Spiral (Spiral Series) (4 page)

“A lot of women like damaged guys,” said a voice in my ear. Lavender scented the air wherever Mrs. Tiger went, so I knew who it was before I turned to see her looking right into my face. “But that particular damaged guy already knows there’s only one girl to fix him.” She drifted away as quietly as she had come, leaving me to gape after her.

“Ready to go?” Maxie asked at the end of the night. “If we leave now we should be back by eleven o’clock sharp.”

“Boy, that’s good. I’d hate to be two minutes late. Disaster would strike,” said Jill, getting up and pretending to wring her hands in panic.

I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of going home, because weird stuff always happened around my birthday. Like, I always had really bad dreams. I wondered if all the stuff that was going on with my family was feeding the bad dreams this year. No matter what, tonight was going to be one of those nights, and I would have been happy to put it off a little longer. Unfortunately, Maxie was a stickler about time and she wanted to go. Not all the sarcastic comments in the world - and Jill could generate a staggering number of them per minute - would change her mind.

I looked around for Pierce, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Wow,” said Jill in the car. “I wasn’t expecting anything that intense.”

“Yeah, seriously,” said Maxie. “For once we agree.”

Jill grinned at her. “It only took us ten years.” My friends were total opposites, but somehow we all managed to get along.

“Like, I thought that Sam story about losing the coffee shop girl was going to take the cake, but no. Nothing came close to the story that Pierce guy told, and WOW, hottie. Where has he been hiding my whole life?” Maxie demanded.

Jill rolled her eyes.

Noticing, Maxie said defensively, “What? It’s nice that he’s a guy who can get in touch with his feelings. Most guys aren’t fans of sharing, but he put his heart on his sleeve. Did anyone else think it was totally weird that his girl had the same name as Natalie?

“Not really,” I muttered. “Just a coincidence.”

Maxie and Jill exchanged looks, but they both thought better of pushing me on it.

“You should have gone to talk to him,” said Jill.

I scoffed. “I would have had to get in line.”

Jill snorted. “He would have let you skip the line. He didn’t take his eyes off you. You might not be his Natalie, but I’m pretty sure he thought you would do.”

“Right,” I said sarcastically. “He was probably staring at Maxie.”

“No way,” said Maxie. “I was definitely not the one he was staring at.” She grinned at me.

“Whatever,” I said. “We probably won’t ever see him again.” I tried to tell myself that was just fine. I hadn’t even talked to him.

“I have a funny feeling you’re wrong about that,” said Jill. “And you know what they say about my funny feelings?”

“That you and feelings shouldn’t be used together in the same sentence?” Maxie quipped.

“No,” said Jill, pretending to be offended. “That they’re always right.”

I wasn’t about to admit it to my friends, not with sleep and the nightmares that came with it looming in front of me, but I really hoped that Jill’s funny feeling turned out to be right this time. My whole body had tingled every time I looked at Pierce, and I thought it was definitely something I could get used to. I just wished I knew more about who he really was.

“He
kept
looking your way,” Maxie hissed at me.

I scoffed. “He’s out of my league. He’s so far out of my league I can’t even see the league he’s in. They don’t associate.”

Maxie shook her head. “He
kept
looking your way.”

It stirred something deep inside me, something that Maxie had talked about ad nauseam, but not something I ever pictured for myself. I had never thought I could have that. Now that I had seen Pierce, I wasn't so sure.

“What are you doing here?” a slithery voice demanded. I spun around in the darkness, blinking furiously. I had thought I was alone. I had thought I was sleeping. I had thought I was safe.

In front of me stood a tall man, with arms and legs so long and thin they reminded me of snakes. He was vibrating, an angry burning in his pulsing eyes.

His sweeping black hair was pulled back from a pale face. His blunt-nosed appearance also reminded me of a snake, one that was slithering forward. Dressed all in black, he blended into the background of the cavernous room, which resembled a burned out ballroom with the Snake Man as the fire that destroyed everything in its path.

I started to stammer out a response to the Snake Man, but suddenly a door burst open to my right. Instead of replying, I did the smart thing. I ran. My muscles bunched in my short legs as I ordered them to top speed. I had never been much of a runner, but then again I had never had to run with my life hanging precariously in the balance. My only focus was the door in front of me. It said safety as clearly as if the word had been written on it in big, bold letters.

Reaching the door, I threw myself into the next room. My white hair flowed around me in waves as I dove. Shoving the hair out of my eyes so that I could see better, I could make out a light, cast by a shining throne, that burned away the shadows and the pain. The throne was made entirely of silver husks, or what looked like silver husks. They were the most stunningly beautiful thing I had ever seen, but my life was in danger and accuracy wasn’t my highest priority at the moment. Staying alive was. Husks, poles, or dancing bears, the throne was beautiful.

I found my breath again after my mad sprint, my legs throbbing as I stared at the throne. It was glorious and wonderful, all spiraled strength that looked like it could never be broken. I imagined men, strong men, taking hammers to the spirals and the throne not breaking, although why anyone would want to mar something so beautiful was beyond me. It was a beacon of light in a dank room in a dismal place. At this moment, it was MY
beacon of light.

I slammed into the marble floor, my shoulder crunching under the impact and my body and mind both thrown violently back into reality. What was I doing there? Why was the Snake Man chasing me, and what did he want?

Most of the time I was all but invisible. Almost four years of high school had proved that much. The only time anyone noticed me was when they bumped into me. But that didn’t seem to apply here. If the Snake Man had been as uninterested as my classmates, maybe I wouldn’t have been about to die.

Somehow I knew that’s what was about to happen. I. Would. Die.

Scrambling to my feet, I raced towards the shining white throne. The word safety popped into my mind over and over again. Behind me I felt the presence of the evil man as he started after me. He was going to come on, relentlessly chasing me until he had me in his clutches. Not only did I know in my bones that he was evil, but the very air around him pounded with murder and pain, an electric current that threatened to burn everything in its path.

And what was in its path was . . . me. I had to try not to get burned. I didn’t think it was possible, but if I failed, I hoped my dad would understand. I would miss him if he didn’t. He would miss me no matter what.

The man wanted me dead.

Even as I moved closer to the throne that would save my life, I felt it slipping further out of my reach. I cried out, extending my hand to catch my fall . . . and then I saw my hand. A war was taking place on my skin. Flesh was being ripped away, stripped to the bone, red gore laid bare on my body. But it wasn’t hurting. Even as skin disappeared, more came to take its place, bright and perfect, flawless, like the skin of a newborn baby crying in its mother’s arms. I wished I had time to cry. I wished my mother were there and not dead in the ground.

The throne was still as far away as it had ever been, despite the fact that I was frantically moving toward it. All around me the room echoed with the laughter of the Snake Man as he chased after the small, white-haired girl: me.

“You cannot run. You came here. You shouldn’t have. There is no point in running.” His voice felt like snakes crawling all over my flesh and eating away at my soul as I moved to protect myself from the onslaught.

I glanced down. All over my skin black spots appeared, and then the flesh-eating air continued its work. Soon my whole body would be consumed in electricity. . . .

But as fast as my skin was being damaged, something was healing it. Within seconds of its melting away before my eyes like dirty snow, new flesh appeared.

I came to the sickening realization that I must not be able to feel my own skin. Any normal person would feel her body being ripped apart, yet I had to see it with my eyes to know it was real.

Inside me, fear battled with pain for dominance. I was watching myself die and I didn’t even know how it was happening.

If I could just get to the white throne . . . everything would be okay. Safety shone in my mind like a tiny beacon of freedom in an otherwise dead world.

I spun around to look at the man. He was getting closer to where I had fallen on the floor. He walked casually as he spun his thin hand, and the air around his body changed as he moved, looking like long black shapes bent to his will, shapes that poisoned everything in their path. He was smiling.

I couldn’t let him get his hands on me. That much I knew. Whatever fight I had left in me had to focus on that.

But he was going to catch me.

I couldn’t get to the silver throne. I wasn’t strong enough.

Just then someone burst through the door behind the Snake Man. It was a young woman, pretty, with mouse brown hair and spectacles.

“Natalie, RUN,” she cried. She knew my name was Natalie, but I had never seen her before, and at first I found it hard to believe she was talking to me. I was still on my hands and knees, immobile, and I stared in horror as the brown-haired girl put her head down, like a tiny bull charging, and ran directly at the Snake Man’s back.

The Snake Man twisted around so fast he actually looked like a real snake for a second. The brown-haired girl didn’t hesitate, but continued her fast forward motion. I gasped, air rushing into lungs that had been breathless.

The Snake Man was momentarily surprised to see an attack coming, but it didn’t take him long to recover. The smile never left his face. I even thought it might have gotten wider. His hands started spinning the black snakes that rose to his bidding and ate everything in their path. Even the air seemed incinerated.

I cried out a warning to the girl - she was running to meet death - but she didn’t stop. Determination was etched in her small face as her arms pumped her forward.

Flashing in my mind were the words I couldn’t say: that the Snake Man was poison, that the brown-haired girl shouldn’t go near him, that I didn’t know why I alone could do so without certain death, because even as the air ate at my flesh it healed itself and I was able to move away. I knew with a certainty I couldn’t explain that the brown-haired girl wouldn’t be so lucky.

It didn’t look like the brown-haired girl cared.

Like a beautiful bird that is soaring, soaring, before suddenly being ripped from the sky by a cat’s paw, the pretty mousy-haired girl slammed into the Snake Man.

It took everything I had to stop watching the train wreck before my eyes. With “Nat, run!” ringing in my ears I got up and tore towards the throne. It had stopped moving away and I could reach it now.

The brown-haired girl’s screams intermingled with the man’s dark laughter. I felt wetness on my cheeks and realized I was crying.

Behind me, the man momentarily stopped torturing my savior to scream, “NOOOOO,” before he realized I was out of his reach.