Arlington (Book One)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

I wake up on the floor the next morning; I passed out on the spot. Rubbing my sore head, I push myself to my feet. Walking into the bathroom I groan when I look in the mirror, I see an obnoxiously large bruise on the right side of my face between my cheek and eye. I start trying to heal the bruise when there's a knock on my door. Walking into my living room I open the door and see Cathleen and Alexander standing there dressed more casually. I look down at my clothed from last night and groan. Spinning away, I go to get changed when a hand grabs my wrist.

"Aviva, what happened to your face?" Lena asks, and I give her a confused look. I can feel the bruise finish healing and I know there is no reminiscence of it.

"Wait, Xander, you saw that too, right? That's not something I would hallucinate!" Lena says confused.

"No, I saw it, Aviva was probably self-healing again," Xander says.

I pull my wrist from her grasp and go to my room to change. I brush my teeth and pull my hair back not having the patience to deal with my hair today. I look at the spot where the bruise once was, and I am satisfied to see it is gone. Walking out into the living room I see the pair sitting on my couch with the same determined expression on their face. These two are insufferable together.

"Let's go, I'm starving," I say with a smile. Neither budges an inch.

"Do I have to drag you two off of the couch or something?" I ask joking.

"Why did you have a massive bruise on your face?" Lena asks calmly.

"Why do you care?" I ask baiting her.

"Because we're your friends," she says. I raise an eyebrow at her, and she gives me a worried look.

"Is that all I am to you, Lena?" I ask, and her eyes widen. Before anyone else can say anything, my phone starts going off.

"I'm going to throw this thing in the river," I growl out before answering the phone.

"Aviva!" A panicked male voice says. I pull the phone away and see that it is my dad.

"Dad?" I ask confused.

"Help me, please," he says before the line goes fuzzy.

I drop my phone and disappear. Landing in the apartment that I haven't set foot in the last six months, I find my dad sprawled on the ground and I drop to my knees and try waking him up. There is blood dripping from his nose and mouth. I become acutely aware of the fact that someone is behind me. I throw up a barrier and spin around and find a woman right in front of me. I can't help but to surprised and horrified by how thin she is and the way her cheekbones, rib cage, and hips are practically visible. She has very thin strands of blonde hair on her head. Her irises are as black as night. I can feel the anger rolling off of her in waves. She reaches out and her now bloody hand in stopped by the barrier I have around us.

"My little angel," she whispers, and her voice sounds wrong.

"You're not my mom, my mom is dead," I try to growl out, but I am trembling like a leaf. This isn't happening, this isn't real. This has to be some horrible nightmare from hitting my head last night. With one flick of her wrist, my barrier is broken.

"You don't want to get in the way of mommy and daddy fighting," she says in her ghostly too deep voice.

She steps closer to me and I don't budge an inch. I push my glasses on top of my head and square off my stance. I can feel the heat of her glare, but I can't see it. She reaches out to grab me with her disgustingly bony fingers, but I block pulling molecules that are floating around me.