Spinning Scars

Ruby

*~*~*Ruby*~*~*

  

I stared at the door moments after Matthias abruptly left my apartment. What the hell was that about? I felt the rejection oozing over my mind and felt like crying. The tears stung my eyes and I blinked rapidly to stave them off. No, I couldn't let him hurt me. I couldn't hurt like that, I wouldn't survive it if I let it bury me. He's just a skittish guy.

And a jerk. Why was I trying to fool myself? I shook it off and rolled my eyes.

"Whatever," I said out loud. I hastily pulled my clothes on and headed to the bathroom to clean up. Returning to the room when I was done, I clicked on the overhead lights and headed over to pull a textbook out for homework and flipped through the syllabus before I ended up giving up to stare at the TV for a while. I couldn't get into the movie about time travel and a crazy professor. It was one of my favorites, but my mind kept drifting away, lost in the thoughts of Matthias.

He'd kissed me. When I'd gone to touch his scars, he'd reached out to cradle my face in his hands and had pulled me toward him. I couldn't even protest, his dark hazel eyes had pulled me into a trance and all I'd wanted to do was kiss him back. His lips were soft, delicate and burned with desire. He smelled oh, so yummy, too. I couldn't resist. I didn't want to resist. He was perfect, in every way and every place my hands touched him on his chest felt like they was being jolted with electricity. We'd made love. Not just sex. It was more than that, I was sure of it.

It'd felt so good and I would've let him do it to me again, but he'd pulled away, looking frightened, like he'd just woken up from a daze to find me hideous and didn't know what to do. Instead of staying to figure things out, he'd fled and almost tripped over himself to get out my door.

Was I so repulsive?

He had a girlfriend. Had to be it.

No, he would've mentioned it at dinner, right? He didn't seem the sort to date multiple girls at once. But he was the dark broody, mysterious type. Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he could be cheating on someone.

"Err!" I screamed into my pillow, wanting to toss it across the room. "I always fall for the weird, fucked up ones!" I shook my head and pulled my long blonde hair into a tight ponytail to get it off my face.

Maybe I was lucky he panicked and fled. I would've given him too much if he'd stayed. Like my heart. I felt my own panic somersault in my belly. So why did it feel like I'd already given him that? What about tomorrow? Or the next day when we had class together? What would I do if I saw him and it happened again? I smirked and knew that if it did happen again, I'd be all over him once more. There was no doubt about it.

I sighed and shook my head. Hopeless. That's what I was.

No. I had to speak to him. Had to...

I grabbed his hoodie, still draped over one of my chairs and headed out my door, slamming it with a finite jerk. I turned toward his end of the hall and spied a figure standing in his doorway. It was hooded with a long cape that covered their entire body. I furrowed my brow and squinted, but I couldn't make out any of their features so I started heading down the hall. Maybe it was someone Matthias knew. Maybe it was the girlfriend...

I was almost there when the figure held up their hand and blew a handful of what looked like dust into the air. With a vibrant flash, she was gone. I quickened my pace the last few steps and found his apartment empty but for a small cloud of dust floating in front of me. It felt tingly, like it had an electrostatic charge to it. Reaching out, my fingers grazed the edges of the cloud and I felt the world spin violently before I found myself in a forest. Blue sky above me and crunchy dry leaves surrounded me on the forest floor. Dozens of trees filled my vision as I sat up, shocked and disoriented.

"What the hell?" I scrambled to my feet and heard a twang of metal in the distance. Not knowing if it was good or bad, I stumbled toward the noise in hopes of finding someone. How did I get here? Where was this place?

The noises came closer and I slid behind a large tree trunk to peer around it undiscovered. What I saw made my stomach lurch and my panic emerged.

Matthias was in a full on sword fight with the hooded woman. It wasn't a practice run either, the woman was out for blood. So was Matthias.