Beyond - Volume 1 (YA Paranormal Romance) (24 page)

His head rests against the boards of the bench
, and there’s only a white towel wrapped around his naked body. Blood drips from his ear.

I run over to him and lift his head. I put my finger on his neck. There’s a heartbeat, but it’s faint. I sigh
in relief. At least he’s still alive.

“Raven …” he mutters. The blood he spits
out falls down on my shirt, but I don’t care right now. I shove my arms under his and help him sit on the bench, but he drops his head against the lockers. I hope he’s okay.

“Sorry, I just had to,” he says. I get a towel from the clean pile next to the showers and dab it on his bloody mouth. He
became a spirit again.

“She was here again. That woman. I have to talk to her. I want to find out where …” He stops talking and stays still. I wipe away the blood drops near his ear and look at my own shirt. The blood is beginning to stain
, and I’m afraid it’ll leave marks.

“Why? Why do you want to find this ‘person’ so much?” I ask
, trying not to stare at his muscular body while he sits there with only a towel to cover things up. “Why do you have to hurt yourself like this?”

Damian sighs. My eyes get wet, but I force myself not to cry.

“I don’t understand you. You keep so many secrets from me. You don’t want to tell me anything. I have to pull it out of you. Why? What are you afraid of?” I ask.

“Losing you.” He turns his head away from me.

“I can take care of myself. I’m not going to get hurt. But you, you’re bleeding. You’re only destroying yourself right now, by dying every time. I want to help you! I want to find out why we see these ghosts, what they mean and to help you look for this person. But you have to let me in, Damian.”

Damian jolts up and grabs my shoulders. “I’m not just hunting them
. They’re hunting me too! You don’t know how dangerous they are!” His pupils dilate, and the veins in his arms become visible.

“Then tell me
so I do know!” Now I’m yelling too. “You can’t do this alone, Damian. You’re killing yourself, permanently maybe!”

He lets go of me, drops back down and bangs his head against the lockers. It’s silent for a while, until he heaves a sigh and opens his mouth.

“My real mom. Ever since she died, I’ve never stopped looking. Looking for her killer.”

I swallow.
So someone’s responsible for his mom’s death? I can’t imagine what he’s been feeling all these years.

“
When I was eleven, my mom was killed by a ghost.” He closes his eyes.

I take his hand to let him know it’s okay to talk about it. I can’t let him find out I’m actually shocked. My legs are shaking
, and my lip twitches, but I won’t let him see. He has to feel safe with me too.

“It’s the first thing I remember,” he says.

“What do you mean
‘the first thing’
?”

“I don’t have any memories from before I was eleven … before she died. Nothing. Only that she’s my mother and I know my name. Those two things are seare
d into my mind, thanks to her.”

My eyes are focused on his face. I can hear him talk, but I barely believe it’s the truth. I’ve never heard of someone having such a big memory loss
, and I start to wonder what happened to him.

“My first memory is her death
, and everything that comes after is known history. The many foster families, my current foster parents. I hate them. Nowhere do I feel at home. I don’t even know what my real mother’s name was …” Damian squeezes my hand, and I have trouble not quivering.

He really does hate them and never feels at home. Now I realize my life isn’t so bad after all. If I compare it to Damian’s life, whose real mom died. Murdered by brutes and evil people. He’ll never see her again and now lives with some foster parents who hate his guts. And all this time he’s remained strong. Now I have to be strong for him.

“The only thing I remember about that day is the car we drove in,” Damian says. “My mom was behind the steering wheel, looking sideways sometimes. I remember seeing him, the ghost.” Damian cracks his knuckles and then balls his fists. “I hate him. When I find him, I’ll kill him. No doubt about it.”

I swallow away the invisible lump in my throat. No wonder he’s looking for this ‘person’ like crazy and he’s constantly furious. Nothing will get in his way of finding revenge. Not even me.

“Anyway … The ghost floated next to the window, winked at me, then flew right in front of my mom’s window. She could see him too. She was so terrified, she released the steering wheel and started screaming. She wasn’t in control of the car anymore.” He sighs for a moment. “The last thing I remember is looking into the green eyes of a girl watching me in the car next to ours, while I was tumbling around.”

I feel the tension in my stomach, like the contents are about to spill out. It feels like my body wants to turn inside out. My fingers tremble
, and my eyes move up and down. Damian’s first memory is the nightmare that’s been controlling my sleep for years. It wasn’t a dream. It was all real.

I pull my hand from his and fall backward from the strength I put into it, dropping off the bench. “No …” I stammer, and at the same time I look at my shaking hands and his confused face.

Who is this guy, describing my dream
to the very last detail and saying it’s a memory of his? This isn’t possible. It just can’t be. Everything he tells me sounds so unrealistic. This has to be a hallucination.

I crawl back on my hands, away from Damian. My fingernails scrape the cold, hard floor tiles in the
guys’ locker room while I wriggle my way backward until I can’t go any farther. Then I push my back up against a locker as far as possible and hide my head between my legs.

Everything I’ve seen was all I lie. It has to be. This conversation, today, this entire day, everything’s just a hallucination, right? What can and can’t I believe? What is real?

“Raven?” Damian comes closer.

“Don’t touch me!” I frantically wave my arms around.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. His voice sounds concerned, and it’s something I’ve never heard coming from Damian before.

“This can’t be real … no, it’s all fake. Nothing’s true. Leave me alone! All hallucinations,” I scream and hit the air around me, hoping I can make the images disappear.
I press my arms around me tightly and look up from above my knees. Damian looks at me, frowning and angry, but not the type that makes me scared.

“What’s fake? What hallucinations?” he asks.

I pull myself loose from his grip and reach for my bag. My only safety in this incomprehensible and ridiculous world. My pills.

I fish out the bottle, push it open, shove two pills in my mouth and swallow them.

“Raven! What’s wrong with you?” he asks, now even louder than before.

I don’t want to hear his voice. He’s not real. This is all a fantasy. I place my hands over my ears and start humming to block out the noise and to calm myself. Then I
’m splashed with water.

Damian
threw water in my face.

I come back to reality. I
shake my head and wipe my face. Damian grabs a clean towel and gently starts patting my face to dry it.

“Why are you acting like this? Calm down, for God
’s sake. There’s nothing going on. You’re here, with me.” Damian’s fingers stroke my hair. It feels good and familiar. I give up.

I let myself fall into his embrace and drop my head onto his chest. Tears trickle down my cheeks while I clench my arms around his muscled waistline. He stays put and brushes my spine with the tips of his fingers. Electrical shocks
shoot through me when he touches me. If this is a fantasy, I’ll give in too easily.

“Just tell me what’s bothering you. What’s this about hallucinations?” he asks calmly. I’ve never
heard him this relaxed before.

“Your memory, it’s … it’s my nightmare!” I whimper.

“Yeah … I think it’d be a nightmare for anyone,” he answers.

“No!” I scream. He doesn’t understand. “
I dream about it. Every night!”

He
clasps his fingers around my shoulder and pushes me forward to look me in the eyes. “What do you mean,
‘dream about it every night’
?” His voice is heavy.

“Almost every night … I dream of being in a car with a device on my head. I see a car next to us
. There’s a guy in the back. The car swirls on the road and tumbles around, crashing,” I say, wiping away the tears from my eyes.

His pupils dilate
, and his hands tangle around my arms. “Are you joking, or are you serious right now?”

“It’s true! Your memory is my dream.”

“That means you’re the girl I saw in that other car. The car next to ours,” he says.

I stare at the wall,
remaining silent.

Could it be I’ve been dreaming about something that happened in real life and it’s actually a memory? Hidden in the deepest hollows of my mind, so I couldn’t remember this isn’t a nightmare, but a real event?

“Raven!” Damian shakes me.

My body can’t cope with all this information. Too many thoughts spin through my head. My stomach turns around
, and bile rises up. Before I know it, I throw up on the floor next to me.

Damian Hayes is the
guy in the car, the guy with the hazelnut colored eyes, the guy whose car tumbled around in my dream. The nightmare I’ve been having since I was eleven isn’t a dream, but a memory. And Damian’s part of it all. It all really happened.

The feeling I always have when I’m near him, that I
’ve known him much longer than just a few days, is true. What else have I forgotten?

Damian s
tands up, gets a new towel and dabs my mouth with it. Then he throws the towel on my vomit. He bends over and takes my hand firmly.

“Listen
, Raven. The spirit I’m hunting, and who’s hunting me, is dangerous. He knows I like you, and I think that’s why he’s after you. To mess with me.”

I nod. My head’s bobbing up and down.

“But how do I know who it is? I don’t even know what he looks like.”

“Oh, you’ll notice right away. No other ghost is like him. He has spiky blond hair, narrow eyes and a thin nose. And, of course, black smoke surrounding him.” Damian helps me up. “
If you ever see him again, alert me.”

“Again?” I stammer. “What do you mean
‘again’
?”

“He’s been in your room multiple times alrea
dy.”

My pupils dilate. I know who it is. The
person Damian’s hunting. “Sam!”

Damian grabs my shoulders, digging his fingers into my sk
in. “How do you know his name?”

“He was touching the Ouija Board at Lillian’s party.” My whole body starts to shake. “So he was hunting me at the pond and at school?
The person you’re looking for?”

“How long ha
ve you been able to see him?” I hear a whiff of fear in Damian’s fluctuating voice.

“
Only since the party. Why?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer. He walks away, grabs his cell phone from his locker and starts calling.

“Jianyu, I need you at the Shack. Right now.” He hangs up the phone again.

I don’t move. I don’t even know if I’m capable of moving at all. I’m so caught up in my own thoughts, I don’t want to move.

Why did I always think
it was just a nightmare, when in fact it was a memory? And more importantly, Damian and I already knew each other before we met, because we saw each other when his car crashed. It’s his first memory and my nightmare. What does it mean? How’s this possible? Is it a coincidence?

Then Damian drops the towel
from around his waist, and I see his naked butt.

I swallow and feel like my ey
eballs are about to roll out of their sockets. I see nothing but his behind, but still I close my eyes. I feel too embarrassed to watch him. Apparently Damian doesn’t mind someone seeing him naked. To make sure I don’t peek in between my fingers, I put my sleeve around my hands and slap it in front of my eyes.

“We have to go,” I hear him say. I peek up from under my sleeves and see he’s dressed in tight fitting jeans and a dark red shirt. Though I’d love to just stare at him
, a dressed Damian is easier to look at.

Damian helps me up from my corner, grabs my bag for me and gives it to me.
He picks up the dirty towel and throws it in the laundry bin. I fish out a large water bottle from my bag and drink from it, greedy for the coolness. The rancid, tart taste of vomit is something I’d like to get rid of as soon as possible as it irritates and burns my throat. The water only helps a little.

We walk out
of the locker room, and Joey’s just standing there, at the exit.

“You missed out on class,
Dude. Where have you been?” he asks, but when he sees my red face and Damian’s bloodshed eyes, he winces. He shuts his mouth again.