Boundless

Fleur de Lis

I woke up late in the afternoon in my own room, uncertain about how I even got there. I remembered seeing Devon's car in the driveway and I remembered grabbing a soda for him but, after that, nothing.

I shook my head as if that would clear it. Strands of thoughts were running through my mind so quickly, I couldn't quite grasp onto them. I felt something was deeply wrong, but I had no way to understand what it was.

I decided to take a shower, hoping that would help clear my head ache that was becoming increasingly worse by the second. It did nothing to help me. Instead it seemed to strengthen the pain. I let out an annoyed groan. This day officially sucked. I had gone to school dressed up as an elf, been stuck with Chase for a whole class period, and missed the opportunity I had to talk to Devon.

I was usually not a whinny person, but I was grumpy and my head hurt, so I started to cry. Right there, in my shower. Like a pathetic, hormonal teenage girl. After it struck me that I was being stupid, I forced myself to stop crying and stepped out of the shower.

I grimaced when I saw my own reflection. My eyes were still watery and my nose was bright red. I washed my face with cold water, hoping that would do something to help with my appearance.

I shuffled into my room to change into my nightgown. Right before I was about to remove my towel, I heard a voice behind me.

"From Santa to Rudolf," Chase Caulfield said from my door.

Of course, I was startled out of my mind, but I didn't have a very typical reaction movies tend to depict. I didn't gasp and turn around to face him. No, I screamed. I screamed bloody murder and fell back on the floor, nearly hitting my head on the corner of my desk.

Chase came into my line of sight. He leaned against my door frame, sunglasses still on his face, and I swear that asshole was smirking.

I tried to speak, but I couldn't make out any words.

Chase stood there patiently, waiting for me to start screaming at him.

I tried once again.

Nope. My words didn't work, but I was damn sure I could still move and movements often communicated even more than words did.

I jumped up, marched towards him, and slapped him across the face.

His head jerked to the side and his sunglasses nearly fell off. I was actually surprised at how easy it was for me to slap him. I had half-expected for him to block my strike.

So, I don't think he's got super strength, I thought dryly.

Right after I finished that thought, Chase slapped me.

He slapped me.

In the face.

"What the hell?" I shouted, finding words once again.

He shrugged. "You slapped me." I stared at him blankly. "If that actually hurt you, you have a nerve-ending disorder."

He had a point. It hadn't hurt at all, or even slightly jerked my head to the side. But I was still furious and I had yet to ramble at him angrily. "You snuck into my room! How the hell do you even know where I live?"

He took a deep breath, once again using respiration as his form of communication instead of words. He strolled past me and lay back on my bed leisurely.

"There's this little thing called 'the internet', beautiful." He rested his hands behind his head. "It finds a lot of shit out for you."

I flushed angrily at his derogatory tone. "Who let you in here?" I asked him. "And keep your feet off my bed."

"Your sister," he said, ignoring my second command. "Is she usually weirdly quiet?"

I shook my head, wondering why Abby would just someone she didn't know into the house. That didn't sound like her. "Why are you here?"

"We have an art project to do together. I know you were distracted with gaping at me throughout most of class today, but I still expected you to pick up on that. I even gave you a hint I'd show up, ready to work." I stared at him blankly. "Right before I left? I said 'see you later, partner'."

Despite myself, I laughed. "I'm not working with you on anything."

"Sure you aren't," he said with humor, taking a cigarette out of his jacket pocket.

"No smoking," I snapped. I could sense his annoyed gaze on me through his sunglasses.

"You're parents aren't home," he said and calmly proceeded to light his cigarette.

My eyes narrowed. "How would you know that?"

He huffed out a breath of smoke and I backed out of the way, not wanting to be smothered by it for a third time that day. "Your sister told me. Is Twenty Questions over now?"

"No. What did my sister look like?"

"Are you going to put on some clothes? The towel is distracting me."

"What did my sister look like?" I repeated, annoyance building in my voice.

"Like that," he said, motioning behind me.

I was almost not going to turn around, just in case he was playing a game with me, but then I heard Abby's voice coming from behind me.

"I know who you are," she said in a raspy, startlingly unfamiliar tone.

I spun around to look at her, my towel nearly flying off me in the process. She stared at Chase intensely, her eyes seeming black instead of blue. She slowly lifted a figure and pointed at Chase.

"I know what you do."

Chase stared at her, seeming completely calm, but I noticed his body was rigid.

"She wasn't a psychopath when she let me in," he mumbled to himself.

"That sign," Abby got closer to him. "That sign. I know what that's from. I know what it means."

I looked at where she was pointing and noticed Chase's ring for the first time. It had a sign on it—a fleur de lis. His ring finger twitched.

"I will stop you," she declared.

He stared at her for what felt like the longest moment of my life. Then he stood and walked over to me smoothly. "Clearly we can't work on our project today. We'll talk tomorrow about where and when we should meet again." Before I could even nod, he left the room.

"You can't talk to him anymore, Ashlynn," Abby whispered to me, staring after Chase.

"What is wrong with you, Abby? What did he do?"

Her brow crinkled and she seemed deeply perplexed by my question. "I don't know," she said. Her eyes once again were emptied of all emotion. "Something bad," she declared. "He did something very bad."