• Chapter 3
    The moment my parents saw the look on my face they immediately jumped up and ran over to me. Dad started to ask me question while mom was looking out the window then at me. I answered all of dads questions to the best of my boggled minded ability then went up to my room. I laid on the bed looking up at the ceiling then to my alarm clock. It was only ten thirty at night yet it felt like it was only seven. I decided to get my pj’s on and go to bed. My night was restless I woke up a few times in a cold sweat. My nightmare had stopped but was replaced with that guy as he held me and the fear I felt then came rushing back. The conversation kept replaying in my head and I couldn’t get rid of it for more than a second. Why was this happening to me, when will this end and when can I go back to living a safe life, I covered my head with my pillow and tried to go back to sleep.
    “And you continue to lie, how cute.”
    “Ugh, this is not going to work, I can’t get one descent hour of sleep with his word in my head.” I whispered to myself
    “Who’s words?”
    I jumped at the sound of my mom’s voice as she walked into my room “oh mom you’re up did I wake you with my restless sleep?”
    “No, violet it’s seven in the morning and you’d be out the door by now heading to Saras. Is something wrong?”
    “No nothing’s wrong….wait it’s seven already, last I knew it’s only ten thirty.”
    “You mean was, time flies when you sleep doesn’t it.” Dad came in with five o’clock shadow.
    “Oh man sara’s going to be mad at me if I’m late.” I got out of bed ran to the bath room sped through my shower, dried my hair and tied it up, went to my closet pulled out a black tank top, red sleeveless hoodie and a pair of blue boot cut jeans, I grabbed my black high heel boots and ran down stairs and out the door. I jump stared my motorcycle and rushed down to Saras house.
    When I got there she was bolting out of her room towards me, she hopped onto my bike and we rushed to black woods high and quickly got in our first class. We laughs a bit as the first bell rang then waited for the announcements to end. Then the fear and shivers came back a few second later as Sara was telling me about how she couldn’t sleep at all last night. My eyes darted around looking for him then I saw him standing next to the door, Sara followed my gaze and then pulled my head down towards the desk.
    “So he’s in this class first to, interesting.”
    “Not to me, it’s more like the bad feeling I got yesterday. I don’t feel right when we’re in the same space as each other.”
    “Like when a girl gets the butterflies when they see the guy they like.”
    “No, more like when a girl feels terrified from the guy who might be out to get them.”
    “You’re scared of him?”
    I nodded and saw he was walking towards us at a moderate pace, my pulse started to race, my heart was pounding against my chest, I couldn’t focus on what Sara was saying. He sat behind me and that’s when I heard him whisper into my ear.
    “You seem a bit restless today violet, rough night.” I didn’t have to look at him to see he was smirking.
    “Who wants to know?” I whispered.
    “Easy, I want to know. So why are you restless today?”
    “It’s like you said, I had a rough night.”
    “Nightmare?”
    I didn’t say anything, did I have a nightmare or was it just a silly dream. Sara poked my shoulder and I looked at her. She pointed to a seat in the front of the class and I looked. Jasmine was absent today, though she’s always here to pester me about something. Normally it’d be my hair style or my outfit, but since she was absent the atmosphere felt lighter. That is until a sharp pain ran through my back; my hand went to my back where I felt the pain and when I felt a piece of metal my eye sight went entirely black.
    I soon woke up in the nurses office staring up at the ceiling, sara was next to me along with Mrs. Knightly –the school nurse- and the new guy- whose name I still don’t know-. I blinked a few times and looked around.
    “Well you seem to be alright now, tell me how long did you have this piece of metal stuck in your back?” Mrs. Knightly was holding a bloody piece of metal in the palm of her hand.
    I looked at it then sat up “I don’t know, maybe a few minutes. Honestly I didn’t even know it was in my back until I felt a sharp pain.”
    “I see well at least its out. Miss Derivo, come with me for a moment.
    “Ok.” Sara got up and followed Mrs. Knightly leaving me and what’s his name alone. He sat next to me and sighed.
    “Something on your mind.” I asked trying to keep my fear from showing.
    “Yes, the fact that you didn’t know that there was a sliver of metal in your back is quite interesting. How come?”
    “Like I said, I don’t know how it got there, but I’m glad it’s out now.” I yawned a bit.
    “That must have been what was keeping you up all night.”
    “Hopefully.”
    He looked at me with a raised eyebrow “oh was there something else that kept you up?”
    “No not really…I think.”
    “You think or you know?”
    “I know, no I think, no…I don’t know.” I said laying back down
    He placed a hand on my shoulder and I went stiff. He smiled some then patted me on the head “it was me wasn’t it.”
    “What! No, no diffidently no not at all, why would you be the cause of keeping me up….”
    “Because the conversation we had last night on your porch keeps playing through your head.” He smirked.
    “That…is…so not true.”
    “It’s true; I’m very good at seeing people when they lie.” His expression went from joking to serious.
    I froze, time stood still and my heart and pulse betted rapidly. He placed his hand on my cheek and looked me in the eye, I felt my skin crawl under his touch, I wanted to run, to hide, and to stay away from him but there was something about him that stirred a primitive feeling deep inside me. His dark green eyes held my soft bluish purple eyes and for a long second I thought he was trying to see into my soul. I moved away from him and he smiled.
    “So you are afraid of me, interesting.”
    “I’m…yeah there’s something about you that just sends an awful vibe through me.”
    “Awful vibe?”
    “Yeah, it’s a way for me to know if someone is good to be around or if I’m in danger of being hurt.”
    “Is that how you survived the car bombing and the speeding car?”
    “Yeah, it is.”
    “How long have you been getting these vibes?”
    “Since I was two, why?”
    He looked at me then got up, he held out his hand to help me up and I reluctantly placed mine in it. He then whispered into my ear saying that it’s not always a good idea for me to let the vibes tell me right from wrong. I looked at him then sighed; he smirked then kissed my forehead.
    “Oh by the way my name is Eric.”
    “Umm, okay, well it’s nice to know your name.”
    “That’s exactly what Sara said.”
    He smiled then walked out of the nurse office, Sara came back and asked me various questions, and I answered all of them as best I could. When she was done we went to our next class, it was only a few minutes later I started to wonder how I got to the nurses office, I knew that the school had an elevator but it was on the other side of the school so the Mrs. Knightly couldn’t have come and got me, Eric must have carried me there or something. I mean he had muscles and Sara could only drag me, make a weird scene and things worse, but either then those two it’s hard for me to know how. When I was in my fifth period class –can’t believe I was out for four whole periods- I saw jasmine had shown up. Must have been at some guys house again, I mean everyone knew she always dated a different guy every week and if she couldn’t get a guy she’d treat them like trash –talk about total b***h- she was sitting in the front of the class flirting with one of the jocks and when I walked by her voice was snide and full of hate.
    “Oh well if it isn’t Violet shadow, the total loser of the tenth grade, hey where’s your side kick Sara. Is she off crying about how she has to be friends with such an ugly person like you?”
    When I heard her say something about Sara I just snapped, I looked around to see if the teacher was around and he wasn’t. I grabbed jasmine by her hair and slammed her into the white board. Quickly I held her there with my forearm pressed against her throat almost chocking her. She tried to push me back but it was pointless for her to even try. “You know jasmine I’m really sick and tired of you always saying s**t about me and Sara. I think it’s about time for you to be taught a lesson on what happens when you really piss me off.”
    “You…you really wouldn’t hurt me…would you.” I saw the fear in her eyes and it pleased me to see her afraid of me.
    “Maybe I would but you deserve more than just me punching you to a pulp. I think Sara should be here and tear you apart.” My voice sounded more vicious and less like me.
    Her eyes widened and I heard her say something under her breath that sounded like ‘what are you violet’. I let her go and stormed out of the class room then out of the school, I got on my motorcycle and drove off to a place where I could be left alone and no one, not even Sara, could find. When I reached the edge of the forest I stopped the Harley-Davidson and walked into the woods, twigs broke under my feet as I walked, my mind was a blaze with thoughts of what I was really going to do to jasmine if she ever pissed me off again, one thing was for sure I wasn’t going to go easy on her the next time. A large abandon building came in to my line of sight and I started to relax some, being in the vast vicinity of this abandoned mansion gave me a place to find peace and quiet. It was strange though that I was the only one who found this place and called it my own, it was like a home away from home for me.
    When I was only the age of six I found this place and made it my sacred haven when I needed to be left alone and disconnected from the rest of the world. There were a few rooms in the mansion I couldn’t get into and left them alone. I walked up to the huge double doors and pulled them open so I could walk in to the large foyer. Portraits of a rich family lined the walls and a small picture of me and my family was next to a painting of a girl with black hair and crystal blue eyes. She wore a red velvet dress with emerald green jewel embedded in the fabric. She looked about my age and I always wonder what she was thinking when this was painted. She was beautiful and the guy that married her was very lucky, when I looked at her carefully she looked a little like me almost, we had the same jaw line, same body shape and same smile. This girl could have been my relative from the 1600’s, but it was hard to tell. I walked out of the foyer and into a large hall at the end was another painting except this one was of a man who held a sword in his right hand and a shield with a lion holding a sword as its tail curved into a heart. I thought it was Richard the lion heart but that would have been too obvious.
    I walked into the study, sat in one of the chairs that over looked the courtyard and sighed. I was relaxed and every fiber of my being that held rage vanished as I started to close my eyes. It was a while later that I heard the old grandfather clock dong four times waking me from my nap. I looked around and noticed a small box in my lap. I lifted it up and heard someone cough. I jumped and looked around, I saw Eric leaning against a book case and I was shocked when I saw him.
    “You always this jumpy when someone coughs?” he smirked
    “No, I’m just surprised that you found this place. I thought I was the only one who knew where it was…wait, how did you find this place?” I asked getting out of the chair and setting the small box on the side table.
    “Well I was out exploring when I saw you motorcycle parked at the entrance of the mansion. Tell me do you always come here when you want to feel disconnected form the world?”
    Yeah…hey how did you know I wanted to feel disconnected form the world?”
    “You’re easy to read sometimes, that and I know you were about to beat jasmine to a bloody pulp today in school, why might that be.”
    “She and I don’t see eye to eye at all. She’s been my enemy since we were in elementary school. We’ve always hated each other and I don’t like it when she goes off saying s**t about my friends.”
    “I see; well word is around school she said your eyes turned a bloody red, that isn’t normal for humans.”
    “Yeah I know; my eyes turn red when I get mad and its inheritance.”
    “From who?”
    “My great, great, great grandfather.”
    “So it’s carried all the way down to you, very interesting. What about the snow white hair, that isn’t normal either.”
    “That comes from my great, great grandmother; she had snow white hair and emerald green eyes. Even though mine are a mix of soft blue and a hint of purple.”
    “Really I never noticed the purple in your eyes, even when I was so close to you.” He toke a step closer to me.
    “Depends on the lighting. They will look blue if there is low lighting.”
    “Interesting,” he toke another step “so you’re telling me that all of this is just inheritance, are the vibes also inheritance.”
    “No they are not and I can’t think of anyone else in my family that gets these kinds of vibes.”
    He toke one last step and was towering over me by a foot. He looked at me and smiled, he cupped my face in his hands a whispered “You are an amazing girl violet, to have characteristics of those from way back then.”
    “Okay I hope you’re not hitting on me, cause then Sara would be right.”
    “And what would she be right about.”
    “That you like me more than any other girl in the entire high school.”
    “So let her be right, because I do like you more than any other girl in the high school.” He leaned down and kissed me on the lips.
    The moment our lips touched I felt weak in the knees and I noticed he had wrapped his arms around me to keep me from falling; I then felt my phone go off and pulled away from him. I was in a daze when I looked at the caller id and saw that my mom was calling me. I had to answer it or mom would grow frantic.
    “Hello?” I said.
    “Hi honey, are you staying at saras tonight? I mean you didn’t come home from school right away so I thought you’d be at Saras.”
    I looked at Eric then at the ceiling. I couldn’t lie to my mom, she saw through every lie I ever said then forcibly I made my voice sound the same –my voice changes when I lie to my mom- “yeah, mom I’m staying at saras for the night. I’ll see you tomorrow after school promise.”
    “Well ok, have fun and no going out with boys on a school night.”
    “Mom please I know better.”
    “Alright, bye.”
    I shut my phone then placed it back in my pocket. Eric had let me go and I walked around the study trying to decide if I should head to Saras or stay here. Eric had cough me by the arm and held me in place. I turned and looked at him.
    “Your mom seems to worry about you.”
    “She’s my mom it’s her job.”
    “Still you seemed to trick her into thinking you were at Saras and not here with me.” he smirked again and kissed me once more.
    I had to back away from him to think straight, he frowned a bit then moved towards the window then leaned against the frame. I still couldn’t think straight, it was like my mind was spinning around rapidly leaving me behind to fend for myself. My eye sight started to fade in and out and blackening slowly, what was happening, I saw the corner of Eric’s mouth curl into a wicked smile and that his eyes had turned to an iridescent yellow. That’s when I was consumed by darkness.