A New World

Chapter 11: Too Weak

Yellow eyes.

That's all I could see in dark room I was in. These eyes kept my full attention as they moved through the blackness. With every second that passed by it seemed like they were getting closer. I tried to take a step back but found myself flushed against a wall. There was nowhere I could go as the yellow eyes moved closer. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest as fear consumed me. A sliver of light suddenly appeared a few feet in front of the yellow eyes and my own eyes widened as I watched a large black cat step into the light.

Tears streamed down my face as I realized that this was the same cat I had killed. This was the cat whose life I ended to feed my hungry stomach, as if reading my thoughts the cat let out a loud growl and bared its teeth at me.

Suddenly there was red everywhere, it streamed from the cats face and ran down its front legs, flooding into a pool around its feet. But still the cat growled at me, acting as if it has no idea its hurt. Lowering itself to the ground it let out one final growl and launched at me.

I lurched forward, my heart running a thousand miles a minute. My breath came out in little pants as I scanned my surroundings. Instead of seeing complete darkness like in my dream only a moment ago, I was welcomed with trails of sunlight leaking in from the outside. Wiping the sweat off my face I took a deep breath. The dream had felt so real-.

"Morning, sleeping beauty." Came Jace's voice from across the cave. I lifted my eyes to meet his and was surprised to see a flirty smile set upon his handsome face. My heart sped up again but this time it wasn't because of fear.

"Hey Jace, you the only one up?" I asked as I looked around at the rest of my team sprawled out around the cave. Arrow was laying on a small blanket to my right, one arm under his tiny pillow. The blanket that was covering him only went to his knees it was so small. This brought a laugh out of me.

"Yeah we're the only ones up." Came Jace's voice again, causing me to look back up at him. " I woke up about ten minutes ago, had to go to the bathroom." The way his face heated up after he said that was the cutest thing I had ever seen.

"Did it go well?" I couldn't help but tease.

"Actually it did." He cracked back with a chuckle. Before long we were both laughing and joking around. A half an hour went by like this and still the rest of the team stayed asleep.

"I think we should start packing our stuff, everyone else should be waking up soon and then we'll be heading north." I suggested, standing up and folding my blankets. I was about done when I felt a weight on my shoulder. Suddenly I was turned around and came face to chest with Jace. Until this moment I hadn't realized how tall he really was.

"I want to do something but you can't hit me when I do it, okay?" Jace's voice was soft as he spoke. The hand that had been on my shoulder was now cupping my left cheek while his other hand rested on my right hip.

In response to his question I stood completely still. I didn't know what else to do or how to make my body move at all. But this seemed like a good enough answer because his lips curved into a tiny smile and he started to bend down.

What was he going to do?!

My mind was racing as his face got closer to mine. His hot breath fanned over my face and he wrapped his right arm around my waist, my breath was caught in my throat as I stood there frozen in place. Seconds that felt like centuries passed by as I waited for his lips to touch mine.

That's what he was going to do wasn't it? He was finally going to kiss me after all of these years? I had dreamed of this moment since the day I had turned eight and he, being a big nine year old, helped me up after spraining my ankle and carried me all the way to the doctors office. That was the day I found out that boys didn't have cooties and that I had the biggest crush on Jace Dannon. It was a pretty big stepping stone in my life.