Nightmarish Sacrifice (Cardew) (23 page)

             
The persistent mighty premonition started leading me through the labyrinth of unknown streets of the new town, and I couldn’t help wondering whether I had been sent to the first city just because I couldn’t but pass through the second on my way back...

             
As I had started thinking that the second town – the one where I was roaming after I impulsively left the train – had been my aim from the start, just that I hadn’t known it then.

             
What else was buried into the depths of my subconsciousness?...

             
“Is there a river by the graveyard?” I asked as calmly as possible, and the man I had addressed the question to glimpsed at me suspiciously.

             
“No, as far as I know,” he uneasily moved farther from me while obviously trying not to think why an insane girl was chasing him with such surprising and pointless queries.

             
“Are you sure?” I insisted, feeling how my blood was quickly growing cold with unexpected disappointment.

             
“I’ve been living here for twenty years, of course I’m sure,” he said shortly with a shrug and hurried to pull back and walk away as if I would suddenly jump onto him and give him a venomous bite, thus dooming him to the cursed life of a damned supernatural creature.

             
So the premonition had lied to me again – in such a persuasive and deceptive way that I hadn’t even doubted in it!

             
Had I gone seriously mad?...

             
What an irony!

             
‘You will return home and behave normally,’ my mind’s orders rang clearly inside my head. ‘Tomorrow you will go to the rehearsal and treat Cardew like before! He’s just a normal boy, and you – you are a lunatic!’

             
‘No more trusting my intuition,’ I promised myself several hours later when I was finally in my room, my eyes decisively closed. ‘No more nightmares, no more doubt in Cardew –’

             
If only it was that simple...

                                          “I know that Cardew is a very attractive boy, but still, this doesn’t excuse your distraction, Freya!” Mr Shelton pronounced, his tone friendly and joking. “Let’s repeat it again –”

             
I hadn’t had enough sleep that night, if at all, and the rehearsal was in the morning, so I wasn’t managing to completely hide my fatigue behind the cheerful mask I had put on; Cardew and I were smoothing out the dance we had to perform on stage after my first appearance in the play, and although I was not confusing the order of movements, nor slowing down, my partner could feel that I was about to fall apart in his arms.

             
“No, sir,” Cardew’s soft voice smiled and I felt so inexpressibly thankful I was ready to throw on his neck – not that my hands weren’t locked behind it anyway. “You can see that we know the sequence quite well, but we’re getting more and more tired, which won’t improve our performance. Let’s continue tomorrow – the others need their rehearsals, too, and Freya and I would rather go regain our powers –”

             
“Alright,” Mr Shelton waved leniently and gave a sign to the others to approach the stage while Cardew, having jumped off its edge, was reaching his hand to help me follow him. “Just make sure that tomorrow she’s not as tired as today – you know what I mean, right?”

             
“Oh –” the boy made his expression turn naive and, as I had been rather slow to bow closer to the edge of the stage and relax my hand in his, he grabbed me in an iron-strong hug I knew utterly well, and my feet touched the land without me making any effort for that.

             
“I can’t promise anything,” Cardew smirked, loosened the grip he had around my waist, and took my hand instead; many envious glances followed us as he led me towards the door and it closed behind us, blocking them in.

             
“You’re making it so damn obvious for everyone!” I laughed and the boy gave me an innocently playful wink; he had obviously perceived my exhaustion and his arm behind my back was supporting me without demonstrating that fact – a quiet gesture of care I appreciated.

             
“I can only be proud that I’m with you, lovely,” his intonation was caressing in a misleadingly harmless way. “Besides, you’re such a flawless liar that I can only admire you –”

             
My hands went icy for the time of a single blink; so did Cardew’s hypnotically beautiful eyes, just that all their coldness was being radiated by a rather mischievous grin.

             
“Here I’m supposed to declare that I don’t know what you are speaking about, aren’t I?” my voice pronounced – fortunately without shivering.

             
“And I’m supposed to play jealous and make a scandal out of it, yes,” he nodded negligently, as though no feelings were concerned at all, and it was merely our roles we were discussing – just that the play they were from was named ‘Reality’. “Well, unless you change the script.”

             
“I will,” I raised my chin with a move that was a bit over-dramatic – another boy would have laughed in his place. “I’m not a coward, I want to hear straight what you accuse me of!”

             
Without a verbal warning, Cardew stopped short in his place, and in the next moment one of his most intense kisses was spreading its electrifying ardency all over my mouth.

             
“How did you spend yesterday night?” he took a shallow breath before granting me with another caress on the lips when I had expected a spontaneous aggressive strike in the face. “Tell me, lovely –”

             
“You tell me, you’re the overly observant one,” I managed to utter when he let me inhale; his mesmeric method of interrogation was having its effect on me: his closeness was disarming me, blocking all my rational thoughts, and inflaming in me such powerfully enslaving desires that I couldn’t even try to tame their refractory fire.

             
“Besides –” I decided to add a white lie to make my thesis more believable, “I know that you’re always spying on me!”

             
This was true in theory, just that exactly in the night in question, I had considered myself clever enough to have escaped from his sharp attention...

             
“I’m not invading your privacy,” Cardew was neither attacking me, nor excusing himself – he was pronouncing the words with the same melodious purring tone he would use if he was explaining to me how beautiful I was. “I just want to know if you are cheating on me, that’s why I’m asking so straightforwardly: a girl like you would confess it without remorse, even only to show off with her decisiveness and freedom of will –”

             
I had been prepared for every possible kind of open violent aggression in his reaction – from deafening yelling of accusations and merciless hitting to refined aristocratic torturing or the childish petty nagging we were constantly having while teasing each other on purpose – but his half-joking half-flattering approach took me by surprise.

             
Well, I couldn’t help confessing to myself that I liked it.

             
“I don’t think I owe any kind of explanation to you,” I cast him a sly slant glance and he chuckled, which made me think that he himself wasn’t sure if that was a real quarrel or just a joke. “You have never told me that you love me, so I’m not attached to you in any way, handsome boy.”

             
Cardew tossed his head backwards as he burst into laughter, and the morning sunrays gilded the edges of his luxuriously dark-scarlet-crimson hair.

             
“So then this has been a little revenge, lovely?” his laughter was light and careless and I really wished he was feeling at least a bit hurt or angry on the inside. “Have I missed to share with you the detail that I am really really jealous and... revengeful?”

             
If I didn’t know what a perfect actor he was, I would have been truly offended by his easy-going behaviour, but I reassured myself that he was keeping that mask on his face just to prove to me how strong he was.

             
This made me smile. “Do you really think I have such a bad taste that I would give you up because of some plain ordinary boy?” I blinked with intentionally comical disbelief. “Oh, poor stray child –”

             
The velvet silvery light in Cardew’s eyes was hinting me that the storm would pass without even a single flash of lightning, and only fireworks of jokes would light up the heavens above me.

             
This time.

             
“Didn’t you miss me?” the boy’s sweet whisper caressed my hair, his lips brushing my neck with softness inspiring with sharp danger, and as soon as his low passionate murmur passed over my skin, I realized that in fact I had.

             
“A lot,” my confession made an irresistible smile curve his lips, and I added sincerely, “Believe me or not, but I haven’t been out with another boy last night – I was studying.”

             
In a way the studying part was true as well – just that it had been the disposition of several graveyards that I had been learning more about...

             
“In the complete darkness of your room?” Cardew mocked without accusing me directly, as if he was leaving me a way out on purpose...

             
A way out that would lead me in another, more painful trap.

             
“I was in the library,” I lied bravely, saying the first logical thing that came to my mind.

             
A tactical mistake.

             
“Then why didn’t I see you?” his eyes were triumphing as he had caught me off guard. “I was studying there, too –”

             
Only my insolence saved me from embarrassment, “It must have been because I was constantly changing my place,” I announced and caught his hand to distract him, my fingers gliding gently to fit among his. “And if you want to improve my condition, stop asking questions you’re not meant to know the answers to, and take me to a quiet place where I can have a rest!”

             
“Why not –” Cardew drawled as though he was still wondering, then gave me a fast wink and chuckled silently. “I can make you recover very quickly –”

             
Our deserted bench near the outer edge of the forest was awaiting for us in the frail delicate sunlight and the memories I was associating it with made me smile quietly; it was true that the recollection following the one of our first kiss there was less pleasant, but still it wasn’t diminishing the charm of the experience itself.

             
As if to apologize once again, Cardew helped me sit more comfortably, and chose the place behind my back, his hands gently landing on my shoulders.

             
“Relax and close your eyes,” his whisper was soft and lulling, and I was so tired...

             
“I’d rather stay alive, thank you,” I made an attempt to withstand, but it was too late.

             
Thankfully too late.

             
Cardew had willingly undertaken the task to show me exactly how bright his skills in massaging were, and his hands were skilfully applying mild even pressure on me, which was making me dream of what a flawless guitarist he would be with such flexible fingers.

             
“By the way, I like the way you express your jealousy –” I giggled and moved my hair in front of my shoulders not to stand in his way as his palms slowly rubbed down my back with a motion filling the whole of me with pleasurable thrills.

             
“Don’t you see now that having a feel-less partner is better?” the boy joked and went on scattering more endearments than real stress onto me. “Drama on stage, but no tragedies in real life.”