Chapter Three

Chapter three: A Chill Down My Spine

Something was amiss. I could feel it. Suddenly, a chill passed through my spine.

I turned around slowly, not yet ready to see whatever was behind me.

As I turned around, I saw.....

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing except the things that were already there. Like the trees and the sand and the ocean and the other stuff.

I faced the front and taking a step back, I screamed.

There, standing in front of me was Tobias himself.

He had a strange expression on his face, one which I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"How did you.. there.. now..." I looked behind me and pointed at him. Was he a ghost? I knew something was wrong with him. I just could feel it.

"You're going the wrong way." He said crossing his arms casually.

"Well no shit." I took a step away from him.

He had swiftly changed the topic, but I had to let it go. I had to go home.

He shook his head and started walking on the path I just wasted an hour walking upon. If only he had said yes earlier, we both wouldn't have to waste so much time.

I followed right behind, well physically, but mentally, all I could think was, how the hell did he come up in front of me? To say I was freaked out would be an understatement. i was going nuts thinking up possibilities. He definitely is Voldemort.

"We're...." I crashed into his rock hard back.

"W...what?" I suddenly started to stutter and looked around confused. How the hell did we get here?

We were back at the Sandy Shore.

"Hey! Get back to earth, you weirdo" Tobias said waving his hand in front of my face. I smacked his hand away. Obviously.

"How the hell did we reach here so fast? You said it was a fifteen minute walk!" I exclaimed putting my hand on my hip.

"We did walk for 15 minutes. Hell we walked for almost an hour. But you seemed too lost in your own world to notice." He looked at me weirdly.

"What??!!!"

What??!!! How's that even possible?

"But..." before I could say anything, his phone rang it's high pitch tune.

He gestured me to wait for a second, while he fumbled with his phone.

I didn't want to be caught eavesdropping so I turned my back towards him and looked around. This was the place where I always came for swimming. I tried to remember the night before, but I was blank. I couldn't remember anything after going into the water.

I saw something glisten in the evening light. Dropping my bag, I went to see what it was.

It turned out to be a smooth coral sort of rock, but it had something engraved on it. And the engraving emitted a soft blue light.

The smooth stone was so cold that I almost dropped it, when I picked it up.

There was just something strange about the stone. It felt as if it emitted power. Yes. The stone hummed with something.

I turned around the stone in my fingers, wondering what it would be.

"It's a runestone." Tobias' deep voice startled me.

"A what?"

"A runestone. It's supposed to have powers as said in the old books."

"Oh so you know how to read, huh?"

"Yeah..." he frowned putting his hands on his hips. But his lips twitched assuring me that he wasn't hurt. Well, I didn't care anyways.

"Thanks for your late help, I'll get going. But not without this." I found that stone. Finders keepers.

I took the runestone or whatever from his fingers and slid it in my pocket.

"Bye. Hope not to see you again!" I turned my back to him and sprinted to my home.

_______

I dumped my bag on my desk and fell on my bed. Even after spending days sleeping, I felt thoroughly fatigued. My arms and legs felt like they were made from lead and my head hurt like someone was playing a painful game of catch in there.

But I had to take a shower. Jeez, I must stink.

I shed my clothes on the floor and went to the bathroom with a fresh change of clothes.

The warm water soothed my aching muscles as I sank in the bathtub.

I don't know how much time passed while I laid in the tub and the water had long ago gone cold. My phone started to ring from the side and I picked it up and put it on speaker.

"What's up, mama bear?" I said while getting out of the tub and wrapping myself in my blue, fluffy bathrobe.

"Where were you all day yesterday?"

"On a road trip as usual." I hate lying to Madelyn but I couldn't tell her the truth that I blacked out for a day and half and woke up to an absolute Greek god standing shirtless.

God what if he!!! No wait. He couldn't right? He won't do anything to a girl in a bikini lying unconscious on his bed would he?

"Reeeeally?" She dragged the 'e' for almost a minute.

"Affirmative."

"Okay. If you say so. Meet at the diner at 6 sharp okay?" She didn't sound convinced, but she let it go.

"Sure. Bye. Love you." I said changing into a tank top and shorts.

"Love you too. Take care. Bye!" The line went dead, and then I went into my room and started to tame my wild hair.

The diner was called 'Seaview Diner' because why the hell not, and was owned by an old couple and their children. It was the cosiest diner in town and a usual meeting place for me and the others.

It was pretty close to the ocean too, so it was the perfect place for high schoolers to take their dates.

Kayla always went gooey-eyes seeing couples around.

I couldn't help but smile as her cheerful face filled my thoughts.

I loved my friends a lot.

And Madelyn acted like the mom I never had the opportunity to meet.

I wished Caleb lives with us.. but he actually moved in with his girlfriend, and lived a few minutes away.

I mean, it's okay to really love someone, but moving houses at the age of seventeen? I wasn't so sure.

With these thoughts swirling in my head, I finished my light makeup and went down.