have their own. And I don't have even one car. Sob.

Mischief shines from Andrea's voice. "Someone might have dislocated the master fuse of his car and then hid said master fuse."

"Andrea!" I chide although I'm on the verge of laughing out loud thinking of Troy's pissed off face when his car wouldn't start. Knowing Troy's morning didn't literally start well makes me feel better. But I didn't want to pit Drea and Troy against each other. They are pretty ruthless rivals already. No need to add to that.

"Oh come on, he so had it coming."

"Still."

Andrea huffs in annoyance. "Fine. I'll fix his car when I get home. But today he's going to walk."

"You're the bomb, Drea", I laugh and hang up. I hit the shower and drink three cups of coffee. By the time Andrea comes by to pick me up, my hands are shaking for too much caffeine but I got the result I wanted: I'm wide awake. "Let's get on with the day!" I chirp as I jump to her car.

She gives me a strange look. "Okay, cut down on the caffeine, buddy."

"Will do", I mutter as we ride to school.

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Monday sucks, bad. Troy tries to talk to me but Drea scares him off every time. Nathan on the other hand doesn't even look at me. I try to thank him for you know, saving my life and all that, but he doesn't even look at me when he mumbles that it was nothing. Then he walks away and is nowhere to be found for the rest of the day. It bugs me even though I tell myself that it doesn't matter. That he doesn't matter. I have enough troubles of my own. It turns out that if you miss school just to hide from your love life, classes go on just fine without you. I have a ton of homework due this week and I am NOT looking forward to having to spend all of my free time with my head buried in a book.

"Excuse me", I mutter as I pass Nathan on the stairs on Tuesday morning. I have tried to tell him about the nightmares but I can't come up with the words and whenever I try to talk to him, he just brushes me off like I'm nothing. I want to yell at him, slap him even to get him out of his haze but I don't. I let him go and every time I close my eyes I see the girl from my dream falling, screaming, crying, dying.

He turns to look at me but doesn't say anything.

"So what, you're pissed at me now?" I snap. I guess I got used to him being nice to me so it annoys me when he reverts to the same distant person he has been for all these years. When he becomes Nathan Blood, the criminal, again. Now that I've seen his sweet side it hurts to see him be someone else. I shouldn't care but I do. As weird as it is, I kind of miss him. He feels like a friend. Well, felt at least. Now there's only stern coldness in his eyes where I used to see warmth and concern.

Nathan doesn't respond. It has become his thing nowadays. It's like I'm air to him. He often ignores people in school but after what went down last Wednesday I didn't think he'd do that to me too. But if this is the way he wants to play it, then that's fine. I'll let him go. It's fine, I'm fine.

Just fine.