My Soul to Keep - By Sean Hayden Page 0,9
metal going through flesh as it pierced my ear. “Damn it, that hurt!”
She gave a little laugh at my pain. She reminded me of my sister more every minute. Laughing at pain was definitely something she would do.
I reached up to pull it out, but Clarisse stopped me. “Leave it, it looks good. I’ve got to get going, stay inside and don’t leave the house. Your body is capable of things you can’t imagine. Even if it does something weird, the orb should make you look human to your parents. That’s what they do, make the kids with desires to be more than human, appear human. It also lets them go into the sun and not burst into flames, to answer your previous question.”
“Cool. Don’t worry, I’ll behave.”
“You better behave. Trust me. There’s a lot of things out there that would love to get their mouth on a tasty morsel like you. You need to learn to take care of yourself before you get turned loose on the world. There’s some scary shit out there, and not all of it is because of us. Since humans are strictly forbidden to be eaten, everybody else has to be careful. Stay inside.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said and snapped my heels together. She didn’t get my humor. I turned and headed up the driveway.
“Hey, worm,” Clarisse called out to me before I got too far away.
“What?” I stopped walking but didn’t turn around.
“Stay away from the cheerleaders at your school. They’re bad news.”
I turned around perplexed, but Clarisse had already vanished.
* * *
I tried to slip into the house unnoticed, but Mom sat on the couch facing the door reading a book. She set it down next to her and crossed her arms. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but she looked less than happy.
“What?”
“You told Caelyn you were going to hang out at Jeremy’s. Where have you been?”
“Jeremy got a job, so I went to the mall and had a couple of pretzels.”
“You and your pretzels. Go wash up. Daddy will be home in a few minutes. I ordered pizza.”
“Okay, cool. Did you order pepperoni?”
“You know your sister and meat don’t get along. I ordered one veggie and one cheese.”
“Doesn’t she know cheese comes from animals, too?”
“Don’t start on your sister and don’t tell her about the cheese. I’m sure she’s mentally blocked it out and I want her to have calcium. I swear she’s going to break a bone doing those cheerleader flips she does. Oh, my God! What the hell is in your ear?”
I brought my hand up to my ear and the forgotten about earing. I didn’t even think how the units would react to their son having a metal stud protruding from his ear. “I, um, got it pierced at the mall, do you like it?”
“Absolutely not! You get upstairs and get that thing out of your ear before your father gets home! I mean it. If he see’s you with one, he’ll want one. No way. Get it out now, Connor.”
I laughed and ran upstairs to the bathroom, passing my evil sister’s closed door. I flipped on the switch and turned on the fart fan instead of the light. You’d think after living in a house for three years I’d know which switch turned on what, but no. Whoever wired the house wired the fan to the switch closest to the door. I managed to get the annoying whirring of the fan off and the light on. With a sigh I looked at myself in the mirror.
I gingerly touched the earring. I expected it to be tender or sore, but it wasn't. I pulled the back of the earring off and slid it out of my ear. I held both pieces in the palm of my and watched them morph back into the largish glass globe. I thought about putting it back on my wrist, but my omniscient mother would probably notice my new watch and think I stole it at the mall.
I flipped the switch off and took the orb to my room instead, hiding it behind my entertainment center. That should keep the creep in the next room from finding it on one of her little snooping sorties. I should have exchanged my soul for the luxury of being an only child. They say that hindsight is always 20/20. "They" are pretty smart.
I headed downstairs for dinner. I needed to start acting sick in front of the parents or Mom would never buy the whole “I need