Veil of Shadows

Aisha's P.O.V.

"Gaymien! God, you are so slow!"

I heard a laugh from under me, and I rolled my eyes. One of my best friends, Damien, or as the rest of us liked to call him teasingly, Gaymien (even though he's not even gay), hitched me up higher since I was slipping and I wrapped my arms around his neck tighter. Me being me, because I was bored, ordered him to give me a piggy back ride, and after ten minutes straight of begging, I finally got my wishes.

"Well, Aisha, maybe if you weren't so damn heavy, I could run faster," he retorted, and I ruffled his light brown hair in response, resting my chin on his shoulder. Lina, one of my friends, laughed at the whole scene that was unfolding in front of her, even if it wasn't that funny. She was easily amused, which was partly the reason she was a friend of mine. That, and because she's Damien's girlfriend, so I had no choice to befriend her. Though, we were friends long before they started dating.

Yes, she doesn't give a hoot of I do this, in fact, she finds it hilarious for some strange reason I have yet to fathom. Oh well, as long as I get carried by someone, I don't care. I'm too lazy to stand up on my feet. It's less fun. "Shut up. It's your girlfriend's fault, she's always inviting me over and we overdose on soda and shit. Besides, maybe if you built up some muscle, my weight wouldn't be a problem," I replied back.

Damien groaned and put me down, much to my dismay. "What the hell, man? I happened to be perfectly content," I muttered, watching as he strolled away and to a still laughing Lina who was sitting cross legged on the ground. I leaned against the nearest tree and rolled my eyes, pretending to gag as he captured my best friend's lips into a kiss. Unfortunately, her arms were soon wound around his neck and before I could even comment on it, they were soon sprawled out on the grass, her lying on top of him with their lips still pressed against one another.

"Gross! No PDA in public, dumbasses. Besides, some of us like keeping our lunch down, thank you," I shouted at an obnoxiously loud volume from my post. Giggling slightly, Lina pulled away, and I watched as Damien sat up, scowling at me. Once more, I rolled my eyes; they could wait until later to do this kind of stuff.

"If you don't want to see it, then go away," he muttered.

"Why don't you learn to wait, instead?"

Before Damien could reply, Lina cut in. "Aisha!" she whined, splitting my name into three syllables: eye-EE-shah, the pronunciation of my name. Oh no, I knew this meant I would start being scolded, or annoyed to death. It didn't make a difference; both ended with the same result of me wanting to bash my head against a wall. "Would you not ruin a moment next time?"

"No," I grumbled stubbornly, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Fine," she replied, taking Damien's hand in his. He was being surprisingly quiet at the moment. And speaking of surprises, she actually didn't say anything that wanted me to cause myself a bit of self-harm. Generally, she would talk my ear off about something, even though it was clear that I understood the first time.

"What happened to Tyler?" she asked, and I cocked an eyebrow in her direction. I loved her, but sometimes, she was a bit of an idiot. Or she was being distracted by Damien, half the time, in ways most people would rather not know of. I know I didn't. If you think you've seen horrible couples, try being around those two together 24/7; it's pure torture. Especially if you hate romance and Nicholas Sparks books, or Sarah Dessen ones. Yeah, it's that bad sometimes.

"He left for the bathroom. Maybe if you two hadn't been too swapping spit and trying to leave so you can give each other STD's, you would know that," I half-teased. We always spoke to each other like this; rudely and obnoxiously. That was the way the whole group's friendship worked. We were all pretty crazy regardless, so it didn't matter that much. No one took anything personally.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," she said dismissively, smiling when Damien smoothly slid his arm over her dainty shoulders. He easily made her smile, something I could never quite understand. Half the time, he pisses me off. But we're still friends. All of the good stuff makes up for the bad, I suppose. As if on cue, Tyler reappeared, and I hopped up from the tree trunk and towards him, nearly tackling him in a hug. He chuckled, and I couldn't help but smile a little.

"Jeez, if I knew I was going to get this reaction from you every single time I left, I'd leave more often," he told me, and I pulled away, playfully hitting his shoulder. We were best friends, closer than Damien and I or Lina and I are. He's more like a brother to me than my actual brother, Adam. Then again, Adam is twenty eight and lives with his wife, Callie and their two children; Adelaide, or Addie for short, and Jameson, who went by James. Addie was three, James was two.

"Shut up," I replied, and he swung his arm around my waist.

"I'd rather not."

I smiled and pressed my lips onto his cheek for a brief moment, before pulling away and grabbing my phone out of my pocket. "It's six-sixteen. We should all probably head back, you know," I reminded, knowing my mom would be annoyed if I was late for dinner. I received mumbles of agreement, and so, we headed off, away from Castwell Park, chattering to one another and making the occasional joke about the other. It was fun; four teenage idiots tromping through the streets of Sunset Falls.

Soon, our group disbanded and I headed back home for dinner. My stomach rumbled at the thought, and I found myself looking down and glaring at it. Couldn't my stomach shut up for a minute? Sometimes, I grew hungry almost too easily. It was a bad habit, one I couldn't control. My fingers, which were painted a neon purple, which was my signature nail color, were slightly sore and I noticed the polish chipping off of them. I'd have to repaint them after dinner.

I walked towards the end of the street, instinctively smiling to myself as I spotted the dark blue house with the tan shutters. I stopped in front of the curb, opening the jet black mail box, finding seven letters in it. I shut the mailbox, flipping through the envelopes. Mom, mom, dad, mom, dad, dad, mom. Nothing for me. I sighed as I slowly made my way towards the doorstep, flinging the door open at once. I stepped into the warm, cinnamon smelling home of mine. I entered the dining room, where my mom had just finished setting the food down on the table.

"Hey, mom. I got the mail," I greeted, waving the envelopes in the air once for her before setting it down on top of the microwave, where we always keep it, strange as that may be, and slipping into my seat as my dad and my younger sister, who was only seven, Gwendolyn, or Gwen, come down the stairs.

"Hi, hon. Thanks. Everything go alright at the park?"

"Yep."

More conversation like this continued on throughout dinner. I learned a few new things about my family and what was going on inside the house, since normally, I'm not at home a lot. For starters, my dad was going on a business trip next week, my mom had to go to the doctor tomorrow because her coworker was getting her car fixed and had to go to the doctor for some reason I didn't know about, and little Gwen had an admirer named Ben, who lived two streets down. I couldn't help but 'awwwww' that at the dinner table and she blushed brightly. Ah, good times, good times.

I excused myself from the dinner table and went up to my room. I pulled open the drawer of my nightstand, pulling out one of the neon purple nail polish and the nail polish remover. Since neon purple was the only color I would wear, whenever I went shopping, I would stock up around ten at a time. Yeah, I was obsessed with neon purple nail polish, but it looks so damn good on me. After wiping my nails clean, since I always start off from scratch, I repainted my fingernails and toenails, flipping on the TV as I waited for them to dry.

I scanned the channels before finally stopping on ABC Family, just watching the random movie that they were putting on. I didn't bother to learn the name, which was a shame because it wasn't so bad. I laughed a good deal through it, but I'd much rather them play Holiday in Handcuffs even though it wasn't Christmas. It was still a great movie. Eventually, my nails had dried and I consulted my closet for a night out in the woods.

After much debating, I decided on a loose white t-shirt, a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a pair of white ballet flats, and a red jacket. I would wear almost anything to the woods, so why not? I slid my phone into the right back pocket of my jeans, putting my house key in my left one. I shut my bedroom windows, pulling the royal purple curtains over the window. I glanced at the lavender walls, and the white duvet and silky lavender pillows, before exiting the room, hopping down the stairs and towards the front door.

The rest of the family was downstairs, watching TV. My parents liked to stress the importance of "Family get together time" by watching age appropriate television shows downstairs in the den. However, because I'm sixteen, they're a little more lenient and understanding, but I can't get away with it all of the time. My fingers wrap around the cast iron doorknob.

"I'm heading out!" I shouted.

"Bye Aisha!" the three chorused back as I left the house, bringing a smile to my face as I shut the door behind me and begin to set out. I wandered for minutes, taking in the sights around me. The wind echoed in my ears, singing a soft song I couldn't identify. As I walked, I passed by a multitude of things. Flurries of people trying to get home as the sunlight slowly lessened, a slew of cars were driving, heading towards their homes. The street signs were growing dimmer. I headed farther and farther away from the safe place I knew the best, and into a place that seemed abandoned for who knows how long.

Twenty or so minutes later, I found myself nearing the woods, a place I cherished since I was twelve, nearly four years ago. I pushed the thick branches out of my way, almost blinding myself as I shoved my way through the leafy green barrier. I looked up at the sky, the sun cascading lower and lower, the moon rising higher into the sky. I detected a faint rustling with my ears, so I slowly turn around, scoping out my surroundings. I didn't know this place very well, but I knew enough to know where I was going as I continued straight. The rustling came again, but I picked up my stride, but made no effort to look around and make sure I was clear.

"Closer, my dear, closer," the sound of a melodious voice whispered in my right ear.

My eyes widened for a moment; there was no one near me. Nothing in sight. I took a deep breath and shook my head, walking faster than I had before. I was delusional, I swear. I couldn't see a single thing, but then again, even with the moon peaking out from behind the clouds, it was still too dark for me to identify anything.

"Come closer. Stay. Stay in place."

That voice again, that mysterious whisper, it came again, this time, into my left ear. I froze, paralyzed with fear, and following the voice's directions precisely. I knew I should've ran, or turned back, but I didn't. This wasn't right. This whole atmosphere, there was something terribly, terribly wrong with it, and I knew that. But that was all I knew.

I felt a presence behind me, which only caused me to stay rooted to my spot, and just as I was about to turn, I realized I had lost my chance. Before I knew it, strong, pale arms wrapped around my waist, a pair of silky soft lips hitting the sun-kissed skin of my neck, right onto my jugular vein.

And that was the last thing I remembered before I fell limp into those alabaster arms, falling into the depths of a world of black.