BlackMoon Beginnings (31 page)

Everyone else is fighting in different
locations throughout the yard against Gadramicks. Tom and Bragden
are fighting off numerous people at once, while David remains close
to Emma to protect her. I spot myself standing in the middle of
field fighting Thomas.

I have a sword in my hand, moving in ways I
didn’t think were possible for me. I’m incorporating all my
gymnastics tricks, but because so many people are in a small space,
it’s hard to do all the moves that I know I’m capable of. I can
feel the magic emanating from my body. I’m not fighting fairly, but
I’m still not gaining any leverage on him. Thomas is larger than
Bragden so this fight is definitely more difficult.

I hear Colton cry out. I, along with the
vision version of myself, turn to see what happened. Blood is
dripping down Colton’s arm where Adam’s sword had sliced him. That
is all the distraction that Thomas needed. He knocks the sword out
of my hand and back hands me, knocking me to the ground. I quickly
roll over, avoiding his foot as he attempts to kick me. I jump up
and spin around, bringing my arm full of magic out to punch him in
the stomach. He doesn’t flinch. Smiling at me, he deflects my arm
and thrusts his other arm into my stomach. Tearing through skin and
muscle, his sword implants itself in my abdomen. I gasp and look
into his eyes. His large brown eyes are looking down at me with
amusement. He’s going to enjoy watching me die.

“
RYANNE!” I hear Colton yell. I start to
run towards myself, but I know that there’s nothing I can do. This
is a vision. No one knows I’m here and I can’t interfere. Colton
drops his sword and punches Adam in the jaw, sending him onto the
stone patio. Hitting his head, Adam falls to the ground
unconscious. Thomas jerks his sword out of my body and I stare at
him before crumbling to the ground. I reach myself as blood starts
to dribble out of my mouth.

Larkin blinks in behind Thomas and stabs him
through the heart. He claws at the sword, but Larkin pushes it in
deeper. Yelling over his shoulder to Colton, Larkin says, “Get her
out of here!” I watch as my eyes close and my body starts
convulsing. Blood is soaking the ground beneath me, turning the
green grass a deep red. Colton scoops me up and runs towards the
house

I gasp myself awake. I am upright, but fully
leaning against Colton. Thank goodness he caught me. Everyone is
watching me, waiting for me to explain what I saw. Bragden appears
the most confused and worried. He’s never seen me go into a vision
before. It always looks and feels like I’m fainting.

“Ryanne, what did you see?” asks Colton. His
arms are still propping me up, which is probably a good thing,
because I’m not sure if I can stand on my own. I can’t respond. My
body starts shaking. I had a feeling that something was going to
happen, but actually seeing it is a different story. Now, I have to
go into tomorrow, knowing that I am going to die that night.

“What’s wrong with her?” Bragden demands.

Colton scoops me up and walks to the living
room, placing me on the couch. Crouching down in front of me, he
grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. “Ryanne, what did you
see?”

“I saw my death.” Colton’s eyes widen, but he
doesn’t say anything. He’s the only one. His hand falls from my
chin. Sitting back, he runs his hand through his hair. I notice
that he does that a lot. Everyone else starts talking at once.

“How is that possible? What? Who did it?
Where were the rest of us?”

“Quiet!” Colton yells at everyone.

Liam walks over and sits beside me, “Are you
sure that’s what you saw?”

“Yes. I was stabbed through the stomach. I
saw myself fall, blood poured out of the wound, and then I started
coughing up blood.”

“Where were we? Where was I?” asks Logan. I
rehash the whole vision for everyone—not leaving out a single
detail. They need to know everything. Visions aren’t set in stone,
because the future isn’t. Only the past is. There is always a
chance that something will change, but I’m not going to bet too
much on it.

“It was one thing assuming that I was going
to die tomorrow, but actually seeing myself…” My voice cracks. “He
was laughing at me...”

“It’s not going to happen, Ry. We’re not
going to let it happen. Visions can always be changed. We’ve seen
that already,” says Colton. “What I don’t understand is why we were
all split up. Why didn’t we stick together?”

Focusing on my lap, I stop listening to their
conversation. I don’t know the answers to his questions. I told
them everything I know. My mind keeps drifting back to the yard,
when Thomas was standing over me, satisfaction in his eyes, as he
watched me fall to the ground. It’s weird to see how quickly life
can leave a person. A second after being stabbed, I looked like
death. My pale skin whitened. My eyes looked dull void of any
exuberance and pain etched across my face.

I can’t get the images out of my head. The
way the blood pooled around my body, creating an orb surrounding my
torso. The way its deep coloring contrasted with my abnormally pale
skin as it flowed out of my mouth. The worst part was the look on
Colton’s face. The look that told me he blamed himself for not
being able to stop it from happening. The look of pure
helplessness, knowing that there’s nothing that can be done.

I am only eighteen. There are so many things
that I have yet to do in life. I’ll never fall in love or get
married. I’ll never have a chance to settle down somewhere and
start a family. I don’t want to die, not yet anyways. More than
that, I don’t want anyone blaming themselves for my death.

Even more than that, I know that I don’t want
to dwell on what is going to happen. I bring my attention back to
the present and find everyone still talking about the vision. I
stand up and walk past everyone, towards the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Emma calls after
me.

“I’m going upstairs to change out of these
clothes. I don’t want to dwell on my imminent death anymore. I’d
rather forget that today may be my last day. I’m going to push it
out of my mind like I do your thoughts. I’m going to go into
tomorrow and fight with everything I have. If something changes,
awesome. If not…well there’s not much any of us can do about it
right now.” I walk up the stairs and out of sight.

Dressed in a pair of white shorts and a large
shirt, that I think I took from Liam, I grab my notebook and iPod
and go to the entertainment room. Everyone will find me soon
enough. Turning on Pandora, I sit down in the chair that I usually
share with Liam and begin drawing. Drawing people isn’t my
expertise, but today I feel like drawing a person.

I draw an extreme close-up on a face; the eye
encompassing the majority of the page. I am shading it, when I see
everyone walk into the room. My music is so loud, that I can’t hear
anything they’re saying. Liam stops in front of me. Without looking
up, I stand up and wait for him to sit down. He pulls me back to
the seat once he is comfortable. Sitting on his lap, I shift until
I am in a decent position and then continue drawing. The final
detail is a small tear cascading from the corner of the eye.

Turning my music down, I flip the page and
begin drawing another picture: my dream house. It’s an old
Victorian house with a wraparound porch on the ocean. Its faded
white paint chipping is in some areas giving it character. Sea
gulls are flying over head. In my mind, I can hear the sound of the
ocean slamming in small waves against the shore line. Liam reaches
up and pulls one of the headphone pieces out of my ear. “What are
you drawing?”

“My dream house. It’s what I always imagined
I’d end up living in when I was older. An older rustic house.
Nothing new. Nothing fancy. Near the ocean, so I would wake up
hearing the gulls and the waves hitting the shore every morning.” I
smile thinking about it. It sounds so silly to want something so
simple. These guys are used to large lavish homes, so I’m sure they
think it’s weird to want something so small.

“Something close enough to civilization that
you’d still be connected to society, but far enough out for peace
and quiet?” Colton whispers.

I take my other headphone out, “Yeah.
Exactly.”

“Can I see that?” He nods towards my
notebook, I hand it to him. After a couple of seconds, he says,
“I’ve always wanted something similar.” That surprises me. “I’ve
lived in a large house my whole life. At times, it feels like it
could swallow you whole. I want to live somewhere where I feel
comfortable and am able to fully be myself. Where I don’t feel like
there’s a role I have to play.” I’ve never seen Colton speak so
honestly before. His whole demeanor changes when he’s lost in his
thoughts. He looks…younger. I can’t help it. I don’t care who else
sees me; I can’t take my eyes off of him. My heart literally hurts
because of how much I like him, but I keep visualizing him kissing
Natasha. Knowing he is interested in another girl, hurt. A lot.

He clears his throat and stops looking at the
page. Jerking my eyes away from him, I look up at Emma. She smiles
sympathetically at me, recognizing the look on my face. Colton
starts to hand me the notebook back, but Bragden asks to look at
it.

“Are these flames?” he asks looking down at
the large flames encompassing an entire page.

“Yeah. Actually, it’s Liam’s tattoo.”

“Is this Liam? You drew Liam?” Apparently to
Bragden, it’s preposterous that anyone would draw him.

“In my defense, I drew that before I knew
him; back when I thought he was just a figment of my
imagination.”

“You’re really good. Like ridiculously
good.”

Before I can respond, Tom comes into the
room, “We’ve got some people coming over early. They’re going to
sleep downstairs tonight.”

“Who?”

“The Stapleton’s.” David, Colton, and Logan
all curse. Shocked, the rest of us turn to Tom to see if he’ll
explain what the problem is. “James and Phillip Stapleton are, how
can I say this, a little brazen when it comes to females.”

“I don’t get it.” I say.

Colton explains, “Ryanne, on a scale of one
to Adam. They are just below Adam.” Oh, I completely understand
Adam terminology.

“I just thought that I would warn you.”

With that, Tom leaves. “Emma, Ryanne, tonight
and tomorrow, just don’t go anywhere on your own. James has
increased strength, so make sure you’re not alone near him.
Especially him,” David warns.

Could a guy really be this bad? It seems a
little extreme.

For an hour we all sit in the entertainment
room, just talking. No movie is playing. We just talk, laugh, and
get to know each other more. It’s probably the most I’ve ever
laughed. No one acknowledges my supposed death tomorrow. We push
all problems to the back of our minds and just enjoy each other’s
company.

When the doorbell rings, we all tense.
Something obviously happened between Colton, David, and Logan and
James and Phillip, but no one will tell us what. Walking down the
stairs, I start to get nervous. Colton and Liam stay on either side
of me with Bragden behind me. David and Logan stay close to Emma.
They’re completely serious about these guys.

Two young men, early twenties I would assume,
are standing with Tom in the entryway. They look exactly the same
to me, except one is slightly more muscular with sandy brown hair,
while the other has dark black hair. I’m assuming that the muscular
one with brown hair is James.

When we stop in front of them, Colton reaches
out and shakes hands with them. “Hey Colton, how’ve you been?”

“I’ve been good, James. You?” His voice is
tense.

“Good.” James’s eyes travel from Colton and
stop on me. I take a step closer to Colton. “Aren’t you going to
introduce me to your friends?”

Colton is clenching and unclenching his
hands. James isn’t being subtle in the way he is leering at me. I
am glad that I’m wearing a large t-shirt, instead of the fitted
clothing that I’ve been wearing. Even with the large shirt, I still
feel very exposed.

“Of course. James, Philip, this is Ryanne,”
he extends his hand. I glance down at it for a second and then look
towards Colton. He briefly nods his head, so I place my hand in
his. When our hands connect, he pulls me towards him, using a
little more force than is necessary, so I slam into his chest. I
can hear the guys exhale angrily behind me. He grins at me, before
bringing my hand up to his mouth and kissing it; his eyes never
leaving mine.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ryanne.” Not
politely, I yank my hand away from his.

Backing up, I say, “Likewise.”

When I near him, Colton puts an arm across my
shoulder and pulls me closer. I let him. I don’t like how James
keeps looking at me. “James, this is Liam, Bragden, and Emma.” He
just points to each person. He politely nods to each person. His
eyes linger on Emma, before looking back to me. Phillip just stands
off to the side quietly.

“James, Phillip, why don’t you come with me.
I’ll show you to the guest bathroom, so you can wash up a little
before dinner,” says Tom.

When they leave the room, I turn towards
Colton, “That guy gives me the creeps.”

“Is he always that…obvious?” asks Liam,
disgusted.

“Yep. And it’s obvious who he’s interested
in,” David answers. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for you,
Ryanne.”

I start messing with the end of my shirt,
another nervous habit I have acquired. It’s too large anyways.
Twisting it around my hand, I wonder how this night is going to go.
After meeting James and Phillip, I’m definitely going to heed
David’s advice and stick with someone at all times.

After witnessing my nervous habit, Liam looks
at me, concerned. He seems to finally get a good look at me, “Is
that my shirt?”

I glance down and nod. “Yeah, I forgot to
give it back to you after I washed it. It was clean, so I just
changed into it. You don’t mind, do you?”