Nightmarish Sacrifice (Cardew) (7 page)

             
Of course, it would have been immensely easier if I hadn’t just declared utterly radically that Cardew was not mine...

             
Despite my high unbreakable self-esteem, I would have been feeling at least a bit uncomfortable there if it hadn’t been for Cardew’s flattering attitude towards me, as most of the other students around were from the drama classes, but when Mr Shelton asked Cardew and me to play a short extract for the others – perhaps only to make them respect us – my partner got into his role so perfectly that he instantly made me forget about everything else around.

             
“How are you doing it?” I exclaimed in amusement through ringing laughter while we were already leaving the hall together side by side, ahead of the small crowd of others who, after our flawless performance, were respectfully keeping at bay – something which was pleasing both of us.

             
Cardew just gave me a theatrical wink and held the door opened for me, then slipped out, too, letting go of the handle so sharply that he almost involuntarily hit the girl walking after us.

             
“Cardew!” she exclaimed with powerless but furious indignation, and he was irritated to notice that it was the fair-haired Claire again, who obviously wasn’t rapid to give up. “I was wondering if you’re free now –”

             
“I’m not, I have a date,” Cardew declared decisively and fixed his eyes on mine with what from aside must have looked like passionate affection, so eager and devoted that I instinctively wished it was unfeigned. “Are we going, lovely?”

             
Casting him a cruel glance to make him doubt for a moment if I was going to make him the questionable pleasure to leave him alone in the company of his sugary adorer, I delayed my answer for a fraction of the second, but that was just a part of the tempting game again. I liked subtly teasing him but I would not betray him so rudely – and the trust I saw in his eyes was so disarming that I obediently slid my hand into his and nodded negligently, casting a scornful glance to the girl.

             
“But –” Claire blinked in tear-filled disappointment. “You said you were not together!”

             
Cardew laughed neutrally and his hand intimately glided behind my back to wrap around my waist a bit possessively, and I didn’t pull away, although I couldn’t help noticing that he was merely using the situation to steal some moments of alluring unpunished closeness to me; the pleasurable warmth of his arm felt strangely snug and comforting, given that I was aware his gesture was merely a part of our roles, just like the loving glances and furious screams in the extract we had played.

             
But was it indeed?...

             
“We love lying,” he made a face and turned towards me with a movement which took his chin in dangerous closeness to my temporal bone. “Don’t we, lovely?”

             
“You liar!” I giggled mock-mischievously and my free hand tenderly buried in the bloodily fiery hair frivolously falling down his enticing neck, and lightly tickled his skin with a hardly perceptible caresses which made him instinctively tighten his grip on me – alright, I was making use of the situation, too! “Come on, you’ve promised me to take me to a special place –”

             
“Thanks a million, lovely!” Cardew whispered in my ear when we – having left the let-down Claire alone, were already walking away hand in hand and were too far from her to be heard.

             
“Best enemies, best friends,” I gave him an almost friendly wink and didn’t let go of him, although we had just hidden from the others’ view and didn’t need to pretend anymore; my fingers felt utterly comfortable among his, and the slight movement of his thumb against the back of my palm was more pleasurable than I would confess to him. “But if you go on behaving like that and calling me ‘lovely’, people will draw the wrong conclusions –”

             
Cardew grinned mock-innocently and dragged me closer to himself, so that our arms would be touching as we were walking.

             
“And maybe by that time those conclusions won’t be wrong anymore?” he suggested with nearly insolent but as utterly naïve tone, and the side of his forefinger desirously and lightly caressed down the outline of my chin in a lucid display of his flawless flair for inspiring obsessive and untamable craving.

             
“Didn’t I already call you a dreamer?” I laughed in a defensive attempt to keep my sanity the unstoppable, furiously growing attraction to him was about to dissolve into the air, and, not willing to let the mentioned masterful talent of his throw me into an awkward situation, I hurried to set myself free from both of his hands.

             
“You did but this doesn’t change the fact that dreams come true so fast –” Cardew didn’t yield and his dark-gray eyes flashed into severe but tempting steely as he added with a cunning smile, “Faster than we can hope –”

             
“We’ll see,” I shrugged, showing him a mask of indifference, although I was at the same time too terrified and truly hopeful that he would turn out right.

             
We would see indeed, there was no chance we could miss it…

             
“Now where do you want me to take you?” the boy smiled with lenient generosity. “As I’ve promised –”

             
“Forget about it, we both know that I only said it to save you from her,” I chuckled carelessly, although I would be more than simply grateful if he didn’t follow my advice.

             
“So I’m grateful,” Cardew nodded and a car nearby unlocked itself so suddenly that if I hadn’t notice the keys in his hand a moment later, I would have thought it had been magic. “Come, I want to show you one place –”

             
“And what if you try to kill me?” I suspiciously tossed my head backwards and narrowed my eyes with enticing provocation. “Or worse: to kiss me?”

             
“You take the risk,” he suppressed a cheeky grin. “I can’t promise anything –”

             
And he sounded serious, his tone not joking the least bit, although his eyes were smiling mischievously, and I couldn’t determine whether the killing or the kissing part rendered him more excited – anyway, I decided to accept it as a challenge.

             
Or did I simply need to spend more time with him?...

             
“Hope I survive this,” I said while getting into the car on the seat beside the driver’s.

             
“If I were you, I’d hope not to,” Cardew shrugged with disturbingly calm giggling and started the engine with a confident gesture.

             
The vehicle began moving fluidly and moderately quickly until we left the town, but then Cardew lazily slowed down and the surrealistically intense emerald green of the fields surrounding the road shimmered brilliantly below the tenderly gray cloudy skies.

             
“If you are kidnapping me, you’re not doing it in a very professional manner,” I informed the driver and he gave me an amused smile.

             
“So you’d rather have chains?” he supposed jokingly and glimpsed at me inquisitively as though he was expecting me to say yes or no in return, and was prepared to react adequately to both possible replies.

             
“Do I really have to answer to this?” I laughed, weirdly at ease, and folded my arms on my chest to mock-play offended. “And there’s no point in asking where you’re taking me, right?”

             
“Right,” Cardew confirmed jauntily and, as if just to shift the topic, he started gently tapping on the steering wheel with his fingertips, in the rhythm of the song the radio was playing, “Do you like this piece?”

             
“Yes, although it’s not as heavy as what I usually listen to,” I shrugged and quietly hummed the part of its lyrics I knew. “As I watch you, I can’t even guess what kind of music you like –”

             
“Great – so this is another mystery about me to keep you awake all night,” he chuckled despite my arrogant haughty laughter, and the car slid quietly into a tiny side road, where a haze of fine dust was waiting to wrap us in a welcoming hug. “We’re almost there –”

             
“I really thought you’d take me to another country,” I giggled with relief and leant more comfortably in my seat.

             
“Next time, as you want it so much,” he remarked mock-earnestly, and I promised myself to be very careful the following time he asked me out somewhere – as there just had to be a next time... “We will stop here –”

             
I was surprised by how close to the town we were, and, at the same time, how empty and extremely quiet everything around was; the tiny dusty road had led us beyond some soft ultimately green hills, which had hidden the world I knew, and – in whichever direction I turned, I could only see the endless deserted fields, looking as though not a living soul had ever stepped on their velvety fresh surface. The light cool wind was freely playing above the tender even grass, whose colour was intensifying in the places where the sunrays were managing to partially break through the half-transparent clouds and were casting pure vivid joy onto the serene land.

             
“Have you been here before?” Cardew’s voice whispered in my ear with delicate silence, and I had to struggle seriously against myself so as to resist to the sudden desire to lean my head back onto his shoulder.

             
“No,” I set a noiseless sigh free. “I don’t know this area well, I was not born here –”

             
“Neither was I,” his gaze embraced the whole valley opening up for us with its bewildering liberating infinity, and a tranquil smile bloomed in his – in this moment unusually peaceful and mild – majestically gray eyes. “But I adore this place –”

             
“It’s so lovely,” as soon as I pronounced it, I realized that I was already associating the last word in that sentence with Cardew; he chuckled without a sound and generously granted me with a whole flickering and fluttering swarm of bright blazing emerald seconds to relish the immense beauty of the place and to engrave every detail of it deeply into my memory.

             
“Look there –” he stretched his hand in one direction and I turned my head towards the object he was pointing at, my forehead almost touching his arm. “Can you see the large stones in the distance?”

             
“Yes,” I nodded quickly, having spotted the graphite silhouette against the lively green background. “What’s that?”

             
“I don’t know exactly, some kind of a monument,” Cardew reached his hand for mine but – to my secret regret – gave up his intentions to catch it and only brushed it with his fingers. “Do you want us to have a closer look?”

             
“Definitely!” I agreed immediately and, before he had managed to say or do anything else, I freely rushed towards the ancient relic, running as fast as I could to get there sooner.

             
“Freya!” Cardew called my name through genuine laughter and I giggled without turning back; there was something so inspiringly youthful in his voice, something careless and open, which I had never heard before – maybe a whole unexplored side of his character he was keeping strictly hidden.

             
“Come with me!” my voice rang clearly as I was darting right across the amazingly green grass, and the sound of his footsteps hurrying after me made me smile without an obvious reason – his presence itself was so stunningly beautiful, so precious...

             
So addictive...

             
The field was emitting light energizing aroma, and running felt so pleasurable that it was rendering me completely at ease, and I was speeding up just to perceive the wild freedom of limitlessness, to hear the air whisper encouragingly into my hair spilling behind me, to scurry endlessly as if I was lost into a magical unknown realm...

             
Everything looked so amazingly perfect that I was perceiving it as unreal – as though reality was more vague than visions, and my appalling repetitive nightmares about the ominous offering were suddenly getting closer to my actual future the more I was approaching the ruined monument...

             
A play of imagination...

             
Or a play of life?...

             
When I, already out of breath, reached the stones Cardew had shown me, and slowed down to a stop, the boy found himself just beside me, and he was not gasping for air like me, even though he had been running as much.

             
“This place must have been sacred,” he showed the ancient remains – several pieces of severely gray stone, so monstrously large that I could only imagine how tremendous the monument they had been forming must have been. “There is something quaint haunting the atmosphere here –”