Something Wicked

Something Wicked [chapter 2]

Holy shizz....I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. It's been what, more than a month? :O

Anyways, really sorry. I've just been so busy lately and I've still got five more weeks before my semester ends -_-

I hope this chapter makes up for it. It's long-ish and sets up several conflicts :3

Readers of the original series would probably be very surprised about how much has changed. I hope you enjoy this and I verily thank everyone for their patience with my crappiness. :)

Oh and what do you think of the book cover? I used CarolinaV's Picasa tutorial in the forums and had a bit of fun doing this lol

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Chapter 2

Ah, summer: my least favorite season of all. The generously hot time of year was just beginning to roll into our small town - the season when the days were too long and the nights were too short. Personally, I liked the night and thought summer's interference with its length warranted my scorn. Too many people go around wishing it was summer vacation and then have the gall to whine about how hot it was when it did arrive. I was more of an Autumn-Winter person. Long, cool nights snuggled up in bed, reading a good book: an introvert's heaven. Another thing about summer - even the sunless nights were hot, humid, and buzzing with insects fresh from their pupal stages.

That night, however, I didn't have much to complain about.

The early summer evening was incredibly cool, so much so that I could see the first hints of my breaths fogging in front of my face. The streets were also darker than usual, the moonlight blocked by an unseasonal cloud cover. Our little group had already parted for the night when we noticed the crowd outside the café thinning. Dinah and I lived on the same street as each other so daily walks were normally the way to go. Alex went...wherever he lived, so that left only me and Dinah to traverse the dark, shadowy streets.

It's not as bad as you may think. Aside from the obviously pleasant company, I rather liked the night. There was a certain feel to it that reminded me of something peaceful and familiar. As many people have said before little old me, there's a power in the darkness, primal and constant. It's something that's been there ever since the dawn of time, even before God blew everything up and ironically created the universe. It beats me why man keeps mocking some people for living in the darkness while they're trying to hide away from it in fear, making their lights bigger and brighter.

Now, if only my perusal wasn't so rudely interrupted. Without warning, an uncharacteristically cold breeze blew by, causing leaves to rustle and branches to scrape against each other, effectively breaking my poetic train of thought, dammit. I shuddered in response, goose pimples appearing all over my arms.

"Oh God, what's with this freaky weather?" Dinah complained, letting out a shudder of her own as she rubbed her arms for warmth.

"It's not that bad," I disagreed, though still annoyed by the surprise. "I really like the cold."

Nonetheless, I dug through my bag and pulled out my favorite black hooded jacket, handing it to Dinah.

She accepted it gratefully and shrugged it on, the sleeves hanging loosely because, "They weren't made for midgets." Dinah elbowed me sharply in response.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" I mocked, grinning fiercely. She simply stuck her tongue out, chuckling herself as she looped an arm around mine.

Nay, my romantically inclined friends, this wasn't an indication of a budding romance between us, just one of friendly affection. Honestly though - been there, done that. Dinah and I had been friends ever since we were in diapers. Her parents were the first people mine befriended and it was uphill from there on. We were practically born into friendship. Doesn't mean we didn't try for anything more, though. We were teenagers, after all, prone to experimentation. We were each other's first kiss and first date. We went to the junior prom together but that happened mostly because we didn't want to go alone and our authority figures refused to let us stay home so as not to miss an "integral part of our high school life." To be honest, both of us would've preferred to stay in and watch a DVD.