"Wait you're the hot neighbor girl living with Owein that Tuck won't shut up about?"
Ben guffawed at his younger brother's outburst. I simply raised my eyebrows and directed my attention back to the eldest Joy boy. Tucker looked as if he were going to jump over the couch and murder Elias. The younger boy seemed to realize that he had incited the rage of his older brother and began to sink lower into the couch.
Tucker seemed truly taken aback and I knew that Elias must have just been teasing him rather than genuinely asking.
"Nah, Elias. You're probably thinking of my brother, Harry," I said, trying to ease the tension.
"Oh yeah? He hot?"
"Well, he looks just like me so..."
"Eh."
I fake gasped in offense at his joke. Ben and Tucker watched us both in amusement. The teasing between Elias and I continued until Ben finally broke it up. Tucker sat at the kitchen table, watching us with humor and unease in his brown eyes.
"I should probably go," I announced after the conversation had settled. I rose from the stool I was sitting on and both Ben and Tucker rose with me.
"I'll walk her out," Tucker stated, taking us all by surprise.
As I said goodbye to Ben and Elias, I couldn't help but inspect the eldest Joy boy. He seemed to watch my interactions with his brothers like he was ready for me to eat one of them. His hesitancy toward me and his watchfulness put me on edge.
I could feel anxiety rolling off of the tall young man next to me as we exited the house and walked down the driveway toward my bike. When I looked at him though, he appeared as calm and collected as ever. My abilities were, once again, running rampant when I was near him.
Tucker set me off like a spark to a wildfire.
"So," he began as I began to roll the bike back to my house.
"So?"
"You and Ben are friends, huh?"
My eyes narrowed at his tone. "Looks like it."
He was silent as we neared my house. When we finally reached Owein's driveway he stopped abruptly and turned his feet so he was facing me. His eyes begrudgingly met mine and I saw a fierce look in them.
"Listen, Lou, I'm going to say this and I'm only going to say it once. Ben is mixed up in some shitty stuff. He tends to hang around people he shouldn't, and that's not going to be you. Got it?"
His words bit into me, but I hardly understood.
"Wha-"
"If you're into the same bad shit he's into, then you need to leave him alone. Ben doesn't need any more people dragging him down," Tucker finished.
Tucker's words began to make sense as I remembered my first day in the cafeteria and Ben's odd behavior. The dark aura surrounding Ben suddenly made sense as well. Whatever 'bad shit' that Tucker was talking about was infecting my friend.
"I'm not into anything, Tucker Joy. Your brother is my friend and I don't want him to be 'dragged down' any more than you do."
"Good. I'm glad we agree." He turned to go, but I reached for his arm to pull him back.
Again, I was hit by a rush of colors.
This time, I saw an unconscious Ben lying on the ground of a seedy bathroom. A flutter of white powder masked his face and obscured the vision.
I ripped my hand away from where it was connected to Tucker's arm and stumbled backward.
"Drugs?" I whispered.
Tucker's head shot up and his eyes searched my face, questioningly. Realization seemed to have dawned on his face. He seemed to have answered something in his head while I was filled with more and more questions.
"I...I never said it was drugs."
Quickly, I tried to backtrack.
"Obviously, I just assumed that's what you meant by 'bad shit.'"
His head tilted and I knew he didn't believe my lie. Something told me that Tucker Joy was more perceptive than the average person. My lies did little to quell his suspicions. The wind blew a hard gust that sent shivers up my spine and swept my hair behind me. Tucker's hard eyes stared me down. His lips parted as he moved his arm up. Before I knew what was happening, he was grasping my arm again. Just like before, I was thrown into a random vision seeing through the eyes of the boy in front of me.
Tucker was running and he was running fast. It was the woods again, but they were dark and snowy. I felt no chill as Tucker continued to run swiftly over the dirt and grass. He leaped gracefully over fallen trees and weaved through the shrubbery. Our consciousnesses had molded into one. We were chasing something, Tucker and I. I didn't know what and Tucker didn't seem to either.
We kept running.
Tucker wasn't tired. In fact, he was hardly breathing heavily at all. We stopped, but only because we'd come to a clearing. He stepped forward to the river and I caught a reflection, but only briefly. It was a wolf. A wolf with very familiar brown eyes looking back at me.
And that's about the time I passed out.
***
"What the hell happened?" I heard my brother's voice ask.
Clouds filled my head as I returned back to consciousness on a plush couch. My eyes opened and I was disoriented for a moment as the gold tiles on the ceiling seemed to drip toward me. I heard my mother's voice respond and then a coarse one.
My eyes widened as I heard Tucker's voice. I shot straight up, which did not do a whole lot of good for my disorientation. My head started spinning.
"Lou!" Harry's voice rang out.
My twin rushed to the couch and I tried to shake away the confusion and exhaustion I felt. Mom and Owein stepped forward, both with concern etched onto their features. The only one who didn't seem to belong in the room was the dark-haired boy standing at a distance. Mom blocked my view of him as she put her hand on my forehead.
"Are you alright, kiddo? Tucker brought you back and said that you just fainted! What happened?"
My eyebrow raised at her concerned tone. I loved my mom, but she had no idea what to do when Harry and I got sick. She was terrible at the whole nurturing part of being a mother. Harry seemed to know what I was thinking and shrugged when I looked at him.
"I'm fine, Mom. Seriously, I just felt dizzy. I'm fine."
Her concerned face didn't fall and I wondered if her reactions were all for Owein's benefit. She might've been sincere, but I had seventeen years of life experience that would say otherwise.
Owein attempted to calm her down and it took everything in me not to roll my eyes. Harry ruffled my hair and stepped away to give me some space. As my brother moved away from me, I made eye contact with Tucker.
The images of the wolf rushed back into my brain and I winced as my head pounded. I briefly considered that I was going insane. A psychological disorder would make a hell of a lot more sense than whatever was wrong with me.
I felt tears spring to my eyes, but I choked them back. It would be devastatingly stupid to cry at this moment, but I was so frustrated by my unanswered questions. All of the strain that my abilities were putting on my brain and on my body washed over me instantly. I felt drained and confused and angry.
Tucker stepped closer to the couch and leaned down until his lips were at my ear. I shuddered as I felt his cold breath along my neck.
"We need to talk."
With that, he straightened up and walked toward the front door. My eyes watched his every movement. He nodded goodbye to Owein and then turned to face me one last time.
"Goodbye, Lou. I'll be seeing you soon."
And he was gone.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
There were no nightmares plaguing me, but instead, it was the sounds that I couldn't be sure I was imagining. If I was, then it was one hell of a coincidence. A strange howling echoed outside of my bedroom window. The fear of looking outside glued me to my position in bed.
My fists clenched around my covers until I took a big deep breath and shoved the blankets off of me. I stood and pushed my curtain back and searched the woods behind the house for any sign of movement. I wasn't sure if I was more scared of imagining it all or of actually seeing something stalking the woods.
One option meant that I was going insane and the other meant that there were darker things that lived in West Acres. Things that I couldn't even imagine.
Unfortunately for me, the latter seemed to be the truth.