Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

truly alone.
    He flinched, I saw anger flash in his eyes. “What do you want me to do? Aimee, what do you want? I will do anything!”
    I challenged him. “Believe me.”
    He slumped. “Aimee, there isn’t anything wrong with you that I can see. You seem fine to me—come home with me. I wish you’d just come to me in the beginning of all of this. I wish you’d trusted me. I hate the fact we've had all these secrets."
    He stepped forward and put his hands over mine.
    I hadn’t noticed the taste of him that lingered in the air, but as he neared me and touched me, my skin became electric.
    I wanted to go home, I wanted a shower, I wanted to trust him, but I couldn’t trust myself, not yet. I felt every move he made in the air around me. It scared me.
    He snatched his hands back. “Owe, Jesus! You shocked me.”
    I felt my eyes flutter from the ecstasy of touching him. “Go Shane.” I breathed heavily, using all the restraint I had inside of me to stop myself from lashing out at him.
    “ Blake told me you’ve been seeing that Aleks guy behind my back, the entire time we’ve been seeing each other. Is that why you want me to leave?”
    The words hung out in the air. They felt like a black hole, taking everything good with them. I doubly hated Blake. I hated him for hurting Shane.
    I didn’t fight with Shane, because if I stopped fighting with myself, I would lose control. I knew I would hurt him. My hands wanted to hold him. They burned with the need. My stomach ached and twisted in pain and hunger.
    He looked hurt. “Nothing to say? Well anyway, I knew you were here and I just wanted to give you this.”
    He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.
    His arm shook with rage as he held it out in the air for me. “Take the fucking letter you wrote me, Aimee. I don’t want those feelings or memories, because I know now that you’re just like your sister. You’re just like her.”
    He walked toward me. He looked like he would hurt me.
    He stood over me, looming menacingly. I could taste his breath on the breeze.
    He put the letter into my hands roughly. “Take the fucking thing, Aimee. Just take it back. Take it all back—I want to be free of you.”
    I flinched away from him. I was scared of what he would do next. Tears poured down my face.
    He looked at me like I was nothing more than a nuisance.
    I let him back away, before I whispered, “I love you.”
    He turned away from me to walk down the beach. I wanted to stay frozen in my tracks, but foolishly I ran to him as fast as I could. “Shane, wait, please.” I grabbed his arm pulling him back to me.
    The minute his skin came in contact with mine, I felt it. I was pulling from him. He stood motionless as I filled up. The feeling was more joy than I had ever felt. I inhaled him through my hands somehow. I let go hurting myself, as if cutting off a vein feeding me. He shivered and swayed like he drank too much or stood up. Afraid of touching him, I backed away as he got his bearings.
    He looked confused but turned away again, leaving me standing on the beach alone.
    I hated Blake. I wanted to blame him for it all. It was fleeting and immature, but I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t move as I watched Shane get smaller and smaller. I felt cold and alone, even though the sun shone on me.
    I blinked, realizing he was gone, probably had been for some time. I had stood there for a very long time. I watched the place he had entered the forest, leaving me forever. I knew I had made the wrong choice, when I had met Aleks, and losing Shane was more painful than losing Aleks. I had never realized that losing him meant losing the person I wanted to be, and the life I wanted to have.
    I turned and walked back to my campfire to stoke it for the night. I knew I would have to go home sooner or later, and at that moment, later sounded better. Whatever my hands had done, was bad. Very bad.
    The night was a cold one, even I shivered with the breeze coming off of the water.
    I heard rustling in the woods and hoped it was a wolf or bear coming to attack me and leave me in the woods to die.
    I realized I would never die.
    I had foolishly drunk from a demon.
    In my despair, I fell asleep in between the logs and rocks. I woke up feeling refreshed again. I didn’t know how long I had slept, but the summer fog had come in thick. On the North Coast the best way to tell when summer had hit, was the fog. It rolled in every night at six and rolled out at eleven the next day. I