Cipher [sahy-fer]: Zero; A person of little or no influence, importance, or value; nonentity.
That's excatly what Talia Fox is. A zero amongst a sea of other numbers. That is until she makes an imperishable deal with her maker. Now the seven teens t...
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"I think this is it," Talia whispered strenuously through a round of weak coughing.
"Don't say that Tal." Colter replied, the concern beginning to show deep within the lines of his forehead where beads of sweat were even starting to form.
In comparison, Talia wavered on what seemed to be a fine line between life and death. Colter could see the uncoordinated shaking of her body, the deathly pallorof her face and the unhealthy wobble of her legs during the times she was standing.
He hadn't expected this to happen at all or so quickly. After a night of slight tension and the end of Talia's retaliation, to which she let Colter hold her all night, he'd thought everything was fine.
Upon waking up, he'd slipped out of bed, trying hard not to wake Talia. Showering quickly and getting ready for school, he'd moved to the side of the bed, his eyebrows furrowed a little bit deeper than normal.
He'd noticed it when he first got out the shower. His view of the bed from the bathroom had shown that Talia hadn't seemed to move at all. Her position was the exact same, her hair still neatly sprawled across the pillow and the covers still showing evidence of where Colter had crawled out of bed.
"Tal?" He'd called her name as he pulled his shirt over his still damp chest.
Still, she didn't move and as he officially approach the bed, roping his hand around her small ankle, he nearly choked at the feel of how cold her skin was compared to the last couple of days.
"Talia?" He shook her leg once more before he moved up her body quickly to shake her shoulder pretty firmly.
It'd taken nearly five minutes to wake her up and just as he was starting to panic, his hands twisting through the hair he'd just perfected earlier in the bathroom, his mother's yelling began. This resulted in him screaming to his mom to tell her to leave him alone.
They'd been screaming through his locked door as his mom pounded on one side and he paced on the other. "I'm not going to school!" He belted it in finality and like that, Talia's chest had shot from the bed.
Like a victim going into cardiac arrest, her chest convulsed once...twice, and nearly a third as she suddenly gasped in a breath full of oxygen.
Ignoring whatever else his mom had to say, he flew to her side of the bed, his hands finding both of her cheeks to cradle her face to his. Her eyes were wide and her breathing was ragged as her dodgy eyes drunk him in.
Now, he sat wrapped around her, his chest moving just as fast as hers had then as he thought about what was truly happening. "Talia this is just a fluke, we were out in the snow for a long time. Maybe you just caught something"
"Sure, Colt." She laughed to amuse him. Although he wasn't looking to entertain, his conclusion was rather comical.
"No, Talia. I can't do this without you. All of this was for what then, for fun? For someone else's sick game?"
