Ceaseless(17)

You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows.

I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms. You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”

“You hold fire within your gaze.

It mesmerizes everyone you allow into your maze. I know nothing of your thoughts but I need to bask within the warmth of your rays. Nothing you do could ever be wrong. You’re forever perfect in every way.

Now, I can’t stand-alone. Now, I am under your influence.

You’ve taken over me and now, I can’t ignore what I’ve been shown. You’ve claimed me and I don’t care who knows. You’ve claimed me and I don’t care if it shows. I’m weakened and I’m strengthened in your arms.

You’ve claimed me and I need to feel you close.”

The hauntingly sweet music played over and over again in the darkness. I couldn’t open my eyes but I wasn’t scared. I knew I was safe. The words soothed me and eventually I fell back into a deep sleep. Bright blue eyes that glowed against the night were the last things I remembered.

“GET UP! You are like the sleeping dead. I swear. Get your lazy ass up. We have class in ten minutes,” Miranda was yelling at me while pelting me with her pillow.

I groaned, rolled over, and blocked the onslaught of her feather pillow. “I’m awake. You can stop now.”

“It’s about time. I tried everything else. I’ve been awake for over an hour. Your stupid alarm clock made sure I woke up. How you slept through that annoying beeping is beyond me.”

“I slept through the alarm clock?” I asked sitting up and squinting my eyes from the sun’s rays. It was after eight o’clock. I wasn’t going to make it to my Literature class on time. Crap. Great first impression.

“Yeah, you did. That’s like happened, never. What did you do, take a sleeping pill?”

I stood up and stretched. “No I just slept really good,” I paused and thought about the strange darkness and the music. The voice and the song… “There was this song,” I said then stopped. Miranda would think I’d lost my mind.

“No time to talk about songs right now. Here, throw this on and go brush your stinky teeth. We gotta go. Good thing you look hot without makeup.”

Miranda shoved a pair of shorts and a shirt into my arms and pushed me into the bathroom. I guess I wouldn’t tell her about my song. Although, I wanted to tell someone.

Dank wasn’t in literature class. I was disappointed he hadn’t shown up and carried my books, but relieved because I could focus on my work. Being able to listen and focus would insure I passed this course. Day one and we already had an assignment. We also had to work in groups. Not my thing. Three girls and three guys per group. We had to read three different works of literature about self-destructive men. Then we had to write a female point-of-view paper and a male point-of-view paper on exactly how the males in the assigned stories were self-destructive. We also had to identify who we could relate them to today and describe how this self-destruction affected politics.

I shoved my books into my bag and headed to the board to read the group assignments. Each person in our group had an email address beside their name so that we could contact each other once we’d read the first book, Ethan Frome. I was a step ahead. I’d already read it. The line was dwindling because several people left without looking. I walked up and scanned the list for my name.

Keith Fromer

Pagan Moore

Jessi Gilheart

Jackson Driver

Maddy McGowin

Dank Walker

I stopped reading the names and glanced behind me. How was Dank’s name on here? He wasn’t in this class. Was he? The girl behind me cleared her throat in an irritated manner. I took a quick picture of the people in my group and their email addresses with my iPhone and moved out of the way.

Had Dank skipped class?

Dank

By the time I was finished with souls, I was too late to go to literature class with Pagan. I hated I’d missed an opportunity to sit by her but I’d stayed late last night to sing her to sleep. That was something I missed. I couldn’t bring myself to leave until I knew she was sleeping peacefully.

The doors to the English building opened and Pagan came walking out with a frown on her face. I didn’t like for her to be unhappy. I walked out of my hiding spot and into her path.

“Oh! Dank. You’re here.” She seemed surprised.