Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) (2 page)

The serpent was yelling to the
partiers inside the building. I heard more ruckuses. Now the
drugged out group yelled and laughed amongst themselves as they
pursued us.

I ran toward the street. The girls
followed.

“
Catch them and put them
back into the cage,” a serpent man called out.

“
Party time!” Another
serpent hollered.

The others laughed.

I could see flashes of light extending
from behind me in my peripheral vision, but I didn’t know what the
flashes were, though I assumed they were machinations of the
serpents.

The girl with my mother’s long neck
cried out in agonizing pain. I looked back and saw a serpent woman
with a scaly womanly body rip off the girl’s legs with her bare
hands while laughing as she threw her to the ground. Bones cracked.
Blood gushed forth. The girl’s slip-on shoe shot through the air
and hit another girl in the head.

I ran across Sunset Boulevard. The
thud of footsteps followed in close proximity. Bitter cries stung
in my ears.

When I got to the other side and part
way up the hill, I heard a horrible hissing sound and then a
serpent grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me backwards. I
rolled to the bottom of the hill.

2

I looked over and a serpent man had me
by the ankle. His eyes were blood shot and fierce. In a flash, he
dragged me on my stomach across the dry, cracked dirt. It hurt like
hell.

But, then, a boy about my age with
black hair and silver eyes grabbed the serpent by his scaly neck
and threw him down.

“
Leave her alone,” the boy
said.

I was stunned. The scaly creature held
his own head as it wobbled in his hands. He didn’t get up. I
wondered what his problem was and why he didn’t fight back. But,
then it occurred to me that maybe his neck was broken.

In my quick assessment, it looked like
the few girls that were still living were running down the
boulevard in opposite directions. Some of the serpent people were
smoking in the street seemingly too high to care about the girls
who were getting away. The other girls were torn apart and on the
ground. One body was split right down the middle. There was so much
blood and guts.

A very young girl with red hair and
freckles twitched on the ground, her limbs torn from her
midsection. Blood and bile bubbled up from her gasping throat. A
few of the serpent people stood over her laughing and pouring booze
over her body.

The silver eyed boy lifted
me off the ground.
Were these the eyes that
had been watching me at the beach?
I was
too shocked to say anything.

He ran with me in his arms down
Sunset. We were only a few feet behind the blond girl with the
squeaky voice. She was panting and whimpering as she
ran.

Before he reached her, he cut across
the boulevard and up a dirt trail, and then up the mountain. His
body was cool compared to the heat of the night. In no time, we
were back at the horse.

I wondered how he knew where to take
me.

“
We have to get out of
here,” he said, looking around at the dry mountainous range and
then down at the street.

I didn’t know how to respond as I
stared at this devilishly handsome boy who just saved my life and
now held me in his arms. The whole situation was utterly
surreal.

He chuckled ironically and set me
down.

Adrenaline raced through my body. I
wondered how he could laugh at a time like this, especially after
seeing so much senseless death. Agitation rose up within me, but he
didn’t seem to notice.

He whisked his fingers through his
shiny black hair. “We better make this quick,” he said as he swung
his body up onto the horse’s back and then held his hand out to
me.

Even though I should have
been grateful that he had saved me, I was incensed.
What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t his horse.
It wasn’t mine either, but still.
And why
was he trying to save me? He didn’t even know me. If he was so
heroic, then what about the other girls who were still running for
their lives?
His actions didn’t make sense
to me.

“
Come on, come on.” He
snapped his fingers, trying to rush me into compliance.

Whatever his reasons were for saving
me, I had no choice, but to try to get out of this place as quickly
as possible. I had to get these antibiotics to my
mother.

I tried to cover my indignation toward
the boy and grabbed onto his hand. Struggling somewhat awkwardly,
my mind whirling from the rush, I made my way up behind him. I was
surprised he knew how to ride a horse.

He was dressed in black pants and a
t-shirt that clung to his thin, fit body. I was embarrassed to put
my hands on his waist, but I had no choice if I didn’t want to
slide off. My breathing was heavy as I tried to calm
myself.

But in no time, we were galloping
toward the beach and I had to hold on tightly otherwise I’d fall
off. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He
smelled like the trees. I knew I smelled like fish and the ocean,
which should have been embarrassing, but I didn’t care. After we
were some distance away, he said to me, “Where am I taking
you?”

I was extremely
uncomfortable that he was taking me anywhere as I thought of his
silver eyes.
What did he want from
me?

“
Thank you for saving me,”
I choked out, repulsed with my words and concerned about his
intensions. I couldn’t help but notice the feel of his muscles on
his stomach beneath his shirt as I held onto him.

“
My pleasure.” He looked
back at me with a wry smile on his face that any other girl would
find charming. “Are you Ok?”

I nodded. There was no denying it—he
was wickedly handsome—the kind of attractive that made your blood
boil with infuriating lust. My mind spun with so many
thoughts—thoughts of why I shouldn’t trust him, thoughts of why I
should.

He couldn’t possibly have saved me
because he was attracted to me. I was dull looking with dry skin
and had a hump on my back. Maybe he had some sort of weird fetish
for that sort of thing? Possibly he had a deformed mother that I
reminded him of? A Freudian complex perhaps?

I’m ashamed to say, I started
laughing. I know the timing was entirely inappropriate as it had
been with him just minutes before, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe it
was a way to avoid the survivor’s guilt I was feeling in the face
of so much death—a way to cover up my rage and unease. I didn’t
know why I found the situation funny, but I laughed
nonetheless.

“
What’s with you?” he
asked, still looking ahead as he reached across my thigh to slap
the horse’s rear with the reins. A spark of electricity shot
through my body at his touch which just made me angrier causing my
laughter to subside.

“
Oh, it’s nothing.” My
response was curt. The underside of my thighs were sweating against
my crumpled dress and the horse’s back.

“
You shouldn’t be out in
the city. It’s too dangerous for a girl.” I noticed there was
something different about the way he spoke. The timbre of his voice
was almost musical. I started to wonder—
is
this boy for real?
He was just too
perfect.

All I wanted to do was try to figure
him out, but my mind flooded with guilt and my thoughts shifted to
worry over my mother who was in critical condition. “I know. I
wouldn’t have gone to the city, but it was an emergency.” I rolled
my eyes, uneasy with the way his calm demeanor contrasted with my
edginess.

I was surprised how well he rode
bareback on an unfamiliar horse. Most of the school boys I knew
before the downfall of the U.S. knew nothing about animals. They
were all city boys. My mother who grew up in the mountains had
taught me how to ride.

He squeezed the sides of the horse
with his heels and legs to get it to run even faster. Then he made
a high pitched kissing sound with his lips, the kind that only
experienced riders used to command horses. “What happened?” His
silky voice was low and smooth.

“
Um, well… while my mother
was gathering greens and other fresh edibles, a human stabbed her
and took her food.”

“
Oh,” his tone was careful.
I could feel the vibrations of his body as I held onto
him.

“
I have to give her these
antibiotics.” I tapped the plastic bag in my dress pocket even
though he couldn’t see what I was doing.

He sighed. “People are desperate for
food. Life has become unimportant.”

“
Tell me about it,” I
responded gravely.

“
I’ll take you to her. You
shouldn’t be out alone.”

“
Thank you.” I didn’t want
to show him where I lived, but I figured, considering that my
mother had been stabbed on the island, I might be safer with this
strange boy than I would be alone. He was swift and strong. I would
take a chance on him. At that moment, something inside of me told
me that I could trust him. “Just follow the trail to the
canyon.”

I was nervous about my mother’s well
being. When I left her in our cave, she was unconscious though the
bleeding had stopped. I assumed she would refuse the antibiotics
because she believed in natural healing methods, but we didn’t have
time for that and she wasn’t strong enough to heal
herself.

The rest of the ride we were silent as
the horse galloped onward. White clouds waded above in the black
sky. The gelding panted and snorted as he ran homeward. The closer
we got, the faster he ran whinnying occasionally to the clan of
horses in the canyon. A cloud of dust followed behind.

The boy tightened the reins as we
entered the notch in the earth, slowing the dark haired creature to
a walk.

“
Cross the ravine there and
at the end we can let the animal go,” I spoke quietly so to not
bring attention to us, but the gelding snorted and threw his head
in excitement.

We dismounted at the edge beside the
woods and set him free.

The boy gazed ironically at me lifting
an eyebrow. “You live way out here?”

“
Actually, I live past the
trees on a small island out at sea.”

He chuckled and shook his head as he
helped me out of the canyon into the woods. When we got to the
shore, he said, “You have a boat?”

My face reddened and I looked at him
uncomfortably. “I swam.”

“
You swam all the way from
the island?” His bright eyes widened and he chuckled some more.
“Ok, let’s go.” The look in his gaze sparkled with
determination.

Though I usually leave my clothes at
the tree, I didn’t want him to see me naked so I decided to leave
them on. “Maybe you should stay. I’m a strong swimmer and you might
slow me down.” At that point, I considered ditching him.

He laughed again. His smile turned
crooked. “I can keep up.”

His confidence amazed me. “Ok.” My
voice was skeptical. Then I started to rush into the ocean figuring
I’d lose him in the waves. Nobody could keep up with me in the
water.

“
Whoa—wait a minute
there.”

I turned to him. “What?”

“
Give me the antibiotics.
We can’t have them dissolving in the ocean.” His face was hard
now.

My eyes widened. “You’re right.” I
blushed, quickly retrieving the bag from my pocket. They were still
dry.

There was a new seriousness in his
expression. “I can hold it above the water as I swim.”

“
Really? What? Are you some
kind of superhero or something?” My voice was sarcastic and
condescending.

“
Just give me the
medicine.” He took it from me, but he wasn’t smiling
anymore.

I looked at him trying to read his
face, but he was expressionless now. “Follow me,” I said and then
dove into the water.

He pursued behind closer to the
surface. It was true—he was an unusually strong swimmer. I couldn’t
believe he was keeping up. I reasoned that my dress must be slowing
me down.

It was pitch black out at sea, but the
sky was clearer now and the stars and moon lit the surface in
twinkles and shimmers. I loved the ocean. The cool water felt
soothing to my dry skin, but I was anxious to get to my
mother.

When we reached the island, I directed
him to swim with me to an isolated side near our cave where my
mother and I hid from the dangers of thieving, murderous humans and
from the serpent people who had not infiltrated the island
yet.

We climbed into the tide pools,
stepping over starfish and sea urchins and from there onto dry
land. Palm trees rustled in the hot wind. The warm sand bit at my
legs.

His black pants and t-shirt clung to
his lean, muscular body. He must have left his shoes on the
mainland because he was barefoot now like me.

I was concerned that he might injure
his feet. Another one of my strange deformities was that I had very
thick skin on my lower appendages that was almost immune to minor
injuries.