Lyla
Sometime during the night, I was lying on my side, and was awoken by something running down the front of my thigh.
Something warm. And wet.
I sat up, and walked to the bathroom, quietly shutting the door. I flicked on the light, and pulled my sleep shorts and panties off. I groaned loudly. I started my damn period. Just my luck. There was so much blood that my white undies didn’t even look white anymore.
I placed my hand over my lower stomach and whimpered from the cramps. The pain was so bad that I started to double over. I tried to ignore it, and turned the shower on. I stepped in.
I felt so gross that even the water couldn’t wash away all the feelings. I watched the water in the bottom of the tub go from red to pink to clear.
Good God. Couldn’t whoever created us made guys have this kind of monthly problem? Fuck, I would give almost anything to get rid of this.
A couple minutes later I heard the door open, and I peeked out of the shower. It was a blearily eyed Ethan. He walked over to the toilet and lifted up the seat. I stuck my head back in to give him privacy. When I was sure he was done, I looked out again. He was standing in front of the shower with a weird expression on his face.
“Lyla, are you okay?” he asked. “Why are you taking a shower at four in the morning?”
I shut the water off, and stood hidden behind the curtain with little fishes all over it. I didn’t really want him to catch me naked like freaking Rylan did. Yeah, he already saw me, but I was weird that way. And I know I thought about it earlier about him watching me shower, but now it was just strange.
It would be all kinds of awkward.
“No, I’m not okay, I messed the bed.” I admitted. “What do you mean messed? Like, had an accident?”
I pointed over to my pile of dirty clothes, and understanding came over him. He also looked a little sick. His face had a green tinge to it.
“Lyla, are you sure you’re okay? That’s an awful lot of blood…” He looked back at the clothes, and swallowed hard. He must be queasy about this kind of stuff. I didn’t blame him, it was kind of gross.
“Yeah, it’s always like that. Now, can you please get me some clean clothes and grab the box out from of my backpack?” I asked.
He left without another word and did as I asked. Poor Ethan. I didn’t like bossing him around, but there was nothing I could have done. I needed my tampons, or else I was going to get blood all over the floor.
He came back a few minutes later with my stuff and some clean clothes. He left the bathroom so I could take care of things.
I began pulling on my clothes quickly. I really needed to check the bed out. I was sure there was a puddle on there, too.
I was so embarrassed about the whole thing that I wanted to hide in the bathroom all night long and not have to face Ethan. I’m sure Ethan understands… he’s had girlfriends before… but, maybe, I’m the only one who has ever gotten blood on anything.
When I emerged from the bathroom Ethan was already pulling off the sheets. I almost groaned when I saw the big red spot.
“I’m so sorry, Ethan; I didn’t mean to do that.” I said nervously. I didn’t want him to be mad at me for staining up his sheets.
He chuckled as he put the sheets into the hamper.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. It happens. It isn’t your fault.”
I didn’t really believe that. If I had paid more attention to my bodily signs, it wouldn’t have happened.
I went over to the couch and sat down, pulling the blankets up. I should have been over there helping Ethan, but the cramps were too bad. I moaned softly and rubbed my stomach in small circular motions.
“Did you want some pain killers?” Ethan asked. “Heck no, I don’t want what happened the last time to happen again. I don’t want to take the wrong stuff.” I said, suddenly afraid.
He chuckled and went to grab a white bottle. “Trust me, these won’t hurt you.” he said as he popped two out of the bottle and handed them to me with a bottle of water.
I took them without a second thought.
All of a sudden there was a sharp, loud knock at the window.
Ethan and I looked at each other, and then turned our attention to the curtain. I was sure no one could see in, but I was kinda scared anyway. I was scared that someone could have been watching us.
I shivered.
Ethan clicked the light switch, and the whole basement was plunged into darkness.
I was just about to ask why he shut the light off, but I understood after a second thinking about it. If it was light in here and he went to open the curtain, he wouldn’t be able to see who was out there, but they would be able to see us.
I watched Ethan’s silhouette walk over to the window, and part the curtain ever so slightly. Moonlight illuminated his face, and he looked kind of magical. He slid the window open, and I heard a girl’s voice.
“Ethan, let me in!” the voice hissed. “it’s fucking cold out here!”
“Oh fuck no. What the hell do you want? Why are you over here?” Ethan demanded. “It’s 4:30 in the morning!”
“Well, let me in and I will explain. Please? You know I never come over here, so when I say I have to tell you something, I’m serious.”
“It better be” I heard Ethan mutter to himself.
I heard rustling, and then the light popped back on. Ethan went back over to the window and helped freaking Miranda in. The way he held onto her made me rage in jealousy.
I knew he’s held her intimately before, and it stung. It stung so bad that hot tears burned my eyes. I know I didn’t have a right to be upset, but it hurt nonetheless. How many times has she snuck into his room like this? How many times has she laid in his bed while he held her? Kissed her? Touched her? Had sex with her?
Miranda turned to me, and put her hands on her hips. “Sorry if I’m interrupting something, but what I need to tell you affects you both. Okay, well, I was driving by earlier in the night, and I saw dark shadows surrounding your house.” We gave her a funny look; most likely we both were wondering why she was driving past. She continued. “I saw a couple of figures walk through your walls. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I got out of my car because I really didn’t believe what I was seeing. One of those shadows came up to me, and he was hideous. He had horns and—”
“Red eyes?” Ethan asked. “Yeah… how did you know?”
“Because I saw the same damn thing yesterday at the mall,”
I shot him a surprised glare.
And why he didn’t tell me this? Why is he sharing this with Miranda and not me, his girlfriend? I puffed my cheeks up in anger, and smoke rose from my nostrils. I turned around so they wouldn’t see me. I’m sure they would smell the smoke anyhow.
“Well, the one who came up to me asked if I knew you two, and he said some weird stuff.”
“What kind of weird stuff?” I asked, avoiding Ethan’s gaze. I was mad at him now, and I wanted him to know it. I crossed my arms over my chest, and sniffled.
“He asked if I’ve ever seen you two do magic.”
I was so shocked by what she said that I almost fell to the floor. “What did you tell him?”
She huffed. “I told him he was fucking crazy. No one can do magic. It’s all folklore and fantasy crap. I don’t buy it for a second. But then he told me Lyla came from another world, and someone is hunting her. He said something about a necklace. The shadow guy also said that he doesn’t mean any harm; he only means to protect you both. Then it seemed like he was trying to compel me to forget what he said. It was freaking weird how he was staring at me. I think he said his name was R—”
Ethan laughed, and gestured to the open window that was letting freezing air in. “Okay, it’s time to go.”
“No, wait! He also told me to tell Lyla that the Seven Horses are looking after her. Whatever that means.”
Ethan waved her back to the window, and without question, started to lift Miranda up. She shot a look over her shoulder, and I saw where her eyes landed.
On the bloody bed sheets that were sticking out of the hamper.
I groaned. Why couldn’t Ethan have shoved them in farther?
She narrowed her eyes. “Well, I see Lyla finally lost her virginity tonight. Good job!” she said sarcastically as she grabbed the top of the window and began to pull herself out.
Without another word, Ethan slammed the window closed, shut the curtains, and came over to me. Resentment and jealousy were burning my veins, and I tried to calm it.
“Why didn’t you think of telling me about the guy yesterday?” I asked loudly. Rage controlling my actions, I punched him in the stomach, making him hiss in pain.
“Maybe because I didn’t want to scare you?” he said, his voice was strained but raising an octave.
“That doesn’t matter. You should have said something anyhow.” I marched over to the bed and sat down with a plop. “You don’t have to protect me you know; I can handle this, Ethan.”
He sat down, and turned to me.
***
Ethan
“I wanted to protect you okay? You’re my girlfriend and I’m supposed to take care of you, not tell you anything that’s going to make you scared or uncomfortable.”
I made a vow to myself to always protect her and care for her when I found her frozen in my backyard. I didn’t want to do anything to her that would make her worry… it would be too much for me. I couldn’t stand to see her suffer.
She doesn’t deserve that. She’s suffered enough from my stupid dad. She didn’t need any more misery.
I looked into her eyes and I saw a rage there that I’d never seen before. If I wasn’t mistaken, it looked a lot like jealousy. It was the same way I’d seen Miranda look at her.
Lyla’s nostrils flared, and smoke rose from her nose. I bit back a cough. The smoke smelled like something sweet and something gross at the same time. Now that I think about it, it was almost sulfuric mixed with what seemed like honey.
Honey and sulfur.
She dropped her gaze to the floor, and I watched her fingers start to blaze with small flames. She held them up as if she didn’t want it to touch my floor. I didn’t know if she could start something on fire like that or not…
“Lyla, don’t be jealous of Miranda.” I started slowly. “There’s nothing to be envious of.”
She didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if she was mad at me, but I decided not to push it.
Just thinking about what Miranda said was enough to make me cringe. I didn’t think she was making it up, but at the same time she—
“What are we going to do about these shadow guys? What do you think they want? I mean, I heard what Miranda said…” she said suddenly, drawing me out of my thoughts.
“I don’t know… and do you know who the Seven Horses are?” I asked. I’ve never heard of something so uncanny before. I was betting Miranda heard about that in Mythology class at school.
She looked at me, and I knew she knew. “Yeah. The guy Rylan I was staying with is one of them. I watched him turn into a horse in my bathroom one morning.”
“What was he doing in your bathroom?” I asked a little harder than I intended too. Great, now I was the one acting all jealous.
She pursed her lips and looked away from me.
God, really? “So you kissed him.” I guessed right away, knowing I was right. No girl looks like that unless they are guilty of something.
She nodded. “But it was a mistake. He came up after I caught a towel on fire with my skin, and caught me naked. After that he came and kissed me after I told him I wanted to ride him when he turned into a horse. I didn’t mean anything sexual by it, I was just excited and it came out like that.” she said really fast. So fast I almost didn’t catch everything that she said.
“Okay, back to the important subject at hand. There are people looking for you and your necklace, and asking about us doing magic. If that isn’t creepy I don’t know what is. Well, the people walking into the walls of my house take it to a whole new level. A level that I never thought they would take. I think I know what the beings are, and they’re demons. If what you’re saying is true about that Rylan guy, it sounds like he just wants to protect you and not cause you any harm.” I hoped.
“Yeah, but what I heard him say on the phone…” she said.
“It might not have anything to do with you. Have you ever thought of that? If he really was going to do something don’t you think he would have when he first found you? Or when he turned himself into a horse?” I asked. “He could have trampled you. God, he could have raped you, if you think about it.”
She thought for a moment before she spoke.
“You’re right… I never gave him a chance to explain… maybe we should head over there?” she asked, jumping off the bed. “And please don’t talk about him raping me…
Alright? Something about the way that sounds really bothers me.”
I agreed with both of the questions.