Guardian

******Author's Note*****

To:

Athenaartisan--Poor Matt, so very torn. But I'm thinking he will have an epiphany soon (teehee). Luckily, until then, he has a fan. As for Andy she is a witch, but her power is very unstable. Why that is...it's going to be a mystery for a little bit more, (Wicked I know ;P)

This chapter is about half of the original. I spilt it into two because it was getting too long. Anyway, please enjoy!

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That night was one of the worst in my life. I laid in my bed, staring out the window at the blood red moon. It was three-quarters full, and I didn’t like that it was half-hiding its face.

It watched me too, from behind the dark curtain. It watched me sweat and writhe with pain, a side effect of the medicine Dr. Sanchez had re-administered. My bones ached as if I had a fever, and I did. They were going to make blood, she told me.

She had developed the treatment herself, she said, with no small pride.

I screamed into my pillow as the horrible aching reached a crescendo, around three in the morning. Nothing touched this pain, not Tylenol, or Advil, or even the left over pain pills from Daisy’s wisdom teeth removal. They knocked me out. I still felt the agony in my dreams, twisted things that they were.

In the dark of my mind I huddled, panting, as shadows swirled and bobbed around me. They were whispering, telling me things.

“Weak. So weak…”

“It’s pathetic.”

“She let herself get this way.”

“It’s true. She let them do this to her.”

“It’s a shame that there’s no going back.”

“Going back where?!” I cried; their breathy voices grating against me like nails on a chalkboard.

“No going back,” they repeated. “Unless…”

“Unless what?!” I screamed, body convulsing with their torture.

“You have to break it…” they were fading. But what were they talking about?

“Break what?”

They whispered to me, but I couldn't understand the words...

………
………….
….

The dark circles under my eyes made me look like a crack whore, I decided that morning, as I gazed in the mirror in the freshmen’s bathroom. I hadn’t been in this section for a while, but I figured it was my safest bet to get by without confrontation.

I let my eyes rake over the image in the mirror. My hair was disheveled, and I tried to finger comb it into place. It remained in a stubbornly obstinate mess. I tugged on one of the long locks, pulling the curling strands straight. When I did that it almost reached my navel. It was time for another hair cut.

Tiredly, I glanced back up at my face, into my dull tea-colored eyes. They looked like a disaster victim’s, all hollow and hopeless. Beaten.

I jumped as the door opened. A flock of girls came in, brightly colored with shiny hair and glinting eyes. The tallest one, with the best cut and best-branded clothes took a minute to stare. I felt my eyes close in resignation. I didn’t have to see her to feel the presence come up behind me. I was so tired of this. I wanted it to end.

“Oh my, Andy. I didn’t know you’d be in school today,” Becca said, voice dripping with obviously fake concern. “We heard the wildest rumors, didn’t we?” she asked the softly giggling girls behind her. Mandi, Jessica, and Alyssa. She never went far without her bird brained cronies. It was hard to imagine these immaculate, glittering girls going furry once a month, but there you have it.

“So is it true?” she asked, dropping her voice to a dramatic whisper. “Were you bitten by a leech?”

I looked down at the white sink and at my equally white knuckles clutching onto it. I felt my jaw set and raised my head once again to meet her dusky blue eyes.

“No. It was more like a rabid dog,” I said, evenly.

I shifted as if to leave, but one of her manicured hands landed on my shoulder. It pinched my skin warningly and I felt the first stirrings of anger. And power.

“Don’t go anywhere, Andy,” Becca said, fake smile disappearing. Her other bangled hand rose, pushing my hair aside so that she could see the mark on my neck. It was healing surprisingly well. There must have been something good in that concoction that had been shoved in my veins.

Her eyes took in the scabbed skin.

“A dog?” she bit out. “Or a Were?”

The girl’s that had been giggling moronically behind us stopped, faces going intent. This was going bad, but when did it ever go well?

Heat was building in my core, much more easily than it had on Monday. It felt silken slipping into the palms of my hands. I could get addicted to this feeling.

I looked at my own face in the mirror. The edges seemed blurred. No…the mirror was shaking.

“Does it make a difference?” I snarled. They were all the same to me.

Her hand tightened on my shoulder. I saw her nails extend from the corner of my vision. They were curving into delicate pink claws. They bit into the cotton of my shirt to prick the flesh beneath.

“Poor Andy,” she said, voice dropping again. “Even the dogs won’t have you. I don’t blame them with a face like that.”

It was burning now, like acid that wanted to eat me alive. My fingers twitched on the cool porcelain.

“Becca…” one of the girls said, I think it was Alyssa.

“Shut up! Can’t you see we’re having a conversation? Right, An-dy,” she chirped, stressing the syllables of my name. I was shaking with the pressure that was building within me.

“Oh, don’t be so pathetic,” Becca hissed.

I was so tired of that word. Pathetic. Pah-the-tic.

The quaking seemed to grow with each syllable that echoed in my head. I high pitched vibration pierced my eardrums. My teeth gnashed together as pain seared through my arms, like my bones were fracturing.

“What?” The blond beside me breathed, startled, finally taking her face away. She was staring at the mirror, at the hairline cracks that were appearing all over it.

My fingers tightened on the porcelain. With a crunch, pieces of it crumbled to the floor, leaving a thick powder on my hands. They clenched into fists now that they had nothing to crush between them.

“Leave me alone, you stupid pigs,” I whispered, the smell of ozone assaulting my nostrils. My eyes were locked onto my own reflection as they backed away. The air around me was crackling, and sparks ignited off of my skin to float away into the burning air.

“Becca, let’s go,” one of them said, I think it was Alyssa.

I watched my pupils dilate, spiraling out until there was nothing left of the iris. My reflection moved, bobbing and jerking in the mirror. I wasn’t moving at all. Distantly I heard the door slam behind me. I knew that the girls had fled. I didn’t care. They were unimportant.

What was important was the way my reflection’s lips were moving. Words. They were forming words.

I mimicked the movements.

*“Watch…it…burn”*

Burn what?

My reflection smiled as the mirror began to shudder violently.

“Burn what?” I whispered.

*”Everything.”*

And then the world exploded.