Stones

Part 3

When I got home, I went straight to bed. I dug through my jewelry box for my notes. At first, I had just thought that all this was some stupid prank. Now, I knew that it was something bigger, more dangerous. And, for whatever reason, Gabe was a part of it. I also knew that the red stones + notes were bad, and the blue ones were good. I was determined to find out more. That night, I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept thinking about Gabe, and our date. Of course, it was silly to be worried about a relationship when my life was potentially at stake, but there was something about Gabe, he was so different. So unique... He annoyed the crap out of me, made me really mad, and at the same time, made me laugh and smile, feel safe and protected.
At school the next day, Victoria came up to me, and she did NOT look happy! She mumbled something about a waterfall, and secrets revealed and stuff like that. Then, she looked up at me and snarled. Creepy.
“Hello, Alex. How was your ‘movie date’?” She glared at me, and I wanted to run. She reminded me of a blood-thirsty bat...
“It- it was great. Why do you ask?!” I started shaking.
“Liar! You lying little....” She grabbed my throat.
Gabe walked over and tried to stop her. “Victoria! Stop!” He dragged me away. “What is this about?”
I answered. “She came over mumbling about things then asked about our date, I told her it was fine then she tried to strangle me.”
She lunged at me again, “Get back here!.” She bared her teeth and hissed. Her braces and glasses disappeared, she grew fangs, and her hair changed from dirty-blond to a beautiful, majestic black. “I’ll suck the blood out of your lying body!”
Gabe intercepted. “Enough!” She stopped and turned into her normal self. He dragged Victoria off and was whispering about a vampire and Ezra. When she heard this she perked up and sent Gabe off toward.... Ezra. I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I thought about him. Now, after seeing what Toria was, a vampire, I was sure Ezra was just as dangerous.
She walked back towards me. “You’re a vampire!”
She answered in a hushed tone. “Yeah a lot of people are supernatural creatures. Amanda and Israel are werewolves, Gabe is an angel of darkness, and me and Ezra are vampires.”
“Oh my gosh... And nobody told me until now?! What else are you guys not telling me?! Am I a supernatural creature?”
She was about to answer when Gabe came over. He nodded in  Victoria’s direction. “He said yes?!?!” She squealed with delight.
“Yeah. I told him you were a vamp too, and he agreed.” Gabe answered.
Victoria jumped up and down screaming in a high pitch voice. “He said yes! Woohoo!” She calmed down and continued to talk, “I’ve been trying to find the guts to ask him out for like months! Oh my gosh, thank you Gabe!” She looked like she was gonna kiss him, so I interrupted.
“So, Gabe, what exactly is an angel of darkness? Sounds scary.” He looked at me in shock and horror. “Yeah, that’s right. Victoria told me about the supernatural creatures thing.”
“Well,” His voice was shaky. “Angels of darkness are um, creatures, er people, that do certain tasks for the um... Dark Lord.” He saw the mortified expression that spread across my face. “It’s not as bad as you think... We just do him a few small favors, and he rewards us! But sometimes...” He sighed and shrugged.
“Sometimes what..?” I asked curiously.
“Sometimes it’s just not worth it.” I could tell he was trying hard not to cry. I hated that about guys. They were always so afraid to cry or show emotion; all of them (apparently even angels of darkness)! “But don’t worry about it.” When I got home that afternoon, a blue stone was waiting for me. This time, the note said: Alex, you may know by know that your friends aren’t- well- normal. Neither are you. You’re a Puck. Half fairy half human. You have amazing abilities, and they’ll start to show over the next few days. Use them well! Your friend, Danika. Amazing abilities?! Half fairy half human?! It couldn’t be real... But I had an awful feeling that it was. Suddenly, I remembered the notebook I had found a couple of nights ago. I pulled it out. This time, the words made sense to me. The book told about all sorts of creatures going into a great war, and eventually dividing themselves into two groups: The pandas and the teardrops. Weird names... Anyways, then it said something about a rebellion where the Dark Lord and his followers fight against the Princess of Purity, whose name is Danika. Why did that name sound so familiar?!
Oh yeah!!! The notes! Danika was the girl that had written the blue ones, the seemingly nice one. This book was old, ancient even, so how old did that make Danika? Who was she? I read on. There was a chosen one, like in a cheesy karate movie, and a lot of nonsense about martial arts. Oh, and vampires, dark angels, centaurs, pucks, werewolves, dragons, sorcerers, and a bunch of other mythical stuff. It was just like a fantasy novel I’d read... Almost. This was more real, especially since I had just discovered that I was half fairy! I continued reading. The next section of the notebook was about a “crucial sacrifice” and some Puck whose friends all turn against her. Whoa. Could that be.... No, I told myself, it’s not me.
The next day at school, I saw Victoria and Ezra making out on the steps. Their fingers were tangled in each others hair, staring into each others eyes. It was adorable! When they saw me coming, they quickly pulled away from each other, both looking ashamed and embarrassed. I was about to say something, when Israel came up to me. He was looking especially attractive, with his shaggy hair combed off to the side. Before I could say hi, he had his hand on my arm, pulling me away towards the janitor’s closet. He locked the door.
“Israel, what is this all about?!” I asked, practically hyperventilating.
“Alex, I know that you saw me and Amanda fighting at the waterfall,” He looked nervous, and slightly dangerous. “And you probably guessed that things aren’t going very well between us. Oh, Alex, I feel like such an idiot.” He broke down and started to cry. I had never imagined that someone as big and tough as Israel would cry over girl problems. Despite the tragicness of all of this, it was almost funny!
“Did you... Did you hit her?” I remembered the way Amanda had flinched that night in the woods.
“Yes, I did. A lot.” He then leaned toward me and kissed me. “There. Now I have another thing to regret.” Forgetting about all of the reasons not to, I kissed him back. We stayed that way, crying, kissing, knowing we’d regret this, for almost an hour. My green tears didn’t seem to bother him at all.
Finally, I said, “Israel, we can’t do this.” Then Amanda, who had a spare key to the janitor’s closet, from past experiences with Israel, walked in.
“Alex? Israel?! What’s going on here?” Hearing all the commotion, Gabe walked in, too. “Look Gabe! Her lipstick is all over his face! That little...” I couldn’t move. I was too scared.
“Amanda, baby, I can explain... She was just... We were just...” Gabe, even though he was a lot smaller than Israel, pushed past Amanda and attacked Israel, who of course fought back. And I was stuck in the middle.
“Gabe, stop! He was just depressed about his fight with Amanda, and he dragged me in here to talk about it.” I knew it didn’t sound very convincing, but it was the truth, wasn’t it?!
“Shut up, Alex. I thought you liked me. No, I thought you loved me. Victoria was right, you are a liar!” Just then, Victoria herself walked in.
“Gabe, as much as I hate to admit it,” she said. “Alex is right. I saw the whole thing.” She came and put her arm around me, the friendliest thing she’d ever done!
        “Alright... Come on, Alex. Let’s leave Israel to rot. I thought I could trust you, Israel...” Gabe grabbed my hand and we walked out of the closet, and then out of the school. I had no idea where we were going, but I had no choice but to trust him. I owed him that much. While we were walking, I kept thinking about that notebook, thinking about Danika. I let my mind wander for a while, and the next I knew, we were at the waterfall. Even though I was excited to finally have some time with just Gabe, part of me knew that I’d get in trouble for skipping class. I opened my mouth to tell Gabe we had to go back, when a beautiful girl just a few years older than me appeared.
        “Alex Blake, we, er- I have been expecting you.” She tucked a strand of perfect light brown hair behind her ear, revealing an equal pretty face. “You’re the new puck, right?! I’m Shelby, leader of the vampire cult around here. Gabe works for my boyfriend, the dark lord.”
        “I’ve heard of him...” I sighed and gave Gabe a threatening look. “But not as soon as I should’ve.”
        “Sorry about that.” He said, looking at me guiltily. Then, he whispered, “Alex, please don’t tell her we’re dating... It’s complicated. Trust me.” After days of being unsure, I finally did trust him. I kept my mouth shut until Shelby left. But, being the vampiress that she was, she didn’t just walk away, she vanished into thin air. And I was left there with Gabe, sitting on a rock under the waterfall. Rather than put his arm I around me as I had hoped, he sat there and stared at me with a blank expression on his face. Finally, I spoke up.
        “Wow, it’s warm today! And the water looks so nice...” I slipped off my black flats. “Wanna go for a swim? Just real quickly?!” I gave him the ‘puppy dog eyes’. It worked!
“Sure.” he said flatly. He slipped off his shirt, revealing his amazing 6 pack of abs. “But just for a  little while. The mermaids will be out soon, and they’re quite scary really.” Then, we jumped in. Me, in my blue tank top and cutoff denim shorts, and him in his jeans. The water here was clean and crystal clear, which seemed unusual considering the amount of pollution in New York. I was holding my breath underwater, when Gabe pulled me back up. At first, I thought he was worried about me, but that wasn’t it at all.
“Alex, you look so hot right now...” He grabbed my shoulders and kissed me. All of my senses went numb. “Oh gosh... I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself...” I laughed at him so hard it startled him, and kissed him again. I’m sure we would’ve stayed there forever, given the chance, but (of course) we were interrupted. We heard a loud gasp from behind us. It was Victoria, and with her was Ezra, Amanda, Israel (I was surprised he was brave enough to show up after what happened this morning), Kai, Gage, Jason, and a few other kids I didn’t recognize. Among them, was a short girl with beautiful dirty blond hair and bleach blond highlights. Her eyes were as clear blue as the water that I was now climbing out of. The sun was shining through her smile, she looked so warm and friendly... Danika. I’m not sure how I knew, I just did. Victoria was whispering something to her, and, even though I couldn’t hear exactly what is was, it reminded me of the notebook.
I wanted to get away from all these weird people (or creatures, rather), so I slipped away into the woods. I didn’t get far before I noticed that I was being followed. I turned around and came face to face with Kai. After seeing him beat up Gabe a few days earlier, I had decided that I didn’t like him. But now, I saw that he was quite friendly. He laughed as he fell to the ground, and I sat down with him. He reminded me a lot of Gabe.
“So, Kai, what’re you doing stalking me?” I laughed and laid back into a pile of leaves.