Stricken

Zara paced restlessly around her room, unable to sit still. There was an uneasiness growing inside her, like an animal knowing when a storm was coming, but the storm was already over. Why was she so edgy?

Zara stared herself down in the full length mirror, taking in her hollowed face and eyes. Her skin was paler than usual and her eyes seemed darker. She probably was coming down with something. Shrugging it off, she stepped away from the mirror.

A horrible pain erupted in her chest, sending her to her knees with the first blow. She gasped for breath, her lungs screamed for air that wouldn’t come. Her heart, her whole chest felt like it was being crushed by a vice. Clutching her chest, unable to utter a scream of pain, she fell on her face. Lights began to dance in front of her eyes before it went black.

Emily scrubbed the remains of ice cream and chocolate syrup from the bowls, humming to herself. She heard her sister’s door creak open and the old wooden stairs groaning under her weight. She seemed to be coming rather slowly and Emily found this peculiar, but she continued on with her work. Zara had been acting rather different lately.

Her sister entered the kitchen, still at the same slow pace, as she advanced on Emily. When Emily turned to put the dishes in the rack, Zara was right behind her. Emily immediately caught sight of her sister’s face and quickly backed away.

“Zara, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer, only continuing to advance on her younger sister. Her blue eyes were empty except for the hunger and menace that stirred in them. Staring at her sister with those maddened eyes, her tongue absently travelled over her top lip. Her hand lunged out, grabbing Emily’s little wrist in a painful grip. She snapped her teeth at the little girl who’s eyes filled with terrified tears.

“Zara, stop!” Emily begged, tugging at her sister’s unbreakable grip.

A menacing smile crept across Zara’s face at the sound of the fear in her voice. She grabbed the little girl’s hair, yanking her head savagely to the side to expose her thin neck. Her mouth opened as she went to dig her teeth into the soft flesh.

“Zara! What are you doing?!” Her mother’s harsh tone snapped Zara out of her phase immediately.

She quickly released Emily’s wrist when she saw the terrified look on her face. She backed away slowly, blinking in shock at what she’d just tried to do. Emily crawled away, huddling in the corner where the two sides of counters met.

Zara squatted down. “Em, I’m so sorry...” She retracted her hand when Emily began to scream, nearly in tears herself when she saw how much she’d scared her sister.

Pushing past her mother and ignoring the woman’s shouts, Zara started up her bike and headed into Santa Carla.

The board walk was crowed as usual when Zara parked her bike. She quickly got off and began to make her way into the wave of people. She didn’t know where she was going or what she was doing. Something told her to come here and that’s what she did.

“Looking for me?” David’s voice came from beside her ear. Zara snapped her head to the side to see him smirking down at her. He’d fallen into step with her somehow with out her knowing.

Zara stopped and put on an impassive expression. “We need to talk.” She hoped her voice sounded braver than she felt.

David took her hand in his and led her away from the people. Immediately, Zara planted her heels and tugged at his hold. His head turned to look at her. “Trust me.”

“I’m not sure I can,”Zara stated coolly, her hand over his to see if she could get it to release. It didn’t budge.

David sighed and pulled her closer to him. “You are one of us,”he said suddenly.

“What do mean?” she asked, the look David gave her made her shiver.

“You’ll find out,”he grinned and led her away again.

Zara saw not far away was Dwayne, Paul, and Marco with their motorcycles. “Look who I found,” David proclaimed.

They all greeted her with a “Hey, Zara” and a smile, welcoming her into their little circle. Zara became somewhat intimidated as they closed in and found her closest assurance to be David. Her arms wrapped around his subconsciously, making him throw the other boys a smugly triumphant glare. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the inside of his coat and offered her one, but she refused with a shake of her head.

“Might calm your nerves,”he tried, but Zara just shook her head again.

David lit one with Zara still clinging to his arm, and took a long drag before he spoke. “Why don’t we go have some fun?”

The three boys howled in agreement and began to clamber off. David began to walk after them, but Zara held fast to his arm, refusing to move.

“Come on, Zara,”he said, somehow slipping his arm out of her grasp and taking her hand instead.

“I...don’t...I don’t know–”she stuttered, her heart quickening as his eyes burned into her.

“Come on, Zara!” Marco called, echoed by Dwayne and Paul.

David smiled at them then down at her. “See? They’d be upset if you didn’t come.” When she still hesitated, he continued softly. “There’s nothing to be scared of. You’re with your family now. You’re one of us now.”