A Dance With Death

Dream A Little Dream of Me

I turned right onto our long drive way that led to our mansion. The mansion had been modeled after a Victorian mansion, with grand gardens, a rose garden and even a large pond. The house was a bit extravagant for my taste and a bit too large to fit our family if I was honest, me, my parents and our cook lived in a house big enough for at least ten people. Our cook was an old friend of the family and was like a uncle to me,  he always looked after me when my parents were away on business. Which was a lot. I didn't mind though, when they were home they always made sure to spend as much time as possible with me and when they were away they'd call me at night. I parked in the garage, shouldered my bag and headed inside.

My parents were on a business trip to New York and wouldn't be back for two more days and our cook , Mr Dumfreind, seemed to be out as well, which meant I had the house for myself. Now unlike most teenagers I didn't instantly run around trashing the house, I had never understood why people did that. Why destroy something you worked hard to make?  The first stop I made was too the kitchen, I  had skipped lunch in order to get some work done on a five page essay due on Friday and I was now paying the price. I grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl and a muesli bar from one of the cupboards, just as I was about to leave the kitchen I turned around and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. Then after finally grabbing what I needed I headed upstairs to change into something more comfy. I jogged up the grand staircase in the middle of the foyer and went to my bedroom. I threw my bag and the food stuff onto my double bed and headed to my walk-in wardrobe to get some clothes. 

I rummaged through several things until I found a pair of jogging shorts and a hoodie to wear. After quickly swapping clothes I booted up my macbook to check my emails. I took my laptop over to my bed and unscrewed the cap of my water bottle, after taking a swig I logged into my gmail account.  I found several emails from various private schools offering me free spots and other various invitations to big social events but what I was really searching for was ... ah, bingo! A letter from Cameron. 

Cameron was an old childhood friend of mine who had to move to L.A with his parents for some kind of corporate deal his parents made. We talked weekly over the phone but our main communication was through emails. Now unlike most emails which were only fifteen sentences long, ours were more like chapters from a book. 

Cam had always fitted in at the schools in Riverside, unlike me. But he was always saying that I would fit perfectly at L.A private schools, I seriously doubted it. I didn't doubt many things with Cam but that statement was ridiculous. I hated arrogant, snooty people, especially then ones that had money and shoved that fact down people's throats. I was probably a bit harsh and quick to judge people but I didn't really mind, that was just one of my bad qualities. And that wasn't even one of the worst.

I had a long list of bad qualities my worst one probably being that I was drawn to just about anything mysterious. This included a certain black haired boy that I was now stuck next to in several classes.   My other really bad quality is that I interfered with things I shouldn't. My parents corporate dinner last year for example. I had of course been invited, I was after all their daughter and had  some of the best  manors in town but what they hadn't thought of was how easily I could read people. 

Their had been a man their who was hoping to get my parents to buy his company but he hadn't told them that it was going down and was near bankrupt. I had somehow picked up on that, which led to that man being blacklisted in the business community. One thing you never try to do is rip-off a member of the Emerald family, no one trusts you after that. Ever.

As I was pondering my bad qualities I had finished Cams' email, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the last line, a line he wrote at the end of every email.

Any guys caught your interest yet ?

Me and Cam didn't have any romantic feelings towards each other and we never would, Cam wasn't attracted to the opposite sex and was currently in a rather happy relationship with his boyfriend Josh. I was happy for them, and that's why talking with Cam about guys wasn't awkward, although I never had before. None of the guys at school had ever interested me in anyway.  Well, until now that is.  I decided that telling Cam about that certain black haired boy wouldn't hurt, maybe he could figure him out.

Yes, actually there is a guy that interests me, although obviously not romantically in anyway, shape or form. He's new at school, dresses in head to toe black, and has dark burgundy eyes , although if I'm honest they could be black.  He's different from the other people in my school though, there's something dark about him. Something Dangerous. 

That should be a good enough a description for Cam, heaven's if I couldn't figure this guy out then the only other person that could with so little information was Cam. Just as I clicked the send button I could faintly hear banging coming from downstairs. Mr. Dumfreind must be back, I placed my laptop on my desk and went downstairs to help Mr. Dumfreind. I looked at the family portraits as I walked through the hall to the stairs. Every generation of  the Emerald family was in one of these portraits, right back down the line to the nineteenth  century.  These paintings alone were worth millions. I sat down on the staircase handrail and slid down, a habit I had from when I was still younger and couldn't be bothered to walk down the stairs. 

Mr Dumfreind looked at me disapprovingly, whilst he juggled several grocery bags in his arms. I giggled at the predicament he was in and took two of the bags out of his arms and carried them into the kitchen. I set them down on the counter and turned to Mr. Dumfreind as he placed his bags on the table too. 

"How was your day at school? I heard a new boy started school today" Mr Dumfreind asked unpacking one of the various bags. He pulled out a bag of bagels and I grabbed it out of his hands whilst walking past him to the fridge to grab butter.

"School was fine, same as usual really. Your right about the new guy." My voice changed to a slightly darker tone at the last part and of course just to my luck Mr. Dumfreind had to pick up on it.

"And this new guy is ...." he prompted me to continue as I smothered my bagel in butter. I sighed, I really wasn't in any mood to explain to Mr. Dumfreind about Damien but I guessed I needed to say something.

"He's tall, dark and mysterious and I'm most likely going to, be stuck next to him in every class." My tone was clipped and Mr. Dumfreind seemed to get the message I didn't want to talk about Damien, which I was thankful of.

"Dinner will be ready at 6 and don't ruin your appetite with that bagel!" Mr Dumfreind yelled as I ran up the stairs the bagel clasped between my hands. I grinned as I bit into the  bagel and fell onto my bed , laying there contentedly.

**

Dinner seemed to have dragged on for ever but I was finally able to excuse myself and finish that last bit of homework I had and now with that out of the way I could do something much more important: My painting.

I had been working on this painting for months, mostly because I never had time to sit down long enough to do a lot of work on it but it was nearly finished now, I just had to finish the moon. The painting depicted a dark forest which was lit up by little, blue, glowing creatures and plants, giving it an eerie blue glow, the moon above shone down on it through a cover of clouds. The painting had been one of the most difficult paintings I had attempted to create to date. It had been a fun project though, challenging but fun nonetheless.  Now as I added the final touches to the moon and then  stood back to admire it I couldn't help but feel content. 

Alas all good things had to end eventually and when the grandfather clock in the hall chimed 9 I realized I still had to shower. So grabbing a fluffy  black towel, I stepped into my bathroom starting my evening routine. 

It was sometime later that I curled into my bed exhausted. Drifting off into a sleep plagued by dreams and a certain black haired boy.

***  Dream ***

I was standing in the middle of a grand ballroom, in a red ballgown covered in black lace. As I glanced around there was only other person in the room I could see, Damien. I took a step forward but found myself unable to move. Damien turned towards me and started walking over to me.  He stood in front of me smirking, it was a smirk that said he knew something I didn't. It was a smirk that scared me.

"Where am I?" I asked him my voice shaking even to my own ears. "You know were you are" Was all he replied. He glanced behind me and frowned. I tried to turn my head but it appeared I couldn't even move that. I began to panic until shivers went down my spine and  I heard shoes click over the marble tiled floor. The footsteps I realized belonged to Damien, who had walked away from me in my moment of panic.

"Who are you" I called out to him. He looked back at me with a sad smile.

"You don't want to know." and with that he simply vanished.