CHAPTER FOUR:
My heart stopped, Chantal crumpled at the foot of the stairs, her body limp and languid. My own limbs were shaking uncontrollably, and then I went under again.
The blinding, exhilarating sensation, with the vast expanses of moonlight beaming through as I swirled into a different universe, my head spinning with the bright colors and the intangible rainbows that beamed across my eyes, imprinting them with a growing hunger for the deflating pressure and then the rise of the airlessness, keeping my very heart afloat in a sea of turquoises and purples, twisting about like a wavepool -
And then, I saw it. The man again, his gleaming curls shining in the moonlight. Except this time, he was close. I could feel it, deep within my rattling bones. He glanced back, running. His feet pounded the cement, and he opened his mouth slightly and said something, but I could not hear it. In a second, the wild ride that had taken me to this unnerving parallel universe ripped through me again, stealing me and throwing me back to where I belonged.
"Cassidy?" whispered Christy, who had tears streaming down her face. "Its Chantal - "
I immediatly cast my oldest sister a bracing glance. The goo had evaporated, but she was breathing raggedly, arms bent at weird angles. She moaned slightly, and I kneeled beside her, watching a tear fall loosely onto her chilled face. She stirred, and opened her eyes marginally.
"Cassidy, I'm okay, I promise," she said, and I smiled as I watched her pull all of her strength and succeed in sitting up. "I don't know what that thick stuff was, but it makes you all lethargic or something," she whispered, her voice hoarse and dense. I nodded understandably and grasped her hand, pulling her to her dusty feet. Christy stepped towards me dangerously.
"What did you see, in that vision, Cassidy?" she insisted, afraid I was holding something back.
"I saw - it was just the demon, leaving. It was traveling, through the hemisphere of where they all go, once we get to them." I winked. "Nothing really, I'm just a little shook up. Do you guys mind if I go take a walk?" I had to get out, to find this man.
"Nah, just don't be too late, we don't want you getting vanquished instead of it being the other way around," Chantal said, clutching her side and waving a hand towards the door. I grinned and slipped out, into the biting night air.
Pounding along the street, I could feel a pulsing within me, guiding me. Tracing my steps, and then retracing them, the moonlight my guide, I continued to look, eyes searching and trying to discover. The street lights gleamed upon the shiny cement, wet with this morning's rain, and I heard a deep rattling behind me. Whipping around, my heart stopped, my breathing slowed, and I stood, petrified.
There he was, walking slowly down the street, slightly hunched over. His outfit was still crisp and clean, yet his hair was strewn from the unrelenting wind. It complemented his face nicely, and he looked handsome and dashing in the pale light of the moon. I took a deep breath, and walked over to him.
Getting closer, he finally looked up, and stopped upon seeing me.
"Hello," he said easily, and warmth flooded through me, "What are you doing out this late?"
I felt butterflies rise within my stomach, hearing his voice gently ask me a simple question.
"I - I, I was just.....out. You know, its really pretty tonight," I said, slapping myself inside. He nodded, and reached out a hand and fingered a bush, attempting to pull something out. I stood awkwardly, until he snapped around, with a gleaming, gorgeous rose settled in his right hand.
"For you," he said, brandishing the rose and presenting it to me. I clutched it, and smiled. His chivalry was indeed very becoming.
"Thank you," I said, stroking each petal upon the red beauty. He shook his head, and grinned.
"No, thank you. Its not often when I go for a night time stroll that I see a girl like you." I laughed.
"A girl like me? I doubt many girls feel comfortable walking around this late at night."
"Theres a good reason, what with all the crazy stuff that goes on here," he said, runnning a hand throught his windblown curls. I laughed, and he smiled.
"Your something else, for being out here this late. I admire that - a girl who isn't afraid," he whispered, and his voice relayed through the night air, gentle and a comfortable rhythym that soothed me.
