Flutter (The Discover Series) (23 page)

“Andres?” I said, calling him back.

He appeared at my door again, this time lingering in the hallway. “Yes?” He said.

“What about school?”

He smiled…proudly. “You graduated already.”

“But I’m only 17, right?”
Had I been wrong about my age?

“You graduated early
sobrina
.”

I nodded and let the door shut on him. I hated the guilt that tugged at me for that, but I was quick to ignore it.

I walked aimlessly around the room for a few minutes. I was a fairly neat person, and my room was somewhat organized. A full bed was centered in the middle of the room, and was decorated with a hunter green bedspread, and lighter color green sheets.

Must be my favorite color
, I thought to myself.

There was a desk full of scattered papers, a lot of which had been old school work I had yet to get rid of. I had been home schooled, since I was five. I had a number of friends throughout town, though none of them I could remember at the moment. I couldn’t find any pictures of them, but I was sure they were here somewhere, but I wasn’t in the mood to dig them out yet. I was too tired, emotionally drained, and physically in pain to look for them. My head was starting to spin, and I knew I only had a few more conscious minutes so I needed to use them wisely.

I picked up a few
of
the dirty clothes that had been tossed around the room, and threw them in the laundry basket, on my way into the connected bathroom. I was just about to step into the closet, on way into the bathroom, when something caught my eye. I stopped, frowning and took a step back into the room again.

I saw the laundry basket that was completely full,
who goes on vacation with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes? What did I plan on wearing on this ‘vacation’?
Although that was suspicious, that wasn’t what had caught my attention. I walked backwards out of the closet, and moved aside the laundry basket, kneeling down I tucked a pieces of hair that had fallen forward behind my ear and squinted at the shiny trinket. I picked up a charm bracelet and examined the little charms.

The entire bracelet was comprised of multiple little hanging dragonflies. I stood up and sat on the edge of the bed, and opened the clasp of the bracelet. The dragonflies fluttered around my wrist, shimmering as it caught the light. They almost looked like they were flying. There was a bigger charm of a dragonfly that was attached to the rings that had looked like they had been added over the years, to fit my growing wrist. There was a gem in the middle of the larger dragonfly, and the back surface of the silver was engraved.

I wiped my thumb over the smooth edge, cleaning away the smudge print left by my finger and tried to read the engraving. I tilted my head and brought it up closer to my face.

S.A.D.M

They were initials. My initials? I didn’t recognize them, and I couldn’t remember my full name.

I hadn’t known I was crying, until a tear fell on to my thumb and slid down the side of my hand. I wiped away the evidence of my tears and sniffled a little. I couldn’t remember for sure, but I had a feeling this had been from my parents. Wiggling my nose, I draped the charm bracelet over my wrist and turned it over to clasp the two pieces together. When it was fastened, I shook my wrist and enjoyed the way the dragonflies danced over my wrist. It was beautiful and I wondered how it had managed to end up behind my basket. Standing up, I walked into the bathroom, and turned the shower on as hot as it would go, and closed the curtain to undress. I slowly peeled my clothes off careful not to move the middle part of my body too much.

When the last of my clothes had been removed, I looked at my bruised body in the bathroom mirror. The bathroom was starting to collect steam and the edges around the mirror were frosted over. I un-wrapped the bandage, the doctor had put around my ribs for ‘safe measure’, from around my ribs, wincing slightly when the tightly wrap was finally unraveled. I took a couple of deep breaths, testing. It hurt slightly, but for the most part the pain pills were doing their job and numbing me from most of the discomfort. I lifted the strands of my long hair into a ponytail with my hand, and turned so I could take a look at my back. It looked exactly like the rest of my body; bruises of all sizes marked up and down my back.

I was a mess. There was not one inch of skin that wasn’t covered in some shade of purple. The tops of my feet even had little bruises on them. I knew it would be a while before I would be able to show off any amount of skin in public, without having child protective services called on Andres.

I traced the purplish black color over my abdomen with the tips of my fingers, my ribs had taken the brunt of everything, and the bruising across my ribcage and stomach was the worst. I was sure they had been broken, the sound of bone cracking wasn’t a sound you could easily mistake for something else, but all the facts had come back stating otherwise.

I slipped into the shower before I lost all the hot water. The scalding spray felt amazing on my still slightly frozen skin. I shivered as the water managed to melt away the last of the evidence from everything that had happened within the last few days. I took a moment to only think about how good the warmth of my shower felt. I had hoped distraction of the shower would last longer, but I should have known better because not more then a few minutes had passed and I was thinking about him.

Guilt quickly leaked out of the shower head, and I was over come with emotions so strong that I was confused by them. I shouldn’t be this upset over losing him. Yeah he had saved my life, but it shouldn’t be affecting me
this
badly. I was quickly losing my mind. I tried to blame it on the situation, as my warm tears mixed with the water that was running down my face. I had been through so much that I tried to use that as a reason for my reaction.

I could feel the warmth of the water starting to fade, and I hurried to wash my hair with the lavender shampoo and conditioner. I let the soapy suds run down my body, hoping that would suffice for now. My skin was raw enough, and I didn’t feel like having to use the loofa to irritate it more. I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower to towel dry my hair. I wrapped the fluffy, towel loosely around my body, and walked back into my bedroom. I searched through my drawers, and opted for a deep purple tank top and grey shorts.

I pulled back the fluffy blankets and slipped beneath the sheets, sighing as my body was enclosed in the softness of my mattress. The steam from my shower had escaped my bathroom, and warmed the atmosphere of my bedroom and I relished in it. I knew it wouldn’t take long before I passed out. Even now as I nestled deeper into my pillows, I could feel my lids getting heavier without much effort from me. I realized a lot of things, in the last few minutes before sleep consumed me.

Andres was lying. About what I didn’t know, but I knew he was lying.

I was certain I would never find out why I had woken up buried in ice.

And I had fallen in love with a wolf.

Looking around I tried to remember what had woken me up.

             
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and blinked a few times, until I could focus on my surroundings in the dark. I looked at the digital clock on the table next to my bed, and the neon blue lights read 4am. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary inside my room, and I tried to shrug off the feeling that I was being watched.

I looked at my window, a little afraid to get up and look out. The sheer curtains that covered the window were pulled together. The thin fabric still allowed the moonlight to shine through my window, casting a shadow on one side of my room. I couldn’t see anything.

Throwing my feet over the side of the bed, I slipped into the bathroom to get a drink of water before heading back to bed. I had only been asleep for a couple of hours and I was already starting to feel a little better. I suspected I could sleep for a few days straight if given the chance though. I watched the floor, making sure I didn’t step on anything on the way back to my bed, and that’s when I saw it. The shadow danced in the moonlight on my floor, not really flying around in any particular pattern. My eyes flew to the window, and I could see the fluttering figure on the other side of the glass. It tapped slowly against the window and I was instantly aware that, that was the sound that had awakened me.

Walking toward the window, I pushed open the curtains and my eyes dashed around out front yard a few times before I could focus on the tiny figure.

A dragonfly.

Sitting down on the built-in bench beneath the window sill, I watched the dragonfly move swiftly against the glass, every once in a while tapping against it. This felt strangely familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. It finally settled down, landing on the frame, its wings spreading out perfectly. It was waiting for me, but I didn’t know what it was waiting for me to do. Its wings fluttered again and it lifted, just to land closer to the window and wait again. I frowned, and then realized what it was waiting for me to do. Lifting my hand, I unlocked the window and slowly raised it, until it was completely opened. The dragonfly flew around, bouncing around in unpredictable designs, before flying into my room to settle on the shelf of the window sill.

It was beautiful, and the colors shimmered under the moonlight.

He was a rather large dragonfly, and his coloring was an aquamarine that reminded me of the ocean. It sat there, as still as could be and again I had the feeling, that this was not the first time this had happened. I tried to clear my mind and focus on past memories. I didn’t think this was the first time, but it had been more than just one dragonfly that had visited me last time…I think. I couldn’t rely on my memories to be completely accurate anymore.

I could see his wings starting to twitch and my attention was brought back to him. I frowned when his whole body started to twitch. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so safe with having it in my room anymore, but I realized it was a little too late to do anything about that now. I watched in panic as the shell of his skin started to crack, the pieces falling on to the white trim of the window, revealing a black body underneath. I stood up slowly and took a step back. I wanted to shoo it out the window, but I didn’t see that as a possibility now. I put a hand over my mouth to stifle a scream, as black smog began to creep into my bedroom windows, rapidly crawling over the walls and up my ceiling.

I ran to the door of my bedroom and tried to fling it open, but it was stuck. No matter how hard I twisted on the door knob, it wouldn’t budge. I started pounding on the door, screaming for Andres, but my voice wasn’t coming out any louder than a whisper. I turned around, flattening myself into the corner of the door and wall, slowly sliding toward the floor. The black smog had almost completely taken over my room now, and I could see a face starting to form, but I didn’t recognize it.

“Sara,” It whispered, sending chills down my arms. “I’m coming for you Sara.”

I screamed as black hands emerged from the smoke, and tried to grab at my ankles and hands. They were trying to pull me inside the fog. Another arm shot out, and managing to grab at my right wrist. It hissed, pulling back as if it was burned by my skin, but continued to get closer, ready to swallow me.

“NO!” I screamed, shooting up in my bed.

Tears were falling down my face, and my heart was beating wildly in my chest. I put my hand over it trying to calm it down. My eyes flew to the window, and around my room, but everything was normal. I took a deep breath and fell back against my pillows.

It was a nightmare. A nightmare that felt
too
real.

My hand came up to rest on my forehead, and I tried to calm down. I wiped away the tears, and kicked away the sweaty sheets that were twisted around my legs. I heard Andres’s footsteps on the hardwood flood a second before I heard him knock.

“Sara? Sara, are you okay?” I could hear the panic in his voice.

“Come in.” I said.

He pushed open the door, and rushed to my bed.

“What happened? I heard you screaming.”

“I’m okay. I just had a bad dream... I think. I’m fine.” I lied. I was completely freaked out, but I didn’t want to tell him that.

“You think? Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Not really,” I said, running my fingers through my still damp hair.

My charm bracelet chimed, catching the moons light at the movement, calling each of our attention to it.

“Where did you find that?” He asked, taking my wrist in his hand.

“I found it behind my overflowing laundry basket,” I nodded in the direction where it stood.

“You lost this just a few days before…well before.” He finished lamely.

“Was it from my parents?” I asked.

He nodded, and let go of my wrist. I pulled it against my chest, caressing the charms.

“When did they give it to me?”

“Before they died.” Was all he said. “Do you think you’ll be able to get back to sleep?” he asked concerned.

“Yeah, I feel exhausted.” I fell back on my pillows, my eyelids already feeling heavy.