A Demon Made Me Do It (13 page)

Nothing.

I open my mouth to scream, but no
sound comes out.

They both laugh, and
Perfect Teeth moves closer. I feel her hot breath on my cheek as
she whispers, “Don’t you know we swallow your screams, little girl?
No one can hear you. Only us, and it makes us feel
so good
. The more you
scream the more powerful we become.” Her purple eyes shine
wickedly.

I can only watch helplessly as she
dangles her fingers in front of my face.

“
Interesting that she can’t
move,” she murmurs to her partner.

“
Guess she has some issues.
I expected a fight, but she just froze up.”

“
Interesting,” Perfect
Teeth repeats.

I hear their words, but they make no
sense. I shake my head.

“
What do you want?” My
voice is barely more than a whimper.

They both laugh again. Perfect Teeth
slides her boney hand under the sleeve of my cloak, and down the
entire length of my bare arm. Fiery razorblades of burning acid
slice open my skin.

I know I’m screaming in agony, but I
hear nothing except the sound of their laughter.

The pain is excruciating, unlike
anything I’ve ever felt or imagined. It seeps slowly through my
body, each beat of my heart moving the debilitating wretchedness
deeper inside me. Suddenly, my body shifts from freezing cold to
sweltering hot. I can’t catch my breath.

Sweat pours from my forehead and into
my eyes. I try crying out again, but the pain is too much to bear,
and I don’t have the strength. My eyes close, and my body collapses
in a heap on the grass.

“
Interesting,” Perfect
Teeth mutters again.

Is that all she can
say?

“
This is going to be a good
show,” the male says, sounding amused.

Tattie! Tattie! I need
help!

The final wave of torture washes over
my head, and I know this is it.

I’m going to die.

Alone in a field, mocked by
tormenters, sacrificed for no reason other than to satisfy the
needs of pure evil.

Just like…

Suddenly, my suffering
stops.

Not only is the pain gone,
but my body feels good. Young, strong, healthy,
and whole
.

Cautiously, I open one eye and welcome
the warm glow of the soft twilight sun. My cage is gone, and I’m no
longer in Baymore Park. I’m alone, sitting in a field of
wildflowers and tall grass.

I know this
place
.

Euphoria washes over me, and I breathe
several deep sighs of relief. There’s a familiar oak tree up ahead.
Smiling, I stand up on wobbly legs and walk over to it.

Our tree.

I lightly trace my finger over the
letters carved into its ancient wood.

Michael. Kayla.
Liora
.

The names form a triangle,
and there’s a star symbol carved in the middle. I remember how
Michael added that part later, for me. He’d told me once that it
was
me
who’d made
our little group so special. Until I met them, Michael and Kayla
had been like any other brother and sister. But once I joined the
mix, everything had changed.

We became a family.

“
Liora, come here!” A young
girl calls. My heart stops. I know this voice…

“
Coming!” I hear another
girl sing out.

I gasp. As if hypnotized, I find
myself moving toward the sounds of happy children laughing by the
pond.

I see
them….
us.
Michael,
Kayla, and me. Michael is by the water, barefoot, his pant legs
rolled up to his knees. He’s holding a long stick, and his brown
hair flops aimlessly in the breeze. Kayla stands beside him,
beaming.

I watch as my younger self skips
toward them; my yellow sundress floats around me like a ray of
sunshine.

I’m only twelve years old here; I am
still innocent.

“
Liora, look what Michael
found!” Kayla says breathlessly.

“
What is it?”

My heart pounds wildly. I
remember
every second
of this scene playing out before me.

Michael takes his hand out from behind
his back. In it, he’s holding a beautiful, full-bloomed white and
yellow water lily.

“
Here, Liora, this is for
you,” he says, shyly handing Younger Me the flower. “It was
floating in the middle of the pond all by itself. I wanted you to
have it.”

Giggling delightedly, Kayla skips over
to the oak tree and grabs the tire swing. “Michael and Liora,
sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

Michael’s freckled cheeks tinge pink.
“Shut up, Kayla,” he mutters, tossing a clump of grass at
her.

“
Michael, you better keep
your promise!” Kayla yells out as she climbs up the rope and starts
swinging.

“
What promise?” I’m asking,
holding his gift up to my face. I remember thinking it was the
sweetest fragrance I’d ever smelled. I watch my younger self
breathe deeply and smile.

Michael looks down at his feet, and
then peeks shyly up through his long lashes. “I promised her that
one day I’d ask you to marry me,” he says quietly. “That way you
two can be real sisters forever.”

Hearing him say those words had lit up
my soul in a way I never thought possible. At that exact moment,
everything was perfect.

Perfect.

“
You want to marry me?” I’m
whispering, hiding my happy grin behind the oversized
lily.

He nods. “Someday. When we’re older.
But not too old. Maybe once we’re outta high school...”

I see myself laugh, but I know at that
moment I was thinking if my heart felt any fuller it would explode
from too much joy.

“
You’ve thought this
through,” I’m saying.

He nods again, braver now. “If you
want to, that is. Of course, if you find someone better…someone you
like more…”

“
Michael, stop. How could I
possibly find anyone I like more? That would be impossible! Let’s
do it. We can get married and the three of us can all live together
in a big house and everything will be perfect forever!” I’m dancing
around in a happy circle.

He smiles, but it’s a nervous smile.
His brown eyes turn serious, and he moves closer to me. I know this
moment. My heart is racing so fast...

I see myself close my eyes, but
remember the feeling of Michael’s lips briefly, gently touching
mine…of my whole world exploding with fireworks.

He quickly pulls away and looks down
at the ground, unaware those few seconds when he first kisses me by
the pond will provide me with the happiest memory of my
life.

A short yelp followed by a longer
scream interrupts the intimate moment.

“
Kayla!”

Michael and I both turn and sprint to
where she has fallen. Of course, I reach her first, and when
Michael arrives I’m already cradling Kayla in my arms.

“
Ow, ow, my leg…it
hurts…help,” Kayla sobs.

I watch myself take hold of Kayla’s
broken leg. I’d never tried doing this before, but somehow, deep
inside, I knew I could do what needed to be done. Wrapping my hands
around her injury, I concentrate and allow my fire to heal
her.

A moment later, Kayla’s sobs are
replaced with laughter. Michael crouches beside me, staring in awe.
Kayla looks at me adoringly and grasps my hand.

“
Liora…how did you
do
that? That was
like…
magic
.”

I’m shrugging. “I dunno…I just knew I
could.” Tatiana had been teaching me about my ‘special’ heritage,
and how I was different from other human boys and girls. She’d also
warned me never to say anything, even to Michael and Kayla. But
they knew I was different without me ever saying a word. And they
loved me anyway.

Kayla struggles to her feet
and brushes the dirt from her white dress. “You’re so lucky. Is
there anything you
can’t
do? Man, I wish I had cool powers like you do. I’m
so ordinary. Boring and…
unmagical
.”

“
It’s not really magic,
though…it’s something else.”

“
Well, whatever it is,
you’re lucky. Lucky Liora. Lucky, lucky, lucky,” she sings as she
begins climbing back up the tree. Grabbing a thick branch she
hoists herself back into the tire, bravely forgetting her earlier
mishap. Michael and I are standing next to each other, watching her
with smiles on our faces. He gently wraps his hand around
mine.

“
Lucky Liora,” Kayla
repeats as her long, blonde hair flows behind her in the wind. “And
lucky me for having a very best friend and someday sister who is so
wonderfully magical. Lucky me. Lucky, lucky me.” The sound of her
tinkling laughter carries through the fields.

“
I think I’m the lucky
one,” Michael whispers from beside me.

“
I’m the luckiest of all,”
I whisper back.

Michael leans closer and gently kisses
me again. Kayla laughs.

“
We should get going soon,”
I say, even though I don’t want our perfect day to end. “It’s
getting dark out, and I promised Tatiana I’d be home for
dinner.”

“
Just a little while
longer,” Michael says. I smile and squeeze his hand.

“
Hello, there…”

Michal and I turn to see two young
girls emerge from a patch of tall, wild grass. Kayla, unaware of
the girls’ arrival, continues to swing.

As I’m watching the scene replay
before me, I feel two distinctly separate sets of emotions at once:
one…the curious apprehension my younger self is feeling; the
second…the sheer, unbridled terror of now.

I try screaming:
Run away! Get Kayla and Michael and run for your
lives!

I hear the desperate pleas in my mind,
but no sound comes from my lips. I’m nothing more than a silent,
invisible observer, powerless to stop the horrific scene from
unfolding.

Just like then.

“
Hello, where did you guys
come from?” Michael’s friendly voice is laced with
surprise.

We should’ve seen them earlier; I’d
thought it odd that we hadn’t. But maybe we were all too wrapped up
in our perfect little world to notice two people
approaching.

“
Can we play with you?” the
girls ask in unison. They look to be about eight or nine years old.
Identical twins, holding hands. Both wearing matching pink and
white pinafores with their blonde hair in bouncy
pig-tails.

I remember feeling uneasy about these
newcomers, but didn’t know why at the time. They were the most
adorable little girls I’d ever laid my eyes on. But something about
them made the hairs on my arms stand up.

“
Aren’t you pretty far from
home?” Michael asks, as he leans down to talk to them. Wherever
these two girls were from, it wasn’t nearby. The closest house was
a few miles down the road, and we knew everyone in the surrounding
area.

They shake their heads like little
robots. “We like it,” they say, again in perfect unison. A strange
answer that doesn’t seem to fit Michael’s question.

“
Where are your parents?
Where did you come from?” I ask, grasping Michael’s hand tighter.
He’s smiling at the little dolls with an amused grin, but my
stomach is uncomfortably clenched.

They stare at us with wide, innocent
expressions.

Run! Get Michael and Kayla
and run away NOW!!

My silent screams go unnoticed, and
now I can’t move. My body is frozen, forcing me to watch the
gruesome scene about to take place.

“
We don’t want to play with
you,” they say to me in eerie harmony. “We only want to play
with
them
…”

No, no, make it stop!
Somebody help! Make them stop! Run! Get away!
Please…please…

Tears fall down my cheeks. Nothing I
do matters now.

At this moment, the two little girls’
eyes glow an unnaturally bright blue before turning a menacing
shade of black. I see my younger self freeze.

No. Please…no. Run…get
away,
I continue to cry out. Finally, I
can’t watch anymore and I close my eyes tight, unable to bear
witness to the horrors about to happen.

I let out one final,
anguished scream.
NOOOOOOO!!!

Suddenly, I’m spinning through
darkness. My stomach jolts from the waves of nausea flooding my
body. Then it stops. My eyes and jaw are tightly clenched, but I
feel a palpable difference in the air.

I’m somewhere else.

I struggle to catch my breath and slow
my racing heart. Sweat drips from my forehead, my body trembles
uncontrollably. But I’m neither hot nor cold. I’m strangely
comfortable.