Me:Omg i have a headache D:
May: Me to D:
Drew: Maybe its because of the laptop
Me: probably, i spent on it for like 10 hrs XDD
May: whole new record :D!
Me: YAY, anyway May why you have a headache
May: I dont know i just have a headache
Me: Oh :P
Drew: Anyway...
Me: ...umm i dont own anything
That was it; something was watching her. The sky overhead was not blue but milky and opaque, like a giant bowl turned upside down. The air was stifling, and May felt sure that there were eyes on here.
She caught sight of something dark in the branches of the old quince tree in front of the house.
It was a crow, sitting as still as the yellow-tinged leaves around it. And it was the thing watching her. She tried to tell herself that this was ridiculous, but somehow she knew. It was the bigger crow she had ever seen, plump and sleek, with rainbow shining in its feathers. She could see every detial of it clearly: The greedy dark claws, the sharp beak, the single glittering black eye.
It was so motionless that it might have been a wax model of a bird sitting there. But i as she stared at it, May felt herself flush slowly, heat coming in waves up her throat and cheeks. Because it was...looking at her. Looking the way boys looked at her when she wore a bathing suit or a sheer blouse. As if it were undressing her with his eyes.
Before she realized what she was doing, she had dropped her backpack and picked up a stone from beside the driveway. "Get out of here," she said, and heard the shaking anger in her own voice. "Go on! Get away!" With the last word, she threw the stone.
There was an explosion of leaves, but the crow soared up unharmed. Its wings were huge, and they made enough racket for whole flock crows. May crouched, suddenly panicked as it flapped directly over her head, the wind of its wings ruffling her brunette hair.
But it swooped up again and circled, a black silhouette against the paper white sky. Then, with one harsh croak, it wheeled away toward the woods.
May straightened up slowly, then glanced around, self-conscious. She couldn't believe what she had just done. But now that the bird was gone, the sky felt ordinary again. A little wind made leaves flutter, and May took a deep breath. Down the street a door opened and several children poured out, laughing.
She smiled at them, and took another breath, relief sweeping through like sunlight. How could she have been so silly? This is a beautiful day, full of promise, and nothing bad was going to happen.
Nothing bad was going to happen-except that she was going to be late getting to school. The whole crowd would be waiting for her in the parking lot.
'You could always tell everyone you stopped to throw stones at a Peeping Tom,' she thought, and almost giggled. Now, that would five them something to think about.
Without a backward glance at the quince tree, she began to walk as quickly down the street.
The crow crashed through the top of the massive oak, and Drew's head jerked up reflexively. When he saw it was only a bird, he relaxed.
His eyes dropped to the limp white form in his hands, and he felt his face twist in regret. He hadn't meant to kill it. He would have haunted something larger than a rabbit if he'd known how hungry he was. But, of course, that was the very thing that frightened him: never knowing how strong the hunger would be, or what he might have to do to satisfy it. He was lucky that this time he'd killed only a rabbit.
He stood beneath the ancient oak trees, sunlight flitering down onto his straight hair. In jeans and a T-shirt, Drew Hayden looked exactly like a normal high school student.
He wasn't.
Deep in the woods, where no one would see him, he'd come to feed. Now he licked at his gums and lips painstakingly, to make sure there was no stain on them. He didn't want to take any chances. This masquerade was going to be hard enough to pull off as it was.
For a momment he wondered he should go back to Italy, back to his hiding place. What made him think he could rejoin the world of daylight?
But he was tired of living in shadows. He was tired of the darkness, and of the things that lived in it. Most of all, he was tired of being alone.
He wasnt sure why he'd chosen Fell's Church, Virgina. It was a young town, by his standards; the oldest buildings had been put up only a century and a half memories and ghosts of Civil War still lived here, as real as the supermarkets and fast-food joints.
He'd never be accepted completely, of course. A bitter smile curved his lips at the idea. He knew better than hope for that. There would never be a place where he could belong completely, where he could truly be himself.
Unless he chose to belong to the shadows...
He slapped away the thought away. He'd renounced the darkness; he'd left the shadows behind him. He was blotting all those long years out and starting afresh, today.
Drew realized he was still holding the rabbit. Gently he laid it down on the bed of brown oak leaves. Far away, too far human ears to pick up, he recognized the noises of a fox.
' Come along, brother hunter,' he thought sadly. Your breakfast is waiting.
As he slung his jacked over his shoulder, he notices the crow that had disturbed him earlier. It was still perched in the oak tree, and it seemed to be watching him. There was a wrongness about it.
He started to send a probing thought toward it, to examine the bird, and stopped himself. 'Remember your promise,' he thought
You dont use the Powers unless it is absolutely necessary. Not unless there is no other choice.
Moving almost silently among the dead leaves and dry twigs, he made his way toward the edge of the woods. Hid car parked there. He glanced back, once, and saw that the crow had left the branches and dropped down on the rabbit.
Drew's throat tightened, and he almost strode back to chase the bird away. "Still, it had right to eat as the fox did," he told himself.
As much as he did.
If he encounted the bird again, he'd look into its mind, he decided. Just now, he tore his eyes from the shighs of it hurried on through the woods, jaw set. He didn't want to be arriving at LaRousse High School.
All done :D hehe, please review
Ill give you a sneak peak:
When the car came to a stop, the door opened, and they glimpsed the driver.
"Oh, my god," Brianna whispered.
"You can say that again," breathed Dawn.
From where she stood, May could see he had a lean, flat-muscled body, Faded jeans he probably had to peel off at night, tight T-shirt, and a leather jacket of unusual cut. His hair was straight- and green.
