"The Sacrifice:;The Sacrifice Trilogy"[Book 1.]

8.Up In Flames

When we land, Jake and I are still kissing, and I pull away hesitantly. "Woah, well that was..." I pant out, searching for the right words to describe that kiss. "Intense?" He asked, smiling. I nod, taking a look at the beautiful blue ocean in front of me. I noticed that the ocean has a barrier around it; impounding it so it doesn't rise up and hit us. Braiden abruptly closes her eyes; waves her hands in the air, and then a yellow-ish orange portal appears in front of us. An identical image of me sits on the porch of my Malibu home: brick brown stairs line the entrance and if I didn't know any better, I'd say that the girl in the blue light jacket and copper pants was me. However, that's not me and I smile at my twin sister sadly. Twins: how is that possible? We don't even have the same birthday for crap's sake! She appears to be fine at first glance, save the depressed and lost look on her face; she's fine. I'm honestly confused as to why mom sent us here, until I see the most disgusting creature with no face and slits for eyes wraps its...[can you even call those arms? They just look like holes] around her and snap her neck. My reaction is swift as I literally leap into the portal, and I think I hear Jake and Noah's frantic pleas for me to wait, but I can't.

All I'm seeing is red and the words; kill, kill, kill are a mantra in my head as I approach the creature. I grab on to the roof of my house, trying to support my legs so I can hit the creature with them. Before I can do that though, this surge of power envelopes me, coiling around me like a snake. Reaching out, Alana plunges her hand in its chest so deep that I don't understand how the creature's not howling in pain. However, my undeclared wish is blissfully granted when Alana takes out her hand with the creature's heart now in it and the creature lets out a blood-curdling scream. quickly, Alana runs over to Hayden and cradles her head in her non-bloody left hand. Producing a black energy from her palms, she guides it into Hayden. Suddenly, Hayden rises up, choking and wheezing.  

Panic seizes me as Hayden's brown eyes flutter open. "Can she see us? I don't want her to see me like this," I tell Alana frantically but she waves me off and huffs as she replies, "No human can see Souls, Savannah. We have an invisible force field around us that humans cannot penetrate. I could almost laugh at your naivete," she mocks, just as Hayden asked weakly: "Savannah? Is that you?"  Well, crap on a freaking stick! What the hell? "Who's naive now, princes?" I taunt.

"Why is this such a bad thing? Our sister can see us," I say in an attempt to coax her out of her irrational behavior. She scowls and remarks rudely, "Surely you can't be that dense? Oh, wait, of course you are. The only way a human can see a Soul is if they're being controlled by one-" she lets out an insane laugh- "do you have any idea who could be in possession of our dear sister here?" Alanna asked me.  

"Alexander," I gasp out, desperate for air. She clicks her tongue as she responds snidely, "Ding-freaking-ding! Would you like a gold star, or stickers?" She rolls her dramatically as Hayden's own eyes bug out eerily and turn an ocean-blue color. When Hayden sets her eyes on Alana, she immediately lunges; catching us both off-guard. Hayden released a black energy from her hands at the same time Alana released a blue wave of energy, and they collided together. As they swirled, mashed and overtook one another in a huge ark of white beautiful light, everything froze and Hayden's black energy hit the ground with a loud smash!

However, Alana's victory was short-lived as Hayden threw a fireball from her hands at her, hitting Alanna square in the chest.

* *

Jake

My horror-stricken eyes could do nothing but watch while Savannah's unconscious body was carried into her home, and as the grey door closed behind Hayden; I thought, well this is just great! My...[girlfriend?] just got kidnapped by her possessed twin sister. What else could go wrong? And why the hell did I just ask that? Whenever somebody asks that question, something always goes wrong! Nearly falling to my knees as the portal disappears, Noah keeps me upright. "We need to tell Adelaine what's happened; maybe she can help," he recommends and I nod mutely. The only woman I've loved has been taken from me-and I won't-I freaking can't let her be taken from me again, not after last time and definitely not after what I did to her. Alexander knows too much; he will utilize this against me for my insubordination of his rules.

So as I walk down the curved path to Adelaine's house with a very-somber Noah and an annoyed-Braiden, dread tightens in my chest and threatens to suffocate me.

* * *

Adelaine's house comes into view and she's standing on her doorstep with this foreboding look on her face, as if she can sense what happened. With one finger, she literally lifts us off the ground and into her home, hitting our heads on the wood floor; hard. "Uh, ow! You couldn't have been a little softer on the landing there, Laine?" I ask, using the nickname I gave her one-hundred years ago when I met her. "Nope, sorry hon," she replies with a none-too-apologetic smile. "Now, all off you sit tight while I try and fix this hideous mess." She rolls her eyes as she walks away.

Noah looks sympathetically at me, whereas Braiden looks bored and like she couldn't give a crap about any of this. I understand why; hell, I was there to bear witness to all that occurred with Braiden in their past meeting- all the horrible and disgraceful things Savannah put Braiden through-but she doesn't remember any of it, how long will Braiden hold that against her? That was one-hundred years ago! Just as I was about to ask Braiden what her problem is with Savannah, a high-pitched cacophony of screaming insults my head and brings me to my feet: the pain is now a million knives cutting into my brain. Some sort of gravity literally pulls me from the house, totally not of my own free will and I huff angrily. Deafening shouts and screams erupt from the house suddenly, and the whole place is up in flames!