Blood Storm

All Things That Bloom..

I knew I was dreaming. I was absolutely certain of it, because I was looking at myself.

It was the strangest thing, seeing myself through an outsider’s eyes. I could only compare it to an out of body experience. I was standing in the woods, and it was dark and gloomy— and humid, I assumed, since my red hair was curled up into loose, voluminous waves.

I couldn’t understand what was wrong with what I was seeing at first. I looked like I always did. Thick red hair, pale skin, onyx eyes. But it was the look on my face that kept baffling me— I didn’t think I’d ever made that face in my life. I looked horrified. I looked like I had just seen something completely unfathomable, impossible to comprehend.

Rain battered down on my face, and then I realized that I wasn’t the only person I was looking at.

Jax stood in front of me. He was about ten feet away. I didn’t understand what could make me look at such a beautiful man like he’d done something so aborhent, until I realized that he had his hands wrapped tight around the neck of an animal.

A wolf.

Jax held the large wolf by the neck as if it weighed only five pounds instead of a hundred and fifty. His strong hands were squeezing the wolf’s neck as its feet struggled to touch the ground. It was whimpering. The sound was heartbreaking. It was desperately thrashing around, trying to free itself from his strangling fingers.

Jax was smiling.

He was smiling in a twisted, disturbing way that I’d never seen Jax smile before. His lips twisted up into a wide, belated smile, and he wasn’t so much as blinking. His face was frozen into that freakish grin. His dark eyes seemed even darker now, full of evil and menace as joy spread across his face.

“Jax, stop! Please!”

I watched as I begged Jax to let the creature go, to stop tormenting it. His smile never faltered. His face never showed any sign of guilt or remorse. I had reached my hand towards him, as if I longed to stop him from what he was doing.

“There’s a lot of carnivores around here,” Jax laughed maniacally, and it shot a shiver down my spine. “Don’t go out alone at night.”

And then I watched, unable to move, as Jax briefly twisted his hands and snapped the wolf’s neck.

I bolted upright in my bed, gasping for air. My throat was sore and painful from inhaling ocean water the night before, and the action caused a scraping feeling up my throat and sent me into a coughing fit.

I leaned over the edge of my bed, my head whirling.

Just a dream, I told myself. He’s not out there murdering wild animals. Just a dream.

Still, even though rational thought told me that Jax wasn’t evil, it took me a few minutes to slow my breathing. Something about the dream was bothering me, and I couldn’t put my finger on it as my heartbeat tried to slow down to its normal rhythm.

Thoughts of the previous night flooded my brain, and I laid back down on my back and stared at my ceiling. I’d almost died. Jax had saved my life— of course he wasn’t evil. I was pretty sure I’d just added another trauma to my growing PTSD. I definitely felt like I had almost drowned the night before. My throat was scratchy and sore, and my muscles screamed in protest every time I moved.

My mother didn’t come out of her room when I came home, and I didn’t go to wake her, either. I assumed she wanted to give me space after last night. I didn’t know how I was going to approach her, but I did know one thing— I definitely wasn’t going to tell her about my near death experience or me almost making out with Jax in his car, after said near death experience.

I pulled myself out of bed, patting my soaking wet clothes from the night before that were laying on my floor. Frustrated, I realized my phone must have been on me when I fell into the water. s**t. I was going to have to make up something to tell my mother about that one.

I decided to get dressed, hoping it would make me feel somewhat alive again. I pulled on an oversized green sweater and some leggings and my boots, yanked a comb through my hair, and trudged out into the living room.

It didn’t take me long to realize my mother wasn’t there. There was no usual buzz of the old TV, no clatter of dishes or scraping of a chair. I frowned to myself, and curiously went off into the kitchen to investigate.

I immediately saw the yellow lined paper with my mother’s beautiful cursive on it, and eagerly grabbed it off the counter.

Cole,

I went to town today to get some things for the house. I won’t be back until around dinner time.

I love you.

Mom

Short and sweet. I supposed she wasn’t too angry at me, if she was still telling me she loved me. I couldn’t blame her; she probably needed space from me as badly today as I needed space from her last night. I wasn’t exactly a walk in the park to be around lately. I was going to have to try to reign myself in if I didn’t want to ruin my relationship with my mother. And I definitely didn’t want that. I adored her. I just.. I didn’t know what I wanted.

I sighed and made my way to the cabinets to dig out a box of cereal and grab some milk from the fridge. I ate in silence. Silence hadn’t bothered me recently, but it did now. The cereal slid painfully down my sore throat.

I washed my dishes and the few that were still in the sink from previous meals and made my way into the living room, desperately wishing I hadn’t lost my phone. I would do anything to hear from my friends back home right about now.

The doorbell rang as I rounded the corner, and I jumped. I hadn’t known we were expecting anyone.

Curious, I peaked through the sheer curtains on either side of the door to see a man in a baseball cap and a polo shirt, carrying a bouquet of flowers and a letter along with a small package. I opened the door cautiously, frowning slightly.

“Can I help you?”

“Colette Larson?” He smiled. He had crinkled brown eyes that were very warm and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Yes. Who are you?”

He reached towards me, extending a beautiful bouquet of twelve red roses, an envelope, and a small box. “I work for Freddie’s Floral Service. These are for you.”

I recoiled, shocked. “I think you have the wrong house. They’re beautiful, but I don’t think they’re mine.”

He chuckled. “Nope, definitely got the right house, miss. Here you go.”

I took the roses, package and letter reluctantly as the delivery man tipped his hand to me and skipped back to a green van parked in my driveway.

Who the hell would be sending me flowers?

I sniffed the beautiful aroma of the roses as I walked toward the kitchen, gently sitting them on the table. The letter had a strange, red wax seal on the back, but I couldn’t make out what the symbol was. I opened it quickly.

Colette,

Thank you for giving me a bit of insight into your world last night. Talking to you was a great pleasure. I hope you are feeling well today.

“It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom.”

Here is my phone number, in case you need rescuing again.

Sincerely,

Jax Cross

His phone number was scrawled at the bottom. What the hell? Had he lost his mind? What if these had arrived while my mother was home?

Scowling, I angrily ripped open the tiny package to find my cell phone gently laying inside.

I groaned. I must have dropped it on the dock. Thank god it didn’t go into the water. The battery was dead, but I was assuming it would still work. I hoped it would, anyway.

Stop being so rude, I told myself. He was just trying to be kind.

Still, something bothered me. I stared at the second paragraph of his letter, his messy, doctor-like handwriting was taunting me. I’d read that quote before. More than once. With my brain finally working correctly and not sleep deprived, I flipped back through all of the classics I’d read in my head, searching for the book that fit the quote.

Until I found it.

The Scarlet Letter.

I didn’t know why I was connecting to tiny pieces of a novel that really did not relate to me at all. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by this exact quote, though. Nathanial Hawthorne wasn’t my favorite, it just so happened to be what I was reading the day Jax found me in the library. I wondered if he was trying to send me a message of some sort, and then shrugged it off. It was probably just his way of trying to show he remembered things about me. And he did. Most people wouldn’t have noticed the title of the book I was reading.

I took off with my phone and letter, and quickly plugged my phone into the charger. I wrapped my fingers impatiently against the desk. It felt like hours before it finally glowed to life. I sighed in relief, quickly scrolling through my unread text messages.

Aaron: What’s up buttercup?

Aaron: Are you ignoring me now, or self sabotaging again?

Aaron; Hellooooo? Colette? Did you die?

Aaron: Seriously, getting worried now. Call me back. Please.

I rolled my eyes. Aaron was so dramatic. Deciding he could wait a few more minutes, I left my phone to charge and walked over to my bed and plopped down on it.

Why was Jax sending me flowers? It was insane how the first time I had met him, I had been so convinced that I was boring him, and now I think it was the opposite.

I thought about our warm bubble in his car last night, and I felt myself blushing. It wasn’t a good idea for me to develop feelings for anyone in Rockport. I didn’t plan on staying for more than the next year. But I didn’t know if I could help myself. I saw Jax’s beautifully sculpted face in my head, and I found myself second guessing whether or not my future was going to be what I had planned.

He was wise beyond his years, and something about the fact that he had experienced a loss similar to mine emotionally drew me in even more so than before. It was so common for people my age to just not understand loss at the magnitude that I had— and it wasn’t their fault, not really. It wasn’t a common occurance for people our age to lose such pivotal people.

I should call him and thank him for the flowers and my phone at least, I decided. He did go out of his way to find my phone and send it back to me.

That briefly had me wondering why he had gone back to the docks last night at all— unless he’d grabbed it before we left, but that didn’t make much sense.. he would have given it to me last night. It was a nice gesture, anyway, and I was probably reading way too much into it.

I pulled out my phone and dialed his number hesitantly.

He answered on the third ring. “Hello?” He snapped. He sounded annoyed, but his voice was still music to my ears. That fact annoyed me, too.

“Oh, hey. It’s Colette.” There was a lot of voices in the background, and all of them sounded angry and urgent. “Is this a bad time?”

“Colette.” He said my name with a relieved sigh. The background noise slowly faded away, and I assumed he was walking away from it. I blinked slowly, a little confused at the sudden change in his tone. “No, of course not. How are you feeling?”

“Oh, um, not that great, I guess. But I’m okay. I just wanted to say thank you for the flowers, and for finding my phone.”

“My pleasure.” He purred the words, and I felt my heart rate speed up in response. “You aren’t getting sick, are you?”

There he went, being all doctorly again. “No, I don’t think so. Just sore and tired.”

“Good,” he paused. “Can you do me a favor, please? And I’m serious this time.”

I was confused of what I could possibly do for him, but I just said, “yes.”

He took a deep breath. “Please stay inside at night. The wolf situation— it’s a developing one. We haven’t seen wolves in Rockport anywhere in history— they could be sick. I don’t want you out and about without us knowing.” He spewed off the words so calmly, like a rehearsed line from a play.

My heart clenched, softened by his concern for me. The rebellious part of me that normally wanted to yell back at him was quiet right now, and I assumed it had a lot to do with our time together the night before. “I’ll stay inside at night. I promise.” I whispered.

He let out a relived breath, one I assumed he had been holding in. “Thank you.”

“I guess I’ll let you go. Thanks again.”

I was just about to hang up when he said my name. “Colette?”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you starting school tomorrow?”

I blinked. “Oh, yeah. I am.”

“I would love to give you a ride, if you’d be kind enough to allow me.”

I thought about that for a moment. It would be nice not to have the awkward silence between me and mom in the morning. My car had been left in North Carolina for now. And the thought of spending more time with Jax was enticing to say the least. I couldn’t understand why this man wanted anything to do with a senior in high school, though. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

“Great,” I could practically hear the smile in his voice, and it made me smile in response. “I’ll see you then.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I mumbled.

“Be safe.”

“You too.”

I hung up my phone and stared down at it. It was a strange thing, being so completely drawn in to someone like Jax. I thought about the almost-kiss we had the night before, and I felt my face get hot all over again. I didn’t know much about Jax. I didn’t know what he did for work, or where he lived, what his interests were. That part bothered me. I was so completely attracted to someone that, in reality, I knew very little about. I would have to start asking more questions, I told myself.

I sighed, dreading telling my mother that an insanely gorgeous and mysterious man was going to drop me off at school tomorrow, and he wasn’t even a student. I contemplated that, and decided that maybe telling her wasn’t the best idea, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get around it. She was going to wonder why she wasn’t taking me to school, and she was going to wonder even more when she saw Jax pull up in the driveway. I supposed I could tell her I was walking and meet him halfway down the drive, but that just felt sleazy and wrong. Lying to my mother after the harsh words I’d said to her the night before wasn’t something I was willing to do.

Tired and sore, I went and laid down on my bed, pulling the blanket up to my shoulders. I half expected the purple and blue quilt to bring sadness with it, as it always did— but it didn’t this time. I just felt sleepy as my strained muscles sank into the old mattress.

I knew I should do something productive, but my sore throat and aches and pains told me a nap would be ideal. It wasn’t long before my eyes had trouble focusing and they fluttered closed, and I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.