Chapter 6A Chapter by YoshiPiccollo “What are
you thinking?” Asked Elric. “Huh?” Was my intelligent reply. He asked the
question again and the only thing that I could say was, “Oh, just thinking about
how I am going to save lives- you know- with my awesome superpowers.” He
smiled. The sad thing was that he thought that I was joking. My “gift” may not
fall under the superpower category, but I thought that it was pretty close. I
had to develop a plan. I had to stop this zombie from taking any more lives,
and the first step was to get out of Elric’s house. Standing up, I found that I
still had a small case of wobbly legs, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Once
I was able to gain some balance, I turned to him and said, “Elric, it is time
for me to go.” “What? Why?” “I have been on your couch for days, I think that I have
worn out my welcome here.” I cleared my throat and then continued, “Um, thanks
for all of your help, and please tell your mom that I appreciate her stitching
me up.” With that I headed toward the door. It was time for me to handle this
on my own. It was time for me to be a big girl. Right as I was about to leave,
Elric’s voice stopped me. “Oh! Hey Stephanie! Can you please not tell anyone at
school about you staying here? Um- I really don’t want to deal with any of
their crap.” I knew that I should have expected something like this, but it
still hurt to hear him say it. Turning to face him I replied, “I will be sure
to make sure that your reign at school stays divine, My Lord.” Adding on even
more sarcasm I said, “Your pupils will never hear a peep about the misfortune
that you had to endure. I am sorry that my staying here has been such a
burden.” With that, I left the house, slamming the door behind me. The nighttime air was eerily
chilled. I was walking alone- and I was in a sleeveless top without a jacket.
To top it all off, my cell phone was in my jacket pocket. Back at Elric’s
house. Well forget it. I am
not going back there. Nope. No-sir-y. Wait- do my arms actually have goose
bumps? That hasn’t happened to me since, like, three months ago. Well that is
just great. I probably look like a homeless person now. Hours
passed by, I still was nowhere near any friendly faces or their homes, and the
worst part was that I had school the next day. It was getting late and I was
dreading the moment that the sun would disappear into the shadows of the night.
I kept on my path, though, trying to find sanctuary. About thirty minutes later
I crawled into the neighborhood where Winston lived. I couldn’t walk anymore; I
was so hungry and parched. Who knew that He
Who Shall Not Be Named’s house was that far away from where I normally
dwelled. I managed to pull myself up onto his doorstep and I rang the doorbell.
No answer. Oh you have got to be
kidding me. Out of all the times I go to see Winston, he chooses this time not
to answer his freaking door. I decided to just sit there and wait. I mean he had to come
home sometime. Little did I know that he would be gone for hours. “Stephanie?” I opened my eyes and looked up. Winston was staring at me
with disbelief written all over his face. I smiled weakly, “Hey Winston. How
have you been?” “Who cares how I have been,
where the hell have you been?” He nearly shouted at me. I winced at his yelling
at me. My mind immediately snapped back to the dream that I had had about him
yelling at me and then telling me that he married my mom. “Hello? Stephanie?
Answer me!” My reverie ended quickly. I looked up at him and sighed, “Now
that is a very long and painful story.” “What do you mean?” All I did in response was lift up my
shirt, take off the bandage and show him my stitches. His quick intake of
breath was all I needed for him to do. He knew exactly what had happened. Now
the only thing that he needed to know was the how, where, and when. He told me
to get into his apartment. I was so stiff it was amazing. I could barely move.
Then he decided to surprise me by picking me up, bringing me into the apartment
and setting me gently onto his bed where he told me to sleep and that we would
talk in the morning. I of course said maybe, but that was before he gave the
most evil looking expression and said, “We will.” Wow he was really mad at me.
This bugged me for a while, but I finally blacked out and rushed into a
dreamless sleep. The sun was shining brightly when I
woke up the next morn- day. It was shining so brightly, in fact, that I decided
to turn over onto my stomach, put the pillow on top of my head, and go back to
sleep. That was until, of course, the pillow was wrenched from my hands. “No,”
I grumbled. “Oh, yes.” Winston simply stated from above me. I started to
retreat underneath the covers, there was no way that I was going to let him win
without a fight. Just when I had started
to think that he would let me sleep some more, all of the covers were torn from
the bed; leaving me shivering from the unexpected flow of air-conditioning. “Really
dude? You just couldn’t let me sleep, could ya’?” Now facing him, I saw that he
had blood shot eyes with purple bags descending from his lower lids with an
unnatural grace, he had worry lines around the edges of his mouth, and I swear-
if he were like thirty years older, there would be little sprouts of white hair
on his head. Something had been clearly bothering him. The worst about this was
I thought that I was the one who had caused all of the worry. Even though I
hadn’t been around to do too much damage to our paranormal society. Then it
occurred to me that maybe that it wasn’t about me disturbing the paranormal
society- it was just about me. Had he really been that worried about me? My
snarky attitude quickly diminished. “Winston what is bothering you?” “What do you think Stephanie?” No matter how much I inwardly
shouted at them, I couldn’t get my lips to move. All I could do was stare at
him with guilt rushing into my system, ready to consume me yet again, but only
this time for a completely different reason. I looked away from him, not being
able to look at a person whom I had obviously hurt so much. The really sad
thing was that I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why he was so pissed
off at me. I mean I knew that he was hurt that I didn’t tell him where I was,
but why was he mad? I couldn’t put my finger on it, but
something seemed very off about- well everything. His apartment was a mess,
there were stacks upon stacks of towering pizza boxes, dirty clothes were
strewn all over the place, and his books were no longer organized. I knew that
something was wrong because that kind of life style was not the way my Winston lived. He was always my neat
little freak. This was definitely not normal. “Winston, talk to me!” I begged.
“What is bothering you? Really?” He wouldn’t answer me, he just went to his
desk, sat down and started reading a book. I took that action as a cue for me
to leave, so I got up and headed toward the door. I looked at him, but didn’t
say anything except, “So that is how it is.” He looked up at me and sighed, “Go
to school Stephanie, there should be about three hours left. Then we will
talk.” I stormed to the door, with more than one part of my body aching beyond
belief, so I only made it to the half-way point. I couldn’t believe that he
would wake me up just to get me to go to school. “Alright. Fine. I’m leaving now.” I looked at him, waiting
to be stopped before I reached the door. “Almost there.” Still waiting for a response. “I am turning the knob now-” “Stephanie will you please just leave!” I was so shocked. Where had that come from? Why wasn’t he
telling me anything? I didn’t stick around to find out. I sprinted back to my ally, ditching school.
It took me a while but I finally made it. I had to take a few breaks to clutch
my stomach; it hurt like no other. I definitely should have jacked some
painkillers before I left Winston’s. Once I got there, I took the scene in with
an intake of breath. My backpack was still there, but it was in shreds,
something was looking for something. There were tire skid marks left from
Elric’s car, there was the littlest amount of blood spatter from where I had
hit the ground, and there was a note with a flower on top of it- held down by a
rock. Numbly, I bent down to retrieve it. The flower was a rose- and the rose
was blood red. I unfolded the note and I nearly collapsed in utter shock. It
read: You’re
next Stephanie. Just wait.
In Lilly’s elegant hand. I scanned
the slip of paper over and over again, trying to figure out how all of this was
even possible. How was she still undead? I clearly remembered beheading her and
then feeling like a total piece of trash that somehow had betrayed her best
friend afterwards. It was impossible. I had never seen a zombie come back from
a beheading; it just wasn’t normal- if you could call an impending apocalypse
normal. My head was
reeling with incomplete thoughts. I could barely cling on to one; everything
was such a blur. What the hell was going on? Call me
stupid, but I decided to go back to the castle- but just for investigating. It
wasn’t like I was asking for an early death sentence or anything- the chances
of Lilly being back there were slim-to-none. Before I could stand up, though, I
heard footsteps behind me. For a second I thought that the zombie had returned,
but boy was I in for a shock. “Elric, what the hell are you doing here? Ditching school
are we?” “Oh, like you aren’t doing the same, Stephanie. Your poor
mother, what would she think about this?” I was more shocked
than anything that he was threatening to tattle. Especially since we were in
high school, not elementary. My response was gratified, though, with his face
going completely pale. I said, “I don’t know, she is right behind you- why
don’t you ask her yourself?” He turned around and there she was. Believe me I
was a little taken aback as well, seeing her there. I mean how many people knew
about my damned special alley? I mean, I never shared the location with anyone.
I never said, “Hey Winston, I am not going to school like you just told me to do,
I am going to my special alley.” Nope. Nothing. “M-Miss Reaper! I am so sorry I had no idea that you were
there! I-I-“ My mom didn’t even give him the chance to finish. “Where the
hell have you been Stephanie Alaria Reaper! I haven’t seen you for weeks, and
when I called Winston, he told me that he thought that you were with me!
Explain yourself this instant!” “Not now, Elaine.” “What did you just call me? Did you just call me Elaine!” “Well that is your name.” “Yes, but-“ “Anyway, we have company in our midst, would you care to
please be polite?” “I could care less who is around us! I demand to know where
you have been!” That was when I snapped. “Why the hell do you care! You are
the one who kicked me out in the first place!” “Yes, but-“ “And you are the one who blames me for Lilly’s death!” “That’s not true, I-“ “Just leave me alone mother,
I will come home when I actually feel welcome again.” I had never in my life seen my mother close to tears, but
just then she did. She ran out of the alley, I heard her car door slam shut,
and I heard the tires skid against the pavement as she sped away. I sighed,
with a whole renewed grief of my own. I knew that Elric was watching me, so I
quickly put my mask back on, hoping that it still gave off the
I-don’t-take-s**t-from-anyone vibe. I looked at him and said, “Not a word.” “Sorry-“ “Not a wor- wait what?” “I said that I am sorry.” I looked at him, trying to figure out what he was
apologizing for. After a while, I decided that I wouldn’t say anything. What
was the point? I mean, I already hurt one person today, why not another?
Especially since he deserved it. “What are you holding? Is that a rose?” I clenched my fist, crushing the rose’s stem and note into
my palm. A thorn pricked the delicate skin on my hand, freeing a little drop of
blood. “Nothing,” I said quietly. “Other than a measly red rose that I stole
from someone’s front yard.” “You’re shaking.” “I am just a little more than pissed off right now, Elric.” “I don’t think that is what is bothering you.” “Oh? Then what is bothering me, Swami?” That was when he decided to go all- goofy I guess people
would call it. He sat down on the ground doing a yoga pose, you know the one
where you cross your legs and make two of your fingers form a loop. Yeah that
one. Then he started humming. I had the sudden urge to kick him in a spot where
he wouldn’t be able to recover easily. “I am sensing,” he said in a ridiculous
know-it-all tone. “I am sensing that you are- ok I give up.” The look on his face was so innocent and juvenile that I
burst out in laughter. © 2017 YoshiPiccolloFeatured Review
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1 Review Added on March 22, 2017 Last Updated on March 22, 2017 AuthorYoshiPiccolloTXAboutI am a college student and am currently working on earning my Bachelor's in Communications and a Minor in Creative Writing. I hope to get to know other writers and friends while furthering my creative.. more..Writing
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