Chapter 13
Getting there
Airiana was sitting in the dormitory lounge with the Daybreaker Soulmates, casually eating chinese. Airiana stabbed her chopstick into a peice of honey chichen. Triston was tracing her back. Airiana had a feeling like she was forgetting something. Something important. Something Gary had told her.
"Hey, Airiana, What's up with your tattoo?" Triston asked.
"Oh!" She dropped the carton of chinese on the table and ran up the stars, bolting into her bathroom in her room.
She lifted her singlet and saw that her tattoo was...peeling. Fading. Going. But it was permanent...
She screamed as loud as she could, pulled her singlet down and began jumping around. She bolted out of the bathroom and embraced Triston in the hallway, jumping up and hugging him, wrapping her arms and legs around him. He took a short step back.
"It works! It works!" She shrieked.
"What works." Triston was dumbstruck.
"I remembered, and now my tattoo's fading, and that's a good thing, because I remembered, and now I'm going back to how I used to be, beacauseI didn't have a tattoo before..." She rapidly spoke and then trailed off.
"One step closer, huh."
Airiana climbed down from Triston and pulled him close.
"We're getting there."
She brought her lips to his.
Around lunch time, Airiana ran up into her room and pushed the window open.
"Gary! Gary!" She called out the window. She didn't care for what other people thought.
"Yes..." Airiana heard his voice, but she couldn't see him.
"Where are you?"
"I'm up here."
Airiana looked on the roof. Nope.
"Higher..." He chuckled.
Airiana didn't know why, but she looked to the sky.
Gary swung his head down from the ledge above her window.
"Not that high." He smiled.
He climbed in through the window and stood next to Airiana.
"Now, what is it?" He asked.
Airiana felt a little shy, and that colour might be rising to her cheeks.
"Did you see it?" She asked quietly.
"I did."
"It's really working." Airiana admired.
"I told you so..." Gary smiled.
"The power of memory, huh?"
"Airiana, do you remember the 911 plane crash?"
"Yeah..."
"The terrorist that organised it, he gave in because he remembered."
"What...?"
"The terrorist remembered what he had done. The pain he had caused. The lives he had destroyed. He remembered and he made a choice, and allowed the bullets to penetrate his soul."
"Really. That's very insightful."
"The power of memory."
"It makes you wonder, what makes people do what they do. Why they carry on. Why they have the will to live. Why they choose to take life or hurt others."
"You said it. Choice. They have their reasons." Gary said and disappeared.
That was strange, Airiana thought, he got a little sensitive near the end.
Cameron had finally come to the conclusion that he would sit at Airiana's bedside while she slept. He was sitting in a cusiony armchair with his legs down, his back hunched and his hands clasped and balancingbetween his knees. She wasn't actually asleep. She was on her side, watching him. Staring at him. He was awkwardly looking down at the floor.
Airiana chuckled. "Is this weird. Is it creeping you out."
"Yes." Cameron nodded.
Airiana sat up and smiled. "Ironically. This is what you do all the time."
"Is it really." Cameron played along.
"Yes. Haven't you noticed?"
"No. It must be a sub-consciuos effect."
"Oh, sub-conscious, right. So you don't mean to do it."
"Nope. Not at all."
There was amoment where Airiana thought he might actually smile, but he didn't.
At the hospital, Jeremy was sitting in his hospital bed, alone in the hospital. He looked at the clock every 15 seconds. It was 2 hours past dinner, and he hadn't seen a nurse since lunch. Didn't they have to refreshen his drip.
"Nurse!" He called.
No reply. He was pushing on the red attention button next to his bed. He could see it flashing through the office window but no one was there. That's never good, he thought.
He heard loud heavy footsteps in the hallway.
A tall bulky darkskinned man in jeans and a leather jacket stepped in.
"Who are you?" Jeremy asked.
"Not important."
"What are you doing here?"
"Saving your life."
"From who."
The man stopped to look at him. "My brother."
"Too late for that, brother." A deep voice spoke from behind him.
The man who was 'saving' Jeremy sighed.
"What are you doing here, Shaun?" The deep voice asked.
"What are you doing here, Cretus?" The man, shaun, asked.
"I'm here to kill this boy, are you here to help?"
"No. I'm here to save this boy."
Shaun grabbed the monitor from next to Jeremy and swung it, hitting Cretus across the face, the pole bending from the force.
It messily ripped the drip from Jeremy's arm, blood trickling from his wrist. He winced in agony. He growled and held his uninjured hand to his wound. But then Shaun grabbed his arm and they hurled out the window together.
They descended for a while, the air pushing against them, their stomach's being left behind somewhere along the fall. But just before they hit the ground, Jeremy's body wrenched to a stop in mid air, the shoulder of his shirt being held by a strong hand. He thought it would be something miraculous and unearthly, the cause of their stop, like wings or a cloud, or a defiance of gravity, but, when Jeremy looked up he saw that they were simply dangling from a tree branch. As Shaun let go of the branch, they fell a short way to the ground.
In the silent moment Airiana and Cameron shared, Jeremy burst in.
"AIRIANA! HELP!" He was out of breath.
"Jeremy! Your supposed to be in the hospital."
"I ain't going back there." Jeremy puffed.
"Why not?" Cameron tensed up.
"Because that guy was there. Cretus. He wants to kill me."
More irony as Airiana and Cameron both sat in separate armchairs, watching Jeremy sleep. Airiana drifted off to sleep. Cameron stayed awake, watching both of them.
Lexi stepped tiredly stepped in, dropped her bag on the floor, didn't notice the crowd and collapsed onto her bed. Cameron shook his head.
Triston walked swiftly past the borders of the forest and into the darkness. He soon found himself passing stray lycans all watching him intently. He then stood in front of Cretus. The scene would be confusing for everyone else in the daybreaker soulmates group, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
"She's figured it out." Triston spoke.
"How! Who is feeding her this information. I WANT TO KNOW! Shadows, go now, find her source!" Cretus shouted.
Triston saw silver mist creeping from the trunks of the trees.
Blaise has been taking the anti-depressants, but they don't seem to be helping. She can remember his crued laughter and her shrill screams. She swallowed the pill in her mouth and looked in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and had dark lines under them, her hair was dull and frizzy, her skin was pale. She grimaced at her look. Will I ever come back from this, she thought.