West-Shepard Residence, July 12, 2009; Los Angeles, California
Jade was fifteen and fifteen year old girls were stupid. They did things and then, with their hormones out of control, they immediately wished to take it back and it soon became a regret that they'll never forget, or a regret that they can fix in the near or distant future. She could not say that she was much different from her peers regardless of her demeanor and her actual persona, because she did something stupid all the time; whether it be making fun of someone she knew she shouldn't have, or snapping at her father for losing his job and getting smacked in the face, or insulting his preppy little wife from Australia and her son (who had admittedly became the only person despite her real mother, in her family that she could actually stand).
And here she was, sitting cross legged on her bathroom floor with her hair straightener plugged into the nearest power outlet, heating up on the rug in front of her. It was a Saturday and she had nothing to do and as her father and step mother gushed at each other downstairs and her stepbrother Brent had gone out with Cat, who was her best friend and not his, she had decided to do something productive and for once, straighten her naturally curly, elegant ringlet of brunette.
Yet, as she stared at the smoking slates of golden metal whilst it gradually grew hotter the longer she had it plugged in, her thoughts kept drifting back to pressing it against her skin, and she had no idea why. The chaste thought of pain fascinated her and hell, she wanted to feel it. She had cut her finger before, on knives when washing or putting away the dishes, paper cuts and being nipped at by that yappy little dog Maria (her stepmother) had brought with her from Wales, and the pain was nothing. She didn't feel a thing.
Her life wasn't even miserable despite her mother being gone and her dad always losing his job. So was she some kind of psychopath?
She didn't doubt it, but nevertheless, she pressed the boiling hot iron against her wrist and held it there. The pain should have burst through her forearm in furious waves and her brain should have urged her to pull away. Why wasn't she feeling it? Why couldn't she feel the good sensation in which pain was supposed to cause?
Jade pressed the iron against her skin again, in a different spot only inches away from the first, furiously holding down the metal as if the harder she pressed, the more she would feel.
Nothing.
And now her skin was starting to blister, pulsing crimson red and she could feel it throbbing if she pressed her fingertips to it.
Yet, she felt nothing.
The simple thought alone, she decided as she pulled herself up and glanced at the throbbing, growing blisters on her forearm, soaking it under warm water and pressing her fingers to it, that she had absolutely no other reason beside the want to feel, to burn herself with a straightener was enough to scare her – and about anybody knew that nothing frightened Jadelyn West. Yet here she was, panicking over the small blisters filled with fluid she had created just because she wanted to feel something, feel the pleasure pain would give her. Minor burns surrounded the partially larger one, flat and red and a faint, lone sting forming as the crystalline liquid coming from the faucet cascaded over them and decorating her skin sinisterly.
Her pair of scissors just in reach, Jade leaned over the countertop and snatched them within her free hand, her teeth chewing harshly at her bottom lip as she fingered the blade, separating them slowly. Blisters, like she had previously calculated, were full of fluid, and she could easily pop it if she had wanted too. After all, she didn't wish to have a bubble upon her arm. It was perfectly safe, people did it all the time to minor burns, so she figured, why not try it?
She prodded the bubble of her blister with the sharp point of her bronze scissors and without a second hesitation, the skin burst open, fluid, though not much, spilling from it and mingling in with the water cascading down her arm. Almost immediately, something completely unexpected happened. Her wrist, where each and every burn blister had been popped, began to burn so intensely that tears sprung to her eyes – it felt nice in some ways, and then after a moment or two, the pleasure of the pain had reached its limits, and she found herself reaching for her cell phone almost instantaneously.
"Beck, babe." She said into the receiver as the other person answered, holding her phone to her ear by her shoulder as her other hand gripped her searing hot and now burning wrist. "I did something stupid."
Day Twenty-One III
Anyone who happened to stumble upon Jade's usual, cold demeanor automatically knew that the gothic girl did not do, nor did she fit, panicking. Nor was she one to really worry or be genuinely concerned about anyone but herself and the two people she cared for the most. Yet, here she was, unable to believe her eyes – those aforementioned people, her companions she had known and learned to love for quite some time, were completely gone and out of sight, yet their bags remained exactly where they had placed them when the quad decided to settle down for the night. She had awoke to the partially empty site in which they set up a small, temporary camp with Brent just as equally confused as she; Beck and Cat's blankets were abandoned.
If she was in all respects with herself, she wasn't quite sure what to think of the two disappearing without saying anything to them, without waking them up or at the very least, waiting for them to awake. It was unsettling and unnerving how they had managed to vacate the premise without a single warning and possibly, without a reason to do so at all. Suspicious, yes, but also rather chafing if you asked her…
Well, she wouldn't exactly tell you it was pestering.
But she would tell you something like that, if you were to ask.
She had woken up that morning in a rather good mood, for whatever other reason despite the fact that she was, by some measure, feeling at least a tad bit better than she had the past, previous days before. Her stomach might have still been queasy and her head still might have hurt, but, she had not woken up with a migraine that put the thunderclap to shame, nor did she wake up feeling like she had to puke her very own, empty, guts out in a messy spillage across the floor. It was a rather relieving perception for Jade, especially after being ill with the same disease, or whatever she had caught, for so long. Surely though, she could not deny the fact that she was still feeling a bit ill and it hasn't quite passed over yet, no matter how much she wished to make it an animate object, thus then, she would be able to slice it up with her pair of scissors she kept tucked within her front pocket at all times.
Now, upon learning that her best friend and her boyfriend had gallivanted off somewhere together, sometime during the middle of the night in which the other two siblings were sleeping, her mood had been thoroughly ruined, and all she wanted to know, was why. Why had they suddenly left, and why didn't they talk about it with them? Why were they together? Why did Beck leave with Cat, instead of her? Albeit Jade had trusted Cat with her life, the sense of familiar jealousy and paranoia shivered down her spine and through her veins like a hot, white wild fire involuntarily.
"Where do you think they are, Aussie?" She asked Brent tensely and rigidly as she stood from her dirty blanket upon the floor and paced the small clearing, light brown hair a mottled mess atop of her skull, something chastely caused by the fact that she had just woken up not ever an hour beforehand.
"I'm not too sure myself" He answered her earnestly, picking up Cat's lone giraffe from the grass and flicking the stray emerald strands from its sullen yellow fur. "They would have packed their things if they intended on not coming back."
"Yeah? Then want to tell me where on Earth you think they could have gone? And why?" Jade snarled as she crossed her arms over her chest, stopping in her place and closing her eyes to rid herself of the dizzy spell that had washed over her at her quick and abrupt movements.
"Like I said, I dunno. I think we should just wait here for a little while before looking for them if they don't come back." Suggested Brent with a light shrug, tossing Mr. Longneck back at Cat's bag gently.
"Really…well, I think we should go now."
And so, Jade hobbled through the woodland with her stepbrother trailing anxiously behind her, eyes scoping the area for any type of evidence of where the missing duo had absconded. She attempted to hide her panic and her wonder, but evidently, with the prompt overload of keeping how ill she was feeling at bay, this was almost completely comical and impossible. She felt, to be rather honest, like her lungs were shrinking the more she moved – which would admittedly be awesome if it wasn't her, and if it wasn't so hard to breath – or filling with water.
Holding onto the bases of the trees, black nails chipping as they dug into the debris infected trunks, she stumbled along, calling out her boyfriend's name as Brent shouted for Cat. They had, thus far, gone so far from the small, overnight camp they had made the night before that she wasn't quite sure whether they would be able to find their way back…Which meant, all their stuff might as well have been good for absolutely nothing.
"Look! Jade, look!" Her stepbrother's smooth voice abruptly sounded, and, though she never took orders, she turned around and stumbled toward him, feeling dizzy and lightheaded – still.
"What?" She snapped irritably, her eyes narrowing as he stared down at the bark of a topiary, fingers tracing along it.
"There's blood."
"Do you think that that's…theirs? Or one of theirs?" She asked him slowly, fury bubbling within her veins, aided with a tinge of unknown fright and awareness. What could have possibly happened to the two of them? Was there someone else out there?
Brent nodded, pointedly fixating his gaze somewhere beyond the topiary they had halted at. "Yeah I do," he mumbled quietly, voice just barely fairing above a whisper, "and where eve they're going, they're going that way."
So…guess what. I'm sick, again. It's like the fever just keeps bouncing from my friends and my family and back to me, except this time, it's the flu. And, as a product of my "illness", this horrible thing of a chapter happened. I apologize if this was majorly terrible, if it wasn't…well…success! :P
And it's short. Majorly short and pointless. So I guess you can call this a filler.
ON the bright side, I got a couple other chapters done (I'm going to be editing them and stuff when I feel better), but they're all the one's that happen a couple more "days" after this one – I got Day 26 through 30 done so far. Ah well, at least its progress. I'm looking to have this story be at least around 30 chapters, maybe a little bit more and maybe a little bit less. Give or take. I'm also open to suggestions, so if you have any, don't be shy! I'm open to all, and take most of them into consideration! (:
Any who. Review away lovelies and the updates will come quicker :D Make a sick girl's day better?
Preview for next chapter -
"So, we work out here all day and we don't even get any water?" Beck asked Cat as he drew near, dumping the barrel of rocks into a pile next to her as she dropped the seeds into the soil and mended at the growing plants.
"Beck, shh. We're going to get in trouble!" She whispered back at him, not looking up from her work but slightly turning her head to the side as if to expose her swollen and split lip to him. He furrowed his brow at her, eyes traveling to the men surrounding the perimeter of the fields, anger coursing through his veins. The simple fact that they laid a hand on her, someone whom he considered strongly to be a younger sister, was enough to make him lose his temper - just like if someone had hurt Jade in any way, though he was sure his anger would be twice more severe if that were to happen.
"They did that to you? They hurt you and you didn't tell me?" He growled.
"Oy, handsome! Shut your trap over there and get back to work!" A guard yelled from somewhere behind him. Beck ignored him, keeping his shoulder squared as he glared down at Cat as she worked.
"You're going to just give into them? Come on -" Suddenly, a fist connected with the side of his face.
And as they say, all hell broke loose.