Shades Of The Iris Excerpt

Chapter 1

 

“Phoebe, wake up!” Abi hissed at me.

I jumped and looked up from my desk where I had been dozing to find my Geography teacher, Mrs Smith staring down at me with stormy eyes behind her square glasses.

“That’s the third time this week Miss Athana, are my classes really that boring for you?”

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled. “I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

She stared at me as if to detect if I was lying or not before shaking her head and saying. “Yes, well if it happens again I’m sending you to the principal.”

I nodded. “Ok miss.”

I let out a sigh of relief when she turned on her heel and headed back to the front of the class. It may have been the third time this week in Geography, but I had been dozing in the other classes and had already seen the principal twice and it was only Thursday. I had been getting little more than an hour of sleep since the beginning of the week and the little sleep I did get had been filled with horrific nightmares that I couldn’t even remember when I woke up in a panic sweating.

“Wow, you’re lucky Mrs Smith is one of the nicer teachers.” Abi whispered. “You really need to get your sleep sorted out.”

“I know.” I groaned as I looked at my best friend with long pale blond hair that was almost white and light green eyes. She was older than me, but she always looked so vulnerable and I couldn’t help but think of her as my younger sister even though we looked nothing alike with my long brown curls and big brown eyes.

“You heard anything from Drake yet? They’ve been gone nearly six months now.”

I shook my head. I had known Drake Polem since we had been little and we had been friends ever since, but after his parents had died he and my brother, Darren had left the small town of Delta, Louisiana for a vacation saying that Drake needed to get away for a while. I had begged them to let me go too of course since he was my friend I wanted to be there for him, but my parents insisted that I couldn’t miss the school time. Now the last time I had seen him had been when he had said goodbye to me after his parents’ funeral and I was missing him like crazy. My Mum had spoken to Darren a lot, but I had yet to hear from Drake personally and it was driving me crazy.

“I really wish your parents had let you go.” Abi said, if I had gone I would have been asking her to come too and she knew that, but since that never happened both of us were stuck here at school.

I nodded and yawned. “Me too Abi, speaking of my parents they still hate the idea of Luke and I being together.”

She snorted. “Of course they do, I told you the guy was a complete idiot. Just because he’s your boyfriend it doesn’t make him a nice person. What do you even see in him?”

I sighed. “I’m not having this conversation again Abi.”

The truth was that I wasn’t sure what I even saw in him. I wasn’t even sure if he liked me or not. We had only been together a month, but he had started telling me what I could or couldn’t do and it was really starting to annoy me.

Luckily the bell started ringing then so it prevented Abi asking anymore questions as we packed our stuff up and joined the bottleneck of people exiting the classroom.

Luke met us in the corridor and gave me a kiss on the cheek before he looked down at my clothes with a look of disgust on his face.

“What the hell are you wearing?”

I frowned looking down at my jogging bottoms and too big t-shirt before shrugging.

“I couldn’t be bothered to put anything decent on, I’m too tired.”

He stared at me for a minute with his dark eyes before scowling. “Well just remember I’m the one that has to be seen with you like this. So next time make a bit more of an effort.”

With that one sentence he made me feel like a piece of dirt he had found on his shoe. Abi was gaping at him and I just turned away from him before heading towards karate. I barely gave him a glance before I stomped into the girls changing rooms with Abi and started changing.

“I can’t believe he just said that to you!” Abi exclaimed.

“He’s always been a nasty piece of work.” I muttered as I changed my t-shirt and pulled my jogging bottoms off.

“Yeah, but you can’t let him speak to you like that.”

I sighed pulling my shorts on. “I know I’ll break up with him soon.”

“Finally.” She said as she finished getting changed and I tied my hair up.

I laughed. “Why are you so relieved?”

She shrugged. “Because if he got worse I can’t beat him up like Drake or Darren could and they aren’t here.”

I grinned. “I’m sure he won’t get worse. Now come on we are going to be late.”

“He better not.” She mumbled as we walked into the gym where everyone was waiting.

The whole room was huge with wooden floors, which were currently covered in crash mats and both of the side walls were made up of mostly windows, which looked out into the school corridors. Both ends were walls with doors in them, one end was the boys changing rooms and one end was the girls. The ceiling was almost as high as a church with skylights covering it and the afternoon sun felt like it was cooking us alive as it shone through.

“Nice of you two to join us.” Mr Bayd said raising his eyebrows at us.

“Sorry Sir.” We both replied automatically.

He nodded once before looking at the class and saying. “Ok, I know I usually let you pick your own partners, but today I am going to pair you with each other depending on your skill level. When I call your names go to a crash mat and start practicing.”

Everyone nodded and we all looked like a crowd of nodding dogs, after whispering this to Abi she snorted earning an annoyed look from the teacher. After a minute had passed of him staring in our direction he began calling out names.

Abi was paired up with some girl called Samantha who I couldn’t even remember seeing before and eventually I was paired up with Luke, I almost groaned out loud as we both headed for a crash mat.

“Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you just because you’re my girlfriend.” Luke said as soon as we were standing opposite each other.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Didn’t expect you to.”

It turned out he hadn’t been joking. I was top in the class, but it seemed that Luke wasn’t far behind. It was getting more and more difficult to block all of his attacks and I was only just winning by one point. When the teacher finally called for a break I was sweating and my body was aching from lack of sleep as well as from the fight so I let my guard down. Unfortunately Luke didn’t seem ready for a break so the moment I looked away he punched me in the ribs with such force that I stumbled backwards and my ankle twisted over as I hit the floor with a groan.

“Luke Keres!” Mr Bayd roared. “I saw that, get to the principal’s office now!”

“Phoebe, are you ok?” Abi asked kneeling next to me on the floor.

I nodded as pain shot through my ribs and my eyes watered.

“Do you need to see the nurse?” Mr Bayd asked crouching down on my other side.

I shook my head and murmured. “I’m ok, just a bit sore.”

He looked doubtful for a minute, but then said. “Ok, but I’m sending you home. You go with her Abigail.”

We both nodded and they helped me to my feet. Abi pulled my arm over her shoulders and helped me limp towards the changing room. As soon as we were inside I sat down on the bench and Abi said.

“So much for it not getting worse.”

“I’m sure it was just an accident.” I mumbled not really believing it myself

I reached over to change my clothes, but Abi shook her head. “Don’t worry about that you can change when we get you home.”

I nodded and after a few minutes of sitting down I was able to walk on my ankle without help so I grabbed my bag as Abi took hers and we headed out. Pain kept shooting through my ribs and every time it did I winced, but after what seemed like miles of walking we reached Abi’s car. I sighed with relief as I sat down and waited for Abi to climb in.

“You know you can’t tell my parents about this they will go crazy.”

She shrugged and started the car. “Maybe I should tell them then.”

I sighed. “I’m serious Abi.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled away. “Fine, but only if you break up with him by the end of tomorrow.”

“Ok, whatever.” I murmured.

I dozed in my seat for the rest of the drive and Abi had to nudge my shoulder to let me know I was home.

“Come on Phoebe, it doesn’t look like your parents are home either so we won’t have to think of an excuse to why you’re home early.”

I automatically glanced towards the driveway to see that she was right and my parents’ big 4x4 was missing. Abi was out of the car before me and I had a bit of difficulty climbing out without hurting my ribs or ankle before I picked up my bag and walked towards the huge eight bedroom house my parents owned. Abi arrived at my side just as I had unlocked the door and stepped in the front hallway.

To the left of me was an archway, which lead into the living room and to my right was the door to the kitchen. The floor was wooden and shiny and there were stairs leading up to the eight bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms. Personally I thought it was way too many bedrooms for one house, but it had been passed down through our family for years. Next to the staircase there was a hallway, which had doors leading off of it for the library, dining room, office and games room.

I yawned and headed towards the kitchen.

“Do you want a drink?” I asked Abi as I filled up a glass with water.

“No thanks.” She replied before looking at the fridge and pulling a post-it note off of it. “Looks like your parents went to get some groceries.”

I chuckled. “I bet my Dad loves that.”

Abi grinned. “He usually gets you to go with your Mum instead, she’s a crazy shopper.”

I nodded rubbing my ribs. “I know, but can’t say I’m sorry I missed out.”

“No one would be sorry for missing out on that and you should sit down.” She said looking at my hand.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Just sit down Phoebe, it’s not going to hurt you.” She insisted.

I sighed and sat in one of the chairs at the table. “Happy now?”

“Yep.” She grinned sitting down next to me. I shook my head at her making her laugh. “You better not act like this when my parents get home, they will know something is up.”

“Then stop being so stubborn, you got hurt and you already look like a walking zombie.”

I snorted. “Thanks Abi, you really know how to make a girl feel good about herself.”

“I’m not being mean Phoebe, you just need some sleep. Do your parents know you haven’t been sleeping?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’ve been trying to hide it from them, they would only worry.”

“Phoebe-“ She started in her voice that let me know I was going to get a lecture about looking after myself, but she was cut off by the sound of the door bell.

“I’ll get it.” I said quickly before getting up and walking to the door.

Abi followed me out. “Phoebe, sit down. I can get it, you’re supposed to be resting.”

Before I could even reach it though my parents must have used their house key to open the door because they were walking into the hallway with both of their arms weighed down with groceries. Immediately we both rushed forwards to grab things from their arms and help transport them to the kitchen.

The minute my Mum’s hands were free she wrapped me up in a hug. “Hello Sweetie, how was school?”

“Good thanks Mum.” I answered avoiding eye contact, she could tell when I was lying from a mile off.

She didn’t even look that much older than me despite the age difference, me being at seventeen she was over twice my age, but no one would have thought it. She looked more like my sister than Mother, her waist length blonde curly hair would have been identical to mine if not for the colour I had inherited from my Father. Her brown eyes however, were exactly the same as mine the only difference being when I looked in the mirror my eyes seriously lacked the knowledge that my Mother’s seemed to possess.

“Really darling, because we had a phone call from the principal today.” My Dad said looking at me with his penetrating bright blue eyes.

He had brown hair with a closely cropped beard that he had, had for as long as I could remember and from what I could see it made him look a little older than his face would have otherwise appeared. Like my Mother he seemed to be aging well and either had yet to get one grey hair on their head.

“Why would he call you?” I asked pulling my eyes away to look at Abi who was raising her eyebrows as if to say “busted”.

My Mum frowned at me with disapproval. “Well, to say you got into a fight actually.”

My eyes snapped away from Abi to her and I raised my eyebrows. “Of course I got into a fight Mum, I do karate.”

“No, that isn’t what I meant dear, he said that Luke Keres broke the rules and hurt you when you had already been called for a break.”

I sighed. “It was an accident, he didn’t mean to do it.”

“If I find out he’s hurting my little girl, I’ll make the boy pay.” My Dad growled out in his no one messes with me or my things tone.

I found it hard not to laugh, but managed it before saying. “He’s not hurting me ok Dad?”

All I got was a grunt, in other words he had already made up his mind and wasn’t paying attention to anything I said. He turned away to pack the groceries away, but my Mum was still looking at me with a concerned expression.

“You would tell me if this boy was treating you badly, wouldn’t you Phoebe?”

Abi’s expression, which had been overjoyed about my parents talking to me about Luke suddenly turned serious as she spoke to my Mum.

“Don’t worry Mrs Athana, I will make sure that Phoebe doesn’t take anything else from Luke.”

My Mum smiled at her and gave her a quick hug. “You’re a good girl Abigail” was all she said before helping Dad with the groceries.

“Thank you.” I mouthed at her when their backs were turned.

All I got in return though was a glare as she mouthed back. “By the end of tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes and nodded at her. I’m sure I could manage to dump Luke by the end of tomorrow no problem.

Abi stayed over for dinner to eat the lasagne that my Mum made and neither of my parents bought up anything else about Luke thank God.

“Have you spoken to Darren today?” I asked my Mum as Abi and I stood drying up the dishes while she washed up.

“Yes dear, I spoke to him at lunch time, they are having a great time.”

“Do you know when they are coming back?” Abi asked.

“Not yet, they will let us know when they have some idea.” She assured us.

“How come Drake hasn’t called?” I asked feeling a little upset that I hadn’t spoken to him for the last six months and before that a day hadn’t gone by that I hadn’t spoken to him since we met.

My Mum saw straight through me though and gave a sympathetic look. “Oh, sweetie I’m sure he’s just been busy, you’re still his best friend.”

I frowned and nodded. Abi of course tried to lighten the mood by grinning and saying. “Hey, I thought I was your best friend.”

I smirked at her. “You’re my best girl Abi, he’s just my best guy.”

My Mum shook her head with a laugh as she dried off her hands. Abi and I quickly finished drying the dishes and putting them away after she went into the living room with my Dad.

“I’m sure he will call you soon.” Abi said.

I gave a small smile. “Maybe, but at least I know he’s ok, that’s the main thing right?”

She nodded and gave me a hug. “I have to get home Phoebes, don’t worry about him.”

I nodded, but then frowned. “It might seem selfish, but what if he made some friends there and forgot about me Abi?”

She smiled. “You know he would never forget about you Phoebe, just give him some time, I’m sure you’ll speak to him before you know it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, it just feels weird not being there for him you know?”

“I know.” She said giving me another hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You too Abi.”

After walking her to the front door I headed into the living room and sat down with my parents to watch a film. With all the sleep I had been lacking in I was dozing by the end of it.

“Phoebe, sweetheart you should get to bed.” My Dad’s voice jolted me awake.

I yawned and blinked a few times to clear my vision and find my Dad standing next to the chair looking down at me with a smile.

“Where’s Mum?” I asked looking around the room and realising that she wasn’t there.

“She’s on the phone in the kitchen.”

I nodded and yawned again as I stood up. “Night Dad.” I said giving him a kiss on the cheek before heading into the hallway. “Night Mum.” I called as I walked past the kitchen door and headed for the stairs.

“Night Darling.” She shouted back.

I kept yawning all the way up the stairs and when I reached my bedroom I stumbled over to my bed without a shower and fell on top of it fully clothed before falling asleep.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

It was almost three in the morning when I woke up from my restless sleep sweating and breathing heavily. Every night this happened it only made me miss Drake more because I would have called him and he would immediately make his way to my house, climb up the trellis next to the balcony and come into my bedroom no matter what time it was. He would talk to me for hours until I felt better and by the time he left whatever had been bothering me wouldn’t even matter anymore.

But that was no longer the case so I rolled over with a groan knowing I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep again if the rest of the week was anything to go by. It seemed that my guess was right when after hours of tossing and turning the sun began to rise.

When I got up my ribs were aching a little and my ankle was a bit swollen making me limp when I made my way into the bathroom for a shower. The water from my shower didn’t even do much in the way of waking me up today as I washed my face over and over again hoping it would help force my eyes open.

I didn’t realise how long I had been in there until my Mum knocked on my door and called through. “Honey, you’re going to be late.”

Not having time to dry my hair it was still damp when I rushed downstairs in a pair of tight jeans, boots and a top thinking that I really didn’t want to deal with Luke making a bad comment about my outfit again.

“Your breakfast is on the table.” My Mum shouted from the kitchen the moment my feet touched the bottom stair so I headed in that direction trying to make my slight limp as unnoticeable as possible, but of course they noticed.

My Dad watched me walk in from over the top of his coffee cup and the moment he swallowed he asked me. “Did you hurt your foot Phoebe?”

Not wanting to lie to them I just said. “I twisted my ankle in karate, it’s fine.”

“Do you need to see the doctor?” My Mum asked setting down a glass of water next to my cereal as I took a seat.

“It’s fine Mum, it’s just a little sore.” I mumbled around a mouthful of cornflakes making my Dad chuckle and Mum frown at me in disapproval.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full dear and don’t laugh at her Chris, she get’s these bad habits from you.”

He simply smirked before drinking his coffee again and picking up the newspaper to read. After that the only sounds were of my Mum cleaning the kitchen and me munching on my cereal until a beep of a horn outside announced Abi’s arrival to pick me up.

“Have a nice day.” My parents called simultaneously as I jumped out of my seat and went into the hallway.

“Bye.” I yelled grabbing my school bag and walking out of the front door before making my way over to Abi’s car and climbing in.

“Hey Phoe-.” Abi started, but interrupted herself. “Wow, you look terrible, did you even sleep?”

I groaned leaning my head back in the seat and looking at the roof of the car as she started it and began driving. “Barely.”

“Didn’t your parents say anything? It’s not like them not to notice something like this.”

I frowned. “I don’t look that bad do I?”

“You look half asleep Phoebes.” She said glancing at me.

I sighed. “They probably thought I was still waking up.”

“You need to see a doctor or something Phoebe, you can’t get sent to the principal again this week.”

“I know.” I mumbled. “I’ll get it sorted out, it would help if I remembered the nightmares, but I remember nothing.”

She nodded as she pulled into the school parking lot. “Maybe you’ll remember one when you wake up one night.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

But I had a feeling that whatever it was that gave me that reaction when I woke up would be something that I didn’t want to remember.

I was glad that we made it to English without running into Luke, at least I was until I realised that English meant Miss Kalbert, she had to be the most boring teacher in the whole world. Right then I was finding it so difficult to stay awake with my lack of sleep combined with boredom that I would have sacrificed this class for a conversation with Luke any day. Abi was almost continuously nudging me so that I didn’t have a chance to doze, it was hard for the most well rested person to stay awake through her boring lectures let alone me.

“Phoebe.”

Hearing my name and half afraid I had really fallen asleep I immediately snapped my eyes open completely and shouted. “I’m awake!”  

Unfortunately it came out louder than it should have and the teacher was now suspicious of me because of course no one would shout that unless they were half asleep. Abi groaned next to me when the teacher turned her little beady eyed gaze on me in anger at the fact I had obviously been dozing, which was just annoying because it was one thing being boring, but if you were going to be boring you can’t exactly expect everyone to stay awake through it right? Then again I guess she was the teacher so she could expect what the hell she wanted.

“Do I need to send you to the principal again Miss Athana?”

Like she cared, she had been only too happy to send me to the principal the first time. I was literally saved by the bell then as it started ringing and the teacher let out a sigh as everyone started packing up.

“I’ll let it slide this time since it’s the end of class and a Friday.”

“Thank you Miss.” I said as I copied the rest of the students by packing up my things quickly just in case she happened to change her mind.

I had barely finished packing before Abi grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the classroom and into the hallway before whispering agitatedly at me.

“Are you crazy Phoebe? No one shouts I’m awake unless they were asleep. That was close.”

I groaned and slumped against the wall. “I know, I don’t know if I can do this, I’m just so tired.”

“Yes you can.” She said grabbing my shoulders and shaking me as if she thought I would fall asleep right there and I must admit that idea didn’t sound as stupid as it probably should have. “We have four more classes and then the weekend.”

Of course four classes didn’t sound too many when you said it like that, but when you had to sit through three of them fighting against your body’s instinct to fall asleep it was like hell. Math and Biology were so difficult to get through that with Abi not in either of those classes I had to actually resort to pinching myself every time I was starting to doze. Neither teacher seemed to notice the internal struggle I was having with myself to stay awake and neither one noticed the fact that I didn’t do a single piece of work.

I spent lunch time with my head on the cafeteria table as I slept after consuming a few bites of food at Abi’s insistence. The hour of sleep I had inserted into my school day helped me get through the beginning of Geography, but the second half was as if my nap at lunch had never happened. Abi was back to nudging me and after yesterday’s episode in this class Mrs Smith was watching me like a Hawk.

I had completely forgotten about Luke since I had made it through the day without meeting him until he met us outside of Geography. My stupid sleepy brain then remembered I had to dump him by the end of the day so before he even got a word out I burst out.

“We’re over Luke.”

He didn’t look particularly upset, he just looked really angry before walking away from me. It wasn’t until we reached the changing rooms and finished changing that thanks to Abi pointing it out I realised how insane I must be due to lack of sleep, I had just dumped a boyfriend before a karate class who was not afraid to be violent with me. Oh shit, this could end badly when I didn’t have the ability to fight as well as I could at the moment.

“You could have at least waited until after karate.” Abi hissed at me as we headed into the gym.

“I wasn’t exactly thinking straight.” I muttered back.

“Maybe we won’t get the same partners as yesterday.” She whispered.

I snorted. “That’s just wishful thinking, we always get the same partners for a few days.”

It didn’t take long to discover none too surprisingly that the rules hadn’t suddenly changed and we did in fact have the same partners. I groaned inwardly despite having known it was going to happen. Mr Bayd gave him a look though before saying.

“I’ll be watching you Mr Keres.”

 I almost cried inside as I saw the look on Luke’s face, which clearly showed that he didn’t care what the teacher was doing. It wasn’t long until my ribs and ankle began to throb from the beating they had taken yesterday. I was thinking about calling a time out, but one look at his face changed my mind as I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction and I didn’t really think he would stop anyway. When we reached the half way point I was exhausted, but I wasn’t stupid enough to let my guard down this time, all the rules of karate just flew out the window for Luke though. He launched himself at me and pinned me to the floor. I felt anger boil up inside me making up for my lack of energy and I lifted my legs up between us before kicking him off so he went flying across the gym, but that barely stopped him.

“Mr Keres! Control yourself!” Mr Bayd yelled, but Luke seemed completely oblivious as he jumped at me again.

This time I was ready for him and I kicked out from the floor as he flew towards me and I sent him flying right over the top of me before I got to my feet. He was like some kind of savage animal as he started towards me again and I swung my fist towards him with as much force as I could manage. He wasn’t prepared for it and the sound of the crack when my fist made contact with his nose echoed throughout the whole gym.

I could have sworn the teacher chuckled, but I didn’t have time to look because bloody nose or not Luke wasn’t ready to give up and he started towards me again letting out an animal like growl. Getting really fed up now I swung my foot up and kicked him between the legs making him howl in pain before I launched myself at him and pinned him to the ground.

The teacher walked over to us and raised an eyebrow at Luke who was still struggling underneath my grip.

“Are you finished now Mr Keres?”

Luke lifted his head up and headbutted me in the face. There was no cracking sound so he hadn’t broken my nose, but I still felt the blood gushing from it before I saw it landing on his shirt. Mr Bayd grabbed Luke by the scruff of his neck and pulled him to his feet.

“Get yourself cleaned up Phoebe, I’ll deal with Mr Keres here. Although I must compliment you on your defensive skills.”

I chuckled. “Thank you Sir.”

I turned around to find the whole class gaping at us, but Abi rushed over to me just as I covered my nose to stop the blood from getting everywhere.

She grinned at me. “You kicked his ass.”

I smirked as I headed towards the changing rooms with her on my heels. “I know, I guess he doesn’t like being dumped.”

“I know, he acted liked he was possessed or something.” Abi said.

I mumbled in agreement as I went into the toilets, washed my face and stuck pieces of tissue up my nostrils.

“You know, you’re parents are probably going to be told about this right?”

I groaned. “I know, but I dumped him so they probably won’t worry too much.”

She grinned. “You finally dumped him, we should celebrate.”

I laughed. “We are seventeen, what do you propose we do to celebrate?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, we’ll leave now class is almost over anyway, name something you want to do.”

“Sleep.” I answered as we started changing our clothes.

She snorted and I paused as I was pulling my jeans on.

“Hey, why don’t we go to the park?”

She frowned. “The park? But we haven’t been there since Drake left.”

“Exactly, so we should go.” I said continuing to dress.

She shrugged. “Ok, what’s the plan?”

I finished getting dressed before grabbing my backpack. “Stop at your house on the way back so you can get some clothes, go to my house, walk to the park, then come back whenever, then you can stay the night at mine.”

“Sounds good, let’s go.” She agreed grabbing her backpack and leading the way out of the changing rooms.

We managed to reach the school doors just as the bell rang and the corridors filled with students. We broke into a jog so that we could escape the line of traffic that would build up in the parking lot as everyone would try to get home quickly for the weekend. 

As expected we were easily the first ones to leave before heading towards Abi’s house.

“You sure you don’t want me to just take you home to get some sleep?” She asked when I began to doze. “We can do this tomorrow if you want.”

I nodded. “Ill be fine and now that we are going I kind of want to go.”

She nodded once and carried on driving in silence leaving me to get in a little sleep in the ten minutes that were left of the journey. The disappearance of the sound of the engine woke me up in time to see Abi unbuckling her seatbelt in the driveway to her house.

I let out a slow yawn as I did the same and followed her out of the car and towards the front door. Her house was about half the size of my place, in my opinion her house was normal sized with four bedrooms upstairs and an open planned ground floor with a living room, kitchen, dining room and then a separate room that her Dad used as an office.

We walked in to find Abi’s Mum sitting at the dining table with a tall man that looked a little creepy, his hair was so closely shaved that you could barely see that it was black and his eyes were so dark that I wasn’t even sure what colour they actually were, but they were a major contrast against his pale skin. There wasn’t any particular feature that made him scary, he just seemed to be sending out some kind of weird vibe that sent shivers down my spine.

“Hi Mum.” Abi called to her.

She looked over at us with a smile. “Hello girls.”

“Hi Mrs Fairfax.” I answered.

She gestured to the man next to her. “This is Cerberus, he just started at my work place.”

We both gave him a nod and Abi said. “Nice to meet you.”

He gave a chilling smile and I could have sworn that his gaze focused on me for just a few seconds too long, but it was probably my imagination.

“Are you girls staying for dinner?” She asked as she sipped on her tea.

“No.” Abi answered. “I just came to pick up some stuff. We’re going to go to the park and then I’m staying at Phoebe’s house if that’s ok?”

She nodded. “That’s fine sweetie.”

It only took a few minutes for Abi to pack a bag before we said bye to her Mum and creepy guy. When we were in the car I mentioned his creepyness and was relieved to know I hadn’t been unnecessarily freaked out by him when she agreed with me.

“He was really strange, I’m not sure what possessed my Mum to invite him home with her.” I nodded in agreement and she added. “Cerberus, where have I heard that name before?”

I shrugged and frowned. “I don’t know, well except from you know the whole three headed dog guarding the underworld, his name is Cerberus, but can’t say I’ve heard it anywhere else.”

She snorted. “Do you think Hades is pissed that he left his post to have tea with my Mum?”

I laughed. “I kind of hope we don’t find out. No one would want to get on the wrong end of that guy. Well, so I’ve heard.”

She grinned at me before pulling into my driveway. It didn’t take us long to drop her bag off in my room and come back downstairs. We had a quick conversation with my parents about school and as predicted they knew about the fight with Luke, but they were almost glad that I had taken him down, which could probably be considered a bit strange that my parents were kind of encouraging my fighting. When the alternative would have been for him to beat me up though it was understandable. They were of course relieved that I had dumped Luke and threatened to ground me for the first time in my childhood if I even considered having a relationship with him again. I was sure that they were joking, but couldn’t be entirely sure with the serious look that had been on my Dad’s face.

My Mum was happy to hear that we were going to the park, she knew that I had been avoiding the place like the plague since Drake had left, it just didn’t feel right to be there without him when he had been with me every other time. I knew that it was silly though, which was part of why I had decided today I would suck it up and make myself go. It shouldn’t be that hard to deal with all the good memories I had of him there though right? I mean surely a trip there couldn’t possibly make me miss him anymore than I already did.

We were silent throughout the whole walk there, Abi kept glancing at me as if she thought I was going to cry, which would have meant some majorly heightened emotions because I hardly ever cried and never in front of anyone except Drake. I was one of these people who bottled up their emotions and then there would be one day that sent me over the edge resulting in everything pouring out at that one moment in time. With the lack of Drake over the last six months though I hadn’t cried once and even for me I was pretty sure that, that was some kind of new record.

When we arrived we walked through the tall white gates, everything looked exactly the same as it had on the last day I had seen Drake, we had been sitting in the big, white, wooden gazebo in the centre of the park that I could see from here. It wasn’t really a surprise that everything was the same, it was just because Drake was missing, it felt as if the park was claiming it was the same place when without Drake with me it was wrong. Like I had fallen into a parallel universe where everything looked the same, but something didn’t feel quite right.

“You ok?” Abi asked snapping me out of it.

I jumped before nodding. “Yeah, I’m good.”

She let me lead the way as we walked around the park, it always seemed to be empty, which I had never been able to fathom considering how beautiful it was. The grass was always so green no matter what time of year it was and the trees always held leaves, they seemed to completely disobey the rules of Autumn and Winter, refusing to release their leaves to let the cycle of the seasons take them until they were ready to grow fresh leaves in the Spring. When I had asked my parents about this they had assured me that they were just artificial trees and so didn’t need to follow the rules, but they had always looked so real to me. Artificial plants were usually easy to spot, but these could be mistaken for living things so easily. It wasn’t just the trees though, the flowers were exactly the same. The Autumn and Winter months were never too cold for these flowers, they survived no matter what the weather threw at them. This of course was answered for by my parents explaining that they were artificial too. As I had grown up through the years asking about each plant, bush or tree as I noticed it’s lack of obedience towards the rules of nature they all simply turned out to be fake, but who would make a whole artificial park?

In the end I stopped asking about it and settled for enjoying its beauty that was very real.

When I reached the lake I stared down into the crystal clear water, it was so clear that it was almost like a rippling mirror. Almost as if you could step right through it into another world after swimming down through the fish, the only animals that were in the park. I guess the fact that everything being artificial accounted for the lack of wildlife though.

I didn’t know if it was Abi saying my name or the big black cloud suddenly reflected in the clear water that made me look up first, but within seconds the heavens opened drenching us with an unforgiving rain pounding against our skin in torrents. Since the gazebo was the closest form of shelter we ran towards it and up the steps protecting us from the downpour.

“Wow, that came in fast.” Abi said with a shiver.

I nodded in agreement realising that the lack of assault from the rain left us vulnerable to the wind as it whipped against our wet skin sending shivers through our bodies. Within minutes we were huddled together on the bench lining the inside of the gazebo as we tried to keep warm, which seemed like a pretty impossible task when we were both soaked right down to our skin and it was getting dark without showing any sign of letting up on the wind or rain.

“I th-think we are g-g-going to have to m-make a r-r-run for it or w-we are going to b-be stuck here all n-night.” I stuttered as my body shook with shivers and the small amount of energy I had left tried to provide me with warmth that I just didn’t have.

Abi nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but when we heard an unmistakable creak from the direction of the steps our heads whipped around simultaneously to see a large man appearing out of the rain as he became level with us.