***
After dinner, I went straight up to my bedroom. The burritos tasted better than the last time we had them. Maybe it was because I made them special with Mom. She was such an excellent chef, I always thought she should have sold her recipes, or opened up a restaurant, or something. Either way, her cooking was just too good to be contained in one household.
I didn’t know what to wear, I found that my clothes were plain and the items I wanted to wear didn’t match well. I wanted to wear something black, something flattering, something fancy—but not too fancy—I wanted something I would look good in and something I would feel good in. But, I found this type of clothing didn’t exist in my closet. So, instead, I came up with a flowing, brown halter top and decided to wear it with a simple pair of dark-wash jeans. I slipped on a pair of comfortable, easy-to-walk-in high heeled shoes.
With regards to makeup, I put on some of my darker shades of eye shadow and lipstick, which I didn’t wear too often. I wanted to be able to stand out in the dark, and I certainly wanted to make an impression. Though my hair already fell in natural curls, I curled it with a curling iron and the entire thing came out perfectly. The perfection of my look even surprised me; I actually looked half-way decent, like those models with their makeup all-done-up in the magazines. I let out a satisfied sigh and headed downstairs very carefully watching my steps.
“Someone’s all dressed up.” Logan leaned coolly on the banister at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me, his lips curled into a smug grin.
“And I see you’ve kept your usual couch potato attire,” I sneered.
“That’s a horrible comeback, you know.” He smiled mischievously, and then jumped in my way. “Where are you sneaking off too?”
“I’m not sneaking anywhere, they know I’m going.” I motioned with my head towards the kitchen where Mom and Dad was.
Logan turned around towards the kitchen and cupped around his mouth with his free hand. “Mom, Halle is leaving the house!” He turned back towards me, wearing a smug grin thinking he was going to get me in trouble. I folded my arms, mimicked Logan’s grin, and raised an eyebrow.
Mom peeked her head out of the kitchen glancing at Logan and me. “You don’t have to shout, Baby, but thanks for letting us know.” Mom closed the kitchen door.
“Yeah, you don’t have to shout, BAY-BEE.” I hopped over the side of the banister and ran for the door, all the while trying to control my fit of giggles.
Logan chased me down, grabbing my arm as I reached the door. I pulled my arm out of his hand almost too easily. In the surprise of him losing his grip on me, I slide out the doorway, and kicked the door with my shoe, just in time to slam the door on his wrist. I continued my clumsy shuffle away from the door a few feet before I felt sure he wouldn’t pursue me further. I threw up a hand giving him a taunting wave, but after I turned around, I didn’t look back. The image of the hateful look on his face in my mind provided plenty of satisfaction to me. It wasn’t often I had the upper hand in any situation with him.
I was out of the house, and I was free. I never felt more alive than I did tonight, I guess I was getting over that flu after all, and just in time for the party. No longer would this be one of my friend’s random ideas for a party, but it would be a party with a reason.
My vision wasn’t any better, but I sure felt good physically. It almost felt too good, like I should not have been doing this. Like I was doing something wrong—but it was an exciting kind of wrong, the kind that gives you a nice adrenaline rush. The forest was almost a straight shot from my house, I just had to walk down the street and then turn the corner and it was completely straight after that.
With my good spirits, it didn’t take me long for me to cover the small walk and get well into the forest. It was a nice bonus that my friends picked a place with a well-carved trail leading to it, otherwise I’m sure I would have gotten lost. The trail was dusty, and I was sure I’d have to dust off my shoes after I got home for them to even look even a smidge decent, and I probably wouldn’t even be able to wear them again. But that was okay, my shoes were just a piece of my current look.
The deep bass of pounding music soon filled my ears, and I followed the sound eagerly getting more pumped with each step. I pushed past a couple of overgrown branches and emerged into a clearing that couldn’t have been more than 20 feet wide. Not far on the side of the clearing opposite me, was the rushing river.
“Halle!” Scarlet shouted and ran over. “You made it, I didn’t think you’d come.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Of course I came, you gave me the sad puppy eyes, remember?” I slowed my pace as walked into the center of the party. Scar took her place standing next to her boyfriend, Rafael. He had his arm around her shoulder like she was a small bird under his wing. I glanced around at the rest of the group. Everyone was scattered here and there, just enjoying the music and having a good time. Drake sat by the ice chest, guarding it just to give everyone a hard time that grabbed a drink out. Rachel and Dean were further from the party than anyone else, leaning against a tree, making out like it was their own private forest.
I quickly changed my view to the river, and I stopped suddenly. Christopher sat upon a large rock partially in the river. The moonlight hit him carefully, illuminating his light hair, but casting a dark shadow across his face. He appeared to be watching me, but I couldn’t really tell.
“You look gorgeous, Halle.” Scar grabbed both of my upper arms and turned my gaze towards her. She lowered her voice. “He’s watching you. Don’t stare.”
I kept my tone low. “I really couldn’t care less who he’s staring at.”
Her lips curled into a sultry, devious smile as her head lowered slightly. “You know you do.”
Rafael put his head down between us and whispered loudly, “I can hear everything you guys are saying.”
Scar slapped his shoulder, but with his big jock build, it didn’t even faze him. “Halle, why don’t you just go talk to him?”
“Because, I don’t want to. He’s weird and he’s not my type and I have no interest in him. Why are you gonna sit on a rock instead of—” Two arms grabbed me around my waist and pulled be backwards. I let out a yell before I was thrown into the river and the rushing water the water invaded my open mouth and flooded over my face obstruction my airways and my vision. The taste of dirt and water engulfed my tongue. The current pulled my body as I flailed my hands for anything sturdy to grasp on to. I felt something hard brush my side and I grabbed for it with both hands. I pulled myself up and out of the water. Air rushed into my mouth and I coughed up the water. My throat burned fiercely. I wiped the water from my eyes trying to see properly again.
I wasn’t too far down the river from where I started. Christopher stood at the edge of the river staring down at me with a mischievous smile. Everyone else was staring at me severely and obviously. They all stopped and stared. I clutched myself close to the rock so I wouldn’t lose my footing and waded out of the water and onto the sand. “You jerk!” I rushed over to Christopher and shoved him hard with both hands leaving wet hand prints on the front of his shirt. He looked a little taken aback, but didn’t say anything.
I shook my head at him and then I turned away from him sharply. I walked away from the party and back toward the edge of the forest path, and then I stopped. I wanted to leave. I could still feel the eyes on me and I could hear the light chatter of the party returning to its previous vigor. My clothes were ruined. My hair—that I spent so much time on—was ruined. My shoes were definitely ruined now. My makeup probably looked like a piece of melted tar. I swiped a finger under my eye and looked at it. It was all full of black mascara.
“Okay, who’s going to volunteer to get firewood? It’s starting to get dark.” Scarlet’s voice echoed through the party and over the music. No one made a motion to offer.
“I’ll get it,” I said quickly. I needed an excuse to disappear for a little bit and giv
e me time to decide if I was actually going to stay for the rest of the party or not.
“I’ll help,” Christopher said.
I rolled my eyes toward him and scoffed. We disappeared into the forest, and Christopher began picking up sticks along the way. “You can pick out the wood and I’ll carry it for you.”
“Oh, okay...” was all that came out, I didn’t know how to answer in any way that was polite; I had nothing nice to say to him. I picked up the wood that he pointed out. Really, I didn’t know what wood was burnable and what wasn’t. There was a period of awkward silence, between him telling me which pieces of wood to pick up.
“So, what’s your deal?” I finally mustered up the courage to spit out.
“What’s my deal?” He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously. “With what?” he asked, but I figured he knew exactly what I meant.
“What’s the deal with you? You’re the mysterious new person at school that just moved in down my street. And what? You’re Evelyn’s brother and yet you don’t live with her? Let’s start with your family, how about that?”
I thought I might be too forward in asking, but to my relief, he just chuckled. “My and Evelyn’s birth parents split up quite a while ago. She went with my mom and I stayed with my dad. Eventually my mom remarried, and within the past few months, my dad remarried too. And to say the least, I decided to stay out here with my mom. My dad bought the house for me—kind of—it was supposed to be college funds, but I decided not to go just yet, so… yeah.” Christopher looked over to the left away from my eye contact. I guess I asked the wrong question.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear,” I said quickly. “It’s great that you get a house all to yourself though.”
Christopher shrugged. “Actually, it’s kind of lonely.” He looked up at me smiling much too friendly and it made me uneasy.
“I can imagine.” I tripped over a large root from one of the trees, but regained my balance before I could fall.
Christopher turned his head towards me. “What about you?”
I raised my eyebrows and then shook my head. “There isn’t much to tell.” I gave a lazy one-shoulder shrug. “I’ve been living here in Wolf Point forever and that’s basically all. I’m just… here.”
“That isn’t a very good attitude to have.”
It took me a minute to figure out if he was serious or just being sarcastic, but the subtle look on his face told me he actually was serious. “Well it’s true, there isn’t anything to tell, I haven’t accomplished anything out of the ordinary. I got past 9th grade with my limbs still attached. My parents have always been together, and that’s basically all.”
His lips curled into a mischievous smile. “I’ll find out more.”
“Good luck.” I slammed down another piece of wood in the large stack he was carrying.
“Ooh,” he purred. “Feisty!”
I giggled.
There came a clearing in the treetops. The sky was dark now, and the stars were clearly visible. Christopher led the way down a small trail where we had to walk single file and the vegetation still brushed the sides of my arms. Suddenly he darted off to the left and stopped to allow me to pass, I was just about to ask why when I saw what was ahead of us. In front of me was a huge, oblong shaped clearing with the trees tightly pressed together. It was like nothing I’d seen before.
I looked to my left to see a long sharp claw mark in the tree. I glanced at Chris, but he kept a plain expression. Chris led the way into the clearing and I followed hesitantly. Thick, green grass covered the area. The moon was out and it cast a beautiful lustrous glow on the landscape. It looked like it was full, or almost full, I couldn’t quite tell.
“Isn’t this place amazing?” Chris asked turning a full circle.
“It’s weird. I don’t think trees are even supposed to grow like that.” I was caught up in the beauty of the field before I actually stopped to look at the trees. “Are those scratches?” I moved closer to the trees. From left to right, and on a good amount of trees, deep, large marks covered them. Maybe from knives, but I was leaning more towards bear claws as the source of this creation. “I’m just waiting for the monster who created all of this to jump out.”
Chris laughed. “You’re not saying you’re scared are you?”
Now it was my turn to give a half-hearted laugh. This place was cool until I saw the marks. It seemed odd for the trees to grow together that closely, I’d never seen or heard of anything like this occurring before. I raised my hand to the tree in front of me examining the scratch on it. It was large and deep, it almost looked like a human could have made it, but I wasn’t sure. I raised my hand and mimicked how it could have been made, the strange thing was my hand fit in it almost perfectly.
Suddenly pain shot through my head, it was so powerful I fell to the ground and I was sure I yelled. I heard Chris drop the pile of wood and his footsteps sounded as he ran towards me. As sudden as it was there, it was gone. But it left my head aching with the memory of that intense pain. I closed my eyes and buried my head in my hands pressing hard on my temples as if I was holding my head together. Why did this have to happen in front of him? I knew I would pass out eventually. I thought this flu ended, but I guess I was wrong. I turned my head to see him crouching down beside me.
“It’s going to be alright,” he comforted.
Another pain shot through me, but this time it wasn’t just my head it was my entire body, and I curled into a ball. As it subsided, my vision returned to normal. Chris placed a hand on my shoulder; I turned my head towards him as if pleading silently for help but I couldn’t get any words out because I was afraid all that would come out would be screams. He grasped my other arm and pulled me into his lap. I clutched his waist as another pain shot through my body. It didn’t disappear this time though. I opened my eyes and saw everything in blood red. Chris moved a strand of hair from my face.
When I thought the pain couldn’t increase, it did, but when I opened my mouth to yell it wasn’t my voice that sounded, and it wasn’t a yell, it was a vicious growl. I felt Chris push me aside in the grass, and I looked up to see him running across the field. Looking to my left, I saw a large, orange flower—or it looked orange. I looked up at the moon. Feeling my limbs tremble, I realized I was shaking violently. My vision turned white again, and I saw no more.