“Remind me why I let you drive?” Nik asked me with a queasy look on his face as he climbed out of the car and shut the door firmly behind him.
“I’m not that bad!” I retorted, locking the car and heading toward the restaurant’s front doors.
My brother snorted in disbelief and shook his head in wonder, still looking slightly green. The restaurant was rather full, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Most of the patrons were teenage girls who had heard that a plethora of hot guys could be found inside the Aphrodite’s Haven. As we walked in the girls at the nearest table turned our way and chatted excitedly in hushed voices. I wasn’t deaf and knew immediately that they were drooling over my poor brother, even in his green state of affairs.
“Am I glad to see you guys here!” Ricky muttered to us as we headed to the bar which he manned. “This place is a nightmare!”
"Callie! Get up, and don't make me come up there!"The voice filtered through the pillow which covered my head, interrupting the dream in which I was making out with the delectable Damon Salvatore from Vampire Diaries. Arg! It's always the good dreams that get interrupted and never the ones where you're being chased by giant bunny rabbits who want to eat your brains.I pried my eyes open and stared at the ceiling of my lilac bedroom. When I was younger the walls had been decorated with ballerina posters and dolls and, even though the ballerinas and dolls had faded along with my childhood, the lilac walls remained."Callista Natalie Georgiou, I'm not speaking again! You're going to be late for school!"Who needs an alarm clock when you have a mother? I dragged myself out of bed and grabbed the first items of clothing which I laid my hands on – a baby blue vest and a pair of jeans – tugging them on unceremoniously. With that done, I ambled into the bathroom. My hair was a mess of dark
Kayla and I lounged across her bed, nibbling potato chips and watching Gossip Girl re-runs on her sixty-two inch television, something which she had never really appreciated to its full extent. Her room was the complete opposite of mine, almost sterile in its cleanliness without a single item out of place. Anyone who walked into her room would believe that she had OCD... until you walked into her bathroom, that is. While her room was spotless, her bathroom was strewn with beauty treatments, make-up, and various paraphernalia, which seemed to grow in volume each moment you glanced at it.The only child to a cardiologist mother and a neurologist father, Kayla rarely saw her parents. In fact, she had been raised almost entirely by her grandmother, whom we both called Nana. Nana had moved in to help raise her granddaughter after her husband tragically died of cancer, something which she was still pretty sensitive about (who could blame her?). Niklos had always maintained that Nana had fi
Friday morning started with a bang, quite literally. As soon as we arrived at the Science class, Mr Porter, a short and balding man who wore his goggles to every class, exclaimed excitedly that we were going to be testing chemical reactions in the presence of oxygen."But first, I will assign you all chemistry partners."I looked around, praying that I would get the same partner as I did last year. Amy Adkins was gifted when it came to all things scientific, and she revelled in completing every task at hand, thus most of the year, I barely lifted a finger. Amy exchanged a glance with me and smiled as our eyes met . I guess she felt as if we had established a friendship of sorts, even though we barely knew each other on a personal basis."Adkins, you're with Parker."My heart sank a little bit. Oh well, it just meant that this year, I would have to pull my weight."Ballios, you're with Georgiou."I caught myself before I groaned. Eric Ballios, aka Ricky, was the quarterback of our foot
Chapter FourAt nine o’clock sharp Kayla and I walked through the gleaming doors of Carmel General Hospital. We were immediately assaulted by the smell of antiseptic cleaning detergent and the sights and sounds typically associated with hospitals. “Do you know where we’re going?” I asked Kayla, a little unsure of myself. “Mom said to ask for her at reception and she’d come to find us and show us around.” she replied, heading over to the receptionist. “We’re here to see Doctor Lana Cook.”The receptionist, in typical receptionist fashion, looked up at us from behind her desk before returning to examine her perfectly manicured talons. “Do you have an appointment?” “Yes, she’s my mother and knows that we’re coming.”The receptionist glanced up at us, unbelieving, before she picked up the phone and dialled Dr Cook’s office. Before our eyes the ice-queen melted and suddenly the receptionist was bubbly and welcoming, ushering us tow
I sat alone on a bench in the middle of the park, staring down at its peeling green paint and reading the names which had been scratched into it over the years. A gentle breeze tugged at my hair and the grey sky cast a sinister shadow onto the trees which lines the path, filling them with creatures only the imagination could see. There were none of the park’s usual patrons in view; no joggers stampeding their way along the paths or dog lovers taking man’s best friend for a walk and the sound of children’s laughter was notably missing. Strangely, this didn’t seem to bother me at all. Instead, I revelled in the solitude. A fine rain began to fall from the heavens, not enough to soak my clothing but enough to just dust my skin with its gentle caress. Ever since I was a child I had loved the rain. I used to sit by the window and watch it fall once I had given up asking my mother if I could play outside in it. Now, without my mother’s disapproving gaze, I raised my head to the skies, welco
The usual sight of Nik’s dorm room greeted me. Take away cartons littered the desk, a piece of congealed pizza stuck to a paper plate and unwashed mugs lay haphazardly about. His unmade bed lay in a jumble with dirty socks and other various paraphernalia. It was no surprise that he had told my parents that his laptop’s camera was broken. If they had seen the pigsty my older brother lived in, my mother would have certainly flown over there just to clean it up. My room was nothing in comparison and she constantly moaned at me to clean it up. There was a shuffling sound as he moved about his room, no doubt kicking various items of garbage out of his way. As my brother moved into view I felt myself fall backwards off the chair in shock. “What the hell did you do?” I was too horrified to say anything else.Nik’s once glorious hair had been shaved until it was barely a centimetre long and along his temples were patterns of flames which had been shaved to reveal his scalp. He looked more l
It didn’t take long for Violet to rope our friendship circle into helping with the haunted house for the Halloween fair. In fact, the very day Kayla and I had planned on asking for her help regarding the Mr Peterson issue she had asked everyone to help paint backgrounds which would be hung up across the school gym creating the “house” effect. After a day packed with lesson after boring lesson, it felt rather liberating to put our creative sides to work. Josh, Violet’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, had dragged a giant piece of white cloth onto the floor for us to paint while Robert fetched the paints. The two boys couldn’t be further apart in appearance and character, however they had become best friends within moments of meeting one another. Josh was proud of his gothic-emo looks and made a point to keep his dyed black hair covering one eye at all times. Although the school forbade him to wear plain black or paint his nails with an equally sombre shade, he compensated by attaching ch
I got a lift to the hospital with Mikael on the Tuesday afternoon, having thought about the guy in the coma unit who lay alone in the corner of the room without a name for the entire day at school. After the dream the night before I found it difficult to call him “John Doe” in my mind, Morpheus had replaced it with a resounding echo even though I knew that it couldn’t possibly be his name. I had clearly watched The Matrix a few too many times. The ward was buzzing when I arrived. Apparently there was a new addition to the coma unit – a twenty two year old who had driven her car into a brick wall after her fiancé told her that he was actually gay. At first I thought that she had driven into the wall because she couldn’t bear to be without him, a bit dramatic I won’t lie, but then I heard that he had decided to tell her his true sexual orientation as she drove them to their wedding rehearsal. The tactless fiancé lay in the morgue downstairs, in retribution for his err
“Remind me why I let you drive?” Nik asked me with a queasy look on his face as he climbed out of the car and shut the door firmly behind him.“I’m not that bad!” I retorted, locking the car and heading toward the restaurant’s front doors.My brother snorted in disbelief and shook his head in wonder, still looking slightly green. The restaurant was rather full, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Most of the patrons were teenage girls who had heard that a plethora of hot guys could be found inside the Aphrodite’s Haven. As we walked in the girls at the nearest table turned our way and chatted excitedly in hushed voices. I wasn’t deaf and knew immediately that they were drooling over my poor brother, even in his green state of affairs.“Am I glad to see you guys here!” Ricky muttered to us as we headed to the bar which he manned. “This place is a nightmare!”
A noise across the hall drew our attention to the two figures who stumbled in, one aiding the other to walk across the marble flooring. I clutched Morpheus’ hand and drew him closer to me, realising who the intruders were. Lyssia glared at me but fact that she was clinging to her brother for support seemed to sap all of the threat from her gaze. Warrick didn’t even meet my gaze – in fact he almost appeared worried. Perhaps he was more scared of Hypnos than I had thought.The sound of the giant oak doors opening reverberated through the empty hallway, instantly directing our attention to Hypnos who motioned for Morpheus. I glanced briefly at Morpheus before we stepped passed his father into the darkened room.“Lyssia and Warrick, you will join us.” Hypnos ordered, a frozen edge to his voice.The siblings did as they were told, ashen faced and slightly trembling. Immediately I became suspicious.The room had been lit with thous
In all the movies I’ve ever seen about war, the actors and actresses always look so dangerously glamorous, dressed in their metal armour which glints in the sunlight as they ride on white horses and cut off the enemies’ heads with a quick flick of the wrist. I suppose that was the reason why I was so taken aback when we gathered together at the base of the Citadel’s steps and was forced to really experience it all. I had never realised that fear had a scent until that moment. Even though I knew I couldn’t die, I was terrified for the novices which had been yanked from the inner sanctuary and were now being controlled by Zara – mindless clones that had no control of their own bodies. Those who had worked their way out of the novice ranks and were trusted enough to control their own minds wore their facial expressions like masks, barely covering the bubbling mixture of exhilaration and fear which simmered just below the surface of their composure.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked trying to look as innocently bewildered as I could possibly manage, hoping to lull my captor into a false sense of security before I attacked.I had been trained to fight nightmares, after all. I guess my only downfall would be that my captor knew all the moves I could possibly throw at him. Warrick smiled sweetly at me as he tied the knots around my wrists.“Do you really need to ask? I’m the only surviving son of Icelus and therefore heir to the entire of the Dreamlands. The only thing standing between me and my destiny is Morpheus.”The voice of reason was small behind the madness of greed and I struggled to gather my thoughts. My gaze wandered over to where Ricky sat beside me, his eyes staring ahead blankly as if he were in a daze. There was no way on this earth we could work together to escape... he was just too far gone. I was all on my own there.“Don’t even think about it
Daniel Peterson smiled at me over the glass of brandy he swished around, letting the amber liquid slide up the sides of the glass until it nearly spilled over.“How are you?” he asked, a casual air about him.I smiled stiffly, trying to swallow my nerves as he watched my every move as if I were on display at some famous museum.“I’m well, thank you.” I relied as civilly as I could muster, my gaze unconsciously darting to where my friends stood on the opposite side of the room.Wasn’t this man meant to be in prison? I mean, a few months behind bars isn’t nearly enough for what he had done to Kayla. I knew Ricky had said that he got a light sentence but that was just ridiculous!“Ah, I see Kayla and Robert are here. And Violet and her punk boyfriend played really well tonight. Please commend them for me.”As if I would. I nodded and began to tear myself away from him, hoping to put as much
“So, there’s this competition happening at some club tomorrow night where bands get to battle it out for the ultimate prize and Josh and I were thinking of signing the band up.” Vi announced, lying on my bed and throwing my stress ball at the ceiling.I dipped the brush into my favourite blue nail polish and slowly stroke the thick liquid onto my fingernail.“Sounds like a good plan.”“One problem – there’s already a band with our name signed up and we can’t duplicate names.”I looked at my friend who was about to put a hole in my ceiling with that blasted stress ball, confusion written all over my face.“Are you seriously telling me that another band has called themselves ‘Bleeding Roadkill’?” I said, my voice severely tainted with astonishment – hell, it was bad enough that they called themselves that horrid name.“Yeah! Can you believe it?&rdqu
“Do you have to hang around like this?” I glared at Warrick as he sat at the table closest to the bar, sipping his refill coffee and reading the paper as I worked my shift at the restaurant.He glanced at me quickly, setting the cup down on the table.“Morpheus said guard you, so here I am. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him.” he muttered over the top of the paper.Arrogant ass.“Oh I will.” I muttered under my breath, wiping a spot from the counter furiously.I had been treated like a prisoner for three days and already I was sick of it. It even made me think of regretting my killing the beast nightmare... but then I remember what he was about to do and suddenly it seemed worth it. Even if I was chained to Warrick’s side for the rest of my life it would be worth it.“Woah there kiddo, what did the counter ever do to you?” my brother asked, snatching the cloth from my gras
It hurt.“Oh gods, this is it. This is how I die.” I thought to myself as my body fell to the ground.I couldn’t feel anything apart from the pain which sliced through me with the strength of all of the weapons housed in the Citadel. Lyssia’s laughter rung in my ears as she stood over my body, her head thrown back in mirth. The crowd seemed to have taken a few steps backward, although they clearly couldn’t pull themselves away from the spectacle the nightmare had brought with her.“I guessss Morpheusss’ love wasssn’t undying.” she hissed, turning her back and walking away from me, leaving me to death as she tracked down her next victim – the second man in chains.His wife started sobbing again, clutching his hand with all her might as if it would save him. He turned deathly pale once again, his eyes darting to where I lay. I guess I must have been quite a sight, covered in blood and dying, becaus
I turned and smiled at Zara, trying as hard as I could not to portray that I was not quite myself. My hands shook slightly but she didn’t seem to notice as she came to my side.“Morpheus came home.” she grinned, her dark eyes sparkling.“I worry about that, Zara. He’s still vulnerable.” I admitted, forcing my face to express my fear.She laughed at me and took my slightly trembling hand in hers, looping it through the crook in her arm and urging me silently to walk with her.“How is Cassia?” I asked, knowing full well that what the child had done could have resulted in her execution by Icelus.Zara’s entire body tensed and she looked away.“She is well.”I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the woman was lying. Something terrible had happened - I was sure of it. I felt the blood drain from my face and I stopped in my tracks, forcing Zara to halt as well.&ldqu