Blood Ties (8 page)

My eyes filled with tears and I nodded. “Yes Papa, I promise. What is happening? Why are they screaming?”

He covered my lips with his fingers and shook his head, then kissed my forehead and shoved me under my bed. He left quickly, closing the door behind him. I lay there huddled on the floor in the small space, crying silently, dressed only in my light night shift, shivering in the heat of the summer from the horrible sounds coming from outside.

I heard the door to the shop kicked open. There were two pistol shots, then a low rumble of laughter. In horror, I clamped both of my hands over my mouth at the sound of my parent’s screams. They seemed to go on forever, and then were suddenly cut short.

Heavy footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs.

The door opened. I held my breath. I heard, and then saw a pair of leather boots enter the room and stop a few feet from where I hid. The boots turned as if to leave, then there was a soft teasing chuckle.

Suddenly my bed was overturned, thrown into the wall, shattering my chest of drawers.
I screamed. Out of the darkness, a pair of large white hands appeared, fingers curled in talons, reaching for me.

A loud pounding sounded on a door. I found myself cowering in a corner in the darkness. After a few moments of disorientation, I crawled through clothing on the floor of my bedroom and when I reached the living room, stood and stumbled to the front door. I opened it and Jen ran inside, flipping on all of the lights and looking around, pushing me behind her. Parker and another guy from down the hall rushed in. They shouted, asking what was going on as they searched my apartment.

She pulled me down on the couch. The boys stood huddled around us, their chests heaving in all the excitement.

“Liz, are you okay, what’s going on?”

I looked at her through
a veil of tears trying to hold back the emotional wails of panic. The image of those pale, cruel hands reaching for me had burned into the back of my eyes. I blinked back my tears. “I’m sorry, it was just a nightmare.” I let out a breathy shudder.

She barked out for a glass of water and Parker ran to the kitchen and raced back with one. She handed it to me. My hands shook and the water slopped in the glass.
She helped me hold it.

“Thanks guys, she’ll be fine. I’ll take it from here.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked after they had left.

“No, it was nothing ... just a silly dream.”

“Do you want me to stay?”

“No really. I’m fine. No worries,” I assured her in a small voice, caught on the end of a hiccup. I wasn’t fine but couldn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted to blank it out of my mind; it had seemed so – real.

“Sure? It’s no problem for me to stay.”

I shook my head, blinking back more tears and held my breath to make the spasms stop in my throat.

She watched me with those big green eyes. “Well,” she said slowly, “I’m next door if you need me.”

I locked the door behind her, checking it twice, then turned on every light in the apartment, wrapped my body tight in my comfort
er and made sure my toes were tucked in safe from the monsters under the bed. I hoped this nightmare wouldn’t join my other dreams in their frequent dance around my subconscious.

Chapter 6

It was another dark, drizzly day. I followed the crowd along the sidewalk huddled in my windbreaker under a small foldable umbrella. The rain drummed along the top of it. I’d stolen it from Jen. Well “stolen” may be too strong a word. I borrowed it, the good one, leaving her the clunky yellow one. She looked good in yellow. I moved to the left to dart around a large puddle. Then I saw him coming towards me.

He was head down, deep in conversation with Dr. Hanson. He wore a long unbelted black raincoat, collar up, over the top of a blue formfitting sweater and black pants. He reached with one pale hand to move a strand of hair away
from his face. Just that small gesture jump started my heart – I’d seen that so often in my dreams. My heart was loud enough that it thundered in my ears. He looked up and searched the crowd of students in front of him until his gaze landed on me. There was nowhere to go but forward.

I
lowered my eyes to the back of the student in front of me, following her along, umbrella low against my head, hoping I was mistaken, that he hadn’t really seen me and I could sneak past him. A moment later, he was right in front of me, literally. To move past him I’d have to go around him. Damn.

“Good morning Miss Aldridg
e,” he said.

“Hi,” I breathed, gazing up into his lovely face.
“… ah … Dr. Marcheon … Dr. Hanson.”

“Miss Aldridge,” Tom said. “I’m glad to see you’re doing much better. You had me worried.” The plastic handle of my umbrella strained under the tight grip of my fingers. I knew what was coming.

“Michael, she almost passed out in your office yesterday afternoon.”

Dr. Marcheon’s forehead creased. “Really? What happened?” He led me out of
the way of the other students with a soft touch on my shoulder. A warm tingle caressed through my windbreaker and t-shirt to slide down across my back and arm. It felt good. Too good.

“I walked in, asked to leave you a note to say I stopped by and she went completely white. I had to push her down in a chair
before she toppled over.”

“You’re feeling better I hope?” His languid brown eyes, concerned, bore into mine.

“Ummm … yeah … I forgot to eat breakfast and lunch.” I shifted uncomfortably on my feet, squirming under his gaze. “Ummm … I … you know … kinda do that a lot … you know … frequently …” God, I sounded like a ten-year-old. He pursed his lips, trying to hold back a smile. Heat flooded my face. A crack of thunder boomed overhead and the rain began to fall harder.

“Well, it won’t do to skip breakfast and lunch. Going forward you’ll take better care of yourself,
correct?”

“Yes sir,” I replied, staring into his beautiful eyes. He gave me a smile. A sweet smile, one that was almost intimate.
My face felt as if it were burning. I gritted my teeth. “Ah well, thanks for your concern, I gotta run or I’ll be late for class.”

“You’re welcome, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I hurried off and didn’t look back. By the time I made it to my next class, the bottoms of my jeans were soaked and my tennis shoes squished. I just loved rain.

I didn’t hear a word of the lecture in my English class. I didn’t remember walking to the Hub to meet Jen and Logan for lunch. I grabbed a chicken fingers and fries combo and slumped down onto an empty table. I laid my face and upper body across it, my cheek against the tabletop. It was sticky and smelled like old dishrags seething with millions of bacteria. I was too tired to care.

A vacation was due, a vacation from obsessing about Michel and his pale twin. There you go. I was thinking about him again. I let out an oath and closed my eyes. I forced my body to relax and emptied my mind. The background clatter of the cafeteria became a comfortable white noise.

I felt a heavy hand slide down my neck and the warmth of a kiss. “Ma chérie, are you ready? Your parents are waiting for us.”

I smiled, enjoying the cool grass under my cheek. I reached up behind me to grasp his fingers. “A moment Michel … just a moment …”

I shot up straight in my seat. Jen scraped her chair, scooting it closer to the table. She ripped off the end of the paper on a straw and blew it off. It flew over to the table next to us and the guy sitting at it turned around. Jen smiled coyly. He grinned and turned back around. She sighed and stole one of my chicken fingers.

“Cold,” she complained scrunching up her face. She poured dressing over her salad and began tossing it about. “Tired?” She popped a cherry tomato in her mouth. “Who’s Meeshell?” she mumbled.

I blinked, coming
around. For a few moments the cafeteria seemed foreign, alien. “Huh, what did you say?”

“I said, who is Meeshell? God I love that name, it sounds so … French.” She popped several of my cold fries in her mouth. “Gotta love the French,” she said waving more fries in the air. “God, Liz, how can you eat these. They’re all soggy.”

“He’s … no one. Just a book, just a book I read once.”

“It must have been a good one. You seemed very happy.”

Tears brimmed in my eyes and I let out a sob. She stopped in mid-chew. I put my face in my hands.

“What is it Liz? Did something happen?”

“What’s wrong with her?” Logan asked. He dropped his backpack on a chair with a thud.

I put my head down on my folded arms and the floodgates opened. How could dreams tear your heart apart? I loved him, I loved him desperately. How
could you love someone who doesn’t exist?

I bit down on my lip thinking pain might help stop my crying. I tasted the salty coppery taste of blood. I heard other voices ask what was going on. Jen and Logan shooed them away.

It was several more minutes before I pulled back up into my chair. Jen shoved a handful of napkins at me. I blew my nose and then dabbed at my bleeding lip. The tables around us were watching the show.

“You okay Liz
?”

“I’m just tired.” I held my breath for a few seconds then pulled my lunch towards me. I poked at my fries lying in congealed grease.

Logan un-wrapped his hamburger. He took a big bite and chewed as he watched me thoughtfully. He choked a mouthful down with a grimace. “She’s got her period.” He took another bite. He mumbled with food in his mouth. “My sister cries like a baby. Then she flips out into a ‘biatch’. She’s a major bleeder. It’s hell to be around her.”

Jen looked aghast. “Fuck you Logan.”

He shrugged his shoulders and flicked his eyes to the limp and soggy mess in front of me. He jumped up, burger hanging out of his mouth, loped over, and butted in line at the cafeteria counter, reaching between students to pick up a sandwich.

He pulled the mangled mess out of his mouth to call
out to the cashier, “I’ll catch ya later. It’s an emergency. We got a bleeder.”

He walked back and put it in front of me.

Jen stared at him. “Did I just say fuck you?” He gazed at her with that half amused, half I dare you look. “Well, fuck you again.” She flipped him the bird.

He rolled his eyes. “Well, my hormonal friends, gotta go before I lose a body part.”

We watched him walk away.

She turned to me, eyes narrowed, watching me dab at the blood on my lip. The more I got to know her she seemed to pick up on little things as if I
were giving off some weird psychic energy.

“You gonna tell me? This h
as ‘guy’ written all over it.”

I buried my fries and chicken fingers under a couple napkins and shoved it to the center of the table. “I swear Jen. You’re too suspicious. It’s nothing.”

“Yeah sure. My ass it isn’t.”

I gave her a frustrated scowl. She huffed. She sat back in her chair, her arms crossed over her chest.

“You need to let this go,” I warned. She huffed again then stuck her soda in her face and furiously sucked away.

The next table turned around to look. Apparently, I was the topic of their conversation. I glared at them, suddenly feeling pissed. They turned around with a sharp movement.

“Let’s go out tonight,” Jen blurted. I frowned as much as I could with a mouthful of turkey. “We’ll get everyone together. Nobody falls apart like that and doesn’t need some liquid mental repair.”

I swallowed. “Forget it. I’m not in the mood. If this is an attempt to cheer me up, I don’t need it. You guys can go, have one for me.” Why was I so pissed off? I was pissed that I was stuck. Stuck in some weird dream time-loop with a phantom GQ model and obsessing about his pale twin.

“Oh, so now the sarcasm comes out. What do you think Jen,” she said, dramatically talking to herself. “Is this better than the sobbing Liz?” She gave me another one of her toothy grins, daring me.

“God Almighty!” I yelled, my voice booming out across the cafeteria. I stood up, threw the sandwich down on the table and pulled my pack off the floor. I shoved my unopened water into it
, glaring at her, then in a quick movement, grabbed the sandwich off the table, stuck it in my mouth and stomped off to my next class, my feet squishing.

Chapter 7

I dropped to my feet and let out a scream of triumph. I’d lost my virginity, that is, my beer-bongin’ virginity. A loud belch slid out of my chest and I swaggered over to our table and stood in front of Logan. “Beat that you Canukistanian!”

Jen led a chorus of whoops
. Logan gave me a smug look and slowly got up and came out from behind the table. Our new beer-bongin’ buddies, a couple of guys from a frat house, flipped him over and his jersey fell over his head. The girls leaned over to check out his abs, all of them except me.