Chapter one.
I was staring out my window and watched as the rain trickled down. It looked like blood, but I knew I was hallucinating. I didn't come to think of it, but even then I still did. Ever since that night at the church, I've been seeing things that shouldn't be there. I thought back remembering every detail, another perk from this sickness I had just recently developed.
My family has never been religious, but faith didn't bring me to this church. Death did. It was nineteen eighty-six, November tenth, ten-forty one in the morning in St. Angela's Church.
Father Derek was talking about something, but I didn't hear. I was trying so hard not to cry, standing up at the front. He stepped back and I knew it was my turn to say some pity speech.
"Aphrodite, would you like to say your speech?" He asked putting his hand lightly on my elbow as if I couldn't walk.
He was fairly young for a priest, I didn't understand why he could throw away his life to God when he could mate for life. Seemed that's how I ended up here on this planet. I knew I was an accident, I didn't want to say anything because I had no purpose to.
I stumbled my way to the stand and clutched the wrinkled paper in my pocket. When I looked up at the stain glass window, I saw a boy in blood. Drenched and dirty with what looked like soot on his face, and writing on his body. Or was it pictures? Either way, he looked at me with those blue dead eyes.
"Oh my god!" I screamed, everyone looked panicked and the people crying finally stopped. They looked up, but the boy just kept looking at me. I thought they could all see him too. I looked at Father, Maybe religious people could see things? But he looked at me like I was possessed.
"Talk to me about whatever after, just continue." he said with a croak. When I turned to the confused crowd, The boy was now in front of the Altar. I had a lump in my throat, but I managed, my shaking was almost as if I was sad.
"My parents were loving and hard working," I paused. A lie. I thought. "I know it will be tough, but I know they would have had wanted all of us to be happy when they were gone. Like-" I paused again. He's not real. Forget it, forget. My own prep talk doesn't help, but with this crowd of crying crows, I had to finish. I could throw up when I'm done.
"Like when we went camping and I was afraid of the dark, they said, 'Even when we are not there, our love is like the sun shining, always there, shining light.." I trailed of, my eyes were shut, tight. I didn't want to know what I would see. "I take it that our light may be burnt out, but I'll always know that their love is there, and murder will never change that." I finished, not looking at the page.
Sure I missed some of the sappy stuff, My parents fought constantly and my dad would drink and my mom would scream. I was never mentioned, some people thought I didn't even talk I was so quiet. I opened my eyes and turned from the Altar. I screeched in horror.
A pale gray woman with scringly draping black hair and sightless eyes and her face was stained with bloody tears, she was floating and she even had a trail of fingers behind her. I ran the other way into the girls washroom, everything at this church was old, so I stood there in the rusted mirror and looked myself over. My pupils were dilated and my brown eyes looked red.
I remember Father coming up to me and asked what was wrong. I told him, because I don't care what people think anymore. I felt like an angry child. My parents death only brought uneasy silence into the house.
"You might have something, I'll take you to the hospital where they can check it out." Father said, I knew he never believed in demons or ghosts. But what I saw was neither. I called it the living dead.
Looking out my room window out into the city of Charles Bay, everyone was old fashioned, and if you wanted anything like a computer or a TV, you would have to drive into Glendor.
"Pretty isn't it?" I heard Kyle say. I turned to face him. He was as thin as a stick, pale as chalk. He had half-curly sandy blond hair that stuck up all the time, he had blue eyes and his face always had a sick look to it. He had purple ringlets under his eyes all the time, but he was the cutest thing ever to me. I didn't know how he felt about me, an orphan as his best friend. Kyle has cancer.
After Father assisted me to St. Charles Hospital to get blood tests done, it turns out I was okay, but they are still keeping me here until I find somewhere to go. My Parents were only children, as well as their parents. So I was stuck here.
I walked over to the sink and splashed cold water on my face. The tiles on the floor of the room looked like they belonged in a public shower room. The texture felt cold on my bare feet.
I was allowed to spend my time with Kyle until his mom came to pick him up. He told me they had a beautiful house up in lower Glendor, but it was a four hour drive. I met his mom millions of times, it was almost as if she was my mom, as I wished she was.
Looking in the mirror now, I saw the same face I did in the churches' mirror. I had smooth and nice white skin, not as pale as Kyle's, but just a little below average. My brown eyes were almost a bloody red and the doctors kept on commenting about them. They didn't know what was wrong with me. I got nose bleeds constantly and they say I 'Hallucinate.'
My black hair was long and curly, I would have been very beautiful if I was taken care of. My mom said I was pretty, but I never listened. I don't even remember the sound of her voice all I remember are her screams.
I was very thin, I didn't eat much, not that I had an eating disorder, it was because I was sick of hospital food, and dead people made me lose my appetite. I was wearing a pretty gown that was a lavender colour. As I thought about it, I sat on the bed beside Kyle.
"I hope you get better. I really do." I said lightly, almost smoothly.
"I know, you've told me a thousand times, but I have to tell yo-" He stopped just as his mom walked through the door.
"Hello Mrs. Robins." I greeted politely.
"Oh, hello Aphrodite!" She said. "I have some good news." she said unexpectedly. Today wasn't it's usual 'Hello, how are you?' I was guessing. "Aphrodite Weller, would you like to come and live with us?"she said as I automatically turned to Kyle, his eyes lit up.
"Oh, yes!" I started to cry, I knew I would to, it was just after a month that my parents died and I haven't even shed a tear.
Mrs. Robins gave me a hug, and my face was buried in her soft red hair.
"Pack your things, we are going to leave right after I speak to the doctor." she smiled. She left the room and it was only Kyle and I.
"Are you okay with this?" I asked, looking at his face.
"I suggested it!" He said with his cocky smile. "The family talked it over last night." He said. I wanted to hug him so much, but I knew he was in pain. I haven't met anyone of his family but his mother. I walked over to my bed and on the other side was my bag of clothes and items.
"Here, let me help you." He said as he walked over beside me, and picked up my hair brush, and my long coat. "I can't believe you get to see my house!" He said. "I haven't had a best friend since I found out I had cancer." he sighed. He was wearing a navy hood and some jogging pants.
"I'm so glad you wont lose your hair again." I said. He looked up at me.
"Me too, actually." He smiled. I held in my hand my small back pack and a plastic bag of toiletries. Kyle had my sack over his shoulder and my coat.
"I can take them, you know, you really don't have-" I started.
"I'm not going to cripple you know, and I want to help." He said, his pale face looking at mine. It was late out, by the time we came out of the hospital doors, it was black. Snow and rain was falling from the sky.
I heard my bag fall to the ground and Kyle was leaning out into a bush. I closed my eyes until he was done. He threw up, and I hated hearing him, it just made me worry about him more.
"I'm so sorry." He said to me as we both picked up my things. Kyle and I were a couple months apart. My birthday was in March, on the most obvious day. The seventeenth. Kyle's was in January the 23.
I was turning seventeen this year, I couldn't wait.
We finished and Mrs. Robins got us a Taxi. She sat in the front, and gave the driver directions. Kyle fell asleep on the door, so I told Mrs. Robins I was giving him my pillow to use.
I was nervous when I was going to lift his head, because I liked him, I was very good at hiding that. I placed my hand on his cheek that faced the window and lifted his head from the door as lightly as possible, while I adjusted the pillow, his head was on my shoulder.
His eyes opened. He didn't move, I don't think he saw me watching him open his eyes; but he closed them again and I put him on the pillow.
I fell asleep myself, on my bag of clothes. I only slept for two hours of the drive. When I woke up, I looked at Kyle, still sleeping on the pillow. I stared at him the whole way there. I must have fallen asleep again, because I woke up in an attic with a small wooden bed with a comfy mattress, sheets, blankets, and pillows. I looked out the window and sat there for what seemed like a half-hour. I didn't hear Kyle come up the stairs, but he was right behind me.
"This is my room, I picked the attic to escape the wildness of my brother and sister. I'm sleeping in the spare room down stairs on the left, if you need me." He said from the top of the stairs.
"Thank you so much." I said. I am sleeping in his bed. I thought. He walked over, gave me a really gentle hug good night and went back down the stairs. I curled up in a ball under the covers and smelled some sweet scent the clung to his bed that I recognized from his clothes. I fell asleep peacefully, and woke up realizing the fact that I didn't have those scary dreams that haunted me. At the hospital, I always had what people call hallucinations, but I know what I saw.
I brushed out my curls into waves. I had my side bangs out and everything else was in one long braid down the middle of my back. I put on a loose gray and black stripped shirt with a round neck line and some skinny jeans. I came down stairs to the room on the left and found the door open with Kyle's eyes open, but he was still laying on his back in bed. His head was tilted in my direction and he said 'Come in.'
I walked over to his bedside.
"Are you okay?" I asked. He nodded at me and looked up again.
"I've been better." he said, looking back at me. "You look nice today." He smiled.
"Aw thank you. Are you up to show me around?" I asked. He nodded again and got out of bed. He was shirtless and was wearing blue PJ's with no socks.
"Oh, my gosh! What happened to your skin!" It was red like a sun burn.
"Just another thing to do with....." He mumbled, I couldn't hear him anymore. He put on a Jersey with the number 64 on it, and I left the room when he put on some pants. He came wobbling his way out of the spare room with a pile of clothes he must have gotten last night. I told him I would take his clothes back to his room and help him down the stairs for breakfast.
I folded them neatly and put them on an old dresser with a mirror on it. I didn't dare look through it.
He had his own bathroom up here. I came back down the stairs to find him waiting by the door frame. His thin hand reached for my shoulders and I put my arm around his waist. He groaned a bit but I got him to the stairs.
They had an old fashioned house, the walls were blue, and I could tell the house was old, because there was stains from water, or just from the wall paper being so old. The railing and stairs were a hazel nut colour and when we got down the stairs, I noticed he had a yellow kitchen with black cupboards.
There was a little girl with her reddish brown hair in pigtails sitting at the brown table. Their mom was in the kitchen making crepes.
"This is Amy she's six, and Danny is down stairs. He is twelve." Kyle said.
As soon as Kyle finished, I was guessing it was his dad that entered the room.
"Good morning, you must be Aphrodite." He said. "I am Michael Robins, but you can call me dad, if you like." he said patting Amy's head. I could tell where Kyle got his hair colour from. He had light blonde hair, but Kyle's was a sandy blond, not a solid colour like his dads.
"Oh, thank you!" I said. Sure I sounded extravagantly happy all of the time, but no one actually knew me. Kyle knew very little. He knew I wasn't happy, and he knew that I was lonely.
"I'm Mary Robins as you know," Mary said. "I'm going shopping today while Kyle is at the Hospital, I could get you some clothes or something." She said smiling as she brought the crepes into the dinning room and on the table.
"Oh, that sounds great." I said. I helped Kyle to the table and sat as close to him as possible. Amy sat next to me. She was playing with a doll, and Danny came up with a game system. He had a brownish colour of hair, and he never once looked up. He sat beside his dad.
"Danny, Amy, this is Aphrodite. She's going to be living with us for a while." Kyle said. Danny finally looked up at me, said a quick 'Hi' and resumed to what he was doing.
"Kyle talks about you all the time!" Amy said. I didn't know what to do, I just sat there.
"It was about her moving in, Amy." Kyle said as a little bit of colour met his cheeks.
"But before.." She trailed off.
Mrs. Robins said 'Dish up!' before Amy could go into details. We ate quietly, but occasionally Mr. Or Mrs. Robins would ask me questions. I helped Kyle get ready afterwards, he says we can share a bathroom, and I decided, I am calling Kyle's parents Aunt Mary, and Uncle M. Kyle sat on the bed and I got my coat, and sat beside him. He had a sad look to his face.
"Hey, have you ever dated?" He asked. His blue eyes stuck on mine. His lips parted as if he were going to speak. His short ruffled hair was messed up, and his thin body was so still.
"No." I said flatly. "You?"
"No." He said. "But I do have a crush." He said smiling.
I sat there. I was completely frozen and I had the sickest feeling wash over me.
"No, I just kidding, just kidding.." We laughed. I didn't laugh because it was funny, I laughed with relief. He had dimples when he smiled, I loved it.
"Come on, Kyle, you are going to be late!" he turned his head from where his mom's voice came from and looked at me again, my stomach dropped, I never realized how much I liked him until now. I felt like hugging him all day.
"I guess I will have to give you a tour when we are back." He said.
His room was old fashioned, but yet, empty too. He had nothing but clothes, a dresser, a light, bed, and a floor. His bathroom had more things, but they were just the basics.
I helped Kyle down the stairs and into the old truck that must have been his fathers.
Kyle let me decide if I wanted the side or the middle, because there wasn't a back seat. I choose the middle because he needed to get out before I would have to and it would be uncomfortable for him to be squished in the middle. I was a tad bit smaller. His mom started the truck, and we were off.
We talked a lot on the drive there. Aunt Mary walked with Kyle into the hospital, and got him settled. He waved before they left and I sat there until Aunt Mary came back.
I moved into the seat that Kyle was sitting in, I felt nervous about being alone with Aunt Mary, but I was sure I would survive. I had a lot of hallucinations at the hospital, and at a church or any old place with a history so being with her couldn't be as bad.
There was a pool of blood underneath the truck, it pooled out, and all I did was just sit there, and analyze the scene. The blood was thick, and had tiny bubbles in it, I saw it reach the drain. I was so sick of being afraid all of the time. Aunt Mary finally got back, and the blood was gone. We left the parking lot and headed for a store.
"Do you think it would be okay if I called you 'Aunt Mary?'" I asked, I intended to ask her before, but every time I wanted to, a lump made its way to my throat. Even though I know they can't argue about it, I was still nervous about asking.
"Oh, sure. That sounds great!" She said. We talked more than I thought we would. I asked her how she met Uncle M, and what Kyle was like when he was little. Out came the usual, the embarrassing stories, which weren't that bad.
I picked out a really pretty dress, it was white with red flowers and ribbon around my ribs that had a bow at the back. I think Kyle will like it. I can't believe I like a guy with cancer, of all guys, even celebrities, Kyle Robins.
I got some jeans and pretty shirts. I got a pair of shoes too. I wanted to use the money I had from what my parents left me, I didn't want Aunt Mary paying for me, it would have made me feel guilty, but she said I must save that money for a new car, or a place to live when I move out. So she got her way and pretty much gave me a whole new wardrobe.
We went for lunch, and I was finally able to pay for myself. I gave Aunt Mary my wave of 'Thank-you's' and 'You really didn't have to do that's'. But she said 'Hey, I was a teenager once' and the 'It's okay, someone needs to spoil you.'
We had coffee and a sandwich, and after all that shopping, it was like she was my best friend. Which felt very nice, I have never actually had a best friend that was a girl. Aunt Mary enrolled me in high school, and I would start in a week at Kyle's school.
He went when he could, and studied very hard on the days he missed when he wasn't at school. Aunt Mary thought it would be very important that he got an education because if Kyle got over cancer, he would need a well paying job.
I was very smart too, so Aunt Mary didn't have to put me back a grade, because I had always read books and I had a tutor when my parents were alive, He taught me in advance, so I was even smarter than someone in eleventh grade.
When we came to the Hospital to pick up Kyle, Aunt Mary sent me in alone, because she had to call Uncle M about something.
I walked up to the nurse on my floor, he had black hair and blue eyes. He looked about thirty, but he was young looking. His name tag said he was Mr. Gray.
"Excuse me, but where can I find Kyle Robins?" I asked as politely as I could.
"Oh, he is in the examining room. Number 264. Up a level, down the right." He said, looking at me and what looked like a little boy's smile flashed across his face. He resumed looking at the clipboard in his hand as I walked to the elevator. It was deserted so I helped myself. I went in and stood in the corner of the closet-looking-elevator.
When the doors closed. I sat there and closed my eyes, I flashed them back open, I felt a jolt going through my body. I couldn't breathe. There was water in the elevator, it went to the top, I was floating up. I was panicking, and screaming, water, something no one can hear me through. I thought. I relaxed, because I swear I was dying, leaving this place. That I had been abandoned at for a month.
A red colour was dripping into the clear water, and I knew to my horror, that it was blood. I wondered who's blood I kept on seeing.
It climbed down the water like a branching tree. I closed my eyes hard, I knew I had water coming out of my eyes. Out of my eyes! I opened them again and a bell dinged. The doors opened, and I stepped out panting like I had been running. I turned to see back into the elevator as the doors closed. There was water on the floor, I was scared, I have never hallucinated and there being a sign that that had ever happened. I took a drink of water from the fountain, and calmed myself down. You don't want to freak out Kyle. I thought to myself, and I was right. I shouldn't do that.
I walked to the room 264, and Kyle was just getting off the odd looking machine. He had a few words to the doctor, he looked really mad. When he saw me through the door, his mood changed and he gave me his little boy smile. He put his Jersey back on and then came out the door.
"Need help?" I asked.
"Yeah, the doctors say I should rest up, they are going to continue the treatment on me." he mumbled and I did what I had this morning and helped him as if he had broken his ankle.
"How was it?" I asked. He looked down at his feet like he was going to trip over something.
"Boring as usual, nowhere near as fun as if you were with me like you used to be when I got exams done." he said with a smile. I have never fought with Kyle, so I never knew what he looked like when he was mad. In that room was the first time.
"Your mom enrolled me in your high school. I am in every class you are in." I said as we got outside. It was beginning of another snowfall, I could tell it was going to be a cold winter.
I turned to look at his face.
"Oh god, that is perfect! I don't really have any friends there because I am hardly ever around. I don't take P.E. Though, I wanted to be a runner when I was older, but then I got cancer." He said in a faint voice. It was getting dark again, but before we went out on the long drive, Aunt Mary stopped at Old Times Restaurant. Kyle didn't really have and appetite, but he ordered a Italian salad, and I ordered spaghetti and Garlic Toast, I gave Kyle one of my pieces, and Aunt Mary ordered Pasta.
"Thank-you Aunt Mary." I said, taking the first bite.
"Oh, you are welcome, Honey." She said and smiled. I could tell where Kyle got his eyes from.
"I told Aphrodite about you when you were a baby." She teased Kyle.
"Oh, that can't be good." Kyle said, as he played around with his salad. Kyle went to the bathroom three times to vomit. I could tell his mom was very worried.