Gasping Dedra sat up, holding her throat. It was just a dream, she told herself. But it seemed so real; too real. This simple fact bothered her. The fear of the blade coming at her throat scared her more than it should have since she was a vampire hunter. “I have to get over this human flaw,” she mumbled to herself with a soft, disappointing, shake of her head.
She looked at the digital clock on her nightstand and seven thirty shined back at her. “I’m going to be late,” she cried as she jumped out of bed. In her hurry her foot got tangled in the sheet. She tumbled to the floor and banged her elbow on it. “Ouch, shit!”
What a way to start the day, she mentally sighed as she lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Pulling herself up she quickly hopped in the shower. With her robe loosely tied around her she ran to her closet to throw on her undergarments, blue jeans, a white fitted tank top, and a pair of comfortable shoes. After her last lace was tied she grabbed her books and ran for her car.
“You’re late again Miss Jones,” Mrs. Nelson said in a critical tone as Dedra interrupted her class.
“I know. I’m sorry,” she replied as she sat in her seat.
“I know. You always are,” she said before she returned to her lessons.
Ivy leaned forward to talk to Dedra though her eyes stayed on the teacher. She didn’t want to get caught in her taunting. “At least you could have had the decency to wear something nice for once in your life.” She smugly smiled as she sat back in her seat. Though her comment was childish she felt extremely good about it.
“She does look nice,” Eddie quickly came to her defense. “Of course you wouldn’t know that. After all, you did wear that today.” He eyed her outfit with his left brow raised in awe of her bad taste.
She was wearing ankle high white boots, a white skirt, and a little pink top. “Excuse me, but this is in,” she motioned to her outfit.
“Maybe where you’re from, but here on earth, it’s out.”
“Fag,” she spit the insult at him.
“Do you two mind? I’m trying to teach a class here,” Mrs. Nelson interrupted in an irritated tone. She quickly put a end to whatever fight was about to begin.
“Sorry,” they apologized.
After school Dedra and Eddie quickly found Geneva so they could go to Dedra’s house. “So what happened last night?” Geneva asked. She helped herself to a bag of chips she found in one of the kitchen’s cabinets.
“Something happened last night?” Eddie asked. He took the chips out of her hand to place them in his mouth.
She shot him a dirty look before answering. “Yeah, but she won’t tell me what.”
”I didn’t say I wouldn’t tell you. I just wanted to wait until later," Dedra corrected her as she sat in a chair at the table.
“Well, it’s later,” Eddie pointed out as he sat next to her. “So do tell.”
She told them of her adventure of the night before and of her strange dream. She left out the details of Dionsus though. That was one thing she wanted to keep for herself. “Wow, now that’s what I call a night,” Eddie said. He dropped the last crumb in his mouth as he finished Geneva’s bag of chips.
She got up to get a soda. “Yep; I’m your regular party animal.” She turned to look out the window and saw a woman standing there. Shocked, her fingers lost their hold on the can. The woman had a creamy complexion with short black hair with red streaks in it. She was wearing gray slacks and a purple sweatshirt. Her darks eyes were focused on Dedra.
“Dee, what is it?” Geneva asked, jumping out of her seat to help her friend. She rushed forward and gently placed her hand on her shoulder. “Dee, what is it?” she repeated as she looked out the window, not seeing anything.
“Don’t you see her?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the strange woman outside her window.
“See who?” Eddie asked with a hint of worry in his voice. He stared out the window, not having a clue what was wrong with her. Women, his wondered. “I don’t see anyone,” he admitted. He grew tired of looking out it and looked back at her. He stepped between the two women to gently grab her shoulders to he turn her to face him. “Look Dee, there’s nobody out there.” She started to protest but he continued; “You had a stressful night and now you think you’re seeing people who aren’t there.” He searched her eyes in hopes of seeing reason in them. His eyes were pleading with her to stop this nonsense. “It could happen to anyone,” he tried to assure her as well as himself.
“Not me,” Geneva said with certainty.
His back straightened as he told her to shut up with a hard look. “It could happen to anyone,” he tensely repeated. She could hear the warning in his voice. She wouldn’t dare say another thing.
“What are talking about? She’s right the-“ She stopped mid-sentence when she realized nobody was there. “She was there,” she said as she pointed out the window. Over her head Geneva and Eddie shared a doubtful look. Stubbornly, Dedra stomped to the door. She would prove them wrong. She would! “You have to believe me. She was right there, just outside the window.” She stood in the doorway, and looked up and down the street for the mystery woman. She had to be out there somewhere; Dedra wasn’t the kind of person to see things.
Geneva moved to stand behind her so she could pull her back inside the house. “Sure she was,” she said it the way you would say to it to a child whom you were trying to comfort. Eddie shut the door as Dedra continued to claim she had seen a woman across the street.
When they were back inside the woman headed to her car.
“Why are we doing this again?” Jade asked as she crept closer to her boyfriend Shy.
“To see if the story is true, once and all,” he glanced over his shoulder just as long enough to remind her.
“Not to mention we get out of school for a day,” Jade’s younger brother, Lee, added.
They stopped when they came to a fork in the sewer. “So, right or left?” he asked. He shined his flashlight down the right tunnel then the left one.
“Well the story goes ‘to right her wrongs is why they buried her along’ “Lee quoted.
He held the beam of light to shine on him. “What’s that suppose to mean?”
“I don’t know but that’s what it says,” he admitted as he covered his eyes. “Now get that damn thing out of my face.”
Feeling a surge of anger his jaw set. This is not the place to get lost. Damn him, he bitterly thought. “What do you mean you don’t know?” His voice grew louder with each word he said. “I thought you knew what the hell you were doing. If I-”
“It means go right,” Jade calmly intervened. She was bored with the way the guys would always try to dominate each other to be the alpha male.
The guys looked at her. “How do you know?” Lee asked.
She didn’t take her eyes off of the right tunnel to address him. “ ‘To right her wrongs is why they buried her along,’ ” she re-quoted. Her face was a cool mask as she kept her steady gaze onto him. “Don’t you see, right her wrongs? Right,” she stressed the one word. “As in down the right tunnel.” Her attention slipped back to the tunnel.
“Okay; right it is,” Shy proclaimed as he headed in that direction. He didn’t wait for either of his traveling buddies to follow him. The water lapsed over his shoes with every step he took. The further he went the deeper and darker it became.
Somewhere down here she was buried and Jade knew it. She could feel it. It was like a great hand was pulling her towards the lost legend. It was crying out to her. It wanted and needed her to free it. She tried a number of times to stop walking, but her feet wouldn’t listen. They continued to move forward, taking her closer and closer to this evil forsaken thing of the past. She tried to speak out, but found she couldn’t open her mouth. She was too scared of what they were about to find.
“Dang, how much further do we have to go?” Lee asked as he covered his mouth and nose. The air was the foul odor of rotten trash. “It sticks down here.”
“Of course it does dumb ass,” Shy replied as he continued going deeper into the tunnel. “It’s a sewer. What did you expect? For it to smell like roses?"
He stopped walking as his body tensed. “Man, I’m tired of you disrespecting me.”
“Oh really?” Shy stopped walking as well. He turned to completely face him. “And what are you going to do about it?”
He took a threatening step towards him. “I’m going to teach you a little respect. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Jade drifted away during their argument. She had seen them fight so many times that now it meant nothing to her. She noticed to the left the wall seemed to darken. As she stepped closer to it she saw it was because it was cracked.
“And how are you going to do that?” Shy asked, also taking a step forward. He was about the same size as Lee but he had more experience in fighting, and they both knew this.
“Guys,” she called over her shoulder. She eyed the darkness inside of it as she stood next to the crack. She was too afraid to poke her head into the unknown. She needed Shy’s flashlight; bringing only one had been a mistake on their part. “Guys, look at what I found.”
Neither of them wanted to back down from the fight but in the end curiosity got the best of them. “I think we found Sleeping Beauty,” Lee said, looking into the hidden room Shy’s light easily filled. It was painfully small. It had rough rock walls and to the left stood a concrete tomb. “So which one of us princes gets to kiss her and wake her up?” he asked in a mocking tone.
Shy’s eyes slid to look him. “You can smart ass. I’ve already found my princess.” He shot Jade a sideways glance before stepping through the crack. As she entered it she stumbled over her own feet. He easily caught her. “You’ve got to be careful sweetheart.” She gave him a thankful smile as she pulled away to get a better look at the place.
“You know, I expected something bigger,” Lee confessed from behind her.
“Sooo, she’s in there?” Shy asked. Disbelief covered his face he moved closer to the tomb. “Well, let’s get the top off and take a look at the old hag.”
“Tsk, tsk,” he said, shaking his head he slowly moved closer to the tomb. “So much disrespect, it’s Ms. Hag.” The guys shared a smile before focusing on the tomb again.
Jade stayed in the background as she watched them. She was lost in a state of bewilderment. She felt distance, as if the ground was splitting between them. The strange images clouding her mind didn’t allow any room for thought.
The guys used all of their strength to try and pry the tomb’s top off, but it wouldn’t budge. Shy let go of it to rub his stiff shoulders. “Damn, I think I pulled something.”
Lee set one of his elbows on the tomb’s top as he rested his chin on the heel of his palm. With laughing eyes he watched him rub his pains. “What a hero.”
The sound of loud tapping invaded Jade’s twisted mind. ‘The black rose stop wilting as a hammer nailed her coffin shut.’ No, she mentally screamed as her mind filled with dead blackness. Looking around she was determined to find the source of the irritating noise. She sighed with disappointment when she found nothing because rock walls surrounded her. Where could it be coming from, she wondered.
Don’t give up, a strange voice commanded. Fear gripped her heart as she did as she was told. Her free will was gone. She was now a doll for beings more powerful than herself.
Tap-tap-tap. Her eyes narrowed on a five-inch hole in the wall off to the side of Shy’s head. That’s where that awful tapping is coming from, her anger said. Her feet seemed to move by themselves, and she couldn’t stop herself from walking towards it. What’s in there? As she got closer her head throbbed. Tap, pain. Bright red merged with the blackness behind her lids with each blink she had. Determination filled her. She knew she had to stop it
Lee and Shy were too busy cracking jokes to notice her sliding by them. It wasn’t until she was on the tip of her toes that Lee glanced in her direction. “What are you doing Jade?”
Squinting, she wasn’t able to see inside the hole. It was too dark. Tap-tap-tap. But she could hear it, and that was more than enough to keep her motivation to keep inspecting it. “I’ve got to stop it,” she said to herself in a much softer tone than she normally used. Her right hand started to sink into the cold hole.
“Stop what? I don’t hear anything.” The intense look on her face worried him. Something was wrong with his sister.
“I have to stop the tapping. The awful tapping.” Her hand sank further into the hole. He watched as a little figure leaped out of it to bite her hand. She screamed, snapping her hand back to look at her new wound.
Rushing forward he tried to get to her first but Shy beat him to her. He gently took her hand into his own to inspect it like a good boyfriend. “Jade baby, are you all right?” he asked as he searched her dazed face for any sign she was okay.
“Of course she’s not. She just got bit,” Lee answered for her. His eyes darted across the ground for whatever had bitten his sister. Slowly, he leaned forward to look inside the hole. It wasn’t there. “Where is it?”
“Where is what?”
He looked at Shy as if he should have known what he was talking about. “The thing that bit her. It’s not in the hole anymore. Which means it’s somewhere out here.” He scanned the room again.
Shy wasn’t worried about the creature that had bit her. “So? It was a rat.” He watched as she slowly walked to the tomb. “If it try’s to bit you, step on it.” His eyes ran down her body. He would have it tonight. A small smile curved his lips as he went to be by her side.
Lee was sure it hadn’t been a rat. But what was it then, his mind hurt with the question. Taking a small step, he moved closer to them. “Shy,” he said in a tense voice. “It wasn’t a rat. It was something else, and I really think we should take Jade to the hospital to get it looked at. After all, it could’ve had a disease.”
Shy grabbed her hand to roughly inspect it again. A little blood ran from it but that was all. “It’s not bad. She’ll live.” Dispassionately he dropped her hand. His job was done.
Lee was shocked at how uncaring he was being to his girlfriend whom he so called loved. Jade didn’t seem to notice. She was still in that strange dazed state. It was starting to scare him.
Her bleeding hand slowly rose. With her mind locked on the coffin she felt numb to the world. Some unknown force was pulling her strings. Now she only did what she was made to do. She ran her lightly bleeding hand over the top of the tomb and down the crack across the middle of it. Lee’s heart went cold in his chest. He didn’t know how he knew but he did, that she shouldn’t be doing that. Jade, his mind whispered.
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