Thirsty for him

As if the moonless night wasn’t enough, now I also have to study to pass my final exams to go to college, but that’s all less important to me after all this. Then there’s the worst thing, the prom is coming up tomorrow. Just the day I was going to kill Varnic if I followed the prophecy.

At school that day, I first have to go take my history test, which I definitely can’t miss. Because if my father found out I was failing history, he would be very angry after all the books he had given me to learn. Diana is still at home crying about Hollister, which I understand. I would be sad too if something happened to Varnic. Okay, we’re not dating or in a real relationship, but we have something more.

A connection, so strong, it goes beyond love. Daisy sits next to me she writes on her test paper like it’s rock easy and not something heavy she should be struggling with. The teacher with his salt and pepper hair looked like he came out of a history book himself.

After class, comes Daisy next to me to go to our next class for the next test on the second floor of the school building. “How are you doing now? After your mom died and Diana got hurt?” She asks me with pity in her voice. I just wonder how she knew Diana was hurt. I let it go as we move into the next class, math. Math is my weakest class to attend. Besides, I will be happy if I get a D and don’t have to take another test.

When the school day is done, I can finally leave to get back home. By the first step inside, I hear arguing from upstairs. Diana is arguing with Dad again. Why can’t things just be quiet around here for once? After Mother died, every day has been like this between them. “You’re a coward! Instead of killing Mother’s killer, you kill the man I loved!” Calls Diana on the stairs to our father standing in the hallway.

“Don’t have any illusions’ daughter! He’s just a prey. I just saved you by killing him for you.” He yells back as an answer, without a shred of regret. Father has a point. How can I even think like this? It would have been so much harder for her to kill him herself, but it sounded like Dad was doing her a favor by killing him for her.

Would I be happy myself if Father killed Varnic and not me? Of course not. How can I justify my father’s act?

When I want to go quietly inside the kitchen, I feel them both looking at me. They call me over and include me in their argument. I hate it when they do this. What have I done, besides save us? “Avery, tell Dad he’s crazy! You know there’s a way to beat this curse.”

Yes, I had read it too, and I know it can be undone, but the quest is not easy and even foolish. Would this also be in the book of the bound? Yes, they also have a book, but something different from ours, though I still wonder what stories would be in it. Does Varnic believe we can do this? Because he made me read it as if it were some kind of assignment.

“Diana, I don’t want to get involved between your fight and our father’s. I just want to finish my exams and go to prom. Is that too much to ask?”

“Leave Avery alone, Diana. This is between us and your mother’s killer, I’ll get revenge, and you won’t tell me who it is!” Does Diana know who killed our mother? Why didn’t she say anything? Now I want to stay here to find out more about this. They even forgot that I was here when they went on arguing again. I had lost interest that they were just yelling and nothing that really mattered like our mother’s death.

When they are done and the yelling stops I follow Diana into the living room. I look straight at Diana who looks terrible, like she hasn’t slept in days. This can’t be because they slept through the whole moonless night or it's because she hasn’t fed. What can be solved now we can go back to hunt. Father will hopefully bring enough food because Diana is in no state to go hunt. My only hope is that Diana won’t be too proud to take it.

In my room on the third floor after my brief conversation with Diana, I see a letter on my bed: “Come to the forest by the big black tree in the middle of the forest.” I look at the letter and immediately know it is from Varnic.

The boy I can’t refuse anything, my body is already starting to scream inside for him. With the letter in my hand, I walk past Diana's room. Her door is closed, and I can hear Father cursing as he walks towards me in the hallway, “Would you check if the 'others' are okay? I have to go somewhere, I’ll be back in the morning.”

First, I had to find out that the others were The Tortured. Although I hadn’t looked at them much, since they couldn’t have been hungry after yesterday’s big dinner. When I walk into my grandfather’s room, who is also a tormented one, as I discovered yesterday. I see him looking at a painting with two people on it who look very happy. He even looks peaceful like a normal person until he looks at me with his red eyes before he stares back at the painting. That let me know that he is still the tormented one I saw yesterday and I can’t be fooled by the emotion he is expressing by looking at that painting because it is not real.

I close the outdoor behind me and I run at a fast pace to where Varnic had asked me to come. Not long after, I’m in the woods at the spot by the tree, I smell him and look right at him. He came closer and closer. He's looking at me like a hungry vulture, I grabbed him and kissed him. I’m not eating him now, but I am kissing him like a passionate teenager.

He threw me against the tree, where I giggled like a teenage girl whose desire collided with his. He grabbed my head and kissed me even more. “I want you, Avery. But we can’t. I can’t have you, even if it’s what I desire most,” Varnic says with a heavy breath from the kissing and the emotions underneath.

We kissed so passionately for quite some time until we suddenly noticed that the sun was beginning to set. Both did, we completely forgot the time and place. We spent the whole time kissing in a dangerous forest, where our both families were at war. Not only that, but we have to go back home and now hope that no one finds out that we have been standing here kissing like two thirsty teenagers. I want him, and he wants me, and now we are in danger. Not just because of this dark forest and our relatives going to war. No, I am afraid of the day that is going to come tomorrow. The day I’m going to kill him, kill the man I love the most. As if the moonless night wasn’t enough, now I also have to study to pass my final exams to go to college, but that’s all less important to me after all this. Then there’s the worst thing, the prom is coming up tomorrow. Just the day I was going to kill Varnic if I followed the prophecy.