Lost Blood

Chapter 4

            Black tendrils swam across the top of Lyle’s lake. They looked like little snakes, but they weren’t. What they were wasn’t important to me. The important thing was that they were slithering around my feet licking my skin. Shudders went up my legs with each cold touch from the black snake-like things. It was like they were waiting for me, calling out to me. Ready to take me with them. My heart skipped at this thought, and I felt sick as well as clammy.

            A voice called my name. It was a sweet voice that caressed my ears. The black slithering creatures pulsated when the voice called to me again. Slowly, one by one the beasts began vanishing. One of them crawled up my leg and wrapped around my waist. I screamed, and the sweet voice called out again in a panicked tone. The ugly worm that clung to my skin smiled, revealing razor sharp shark teeth, before it disappeared along with the rest.

            “Blair!!” Raven shrieked in my ear. I opened my eyes. Light filled my vision along with three worried looking faces. We were all still in the kitchen; the only difference was that someone had turned on a light, and I was on the floor, my head in my cousin’s lap. She stared down at me, relief washing over her face. “Oh thank God.” I sat up and she embraced me.

            “What-” I began and looked at Lyle’s face. He was looking at the floor, hands in his pockets. The expression he wore was one of careful composure. After a moment he looked at me. There was that spark in his eyes he’d gotten right before we kissed. My heart contracted.

            “We should get you home.” Lyle offered his hand to help me up. Raven walked right beside me. She was upset at me and also that something was wrong with me, but the latter was more important for now. Lyle’s hand was shaking in mine. I wanted to comfort him somehow; however there was something in the way he moved. He seemed like one little move would make him explode.

            Wayne shoved through the crowd ahead of us. The worry on his face when I opened my eyes surprised me, and the way he glanced back at Raven was different than it had been before I’d hit him. Everything was so confusing. That had to be why I’d passed out. There was just too much stress, but I didn’t want to admit that. I was supposed to the strong one in my group of friends. The one who stayed calm and came up with the ideas.

            When we emerged in the cool night air at last everything seemed to lighten. It could have been the weight of the crowd that had made me confused. Out here I knew what I had to do. I slipped out from between Raven and Lyle to approach Wayne. He had his back to me, and his shoulders were tense.

            “You’ll tell me, won’t you?” I asked in a whisper. Wayne faced me. He looked smug, like all the guys at school. But I’d found out that he wasn’t like that. He was like Lyle in a way, but he wanted to hide that fact. Soon enough I was going to have to find out why, but there was something I needed to handle right now.

            “What exactly?” He tilted his head slightly, almost unnoticeably.

            “Why you did what you did in there?” His lips twitched.

            “You mean try to entice your cousin to have sex with me?” I nodded. He continued. “All right. I knew it would get your attention, make you mad.”

            “Okay? Why would you want that?”

            “Because something’s not just wrong with my family, there’s also something wrong with you.” This curse thing was beginning to get ridiculous.

            “What? Am I cursed too?” I didn’t like the fact that I smirked, like I knew something he didn’t. But maybe I did.

            “Heh,” he chuckled. “It may feel like a curse, but there’s more to the story. And no you’re not cursed. It’s something else entirely.” Why did people have to be so cryptic? And anyways this guy was crazy. They were all crazy. Including me, because I’m going to stick around. I watched as Wayne walked away. My vision blurred as I stared at Nicole’s mailbox. Before I realized it I was sitting on the front lawn, crying.