"What took so long?" Farrah, my best friend since preschool, asked me in her sweet glossy voice.
"Just had to think a bit. That's all," I answered, trying not to let my voice crack.
"Well, next time hurry! It's already five-thirty. We have to make it to school before the Back-to-School bonfire starts." The bonfire was conducted by the cheerleaders at Helltown High School. They had apparently sold their souls to the devil a few years back, or at least that's what they told everyone. More than likely, they just googled a Satanism ceremony where they curse one student. It is rumored that the student who is chosen to be cursed, is to become Satan's servant. Rushing to this frivolous ceremony was not the first thing on my mind.
We walked through my house avoiding places where the un-polished wooden floor creaked, kicking little Lego men out of our way. I grabbed my studded leather jacket and mundane backpack before exiting the house. As I shut the front door behind me, Farrah started up her red corvette. I ran over to the car and slid in the passenger seat, tossing my stuff in the back. She looked at me and smiled a slight tentative smile.
"We don't have to go, Farrah." She had already started backing out of the driveway.
"But Dani, we have to! Everyone else is going. We'd look like fools if we didn't go."
"Yeah, but we'd be fools if we did go. You remember what happened to the girl who was chosen last time? She disappeared!" I exclaimed, remembering the frightening ceremony and then hearing the news that Tia, one of the cheerleaders, had gone missing.
"We've come this far, let's hope we don't get chosen," Farrah said as she turned the wheel left at a sharp angle. The road became a rocky drive, and soon we could see the fire in view. It blazed over the heads of the students, casting a dim shadow that danced to a macabre un-heard beat. It was six o' clock, and everyone was crowding around it. Farrah parked the car, and tossed her feet to the ground with a thud. I followed her to the circle of crazed and fearful students. People started pushing and yelling. And then the ceremony began.
"Close your eyes, fellow students! Close them and bring forth the chosen one!" Gretchen Thompson yelled from the center of the circle. Farrah held my hand, mostly so I could comfort her, but as people began to push and get even closer together someone stepped on my toes. Our solid bond broke. I swear I felt someone touch my ass, so I moved forward a few steps, blind to everything around me. Soon, the warm wind swept and howled around me. What happened? First, people were tugging on me and pushing me, and now nothing. I opened my eyes, and then I understood why I didn't feel anything or anyone around me. "Open your eyes Hellians!" Every eye in the crowed stared me down. I saw Farrah behind me, crying. I had been chosen. I was next.
"This has to be a mistake!" I yelled. Everyone just glared at me. "This is just a ridiculous farce!"
"There is no mistake, Danielle. You have been chosen by Satan himself," Gretchen said as she began to circle me. Her black hair flicked around in the chilling wind. My nemesis. Gretchen smiled at me; she was perfectly happy. Not a single hint of sadness glimmered in her eyes. "Hold out your hand, Danielle Night. Blood must be added to the fire of wrath, so that the chosen one will be found!" I shook my head side to side. I wasn't going to be the chosen one. I turned around and ran right into two football players. "Do not try to run, Dani. You are making this more complicated than it really is. So just stay still and give me your hand," she yelled in her shriek of a voice.
To die? Give myself up to die? Sure, I would "totally" be up for dying! I turned around and walked right up to her, keeping my hands behind my back. "Go to hell, Gretchen!" I yelled, and then I ran off to her left, heading straight for a hole in the crowd. No one closed it; they all watched me in terror as I ran past them. Footfalls thundered behind me. My solid run changed to a sprint, I felt like a bird startled by a gun shot. I sprinted through the dark forest, taking random turns hoping I might lose my followers.
"Dani! Stop running from me!" I heard Farrah yell from behind me. I stopped and turned around. My eyes were stinging from tears. She ran to me and gave me a huge hug. "We have to get you out of here! We need to go back to your house."
"Okay, but how are we going to get away from here without being seen?" I asked.
"I'll bring the corvette to the entrance of the forest in the west. It's that way," she said pointing to my right. I nodded, and then I took off in that direction.
Sure enough, by the time I reached the entrance her corvette idled at the edge of the trees. Not thirty feet from the car though, a flash of lightning struck the forest, and I saw three figures hanging in the trees. I couldn't get a quick enough glance to see what they really looked like, but they looked wild, almost like hanging monkeys or vines. I ran to the car, opened the door, and flung myself in. When I heard a guy's voice boom from the driver's seat, I jumped and shuddered.
"Dani, chill. It's just me, Justin," he said. His blond hair covered his right blue eye. He flashed me a smile, and then Farrah's voice came from the back seat.
"He wanted to help out. I thought you might need some protection, and he agreed to be your protector." I let out a relaxed sigh and leaned back in the passenger seat. Farrah handed me a soft blanket over my shoulder. I wrapped it around my shivering frame and focused on taking deep breaths.
"Where are we going? We can't go home because of my mom," I said in barely a whisper. I was still freaked out from seeing those things in the forest and trying to catch my breath from running.
"What about the old club house? The one that is by the haunted mill. No one goes around there anymore. No need to," Justin said. I've been friends with Justin for a few years, because he was my Chem. II partner back in tenth grade. Over the years, I could tell that he saw me as more than a friend. I'd notice him taking too long of a gaze at me when we ate lunch. He would always let me hug him and use him as a pillow on school trips. His entire existence, it seemed, was to keep me happy and content. But if I ignored the tiny voice in my own head that never shuts up about wanting to be more than friends with him, I'd be ignoring my heart. My dad always told me to follow my heart, and until now I always had. I glanced at Justin's visage and realized that if he ever got the courage to ask me out, I'd say yes without a second thought. Farrah poked me in the arm and pointed out the window.
The corvette pulled up a hidden rocky drive. Before us was a great oak tree. Its leaves gleamed semi green at the top of the vast trunk. Up on the third and fourth largest branches was a tree house. Most tree houses were small, but this old wooden thing could fit five teenagers in it. It even had bunks for sleeping. The red and splotched midnight blue paints shone as the dim sunlight streamed through the gaps in the branches and leaves. Back in eighth grade, Farrah and I stumbled upon it and asked our dads to fix it up. It was our castle in the trees and we were the queens. We got out of the car and climbed up into the red house in the tree.
"Okay, I'll stay here with her, and you go to the store to pick up water and snacks," Justin said to Farrah.
"Got it," she answered. She got into the driver's seat and took off back down the road. Justin and I were left alone.
"So, the house looks cleaner than it did last time I came here," I stated. I hadn't visited since my dad passed away the year before.
"Yeah, it was a mess and really hard to clean up. I redid the paint, and I put new bunks in it. I usually come here to admire the scenery. It's really beautiful out here," he said in reply. We walked out onto the back deck of the tree house.
I wondered if they were looking for me. The creatures in the forest still wouldn't get out of my mind. I stared at Justin's face. His lips were moving, but I was out of it. I didn't hear a word he said.
Their eyes were wild and red. Bats? Maybe they were just bats. Yeah. Bats.
"Dani? Are you listening to me? Oh never mind. You are really pale. Did something scare you? Oh, of course something scared you. Who am I kidding? You were just chosen! That is enough reason to scare anyone," he rambled. I hugged him and started sobbing. It was a good thing that I didn't put on makeup this morning or else I'd have smeared mascara on his red pastel shirt. "Shhh," he consoled me. His arms snaked around my back and held me to his chest tightly.
"I—I don't know what I'm going to do now. I can't go home! They'll come after my family! I can't put them in danger." I felt his hands rubbing circles on my back. It was comforting, so I raised my head from his shirt and looked at his face.
"Stay here. I'll stay with you. There's no reason to worry about me, because I'm a black belt in Karate. I won't let anyone get you, Danielle. I promise." With that, he leaned his face down toward mine. I felt my own decreasing the distance too and then the soft firmness of his lips on mine. I let my arms reach up to hook around his neck and his settled at my hips. We were in motion, moving back through the doorway. We didn't stop until there was a desk behind my thighs. He turned around and lifted me onto his lap, not breaking our eternal kiss. His lips moved to my cheek, jaw, and down my neck. My lungs were heaving for breath when he nibbled my collar bone. I ran my fingers through his luxurious blond hair until he trailed his way back to my own lips. I stroked his back with my neon green fingernails. His hands toyed at the hem of my shirt, and it excited me. I'd never had a guy touch me that way before. I'd never had a boyfriend before. My reactions scared me, because I went for his shirt and he took it off.
"I've wanted to tell you for a year that I'm in love with you, Danielle." Then soft fabric was between my fingertips and palm, slowly lifting my shirt off. My eyes went wide when I saw his tan toned chest. I slid my hands down his torso and he sucked in oxygen, his stomach pulsing.
"Let's make use of a bunk," I whispered into his ear, remaining beside his face a second longer than I should have. A growl erupted from deep in his throat, and he was holding me by my waist as we closed in on the bottom bunk across the room. I was beneath him in one second flat. His mouth was on mine again hungrily looking for satisfaction. His tongue flicked out and licked my bottom lip, and I felt him bite down on it with an endearing gentleness. I groaned and his tongue slipped into my mouth, fighting for dominion over that territory with my tongue. I felt the warmth of his soft palm graze over my abdomen. Arching my back up toward him, and he smiled and laughed into my mouth. It made me blush to have my own body react as if it burned and ached with relent.
"You've never done this before, have you?" He pulled away and asked. I shook my head, and he just nodded. "Well, this is called making out."
"I know that. I'm no idiot!" I teased.
"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"
"No."
"Will you let me be your first boyfriend?" his smile subsided and he was serious.
"Yes, I will let you be my first boyfriend," I replied.
"Good. Now we need to put our shirts back on. Farrah just pulled up, but I'm sure you couldn't have heard since you were moaning so loud the neighbors, who live over an acre away, could have heard you." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but then he winked and rolled off the bed. He landed with a thud and a slight choke. I looked down at him, and there was an arrow in his left bicep. I jumped up and whirled around.
I saw it. The thing that chased me in the forest perched on a sturdy branch adjacent to the tree house. A dark black star tattooed over its right eye and twine-like ropes of hair fell past its shoulders. This was no it. This was a girl. She wore a tight jump suit that looked leathery and dark as her hair. Slung around her waist, a mahogany belt fastened at her hip. In her hands she held a bow, ready to shoot again. She looked like a bad-ass ninja, except that she wore no mask and showed off her pale complexion. This girl could have been a comic book character with her angular face and black and white contrasting coloration. "Danielle Night, we are here to escort you to Hell." Her voice was just above a whisper, but it was soft and smooth. Something behind the voice led me to think that this girl was more like a slippery fish whose scales slice skin when it flops. We? I thought questioningly. I looked around the house and saw two figures standing behind me, almost surrounding Justin. One stood about my height, 5'6, maybe a bit taller. He had orange spikey hair that was tied back with a black bandana. The other guy's skin tone resembled a caramel mocha cappuccino, and he was lean and buff. His hair corn-rolled down the back of his head. They both wore black leather pants and jackets that covered deep mahogany tee-shirts.
"State your names," the words came from my lips in barely a mumble. The girl just smirked and cocked her head to the side. Humans couldn't make rigid movements like that without snapping their necks. "I said: state your names!" my tense voice was practically tangible.
"Ah, so that is what you said." Her head straightened out and she stepped toward me, flicking her hair to the side. "My name is Star. He's Eric," she pointed to the muscular guy and then to the one with the bandana. "The other one is Red. We are The Blood Spillers."
I felt a hand lay on my shoulder, and a rumbling voice in my ear startled me. "It is time, Dani." I thought it was Justin, but the tone was off. I looked to the side at the hand on my shoulder and saw dirty fingernails and dark red splattered fingers. I almost screamed, but my mouth was blocked instantly.
This was the end. I'm headed for Hell, I thought.
I bit the fingers that blocked me from speaking. The hand dropped and the guy growled. "Wait! Promise! Swear!" I rustled up the courage to say.
"Swear what, little girl?" Star asked.
"Swear not to hurt any of my friends or family. I will go willingly if you all swear."
"Swear upon what, dear Danielle? Swear upon the air that changes?" Red retorted.
"No. Upon your ruler. I'm sure Satan would be disappointed if you swore upon him and then broke your promise. It would reflect badly."
"Like the master cares! He thrives on looking bad! It's his job. But we will give you our word: we will not harm your family or friends now or in the future. Should we do so, our spirits will roam the Tunnels of the Past forever." Star's words gave me strange comfort. Red and Eric both repeated the words and each sliced their palms. With blood, they sealed their words and then motioned for me to get ready. I watched silently as the cuts closed up without leaving a scar behind.
"We heal twenty times faster than the normal human," Eric told me. "Are you ready, Dani?" he offered me his hand. I looked back at Justin and thought: I'll return soon.
I took Eric's hand and he yanked me toward him, lifting me up onto his back. We were off, flying through the trees at lightning speed.