This chapter is dedicated to Miss J.K. Rowling who celebrated her 51st birthday, and who is in my opinion the best writer in the world. Thank you for playing a huge part in my childhood and now my adulthood with your writing.
When I realized what was really happening my shirt was already somewhere on the ground. I could feel my bare chest pushing against Blake, sharing the warmth of two bodies. His towel slowly starting to become undone. He has done this before. He is leading me. I think I am in control, but I am not. He is just making me think that I am.
"Stop it..." Half of my voice was smothered with another kiss.
I felt my hands move to his chest. Trying to put space between us. Trying to push him away, but he was just pulling me even closer.
"I said stop it!"
I was on the ground. Panting and out of breath. I caught a glimpse of Blake's manhood as he wrapped the towel around his waist, covering his modesty. I looked away. I didn't want him to know that I have seen it. I just wasn't ready for that step yet. I have only had my first real kiss a few days ago. I wasn't ready to lose my virginity any time soon, but somehow my body has betrayed me. I wasn't even in control of my own body apparently.
"What's wrong?"
I could feel his breath on my neck as he pulled me into a tight hug, holding me close. Making everything even more uncomfortable for me, feeling our bare chests pushed together once more.
"I can't Blake," I whispered. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't him. It was me. But that seemed a little bit to cliché, even if it was the truth.
"You can't what?" Blake asked. I desperately wanted to see his eyes. I wanted to know if there was disappointment hiding behind the sparkle it usually had. I think I would have been very disappointed at this point in time if I was him. Still he kept me in the hug, probably focusing his eyes on something behind me.
"I've never done this... Been with another boy..." I said. I just couldn't say the actual word.
"I figured," Blake replied, still holding me closer and tighter.
"So, I can't," I said again. "And you need to get dressed."
I needed him to get dressed as soon as possible. I just didn't like the idea of him being this close without any clothing on. Apparently there was no way I could trust myself or my body with him this close in only a towel. And I needed to be able to trust myself more than I trusted him.
"Okay Elijah."
"Are you mad at me?" It was at this point that he let me go and looked me right in the eyes. I didn't see disappointment. I saw something else. Something I could not give a name at the time. It was warm. It was like melted chocolate. Sweet and warm.
"Why would I be mad at you? You're not ready, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I might like to keep on kissing you a lot," Blake said and smirked, bringing humor into the seriousness of the situation, making me give a weak smile as well.
"Well, I guess that would be okay," I said and out of my own accord, fully knowing and in control of what I was doing, I gave him a quick kiss. "Now get dressed."
"Yes sir!" Blake said as he jumped up to stand at attention, making me giggle. He might be corny and completely stupid sometimes, but at least I was smiling, which made it totally worth it.
I fell asleep in a boy's arms for the first time that night. Feeling truly safe for the first time in a very long time. I snuggled closer to Blake as I listened to his breathing getting deeper and deeper, and there in the nook of his arm I did not struggle to fall asleep like I did every night. I had no fear that someone would appear in front of my bed and scare the hell out of me. I wasn't even afraid of my nightmares anymore. Everything was just perfect. I could close my eyes and fall asleep.
I could feel something wet beneath my feet.
I wonder where the noise when to that woke me up. The bloody screams. The pleading. It was all gone now.
"Daddy?"
It might have been dark but I knew my father. The man that was there when I took my first step. The only man in my life that I loved with all my heart.
"Go inside Elijah."
"But Daddy..." I was whining like a child. I am a child. I'm to scared to be inside. Somebody was screaming.
"Elijah! Inside! Now!"
Thump.
His face was not recognizable anymore.
I screamed.
"Shut up! Do you see this?! This is all your fault Elijah!"
"No!"
"Yes! You talked! Maybe if you didn't speak this would never have happened! This is your fault!"
"No!"
"Elijah! Wake up!"
"No!"
"Elijah!"
"It wasn't me!" I screamed.
I was blinded. There was light everywhere. A blond woman standing over me, Blake holding me against his chest. It wasn't bare this time.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Blake's mother said.
Okay, so the dream was just a dream. I have to breathe. I am in Blake's bed. I am safe. His mother is here. Everything will be okay.
"Just a dream, sorry," I panted. I still could not get control over my breathing. It still felt to real. I could still feel the sticky blood on my feet. I could still see the gruesome face staring up at me, knowing it was my doing that he looked like that in the first place.
"Blake. I'm going to brew him a little something. As soon as he's calm, bring him down to the kitchen," Blake's mother said and walked out of the room. The pity in her eyes as she stopped at the door broke my heart.
"Elijah? What were you dreaming about?" Blake asked, the worry showed by the frown covering his forehead.
"You're going to get wrinkles," I said and patted his forehead, making his frown disappear a little bit. I desperately needed to change the subject.
"You kept on saying it wasn't your fault. What wasn't your fault?" Blake asked again, obviously not ready to let go of the subject that easily.
"I don't know," I mumbled and in an attempt to change the subject I pecked him on the cheek and cuddled up to him. Gosh, I was whoring myself out to change a subject! How mature of me!
"What did you dream about?" Blake said as he pulled me closer, putting he's hand on my head, pulling me close so that I could smell him through his clothing. I felt safe again.
"I can't remember." The lie was out before I could even think. If I could not keep quiet anymore, at least I could avoid it.
"Are you sure?" His voice did not sound convincing at all.
"Yeah," I answered. There was nothing in that dream that I ever wanted to explore ever again in my life. Once was more than enough.
"Then maybe it's time to go down to the kitchen. My mom's waiting for us," Blake said and stood up out of bed, pulling me with him, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Never once leaving my hand, keeping me as safe as he could every step of the way.
"Are you feeling a bit better now honey?" Mrs. Barlow said as we entered the kitchen and Blake took out a chair for me.
"Yeah, thanks Mrs. Barlow," I answered.
"It's Llaluna. I've never been married. Can't be tied down. I'm a free spirit, and the Universe gave me a lovely name, use it," she said with a smile as she put down a mug in front of me. It smelled of cinnamon, but it looked like chocolate milk.
"Drink. It will make you feel better," she said and watched me take the firsts sip. It wasn't that bad, but if definitely wasn't something I would make myself either. It tasted way to much like cinnamon.
"It's milk with honey, cocoa and cinnamon, boiled to perfection," Llaluna said, confirming my suspicion of the cinnamon. "That should keep any other nightmares at bay for the rest of the night. Old remedy I learned back in the early 90's when I was pregnant with Blake. There was this old lady in the Smokey Mountain's I was travelling at the time. I thought she was giving me some poison, but it seemed to work at the end of the day."
"You traveled while you were pregnant?" I asked. I knew that wasn't a good idea.
"I was on a hike when I found out I was pregnant, and not even pregnancy was going to stand between me and self enlightment. Blake was born in a field, under the stars with that very same old lady helping me. He lived his first two weeks in an old skirt of mine before I could get to civilization to buy him some clothing," Llaluna said.
"Wow." It was all I could muster. I could not even begin to imagine living a life that free.
"Blake. Go and get my cards," she said suddenly in a much louder tone than before, making me jump a little bit in my chair.
"Seriously mom?" Blake said and shook his head. "Elijah's not ready for all your hocus-pocus."
"This child needs help, and the source of his problems are much too big for you to be of any help," Llaluna said, waving her hand to show Blake that she was done talking.
"But mom..." Blake whined, moving even closer to me.
"I said go!" Llaluna said, and without another word Blake started walking away, leaving me in silence with Llaluna. For lack of anything else to do I kept taking the one sip after the next of my drink. By the time Blake finally returned my mug was empty.
"Thank," Llaluna said as she took the purple cloth from Blake and started unwrapping it, to reveal a deck of cards wrapped inside it. She ran her hand over the blue cards that looks ancient, their sides starting to curl.
"Give it to me," Llaluna suddenly said, looking at Blake. I sunk down behind the table, noticing the daggers flying from her eyes.
"What?" Blake said, standing his man.
"The card you took."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Blake answered.
"The Death card has been removed from my deck. And you didn't wrap it the way I normally wrap it."
Blake sighed and from his pajama pants he produced a card with a man turning into a moth. The artwork was beyond beautiful, that I had to admit.
Blake scowled as she took the card from him and pushed it into the deck, not looking at him again, starting to shuffle the deck in a way a professional poker player would envy her.
"Now leave," Llaluna said.
I scrapped my chair over the floor, ready to get up and pull Blake from the kitchen. This was getting to creepy for my liking.
"Not you. You sit down. Blake, you leave," Llaluna said and her voice immediately made me take my seat again. Something told me she wasn't a person to cross.
"But mom. Can't you see his scared?" Blake said, moving closer to me and putting his hand on my back. I looked up at him thankfully. I honestly wanted nothing more than to follow him back to bed this very second and leave his creepy mother here all alone.
"And he will remain that way until someone reaches out to help him," she answered as she loudly slammed the deck down in front of me, making me jump once more.
"I've been helping him," Blake said protectively. I imagine that if the table wasn't in the way he would have pushed me behind him to protect me from his mother.
"Then he hasn't had any decent help yet. Now go." Llaluna's blue eyes was glowing purple. She was getting pissed off with her son. I could feel the tension building up.
"It's okay Blake," I mumbled. I just wanted this tension to end. The last think I needed was Blake and his mother getting into a fight because of me.
"Fine," Blake said and stomped out of the kitchen, not even stopping to look at me. He was mad. I could tell.
"He doesn't like my way of life much," Llaluna said, and then tapped the cards in front of me. "You need to shuffle those. I need your energy if we want the correct cards to fall out."
The cards felt foreign in my hands. They were much bigger than a normal deck of cards and they were difficult to shuffle. I'm sure Llaluna has much smaller hands than me, so I had no idea how she was able to shuffle them in the way she did. I almost dropped them twice, and after a few minutes of not being able to accomplish what Llaluna did with them I just gave up and handed the cards back to her.
"What's inside you. What crosses you. What's behind you. What crowns you. What's beneath you. What's in front of you. Hopes. Dreams. Fears. Outcome." With each word she said she packed out another card. Each one looking darker to me than the one preceding it.
I looked around the kitchen. Desperately hoping for a magick exit to appear and take me away from the witch sitting in front of me. I wanted nothing more in life than to flee out of this kitchen, which turned from a warm place that served pizza, to a scary room of doom that would see into my soul. I have never been this afraid in my life.
A/N: Yes... The story is getting a little bit darker. If you are very sensitive to "darker" scenes, the following chapters might not work for you. Although I hope that you will all continue reading. I have always written truth's, and would like to show how the world really is. Although this is in part a romance I try and keep it as real as possible. If you are sticking with Elijah and Blake, thank you so very much. Please remember to vote and leave a comment. Why do you think Elijah stopped talking?