Red Leather (Book 2)

Chapter 36

The dream shifted unexpectedly, and soon I became Collarbone Cora. There was something under my nose, something so revolting that I felt the need to gag. But I held it down as my friends circled around me, talking and eating, eating and talking. I looked down at my hands and saw chubby fingers. Chubby wrist, chubby arm, chubby torso. My stomach made revolting ripples as I sat, and I clutched at it desperately, pinching at the fat and pulling it away from myself. I wanted the fat gone. I wanted to be skinny, and beautiful, and I wanted to perfect.

But all I saw was chubby, chubby, chubby. The scent of food seemed to follow me wherever I went, numbing my sense of smell. As my friends eagerly ate their meals, all I could see were the calories travelling down their throats. Then I heard the daunting words "You wanna try some?" come out of a girl's half-filled mouth, and tried to run for it. But I was held down. I was screaming, shouting for help, crying as her mouth was stuffed with calories. Calories upon calories upon calories. Stop! I tried to scream. Stop, stop, stop...

How did I become Tammy so fast? The scenery changed into a corridor I knew all too well, a corridor that lead to the science labs and a little storage closet where couples did filthy, unspeakable things to each other. I walked confidently, the way I had taught myself to walk. If I was ever going to become somebody at this school, I had to walk and talk and act like Renee Griffin. My locker combination came to me easily, and I hummed to myself as I pulled my bag off, looking forward to a double period of Fashion and Design.

Until the rotting head of a human being tumbled out from my locker, landing with a thud upon my shiny shoes. I screamed and screamed as Timmy's blank eyes stared up at me. More and more heads came rolling out, the heads of my father and mother and grandma and cousin. One by one, they spilled over the floor and coated it with blood, their rotting flesh attracting flies. Fear gripped every inch of me, but I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't look away.

Then I woke up.

"Pleasant dreams?"

The sound of his voice brought back everything. A wildfire ignited within me, a fire so ferocious that every inch of me was consumed. A feral sound ripped through my mouth, and I tried to move my body, wanting to rip and tear and kill. Instead I was met with resistance.

My arms had been tied down, the rope winding all the way up and past my shoulders. I was helpless. I was immobile.

My eyes couldn't adjust to the blinding light, and for a moment I was unable to see. But I knew that Eli was there.  Eli had done this to me. Eli had planned this all along.

"Why?" I growled, baring my teeth. The slightest movement caused the rope to dig into my neck.

I felt him move closer, leaning his face close to mine. The whiskey in his breath – once so irresistible – now reeked of decay. He was the enemy. And he may have been the greatest enemy of all.

"Why?" he repeated, tasting the words. "Because you were a challenge."

I tensed, trying and failing to make out his shape. He had been my only friend. My partner in crime. And now my greatest masterpiece of all was crumbling to ashes, destroyed by the very man who had helped me build it.

And now I was trapped.

My vision began to focus, the little black dots slowly clearing into an image. We were no longer in my room. We were no longer in Aurora's home. The insides of what looked like a timber warehouse enclosed me, filling my nose with sawdust and making my eyes burn. One little light bulb hung over the both us as Eli's dark shape moved in and out of the shadows. Nathan was nowhere to be seen. I clenched my hands into fists, wishing they were wrapped around Eli's throat. Where was he? Where had they put Nathan?