Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (7 page)

Although whoever had moved
there had only arrived a few months ago, this was the first time I
paid any real attention.
Awesome
, I thought as I started
rinsing out the sticky brushes,
another
person that hates me.

I fed a plate of spaghetti and round
meatballs to the hungry carpet. I tipped the plate over and the
long noodles cascaded down. The mess disappeared as the carpet
absorbed it, nourishing itself. A smear of crimson was all that was
left. My actions didn't seem strange to me at all. But the smear
looked like something else. Like blood.

I bolted upright in my bed, heart
hammering below my ribcage. I didn't think it was a nightmare, but
I was scared. Terrified, in fact. I tried taking a few deep
breaths, but I couldn't get the air down low enough.

My bedroom was one of three small
rooms that came off of the main basement. Our basement ran the
entire length of the house and was all finished, so it was very
comfortable. The main space had seen its share of entertaining in
the day, and couches and a fairly large TV were buried beneath
boxes of junk and castoffs from Erasmus. I was grateful for the
privacy, although I never did much to take advantage of it.
 

But now I realized how cut off I was
from the rest of the house. Still groggy, I stood up out of bed,
bare feet slowly touching the floor. The reason for my fear
suddenly became obvious.

There was someone here. An
animal instinct took charge. I was sure that someone was watching
me. I could feel a change in the regularity of my surroundings, a
foreign buzz of electricity.
One of these
things just doesn't belong...

Fearfully, my eyes darted to my closet
first, the usual suspect in slasher films. Before I could think
about it too much, I walked over and looked inside. The hair on my
arms and neck prickled. Adrenaline made me brave as I pawed through
my hanging clothes, but nothing awaited me there.

I turned, half expecting a serial
killer in a hockey mask to be casually hanging out behind me, but
for all I could see, I was alone. My room wasn't that big and there
was really nowhere else for someone to hide. I peeked underneath
the bed, but all I could see were shoeboxes.  

I opened the creaking door, every
second expecting the intruder to show him or herself and catch me
off guard. Out in the hall, I peered in the laundry room. The
washing machine and dryer stood alone opposite a freezer chest. I
lifted the lid of that, not knowing why even as I did it, but the
inside harbored only a frozen turkey and leftover freezer pops.
Then onto the storage room, although it was so packed with junk no
one could jam themselves inside no matter how skinny. The main room
awaited me, the only place I hadn't checked.

I flicked on the overhead light,
bathing everything in yellow fluorescence. The bric-a-brac and
furniture in the room cast shadows on the floor and in the corners.
Shadows anything could wait in, watching me as I unknowingly
stepped out.

Stop thinking like
that
, I scolded myself.
 
 

I peered behind a few items: a tub of
Halloween costumes, a broken box fan, a pile of outdated computer
equipment Hugh always said he'd use but never did. But still, I
found no sign of the invasion that I felt. The adrenaline ran out,
and flight mode threatened to kick in. It took everything I had not
to run, but stubbornness is a powerful characteristic, and I had
inherited that in spades from Claire. I needed to know what had
overrun my house. 

There was a sliding glass door
downstairs, as our house was built on a slope. Usually, I was proud
my parents trusted me not to take advantage of it. Right now, it
just made me feel exposed. I contemplated running either up the
stairs or to the door. The motion detector lights outside hadn't
been activated, and I was certain that I had locked the door before
I went to bed.

For a split second, I
envisioned Jenna walking to that same door and into the
night.
I won't miss you
, her voice echoed in my head. I shook the completely
inappropriate memory away.  

I stood still for a moment, then
decided it was ridiculous to keep playing this cat and mouse game
with my own fear. I stomped over to the door, throwing the lock and
sliding it open. If someone waited to ambush me, I might as well
get it over with.  

Stepping outside into the cold night,
I looked from side to side. But I didn't see a soul. The sky lacked
a moon, and the world slept peacefully beneath it, quiet and calm.
Only the occasional rumble of a car on the street broke the
silence. But the creepy feeling remained, as strong as
ever.

My bare feet were beginning to freeze
on the cement slab porch. I faced the strange girl's house, but she
wasn't around, either. Of course she wouldn't be in the middle of
the night. Normal people were sleeping in their ordinary beds, not
chasing phantoms. I shivered, looking up at the windows of the
house anyway. No sign of movement.   

I shut the door, ready to go back to
my room. Out of nowhere, the air against my skin turned to ice. My
fear peaked, my heart racing as though I were in a race. As if I
were face to face with something terrifying that I couldn't see,
but my instincts knew endangered me. And then, as fast as it had
swept upon me, the feeling disappeared.  

I was left gasping for breath. I sunk
down to my hands and knees, waiting for my heart to return to
normal. When I could finally breathe, I stood, locking the door. A
second of indecisiveness kept me still, and then I raced back to my
bedroom.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked
the empty air. But no answers came back to me.

I shut my door tightly, and jumped
into bed. I tugged the blanket up around my chin, but it was a long
time before I fully got back to sleep. Even though I now felt
utterly alone.

Chapter 6

By the morning, I'd
convinced myself that I had imagined the whole thing. My lifelong
love of horror movies could have easily contributed. My parents
always told me I had an overactive imagination. They were right. I
had enjoyed the company of imaginary friends until I met Jenna to
replace them. The one thing that I
couldn't
reconcile was the fact that
normally I didn't scare too easily. And last night I had been
terrified.

Hugh joined me for
breakfast.

"I had a talk with Claire last night,"
he said.

"About what?" I asked, completely
forgetting our chat during the car ride home the day before.
Unforgiveable, considering how important the ability to come and go
on my own was to me.  

"You know what," he said. "Your
suggestion that you walk to school. I tried every bargaining
technique I know." He buttered his toast with a steak knife. I
almost told him it was an inappropriate use, but I let it drop
considering he held my fate in his hands. "Believe me; I put up the
good fight."

"And let me guess, she said no way in
this lifetime," I said, sighing as I finished my soggy cereal. I
swirled the little Os around with my spoon.  

"Actually, she agreed to it. After
intense deliberation. The only stipulation is that you have to send
me a text message when you get to school and when you leave to come
home."

I raised my eyebrows. "No joke?" I
couldn't believe it.

"No joke."

I got up and gave him a hug around his
neck. Hugh laughed softly.

"Thank you!" I said. "You don't know
how much I appreciate that!"    

"This is on a conditional basis,
though," he warned, as I gathered up my books and shoved them in my
backpack. "Don't get too excited. You have to follow the rules
every time, or I reserve the right to personally revoke
it."

"I will," I promised.

After cleaning out my bowl, I went
downstairs to finish getting ready. I dressed quickly in my
favorite shirt, dark violet with lace-trimmed sleeves, and rushed
upstairs. Grabbing my backpack, I slipped outside and started off
on my first walk.  

Fog hung low to the ground, obscuring
the landscape. The sky a flat, dull gray, preceding dawn. Despite
the early morning chill, I felt happy to be breathing in the fresh
air. I sucked in a lungful, until I couldn't inhale anymore. The
walk, as I suspected, only took about fifteen minutes. I had opted
not to use my bike; I didn't have a bike lock and it was clunky
besides. Plus I'd feel like a dork on my bike, when in my
not-so-distant future I would hopefully have a car. 
 

I felt only a little out of breath
when I arrived at school, and more energized and awake then I
normally did. I'm not normally a morning person, but it felt as
though I'd drank an entire pop and caffeine rushed through me. I
walked into the commons in a more uplifted mood that I hadn't
expected. There were ten minutes until school started, so the
commons was packed and loud as everyone carried on discussions. But
it wasn't as jarring as it had been yesterday. I didn't have the
immediate urge to run anymore.  

Sitting together at one of the
rectangular tables were a couple of girls I'd been friends with for
years, Becky Long and Sarah Abbot. We had often occupied the same
lunch table, although it seemed like a different life
now.

"Ariel!" Becky called out. I didn't
know what she wanted, but I wandered over to their table. 
 

"Hey, do you want to sit with us?"
Becky asked amiably, gesturing to the unfilled seat across from
her. The offer surprised me, but I was more than willing to comply.
I couldn't stand feeling singled out anymore.  

Pulling out the chair I sat down. The
only spot for my backpack was in my lap, as the entire table was
filled with girls I couldn't remember if I knew, and there wasn't a
lot of room. It felt awkward, but I didn't want to protest.
 

"How are you?" Becky asked, clasping
her hands together on the tabletop and tucking her pointy chin on
top.  

"I'm fine," I replied lamely, for lack
of a better adjective.

"That's good," she said, smiling
tightly. "I'm glad to see you. I've been wondering how you were
doing. We heard rumors that you weren't coming back. Someone said
your dad was going to homeschool you this year."

"No, of course not," I said, trying to
play it off lightly and attempt a smile. I hoped it didn't look
like a grimace, as my smiles lately too often did.
 

Awkward silence followed, in which the
other girls avoided my gaze. It seemed like they didn't know what
to say to me. But I was glad to be sitting there, even as I
searched my thoughts for a suitable topic and came up
short.

"Did you hear they're
playing
Loveless
at the theater?" Sarah piped up, and the other girls jumped
on the topic as if it was food and they'd been up in the mountains
for days.  

The girls started chattering away
about the movie, which was apparently my least favorite kind, a
romantic comedy. I didn't have much to say; I'd never heard of it.
Even as they moved onto school gossip, I remained oblivious. Mostly
I just hunched behind the backpack. I became a little irritated
with myself, but I didn't have it in me to make the effort. What if
I said something that came out wrong?  

The day went faster than the first,
and rather uneventfully. Lainey and Madison pretended I didn't
exist in gym, which I greatly preferred to being teased or almost
knocked over. I sat at Becky's table again at lunch, still only
listening to what the other girls had to say. I'd lost my opinions
somewhere along the way. They didn't seem to mind. It was easier
for everyone to pretend I was wallpaper.

As far as classes themselves, I
enjoyed Warwick's the most and not because he was Hugh's buddy. I
knew I wouldn't just get a good grade because of that fact. But
listening to him embellish the events that happened in our country
with outlandish tales made the experience endlessly interesting. We
were trying to get through the revolutionary war as fast as
possible, and George Washington was crossing the Delaware
today.

Henry seemed to be busy chatting with
his new friends. The group of guys were all laughing like they had
known each other for years, in the way that people like that seem
to do. Sticking with their own kind. Several of them wore gold and
purple school jerseys.

The brief thought that I'd lost him
flashed through my head. He was never mine to begin with, I rebuked
myself. It should have been easier for me, because I didn't have to
try. It should have been a relief.

In English, the same alone-in-the-dark
feeling overtook me when the lights went out for the overhead
projector. Luckily, Ms. Fellows didn't seem to notice as my eyelids
drooped and I began to zone out. My thoughts still automatically
went to Jenna, the empty hole in the room.

By the end of the day, I wanted out,
though for no particular negative reason. Sleep chased me after the
previous night, and my clothes reeked of ground pencil lead and
cafeteria smells. I felt much less optimistic than yesterday, but I
tried not to dwell on it. In art, I sat in the same place, with the
same indifferent male, because the other seats were full
up.