Master Maker

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP   ‘she is flat-lining” “code blue! Code blue” The sound of rushing footsteps pounded in her ears as the equipment was pushed into the room “charge!” She watched as her daughter’s body jolted, the sound of the heart monitor shouting out as it found no pulse. The air in her lungs was gone.  Lifeless. “charge again” Another jolt, but nothing, there was nothing, there was no life, no fight left in her daughter. Her body is smaller than it should have. She had been neglecting her health for so many months… ‘charge again’ “Doctor she’s gone” “charge again!” ‘We can’t-’ ‘charge again’ the doctor name Greg looked sternly at the nurse his voice was low and almost a growl ‘Charge it again’     8 months Earlier   ‘don’t forget about tonight’ my mother shouted after me as I ran out the door, I had overslept again and this time it was way over. Well maybe if you hadn’t been sitting up watching things all night this wouldn’t be an issue I thought to myself. But who the f**k was a student that went to bed on time and didn’t run off caffeine throughout the day. I was late enough today that I missed the bus and had to half walk half run to campus. Fun I know right. “hey, Lill” Amanda greeted me with a way too enthusiastic wave. Her arm causing her to move off-balance as she tried to walk and wave me down at the same time. ‘you look like- ‘ ‘ah not a word about how I look thank you’ she opened her mouth to speak again ‘huh ah I said not a word’ she scrunched up her small freckled face and then pouted but dropped what she was going to say and decided to change the topic. ‘did you hear about Keith?’ she asked a little too quickly as though she was worried that I had already heard the news she was about to tell me ‘No what about him?’ ‘he was admitted to the emergency room last night; Jessica is telling everyone that he went into a coma” ‘playing the grieving girlfriend is she?’ ‘yes and no’ Amanda said slowly and then stopped in her tracks ‘my father responded to the emergency call. Keith was in a car accident. Jessica doesn’t know that part. His mother told her a fake story. Sounded like Keith was taking something and went crazy’. I stared ahead as the group of girls that were trying to comfort Jessica, Keith had been one of my mother’s clients. The boy had been troubled even I could see that, hell even a monkey wearing a suit would have seen that.  But watching how she was dramatically telling her friends what had happened kind of made me sick and feel sorry for at the same time. The bell sounded and everyone started rushing towards their classrooms. I had a free period so decided to take a trip into the library and catch up on some study work. the library was kind of busy this morning but I managed I found a table in a corner and made myself comfy. Pulling up heavy books and opening them up to taking notes. As I sat reading through the books I felt uneasy, a shiver ran down my spine, I had been sitting for five minutes trying to shake the feeling that I was being watched, I kept looking up to see if I could catch someone looking but every time I looked there was no one around, it was just me. The f**k, Lilith calm the hell down, will you? I scolded myself, I took a deep breath, suddenly catching the smell of cinnamon.   What the…? my head snapped up to see a tall figure standing to the side of me ‘Hello,’ I said softly looking at the figure that was in shadow even though I had a light on close by. ’ Um hi, do you need something?’ his head shook from side to side as he slowly started to back away. I stood up slowly moving towards where the figure was. ‘Lilith!’ shouted a man’s voice ‘shhh’ ‘sorry ‘whispered Greg as he quickly made his way to me. I looked back to where I had seen the dark figure, but he was gone ‘hey, what are we looking at?’ he said as he reached my side ‘uh, nothing I thought I saw… a…’ I looked at Greg, he was covered from head to toe in  mud ‘what happened to you?’ “you know’ ‘uh…. No that’s why I asked’ ‘well Matt and I tried playing that prank on the cheer squad and well the ladder fell out from under us and well here I am’ ‘well I did tell you that was a bad idea’ I half giggled looking back to the shadows. I could feel eyes on me again but could see nothing again. ‘you okay’ ‘what, yeah, no I’m fine’ ‘you are doing that finger biting thing’ ‘I am not!’ I said taking my fingers away from my mouth ‘any way we still for that study date?’ Greg said running his fingers through his hair ‘yeah, we just need to be done before… six’ dammit was it six… or was it five. dammit. I hadn’t realized that Greg had moved right up into my personal space until he touched my hand “finger thing’ he said pulling my fingers away from my mouth again before pressing his mouth to mine. ‘and we are meant to meet up with your mom at five’ I smiled and kissed his cheek ‘that’s why I keep you around. Would forget my head if it wasn’t attached’ ‘oh, funny one’ he said coming in for a hug. I jumped back creating more space between us ‘huh ah, you, my fine muddy friend better get cleaned up before even thinking of that’ ‘oh you are no fun” ‘yeah, yeah, go get cleaned up and let me get back to this’ I said my hand moving towards the pile of stuff on the table. Greg rolled his eyes but turned to start walking away but turned back and took a low bow, ‘me lady’ he said in a British accent, his muddy hair streaking even more dirt across his face. his mouth was turned up in a full grin ‘you, dork’ but answered with my own curtsy. His smile grew wider and he turned and scampered off towards the locker rooms. I turned back to the table ‘gah!” I sounded, nearly jumping backward ‘who are you’ the man now sitting on my table responded with a smile, his teeth were weirdly white against his already pale skin, his dark hair hung past his shoulders, I couldn’t quite make out his face though, it was like it kept changing with every blink that I made. ‘you must be new?’ he said, his voice smooth, like dark chocolate. ‘I mean I assume you are; I haven’t seen you around before’ he carried on when I didn’t answer ‘it’s a big school’ I finally found my voice. He let out a brief laugh that sent shivers running down my spine. ‘I suppose it is’ he said getting off the table, and standing up to his full length. Seriously what is with the men in this school being almost the size of a door? ‘Sorry I didn’t exactly catch your name’ ‘Vincent, Lucis Vincent but people call me, Loki’ ‘well “Vincent, Lucis Vincent people call me Loki”, can I help with something?’ ‘well no, just looking for new students to help around,’ he gave a full toothy grin ‘um… well I’ve been at this school for 2 years already so…’ ‘my mistake then, but in case you change your mind, here’ he held out his hand holding a card. I looked at it, not making any move to take it from him ‘I’m not going to bite you’ he said half laughing ‘perhaps not but I’d rather not take the risk’ I said back sarcastically looking up his ever-changing face, he seemed to be getting annoyed but his expression changed too fast for me to tell. He dropped the card on the book that was open on the table. ‘if you change your mind’ he said again ‘I am available at any time. Even…’ his voice became huskier and deeper ‘late at night’ he swept past me and walked away towards the exit of the library. I stared after him for a while more wondering what the hell had just happened.  I picked up the card as the bell rang. That man was mad if he thought I was about to call him, any time of the day. On the way out of the library, I threw the card in the trash.   The rest of the day seemed to go off without a hitch that was until I was walking off campus with Greg plotting another prank that was in his words ‘i***t-proof’. Lucis was standing at the entrance arguing with someone on the phone and by the look of the grip he had around it seemed to be an intense conversation “deal with it’ he said before ending the call and stalking off in the opposite direction ‘hey Greg’ ‘yeah babe…’ he answered pulling his attention back to reality ‘do you know that guy’ I said nodding my head in the direction of Lucis ‘who?’ he said turning his head ‘oh him’ Greggs smile dropped and he almost looked angry. ’you mean Mr pretty boy?” ‘pretty boy?’ I asked looking confused ‘yeah, all the girls on the cheer squad are going gaga over him. Although no one has any idea where he came from. Like he just appeared out of thin air. Fingers babe’ I took my fingers away from my mouth with u huff.  just let me chew my damn fingers, will you? We got back to my house with Greg carrying on about the prank that he had come up with Matt. ‘see ya man’ said Matt. As he walked on after we came to stop at the front gate. ‘later’ Greg said giving him a salute. I always felt a tinge of sorry for Matt unlike most, Matt was short and had unfortunate skin and eyesight he was your standard geek looking, guy. Most girls on campus ignored him unless they needed help on some assignments. ‘shell we get started’ Greg said with a half-smile ‘Are we going to get work done this time’ I answered lifting a brow. ‘umm…’ ‘Greg’ I said as I swatted his arm. If you want to stay in the program you need to start concentrating on’ ‘hey isn’t that why I’m with you’ I swatted his shoulder this time ‘I kid!’ he yelled. I unlocked the door and went in, leaving Greg standing in the doorway. he was looking this way and that and then looked straight at me with a huff. “What did you become a vampire overnight?” he crossed his arms over his chest and continued to stare at me “fine, please come in Greg” he smiled and jumped through the doorway, I started to unpack my bag piling books on books onto the table, while Greg unpacked I made my way to the kitchen, pouring each of a glass of water.                                                                             *********   Finding my mother was easy. Having to spend the evening pretending to be happy to see my father was another story. The only thing that I could think of was how I had found that card back in my book. Like, I had never thrown it away. I had stared at it for nearly 10 minutes before I had gotten the last call from my mother that she was leaving, with or without me. Greg was in full conversation with my parents when I spotted a tall figure towards the back of the restaurant. I watched as it stalked around some tables and towards the door leading to the kitchens, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that Mr. pretty boy was stalking me. Until I saw the figure coming out again carrying a tray of plates. ‘darling?’ my mother’s voice cut through my thoughts ‘huh’ I responded looking at her ‘let me see your hands’ ‘what why?’ I asked pulling my hand away from my face and putting them under the table. She lifted an eyebrow but didn’t stay on the topic of my fingers that were probably almost devoid of skin after today. ‘so you must be proud of Greg here, fourth-year med student, can’t be easy’ my father said with a huge grin plastered across his face. ‘’yeah sure’ I said watching as the tall figure was walking by a lamp… not Lucis. Great now I’m losing my goddamn mind. Suddenly my hand was yanked away from my face, I met the displeased look on my mother’s face that could only mean “we will talk about this later”, double great.  I cleared my throat and pulled my hand ‘so uh, Frank, I mean dad, how is work’ I asked looking him in the face for the first time since he arrived’ ‘good landed a huge murder case, poor sap doesn’t even know what hit him’ I was kind of glad that my father’s ego was the size of Europe at the best of time. There was only one thing that he loved more than money and that was himself.  I could still remember how he used to make us picture-perfect so that we didn’t make him look bad but just enough so that we didn’t outshine him. I used to think it was all because of the line of work he was in. is one of the top lawyers had to be hard and you had to keep up appearances. But now I could see past all the bull and saw him for what he really was. A jack ass. To say the least. ‘how’s Alison?’ I asked cutting through his bragging. The whole world seemed to have gone quiet. I was looking at my father, dead in the eyes now. ‘uh well that’s why I came here tonight’ he said slowly. Moving uncomfortably in his chair ‘we are getting married and I want you there, both of you. My mother gave a sharp pull of air but smiled ‘that’s wonderful’ she said touching his arm ‘and we would gladly be there’ ‘we?’ I stammered ‘not we’ I said raising my voice. I stood up and started to walk towards the bathroom. I returned to the table still fuming at the man that was supposed to be my father. There was an awkward silence for a while before my mother piped up and asked when the expected date was. I looked up at her, and then my father. “oh well, ah, in a month, Alison would love to have you part of the wedding party Lilith.” “oh isn’t that wonderful” I answered sarcastically “Lilith” my mother scolded, that was when I spotted him.  Lucis. He was there. He started his making his way towards me, our eyes locking as he passed. Like slow motion, his face seemed to stay the same, until he smiled. The illusion was broken and his features shifted. I suddenly got up and made my way to the door. ‘Hey!’ I shouted after him ‘are you following me?’ he looked back and pointed a finger at himself ‘yeah you, don’t play stupid’ ‘my, my, my I had you pegged for the silent type, no my dear, I was seeing a client’ ‘a client? you expect me to believe that?’ uhh did I just say that? Cringe! ‘never mind’ I turned to start walking away ‘you know if you need someone to talk to’ his words stopped me in my tracks ‘I threw away your card; I have some to talk to.’ ‘then why are you out here with me instead of that someone’  ‘because before today I had never seen you in my life and then suddenly I see you all over, it’s not a very big town you get to know the people around, and from what I can gather no one has seen you before today either’ ‘Lilith?’ Greg’s voice came from behind me ‘you have my number’ Lucis whispered