Rich Kids Don't Die | Featured

Chapter Seven

NO MATTER HOW MANY CRAPPY MOMENTS had occurred in Maddie's life, this was definitely the worst. That night, she'd been sobbing on that damn coffee table for a few hours past nightfall when the stout goblin waiter offered Maddie a dozen more magic donuts if only she would leave.

She hadn't realized he had been there the whole time, and was even more surprised by what he was – a goblin; jade skinned, elf eared, stout, dressed in a brown robe, with an upturned nose and the height of a small cherub.

His fingernails were surprisingly clean, his eyes so glossy and shining they looked like glass. Not only did he have a gleaming smile, but a brilliant map of golden tattoos ran up his arms, curling towards his eye.

Maddie had never seen anything like it.

She took this as her cue to go, dabbing at her eyes with a cloth and trying desperately to snatch back her dignity. However, the walk home was even more miserable. Yes, walk. Alex had sent her multiple where are you?s and pleas for replies – all of which Maddie'd ignored.

Then he was gone, and she regretted her negligence more than anything.

Miserably, Maddie walked down sleets of ice as she shivered, the crisp winter air nipping at her skin. School was tomorrow. Magic was real. Evil breathed in our toxic air. She'd have to face Lucian. A reality check.

It was then that the daunting events of the day slithered into Maddie's mind like the sunset's rays creeping into the reflection of the ocean, or a spark of fire in solemnity. Like a convulsion, erratic and uncontrollable, her mind was buzzing, the gears churning with a torturous groan, all these sudden bolts of electricity sending her nerves whirling.

It bothered her so much. That wispy, shrieking figure, creeping out a young boy's cracked lips. Death death death. Graves, wars, horror, she was repulsed. Bubbling poison, darkness, shadows, emptiness, it was a flood, she was drowning. And the spirit of the boy hovered over her, floating. She could see it. His strangled screams, bottled breaths.

The murky ocean in his eyes roaring against the shore before evaporating all together as darkness took his life. The sky had collapsed, and he'd been buried underneath. He'd been snuffed out like a candle wick on a girl's birthday. One wave, one scream, one milky light to the end. That was all.

It could have been for me, too – one wave, one scream, one milky light to the end. One bullet, one blood-stained dress, one gaping hole in my heart.

Arriving to her room, Maddie collapsed onto her bed. It was past midnight, she'd have to go to school, and she wasn't sure she could afford to pay the price of hysteria. Luckily for her, MIC had cleaned the entire room when they'd sent her a note. Perhaps Sonia was a clean freak. Or perhaps it was pity.