Girly Boys {boyxboy}

Chapter 8: Questions with No Answers

"Noo!" I sat up drenched, panting in my comforter, thoroughly frightened. It was the third time this week that I'd awoken to the same nightmare.

I couldn't understand it, or maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. I had never been one to be prone to nightmares. It'd seemed natural to not fear the dark. But now... I don't know, the darkness was a whole lot more terrifying. Not because of what I couldn't see, it was what I could.

The children from my premiere nightmare flashed in the dark, their lips sealed like a rag dolls, but they smiled with sharp, jagged teeth and whispered something to low for me to hear. It occurred after every nightmare. And everytime they appeared closer and closer.

Maybe the letter helped the fear engrave itself on my psyche.

***

After algebra class, I'd caught Jade in a choke hold and proceeded to mess her hair up. Finally, I stopped when satisfied that she'd spend at least ten minutes fixing the bird's nest. I skipped ahead to the cafeteria, making a quick stop at my locker.

Tension seized my muscles as i recalled the last time i entered my locker. I smelled something rancid, but I couldn't place the nauseating odor. I gave my lock a quick twist and it creaked open, like usual. Nothing stared back at me with dead eyes nor did anything fall. The locker was perfectly tidy, the way I'd arranged it when I left for the weekend.

The only thing was that a piece of faded paper sat folded ontop of my chemistry journal.

Closer inspection noted the paper was, in fact, an old news article cut-out. The article consisted of a simple picture and caption.

The picture showed two children. They were twins, from the looks of it. A boy and a girl, they leaned close to each other with their hands clasped together, a smile stretching their lips. It was a really adorable picture, and I could tell their hair was blonde, even though the picture was faded and cracking under my fingers. There was something familiar about them although I'd never seen any twins before. The caption pulled it together though.

'Hadie and Hayden Davis, the first beloved twins of Daneville. Age two.'

Hadie and Hayden? As far as I knew, the only Hadie in this town was me. Also, their wasn't anyone named Hayden. So, who were they?

I'd shrugged it off, choosing to ask my mom about it later. And, my day went on.

I arrived at the house at six, knowing my mom would know what was up.

" Mom, come look at this picture I found!" I called from the living room, which lay adjacent from the kitchen where my mom was just turning the grilled tilapia.

" What is it sweetie?" She smiled, walking from the kitchen, wiping her hands with a towel.

" Did you know there was a pair of twins here in Danesville?" I shoved the paper into her face, anxious for reassurance against an unknown variable that I hadn't fully named yet.

Watching the blood drain from her face wasn't the reaction I had hoped for. Her bright blue eyes flashed open from shock and she froze midstep.

" Mother?" I asked her, knowing that now wasn't the time for loving family jokes.

She lunged forward, stealing the article from my grasp and shredding it while I watched, horrified.

" Mother! What are you doing?" I shouted as she let the article, which had been torn beyond the realm of tape being the cure, drift to the ground.

" You shouldn't have seen that." She spoke slowly, in a calm voice devoid of any emotion that would indicate her previous actions were any less than reasonable.

"Mom?" I took an involuntary step back. Mom had never seemed so scary. What's wrong with her? Her eyes flashed and, for that one second, I didn't know who she was.

" Sweetie, why don't you head back to your room and forget about that ugly picture?" she asked, but it wasn't a question.

A rolling feeling in my belly and I felt my school lunch kissing the back of my throat.

I nodded quickly, an immediate wish to comply compelled me to move toward my room. An itch of pain from a scar I don't remember acted between my shoulder blades.

When I slid into the bathroom, I turned with my back facing the mirror. I jerked at the sight, a five inch scar ripped its way down the length of my back, shoulder blade to waist. The scar was ugly, an angular fusion of puckered flesh that gleamed a faded red, but, somehow, it seemed old.

I washed myself slowly in the shower, examining my body as I always did. I couldn't help do. No matter what my mother says, I've always felt something was wrong with me. My body had always seemed more masculine. Even though I was small, I could feel the lean muscle lining my bones. She said it was simply because I had physical education, but that couldn't have done much.

I ran a soft brush through my hair and stood up. I'd been sitting on the little stool inside the tub, letting the shower wash away the stiffness seizing my muscles and just letting myself relax. I tossed my dampened locks back and stretched, then I pulled a towel from under the sink cabinet and headed to my room.

Later, as I lay in my bed, I wondered at the emotion exposed so obviously on my mother's face.

I wouldn't know. I had never seen it before. Too soft to be anger and too hard to be sadness. Fear. Could fear twist my mother's face to the point of unrecognition?

Alex's POV

" Hadie, are you okay? You're so pale." Hadie jerked and glanced at Jade before sighing, placing her head on the lunch table.

I'd noticed how pale she was. The change began after she fainted a few days before. I didn't understand it. She seemed fine, without a worry to darken her brow and now... she seemed even darker than me.

" I haven't been sleeping well," she mumbled from the tangle of her arms.

" Nightmares? You said you have never had those. Why did they start now?" Jade's concern shown on her face. It was one of the things I respect her for. Her emotions are so sincere. They make her noble in a way. Compared to her, I was no more than a grain of sand on her scale.

" I don't know, everything has just been so weird." She sighed again, then rose to her feet and headed for the door of the cafeteria." Jade, I don't feel all that hungry."

I watched her walk through the doors and disappear.

" There's something wrong here. Hadie has never been so lifeless. That incident must have been a problem." Something about how she phrased her speech caught my attention.

" How long have you known Hadie?" She looked toward me in surprise. Even Ashli and Chris took time away from their love fest to see what was going on.

" I've known her all my life. But..." She screwed up her face in thought." There was a time when Hadie disappeared."

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Til' the next upload;D