It was Friday January 27th, approximatively 7 o'clock. The winter formal dance was starting in an hour, and Caleb Danvers was heading out to pick up Sarah in ten minutes.
At the moment he was examining his tuxedoed self in a mirror, carefully looking over all the tailored stitches and assuring himself that none of his sickly skin was showing. He had on a pair of gloves, and his collar was buttoned up to its stiffest point.
He sighed, and ran a gloved hand over his face. The aging had spread, much to his dismay, although it was affecting his facial features much slower than the rest of his body. The only changes were dark bags under his eyes, a few wrinkles at the side of his mouth and eyes, and a few small spots that weren't there before. But it still scared him.
He ruffled his hair, plastered on a smile and prepared to head out the door when the phone rang. He turned around and grabbed it from his bed.
"Hello?" he asked tiredly.
"Caleb. Its Gorman."
Caleb was startled. He had never seen or heard the man use a phone. Hell, he didn't even know he owned a phone.
"Alright… Why are you calling?" he asked, avoiding asking where he had gotten his number.
"That friend of yours. Madeline, the blonde. I said I would find her information on her family history and how she could possibly be involved with you four."
"And you found something?" Caleb was interested now. He put down his coat and sat on his bed.
"I did indeed. Could you tell her?"
"Yeah, sure. What's the story?"
"Well. Her great-great-something grandfather on her mother's side was Sir William Stoughton, the witch hunter that was called upon to investigate the witch trials at Salem, where your families lived. He was responsible for the deaths of the great majority of the accused women. Your families, mostly yours though, thought that he ought to be punished for all the chaos he caused and cursed him."
"They cursed him?"
"Yes. The curse in itself was that whatever he loved most in the world would cause him the most pain. The whole affair of seeing people die must have been a side effect, of some other curse they added on top to try and make their point across. They hoped that he was vain enough to love himself and slowly suffer until he begged forgiveness to God and the judges, as his assistant did after barely a day of the curse, so they could lift it, but that wasn't the case. He never asked for forgiveness so the curse was never lifted, and I suppose it must have been transmitted from generation to generation until it reached Madeline."
Caleb stayed silent for a long time after that. All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit together now, and form a clear picture. Maddie's curse had been sucking power out of him. He hadn't met or come in contact with her until recently, so the aging couldn't start until then, and even if he had met her before it wouldn't have aged him until he had ascended.
"Gorman… if we forgive Maddie the curse will go away then?" he said with a faint stutter.
"I'm afraid not, it can only be removed by the exact person who performed it… but you could probably find an anti curse that would prevent it from being passed on to her children. I found a book, well, rather a diary of your ancestor, Caleb, its quite an interesting read it ever you want to see it."
"I'll see. Thanks Gorman." He said, barely whispering.
"You're very welcome. Don't forget to tell her." He hung up, and Caleb was greeted with the dial tone ringing incessantly.
The gears in Caleb's head started working overdrive now. His aging was because of Maddie, and her cruel and stupid ancestor. There was no way of stopping it.
Unless…
Caleb pondered the value of killing her. He wasn't that attached to her, and his desire to be young again was enough to muffle any emotions he had on her behalf. His brothers would understand, and no one really noticed her at school. She wouldn't be a great loss to the community, her death wouldn't affect anyone except him. And it would affect him in an exceptionally good way.
He took a deep breath and a relaxed smile spread across his face. The solution to all his problems had been revealed to him, and all it consisted of was stopping the heartbeat of a single girl.
Tyler was waiting in front of the auditorium, fiddling with the knot in his tie nervously as he waited for Clea. She had an appointment before the dance, and had insisted that he went without her, and that she would meet him there. He had agreed, a bit mournfully, and now she was a full three minutes late and he was freaking out.
He started pacing around his truck, straightening out his suit and tie nervously, wiping away imaginary stains and dust.
"That tux clean enough?" a voice joked from behind him.
He spun around, and gaped at the vision before him.
Clea was wearing a strapless cream-colored dress made of silky shimmering fabric that was cut slightly below her knees. A strip of fabric was hanging from each side, and was tied to her wrists. Her hair was straightened to a sleek shine, that flowed around her pretty face and reached her mid-back, with the added length. Her arms were crossed across her chest, her right clutching a small cream purse, and a cute sceptic expression was on her face.
"Uh… yeah… wow! You look amazing!" he exclaimed. She giggled and blushed.
"Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself… you should wear a suit more often!"
He laughed, and extended his arms regally. She linked hers with his, and they walked towards the auditorium, where the dance was taking place.
"Hey!" Pogue, looking handsome in his dress shirt and pants, exclaimed when they walked through the double doors. "So you two did make it!"
He was holding hands with Kate, who looked stunning in a long emerald green dress with a neck that revealed dark skin midway through her chest. She looked over Clea and winked suggestively at Tyler. Both he and Clea blushed.
"I'm warning you now: all the drinks are spiked, except those in cans. There's a bunch of guys planning on pantsing the first guy to dance past the ice statue there. So I suggest you avoid doing so, and same goes with the punch unless you're planning on getting wasted." Pogue continued. "Well, we must be off." He waved slightly with his hand and he and Kate wandered off, leaving Tyler and Clea alone amongst all the other couples.
"So… you wanna dance?" Tyler asked nervously.
Clea smiled, took his hand and led him to the dance floor.
"Caleb stop bullshitting me. Something is wrong."
"There is nothing wrong, Sarah." Caleb said exasperatedly. "Believe me, if there was something, you would know."
"And I do know. I just don't know what it is because my stubborn boyfriend doesn't want to tell me." She glared at him, then softened her eyes. "Caleb. You can trust me with whatever's wrong. I love you."
"I love you too." He said with a smile, aware of the wrinkles at the side of his mouth. Sarah didn't notice them.
Caleb parked his car Beside Tyler's truck, and exited to open the passenger door for Sarah. She stepped out carefully, making sure not to catch the flowy fabric of he blue dress on anything. Once out she took Caleb's hand, and the two entered the auditorium.
"Sarah." Caleb whispered in her ear once the door had closed behind them, "I need to talk to the boys for a minute or so. Can you manage without me for a little while?"
"Of course." She smiled at him. "Don't take too long."
They kissed, and Caleb went looking for the rest of the covenant. He found Pogue dancing with Kate and Reid gyrating with a half dozen different girls at a time, but no sign of Tyler.
"Where is he?" he asked Pogue. The latter shrugged.
"Dunno. I saw him a while ago with that girl, whatsername… the brunette."
Caleb frowned.
"We have to find him."
"Youre a great dancer, Ty, where did you learn to dance like that?"
"I have no idea!" Tyler said with a laugh.
He and Clea were standing outside, each with a canned drink in hand, appreciating the cool air outside after a long time inside the cramped heated gym. They weren't saying anything anymore, just watching the sky darken and the stars appear.
"Thanks for inviting me Tyler." Clea whispered after a long silence.
"Youre welcome. I'm glad you could come. I mean, I've only known you for a few weeks, but I sortof feel that theres something about you I really need… ok that sounds really cheesy." He laughed nervously and took a sip of his drink.
"No, it doesn't, I know exactly how you feel… I guess I feel the same." She blushed.
The silence suddenly became awkward, and the tension level began to rise abnormally.
"Well I think I'll head back to the dance now." Clea said apbruptly. She walked quickly in front of Tyler.
"Clea, wait!" he reached out and grabbed her arm. She yelped out of shock, and jumped a bit. She ended up really close to him, their faces inches apart. Tyler gulped, Clea blushed, and they stayed silent for a while.
Then Tyler took a deep breath and leaned forward. Clea closed her eyes, and a few seconds later their lips were almost touching, and Tyler could feel her breathing and hear her heartbeat. He closed his eyes and leaned in just a bit closer but Clea opened her eyes in panic and took a step back.
"I'm sorry Tyler…" she whispered, tears in her eyes. "I just can't… she… she…"
And as the tears welled up in her eyes she sobbed rather loudly and rushed off, leaving Tyler in a bit of a daze.
"She?"
The realization came moments later. Tyler made his hands into fists, scowled, and head off towards his truck furiously.
Everything is falling into place... hee hee!
I'm heading out on vacation in three weeks, and im going to try to finish posting all of this story by then. So prepare yourselves for major updates very soon and very close apart.
And I added what some of the characters look like in my head on my profile, so go check them out, and comment!