The Wild Ones

Something is very wrong.

I can’t remember what.

I think I’m lying on something soft, like sheets, but they aren’t warm like they should be. And something else too. I can’t move, not even to open my eyes. I feel so incredibly heavy, like I could put all my strength into it and still not be able to move my fingers. My heart beats faster, I can’t move. Not at all. What if I’m paralyzed? What if something happened on the raid and-

The raid! We were stealing from houses, we found Andy’s mom’s house, and then we found the brown-haired girl… Is she dead? Did I kill her??? Did she die because I blacked out? Because I couldn’t handle the pressure and I failed?

The panic gives me a strange new strength. It gives me the adrenaline to open my eyes. A bleary, black-haired figure sits near the foot of my bed, writing something on a crumpled piece of paper. He realizes I’m awake and stuffs the piece of paper into his pocket, smiling.

“You know;” He says in a tone that seems too casual for what’s happened. “We have to stop meeting like this.” Under any other circumstances, I would have laughed.

¨What-¨ I manage to rasp. ¨What happ-...¨ My voice gives out but he answers anyways.

¨She's fine.” Andy answers abruptly. “Better than fine actually.¨ He beams.

“Wha-? But she was dying and I…. I- failed.” I gasp out. He finds one of my hands on the sheet and covers it with his own.

“Failed? What? Raven, you saved her life.”

I don’t understand. How could I have saved her? I wasn’t even conscious. And I heard the screaming and the sobbing and I felt someone yank me away from her after that awful, blinding pain. Andy laughs at the bemused expression on my face.

“Raven,” He says between chuckles. “I think you found your power.”
He squeezes my hand one more time, and then rises. He starts toward the door. Turns around. Stops. Hesitates. Opens his mouth like he’s going to say something and then shuts it again.

“Well, Uh… Get some rest okay? Jake is working on some answers to why you reacted the way you did so… He’ll probably be able to explain it better than I can.”

With that, he turns and walks out the door, leaving it open behind him.

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I think I’ve dozed off, that is until I hear the door close softly. Whoever shut it isn’t very practiced at being quiet. So not Andy then. The footsteps are light, almost airy, but the dread they carry is not. I don’t know what’s so suddenly wrong but whatever it is has everything to do with the person who’s footsteps have stopped at the foot of my bed. I test my eyelids to see if they will lift this time and, finding it much easier after some rest, I get a blurry look at the figure. I immediately tense. A heart-shaped face and tightly curled blond hair stare back at me. Sylvia. My enemy, my attacker. She’s been crying. I’m not sure if I’m sorry.

“Hey Raven.” She says, her awkwardness now, so at odds with the confidence I know her to have.

“Hey.” I respond wearily.

“Um…” She pauses, unsure of herself. “I’m… I’m sorry. That girl you saved- Skylar, she’s my sister. And without you she wouldn’t have come home. So… so thank you for that. I was hoping we could maybe be… Maybe be friends?”

It takes a long time for me to answer. The fingers of my right hand wrap loosely around my left arm, finding the bright red lines from the sheets and I press my thumb into one, trying to detach from the haze and connect myself to the scene playing out in the room. friends.

“I don’t know about that..” At the blurry top of my vision I can see her unsure stance, how uncomfortable she is and feel a twinge of pity despite myself. I look up. “You attacked me on my first day. I hadn’t even met you yet, and-” Guilt closes my throat. I’m petty, I know. But how do you forgive that? Friendship requires trust, and I’m not sure I can trust her. “But maybe we can just start over.”

I look down again and hear her whispered thanks and bouncing steps out the door.

Notes

Hey guys! It's been a while. But don't worry, I'll never give up on this story even If I can play Jenga with all my writers blocks. :) (pausing a moment to let that dumb joke sink in.) In other news (drum roll please :D) I finally got into the creative writing class!!! *jumps around* I'll be able to improve my writing and update more often because we actually get hours of writing time a week! That went hand-in-hand with a horror story and poem of mine being published in a small-scale lit. magazine. :) Sorry to brag, I just wanted to tell a group of people who might actually understand. :) I'm so grateful that all of you wonderful people actually want to read the first-draft garbage that I write. :) Thanks again lovelies!

Until next chapter;

-BVBfangirlqueen :)