16 Years Later
<<<Azmera>>>
“See ya AZ!” A curly, long, blonde haired girl called to me as she walked across the parking lot to a silver Ford Explorer. Dance practice had run a little later than I had expected and we were all heading home for the night.
“See you Jessica. Good practice ladies, sorry it ran a little later than usual.” I called out to what was left of my team. Coach Morrison and I were the last one to leave out of the gym. I had took a quick shower and changed back into the clothes that I had on earlier for school. I wore a pair of blue low rise fitted jeans with a V-neck white tee and a black lace vest. I let my shoulder length naturally curly dark brown with a Chinese bang fall down my neck and back and frame my face. I finished my outfit with a pair of small black open toed heels.
“Ah sookie sookie now! Looks like Azmera Mitchell's got herself a hot date tonight!” Nicolette Coleman, my best friend walked over to me while putting in her lip ring. Nikki had shoulder length dark brown hair with amber and blonde highlights. It was pulled back into a messy bun. She had loose strands of hair falling into her hazel eyes. She was still wearing her practice uniform of a tee with the mascot spray painted on the front and her nickname ‘Nikki’ spray painted on the back. The shirt was fitted and hugged the curves of her body; it also showed that she wore a bright pink bra. Her black shorts were rolled up at the waist line so that they could be shorter than they originally hung, which exposed her short thick thighs. She wore all white sneakers with no show socks. All the soon to be senior boys drooled over her.
“Ah, hush girl and let’s go.” I rolled my eyes at Nikki. As we crossed the parking lot to my green Ford Mustang, other members of the team called out to us. We waved and made our way to my car. When we got to the car I heard someone call my name. Turning around I saw the ultra-hot Michael Dixon jogging toward us.
“Azmera” He seemed out of breath. “You are a hard girl to find. I’ve been looking for you all day.” He leant over took a deep breath, stood up and caught his composure. “Happy Birthday!”
I let out a small laugh, “Thanks, you know you didn’t have to go looking for me to say that, you could have just texted me.”
“I wanted to say it to you in person, plus…” He rustles though his backpack, which I just now notice that he was carrying, but before he could find what he’s looking for someone calls his name.
“Dixon, come one man, we’re gonna be late.” One of Michael’s friends called to him
Michael looks over his shoulder at his football player friends that are waiting for him. “Bra, hold on I’m coming.” He goes back to rustling through his bag. “I got you a present.” He pulls out something square with birthday wrapping paper on it.
“You didn’t have to do this.” I say holding up the present, even though deep down, my insides were churning. He was giving me his signature playboy smile, even though he knew it didn’t have the same effect on me as it did on 95% of the school’s female population. I’ve known Michael Dixon for years. He was the first person I met when I moved to Middle Brook, probably because his is my neighbor too. I have always had a crush on him, and I’ve always had the suspicion that he liked me too, but neither of us acted on it.
“I know, but I wanted to A.”
“Michael!” His teammate called past his shoulder. They were starting to get antsy. Football practice had just ended and Michael and some of his teammates were pulling the late shift at the pizza place on Grove street.
“Go, I'll see you later tonight, you are still coming over right?” I questioned, hoping that he wouldn't cancel on me.
“Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world.” I hugged him really quick before he ran off with his friends.
“Awe so cute. You guys should just date already,” Nikki hopped into the passenger seat and closed the door.
I walked around to the driver seat, slid in and threw my bags in the back seat. I passed the neatly wrapped present over to Nikki, who then took it upon herself to open it. “Nikki, what the hell?”
“I wanted to see what it was.” She shrugged nonchalantly, and continued to open the present to expose a picture frame. It wasn’t just any picture frame. Back before we started high school, Nikki, Michael and I had all went to Summer Camp together. We all took arts and crafts and made some real dorky picture frames. Michaels picture frame was my present. It had a picture of the three of us in the frame. “Haha, I remember this summer.”
“I do to, we had so much fun.”
“This was the summer, before we fell in line with the rest of the world.” Nikki smiled but her eyes were kind of hazy.
I didn’t say anything I just started the car and let the engine roar to life and fill the silence. She was right, because every year since, we slowly started to separate from each other. This year though, our senior year, I was going to make sure that things changed. I’m a Bitch by Alanis Morrisette blared through the speakers and we rode off into early evening, singing away at one of our childhood favorite songs.
The night sky had grown dark, darker than usual. The full moon was shining magnificently in the warm August sky and the stars twinkled in the still night air. I had just dropped off Nikki, so she can shower and change clothes before she came over. 'How had I let it get this dark?' I wondered to myself.
I was only two blocks from my house and I hadn't really paid any attention to the stillness of the air around me. Everything was silent, except for the sound of my car rolling down Forest Street. There were no crickets chirping, no wind blowing, nothing. I had turned my music down just to hear how quite things were. There was just stillness. The only thing going through my head was getting home. 'One block away A.'
Just as I turned the corner onto Kemp Road, wind whipped around me like a cyclone. It whipped my hair around, smacking me in the face. It shook the car a little as I pulled into the drive way. “What the hell is going on?” I got out the car and the whirlwind seemed to tighten around me. I tried to let out a scream but my voice was caught. The second I opened my mouth, the feeling of my breath leaving her body fell upon me. I was encompassed by this vicious cyclone that came from out of nowhere. I couldn't think straight. My mind was clouded with so many questions. 'What the hell's going on? Where did this wind storm come from? What am I going to do? I can't breathe!'
I was so worried about trying to catch my breath that I didn't notice that I was now hovering over the sidewalk. My backpack had slipped off my arm in my frenzy to catch my breath and flew out into the windstorm then landed further down the driveway spilling all my things onto the ground, breaking the glass on my picture frame. Only then did I realize that she was floating. I panicked then felt my body pulsate with the feeling of so much power. The parts of my body that once ached and throbbed from practice, no longer seemed to bother me. My vision was ten times what it was a second ago, even with the wind still whipping around me. It was as if I could see the individual air particles floating in front of me. I could see the tiniest drops of rain still left from this afternoon’s shower on the smallest blades of grass. My sense of smell was heightened too. The smells that have been so faint to me were now the only things that I could smell. I felt revived and energized. ‘What is happening to me?’ I thought to myself.
It was as if my body already knew what to do, even if I, myself did not. With the smallest flick of my wrist, the cyclone had dispersed into thin air. I still however the sidewalk. With the grace of a goddess, I lowered myself down upon the pavement. The minute my feet touched the ground, all the power that was there a second ago was gone just as fast as it had come. My body had grown weak, weaker that I had ever felt. My legs wouldn’t hold me up. They felt like they just been through ten rounds of drill routines. My arms were so weak, they trembled as I tried to help hold myself up so I could look out across the street.
No one had come outside. No one had come to help me. Everything had gone quiet again. This time I was fully aware of an ominous presence around me. I heard my aunt cry out. I had to get inside. With the last of my strength I forced myself up and bolted through the front door. I could feel the presence and darkness drawing closer to me as I got closer to the door. Just as I unlocked the door, another gust of wind whipped past me. “Yes, little princess, run and help auntie.” The ominous voice rode the wind past my ears and sent a spine tingling chill across my body and I slammed the door behind me.
What I saw next caught me off guard. I turned around to see a girl around my age, with glowing hands and eyes standing over the body of my uncle. His body lay between her legs, lifeless, his eyes glazed over and pitch black. “No!” I yelled and my body started to take over again. The girl readied her stance for another battle. She wound back and let her electric energy form and let loose a blast of energy. Just before I went to dodge, my aunt jumped in the way and got hit with the blast. She flew back into me. “Aunt Cere,”
“Azmera, run…” She whispered to me with the last of her breath. Tears began to fall from my eyes. I pushed my aunt off of me and sat there for a minute and looked at my aunt and uncle lying lifeless on the floor before me.
“Awe, what’s a matter princess? You’re so innocent and weak. I hate you already.” The girl had walked up on me. She circled me then squatted down so she could see my face. “Only the strong survive, they were weak, and they don’t deserve to live in this world.” The girl looked around, “Well maybe this world, they do.”
I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. “Why?” I said barely audible.
“What was that princess?” She looked back at me.
“Why?!” I yelled and looked from my aunt’s face up at the girl. Her eyes had stopped glowing. She had long twin ponytails that were held together with cross bone hair bands. She had purple eyes and an evil smirk on her lips. Her eyes held a darkness I could not explain. “Why would you do something like this?” I say between sobs. My face was damp and my light brown skin I was sure had turned splotchy.
“Because, you’re father ordered me to, my dear.” She grabbed held of my hair and pulled my head back. “He ordered to bring you back alive, but…” she paused as she looked down into my eyes. “You’re weak, you don’t deserve to live either.” She raised her free hand up and her eyes and hand began to glow.
I closed my eyes. I felt energy in my body flow at super high speeds. I felt as if my heart was going to burst inside of my chest. I open my eyes and let out a scream. The world around me flashed white then went completely black.