Indigo carefully put me down and backed away a few steps. He his eyes kept darting away from me to the walls or floor like he was trying to find an escape.
"Indigo?" I asked, a wobble in my voice.
Indigo refused to meet my eyes, instead staring about three inches to the left of my face. "You should get dressed."
I opened my mouth but no words came out, just a questioning sound. Indigo still wouldn't look at me. I quickly turned away from him and picked up my clothes off the floor. I yanked my pants on without putting my underwear on. I wanted to run as far away as possible. My eyes were burning like I was about to cry and a dull ringing sound filled my ears. I felt like I wanted to throw up or cry or scream or maybe all.
I quickly slid my shoes on, not caring about the shards of glass still sticking out of my feet. I just wanted to go home.
I grabbed the doorknob and started twisting it.
"Lavender, you don't need to go," Indigo offered, but when I turned to look at him he still wasn't looking at me.
I laughed, a little, to myself. Of course I'd fall in love with someone who would never love me back.
I pulled open the door but Indigo stopped me again.
"Lavender, I'm serious. Stay. Let's talk about this."
I glanced at him over my shoulder but didn't say anything.
A pained look crossed Indigo's face. "Lavender, you said you had something you needed to tell me."
Tears were starting to well up in my eyes and I quickly, angrily wiped them away. "It's nothing important. I'll tell you tomorrow."
Indigo didn't say anything and I ran out the door. It was still raining but I didn't care, I just wanted to be home curled up in my bed. I raced across the street, slipping on the slick asphalt as I ran. I took the steps leading up to my porch in twos, jumping as I did so. I threw open the door and raced down the hallway to the stairs.
"Lavender, honey, is that you?" Grammie called from somewhere in the house but I didn't answer, I just kept running up the stairs to my room.
I flew into my bedroom, my door slamming shut behind me. My chest heaved as I stared around my room. The blue shag carpet stood in sharp relief against the light purple walls. The fairy lights hanging around the corners twinkled merrily shedding a soft light around the room. It was all too ... cheerful. Too happy. Too ... me. This room represented who I used to be - a stupid, compliant girl who did what she was told, who let people walk all over her.
I wasn't that girl anymore.
I was the girl who had stood up to the Sheriff. I was the girl who had crossed outside the town's borders and lived. I was the girl who stood up to Le Fouet. I was the girl who fell in love with an outsider, consequences be dammed. I didn't belong in this room anymore. I didn't belong here.
I stumbled over to the wall of photographs that I had hung when I was a preteen. I stared at my dreamboard, at all the stupid things I had thought I wanted. There were pictures from all over town. I remember how badly I wanted to be accepted, how awfully I yearned to be a part of this town. I didn't want that anymore. I reached up and ripped the board down, tearing it in the process. I threw the two pieces of it onto the ground, panting as I did so.
Then, I turned to the pictures I had hung up over the years. There were pictures of Grammie and me, me not smiling in a single one of them. There were pictures of a young Violet. There were class pictures, baby pictures, graduation pictures. In all of them I remembered feeling outside of the group. I remember feeling like I was looking into a greenhouse. Like everyone was inside this nice tropical glass room where they all had each other and I was outside it, in the cold, all alone. I started ripping the pictures down, throwing them over my shoulder as soon as I had them in my hand.
I tore posters off my wall, paintings, tapestries, drawings, everything that I had hung up over the years.
These were the dreams of a child. I wasn't a child anymore. I had changed. Indigo had changed me.
I didn't realize until I was sitting on the floor surrounded by the rubble of my room that I was crying. Big fat tears were falling silently down my cheeks, falling off my sharp cheekbones onto my chest. I had been crying so much that there were two big wet spots on the collar of my shirt.
I pushed my hair out of my face and tried to focus on my breathing. I felt like I couldn't get enough air, like I'd never get enough air again. I hated Indigo for making me feel this way. I wish he would just disappear.
I laid back against the ground and just stared up at the ceiling, tracing the cracks in the plaster with my eyes. Breath in, follow the spider-web cracks with my eyes. Breath out, keep following the cracks to the walls.
I wished the ceiling would just fall on me, would just put me out of my misery. I closed my eyes against the pain of it all. Against the knowledge that Indigo didn't love me; against the knowledge that he was horrified to know I loved him. I kept seeing his expression in my mind when I told him. Why had I told him? What had I been thinking?
I hadn't been thinking. Otherwise I wouldn't have told him.
I leaned back harder against the plush carpet. The fibers tickled the back of my neck but I didn't move, I just breathed out.
I must of fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes again. Everything was wrong.
I was still in my room, but instead of the blue carpet I had fallen asleep on, I was laying on a bed of tall blue grass. Blue vines crawled up my walls, blooming with small blue flowers. I felt something slithering against my hand and when I glanced down I saw little flowers begin to grow up against the outline of my hands. They sprung up, twisting to brush against my knuckles. They wove in between my fingers, ordaning my hand like rings.
I stared at them in awe.
"What's happening?" I whispered to myself.
"You're dreaming," a voice called from behind me.
I flipped over and there, reclining against my bed, his head resting on my pillows, was the man - Anansi.
"You!" I breathed out, my eyes wide.
I was scared now, knowing who I was talking to.
Anansi just smirked at me. It looked familiar, oddly enough, like I had seen it before, though I was sure that Anansi had never smiled at me like that before.
"You're frightened of me," he said conversationally, examining his fingernails. The flowers were also curled around him. Some twisted around his fingers and wrist, blooming as soon as they touched his skin, others wove in and out of his air like a crown, sagging down to bloom against his forehead. He looked beautiful, I thought.
Anansi raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow when I didn't answer.
I quickly shook my head. "Not scared, just ... cautious."
"Why?" he demanded, like the thought of me being careful around him boggled his mind.
I stood slowly, feeling defenseless on the floor. "Well, you are a God."
Anansi snorted delicately. "Lower-case G type of God. I'm hardly worth fearing."
I didn't say anything just smiled politely. I glanced around the room, subtly looking for a way out. That's when I realized that the door had vanished. There were four walls but no way to exit besides the window, which I knew had a two story drop waiting outside it.
Anansi sat up a little straighter and patted the bed. "Come here, ma."
I hesitated as I debated what to do. Could I risk offending him by saying no? I decided I couldn't and if he tried anything physical I'd knee him in the groin and jump out the window. Maybe I wouldn't die from the fall.
I slowly crossed the room to sit next to him. He sat up until our faces were inches apart. He studied my features slowly, like he was trying to see something in them. He reached out a long-fingered hand and stroked down my cheek to hold to my chin. He rotated my head from left to right then back again. After a moment he smiled, his eyes crinkling as he did so.
"You are going to make beautiful babies," he whispered, his tone merry like he had just told a joke that I was too stupid to understand.
I smiled uncomfortably but didn't say anything.
After a second, he released me and leaned back onto his hands. "I can't wait till we meet face to face."
Before I could stop myself, I was speaking. "I'm not going to marry you!"
He paused and raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
I swallowed but repeated myself. "I'm not going to marry you."
He smiled at me like I was a child who had something amusing. "Care to explain?"
"You said that you'd one day be a Fletch. The only way to do that is to marry me. I'm not going to marry you."
"And what if I made you? What if I told you that you had to or I'd break your lovely neck?"
My breath caught in my throat. Was he threatening me?
I ignored the obvious threat in his words and answered anyway. "I'd still wouldn't marry you."
Anansi smiled and leaned forward like this was a game he was enjoying. "And what if I said you had to marry me or I'd break Indigo's neck?"
I froze. Me I could handle him threatening, but no way would I let him harm Indigo.
I felt that now familiar ball of heat start growing low in my belly until it transformed into an inferno inside of me and the plants around Anansi's head began to tighten harder and harder, growing thorns in the process until the thorns began to pierce his skin, embedding themselves into him.
Anansi didn't flinch, just smiled. "Humans," he drawled, "sure love to crucify their gods."
"If you touch Indigo," I said slowly, "I'll kill you myself."
"I'm a God, darling, I can't be killed in the way you humans think."
"I don't care," I spat, "I'll find a way to end you."
Anansi just laughed again. He reached over the side of the bed and flexed his fingers. Growing out of the grass carpet was a pink flowering vine. He leaned over and plucked it, still not minding the thorns piercing his head.
"Do you know what this plant is?" he asked, studying the blooms.
I didn't say anything, the power still burning inside of me.
He turned to smile at me. "It's called Indigofera tinctoria. Do you know its common name?"
I still didn't answer just studied him as he studied me. He leaned forward and ignoring the way I flinched, starting braiding the plant into my hair so that the pink-ish purple-ish flowers popped out. He paused to study his work and smiled before continuing speaking.
"It's called Indigo." he pulled back further and gave me a sly smile. "You'll probably want to wake up now. Just remember, this wasn't my doing. This is all Fletch."
"What are you-" I began but he snapped his fingers and I awoke with a scream.
My chest heaved and panted as I looked around. My mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton and my head felt heavy. Where was I? I glanced around the room and saw that everything was back to order. The floor once again had a blue carpet on it, the walls were still bare of vines of pictures. The mess I had made earlier was still surrounding me. I breathed out a sigh of relief. Everything was normal.
I got up to go to the bathroom, passing the hall mirror on the way and froze as something caught my eye. There, still braided into my hair, was the pink flower. My mouth dropped open as I stared at it. My hand trembled when I rose to touch it. It was soft against my fingertips.
It was real. The dream was real. Anansi had spoken to me.
Indigo! my mind screamed as I remembered the conversation I had just finished having. I raced down the stairs, reopening the cuts on my feet and not evening putting on shoes, I threw open the door and raced across the street. It was still raining
I ran up the stairs to Indigo's door and immediately reached for the knob, turning it. It was still unlocked. I raced inside.
"Indigo!" I shouted. He didn't answer. I raced up the stairs to his bedroom and opened the door. His bed was empty. I quickly kept running down the hallway. I threw open the bathroom door but he wasn't there either.
I raced back downstairs and ran to the living room - empty. I checked the dining room - empty. I then raced to the kitchen.
At first, it appeared empty as well, but as I turned to leave something caught my eye. A puddle - too dark to be water - was pulling around the corner of the kitchen island. I froze for less than a second before I slowly crept forward, my heart in my throat.
Each step forward convinced me that I wanted nothing more than to turn around. My hand grasped the corner of the counter and steeling my nerves, I turned the corner and immediately screamed.
There laying in a pool of blood was Indigo, his eyes staring vacantly up, no longer seeing. I kept screaming, dropping down to my knees in the outer edges of the pool of blood. Tears began to blind me but through them I could see the rose vines that circled both the crown of his head and his neck. More vines circled his arms and legs and stomach. The thorns pierced his skin, drawing blood from all his major arteries explaining the pool.
"Indigo!" I sobbed, my hands curled, shaking as they hovered above him.
I didn't know what to do, how to help.
Check the pulse, I thought, I should check for a pulse.
I grabbed the vines around his neck and pulled them back enough to loosen them. Shaking I pressed my pointer finger against his neck searching for his heart beat. Hope pumped my heart for me as I looked for a beat. But nothing came. I moved my fingers looking in another location. But there was no pulse to be found.
His body was already beginning to grow cold.
Indigo was dead.
Sorry guys. Tell me what you think. I told you there was a plot twist coming. Keep reading, the book's almost over. Like always remember to vote, add, or comment.