Redheads are Soulless Read online

  I nodded. He was right, but the truth hurt.

  He pulled my chin up so I was looking at him. “If it makes you feel better, we can stop by after school and you can check on her and pack some clothes.”

  I nodded sadly. “That sounds great.”

  He smiled at me, and I attempted to smile back, but I failed.

  “What about your brother? Will he be back at school again tomorrow?” I asked.

  He sighed angrily. “I’m afraid my brother is very persistent. I don’t think he will try anything like that again, but he will for sure taunt you.” I was sure an annoyed look came over my face, he laughed. “I’ve been around him for thousands of years – think about me. He follows me around everywhere I go.”

  “So what is this curse my dad put on Robbie?”

  Jason just shrugged. “I honestly have no clue. I’ve tried to figure it out, but I can’t. Robbie is very secretive.” Again, I felt like he was lying, or at the very least holding something back. I would figure it out eventually.

  “I was just wondering what about it was so important. I mean, maybe I could break it for him,” I shrugged.

  He shook his head. “No way, I would never let you do that. Whatever your dad did, he did it for a reason.”

  “I guess you’re right,” I sighed.

  I didn’t want this mess. I just wanted my not so great life back, because at least then, nobody wanted me dead. Then, I was just a normal seventeen year old girl, dreaming about the future. Now, I’m a freakish non-human one, who can break stuff with her mind.

  “Do my… umm… powers only work when I get mad?” I asked curiously.

  He laughed. “No. They’re just enhanced when you get mad.” He picked up a pillow off the couch. “Think about lifting this pillow with your mind.”

  I looked at him curiously, but I didn’t question. I focused on the pillow and imagined it floating. At first, nothing happened, but then suddenly the pillow floated just inches above his head.

  “I did it!” I said excitingly, breaking concentration. The pillow came down and hit him in the head. I laughed.

  “Good thing we weren’t practicing with a brick,” he joked. “It’ll get easier the more you practice.”

  “What if I don’t want this?” I asked. “What if I want a normal life?”

  “Normal isn’t an option,” he answered. “I mean, you can continue your life as normal, but you’re immortal. You will eventually stop aging, and people will notice. You will continually be uprooting your life. It’s just easier to be alone.”

  Always alone – well that sounded terrible. Maybe death would be better by comparison.

  “Of course,” he cleared his throat, “you always have me… If you want me, that is.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “The question is could you put up with me forever.”

  He laughed. “Oh, I don’t think I will have a problem.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. After the first few hundred years I might get annoying.”

  “Trust me, you won’t.”

  “What about my dad? He married a human. Did he think my mom wouldn’t notice he wasn’t aging?”

  “Honestly, I have no clue what he was thinking. He must have really loved her,” he answered the best he could. “I’m sure he would have eventually had to share his secret, or leave. I can’t believe he kept it as long as he did, honestly.”

  “So how old will I get? Before I stop aging?”

  He shrugged. “I stopped at 19, but you could stop anytime from now until your early 20’s.”

  “Shouldn’t I be more excited about eternal youth?”

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he said bitterly, “especially when you have an evil brother whose goal in life is to torture your every moment of existence.”

  I couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped my lips. I could tell from the look on Jason’s face that he didn’t think it was that funny, but even he smiled a little.

  Eternity with him didn’t sound all that bad. The idea was definitely growing on me.

  At 4 o’clock, as promised, Jason took me to my house so I could check on my mom and get some clothes. She was lying on the couch, as usual. This time I got her a glass of water with her migraine medicine. I needed her to know that I would in no way support her drinking habit… at least not anymore.

  She eyed me evilly. “Where’s my beer?”

  “It’s Monday, and you have work. You shouldn’t be drinking before you go in. You could lose your job.”

  She grumbled under her breath, but took the pills anyway.

  “I was just letting you know I will be staying with a friend tonight, and I won’t be home. I just came to get some clothes,” I explained.

  She nodded, not even asking where I was going. “Sounds good, I may have company tonight anyway.”

  I felt myself stiffen. I didn’t ask who, I didn’t want to know. I just walked to my room and packed everything I could. Jason was waiting for me in his car.

  My mom was a completely different person today than she was only a few days ago. She instantly turned cold and bitter.

  She didn’t even ask who I was staying with, I thought painfully.

  My lungs felt like they were going to collapse. I held onto my closet door for a moment and willed myself to take a breath. It hurt deep.

  My own mother broke my heart… literally.

  I breathed through the pain and quickly reminded myself that I couldn’t stay here. I had to go with Jason if I wanted to live.

  As I packed as much as I could in my small suitcase, I tried to think about only Jason… Thoughts of him calmed my panic and finally I was able to breathe normally again – well, as normally as I could thinking about him. Once I was certain I had packed everything, I walked out into the living room. My mom had a beer in her hand.

  “Bye, Mom,” I said as I stopped at the door.

  She just waved her freshly opened can at me. She didn’t even say good-bye. My heart sank, but as I stepped out of the house and saw Jason waiting for me by his car, I couldn’t help the happiness that slowly washed over me.

  He gave me a hug as I walked up to his car. “Did everything go ok?”

  I sighed. “Yes.”

  He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t push it either. He put my purple suitcase in his trunk, and drove us back to his house. When we got there, a red car just like his was sitting in the driveway.

  “Stay in the car,” he commanded me.

  Suddenly, I saw why he didn’t want me to get out. Standing in the driveway was his twin brother Robbie. My stomach twisted in knots as I watched their confrontation. From the car, I could tell they were yelling at each other, but I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. I fought the urge to roll down the window.

  After a few minutes of arguing, Jason, who looked a little deflated, walked back to the car. He opened my door. I sat there and patiently waited for him to talk.

  He sighed. “Sofie… Robbie is going to be staying with us for a while.”

  My heart suddenly felt as though it weighed one hundred pounds. “What do you mean? He will just kill me in my sleep.”

  “No, he won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because… as long as I am around, he cannot hurt you,” he explained. “Like physically, he can’t lay a finger on you. You are one hundred percent safe.”

  “How can he not hurt me just because you’re around?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

  “Because, I will protect you,” he promised.

  “But you can’t always be around,” I protested.

  He half-laughed. “Oh, yes I can.”

  “So what? We are supposed to spend every waking moment together?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Waking, and sleeping.”

  “For how long?”

  “Forever,” he answered.

  I thought about it for a minute… Spending twenty four hours a day with Jason, for the rest of my
existence? I could definitely get used to this.

  He smiled, as if he knew what I was thinking. I was sure that I was blushing, so I cleared my throat. “I guess… umm… we should go inside.”

  Jason laughed. “You are adorable.”

  “Thanks,” I bit my lip.

  He got my suitcase out of the trunk, and we walked hand in hand inside. Robbie, of course, was waiting in the living room for us.

  “Oh, how sweet,” he wiped a fake tear from his cheek. “You’re holding hands.”

  I rolled my eyes at him, and a lamp on the table beside him started to rumble.

  Robbie held up his hands in defense. “You really should work on that temper, Red.”

  Suddenly, the lamp shattered. “My name is Sofia, and you will do well to remember. Never, ever call me Red.”

  “Sorry, Sofia.” There was something in his eyes, for a split second. I almost believed he was genuinely sorry. But, just as quickly as it came, it disappeared; hate filling the place of all his humanity.

  “Robbie, you will not torture my girlfriend,” Jason informed him. I was still so mad at Robbie, I couldn’t even smile at the fact that Jason called me his girlfriend.

  “Girlfriend?” Robbie laughed. “Is that what she is now? I thought she was just some little pet you were messing around with.”

  “I don’t mess around,” I said angrily. I grabbed Jason’s hand and pulled him towards his bedroom.

  One thing was certain: Robbie was going to get annoying very fast… I began to second guess whether staying here would be a good thing.

  I looked at Jason. He had just laid down on the bed. He watched me cautiously… I had no doubt, I would put up with Robbie for an eternity if it meant I could keep Jason.

  I slid onto the bed and let Jason hold me. I didn’t think I would be able to sleep, but with Jason holding me I felt safe. Within minutes I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

  Eight

  Nightmare

  When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t help but smile. I was still being held by Jason, and I couldn’t think of anywhere else in the world that I would rather be.

  “Hey, princess,” I heard a sarcastic voice from behind me. I jumped when I saw Robbie standing in the doorway.

  Jason was still asleep, but I still felt safe in his arms. I chose to ignore Robbie and lay my head back on my pillow. Not even he could ruin my good mood.

  “I’m sorry… Good morning, Sofia,” he said sweetly, but I could still hear the slightest bit of sarcasm in his voice. “You and lover boy over there should probably get up if you don’t want to be late for school.”

  I sat up, and looked at the clock on the wall.

  7:55 – if we didn’t leave now, we would be late. I shook Jason. “Wake up.”

  He looked at me and smiled. After he realized the time, we got up and got ready for school in record time. We got to school five minutes late, but Mr. Franks let us off with a warning. I wondered if he would always take it easy on me.

  The school had written the broken lights, windows and glass doors off as a power surge, as Jason had said. Everything was completely back to normal, and everybody had forgotten about our previous fight in the hallway.

  Jason talked to the counselor and had his schedule changed. He had every class with me now, but so did Robbie. They both charmed all the teachers so they could sit beside me. With Robbie on one side and Jason on the other, it made for a very tense day of school.

  Every time I looked over at Robbie, he would wink. I couldn’t help but look at him. The guy wanted me dead, and I wasn’t quite so sure he couldn’t kill me as long as Jason was with me.

  “Why are you torturing me?” I finally asked Robbie at lunch as he sat down across from Jason and me.

  He laughed a genuinely happy laugh. “Because, Red, it’s so much fun.”

  My lunch tray started to rattle, so I pushed it down before anybody noticed. “I told you not to call me Red.”

  “Maybe you should try some anger management classes. Or yoga,” he suggested.

  “I don’t think meditation will help when it comes to you,” I smarted off back to him. “All the prayer in the world wouldn’t be enough.”

  He snored. “Not like it would do you any good to pray anyway. I’d love to see you try and walk into a church.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jason touched my arm. “Don’t listen to him.”

  Robbie continued. “Haven’t you heard, Red? You’re soulless. If you walk into a church, you will burn to death.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I have a soul, unlike you.”

  “Is that what your boyfriend told you?”

  “Because it’s the truth,” Jason jumped in. “Seriously Robbie, I will not sit back while you torture Sofia. She is the most important person in the world to me. Don’t think for one minute I would hesitate to kill you for her.”

  Robbie bit his nails. “Ooooh, I’m so scared.” He glared at us both. “You have forgotten the part where you don’t really care about her.” Robbie’s voice was full of hate, and I knew that he would not hesitate to kill me if given the chance. The thought scared me. I’m not ready to die. I haven’t even gotten the chance to live.

  I tried to push back the tears that threatened to escape. I didn’t want Robbie to know that he scared me. I didn’t want him to know he has any effect over me.

  I was thankful when the bell rang alerting us that lunch was over. I walked out of the cafeteria as quickly as I could, followed by Jason.

  “I’m sorry about him,” he apologized. “Robbie is kind of a bitter person.”

  I just nodded my head, unsure of how to respond.

  “He’s a liar, and he knows he’s getting to you, Sof. You can’t let him. You’ve got to fight it. I will protect you.”

  “Can I really not pray or go to church?” the question came out in a whisper.

  “Of course you can,” he laughed.

  “Good. Cause I have a feeling I’m going to need a lot of prayer when it comes to him.”

  After school, I didn’t go visit my mom. I just called her and let her know I wouldn’t be home again. She said it was ok, because she would have company again as well. I had a sinking feeling that she wouldn’t miss me, even if I never came home. The thought saddened me more than I thought it would.

  Everything had become overwhelming, and I was feeling a little depressed. Jason said that he would take me out on Saturday to do something fun, and I found myself very much looking forward to the upcoming weekend.

  On Thursday night, I cuddled with Jason on the couch while we watched a movie. Of course Robbie sat on the other side of me. As much as I tried to ignore him, it was impossible. I had never met anybody so persistent, and annoying before.

  Jason got up to make some popcorn, as always, Robbie took it as his opportunity to annoy me. Maybe he thinks he can annoy me to death. I didn’t think it was possible, but with him, it may truly be.

  “I can keep you warm while he’s gone,” Robbie winked at me. I felt his arm slip behind me on the couch.

  I took his hand and threw it back to his side. “No thank you. I’d rather freeze.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Don’t pretend to be offended. You don’t care about me,” I said angrily.

  “What makes you think I don’t care about you?” I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, or honest. So I went with sarcastic.

  “You want to kill me. If you cared about me, even a little, you wouldn’t kill me.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to kill you. It’s Jason who wants to kill you. But I may have to kill you. Don’t act like you know something when you really have no clue, Sofie.”

  “Why would you have to kill me?”

  “You know why… Because it’s the only way I can get this curse lifted.” I couldn’t tell he was lying.

  “What curse? You seem fine to me,” I answered. “Please, explain this curse to me. If my dad put it on you, maybe I can lift it.
”

  “Of course you can lift it,” he smiled bitterly. “Your death is the key to it all.”

  “I don’t want to die.” My voice came out in a whisper. I didn’t want to admit my weakness to him, but I couldn’t help it.

  “I don’t want you to die either.” His voice was so quiet, I was certain I had misunderstood him. I didn’t have time to question either. Jason walked back in with the popcorn and we resumed playing the movie, but after that I had a hard time concentrating. I knew that there was more to me dying than just lifting some curse. I knew that even Jason didn’t know the truth, but I was going to figure it out. I had to.

  …

  That morning when I woke up, to my surprise, Robbie wasn’t standing in the doorway. I couldn’t help but smile. I rolled over to give Jason a kiss, and jumped when I seen Robbie lay in his place instead. My heart beat franticly from the surprise.

  “Where’s Jason?” I asked. I tried to sound calm, but I could hear myself freaking out.

  Robbie’s eyes stared at me. For a moment, I got lost in his caramel-colored eyes, the same color as Jason’s, but his eyes soon turned red. “Jason can’t come out and play,” he replied, followed by a deep laugh.

  I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. My throat wouldn’t let me. I tried to get up and run, but I couldn’t. I lay frozen in place and Robbie got closer.

  “Sofie,” I heard a voice.

  Suddenly, everything was really bright. I jumped when I saw Jason shaking me.

  “Sofie?” he asked again.

  I breathed deeply. “Sorry. I was just having a bad dream.”

  Jason pulled me close to him, but out of the corner of my eye I could see Robbie standing in the doorway laughing softly. I watched him as I let Jason hold me.

  Robbie looked at me differently than I had ever seen him look at me before… He looked at me with desire. I quickly pushed the thought aside, and turned my attention away from him. There was no way he was feeling those kinds of feelings for me. That is just crazy. The only desire he feels for me is the desire to murder me.

  The rest of my Friday crept by slowly. Robbie wasn’t his normal sarcastic self. Instead, we all just sat there in awkward silence. Because of it, I felt more certain than ever that he was hiding something about the curse – something that I planned to figure out as soon as I was given the opportunity.