Dedicated to her because she read all the chapters thus far and sent some very kind, encouraging messages my way the whole story :) Thank you, T-Racer!
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Chapter 14
“What's lightly hid is deepest understood.”—Richard Wilbur
Something was wrong. Something was really wrong. Though I was sitting beside Jason, a person I believed could—and would—protect me from anything, I could still feel it; something was in here, trapped with us, and it was watching me, summing me up like a juicy steak. I felt the tiny hairs at the nape of my neck erect themselves as I tried to banish the paranoid thoughts from my mind, but the feeling only persisted, growing stronger and stronger until I was about ready to throw myself at the opened door—but then it slammed shut.
That's a tad bit creepy, I thought. Puffs of white smoke were leaving my lips when it was nearly sweltering hot in here moments before. Thankfully, I still had Jason's sweatshirt on, still a little damp, and I cacooned myself in it, fighting to hold onto whatever bit of composure I still had.
The lights flickered. Inky shadows sprouted out from their depths, reaching out like dirty, distorted claws from an old hag's hands.
Okay, maybe a little bit more than a tad.
One glance at Jason told me that he wasn't bothered by the weird behavior of his bathroom. In fact, he was staring intently at me as if I were the most fascinating thing in the world.
"You look like crap . . . no offence."
I opened my mouth to deliver a snarky reply, but nothing came out. I wasn't in the mood to snap back anyway, because I knew he was right. "Pale" didn't look good on me, not like it did on Jason and all the other possible vampires in town. If I were in his position and I didn't know any better, I would have probaby thought I was a detoxing heronine addict, convulsing in the corner, what with the way I was shivering and trying to evade the shadows that he just couldn't seem to notice.
Jason looked like he belonged with the darkness. In it, he looked a lot more dangerous.
Was it me, or did he look more and more like a vampire as time went by?
Next thing I know, he'll be plunging his fangs into my neck.
"I'm sorry, that sounded really mean, didn't it? But I was just being honest like you wanted." He gave me a pointed look. I knew I was supposed to say something, but the words were stuck, trapped in my throat. I couldn't shake off the weird feeling this room was giving me. It was like we were in the middle of a cheap horror movie.
And Jason was completely, utterly, totally oblivious to the situation. I wanted to smack him for being so unexpectedly un-intuitive. How was it possible that he couldn't feel how off this bathroom was?
Maybe you're imagining it. Maybe this is all just one giant illusion.
Maybe. Ever since I was bitten, I've been hearing that weird, annoying voice right and left. If I could talk to myself like a schizophrenic, hallucinations were likely too, right?
"You don't have to answer my question if it's just going to turn you into a mute." He frowned and stared at the floor, raking his hands through his hair.
"I haven't gone mute, I was just thinking about . . . stuff. What did the school tell you about what happened?"
"I thought I'd never hear your voice again." Jason instantly brightened, and grinning, he playfully smacked my shoulder. Hard. There was definitely going to be a bruise there in the near future. "So, to answer your question, it was utter bull-crap. They said you had a potentially fatal allergic reaction to something you ate."
YOU ARE READING
River of Dreams
Teen Fiction"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." Amy Green is a small town girl, starting her freshman year all alone in a big prestigious high school. Then suddenly, when the humble...
