-2- I toss my soaking ebony hair back into a braid. I slip into black jeans and a baggy black hoody. Vibrant colours aren't exactly my thing. "How you feeling?" Derek asked, looked up at me from his deadpool comic. I blink, feeling surprisingly normal. "I-I'm... Good. Its gone. I feel normal. We have school." "Gross." "Hey, tomorrow is friday at least." "True." Derek replies, slowly rising from my bed. "I hate september Ryley." Derek moans behind me as i grab my backpack. "Why?" "It's just stupid... This summer/autumn in between state? I hate it." "Huh... Well i hate it too." *** "Your sure your feeling okay? I can be late for art if you want me to bring you back home." Derek says, beautiful eyes like a dark ocean. I look away, and stare at the kids walking across the parking lot. "No, I'm fine. I have a chemistry assignment to work on." "Text me if anything is wrong." "I'll be fine." I say, opening the car door. We wander into the school, the same hell as always. Crowds of freaks, preps, druggies, and anything in between. I, had a real problem with girls. Yeah, I am a girl. So i got girl clothes, hair, and feminine features, but my god I can't talk to them. There's rarely any compatibility, i wear Converse, not your damn Toms, or Uggs, or whatever. I don't have a paint-on face, and I'm not afraid to fight a painted face. It's me and Derek. That's it. And i like it that way. I'm treated like a shadow here, just a dark little thing that is there but rarely noticed. Unless of course, your Emma Sampson. My childhood enemy, my high school nemesis. The worst of the porcelain faces, with a disgusting taste in bright, hideous patterned clothes. My. Complete. Opposite. Also, my fucking chemistry partner. I'm a good science student, along with english. That's all I got. Words, chemicals, and body parts. Good ol' Riley. Speaking of the bitch of the century, I look to see her standing at my locker, with a smug look on her hideous face. I'm so gonna puke again. I stare at her long, straight golden hair, her muddy brown eyes hungry for amusement. "What do you want." I demand, bumping her out of the way of my locker. I snatch my lock. 12-16-9. She snaps her gum in her mouth."So, Riley... I was having this party tomorrow night...." "Screw off Sampson." I growl, opening my locker. She grins devilishly. "I wanted you to come, sweetheart!" "Fuck. Off." I growl through my teeth, gathering my textbooks and binders. Emma snaps her gum again, and spits it onto my books. "See you in Chem then." Disgusted, I flick off the light pink piece of gum, which lands in her hair as she walks away. Score. I slam my locker shut and wander to class. *** I sit quietly in the lab among the rest of the bored, sleepy seventeen year olds, doodling in my note book. My head began to hurt, I managed to brush the pain off for a while. My ears started to ring, my vision began to swirl. I bit my lip, doing my best to look like I wasn't having a psychotic episode. The pain only worsened, I wanted to scream. "Ryley?" Mr. Burton's voice said. I looked up, sucking back tears. Everyone was staring at. "Do you need a moment to yourself?" I nodded quickly, and dashed out of the room without thinking. I booted it down the hall, and slid into the bathroom, locking the dorr behind me. I backed against the cool brick wall, sweaty. What the hell is happening to me? I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and texted Derek. "In the bathroom... It's happening." My stomach did a backflip. Derek answered: "Bathroom on top floor?" I answer: "yep" I gag, locking myself in a bathroom stall. My phone went off again. I couldn't answer, I was coughing my guts up. For a good fiver minutes I was gasping through stomach spasms, on my hands and knees. "Fuck." I curse. My phone goes off again. Derek: "waiting outside the bathroom" I stumble out of the stall, and out the bathroom to see Derek. I see him, his face drains of colour when he looks down at me. Everything went black from there.

-1- AUTHORS NOTE: this is my first story in a very long time, I would love feed back from ya'll hopefully you enjoy..! *** I open my eyes, to see the silhouette of my ceiling fan in the dark. I shiver, sitting up to find myself being strangled by my sheets, my skin coated in cold sweat. My stomach does a backflip, and I'm hit with a viscous wave of nausea. Like the last two nights. Only flashes of the strange dreams go through my head. Blinding light, pain, and fire. Flames everywhere, licking up my skin, screams fill the dark and fiery oblivion. I wake to this. Pain claws at my spine, and tears into my stomach as i scramble out of my bed to throw up before my bedroom floor takes the gore. I wince, the pain only increasing as I curl around the toilet bowl, retching my guts up. There's a knock on the door. "Yeah?" I whimper. "Riley, it's three in the morning." "I'm sick mom." The door opens. There he mother stands, in a powder blue bathrobe, with light pink pajamas poking out at her wrists and ankles, long black hair in wild tangles around he exhausted face. "Throwing up?" "I came in here to cough and gag to wake you up for fun. Yes mom, see for yourself." "I'd rather not... This has been happening the last three nights. I'm bringing you to the doctor tomorrow afternoon." "Mom..." "Drink some water, back to bed." I stare at the tiles on the bathroom floor for a moment, frustrated. I slowly stand up and reach for my toothbrush. I pause, staring in the mirror. My face was sickly pale, my dark green eyes a strange shade. I looked horrible, sweat dripping down my clammy skin, my long black waves a damp mess, sticking to my skin. I should call Derek. I wander back to my room, stumbling through clothes and hell-knows-what-else until i managed to flick my lamp on and find my phone. I sit, grossed out by the bile-toothpaste mix in my mouth. "..hello..?" A sleepy voice answered. "Derek?" "Ryley, come on it's three...." "It happened again." "What?!" A blast of heat flushes through me, suddenly I'm boiling hot. I gasp, wincing, the room starts to spin. "Ryley... Are you ok..? Ryley talk to me I'm awake now..." His voice is concerned, but distant. "Derek... What..." "Ryley I'll be there in 10..." I drop my phone. Everything goes black. *** "Hey... Before your mom freaks.. Wake the hell up." Something touches my face. "Ryley, come on." Slowly, the familiar voice gets closer and closer, until I hear it in my ear. Warm skin, a working diaphragm against mine. I smile at the comfort of the familiar presence. My eyelids are like cement, bit i managed to force them open. Derek, with deep, dark blue eyes, a lovely face with black hair surrounding it , his skin a clear olive-tone. "You ok?" "Mm..." I mumble, sleepy. "You're so pale, still. I walked in to find your mom beside you crumpled on the floor. I sit up, a wicked headache drills into my head. "Yeah..." I look back at him, he laid there beside me, like the thousands of times before. Derek was my best, and only friendI grew up with. Derek knows everything, and anything about me. Sleepovers usually aren't allowed between a guy and a girl, but I've known him since kindergarden, and our mothers became good friends. We grew up protecting kingdoms, thinking we could fly, having mud fights and dancing in the rain. We're inseparable, like our souls are bound in some strange, even a sick way. I always loved him for who he was. I always though he was sort of beautiful. I keep it to myself. I don't even let myself have the pleasure of thinking of him as anything beyond an unbreakable friendship. "It's weird." Derek says, yanking me back to the real world. I blink. "Yeah... I'm gonna grab a shower." Derek reaches for a comic book off the messy stack on the shelf above my bed. "Kay." I wander across the hall and stumble into the shower. My palms feel hot. Really hot. I wince, turning the water to a cool temperature. I slip my sticky clothes off and slide into the shower.

Brought Me To #life. Fascinated by the grace in his heart and the beauty hidden behind his eyes. Our fingers lace together to a flawless lock. My blood flows, because of the strength he gave me. The bitterness he managed to demolish, My soul he managed to wipe clean, Leaving me to discover a tender side I never saw in myself before. The necromancy he performed, to bring her corpse back to #life, Lungs bursting open, Colour returning to her face, colour flushes through her eyes. Her #lifeless empty portrait is replaced with a face. The blood begins to flow, The affections grow along with it. Consciousness returns, her nerves like live wires. He doesn't even realize the beauty he's created, The #life he's given me... Such a beautiful soul.

Kisses. Fingers lock, A magnificent pattern from his rosy to my pale. Soft arms curled over one another. Pulses alive, gracefully in sync. The warm of his skin tingling agains mine, My nerves feel wired. One set of hands unlatches, his elegant fingers run dow my arm, over veins, blue like a map of rivers. I close my eyes, sinking into him. I run my fingers over his veins, the pretty little green and purple laces. Slowly, we sink deeper, and deeper into each other, his warm breath tangling with mine. I breathe him in, his sweet scent, his breath. His warm lips meet mine, I feel the voltage he sends through me every time our bodies lock. Little volts travel through me, fighting the shock, I move with him. I search him blindly, My fingers rushing across him, across his jaw, down his warm neck and to his sharp collarbones. His hands slowly run down my back. I adore him. His kisses. His grace, and his beauty. This habit of mine, Writing about him. I cannot help myself. I can't keep the divinity of him in my head, but to be released through words.

Frozen. My soul is absent, I've been left to be a walking corpse. Paper skin over delicate bony fingers, shakily grasping the last shard of reality that I've managed to protect for myself. The ice is traveling, Beautiful frosty diamonds around this empty shell. This mind is troubled by the bitter emptiness. Trapped in this state with no light through this dark tunnel. Silence. A sickening silence inside of this shell, Preserved in this figurative ice. The warm of his mouth a drop of morphine, but never enough to melt it all. Never easing all of the silent agony. My nerves have died out, My veins are black, Full of cold poison. Barely a face, More a bled out portrait. Dull eyes, Purple lines graceful paint strokes across the paper flesh & fragile bones, splashes of crimson smeared across. The glint of a razor blade is where i find my amusement. Still in this limbo, Trying to crawl out. Goals remain in shards, Putting them back together is like handling broken glass. I'm frozen here. No destination. A hopeless little soul, A dangerous little wanderer. These cries for help are hardly a whisper. I've lost purpose. I'm frozen here.