Blood Rose (14 page)

“LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE”

The night air was dank with humidity, creating a thick steaming fog on the ground. The golden streetlamps could barely light anything outside a couple feet of the bulbs themselves. The wooden planks were grey in the dusk. The amber lighting failed to reach them. The wood groaned from the weight of a slow moving tide sloshing in slow steady rhythms.

My body had reached the point of exhaustion. Every fiber of my being had become extremely sensitive. While my mind was whirling in on itself, my mental senses were dulling as my physical senses were becoming painfully acute.

Thoughts swirled through my mind so quick and chaotic they crashed into one another. Neesa would be angry of course but would she hate me now? Why the intense ping off my id to leave the Wildflower in the way that I had? What was Damien doing in my dream? Who is Damien D’Tera?

At times he didn’t feel any more real than my dreams. This line of thought led back to thoughts about Adélia from earlier. Each thought circled the other like a record stuck on repeat. The dream. Adélia. Damien. Neesa. All of it circled over and over again.

When I was younger, I was convinced the dreams were real. It was a fact to me that somehow I had gotten a window into this little girl’s life. It was obvious she was some kind of witch. It was so entrancing to watch her create little dragons out of fire and play with them like they were friends. So entrancing that I began to try it myself.

I didn’t understand her unfortunately so I would repeat the steps I saw her do and make up the rest as I went along. Needless to say, mother and father were not happy. Not to mention totally freaked out about the fire in the backyard.

Soon after I was in therapy and TV became nonexistent in my life because they thought that was where I got the idea. Never did make a fire dragon friend either. Still to this day I have yet to own a TV. I have a laptop for webflix. Why bother I figure?

I remembered the day I had decided to leave more clearly now. There had been a fight. Not with me and my parents. Between the two of them. I went to the doctor for more testing. When I came home the next day, my mother had gone. She could handle it no longer. Neither could I. I was fourteen. My brother was a young Marine stationed in California. It was almost a year before he heard any of this.

None of this meant my dreams were real. And that wasn’t why I moved out. I’m not crazy. I just hated that they tried to make me think I was. That I was a freak my own brother had to be protected from. A freak my own mother could not tolerate.

The emotions left inside of me were still raw and bitter- More hatred for my brother for agreeing with them. I don’t say his name now, nor do I say theirs. Outside of the people I grew up with, no one knows about my family. I sighed. Forcing myself to banish those memories as my eyes began to feel tight and a knot threatened my vocal cords in my throat.

As far as why I believed so avidly it was more than just a dream, it was just a gut feeling. Something in my head always said she couldn’t be imaginary. So maybe I was half and half on it. Part of me couldn’t deny the dreams. Part of me couldn’t accept it any more than they could.

After the first mirror dream as I had come to call it, I was thinking about it more and more and I now felt strongly as ever this was no simple dream. These dreams were showing me something. Showing me something vitally important I just couldn’t grasp an understanding of. Like the realization was just out of reach. Maybe they weren’t real but maybe they were sending me a message.

So the question was still, what was Damien doing in the dream? It wasn’t like I could ask him obviously. He was gone, left to see his brother in Florida suddenly. Not to mention he might think I was crazy- though the part of my brain still functioning also knew damn well that he had lied. Not that it mattered. Lies or no lies, I loved him and trusted him far more than what was natural. But why did he lie? Why leave so abruptly?

How can I love someone who could lie? Has anyone ever been in love with a person you’ve lied to? Even a tiny one? It goes both ways you know.

In the end, I am just not the realist I believe myself to be- I am just a cynic.

He may have confused me, even made me nervous if I was being honest with myself. Yet somehow, Damien was the only one I felt close to at all anymore. Not that I didn’t care for Neesa. Of course I did. But she was too afraid of me now to even stand to be near me. Despite her begging me to talk to her again, the main reason I couldn’t was the horrible look of dread every time our eyes caught.

With Damien though, I knew if I wanted to I could explain the dream and he wouldn’t get the horrible nervous look that made me feel like someone thought I was a nut job. At least I hoped not. So that’s just what I told myself.

There was no doubt in my mind I was safe with him and could depend on him. What else mattered? My heart and mind both agreed on this. It was my gut that said otherwise. Warning me instinctively I didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle and the big picture might be more disturbing than I realized. This time I couldn’t deny that warning ping in the back of my mind. As if there was something popping off my id and alerting me to some admonition. Why wouldn’t it just come through?

My feet pulled me in the direction of the docks. The sounds of the inky water slapping against the wooden planks in slow steady movements was peaceful. It gave me a bass rhythm that steadied my body and mind and gave me order back to my life. It was my favorite place to be in all of Vermont. They were not the nicest in Vermont, not by a long shot. That’s why I came here though. It gave them an advantage of not being too crowded.

The closer I got, the further away I felt. Of course, I was still very much inside the city but it was so much quieter here. That night the silence had taken on an eerie quality.

Dew from the fog clung to my skin in a second coat. My stomach twisted almost painfully as I reached the top of the slope that led to the docks. Had I eaten today? No but I wasn’t hungry. The worry scratched at the back of my mind like a giant firefly buzzing around in my head lighting up when it was too far out of reach to be caught on to.

The air was chilly. Every one of my breaths added to the thick fog. Never had I felt such an ache of dread course through my body. Unfortunately, no stock was placed into my unease and I kept walking. If I couldn’t identify it then I was probably imagining it or just so eaten up with stress that it was making me paranoid and crazy.

“Crazy? I was crazy once…” I laughed bitterly at myself over the stupid childhood game- I hadn’t thought of that in years. Low and behold, look how I turned out.

It was early evening and really shouldn’t be as dark as it was being just after six in the evening. I assumed there was a storm rolling in, which wasn’t entirely unusual. This was the rainiest spring Vermont had seen in a while.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one crazy enough to walk around in the dark on such a creepy night. Down at the very end of the pier stood someone leaning against the railing. Just as I noticed him, the fog swallowed the man out of view.

A surge of longing rippled through me as I walked up to the bench Damien and I occupied just the day before. The stone was colder than before as I sat down. It gave me a chill that raised goose bumps on my exposed flesh.

“Pretty girls like you shouldn’t go out at night alone. It’s not wise to do so. It’s not safe.” Not expecting the company I nearly jumped out of my skin when the man spoke from behind me. His voice was of a young man with old New Englanders twang. An east coast accent you only heard in old movies. He caught me off guard but his voice wasn’t callus, it was smooth as heavy cream.

“Um, thank you but I’m alright. Just out for a short walk.” I could be polite but I wasn’t exactly in the mood for company. As I waked, I didn’t so much as glance back at him.

“Mmm. You
do
smell divine in the rain,” his voice rang with longing. A hunger so sinister my stomach twisted into a tight ball and urged me to stand to my feet, turning me to face him.

Something about him was wrong. His skin was pale in the dusk light. His eyes gleamed yellow from an overhead post. The effect reminded me of a distant memory.

Paul’s cat hiding under the staircase. Her eyes gleaming yellow from the faint light behind me in the pitch black of the staircase closet. Her name was Molly. My eyes narrowed. Weird thought to have. Shaking my head, I forced a bitter smile. Bitter smiles were all that I had in me.

“Well I need to get going. It was nice meeting you.” With a slight nod, I backed to the sidewalk that ran right along the docks by the water. It would have been preferable to go back up the hill but it would have meant circling the bench and getting closer to him. More than likely, he was harmless but my feet were moving with or without me.

“Where do you think you’re going? You didn’t look like you were in a hurry a minute ago.” Rudeness to perfect strangers wasn’t my usual persona but nothing felt usual about this- especially considering he was following literally right behind me, despite my swift pace.

Giving him no answer I broke into a dead run. In the back of my head, I was really grateful I had ripped the strap of my purse and had yet to replace it. Everything I had with me was in pockets. Foremost my thought was run. Run hard and run fast. Though at the time it wasn’t as much of a thought, as a whisper, someone screaming inside of my head for me to pay attention and to get the hell out of there before it was too late. Was it already too late?

So close it felt like an intimate whisper into my ear he spoke again. “Oh, how I love it when they run. Can’t you go any faster? Or are you really so pathetic?” His breathe was hot in my ear with a grotesque sneer in his voice. It was impossibly close. Unhurried and unwavering regardless of the fact we were running.

Despite how much I had walked, I had never been very athletic so it wasn’t long before my lungs were straining and my legs were feeling a burn. The fear of faltering pushed me to move faster anyways and kick it into over drive. The added speed didn’t help though. No matter how fast I moved I could feel him so close it made my skin crawl.

“Not bad, little Anna. But you’re still not fast enough.” Anger boiled inside of me as he stated how weak I was. The fact this wasn’t random. That somehow he knew who I was and I was the reason this was happening sent me over the edge and into a rage I had never felt before. It was nothing like being angry with the stupid waitress I worked with. This was a fire that burned much deeper.

Apparently, I think pretty clearly when I’m angry.

All at once, I stopped and tucked down into a crouch with my weight on the balls of my feet. This seemed to be the last thing he had expected luckily for me.

He slammed into me and went flipping over my head and landing on his feet.
Oh, shit.
Not wasting a second of time I just gained, I jumped up and ran straight up the hill to try and get back to the main road.

He was on me in a second’s time. This time he moved in for the kill. His hand grappled around my knee jerking it out of socket and throwing me to the ground with amazing strength. The way I fell slammed the joint back into place, both a blessing and a curse as the second wave of pain shot through me with such ferocity it silenced my scream completely. I was left gagging on a hard intake of breath.

“Nice move, little Anna. I’ll give you two points for that one.” His hand still on my leg twisted. The pressure so great the only way to ease it was to roll to my back. “Don’t worry we’re nowhere near done, kitten.” My cry was an agonized groan.

He came up to his knees as his hand pulled me down the hill closer to him. His body loomed directly above mine. Hunger flashed in his eyes and I was certain his goal must be rape and worse.

With my free foot, I jerked back and aimed a kick high. Not for his groin but for his chest. If it were hard enough I had a chance at cracking his sternum, or if nothing else maybe knock the breath out of him badly enough I could escape. Neither availed however. My barrage of kicks barely stymied his onslaught attack.

My eyes blurred over with tears from the pain so I couldn’t focus on his face. They contorted his features wildly stretching out his jaw and teeth as if he were more monster than man. The roaring in my ears registered as a deep throaty snarl.

Instead of grabbing my leg to stop me, he swung back to hit me instead. I took the opening to kick his chest again, jerking the other leg free and aiming it for his groin.

My injured leg hurt so badly I was certain it couldn’t do much damage but in that spot it surely wouldn’t take much. As my foot landed against the crotch of his pants, his hand came down hard on the side of my face. I was lucky.

If he would have hit me in the skull, at best I would have been unconscious if it didn’t kill me instantly. As it was, I felt my cheekbone crack forcing me to choke on another tormented cry of pain. A fresh wave of pain shot from my cheek up into my skull.

My hands dug into the earth behind me in an attempt to gain leverage and pull myself away from him. With all the rain as of late there was just mud and scattered rocks to grab hold of. My feet continued a barrage of kicks anywhere they could land as he leaned closer to grab hold of me for what I knew would be the last time.

Just before his hands grabbed a hold of me again, I found the two biggest rocks I could manage without looking and slammed them up simultaneously against either side of his head. Blood splattered me victoriously. With one more kick, I was free and up and running no matter how much pain it caused.