"You know, you will never make any friends being an asshole like that, right?" was the first thing Achlys said to Blake upon finally leaving the high school campus.
Blake sighed to himself. Achlys has always been the responsible one between the three cousins, though hardly by much, as she oftentimes joined him and Cimon on their crusade of mischief, though hardly ever without stating all the ways the three of them could possibly get in trouble for, of course.
"I am… Aware," Blake said, shrugging nonchalantly from his seat in the back of the Range Rover. "Why would I want to make friends with an asshole who is bullying me? Name aside, he's every basic, All-American, high school, white boy as a bully. He's so insignificantly cliche, I wouldn't be surprised if he was copied and pasted from the pages of a book and made reality. Like, there's only one brain cell in that dumbass;s head, and its focus is on being entirely stereotypical in every sense of the word. Plus, have you seen him? I'd rather befriend a pig…At least a pig wouldn't try to beat me to a pulp everytime I see it."
Achlys giggled out loud while Cimon looked somehow tired, bored and amused all at the same time.
"I guess, if you say so," Achlys said sarcastically, after laughing a little more, before speaking seriously. "How does it feel being 14 today? It is August 19th, your birthday, right?"
"Meh," Blake shrugged, rubbing his gut. It was healing surprisingly fast considering the condition it was in a mere 30 minutes prior —- His ribcage definitely had at least two broken ribs and one was most definitely fractured, but at least the pain was fading; it was faint, numb, nearly nonexistent, almost, but there. Still there, just quiet, dull. "I think getting jumped after school and getting a rib cage broken and fractured or two kinda ruined the expectations. Then again, I wasn't expecting anyone to remember."
Blake was considering telling his cousins about what happened early this morning — the mirror incident and the thing that happened whenever he got jumped — the power he felt coursing through his body but thought better of it. He was certain they'd admit him to a mental institution if he said something as perverse as feeling power in his veins. He knocked it down to just his sleep-addled mind and adrenaline.
Thinking about it now, maybe he could've avoided what was coming if he had of told them this, but atlas…
It might've been just him, but he could've sworn Achlys and CImon were sharing a look of worry as he contemplated his decisions. Rubbing his eyes, Blake blinked, refocusing on them, but, when he turned, they were each focussing on something close — Achlys, the road, and Cimon, a cookie pie he was munching on.
Shaking his worries aside and dismissing his worries for stress, Blake finally asked, minutes later into the trip, looking out the window. "Where are we headed?"
"To this pastry shop that we pre ordered a cake from," Achlys said, focussed on the road. "It's in the next town over, so it'll be a ride, but we were thinking of chilling in the Preserve afterwards, maybe go skateboarding at an abandoned warehouse complex afterwards. Cimon brought his spare skateboards with him. They're in the trunk."
"So long as you guys don't sing the birthday song, I'm in," Blake snorted, mockingly.
"How's Miss Blueford and, you know, the kids?" Achlys asked, curiously, trying to change the conversation. "Is she still, you know, being… her?"
"You mean ignoring my existence?" Blake asked, sounding amused. He then frowned, nodding before shaking his head. "Yeah. She blames me for her husband's death, though I don't really care. We avoid one another, we're cool. If we start interacting, it always leads to arguments. I'm not sure how long until she kicks me out and calls CPS. I suspect soon… real soon."
Silence passed by as they picked up the cake —- A medium sized cake, circular in shape and the size of a pound cake. They split it between the trees after finding a parking spot in the preserve parking lot. The three of them enjoyed one another's company, and caught up on everything that had happened since they last saw one another.
Eventually, they went to the abandoned warehouse complex after wandering the preserve, and time eventually passed. Before they knew it, the Sun had dipped below the tree line.
"Looks like we need to head back," Blake muttered, as they began migrating back into the car. But, before Blake could join Achlys inside the car, Cimon grabbed his arm. "Huh?"
"If you see anything you can't explain, tell us," Cimon said, sounding serious and grave. "Anything weird, anything at all, tell us. It could be a matter of life and death, Blake."
Blake looked at Cimon, slightly startled before nodding and affirming he heard. He's never known Cimon to be on edge. He never seems like the type of person to worry a lot. He was a man of few words, yet his actions spoke volumes of the kind of man he was.
As Cimon let go of Blake's arm, and walked to the other side of the car, to the passenger seat, Blake wondered what he could've meant.
Looking up, he nearly flinched his heart out. He could've sworn he saw a pain of glowing red, predatory eyes watching him in the wooded edge of the tree, hidden by the cover of darkness and the trees, but, when he tried to focus on it closely, it vanished.
Shrugging it off to be just his nerves, Blake got in the back of Achlys Range Rover, and they drove away towards the school, where Blake left his bike.
As they drove back, Blake couldn't help but wonder if maybe something was happening --- Something he wasn't privy, too...
He's long since appreciated his ability to have near perfect vision at night. He was confident in it's efficiency. There was no way he was seeing things... Right? If there really was something out there, should he tell his cousins? What would they do about it?
Shaking his head dismissively, Blake decided against this. He could just be wrong. No one is perfect. And even if he did see something, what on Earth would his cousins do? They may have been older than Blake, but not by much. they were only a year older than Blake,
Shaking his head, Blake rested his head on the cool surface of the window inside the car. They were arriving into Jurupa Valley again, as they had passed the Welcome sign. It wouldn't be too long before they arrived at the school where Blake left his bike.
'Predatory eyes in the night, huh?' Blake asked himself mentally.
Upon arriving at the school, Blake quickly made it to his bike after waving his goodbye to his cousins, and watched as they drove down the road.
As Blake unchained his bike, rolling across the gravel of the rough school parking lot, he couldn't shake the prickly feeling that he was being watched. But, when he looked around, there was no one around.
Finally, getting his bike free and unchained, and his backpack to his back, Blake had just started pedaling when the howls of dogs and their terror inducing growls sounded, but Blake knew instantly, that they weren't any kind of normal dogs, even before he heard the sound of the rushing podding of paws on the ground at the edge of the woods behind him.
Turning around, Blake saw three dog-like creatures the sizes of pumas, with blood red fur and menacing red, predatory eyes. They had smokey red, apparition like bodies and multiple rows of teeth the size of talons. They radiated chaos incarnate and the gravel around them on the ground seemed to warp along with the air they breathed out, as if they were unnatural creatures that even the universe had no control over.
Horror struck Blake like a dagger, inducing a temporary paralysis in his body, which gave the creatures a head start to rush his way. He was paralyzed a whole of three seconds before he came back to himself.
Upon seeing the creatures rushing his way, adrenaline once again pumped in Blake's body as he did not wait for no one as he peddled as hard and as fast as he could, steering his bike in and out of traffic before heading into the wooded area —- A shortcut to his way home.