Prologue
I don’t know my last name. I don’t know my parents. I only know two people. Shayne. And Rylie.
Shayne: Poor, helpless. Lives in the minivan, but has been mine and Rylie’s best friend since I can remember. I think it was around the time my mom died that we met.
Rylie: best friend, has been forever. I don’t remember when we met. All I know is that Rylie’s aunt takes care of me. I’ve never met her or seen her and I don’t think she knows I know.
I’ve kind of learned not to ask about my parents or my last name but it sometimes weirds me out that I met Rylie and Shayne at almost the exact same time. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a movie and everything in my life happens on the directors cue.
Chapter 1
I heard screaming. I felt a knife. I smelled the blood. I could taste the smoke. And as for seeing, it was like it had never existed.
I sat up in bed not really sure what I was going to do if I was being stabbed or if the house was being burned down or even if someone was bleeding to death, all I knew was that I had to see. I sat up right starring at the wall. Everything had stopped except the screaming. I was so confused. I looked around and Rylie was tossing and thrashing about in bed.
“Rylie! Rylie wake up!” I screamed.
Suddenly a force strong enough to knock me over swept through me. Again I heard the screaming. Only this time I felt fear, I smelled the popcorn, I tasted the cheerios I had just eaten (wait I hate cheerios) and this time I could see, I saw the door and the kitchen and now the hallway. I appeared to be moving getting closer to a bedroom, our bedroom, mine and Rylie’s. All of a sudden I stopped moving and was immediately back in the room, Rylie was still thrashing and Shayne stood in the doorway. We stood starring for a while then Shayne screamed “Charley what the hell are you doing you’ve got to wake her up!! Wait, what are you doing on the floor!!!???” Even though Shayne was yelling at me to do something she was standing still as a statue in the doorway. We stayed like that for a while longer. Then Rylie screamed again but this time it was a high-pitched ear piercing scream. That snapped us out of it.
“Rylie, Rylie snap out of it!” Shayne screamed, running over to Rylie and shaking her very violently.
Still a little dizzy from the weird moving sensation, I stood and moved my way over to Rylie’s bed.
“Shayne stop you’re going to hurt her. Stop. STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Rylie wake up. You’re just dreaming, wake up.” I said calmly, not really sure it was going to help. But it did, Rylie sat up with a start, panting heavily.
“RYLIE!! YOU’RE OKAY!!!!” Shayne yelled, throwing her arms around Rylie in a great big bear hug. She looked very close to tears; she always had been an over-reactor.
“What the fudge is going on here!!! It’s 3:00 in the morning!!!!And what the heck is Shayne doing. Get off me!”
The second Rylie began talking I let out a HUGE breath. She’s done this before. One time, she went into a coma for 3 weeks. Shayne and I thought we’d lost her for good. She gets so lost in her dreams you just can’t pull her out of it sometimes. She always explained her dreams to us; they usually were basically the same. She was blind and being chased by something that wanted her blood. She was usually being chased through a burning city, after they got her blood (we still fail to know how they end up getting it) they have to burn her because if any blood got on the ground it would give the under worldly being (most call him Lucifer) more power, if he gets enough it might be the end of our kind as we know it.
The only thing is that it can’t be just anybody’s blood; it has to be a certain kind. It has to be . . .
Vampyre Blood....
Chapter 2
“What happened this time Ry?” I asked. We were sitting on her bed; The Spill Canvas was playing softly on her iPod. I felt the bed vibrate a little, I looked over, and she was shivering.
“I wish Chan would hurry up with the tea, I’m freezing!”
“Rylie, I know you’re cold but don’t try to avoid the subject. What happened in your dream?”
“Okay, fine, I guess I’ll talk, it started out as a pretty peaceful dream it was snowing and Danny and I were playing outside, we were having a snowball fight and I ducked behind my wall but when I came up I couldn’t see and Danny was yelling “Run Rylie he’s after you. Run while you still can” so I did exactly that I ran.
Then all of a sudden I was lying on my back, screaming. I felt a knife digging into my chest right where my heart is. I tasted smoke, it felt as though I had put too much in my mouth at once only food doesn’t grow; the smoke was growing filling up my air to the last little bit. I smelled blood, my blood and the blood of the others dying in the flames surrounding me. The pain in my chest was getting stronger, sharper. The next action felt like it wasn’t complete-able by one person. Someone was holding the knife, still putting great pressure on my chest and another person was shaking me by my shoulders hitting my head on the ground, it felt as though they were trying to throw my head off. Then I saw the light, only it was in the form of a person, she reminded me of you, Charley, she had your voice and your face, and then I woke up.”
I must have had a pretty horrified look on my face because once Rylie looked at me her expression turned worried.
“Char? Charley, you okay?”
“Did you say ‘you felt a knife digging into your chest right where your heart is’?”
“Yeah? Charley what’s wrong?”
“And that you heard screaming and tasted smoke?”
“Yes, Why? Charley you’re scaring me”
“You smelled blood.” I stated the last thing very definitely, not as a question.
“Yeah, I smelled blood; I just told you that Charley this is really freaking me out WHAT is GOING ON???”
“Oh, it’s nothing, I’m just going go see how the tea is coming along, maybe make some popcorn.”
The truth was it was something, a very big something, I could feel it. I wasn’t sure what it was, I just knew I didn’t want to freak Rylie and Shayne out, until I knew exactly what it was.
Strangely, I had just had the WEIRDEST sense like I’d lived that myself. The weirdest thing is even if this was déjà vu it was an unheard of kind of déjà vu. A kind that put you in someone else’s head before the event that you saw took place. Before it came to life and was written in history. Like. . . Like a premonition.
Chapter 3
“Soups on!” Shayne came in the door with a tray of food and a very large smile on his face” You’ll never guess what happened in the kit----.” Rylie and I must have looked pretty horrible because the second he saw us the tray hit the floor.
“OMG!!! What is the Matter??”
“Oh nothing,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Rylie was just telling me about her dream.”
“OOOOOOO tell me, tell me, tell me!”
Rylie repeated her story. I didn’t really listen the second time, I couldn’t manage. It was just too much for me to bear.
“Whoa, that’s creepy” Shayne said sarcastically and without much enthusiasm. I don’t think he really gets why we were so upset.
We put in Twilight and watched it until the sun started to set, when it did, we paused the movie and got dressed and ready for Rylie to go to school, get the assignments, then come back here and teach Shayne and I. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and screamed.
On the mirror was a message.
Dear Charley, (how do they know my name!?)
We are very aware of the ‘visions’ you get. We are aware of Rylie’s dreams and Shayne’s powers of the elements (WTF are they talking about now and How do they know their Shayne and Rylie!?) Tell them we are watching and can strike at any moment.
The message on the mirror freaked me out. A lot. Going out to the desk to get some paper to write this down I noticed something carved into the corner of the tile counter
Run Rylie he’s after you. Run while you still can
Now I was panicking. Somebody was after Rylie and/or Shayne and for some strange reason I felt it was my duty to keep them safe.
Chapter 4
I grabbed a towel from underneath the sink and with one fell sweep of my arm all of our ‘bathroom needs’ were in it and I was tying the top in a knot, and running out the door to pack my suitcase.
“Get your stuff. We have to go.” I said grabbing my suitcase and wildly throwing my clothes into it. Rylie and Shayne just stood there looking at me with the expression of an idiot, or maybe I was the idiot, either way we had to get out and as far away as possible from this school.
With my bag packed I moved on to Rylie’s. “Chan, will the van start? Does it have gas?”
“Charley, what’s going on? Why are we leaving?” that was Rylie she worried a lot and she was most definitely worried now, I felt her worry, but not in the usual way. Just by the look on her face you could have felt it, but this feeling was like I was the one worrying, like I was the one about to burst into tears.
I was now moving on to Shayne’s few little things she kept in the bedroom in case it got to cold in the van, and then she could just come up and not have to worry about a sleeping bag or a new change of clothes. Unlike Rylie, she reacted.
“CHARLEY, DROP THE STUFF!” she screamed running over to me and grabbing my wrists,
“NO WE HAVE TO GO! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!” I said struggling to free my wrists. It was then that I realized I was crying. Large wet tears plummeted down my cheeks.
“CHARLEY SCHUYLER STERLING, What the HELL is going on!!!!???” She yelled again, only this time RIGHT in my face. She made eye contact and her eyes became daggers staring me down.
“I…..I….” I stammered, collapsing to my knees, putting my head in my hands and sobbing.
The next thing I knew Shayne and Rylie were around me trying to comfort me. Rylie and Shayne loved it when I cried because I tried my very hardest to keep my feelings bottled up around them, I felt that if I cried I would worry them and they shouldn’t be worrying about me, I should be worrying about them. I don’t know why I think this it kind of feels like my destiny to watch over them. It sounds cruel, that they like to see me cry, but they are just glad that I can let my feelings out around them. They told me once, “Charley, we feel like you don’t trust us, like you’re afraid to release your inner self in front of us, that you think we might embarrass you”, I told them “no I’m just not a very emotional person”. The truth? The truth is I’m VERY emotional, I’ve cried myself to sleep every night since my mom’s death, but like I said I feel like I shouldn’t worry them they should worry me.
“Charley you can trust us. What is the matter?” Rylie was crying now, she was trying to hide it, though, I could tell.
“Um, I’ll tell you on the way out, get your stuff, and DON’T leave this room without me!” I immediately regretted yelling at them once I saw the look on their faces. “Sorry I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, there is just something weird going on and. . . . .It scares me.” They looked at me like I’d just committed a crime. I was never scared, or really I never showed it, truly, I was always scared. “I just need a minute.” I said after a moment of silence.
I ran into the bathroom and immediately hurled up the muffin and six bowls of corn flakes I’d had for breakfast.
There was blood everywhere.
Chapter 5
Blood.
It was splattered on the mirror, the pale white towels were now a deep shade of red, almost a scarlet. I turned back to the mirror and there in the middle was a big onyx stone, hanging from a silver chain. At that moment the door flew open and Shayne and Rylie burst in. At sight of the blood Rylie fainted and Shayne screamed. It was a high-pitched scream. Vaguely reminding me of the scream we had heard from Rylie earlier that night.
“Rylie!” I ran to Rylie’s side and tried to lift her onto my lap. Meanwhile Shayne was what we call “having a moment”. It happened a lot when something that was so unbelievable it was more likely that a watermelon would grow in the Sahara. For instance: now when there was blood all over our bathroom. She walked towards the towel rack and put her back against the wall sliding down, apparently not aware of the fact that she was sitting in a puddle of blood. Her eyes were fogged over and she was whimpering. Suddenly there was a flash of light and I was somewhere else. Somewhere I didn’t know. Rylie was no longer on my lap and I couldn’t see Shayne anymore. I could see blood and a broken window. I could smell the ocean. I could feel the pressure and the air being sucked away. I could taste the salt water. I could hear splashing, and the screeching of car tires, the screaming and sobbing. I could feel . . . nothing. My body was completely numb. Then somebody called my name.
“LOGAN?! NO Logan please!”
“It’s okay Jordan. It’ll be alright. Don’t worry about me, now. Just go, go to Boulder, Colorado. Your cousins are there they will help you—,”
Suddenly I was back in the bathroom, Shouting “What?! NO! What will my cousins in Boulder, Colorado help me do? What does it all mean? NO! NO! NO!”
Rylie, still unconscious, had begun sliding off my lap. It was then I realized I was shaking and tears were streaming down my face. I looked through blurry eyes at Shayne who was still against the wall, eyes completely glazed over.
Just then the towel that Shayne was clinging to caught fire. I screamed.
Great, I thought, here I am in the middle of a blood covered bathroom with no idea why I’m supposed to go to Boulder, Colorado. A towel just caught fire out of nowhere. And one of my friends is unconscious and the other is somewhere else, who knows where, but most definitely NOT here!
Reply
