The Immortal's Gamble

Chapter 4

As our feet pounded on the pavement with the wind in my hair, for the first time in years I felt so alive. Arden had kept true to his words, nimbly grabbing the car keys from Alex and sending him to get more sauce. Within seconds, we were running towards the car. 

"Will he be mad at you?" I asked after we were done laughing at Alex's bewildered face as we made our great escape. Taking a deep breath I tried to calm myself but Arden's infectious laughter made me burst out into another round of giggles.

"Nah he'll be fine. Come on, show me around. I'd rather hear from you than him." His face glowed with excitement as he drove.

I shook my head amused. "I don't have siblings so I didn't have any chance of interacting with others this way. Are you guys always like this?" He nodded and I laughed quietly.

"So Lil' brown, tell me about yourself." He turned to me with a grin, letting out a laugh at his nickname, I shook my head.

"Eyes on the road mister." I chided as he remained facing me while driving and he chuckled.

"Come on.." He prompted with his eyes on the road now.

"I'm 18, we'll be attending the same school, and... I'm your next door neighbour." I grinned and he laughed.

"Not that kind." 

"Well, how about the fact that I can see people's death." 

That would obviously be the wrong thing to say. So instead it ended up becoming, "I bake and come up with recipes of my own at Level One."

"Level One?" Confusion in his voice.

"It's a café at the town square. A rather small place but it's homely." 

"Oh right, you told me you worked at a cafe. Go on." He nodded in recognition.

I rolled my eyes, a smile hanging on the edge of my lips, "Well, I love the ocean. The blue sea and sand. Dad used to show me pictures and documentaries. But I've never been before." I trailed off quietly, playing with a stray piece of string along the hem of my shirt.

"Anyways, moving on, what about you?" I pretended to wave off the bad air and turned to face him since he was driving.

"Well, on the flip side of what Alex mentioned, I'm not heartbroken but I'm-" His words cut off as I jerked forward, everything happened in slow motion.

Arden's arm shot out in front of me followed by the sharp swerve of the car. My neck snapped from the force and I winced.

"What the hell was that?" I shouted, turning to him with wide eyes, my heart was pounding furiously and my neck was starting to feel sore.

"Stay here. Don't come out of the car." He warned, getting out of the car.

It took a few seconds before it registered that there was a person lying on the street. My hands shook as I opened the door, and before I knew it, I was standing beside Arden.

"What's going on?" My question giving way to a gasp as I saw the horrible burn marks on the man's skin. His arms and neck were contorted in inhuman ways

"Laura!" Arden exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock that I was next to him. Pulling me into his chest, effectively blocking the grotesque sight.

"I think I feel sick," I muttered closing my eyes, his hands automatically going to rub my back as he guided me towards the car.

"Are you better? Stay here alright? I'll call the cops and we'll go home." He spoke sternly.

"I mean it, Laura. Please, stay here okay?" His voice softened for just a second before he turned and his posture changed. His face turned to stone, cold and he walked towards the body.

Why would anyone do that to a person? It was just too cruel. The way his arms and neck were contorted in that position. I wondered if it happened before he died. From the car,  Arden speaking on the phone his body language not giving any hint of fear or surprise. I closed my eyes hoping to get the image out if my mind. It wasn't something I would like to dream of tonight.

"Are you okay?" The sound of the door opening and closing, and I opened my eyes to see grey ones reflecting concern. Not trusting my voice I nodded. "I've called the police and they want us to wait here till they arrive so they can take our statements properly." I nodded again.

"What about Alex?"

"I've given him a call and told him what happened. He wanted to come down but I told him not to, we'll see him later."

I sank further down into the seat. We would be stuck here for god knows how many hours, with a dead body in front of us.

"D-do you think you can back up a little away from the body," I whispered, keeping my eyes on the body. He made a sound of agreement, all the while I kept my eyes on the chest of the body. Even though he was dead, it was really weird to think that his chest would rise and fall as any other sleeping person would.

It was too much to comprehend, thinking back on the chain of events of the day as Arden reversed the car. I tried keeping my eyes closed or on him. He had such beautiful eyelashes, they would surely be the envy of all the girls in school.

"Hey, Arden." I tugged at his sleeve since his attention was at the back while he reversed the car. He made a sound of acknowledgement without looking back.

"What do you think is going on?" He gave me a look and I shrugged.

"There's a dead body in the middle of the day in this small town. It says a lot."

"I guess so, it really is a small town. But don't worry alright, everything will be fine." He assured me with so much confidence, as though there wasn't a dead boy just a few feet away from us. 

I looked back at the body again this time my eyes caught on the flashing numbers above his head. 70~80. Impossible. He looked barely in his forties, and here he was not breathing. Then I saw it. The numbers started disappearing and reappearing. 30~40.

"No way.." I felt my jaw slacken, things like that definitely don't happen. There is no way.

"Laura?" Arden started, but was cut off by a siren. We both looked up at the same time to see 3 police cars an ambulance and several other cars trailing behind. So much for keeping a low profile.

As we got out of the car, we were swarmed by a group of reporters flashing their cameras and shoving recorders at us. Thank god for Arden. He blocked all of them and marched right up to the officers.

"You the kid that called?" An officer called us gruffly as he came up halfway to meet us.

"Yes? Can we go now? We've been here for almost an hour." Arden calmly told the man while keeping an arm around me, otherwise, I would have melted to the ground.

"Tell us what happened first." The officer directed us towards his car away from the crowd.

Arden started telling him what happened before we were able to leave. Even though the body was now wrapped up in a body bag. I couldn't get the image out of my mind even as we drove away.

Soon the adrenaline of finding a dead body started to fade and I found myself dozing off.

"Sleep, I'll wake you when we reach." I had barely registered his words but at the sound of the word sleep, I was out like a lightbulb.