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• Ava's
POV•"It's high time now, Ava." Zoe spoke up. "I think you should hook-up with some other guy."
I inwardly cringed at her words, trying my best not to scrunch up my nose in the process as I moved along the busy cafeteria line, my lunch tray clutched in my hands.
"Honestly, I never knew you were a one night stand kind of person," Elliot spoke up behind me, "but there's this party tonight at Owen's–"
I placed my lunch tray on our table and slumped down with a small groan. "Elliot, I'm not trying to hook-up with someone when I have a boyfriend."
He frowned at me before sitting down across from me. Meanwhile, Zoe sat down beside me. The leather bands around her wrists thudding lightly against the table.
"Well, why are we talking about hook-ups then?" Elliot asked, running a hand through his dark blond hair, pushing them back. I glanced over his shoulder, not surprised to see two random girls giving him the candy
looks.Since Elliot had the looks and all, girls swooned over him way too easily. Except me, since he was my best friend and Zoe of course.
"Because, Ava is wasting her looks on someone like Ian Lockhart." Zoe explained in a somewhat blank tone, her dark black eyes fixated on Elliot's face in what seemed like a glare to me.
Zoe was that type. With her short black hair barely reaching past her shoulders, she was more of the emo type. She always
kept her emotions in check. Too busy to even give a shit about others.But that was different around Elliot and me. She cared about us. Or else, I'm sure how she wouldn't have been sitting with us right now.
"Ian's not your boyfriend anymore?" Elliot's frown hadn't left his face.
I hadn't realized how this conversation had turned totally pointless by now. Of course Ian's my boyfriend. He had been my boyfriend since we started high school.
"You know he's into that Charlotte chick." Zoe shrugged before looking over at Elliot again, the same glare this time. "Those chicks are checking you out."
Elliot ignored her and looked at me. With a somewhat concerned look. That was something I loved a lot about him. Elliot and I had been friends since middle school. Since his father was the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the entire state of Oregon, his parents and my parents worked along well.
And so, that was the exact reason why he easily got concerned for me. Not because of my parents choosing perfect lifestyle all the time. But because of how long we had been there for each other.
On the other hand, we had met Zoe in the start of freshman year of this high school. It had been a little hard to cope up with her hard exterior at first, but we had gone along well.
Now, we three were always there for each other.
"Ian loves me, Zoe. I don't know why you would say that." I murmured, looking away from Elliot's warm brown eyes. I was starting to feel a slight ache against my forehead. Which was bad. If I got a full-on headache today, it might just ruin the party tonight.
The perfect party that my mother had arranged all by herself. Perfect like everything else in my life. And mom would be really disappointed if my headache alone ruined it all.
"Does he?" I felt her give me a look at that. "Come on, Ava. That guy doesn't even give you the gooey look like those...girls are giving Elliot."
I didn't mistake the hint of disgust in her voice. Elliot rolled his eyes and took out his phone, not interested in this conversation anymore.
When
wasthelasttimeIanhadtoldmethathelovedme?Now that I thought about it, I was left speechless. But this was just stupid. Thinking negative was just stupid.
You
couldn'tjustun-lovesomeone."He does. He loves me." I murmured, pushing back a strand of my red hair behind my ear. The same red hair that I had inherited from my mother. The same red hair which made me beautiful.
At least, that's
whatmomsaid."Has your mom invited him to the party tonight?" Zoe asked.
I nodded in response.
Ian was the team captain of our school's soccer team. Not to forget that he was also the Head of the Student Council of our high school. Beacon Wood High.
"And is he coming?" She asked.
"Of course, Zoe." I glanced at her narrowed gaze.
Mom always did such parties at the start of spring every year. This was her way of making sure that all the family ties were still...intact. Not just family, but all their other clients too.
And since she's one of the best interior designers, she knew quite well how to arrange such parties.
"Oh well." I saw a smirk tugging on her lips as she looked away. "I heard Charlotte's invited too."
I stifled a groan and passed her a glare. Of course she was invited. Every rich family in this town was invited. Mom couldn't just not do that.
"Maybe, we'll finally find out Ian's true intentions tonight." Zoe spoke up in a thoughtful manner.
I looked down at my lunch tray.
Maybe
wewould.ו•••×
"Mom didn't invite Grandma?" Will –my sixteen year old brother– asked as he barged inside my room.
"Ever heard of–"
"Nope." He cut me off before jumping on my bed. Right where my phone was.
I scrunched up my nose at him. "Can you not place your disgusting butt on my phone?"
He blinked before breaking into a sheepish grin and pulling out my phone from underneath him. I took it from him with a small frown.
"You didn't answer my question." He asked again as I scrolled through my messages.
"Will, when does Mom ever invite Grandma to such parties?" I asked him instead of answering.
We both knew the answer to that question. Mom, like always, wanted these parties to turn out perfect. Dad too. And Grandma wasn't much...perfect in their opinion.
Of course, I loved Grandma. She was probably the only person in my family who acted a little sane. Besides Will, of course. But Grandma's love for ancient mythology and legends slightly infuriated mom. Grandma believed in stuff which wasn't real. And mom didn't like that.
Nobody did.
But Will and I adored her.
Will shrugged and went over towards my desk, picking up a chocolate bar and opening it up. Which was actually supposed to be mine. The sunlight entering from the window made his reddish-blond hair look like fire.
"Grandma's cool." He mumbled in between his bites.
I frowned, a small thought clouding up my head. "Is there any way we could somehow skip this party?"
I knew how wrong it actually was to even voice out that question. If mom had somehow heard it, things wouldn't have gone well.
Will only responded with a loud sneeze.
"Geez–" He started but sneezed again.
"Why do you keep those things here, Ava?" He whined, pointing over towards my window seat. Where a collection of small potted plants were kept.
"I don't see a problem since this is my room?"
He just shook his head disappointedly.
"You do know you can keep them out in the garden, right?" He asked.
I knew that. But these plants were special. I wanted to take care of them. Not hand them over to the gardeners. They were beautiful. And they reminded me of how everyone needed to be cared for sometimes.
My plants were my babies.
"Anyways, so you were asking about skipping the party?" He asked with a sudden mischievous glint in his light brown eyes. Unlike him, I had dad's green eyes. Just like those green leaves sitting on my window seat.
"Yes, I was."
"We can skip it."
If
momheardaboutthis–I didn't even want to think about the disappointment on her face. Or dad's.
"How?" I asked him. A little nervously.
"Let the guests arrive. I'll give you the signal. We'll leave quietly from the back door. Take the car. Probably go to grandma's." He said with a shrug. "Easy."
I stared at him before narrowing my eyes.
"How are we supposed to do that without mom noticing us?" I asked. "Mom would kill us if we don't meet all the guests, Will."
Not to forget how one of the guests would be my boyfriend. And my best friends.
Will had the nerve to snicker at that.
"You are old, A. You can go through some scolding, can't you? And anyways, grandma would save us. She'd make something up to tell mom." He pointed out.
I sighed before shaking my head. Of course grandma would make up an excuse for us. But something just did not feel right about this plan.
"You make the worst plans, William."
He raised his brows at me, giving me the wise look. Something he loved to do even if he was the younger one. "But we both know how that's the only way."
If
Ihadknownwhatthisplanwouldleadusinto, Iwould'vedonesomething. Anythingtostopourselvesfromdoingit.Related chapters
Forsaken Three
• Ava's POV •We were all set for ditching the party.Until I realized about a big, major problem.Ian.How was I supposed to ditch him too? Especially now that we were having those relationship doubts all of a sudden.Were we?Whatever it was, I needed to let him know how I wouldn't be here at this party. And how he shouldn't come here either. Which was just plain stupid but I needed to tell him something before leaving."Hey." Answered an unfamiliar voice from the other end when I called Ian. Just hearing that voice, answering his call, made something churn inside my stomach.Oh Lord."Ian?" I asked in a small confused voice.I very much knew how that wasn't Ian. I knew how that was a girl's voice answering his phone. Not just any girl. That very much sounded like Charlotte.You know he's into that Charlotte chick."He is busy. Who are you?" She asked.I furrowed my brows at that. I didn't know whether I felt hurt or not. Not because of Charlotte not recognizing my voice. But becaus
Forsaken Four
• Ava's POV •"What?" I asked.Grandma ignored my sudden surprise and spoke up, "It is said to be formed in the Underworld." I refrained myself from groaning out loud when I heard her say that. "And stolen from there."I looked at her this time, instead of the black gemstone. "Who stole it?"The thought of somebody stealing something from the Underworld, more or less a human, was crazy."Nobody knows." She sounded very much genuine saying that. As if Underworld even existed. "Many believe it was formed by the dark Furies who went against Hades. They formed this stone for Persephone."I scrunched up my nose at that. It always intrigued me, the stories grandma believed in. But I could still never make myself believe in them."Right." I nodded slowly. "And who are the Furies?"A small smile tugged on her lips as she pulled the shawl closer against her. There was always this warm aura around her, something that made me feel at ease. More than any other family member of mine."The dark sou
Forsaken Five
Ava's POV:I couldn't move.For a whole wide second, I couldn't move. And then I jerked up, gasping for air. Everything rotated in front of my eyes. I had to blink several times before my vision readjusted.A small whimper escaped my lips. I couldn't feel the pain. But at the same time, I could. It felt extremely strange.Looking around, I realized how I had been laying down on the grass. We were surrounded by trees. And the sun was nowhere in sight.It was still night.Will.As if sudden realization hit me, I stood up immediately. Part of me wanted to wince out loud in pain. But there was no pain.When I was completely standing, I looked around for my car. I remembered the sudden crash. I remembered how I was inside that car.How come I was laying on the grass then?God, where was Will?It took me seconds before I spotted the car. The front was smashed against a tall tree trunk. That wasn't what bothered me."Will!" I heard my shout before I ran towards the passenger door. I couldn't
Forsaken Six
Ava's POV:It had been almost half an hour since I had woken up. I was in a room. A very big room. And that scared me so much that my legs had refused to get up.There was no window. Just a black door. This whole room would've been pitch black if it wouldn't have been the dark grey gloom coming from the ceiling. The transparent ceiling overlooking a stormy, grey sky.I once again found myself clutching the silk black sheet over me. The bed was huge. With a couch in the corner. And a glass table at the other corner. The walls were white. Almost grey.The only thing keeping me from screaming out loud were my clothes. At least, they were the same clothes I had worn in that party. The party at our house.Mom.I didn't even realize how I had started crying. Unclenching my hands from the sheets, I covered my face with them.This wasn't fine. This was wrong. I shouldn't be here. Where was I? Why was I in a room? What if that boy had kidnapped me?Oh my God, what was he going to do with me?A
Forsaken Seven
Ava's POV:I didn't come out of the room for the next two days, I stayed inside. Unfortunately, there was no lock on the door. Fortunately Hayden, the mysterious guy who'd kidnapped me, knew how I didn't want to see his face.So, he stayed away."The breakfast, miss." I heard the voice from the other side of the door. Pulling the sheets over me, I sat up on the bed.The door opened and a woman came in. She was almost mom's age. From the first day, she had been coming in either with food or clothes. I had rejected both of them.Because either time when my stomach had grumbled with hunger, I had remembered grandma's words. If this place, by any chance, was Underworld then I wasn't supposed to eat the food.The legend said how Persephone got stuck in the Underworld just because she ate few pomegranate seeds there. She had no way out.I sounded so crazy.And I missed grandma so much."Do you want new clothes?" Her pale skin was hard not to notice. It was paler than Hayden's, more transluc
Forsaken Eight
Ava's POV:Two more days passed by. This time, I didn't stick around in the room that was supposed to be my room. Instead, I started visiting the library more often.It wasn't actually a library. At least not like the ones back where I lived. Tall dark shelves with thick leather bound books. That's all this place was filled with. Not a single couch. Or a chair to sit on. There was this some sort of strange vibe in that room which made me want to visit it.At least this room was better than those gardens. Or this whole dark mansion-looking palace.I did want to visit those gardens once again. Even if those flowers looked lifeless, they were still flowers. But the mere fact that I'd hear those voices again, was keeping me rooted to my spot.I had to find a way to get out of this place. And there was only one I knew. What those voices had said.I needed to persuade Hayden to take me back.Whatever this place was. Whoever he was. I needed to stay away. I couldn't help but shiver every tim
Forsaken Nine
Ava's POV:Time passed by in a flash. But to be honest, I didn't even know how many days I had been trapped here. Things were the same here in Underworld. Dark grey sky in the mornings. Dark grey sky in the nights.But one thing was for sure.I had somehow died. And ended up here, in the Underworld. And Underworld really existed. And I was trapped here with the only guy I shouldn't have been trapped with. Hayden, the so called Lord of the Dead.My old self wouldn't have believed this. At all.But it was true. And for some reason, he wasn't letting me go. Unlike other dead people, I didn't see a light in a dark tunnel when I died. I didn't get to go over to my afterlife.When I died, I had still been there on earth. I remembered how I could've seen the ambulances around that forest. I had seen Will. And myself. My dead self.But then Hayden had come. And took me here. Without my permission. Something was highly wrong about that. I needed to know why he was doing this.But he wasn't tel
Forsaken Ten
Ava's POV:I picked out a thick leather bound book from the shelf. Its black rough surface was covered with dust. Wiping it with my palm, I looked at the title.Senex Animarum.Once again, I felt the frustration gripping my insides. Every single book in this place was filled with a language I didn't know.I should've taken French this semester.But this language looked nowhere near French. I opened the book and looked at the worn out dust-filled pages. There were diagrams. And foreign words.Nothing made sense."Old Latin."I turned around so abruptly that the book in my hand fell down on the floor with a loud thud, making a small wince escape my lips.Unfazed by the sudden reaction, Hayden bent down and picked up the book. "You wouldn't understand the words."I took the book from his hands and sat down on the floor, my back against the hard shelf. "You know how to speak this language, don't you?"I had heard him speak some foreign language at times. And I'm sure it was the same langu
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