Chapter 10

How can my heart still beat, I asked myself, if it’s utterly broken? I felt ill – sick of the guilt; sick of myself. I was lying in my bed, thinking about what I said... what I should have said. There was a knock on my door. Out of everybody that I know, I never thought it would be Aura.

‘Hey,’ she said gently as she closed the door, ‘want to talk?’

‘Not really,’ I mumbled as I pulled the covers over me.

‘Well, we’re going to,’ she said as she lifted up the covers and climbed in next to me, leaving me no choice but to move over, ‘So... What’s going on with you and Sam?’

‘I don’t know.’ I shrugged, grumpily.

‘Let’s start with: why did you go on a date with Reid?’ Aura quizzed me.

‘I don’t know.’ I repeated.

After a long silence, Aura perked up. ‘Fine... I know what will cheer you up. Say the first thing that comes into your head. Apples.’

‘Oranges.’ I replied.

‘Chocolate.’

‘Cake.’ I said, feeling silly.

‘Happy.’

‘Sad.’ I stopped thinking about what I was saying.

‘Love.’

‘Sam.’

It hit me harder than ever just how much I truly love Sam. He could be the one I spend the rest of my life with. Oh, great, I thought, so now you start believing in fairy tales?

‘You love Sam,’ Aura stated the true fact, ‘that’s what’s in your heart... Even if it is broken – or Sam’s stolen it – whatever cliché you want to go with – it doesn’t matter. You love Sam.’

‘Yes, I do. I know- I know that I do.’

‘Then why did you go on the date with Reid?’ Aura asked again. ‘Well? I’m waiting.’

‘I don’t know.’ I said, closing down my emotions.

‘Let me ask you again.’ Aura said with a calm anger. ‘Why did you go on that date with Reid?’

‘I felt like I had to!’ I shouted at her and then tried to gain control of my voice, ‘Because I felt like I had to. When I’m around Reid, I feel electric shocks; I feel forced into liking him. When I’m around Sam... I see sparks fly. It’s not forced; it’s more... natural. That’s probably because he’s my twin-soul.’

‘Why do you feel like you have to like Reid?’ Aura interrogated me.

‘I don’t know. It’s when I feel the electric shock, when he’s around, I have to like him. I feel distressed by it but I can’t stop it.’ I admitted to her.

‘Well... if we find out why you feel that way then we might be able to stop it.’ Aura smiled at me. ‘But-’ she said it as “buh-ah-t” – ‘you need to talk to Sam.’

As much as I was worried about talking to Sam, I knew she was right. I had to speak to him; I owed him at least that much. ‘Yeah, of course I will.’

‘You better.’ She climbed out of my bed. ‘And soon.’ She closed the door behind her.

I decided that I’d talk to Sam, face-to-face, at work tomorrow. No point in being a coward and doing over the phone tonight – we both needed to give it a little bit of time before we do anything.

I didn’t get much sleep that night. I was tossing and turning, thinking of what I was going to say to Sam that wouldn’t result in us arguing. I woke up half hour later than I normally get up. In a rush, I got dressed into my black skirt that stopped a few inches above my knees – not too dangerous; not too safe – my black strappy top that goes with the skirt, my thin black tights and my black knee-high boots; grabbed my phone and my keys, and bolted out the front door. The bus wasn’t scheduled to come for another twenty-three minutes so I chose to run to the shop. Yeah, I’d be sweaty by the time I got there, but that should just back up my point of effort.

Half way to the shop, I decided to ring Sam to make sure he stayed there for lunch as I wasn’t going to get there until about twelve. Panting, I clicked on his contact and pushed the call button.

‘Hi, you’ve reached Sam,’ Sam’s recorded voice said – it was really cute, actually – ‘Sorry, I can’t answer the phone but if you leave a message, I’ll try to get back to you.’

I waited for the beep and then said, ‘hi, Sam. It’s me, Electra. I know you don’t want to talk to me right now, but, please. Could you stay in the shop for lunch – or at least until I get there. I really got to talk to you. I- I know what I want now and... I’m think there’s more going on with Reid and Daphne. It’s just a hunch but I think they’re bad people, so just watch your back. I’m on my way to the shop now. Sam... I really do-’

Someone caught me by my waist and covered my mouth with a cloth, causing me to scream and drop my phone. I tried to kick them but I suddenly grew tired and... The world went black.

When I came back around to my senses, the world came back to life with me. I looked around before I sat up to see that I was inside a car that was moving fast. I looked at the driver. Why did he seem familiar? So did the girl that was sitting next to him in the passenger seat.

‘Wakey-wakey, sleeping ugly,’ the girl said as soon as she noticed I was awake, ‘Luke, she’s awake; she better not be any trouble.’

‘Don’t worry, Talia,’ the driver glanced at me through his mirror, ‘she won’t be.’

Wait, I thought... Luke and Talia, then it hit me: they’re Luke and Talia! They were there when Ryvre got attacked and she knew them from school. I thought they were supposed to be in the conversion programme?

‘Yeah, we were,’ Talia commented on my thoughts, ‘but that pathetic programme didn’t work.’

‘Where are you taking me?’ I couldn’t see through the windows.

Talia laughed, ‘like that’s going to work on us! We’ve learnt from our mistakes.’

What was that supposed to mean? Suddenly Sam’s voice entered my head and sparks flew again, so I blocked the conversation so Talia or Luke couldn’t hear. Electra, I’m coming to get you; please don’t worry. If only you were an angel. Then you could tell me where you were and if you’re okay.

I couldn’t reply; I didn’t want him to find out that I’m angel that way. And I really couldn’t tell him where I was – I couldn’t see -  and I couldn’t tell him if I’m okay. I don’t know if I am going to be.

‘If you’re a part of the black-soul dynasty – meaning the dynasty is back on its feet, then who’s in charge now? We took out that Nigel man.’ I glared at the back of their heads.

‘Yeah,’ Talia turned around again, ‘you can stop burning holes in the back of our heads now.’ That had made me wonder if Ace was literally able to do that. Black-souls are definitely a bad influence on me. I had to get that under control. ‘She’s going to be a tough one to crack – don’t get me wrong: she is cracking – just going to take a lot more... pressure.’

‘Answer my question!’ I snapped at her.

She laughed again. ‘Down girl; bad dog,’ she implied the use of a different word – and expletive for the term “dog”, ‘we don’t answer to you.’

‘Luke,’ I looked at him, ‘you’re easier to talk to. Who’s in charge if Nigel got arrested?’

‘Who said that Nigel was in charge anyway?’ He looked at me through his mirror again.

‘Those two thugs that abducted Ryvre, they said they were taking her to the boss.’ I pointed out.

‘They were taking her to their boss. No one ever said that he was in charge of the whole dynasty. Bosses do have bosses above them, you know?’ Luke said in a patronising way. ‘See, you’d learn that if you actually did hard work, rather than skipping around, pretending everything’s okay.’

I do the hard work. I have my shop – and I’m the boss, remember? There isn’t a boss above me. I couldn’t be bothered to point this out to Luke. ‘Is Reid and Daphne in your little group too?’ I thought it was worth a shot. I just couldn’t ignore my instincts.

‘What’s it to you?’ Talia asked, basically answering my question.

‘I’ve just had a bad feeling about them since they first stepped into my life.’ I smirked at her.

‘Well, bad isn’t the term I’d use for it.’ Talia stuck her nose out and her chin up. ‘More like cool – or hot. Depends on the angle you’re talking about...’

Even though she was meant to be some badass black-soul, deep down – deep, deep, deep down, like way deep down – she was just an ordinary teenage girl blindly crushing on the latest boy.

I tried to look out the front windscreen but all I could see was the road. My only chance was to save myself or pray that someone came to save me. But I was doubtful since it’s never that simple or easy. And no one ever comes to save you.

Except Sam, a part of me said, Sam always comes to rescue you. Just like I needed help with the shop, or when I needed a lift home from the hospital in the very early hours of the morning. I need a lift now. I need to be rescued – doesn’t matter who it is.