The Last Pack

Chapter Fifteen

Charisma

The colors flowed and melted together, creating the perfect background. Now all I had to do was wait for it to dry so I could move on to the next step. Before I could set the paint brush down, a searing pain ran through my arm and down to my finger tips. The burning sensation sent my mind hurling, causing old memories to arise. Memories that were mine for sure, but ones that I had no connection to. Memories from a time that I didn't recognize.

"Aah"

I gasped and flung my other hand over my mouth to mute the gap so that mother, would not hear it from the next room over. I had not let mother know that this had been happening more and more often now. The closer I got to my seventeenth birthday, the more it happened. I would not, could not let her know that this was still happening. Mother would only drag me to more doctors and more hospitals trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

I waited with baited breath, hoped, keeping my eyes on the door to the studio. After several moments passed with mother not barging in and demanding to see the arm, I let my hand drop from my mouth at the same time, I relaxed my grasp from the paint brush, letting it fall from my hand. The drop cloth below caught the paint brush and it added to the million other spots that were on it. Thankfully, mother knew that I flung paint to create spots on purpose, so she would not be able to tell which spot was from the pain racing down my arm. It was a relief. She was always hovering. My mother was the epitome of helicopter parent and control crazy.

With a sigh, I picked up the paintbrush, then went over to the sink to wash it, along with the other three brushes I had used. The paint colors ran together in the sink, creating a muddy color, the water washing away any trace of a bright pigment. After I was done with that, I went on to washing the palette knife, the paint board and the sea sponges. I sat down after, then closed my eyes. I just wanted one moment where the pain didn't occur. One moment where I could feel normal again. But deep down I knew. I wasn't normal. This pain, this feeling, I knew something about me was abnormal.

Literally abnormal in my blood. I had a friend who was a science geek and was into genetics and blood typing. They were going to go to college for it and had already started an internship at a lab. Holly had suggested that I get blood work done. I had initially refused the idea, telling her I could never tell my mom or explain a random doctors visit. Then Holly said she would do it. So, on Saturday evening three weeks ago, she snuck me into her lab and we ran the tests. We had both waited with nerves sky high. Only she and I knew the results, for she had erased the information from the data base after she had run the tests. There was a mutation in my blood that didn't line up with human blood. I was not entirely human it seemed. Though Holly merely thought that it was a  disease that was forming, but said nothing more on the matter after I had warned her not to speak a word to anyone.

Quickly and suddenly it felt as if my head was about to explode. I collapsed to my knees off the chair. The studio faded away and all I could see was what flashed before my eyes. Flashes of woods and dirt, rough gravel, the smell of rain and wet moss over took my senses. The rush of the wind against my face... A voice was speaking but I couldn't understand what they were saying...

Just as quickly as it happened, it was over. I was left gasping for air, the pain in my arm completely gone from my mind. It wasn't even a relevant thought anymore. What on earth had that been? Never in my life...

"What the hell was that?!"

I waited to see if my mother would come in. She didn't like swearing either. We weren't religious or anything but she disliked swearing with such a passion. After several moments of internal panic, the door remained closed once more. Had she left the house without telling me? A wave of concern flossed through me. She almost always busted in when I swore out loud. In fact I rarely got away with it unless I wasn't in the house. I took my time getting to my feet. Worry continued to seep in all the while.

I took off my smock, hanging it on the hook beside my door. I took a deep breath. Clearing my mind I closed my eyes and used my ears. My sense of hearing over the past few weeks had gotten better. I could hear everything in the house. Within the walls. I could hear the pipes, the rain on the roof, the ding of the coffee maker... A thumping caught my ears. I tilted my head. There was a creaky step on the stairs to my studio, I always had time to hide anything from her. But the stairs were silent. The house was silent... Too silent. The thumping was coming from my mother's room down on the first floor. My studio and her office where here on the third floor of our home.

I opened the door, making my way to the steps. The instant I opened the door a smell hit my nose. It smelled like rusty copper? No... blood. I didn't think, I just did. I rushed down the stairs and walked quickly to the second set of stairs. I froze at the top. There was another smell. The smell of sweat, another thumping sound. A heart beat...I need something to protect myself. I nearly screamed as my arm shot pain up it again. It nearly caused me to collapse. I was gripping the banister so hard. The sound of it starting to crack startled me. If I could here it, then who ever else was in our house could too... Footsteps started heading towards the stairs... paused and then took off out the front door at what sounded like a sprint.

It felt like hours as I waited at the top of the stairs. Just waiting for them to come back. When I decided enough time had passed I sprinted down the stairs towards my mother room. I grabbed the baseball bat off the wall, dashing towards her room. I got ready to swing the bat...

The room was empty. The only indication that anyone had been in the room was the small pool of blood by the window, a handprint smeared on the glass. Who ever had been here had either gotten hurt, or they had hurt my mom. I needed to find her.

"Mom?"

I called out, hoping she would answer. No response.

"Mom!"

I yelled as I turned around and started dashing from room to room. The pain in my arm was spreading now. Growing and spreading to both arms and my legs. She was gone. All there was, was the blood in her bedroom. There was nothing else. A searing pain in my legs caused me to trip going up the stairs.

"Ah!"

The pain was all consuming. It took over everything. The last thing to go through my mind was the flash's that had gone through my head earlier. Flashes of woods and dirt, rough gravel, the smell of rain and wet moss consumed every last thinking thought.