Work in progress.
14 years, 9 months & 25 days ago
11th Jul 2009 00:10 Side note:
Thankies, Sean. <33. He helped me with the second line. : D Hope y'all like it. So far, a lot of people have liked my work. It's encouraging. =3. Hope I didn't just, well, jinx myself!
EDIT: HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEE THANK YOU TO MAY!!!!!!! She helps with so much. The biggest, dealing with me twenty-four seven with questions and opinions and reading and editing. <33 I LUFF YOU AND SANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!
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Preface
The cheerleaders were the most preposterous bunch that Kyra had ever seen. It was hard to believe that Kyra's younger sister was one of them. But luckily, Kaye was still in junior high. She had ceased to become a total monster, but that could change in two years. Kayle, her older sister, Kyra was certain, had been born a monster. Frankly, that meant that Kayle, in Kyra's book, was a cheerleader at heart. Luckily, Kayle was a junior, a year ahead. The most ludicrous and snobbish of Kyra's grade, the sophomore squad, she had decided long ago, was Marriah Andre, the group leader herself. Her espresso-coloured hair was always straightened, make-up applied, a new boyfriend every week attached to her hip. And for the longest time, Kyra Kaye Locke figured that Marriah was oblivious to her existence.
Until lunch period, middle of their sophomore school year, when Bluejay and Crow Hill moved into Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and sat at her table.
At the time, her best friend, Chelsea Carter, had been absent for unknown reasons. Which meant that no one was at her table, and that no one /should/ be at her table. They sat in silence for all of five minutes, before Bluejay and Crow even bothered to introduce themselves. "I'm Bluejay, Jay, Hill. And this is my brother, Crow." she would be able to tell them apart, that was for certain. Their only shared similarity would be their albino skin, much like her own. Blue-Jay, suited for his name, had eyes the blue-gray of Bluejay feathers, hair pale as cornsilk and nape-length. Crow's hair was just that; crow. Due to a mass of unevenly cut bangs falling into his gaze, Kyra couldn't be sure of the irises color.
"Kyra," she replied flatly, making sure that the silence was unbearably awkward for both. More than once she gazed past the brothers, and more than once she caught Marriah giving her a strange look. Without a word to excuse herself, Kyra noiselessly stood from her seat and left the cafeteria, heading for the schoolyard doors. Kyra found herself wondering what Marriah's strange glimpses at her were about. Was she envious of the two unwelcome brothers that had joined her at lunch? Or had she found another reason to stare at people she saw unsightly to her bistre eyes? She shook her head slightly, ignoring her theories, as she at last stood outside. She was still, but only for a moment, only to take in the fresh air. It was September, and outside was becoming more brisk by the passing days.
Once she was out of view, Kyra pulled a pack of cigaretts out of her windbreaker's pocket, poking one between her lips as she put the pack back into the pocket, then fished out a lighter. She lifted her hand so that the winter breeze wouldn't make the flame dance, and lit the end, before the lighter found its home in her pocket again. Inhaling deeply at first, she slowly let it out, relaxing a little against the brick wall.
"Don't you know that smoking is bad for you?" someone asked after a few minutes, startling her. Kyra's gaze jerked up, locking on Avery Black as he pulled a ciggarett out of his air force blue jacket and lit it. She had never spoken to him, waved to him, or thought about him, let alone be confronted by him. Her only response was to take in the last breath, exhale it, and then drop the butt onto the frosty grass and smash it into the dull shimmers. "Kyra Locke, right? You're Kyle and Kayle's little sister, aren't you?"
"What's it to you." Typically, Kyra didn't bother making it sound like a question, and she didn't look directly at him. She never found any boy, or any girl, other than her brother or Chelsea worthwhile to look at while she or he talked. Possibly because her brother and Chelsea were about the only ones that really talked to her anyways. She found no comfort or love with Kyle's twin sister, Kayle, who she was certain actually loathed her. Kaye was Kyra's younger opposite, more like a mini-Kayle. With that clouding her mind, she walked past him just as he he had opened his mouth to answer, her stride indifferent.
Maybe she wouldn't have been so indifferent if the next time she saw him she had known that he was going to be dead.
Chapter One
On a frigid, early morning in December, twelve-year-old Kaye ran away. It was her older sister Kyra's sixteenth birthday.
Kyra awoke with a start. A sick, empty feeling in the pit of her stomach made her groan, and she slowly sat up, eyes darting to her alarm. The big, bright, glowing lime-coloured numbers read '5:02 AM'. Rubbing a sleep-swollen eye, Kyra slid out of her massacred bed.
Something wasn't right.
That was the first thing that really registered in her mind that morning, and that something led her to Kaye's bedroom door. Without hesitation, she twisted the knob and let the door coast slowly until it was fully open. An empty feeling wafted out of the room as she stood in the doorway, which was chilly from an open window. A breeze made the curtains float for a few moments, and then everything became absolutely still, settling into the silence.
The room looked almost exactly the same, apart from the window, but it was missing a piece to its normal morning scene; The walls, pastel pink, were covered with posters, and floor, a plush, creamy carpet with random things scattered everywhere, hadn't been altered. But no pre-teen, tangled in the covers, hair a rat's nest on her pillow slept like a rock in the day bed.
It processed very slowly in her head. Kaye... Was gone. The thought struck her like it had when a girl from her school, who she had passed in the halls only a day before, had gone missing. Sometimes she woke up in the mornings and still felt that numb, aching feeling. Even a little over a year later. But this was different. Kaye wasn't a high school girl she only caught glances of in the hall way; Kaye was her sister. And, Kyra knew Kaye.
The creak of the twins' door surprised Kyra, and without thinking, shut herself in Kaye's bedroom.
Something popped into Kyra's mind; Kaye was a cheer leader. And her practices had been ending later and later. The urge to run away might have had to do with self esteem. Thinking she might find some evidence of where Kaye had run off to, Kyra decided to investigate the room. Nothing out of the ordinary in general areas, but the backpack that should have been in the corner of the room, which was never touched again until school started, was missing, and aroused a shake in her hands as she explored the room while she searched for any other changes.
First she tried the closet, and noticed that her sister's hiking boots were gone, some of her clothes as well. Kyra only knew that they were gone due to having organized everyone's closets the week before and their mother had put laundry away last night.
Kyra crossed the room to the desk, sitting in Kaye's painted-white wood chair. The surface of the desk was cluttered with pieces of paper, writing utensils, and other miscellaneous junk. She scooted the desk-chair back to pull out the drawer. It was filled with papers and even more various items, and she began to leaf through it, looking for any signs at all; any attempts at runaway letters, lists of places to go, something. There surely had to be something.
When she found nothing more than useless pages of scribbles, doodles, or tests that Kaye hadn't wanted their parents to see, Kyra became discouraged. Determination flared again though as she caught a glimpse of a crumpled wad of paper on top of everything in the wastebasket that was underneath the desk. Reaching down by her knees and dragging it into view, she picked up the wad, undoing it like a yarn ball. And there, in her sister's wispy calligraphy, much like her own, read a list of dates. When Kyra risked flicking on the desk lamp to see better, she saw that the dates were really numbers of a calender that had been hastily drawn out. X's marked through the days until they landed on that very day, the fifteenth, and after the number fifteen, there weren't anymore days listed.
In some of the squares, Kaye had written little things. Several times she saw 'Add up allowance.' That led her to look up and notice that the old, leather billfold that Kaye had always kept money in was missing too. She quickly looked back at the paper, close to shaking. Some others read, 'Ask for allowance raise,' 'Be up to at least a hundred dollars by next week.'
"Where did she go?" she murmured to herself, and folding the paper up again and keeping it in a firm grip as she clicked off the lamp and moved to the door, pressing her ear lightly against the cool wood, listening. There had been enough time for whichever twin to go to the bathroom and return to bed, but she couldn't be sure, since she hadn't paid any attention after shutting herself into the pre-teen's bedroom.
Turning the knob slowly and silently and giving herself just enough room to get out, Kyra hastily slipped from inside the room to outside it, just as noiselessly shutting the door behind her. She took long strides to get to her own door, and once inside, she isolated herself in by closing the door.
Dropping the folded paper on her bed, Kyra turned on her heel to go to her own little add-on bathroom. She fished around in the hamper of dirty clothes and changed from her pajamas into a pair of her many pairs of sturdy looking jeans and a black T-shirt. She already had socks on. And as she fumbled with pushing her feet into her shoes that had laces she never untied, Kyra ran a brush once or twice through her thick hair. Then, pulling it back into a quick ponytail, she grabbed her camouflage-green hooded sweatshirt off the floor of her room. When she was back in her room, she tugged it on over her head. She felt a soft weight in the adjoined front pockets, recognizing it immediately to be her pocket knife.
If she went through the front door, she knew she would wake her light-sleeping parents up. It had a tendency to creak loudly, no matter how cautiously or quickly you opened or shut it. The back door was locked, and the bad thing was that the twins were light sleepers as well, so if she tried to open that equally-creaky door, they would wake up. Her final option was the bedroom window, which was what she gazed out at, over the back brick-porch roof, eyes scanning the nearby tree line, hoping that maybe she would see Kaye. But, she didn't.
She shoved open the window as quietly as she possibly could, having to put some effort into it. She swung one leg over the sill and pressed the side of her foot against the outer wall, straddling the window sill. Ducking her head underneath the top of the frame, one hand still holding it up there, she swung her other leg out as well, so that she was in a sitting position. It was only a few feet drop to the shingles of the porch roof, and she landed, attempting to like a cat. Kyra turned and slowly dropped the window shut, and then proceeded to move with the steps equal to the sound of a mouse's.
Once at the edge, Kyra braced herself with a sharp intake of morning air, and leaped. She landed on her feet in a fine layer of snow, but stumbled forwards, then caught her balance. Kyra made her way to her bike, knowing she would get more ground covered on it than by foot. Maybe. The snow had hardened over night, reassuring her a little. Riding a bike was probably a bad idea, but it was worth a shot. Mounting onto the seat, she gripped the handlebars and used her heel to push up the kickstand, and peddled off, but stopping when she heard whimpers.
The dogs. Why hadn't she thought of the dogs?
Following the whimpers on her bike, Kyra discovered all three of their dogs, Mulberry, Elliot, and Pepper, all tied to the back of the shed, their muzzles wrapped shut to keep them from barking like crazy. She practically fell off her bike to get over to them, first untying their muzzles with the all-too tight bandages. Would Kaye really do something like this? "I don't think she learned how to do that in girl scouts," Kyra mumbled as she fumbled with the knots of the ropes. Then she remembered her knife, and reaching into the sweat-shirt pocket, grabbed it and flipped out the small but useful blade, and sliced the ropes. The dogs were useful in pulling away, tails wagging enough to let Kyra know they were happy to see her, but they were all looking and tugging in the direction of the woods. "Hold on, you thee. I'm almost done.." with a final swipe, the ropes came undone, still three individual pieces attached to their collars, and the dogs bolted off. Cursing under her breath and shoving the knife in her pocket again, Kyra hurried to get onto her bike and follow the dogs.
It was easy to avoid crashing into trees, but the roots of the trees that protruded above the snow like bark-covered traps ready to grab her seemed to be in her way everywhere she turned. A weird feeling in her stomach had her nerves shot, close to terrified, too. Hearing an odd noise through the rush of wind, Kyra mistakingly turned her head in the direction, not noticing the very large, practically above-ground root system, and her figure flew from the bike, the impact sending her crashing onto the ground in front of her.
With a muffled groan, Kyra stood up, not bothering to brush off the pieces of snow. Like in a cartoon her bike's front tire was bent completely out of shape, so she knew there was no use in trying to use it. Instead, she continued on foot, kicking herself for losing sight of the dogs.
Kyra's microscopic luck silently called for one dog, and Pepper eventually showed up. It had been several minutes of wandering aimlessly through the woods, not knowing if she was any closer or further from the dogs. The semi-curly black and white furred sheep dog barked in her direction, prancing impatiently, wanting Kyra to follow. It only took the single bark to send Kyra running after Pepper.
A faint roll of thunder in the distance had her worried that it would start raining, or snowing. She jumped over rocks and roots as she followed Pepper, occasionally having to duck tree limbs that were too low for her to just swoop beneath. Kyra skidded to a stop when she saw black iron fencing. The main gate of it was ajar, but ivy had grown all over it in time, but the winter had dried it out. It was left entangled with itself in hard, thick clumps.
Cautious, Kyra crouched down and took meticulous steps to the fence gate, pressing one hand to the cold iron, and peering in.
There she saw an old cemetery; the gravestones, from where she could see, were too weather worn to be read, some with dead-ivy vines stretching across the fronts or backs, and tall piles of snow. An old church stood in the center of it all, the outer wood having been turned a bleak gray by time and weather, shingles falling off, windows hazy... And then she saw a movement. A small figure in a pink windbreaker and jeans, about forty yards away, stood up from kneeling on the ground. Kyra opened the gate further, causing it to give a high-pitched groan in protest. The figure whirled around, and she called out, "Kaye?"
Kaye took off running down a hill, and Kyra followed. Not even the tombstones stopped her; she only hurdled over them, desperately running after her sister. "Kaye! Please, come back!" Kyra shouted, but Kaye never stopped running, not until she tripped over a rock, concealed by the the snow. She grabbed at her ankle, shrieked in pain, and toppled backwards. From her distance, even Kyra had heard the sickening snap. "Hang on, Kaye! Hang on- I'm coming!" Kyra pushed herself harder, feeling the burn in her knees from going so hard.
She slid to a sideways stop on the ground like someone would in a baseball game, eager to get the home run, right beside her sister and tightly embracing her. "Oh, Kaye, everything is going to be alright, okay? I'm here, I'm-" Kyra broke off. Her arms still wrapped around Kaye, who's shoulders heaved violently as she sobbed into her sister's chest.
Something wreaked. Kyra looked around, and then, finally noticed a hole a few feet away and behind her. Scooting over and leaning in to peer down into the hole, Kyra saw a tarp. It was faded, weather worn. Much like the words on the grave stones. Reaching out to grab the tarp and yank it back, the first she saw was an air force blue jacket stained with dirt and blood that the body still wore, what was left of it, anyways.
The corpse's stench of rotting flesh made her jerk her head away and vomit on the spot, and she didn't look back. It had taken one glance the burn the image of the dried blood, the maggots crawling all over it, the empty, black eye sockets staring back at her into her mind forever... And the familiar, air force blue jacket.
The last she remembered before things faded black were her sister's tear stained face, a voice, her sister's voice, the voice again, only it was louder, another roll of thunder, a few raindrops, and then a gentle hand on her shoulder.
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Chapter Two
/She heard her name being whispered. Kyra couldn't see anything, but could feel a cold wind against the back of her neck. All of her surroundings were pitch black. She could hear, feel... Hands gripping her forearms, Kyra could also feel the goosebumps against her palms. She heard her name again, and realized whatever, or whoever, was standing right behind her, and the brisk wind was really their breath. "Who are you?" she whispered, frantically spinning on her heel to face them, terrified. Once she had turned around, the black faded, revealing some place deep in the woods at night, and a heavy rainfall began.
Standing in rags that were crusted with dry blood, becoming soaked with raindrops, was a moldy-smelling young woman. At first, Kyra didn't recognize her through the mass of tangled and matted hair. Past her decaying features and the rasp in her voice, Kyra finally realized that it was Mandy Maxwell, the girl that had gone missing a little over a year ago. "Is... That you, Mandy? What happened to you, Mandy?"
"He killed me," Mandy rasped, wispy voice monotone.
"Who did? Who killed you?"
The corpse stood there without a word, seeming to look right past Kyra for a moment as her shoulders hung low, still, and lifeless. Thunder growled overhead, becoming louder and louder. Raindrops, bitter and frigid, began to pour from the barricade of angry, charcoal clouds. Kyra looked up in time to see a flash of lightning, then back at the remains of Mandy.
Almost as if the lightning had triggered something inside of Mandy, a wild look flared in her eyes. Mandy's jaw stretched down nearly a foot, like it was made of rubber. Corners of her mouth tore, the ripping sound sickening. Then mandy released a deafening, blood curling shriek and lunged at Kyra, who was also screaming./
"Kaye?" Kyra hoars.ely called, voice barely above a whisper. Then she felt a weight of her shoulder stir, and disappear.
"Kyra?" Kaye's voice whispered back, sounding a mixture of things; hopeful, regretful, pained, scared... Kyra didn't feel much better, but she was insanely relieved that Kaye was alright and with her.
"It's okay now... I'm here..." She groaned, finally opening her eyes. It took effort to try and sit up. She was so stiff and numb. With some success, Kyra reluctantly settled propping herself up with her elbow. "Are you alright? What about your ankle?"
"My ankle is pretty swollen. Broken I think... But otherwise, I'm fine, and, it doesn't hurt much, so..." She was lying, and she knew Kyra could tell. To change the topic and distract her sister from giving her unneeded concern, Kaye said, "We're in the basement of the church."
Finally, Kyra looked around. She had known they were no longer outside, but hadn't thought to ask where they were now. 'Outside...' She recalled the few raindrops before blacking out. The bitter sprinkle that had begun had shifted into a fierce sleet storm. It pounded on the roof of the church. Strangely, she remembered that that sound used to be peaceful, calming to her... Not anymore. It had been ruined by the church-cemetery-misadventure; Now an unnerving tune that made her feel nauseous. "How did we get here?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't ask," Kaye mumbled. "Because I'm not supposed to tell on him."
"Kaye, you're not serious?" Kyra had meant for it to sound irritated, but she was too tired. Lucky for Kaye. Otherwise, she would have had to play twenty questions about twenty times. "Why can't you tell me who helped us?"
"He asked me not to. And I promised."
"You keep promises to people we don't know, but when I ask you to do the dishes-"
"He isn't a stranger, Kyra," Kaye blurted, cutting her off. "I know him. /You/ know him." Kyra stared. Kaye kicked herself silently, she could see it in her sudden twist of facial expression.
"How old is he?" Kaye finally asked. This couldn't be about cheerleading... If it had been, Kaye wouldn't have said that Kyra knew him, too.
"He's in your grade, but he's seventeen." she admitted.
That gave her some options. Seventeen year olds were more of the older ones of the sophomores. A list of boys ran through her head. But they were all jocks. Kaye wouldn't hang out with a jock after school, and if she would, there wasn't a single one in her grade that would bother even giving her a glance. "That doesn't make sense, Kaye."
"Sure it does. He wanted me to tell you hi."
'Hi. Nice.' Kyra thought bitterly. "Listen, Kaye," she was more awake by then. Alert. "We need to get home." Kaye nodded in agreement, and Kyra struggled to stand. Her knees popped, but the movement felt good. "If you get on my back and I run as fast as possible without tripping and doing a complete face plant, we should be home in ten minutes."
"But can you carry me?" Kaye raised an eyebrow.
"If you weigh ninety still, it will be easy."
"I weigh a hundred-two," she muttered.
"Really? I still weight eighty-nine." Kyra admitted.
"How. Do. You. /Do/ that?" Kaye demanded as Kyra lifted Kaye with difficulty onto her back. The weight was hard to hold up, but she could run with it. Or try to.
"I run a lot with the dogs-" then she realized something. 'The dogs! Where are the dogs!?' She prayed they were at home, safe and sound, hiding in the barn or in her room under her bed... Something. 'Please, please... Let them be okay.' She only remembered seeing Pepper before taking off after Kaye.
It was difficult to run, but she could do it. Kyra repeated that in her head. She had to. They would both be sick for a month if they stayed out in the sleet for long, and would freeze to death in the thin clothing they were wearing if they remained in the basement much longer. Plus, Kaye needed serious attention on her ankle. So running was their only real option. If danger came, and Kyra highly doubted,--though anything seemed possible anymore--the knife was still tucked in her pocket. That gave her some hope.
Each root that she jumped over or avoided, in her imagination, came to life as wooden monsters trying to grab at her ankles. She tried not to think about tripping, telling herself she could do this, that she could get Kaye home.
What were they going to tell their parents? The question distracted Kyra for the moment, but she regained focus. They would have to lie. Something to cover up their absence. It was further into the day, she could tell. She just could, but with the sun being blocked by the barricade of clouds, she couldn't be sure what hour.
It seemed forever until she reached the tree line that you could run to from her backyard. "We're home," she murmured to Kaye, who was frozen solid against Kyra's back. Kaye's arms and legs locked around the front of Kyra like they were bounded by ice. Kyra felt a small nod against the back of her neck, and she pushed herself as hard as possible to get in through the back door. Her legs gave out from beneath her when she extended a hand to open the screen door, and there was a loud rip. Kyra had barely blinked and found herself and Kaye, separated, on the floor.
Chapter Three
???Kyra, Kaye!??? Kimberly, their mother, shrieked, running to them, nearly sliding onto her knees in her night clothes and bathrobe. ???Girls, are you alright? Kaye, what happened to your ankle? Oh my God!??? Kyra rolled her eyes back into her head. Just like their mother to have a panic attack. Though who could blame her? Two out of three of her girls had just burst through the screen door and were sprawled on the floor, practically frozen solid.
Kyra picked herself up, wincing. If the sleet hadn't numbed her legs, the after-effect of running so hard had. ???Kaye???? Kaye nodded, looking better now that she was inside where it was warm. From the hole in the screen, the warmth was quickly disappearing, and Kyle quickly closed the wooden door.
???Why were you two out so early???? Kenneth, their father, still in his pajamas, demanded. He looked furious, but behind it, Kyra saw concern. Not for her, but for Kaye. Then, she repeated his question in her head. Her tongue knotted. Kyra hadn't thought of a single thing. She opened her mouth, expecting the worst lie to pop out, but a calm-sounding Kaye spoke first.
???Oh, Dad. I left clues for her to meet me outside this morning.??? Kaye smiled innocently, completely pulling off the act. ???My surprise for her was way out in the woods. It was my fault, and I'm sorry. We got out there, and I tripped over a rock,??? she gestured at her ankle, then continued speaking. ???And then Kyra came and got me. She fell, and then found some shelter for us. We were there for a while, and she was trying to comfort me. Then, when it started sleeting real bad, she carried me home. And... Here we are!???
Kyra tried to hide her surprise, and ended up having to look down, allowing her bangs to fall in front of her as she pretended to cough. 'Kaye? Lying for me- for us? This is a dream.' Then she shuddered innerly. No, seeing the Mandy-zombie was a dream. This was real. This was /all/ real.
???Oh. Well, it was mighty thoughtful of you to do something nice for your sister on her birthday, but next year, keep it in the house or at least close to home, Kaye.??? Kenneth requested warily.
???Yes, Dad.??? Kaye nodded.
Kayle came into the room to stand next to her twin, Kyle. She actually startled Kyra. Mainly because she hadn't noticed her come or go from the room, though their mother had asked for Kayle to call someone. Abner Francis Teague, a retired doctor and family friend, would be on his way in minutes. "Kaye, are you feeling alright?"
???What do you think???? Kyra snapped. Kayle's expression twisted, becoming dark and sour, directed fully at Kyra.
???Girls,??? their father looked sternly from one to the other. ???Don't start. Kyra, today is your birthday, enjoy it. Please? Or at least be civil enough so that we can pretend you're enjoying it.???
???I'll take Kaye up to my room,??? Kyra said in response, not mentioning Kaye's still-raised window. She didn't want anyone to start questioning Kaye's excuse, it was the last they needed. Kaye tried to shift for her sister, but Kyra simply put one arm underneath the creases of Kaye's knees and the other arm had angled itself like she was cradling a baby. It was easy to handle the stairs. Far more easy than the woods. When Kyra returned to her own room, her minty green walls and white shag carpeting, she felt at ease. She laid her sister onto her bed, smiling faintly as Kaye eyed the folded paper. "Sorry."
"It's okay." Kaye answered after a minute, her words mumbled.
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I am constantly editing this. So if chapters seem WAY too short, they're probbably not finished. xD But I can say now that the chapters... They won't be miles long. =P
EDIT: For the record, when a chapter has come to an end, I will put the "Chapter ---" whatever below so you know. =3
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