Wind ripped at my hair, sending black strands flying. The sky was black, dense with billowing clouds and thick with the smell of rain.
How did I get here?
I stood in in between two giant yellow busses, Elko Community Schools in bold black print stretched along their sides. The metal giants groaned and swayed in the wind, and I feared they would tip, squishing me. I darted forward, not planning on stopping until a familiar voice broke through the howl of the wind.
"Mara!"
"Ben?" I screamed back.
In front of the busses, I realized I was in the parking lot of a high school. Straight ahead, a large white sign read "Spring Creek High School, Home of the Spartans!" in large purple and grey font. And Ben stood in front of it.
Something was off though.
Instead of the little black, beady eyes I was used to seeing, dark brown ones stared back. He no longer had his large tusks that made him drool, but human teeth with a slight underbite. Chubby cheeks were white with fear and I could practically see the pulse hammering in his throat. Somehow, Ben looked human, though the resemblance was uncanny. He still had his large belly and plaid vest.
Suddenly something jerked him back, then sideways, and then the opposite way. The invisible force dragged him backwards, down the cement pathway with a giant Spartan's head plastered on it, and to the front doors of the school.
"Help me!" he screamed, his voice cracking, and my heart was hammering so hard I feared it would burst free from my chest. Ben wasn't immortal. He could die.
I ran towards him, chest heaving, but I didn't seem to move despite my effort. "Hold on Ben! I'm coming!" I yelled back, a sob making the last bit inaudible over the wind.
The howling of the wind abruptly stopped, like the eye of a hurricane, and everything settled into an eerie blanket of quiet. My eyes locked with Ben's, and despite the distance between us, I heard him perfectly as he whispered, "Help," and was yanked back into the building.
I woke up screaming, my heart hammering in my ears.
I was back in the room I started off in, but this time morning light glinted through the single window, shooing away all the shadows that haunted me from earlier. I fisted my fingers in the silky blue sheets, inhaling a shaky breath.
The door burst open, and Ziv stood in the threshold, her eyes wide and frantic. "What's wrong?" When she caught sight of me sitting on the small twin bed, hair ruffled from sleep, sweat on my forehead, she calmed. "Bad dream?"
"Yeah," I croaked, determined not to cry. "What happened?" I asked, thinking back to the roof, and her revelation.
Tanis, not my mother? It just didn't fit. I was a demon, cold and heartless, just like her. Right?
You know you don't believe that.
Ziv heaved a sigh and trekked over to the bed, and the springs groaned under her weight as she took a seat. She took another breath, this time ready to speak, but I took the moment to study her.
Her hair was combed back into a long, wavy ponytail that poured over her small shoulders when she swiveled her head. She wore a spaghetti strapped black tank and a pair of hip hugger, ratty jeans. Her eyes were calm now, though one had dark eyelashes and the other didn't... I must have scared her when she was in the process of getting ready, because the mascara on her one eye was still wet. She was stunning.
"What do you remember?" she asked.
"Everything."
She studied me a long moment before adding. "And what about it? Do you want me to repeat myself?"
YOU ARE READING
A Beautiful Torment (A Beautiful Book. 2) **ON HOLD**
Paranormal(A Beautiful Book #2) She won't stop until vengeance is hers. Life was pretty normal - well, as normal as it can be if you're the daughter of the Devil, Princess of Hell, and Queen of Gargoyles . But that all changed when Mara's life was tossed upsi...
