The Dark Side #1

Chapter ~ 9 ~

Screaming. Loud, unbearable screaming. Filling my ears. It's so loud; I want it to stop.

It stops. It is cut short. I open my eyes and look around. I stand up.

"She has been dealt with," a loud voice calls; a dashingly familiar one, at that, and I turn around to find Xavier standing behind me, a bloody hammer in his hands. I yelp and jump backwards, but he does not pay any attention to me. I frown and regain my natural heartbeat before I notice that he is gazing downwards, a mean and cruel expression glued to his face. Hesitantly, I follow his gaze downwards, to a body lying mangled on the floor, caked in blood. I move around the body and come to its head, kneeling down beside it to figure out who it belonged to.

I narrow my eyes as I see a matt of electric blue hair beneath all of that blood, and then I stand, my heart thumping louder and louder as I get closer and closer to figuring out who it is. I think I know now, but to be sure, I step over the corpse and peer at the face in line with my own. And, if the blood were eliminated, I think I would have a clear visual of who had just been hit to death with a hammer. It's a bit hazy, but if I just tilt my head slightly this way...

I scream and jump up, moving back as far away from the body as I can. Looking down frantically, I see the same clothes on my body as the one on the floor, and I see the same blue hair on myself as the corpse has as well. This body; it is me.

Xavier has beat me to death.

I open my eyes quickly to a weird feeling surrounding me, both physically and mentally. Something seems odd, and I don't like it. I can feel my back is pressed up against a wall that seems unnaturally warm through the material of my thin shirt. But if it's a wall, why is it moving?

I can feel a warm breath on my neck, which is when I register the fact that my body can't move because it is surrounded completely by a pair of strong... arms?

Wait, what?

I manage to turn my head around and my breath catches in my throat. The wall behind me isn't a wall at all; we're still on the hill that I must've fallen asleep on, but instead of me leaning against a wall like I thought originally, my back is pressed to Xavier's chest as his arms are wrapped around me protectively. His head is nuzzled into the crook of my neck, and he looks like he's just about to wake himself. I wait patiently with my eyes wide and staring as I watch as Xavier lets out a yawn and stretches his arms, dropping them back around me. Then he opens his piercing red eyes and they connect with mine, offering a moment of silence and awkwardness before I clear my throat. At this point, Xavier snatches his arms back and moves away from me, untangling our legs before jumping to his feet faster than I can even register what's happening.

"Um," he murmurs, scratching his head, but I'm already standing beside him, brushing the grass from my legs as if sleeping with Xavier holding me didn't affect me and still doesn't. It is a little unnerving, of course, but since he was drunk the last time I saw him, I don't know what I'm thinking anymore. Or him, for that matter.

"Do not worry about it, let us just keep moving," I tell him, grabbing my bag from beside my feet before looking around, purposely avoiding his gaze after my nightmare. "What way?"

"Was I... was I drunk?" Xavier asks hesitantly, and I make eye contact with him for a few moments, holding his gaze firmly. But as a flashback of him holding a hammer, smashing it down on my head and my body comes into my head, I narrow my eyes.

"Yes," I reply, looking away to study our surroundings.

"I want to-"

"Save yourself the hassle," I interrupt, chucking a flask of water his way. "We need to move. Now."