Disoriented and Distraught

Chapter 1: The Oath

Jess's POV

We were walking back to Nate's house when a man stopped us. I couldn't quite see his face, but I could tell that his beard was black. He was tall, maybe 6'3", and he had a beer belly. His breath reeked of alcohol and I could tell he was drunk. Nate looked at me cautiously as the man asked, "Beautiful night, isn't it? How would you like to see the stars?"

"Uh, we can see the stars perfectly fine. Right, Jess?" Nate asked, while looking at the man as though he were crazy, and not drunk. I looked over and said as calmly as possible, "Right Nate." I could tell my voice was wavering, and that I was starting to look nervous. I hated talking to adults I don't know, and it made me even more nervous that he was drunk. Nate quickly tapped my shoe with his, silently telling me to stop worrying. Nate came up with that in fifth grade. He would always tap my foot before I had to present something in front of the class to tell me not to worry.

The man looked from Nate to me, and then back to Nate again. When his eyes landed back on Nate, the man started laughing and said, "Not the stars in the sky! I mean the stars! The old stars, the ones every human being has heard of." I looked at the man like he was crazy, just like Nate had earlier, and I could see something click behind Nate's defensive, concealed expression. I knew he was keeping something from me, and just as I was about to ask him what it was he pulled me away. Nate pulled me at least three blocks away from the man before stopping in an alley between two old abandon stores.

"What the---" I started saying when Nate cut me off.

"Jess," Nate's voice was serious now, even though his face said otherwise. "You have to believe me when I say that what that man was talking about could get us into some serious trouble. Don't ask me how I know, I just do. Please, don't ask any questions. Not until it's safe for me to tell you." Nate had a wild look now. One I had never seen before, not once during our whole friendship has he ever looked at me like this. I could tell this look was brought on because of something bad, and if it had Nate looking like this I wanted no part of it.

Well, I thought while sighing, I guess because it's a part of his life it's automatically a part of mine now too.

******

We don't usually make blood oath, not unless it's for something huge. Nate and I have only made one so far in our life. The first one was when we were twelve years old. Nate's dad had just died in a car accident and we were in a fight over something stupid. He tried calling me over and over, so I finally turned my phone off. Then Nate's mom called mine, and I could hear my mom crying as Nate's mom told her what had happened. A few minutes later my mom came into my room and broke the news to me. After that we rushed to see them. I felt so bad that I had been ignoring Nate. We made the first in Nate's bedroom, and promised to never ignore each other ever again, even if we were in a stupid fight. This is our second one. We can both remember the first oath perfectly because we have it hidden in Nate's room. We are now seventeen years old, and at nine o'clock at night we made another. It was written as close to the first one as possible. The oath read:

"I Jessica Marie Jacobs swear with my blood to always honor and respect Nathaniel Christopher McNarma's wishes to not ask questions about something that could put my life in danger until I am given permission to ask questions."

After writing the oaths and filling them out, Nate pulled out his house key. "You ready?" he asked grabbing hold of my pointer finger. I nodded and closed my eyes. The pain was sharp but quick. When I opened my eyes, Nate had already cut his finger, and I saw a drop of blood on mine. We put our bloody fingers on each other's pages and then on our own, then we touched the tips of our fingers together. 

Nate then said, "You know it's just like the last time. We can't show or tell anyone we did this. Jess, you know what would happen if they found out, right?" Just like the last time I nodded and silently pulled out two band-aids and handed one to him.