Crimson Echo (15 page)

“My Queen,” He smiled, taking me by the hand. “Don’t pay attention to any of them if it makes you nervous.”

“Why are they all staring like that?”

“They’re staring because you’re breathtaking. You truly are a vision in white.”

           
I blushed behind my mask and was glad he wouldn’t be able to see it. He guided me to the dance floor and the sea of students parted, making way for us. We fell into an easy sway as the music changed to a slow song and the lights dimmed.

           
Kane placed one hand on the small of my back and the other hand in mine. He had obviously done this before, he was too good at it, but I was beginning to realize that there wasn’t much he couldn’t do well.

“Are you still nervous?” He
whispered in my ear as he spun me around the dance floor.

“No,” I shook my head. “Not with you.”

“You’ll be the death of me yet, Tristan Young.” He pulled me closer and I rested my head against his chest. His smell was intoxicating. Everything felt so perfect, I wished I could freeze this moment and relive it forever.

            After a few more rounds under the disco lights he spo
tted our friends and casually led me to them. Faith had found herself a willing date and Chelsea and Everett were happy just to be at a dance. The music changed again to a fast song and everyone cheered. Kane handed me a clear plastic cup filled with red punch and waited for me to drink it. I wasn’t so sure Faith even noticed anyone else was at the dance the way her eyes were locked onto Jeff Parson’s.

“Are you all having a good time?” Kane put his arm around mine and Everett’s shoulders and leaned in to shout over the music.

Everyone nodded happily.

“You sure know how to throw a party.” Everett clapped him on the back.

“Are
you
having fun?” Kane whispered in my ear.

“
Yes, of course, as long as I’m with you.” I reminded him. “Are
you
having fun?”

“As long as I’m with you, I’m happy.
” He smiled and pulled me closer.

“Are we going to stand around or are we going to dance?” Everett huffed.

“I have to grab some more punch from the teacher’s lounge. Why don’t you all go dance and keep this flower away from the wall.” He nodded toward me.

           Kane excused himself and disappeared into the sea of people as we made our way to the center of the dance floor. The lights made pattern
s against the walls and ceiling— it bounced in every direction and the music thumped beneath my feet. It was obvious that Kane had put in a lot more effort after we were through with our measly decorations.

“I need to talk to you.” Faith yelled over the music.

“Right now, can it wait?”

“It’s important.” She put her hands on her hips.

“Shouldn’t we tell Chelsea and Everett where we’re going?” I searched the crowded dance floor for them, but couldn’t see them.

“It’ll only take a second, I promise.”

            I followed Faith through the mass of costumes, all the while looking for Kane as we passed the table full of snacks. At one point I had to follow her pointy black hat when we got separated. The music blared and the strobe lights made it that much harder to keep up with her. Finally I caught up to her in the bathroom as she turned around on her heels and stared at me.

“What is it? What’s so important?” I asked. I was a little irritated that I was missing a part of the dance when the only thing she would probably have to say would be about a boy.

“I already know how you’re going to react, but I need you to trust me, okay?” She spoke quickly.

“I trust you.
Faith, tell me what it is.”

“
Ok, but you promised.” She waited for a group of girls dressed like cheer leaders to finish washing up and then continued. “I received an omen and…” I cut her off.

“Really, this is what was so important? You know I don’t believe in that stuff. I never have and I never will.”

“Just let me finish!” She sighed. “Do you remember that day when I sent you that text?”

“BFF 911?”
I asked realizing we had never had a chance to talk about it with all of the Halloween dance preparations occupying most of our free time.

“Yes, that’s the one,” she started. “The day I sent that text to you I noticed a crow hanging outside of my window. He had been bothering me for weeks and at first I didn’t think much of it, but he kept coming back and crowing all night long and I finally decided to look up what it meant in one of my
books.
It seems that crows are an omen, an omen for death.”

“Have you told Chelsea or Everett?”

“No and I’m not going to and neither are you. This is our secret. They can’t know anything about this, because if I’m wrong I don’t want everyone thinking I’m Looney tunes.”

“I really don’t think you’re
going to die. Besides, I won’t let that happen.” I rolled my eyes.

“I think
someone is going to die and it’ll be soon. If it’s me just know that I’ve had the last few weeks to come to terms with it. It’s not like I’m looking forward to it, but if it does happen I just want you to know how much I love you. You’ve been the greatest friend in the world, even if you don’t believe in magic. I know I haven’t been the most welcoming towards Kane lately, but I think you should pursue that and see where it goes, can you promise me that?”

“I promise, but nothing is going to happen to you. I think you’re overreacting, it was just a stupid crow, it didn’t mean anything.”

“Will you do something else for me?”

“Of course,
I’ll do anything.” I agreed immediately. The truth was I wanted all of the death talk to end as quickly as possible.

“
If something actually does happen to me I want you to go to my house and in my bedroom in the top of my closet there’s a shoebox, behind it is a jewelry box. When you find it take it straight home and don’t open it until you get in your room, got it?”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just take it home with you and hold on to it, okay?” She reiterated.

“Okay, I will. I promise.”

“Thank you.” She hugged me and then made her way back to the party.

            In all the years that I had known Faith she had always been the one with a flair for the dramatics and I wanted to chalk it up to her usual behavior, but this time I felt like she had handled this with more composure than normal.

“Faith, wait!” I yelled after her, but she was already gone.

            I had a feeling that the universe was trying to tell me that this night was not meant to be. It seemed like anything that could possibly go wrong most likely would. I had already spent a great portion of the dance dealing with Faith’s bad omen and Gabe begging me to leave Kane and I knew at that point I couldn’t take even one more crisis or I would definitely have a panic attack of my own.

            As I made my way back through the mob of partiers I searched for Faith and her pointy witch hat, but unfortunately I came up empty handed on that front. I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to get back to where Chelsea and Everett had been before Faith and I had our talk. I was seriously starting to regret wearing such a puffy dress.

            I was relieved when I felt Kane wrap his arms around my waist from behind. We danced like that for a short period and I felt safe as we swayed to the music. His breath on my neck gave me goose bumps as I leaned my head back against his shoulder.

“Do you want to get out of here?” His breath reeked of alcohol and his hold on my waist got tighter.

            I turned to confront him, but when I did it wasn’t Kane that stood in front of me. His blonde hair was pulled back tightly into a pony tail, a mustache was thinly drawn above his lips and his eyes were covered by a black mask. I lifted his disguise from his face and peeked under.

“Dillon! What do you think you’re doing?” I pushed him away from me. Dillon ‘the snake’ Robertson was what he was affectionately known as in most circles. He always had some scheme or trick up his sleeve.

“You
’re beautiful and you looked lonely, I thought I’d keep you company.” He smiled and stumbled a bit and then recovered.

“
Have you been drinking?”

“Maybe a little,” He slurred. “That doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”

“Is there a problem here?” Kane pulled me behind him.

“No man, I was just talking to the lady. What’s your malfunction dude?” He grabbed Kane to steady himself.

           Kane guided Dillon away from me thinking I wouldn’t be able to hear what he was saying and he was right. Whatever it was that he said to Dillon, it must have been bad because the look on his face was one of pure shock. Dillon turned and half ran from Kane without as much as a look back over his shoulder.

“Well, now that that’s settled, shall we dance?” Kane gave me a reassuring smile.

“What did you say to him? He looked scared?” I asked as we moved across the dance floor.

“I may have told him that I was a black belt in every kind of martial art there was.” He laughed
, incredibly pleased with himself.

“You threatened him?”

“It was more of a promise.” He murmured arrogantly. “There was one thing that he said that I would have to agree with.”

“What’s that?”

“He said you were beautiful.” He smirked. “I’m glad you came tonight. Your presence keeps me grounded, it’s like you have this affect on me and when you’re not around I just want to go mad.”

“I’m glad I came tonight too.” I felt my cheeks burn and immediately hid my face in his shoulder.

           We continued to dance around the room, only occasionally bumping into other people. It seemed like the night had started out on such a sour note and now it was all turning around. I credited Kane for the dramatic change in my mood. I smiled up at him as he leaned forward and dipped me.           

“Do you smell that?” I asked Kane as he froze mid-dip.

“Smell what?” He pulled me back to him and steadied me.

“I don’t know
, it smells like something burning.”

“Stay
here, I’ll go check it out.” He couldn’t hide the panic in his eyes and I knew something terrible was about to happen. My stomach twisted into knots and I felt like purging the bile that was rising in my throat.

            After ten minutes of waiting on Kane I couldn’t bear to stand around and be idle
any longer. The room started spinning and my chest became tight as I began to panic. My mind raced through images of scenarios that could be playing out at that very moment and in that instant I barged through the crowd, pushing people left and right.

           
I spotted the door and knew if I could get some fresh air it would calm me. My nerves were shot by the time I reached the exit and a gust of wind filled my nostrils as I swung the door open. The air soothed me momentarily and then I saw a bright light out of the corner of my eye.

            The smell of burning
wood and something else I couldn’t put my finger on irritated my nose. The stench was awful, like nothing I’d ever smelled before. I squinted trying to make out the scene taking place a few yards from me, but I couldn’t make it out. Then I heard a bone chilling scream and ran as fast as I could to the pyre.

          
When I was close enough to make out what it was in front of me in the smoldering flames, I stopped cold and my stomach dropped. Through the roaring fire I could see a girl tied to a wooden beam with lumber at her feet. Her dress was half burned and the fire traveled upward by the second. I couldn’t move. I knew the girl in the flames and I knew that I should be helping her, but I was frozen with fear.

“Please help me!” She screamed. “I’m burning!”

“I… I can’t. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do.” I cried as the flames licked at her face.

“Tristan, please get me down! It hurts so much!”

“Somebody please help, anybody! Help!” I sobbed as I dropped to my knees and helplessly watched as my best friend was being burned alive.

          
As I hung my head in defeat I noticed a block of wood sitting away from the rest of the lumber. It was untouched by the fire and I knew what had to be done. I kicked it away from the pyre and swung it at the wood beneath her feet. The fire roared at me in angry protests. I kicked and swatted at it until I was panting out of exhaustion and even then I continued.

          
Once I had knocked most of the burning logs away from her I spotted a thick woven rope wound tightly around her ankles and her wrists. By the time I got to her bound feet it seemed like a hopeless battle as I rushed against the fire to save my best friend. The entire time, Faith never stopped screaming and with each scream my adrenaline spiked.

“Hurry, I can’t take anymore of this. It hurts.” She whimpered, trying to keep herself calm for my benefit.