Dark Sight

Chapter 7

"You know, you don't need to do this," JC says as we walk down the beach, towards a bonfire set up in the distance. A crowd gathers around the bright flames, dancing to a band set up metres away from the crashing waves.

"It's fine." I force a smile onto my face as I move my gaze to his face for a brief second. His dark hair getting caught in his wire frame glasses. "Anyways, it gives me a chance to get away from that circus. By the way, is it safe to put the band there?"

"Yeah, they always set up here." He laughs as he diverts his gaze towards the instruments set up in the sand. It's uncanny, but the waves never seem to go anywhere close to them. I guess they know how close to the water they can set up.

I move my gaze from the band to the teenagers around the bonfire and almost choke when I spot the boy with shaggy brown hair from the coffee shop. Still alive. Maybe the vision I saw hadn't happened yet, but a chill rushes through my body as I watch him. He's no longer wearing the baggy band tee, instead, he's dressed identically to the six teenagers that surround him. I stare at the group of teens, the sense of dread building in the pit of my stomach. I have to confirm my fears. I have to find out a way to coincidentally bump into him.

"Are you alright?" JC looks at me. "Do you need a drink or something? Or maybe we can just leave."

"I'm fine." I try to convince him as I quicken my pace, trying to change our direction towards the coffee shop boy.

I have no idea how I'm going to do this, especially when I don't want to draw unnecessary attention to myself. But I can't ignore this feeling. Even if it's only my over-working imagination, I need to find out if anything creepy is going on.

"Well, isn't it the girl from the freak show." A boy steps out in front of me, hands on hips. HIs dark hair falls carelessly over his dark eyes as he stares at me with a piercing gaze.

I suck in a breath as I recognise the boy standing in front of me. The image of him getting back up after being hit by the car still plays on repeat in my mind. I want to believe the video is a fake, otherwise, how can he be standing in front of me now?

"Toby, just back off," JC says. "Come on Sera, ignore him."

"Hey, that's not nice. You should at least say hello since I'm the reason you're here, isn't that right." A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, Sera. " The boy flashes another smile as he takes a step towards me and hisses in my ear, "After all, we're going to be spending plenty of quality time together."

"Come on, Sera." JC hesitates for a moment, his eyes quickly glance at my hands, before he shoves his hands in his jacket's pockets and continues walking.

I race to catch up with him and when we're far enough from the boy, I ask, "Who was that?"

"He's just someone from this town. Since our parents are friends, I've been forced to associate with him since moving to this town."

"What does he mean he'll be sticking around us?" I ask.

"Well, he created some cheesy movie that led to you coming here." JC shakes his head. "And now Dad's organised for him to be a part of the show."

Wanting to desperately change the topic, I ask, "So, what's happening here tonight?"

"It's nothing special. Siren's Song puts on performances like this nearly every week. I guess it's just something to do in a town that has nothing else."

"Everyone seems to love the music." I look at the crowd in front of the band, moving in a synchronised, hypnotising rhythm.

"Yeah, for as long as they've been here I haven't met anyone who doesn't like them."

I move my gaze around the writhing zombies, in search of the coffee shop boy. He stands amongst the crowd, not dancing, not moving, just standing still as though he's waiting for something to happen.

"Well then, do you wanna dance?" I ask, thinking about the best way to divert our movements over to the boy.

"Sure." JC holds out his hand, and I reluctantly accept his offer, thankful that I remembered my gloves today.

He tries to lead me to a spot in front of the bonfire. Instead, I manoeuvre him towards the boy. Moving around in front, I stumble backwards and knock into the boy, ensuring a part of my bare arms come into contact with his skin.

I suck in a breath as I prepare for the same pain and suffocation that I witnessed earlier today, but instead, there's nothing. When our skin makes contact, it feels as though all emotions and sensations have been sucked out of me and replaced with a soft, static hum that fills my entire head.

"Sorry." I jump away from him and suck in another deep breath as I see the dark smoke-like trail twirling around his leg and snaking up his body.

"What's the matter? Is it the music?"

"Sorry, guess I'm not made for dancing." I flash him a smile, hoping the previous panicked look has been wiped off my face.

"I didn't ask about the dancing, I asked about the music," he says in a monotonous voice, his eyes remain transfixed on the singer.

I dart my gaze around the crowd, and for the first time, take in the expressions of everyone on the dance floor. Except for the few teenagers dressed in black -- coffee shop boy included -- all gazes focus on the singer standing at front of the band. Her high-pitched wails sound like screeching cats about to die. Why would anyone like her?

No matter how bad she is, everyone is transfixed on the one spot. Yep, just like zombies, infatuated with the singer.

I shake my head. "Would we be able to leave?" Another horrible feeling settles in the pit of my stomach, but I feel like testing my dangerous theory. "I can't listen to this any longer."

He looks at me for a moment as if I'm a foreign entity before turning back to the singer. "No, we should stay. We can't leave before the last song."

"What's wrong with it?" a voice screams from my other side. "She's pure genius. What don't you like about her?"

A give a quick glance at the screeching from the stage. "How can you stand it?" The words leave my lips before I realise what I'm saying.

"Daphne's the best. There's nothing better in the world than Daphne." He grabs my arm and yanks me towards him.

I take a sharp inhale as something hard hits me on the back of my head, almost sending me crashing into my assailant. I right myself before my legs collapse beneath me. My gaze moves up to the boy still grasping my arm. A dark shadow lingers around him, sharp claws wrapping around his neck. Two deaths in one day, what the hell is this town? But, did the last one even happen? How do I know if what I'm seeing is real anymore?

I yank my arm, but the more I struggle, the tighter his grip becomes, and the more my head throbs until dark patches start to blink in front of my eyes.

I dart my gaze over to JC for help, but he is still looking at the band. Somehow, I don't think he's going to be much help to me then.

"Don't you dare disrespect her," the boy screams, spit flying out of his mouth with each word.

"I didn't... I..." I struggle to reach into my pocket to grasp the can Jensen gave me, but the bodies crowding around me makes it impossible to move.

The world spins as my vision begins to blur, I stretch my fingers of the hand being held into the boy's jacket pocket -- hoping that he's not paying attention to what I'm doing -- and try to find something, anything, that'll get me away from this lunatic.

Finding a smooth plastic object, I pull it out to reveal a lighter, and shove it in his face. I try to light it without much success.

I know it's useless to keep trying to light it, so I wrap my fingers around it and jerk forward onto him before giving one last yank as I pull all my weight backwards in a quick movement.

My hand pulls free from his grip, and I immediately spin around and start pushing through the crowd.

"You think you can do better?" Another voice screams behind me.

My gaze darts around the bonfire, scared of who's calling me now, and stumble as everyone's eyes are no longer on the singer. Everyone's now looking at me, each with glazed over expressions.

"Daphne," the crowd repeats in hushed voices. Their chants growing louder and louder each time they repeat the one word until it becomes a thunderous roar drowning out the still pulsating music.

Not knowing where to go, my gaze dashes around the area. It's an open space, and if all these people turn out to be like the guy who grabbed me, then I'm definitely dead. Yep, that is out of the question.

Spotting a small building nearby, I know I have to make it to the building and find a way to keep these nut cases away from me. Okay, maybe I should have taken Jensen's advice about staying home tonight.

I dash towards the building, pushing through the crowd of crazed zombies. Flashes of death and pain slams into me as I barge through the crowd. I don't care who the flashes come from, or where their death shadows are hovering, I just run.

I see the sign hanging on the wall beside the open door and my heart races. The toilets. Yeah, not exactly a glamorous hiding place, but I'll take anything at the moment.

As I reach the toilets, I slam the door shut and fumble with the luck, but it refuses to work. I rush to the other side of the room and stare at the door, waiting for the mob to break in and tear me apart. If I get out of this, I won't mutter another bad word about anybody, especially horrendous singers with a massive cultist following.

Nothing happens.

I cautiously approach the door and turn the handle. It refuses to open.

Turning around, I lean my back against the door. I grab my phone out of my pocket and look at my whole three contacts. Asher, Harper or Jensen. Well, it's not like I could call Asher and Harper would probably be with him so that's also a no. Jensen told me he'll be an hour away, but do I really want to get a lecture about going out when I don't even know what the hell is going on?

I sigh as I drop my phone back into my pocket. I guess I'll wait.

The dingy room only has two stalls, both unoccupied, and a single basin with a dirty and scratched mirror hanging on the wall above it. On the wall across from me hangs a hand dryer with a fraying cord plugged into the wall.

Water drips down my face. I swipe the drops away and look up, expecting to see a hole or damp spot on the ceiling. A large mass of moving water clings to the white wood above me. I jump away from the door as the pool drops to the ground. I stare at the mass of dark water as it slithers and shifts into the recognisable shape of a girl. The singer from the band. Oh crap, something tells me she's definitely not human.