Shadows of Kin - 4. Chapter 4

I stood where my body should have been standing, except I was staring at my body lying on the ground. What the hell?

Midge ran over to where I was sprawled out on the floor, almost breaking her ankle in doing so. I could hear her cursing her heels under her breath. Tomas was on his knees next to me as well. No other person actually showed any interest, like they saw someone almost die every day. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew I was going to die. I mean, how else would I explain the out of body experience.

I watched as Midge grabbed Tomas by the collar.

“What the hell happened, you asshole. What’s wrong with my best friend? Why is she bleeding like that?”

Bleeding? I looked closer at my prone body, and only then did I notice that I had faint lines of blood trickling from my eyes and my nose.

What the actual hell happened? The last thing I remember was downing the champagne. The champagne that Kaiden, the guy with the dark mask and darker eyes, sent over to me. Did he poison me? Is that what happened? But why would anyone want to poison me. I was the very definition of average. Was this what Chase was talking about? I knew I should have felt something other than confusion, like maybe grief or dread, but it was the confusion that settled over me like mist.

I regretted leaving my house.

I looked over at Midge. She was angry. That was not a good thing for those around her. She tried to shake Tomas where she’d grabbed on to his collar, but the guy was literally twice her size, he didn’t budge. I could see that it frustrated her even more. There were times when being small was not in her favour.

“She’s been poisoned.” Tomas said to Midge matter-of-factly.

Midge shut her mouth very quickly. Then she fumbled for her phone. Probably to call an ambulance.

Tomas reached out and took her phone from her.

“They won’t get here in time. Especially not with that storm raging outside.”

“Then what the fuck do you want me to do? I am not going to stand by and just watch my best friend die.”

Tomas stared Midge in the eyes, and in the most soothing voice I had ever heard, he said, “Keep calm. Follow me and make no noise until we are out of this room.”

Midge’s face went blank and she did exactly as he said. He picked up my prone body, like I weighed nothing, and walked out of the room. No one seemed to notice anything.

I walked behind Tomas and Midge, following them up the grand staircase in the main foyer, until they made a turn and entered what I assumed was a guest bedroom of some kind.

It looked like something out of Jane Eyre, just with electricity.

Tomas placed me gently onto the bed and then turned to look at Midge.

“She will die tonight.”

I watched as my best friend let the words sink in. Her face went from confusion to shock, then to anger.

“Like hell she will. We have to do something.”

Tomas looked over to my body, shook his head slightly, and then said, almost as if to himself, “That is the plan.”

He then turned to Midge, “I need you to stay here with her. I know someone who can save her, but I have to go get him.”

“Can’t you just phone him, or something?” She asked him as he disappeared into another room off the side.

Midge wasn’t one to panic in dire situations, but I could see that she had absolutely no idea what to do.

Tomas came out of the room carrying a bowl of water and a face cloth.

“I will be back in about an hour. Stay with her. Keep her temperature down.”

He placed the bowl and cloth next to the bed.

“Do not leave her side.”

Midge scoffed. “Like I’m going to leave my, apparently, dying best friend in a place that we don’t know, with a bunch of strangers.”

Tomas actually smiled.

“Good.” He said before turning around and leaving.

I followed him into the hallway, but he wasn’t there. I wanted to go find him, but I couldn’t walk further than the entrance to the bedroom. I shrugged and went back into the room.

It was strange that I didn’t have any particular feelings about what was going on. Perhaps just confusion and curiosity.

I went to stand next to Midge, who was rubbing my face with a wet cloth, and watched as my best friend mumbled to my prone body.

“You better not die bitch. I swear I will bring you back from the afterlife and kill you all over again, and then bring you back again to clean up the mess.”

I chuckled.

“You have an amazing friend.” A voice wistfully said behind me.

I jumped. If I hadn’t already been dying, I would have had a heart attack.

I turned around and there was a woman sitting in a chair next to a fireplace that I hadn’t noticed earlier.

“The hell?” I could feel my face scrunch up in confusion.

She was leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands, and her extraordinarily long, red, hair obscured her face.

“Have a seat.” She pointed to the chair opposite her, leaning back.

Her beauty stunned me into non-movement.

“We don’t have all night.”

She raised her eyebrow at me which had me hurrying to the chair.

“You probably have a number of questions, don’t you?”

I nodded. I had no idea what was going on. Everything that was happening was like something out of a badly written teen novel. And all I really wanted was to find Chase. I had a very strong feeling that he would know what was going on. But it wasn’t like I could just climb back into my body and stand up.

I looked over to the ethereal woman sitting in front of me. She had a tattoo of a llama on her arm, and was wearing a unicorn t-shirt, jeans, and ballet pumps.

“My name is Raine.” She said to me. I could see a smile playing on the corners of her lips.

“Unusual.” I finally spoke up.

She chuckled.

“That’s what you choose to focus on? My name of all things?”

I shrugged.

“If I weren’t who I was, I would think that you do this every day.”

She gestured to the general room around us.

“So, who are you?”

“I am Death.”

I turned to look at my body, and it was then that I started feeling the dread.

“So, I really am dead?”

Different thoughts raced through my head. What would my mom do? She’d already lost my dad; she couldn’t lose me too. What about my brother and sister? And Midge? What about my degree. I’d only just finished my second year.

Raine probably saw the terror on my face because what she said next calmed me down.

“No. You are not.”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips.

“But you are still dying.”

The dread returned, and along with it, a myriad of questions.

“What exactly is going on?” I asked the most important one.

“Now that is a question, I do not have enough time to answer.”

“Then why exactly are you here?”

“You’re a snappy little thing, aren’t you?” She grinned.

It looked like she was enjoying my current situation.

I sunk down on the chair.

“I’m just confused. Tonight hasn’t exactly been a night at the Oscars.”

Her smile disappeared. “Your troubles are only just beginning Genevieve. That’s why I’m here.”

She got up and went to stand by the fireplace. I waited for her to carry on talking.

“I came to warn you. You will face many very difficult situations, and you will be forced to make hard decisions.”

My chest filled with a heaviness that I hadn’t felt since the death of my father.

“Why me? And don’t tell me it’s because I am the chosen one. This isn’t Harry Potter.”

She laughed. “I’m not supposed to find this funny, but you’re not making it very easy for me.”

I deadpanned. “I’m glad my dire situation is humorous for you.”

“You and I are gonna be great friends. I can just tell.” She went back to the chair. “On a serious note, no, you are not some chosen one, or the destined one. You just happened to be born into a very strange mixing of families. I’d go as far as to say, that you are possibly the unluckiest person I will ever meet. And I’m Death. I meet a lot of people. I mean some guy died the other day tying his shoelaces.”

I had no words. I couldn’t even say anything about the family part. I had only ever met my dad’s side of the family. My mom never talked about hers.

“But seriously,” Raine carried on, “You heard the warning part of it, here’s the next. Keep strong. It’s easier said than done. But it’s gotta be done.”

I looked up at her, and a thought occurred to me.

“How on earth do you know all of this?”

She grinned at me, winked, and then disappeared.

I was starting to get really annoyed at people just disappearing.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” I screamed as loud as I could. But of course, no one could hear me.

I heard sniffling coming from the other side of the room and remembered that Midge was still with my prone body. Was she crying? She never cried.

I went over to her to find out, when the bedroom door flew open and in walked Tomas followed by another gentleman who looked to be in his late thirties.

Midge jumped up from where she was sitting next to me and threw the wet face cloth at Tomas. It hit him straight in the face and then plopped to the ground.

“Where the hell have you been? Her temperature is getting worse, and there’s only so much water and a cloth can do.”

Tomas ran his hand down his face, and then cleared his throat. He looked tired.

“This is Nicolas. He’s going to help her.”

Midge looked sceptical. I didn’t blame her.

The Nicolas guy took off his jacket, threw it onto the chair that I had been sitting on, rolled up his sleeves, and bit into his wrist.

Please not vampires, I thought to myself.

He put his wrist over my mouth, and I felt like I was being dragged back into my body.

At first, I was dazed and had no idea where I was. All that I knew was that my neck was very stiff, and I had pins and needles running the length of my left leg. I took in my surroundings and was taken aback. Why was I in a bedroom?

I sat up, cringing at the strumming of the pins and needles, and that was when I noticed three pairs of eyes staring at me. Midge with a look of absolute shock, Tomas with an unreadable expression, and another gentleman with anger etched into the lines around his eyes. I turned to hang my legs over the end of the bed, strangely noticing that I was still wearing my heels. No one said anything. They were waiting for me.

I took the heels off, relishing the sudden freedom and then looked up at everyone.

Everything in the room felt so still and so quiet, it was eerie.

I breathed in deep.

“Would someone care to tell what in the actual fuck is happening?”