Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters Read Online Free

happen to you while you were outside?”
    He shook his head and shrugged. “No.”
    I looked into his eyes, then shoved him away from me. “You’re lying.”
    Before he could say a word, his thoughts replied for him. Panic, grief, and depression crashed over me. Visions of what had taken place whilst he stood outside fueling the car played randomly across my eyes. I saw his body split as his skin slowly began cracking, chipping and peeling like old paint- it was all like something I’d never seen before.  A small headache began forming as I looked at the hazy recollection; he wasn’t screaming, and he barely moved, yet his face was turned in complete agony. Tears flowed from my eyes as I imagined his pain.
    Just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it was gone. I stood motionless for a few more minutes before breaking free. “Well, Corey, it was nice talking to you, but my brother and I are going to be leaving now.”
    I ignored the rest of the questions that had formed in my gut as I grabbed my bank card from the counter and held on to Ash’s arm while I headed for the door. That store had officially become the Twilight Zone, and the faster I had it in my rearview mirror, the quicker I could pretend it never happened.
    “Wait!” Corey pleaded aloud before thinking the rest of her sentence. My father keeps me here because he knows that I have nowhere else to go. Please take me with you. We can help each other.
    “Absolutely not! I don’t know you and I don’t know your father, please, I just want to leave,” I answered. As I got closer to the glass doors, my body froze on its own. I could only move my eyes as I tried glancing around.
    Her voice was lower and more firm as she slowly walked in front of me and literally made me glance deep into her eyes.  “Listen to what I have to say.”
    I moaned- even more waves of thoughts and hazy visions.
    “You have to help me,” she whispered.
    Obviously thinking I’d just paused for fun, Ash brushed my arm and leaned to whisper in my ear. “We may need her.”
    The force that’d froze me allowed my motion again, yet I still stood still. “You don’t even know where we’re going or if I could be a serial killer, on the road with my sidekick to dump some bodies,” I suggested.
    After a pause she broke out into hysterical laughter. “That’s funny.”
    I watched as Corey took a step away from her post at the counter. Don’t move , she warned.
    Standing frozen in place near the entrance of the store, I clung to Ash like a toddler scared to be left alone. When something started gurgling on the ceiling of the shack, Ash and I looked up, staring at the ceiling as it began to crawl with dark, transparent shadows. There were thousands of tiny screeches as the shadows traced across the top of the ceiling, singling me out and hovering over where I stood. Every bone in my body became agitated and angry as a dark blob inched closer to my face.
    I let go of Ash and moved away from him, and the shadow followed me across the store. My pulse quickened as my blood began to simmer and boil inside, the heat-surge became so overpowering that my knees started to buckle beneath me, and I hit the hardwood floor. The ground beneath vibrated as I curled into the fetal position.
    The burn of the fire only grew hotter as the shadow came closer. “Make it stop!” I screamed.
    “This needs to happen. Let your body make the change,” Corey replied.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about; I just want to go home!”
    My body pulsated as the floor beneath me quaked and I found myself having trouble breathing. Ash never lifted a finger to help me as I gasped for tiny amounts of air. He just stood there looking down at me lying in front of the glass doors.
    “If I die, I’ll haunt you until you join me,” I said as I slowly began to lose consciousness.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    The fire continued to blaze inside of me until I could feel it start to ooze out of my flaming pores