It Was a Big Spider

 

Chapter Seventeen

 

In my, uh, vision, I see myself standing in front of a car: a black car, sleek and shiny (but not Chase’s Porsche). I focus. Someone is holding me. Oh, it’s Brody. And he’s not holding me exactly; he’s holding me…back. From… what?

Oh, God.

D****t.

No. No. No. No.

NO.

It’s not real, I remind myself before I start to hyperventilate. The movie plays on in my head.

I see Chase, bruised and bloody, slumped over in the backseat of the car. The door is open, that’s why I can see Chase. He doesn’t look to be…breathing much.

I take a deep breath as a man—that doctor—climbs out of the sleek car. He pulls out a syringe and takes blood from Chase with a sick smile on his face. When he’s finished he hands it to one of his men and proceeds to pull something from his coat jacket.

I feel my stomach churn. A gun.

He then aims it at Chase, who has opened his eyes now, and pulls the trigger.

I hear myself scream out, both in the vision and in real life. You honestly don’t know how realistic these things I see are. It’s like I’m there. Which, I guess, I technically am.

I see myself collapse in Brody’s arms. He’s not holding my back now, I’m on the ground sobbing, trying to crawl over to Chase, to see if he’s still alive. I know, somehow, that he’s not and let me tell you, it hurts.

I feel it in every inch of me: Chase is gone. And there is no feeling worse in the world.

 

 

“Skye, Skye.” I hear a voice saying. Brody. Oh, crap. My vision thing isn’t coming true, is it? Not now. Please, not ever.

“I’m fine! I’m fine, I swear.” I say, getting up from the ground. Did I fall? Collapse? I’m a mess.

Brody holds out his hand to steady me. “I heard you scream, you sure you’re alright?”

I nod. “Yeah, I just saw a spider. I hate those things.” I make up, feeling bad for lying to Brody. He grins.

“A spider?” He asks me doubtfully.

“Oh, yeah. This great big hairy one. Not a tarantula, but it might as well have been.” I lie some more, using hand gestures and getting real into my story.

Brody shakes his head disbelievingly, still grinning. “I’ll keep my eye out for those…spiders. Sure your okay?” He asks me.

Before I can answer—and okay, lie again—Chase springs up the steps of the patio to us.

“I heard a scream, what’s wrong?” He asks, looking at me first and then Brody.

Brody winks at me. “Just a spider.” He coughs. “Apparently.”

Chase looks at me and narrows his eyes. I hold up my hands in surrender.

“It was a big spider!” I yell, and Brody laughs before walking away. Chase looks at me a little closer.

“There are tears on your face.” He states, studying me. I’m worried for a second that he might discover my lie. Of course he would.

“No there’s not.” I say, frowning. “Brody just accidently sneezed in my face. It was gross.” I add, piling on the lies. Chase rolls his eyes and I feel such relief that he’s in front of me—safe and alive

“Fine, Skye. We can talk about this another time.” He says, and turns to go inside. I hesitate.

“Chase?” I call out timidly. He turns around, just so freaking perfect looking. I walk up to him and wrap my arms around him in a good old hug, exactly what I need.

He sighs and wraps his arms around me as well, pulling me in for an even bigger hug. I snuggle my face in his chest like all of those obnoxiously cute couples at my school do.

“Talk to me.” He murmurs into my hair. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

I sigh and pull away, staring into those incredible blue eyes of his. “I saw you die.” I say, bluntly.

Chase starts coughing.

“You—what?”

“I saw you die. Do you remember those vision things I had when I first got here? In the forest, when you tried to Control my head, and we thought our Talents mixed and gave me those…visions. You remember?”

“Yeah, yeah I remember.” Chase says, staring at me.

“Well, I might have just had another one of those visions And you, um, might have died. And so yeah, that might have been me screaming. And yeah, it for sure wasn’t a spider.” I say, making a popping sound with my lips to fill in the silence following my statement.

Chase takes a step closer to me. “How’d I die?” He asks me curiously. Such a guy.

I frown. “I’m not exactly a coroner. You were all bloody and beat up looking,” I fight a lurch in my stomach. “But then you got shot so I’m going to get that was your cause of death.”

“Interesting.” Is what Chase says. Interesting? Like when a dog eats grass when he’s sick?

“I might be saying the same thing if I hadn’t had to watch it.” I say, glaring at Chase. He looks up suddenly.

“That must have been terrible.” Chase says, genuinely looking concerned for me now. I shrug.

“But you’re still alive, right?” I try.

Chase grins. “Very much alive.”

I smile back. “Alright, then. Let’s go inside. Before a spider actually does attack me.”

And with that, Chase and I walk inside, grinning. The memories of a very…disturbing vision thingy almost faded.

 

 

When Chase and I get into the kitchen it’s dead silent. I look around for Margaret, who had been cooking something not twenty minutes ago. Maybe they ate already, but that was quick! I look to the stove and see that there is a pot sitting there, with no flame under it. There’s spilt food all over the floor. I look at Chase whose face is as confused as mine. Except his is more tense, as if he’s sensing something I’m not.

“Where is everybody?” I ask him, as if he’d know. He looks at me, and shrugs, but I can see the worry on his face.

“Hello!” Chase calls out, his voice loud. Nobody responds. I try.

“Hel—“I’m cut off by Logan running into the kitchen, his hands visibly shaking. He looks stricken, as if he’s seen something horrible. “Logan, what’s wrong?” I ask, walking up to him. He blinks his wide eyes slowly and looks at me. His eyes are so sad, I’m scared. “Chase.” I say, motioning for him to come closer to his brother. He does, and when he takes a look at Logan’s stricken face he pales.

“What is it, Logan?” Chase asks, looking around for somebody else. Brody or Margaret, I assume. Where are they?

“I don’t know how to say it.” Logan says softly, peering at me with sad eyes. I feel my stomach churn. Something is not right.

“What is it?” Chase asks, worry leaking into his voice. I take a step away from Logan, who still has his sad eyes locked on me.

“Skye…your parents…” Logan starts and I turn my head away from him, not wanting to hear it but knowing I have to. “They….their…” He stops, lifting a shaky hand to his head.

“What’s wrong with them?” I ask, facing him. “What happened?”

Logan looks sick. “Their dead.” He whispers.

I feel my stomach drop to the ground. Chase calls out something—I don’t know what. I block out all sound and fall to the floor, silently. I can’t cry. There are no tears.

It’s just me, and silence. And my heart—it’s breaking. Into a thousand pieces, into a million. It’s shattering. Falling into a pile of broken pieces, leaving me feeling like I’m broken too. It’s not true, I keep telling myself.

But it is.

I know it is.

And my broken, shattered, numb heart knows it too.

Maybe that’s why I start to cry. Maybe that’s why I fell to the floor because I could no longer stand. Maybe that’s why I’ve blocked out all sound other than the breaking of my very heart.

Maybe it’s because, deep down, I know it’s true.

They’re gone.

Gone.

No longer mine.

No longer with me.

No longer alive.

No. Not anymore.

 

 

When I wake up I don’t even bother opening my eyes. I keep them closed, feeling warm tears pour out of them and run down my face. I’m lying on my side on a bed, my head buried in a pillow, which is now covered in a pool of tears. I’ve never cried this much—this hard.

I can smell a cup of tea that is probably sitting next to me. And I can hear a soothing sound system—the kind with the crickets and waterfalls.

But none of it is calming.

It’s like I can’t breathe without pain—without memories ambushing me. I don’t want to move. Ever.

Someone is lying beside me on the bed. Running their hands through my hair in a comforting way that for some reason makes me cry harder.

The person beside me doesn’t say anything about my sobbing but they pull me closer to them, wrapping their arms around me.

Ah, Chase.

He turns me toward him and I can’t even look at him. It hurts. Everything freaking hurts.

He wipes the tears from my face, and cradles my head against his chest. I’m still sobbing when he tucks my head under his chin. He rubs my back soothingly—like my dad and mom used to when I was a little girl. I start crying harder and push myself out of Chase’s arms. I stumble off the bed and run into the bathroom, falling before the toilet and vomiting. I keep throwing up until it turns into dry heaving and then I curl into a ball beside the toilet, closing my eyes, blocking out all light. If only it were that easy to block out the pain.

Reviews

[Anya]

i have tears in my eyes. Oh that's so sad.... so sad. I feel really bad for Skye. Wonderfully written again and beautifully described. Can not wait for the next one!!

[Rusty]

Keep going, this is good. I wish the chapters were longer, but I wait with antisipation for the next one.