IV. Emerald
My dream was still abnormal, just like the rest of them I had. I was in class, and I sat by Rynn, Chalice, Jarissa, and Veronica. It was a normal school day, and we were in Chemistry class. In the dream, the four of them were grinning at me as if I was something to eat.
"What?" I had asked them. They just smirked at me, and in the dream, I was completely fine the way they stared at me, which was weird. Any normal person would have been frightened the way they stared at me; I guess I was just an abnormal freak.
"Tragedy, why don't you follow us?" Chalice asked me in the dream. She grinned at me, but all of a sudden, Dominique broke through the roof and stared at me.
"Tragedy." He told me. His voice deep, and his obsidian eyes staring into my fiery ones. Chalice, Jarissa, Rynn, and Veronica cowered away from him, scared. In the dream, I was confused when I looked up at my older brother. Suddenly—
I woke up.
I sat up, looking at my clock once again; it was about 7:08. I looked at myself in the vanity mirror. My fiery red hair was all in snarls and tangles. I also smelled badly too, like I just swam in mud.
I jumped off my bed and opened the door, my eyes halfway open—or halfway shut—and saw that Dominique came out of his room the exact same time as I did. His jet-black hair was all messy and sticking up. I had to laugh at him. He looked so pathetic, he even ran into the wall on the way to the bathroom! Ha!
"Morning, Dom." I said to him snickering. He looked at me with tired eyes, even dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. Had he stayed a Locke's house since midnight or something?
He looked at me, and then gave a chuckle. He ruffled my red hair and I just blinked. He was so nasty to me yesterday, even though it was our birthday...wait...our birthday. No one even told us happy birthday! Well, Mom and Dad did come home late, and so did Dominique...I think. I walked to my bathroom and shut the door behind me. I looked at myself; a complete and disastrous mess. I laughed at myself. I looked more like a cave dweller—or cavewoman—than a human being.
I suddenly realized that my back was hurting. It couldn't have been my Scoliosis...could it? No, my Scoliosis could not have been the cause. It was much more painful than that. I winced in my pain, and took a deep breath, and suddenly, the pain was gone. It was so weird. It was as if something was trying to shoot out of my back!
I shook my head from the thought of the pain, and began to brush through my hair. I made a little screech every time I brushed through a snarl. It hurt like heck, believe me. I eventually made through the painful brushing, luckily. Next was washing my face with soap and warm water. I splashed my face, lightly rubbed the soap over my face, and
splashed my face again and again, getting rid of the oils on my porcelain skin.
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I grabbed my toothbrush, gently squirted my mint toothpaste onto the brush, and lightly dripped some water onto the brush. I placed the toothbrush to my pearly-white teeth, and began to brush...hard. The force that my hand put into my toothbrush smashed so hard against my teeth, I swear there could have been a hole placed in my mouth. I winced, pulling the toothbrush away to see that there was no hole, and no damage. Since when have I ever been so strong?
Nevertheless, from the strong force, came an advantage. My teeth were literally sparkling. They had never done that before, which was a really big surprise for me. I just placed the toothbrush back in the little slot Mom had installed for me by the sink. I placed the toothpaste next to the toothbrush slot, and walked out of my bathroom. I had forgotten that I had smelled too. I sighed. I walked back into the bathroom and shut it silently behind me. I stripped myself of my clothes from yesterday, turned the shower on, and stepped in; feeling the warm welcome the hot shower water gave me.
I began to sing the song "American Idiot" by Green Day. I was quite fond of that band. I was a rocker, unlike so many other girls. While other normal girls listened to rap crap and pop, I listened to rock and heavy metal.
I continued to sing in the shower, washing my hair with my favorite watermelon-smelling shampoo. I washed out the shampoo completely, then grabbed a rag, squirted some soap into the rag, rubbed it together with my hands, and began to wash my body. I was feeling more...refreshed and clean while allowing the shower water to drench my skin of most germs, getting rid of the nasty gross germs.
After a while, I turned the knob of the shower off, causing the water to stop, and allowing the drain to well, drain all the water. I stepped out of the shower, walked over to a cupboard, and grabbed a Venetian-red towel out. I wrapped the crimson towel 'round my upper chest so it covered everything.
I opened the bathroom door, allowing the steam to come out from the bathroom, and I saw Dominique, staring at me.
"What do you want?" I asked icily with a glare.
"Nothing." He said softly, still staring at me.
"Stop staring at me, you pervert!" I yelled at him angrily, and walked into my bedroom to slam the door behind me. He seemed to be in a much better mood than I was, but I just continued to feel so pissed off. Ugh!
I closed the curtains of my balcony and windows and dropped the towel, grabbing all the proper clothing. I grabbed a green shirt that said, "Love the earth" on it. Yes, I was a tree-hugger. No, I was not a hippie.
I changed into some Levi jeans, allowing them to show off my skinny, slender legs. I had to admit, I looked pretty hot. Well, not hot but enough to probably get the guys to stare at me.
I walked out of my bedroom. Constance came out with a pink shirt that had a My Little Pony on it, plus she wore a carnation-pink skirt that went down to her tiny little knees. I smiled at her warmly.
"Morning Constance." I said to her, and she looked up at me with a goofy grin on her cute pale face.
"Good morning, Tragedy!" She squealed cutely, and then burst into giggles. I laughed she was so high-spirited. I grinned at her and ruffled her jet-black hair.
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Constance and I walked down the stairs. I noticed with the corner of my fire-red eyes that Dominique was walking down the marble steps behind us. I turned my head to him to award him with a sneer. Ha. That's what he gets for staring at me when the only clothing I have on is a fricken' towel! He just stared at me with slightly wide eyes, but just said nothing.
I then walked into the kitchen where I grabbed a box of Honeycombs, a bowl, a spoon, the jug of milk, and I sat over at the dinner table. I saw Constance plop down on the seat next to me with her Cheerios. We both stuck our tongues out at Dominique, who just seemed completely clueless. I saw that he just rolled his eyes at us as if we were the biggest idiots in the world.
"Tragedy, if you're still mad at me from staring at you, get over it. God, you act like a little kid sometimes." Dominique ordered at me with annoyance in his tone. He was getting a little irritated with me, I could tell.
"What if I'm a little kid at heart? Huh? What are you going to do about that? Huh?" I taunted him with a smirk on my lips. He just gave me a long stare, and then began to eat his breakfast as if nothing happened.
She has to act like such a brat sometimes. I heard Dominique say without moving his lips. Wait, back up there a second. Was he using telepathy or somethin'? 'Cause I swear I heard him say something.
"I'm not a brat, you idiot!" I yelled at him. His coal eyes bulged a little, in surprise. He hadn't expected that, for sure.
"How did you—,"
"Do not ask me." I answered his question even before he asked it. The conversation came to an end as we all started eating our food. Mom and Dad had left for work early, so the three of us were left here.
"Hey! Guess what!" Constance yelled out. Dominique and I just stared at her. Dominique was the first one to speak.
"What?" He asked her.
"I made lots of new friends!" She cheered. Dominique and I both grinned at her while she smiled broadly.
"That's cool." Dominique said with total ease. He walked over to the fridge to eat something. He saw nothing, and decided to go eat some toast. I watched him while eating my cereal, and saw that on the back of his neck, was a black mark that resembled a wing. What the heck did he do to himself? Get a tattoo at Locke's house?
"Hey, Dom, what's that on the back of your neck?" I asked him a little angrily, I knew he could sense it. He turned around, and immediately placed his hand on the back of his neck, so I couldn't see the mark anymore.
"Oh, uh, that? It's nothin'. One of those temporary tattoos that I got at Locke's house last night." He said. Liar. It wasn't temporary, it was most likely permanent, the one's where they stick a germ-infested needle into your skin so you can get other people's diseases.
"Sure. Like I'm supposed to believe that. If you don't tell me right now, I'll tell Mom and Dad that you secretly get permanent tattoos at strangers' houses." I threatened him. He gave a sigh and then pointed to me.
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"You've got one too, except yours is a white wing." He said to me. I gasped, placing my hand on the back of my neck, and touching the outline of the wing. What the heck was happening? I wanted to find out right now!
"What the hell did you do to me? How did I get this mark on my neck? Tell me right now, Dominique! This isn't f—,"
"I didn't do anything, neither did anyone else." He said vacantly, no expression in his voice whatsoever. I glanced at Constance to see her blinking and totally confused. I would too if my older siblings had weird wing-shaped marks on the back of their necks.
"Well then how did this...mark get on my neck?" I asked, my tone reflecting the emotion of fury. Constance stood up out of her seat.
"I'm going to go brush my teeth..." She said, taking her cereal, bowl, and spoon to the sink. She dumped the milk and cereal into the drain, placed her bowl and spoon in the skin, and placed the box of cereal back into the cupboard. Dominique and I watched her until she was out of sight.
"Listen, I didn't want this to happen. I didn't even know this was supposed to happen until yesterday." He said while walking over to me. I arched an eyebrow, what the heck was he talking about?
"Make sense, Dom." I said, irritated.
"What?" He asked, not getting what I was trying to tell him.
"I don't know what the heck you're talking about."
"Follow me." He said, a little boredom filling the tone of his vacant voice. I was still confused.
"Wait, what about school?" I asked, worried that maybe I might become tardy, and then rumors start flying around at school about how delinquent I am...
"I'll call the school and tell them you're sick."
"What about Constance?" I asked again, worried this time about my sister's sake. She absolutely loved school; it would nearly kill her to miss a day of it, especially since she made new friends.
"She can walk to school on her own." He said, now the tone of his voice a little annoyed by the so many questions I piled on top of him.
"She's only six!" I exclaimed in pure shock.
"So? She's a strong kid." He said, blankly.
"Dominique, be reasonable! She's only a young, little six-year old girl who doesn't have much muscle!" I yelled at him, hopefully, Constance wouldn't find out we were arguing about her.
"You're wrong in that department. She has power...but she doesn't know how to use it...yet." He said; I could hear a smirk in his voice when he spoke to me. Again, I was confused. Now, he was making no sense, as if he spoke a foreign language that I had no clue how to translate.
"Ok, you lost me." I told him as confusion swept over me with millions of questions. He just sighed again. Dominique stood up from his seat, and began walking towards the door. I began to follow him, not bothering to put all my breakfast stuff away in the sink.
The two of us walked outside, seeing that morning sun. Dominique made a left, making us go into the backyard.
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"Dom, c'mon. Tell me what's going on!" I yelled at him. He just ignored me and continued walking. He led me to the backyard, and began to walk towards the emerald-green forest that lay in front of us.
"Why are we going in there?" I asked; he ignored me, again. I sighed, knowing he wouldn't explain anything to me until we reached the destination spot, which apparently, was the densely-vegetated forest.
"...I'll show you once we get far enough in here." He said, sounding as if he was looking for something important, but what?
We continued walking,
the wet forest welcoming us. The dirt had morphed into mud, thanks to
last night's storm. The leaves of the trees were all wet also. Did
Dominique have to show me whatever he wanted to show me...today?
I mean, it was all wet and sticky and gross!
"We're almost
there." He reported to me with a dull tone. I nodded my head, which
made me look as if I understood what he was talking about, which was
a total false statement.
We stopped at an ancient relic of some sort. There was a red and white rose on the huge ancient rock. I blinked in surprise.
This was the bleeding rose I had seen in my dream.
"W-What is that?" I asked, my voice stuttering from the complete amazement that was filling my body.
"You'll find out soon." My twin brother told me, authority filling up his deep, low voice.
Dominique picked the bleeding rose up, and it was seriously, literally bleeding. Dominique gestured to me to pick it up, and I did. The moment I did, I dropped it and suddenly...
We were falling.
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