Blackwood

Ava

The smell of the ocean fills my nose as I sit and watch the waves. The beach is the one place I know I can come and think. I woke up this morning in a cold sweat from a recurring dream where I’m fighting these human hybrids that have long sharp teeth and blood-red eyes, and in my dream I get bitten and I feel like my soul is getting sucked out of me, but somebody is always there to save me and fight with me but I can never see their faces.

Today is my 19th birthday and I miss my mom and dad. They died in a car accident two years ago. A drunk driver hit them and my father lost control of the car. A few weeks after the accident was when the dreams started happening.

My uncle took me in and cared for me like I was his own. I work at a pizza place called Joe’s Pizza to help my uncle pay the bills.

I sigh as I think of how my uncle is lying in the hospital recovering from a nasty fall at work. He works at Shadowbrook construction, and they are only paying half the medical bill. Better that than nothing, I guess.

I check the time on my phone and decided to get going to work. As I walk into Joe’s Pizza, I see Meg waiting for me.

“Happy Birthday Ava!” said Meg, as she comes over to give me a hug.

“I’ve got to go soon, thanks again for coming extra early. Sue is being sent home from school with the flu.”

“It’s no problem, Meg. I hope Sue gets better soon and give her a hug from me.”

As I start my shift, I hear the bell above the entrance door chime. When I turn to look, I see two guys come in and I almost fall flat on my ass! Both guys are tall, blonde, blue-eyed and muscular. They are twins but the only difference between them is that the one looks angry and the other looks kind.

They are both dressed casually, and Mr. angry eyes guy is wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, combat boots and a black leather jacket that I would love to have. The kind eyes guy is wearing a dark blue ripped faded jeans, white t-shirt, and combat boots. They take a seat in the one booth at the back and start looking at the menu.

As I approach the booth, angry eyes look up at me.

“Hello, ah... my name is Ava, um... is there anything I can get you?”

I feel my face turn blood red from embarrassment. Oh gawd! I could shoot myself, why the hell am I so nervous.

“Can you give us a few minutes; we are waiting for our sister before we decide anything.” I turn to look into beautiful kind blue eyes.

“Of course! I’ll be back then.”

When I’m safely behind the counter, I roll my eyes at my own ridiculous nerves and give myself a little pep talk. As I’m wiping the counter, I look up towards the booth with the two guys and I notice they are in a heated argument. Huh, I wonder what that’s about.

As I continue to wipe the counter, I hear the chime from the front door, when I look to the door there is this beautiful brown hair, blue-eyed girl wearing black leggings, a pink tank top and high-heeled boots, that walks towards the two guys. Okay, that must be the sister. I give them a few minutes to look over the menu before I go to them.

“Hello again, are you ready to order?”

Their sister looks up at me and gives me the most amazing smile like she knows something I don’t.

“Yes, I think we are ready to order. I’ll have a strawberry milkshake and a large Pepperoni pizza to share and two cokes for my brothers.”

“Sure, I’ll be right back with your order.”

I put the order in and prepare the drinks; I look over at the siblings and I see that they are in a deep discussion again. Angry eyes look up at me with a smirk and winks, shit! I quickly turn my head away all red-faced.

I walk over to the table with the drinks and place it in front of them.

“Here you go. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, we good thanks. By the way I’m Violet Blackwood, and these are my brothers, Jace and Zed Blackwood.”

Violet holds out her hand and I take it.

“I’m Ava Samuel, but you probably already knew that.” I pointed to my name tag.

“Yup, I know.” Violet laughs.

I giggle with her as I hold my hand out to shake Zeds hand. As our hands connected, I felt tingles going up my arm and my heart starts pounding. I look at Zed and I can see the surprise on his face, and I knew he felt it too.

With a red face, I turn to Jace and extend my hand to him. Jace just looks at me with those angry eyes of his and nods his head in acknowledgement.

“Ava, orders up!” I hear from the kitchen.

I walk back to the booth and put the pizza on the table.

“Enjoy.”

I go around clearing tables and wiping them down. I went up to the kitchen window to ask for a glass of water when I hear Violet call my name.

“Ava.”

I turn to look at her, and she has a smile on her face. The bell above the door chimes and I see Jace and Zed exiting the restaurant.

“Is everything okay?”

“Of course, that pizza was amazing thank you. I need to pay the bill.”

I give Violet the bill, but before she walks off, she turns and looks at me.

“Listen, Ava, I know we just met but can I have your number, please? Maybe we can go shopping together or hang out. I’d really like to be your friend if you okay with that.”

I was so not expecting that; Violet is the popular girl type of person where I am just your average person. Anyway, I give Violet my number because she seems like a genuine person. Violet rings my phone so I can save it.

“Perfect! I’ll call you tomorrow to make plans.”

She’s gives me a hug goodbye and leaves. Wow okay, that was cool, or weird not sure yet. The rest of the afternoon goes by and I see it’s already 8:30 pm, I flip the open sign to closed and Chef Joe the owner of Joe’s pizza leaves the kitchen.

“Ava my dear, I’m sorry I forgot it was your birthday, I hope you can forgive this old man.”

“It’s okay Joe, we all going to forget things at some point.” I said smiling at him.

“That is very true Ava.” He laughs “But I wish you all the happiness, success and love for your future. You are such a beautiful person inside and out and your parents would be so proud of you.”

Joe gives me a kiss on the cheek and leaves. Joe is in his late sixties early seventies and ever since the knee operation and seeing the tiredness in his face, I told him I would clean the restaurant every night and drop the keys off at his house. I turn on the radio and get started on the cleaning.

I check the time and it’s 10 pm; I hang up my apron and lock the doors and make my way to Joe’s house, luckily it’s a small town so most of the places are in walking distance. I drop the keys with Joe, and I make my way home.

While walking along the sidewalk by the beach, I get the sense of being followed. I look behind me, but nobody is there. I walk faster and the steps behind me go faster.

I panic and run the next thing I feel is being hit, by what I don’t know, my vision blurs, and I see four figures fighting then a burst of light. I see two shadows approach me they seem familiar, but my vision is too blurry, and I black out.