Tainted

TAINTED

BOOK ONE

MEAGHAN NICHOLSON

© Copyright 2015 Meaghan Nicholson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5818-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5820-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5819-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015905871

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Trafford rev. 04/16/2015

33164.png www.trafford.com

North America & international

toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

fax: 812 355 4082

Contents

Prologue

The Beginning

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Part One

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Part Two

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Nine

Chapter Thirty

Epilogue

To Holly, Cidra and Carley,

For all of the late nights you stayed up with me, giving ideas and inspiration for this series and many others.

Thank you.

BOOK ONE

PROLOGUE

(One of the many)

H e scared me. He scared all o f us…

The rumors were running wild about the shadows even beginning to hide from the devils offspring. Or so he was called. Some said he killed his own mother and tried to drown his twin. Others said he killed his mother while still in her womb and got himself out, leaving his twin to die. If only that were true, he wouldn’t be here right now.

Activity within the city increased as a reaction to just his presence. Infernals kept the enemy busy and oblivious to his arrival, but they would realize soon enough the hell that awaited this invisible war.

I was scared. So scared.

I stayed guarding the flanks, watching from a distance as someone led the girl toward the well where he stood above us, waiting. One of the messengers came over to me, tapping me lightly on the shoulder. I was thankful for the chance to look away from the scene, but when I saw what the messenger was holding, I lost all hope. If there was a God he, wasn’t here tonight.

Everyone had to die in this war, and it just wasn’t fair.

It was a folded piece of paper. I took it, nodding before turning away. It was a weight I didn’t want to carry, but it was my assignment. Tracking down a boy. And that boy had been found. I turned my attention back to the woman being lead to him.

Her face was hidden behind her long hair, kept down to keep herself separated from us.

This was going beyond the usual level of defiance. Most of us were marked as enemies to the system for being too afraid to do our duty and accept the punishment of the damned in this world of limbo. I refused to do what I was told. I was a defiant kid. I was not a murderer.

I was not this man. I had never done anything like he was about to do. We all stood watching him. Some of us against the ceremony while most followed him with such devotion that the horror of his actions never registered or mattered. He was another way out. He was their God. He accepted them. He accepted me and yet I felt sick to my stomach as she walked the line toward him.

He was beginning the hunt. The rumors floating around suggested that he was doing this simply out of boredom. Part of me hoped that the enemy would find this place and stop him. The woman being led to him was innocent. He had grabbed her off the street simply from how much she looked like her. The long raven hair…the pale skin.

The person leading her had reached the side of the well, pushing her towards him. There was a thick rope around her neck they had been leading her by. He handed it off with a bow to his God, letting the rope be taken from him by the man who reeked of death and destruction.

God? This man was not a God. He was the devil.

He didn’t look up, instead watching the water within the well. It was a dark pit of oblivion with smooth stones, impossible to use as leverage to hoist yourself up if you ever fell. Assuming the fall itself didn’t kill you. It was a grave, and it was about to be hers.

She wasn’t shaking, having accepted her fate days ago. I had seen it myself as I brought food to her, finding it untouched the next day. She hadn’t eaten since then. She was already weak. She had already given up.

He could break anyone. Or, so the rumors said.

"Ladies and gentleman." His voice was light and melodic. Like that of a completely normal boy; not that of a sociopath with rumors floating around about how he killed his own mother as a child. He placed a hand on her frail shoulder, leading her up to stand on the ledge of the well with him.

I remembered my last moments before death. They were terrifying. But they were nothing compared to this. Nothing compared to what she was about to face. I felt ready to throw up and run as far away as possible. I’d run until time itself ended. Anything but this.

"Tonight. His voice echoed off the trees, his smile brighter than the full moon. Tonight, we create our vengeance on the Crossers.

"Tonight, we end this hiding and running once and for all!"

There was cheering as he tightened the noose around her neck, cutting the bonds that tied her hands behind her back and placing the knife in her hand. The boy who led her to the well was tying the other end of the rope to a metal spike in the ground so it would hold her weight. The cheering died down as the Devil-child raised a hand to continue speaking.

The woman knew that a weapon would not save her. There was no saving her anymore. My entire body was shaking in terror. Tears rolled down my face. I was thankful for the distance. I was thankful for the noise, as it hid my fear.

"On this night, we do not fall under the ultimate sins of this wretched world. Tonight, we create them! Tonight, we go beyond where any of us have ever gone before and we make this war face itself and reveal its truth to the rest of them out there! The ones who are suffering just as much as we are! More cheering. I leaned against the tree to calm myself. The ones who are trying to demolish the system just as we are, to no avail. We are their hope. We are their salvation, and we. Will. Rise!"

I had good hearing. It was my gift. Over all of the cheering, all of the stomping and applauding to his speech, I saw him look at her. I saw him close her hand around the hilt of the knife and put a hand on her back to push her in. I heard him say the last words she would ever hear on this earth with a purely human, beating heart.

"You may suffocate to death, or you may cut your way free and drown in the depths of your grave. The choice is yours, do what you will."

Without even giving her time to process his words, she was gone. Her long raven hair flew around her as the rope followed suite, tightening to a halt when the slack ran out. As the cheering grew louder and the wailing of the dead began, he got down off the ledge and pushed the concrete platform that went over the well back into place, locking the innocent down in the pits of hell for all of eternity.

He looked out at the crowd of cheering bodies, watching the effect his work had on us.

He was a monster.

But in this invisible war, he would win, and he would break all of reality to those who followed order and structure.

The name that scared even the shadows. The only name the Crossers feared, and the only name that brought hope to a sinful race.

Ayer.

Ayer Therrian.

I looked down at the paper to keep away from watching the rope, to keep myself from having to visualize what was happening in that well. I didn’t want to think about how she was still alive, but wouldn’t be in a few seconds. Only three words were scribbled on it, and they were the words that made me realize that I wasn’t cut out for this. No one ever should be. It was sick. It was all too terrible. I looked up at him after reading it, and he was already looking at me, waiting. He knew?

Of course he knew.

He knew everything.

I crumbled the paper, nodding slowly to him. It made him smile, and it was the smile of a child, not a killer. But that was all a silly facade. One that he enjoyed too much.

What did the note say? What was the other reason Ayer Therrian was in town?

ASHER IS READY

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER ONE

If everything had stopped back then, I would have let it.

But now?

T he strobe lights sparked a strange gleam in the eyes of the dancers, a manic light that implied intoxication despite the lack of alcohol offered at the club. The Clubhouse was a new hot spot in the city, located in the basement of a casino that shared its confines with a hotel. Personal opinions aside of it being a degrading shit-hole that attracted the attention of the worst types of people, the Clubhouse wasn’t such a bad place to be. I had gotten the job on a whim as one of the old bartenders had put in her two weeks notice so she could prepare for college. I had no college plans of my own and my long-term availability as an employee made the rest of the joke interview go pretty smoothly. The job allowed me access to the club without the restriction of having to wait in the long lines that sometimes formed outside. I got to listen to decent music blare through wall to wall speakers and sometimes dance if I wasn’t in charge of closing. All of that for ten dollars an hour plus tips wasn’t something to complain about, though the crowd sometimes was.

Two Amp’s and an iced tea A kid screamed at me from across the bar. People weren’t my strong suit, though working the bar didn’t involve much conversation. They screamed at me, I listened, they threw money at me and I went about my business. Even clubs for the underage part of society managed to degrade it’s employee’s into feeling worthless when thinking about their job descriptions. I took the twenty dollar bill from him, opening the register to get change but he grabbed the drinks and walked away. He had been a short thing with deep blue eyes and dark hair. Maybe fifteen at best, and just the thought of that made me feel sick. Summer vacation or not, didn’t parents care enough to monitor their kids? Or were they the type of parents who were up in the casino’s spending the lunch money they never gave them? Hopes of a better life as their excuse to gamble…

I stopped trying to justify anything. If I had been allowed to come to places like this when I was fifteen, I would have. So I passed it off as jealousy and moved on to the next group that was waving frantically for my attention while checking the clock. I got off at ten tonight instead of midnight and Craig was running late. He was supposed to take over ten minutes ago, and the only thing saving him from a very malicious phone call was the good selection of music tonight. I had planned on going home to play some games with my sister, but I was already running late for that, so why rush? I’d still be mad at Craig, but at least I could stick around for a few songs.

He came in a flurry of motion. One minute I was passing a strawberry smoothie over to a tall blonde and the next, Craig’s bag hit the floor beside me as he jumped over the bar. He sprang up, twisting to face me with a sly smile on his face before ruffling my hair. His smile was infectious, but the hair ruffling was not.

You’re late. Again. I growled, shoving the strawberry mix at him and going back to the customers. He tossed the mixer back up on the shelf and came to rest beside me on the bar, watching without any slight indication of helping.

I am in fact late Ms. Knox, but the time limit for being considered unacceptably late is fifteen minutes, not ten. So I’m not late enough to be in trouble for it, only late enough to meddle with your cute little temper.

You push the rules too much, Craig. I shoved him aside to get past him, handing a soda to a red head. She handed me a five and walked away. People were throwing money away like candy tonight. A soda was only three bucks. Some of these kids were too young to even have a job. But Craig was sliding right over to continue pestering me, so I got the change out and shoved the tip into my pocket, trying to avoid him.

I don’t push them, I bend them right until they’re about to break.

I assume there’s a difference in your mind, isn’t there then?

Of course there is. He said incredulously. I walked by him to tend to the other side of the bar despite my shift being over, but Craig grabbed me from behind, pulling me back towards him for a second. The difference lies in how much fun you can have when you aren’t always so careful about your life, Maddie. He pushed me back towards the bar with a lightness meant to tease. I rolled my eyes, making this my last customer I would tend to for him after treating me like a little kid yet again. His words always hit home in a way that sucked the energy out of me. Crazy was not my strong suit. Crazy, adventurous and risk taking weren’t on my top three characteristics. I was always ten minutes early, not ten minutes late. The teasing about me always being on time and doing what I was supposed to do always put me in a foul mood. But I never stuck around long enough for him to realize. I grabbed my bag from my locker in the back room. It was a small, cramped area more like a hallway that lead into a closet. There was a beaten up couch on one side, and a coffee table pressed against the other wall. A lot of the time we got asked to work double shifts, so we were able to come back here to rest for half an hour. The music wasn’t always the best thing to keep away headaches, given how loud it was. The hallway was long though, so it at least reduced the decibels back here. There was also a bathroom cut into the hallway with a door that was nearly falling off the hinges. For such a new place that opened only months ago, this whole back area seemed to tell a different story. I fixed my hair, brushing it back down into place and untangling the rest before heading back out to leave. Craig was doing double time, handling twice as many people than I ever could at once and talking away while he did it. He noticed me come out and turned away from the crowd that was forming.

Off so soon? He made a face, and I hated that face. His eyes used to work on me, but it became clear that it was his only weapon. I grew immune to it within my first month and it always seemed to bother him.

It’s late. I should have left already.

You know that’s not what I meant, you aren’t hitting the dance floor tonight?

I repeat, it’s late, I should have left already. I went to open the side door that lead to the other side of the bar so I could finally get out of here but as I opened it, Craig slammed it closed. I jumped back as he was suddenly right in front of me.

Maddie its a weekend, and its only ten. What the hell do you got back at home that’s so important and better than that? He pointed out to the dance floor where everyone was pushed together and moving to the same beat that it looked like a massive wave beneath the strobe lights, making the whole Clubhouse quake with adrenaline. Techno made people high enough to move as one despite the different moves within the rotations. I watched them for a moment, knowing he was right and wondering why I had to be home.

Craig did you ever stop to think that maybe people have lives that don’t revolve around their job or places like this? As usual, my mind and my mouth worked separately.

Of course, but at ten at night after your shift? Got a date?

Maybe I do. Whatever it is, it isn’t your business. I countered.

You sound like a little kid trying to hide her barbie dollhouse from the bullies who live next door.

You sound like one of those bullies.

Anyone ever tell you that you’re terrible at making friends? He raised an eyebrow, his smile faltering a little at my attitude.

"Anyone ever tell you that maybe they don’t want to be your friend?" The smile dropped completely, his eyes taking on a strange distance I had never seen before. I immediately regretted it as he stepped aside, opening the door for me. He never looked away though, and the people at the bar were getting impatient as the two bartenders weren’t bar-tending. But still his eyes watched me. I looked back, wanting to apologize but my eyes remained locked on his, a mirror of his distant, icy indifference. My mouth remained a tight line as I bowed my head down away from him and walked out into the mass of people. He didn’t slam the door shut like I expected him to, but when I looked back it was sealed tight, locked and ominous.

Oh stop worrying. You didn’t mean it and you can apologize to him on Sunday. My mind tried to calm my nerves, but I couldn’t get my legs to work. The exit was on the other side of the dance floor and a lot of people were between it and myself. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to dance, I just wanted to be home so that I could forget about this and everything else. No Craig, I wasn’t good at making friends. I was dry, quiet, and stubborn. He was open, childish and optimistic about everything. We repelled each other like the same magnetic poles. No matter how hard you try to push them together, they never touch. That’s how it was with most people and by now I had gotten plenty used to it. But there weren’t many who interacted with me enough to point it out right to my face. It was usually myself saying it, not other people. I did want to stay and dance, but I didn’t want to be anywhere near people so I sucked it up and made my way towards the edge of the crowded floor, ready to make a path to get to the exit. The strobe lights flashed consecutively, the techno edit having a siren that made people scream and the foam bubbles spray out into the crowd. The flashes made it hard to focus, but I kept my eyes on the exit, lightly pushing people out of my way and apologizing absentmindedly.

I was always within the crowd and never had issues with it, but pushing through the mesh of tangled bodies tonight for some reason made me feel claustrophobic. I wanted to get out but the exit was still far away. Though I was on the edge of the floor, there were crowds swarming me. There were long, swirly glowing lights all along the walls of different colors; purple, pink, green, blue… They all blended together as I got more impatient and less polite about pushing through the people in my way. Something just felt heavy and wrong and though I had felt both of those feelings before, mixing it with this atmosphere wasn’t the best idea.

I came to two guys who were leaning against a high top table and laughing as they pointed out to the dance floor. I thought I had said excuse me to them, but by this point I was mostly screaming it in my head as my mouth refused to work anymore. They were shocked as I broke them apart to clear a path but what was going on behind them had no idea I was coming. Someone had been walking at a fast pace just like I was from the side and as I stepped out, they smashed right into me. My balance was shot and I fell right to the side, knocking someone else over who had been holding a very full drink. It fell right over my head, splashing both myself and the person who had rammed into me. He was half on top of me, a small thing with dark hair and a boney frame. It was digging into my rib cage as he moaned in pain. The other guy who lost his drink in the process tossed some insults around before walking away.

Uhm… The boy didn’t realize he was sprawled on top of somebody else from his limp and unresponsive state. He jumped a little at the noise. Would you mind moving a little? I squirmed a bit in annoyance to try and get him off of me. It figured this had to happen on the one night I just wanted to be out of here. My instincts told me to just shove him and keep running, but I was just as much at fault as he was. I worked here, I couldn’t be rude to people just because my shift was over.

He slid over, quickly jumping up with cat-like reflexes and rubbing at his eyes. The soda had only hit my hair and neck thankfully, but I knew how much soda could sting. My side was killing from the impact, but I hobbled up to grab a napkin for him off of the high table that was now abandoned. That was one way to clear an area I guess, face plant on top of other people. I held the napkin out to him cautiously, the soda seeming to irritate him more than it should have. He kept rubbing at his eyes, keeping them clenched shut and muttering to himself. I bent down so he would hear me over the music.

Are you okay?

Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, I’m not usually this clumsy I was just in a hurry. He took the napkin from me without looking up and it seemed to help some.

I was too, both our faults I’d say. We can share the blame. I glanced over at the exit again, wondering if it would be okay to just excuse myself now. As he steadied himself better, I recognized him as the boy who had thrown the twenty and walked away. The one with the dark hair and blue eyes. He was a lot shorter than me, coming up just below my neck. He blinked a few times, still looking down to make sure the pain was fully gone before tempting to look back up. He rubbed at his neck a bit, smiling sheepishly.

My bad, really. I shouldn’t have done that. It was rude. Are you okay?

The question repeated in his eyes, but it wasn’t the question that caught me. It was the eyes. Earlier when I had given him his drinks, his eyes had definitely been blue. Some people just had eyes that you didn’t forget because of how different they were. His had been blue, but they had been a very deep royal blue.

Now as he looked up at me with his concern, one of his eyes remained that color, but the other was different. It was lighter, and it was green. Not a forest green or a sea green or a blue-green. It was almost a mint green that seemed to lighten as time went on. Almost growing to a neon, cat like shade. One eye blue, the other this strange green, both stood out even in the limited lighting offered here.

His brow furrowed as I was taking a long time to answer. I snapped my mouth shut, swallowing my confusion and smiling back at him.

Yeah I just hit my side and got some soda on me, nothing too serious. A few bruises tomorrow is all.

I’m really sorry…. He bit his lip, looking away.

It’s fine. You got soaked in the onslaught of it all too. We can both have the satisfaction of being a bit uncomfortable on the way home.

That seemed to snap him out of his cautious front a little as he smiled a bit more, his eyes filling with amusement. It was easy to tell the switch in emotion. Was it always this easy to tell when you looked at someone’s eyes long enough? Mine burned with the need to blink, but there was such a peculiar feeling building up inside of me, like a knowing of something but without knowing really what it was. But I couldn’t take my eyes off his. They seemed to pulse the longer I looked at him, the music becoming background noise. Even he seemed to become background noise.

My name’s Maddie. I tried to fill the growing silence. Bad mood aside, I didn’t want to leave now as I held my hand out awkwardly. He seemed to flinch away, but recovered before I could take my hand back and shook it.

Uh, nice to meet you I guess… He had a deep voice for someone as young as him. Something of a scratchy wisp that reminded me of leaves crunching beneath your feet or a fire crackling in the dead of night.

I’m not good at introductions either, but I think this is where you give yours. I joked weakly.

Oh, right. Gavin. He seemed to cringe back into his shell, scratching his head now as he clearly was done with whatever this was. My name’s Gavin.

Nice to meet you too. If you don’t mind me asking, are those natural? I pointed to his face, looking into his eyes. There was no way they could be. They were too bright, too different. But there was this foggy haze moving behind them, almost like a storm fading, as if the clouds were rolling away, leaving these colors behind in their wake. Contacts couldn’t do that. There was something so different, so real about them.

What? My… He reached up, putting a hand next to his eye. Some sort of realization kicked in as his confusion turned into a scowl. It jolted him awake as if he had been in a daze. He blinked repeatedly, then rubbed his eyes and looked up at me. He saw me looking intently at him still and then looked down at the ground, avoiding my eyes altogether. What about my eyes? They’re blue. Lot’s of people have blue eyes it’s a common trait He sneered in a mocking tone, his eyes growing tense and frigid. Then he noticed he was looking at me again and looked somewhere else, trying to get his bangs in his face. His hair wasn’t that long though, and it had a curl to it that made the small amount of what he called bangs stand up in different places.

They’re not both blue, sweetie that’s plain as day.

I don’t know what you’re talking about lady but my eyes are blue, not freaky neon crap like you’re seeing. You drunk?

I raised an eyebrow at him, leaning against the table. Well the nice and caring act sure disappeared quick, didn’t it?

He recoiled, nearly hissing at me and doing a terrible job at not looking up. He kept realizing it, but realizing there were other people around too and refused to look anywhere but the ground. It was an endless circle that went on and on. I raised the other eyebrow, waiting as he looked at me accidentally again. He puffed out his chest in defiance.

I said I was sorry, didn’t I? He snapped. I hated it when people got snippy with me, but the tone seemed to get him to forget about hiding for a second. It gave me the chance to lean down and stare right at him.

He jumped in a deer-caught-in-headlights way where he didn’t quite know what to do. So he kept looking back, and there it was. I felt the lure again as his eyes seemed to zoom in and out of my focus. It was like I was watching a movie while being half asleep. I couldn’t make out what was happening. My head felt like it was getting lighter and lighter, like a weight I didn’t even know was there was being lifted and leaving behind an empty shell of me.

Of course you did. You just have a little bit of a bite for someone who just rammed into me. I try to make light conversation instead of slapping you so hard your neck snaps and here you are, you ungrateful little twit.

He leaned in, about to explode with a whole list of insults. I could see it on his face, I could practically see them sliding up his throat, ready to bury me in rude remarks. But he choked, staring at me with a glare that could kill.

Gavin? There was a call from the side that made him back down and turn away from me in defeat as a tall man appeared. He was out of place the moment I saw him. He was young, I’d give him that, but everyone in the place was wearing ripped up, paint splattered jeans and flashy shirts. He was dressed to impress a different crowd with a button up shirt, khaki’s and a pea coat on top of it to wrap the whole classy look up. Attractive? Very. But for this place? He looked like a sheltered businessman looking for his rebellious son. I turned back to Gavin who remained scowling at the ground. The man looked over at me as Gavin clearly wasn’t responding. He seemed confused but held himself together.

I’m sorry, He smiled brightly, pushing his glasses up. I didn’t realize Gavin was talking to someone. Gavin, who’s this? They both looked at me, expecting me to answer. The world seemed to come back into focus slowly. I found myself wanting to do nothing more than get out of here again. My eyes stung, they were watering slightly and the lights flashing so quickly burned.

Maddie. I said weakly. Madeline Knox. The tall boy walked closer and held out his hand, smiling down at me in the warmest way imaginable. He locked his eyes onto mine. His were normal, a honey brown. They seemed to move though, just like Gavin’s, as if a haze was over them. It was thicker though, barely noticeable. Somehow it was still there. Somehow I knew it was.

It’s nice to meet you Madeline. I’m Dustin, Gavin’s cousin and caretaker.

Just call me Maddie, Madeline is too long and formal. I stuttered. He seemed to ignore my opinion altogether, as if he weren’t listening. He did seem a little stressed. Had he come down from the second floor? That would explain his clothes at least but not why he was here.

It’s nice to know Gavin met someone. He doesn’t talk much. He’s got a nasty temper most of the time. Sorry he had to go and take care of something though, he should be right back. He came closer, putting an arm on my shoulder and though his words spoke kindness and concern, his eyes weren’t leaving mine and they weren’t coated in as much sugar. Do you want to come and sit? You look a bit disorientated. I can get some water or whatever you like.

Before I had a chance to answer, his arm was nudging me towards some of the booths near a back wall. I let him lead me, though I wanted to pull away. Where had Gavin gone?

I- I didn’t really meet Gavin, we kind of slammed into each other accidentally. I was just – I pointed towards the exit that I was no longer heading towards. Dustin blocked it, not paying attention.

That’s probably a good thing then that you didn’t get to talk much. He’d chew your head off. He’s got bite for a sixteen year old. Almost as bad as Alex, I’m sure that’s where he gets it from. His brother is a nasty one too. You met him too I assume? He was talking quickly, still looking at me as often as he could while steering me to the booth. He let me sit, getting in on the other side as he crossed his arms in front of him. But he didn’t slouch or lean into the table. His back was straight as he sat with an air of importance about him. He definitely didn’t fit in. I blinked up at him, mouth slightly open in confusion and insecurity now that I was in a dark booth with a man I had never seen before asking me questions about people I didn’t know.

Like I said, I barely met Gavin. It was just an accident and I really need to get home, that’s why I was in such a rush. I’m sorry we ran into each other. Without Gavin here, I was sure I had imagined the whole thing. The strange colors in his eyes, it wasn’t possible. The strobe lights were just flaring and I must have just seen the colors in his eyes. And if that wasn’t it, contacts existed. I must have hit my head on the table or the floor or something and just gotten disorientated and light headed for a while. Nothing had happened, I just wanted to go back to my original plan of leaving…

Dustin was still watching me, as if he could see right into me. His gaze never dropped, he never blinked, and I wanted him to leave me alone. But he softened quickly, his posture changing so he was leaning back against the booth, exhaling all of the tension that I didn’t understand and smiling.

Sorry, I know this is weird that I asked you to come and sit with us. You’re free to leave if you want. I won’t stop you. Gavin is just clumsy and careless at times and I tend to be the one to clean up his messes.

I’m not a mess, I’m just late and tired. I snapped. My head was beginning to hurt and the music wasn’t helping. Everything felt distant, like being on an airplane when your ears begin to pop and before you yawn, everything sounds farther away and the pressure is building and building.

I’m sorry. We just thought you might like an apology drink and some company. But you can leave. Dustin held his hand out towards the room, motioning for me to leave. But the way he said it, how he seemed a bit put off at my defiance towards his kindness? I bit my lip, holding back the annoyance and anger.

I can stay for a little while if you want. I’ll take you up on something to drink if you don’t mind. I wasn’t mean or rude to people, I just didn’t like the majority of the ones I ran into. It wasn’t my personality, it was more of a reaction by this point after so many years of people snapping at me. Dustin was just trying to be nice where Gavin couldn’t be. I shouldn’t complain, considering he wasn’t half bad looking. His eyes were deeply set, his brow as dark as his hair with worry lines. Though he was definitely older than Gavin and myself, he couldn’t be too far into his mid twenties. For such a young age, his wardrobe and confidence reeked of wealth. I didn’t know much about suits, but what little he wore of one underneath the coat though mellow and hidden was still rich and elegant. His hair was kept shorter than Gavin’s but it was still long enough to stick up and cover his ears just a bit. And his glasses were thick and square, the type you found at a drug store to use as reading glasses but not actually needed for anything else. He was clean shaven, a bit lanky for his height. His money clearly didn’t go to food. And in response to my answer, he smiled excitedly. He had a face meant to smile, the lines around his mouth were deep from smiling, and it made him look much younger.

The Clubhouse had a few waiters who tended to the section of booths on both ends of the Clubhouse. Dustin got the attention of Luke, a boy who just started working here a few weeks ago. He came over, noticing me and nodding with a smile. He was a goofy kid with too many freckles. Dustin asked for a pitcher of water and then looked at me for an order. I asked for a Gatorade and Luke scampered off to maneuver the crowds to reach the bar.

You look a bit off still, Dustin said, crossing one leg over the other.

I just got off my shift at the bar. I explained as my head only began to hurt more. Loud music for countless hours on top of an already stressful day can do that to you.

Ah, understandable. Sometimes you don’t want people to know you feel like hell though. You should get better at hiding your discomfort. It could offend people. Gavin could very easily feed off of it.

My head feels like I got hit by a truck. It’s not very easy to hide something like that.

If everything in life were easy, then nothing would be fun. Would it? Dustin mused.

I don’t think there’s anything fun about having a splitting headache. Every time I opened my mouth, the pressure and pain intensified and it was getting harder and harder to focus. Dustin never took his eyes off of me, but at least now he seemed a bit more friendly rather than nervous. That could just be the headache talking though.

Of course there isn’t. He looked around quickly scanning behind me to find his cousin I’m sure. But there is fun in winning. His eyes found mine again as I lost where this conversation was heading. His gaze turned right back into it’s heavy demeanor, but he still smiled. His eyes seemed to work completely separate from his mouth. Do you like winning, Madeline?

Maddie. I snapped, but though I meant it to be a retort, my voice was small. I can’t think of anyone out there who doesn’t like to win.

A cold air blew past my shoulder, making the temperature seem to drop drastically. The frigid air snapped me away from Dustin long enough to look and see Gavin plunging into the booth next to him with little care for personal space. I’d say someone who is set on losing. Though that’s just common sense. Gavin grumbled as though the effort of joining the conversation was not worth the time it took. I almost rolled my eyes at him, but seeing him stopped me. He had his arms crossed in front of him as he began to lean forward against the table, nothing but absolute annoyance and frustration held in his stature. His appearance zoomed into an absolute intake that seemed to defy time as my brain registered everything a bit too slow. I imagine it to be much like a gun shot. No way to explain the sound before it happens if you have never heard it before, leaving you too stunned and frozen to explain it or understand it. There was a tug at the corner of some part of my brain, the presence of it was like ripping paper out of a notebook, clean and effortless but there was still a pressure that was releasing something in my mind from its place.

Dustin was asking me something, I heard my name several times, but as I had looked at Gavin, Dustin was no longer there. Nor was Gavin, or the club with the people and the music and the lights. I could still see it, but my mind was exploding into small fragments of puzzle pieces that had been placed carefully and beautifully to create an image that now broke away to create something totally different. Something much darker. Something so much more vivid and alive and absolutely impossible.

Gavin’s eyes were both blue. The color of them quickly turned into deep pits of murky black that quickly invaded the rest of my vision as a loud bang erupted from somewhere inside the Clubhouse. The bang took with it all the lights, the music, the people, the sense of time and direction. I was sitting, and then I wasn’t. I was surrounded by such a terrifying depth of darkness that seeped into every part of my being. My vision, my sight, my hearing, my thoughts. Everything was taken and I was left with nothing. Dustin and Gavin were gone, the booth, the bar, myself. I couldn’t even see myself. I had no idea where I was or what was happening. I had no sense of movement. If I tried to focus on moving anything, there was nothing to move. Like falling asleep, you don’t really know what’s happening unless you’re dreaming. You’re just asleep. That was this place. It was something that was never meant to be seen. It was something that I had just been sucked into, away from the booth. All because of Gavin’s eyes. Dustin knew. He was waiting for this. This was what the looks were for. He had been waiting for me to snap. Something about Gavin’s eyes, it wasn’t until I mentioned that something was different about them that all of this weirdness started happening. Gavin was perfectly polite and apologetic to me until I said something. He had stepped away and the whole time he was gone, Dustin refused to take his eyes off of mine. The headache, it was gone now. It was like that bang that had taken everything away could have been all the pressure in my head finally popping. The puzzle pieces were still rearranging themselves, but as they did everything seemed to click.

Gavin’s eyes, my head hurting, something happened in that fall that shouldn’t have happened. But what? Why was the world gone? Why was everything around me gone? I was still in the booth, I had to be. There was no way I could fully disappear from there and land in some bottomless pit of darkness. It could have been an assumption but my brain scoffed at the thought and shoved it aside. My brain was on hyper alert, working faster than I could think. All of these flashes kept flooding through my consciousness but then they just faded away into the blackness, forgotten about. It knew; I knew. But what did I know? And how did I know it?

The concept of breathing came back in a fog. I could feel something, my mouth as if about to answer Dustin’s questions that I hadn’t even heard. Then it turned into the need to inhale and how I couldn’t do it. There was another bang, a much louder one that shook the very core of me. It brought with it a flash so bright that my eyes burned. There were all these shapes within that light. Dark shapes that once noticed by me, seemed to mold themselves into beings that swarmed and tried to engulf me back into their darkness. They came at me, large ones that hissed from the corners with arms longer than my body, deformed ones with enough limbs to be spiders, fog that settled to the floor and stalked from below, crawling at me with dark intentions. Some came down in bolts of lighting, scorching the ground as cloaked figures towered more than ten feet tall and growing. All of them aiming themselves directly at me. And I still couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scream. Dustin and Gavin weren’t here; I was alone. It was the opposite of the darkness, it was everything that ever was, ever is and ever could be all around me at once in this massive never-ending explosion of light.

No; not light. Life. It was life. And these shadows, this fog, this was the fog that swarmed within Gavin and Dustin’s eyes. This was the fog that clouded them. This WAS them. This was –

MADDIE!

Everything was back. I blinked and Dustin and Gavin were in front of me again. The music was louder than I had ever heard it before, vibrating off of every bone in my body with every beat that shook the floor. Everything inside of me burned and my headache wasn’t a headache anymore. All of it fixated to one spot. My eyes. They burned and Dustin was holding a napkin towards me. Gavin was leaning forward, blocking my view of anything besides the two of them. The booth had become a cave separate from everything else.

Look at me. Dustin ordered as I stared down at the napkin he was trying to hand to me. My face was wet, my eyes stinging. My hands were shaking on the table, clenched into fists so tightly I couldn’t get them to relax. My knuckles were pale, I looked up at Dustin in horror.

Breathe Maddie. Just breathe. He didn’t hold the napkin up to me anymore as I was ignoring it and when I looked at him, his eyes weren’t as intense as before. Something had changed. I had changed. Don’t try to talk right now. Just look at me, and breathe in. Nice and deep just breathe in for me, okay?

It felt like tears were running down my face, but they stung and made it hard to focus. I listened to Dustin though. I took a deep breath in, and it hurt. But it released some of the pressure behind my eyes.

We should have just gone to the damn gas station like I told the two of you! Gavin was screaming. With how close he was to me, shielding me from the rest of the club, his voice was right in my face. I jumped, looking away from Dustin. He placed the napkin in my hand, crumpling another and putting it in his pocket out of sight.

We didn’t have much of a choice. We had to go somewhere where there was enough energy to draw it out, this was the closest place there was. Don’t get snippy because of your mistake. Accept it and move on. Dustin snapped back at Gavin as he took the napkin from my shaking hand, dipping an end of it into the glass of ice water on the table. He looked at me for permission as he held it up to me. There was nothing else to do besides nod and let him lean forward to wipe my face.

Accept it? Accept that because I rammed into some girl I pretty much just ruined her life? How the hell do you expect me to accept that!? Gavin’s voice only rose, making me jump again and bat Dustin away from me. Everything was too loud, too noisy, too close. There were so many people in here, and Gavin and Dustin were leaning over me, giving me no room to breathe. I had to get out of here. I needed air, I needed to get out of this hellhole and never come back. It was too dark, the strobe lights were just like the flash of light that happened in my head. And the pulsing only left darkness before another light flashed. No one on the floor had even noticed. No one had experienced it. Just me.

"You can start with shutting up." Dustin’s voice rose even higher than Gavin’s had, and that was it. I couldn’t do it anymore. While Dustin screamed at his cousin, I shoved Gavin away from me, knocking him flat on his ass as I scrambled up out of the booth to make my way for the exit. The napkin was still clenched in my hand as I didn’t bother grabbing any of my things in the booth. I didn’t care. I needed air, I needed to get home, I just needed to get out. None of it could have been real. Neither of them, nor that place in my head that bent me all out of shape. Maybe it was a drug that someone slipped into a drink? Just because there wasn’t any alcohol in this club didn’t make it an impossible assumption. This was all just some game.

The run to the exit wasn’t long, but my balance wasn’t that great. It must have been the drugs kicking in, whatever they were. But the moment I stood up, the world began to sway back and forth in a frothy sort of Topsy-turvy way. I took steps that were too spaced out and had to focus on my balance, but I made it. There weren’t many people by the exit which I was thankful for. Not many people stared at me in concern. I leaned against the wall for a second to breathe, my heart hammering in my chest as tears began to fall again. As I caught my breath quickly so that Dustin or Gavin couldn’t catch up to me, I pushed myself off the wall and faced the exit.

A man stood before me only five feet away, leaning against the wall and looking directly at me. He hadn’t been there a few seconds ago and he was neither Dustin nor Gavin. And he was blocking the exit from me.

Excuse me. I need to get out of here. I mumbled weakly as I tried to calm my nerves and fear. The sensation of losing all of reality was hitting me again. I hadn’t had the chance to think about it before Gavin sat down and it all happened a few minutes ago, but now I could tell it was coming again. Like waves, lapsing me back into states of dementia.

He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t move. He only watched me. And with my growing frustration, I glared and looked up at him, not in the mood to ask twice.

It wasn’t hard to guess that this must have been the third of Dustin’s group that they had been looking for. He wore all black with a matching tattoo on his left arm. A thick strip that went around the middle of his like a band. Nothing else, just black, and the moment I saw his face, I looked away and focused on the tattoo instead.

Excuse me. I said again before pushing off the wall, concentrating on not falling and walking around him, keeping my eyes on the ground. He made no move to follow me, he didn’t even turn. I pushed open the exit door, feeling the warm summer air hit my face and left. The bouncer outside, Alfred tipped his hat to bid me farewell as he always did. The line seemed long despite there only being a few hours left until closing time. I smiled weakly and looked away, heading for the back roads to take me home. I took as many turns as possible so Dustin and the others couldn’t tail me. I thought they had scared me with all of the weird talk at the end that I was too terrified to ask about, but the third guy, his eyes weren’t the same as Gavin’s. His were both the same, but they were even more impossible. They were dark, they were menacing, and they moved with all of the rage in the world. Looking at him made me want to run as fast as I could, as far away as possible, and never look back. And with slight balance issues, and the inability to keep myself together, that’s exactly what I tried to do.

CHAPTER TWO

There is no truth, there is only belief

(Lithia)

H e was taking too long, there was no chance of keeping a trace on the Infernal if Dustin kept wasting time in there. It was supposed to be a quick pit stop, in and out. But even Alex hadn’t walked out yet and he wasn’t one to frater nize.

"What the hell do they think they’re doing? A low grumble came from behind me as a shadow loomed above from the perch on the rooftop. Her hair blew lightly with the wind around her face, obscuring the scars. She hadn’t moved since we set up here to scope out the area, and she wasn’t one to sit still for too long.

"Something must have happened… I didn’t quite know what that meant or what it would entail for our actions. But I was in charge when Dustin wasn’t here. …If we see movement, we move out."

I watched the right end of the city while she kept her head tilted left. I was growing impatient both with Dustin and with this Infernal. They weren’t usually clever