Lie To Me

Truth Serum

Chapter 18

I got up after several other attempts to sleep. When it wasn’t an image of him haunting me it was the actual memory. I guess this was why I decided to simply stop sleeping. How could I when I just kept seeing the same scary things over and over.

Walking through the room I noticed that my feet were a little wobbly, it was either that or my vision was seriously blurry. I walked unto the balcony and leaned against it for support. Looking down I saw the ground spinning. What . . . ? I brushed it off as a side effect of no sleep and decided to dwell on other things. There was nothing much to do here since everyone else had gone to sleep so I figured I would head over to Cassidy’s. Sure it meant seeing Demetrius but it also meant that I would have company to distract me from my thoughts. I clung to the railing then looked over to see if any branches were close enough to my balcony. As luck would have it there was one . . . or two . . . three maybe and they were all going around in a circle.

“Okay, concentrate Jamie, you can do this.” I told myself before taking a deep breath then lunging forward and grabbing hold of whatever I could. When I hand grabbed air I knew I hadn’t hit my target. I guess the fall wasn’t that far down . . . I hardly felt anything; though that might have been from the numbness I had noticed setting in since a few days ago. Most things that I should have felt I didn’t. I brushed off the fall and slowly made my way up to Cassidy’s house.

              When I got to the Guard House I paused to catch my breath. The walked seemed longer than usual and it really was a work out. I leaned against the wall and thought of the fact that at that very moment someone was on Guard Duty, controlling the flow of creatures in and out of the mythical world. The thought was quickly eroded when I saw Mr. Carlton leaning against the wall, smirking at me the way he did that night.

“No . . . please. Stay back!” I warned, while stepping back slowly. T-this wasn’t real . . . He took another step towards me and stretched his hand towards me. I screamed, not knowing what else to do. I couldn’t let him hurt me again.

“Jamie what’s wrong?!”

I whipped around and saw Cassidy, looking really alert. I clung tightly to her; she had to be able to save us. I didn’t want him to hurt me again. “Wait, what are you doing here?”

“H-He’s here!” I managed to spit out. My whole body was going numb with shock and I could feel myself shaking; it was probably anticipating his touch. I shivered at the thought.

“What? Who’s here?” couldn’t she see him?! He was standing right next to us; smirking like he knew all my dirty little secrets. I pointed over to him just in case she was blind in the dim light because he was clearly there and clearly wanted something. When I pointed over at him he took a step towards me and stepped closer to Cassidy. He was too close . . .

Cassidy sighed. “Great, now you’re hallucinating. Come on, let’s get you inside.” She said patiently as she led me towards the steps. Hallucinating? I wasn’t hallucinating—he really was there and he really could have hurt me! Cassidy took me to the front porch and I saw the dreaded short flight of stairs. Once again my eyes decided to do a dance and it made the stairs seem as if they were all over. I tried to judge it right but ended up tripping and falling. Looking up I saw Cassidy roll her eyes. “You’re just as pathetic as Demetrius, you know that?”

She heaved me up then went painstakingly just to ensure that I wouldn’t have tripped again. Inside I found Demetrius sprawled out in the couch looking as if he was drugged. He looked over to the door to see who Cassidy had taken inside and sighed when he saw me.

“Jamie didn’t I tell you to go to sleep?” He asked, feigning patience.

“Didn’t I tell you to go hunting?” I shot back. I wasn’t the only one neglecting my needs. He was totally out of it because of his lack of energy and as a result he keeps getting hurt. At least my not sleeping didn’t have as great an impact on me as not hunting had on him.