Chaos Descending

Little Red Corvette

Chapter 10

I watched as my mom and Chief Madden walked away, arm in arm. Despite admitting that she'd been in contact with my father at least at some point recently, it was obvious that she thought he was never coming back. Otherwise, she never would have become involved with another guy.

The Chief of Police, no less.

"I knew it," Carmen snickered, waggling a finger in my face. "I've said it all along. You're not a freak. You're FREAKALICIOUS! So, tell me something. What's it like being an angel with sweet-ass powers and all?"

My eyes narrowed into thin slits. "What do you know about angels, huh? I'll tell you...Nothing. That's what. You saw me doing a trick with fire. It's not real. You only think you know the truth, Carmen. There's a lot of things about me you don't know anything about. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand."

"Don't try to Pee-Wee Herman your way out of this, Chaos. I'm not Skylar. You can't pull the wool over my eyes so easily. We're besties, remember?"

I thought about that time she'd taken me to State Grounds when I couldn't wait to tell her that I was an angel. And now...well, now I just wanted to be normal. I wanted things to go back to the way they were when my life was easy. When it still made sense. Before the seamy underbelly of the dark side reared its ugly head.

There was a time not long ago when I used to believe in fairy tales. A time when I used to believe in dreams. Hell, I even believed that things were always what they seemed. I believed in happy endings; I believed in dreams always came true.

Now I didn't know what to believe in anymore. Including my friendships.

Carmen was nothing if not darkness hidden behind a seemingly perfect image. Especially with the way she dressed. A deeply tanned shoulder played peekaboo under the curved neckline of her pale pink cashmere sweater, while the faded blue denim jacket hugged her every curve. The look was Breakfast at Tiffany's meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Perfectly innocent, yet deadly at the same time. Her classic, made-for-TV good looks didn't help either. I shot her an accusing stare. "How come everything's gotta be like an episode of Riverdale with you."

Her eyes went a touch wide. "Are you kidding, I live for that shit. What can I say?" With each successive syllable her voice continued to rise until she ended with a not so a gentle shriek.

She didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed.

A provocative smile making the corners of her full lips curve upward, she took a step closer to me until I could feel the heat of her words against my face. "We should watch it together sometime." She was hypnotic in her movements, the slow batting of her sooty black eyelashes as she purposefully lowered the mirrored aviator glasses perched on the very tip of her nose, the way her fingers played over the long ends of her caramel colored hair. She was entrancing. Bewitching even, in the subtle power she possessed to take over my senses until she rendered me weak. Weak and senseless. Everything about Carmen, and I do mean everything, was simply too lovely to resist. She pouted at me with her chin titled down and looking up at me with those incredibly huge, sapphire eyes of hers.

That's when I saw it.

Something in her eyes I'd never noticed before, although I was sure it had always been there. Carmen was too selfish for her own good. How could I have been so blind before? In my defense, I admit I had a girl crush on her. Big time. In fact, there came a point when I would have been willing to give her anything she wanted much to my own detriment. Especially after I had welcomed her into my inner circle. Something I rarely did. I mean, super rarely. In a very real way I had given Carmen my whole world.