Cheating Heart, A Lost Souls Novel: A Lost Souls Novel (5 page)

Kim scrunched up her nose
with disgust, folded her arms in front of her chest to block his view, and said sarcastically, “Yeah, sure.  Sounds great.  I’ll make sure to wear a turtleneck or something.”

“That would be fun!” Kyle whispered, in Vienna’s ear.  The warmth of his breath tickled her skin and sent chills down her spine. 
They were nice chills, but still couldn’t compare to the ones Jack gave her.  Kyle’s lips tenderly brushed against her ear.  “We can all go.  I don’t know much about art, but you can teach me.”

Vienna turned her head to glance over at Jack
.  She was surprised to see him balling his hands into tight fists.  His jaw visibly tightened.  Their eyes met briefly and she caught a flash of what looked like protectiveness.  She couldn’t help but wonder if he was feeling just a tiny bit jealous.  She really hoped he was.

Saturday, February 15th

Chapter 4

Vienna lay awake staring at the ceiling.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fall asleep.  Her eyelids were heavy and her eyes burned something fierce, but she just couldn’t turn her mind off.  She kept thinking of Jack and replaying his words over and over again. 
I’m here to help you
.  She wondered what it was she needed help with.  Was that the real reason he appeared or was it something more?  She remembered how nice his touch felt and how comfortable she was in his arms.  Warmth and security had enveloped every fiber of her being.  And then, he had to blow the perfect moment by telling her he was there to help.  Not something sweet like he was there just because he wanted to see her.

Urrr!
she thought. 
Men are so stupid!  No matter what form they’re in.  They’re all the same. Completely oblivious!   

But even as she thought those words
, she didn’t really believe them.  She didn’t like to group people together and assume everyone was alike.  It wasn’t true and it wasn’t fair.  But at the same time, it made her feel better to lump Jack in the same group as Brandon.  They had one thing in common.  They were both good at breaking her heart and making her feel like a miserable fool.

Vienna rolled over and grabbed h
er extra pillow.  She tucked it between her legs and leaned into it to try and get more comfortable.  Her ears were still ringing from the loud pounding music at the club.  That always happened to her after dancing.  She wondered just how many people her age would have hearing problems in the next ten to twenty years and if they’d feel it was worth it.  She rubbed at her right ear to try and get the annoying ringing to stop.  It wasn’t working.  The buzzing continued.  If she could just fall asleep, she knew she’d feel better in the morning.  And hopefully by the time she woke up the incessant humming would be completely gone.

Like a video recorder, Vienna’s mind replayed the look on Jack’s face when Kyle was snuggling close to her in the booth. 
After that, they had a short discussion of how they should all get together and go to the Crocker Art Museum, and then Jack had excused himself.  He said that he had somewhere to be and then took hold of Vienna’s hand.  He told her that he’d see her again soon.  And then that was that. 
Poof!
  Houdini did it again.  Within a blink of an eye, he was gone.  Vienna hadn’t even seen him leave.  He took a few steps into the crowd of partygoers and vanished.

Not long
after Jack’s departure, Vienna and Kim disappeared, too.   But of course, being human, they disappeared the old fashioned way.  When Vienna announced that she was ready to call it a night, Kyle had tried to talk her into staying out longer. But unable to come up with a good story, she’d made up some lame excuse about being really tired.  And she knew Kim would agree with her because she, too, was ready to ditch the club.  As soon as Kim realized the gorgeous blonde guy that she’d been trying to get to notice her all night wasn’t interested in women, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it, she was ready to call it a night. 

Like
gentlemen, Kyle and Matt walked both Vienna and Kim to the parking garage.  Kyle insisted they didn’t walk alone. He felt it was unsafe.  Vienna had thought that was really sweet of him.  At first she was going to protest. And then she thought of the homeless man she’d tripped over and who else might be lurking about in the shadows.  So she accepted his offer.  When they had reached the car, Kyle gave her a gentle kiss goodnight.  As for Kim, to avoid the discomfort of saying goodbye, she took the initiative.  She’d bent down and gave Matt a quick hug and a hardy pat on the back.

Under
normal circumstances, Vienna would’ve been flying high right about now and dreaming of Kyle’s sensuous kiss.  But she wasn’t.  She blamed Jack for that.  Kyle’s touch was nice, but didn’t remotely come close to Jack’s.  Then again, no one’s touch could be like Jack’s, since his body was constructed of pure energy.  In fact, it still boggled her mind at how he could make himself feel so real, so solid.  Obviously, Vienna knew he was real.  Jack had a soul and all.  But how did he manifest live human flesh out of manipulating energy?  It overwhelmed her brain to even think about it.  Then she thought of Jack’s lips.  If he kissed her, she bet they’d cause a mind blowing spark of energy that would bolt straight through her body.

Urrr!
she seethed.
Don’t think about him!
The feelings she had for Jack really bothered her.  And if it hadn’t been for him showing up at the club, she could’ve had a romantic night with Kyle.  Maybe, just maybe, she’d a have a new boyfriend right now and would be floating around in love on cloud nine.  She really liked Kyle.  He was extremely attractive, and not to mention, really nice.  He had gorgeous eyes, a heart stopping smile, and from what she could surmise, a smoking hot body to match.  This could’ve been a perfect Valentine’s Day.  Well, except for the fact her ex-boyfriend, Brandon, was there with his new girlfriend.  But even still, it could’ve been a good night.

Feeling a fresh stab of pain to the heart
, when her mind drifted to Brandon, Vienna flipped over onto her other side.  This time she took her extra pillow and hugged it to her chest.  She forced herself to close her eyes and force all thoughts of the men in her life, out.  She tried to think of nice calming thoughts.  She pushed out all of the negative images that kept popping into her head and tried to focus her attention on something soothing. 

The ocean
is calming,
she thought. Everything about the ocean was soothing to her.  In her mind, she conjured up a beautiful portrait of the ocean.  The ocean came to life as the waves rolled in and the golden sun glistened off of the crisp, clear sparkling water.  She could feel the warmth of the sun on her skin.  It gently caressed her face and shoulders as she listened to the loud crashing of the water hitting the shore in big, beautiful, blue-green waves.  With gentle steps her feet sunk into the wet sand.  It tickled as it oozed between her toes.  Smiling, Vienna walked along the shore, enjoying herself.  The water would trickle up and embrace her ankles and feet.  It was cold, but not too cold. 

Vienna took a couple of steps into the water.  It was now rolling up to her
shins.  She decided to walk further out into the refreshing water.  She stopped when the waves lapped around her thighs.  She reached in and playfully swirled the water around and around with her fingertips.

Out of nowhere, Vienna suddenly felt frightened.  She
stopped playing with the water and stood straight and rigid.  She wasn’t sure what was happening.  But something was wrong.  Very wrong.  She was afraid to move. 

Without warning
, an angry wave rushed towards her.  It was dark and furious.  There was something odd about the appearance.  It wasn’t like the other waves.  This one was strange.  It was dark, rich in color. 

Vienna
wanted to run, to dart out of the water, but couldn’t move.  Her feet felt as if they’d slip if she tried.  The sand beneath them, transformed into something hard and slick.  She didn’t want to chance slipping.  She put her arms up to shield her face.  The water had transformed itself into something sinister.  She braced herself the best she could against the impending impact. 

When the wave
finally crashed around her, Vienna removed her hands from her face.  She screamed watching the thick crimson liquid drip from her fingertips.  The color was so rich, so blindingly red. And the salty sea air was replaced with an overpowering metallic scent.  It took her a minute to register what it was.  She spun around.  The wave was gone, the ocean was gone.  She was now standing in fog.  Thick white fog was everywhere.  It surrounded her.  Where the hell was she?  She then held up her hands.  They were still coated with the thick red liquid.  Mortified, she watched as blood dripped from her fingers. 

Screaming, Vienna bolted up
right.  She sat in bed, hugging her pillow.  She hadn’t even realized that she’d drifted off to sleep.  Her heart was pounding, threatening to burst through her ribcage.  Squinting, she noted the time on the alarm clock.  It was just after 2AM.  She’d only been asleep for about a half an hour.  She held her hands out in front of her and tried to see the palms in the dark.  It was as if she could still feel thick syrupy blood on them.  She rubbed them together just to make sure.  To her relief, they were dry. 

It
was only a dream,
she told herself.
None of it was real. 

She wondered if she had actually
screamed out loud or if it had only been in her head.  If she’d really screamed, she figured that Kim would’ve rushed to her room by now.  So it must’ve been part of her dream.  Feeling too jittery to try and fall back asleep, Vienna decided to get up.  She grabbed her glasses from the nightstand and stumbled tiredly into the kitchen.  Reaching into the fridge, she pulled out a bottle of spring water from the shelf built into the door.  She blinked hard against the light in the fridge, which was stinging her sensitive eyes.  Nothing looked particularly good at two in the morning, but she settled on a blueberry yogurt.   

Grabbing a spoon, Vienna scuttled
into the living room with her snack.  She plopped onto the couch and pulled down the blanket that was folded across the top.  She got all comfy and picked up the new universal remote, which Kim’s mother had dropped off earlier that day, from the coffee table in front of her.  She poked around at the buttons trying to turn on the TV.  Hitting the correct one, the television lit up, but she now needed to find the button to turn on the satellite.  Squinting in the dark, she was thankful that the remote had a built in light, lighting up the buttons.  Finding the right button, the satellite box switched on and an infomercial came to life.  An attractive blonde woman and a gorgeous hunk of a man each had a vacuum cleaner.  They were standing next to two bins filled with billiard balls.  They laughed as they sucked them up to test which vacuum had the strongest suction. 

Not knowing why she was
so mesmerized by this, Vienna was curious as to which vacuum would win.  Usually infomercials were not her thing.  They were something that Kim would enjoy watching, but she grabbed her water bottle from the coffee table and stared at the screen.  She guessed at two in the morning she was easily amused.

“We should get one of those,” she muttered
, taking a sip of water, and making a mental note to tell Kim about the vacuum.  She then set the water down on the coffee table and pulled off the foil lid, opening her yogurt.

The woman
on TV laughed animatedly because her vacuum sucked up twice as many billiard balls as the man’s vacuum.  He laughed, too, and then challenged her to another test.  They dragged their vacuums over to two blue plastic bins filled with mud.  Vienna swallowed a spoonful of yogurt while wondering just how many people actually tried to suck up billiard balls and mud with their vacuums.  Then, unexpectedly, the TV clicked off, leaving her sitting in the dark. 

“What the…?”  Vienna
set her yogurt down on the coffee table and began to grope around on the couch for the remote.  She wondered if she had accidentally sat on it, switching the television off.  “Where is it?” she complained, getting up and searching in between the cushions.  The only source of light in the room was from the front porch light trickling in through the slats of the mini-blinds.  After a minute or two, she gave up searching the couch and ran her hand over the coffee table.  Thankfully her fingers stumbled over the remote, but then she accidentally bumped her water bottle, knocking it over in the process.

“Urr!” she
growled.  It was too early in the morning to deal with stupid things like this.  She pushed the large
on
button at the top of the remote, but the TV wouldn’t turn on.  She began punching all of the buttons trying to get the stupid thing to respond.  Nothing was happening.  The buttons weren’t even lighting up.  Could the batteries already be dead?  If so, that still wouldn’t explain the TV turning off on its own.  

Irritated, Vienna reached for the
black and silver pole lamp next to the couch so she could assess the amount of water she spilled.  She turned the little knob at the top of the lamp and got nothing but a
click
.  She turned the knob again. 
Click, click.
  Nothing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” 
Despite Vienna’s rising temper, she suddenly experienced a wave of cold chills.  With her hand still on the lamp, she saw a flicker of darkness near the blinds that for a moment had completely blocked out the light from outside.  Vienna stood still for a second and listened.  She didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.  The only sound was the low hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen.  Taking in a deep breath, Vienna moved in the direction she’d seen the shadow.  She stopped when she got to the window.  She parted the mini-blinds, held her breath, and took a quick peek outside.  She wanted to make sure no one was lurking outside their window.  Golden yellow light flooded the empty, except for two white plastic chairs and a potted spider plant on a white metal stand, cement front porch to their upstairs condo.  She let go of the blinds and the aluminum slats snapped back together with a clatter.  Another wave of cold chills encompassed her, sliding up her spine, making her shoulders tighten in response.  Vienna spun around just as a dark shadow floated away from her and toward the television.  The mass was darker than the room around her.