Devil's Creation

Chapter 5

Axel walked closer to Elijah's friend with his dark eyes telling him to back off. Elijah's friend took a few - almost reluctant - steps away from me. From where I sat, I could see a look of fury on Elijah's features as he took his arm off of Jessica and took a few steps towards Axel.

"Leave." Axel said threateningly from where he stood.

"Or else what? There's three of us and one of you." Elijah gestured to all his friends. The look of rage receded. "You tryin to protect your little girlfriend? Well she's not leaving until we teach her a lesson. So I'd advise you to walk away now, before you're next in line." Elijah cracked his knuckles, attempting to look menacing.

"I said leave. Don't make me repeat myself." Axel said coldly, ignoring what they said, and not phased at all by Elijah's threat. Axel didn't even need to crack his knuckles or have two other friends with him, he looked menacing all on his own.

It had started to snow again, making me shiver from the cold snowflakes landing on the bare skin of my face. I hadn't dared to stand back up because I didn't really want to get into the fight that was most likely going to go down, so now the back side of my jeans were completely soaked through. All I could think of was the heater in my car. If only I could ask for a rain check so I could go warm up.

I could feel the tension in the air increase as Axel walked over to me, placing himself between me and Elijah and his friends. The snowfall was now slowly turning into a blizzard, making my teeth chatter from the breeze hitting my face.

I wasn't the only one that was turning into a human popsicle.

"Can we please just go? I'm really cold, Eli." Jessica whined, trying to grab Elijah's arm. "We'll deal with her tomorrow."

The pissed off look returned to Elijah's face. He gave a small grunt to Jessica and one last nasty look towards Axel's direction before turning around and storming off, with his friends and girlfriend following suit.

When they had left and I could no longer hear them, Axel turned to me. "Are you alright?" He asked.

The blizzard that had formed within minutes slowed down just as fast. I looked up at him to see that he still had an angry expression plastered to his face. I looked away and then stood back up, still slightly shaking from my near beating.

"I'm fine. I didn't need your help though, I could have handled it myself." I lied, still trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Sure you could have." I looked sharply up at him to see that he rolled his eyes. His mood seemed to have changed pretty quickly. "Am I not gonna get a thanks?" He asked, running a hand through his now messy hair. The little blizzard made his hair look absolutely crazy. Mine most likely looked the same.

"Thank you." I mumbled, looking down at my shoes. It felt as though I stepped into a puddle filled with ice cubes. Then something came to my mind. "How did you even know where I was?"

"I saw you being literally dragged through the school. I'm surprised a teacher didn't stop you guys to see if you were alright."

"Oh." I looked hesitantly up to him. "I mean... the teachers here are quite oblivious to these sorts of things."

"I noticed." His face hardened and I saw his hands clench into two tight fists. "Someone should really teach those kids a lesson."

"Yeah... I suppose." I said, trying to hide how much I liked his idea.

The snow had finally ceased, but it was still really cold out and I couldn't stop shivering. I was also still really confused on why this complete stranger would risk getting beat up just for me. I'm nothing special.

"I should probably go now. It's really cold and I have a lot of homework to complete tonight." I walked the few feet to where I had dropped my bag and picked it back up.

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow." With that, he walked away from me and in the opposite direction of the school.

"Uhm... the schools this way." I called out to him.

"Oh, I know. But there's something I have to deal with first." He called back, still walking and without turning around.

When I could no longer see him, I turned towards the school really confused. I didn't think there was anything beyond the woods for at least a couple miles. I kept thinking of different reasons why he would be heading in that direction as I made my way to my car. Was his house that way?? Who lives in the middle of the fricken woods?

Once at the edge of the woods of the parking lot, I looked around the area and was relieved to see that Elijah and his lackeys were nowhere in sight. I ran to the broken down looking car and unlocked it. I quickly got in and immediately turned the heat all the way up. My toes felt as though they were all going to fall off.

I looked over at the small clock and let out a small yelp. School had ended at 2:45 and now it's just about 3:30. My parents were going to most likely kill me for being this late. I drove home as fast as I could, feeling as though I was in Fast and Furious. (While still going the speed limit so don't worry)

I parked in our driveway. Not the best parking job, but I didn't care cause I was about to literally be murdered by my parents.

I rushed to get out of the car, fumbling with locking it, as I ran to get to the stairs to our house. I actually almost got there, but then I ended up slipping on a bit of ice and landing right on my ass. I quickly got back up and shot my head around, searching to see if anyone was around. It would have been quite embarrassing, but thankfully no one was around to see me. I took my time walking up the stairs, slightly rubbing my sore backside.

The door was already unlocked when I went to open it, so I walked in trying my best to be as quiet and stealthy as a ninja to place the car keys on the counter where I got them this morning.

"You're late." My mother accused from where she appeared behind me, making me jump.

I was literally just about to place the keys on the counter when she came out of nowhere, and I wasn't expecting her to be standing right behind me. I turned slowly around to see that she was looking down at me like she usually always does. As if I were a disgusting bug she squished and is now stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

"Get up to your room, you ungrateful brat. And I don't want to see you anytime before dinner. You hear me?"

I nod my head once and race up the stairs to my room. I had a bunch of homework to do anyway.

When I got into my room and closed the door, that's when the tears started making their slow journey down my cheeks onto the carpet. Sometimes I wish I had different parents.