"I warned you, Kristina," he said, leaning closer to me, his hand scorching my wrist, his silver eyes darkening to a stormy grey. "I told you what would happen if you defied me."
Fire was racing up and down my arm. The rose necklace burned at my thr...
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~ Kriss Darcy ~
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My head was still spinning as I left the room, my mind refusing to believe what had just happened. Vaguely, I remembered checking the time; I still had a few minutes until I had to be downstairs. I took a few staggering steps down the hallway, stopping in front of a small mirror on the wall. I looked like a mess. My cheeks were flushed, a bright sheen of sweat still glistening on my forehead. My hands were still trembling, and my eyes were wild. Yeah, I definitely needed to pull myself together before I went anywhere.
I turned back around and padded back into my room, the lights fully on - no flickering. I could still feel that there was nobody else here. Nothing watching me from the shadows. No magical, musical voice echoing throughout the room. I was alone.
I went into the bathroom, carefully closing the door behind me, and leaned against the counter, taking in deep breaths. My heart was still pounding, though it had to have been at least five minutes since the ghost left. I turned on the tap, the cool water rushing in a steady stream, and taking a handful, splashed some onto my face. The cool water ran down my cheeks, gathering in my eyelashes, dripping off my nose. I was briefly reminded of the rain, how it splashed down from above, wetting hair, clothes, shoes, skin...
When I was five years old, and my family was living outside of Rochester, we were out on a walk, just down the road, like a normal family. We were five minutes away from home when the skies opened and started pouring rain, absolutely drenching us in moments.
My mother had started fussing over how we were all going to catch a cold, of course, but then I broke into the biggest smile and started dancing in the rain, laughing and jumping and spinning through the droplets, not at all caring that I was soaking my socks or that my teeth were beginning to chatter from the cold, because at five you tend not to worry about things like that.
My father started laughing, then grabbed my hands and started to dance with me through the rain, and I was holding onto his hands so tightly, because I never wanted to let go.
After a moment, Mother stopped her fussing and started laughing as well, joined us, and we danced in the rain in a circle, just the three of us, until there was a flash of lightning and we all ran home for cover. The next day, I woke up with a fever and a nasty cough, but it was absolutely worth it.
