The War at Black Wood - Raven De Gaulle (books to read in your 20s .TXT) 📗

The silence rung free between sharp rings of ear piercing shrieks, accompanied by flashes of hot white pain echoing through my body in ripples. Pain filled tears slid down my face, the stinging slowly concentrating on my eyes as my throat contracted in desperation to let the air stream into my lungs. My body convulsed violently in sharp stabs of pain, the sheets twisting around my chest and legs, causing the constriction upon my chest to tighten further. I cringed in the ghost of anguish as it faded lightly, leaving behind the choking sobs of strangling distress.

A gentle hand brushed back the dark cinnamon locks plastered to my pale sweat laden face, a soft baritone voice murmuring consolations into my ear softly. My eyes were slightly swollen with tears, only able to open up slightly, the images swimming in front of me. It gazed dazedly, tears still rimming my eyes and blurring my vision, to the point where I could barely see anything in front of me.

Slowly, one image registered to my brain, a man was sitting at my side, his wide molten golden eyes were staring with emotions I could not decipher, fluctuating enthralling in the dim moonlight, turning from light wispy honeyed vapors to opaque glistening dark gilt eyes. His skin was a startlingly pale alabaster mixed with a pearly golden blend, framed by wavy obsidian locks, which at the moment was pulled into a mussed loose ponytail. His features had a slight aristocratic look to them, his high cheek bones, slim arched eyebrows and a thin pointed nose, though they were offset by the aura of lightheartedness around him that was currently hidden by the genuine seriousness and concern that was etched onto his face.

My breath hitched, who was he? How did he get in here? My alarmed thoughts were cut off by the slightly older teen as he smiled amused down at me, tucking another stray brunette lock behind my ear softly.

He chuckled lightly at my wide eyed expression, whispering quietly into my ear, “Here, drink, it will help…”

He pressed a glass of water to my lips, I quietly relented, too tired to care, in too much pain. My eyes fluttered shut as the water flowed past my lips, relieving the pressure in my throat that had built gradually. The older teen carefully unwound the sheet from around my body, allowing me to breath freely without the restriction in my chest. He rearranged the sheets so they were laid properly around me; he wiped the sweat neatly off my brow with a handkerchief he had pulled out from his dress pants pocket, another odd thing I had noticed about him, he was dressed in a silk red dress shirt untucked from his black slacks, the first few buttons undone, exposing smooth pale skin. A tattoo of the beginning of an intricate dragon began at the side of his pale ivory neck; sentient auriferous eyes gazed frostily from the left of his jugular, its eyes seemingly keyed in on me as the moonlight glinted over the tattoo. Its black coal scales glistened dynamically, its eyes smoky and ancient, giving the impression it was alive in the fluctuating moon light.

Just as I was about to question who he was, he pressed a finger to his lips, grinning mischievously, “Shh, they don’t know I’m here, but you’ll see me later...”

He grinned once more, removing the arm that kept his lissome form propped up above me, finally I noticed, the alarmingly sharp canines that glistened eerily in the dim light around us.

He murmured softly, leaning down, pressing a light kiss to the bridge of my forehead as I froze, my large azure eyes widening fractionally, he chuckled at my startled expression, “Sleep.”

He stood strolling over to my closet, sliding the door open, much to my confusion, and backed into it, sitting down cross legged at the bottom of my closet, waving placidly good bye, he chirped in a hushed tone, “Bye bye dear Lorelei.”

He slid the door closed once again, the large Cheshire grin still plastered onto his handsome features. I sat stunned, unaware that the harsh throbs had died down to minute twinges of annoyance, staring incredulously at the closet door.

After the everlasting moment of stunned blankness, I blinked, voicing my bewildered thoughts, “... What just happened”

Cautiously, I slipped out of the pastel blue sheets, placing my bare feet on the floor and padding over to the closet doors. Gingerly, I placed my hands into the groove of the door, slowly pulling the door open, the teen was still sitting at the bottom of my closet, not only was he still sitting in my closet he had-

“Want some Pocky?”

Pocky. A box of Pocky... He slid a stick of the chocolate dipped wafer stick out of the red box, holding it up to me. Still gaping at him quizzically, I took the wafer stick, what? It’s pocky, I am not going to say no to Pocky...

He raised an amused brow at me, grinning from the bottom of the closet, “I thought I told you to go to bed my dear? Didn’t I? Or was I dreaming, wait, no if I was, there would be a bunch of dancing lemon jello in the background as we listened to screamo music...”

Before I had a chance to respond he waved his hand as if the subject was closed, and repeated his earlier sentiment, “Sleep.”

He slid the closet door closed once again, pausing to leave a small slit of space still visible, his wide golden eyes staring at me pointedly, “Sleep.”

As the door slid shut, I heard an almost inaudible hiss of wind, stubbornly, I wrenched it open once again. Only to see empty space where the strangely hyper man was, I blinked, closing it slowly, and slumping up against the door, “What the hell did I eat before bed because damn...”

~*~

The loud unnecessary blaring of an alarm clock grated irritatingly against my eardrums; the metallic sound of springs rung as my hand searched blindly for the off button for the alarm clock, pressing my nails sharply up against the raised surface of the large button. Groaning, I pushed myself up off the sheets and stretched languidly, listening the satisfying pop of joints.

I crawled off the bed, walking towards the large powder blue oak dresser, the corners were chipped and the paint was peeling in places where the wood had swollen from water damage. I slid the drawer open, pulling out a long sleeved white t-shirt, I pulled off the green undershirt I had slept in, pulling the crisp white shirt over my head; rummaging further, I pulled out a gray t-shirt with white skulls piling up from my left hip into a fading design. I quickly shrugged the long black pajama bottoms off my hips and snatched a pair of faded blue jeans out of the drawer, pulling them up and buttoning them as I walked down the stairs.

I tugged my long brunette tresses into a braid as I threw the messenger bag over my shoulder, walking out from the empty house. I strolled down the lane, my hands stuffed roughly into my pockets with disinterest, staring down at the cement slabs in front of me.

Students passed around me in erie sync, stepping around me in robotic motions, placing one foot in front of the other like zombies, listening, but never questioning why. Why does she seem so quiet, so haunted, but they never questioned it, never.

“Lorelei!”

I looked up sharply, revealing my features from behind the curtain of hair that was called my bangs, my hand winding around the lining in my pocket.

I tilted my head, my hooded blue eyes staring at the girl in front of me, taking in the bouncing curly blonde locks, baby blue eyes a girl would kill to have, and a simple floral patterned dress, “Hello Emmaline.”

The thirteen year old pouted, “I told you, call me Emma.”

I responded flatly, “No. That is your given name, I am using it.”

I continued my trek up the stone steps of the middle school, repressing a sneer as another imbecile overbalanced and fell off the rail, obnoxious laughter ringing dully in my ear at the nameless teens pain and stupidity. Emmaline, as usual, just bounced along beside me, that odd smile plastered onto her face, though, as always, it didn’t quite reach her eyes. The muffled tap of rubber on linoleum tile was overwhelming as the bell began to ring off sharp irritating pitches, students swamping and losing each other over the sea of students, all nameless faces in the crowd... including me. I sat down rigidly in my seat, looking everywhere in the room besides Emmaline, who was currently making faces at me in her seat across from me.

As the tardy bell rang, the pencil nearly snapped in my hand as the unnervingly saccharine voice swept over the school grounds, the painstakingly familiar tone growing in my ears like a cockroach crawling over my skin and nesting in every crevice of my body, “Hello everybody! This is the Blackwood Dragons Head cheerleader, Brittany McCasey! Once again, we are serving free lunches who enter their application form for the Missouri River field trip! Later today, Drama auditions have been rescheduled due to Mrs. Peiroitzki’s fall in the lunchroom. Homework club is held every Monday and Thursday in Ms. Tanner’s room, stop by and bring those grades up people! Anywho, today we are having a assembly in the auditorium, we’ll see you there!”

As Brittany began the pledge of Allegiance, I numbly recited the long since memorized song, starring pointlessly at the wall, contemplating subjects of no matter in my head. Such as pocky and screamo singing lemon jello. I stood up as the rest of the class began filing into a long line and marching towards the multi-purpose room.

Publication Date: 08-01-2010

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