Cassie

by Anna Caporusso

I opened my eyes and turned my head towards the light which fell through the window and was burning my skin. The girl from last night was sitting next to me on my bed and her long red hair was hanging in bulky waves over her shoulders while she stared at the ground. 

"Cassie?"

Shocked, she stood up and turned around and tried to hide her face with her hands but I could see a tear running down her cheek which dripped onto my dark blue carpet. 

"What happened last night?" I asked her gently.

I could vaguely remember standing on the cliffs with the the dark forest behind me. Images of the deep sea sparkling in the bright light of the full moon appeared in my head. Cassie sat down again and smiled but her hypnotic green eyes remained serious betraying the smile. Her hand touched my face and her tiny, thin fingers caressed my chin. 

"You hit the ground and lost consciousness", she whispered to me.

"I hit the ground? Stop joking, tell me what happened last night?"

Horrible pain ran through my whole body as my voice became louder then Cassie started crying what seemed like thousands of tears each one dripping on to the blue carpet.

"Cassie, don't cry. Please. I'm sorry."

I wanted to to put my hand onto her head to calm her down and it broke my heart seeing her like this. 

"Don't touch me! Who do think you are?" She yelled and suddenly stopped crying, stood up quickly, went out of my small room slamming the white painted wooden door behind her. 

There I was, alone in my tiny bed, I couldn't remember the last night, and didn't know what to do. I put my head up, very slowly and tried to stand but it was impossible. My whole body ached, I felt paralysed and everything in my head was spinning. I decided to stay where I was and I closed my eyes. 

The next thing I knew, music started playing. Cassie's big green eyes were staring into mine. She put her thin arms around me and laughed, so happily, carefree like I'd never seen her before. Then she started dancing, spinning around and around. Her short black dress fluttered in the wind, her pale, white skin seemed like porcelain in the bright moonlight and her long, red hair danced and swayed with her body. I had to laugh too and I walked towards her and put my hands on her hips and danced. 
 

Bang! A loud noise woke me up. I jumped out of my bed immediately and hit the floor. Shocked I looked around and noticed that it must have been very late. I felt something cold and sharp and my arm started hurting. I stood up and looked out of the window. "Oh no" I thought as I stared at the of window of shattered glass.  Warm blood was running down my arms. The clouds outside moved and moonlight fell trough the broken window. I took one step backwards and hit my left foot on something big. It was a stone! I realised that someone had thrown a stone through my window! I sat down on my bed, my blood was dripping onto the floor. I bandaged my wounds and pulled my shirt off and pressed it into my arms. It didn't help.  I needed doctor but it was in the middle of the night. I was losing so  much blood. I needed to find my phone. Where was it? I stretched my hand out and fumbled for the light switch. Great, now the light doesn't work. 

"Is anyone out there?"

"Hello? IS ANYONE THERE?"

No answer. Okay I must find a way to get to the hospital! I grabbed my car keys and squinted my eyes and stood up. God! This pain! I pushed down the silver door knob.

"Stop. Where do you want to go?"

I turned abruptly at the sound of the voice. I knew this voice. I saw two naked feet on my windowsill. Cassie was jumping into my room. She stood on the shards of glass and they didn't seem to hurt her at all. I inspected her from bottom to top. She wasn't wearing shoes, her skinny black pants emphasised her long, thin legs. She wore a skinny top, which was also black and her red hair ran straight and covered  her shoulders.

"To the hospital" I replied curtly. 

 "Did you throw the stone?" I questioned.

"The front door was locked."

"Ah, okay. The front door was locked, so you smashed my window. Alright, that's fine."

She started smiling, her perfect, white teeth were shining in the moonlight. I didn't feel like smiling at the moment, I was still bleeding but there was something in that smile. It was magical.

"We have to go."

She was serious again.

"Yes we do. We've got to find a hospital."

"No, we haven't got enough time for a hospital at the moment. Just follow me."

She climbed on the windowsill and jumped outside into the woods. 

"Hurry up Dean, we don't have any time!"

Her voice already sounded far away. 

"Cassie!"

Nothing. I walked towards the window, the shards beneath my feet hurt. I put one foot onto the sill, then the other one and jumped out into the cold. The ground was wet but it felt good in contrast to the glass I felt before. Cold wind blew against my body. Damn, I was freezing! 

"Cassie?!"

I started running into the deep woods, shouting her name again and again. Suddenly she was standing right in front of me. Her face came close to my ear.

"Hurry up" she whispered with intent. 

She took my hand and started running again. We were getting faster and faster, I couldn't see anything around us anymore. It was strange, it felt like there was no gravity. I began to feel dizzy like I would lose control over my own body. The only thing I really noticed was her warm hand which was holding mine so tightly like she would never release it again. I remembered the dream I had last night, the way she laughed, her arms around me, her black dress. I felt like I had experienced it before but I still didn't know the end of the dream, I still didn't know what happened the night two days ago and now, now I didn't even know what I was running to. I seemed to know nothing neither about her nor about myself or what I did the last days. 

"Dean."

I heard  Cassie whisper my name, everything became slower, the trees around us were clear and I could see a light in front of us behind the last trees ahead of us. There was the cliff, the only thing that I could really remember. I was here two days ago. Cassie was still holding my hand and now she took my other hand. She looked at my bleeding arms.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't want to sound angry but it burned unbearably when her fingers touched my wounds.

"Shhhh be quiet."

I could not believe what I saw. The cuts were healing! The blood disappeared, my skin regenerated, without leaving any scarring. I stared at my arms, I was totally stunned. I wanted to say something, and I look looked up and saw Cassie who was staring straight in the eyes. A big wave of heat came over me and I couldn't do anything else than put my arms around her and pull her to my freezing body. She let me hold her in my arms, her face came closer, the green of her eyes stole my attention and were still staring at me. She softly pushed her lips onto my lips and I let her. But then she broke up and pressed her face against my shoulder. I tenderly stroked her hair and she started to cry.

"You are not a human, Cassie. What are you?"

She looked up and the green of her eyes was gone.