Blood Game

8:3o AM, I slammed the door shut to my house, and walked down the pathway towards the forest near it, fighting back tears that wanted to escape. It was sad really; with all of our money, you’d think I’d be happy, right? Wrong. Life seemed to be full of wrong.1

Deep in thought, anger and sadness, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and bumped into something, but I didn’t fall far. As I looked up, I met the gaze of a man about my age. He had caught me before I fell. His silver eyes were outlined by pieces of his choppy black hair, he looked to be about a foot taller than my 5’5’’ and he had a beautiful smile. It took me a while before I realized I was still helpless in his arms.2

“Uhh…sorry.” I apologized, straightening myself. The man smiled. “It’s ok, it was my fault, I shouldn’t have stopped so suddenly in your yard like that.” I stared at the boy for another minute, giving him a questioning look and a once-over. Not bad really; he was well built, dressed in skater-type clothes and appeared to be very strong, but not in the big, creepy steroids way. Then something clicked; “what were you doing in my yard?” “well I wanted to figure out what this strange noise was, that was coming from the forest, like an animal being wounded or something…” he said, we both knew that I didn’t believe him, but I let it go, hoping that he hadn’t heard the fight between me and my dad. I nodded and continued to walk in my original direction, when he stopped me, and stuck out his hand for me to shake. “My name’s Adam, what’s yours?” Timidly, I shook Adam’s hand, and replied; “Aimee.” Adam smiled. “Nice to meet you Aimee.” “Yea,” I said, then started to walk towards the forest again. To my surprise, Adam followed me. “You’re not big on meeting people are you?” he asked, falling in step with me. I turned my head to look in his direction. Adam did a double-take when he saw the look I gave him. “What? I did say I wanted to investigate a noise, anyways you didn’t seem to happy to meet me. And, what, may I ask, are you doing here? Besides the fact that part of the forest is on your property.” I shrugged, partially lying; “I dunno, wanted to go for a walk I guess.” Adam raised his eyebrows. “You looked upset earlier.” “No I’m not!” I said, a little too quickly. Of course, Adam wasn’t going to believe me. He had probably been standing in my yard long enough to hear the fight, or see me exit the house, and the facial expression I had worn then. “Yeah, well I can see why you might not want to tell me about it, after all, I am still a stranger to you.”3

Adam and I continued to walk into the forest, not really going in any specific direction, and only talking occasionally. Eventually we came to a small, almost circular clearing, which I was thankful for. Running through this clearing was a creek, and I was thirsty by now. I walked over to the creek, avoiding the muddy bank as much as I could, and bent down to take a drink. What I saw in the water made me half fall and half pull myself away from the water. Adam came up to my side and asked what was wrong. I didn’t say anything as I unsheathed a knife I kept strapped around my ankle {I never leave the house without weapons. I do want to protect myself, especially in this day and age, where you don’t know what’s running the streets around certain corners, especially at night.}4

Carefully I sawed at the rope that bound the girl in such a way, that she was forced to stay underwater. Adam helped me pull her out, and before I even got close to checking her pulse, said; “She isn’t dead, do you know CPR?” I nodded, and did the procedure, carefully though, because the girl had blood all over her clothes, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t helping any wounds open up further. Her skin was pale and cold, almost dead. She must have been in the creek for hours, but how could she not have drowned? I pushed this question to the back of my head as the girl suddenly came to life, and choked out water. Her dead, brown eyes looked around frantically as she tried to sit up. Adam and I carefully helped her lay against a huge protruding rock at the bank of the creek.5

“What happened miss?” I asked, once her choking had ceased.6

“We’ve got to take her back to my house; I know a little bit about medicine, I can try to help her.” I directed my last comment towards Adam, who nodded and began to help me pick the girl up. She stopped us, putting a hand on my arm, and shaking her head. “It’s too late, I’m going to die anyways. Be careful out there, stay with your friend. You’ll need all the help you can get.” She said. I sighed, wishing that I could help her, the girl smiled up at me. “Don’t worry; there was nothing you could have done anyways.” The girl nodded towards Adam. “I know what you are, protect her well. She will need it when the time comes.” Adam tried to mask his expression with confusion, but I noticed a flicker of something else in it. The girl turned back to me, her breath raspy. “Adonis. Remember that name, he did this.” With that last statement, her body convulsed, and she closed her eyes through her last painful breathes, before she died.7