Rift

Chapter 3

"So we saw Cassandra Lake on our way to the caf. Her nose was banged up real bad," Luca said before he shoved some chicken and noodles into his mouth.

"She being her usual, pleasant self again?" Artie asked; as he spoke, Sophie stole the rest of the spring roll on his plate and popped it into her mouth. Artie shot her a dirty look, but she just shrugged and continued eating her food; those two never failed to make me smile, they had such an odd sibling relationship.

"When is she not? She and her army of bimbos have done nothing but terrorize us since we were little, I just figured it was time for a little retribution," I said.

"Sawyer the Warrior!" Luca laughed, putting his fists up like a boxer and fake punching my shoulder.

"I guess..." I said, picking away at my food. I tuned out for a while, staring intently at my food and thinking of the look on Cassandra's face after my fist had made contact, the minute she realized she was bleeding pretty profusely, or the look on Sophie's face as I pinned Cassandra to the ground; it was fear. I didn't think I could be brutal or that crazed, but I guess my lack of sleep could help to explain it, even if it was not a very good explanation to begin with.

I could hear the man's voice inside my head, whispering to me as I ate and telling me horrible things I didn't want to hear whenever I looked at Luca, or Sophie; Artie wasn't even exempt from the horrors within my head. I kept shaking my head and blinking away the images and trying to erase the thoughts from my cluttered mind but it just wasn't happening.

After we ate, I decided I would go home and take a nap. Sophie was right, hurting people was not like me; hell, I used to cry after I caught anything whenever my Dad took me fishing. No matter how much I hated Cassandra, punching her and seeing the blood pour from her nose felt wrong. Luca had offered to walk me home and I didn't want him missing anymore class; whenever one of us felt like skipping, usually the others would tag along. I would have loved to spend the afternoon with them, but I needed some time to think.

I blasted my music as I walked, keeping time with the rhythm of the songs my iPod shuffled through as I went. Everyone has their ways of dealing with things, and mine was music; I know that's not unique to me, it was just so helpful whenever I was stressed out. There wasn't much time for music though because school was only about 15 minutes from my house, and as soon as I had run up the stairs to my room, tossed my bag on the floor and kicked off my shoes I fell onto my bed, not caring to remove my headphones. Music colored my dreams in such a powerful way that I hoped maybe I would not have to have the recurring one again if I just listened to the right stuff; I eventually drifted off to sleep listening to the sweet sounds of Hedley.

I was on the ground; it was cold, wet and smelt terrible, like something was dead, but I could not see it. Above me, his eyes shone the brightest blue I had ever seen, though it was not a pleasant blue. This blue was sinister, unlike the blue of the ocean or the sky. The ocean could not be evil, but the sky was filled with it.

I could feel him closing in, but I did not know from which direction he would attack me, so I ran in a straight line, faster I believe than I had before I'd fallen, though I could not tell. After a few minutes of running, I came to the edge of a very high cliff, with a river running at the bottom of it; I could see the sharpness of the rocks even from this height. There was no escape; Thaddeus appeared in front of me, grabbing hold of my arm and dragging me back towards town, and though I was not as strong, I freed my arm and ran back to the edge of the cliff. Anything was better than living with Thaddeus Flint constantly lurking over your shoulder, watching you from the dark corners of the night.

"Think of the consequences of your actions. Have you any idea what this would do to your mother?" he said, inching towards me and taking careful precautions not to fall over himself nor get close enough for me to grab him and push him in.