Chasing Atlantis (21 page)

20.

Awakening

Tossing, turning, my cheek brushing against something smooth; I groaned. My head felt like it would snap off if I tried to move it.

Is this heaven? The softness under me was inviting, I wanted to just float away in it. No. This can’t be heaven, there’s no sign of Ty being here. Crap. I hope it’s not the other place then. My movements were lethargic with the weight of my limbs. My body didn’t feel quite like my own.

My eyes cracked open, ever so slightly to let some light in. I closed them quickly, the bright fluorescent lights were blinding. I was reminded of that bright light the dentist pulls down near your face, only this light was magnified by my headache. I could only lie there and take the throb, throb, throb of my head.

I began dozing off again, when I heard the subtle groan of a door being opened. My eyes snapped open to the bright lights; I flinched away but kept my eyes open anyway. I couldn’t make anything out, just bright. I couldn’t quite grasp the idea of having a concussion, or internal bleeding at this point. I was just going off my instincts.

My heart ached with the usual flow of adrenaline.

“Hello?” I asked quietly. My vision was finally returning, I could make out that the bright lights were about ten feet above me, and that I was lying down on a bed, not just any bed, but a gigantic king sized bed that seemed to encompass the massive bedroom. The cold feeling of déjà vu began to slowly tingle down my limbs. I had been in this room before, but on a much friendlier level than now.

“Hello?” I called out again, slightly louder than last time. “Is anyone there?” I waited there was nothing.

“Ty?” I asked meekly. I tried to sit up but my head throbbed violently, so I settled for turning over to face the noise. I heard muffled giggles, like someone thought that my remark was the funniest question they have ever heard. The giggles grew louder and louder until they turned into maniacal laughter. Goosebumps blossomed the length of my skin.

“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” The person gasped out between fits of laughter. My hope crashed down through my chest, into a blunt reality. I could see the room crystal clear by now.

“Adam?” I managed to turn my body to face him. I tried, unsuccessfully to draw my body back, as far away from the monster as possible.

“Yes, darling, it’s me.” He grinned angrily at me. Chills ran the length of my entire spine; I suppressed the urge to shudder. “It’s quite funny, isn’t it?” He asked me. He walked to the edge of the bed with the cockiness of a male peacock, flouting his feathers to attract the ladies. It made me gag.

“I personally don’t find anything funny.” I replied. I was carefully edging my way back from him. He laughed loudly again. He reached out, with one of his massive arms, trapping my foot closest to him, pulling me so that I was beside him. My head seared with pain. I closed my eyes to fight back the urge to fall back into the darkness. There was no hope of me trying to fight him off. Bile rose fresh in my throat.

“Really? You don’t find anything funny? Well, here, let me explain to you what I think is so funny.” He griped the side of my face with each hand, digging his scratchy hands into my flesh. I squirmed away, but he just laughed his viciously.

“I think it’s funny, that your little boyfriend led you straight back to the only place that we could have captured you. I mean, you would have been free without him, but thanks to him you are here with me. And yet,” his face fell, to reveal the ugliness of anger that lurked just beneath the surface. “you still prefer
him
to me.” He pulled my face so that it was only inches away from his.

“You prefer a sniveling, little half-breed fish boy over ME!” He screamed at me. He picked me up like a rag doll, flinging me into the wall. I screamed as my head slammed first into the plaster, the dull pain exploding like fire to destroy me.

He was by my side within the second. He grabbed my face again, rougher this time. I felt a small tickle as a stream of blood rolled down my cheek, like a tear drop, only with more power. I looked unblinking into his face, his anger was startling; it was like I was the one who was destroying his dreams, his chance at happiness. “You aren’t even crying. How typical of you.” He said in an offhand way, the same tone to discuss the weather.

He leaned in closer.

The heat of his breath burned my face.

“Why? I just want to know WHY, you are doing this to me?” I felt his arms release my face, but all too soon they were wound around my stomach, pulling me ever closer to him. I wanted to scream, to shout, but my tongue felt too thick to say anything. The cool, soft bed was under me now. I wanted to sleep, to be someone else. I didn’t care anymore. I was going to die here, I understand that now. I can accept that.

But I can’t accept not seeing Ty.

His face closed out everything else that I could see. Adam was far away for me now, just another floating face without a purpose. My chest began to burn. I squealed slightly. This was it. Adam had finally decided he was going to transform me into the monster I had been trying to deny. Maybe I was secretly like him. What if somewhere underneath me there lurked something just as disgusting as Adam?

I waited
for the fire to devour me from the inside out, only it wasn’t the burn I expected. I realized with slight awe, that it wasn’t Adam that was burning me, it was Ty’s necklace, and it was surging with power. There was still hope.

I felt my body rise off the bed, before it was slammed back onto it, jostling me back into my dismal reality. “Amy, don’t you understand that? We could have
everything
. You and I would have access to anything in the world, nothing would be impossible to us. But you denied me! I loved you Amy! I would have taken so much better care of you than that stupid half-breed!”

His words cut into me, worse than his actions. My body was dulled to pain now; he couldn’t hurt me physically anymore. I wouldn’t let him.

He didn’t love me, not in the way he believed he did. He loved me like he loved money. I was just a means to get what he wanted in the end. I could pity him now because he didn’t have the faintest idea of what love was, like the love I felt for Ty. My heart ached now with the thought that I hadn’t ever gotten the chance to tell Ty I loved him. I might never get the chance now.

“Adam, I didn’t know you felt this way about me” I said. I crawled towards him. He looked slightly amazed at my actions. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Of course I have feelings for you, how could I not?” I extended my hand out towards his. He took it, and encircled me into his massive me embrace. I shivered with the realization of what I had to do.

“Amy, I loved you for all these years, but I never knew that you cared for me. I thought you were too busy loving that fish to open your eyes and realize there are better options.” He stroked my hair softly. I felt bile rise in my throat at letting him talk this way about Ty. The adrenaline twisted into anger as it coursed through my veins.

“After
I realized that I could do without Ty, I knew that you were the one for me Adam. I just had to put up with Ty, until I knew that you could come for me.”

Ty please forgive me.

I’m sorry.

“I just wanted to hold you like he did, just once.” Adam’s voice lost its coarse tone; it was almost a croon now. “I just wanted to hold you like this and never let you go.”

If I live through this I hope you can forgive me.

“Adam I’m ready now. You can transform me.” My voice trembled with the words. They were said so pitifully I wasn’t sure that he would believe them at first. How could he believe them? His face lifted into a beaming smile. I felt a single tear, a real tear role down my face. This was the first time I’ve cried in so many years. It didn’t matter though, Adam wouldn’t have understood.

I felt his lips on top of mine, the flesh was burned almost instantly. I didn’t feel the pain though, not really. It didn’t feel real to me, as if my soul had floated out of my body and was watching it without ever really feeling anything. His hot breath seared my throat, choking out any words that might have held any meaning at all.

The tears welled down my face now like a leak had spurted and I couldn’t plug it back up. I wrapped my arms around his head, bringing him closer to me. With his free hand he grabbed a hold of the bottom of my shirt, raising it up. The tears poured out harder now, I didn’t have very much time left. My exposed flesh lay there like a beacon for him.

Through the tears I watched as his hand was slowly placed on my chest, then the nail began to slide sideways in my fragile skin. I cried out in pain as blood began to slowly drip from the cut. He caressed my face with his scratchy hand; it only worsened the pain.

He finished with the horizontal cut, he raised his hand slowly to make the vertical one. I brought my hands down his face, as if I was enjoying kissing him. He groaned with pleasure. He dug his nail lackadaisically into my skin, as if this transformation meant nothing to him at all. Hastily I moved my hands down to my face, then quickly down my neck. I grasped the brittle chain in my fingers, it felt too heavy to lift.

Adam’s nail crossed over the horizontal cut, my body convulsed with pain. He started to take his lips off of mine, to complete the final piece of the transformation.

I grabbed a hold of his head, welcoming the fire that it brought with it. He was satisfied for the moment, taking my face in both of his hands. With my only free hand I grasped the necklace with a new determination.

It is now or never.

With one hand I dragged the necklace over my face, I kept Adam’s face glued to mine with my other hand, he opened his eyes a crack to see what I was up to. He tried to break away from me, but it was too late for him I had thrown the necklace around his neck, and the effects were instantaneous.

He jumped away from me with inhuman speed. I lie gasping for air, to cool the pain. Adam’s voice shrieked with pain and rage all melted together to form a deep guttural sound. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?”

Smoke began to rise from around his body where the necklace touched, his face contorted into a mask of pain and anguish. He stumbled into his dresser, breaking the solid wooden furnishing into splinters with his fists. He beat at the dresser, the walls, the door, anything but the steam still continued to rise in wisps from the sham of his flesh. I gaped helplessly from the bed.

I looked down to see the blood sliding down in my body. It’s funny what you remember in times of need, for instance:I remembered in health class the teacher saying that in order to stop bleeding some pressure might need to be applied. I took off my blood soaked shirt and tied it around my chest, knotting it in a tight sling over my cut.

Adam stopped destroying the room to writher on the floor. My eyes transfixed on his for the tiniest moments, regret began to gnaw away at my insides.

Did I make the right decision?

Yes.

“I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!” He wailed. I sat judging the distance from the bed to the door. It would take me at least four quick, long strides, but could I make it there before Adam got me? Probably not.

“So, this is truly it then, Amy? You are trading
everything
in the world, your family, your goals, everything for
him
?” He was attempting to glean any shred of hope that might remain. There was none.

“You don’t understand!” I pleaded, an automatic teenage response. “I need him. He
is
everything.” I made an attempt to get off the bed, Adam was still quicker. He managed to fling himself near my feet. I drew back on the bed yet again. I had come too far to give up now.

“Touch her and I’ll rip out your eyes, you over-grown lizard.” The door burst open to reveal the dark hallway illuminated with three wonderful faces. Smiling triumphantly at me were Ty, Patrick, and Henry, all pushing each other to be the first in the room.

Henry called out to me. “Hey Amy! Did you miss me?” Before he bounded easily into the room, stepping lightly over the damage Adam caused. Adam dragged himself upright to stand in the far corner of the room. His eyes shifted quickly from face to face, like a wild animal caught before the hunter. All three brothers did look like hunters, especially right now. Their gleaming white teeth looked sharper somehow, especially in the bright lights. They dawned the long black finger nails they usually used to fish, and their eyes burned with excitement.

I didn’t really pay attention to Adam anymore, or anyone else for that matter. Everyone else in the room was just there for me, like pieces of the furniture. Ty was there now, that’s all that mattered. I watched his ocean eyes widen with horror when he took in my blood streaked form, to one of awe when he saw Adam’s withering figure.

“How in the hell did you three get up here?” He asked harshly. I could visibly see his eyes mentally calculating answers that he didn’t want to hear, but he refused to believe them, not until he had no other choice.

Ty took his place by my side within the second; he never bothered to even glance at Adam as he spoke. “I’m sorry it took us so long to get up here. We had to take care of his parents first. No need for worry though, there’s no chance of them bothering us now.” His lips pulled back into a triumphant smile, the jagged white teeth only inches from my face.

That was it. That was the moment the odor finally hit me. Blood. The smell was far worse than anything I have ever encountered. It wasn’t human blood, but it was still blood nonetheless. It was a strange mixture of spoiled milk and lilies.

Adam backed slowly away, I could almost see the gears in his brain clicking in place to understand Ty’s meaning. “No… No… No, no, no. NO! NO, NO, NO! NOOO!” He pointed an accusing finger at all of us. “You murderers! You killed them! How could you?”

Patrick stepped lightly forward. “The same way we plan on killing you.” His eyes burned with the excitement of the hunt. Henry joined Patrick in the center of the room.