Forgetting

Chapter 18-Home Is Wherever I'm With You

I wasn't sure if Anya was going to hurl the sword at me. It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered right now was what my eyes saw before me. Or what my eyes thought they were seeing. Surely, I had to be imagining this. It just couldn't be real.

Not after all this time.

" Evan," I whispered.

I knew that in a crowd of a million people, I would have still recognized him. His hair hung loose around his face, the caramel streaks blending into darker locks. The moonlighted highlighted the sharp angles and planes of his cheekbones, and he looked so beautiful he couldn't possibly be real.

" Naomi," He said, deflecting an attack from Anya," I like the dress."

That was the last thing I expected him to say but,oh, that voice. The voice I heard in my head all the time, the voice that had once told me he loved me...

" I thought you might," I replied with a quick smile.

Anya held up her hand, a clear warning sign, but even I knew she would never hurt him," Evan, we had a deal. You and me, together for eternity."

" And you were ready to kill her," He shot back," So the deal is null and void."

He tossed a blade towards me and, as I caught it, power rushed through my fingers. I shot to my feet, ready to fight, but the Queen had other plans. She clicked her fingers, and a second later Aidan appeared beside her, looking extremely confused.

My heart broke. Here was a boy I had once thought was so normal, but even he was involved in this mess.

" What the hell," He stumbled backward, sloshing a drink down his shirt. He caught sight of the scene in front of him and his eyes widened in shock.

Before I could move, the Queen grabbed him.

" Anya?" Said Aidan, bewildered," Seriously, what the hell is going on? Why does this feel like I walked into a scene from The Game Of Thrones?"

Anya rose to her full height," Stand behind me, son."  Without further warning, my glamorous best friend faded away.

In her place stood the terrible Queen herself, the snake tattoos writhing and hissing on her head, her lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal rotting teeth.  Dark magic swirled around in the air, and lightning crackled through the sky. The bright lights of the party flickered once and then went out.

" Evan!" I screamed. If anything happened to him, I was going to lose my freaking mind.

Before he could reply, the wind died down abruptly and the thunder subsided. Without all the noise, everything around me was eerily quiet. It wasn't the good quiet, either.

It was the silence before the storm.

One by one, every single one of Akira's classmates emerged from inside the house. Their movements were stiff and robotic, almost as if they had no control over their bodies anymore. But it wasn't their movements which frightened me the most.

It was their faces.

Where there should have been a pair of eyes, there were only sockets. I looked into Rishi's face and found myself drowning into those pools of darkness.

These weren't my friends anymore, I realized with horror. They were the tyrant's army, dangerous and dead and silent, prepared to kill me at her orders.

" Naomi!" Evan said, and the look in his eyes was enough to break my heart. It was fear. Fear for me. " Run!"

I stumbled. How could I run and leave him to fight after everything she had taken from me?