Colored In The Sky Blue

(6) X: A Week With Kieran

Oops, I lied, climax must be next chapter. Shit, this is a lot of work.

I ended up staying at Kieran's place for a while. My mom didn't really care how long I spent away, since I had my own car.

Kieran insisted I sleep in the same room as him, but Derek insisted that I go home. I chose the guest bedroom a couple doors down. The room across from me had a bed chained to the wall. I didn't ask questions.

Day One was the weirdest day to be in that house. Kieran was back and forth in his stupid comatose state, and Cherish and Derek would periodically check on him in between their extremely scary games of Wii Tennis and Wii Boxing. Hot cocoa was made every thirty two minutes because they ran through the stuff like diarrhea. When the couple wasn't gaming or drinking chocolate, they were literally sparring with each other in a room with red paint. Probably to hide blood.

The weirdest part that made me question my own sanity? The lack of real food in the house. Save the three boxes of pizza from the day before, and the cabinet of hot chocolate and cheese puffs, there was nothing except blood.

Blood, what the hell am I supposed to do with blood? I took a bag and sipped some from the clipped opening. It tasted like metal, and the inside of my mouth might have been crying.

Exploding laughter came from behind me.

"What did you think it was gonna taste like, NatNat?" Cherish asked.

"I don't know, fucking candy maybe."

Monday was stupid too. We all went to school. I went by car, the vampires went by tree. It was real life Twilight, the two leaping from tree to tree and racing ahead of me.

As the day went on, I tried not to think about Kieran. I couldn't think of what he would be doing without anyone there with him.

Was he still sleeping, completely cut off from the world? Was he up trying to figure out what "We fucked up" meant? Was he on the phone, chatting with that guy Constantine I had seen in my vision?

How the heck did I know his name was Constantine? Who was that guy anyway? Why didn't he see that Kieran was out of whack before he passed out and sorta died?

I didn't have any daydreams or nightmares of Kieran the whole day, and when we returned to the Halloway Brothers' home, he was still sleeping, though he looked a little healthier.

Tuesday I spent preparing for Wednesday. Derek said that in order to keep staying with Kieran, I had to give up the goods. The goods being blood, don't be weird people.

I donated a pint and a half to Kieran. Hopefully, he would feel better.

He did. By Wednesday afternoon, he was spamming my phone with urgent messages to come quick. I'm not gonna say I was excited that he was up. I didn't even like him like that. I rushed home though.

He had dressed himself good, and opened the house door for me before I even really made it to the porch.

"I'm glad you're okay," I mumbled quietly. Still don't wanna give off the wrong message. "Where is Derek and Cherish?"

"Ehh, I didn't call them," he said while smirking. "I wanted to spend some time with you know. Ya know, while I am awake and stuff."

He took me by the hand, slammed the door closed without locking it, and whisked me away to what I would call the Music Room. I recognized two guitars, both belonging to Cherish. There were keyboards, and two pianos, and a bunch of cords and amplifiers.

We sat down at a piano, one of the big ones you would see in a church, and he began plucking away at keys. The sound was pretty and delicate and I couldn't relate one bit.

"C'mon, play with me," he commanded playfully.

"Yeah, no, I don't know how."

"Ahh, but everyone knows Heart & Soul."

Yeah, the song was familiar. Maybe I heard it in a movie. That did not mean I knew what buttons to hit. I did not know how to play.

"Here." Kieran stopped playing. He put his hands to both sides of my forehead and left them there. Mentally, it felt like someone was poking my skull, and it tickled.

He removed his hands, and his eyes were wide.

"What were you doing?" I asked.

He didn't say anything. He shook himself back to Earth. "Uhhh, I was gonna teach you how to play. Temporarily give you the knowledge. But ummmm, something...." He didn't finish that thought though I stared at him in an attempt to make him. "Here, lets try this song."

The melody changed from tap tap tap taptap taptap taptap tap tap tap, to something more like tap tap taptap tap tap taptap tap tap tap tap taaap taaap.

I'd definitely never heard this song before, and I definitely didn't know how to play piano, but I hit the next three keys with ease and skill. At least, that is how he put it.

What was this song? It left an itchy feeling in the back of my mind.

Thursday was fine, almost normal, but Friday came too quickly. Cherish had to go home for the next three to six days. We might be aged teens, but most of us still had parents.

That meant Kieran and I had a huge giant, maze-like house to ourselves. Again, we are teenagers. What do you think we did?

We ordered pizza and played Wii all night, of course.

Weird thing happened. I saw William walking around outside the property lines. He looked lost. He was looking for a cat or something probably. Or so I thought, but then he reached out, and a bright white light shined in front of him. A clear figure walked into the light, and William followed. He was gone.

It was the following Tuesday that I stole some cocoa from their cabinets that morning and dipped out. I didn't plan to stay so long. I had gotten so caught up in Kieran I had forgotten that I didn't really like him.

But that happens to everyone, right?