The Ripmender

Chapter 3

I didn’t even pause to scream. I turned and dived through the hedge behind me, just as a purple bolt scorched past my head. My long brown dress caught on the thin branches, which poked and scratched me. I fought them as if my life depended on it.

Which quite possibly it did.

“Come back,” Nathan Jake yelled from behind me, while flinging purple flames in my direction.

I didn’t stop. Free of the hedge, I tore up the steep slope towards the parking lot, expecting any second to feel an electric bolt between my shoulder blades.

I made it safely up the bank, and almost collided with a group of people who were standing by a nearby car.

“My gosh … Cathy! What’s the matter?” asked the girl with red hair.

In my befuddled state, I managed to identify the group as being three girls from my fine arts class. I had never spoken to them, and had never wanted to, but right now, I was glad to be in a crowd.

I tried to say something, but nothing made any sense.

“Did something happen to you down there?” asked the girl with an abundance of blonde hair. “Did … someone try and attack you?”

I nodded, then the tears started. Once they escaped my eyelids, there was no stopping them.

If it had been a normal man, up to no good, the whole thing would have been frightening enough. The fact that it was Nathan Jake, my dream man made it a hundred times worse.

He had tried to kill me.

It seemed incongruous on such an ordinary day, as I stood among classmates in a Varsity parking lot. Things like that didn’t really happen.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” said the red haired girl. “Zama, come back. It’s too dangerous.”

The black girl had moved towards the edge of the parking lot, and I expected her to disappear in a whoosh of purple fire. I managed to gasp a frightened squeak, and to my relief, she turned and rejoined the group.

“I thought I might get a glimpse of the douchebag,” she said. Then she gave me a searching look. “You’re a basket case. We need to get you to the clinic.”

I tried to wipe the tears away, and tried to protest, but the hysteria surged up even stronger than before.

He had tried to kill me. My Nathan had tried to kill me. And he had tried to kill me with a freaking phone that spewed purple fire.

My heart felt like it had stopped working, and the world around me grew hazy. I felt myself falling.

“Woah,” I heard someone say.

Arms gripped mine, and held me upright. The world became a little clearer, but still felt like it was somehow blurred.

“Clinic, now.”

I finally managed to gasp out a “No!”

“No?”

 “You look like you need a good stiff drink,” said the girl with red hair.

“Nothing that a strong shot of tequila won’t cure,” said the black girl. “Come on Cathy, let’s get some alcohol in you.”

“I don’t drink,” I gasped.

My family have this thing about alcohol. Apparently it’s fattening.

“Girl, you don’t drink!” the black girl said. “What planet did you come from?”

“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to,” said the blonde girl. “Besides, you know we’d have to go off campus to get it, and she looks like she needs something right now.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t need anything.”

“Of course you do,” said the blonde.

Suddenly I didn’t feel like protesting. The whole thing was too much for me. I needed to sit down. I needed to think about what had just happened.

Nathan Jake, international rock star, and the man I was going to marry had tried to kill me. I needed to figure out what to do next. But first, I needed to get myself sorted out, and being hysterical wasn’t going to help at all.

I let the girls lead me away.