Vex (46 page)
Authors: Addison Moore
The forest gyrates, turns into a kaleidoscope of green as I fumble through a dizzy maze of branches.
Loud guttural moans vibrate throughout the forest. I can feel its footsteps seconds behind. The forest darkens, the fog presses against the branches, fills my nostrils with its oily haze.
My mother once said, most people are prone to run through this world blind. I remember her words, the soft mannerism in which she spoke them as I stumble from branch to branch—rip a hole in my jeans, lose my jacket on the offshoot of a pine.
It gains speed, touches me. Grazes over my hair with its necrotic fingertips. I race blindly through the woods, push past the searing pain ripping through my skull, and crash into the ground with finality.
I pull back fully, expecting to find the decaying body, the stench of death, but it’s a boy my age—the look of surprise, ripe on his face. He pulls me to safety behind the trunk of a tree and lunges at the creature. Pulls a knife from his back pocket and wrestles with it as it tries to latch onto his neck.
I pick up a loose branch near my feet and give a hard jab at the decaying monster, striking it directly in the groin. It gives a soft gurgle as if laughing at my efforts.
I pick a rock up off the ground, the size of football, and lob it at the tangle of flesh rolling around in front of me.
The boy lets out an agonizing groan.
Shit!
“Sorry,” I shout.
He flips the creature, and lands it hard on its back. It looks as if he’s pummeling it in its malformed face, but as I approach from the side, I can see him clearly dig the knife into the creature’s eye, over and over until it ceases to writhe beneath him.
He hops off and cleans the blade of his knife against the soft trunk of a maple.
The creature sizzles. Its ragged clothes engulf in flames quick as a grassfire, extinguishes itself in a ball of smoke.
“What’s happening?” I pant.
“Don’t you know?” He replaces the knife in his back pocket. “They’re biodegradable,” a rumble of laughter trembles out of him. “You OK?” He comes over and cradles the side of my face with his open palm, observing me as though he were a doctor. A stream of light falls over him, amplifies the fact he’s alarmingly handsome.
I want to say, I don’t know where the hell I am, but I think there are more pressing matters than my lack of topographical orientation.
“What was that?” I ask.
His brows knit together. He leans in to inspect me, skeptical that I even had to ask.
“What’s your name?” He asks, wiping the dirt off his jeans.
“Laken Stewart,” I place my hand over the warmth of his arm. “Where am I?” I’ve never been twenty miles from where I was born—hell I’ve never left Kansas. For sure, I’ve never seen a forest this dense, let alone drifted in one.
“Ephemeral,” he dips into me with his gaze, “Connecticut,” he adds with a touch of sarcasm.
“I think I’m lost,” I press my hand against my temple as an explosion of pain rips through me.
In the distance, I can hear a woman shout my name.
“Looks like you’ve just been found.” He offers a reserved smile, holding my gaze a little longer than necessary before turning away.
“Wait.” I catch him by the elbow. “What was that thing?”
He doesn’t say a word, just circles around my face perplexed and sorrowful.
“Laken?” The female voice spikes with agitation.
“I gotta go,” he takes a full step back, “it was nice meeting you.”
“You saved me,” I say. He disappears in the fog like an apparition. “What’s your name?” I shout after him, but he doesn’t answer.
“Laken!” A raven-haired woman dressed in a power suit and heels snatches me by the wrist. “You need to keep out of the woods. Do you understand?” Her hair is slicked back in a knot, reflecting blue shadows as she moves.
“Who are you?” I pull my hand back.
“Ms. Paxton,” she pants, offering a short-lived smile. “I’m taking you back to campus.” Her chest rises violently as she struggles to catch her breath. “Never venture outside of the academy.”
She guides me out of the dank oppressive forest, onto a red brick path that rolls out towards a monolithic series of ivy-covered buildings.
“Your uncle requested that you meet up with your brother tonight.”
“My brother?” Fletcher died well over a year ago, along with Wes, the only boy I ever loved. They drank their way into oblivion before taking a fatal swim in the lake.
“Yes,” it strangles out of her, “do you think this is funny?”
“No.” I rub my bare arms. “I’m confused, I—”
She shoves a yellow student card towards me. “You dropped this on your little jaunt in the woods.”
Laken Anderson—right face, wrong name. Issue date September 4
th
. Junior, Ephemeral Academy.
“Ephemeral,” I test the word out on my tongue. I stare at the student card, confused.
“You’ll be residing at Austen House. I realize how overwhelming your first day on campus must be. Your sister is the dorm mother. She’s been waiting to orient you all afternoon.”
“My sister?” I have two, Jen is studying abroad her second year of college, and the epicenter of my sister Lacy’s world is plundering all my free time to help plan her epic tenth birthday party. I love Lacy. I couldn’t love her more if I had her myself.
“Jen—your sister, Jen.” Ms. Paxton nods in frustration. Her eyes widen with horror as she circles over me with an epiphany. “I have to go.” She darts down the road in the opposite direction.
“Wait!” I call out as she evaporates into the evening shadows.
I don’t have a brother anymore.
I don’t have an uncle.
My mother is a drunk, and my sister Jen left the country first chance she got. I live in Cider Plains, Kansas, in a quickly dilapidating bungalow that belonged to my grandmother, which is safely haunted by her pissed off ghost and the curse she bestowed upon us before she hung herself from the rafters.
My last name is Stewart, not Anderson. After I shot through the windshield, a tall radiant being declared it was not my time. He placed his hand, the size of a catcher’s mitt, over my face and submerged me back onto the planet.
I know for a fact I died on July 13
th
the day before my cheating boyfriend’s seventeenth birthday. Two calendar months have dissolved without my knowledge. Here I am—same body, different name.
All I really want to know is what the hell is going on.
Addison Moore is a graduate from the University of Southern California who writes young adult paranormal romance. She resides on the West Coast with her family and two dogs. Feel free to visit her blog at
http://addisonmoorewrites.blogspot.com/
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Addison-Moore/140192649382294
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http://twitter.com/#!/Addison_Moore
Table of Contents
Chapter Two—The Stars in the Sky
Chapter Seven—The Gift of Life
Chapter Twelve—I’m Gonna Kiss You All Over
Chapter Thirteen—Love Like This
Chapter Sixteen—Needle in a Haystack
Chapter Seventeen—All of My Love
Chapter Eighteen—Devine Appointment
Chapter Nineteen—It’s a Dead Man’s Party
Chapter Twenty—I Ain’t Missing You
Chapter Twenty-One—Cuts Like a Knife
Chapter Twenty-Four—Let It Snow
Chapter Twenty-Six—Sleeping Arrangements
Chapter Twenty-Seven—Body Rock
Chapter Twenty-Eight—The Grand Design
Chapter Twenty-Nine—All over Me
Chapter Thirty-One—Dressed to Kill
Chapter Thirty-Two—A Grave Situation
Chapter Thirty-Three—You’re Dead to Me
Chapter Thirty-Four—The Deep End of the Night
Chapter Thirty-Seven—The World is Waiting
Chapter Thirty-Eight—What is Love
Chapter Thirty-Nine—Caveat Emptor
Chapter Forty-One—Paragon in Springtime
Chapter Forty-Two—Count the Ways You Love Me
Chapter Forty-Three—A Moment Like This
Chapter Forty-Five—Baseball, America’s Favorite Pastime
Chapter Forty-Six—Stick the Dismount
