Stones

Part 5

“I’m sorry...” He sobbed. “I’m so sorry... She was just... And I was just...”
“Israel,” I said quietly. “Israel, I know... I know... It’s gonna be okay... Well, not for her. But just promise me you won’t do anything this... this stupid, ever again.”
“I promise. I promise.” I sat down with him, and helped him clean the blood off of his hands. Gabe came out and joined us. I was worried for a second that maybe he would try to kill Israel. After what happened yesterday, and now this, he had so many reasons to. But, instead, he patted Israel on the back and said,
“Dude, you really screwed up this time.” I felt a hard thump on the back of my head. A blue rock. Note saying: Run. Please run. Don’t trust him! You know who I mean. Gale will find out, and you will be betrayed. You can’t do this alone, Alex. Your friend, Danika. I showed it to Gabe. He told me not to listen to Danika, because she was Gale’s ex-wife and would stop at nothing to ruin his life. It was hard for me to imagine Danika as someone who’d try to RUIN someone’s LIFE. But I trusted Gabe.  Israel stood up, and threw the knife as far as he could into the lake. Then, he lifted Amanda’s rotting corpse out of the water, and onto a pile of leaves. We had a mini funeral, and buried her under the waterfall. It was so sad, and I wasn’t sure how Victoria was gonna take it. She and Amanda had been BFFs forever.
When we got back to school, it was almost the end of the day. Victoria was chatting away with Ezra in the hallway, when she noticed that Gabe and I were back.
“What have you two been up to?” She asked, clinging to Ezra’s arm.
“Well,” I sighed. “We were just, down by the waterfall, with Israel.”
“Oh, and was Amanda there?” She was so happy, I didn’t want to ruin that!
“Amanda is...” Before I could finish, the intercom came on.
“Attention students. Amanda Williams is missing. She is believed to be dead, stabbed to death by another student earlier this morning.” Victoria’s smile faded. She shook her head in disbelief.
“It was Israel.” Gabe told her.
“Figured.” She collapsed to the ground. Ezra picked her up and carried her to the nurse’s office. Gabe just stood there and stared at me, waiting to see my reaction. I just stared back at him, hoping someone would barge in and interrupt us. But, no one did. We just stood there, staring into each others’ eyes. When the bell rang for the end of the day, he pulled me close to him, kissed me, and started crying. I hated to see him so sad. I would be, too, if my best friend turned out to be a vicious murderer. I leaned my head on his chest, and told him that everything was going to be okay, he still had me. Other students completely disregarded us. After everyone had left, Victoria and Ezra came and got us. If it were any other day, I probably would’ve been mad that they interrupted my moment. But, given the current circumstances, I had no right to be mad at them. They asked if we could come with them to the waterfall to visit Amanda’s grave.
When we got there, Israel was gone. Nobody asked where he might’ve gone to, nobody cared. We all just gathered around Amanda’s gravestone (a piece of cobblestone with her name scratched into it), and said nice things about her. We were all just standing in silence when we heard someone coming. Israel threw himself down on the ground in front of the stone. Kai was following him, his fists clenched. He and Victoria looked at each other knowingly, and anonymously started attacking Israel. No one did anything thing stop them, until eventually I’d had enough. I pulled them off of the poor guy, and shoved them into the water. Victoria was soaked, but Kai muttered some words, and climbed out of the lake, completely dry!
“What the...?” I was seriously amazed. “How’d you...?”
“I’m a sorcerer!” He smiled. “Jealous?”
“Very.” It was totally wrong to laugh at your best friend’s funeral, but me and Kai did it anyway. Eventually, we had everyone laughing! Gage joined us, and Regan, Megan, and Greg came with him. Greg, was a tall guy with red hair and freckles, Regan’s boyfriend. They were such a perfect couple, unlike me and Gabe, who were forbidden from being together. Gage told me that Regan and Megan were angels of darkness, and that Greg was a werewolf. He also explained to me that people/creatures like Gale and Danika, who carried immense power, didn’t usually waste their time talking and socializing with their “minions”. Gage whispered something to Gabe, and it must’ve really upset him, ‘cause he didn’t talk to Gage for the rest of the night. Everyone stayed there talking about Amanda and school and dramas, until about 10:30. Then, it was just me, Gabe, Victoria, and Ezra again. Ezra and Victoria were snuggled up in a treehouse (I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that before!), most likely making out.
Gabe and I were side by side by the water, listening to the crickets and staring up at the stars. I was wearing a cute red sun-dress and purple sneakers, and he was wearing his usual dark jeans and black tee shirt. Super adorable.... I scootched over closer to him, and held his hand. His hand was shaking. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and whispered: I love you. into his ear. He whispered: I love you more. Out of all my boyfriends, he was the first to say that. I got that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. When he leaned in to kiss me, I closed my eyes, and pictured something disturbing. It was Gabe, and he was beating something- no, someone- with a baseball bat. Oh my gosh... it was me! My eyes shot open, and I bit his tongue.
“Agh!” he gasped. “What was that for?!”
“I had a vision...” I know, that sounded incredibly lame.
“What kind of vision?” He asked in a sarcastic tone.
“You were... You killed me.” He pushed me away, angrily.
“Gale... I’m gonna... Ah!” He got up and left. I just sat there, confused as heck, watching Victoria and Ezra, like a stalker. They had their fingers wrapped in each others’ hair, as always. It would’ve been their usual “make out scene”, but this time, Victoria was crying. Every time she came up for air, she mumbled something about a sacrifice, and her last living friend. Finally, she pulled away from Ezra, and curled up alone in the corner. I climbed up the tree and peered through the window for a better look.
“Victoria,” Ezra whined. “Don’t worry about it for now! You’ll get a reward that’ll make up for it anyway. And you have a few more weeks... Like a month and a half!”
“But, Ezzie! You don’t understand. Alex is all I have! Thanks to Israel...” She sobbed, hugging her knees.
“You have me, right?! I’ll always be here for you, Vic.” He sat down on the plywood floor beside her. “Don’t you ever forget that.” After a couple minutes, she was able to stop crying.
“Ezra,” she said. “I just don’t see how I’m gonna do this, how I’m gonna kill Alex. She’s so sweet...” I was shocked. So shocked, in fact, that I fell out of the tree, making a loud thump, which got the attention of the two lovebirds. They climbed down as fast as they could, Victoria asking if I was alright, and Ezra swearing at me, calling me things I’d never been called before. They pulled me over to the lake, and Victoria washed out my cuts, while Ezra paced back and forth, going on and on about how stupid I am for thinking I could get away with spying on them. I was really starting to hate him...
“Alex,” Victoria asked. “What were you doing, watching us like that?”
“Well,” I answered. “Gabe left when... Er, Gabe left, so I thought I’d hang out with you guys. But when I saw how much fun you were having, I didn’t want to interrupt. So, I was climbing down, and I lost my grip and fell. And here we are now!” Lamest. Excuse. Ever. Ezra (darn him), didn’t buy it.
“How much did you hear?!” He demanded.
“Enough.” I said, truthfully. “I knew that you were plotting to kill me, and that I had about a month and a half left to live.”
“You little-” Victoria stopped him just in time.
“Alex,” she explained. “This is bigger than you. I don’t expect you to understand... Just please don’t try to run from destiny.” Destiny. The word stung in the back of my mind. Destiny meant a fate that you’re bound to. I was bound to be killed by my new best friend, whom (before knowing this), I would’ve trusted with my life. In fact, I had, and she’d betrayed me. Now, there was nothing I could do. They were vampires. I was a puck, half FAIRY. What in the world could a fairy do? I didn’t have claws, or fangs, or laser eyes, or anything cool like that. And she could VAPORIZE and could live forever for Pete’s sake... How could I beat that? The answer was, I couldn’t. Then, I had another “lightbulb moment”. Maybe, if the odds were in our favor, maybe Gabe could save me! As soon as Victoria was done cleaning out my wounds, I got up and ran.
When I got home, my mother was waiting for me. “I told you, Alex,” she scolded. “That I would see you after school. You should’ve come straight home!” Ignoring her completely, I marched straight up the stairs to my room. I was starting to adjust to this new lifestyle, away from huge shopping malls, limousines, and all my closest snobby friends. I wondered what Trinity would say if she found out that I hadn’t gone shoe-shopping in over a week! My stomach growled. I was starving, and I wanted an ice-cream sundae sooo much...
“Mo-om!” I called. “Ice cream, please!” Despite our not-so-happy interaction earlier, she brought me the sundae, but immediately slammed the door and marched downstairs after giving it to me. While I shoveled the delicious chocolate ice-cream down my throat, I thought of Gabe, how mad he’d been earlier. Should I call him? What if it was serious? Did I do something wrong? I decided that my first priority would be to eat until my sides hurt, watch a little American Idol, and then maybe- MAYBE, I would call Gabe. I was kinda mad that he walked out on me earlier. Two bowls of ice-cream, half a pizza, and 2 hours of American Idol later, I picked up my phone and called him.
“Yo?” His voice sounded exhausted, but maybe that had something to do with the time... 11: 47 pm.
“Gabe, I’m mad at you!” Subtle, right?!
“And might I ask, why?” He seemed amused, which made me even angrier.
“Because you left without saying goodbye! And you didn’t even tell me what was wrong, or call me to apologize, or...” He hung up. Then called back two seconds later. “What was that all about?!”
“I’m calling to apologize!” He laughed. “Isn’t that what you wanted?!” I let out a sigh of defeat. He won. Again.
“Yes, Gabe. That’s what I said, isn’t it...? So, what are you doing up this late at night?!” Darn! I forgot that I was the one that originally called HIM!