Cursed Destiny

[Crow]

1
I remember lying on the ground in the middle of a highway, soaked in the cold rain and my own blood. I was shaking, both from the water and the pain that stretched throughout my body. My parents had died in the crash and were still in the car I had crawled out of. Afraid and bleeding heavily, I knew I was going to die there, even though I was only ten years old. Suddenly, someone kneeled next to me. It was so dark I could not see who it was except for a pair of red, glowing eyes. My body was going numb but I sill felt being lifted off the ground and carried somewhere warm where the rain did not fall. My vision was too blurry to see where I was but the next thing I knew something warm touched my lips and went down my throat. In minutes, the pain was gone, my body felt strong and my sight returned to normal. Looking up, I saw the shadowed face of a boy no older than I was. I tried to speak but he placed his hand over my eyes and everything went black.
“Grant! Wake up and get ready!” the coach yelled, snapping me out of my daydream.
More than six years have passed since that night. I never saw that boy again, unless you count my dreams and my too frequent day dreams.
I bent down, my left leg in front of my right, my knees bent, the tips of my fingers touched the ground. The whistle blew and I took off. The rest of the world turned into a blur as my feet carried me across the track. The voices of my classmates cheered me on and in nine seconds I reached the end of the 100 yard dash. Everyone was cheering and a couple of girls came running to congratulate me.
“Way to go, Jessie!” Lisa yelled lifting my left arm in triumph. She was taller than me by two inches, her blonde hair was always short so as not to get into her blue eyes. Her motto: You will find me where the fun is.
“You were great,” Alice said and hugged me. Unlike Lisa, she was the shy type. She kept her dark hair in a pony tail and often kept her brown eyes lowered.
The rest of my class surrounded us as we walked back to the long, wooden benches. “Good work, Grant,” the coach told me as I was taking a drink of water. “You’ve improved your time.”
“That’s my girl,” Lisa said and put an arm around my neck.
Some of the boys looked less than happy with my performance, then again, I am the best athlete in school, no student, male or female, can match me. But it has nothing to do with my grandmother’s health food, as I keep telling them. That boy is the reason I am not an average girl.
“You know, some would think you don’t like showing off,” Lisa remarked while I was pulling on my blue jeans and fastening the large buckle of my dark brown leather belt.
“If coach had not seen her running last year, we would have never known what she can do,” Alice said smiling while I put my brown jacket over a white blouse with black trimmings that let my neck and shoulders bare.
Actually, you have no idea what I can do. I can run even faster and I am probably stronger than any guy my age. But a year ago, when I thought no one was watching, I started running on the track behind the school. Luckily, I saw the coach before I went too fast.
“Come on, let’s go home,” I told them and shouldered my bag.
As we walked home, my mind drifted back to the night that changed my life and I again asked the same questions: Who was he? What was he doing there? And what did he do to me? I had no answers, except for supernatural ones.
“Nana! I’m home!” I call after I enter our house.
“Welcome home, dear,” she said coming out of the kitchen wiping her hands on the white apron she wore over her yellow dress with small red flowers.
Dear old Nana, seventy three but looked no older than sixty. She has been the one who raised me since the accident.
“Dinner’s in an hour, go wash up,” she told me as I climbed the stairs to my room.
I left my bag in my room and grabbed a towel. I took a quick shower and changed. Passing by my vanity mirror, I took a minute to look at myself. My chestnut hair was never greasy, and has not grown at all in the past six years and my brown eyes have such a clear colour they look almost unnatural and my teeth are always milk white. I would like to attribute my looks to the fact that I take care of myself but it is also a result of that night. Sometimes, it makes me feel like I am not human.
In the morning I woke up sweating and shaking. I dreamed of that night again but that time it had been different. I was not a little girl anymore but the sixteen year old I was now. For the first time I had been able to sit up and there was no rain. Twenty feet away, there was a black car and next to it was a young man with the same red, glowing eyes as that boy.
“What’s going on?” I asked myself and laid my head on my palms. One thing was for sure, that was no normal dream, something was going to happen.

[Crow]

2
Being early, I went to the bathroom to take a shower. My body was still shaking and my head was spinning. The warm water calmed me down after I soaked in it for half an hour. After drying off, I put on a bathrobe and went downstairs for breakfast. Nana was just finishing cooking and as I sat down, she put a plate with omelette and two strips of bacon, a bowl of salad and a tall glass of orange juice, she always made me a big breakfast. I was in no mood to eat but I was hungry.
On the way so school I met up with Lisa and Alice and they needed only take one look at me to realise something was wrong. “What happened?” they asked in unison.
“Nothing,” I lied and put on a smile.
“Come on, Jess,” Lisa said grabbing my left arm. “We know you better.”
“You know you can tell us anything,” Alice said grabbing my other arm.
“I just… had a nightmare.”
They insisted, of course, I told them all about it. I was able to get out of it by saying I did not remember what it had been about. I was not sure they believed me but they did not pressure me they were sure to do it later, though. But I could not tell them about it, they already thought that the miraculous and inexplicable way I survived the accident that killed my parents was weird. I never told anyone about my saviour, after all, who would believe me?
The History teacher was late that morning, we found out why the moment he came in, followed by a teenage boy. His long black hair shone dark blue where the light touched it and his eyes were like a pair of water crystals. He wore blue jeans and a black shirt and coat, on his face there was a discrete smile.
“Everyone, this young man is your new classmate,” the teacher announced. “Introduce yourself and take a seat.
“Hi, I’m Leon Malice, pleased to meet you all,” he said with a soft, melodious voice.
Following him with my eyes as he walked to the back of the class, I saw that all the girls were staring at him. I did not blame them, he was very handsome but after he sat down and looked around the room, they all turned around, their faces red. When his eyes met mine, I felt strange. My heart was beating faster and sent a surge of energy throughout my whole body. I turned away quickly, fearing I had blushed too.
The moment the bell rang the girls gathered around him and asked him all sorts of questions. He answered every one of them, though he did not say much. They followed him around all day but as far as I could tell, he did not tell them to leave him alone out of politeness and not because he enjoyed being surrounded by girls fawning over him.
What made me feel nervous were not his good looks but the fact that every time I looked at him, he would turn to look at me, s if he could feel that he was being watched.
Lisa and Alice were as entranced by him as all the other girls, though their behaviour was completely opposite. Alice just stood there watching him at the edge of the crowd, while Lisa elbowed her way passed the other girls until she was next to him.
After the last class, I was the first one through the door. I walked as fast as I could without actually running for two locks but when I turned the corner…
“Hi,” Leon said smiling. “You’re Jessie, right?”
“Yeah… how did you get here so fast?”
“I took a shortcut. Someone told me you go home this way and I thought we could walk home together.”
“Uh, sure.”
Thankfully, my heart did not beat as fast as before and I could talk to him normally. He did not say much, just like before, and every time I asked him something about his past, he would give a vague, evasive or incomplete answer. However, he was very interested in me.
“So, why did you transfer when there’s less than half a year left?”
“My family had to move because of my father’s job.”
“What does he do?”
“He deals in… art.”
“Well, see you tomorrow,” I said and went down the street that would take me home.
It was a quiet night so I heard his footsteps stop for a few moments, he probably watched me for a while. I have to admit, I felt a bit flattered.  Of all the girls in our class, he took an interest in me. And he was handsome.
When I closed the front door, I heard Nana talking. I climbed the stairs, the door to her room had not been closed properly. I was going to go to my room when I heard her say my name.
“She can’t know anything about him. Well why didn’t you tell me he was coming? I thought you were watching him. I would have moved, that’s what I would have done! I knew he would come for her sooner or later but I had hoped it would be after I told her the truth about the accident.”

[Crow]

3
I backed away slowly and went to my room. Who was she talking about? And what truth could there be about the accident? Did she know about the boy who saved me? No, the better question was: why had she not told me about it all these years? I wanted to ask her about it but I had a feeling she would not tell me, not after she had kept it quiet so far.
The next day I was so distracted at school I could hardly pay attention to what the teachers were saying. At P.E. I told the coach I was feeling sick and stood on a bench the entire hour. To be honest, I really was feeling sick. I had not slept much last night, fragments of the dream kept replaying, only there was more blood than usual. It was the second time it changed and it worried me. Something was definitely going to happen and I was starting to think it was not good.
Halfway through the class, I saw a group of excited girls next to the starting line. The coach was also standing next to them looking at his stopwatch. He blew his whistle and someone took off in a blur of movement. I could not believe how fast he was, because a second later I recognised who it was: Leon. His hair was tied in a pony tail, his skin looked a bit pale, but he was barely straining himself. In only eight seconds, he reached the finish line and beaten my record. There was an explosion of cheers as the girls ran to him and surrounded him.
“Looks like we have a new star,” the coach said pleased. “You beat the old record by a whole second.”
That he did, he was faster than me and he did it so easily. Was he… could he be… like me?
“Jealous?” Lisa asked on the way home.
“Why would I be? You two kept pushing me to show off.”
“You must have enjoyed some of the attention,” Alice said suspiciously.
I did enjoy, alright. But I was not about to tell them that. “So what if he’s faster? It’s not like I was planning to make a career in athletics.”
“You know it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit more enthusiastic,” Lisa stated. “It’s like you don’t want to stand out at all.”
“Lisa is right,” Alice agreed. “You’re trying to be mediocre when you’re not.”
“You’re exaggerating. So I’m a fast runner, there’s nothing else special about me.”
“You’re one of the best in our class,” Lisa countered.
“And the prettiest,” Alice added.
“Would you stop?” I barked turning around to look at both of them. “You’re making it sound like I’m some super girl or something!”
“I see nothing wrong with that.”
I froze, the looks on my friends’ faces confirmed that who I thought had just spoken, was indeed behind me. Turning around, I saw Leon, his hair still in a pony tail, a smile slightly wider than usual on his lips. There was more than kindness in his eyes, there was something else I could not decipher… admiration, affection? I realised that he had developed an interest in me, but somehow it felt like there was more to it.
“Be-cause I’m not that great,” I mumbled.
“That is a matter of opinion. Are you heading home?”
“Yeah, let’s…”
“She’ll be right with you,” Lisa said while she and Alice pulled me away.
“You cheater! You’re trying to get him all to yourself,” Lisa said frowning.
“I’m not…”
“It’s not fair,” Alice said crossly. “Just because you’re the fastest girl in school.”
“I thought I was more than that,” I told them crossing my arms over my chest and looking at them with a deep frown.
Making sure they were feeling sorry enough, I walked away and joined Leon.
“Is something wrong?” he asked me a few minutes later.
“No, just my friends being stupid.”
“Friends can be difficult sometimes,” he said with a nod.
“Do you miss them? Your friends from back home?”
“I get to see them often enough.”
“Where did you move from?” I asked, thinking he might finally be willing to talk about himself.
“Let’s just say it is really far away,” he answered.
Of course he had to be vague again. Was he trying to be mysterious so the girls would like him? He surely did not need to, considering the way he looked.
That night, after we parted ways, I kept walking until I heard his footsteps, he had stopped to watch me again. Then I turned and saw that he was walking back the way we came. So he was just pretending to walk home so he could spend a little time with me. Was that romantic or weird?
“I worry too much…” I said and went home.
When I got home I was starving, having eaten next to nothing since breakfast. I left my bag in the hall next to the bathroom and after I washed my hands I went directly to the kitchen without changing, after dinner I took a nice long bath. As I was drying my hair, wearing only a towel, I saw something in the corner of my eye. Someone was standing across the street looking straight at my window. I could only make out the outline of a tall man, the rest of him was shrouded in darkness. But what caught my attention were the two red eyes. I looked away for a couple of seconds, to pull my towel up because it was loose and when I looked back, he was gone.

Jessie
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff20/CravenCrow/Jessie.jpg
Leon
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff20/CravenCrow/Leon.jpg