Self Reflection

A disgusting churn in Skylar's stomach made her feel uneasy. The saliva in her mouth tasted like metal and her head felt like it was filled with helium. She pushed herself off the bed and ran down the hallway, covering her mouth with her hand. Her free hand traced along the wall, partially to soothe her somewhat and partially to keep her on her feet. The bathroom door slammed shut behind her and she ducked her head into the toilet. An acid taste filled her mouth, Skylar closed her eyes, not wanting to see the contents in the water.

She shut the lid to the toilet and flushed, waiting to open her eyes until she felt her back pressed against the cool tiled wall of her bathroom. The air in the bathroom felt like the summer air outside, thick and hot. Her body ached and her head throbbed with pain, as if she had been walking in the desert for several days without food or water. Weak, that's how she felt, weak and helpless. She hated that feeling.

Tilting her head up slightly, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her skin was awfully pale with a greenish tint to it, 'so that's how someone looks when people say you look green', a thick sheen of sweat layered her face and arms glistening in the light. Her eyelids looked to be bruised brown with bags under hey eyes. And the whites of her eyes were bloodshot, making her dark blueish green eyes almost glow burning through her.

Skylar turned away from the mirror, wondering how she could become so sick in such a short amount of time. She was fine yesterday, but now she looked like the walking dead. She peeled away her t-shirt, which was drenched in sweat, and looked at the scars on her shoulder. Her head ached when she tried to think and her vision blurred in and out when she attempted to focus on the red scars on her pale skin. Skylar closed her eyes and laid her head on the bath tub, which seemed ten degrees colder than the wall.

~~~

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

Skylar's cell phone vibrated on the table, causing the milk in her uneaten bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch shake and form tiny bubbles. She dropped her spoon into the bowl, milk splashed onto the screen of her phone. She wiped it on her pants and looked at her text.

'Ryan is da Bom'

It said on her phone. She couldn't help but smile. She slide on the screen of her phone to open the text and read it.

'Call me!!' It said, she groaned to herself, but smiled.

Skylar picked up her full bowl of cereal and dumped it into the sink as she dialed Ryan's number.

"Hey, babe!" He said when he picked up.

"Hey." Skylar answered back.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" she rinsed the bowl clean before placing it into the dishwasher.

"Don't tell me you forgot." He groaned into the phone, "We had plans remember?"

"Oh, yeah!" Skylar slapping her head forehead with her palm, immediately regretting it. A throbbing pain erupted in her temple making her fall on the ground. A pot fell on the ground next to her, filling her ears with a bang.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Skylar rubbed the side of her temple with a hand, "I'll be ready in ten minutes." She hung up the phone and headed to her room to throw on a pair of skinny jeans, a blue blouse, and her black leather jacket. She caked enough make up on her face to make her skin look it's regular crème color and to give her eyelids a more pinkish tint. She dropped some eye rejuvenator into her eyes to tone down the red. A honk outside let her know he was here. She grabbed her red wallet and walked out of the house.

Ryan stood outside of his car, leaning against the front bumper, his thumbs looped in the front of his jean pockets. His sun tanned skin stood out with his white shirt, and his brown hair seemed lighter in a way. His green eyes met hers and she found herself to be floating towards him, until she was in his arms and kissing him. He kissed her back leaning back on the hood of his car so she was on top of him. His fingers found the buckle to her jeans and like always she stopped, the pit of her stomach filled with it's regular feeling, that it just wasn't right.

Skylar slid off of him and got into the passenger seat of the car. She watched him through the window, he blew a puff of air out and ran his hands through his spiky brown hair, then he walked to the driver's side and got in the car.

They drove for about ten minutes in silence, Skylar twiddled her thumbs together in her lap. "I'm sorry." she said not looking at him, "It's just.. It's, um.. It's..."

"It's fine Sky." Ryan laughed, "You're not ready yet. We'll do something else today." He turned on the radio, ending the conversation.

His car smelled like cinnamon and the seats were warm and soft. The trees passed by in green blurs. Occasionally, colorful blurs would wiz by indicating existence of flowers or some other colorful plant.

"How fast are you driving?" Skylar asked, she looked at the speedometer and read it, 80 MPH. "Ryan! Slow down!"

"Sky, it's fine. I'm a pro at driving fast now."

"NO! SLOW DOWN!" she screamed.

A thud and the car bumping up and down sent a chill down Skylar's spine. She looked to her boyfriend, who's face had gone pale. He pulled over to the side of the road. They both got out of the car, to find a blonde boy laid in the middle of the road, not moving.

"Oh my gosh!" Skylar seemed to be on autopilot, she started walking towards the boy in the road. "Ryan call for help." The roads were empty except for the boy and them, she could hear him slam his hands on his car and curse to himself, but he seemed so far away from her now. She knelt next to the boy, a teenager, maybe a eighteen or nineteen (a year or two older than her). Skylar felt her eyes burn with tears.

He had shortly cropped hair golden blond hair, and nicely chiseled features. His skin was lightly tanned and he was dressed in all black, including a long black coat. Skylar wondered how he could possibly be dressed like that in this heat.

"Hello?" she said careful not to move him when she tapped his shoulder with her fingertips. "Are you ok?" she placed two of her fingers on his throat trying to find a heartbeat like she was taught in health class. His eyes flew open, startling her. His eyes were a light greenish yellow, like a cat's. They looked familiar to Skylar, "Who are you?" she asked him, leaning closer towards him. He grabbed her by the shoulders, placing a hand over her mouth and whisked her away, out of sight from everyone, as she screamed into the palm of his hand.

~~~

The boy plopped her down in front of the Washington Monument, spinning her to face him. She drew in a breath to scream and he pressed his hand against her mouth again, "Don't scream" He said, giving her a devilish smile. "If I take my hand away, will you scream?"

She glared at him. Which made him grin even more, Skylar didn't like his satisfaction. Slowly, he lifted his hand away from her mouth, she screamed an ear piercing scream that made him wince. Nobody seemed to notice or care, her scream died down and he gave her a nasty look.

"I told you not to scream." he said crossing his arms over his chest.

Skylar looked around, nobody looked at them or even made a glance at them, "This is kidnapping." She hissed at him, giving him a killer glare, "And how did we get here?"

"Matt." he said.

"What?"

"You asked who I am, my name is Matthew Chase, but everybody calls me Matt." he gave her a crooked half smile.

"So you had to kidnap me to tell me a question I asked you twenty minutes ago?"

"Technically it was seven minutes ago."

"Shut up!" she glared at him through thick black eyelashes, "How do I know you?"

"How do I know you?" he repeated. She looked at him skeptically. He put his hand on her shoulder and began to pull away the shoulder of her jacket.

"STOP!" she screamed, slapping away his hand. She pulled her leather jacket tighter around her body, "Don't touch me."

He threw his head back and laughed, "I'm not trying to do that." He tugged on the sleeve of her jacket, and she let it fall from her shoulder, revealing the silvery scars. "Remember last night."

Skylar stared at the marks on her shoulder, remembering the pain. Remembering the burning scream when the open wound made contact with water, streaming puss and blood. When the skin bubbled and healed over in seconds.

"It hurt." she said, wiping her cheeks, which were wet. She hadn't even realized she had been crying.

"How did you get it?" he rubbed her shoulder with his thumb.

She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket and shrugged out from under his hand, "This has nothing to do with you."

"Would you just cooperate." She looked into his familiar eyes, "It'll all make sense, how you know me, how we got here so fast, everything with make sense in time, but you have to cooperate. How did it happen?"

Skylar closed her eyes, the panther seemed to be right in front of her. She could feel her fear coursing through her veins all over again and the touch of it's tail on her face, but it felt distant as if she were dreaming. It paced around her, tormenting her. The grass beneath her was wet and soaked into her pants. The smell of grass and blood filled her nostrils. She looked up and all she could see were it's yellow green eyes.

Reality hit, and she found herself staring into the panther's eyes, but he wasn't a panther he was Matt. Skylar gasped, choking on air. She tried to get to her feet, but her legs failed to support her weight, she used her arms to drag herself away from the boy.

"Skylar!" Matt reached towards her, but she kicked at him. She wasn't going to let him hurt her again, she couldn't stand to feel anymore pain from him.

"How do you know my name?" Skylar's stomach churned uneasily and her head throbbed with pain. Hot tears streamed down her face.

"Your blood. You can know a lot of things from the blood of someone. Your name is Skylar Elizabeth Fowler, your mother's name is Sarah Ashley Kowalski Fowler, your father Scott Michael Fowler, your blood type is..." He stopped and winced. Looking into her shocked face. "I'm sorry, not exactly what you want to hear."

Skylar turned and retched on the ground beneath her, seeing bright orange colored acid kill the dark green grass. Splotches of blood joined the vomit, she couldn't help whining in the back of her throat.

"Skylar?" She rolled away from the vomit and looked up at him, laying back on the ground. The air around the blond boy seemed to sparkle. He looked at the acid blood next to her, "You're worse than you look."

She grunted and attempted to glare at him, but failed. "It's called make up." She erupted into a fit of coughs until she was wheezing, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air.

"We need to get you out of here." he said.

Her vision went dark around the edges, "Don't touch me." she said it so quietly she wasn't sure if she actually got the words out or if she just mouthed the words. Matt lifted her into his muscular arms, her head dangled over his arm. She saw the upside down monument glisten in the sun, the water at its base (top now) reflected the image, it was darker. She watched the reflection burn and crumble to pieces, Matt and Ryan's blood filled the water, and a knife stabbed into her own chest. Then the world around her went dark.