believe how high Cain had jumped, he hit the ground hard but gracefully, and walked toward her.
“I told you that I’m here for you now,” he said as he approached her, “But, I’m not the only one.”
She didn’t know whether to be scared, or inquisitive.
“Who is he?” she asked and reached for his hand, she felt comfortable doing it, it felt right to her. “Is he real?”
He took her hand and looked into her eyes. Her knees weakened, and gave out. He caught her in his arms, and lifted her up, their eyes still locked.
“I’m real,” he said.
“Shayna, what are you doing in there?” the doorknob on Shayna’s door rattled, “Open up,” Melina was calling to Shayna from the other side.
Shayna sat up, the room was dark. She looked at the clock on her nightstand, and turned on the lamp. It was 6:33pm.
“Shay,” Melina said again.
“Hold on, I was sleeping,” Shayna found her books on the bed, and shoved them into her backpack, and opened the door.
“Noah called,” Melina said as soon as the door was open, “He said he called your phone but you didn’t answer,” she stood on her tiptoes trying to peek into the room, “What are you doing?”
“I told you, I was sleeping,” Shayna answered, “What are you doing, faker?”
“I’m not faking,” Melina said with a smirk, “I’m better now.”
“Whatever,” Shayna was getting impatient, “Did Noah say what he wanted?”
“No, he just said to have you call him,” Melina said, and turned to head down the stairs, “I’m warming up last nights spaghetti, if you’re hungry,” she added, over her shoulder.
Shayna waited until she could hear Melina was downstairs, then closed and locked her door again. She got the books out of her backpack, and found a flat head screwdriver in her desk, and went to her closet. She knelt down to the right corner and pried up the floorboard. She placed the books in the small space in the closet floor. She pulled out a silver box, opened it and took out a velvet pouch. She replaced the board and and went back to her bed. She held the velvet pouch tight in her hand and closed her eyes.
When she woke up the next morning, Melina was jumping on her bed.
“Shay, wake up,” she said with excitement. “Look outside.”
“Come on,” Shayna said, and tried to roll Melina off of her. “Get off of me!”
Melina removed herself from her sister, jumped off the bed, and opened the dark purple sun and moon patterned drapes, that were concealing the day.
“Look.”
Shayna sat up and peered out the window, everything was white. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped in a sarcastic way.
“Is that snow?” She asked.
“Can you believe it?” Melina had a grin from ear to ear, she loved snow days, and missing school, but she didn’t like the cold. “I was starting to think that it wasn’t going to snow this year.”
Shayna got out of bed and went to the window. The hardwood floor of her bedroom was cold on her bare feet. She peered out. Everything was covered, it wasn’t just a light dusting that the weathermen had called for, there was a thick blanket over everything, and it was still coming down.
“It’s so beautiful, and silent,” Shayna whispered, and watched the snow fall.
“There’s no school,” Melina told her interrupting Shayna’s moment, “Apparently everyone forgot how to drive in this stuff. Idiots.”
Shayna shot a look of disappointment at Melina, “What? We have to miss school for this ?” she really didn’t mind missing school, but she was missing Cain.
“Don’t worry Miss Perfect,” Melina said to her, rolling her eyes, “Your perfect attendance record won’t be shattered, you can make it up at the end of the year.” with a smirk, Melina walked out of the room.
Shayna didn’t care if Melina thought her attendance record was the reason she didn’t want to miss school. She really didn’t want Melina to know how strongly she was feeling
Learning to Kill: Stories