Hell Flower

||17||

"I guess I'll keep driving," Jake broke the silence once the police officer's car sped off. He headed towards the front of the bus, leaving the rest of us to deal with the awkward tension that followed the interaction between Alex and the police officer.

"Alex, may I talk to you?" Liz gripped his arm. "Privately?"

"Yes," he responded too calmly. "You may."

Without another word, she led him to the back section of the bus, closing the door behind them.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!"

Reggie, Veronica and I exchanged awkward glances as Liz yelled at him.

"Somebody's in trouble." Reggie chuckled, whistling through his teeth and shaking his head.

"Or getting laid." Veronica smirked. "I'm pretty sure Liz is turned on by him being an asshole."

"Oh my God," I groaned, leaning forward and rubbing my temples. "Please, do not talk about that."

"Oh, sorry," Veronica said. "It's really easy to forget."

I pinched my eyes closed, resting my head back against the window and trying not to hear their argument. With how loud they were being, it was hard not to.

"I don't understand why you can't just control yourself," Liz said.

"I'm sorry," Alex replied. "I know I need to be better. But it's hard. I just . . . in situations like that . . . I want to protect you. I want to protect Allison. When someone is threatening you—"

"I know," Liz's voice softened. "And you know I love that about you." A pause. "Let's just hope we don't hear anything else from that police officer and this goes to bed."

Their voices quieted to the point where I could no longer make out the words, and I didn't want to. I let my mind drift to sleep. Reality blurred with dreams, and I faded to somewhere else.

I stood at the edge of an enormous clearing. It stretched out for hundreds of feet before me. At its perimeter, the field of long, dry grass melted into tall pines. The trees clawed their way towards the night sky where the full moon sunk heavy in the air. Its swollen and blue form swallowed the stars around it like a cloud of noxious gas.

In the center of the clearing, three wolves raised their mouths to the moon, howling in unison like they were singing an ancient song of ritual. A fire blazed between them, and a trail of smoke drifted up from it, rising as a dark offering to the heavens.

A man stood in front of the fire, holding the hand of a child. The boy was dressed in all white, while the man wore all black. A mask of a wolf's face covered the man's entire head, but somehow, I knew beneath it he was grinning. I could feel his sick smile like it was burning into my brain.

"Come to me, Allison," I heard him calling. "It's your turn next. You won't want to miss this. You wouldn't want to be late."

The man withdrew a blade the size of a sword from his side. The silver glistened red and blue in the light of the fire and moon as he held it up to the sky. My heart skipped a beat as he turned to face the child.

"No!" I screamed.

I ran towards them, but my legs were too heavy. With each step, it became harder and harder to run. The ground turned to quicksand beneath me, sucking up my boots and dragging me down so I was buried up to my shins. I shoved my bare feet through the sand until it pulled me down, and I fell.