Sweet Sleep (The Children of Ankh Book 1) Read online

  Strange weather we’ve been having lately, Kayn thought as she watched the clear blue sky change in a matter of moments from completely cloudless to one full of fluffy white clouds. She could smell the scent of the fresh cut grass. It was so potent that it was a little strange that she hadn’t noticed it until right this second.

  The pair walked quietly for a second more when Kayn noticed that as she shuffled through the grass, the sounds seemed to amplify. She could hear the grass rustling under her feet. Something felt off today. Kevin’s feet came into her line of sight. She raised her eyebrows at him and pointed to his untied shoelaces. Kevin bent over in front of her to tie up his shoes.

  Kayn began to speak as if she were reading his obituary. “I can see the paper now. It would read something like this: Kevin Smith was a wonderful boy, so smart and good looking but a little clumsy. Had he only tied his shoes he wouldn't have fallen down the stairs and found himself impaled on a janitor’s broom. Remember kids—tie your shoes—safety first.”“Have I told you that you’re an asshole?” Kevin stated when she finished her latest version of his obituary.

  Kayn didn’t have a comeback. She glanced behind her and then from side to side. She couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling that something was coming. There was a hollow ache in her chest. A strange feeling that lingered each time she swallowed.

  Kevin leaned in to Kayn’s ear and whispered, “You sure you’re okay because you’re starting to creep me out a bit with this weird behavior.”

  Kevin’s warm breath in her ear made Kayn shiver again. Everything seemed heightened. She had the strangest urge to lean over and kiss him square on the lips. She was obviously going a little bit crazy today. It must be low blood sugar or something?

  She replied, “No … just over tired I guess.”

  “The way you’re swinging your head around, young lady, is frankly a little weird,” Kevin said, raising his eyebrows in her direction in a moderately concerned fashion.

  He twirled around in a circle and added, “Nobody is coming, I swear.”

  “I know,” Kayn answered, “I’m feeling a little off. Maybe I’m coming down with something?”

  “We should be more worried about your creepy behavior causing a nasty case of whiplash.”

  Kevin flung his arm around her shoulder and gave her a buddy-like squeeze. “You go have a shower, muffin; you’re kind of sweaty and nasty. What do you do, cover yourself in honey before you go for a run?” Kevin chuckled as he smelled his hands and groaned, “Ewww, that’s not honey.”

  Kayn sparred, “There you go talking all dirty again, literally; it’s kind of hot, all this talk of toxins and waste.”

  “What was your boyfriend’s name again, Kayn?” Kevin asked innocently. They were walking together, and she gave him a solid shove. “You should call up your invisible girlfriend and ask her what her name is love monkey,” she said and winked.

  “I have a girlfriend. Her name is Chloe. She just doesn’t know it yet,” he teased. He couldn’t help himself. She knew this. He was well aware that constant talk of her sister irritated her to no end. It was his easy smack down in a comedy standoff.

  “Do you know what the difference between you and a stalker is?” she responded sweetly.

  “Do tell, oh wise and mighty stalking connoisseur,” he sighed.

  “It's whether or not you’re wearing my sister’s stolen thong underwear right now,” she said. She attempted to wrestle with Kevin a bit in order to catch a stealth look down the back of his shorts.

  “Hey, hey, simmer down. I swear I will yell rape. I'm going commando. Pulling my shorts off is not a great idea,” he laughed as he fended her off.

  “Like you could handle me,” She chuckled. She cringed with pain as she shifted her bag to her other shoulder. It always had twenty pounds of books in it. She could never memorize her locker combination. She was utterly horrible with numbers. That was her excuse. The real reason probably being that she would be obliged to speak to the vapid girls that hung out around her locker. She liked to be left alone in her own little world. Kevin grabbed her heavy bag off of her without saying a word. “Hey, I’ll have you know that I have been going commando since my first wedgie in fifth grade. Once they grab for underwear and don’t find any, they get very afraid and back right off,” he chuckled.

  Kayn doubled over into a fit of giggles. She laughed, “I honestly don't doubt that for a second.”

  “You learn lots of little things that help you maneuver through geekdom unscathed if you’re crafty,” he said as they started walking again.

  Kevin was carrying both of their bags. She knew he was being tough; she knew how heavy her bag was. She smiled and took her bag back. It was in these sweet little moments that she wondered: Could they be something more? Would he ever make a move on her? She wasn't sure if her friend Kevin knew any moves. If he ever had a second where he had allowed the thought to cross his mind, she had probably reacted as she had a bit earlier. She would have assumed it was some kind of joke.

  He caught her staring and knit his brow.

  This was stupid. What was she even thinking? She was hormonal or something today. He was her best friend. Kayn was beginning to grow tired of the fact that more and more of their conversations had become centered on her sister. She shot a somewhat disapproving glance at Kevin and said pleasantly, “Let’s stop talking about Chloe all of the time. Frankly, I’m sick of it.”

  “Shush,” he said as he put one finger directly over her pursed lips. “You know not to speak of her voodoo powers.”

  The phrase, Chloe has a boyfriend, was easily compared to cursing out loud in the Brighton household. Once Chloe grew bored or annoyed by their obsessive behavior, she inevitably dumped them cold. Her sister would find herself running like she was on fire from every boy she had ever attempted to date. Seemingly normal boys would gradually lose their marbles. It was as if the pressure of being close to her would make their sanity unfold like the reversal of an origami swan. It would start with a vehicle outside of the house in the middle of the night, and rapidly escalate. On occasion, random guys would break into their house and steal objects that belonged to her. In the beginning, the police thought Chloe must be doing something to bring this on herself, but after she went in for a couple interviews at the police station and full grown men couldn’t help but fawn all over her sister, they all understood what Kayn had always known.

  “We shouldn't even be joking about this stuff. The breakups with the last three or four of her boyfriends turned out to be pretty damn scary situations,” she said in a hushed tone. The last thing Kayn needed was to be caught talking about it by one of her sister’s minions.

  Kevin turned and gave her a strange look that said, think about what you just said for a second, and they both broke into a fit of giggles.

  A giant stinging slap followed on her spandex running short covered butt. There stood Chloe. Kayn’s infamous and moderately evil twin. A living breathing cover girl commercial gracing them with her badass presence. Chloe smiled at her, and gave a slight glance acknowledging Kevin’s presence. He turned ten shades of red as though she had whispered something dirty in his ear. He’s completely pathetic, Kayn thought, shaking her head.

  Chloe threw an arm around her, then jumped away saying, “Ewww, yuck, gross, you’re all sweaty and nasty. Listen, you backstabbing witch with a B, I’m not feeling that hot today. I’m on my way home. Do you need a ride,” She asked? Chloe donned a giant, gorgeous, show stopping smile. It was like every moment of her life was one strange, endless, beauty pageant.

  She had a sarcastic sense of humor that Kayn never took seriously. “I’m not going home. I’m going to go have a shower, and then go to Kevin’s house for dinner,” Kayn replied.

  Chloe leaned over and kissed her sister’s sweaty cheek, quietly whispering, “Yes, go have that shower.” Chloe sighed, “I’m grounded again for no good reason. I will see you later Sis.”

  “Shocking,” Kevin murmured as they wal
ked away.

  Kayn suspected that her sister got herself grounded on purpose just to have a forced break from her social responsibilities. If there were medals in the Olympic Games doled out for groundings achieved in a three-year period of time, her sister Chloe would have the equivalent of a gold medal.

  “Bye, Kevy.” Chloe yelled behind her as she flounced off.

  “Yup, voodoo powers,” Kevin whispered to Kayn.

  “I heard that Kevin. You're a little stinker,” she yelled back.

  Kayn smiled at Kevin, casually adding, “I bet when you thought of sexy nicknames she would call you in your fantasies, little stinker wasn’t one of them.” She couldn’t help herself; he’d left it wide open, and she was on a roll.

  Kevin turned around and socked her in the arm.

  She stopped and said, “Seriously, you hit me? I can’t believe you would do that.” She glared at him and feigning pain rubbed her arm looking genuinely upset.

  “I was just kidding. I didn’t actually hurt you, did I?” Kevin whispered. He knew he had been had, when Kayn’s serious look crumbled into a grin.

  She said, “Woman abuse,” and she smoked him on the arm twice as hard.

  “What woman? I don’t see a woman anywhere around here. Oh, you mean you?” he countered as he rubbed his still throbbing arm. Kevin pretended to be looking around for a moment.

  “I will butt you out like a cigarette, little man!” She made a fist for a joke duel.

  Kevin glared at her.

  Oh, no—the expression. Game over. Whoops … She had gone too far. It was all fun and games until she made one too many short jokes with Kevin.

  “I am not little,” he said. Kevin stomped towards the covered entrance to the facility.

  “Okay, how about vertically challenged,” Kayn said innocently. She was digging her own grave, and she knew it. Kevin could argue for hours. He could debate something forever and wear anyone out.

  “I might look short to an Amazonian like you,” he countered.

  “Touché,” she said smiling. She did know better than to push it anymore because, if he kept it up, the laughter she had been trying to suppress would escape.

  “I’m still growing,” he said as his voice cracked a little.

  Kayn doubled over laughing. She couldn’t help it with the well-timed voice crack.

  “Can you please be done laughing now,” Kevin said as they walked into the fitness center.

  “I’ll see you outside in fifteen minutes, you sexy stud,” she whispered, sultry as a porn star.

  Kayn was still grinning as she pushed through the door to the girls’ changing room.

  “Quit mocking me, Amazonian woman,” he yelled dramatically from behind her.

  As she entered the changing room, Kevin’s last joking retort bounced off the walls of the concrete and tile room. Her feet were still throbbing. The tiles on the floor were icy and soothed her aching feet. In a matter of months, she’d already worn out her running shoes. Her mom would kill her when she asked for another pair. She dropped her shoes. The sound as they landed on the tiles echoed. It repeated a few times as if someone had dropped more than one pair. With a clear view of the room around her, she could see that nobody else was there. She was alone. She thought of Kevin waiting, and then she remembered that there was a coffee machine in the lobby by the pool. Kevin was probably having a coffee and ogling the girls’ swim team; he was fine.

  She stripped down and stood naked in front of the mirror for a second. She pulled her hair out of her ponytail, and it fell in damp loose ringlets across her bare shoulders. She tilted her head to one side and posed seductively with a smile as she surveyed her reflection. Maybe I should start wearing makeup to school, she thought. Her face was freckled and tanned from hours upon hours of training in the hot sun. In the winter time, all of her freckles went away, and her skin was porcelain white.

  I could look just like Chloe, if I wanted to, Kayn thought, sucking in her cheeks and then plastering a giant pageant style smile across her face. She scrunched up her nose. She enjoyed being dorky, and a little bit weird. It would take a lot of effort to pull off her sister’s version of perfection. She didn’t need to be perfect. She would wither and fade if she had to live her life under a microscope. She did prefer to let her strange roam free.

  Kayn walked toward the shower stalls. She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at her reflection in the mirror. The conversation with her sister flashed through her memory. Chloe was feeling sick today; that’s what was going on then. Kayn quite often had sympathy illness whenever her twin wasn’t feeling one hundred percent.

  Kayn turned around, pulled the plastic curtain to the shower, and leaned in to turn on the water. It began to tap dance against the bottom of the stall, and when it was just the right temperature she stepped inside. She smiled as the water beat against her weary muscles. She began to lather herself up with the nice scented pump soap. Today was her lucky day; a full dispenser of soap, shampoo, and conditioner, she didn’t have to reach down and find her own in the bottom of her gym bag. With her favorite running song still going through her mind, she started humming a few bars and then began to sing the words.

  Just then she heard the door open, and she became silent. She hurried through, rinsing herself off, and towel dried her hair. She ran her brush through her hair and put it back in a ponytail. Kayn towel dried her back again, feeling trickles of water from her still damp hair trail down her back. She stepped into her underwear and wondered why her mind kept traveling the road back to questioning her feelings for Kevin today. Kayn shook the thought out of her head and whipped her clothes back on.

  As she passed by the mirror again, she wondered if Chloe ever wanted to be more like her. She quickly blew off that completely nutty idea. Kayn was five minutes younger than her sister Chloe, but her twin acted five years older. Kayn had no voodoo powers with men; she was awkward and definitely possessed no game at all. She wondered if she asked Chloe how she did it, if she would she teach her something … anything. It would be nice to have someone ask her on a date before she was eighty years old. She had to admit it bugged her that Kevin obsessed about Chloe, not that she seriously liked him or anything because that was most definitely not a good move friendship-wise; there was that ominous word again … friends.

  She grabbed her bag and hurried out the door, hoping he wasn’t too frustrated waiting for her. She forced open the door with an over-exaggerated grunting sound.

  Kevin was sitting on the railing waiting patiently and looking up at the sky with his mouth agape in a totally comical way.

  Kayn walked up beside him and teased, “Trying to catch flies?”

  “Always,” Kevin sparred with a dimpled grin and quick wit.

  “What are we looking at?” Kayn said as she stared up toward the heavens and made the same open-mouth face of awe.

  “Come with me, and I’ll show you,” Kevin laughed. He grabbed her hand, and they started to walk toward the field.

  Kayn had lived this moment a thousand times. Kevin lay down in the grass, and she lay beside him.

  “Oh, wow I get it; look at how fast the clouds are moving. I noticed that earlier; it’s almost creepy. I wonder if there’s a storm coming.” Kayn whispered. As Kayn lay peacefully in the grass, suddenly a sharp pain seared through her core. She grabbed her stomach, sucked a deep breath in and gasped, “What the hell was that?”

  “You okay, Brighton?” He sat up and touched her arm.

  Kayn winced again and doubled over, her insides afire with another strange penetrating pain. Kevin placed his hand on her stomach, watching her face calm. The pain disappeared again as quickly as it had begun.

  He looked at her and stated, “You probably need a big glass of water, maybe some dinner?”

  She stood up, trying to shake off a sense of impending danger that had been replaying in her mind. With the pain suddenly gone, she said, “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

  “Did you skip lunch again?”
he scolded with a disapproving look on his face.

  “I do believe that I did not eat lunch today.” There was a very simple explanation for the sharp undefined pain that she had experienced. Kayn was often practicing at lunchtime and would forget to eat. She felt the urge to look behind her again. She looked around in every direction trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that had been plaguing her all afternoon. Something in her mind was still whispering, be careful, Kayn.

  She shook off the anxious feeling, remembering that the last horror movie that she had watched with Kevin only days earlier had taken place at a lake. There they stood by the turn off to Lakeshore Drive. It’s all in my mind, Kayn thought. She started to laugh a little at her seriously overactive imagination.

  Kevin kneeled in the grass and picked up a handful of it and smelled it. “Just what I thought,” he said looking seriously concerned now.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s hillbilly urine. We’d better get our tasty selves home before they come to eat us,” Kevin said, pointing toward home proving if there was ever any doubt that he had no acting ability at all.

  “Let’s get out of here, you geek,” Kayn said shaking her head at him and smiling as he had obviously recalled the hillbilly, cannibal movie that they’d watched the week before.

  “Okay, let’s go to my house. It’s got to be like five by now; dinner’s probably on the table,” Kevin said and smiled again.