SIXTH:
They rummaging their belongings out from the cabin, trudging back to the antique jeep as the downpour drenches them on their way there. They shove themselves inside, watching the wipers squeaking against the window as they drive off into the abyss of rainfall. The calming of the rain drumming on the hood of the vehicle, rocks them into a deep slumber. The snores of everyone fills up the cramp space of the jeep. Memories of blood trickling down her hand, follow by shouts from Josie and her mother drain her in her sleep. Freddie's eyes pluck open with her rampant banging in her chest. The smears of rain droplets over the windows soothes into her brain while the rain continues to sing down rhythmic drops of water.
"You alright?" Stiles words fragment through her ears, like hazy call. She turns to him with a sloppy nod, only to turn her back and face toward the window. The silence builds within the car, wrapping itself around Jaeden in a warm embrace. Her eyes flutter, the pitter patter of water easing her back to slumber. "Did you have a nightmare?" His words bore through her head like a drill, springing her ears wide. She groans, shrugging her shoulders.
She glances out the window, the curtain of rain spreading itself thinner with a few sparkles of sunlight breaking through it. She squeezes her eyes shut, resting her mind. "You know; you can tell me anything right?" Stiles' voice rattles in his throat. She turns to him, seeing his long fingers pita pat on the steering wheel. "It's just I kinda know what you were going through, somewhat." Jaeden peers at him, the veins in his arms throbbing upward. Stiles inhales a breath, keeping his eyes intent on the road. "It's just that, after my mother died. I felt alone. Like I had no one." His brown eyes shift over to her, his Adam's apple rotating up and down his throat. "Have you felt like that?"
A swarm of memories from that night encase over her whole body. Her muscles, her joints tighten like a constricting pumping all life out of her. A small tear escapes from her eye, she catches it with her fingertip before it has a chance to glisten. "I have," she chokes. She shrinks her body into the seat, guilt shadows over her like a cold breeze. She feels a light brush of a warm hand upon her thigh, shifting over to see Stiles' hand.
"You don't have to feel that way, at least not with me." His face breaks into a goofy grin. Freddie shuffles her long pink and black dreads underneath her adventure time snapback. "I mean it," Stiles continues. "If you ever do feel lonely, always feel free to talk to me." Freddie feels the shadow drift away from her, the aches from her nightmares soothing away.
"Do you really mean that Stilinsky?"
Stiles chuckles out loud, lifting his hand off her leg. "Holy shit!" Stiles forces his fingers to grip around the steering wheel, the piercing screech of the breaks hisses in the air. Their bodies slam forward, with mounts of groans and swearing plunging.
"What the fuck, Stilinsky!" Jackson wriggles his body out from under Lydia and Danny. They scramble in the tight area of the back seat, demanding explanations. Their voices drone out like static behind Jaeden, while she stares out the front window, shoving the pale gray and black dreads from her eyes. The wipers smear water, revealing minor details through the blurs. Some gray, large tentacles, giant monstrous frame and she recognizes it. Her hand soothes down her throat while the creature marches to them, getting larger every pounding step.
The ground shakes beneath them, its tentacles flying in the air like kites. It approaches the jeep, dribble of goo slips from its tentacles while the car feels up with the splitting pounds of hearts beating. The tentacles smash into the hood like a drummer, rotating its tentacles to the sides of the jeep. It breaks through the windows, shatters of glass spills over onto them. The tentacle slithers its way inside the jeep, tickling through the patrons. A click hums out low. As Danny slide out the door, Jackson close behind him. The tentacle creature shoots down, gripping its hold onto Jaeden and Lydia. Stiles rummages his foot through underneath his seat, grabbing a knife and wielding it inside the creature.
It shrieks a blood curdling yell, with its strong tentacles ripping Stiles away. It tosses him in the muddy puddles like rag doll. The creature attaches itself to the jeep, crushing it with its heavy body. The jeep topples over, skidding closer to the edge of a cliff. Lydia screams, at first begging. Then her screams shift into deep roaring rambles of an antique sounding language. The jeep shrink, morphing away from their bodies, shaping itself into a series of spikes. It eviscerates through the creature, jabbing into the soft underbelly flesh. The creature's body freezes, impale on the blue spikes, with the dark blue blood dripping from its body and burning to the ground. The heavy stench of acid swirls up in through the last drops of rain. The sun blazes down on them.
She stumbles her fingers through the crumbling pages of her favorite old chemistry book. Scanning the different and complex problems while they shuffle out into solutions in her mind. The problems on the pages shift and morph, transforming before her eyes. Kira rubs her eyes, examining the pages again with the smudges of black ink on the yellow stained pages. She looks down seeing a slur of the word 'daemonium' repeat itself multiple times on the pages. She touches her dainty fingers onto the page, blue goo seizing itself to her skin. She flinches, cradling her hand while the words gravitate into a swirl of another word 'imperium'. Kira shoves the book off her lap, standing on her feet.
The sweet scent of coffee beans soars into her nostrils, the clanging of cups and blenders spinning plugs into her ears. She moves around, seeing herself standing in the middle of crowded coffee shop. She stares back at her hand, seeing the scars from the sizzling goo heal into the natural color of her skin. She rushes out of the shop, slamming her small body into numerous people entering inside. The familiar grunt of someone catches in her mind. Flashes of him caressing the back of his hands along her bare breasts reflect back before her eyes. His low voice whispering her name into the base of her neck trickles down her spine.
"Hey Kira," her memories halt themselves. She sees him smiling down at her with his dark brown eyes. The intense thumping cranes against her chest, forcing the memories of his mouth on hers down to her psyche. She waves.
"Hi Scott." The constant stare from him builds the trembles stringing all over her. She scurries out of the shop, dread beating down her back when the patter of his feet and voice flows with her. The intense grab of his hand on her arm flinches her around, looking directly at his chest. "Is there something you need?" Scott glares at her with confusion written on his face and sorrow hanging in his eyes.
"Do I need something?" Scott recalls the question back to himself, pulling himself away from her step by step. "I mean, I just, I haven't seen you in a while. Not since..."
"Listen Scott, I know, in fact I'm not sure what I know. But the summer is over, just like our 'fling'. So you can run back to your girlfriend Allison." Kira stomps off, trying to drown out Scott's inconsistent calling of her name. She clutches her eyes tight, only to be bombard with more flashes of Scott's bare skin on hers. His sweat falling on her damp body. She peels her eyes open, finding herself in the middle of a large interstate. A monstrous pale gray creature, the same creature from the night Freddie discharge, draft into a pile of long blue-tinted spikes. Kira paces around the area, noticing Jaeden and Lydia crawling out of the spikes.
She rushes over to them, pounding her feet into the ground. "Jaeden, Lydia," they hear Kira's call, as they drag themselves to their feet. A long trail of blood dribbles down Jaeden's and Lydia's arms and legs. Danny and Jackson races to them, peering over their wounds as Stiles stands. He looks over the spikes, gliding his hand along them, examining the creature as its skin bubbles and melts.
Jackson and Danny explain their encounter with the creature in detail to Kira. Jaeden drowns out their voices, grazing her fingers along the front of her neck, feeling the scars brush against her fingers. Everything begins to swirl around her, head getting light as the last drops of rain pebble down from the clouds. Everyone's voices grate in her ears, feeling herself stumble and drop to the wet pavement. She relaxes into the sweet aroma of Lydia's herbal shampoo as her hair drapes into Jaeden's face.
"Are you alright?" her voice tickles into her ears. Jaeden nods, raising herself out from Lydia's embrace. "Huh, you better relax." She grabs onto Jaeden's hand, helping her off the ground. Jaeden peers down at Lydia, seeing herself reflect back into Lydia's sea-green eyes. "Kira, how did you get here?" the tone dangles in the air, sensing everyone glancing at Kira with inquisitive stares.
"How about we ask who the hell destroyed my jeep?" frustrated, Stiles stomps back to everyone. They look at the spikes, ripping their eyes away to avoid themselves from getting a glimpse at the creature. Freddie shakes her head, stiffening around Lydia's skinny arms wrap around her.
"Relax Stilinsky," Jackson chirps. "It's not like it had much life left in it anyway." Stiles groan, mumbling insults under his breath while Jackson moves closer to her to hear. Freddie snaps her eyes at the ground, seeing her black and red high-tops in her line of sight. Focusing her mind and eyes on her shoes, to ease the burning around her throat.
She struts on top of the concrete blocks, disguising themselves as makeshift steps, wobbling beneath her boots. She pulls on the screen door, shimmering her key into the lock. She jerks it around, aiding all her force into the key to get it to turn. She yanks the key out of the socket, ramming her fists onto the old door.
"Grandpa, grandpa my key's not working." Her voice sails through the door, shuffles of feet seeps from underneath the cracks. "Grandpa!" She steps off the concrete steps, surveying around the small trailer.
The few flares of dim light that shines through the curtains whiskers out. She moves to the window, trying to peer through it by standing on her toes. She marches back to the door, banging both of her fists onto the door until the entire trailer shakes. "Grandpa! I know you're in there. Let me inside." She stops, rubbing her hands and wrists along the sides of her arms. She trots down, tightening her backpack to herself.
The sun slips down behind the trees, making room for the sliver of moon to graze itself in the sky. She continues walking, feeling the numbness stiffening up her leg. She wraps her long black and pink hair with her rainbow bandana into a ponytail, allowing space to plug her earphones into her ears and blasts the strong riffs of Fallout boy into her drums. She marches, finding nothing but more and more darkness trailing behind her. The points of the large cathedral catch her eyes as bright lights shine through the stain glass windows. The eerie presence lures it closer to her, seeing the large red double doors vibrate towards her.
She grabs her camera, capturing the last fragment of light as the cathedral embraces the pattern pink and purple skies into its jagged roof. She pushes though the doors, stepping through the grand vacancy of the bare pews that are wrapped in a dingy red carpet. She flashes her camera, encasing the images of the stature of Mother Teresa praying along the solid gray walls to the empty church. The clunks of her large black boots slamming onto the wooden floors echo throughout the entire place.
She focuses the camera towards the front, the grand stage seated a few feet off the ground, over towering her small stature. She peers through her lens, seeing red podium recoiling in the frame of her camera. A flow of long black hair slides over the podium, swiping down the front. She stops, looking back over her camera. Seeing nothing, but the same empty stage that she saw when she enters.
She pulls her camera back to her face, the click of the camera in her ear as she places her camera back around her shoulders. Looking up, seeing a short brunette with long slinky hair structuring around her small heart-shape face. She struts on top of the stage, leering her eyes at her.
"Can I help you with something?" She walks down the steps, sashaying her way down the aisle in her dark blue mini dress, her tan legs peeking out from the bottom.
"Sorry, I didn't know anyone was here." She slings her camera over her shoulder, preparing to leave through the door.
"You looking for a place to stay?" The brunette continues, a chirpy tone in her voice. "Or are you here to make a confession." She pauses at the large doors, turning back to look at her. "Don't feel ashamed if you are looking for a place to sleep. We get that all the time." The brunette closes in on her, her large brown eyes sparkling as she extends out her hand. "I'm Veronica Lodge."
She takes her hand, examining weight and force of the brunette's handshake. "Antoinette Topaz, but you can call me Toni. I prefer it actually." They drop hands, Veronica still providing her vibrant smile to Toni.
"Well, Toni. Make yourself comfortable. I'll go fetch the blankets and pillows." Toni watches Veronica leave, gazing at the way her hips sway in her taut skirt. She makes her way to the stage, easing her feet on the creaky steps. She perches herself on the stage, overlooking the entirety of the entire church. She embraces the wide elegant antique presence, snatching at her camera. Letting the flashes click over in her head, a rush swells up in her body as she glides across the stage. Camera in hand, grabbing every angle and dimension of the church.
"You're looking for a model?" Veronica appears behind Toni, a stack of fluffy pillows and blankets in her arms. A small lunch box with the picture of the 'Avengers' on it dangles from her tiny hands. "I'm willing and ready to pose if you're like." A little coy giggle escapes from Veronica's lips, handing the items to Toni.
She slings the camera down her back, laying the items down on the stage. She sits on top of the hefty blanket, the rough floor occasionally grinding underneath her butt. "We also have sandwiches, in case you're hungry." Veronica lays down next to Toni, opening the box. Toni reaches to the box, letting her hand hover over the diagonally slice sandwich until she takes one. Chomping the crisp bread in her mouth, the bits of savory Swiss combine with the peppery seasoned flavor of the tomatoes and lettuce prance around in her mouth. She finishes the rest of her sandwich in the silence, contemplating to take another before she finds herself chomping the chunky slices of bread through her teeth.
"Well, you didn't answer my question Miss Topaz."
"Which was?"
Veronica laughs, motioning to her camera. "Do you want me to be your muse or not?"
She takes the camera from around her neck, aiming it towards Veronica. "I take it this is something that you've always been eager about," Toni giggles. Veronica spreads her body along the floor, resting her head on her hand as her brown hair falls in front of her. Toni snaps her camera a couple of times, rotating it. Veronica pulls herself closer to Toni, her smile radiating.
"So, have you always been into taking photos of beautiful things?"
"Well, it's not something I've been doing for too long," Toni chuckles. She tosses the camera around in her hands. "I actually only started getting into it a couple of years ago."
"What happened a couple of years ago?"
"Wow, am I on trial here or are you just naturally curious?" Toni sneaks a glance towards Veronica, who has a glint in her eyes. Toni slips off her boots, wrapping the blanket up around her knees.
"Sorry, if I'm making you uncomfortable," Veronica begins. She sits up, lowering her raspy voice into a hypnotic whisper. "It's just that, we don't get too many interesting people around here with gorgeous pink hair and pretty brown eyes." Toni keeps her eyes train on her knees, cuddling them to her chest.
"Well if you don't mind," Toni smiles, avoiding her eyes away from glancing over Veronica's angelic face. "I'm pretty tired, I think I'm going to sleep." Veronica nods, giving herself one last look over of Toni before rising to her feet.
"Alright, if you need anything give me a call. I only live a few blocks away."
"But I don't have your number," Toni lays her head down against piling the extra blanket underneath the two pillows.
"Well, I guess we'll have to change that, then. Won't we."