Delusional, Taylor Quinn [the dot read aloud txt] 📗

At school the next day, I asked Jess if she had any dead family members or friends.

“Um, well, I have a dead grandfather. He’s the one who gave me this bracelet”, she said sadly, holding out her wrist to show a silver plated bracelet. Jess loved silver. More than gold or diamonds.

“Where is he buried?” I asked her quickly. She looked at me strangely.

“The local cemetery, why?” she said curiously.

“No reason”, I replied,”but come to the cemetery with me after school. I’ll take you home, afterwards. We’re going to talk to your grandfather.”

She looked at me. Astonished. I didn’t blame her. I nodded, and I walked quickly away, heading towards my next class. That class was Biology, and boy do I hate Biology. I don’t like to dissect things, so that was an instant turn off for this class. We were dissecting frogs, so I worked on it with one of the boys in our class, Doon. While Doon was dissecting, I sat and watched. My Biology teacher thinks I’m mental, so she doesn’t let me actually dissect things, but she does make me watch, just because she hates me. I stared blankly at the frog’s body. I think Doon kept looking over at me, worried about whether or not I was okay, but I didn’t care. I must’ve drifted off into my imagination, and Distort, again, because when I looked at the frog, it jumped up off the table and looked at me, eyes glowing purple, and fangs in its mouth. It’s blood was oozing from the cut Doon had made. I snapped my fingers quietly, and I was back in the Overworld. I looked at Doon, still dissecting the frog.

“I’m sorry I can’t help with the dissection”, I said, appoligizing,”Ms. Fickz won’t let me.”

Doon smiled. But not just any smile. A smile that he’d never smiled to anyone ever before. There was something in that smile. Some feeling. Actually, not just some feeling. A lot of feeling. A loving feeling,

“That’s okay”, he said,”It’s not your fault that she thinks you’re ill. It’s her’s. Besides, I’m fine with doing it by myself. I honestly don’t usually work well with others.”

“Oh”, I said, looking towards the window. That smile. I didn’t want to look at him.

Suddenly, the bell rang. Doon reached out his hand. Was he helping me up? Or was he going to shake my hand? I grabbed his hand, and he quickly pulled me up, and he actually hugged me. Well, half hugged me. He had one arm around me, before he quickly let go, grabbed his stuff, and left. I picked up my own stuff and also left the room. By the time I got to my locker, Jess was there, waiting for me. Biology was my last class of the day, and it was time for the buses to arrive. I grabbed my backpack, closed my locker, took Jess by the arm, and bolted. We headed for the town cemetery, avoiding traffic as we went. Another thing that I was almost trying to avoid was seeing Doon, but I think his bus passed us by and he saw me. Oh well, doesn’t really matter.

While we were stopped, Jess’s voice startled me.

“Hey, what’s this piece of paper in here?” she asked, reaching into my jacket’s hood. I reached it first, pulling it out and unfolding it. All I saw was a number. But not just any number.

It was a phone number.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a scrap", I said, quickly thinking up a cover.

Doon had dropped the phone number into my hood when he half hugged me. He had to have done that. No one else had been close enough to me, because nobody else, other than Jess and him, would get close enough to me to be able to put that in my hood. Everyone else was scared of me, or, at least, just found me uncool and unpopular. Those people wanted nothing to do with me, whatsoever. The popular girls and the jocks. It was always them. But I honestly didn’t care if they didn’t want to be near me, because I almost choked on the scents of both of them. The girls? Perfume. I think they put on a whole bottle before they come to school every day. And the jocks? They smell like sweat. Badly. I know I smell better than the jocks, and I don’t think I have a flowery stench leaving a trail of pink clouds behind me wherever I go like those girls.

Anyways, Jess and I crossed the street and were faced with the large iron gates, rusted and worn, that lead into the cemetery. The old padlock lay, rusted down to the core, beside the gate, in the overgrown weeds. I stepped up to the gate, slowly. The gravel crunched below my feet. Jess stayed back, looking straight up terrified of the iron gates. The gate was about eight feet tall, right in the middle. Spires rose from every iron bar in the gate, and the fence surrounding the graveyard. It looked like something straight from a horror movie. I can see why Jess didn't like it, but I've seen the dead. I'm absolutely fine. Reaching for the gate, I almost started to have second thoughts. Something loomed in the air. I didn't know what was happening, but I really didn't like it. It was like a cloud of misfortune, hanging over the entire town. Something was going to happen, and I knew it. No one was going to be fine, tonight. The town was like a nightmare. I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. I grabbed a bar on the gate, and pulled it open. An ear piercing screech of hinges that hadn't been oiled in many years greeted me. Despite this, I pulled the gate all the way open, and stepped into the graveyard. Jess followed me in slowly, and I walked around, searching for her grandfather's gravestone.

"Where is it?" I asked her, my eyes shifting around the cemetery.

"Oh, um", she said, looking around anxiously,"it's closer to the gravekeeper's house, than this."

"Alright", I replied, quickly walking towards the house of the gravekeeper. I saw a stone, reading Hans Jackson.

"Is this him?" I asked, pointing toward the gravestone.

"Yeah", she replied, quietly. I walked up to the stone and knocked on it a few times.

"Sorry to disturb you, Hans", I whispered quietly to the stone, so that Jess could not hear what I said to her grandfather. Quickly, and quietly, I snapped my fingers, and I was instantly in Distort. The stone now had a sign hanging on it. It read 'Back in 10 minutes, I'm out to visit Gary Rikards. Okay? Who's Gary Rikards?

"Sorry, Jess, but do you know who Gary Rikards is?" I asked, standing up and turning around. Then I realized I was in Distort. She couldn't hear a word I said while in Distort, I was told this by a spirit that I spoke to. If they tried looking at your eyes while you're in Distort, they'll have turned from their normal color to a hollow, emotionless black. I snapped, going back to the Overworld.

"Sorry about that", I apologized,"Did you say anything in the past minute, or two?"

"Um, no, Ruby. I didn't", she replied, confused.

"Alright", I said, nodding my head once,"Well, do you know a Gary Rikards?"

"Yeah, but he's long dead, now."

"Okay. Take me to his grave, if you know where it is."

"Follow me."

We walked off, headed for Gary Rickards' gravestone. Hopefully she could find it. If not, I would. I know I would. Suddenly, I thought of a genius idea. Take a look at Jess' soul. I snapped silently and returned to Distort. A quick look at her soul showed an image of a heart, with a rope around it, being dragged along by a woman. This clearly didn't mean she was the depiction of the heart, right? She's not a lesbian, so does it mean that she's the heartbreaker? Leading people on? My best friend... is a heartbreaker. Distort has exposed horrible secrets to me, secrets I'd be better off not knowing.

I snapped again, and returned to the Overworld, continuing to follow Jess. Eventually, she came to a halt and I stopped behind her.

"We're here, Ruby."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Ruby."

"Why are you acting so strange?" I asked, looking at her curiously.

"Sorry, I'm just not completely up to par right now", she replied. I didn't believe that for a second. Jess was always delighted. There was definitely something wrong, here. I kept walking, straying back about two feet so I could watch her, to see if she did anything out of the ordinary. She seemed alright, but I could tell that she was not.

Suddenly, she stopped, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. I could see it, because her hair was pulled into a ponytail that went over her shoulder. It was like she'd just gotten the chills. She stayed like that for about three seconds, and then started walking again. I was not going to give up my interrogation. Something was wrong.

I put my hand on her shoulder, and she whirled around. Her eyes glowed red and some extremely sharp fangs dripped with blood. Her face was scarred and burnt. My eyes went wide and my hand flew off of her shoulder. I backed away slowly, then turned with a stumble. I ran away and headed towards the gates. I didn't need to know about Gary or Hans, anymore, at this point. I just needed to get the hell out of there.

I took a sharp turn so I could get a clear view of how close she was. And damn, she was close. Only a few feet behind me, arm outstretched, scaly and spiked. She had turned into a demon. I couldn't stay here, that was literally a terrible idea!

There it was! The gate, it took the last of my energy for the sprint I made towards it. I rushed out, and slammed the heavy iron with all of my strength, grabbing the padlock, wrapping the chain around both sides, and locking the padlock within a few seconds. What a rush of energy! No one was getting in and out of that... main gate. There's another entrance, but I was sure that Jess's demon wouldn't find it. Jess couldn't even find it! I looked at her, shrugged, and walked off to my left. She started slouching and waddled slowly