Stones

Part 6

My train of thought was interrupted by more angry, vicious cheering. I saw Gabe, leading a group of people that were throwing various objects (tomatoes, shoes, pebbles, dolls, ect.) at me. I couldn’t believe that HE would do this to me. He’d promised me so many times that he wouldn’t hurt me, that he’d stop at nothing to protect me. It was the harshest most diabolical and deceptive way to lure someone into a trap every attempted. One of the few things that blocks out common sense is love. And I had loved Gabe. But now, seeing the cruel, malicious evil in his eyes, I knew he never really loved me.
“Attention!” Bellowed Gale. “I will have my chief executive and favorite son kill her first.” What did he mean FIRST?!?! I couldn’t be killed more than once, could I? The “cage” door slid open, and in walked Gabe. He was wearing a suit of armour made completely out of gold, with dragons made of diamonds stuck all over it. It reminded me of the dress I wore at my 8th birthday party. He unsheathed an enormous sword that I recognized as titanium. My father used to have a sword like that hanging on the wall in his bedroom at our summer home. He proudly walked closer to me, as a smirk spread across his face. As he raised his lethally sharp sword above my head, he began to chuckle. It reminded me of the clown my dad had hired for my 10th birthday party. The man had showed up in a ripped clown costume, laughing like a psycho, because his wife wanted a divorce so he got drunk and THEN went to work at a little girls’ party. Smart.
“Oh Alex,” chuckled Gabe. “You’re so gullible. I bet you never expected this. I’ve been around thousands of years. I’ve taken PLENTY of acting classes.” It was hard to believe that anyone could be this cruel.
“Gabe- I- I just don’t understand... You seemed so nice...” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. I bowed my head in defeat and waited to me murdered.
“What’s not to understand?! I played your spoiled, rich little a** like an old video game! Now goodbye. For now.” He let out one final chuckle before bringing the blade down to my throat. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I don’t know why. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I cringed when the sword tore through the skin on my neck, and then deeper, until it was straight through the middle. The whole process seemed so slow and painful. It was pure torture, that only the most heartless beast could inflict upon another being. I couldn’t scream anymore; I could breathe. I lost consciousness. I knew what it felt like to die. Gabe had killed me. The last thought in my head (when it was attached to my neck) was That liar.
I opened my eyes, and saw that I was back in the same “cage” arena, and my head was back on my shoulders. The second Gale saw my astonished expression, he laughed and explained to me what had happened. Since he was the lord of darkness, he could bring people back to life. I wondered once again why pucks and fairies didn’t have as important powers. Then, it started again. This time, Gale sent Victoria to do the job. She looked much less bloodthirsty than Gabe (which was odd, considering she was the vampire). She looked almost... Sorry for me. I noticed Ezra in the crowd. With another girl. She had long, straight, blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. No wonder Victoria was sad. She stood behind me, and sucked out all of my blood. At first, it felt like two daggers logged in the back of my neck. Then, I felt dizzy and lightheaded. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I collapsed to the ground. I lost consciousness again. I had the painfully familiar feeling of being dead.
The third time, Gale sent Kai. Kai had never killed anyone in his long, long life. He obviously wasn’t eager to kill his new best friend. I watched him blink back tears, as he took out a... A rubber snake?!?! Forgetting that I was being executed, I burst out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. At first, everyone was shocked. Then, Kai started laughing, too. I knew at that moment that I was gonna be okay. Gale was infuriated; he looked like he was going to spontaneously combust. He most likely would’ve murdered me a final time, but Shelby ran to his side to calm him down. I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that I wasn’t dead for good. Kai and I stopped laughing, just as the room (turns out, in the underworld, there’s no outdoors. Just very very spacious rooms.) filled with a nauseating gas. I covered my mouth, and Kai tried to get me out of the “cage” so I could escape. The air was turning almost blue, and my eyes started watering. I couldn’t think; I couldn’t breathe. Once again, I lost consciousness. This time, Kai was there to catch me when I fell.
When I woke up,  I wasn’t back in the cage. And I wasn’t cold. And I wasn’t dead. I was warm, wrapped in someone’s arms. I looked up and saw my rescuers’ face. Israel. He’d saved my life, taken me from the worst place in existence. Why? What did I do to deserve this? He saw I was awake, and smiled.
“Alex! You’re alive!!!” He was practically jumping with joy.
“Israel..?” I mumbled. “How...? What...? Where are we?”
“Well,” he sighed. “We’re in Maine. I saved you from Gale... Well, with a little help from Kai. You know how I’m a werewolf...? Well, I’m one of the few that don’t work for Gale. When I heard that Gabe and Victoria had gone through with their plan... Well, I knew I had to stop them. I couldn’t let anything happen to you.” He blushed. Did he like have a crush on me?!?!
“Thank you sooo much, Israel.” I let out a huge sigh of relief. “I owe you. Is there anything I can do for you before I go home and find my dad?” Since my mom obviously wasn’t gonna be much help (I had spotted her in the underworld crowd), I knew I could depend on my rich and famous dad.
“Well,” he said nervously. “There is ONE thing...”
“What?”
“A date. A kiss. Even a hug would do...” He looked me in the eyes. He looked confident, nervous, and confused. “I’ve liked you since the first time I laid eyes on you. But you were in love with Gabe. But, since that obviously didn’t work out...” Didn’t work out?!?! He’d lied to me, made me fall for him, and lured me into the underworld!!! That’s the most dysfunctional relationship in history.
“Israel... I had no idea...” I tried to hide my proud smile. “Of course I’ll go out with you! You saved my life... And you’re like HOT!!!” I turned around so I was facing him. Suddenly, I had all my energy back. We stared into each others’ eyes, and I grabbed his hands. He leaned in and kissed me. And kissed me. And kissed me. I bet we were like that for three hours. I wished I’d been wearing something cozier than the stupid dress from the underworld. It was about noon, and we were sitting in the woods in Maine. We decided we had to keep moving. It wasn’t long before we ran into trouble... Victoria and Gabe appeared out of thin air.
They demanded us to return to the underworld with them. They didn’t even finish three sentences before Israel grabbed Gabe by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Victoria hissed her hideous vampire hiss, and flipped her beautiful vampire hair. She lunged at me, and, having just woken up from being killed twice and then gassed, I fell to the ground. Israel threw Gabe, and rushed to my side.
“STAY. AWAY. FROM. HER!” He yelled. “Don’t touch her!!!!!!” He knock Victoria into a nearby tree, and helped me up. “I love you Alex.” He whispered. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” Talk about deja vu... But the difference between when Gabe said it and when Israel said it, was that I knew Israel wasn’t lying. I knew that I was safe with him. He picked me up and carried me all the way through the woods. I clung to him, and screamed in his ear when we got to a bridge going over a stream. Gabe and Toria were there, making out. Gabe had one hand tangled in her hair, the other on her butt. Toria’s arms were wrapped around his waist, and she was giggling. A tiny part of me was jealous, until Israel put me down and kissed the top of my head. He told me to stay put, he was going to try to find another way across the stream so we wouldn’t interrupt their little scene. I just stood still and watched as the two most dishonest, cruel people in existence had a good time.
When Israel came back, he picked me up again and tiptoed closer to the bridge. Trying to be quiet, I didn’t ask him where we were going. He asked if I could swim, and then he tossed me into the river. At first, I had to try hard not to scream or drown. But, as I was regaining my sanity and swimming to the other side, I felt a pair of warm hands grab my waist and pull me up to shore. I gave Israel my best you’ve GOT to be kidding me look, and he covered his mouth to keep from laughing. My purple dress was COMPLETELY soaked, and I had leaves and twigs and bugs in my hair from being in the forest. I was sure I looked like a disaster. We laid down under the bridge and spied on Victoria and Gabe.
“Oh wow,” Victoria said when she came up for air. “This is fun... I can’t believe Alex thought you LOVED her!!!” They both stopped for two seconds to laugh maniacally.
“I know,” Gabe answered, and he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “She’ll be forever alone.” At this, Israel took my hand and looked into my eyes sweetly, as if to say you’re not alone. They started walking and kissing, running into trees and rocks, far past the bridge. Luckily, they headed back in the direction we had come from. We waited until they were out of sight, and then we crawled out from under the wooden bridge. The sun was setting, and it was getting cold. After taking one look at poor cold, wet little me, and Israel took off his sweatshirt and put it on me. Once again, I was warm and cozy, thanks to Israel. I told him I wanted to walk. Hand in hand, we hiked in the direction of the setting sun, looking for a highway or a house or any place to spend the night.
Three hours later, the sun had set, and our only source of light was the moon. Finally, we came to an old run-down cabin with broken shutters and smashed windows. Spiderwebs and huge black spiders littered the place. I was terribly afraid of spiders. I tried to tell him this, that I couldn’t stay in a crap-shack with spiders, but he insisted that I’d be fine. We slowly opened the front door, making sure there were no people or creatures already inhabiting the place. I figured that even a raccoon is too classy to stay in a place like this... But I followed Israel through the cabin, until he found a livable room. Better yet, there was a full closet in one of the bedrooms! I ripped open the doors, expecting to find dozens of designer dresses like my closet at home. To my surprise and horror, there weren’t designer clothes in there, but rather, the most horrible crime scene leftovers in history.... Ugly floral dresses. From like the 40s. I screamed, and almost fainted. I dug through bunches of powder-blue and lavender ankle length shapeless nightmares... All the way to the back of the closet, where I found something that didn’t belong.
The most beautiful piece of clothing I had ever laid eyes on. And trust me, I’d seen a lot of clothes. A knee-length, fire red dress, with sequins and a purple belt. I slipped off my disgustingly damp purple dress and slipped on the new red one. I spent the next twenty minutes searching the house for a mirror. When I finally found one, I stared into it for like half an hour. I un-braided my hair, and went to find Israel. When I found him, he was asleep on the couch in the living room, with a potato chip on his face. I laughed quietly, trying not to wake him up, and flick the chip across the room. The moonlight was shining through the destroyed window, and I could hear crickets chirping outside. It was so different from the rich lifestyle I was used to, but I kinda liked it. I threw a blanket over Israel and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning to the sweet smell of cooking bacon. Instinctively, I rolled out of bed and made my way to the small (even smaller than the one at my “new house” in New York) kitchen. Israel was almost done with the tasty breakfast. I couldn’t help but wonder where he got all the food...