When Darkness Falls, page 4
I slammed the book closed, as my mouth opened, and I screamed ripped from my throat, up and out into the atmosphere.
I jerked awake, or my body jerked me awake. Sweat poured down my eyes and my hands were shaking. My lips trembled, and I took several deep breaths, as my heart pounded within my chest. I never had any dreams like that. Never had wanted to dip into the possibility of the paranormal. But that dream... that vision... or whatever it was.. Wasn't normal for me.
I shook my head, allowing the steady thump thump thump of my heartbeat to calm me down- to make me know that I was very much alive. I glanced around the room. Everything still seemed normal. The gray walls filled with hand-drawn musical notes that the freshman had painted. The piano in the nearest corner over to the right of where I was sitting. My clarinet case at my feet. My purple ribbon was still in place.
So maybe I wasn't crazy.
Maybe I was just extremely exhausted.
I picked up my case, checked to make sure everything in the room was as it was when I entered, and once I reached the entrance door of the school, I ran home as fast as my feet would carry me.
My heart pounded the whole way, and I heard music... something like classical music, on repeat, with every step I took.
It wasn't the piece I had been practicing for over an hour, entirely.
It was something entirely new to me, different; something that made me reevaluate going to my school during breaks when no one else was around.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," my mom said, grinning, as I walked through the door yet putting her hand on my forehead all at once.
I winced. "I'm fine, Mom."
"No, you're burning up. Here...." She hissed, rushing me to sit down in the nearest, plush armchair, as she sped off toward the kitchen. Great. Simply great. I would never escape this one easily- if at all.
I would never here the end of this once, either. Hopefully, I would keep my mouth closed so much that she just got tired of me and sent me upstairs to my room to deal with whatever I had experienced, by myself and for myself.
I didn't need her meddling with me; not today. Any other day was fine, because, as the physiatrist and doctor she was, she meddled all the time. From the time I was born, she wanted to protect me so much it became nauseating. She cared and loved me, I knew that, But she sometimes took it to the extreme.
And that I couldn't deal with. I couldn't deal with her babying me- given that I was almost nineteen years old. When she wasn't around, I did everything for myself. My dad, Lucas, was the same way.
Always making sure I was okay. Always checking up on me, wanting to get me to express my feelings.
But he didn't badger and pry like Mom did. He was cool with it; did things with me that took my mind off what it was I was dealing with. We bonded. In essence, I was closer to him than I was to her, and I really couldn't blame her for how she was, or how she had been taught to raise me. She was a good mom; a good listener, when I did open up to her, but she wasn't the best mom and parent. I needed a friend sometimes, and I don't know why she couldn't see that.
I sighed, running my hands along the back of my neck, as she came back into the room with a glass of water and a warm towel for my face. Or neck.
"Here, honey... Drink this," she said, thrusting the glass into my hands, while twisting the towel in her tiny hands and putting it around my shoulders. "Just sit still, Sinclair."
The way she said that... said my name... made me recoil. My body tensed up, and my eyes slammed shut, tighter than normal. She sounded angry. No, she sounded pissed, but for what?
"Mom.."
"Hush, Sinclair!"
There was that scolding tone that made me feel like those children who were trapped in that attic and they lived with their abusive, crazy grandmother who tried to kill them.
I bit my bottom lip, not saying a word.
We sat in silence for a long time, and I could hear her breathing.
She groaned, and slammed something on the nearest table. I could tell by the way it shook and wobbled on its legs that whatever it was, was heavy. Not small enough to support the weight of our living room table.
"Mom..." I cracked, opening my eyes. My body had begun to cool down, and my eyes weren't hurting from squeezing them so tightly anymore. I was almost afraid she would hit me.
Out of nowhere my father came into the room, and that made her calm down even more.
"Honey," his soothing voice filled the room. I couldn't tell if he was talking to my mother or me, but I glanced at him. Glad he had come when he had. Because the strangeness my mother was presenting scared me.
Even as a child, she was never this mean. She never scolded me for something beyond my control and never for being ill. I was tired, stressed, worn out. Mentally and emotionally.
"No, Lucas! You don't get to coax me out of making her talk this time! She needs to know what's going on! She needs to know!" Mom wailed, and her scream ripped through my entire body, shattering every single nerve ending, never dendrite, every neuron.
I shook all over, from head to toe.
Mom pushed against Dad, and I didn't want to be around them. Didn't want to be around her. I couldn't. Because now I was sure where I got my anger from. My rage, my temper came from her. It came from Amber Kerry Bradenton.
I scoffed, shifting my eyes to my father, as he gripped her wrists, holding them fast against her chest. She cried out even more.
"Go, honey! I'll be up in a minute."
I nodded, shifting my eyes toward the stairwell and the front door, weighing my options. I could go up to my room, and the soundtrack of my entire evening would be them yelling and screaming- and possibly throwing things at each other- until Mom took something and calmed down.
Or I could go out the front door and find somewhere else to sleep for the evening and into the night.
I caught sight of the sun descending over the clouds, and I made up my mind.
My feet carried me out of the front door, where I didn't look back at the house until the house was so far beyond sight.
I ended up on Katherine's front doorstep, my phone in hand, my thoughts racing. As soon as the door swung open, she grabbed me and held onto me. She calmly ushered me into her room, before her own parents caught wind of my presence and decided to bombard me with a handful of questions. Luckily, they understood me. Luckily, they trusted me to be a good friend to their daughter and treated me not only like a welcomed guest in their home but as a surrogate, adopted daughter of sorts.
Her brother, Liam, was cool, too, when he wasn't on the road from touring with his band, The Bleeding Hearts.
After the tears stopped flowing and my body stopped shaking, she grabbed up both half-pint cartons of ice cream.
Mint chocolate chip for her; Espresso chip for me.
And we sat watching some mindless reality show, until an urgent message flashed across the screen, talking about how there was a massive blizzard coming.
We shared the same glance, knowing that after tonight, things would never, ever be the same.
EPHRAIM
I can't believe I kissed her. Or, can't believe she kissed me. I really wasn't expecting that. It had been almost two weeks since that day. Two weeks too long. Her lips felt like they were meant for mine, and I wanted those feelings again. Needed that feeling again. I needed to see her again. It almost drove me to hop into the car my dad had bought for me three years ago, the car I had never driven because I always chose to walk everywhere, and drive to find her house. Drive to find her. I no doubt would kiss her again when I saw her, and that made a smile tug at my lips, I was sure my simples were winking at those who passed by me.
I needed to be near her and tell her how she made me feel. That liking her for three years, and then kissing her after all this time, was the answer to a long-awaited prayer or something. That she was the answer to my prayer, and her lips on mine just sealed the deal that night. That party had been so worth it, and I was dead set on not going. It's laughable almost; the fact that I would have been missing out on one of the most amazing, life-changing moments of my life, all because parties were out of my comfort zone.
How stupid I was.
I chuckled to myself, opening the iron gate that led to a downward stairway- down to my home away from home. A nice, hidden space in the middle of the small town where I lived. This was where I sought to be alone from the madness; to get out of my head and not think. Because my mind recalled miles every second, and I didn't like it anymore. I needed to be a teenager; an eighteen-year-old kid without problems and issues. A technical man who felt like a boy most days. A man who society said should already be further along than I already was.
But that didn't matter.
The fact that I almost had her; that she was in my grasp? That was what mattered. Sinclair mattered, and I was going to let her know just how much she meant to me- one way or another.
A sudden scream jarred my thoughts away from Sinclair, and my eyes darted around, trying to pinpoint the direction of where that sound had just come from. The cave was dark, so dark that I don't know how I had been coming down here for the past two years comfortably.
My feet carried me toward the sound, as I turned on the built-in flashlight on my phone. A chill ran down my spine, and my feet stopped. In the darkness, stood a woman. I could tell by the massive, long red hair on her head, and those haunting, ice blue eyes of hers.
"Hello? Do you need help?"
I couldn't believe that was the first thing out of my mouth, when pain darted through the back of my skull.. I knew it was time for me to stop looking at her and run. But my feet were stuck to the rocks underneath my shoes like glue. I was transfixed in that spot, and my body wasn't lining up with my brain.
She floated, literally, toward me, her right hand raised. A scream fell from her lips, and my eyes closed. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there, waiting for her to kill me, but as I felt her breath along my neck, I was sure she was going to strike.
Nothing happened, so I opened my eyes just in time to see her vanish into a puff of large, misty, cherry red smoke.
Another chill danced down my spine, as I took several deep breaths. My chest rose and fell with every labored breath I took. It felt like shards of glass were stuck in my lungs, scraping along my heart after each breath. I coughed, and to my surprise, blood spilled out of my mouth.
I knew then something was wrong. I glanced around the cave, vowing to never come back. Something in front of my eyes made me whip my head around. There on the wall were written the words Let Go Of Me, Ephraim in red blood.
I wanted to run, so I willed my feet to move. They felt like a ton of bricks, along with mountains of led, but they did what I commanded of them. They got me the hell out of that cave; the cave I had once deemed my sacred place.
I knew I would never go back. I would have to find another place to decompress.
The shit that I had just witnessed should have had me running for the hills, especially that message on the wall. No one was there with me, and I had watched a woman vanish into a large puff of smoke. I was pretty sure that the cloud was still back there, but I wasn't about to go and verify.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, as I walked, my feet moving along with my hands. In motion. Constant. Fast. I didn't know where I was going;l I just let them lead me to a graveyard, and my heart nearly stopped. It paused, as a memory so strongly hit me.
The memory of the night my parents told me that my grandmother had passed away.
The graveyard I was in was the one that her body was buried in.
I didn't understand anything, frankly, I didn't want to. I wanted my life to go back to normal. I found her tombstone, and along the top were written the words ``Dottie Parker: A Loving and Devoted Wife, Mother, and Legacy Leader."
As the sky darkened, and a mass of roaring, gray clouds merged together, thunder rumbled somewhere close. A crown cawed, and I didn't even think to find where it had landed.
I just sat there against her tombstone, my knees drawn into my body. I pulled the hood of my black wool hoodie over my head, and I balled like a baby after they had gotten stung by a bee or had the worst pain in their life. I balled like I had heard the news right then, and had just received the call that very second. It hurt like hell. It felt like she had just died right then. And I couldn't stop crying, screaming out as the thunder echoed my screams. The pain was so real. So now.
As the rain poured in droves, I knew I couldn't stay even though I wanted to. Even though I felt I needed to be right there, next to her tombstone, never leaving her side. I didn't believe in Hell or Heaven much, but I did think that she was out there. Her spirit was out there, watching out for me, and that fact, along with the moment I had shared with Sinclair a few weeks ago, kept me hanging on.
Because I knew once I started heading back home, things were going to get much worse, before they got better.
"Hey, Ephraim..." her voice pulled me out of the boring conversation with Jacob the next morning.
I turned to my left, watching her jog up to me in a pair of red sweatpants, a red tank top and a black beanie. It was cool today, and from the sweat dotting her skin, I was sure Sinclair had just finished running. The next indication was that her hair was pulled atop her head in a messy bun.
Jacob stopped slowly, and my right heel smashed down on his foot. He yelped, wincing in pain, and Sinclair put a hand on his shoulder.
"Christ, Eph!"
"Oh, gosh, are you okay?" she questioned, her brows knitting together.
He nodded, before cutting me a glare. I shrugged. I still hadn't had that talk with him; the one where I left him knew I was cutting him out of my life for goods, but I knew the time was coming soon.
Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow, but soon nonetheless.
I couldn't stand the sight or the stench of him most days, and I knew he was picking up on that. Or else he wouldn't have just given me the death glare. I knew he knew that this encounter, or the one last encounter on the horizon, would be our last.
And I didn't get a damn about what he thought after it happened.
I smiled at Sinclair, as her eyes met mine.
"Hey, Sinclair. What's up?" I asked, as she grabbed the black band that held her hair in place.
"I was just headed to the park and wanted to see if.." She started, huffed. I watched her face and eyes change from soft to hard, then embarrassed. I made her nervous?
"Do I-"
SHUT UP, EPHRAIM! DON'T YOU DARE, my thoughts screamed at me, as I watched her, my mouth closing as fast as I opened it.
She blushed, the hue of her skin changing to a light peach.
Here was my answer.
Still, I waited.
"So, about that kiss..."
I smirked, running my hands through my hair, as I nodded, looking down at her. She was so tiny; and I don't mean in stature. She almost came up to the center of my chest when standing. I'm talking about her soul;' her spirit.
She was tiny inside, hidden. I never noticed it until now. I had always thought she stood so tall, so confidently. Now, as she stood before me unsure and shy, I relaxed.
"It was the highlight of my night. I wasn't even going to go to that party." I looked away from her for one second, and the pull was so strong, I felt myself reach out for her hand.
"I'm glad you did," she said, her voice soft.
God, she was doing something to me that I wasn't used to.
Making me smile more.
Feel more. Relax more.
I wasn't used to that at all.
"Sinclair..." I started.
"I wanted to reach out to you, but I didn't know how to get in touch with you. Not a fan of social media stalking and all that," she grinned, sliding her right hand into my left so casually, I didn't even notice it was there until I squeezed her hand.
"No need. I'll give you my number. Maybe we can hit up the ravine tomorrow night, if you're not busy," I spoke, mustering up the courage to bite that damn bucket.
It didn't hurt, sliding down. It actually felt good. It felt freeing. It felt like I had said everything I needed to say at that moment, and I was glad about that. A smile touched her lips, as her eyes glinted with something like acknowledgement.
"Kat was telling me about Brandon hosting it... or something. She's so... sprung," she giggled. "No, I'm not busy, and yes, I'd be more than happy to go with you. Do I need to bring anything?"
I shook my head, as we started to walk down the street in front of the library. I had wanted to spend the day doing research on Maverick's Bay's history, but running into Sinclair was so much better than being stuck in a smelly, old library any day.
"Just an open mind and some dance moves," I winked.
"You'll have no problem there. I love to dance," she assured me, winking.
The rain was still coming down softly, and I felt her slide a jacket onto her shoulders, as we walked.
"This weather is crazy, huh?"
"Yeah. Totally. I thought Atlanta had some crazy weather."
She shrugged one shoulder, squeezing my hand again. The heat from her grip warmed me from the inside.
"Where were you headed?"
"To Papitos," she answered, referring to the local Italian chain not too far from my house.
On cue, my stomach rumbled. She giggled again, and I kissed her cheek. I couldn't resist touching her in some way. Couldn't' resist letting her know that I was into her as much as she was into me.
"I guess we're grabbing lunch then."
"It's on me," I whispered, as we walked in the rain, chatting about things that most people would find crazy- like conspiracy theories and other beings that may or may not have been walking among us right now.
It was then I knew this girl was something special; someone special.
EPHRAIM
I couldn't put it off any longer. Jacob and I needed to have that talk. The talk. The talk that would sever our... companionship for good. At least I knew I would see it that way. I wasn't sure about Jacob's reaction, and I didn't care.
