Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) (15 page)

Nothing that he’d done was wrong or bad, just odd.  He’d probably won over more girls than he could count with moves like the ones he was putting on her.  Those girls had probably eaten it up.  But she was not other girls, and as it turned out, teenage boy moves did nothing for her.  She did not want to insult him so when he closed his eyes and moved in for a kiss, she let him.

She closed her eyes as his lips lightly touched hers.  He wasted no time attempting to deepen their kiss and Arianna felt his tongue, cold from the beer he’d sipped a moment earlier, glide between her lips and dart about with the eagerness of a snake inspecting its surroundings and picking up scents. She slowed his overzealous pace by creating her own and when she did, an image flashed before her, clear and unmistakable.  She saw Desmond.  She was staring at his broad chest, resting her hands against it.  She remembered the feel of his thick muscles bunching beneath her fingertips; feel the heat radiating from him as she lightly caressed his skin.  The fantasy of him made her long in a way she never had to be with him, to feel him, to kiss him.  She did not want to remember what his lips tasted like.  She wanted to taste them for herself. 

She opened her eyes for a split second and glimpsed Scott’s face instead of Desmond.  A sense of loss enveloped her and left her emotions rioting messily.  Hurt tore through her as memories threatened to rush forth.  She closed her eyes again and braced herself for the tidal wave of sadness that wanted desperately to break free.  Desmond had rejected her outright.  Scott had not.  Why did she still want Desmond?  What was it about Desmond that made her feel as if she were being magnetically pulled toward him?
she wondered.

Scott’s hands moved to her face and cupped it sweetly before he brushed them down the length of her hair and rested them finally at her waist.  He pulled her close and the air between them sizzled again, a strange charge that hummed
erratically.  The sensation was not unpleasant, and neither was his kiss.  He was not Desmond.  No one was or would be.  Scott liked her and wanted to kiss her.  No prophetic complications existed for him.  So she gave in and allowed herself to be swept up in the moment.

After several seconds, their lips parted.

“Wow,” Scott said and guided her head so that it rested against his chest.   “That was nice.”

His gesture was sweet, clumsy, but sweet. 
“Thanks.  Likewise,” she replied.

She did not know how long he wanted to stay as they were.  She’d relaxed considerably, content to hear the
rushed beat of his heart, when Scott pulled back a bit and spoke.  “Looks like the party is breaking up,” he commented. 

“Smells that way, too,” she said and fanned
the air in front of her face with her hand. 

The scent of marijuana hung heavily in the air.

“Whoa, yeah, I smell it now.  You smoke weed?” he asked.

“I’ve had it a couple of times.  It doesn’t do much for me.”

“Me neither,” he said.  “I think I’m done with my beer, too.  Whatever brand they got tasted watered down.”

Arianna laughed.  “I didn’t want to say anything, but it was pretty crappy.”

“You didn’t have to worry about offending me.  I just pick the parties to crash, not the beer.”

She was about to ask him more about his love of party crashing when Paul appeared out of nowhere.

“Guys, the party has cleared out except for a few people.  There’s this couple, Gina and Jeff, they’re so baked.  It’s funny.  You’ve got to come and see them.”

Scott looked to her as though he were
asking her whether she wanted to go.  She shrugged and he took her hand and followed Paul.  She did not have any particular interest in people who were stoned, or drunk, or under the influence of any other behavior-changing drug.  She found that people managed to humiliate themselves and act inappropriate enough on their own, without drugs and drinks.  But if this was what her new friends enjoyed, she’d tolerate it for them.  They were nice and she enjoyed being with them. 

“Look,” Paul pointed to a boy and girl they
’d met earlier.  She remembered them distinctly, especially since the boy, Jeff, wore a silly, neon hat and Gina had hair so pale it could probably be seen from space.  They were laughing like loons as they passed a joint between them.  A third girl, Sarah, whom they’d met as well, was with them.  She, too, was laughing as she sat beside another boy whose name escaped her.  His hair was styled in dreadlocks and he sat with his arm draped over her shoulder and his eyes were squinted as he smiled goofily.

“Oh wow,” Scott said flatly.  “Looks like it’s about time.”

“Yeah, they really should go home.  They’re all messed up” Arianna added.

Scott did not acknowledge what she’d said.  He simply stared at the two couples with a strange look on his face.
  She did not appreciate being ignored and hoped that wasn’t what had happened. 

“They need to get home,” she said again to see if perhaps he hadn’t heard her the first time.  She glanced at Scott, waiting for a response, but he rem
ained focused on the four that stayed behind.

“I’m going to win this one,” Chris
said as he came up behind Scott.  Chris’ words seemed to break Scott’s concentration, a point that irritated her immensely.

She had no idea what Chris was talking about and was about to ask when Jess chimed in.

“No way, Chris, I’m going to kick both your asses.”

“What are you,” Arianna began
, but Scott had already leaned in to speak to the boy with the dreadlocks beside Sarah.  He’d heard her speak all three times, she was sure of it, but had ignored her.  She began to feel extremely annoyed.  Seconds earlier, Scott couldn’t tear his eyes, or lips for that matter, off her.  Now, she was nonexistent.  And for what, a group of kids who were high as kites?

“What’s your name again?” Scott asked
dreadlock guy.

“Steve,” the boy replied and his grin grew wider, sillier.

“Okay, so we have Jeff, Gina, Sarah and Steve,” Scott announced and Arianna became more confused than she was a moment ago.

“I get Steve!” Chris called.

“I get Jeff,” Jess exclaimed.

“Dibs on Gina,” Paul added.

“I guess I get Sarah then,” Scott said.

“What’re you guys talking about?” Jeff slurred.

“Yeah, are we, like, picking dodge ball teams or something?” Steve asked and laughed like a loon.

Scott laughed
as well, but wickedly, a sound that did not look befitting his boy-band-member appearance.  “Yes, something like that,” he replied to Steve.  Then Scott raised his arms out in front of his body and pointed them at Sarah.  He turned his wrists outward and gestured slightly and she jerked forward as if she were connected to his hands by invisible wires.  Her dark curls jiggled and the expression on her face that had been happily high turned to one of fright. 

“What the
hell is going on?” Sarah cried out, but Scott did not answer her.  Instead, he clenched both fists and Sarah’s hands mimicked his motions. 

“Oh my god,” Arianna breathed as her mind struggled to fathom what she was looking at.  The scene seemed absurd, impossible.  Sarah was acting as though she were Scott
’s puppet, doing what he commanded her to do, moving as he ordered her to.  For a moment, Arianna wondered whether she was high, whether some powerful hallucinogenic drug had been slipped in her beer and had actually had the potency to outdo her powers.  “Scott, what the hell, what’s happening here?” she heard herself ask and her voice sounded as if it were echoing from the bottom of the ocean, muffled and distorted.

Scott did not respond and her frustration mounted, along with fear.  The sound of blood rushing behind her ears became a deafening roar, interrupted only by another voice,
Chris’ voice.

“Oh it’s on now!” Chris said excitedly and raised his hands before Steve.  Steve pitched forward
, his dreadlocks swinging, and moved clumsily toward Chris.

Jess and Paul did the same and Gina and Jeff staggered from the fallen tree they’d sat upon. 

Arianna could not believe what she was seeing.  She stood, stunned, mouth agape, unable to react for several seconds.  A chill befell her body like an icy, wintery storm rushing through her veins and crystallizing her blood.  She had to remind herself to breathe, and tried, but her lungs felt frozen.

“What the fuck are you guys doing?” she heard
herself question, and while her voice sounded louder and stronger than it had moments ago, it still sounded foreign to her own ears, and weak.

“Calm down Arianna,” Scott said
exasperatedly.  “We said you weren’t alone anymore.  What did you think we meant?”

“W-what?” she asked as the world began to swirl around her. 

“We know you’re one of us.  We felt it the day you walked into school,” he said, but did not tear his eyes from Sarah, who trembled so powerfully, her tightly coiled hair quivered like Jello.

The spinning quickened and the trees seemed to roll past her in a dizzying blur.  They knew she was a witch, and they, too, were witches and warlocks.  The notion was too much for her brain to process.  She was not drugged.  They were using their powers to manipulate people they’d met at the party like pawns. 

“What are you doing to them?” she managed to ask and pointed to Sarah.

“It’s just a game we play,” Jess answered
casually.  “Chris won last time.”

“Won?  What?” her mind felt as
if it were being swallowed by swirling quicksand. 

“Yeah,” Scott added and laughed.  “So I owe him a beating.” 

“You guys have powers and this is what you do with them?” she cried, but no one acknowledged her.

“He’s going to get that beating right now,” Scott said.

At Scott’s challenge, Chris flicked his wrist and his dreadlocked boy stumbled toward Sarah. 

“What’s going on?”
Chris’ person panicked as his body moved without his control.  “Help me!  Help!” he cried as he wobbled closer to Sarah.  When he got within arm’s reach of her, Chris launched his arm out and Arianna watched in horror as the boy with the deadlocks’ arm did the same.  Chris’ motion made the boy with the dreadlocks punch Sarah in the face with more power than he could have possibly had.  Sarah’s head snapped back and blood spurted from her mouth.  Her brow wrinkled and she cried out in pain.

“Enough guys, this isn’t funny!   Stop it!” Arianna shouted and felt as though she had been placed in a nightmare.  But no one paid her any mind. 
Her frustration escalated to rage and she tried to move, to take a step forward toward Scott, but found her legs would not budge.  “What the hell?” she seethed.

“O
oh!  That was a cheap shot!” Scott screamed in delight, disregarding her yelling then began moving his hands.  As he did, Sarah marched, still bleeding, toward a thick tree branch and picked it up.

“Oh god!  Sarah!”
Chris’ guy sobbed.  “I-I don’t know what’s happening!  Sarah, I’m sorry!”

“Shut up,” Chris order
ed him, annoyed.

“I want in on this action!” Paul called out and
began gesturing quickly.  Paul’s motioning made Gina appear behind Sarah.  Gina’s platinum-blonde hair glowed ethereally in the darkness as she moved, against her will, close to Sarah.

Scott laughed aloud as he twisted his wrist several times and Sarah did the same
, swinging the branch and hitting Steve about his body.

“Please stop
hurting them,” Sarah begged as tears and blood rained down her chin.  “Please leave me alone.”

“Scott don’t!” Arianna screamed
just as Scott made Sarah turn and swing the thick branch in her hand at Gina’s head. 

“No!” she cried again, but it was too late.

The limb smashed against Gina’s face with a stomach-turning
thwack
.  She watched as a flurry of pale blonde hair, now tinged with red, fell to the ground.  The red slowly edged out the blonde as Gina lay there, unmoving.

Arianna tried to run again, to run to Gina who was face-down in a pool of her own blood, but her legs would not move.

“Damn Scott!  You got me again,” Paul called, and to anyone who did not see what he was doing, they would have thought he was jeering about a video game.

“Oh my god!
  You bastard!” Arianna called over and over again.  “Why are you doing this?”

“Yeah!  That’s what I’m talkin
g about!” Scott cheered as if she weren’t there.  “Look out guys, I’m coming for you.”

Everyone laughed except Arianna, and those being moved against their will.

“Stop it!” Arianna screamed as crimson began to cloud her vision and a familiar feeling began to surge and course through her.  She’d been trying to keep her powers under control, had successfully kept them at bay, though she did not know how she’d done it.  Her legs were frozen, but her powers were not.  She would not allow for innocents to be manipulated like pawns for Scott and the others’ sick enjoyment.  She would stop them.  She would punish them.