Luxterra

NOTICE: This chapter is shorter than what an average future chapter will be.

Luxterra: Chapter One

      The color of blood has a sound. It's not the crunch of a fist connecting with jaw, nor the coughing of crimson onto a linoleum school floor; the color literally has a B-flat hum. I can tell what you're thinking right now, but trust me, I question my sanity too.

   Hearing things I shouldn't seemed to be a theme for me that day. Like how I heard Trinity bragging about cheating on her midterm as I passed her. I don't know what possessed me to say anything to her. I don't even know if I can remember what I said, but she sure did. And I don't know if she wore orange on purpose that day, but the combination of the color's annoying high-C whine and the poisonous green of Trinity Plart's laughter drove me to lines I didn't want to cross.

     "What are you going to do about it, Lucy? Cry for Mommy?" Trinity jeered at my struggle to stand. A couple minutes ago, everything was fine. Now I was debating whether or not to spit blood on the vice principal's beloved niece and soon-to-be valedictorian who had a surprisingly strong left hook. 

      I controlled my anger, leaned against the lockers, and cursed my best friend Alexis for asking me to meet her at her locker down the hall. Comments from the general populous about tangled hair and hand-me-down sweaters I could handle, but Trinity was worse than that. Running into her along the way meant more than just a few giggles and a sly tease. 

    "Oh, that's right! You don't have one."

      A pang of hate curled up my spine. 

     'Don't do it, Lucy. She's just insecure.' Alex's words repeated from my previous fits of anger against Trinity. 

    "Oh, shut it," I said with a spray of my own blood through my hand, not sure if I was talking to the bully or the monologue in my head. No one could hear, however, over the barbaric calls of the students around us. They thought that I started this shit. I probably did. 

      As if seeing them for the first time, I tunneled through the pimple smacked faces of spectators for Alexis. No mess of red hair dotted my view, and for that I was glad. She was usually there to swoop in and defend me, despite my fervent want to deal with life on my own. 

     "Don't you know anything Lucy?" I was pulled out of my thoughts and parallel to a set of burning green eyes, "or are you stuck in dreamland again? "

     If only I was able to slip into the darkness of the night never to be seen again. If only I was that lucky.  

     "No," I began to stutter and twist out of her grip, "I--I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

    "Oh, you meant it," she spoke like it was just our secret, and leaned in to permeate her morning Starbucks: Pumpkin Spice with a shot of psycho.

     "No. I--"

     "Don't," her voice cracked along with her deteriorating sanity, "lie to me."

      'Don't do it Lucy.'

      Oh, how I wanted to; how I wanted to smack every last word back into those pink glossed lips of hers.

     "I'm not lying."

      Lies.  

     I crashed into the lockers, two clamps on my shoulders and two eyes pinning mine. Her bipolar smile turned a sarcastic sort of sweet. 

    "You actually think you have friends, don't you? You seriously think Alexis is your friend? I own you. I own her and her whole silly little family," my mind was slipping from my fingertips, blood on blood, because no matter how much I denied it, a part of her bled truth. She had more control than I wanted to admit, "and if you ever had one, I would own yours too."

    "Shut up!"

    "Make me!"

      And I did. Something in me broke through my chains of taunt restraint and caused me to be in both repugnant pain and the most invigorating potency of self I had experienced within reality. The sickeningly sweet crack of cartilage tearing drowned out the stupid orange of her sweater and the  gasps of the people behind me. The sound, however cringe worthy, felt so very right. Punching her was surprisingly natural, like a heartbeat. Again. Again.

    As quickly as I had stoked it, the invigoratingly numb burn in my chest fizzled to a dull pain. I wasn't me; my shell was the only trace of my existence as it floated away from a crumpled, cursing beauty. Hands tore me and my wildness away, as I could only sway back and forth in a nauseous daze against the lockers. Nothing was to be heard, save for the slight noise that rises above an even silent crowd. 

    "Oh my God."

     The colorful couture of Alexis appeared in the distance, matched with a shock of red hair and eyes laced with disgust. The surrounding people, once cheering and laughing, had parallel countenance. A hand clutched my shoulder.

    "Lucia Smith! What on earth happened here?" Principal Stinton glanced me over, but his shallow eyes stopped at my hands. He suddenly mirrored everyone in the hall.

 I didn't have an answer. Numbly, I looked at my still shaking fingers. B-flat was stale in my ears.