Alek
"But she is okay?" Lindsey's voice screeched through the cell phone once again, seeking confirmation. .
"I mean, yeah." The image of Amber looking thin and pale, with blood streaked on her face and arm came to the forefront of my mind. "The house arrest is just getting to her." I had already spent the first ten minutes of the call explaining why Amber had been MIA.
"Then just leave a note and phone under the pillow and get back out here, lover-boy!" Kelly had obviously wrestled the phone from Lindsey, once again. "I'm ready to get back home, I have plans."
"You can make new plans... with me." I heard Zeke in the back ground, followed by giggling from who I assumed to be Kelly. And a loud 'I think I'm going to be sick', no doubt this last comment coming from Zeena.
I never should have left them all in a boat together. I hadn't even wanted to bring anyone but Lindsey, since she was my driver. But I had been overruled. Kelly hadn't wanted to be stranded on the beach, which I could understand. Then Zeke had, of course, wanted to go with Kelly, whom he seemed to be crushing on. Zeena had refused to be the only one left behind. Hence, the crowd of unwanted boat passengers.
"Yeah, I need to get you guys back." Lindsey took over as the voice of reason. "I'm not sure I can play referee to this bunch much longer."
I pulled the second phone from my pocket. We had made a stop at a local dock on the way over, the girls running in to get two burner phones, one for me to keep and one for Amber. I could leave it for her and get back to the compound. With the phones I would now be able to contact her.
If I did that I could get out of the conversation I knew she wanted to have. A conversation that I had little doubt would lead to me revealing secrets she was better off not knowing.
I could take the cowardly route, despite my chest aching at the thought of leaving her so soon. Of not saying goodbye.
"Just go ahead and go." I ran a hand over my face and paced Amber's room as I made this reckless decision.
"What?" "Umm...no." "What the hell." I could hear everyone's thoughts on this course of action.
"Seriously. I'm just going to stay here." I couldn't leave her. Not yet. Not when she needed me. "Zeena and Zeke can cover for me, like you have before, at the compound. And Lindsey you can just come and get me in the morning."
"Do I look like your personal chauffeur?" Lindsey clearly was just as happy with this idea as Zeena and Zeke.
"Then don't come get me." I snapped. "I don't care, I'll walk home. But I'm not leaving her yet."
"This is a lot of commitment for someone you kissed once." Kelly commented. "Must have been one hell of a kiss."
"Shut up Kelly." Both Zeena and Lindsey called out at the same time.
All I knew was I was glad to not be on that boat.
"Fine." Lindsey huffed. "But keep your phone on you. And you better not get caught."
"And make sure she knows I'm still mad at her." Kelly yelled out before Lindsey was able to hang up.
I ended the call and stuffed the cell phone back in my pocket after programming the number for Amber's in the contacts list. I placed Amber's on her nightstand then crossed her room to have a look around.
I had had some time to familiarize myself with the large lay out earlier as I waited for her to arrive. Now I took a closer look at her personal domain.
I knew she wouldn't be happy with me snooping, but I couldn't resist this opportunity. I started at her desk.
On top was a laptop that was closed, a notepad and a framed photo of her with Kelly and Lindsey. In the photo they were in their cheer leading uniforms. Their arms were wrapped around each other, posing and smiling for the shot.
I opened the computer, but it was password protected and I didn't want to waste time trying to hack into it.
The notepad proved an easier target.
I flipped the pad open, greedy to get to it's contents.
The first few pages proved to be...underwhelming. Just a collection of list ranging from shopping wants, to movies to watch and homework assignments.
Disappointed, I quickly flipped through the rest of the pages, ready to cut my losses and move on. Then something on a page near the end caught my eye.
I paused flipping back to that page... and froze.
There starring up at me were drawing of my markings.
She had drawn them with such accuracy it was hard to believe they weren't pictures that had been cut out and glued to the page.
Stunned, I sank down into the desk chair. How could she have done this? I mean sure, a lot of these she had seen before, on my neck and extremities. But there were some that it was impossible for her to know about.
Such as my family line, a large mark that looked vaguely like a tree, with a swirling of lines, each marking a family member. It ran from the base of my spine to the middle of my shoulder blades.
I thought back, but she had definitely never seen me with my shirt off. There was no way she could know about this mark, let alone have studied it long enough to be able to draw it with such detail from memory.
On closer examination, I did notice one detail was incorrect. There at the top of the tree was an extra line. I knew my markings like the back of my hand, that marking wasn't there.
Just to reassure myself that maybe this was just coincidence. I pulled the black t-shirt I was wearing over my head and headed back into the bathroom mirror. Using the camera on the phone I took a picture of my back.
Returning to the notebook I pulled up the new picture and zoomed in on the top of my family line marking.
My head mentally couldn't wrap around what I saw in the photo. The marking that I had had my entire life, that had never changed, had a new line. A small swirling line that almost seemed to form a butterfly in it's shaping. It was situated on the top of my right shoulder blade. And it had never been there before.
I quickly took a picture of the drawings and sent them, along with the picture of my back, to Zeena. She was the smartest person I knew, if she couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on then no one would be able to.
I was moving to the last page of the notebook when I saw her last drawing. A drawing of a mark that had only appeared last week.
The rose mark that was situated over my heart.
I'm not sure how long I sat there tracing her drawing with my fingertip and trying to wrap my mind around this newest development.
What did this mean? It had to mean something significant. Who was Amber to me?
The biggest question mark was whether or not I should question Amber about the drawings. Did she even know the significance? Was she hiding something?
My phone started ringing with Zeena's name popping up on the screen.
"Why has your marking changed?" She asked, in lieu of saying hello.
"How am I supposed to know? I assume for the same reason the other markings have changed or appeared. Obviously, this has to have something to do with Amber, right?"
"I mean we are assuming so. But it could be something else?" I could almost hear the gears in Zeena's head turning, trying to come up with theories.
"I'm more concerned about the fact that Amber was able to draw them." I confided, placing my head on my hand and rubbing at my temple.
"Well, I'm assuming she studied them at some point during your time together." The accusation in her voice was clear.
"She wouldn't have been able to see the majority of these."
"Sounds like your night together wasn't as fun as I originally though." Zeena chuckled after a long awkward pause.
"Zeena, focus!" I snapped, my frustration winning out. "What's going on?"
"I'll have to go back into the archives, but they weren't really that helpful before." We had never had to deal with human relationships before. Or the absence of mates on a mass scale.
"Do I question Amber on this? Or just pretend I never saw it."
"You have to ask her, obviously."
"She's going to have my head for going through her stuff."
"Just tell her..."
I never got to hear Zeena's advice on what excuse to use, as the door to Amber's room opened. She walked in, catching me in the act.
"What the heck? Are you going through my things?" She snapped, closing and locking the door behind her.
"Good luck." I heard Zeena say in my ear before hanging up.
Instead of offering my excuses, I held up the drawings for her to see. "What the fuck is this?"