Destined Demons

Chapter Forty | Veins

ALAINA'S POV

"How about this one?" Gabby asks as she holds a blue dress up to her chest. I furrow my brows at her as she glances at herself in the mirror before looking over at me.

"Why...are you buying dresses?"

"Because shopping helps me think, and I need to think." She states softly and tosses the dress back onto the rack. "Anyway, my mom is having this family dinner thing in a couple of weeks so I have to get a new dress."

"Family dinner thing?"

"Yeah," she mutters, turning her back to me and I understand that she doesn't want to talk about it.

I nod slowly before pointing to the rack on her right. "That black dress there is pretty," I state as I scratch at my wrist and her head spins in its direction.

Her lip curls up at my statement and her eyes meet mine. "You really do have bad taste," she comments and turns away from the dress.

I chuckle softly as I follow her down the aisle and out of the store, "Where are we going now?" I ask as she slowly looks down the street at the other stores. She bites down on her bottom lip as her eyes scan over the names and she suddenly points to one across the street. "Okay," I mumble when she begins crossing without me and I quickly chase after her.

When we enter the store, Gabby instantly heads for the rack of dresses and I linger by the door just in case she decides that she wants to leave again. I sit down on the bench next to the window and rest my chin on my fist.

I watch silently as she pushes through rack after rack, but never finds a dress that she actually likes. She huffs out a heavy breath and her eyes flicker over to me, finding me nearly asleep in my seat.

"Wake up, you lazy bum!" I lift my head up when she hits my arm. "You're not even doing anything, how are you so tired?" She asks as I stand up.

"I didn't sleep well last night," I state with a small shrug.

She looks at me with furrowed brows as we step outside and I pull my sleeves down. "Come on, that's enough shopping today. Let's go find my car." She demands and I nod quickly. I follow her down the sidewalk as she complains about not being able to find a dress, but she said she'd try again tomorrow.

As we're walking towards the parking lot at the end of the street, I feel eyelids becoming heavy as well as my breathing. I stop walking for a moment as I cup the side of my head, and Gabby's head snaps towards me.

"Alaina?" She furrows her brows.

I look up at her as I rub my temple, "I'm okay," I whisper as I try to take in a deep breath, but my throat begins clogging up.

She places her hand on my back to calm me down but I push her away from me, which shocks the two of us. "I said I'm okay," I repeat, more harshly this time and her eyes widen.

What is wrong with me..?

"I'm sorry," I apologize, "I'm just tired."

She nods slowly as she takes a step away from me. "I'll just take you home then," she whispers and I frown slightly.

I'm such a buzzkill.

We begin walking to her car and I continue scratching at my wrist again, noticing that my arm has been itching all day. I glance down at it as I pull up my sleeve and the sight send shivers down my spine.

Normally when you look at your own wrist, you can sort of see your veins, your blues ones that curve down to your hand. But since I'm not as pale as Gabby, my blue veins shouldn't be as prominent as they are right now. And neither should my red veins.