Animegas (Editing)

May I Have This Dance?

I pressed a cool cloth against Thomas' forehead. He's been in a coma with a nasty fever ever since his encounter with Damean. Katie and Greg went into town for some supplies. Erik was hunting, leaving me to take care of Thomas. We all agreed to head a little farther west and build a house. We would use it as our main headquarters and rest until the Guardians called for us again.

Thomas stirred as I turned the cloth over. He groaned and tried to sit up. It had been a little over 2 weeks since the "accident". I helped him sit up and leaned him against a pine.

"What happened?" he groaned.

"Damean."

Fear flashed in his eyes, but was quickly replaced with confusion."Who?" I explained to him everything that had happened. I told him everything about my dream to what happened after.

"Wow," he chuckled. "That was some adventure." I smiled and started a small fire, heating up some leftover stew from last night.

"Hey Thomas," I said, handing him a bowl of stew, "What did Damean do to you? You were screaming and writhing on the ground. What happened?"

He swirled his spoon around in the bowl, not taking a single bite. "He made me...see things."

I sat down next to him. "What kind of things?"

He refused to meet my gaze. "My worst fears. My greatest desires molded into monsters. They were all saying the same thing."

"Want to tell me?"

He shook his head and shoved a spoonful of stew in his mouth. Okay, he didn't want to share some personal stuff. He has his reasons and I won't pry. Erik returned a few minutes later, a buck and a few squirrels in hand.

"Hey," he chuckled, "looks like Sleeping Beauty decided to wake up."

Thomas peered over at the buck. "God Erik," he joked, "did you plan on sharing any of that deer with us?" I noticed a gaping hole in the buck's stomach. Some animal had chewed out some of the deer. Obviously Erik had gotten peckish.

"If I remember correctly, Sleeping Beauty needed true love's kiss in order to wake up." Erik waggled his eyebrows at me.

I gave him a playful shove. "You forgot the part where it was a Prince that delivered that kiss. NOT a dirty fox girl."

"A dirty fox girl who can kick Furie butt," Thomas added.

"And who came back from the dead," Erik agreed.

"Who doesn't know any weakness."

"And also is a fashion disaster on legs."

"A dirty fox girl who needs a haircut."

"And a shower."

I rolled my eyes. "At least I didn't need a fox girl to save my life and nurse me back to health."

Thomas shrugged. "She pinned us both on that one."

"She still needs a shower."

"And you need new jokes," I pointed out.

Katie and Greg arrived an hour later. They both carried bags full of clothes and food.

"Finally!" I exclaimed, "I needed new jeans. Mine are stained with Furie ooze."

I reached into a bag full of clothes and pulled out a long blue dress that was my size.

"Uh...Katie, what is this?"

"It's a dress."

"Ya, I noticed. But...why?"

She held up a flier.

Mazeville's Summer Dance

FreeAdmittance.

I sighed, "Why? Of all things, WHY a dance?"

She shrugged, "I thought it would be fun. We could pretend we were normal. Just for a night, please?"

"Katie, I am NOT putting on a dress and going to a dance."  

~*~

I stood in front of a large building. There were people of all ages pouring into the building. And me? I was rocking on the balls of my feet, trying to hold back the nausea. My feet were already blistering from the sandals Katie had bought.

Speaking of Katie, her blond hair was pulled back into a long braid. She wore a sparkly red dress and black flats.

Greg's hair was in it's usual spiked position, but he wore a white buttoned shirt and black slacks. Erik, who had refused to wear a tuxedo, wore a white shirt with a denim jacket and jeans. Katie somehow talked Thomas into wearing a black tux. Everyone except for Katie, who was bouncing with excitement, dreaded walking inside. When we continued to refuse, Katie blew us into the building, making my curled hair even more wild.

Alright, she got me to wear a dress and go to the dance. But there was NO way I was dancing. Katie dragged Greg onto the dance floor. Poor kid. So, 3 out of the 5 musketeers remained.

A group of teenage girls stood at the other side of the room. They were motioning in our direction and giggled their heads off. I suddenly became very self conscious. Where they laughing at me? Was there something wrong with my dress? After their giggle-fest was over, 2 girls about my age walked over to the table where we were sitting.

Both of them were pretty, even with the masks of makeup on their faces. One was a brunette and wore a dark green dress. The other was blond and wore a pale pink dress. I could hear them whispering to each other.

"You ask."

"No you."

"Do it or I will tell everyone about your face lift." What the heck was a face-lift?

"Fine."

The blond turned towards Erik and Thomas, ignoring me completely. "Hey," she said shyly, "My friend and I were wondering if you two would like to dance."

"Um," Erik looked at me, "Sam, is that alright with you?"

'No,' I screamed in my head, 'don't leave me alone!'

I shrugged, "Sure, go ahead. Have fun, I'll be okay."

The guys let themselves be dragged away onto the dance floor. They disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone. My eyes strained to find any trace of them. A flash of spiky hair, or a twirl of a red dress. A denim jacket or maybe even a mop of black hair. I didn't see any of that.

I sat at that table for hours, staring into the blob of people and listening to the beat of the music. The clock on the wall told me it was nearly midnight. The crowd slowly began to disperse but still no sign of my friends. They couldn't have forgotten about me, could they?

There, a flash of messy black hair. I dashed towards it, glad to see the familiar black mop. Finally I had found...Damean. Now I panicked, why was he here?

"Hello, Samantha," he said, a small smile playing on his lips.