"You're supposed to be dead."
"Which time are you exactly talking about?"
Aubrey's remark was instinctive as if she had no control over her own mouth. Something had made the words literally tumble out of her mouth and the boy who sat across her raised his eyebrows curiously.
It was true though what he had said, Aubrey ought to have been died.
In fact she should have died, three times before.
She should have died when the Hurricane Katrina had destroyed her entire neighborhood in New Orleans, not leaving even one house standing.
Except hers.
All around the pretty two-story house she lived in, the homes of everyone she had grown up with for the first nine years of her life had been reduced to a meaningless pile of wooden beams that buried their owners underneath them.
And yet her frail looking house had withstood the storm, with not one stray leaf on its lawn.
The second time she should have died was when her parents drove their car off the mountain right here in Spade. She had been in the backseat of the car as something bright flashed in front of the windscreen knocking the entire car off the mountain.
She remembered the crash, she remembered the burning rubber, she remembered the blood and then she remembered the golden eyes of the boy who had taken her out of the car.
And then she remembered waking up to call of the phone booth in her bedroom at her aunt's house, two hours before it had all happened.
And she should have certainly died when her grandmother had tried to kill her, just over a week back.
And yet through it all she was standing in one piece, mostly in front of the boy who she could tie down to everything that had gone wrong in her life.
RUN!
RUN!
The prophecy must be complete,
He will break it,
Our queen shall never rise,
The heir shall die,
The god must-
The voices were so loud that Aubrey could barely stand on her feet.
"Aubrey?"
And just like that the voices vanished. She turned around to see Michael standing behind her puzzled, his blonde hair sticking up in all directions and his blue eyes trained on her.
"What are you doing here?" Michael asked before his gaze landed behind her where the boy sat. For a horrible moment Aubrey thought that may be the boy had once again been a figment of her imagination which she desperately wanted to be true.
"Declan?" Michael's tone was only slightly accusing as he addressed the boy behind her.
He's by the waterfall, he's always by the waterfall.
Aubrey was too shocked to react or even attempt to think of an excuse how she had just landed in front of the boy out of pure instinct.
"She seemed to have been wandering around." Declan responded,"And me being chivalrous as always decided to strike up a conversation with the pretty lady offering to help her find her way back."
Declan's eyes flashed at her as if challenging her to say otherwise. Instead Aubrey simply cleared her throat and turned to Michael as she said,"Yeah it was my bad I kind of wandered off listening to water and happened to come by your cousin, fortunately. who knew what could have happened? I might have landed up dead wandering all alone in the forest."
Declan looked at her holding back a small grin that had taken over his features. The shocked look hadn't quite left him but it was mostly replaced by curiosity that mirrored her own.
Michael sighed shaking his head convinced with her excuse,"No, it was my fault I don't know what was going through my head bringing you to the woods at this time of the night. Only idiots risk the forest at night."
The last part was very pointed directly at Declan who brought his hand up to his chest in mock hurt,"How you wound me."
Michael gritted his teeth and grabbed Aubrey's hand and a sudden rush of anger overtook her. For some reason beyond her she wanted nothing more than to get out of the woods and away from Declan, the mysterious boy with gold eyes.
"I'll just take her back home." He said tugging her hand forward. Aubrey willingly complied and started to follow him when Declan's voice cut through the air,"I suppose it's time for me to go inside too. Oh that's a fun idea I'll just tag along with you guys."
There was something very mocking about Declan's tone as he stood on his feet crossing over the stream with absolutely no difficulty, landing in step right beside Aubrey.
Being closer to him any sense of anger Aubrey had vanished in one blink. He was tall, incredibly so and he radiated energy. The type that was exciting at the same time the type that made her skin crawl.
He looked even better up close, his lashes curtained his deep gold eyes in a way that shouldn't have been possible. All her senses screamed at the proximity but then Michael squeezed her hand tightly pulling her harshly back into reality,
Declan may have looked liked it but he was very different from the boy she had seen. Something about him seemed so startlingly different yet Aubrey couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"So Michael care to explain why you brought her to get lost in the woods?" Declan's tone was conversational but once again the hint of mockery underplayed his words.
"I brought her to dinner." Michael replied back, his voice was tight barely controlled,"She's new to our school. Of course you would know that if you ever bothered to come to school."
"Aah the wonders of the American Education System, what could be possibly be wrong with my head that I want to skip all the meaningless babble that our teachers sprout on a regular basis?"
"And you think you're smarter than them?" Aubrey asked.
He looked at her, his air of confidence very clear as he said,"Oh I know it."
"You think quite a lot of yourself don't you?" Aubrey asked once again the words tumbling from her mouth as if she had no control. His mouth curved into a smile as if it's exactly what he had expected her to say.
"Don't you?"
The question was a challenge of some sort almost as if he was taunting her to have the correct answer to it. Maybe he knew that she had seen him before in her hallucinations. Maybe he knew just how insane she really was.
And he may be he was just as insane as her.
You should be dead.
What else could it mean except that he knew everything too?
But Aubrey was hesitant to ask. Michael's presence was obviously the biggest factor but at the same time she was afraid to know that answers and terrified to find out the consequences if she was wrong.
There was a tight feeling in her gut that had almost had her convinced that although Declan looked like the boy there was a strong possibility that he wasn't the same boy. May be it was the fact that he was almost horribly arrogant and self assured as opposed to the boy who had always had this safely mysterious yet somehow knowing feel about him. Declan seemed too guarded and was completely walled up for Aubrey to even try to figure him out.
The more she thought about the two of them together, the boy she had seen and Declan whom she met the more muddled up she got.
Before she could say anything Michael spoke up,"You don't have to be bastard to her too Declan."
Declan gave a shake of his head as his eyes stopped on Aubrey's hand which was wrapped around Michael's tightly."Yes, I don't suppose I have to be." He said almost thoughtfully.
They had reached the house, its lighting bathing the dark forest. Aubrey still felt unsettled as Declan turned and regarded her once again before letting a tiny satisfied smirk play out on his face.
"Well it was a pleasure to meet you Aubrielle." He said,"I do hope we meet again."
And only when he turned and walked away leaving Aubrey with Michael did she wonder how on Earth he knew her full name when she had not mentioned it to anyone.
_________
Aubrey was surprised as to how composed Michael was after his encounter. He was back to smiling, laughing and making jokes. Like a true gentlemen he led her to her car, asking twice, thrice if she would be fine on her ride home.
When Aubrey finally pulled out of the huge gates of the house did she let her mind drift back to Declan. The boy drove Aubrey nearly over the roof with his arrogance and that was saying something. Aubrey had never been the challenging type, the kind to argue back in an instant but it almost came naturally to her when she stood facing him.
In fact after her meeting with him, Aubrey was seriously beginning to question her sanity. He like Michael seemed strikingly normal. Obviously factoring out his looks.
He was arrogant, he was conceited and to be honest while it got on Aubrey's nerves she couldn't blame him. If Aubrey looked like him even she would act like that.
There was nothing about him that said that I'm some weirdly supernatural being and I come in your dreams and hallucinations to save your life.
You should be dead.
Aubrielle.
Those were the only two things that he gave away even a hint that there maybe a lot more going on.
And then there were the voices.
When she was with him, they went wild, panicked even, screaming and screeching about their queen, the heir and god knows what else.
And then the minute Michael appeared they all were cut off.
What was happening to her?
By the time she reached home, she had exhausted herself thinking about her questionable sanity.She stopped for a moment on the driveway staring at the melting ice trying to find the pentacle she had seen in the morning.
In the end she just shook her head and entered the house only to find her aunt waiting stoically on the couch.
"Where were you?" She demanded.
Aubrey was shocked to say the least. It was almost as surprising as seeing the boy you've dreamed for your entire life standing in front of you in reality. Her aunt never came home at a time that she would even by chance encounter Aubrey awake.
And yet she was here and it was only nine in the night.
"Where were you?"
This time her voice was much angrier. Her aunt was surprisingly daunting for someone who looked like a healthy corpse, her brown hair streaming behind and her furious dark eyes trained on Aubrey.
Aubrey had to bite back a rude retort as to why she even cared.
"I was with Michael Corentin." Aubrey replied,"He invited me for dinner at his house."
Shock played it's way on her aunts face as if it was the one thing that she had not expected her to say,"He invited you over to his house?"
Aubrey tried not to show just how hurt she was at that comment. Just because her aunt didn't have a high opinion of her didn't mean others couldn't, not that Michael would either if he ever got a glimpse of just how crazy she was.
"Yes, I met his mother." Aubrey said,"She wanted to welcome me to the-"
"He invited you over to the Vaughn house?"
"I think so?" Aubrey said,"Apparently you handle their estate?"
"Did you by any chance meet his cousin?"
Aubrey was actually taken aback by her question. What exactly did she mean by that?
"D-Declan?" Aubrey said unsurely,"Why?"
Her aunt looked at her sternly,"You can't associate with him."
Aubrey almost tripped backwards. She continued to stare at her aunt after she had
caught her herself against the counter.
"Why?" More than anger or exasperation Aubrey's voice was enshadowed pure, amazement at her aunts words.
"He's not a good influence."
Her aunt was serious, she could see it in her face which made her look like she was almost touching seventy when her aunt was barely forty.
He's not a good influence? Is he also like me? Crazy?
"What has he done?" Aubrey asked.
"Enough." Her aunts voice was decisive which told her that on her end the conversation was over.
"Do you want me to stay away from Michael too?" Aubrey didn't mean to but her voice sounded haughty and cold.
"No. I just want you to stay away from Declan." She said,"For what's left of your sanity as well as mine."
And then her aunt left Aubrey. Aubrey stood there puzzled for a minute debating wether she should have laughed of thrown something.
One thing was for sure though now, the first thing she would do when she got to school was confront Declan about all her queries, sane and insane.
__________
Aubrey didn't dare talk to her aunt in the morning apart from the few nods necessary. She knew that she needed to find out why exactly her aunt, a person who couldn't care less about her niece so very darkly told her to stay away from a seemingly harmless teenage boy.
Seemingly harmless.
Even Aubrey knew that wasn't true, there was nothing about Declan that didn't scream, quiet mystery.He too looked almost too good to be true, his well above six feet stature outpassed even his cousins.
Maybe she was just overthinking things. She had skipped her daily meds today because she had only two left.
It had really rattled her seeing only two pills left, she had filled her prescription before leaving Manhattan.
Telling her aunt that she needed a refill, would definitely raise eyebrows and send her back to a shrink for addiction. Maybe she kind of was, every time something weird happened she would have a habit of stuffing down pills her and in the short time she had been in Spade only weird stuff had happened.
Aubrey took a deep breath as she sat down in her car.
Today was going to be absolutely normal, she told herself.
She was so wrong.
________
When Aubrey reached Spade High the first thing she realised was that she had forgotten her history homework.
Great, she thought as she fiddled around with her backpack, this was just what I need.
She collided headfirst with someone that sent her sprawling to the floor all her books spilling subsequently.
She tried to focus on the person who had crashed into her ready to give them a piece of her mind.
But there was no one there.
The hall was almost empty except for a group of friends who stood at the other end of the hall.She sighed starting to pick up all of her books and papers. A few of her papers had blown farther away because of the breeze coming from the slightly ajar window on her right.
The bell rang loudly making Aubrey pick up her pace.
"Do you need help?" She found herself staring at a pair of black converse shoes. She looked up to see Declan standing over her with his signature amused smile pasted on his face.
But something about it seemed more genuine than last night.
Where did he come from?He wasn't there a second back.
"I'm fine." She snapped collecting her books. He ignored her and bent down reaching for something among the mess.
Her pills.
Aubrey made a desperate attempt to grab for it but it was already out of her reach.
He read the label, his eyes narrowed,"Antipsychotics, interesting."
His face was back on her and she found that it was literally impossible for her to move as if something was physically pinning her down.
"Michaels doing a pathetic job." He mused.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.
He didn't answer and that's when it hit Aubrey. The voices, the ones that went crazy whenever Declan came around were unnervingly quiet now.
"Who are you?" She asked,"How did you know my name?"
He's smile this time was troubled as if he was having trouble believing what she was saying but he shook it of replacing it with his irritating amuse smile,"I'm Declan Vaughn. I'm a seventeen year old who is stunningly good looking. I currently live in Spade the most scintillating town in the middle of nowhere-"
"You really think very highly of yourself don't you?" Aubrey asked and Declan in turn have a smirk
"Of course I do." He said arrogance dripping off his voice.
"You're delusional." Aubrey retorted.
And extremely good looking but Aubrey didn't add that.
He held up her pills,"Clearly I'm not the one whose delusional."
She gulped anger filling her body. Her entire awe of seeing him had vanished in an instant fuelled by her anger. She had spent her entire life thinking she was crazy seeing a boy who didn't exist.
But the funny part was that he did and he was standing in front of her calling her crazy.
She opened her mouth to say a lot of things, especially words that involved the f-word as adjectives but it all died in her mouth when he twisted the bottle in one smooth move and threw the two solitary pills out of the window.
He smiled a bit as Aubrey stared at him wide eyed,"Aubrielle you're not crazy. You're far far worse."
And with that he pocketed the container and walked away.