Archaic by Regan Ure

I was alone. For a moment I thought it had all been a dream. Then I realized I was in Jared's room. It was early morning because I could see the sunrise through a gap in the curtains. Sitting up, I noticed the pain was completely gone. I didn't know how I had gone from such unspeakable agony to nothing overnight. I vaguely remembered Jared putting his hands on me, and the warmth before the pain had eased. I remembered Jared's conversation with Catherine and something about him healing me. He'd healed me. He'd saved my life. If it hadn't been for him, I was pretty sure I wouldn't have recovered. The thought that I could have died brought my thoughts back to the attack. My attacker looked just like Jared except for his coloring, but how was that possible? Jared had never mentioned a sibling. Obviously Jared hadn't told me everything.
    Slowly I shifted out of the bed and stood up. I walked into his ensuite bathroom and went to look at myself in the mirror. My breath caught in my lungs as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Although I felt fine, I looked awful. I thought Jared looked terrible last night, but I looked worse. There were dark rings under my eyes. No amount of makeup could cover up those.
    Hearing a noise behind me I looked into the mirror to see Jared standing behind me. He still wore the clothes he'd worn yesterday. Our eyes met.
    "I didn't mean for you to wake up alone," he said. Gone was the self-assured, egotistical boy, and in his place stood a quiet and unsure one. I was momentarily taken aback.
    "It's okay," I assured him, turning around to face him. He stepped forward and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.
    "It's not okay." His eyes searched mine.
    I felt there was more behind those words than just the fact he hadn't been there when I had woken up.
    "You hungry?" he asked. I shook my head.
    "Are you in any pain?" I shook my head again.
    "You still need to take it easy," he instructed as he took my hand and led me out of the bathroom. I got back into his bed and settled with my back against the headboard. He pulled the covers up to my chest and sat down on the bed, directly across from me.
    "I know you have lots of questions, but I need to ask some important ones first." I nodded my head.
    "I need you to tell me what happened. Every detail," he insisted. His expression serious.
    "It started at school in the morning--"
    "At school?" he asked with a frown. He ran his hand through his hair.
    "Yes."
    "What happened at school?" he demanded with a fierce look in his eyes.
    "It was nothing, really. I was just walking to my locker and someone bumped into me. It was a guy with a maroon hoodie. I couldn't see his face. Honestly I never thought much of it."
    I couldn't look at him when I continued with the next part of my story, so I kept my eyes fixed on the edge of the blanket I was fiddling with. "I got off the bus as usual. It was only when I started walking toward my house that I realized someone was following me. I turned and saw the boy in the maroon hoodie. I started to walk faster because there was just something about him that made me nervous." I paused as my eyes moved to see his fists tighten. He was struggling to keep his anger under control.
    "I walked faster, but he caught up with me. I just made it to my house when he grabbed me. He turned me around and I saw his face."
    Jared held his breath. "His face looked exactly like yours. The only difference was that his hair was blond, his eyes were blue and he was pale."
    He stood up and backed away from me. I'd never seen him so angry, like he was about to lose it. I felt the power starting to build up the air around him. The hairs on my arms stood up as I watched him. This was nothing like what I'd seen in the clearing that night.
    My first instinct was to calm him down. Any normal person would have climbed under the bed and stayed there, but I jumped out of bed and walked toward him. He closed his eyes and I could see the struggle in his features.