Enticing Blood

*chapter four

It was the day after Melanie had seen John, and she hadn't heard anything. She knew it wouldn't be so soon to get news, but the anxiety was starting to set in again. Melanie sat alone in her room, her Global Studies and Math textbooks laid out in front of her with a number of assignments accompanying them. She stared at them with unblinking eyes as she gnawed on the back of her pen.

She had trouble focusing on her homework, and the whole point of doing her work was so she could focus on something other than her missing sister. She leaned forward to read the passage out of her Global Studies, then she answered a couple questions on the assignment. She leaned back again and let out a heavy sigh, setting the pen down.

This was hopeless. She closed her books and slid them to the corner of her bed and gathered her assignments in a pile and plopped them on top, then she brought her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. For a second, she felt like she wanted to stay like this forever.

In this position, in this place, in this state of mind. She felt like her worries just melted away as she watched her alarm clock slowly switch from 2:45 PM to 2:46 PM. Melanie's eyes slowly drifted to her cellphone that sat beside her so she reached for it and decided to call Beth and tell her what happened.

She dialed Beth, but there were no rings, so Melanie just set her phone back down and stood, stretching out her tired body. She hardly got any sleep last night. After she returned from the police station, she took a three hour long bath, cleaned the house, and watched reruns of her favorite T.V. Series for the rest of the night. She went through all four seasons, then finally decided that the house wasn't clean enough.
It was like her mind couldn't go to sleep, it was wired with worry, ideas and pain, and the thought of sleep almost seemed ridiculous.

Melanie pulled off her pajamas that smelt foul with her lazy body odor and pulled on a pair of leggings and a light blue jean flannel and she made her way into the bathroom to freshen up. She went through the routine: Brushed out her hair, braided it back with careful fingers, brushed her teeth, rinsed off her face, then dried herself off with a small pink towel. She took a deep breath and caught a whiff of the towel, and Isabel's perfume invaded her nostrils.

Throwing the towel onto the counter, Melanie reached over to a small peg that was attached to the wall and had a bundle of necklaces dangling from it. She grabbed the necklace that her mother gave her and Isabel for their tenth birthday and carried the necklace that had an intricate key dangling from the silver chain around her neck, then placed it softly against her skin. The chain was long enough to slip beneath her shirt, so she hid it under there with a long sigh. Isabel also had her necklace hanging on her peg too, but her charm was a lock. Melanie and Isabel haven't worn the necklaces since junior high--they just seemed too corny to the sisters.

A loud knock on the front door made Melanie jump inside her skin, but she quickly put everything away and rushed outside of her room and down the hallway, walking into the entry of her home. When she faced her door, there was a large towering shadow that stood aloof, but what the shadow, who she was suspecting to be a male, held in his arms, made Melanie wonder.

It looked like he had a girl, limp inside of his arms, carrying bridal style.

Melanie quickly opened the door and she let out a loud sob, loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. The guy that stood there, tall, burly, with dark features and the brightest of blue eyes, watched her intently with a smirk on his face.

But that's not what Melanie was looking at.

She was looking at something that shook her core, made her bones rattle and her mind stop processing anything.

She was suddenly blind, deaf.

Immobile.

The man held Isabel--completely limp--inside his arms. She was pale, but looked unharmed, and the steady movement of her chest told Melanie that she was breathing. She was wearing a pair of sweats and a large black shirt and her hair was unbrushed and a little greasy. Instantly, Melanie grabbed at her sister, but the guy didn't let her go, he just watched her.