The Deluge (On Hold for now)

Lethal Abilities

  I sighed and wiped a bead of sweat off my brow. I was resting a while from our annual spring cleaning; it was a bit late. Usually at this time I’d still be sleeping. This was my punishment for the previous Sunday. I sighed as what happened replayed in my mind. The dreams were prevalent; I couldn’t shake that look. I kept imagining hands around my throat, cutting off the air supply. I freaked my parents out with the ear-splitting screams.

  The words registered in my mind as he continued to stare me down. I took an uneasy step back as Arianna stood frozen as a statue beside me.

  “Excuse me?” I asked. I was supposed to be a statement. I was actually trying to use the nice version of, ‘Get out of the way, you idiot!’

 I flinched as a loud rapping sounded on the door; oh joy, my mother was here now.

 “I’ve got to go,” I said mainly to Arianna. I tried to go around him but he backed up and closed the door with the lock. 

 I backed up again and felt my hand trembling. “My mom is here for me.”

 His face cleared up a bit as he looked from Arianna to me. After a long while he moved away from the door. I practically ran, my trembling hands slipping over the lock.

 The door finally opened and I faced my mother wide-eyed.

 “P-pl-lease, can we just go?”

 After a long moment of staring inside the house, my mother nodded and led me to the car.

 The doorbell rang, taking me out of my reverie. I sighed and stood; tired from my punishment.

 “Yeah,” I asked, doing a double take as I saw who it was. “What are you doing here?”

 “I wanted to ask why you weren’t at classes with Madam Lagash.”

 I never expected Jared to keep up his ‘civil to Trisha’ act. I particularly avoided him, his sister, the tree and all its craziness. I thought he’d go back to being cold and harsh after what happened Sunday.

 “How do you know where I live?” I ask suddenly. I noticed that I didn’t tell anyone where I lived and they all seemed to know.

  He smiled strikingly and shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone?”

 I raised an eyebrow. “Well, we’re cleaning so bye,” I said closing the door.

 “I don’t think you should be stealing my act,” he said holding the door open. “Besides don’t you want to know about your aunt and uncle?”

 I released my grip on the door; they sure knew how to make me curious.

 “Who was at the door?” my mother called from outside where my father was post-spring cleaning grilling.

  I gulped. “No one.”

 Jared grinned and mouthed ‘liar’ while I gritted my teeth. How he changed so quickly, I’ll never know.

 “You can’t tell me anything I don’t know. My uncle died last summer.”

 His face clouded over. “Do you know from what and where?”

 “He died from dehydration at the beach. What? Do you know more than I do?”

 He nodded and I sighed going out onto the porch and closing the door behind me. I sat on the porch swing and folded my arms, waiting for him to start talking.

 “Last year summer we had a major drought, remember?” I nodded and he continued, “Everyone planned to do something about it. Your parents weren’t eager to do so, they actually knew of the danger. Your mother tried to talk her brother out of it, but, he enjoyed praise and wanted it for himself. As all of us know, you shouldn’t attempt something like this on your own. He tried to pull the water from the beach-mixing it with the water in the body-“