Shuffled: When the Cards Talk You Must Listen

Chapter 9 The Rarr

Upright: Wild Energy. Pure Potential

Reversed: Loss of Control, Misunderstandings escalate

I closed my eyes and the sounds of the other student's faded into to the background as I tried to focus on my breathing.

In 1, 2, 3
Out 1, 2, 3
In 1, 2, 3
Out 1, 2, 3
In 1, 2, 3
Out 1, 2, 3

I must have been saying this out loud because a warm solid body leaned against me on my right. The heat from him, sent a shiver down my spine in an almost pleasant way, warming me in a calming way all the way to my core. The deep voice it was attached to whispered into my ear and I shivered a very different way.

"Scared of storms?" That voice filtered through my racing thoughts, and sounded familiar but not at all, like it had been years since I heard it. It held amusement, like the owner was smiling at my distress. I didn't look up nor did I stop my breathing exercises.

I just shook my head fervently. I didn't want to talk. If I talked I'd probably end up blabbering, or blubbering, or worse vomiting. A panicked squawk ripped from me when someone on my left practically fell over on top of me. His weight was considerable as was the mass of the body. My head popped up and was meet by Jerry's mischievous green eyes, and his smile grew wicked.

Suddenly I couldn't control my breathing, I couldn't control my heartbeat. I felt dizzy and it was at this moment I realized just who was on the other side of me. I swallowed before twisting my body around to look up at Cein, his silver eyes were almost kind, but I could tell they were withholding something. My stomach did a strange little flip. I didn't know what to do. I hadn't been this close to him before, just the passing glance and a smirk sent my way.

Like so many others in this town he felt oddly familiar. Like we were long lost friends. I knew we weren't. Were we? I'd have remembered him. Right? I really should have remembered those eyes, his smile .... his smell. He smelled like campfire and rain and I wondered where he had been yesterday during football practice.
I would remember him right? The planes of his face though cast in shadows reminded me of someone I just couldn't quite put it together. Something about him made my head feel woozy.

Those eyes though, they held me captive, it was looking into a pool of mercury, or smelted silver, the dark ring around the iris was the char from the smelting. I was frozen, and a flash of another time when I'd also been trapped in a crush of people. Another time I'd seen eyes like his, but not his, eyes like silver pools. Eyes that belonged to an ancient woman who gave me tea and told me about how I needed to listen. So much of that night was so fuzzy but that woman's silver eyes have haunted my dreams for years now.

Now here I was looking into his eyes but seeing hers. As a huddled in the dark crowded basement at a school I've just barely started going to, most likely surrounded by his friends that I very much did not want to be around his eyes were the only things I could see.

My trance was broken when Jerry threw his arm around my shoulders and shook me playfully.

"So the princess has come to us for once, how exciting!"

The glee in his voice was almost friendly, like he wouldn't hurt a fly but the way he held my shoulders conveyed another meaning. It felt possessive, and intruding, suffocating, like I was being violated. The calm I'd managed to find with my breathing and the trance from looking into Cein's eyes popped like a bubble and a paralyzing fear crept up into my chest once more.

"So sweetie, now that we've got you cornered how about we have a little chat."

Jerry may be the court jester of this group but I remembered the warning from Kelli and Daisha. None of these guys should be taken lightly, they were all dangerous in some way or another. I could plainly feel the power of his physique as he pulled me in close to his side.