The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (37 page)

  
              “It's a shame you know. You and I could have been friends,” Jack said to Tristan.

  
              “I would never befriend someone like you. I should have known too, I could smell it on you. All you rogues have that filthy trash smell.”

 
              “Please, you can't smell shit with all that boozing you do. How'd you think it was so easy,” Jack said, smiling the most evil smile I'd ever seen and pounced on Tristan, but Tristan was quick and threw him back. They started to circle each other again. “You're pathetic just like her. You hide your powers, weaken them. So when you need them most, there no good to you and that is why you can't beat me,” Jack laughed.

  
              “We'll see about that,” Tristan growled, reaching for Jack, but he was out of the way and out the door in a flash.

  
              “Ella was right, you really should start going to AA meetings, maybe then you might actually have a chance.” Jack looked at me. “I'll be seeing you soon. I'm not finished with you yet.” I blinked and he was gone.

   
              Tristan fell to his knees by my side. He gripped my shoulders and shook me lightly. “Ella...Ella...are you okay?”

  
              I stared blankly at the door where Jack was just seconds ago.
'I'll be back. I'm not finished with you yet.'
His words replayed over and over again in my head.

  
              “I think she's in shock,” Josie said. Tristan picked me up and carried me over to my bed. I just stared up at the ceiling. Their voices were only a distant echo in my mind. Tristan cupped the sides of my face. “Ella? Ella...look at me.” I turned my eyes to his as the glow started to diminish and his eyes turned so dark they looked almost black. “Ella, you will forget all of this. None of this ever happened. Do you understand me?” I nodded my head slowly, feeling dizzy.

  
              “What are you doing?” Josie demanded. Tristan turned to her and pulled her aside. I saw them arguing but I couldn't hear what they were saying. The next minute, Josie was out, by the wave of a hand. Tristan caught her and carried her to the bed, laying her down gently. 

  
              Then he returned to me, his eyes still so dark. I lifted my hand up to his cheek. He closed his eyes and sighed into my hand. “Don't cry,” I whispered, wiping away the tear that fell down his cheek.

  
              “I'm sorry Ella, but I have to do this. Don't worry, I will make everything better, okay?” The look on his face was so sad and all I wanted to do was hold him and tell him everything would be okay. I wanted to comfort him and tell him I wasn't afraid. He washed a hand slowly over my face, pausing slightly on my jaw. I closed my eyes and slowly felt my pain fade away. He kissed me lightly on the cheek and I looked back up at him. “You came home from dinner and went straight to bed,” he said, tears dragging slowly down his cheek.

  
              “I went straight to bed,” I echoed.

  
              “Right, straight to bed, and now you're going to go to sleep and forget everything.”

  
              “Forget everything,” I said, my eyelids suddenly becoming heavy.

  
              I felt his soft lips press lightly on my forehead. Then he whispered goodnight in my ear and the next thing I knew I was out.

Chapter
eighteen

I woke up in the morning with a killer headache. I pulled the covers back and noticed I was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. “What the?” I said to myself, confused. I looked over to see Josie was sound asleep in her bed. Then I looked around the room for some clues as to what happened, but the more I tried the worse my headache got. I got up slowly and got some aspirin from the first aid kit, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and popped the maximum dosage allowed. Then I changed out of my clothes, into some sweats, and went back to bed. I knew from experience that sleep was the best thing for this migraine.

  
              When I woke up the second time, the headache was gone, and Josie was sitting on her bed eating a piping, hot pizza. “Pizza?” she said, offering me a slice.

  
              “For breakfast?”

  
              “Ella, it's one o'clock in the afternoon.”

  
              I rolled over and looked at my clock. She was right. “I can't believe I slept that long. Why didn't you wake me?”

  
              Josie shrugged. “You looked so peaceful. I didn't want to disturb you.” I sat up and looked at the delicious pizza. I watched the steam rise and rubbed my grumbling belly. Josie pushed the box towards me and I helped myself to a slice. “So how was your date with Jack last night?”

  
              “Good, I guess.”

  
              “You guess?”

  
              “Well, I don't really remember much,” I said, scratching my head, feeling a slight headache starting to return. “We went to dinner, then coffee, and then I don't remember anything after that,” I said, pressing my fingers to my temples to try and relieve some of the pressure.

  
              “You okay?” Josie asked concerned.

  
              “Yeah, I just keep getting this killer headache.”

  
              “I had a small one when I woke up, but now it's gone. You think maybe it started last night and that's why you don't remember much.”

  
              “That would explain why I still had my clothes on from last night.”

  
              “Wait, you fell asleep in your clothes? Me too, how weird is that? You don't think, oh my God, what if there's a gas leak and we -”

  
              “Stop right there,” I said, ending her ridiculous ramble.  “First off I'm sure it was just a coincidence we both fell asleep in our clothes or a totally reasonable explanation.”

  
              “Okay but we both had headaches and –”

     
              “And we both woke up. If there was a gas leak so bad that we passed out neither of us would be here right now. We'd be in the hospital with everyone else on our floor, hooked up to oxygen tanks.”

  
              “Oh yeah, I guess you're right,” she said, blushing at her overreaction. “Care to share your reasonable explanation?”

  
              “Well mine is easy. Clearly I had one of my migraines. That would explain why I didn't remember much and why I was still wearing my same clothes from the night before, which also reminds me I should apologize to Jack.”

  
              “And what about me?” she asked, not completely convinced.

  
              “Were you drinking last night?” I asked.

  
              “Well, duh,” she said rolling her eyes. I looked at her letting her know that should have been the most obvious answer from the beginning. “Oh,” she said, catching on. “Whatever, I'm over it.” She finished her slice of pizza and dusted off her hands. “Let's do something.”

  
              “Like what?” I asked, not really in the mood to do much.

  
              “Well you know what the perfect cure for a headache is?” she said, eyebrows raised.

  
              I smiled, knowing exactly where she was going with this. “Shopping,” we said in unison. Josie hopped off her bed and started to get dressed. She was throwing clothes everywhere, picking up different pieces and smelling them to see if they were clean or not.

  
              “You know, maybe you should just clean instead,” I suggested.

  
              She gave me a disgusted look. “Ugh! Just the thought of cleaning gives me hives,” she sighed dramatically.

   
              I sat on Josie's bed and helped myself to another slice of pizza while she dug through her clothes in an effort to find something clean. “You're not going dressed like that, are you?” she asked, slightly appalled.

  
              I rolled my eyes. “It will take me five minutes to get ready.”

  
              “Chop, chop let's go,” she clapped.

  
              “Can't I finish eating first?” I held up the half-eaten slice of pizza. “You're not even ready yet.” I pointed at her. She took another slice of pizza and headed to the door. “Where are you going?”

  
              “To the bathroom, geez.” She opened the door making it creak. The sound gave me a sudden flash, an image of Tristan busting down the door. I shook my head, dismissing the image, to find Tristan standing on the other side of the door. “Oh hey Tristan, Ella's inside.” I could have killed her for that. I gave Josie the look of death and mouthed the word
'traitor'
. She just smiled and wiggled her fingers waving goodbye.

     
              Tristan took a step into the room, but that was it, he didn't come any closer. “What do you want Tristan?” I asked harshly. I thought I had made it clear I wanted nothing more to do with him, but it was obvious he didn't care what I want.

  
              “I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

  
              I found it hard to believe that was the only reason he was here. I could tell there was another reason. He had hidden intentions and I wasn't going to give him the chance. “I'm fine as you can see. Is that all?”

  
              “How'd your date with Jack go?”

  
              “That's none of your business,” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him. He just nodded slightly as if I had just confirmed something. I stared at him. I knew he was fishing for something, but what, I didn't know. I got another flash. It was so quick I didn't even get the chance to commit anything to memory. Then my headache started again. This time it was piercing, like something knocking on my brain. “Ah!” I winced, gripping the sides of my head.

  
              Tristan ran to my side. “What is it? What's wrong?”

  
              “It's just this killer migraine I woke up with this morning. It went away for a while, but then it seems to keep coming back.”

  
              He guided me to my bed to have a seat. “Here.” He reached up with his hands and gently rubbed his thumbs over my temples. I closed my eyes and within seconds my headache was gone. “Better?” he asked.

  
              “Um, yeah,” I said, opening my eyes. “How'd you do that?”

  
              “I guess I just have the magic touch,” he said, trying to smile but I sensed that that actually hurt him to. My eyes meet his and I saw despair in them, an unrecognizable pain that no one should have to endure. I wanted to say something. Anything, but I couldn't find the words.

  
              “I should go,” he said, getting up.

  
              My mouth stayed closed as he walked out and left leaving me feeling worse than I did when I had my headache. I fell back on the bed and covered my face with my arms. “You alright?” Josie asked, reentering the room. “Your headache's not back is it?”

  
              “No and yes, I'm fine,” I sighed, sitting back up.

  
              “Boys?” she guessed next.

  
              “Boys,” I nodded.

  
              “Well you know shopping helps that too. So come on, get dressed,” she said, shoving me off the bed.

  
              “Shopping is your cure for everything.”

  
              “And it’s a very good one,” she smiled.

  
              I dug through my drawers and took out a pair of jeans, a sweater, and got dressed. I didn't feel like messing with my hair so I also threw on a hat. With Halloween and the sorority house party only a week away Josie suggested we search for costumes for the big bash. I had forgotten all about it and was surprised that Josie hadn't already bought her outfit.

  
              We found the only costume store in town and hoped there were enough supplies left to throw something together. The door echoed an eerie Halloween sound as we stretched it open and walked inside. The entire store was decorated for the holiday, everything from bats on the ceiling down to pumpkins and hay stocks littering the floor, and not excluding the Halloween themed music playing through the old speaker system. A lonely, elderly man was perched behind the counter. He watched us curiously as we rummaged through the stacks of merchandise. His stare started to give me the creeps so I ushered myself closer to Josie.

  
              “What do you think?” Josie asked, holding up a mermaid costume. I crinkled my nose and she put it back on the rack. 

   
              There were very few things left. Our choices varied from a giant turtle, a lobster, or Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, which I already was last year. We kept looking, digging through the racks in hopes of finding something someone missed. When I was about to give up, I found it, the perfect costume.

  
              I untangled it from the mess and held it out for Josie to see. “What about this?”

  
              Her eyes instantly lit up. “Ella, it's beautiful.”

  
              It was a short, white dress. The top was V-neck with spaghetti straps and an empire waist. The material was silk with sheer gauze over top and pure white angel wings to match. “And look, they have a matching one in black,” Josie said, pulling one out from the cluster of costumes that was hiding it. “You can be the good angel and I can be the bad one,” she smiled.

  
              I found it very fitting.

  
              “I'd say it's the perfect choice,” said the clerk, making me jump.

  
              He appeared out of nowhere, adding to the already creepy vibe I was getting from him. “Thanks,” I mumbled. I took a step away from him not liking the close proximity. He stood there, watching, smilingly. I wasn't sure if he wanted something or not, but I didn't stick around to find out.

  
              I pushed Josie towards the dressing rooms. “Gee whiz Ella, what's the rush,” she complained after I almost made her fall.

  
              “Sorry, I just wanted to get away from that clerk. Something about him, I don't know. He gives me the heebie jeebies.”

  
              “He's probably just lonely,” Josie shrugged, looking at him make his way back over to the counter. I pulled the curtain aside and tried on the costume. Then I stepped out to show Josie. “Wow,” Josie breathed. “I'd say we found what we were looking for.” I stepped back into the dressing room and closed the curtain behind me. I paused before I got undressed. I had the weird sense someone was watching me. I peered out over the top of the curtain and noticed the strange man behind the counter was no longer there. I searched the room and found it empty. I stepped back and began to unzip my dress when I was startled by his voice.

  
              “Is everything working out okay in there?” the clerk asked.

  
              “Yes, fine,” I said, feeling skeeved out. I waited until I knew he was far enough away to finish changing “Josie, you ready?” I called, once I was out of the dressing room. Not two minutes later she was out of the room and pulling me to the back of the store. “What are you doing?”

  
              “We need to accessorize.”

  
              “Let's just make this quick, okay. I'm really starting to not like this place.” Josie took the hint sensing my uneasiness. I could tell she was also getting a weird feeling being here. We found the accessories we needed to complement our costumes. I got silver, knee high boots with a matching sparkling halo. Josie suggested we get wigs and eye masks to decorate ourselves. I went with a white wig that was cut into a chin length bob and parted on the side and Josie got a matching one in black.