War Between Worlds

The Forest and Make-Out Sessions

Before I leave my room, I make sure to swallow a couple of Advils and, while I make my way out of my room to the kitchen, I think about how I’m going to tell Lily and Chris. They won't see me the same way. They’ll think I’m a freak of nature and don't want anything to do with me.

I walked out and headed for the stairs, but stopped when I heard a dresser open and closed. I got closer to where the noise came from, one of my guest rooms, and cracked the door open. In the room, I saw Chris…. shirtless. My eyes glide over every inch of bronze muscle in his back, shoulders and arms. Getting lost in the way his muscles move, I didn’t realize that he was staring at me, a smirk on his sexy lips.

“Like what you see?”

“Pssh Nooo…” I turned and headed to the stairs once again. About to go down the stairs, my wrist gets pulled back and my body bumps into a hard chest. Rechoting off of his chest, before falling backwards towards the stairs, two strong arms pulled me forward into a warm embrace.

“Woooooow. Take it easy there.” his deep chuckle made itself into my ears. I looked up and looked into his eyes. Like before, my eyes glide through his facial features, from his crystal blue and dazed eyes, to his pink plumped lips and the cheekbones inbetween. The air around us had run thin and our thoughts led us to believe that if we said anything it would break around us. All that was heard in the thinning air was our combined pants. As we stood there, my mind took me to a place where it shouldn’t be going, but it couldn’t be helped. My legs around his waist, my arms around his neck and my fingers in his light brown hair. My back against the wall and him having his way. His lips on my neck and his chest on mine.

Taking a breath to slow my heart down, I stepped out of his embrace and turned towards the stairs.

“Brittany wouldn’t like this very much.” I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“When did you start caring about what Brittany thought?” His loud footsteps followed mine into the kitchen. We ate breakfast in silence and never made eye contact. Well, I tried to avoid eye contact with him, until Lily came hurling down the stairs complaining about the roaring in her stomach. As I was sitting and eating my breakfast, I pondered on the pros and cons of telling them. Telling them would require me to know what was happening, but I didn't. After finishing breakfast, I ran up stairs and grabbed my bookbag. While making my way down the hall towards the stairs, the smallest movement caught the corner of my eye in the mirror. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was being watched. I felt like whoever was staring at me was inside the house. As I looked around to see if someone was indeed inside the house, a fluttering sound distracted me.

At first, I thought it was in my mind, until I noticed some movement in the corner of my eye once again. Not knowing why I hesitated, I squeezed my eyes closed waiting for my heart to stop beating so loudly in my ears. What was there to be afraid of? I looked again. The sound of flapping wings darts from one side of the dark hallway to the other. My pulse bashes and hammers. Every instinct tells me to run down the hallway, out the front door, and into Chris’s protective arms. I squeezed my eyes shut once again, trying to gain my sanity. Something soft swoops in my face and I yelped, but nothing could prepare me for what my eyes landed on when they reopened. The hairs on my neck stiffen as I move closer to the mirror. The glass is cracked from top to bottom, like a hard-boiled, crystallized egg that’s been taped all over with a spoon, waiting to be peeled. And there, behind my many heads, fluttering black phantom wings and a soft blue glow, a puff of black smoke and a single forest green eye staring back at me in one shard, before the smoke engulfed the eye and it was gone. I spun around and found that I was still alone in the hall and nothing seemed out of place.When I turned around to look, nothing was there. The mirror was perfectly sleek, no cracks to be seen.

For the rest of the day I walked in fear and anxiety. I could feel eyes on me at all times; in class, in the lunchroom, in the halls. I tried to ignore it and focus on important things like the probable death of my parents or that I might or might not be sprouting wings from my back, and I still didn't know whether to tell Lily and Chris. All this worrying distracted me from learning in all of my classes, so what was the point in going to them?

I walk out of my fourth period block and head to the bathroom. I wanted some peace and quiet, a place where I could take a breath for a few moments. I walked up to the sink and cupped some of the running water in my hands, washing away the anxious look off my face and wiping it anew. I spot my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Well, I wouldn’t say mine . An unfamiliar face stared back at me. Her face has an angelic edge and smoothness to it. Her eyes, the color of the sky, glowing vidly. This wasn't me. Staring into the bathroom mirror, I saw the same unfamiliar face. I took several steps back and tripped over and fell. The impact of the floor on my back was agonizing. I try my best not to scream, knowing that if I did someone would come in and see what has happened to me. I slowly crawled to one of the most excluded stalls and sat down. The bathroom was no place to escape to.

When school was out, Lily, the busy bee that she is, went shopping with one of her other friends and I was stuck waiting around the school for Chris’s football practice to finish. I could have walked home, which would give me more time to think, but what awaited me at home was something I wanted to avoid for a while. I like to roam around when he’s at practice, but the feeling of being watched still clung to me.

I walked past the football field and the parking lot. Into a patch of woods that has been there since I was a freshman, I didn’t see a reason to venture into it, until now. I walked through the woods, following an invisible path until I reached a tree that suddenly grabbed my attention. Its roots rose up to the earth before submerging into the soil. I walked to the foot of the tree and climbed to its base. Sitting down, I looked into the trees in the direction that I came from. The serene feeling of watching the birds and hearing the wind, being as peaceful as they are, made it hard to stay awake.……I opened my eyes to a much darker scene of the forest. The birds were less active and a new silence came across the forest.

“You shouldn’t be sleeping here. It’s not safe…..” Looking up at the voice and I became starstrucked. The person that hung from the branch above me was out of this world, literally. “....An angel with a face like a lightning bolt, eyes like flaming torches of fire, arms and legs that gleam like polished chrome” I think that’s how James described an angle in the bible, and I think he hit the nail on the head. He swung into a seated position and hopped down onto a root by the base of the tree.

“Hey”, he walked closer and I took a step back. His smirk grew twice the size.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I took an extra step back. Looking around, I noticed that I was surrounded by trees and a few miles away from the school. I then felt a buzzing in my pocket and reached in for my phone to come out empty handed. I was pretty sure that that’s where my phone was and where the buzzing was coming from.

“You should really wake up, a lot of horrible things could happen to a sleeping girl in the woods.” I turned towards the tree where the mystery guy once stood, finding the place vacant. Then everything around me became hazy and I arose from my spot at the base of the tree. I looked around and everything was as it was before I fell asleep- the birds were lively, the sun was still high in the sky and the breeze had picked up a bit. I looked at my phone that I had taken out of my pants pocket and read the screen, and picked up.

“ GABBY!!!!” I pushed the phone away from my ear.

“Yeah?”

“Where the f**k are you?” I explained to Chris what had happened, but it didn’t include me falling asleep.

“I’m on my way to the school parking lot. Meet me there.” I hung up and started walking to the parking lot of the school. I emerged from the trees and saw Chris’s car. He had just come out from football practice. When I reached the car, he pulled me into his arms.

“I was so worried. I told you to sit on the bleachers.” I placed my face into the crook of his neck and wrapped my arms around his torso.

“ It’s fine, you have important things to do and I got really bored just watching you guys running in circles.” He pulled away and looked at me with a shocked expression on his face.

“You are the most important thing in my life. Whether I have something to do or not, you are my first priority.” A mix of adoration and a heated sensation went through my body. Without thinking, I slammed him into his car and pushed myself into him.

I looked up at his face and saw his eyes shine with a new fire. In a split second, my back softly made contact with the car. I was trapped between his broad chest and the car door. I couldn’t fight the fire that was overtaking me. I looked up at his face and raised myself on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. At first he stood still, non responsive, which made me doubt myself. I pulled back and looked away from his face, feeling my cheeks turning red with embarrassment. His hand gripped my chin and turned my face to look at him. In his eyes I saw things that I would never have thought were there. His face looked a little like my dad’s when he stared at my mom. I saw desire, anger, adoration, passion, and... love? His lips connected with mine and you know those fireworks that go off whenever the main character kisses her love interest. Welp that's how it felt like. The moment he kissed me, my body was not my own anymore. My fingers ran in his hair and tugged at his golden strands. And when he groans, my body closes all the distance between us, feeling his every muscle against my soft plump skin. His hands roam my curves then find their way to the back of my thighs. I was then lifted and carried to the hood of the car. Getting lightheaded, I pulled away and rested my head on his shoulder, feeling him chuckle.

“That was….unexpected.” his hands rested on my waist.