Argent Eye II

9

When I got through the door, I could hear people laughing and talking, with music playing. I walked through to the living room, only to see Jake, Tom and Andy, with perhaps four other people sat on the sofas playing a poker game.

"Millie!" Jake threw his hands in the air. "We are all a bit drunk, but do feel free to come and join us."

I chuckled. "I'll be down in a minute." I said, and went upstairs to put my bags down and take my shoes off. I didn't blame Jake for wanting to have a relaxed evening- I guess whatever thoughts he had buzzing through his sober mind would have to wait till tomorrow.

And so we all played poker- the other guys were some of Jake's friends from uni, who I'd met on a couple of occasions. Everyone was drunk, but I wasn't much of a drinker. Still, it was fun. I won the game, although in the end everyone just went all in with the makeshift money and hoped for the best. I won by pure luck. It was nice to have a laugh, though. Not once did the current situation peep into my thoughts, for which I was glad.

I went to bed in a good mood.

__________

I woke in the darkness of my room, a little bit of the light from the lamppost outside creeping into my room. I checked the time- 1:03am. I mentally sighed, and turned over in my bed to try and go back to sleep, but it seemed my brain had other ideas. I'd read somewhere that if you couldn't sleep, the best thing to do was to get up.

So I did.

I tried to be as quiet as possible as I pulled my trainers on and a light jacket, before grabbing my keys and walking outside. The nights were beginning to get cooler, but it was still pretty warm out. Not that I would have minded either way- the ice running through my veins meant that I didn't really feel the cold anymore.

It was when I stepped outside that I noticed the black silhouette of someone standing there, staring at me. Whoever it was had their hands in their pockets, and then they started walking away.

I began to follow, keeping a reasonable distance in case it was just some random guy, although my mind seemed to be screaming at me to turn back. To stay away.

The dude was walking a couple of feet in front of me- he was wearing a black tracksuit, with his hood over his head. I thought he didn't realise I was behind him, until all of a sudden, he turned sharply. Underneath the hood were two yellow eyes boring back at me. The man pulled his hood back, to reveal that wicked grin I'd grown to despise.

"Millie!"

I turned to the voice, only to see that Jake was there, in Haydn's grip. The darkness swelled around Haydn, and then flowed into Jake. Jake relaxed, and then when Haydn let him go, he turned to me, his eyes empty and black. His face showed no emotion.

"Jake?" I asked, but the person before me was not Jake.

"Look what you did." Haydn said, seemingly calm as he pointed over my shoulder.

I turned, and it felt like someone had sucked all the air out of my lungs. Standing there was a huge crowd of people, all with their eyes black and their emotions totally wiped. But that wasn't the worst part- standing at the front were all the people I cared about. My mum, my dad, Ronan, David, Stella, Jacob, Kate, Andy, Tom- everyone.

I felt the sting of tears at the back of my eyes, but not before the sharp pain in my stomach. I didn't need to look down to know that there was a jagged piece of metal poking out from my belly, or that blood was beginning to ooze from the wound, making my vision start to blur.

Then it hit me.

I didn't need to look, because I'd already seen it before. This had already happened.