@ 𝙋𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡'𝙨 𝙥. 𝙤. 𝙫
𝓘 was lying in the middle of some lighted candles, there were masked people putting on black cloaks around me. They were murmuring something I couldn't hear clearly. After a while, their eyes turned red and the candles started sparkling and burning so bright that I could barely see but surprisingly i didn't feel hot, rather I was cold, my body was covered in furs and I grew fangs like a wild animal. The next minute, I was levitating. By the time I was 20 cm above the ground, the masked people were bleeding from all part of their bodies, the blood flowed towards me forming a pentagram just below me. It was lIke i was being offered as a sacrificial lamb to appease the Gods of an occult group.
"AAaaaaaaah" I screamed waking up from my horrible dream, my parents busted into my room the next second with panic-stricken face.
"Are you okay hon?" that was my mum
"you had a nightmare again?" dad asked
I just stared at the both of them, i was so scared that i couldn't talk, my body felt numb and I was shivering badly.
"it's okay sweetie, it would be fine, don't be scared" mom comforted and rock me back to sleep with dad patting my heads.
"PEARL! PEARL!! PEARL!!! Get your *** off the bed, or we'll be late for school." that was my annoying twin brother Xeric, shouting my name early in the morning was his daily routine since I can remember, well you can't blame him much. I was a great sleeper.
Yeah, hi am Pearl Charles and my life was so perfect until I turned eighteen last two months, I have been having weird dreams and horrific nightmares, but my parents were always there to comfort me, I had gone to hospitals for checkups, but the report always ended up with me being perfectly fine.
I dragged myself out of bed and went to the bathroom for my personal cleaning. When I was done, I creamed my body, comb my hair and held it up in a high ponytail, i put on my unIform; a white long sleeved shirt, a short navy blue checkered skirt, a black knee-high stockings, a navy blue cardigan with the school badge and a white sneaker. i looked at myself In the mIrror and was satisfied with my reflection. i took my backpack and ran downstairs,
"morning mom, morning dad" I greeted and pecked their cheeks before joining the table for breakfast.
"Hey" Xeric greeted
"Hi" I answered casually. Wait a minute.... Xeric would never greet me so peacefully in the morning whatever, that's a good thing. I started eating my breakfast of pancakes and syrup with milk. I was almost done eating when I heard mom say "are you okay Xeric?" I raised my heads to look at Xeric and realized he looked quite gloomy and sleep-deprived, that's not the XerIc i know.
"Yea, am fine mum" he replied
"are you sure honey?, you look like you barely slept" mom asked again with concern.
"Am really okay mom, just had a nightmare"
"NIGHTMARE!" I, mom and dad exclaimed at the same time. Apparently this was not the first time he's having a nightmare. He started having nightmare the same time as i, but this was the only time he brood about one.
"It's okay, its just some sill dream" he tried reassuring mom and dad, but they were far from being reassured. We finished breakfast and left for school in Xeric's sport car. He was quiet all the way. I felt happy I was saved from Xeric's constant teasing. I took out my phone to play game but i couldn't concentrate. To be honest I was quite worried about Xeric, but there was no way I would be showing it. i sneak a peek at Xeric and finally swallowed my pride
"wanna talk?" i asked casually starting a conversation
"nah" he replied
"sure you okay? " i asked again
"am fine lil sis, good to see you care about me" ugh there he goes again
" am not your lil sis, am your twin" i glared at him. he knows quite well i hate being called lil sis
"am the first twin so am older" he argued with a cocky grin
"It was just a few minutes difference" I argued back, "what an annoying dude" I grumbled, and he chuckled, he looked much better now. For all that it worth, it was satisfying seeing him like this. I smilled and continued playing games on my phone.
Finally, we got to school and Xeric parked his car in the school parking lot, we stepped out of the car and all eyes were on us, well, that was the norm since we were both cute and also the top two students in the school especially my brother, o hate to admit it, but he is damn cute, he's basically everyone's crush. We both have long silver hair, people used to call us weird because of our hair color before especially Xeric; a boy with a waist length hair and to make matter worse he has very white skin that I sometimes think other guys will call him pale face bit they dare not because although Xeric has an appealing face, he is cold-hearted, an antisocial dude and also loathes being touched. But it all stopped when someone called us freak once when we went shopping with mom, and she had dragged the person by his ears saying "my kids are not freaks, they are just special and one in a million so quit being jealous and appreciate their beauty" crazy right? Well thats's Rosanne for you. But from them on nobody ever called us freaks oweirdodo again.
We were walking into our class when I heard someone scream my name, it was my best friend Angelou.
"hey Xeric, Yo, Pearl, you look superB with a b at the end"
"Yo, thanks buddy, you look goodT with a t at the end too"
We did our friendship handshake and walked to class together. School went normally and finally time to go home.
"Angie wanna follow me home and hangout?"
"Sure, let me drop a message for the chauffeur"
We were walking to Xeric's car when a girl appeared out of nowhere to ask Angelou to hang out, and he bluntly refused. The girl left angrily.
"Angelou, if you keep on turning girls down like this, you might remain single forever" I teased
"Tell that to Xeric who never talked to anyone besides what about you, holy nun" he joked.
We got home, freshened up and played hero till evening when my parents arrived. We did our assignments and Xeric took Angelou home after dinner
s
Pearl Charles main female character, 18,Xeric's twin
Xeric Charles main male character, 18,Pearl's twin
Angelou Davis, 18, Pearl's best friend
Edward Charles, 46, ceo of all X-Pearl company, Pearl and Xeric dad.
Rossane Charles, 42, medical doctor, Pearland Xeric mom.
Xeric have been behaving weird lately, he's become more antisocial and cold, and he doesn't shout my name every morning too, as crazy as it may sound I've missed the sound of PEARL in the morning. Today is Saturday no school today, mom and dad had gone to work, and I was quite bored, I asked Xeric if he would like to go out with me, but he said he wasn't interested, I picked my phone and dialed Angelou number,
"Yo nig, boring weekend wanna come over..... okay I will be waiting..... sure... I will be expecting you in 10 I said and hanged up," "Xeric would you bake cookies for Angelou and me? " I asked,
"Nah am quite busy ask one of the servants to bake it for you" he replied,
"Pretty please" I begged giving him my best puppy eye,
"Not gonna work on me, am busy, but I promise I will bake for you tomorrow" he said,
Ugh, "common that was my best puppy eye you moron" I whined,
You all must be wondering why I am asking Xeric to bake cookies for me when we have servants, the thing is apart from mum no one can make cookies or cook as delicious as Xeric can. I ended up asking one of the servants to make pastries and prepare chocolate drink, soon Angelou arrived, he came with his bike, seeing Angelou bike gave me an idea,
"What about we go racing on our bikes" I suggested,
"Cool" Angelou replied.
"let's go" I said and pulled Angelou hand, he didn't move he just stood there sizing me up,
"what?"
"You're going like that? " He asked
that was when I remembered I was wearing a gown,
"Oh I will be back" I went upstairs to change my clothes, I changed into a jean trouser white top and a leather jacket and packed my hair in a messy bun.
"Am ready, hey Xeric wanna tag along?" I asked as I pass by his study,
"Nah I pass" he replied and continued what he was doing, I walked to the shed and took my tomahawk, i, Xeric and Angelou have that type of bike, mine is black and purple, Xeric's is all black and Angelou is black and red, mom bought it for us on our seventeenth birthday, got on my bike, ride it out and put it on a straight line with Angelou bike,
"ready?" He asked,
"yea" I said and put on my helmet, I revved up the bike, "go"! And we both zoomed off. We started the race at 1:30pm and ended at 4:00pm, the results? Draws. We went back home, freshen up and had pastries and chocolate drink, after that i and Angelou played other games inside till dinner time, Xeric cooked macaroni and cheese, and it was delicious, we had dinner and Angelou went back home. I was quite tired after today's activities, so I decided to go to the garden with my dog Uno, I was sitting on the grass watching the sky when someone sat beside me
"hey" I said, and he just nodded,
"Erm pearl" he called nervously. Xeric? Nervous? What's on his mind? i thought,
"What is it? " I asked, '
"well, have you been seeing or feeling anything strange lately?" he asked, I was startled, where does that question come from ,
" No just the nightmares" I answered him anyway,
"oh, okay"
"Why do you ask? " I asked him, "nothing" he said and left,
"That was strange" I muttered, I stayed in the garden playing with Uno till it was getting dark before going inside.
"Dad" I called and ran to hug him "welcome",
" thanks dear" he pecked my forehead. I helped dad carry his briefcase to his study while dad went to his room to freshen up. when he was done, Xeric served his meal.(although we had servants, our meals are always prepared by mom and Xeric).
I went to my room, picked my phone and chatted with Angelou for a while before taking a novel by my bed-stand to read and I soon fall asleep.
"Luna!, Luna!!",
"What?", "you belong to kingdom park, you are our Luna",
"You are from north valley park, you are our princess".
I looked around and I was in a strange place that looks like an ancient palace, I saw strange cloaked people again and some other creatures that looked like half human and half beast bowing to me. I was sitting on a throne, and they all called me Luna, everything looks creepy. Suddenly I heard a voice out of nowhere
"Pearl, let me out" the voice whimpered,
"where are you?" I asked
"am inside you".
" inside me? "
"yes, inside you, please let me out"
"who are you? "
"am luna, your wolf"
"my wolf? "
"yes, am the second you, now let me out Pearl"
"how?"
"just close your eyes, breath and relax"
I did as the voice said and... what is this feeling, its like I am being replaced, I feel like someone or something is taking over my body, I felt strange, I touched my skin and it was somewhat fluffy, I was a wolf with silver fur, my eyes were very blue and they flashed very bright.
I opened my eyes, my heart was beating very fast, that was a horrific dream. I jumped off my bed and ran to my dressing table to check myself in the mirror and when I saw my reflection....
"AAAaaaaaaaaaaah" I screamed in fright and blacked out.
"Pearl, are you okay honey?" I kept hearing voices faintly, I opened my eyes, too bright, I closed them, blinked them a few times and get them adjusted to the light. the first thing I saw was white, everything was white. did I die in my sleep and go to heaven? I thought when my nose caught a whiff of smell, "eeew, the smell of disinfectant and medicine. I hate that smell”,
“she’s awake” I heard moms voice, “mom?”,
“oh honey, are you okay?, how do you feel” mom asked,
“am fine mom, why are u crying?” I asked, my voice was hoarse since I just woke up,
“cry? These are tears of joy” mum said and smiled at me,
“what am I doing here mom?” I asked,
“well you’ve been unconscious since midnight”,
“unconscious? What happened to me?” I asked,
“I don’t know too, your dad heard u screamed and found you out by the time he got to your room, so he brought you here” mom said and did a check up "you actually fainted from fright, figured it was the usual nightmare, but don't worry, you'd be up and about in the evening.
mom prepared porridge and soup for me and I ate and took some tablets , I didn’t see Xeric all this while, that’s weird, Xeric always stay with me whenever I was sick. we left the hospital and came home later in the evening and mom cooked rice and chicken soup, yummy, I eat in my room since I don’t have the strength to move about yet, mom packed the dishes and did a quick checkup on me before going out of the room I checked my phone and saw many missed calls and messages from Angelou: why aren’t u picking your calls?, what are you doing?, get well soon bestie, are you okay?, what happened?.......... I dialed his number and he picked on the first ring, “hey Pearl, what happened?, are you okay?” he bombarded me with questions, “am fine, how do you know anyways? I asked, I've been calling u since morning and when you didn’t pick I called mom, Angelou always called my mom “mom”, “oh, am totally fine sweetie, yea, am feeling sleepy now, okay, ill see you at school tomorrow, love you too” I said and hanged up, “I still haven’t seen Xeric” I thought, just then dad walked in with vitamins drink, I drank it and gave the cup back to dad and when he was about leaving I asked dad where Xeric is and he told me he’s in his room, seriously?,
“yes he’s not feeling quite good” dad added,
“oh I see, but what's wrong with him” I thought, I picked up my phone and called him but he didn’t pick, I called him again and still the same thing. "I would see him tomorrow morning anyways” I said to myself as I drifted off to sleep
Uno
Days has passed, and we continued our normal routine except for Xeric though, he was acting weird and even more antisocial than ever, and he never wakes me up in the morning anymore.
Pearl, “get up or u'll be late for school again” mum called,
yeah again, since Xeric stopped waking me up in the morning, I went to school late thrice last week. I felt disappointed hearing mum call me, I was expecting Xeric to yell my name this morning, I thought he would drop his cold demeanor this week, looks like it was just my wishful thinking. I got up did my daily routine put on my uniform and went downstairs, I sat in the dining and greeted my parents, Xeric was sitting there picking at his food, but he acted like he couldn’t see me, “hey” I greeted, he raised up his head “hi” he replied dryly and continued picking his food.
“Xeric can we go to school together please?” I asked,
he looked at me and I gave him my puppy eye,
“fine, we would go on our bikes” he replied,
“yay, thanks Xeric” I cheered happily,
I wasn’t expecting him to agree. We finished breakfast and rode our Tomahawk to school. When we got out we met Angelou at the gate, and he was also using his bike, so we raced to school with Xeric riding in front, not joining in the game.
We got to school, had our morning reading and went to assembly, after assembly we went to our various classes and settled in for class, Mr. Tyson, our class teacher came inside and was about to call the class attendance when a girl walked in
“excuse me, is this class 4a” she asked,
“yes, how may I help you?” Mr. Tyson asked,
“am a new student” she said and showed a paper to him, Mr. Tyson scanned the paper
“oh I see, introduce yourself” he said, the girl walked in properly and everybody was able to see her, Woo ow, some of the student gasped, some girls glared at her with jealousy while the boys whistled at her, but I didn’t care, the girl was beautiful, no kidding, tall, alabaster skinned, red eyes, smooth long legs and long red hair, but she wasn’t as beautiful as me, I caught Xeric staring at her, what! Does Xeric like that girl, nah I am overthinking, it's definitely not possible, the girl scanned the classroom looked at Xeric and smiled at him but Xeric just looked away.
“You haven’t introduced yourself miss Taylor” Mr. Tyson said,
“oh sorry, Hello, good morning class, my name is Skylar Taylor, and I am your new classmate it’s a pleasure meeting you guys.” she said in a beautiful voice,
“your pleasure is ours” the class chorused, “okay miss Taylor, go sit beside Xeric over there” Mr. Tyson said, and I immediately felt pity for the poor girl while the girls glared at her hard, if looks could kill she’d be six feet underground already, Xeric?, that cold dude, nobody dared sit beside him, Xeric would probably skin her alive that is if she did not freeze to death sitting beside him, He is repulsive to girls except me duh. Skylar smiled sweetly and walked to Xeric seat, Xeric’s aura became more frightening than it usually was, she fidgets a little before sitting beside Xeric, she tried to strike a conversation with him,
“Hi, am Skylar” she said,
Xeric ignored her and pretended like she was invisible as he took out a book from his bag and started reading while listening to music on his headphone, Skylar thought he couldn’t hear her so she tapped his shoulder, Xeric glared at her murderously (making her cringe in fright) and looked at Angelou, it was as if they had a telepathic conversation because Angelou stood up immediately and swapped his seat with Xeric. Skylar was pretty sad and upset, serves her right for being too forward, she dared touch Xeric, she was lucky all he did was glare, other people who tried it weren’t so lucky. Now Xeric is seating beside me with that murderous aura of his, he didn’t talk to me and I totally ignored him too.
Mr. Tyson left after marking the attendance and our physics teacher came in, gosh not physics; that subject is a crime to humanity, he asked for our assignment and marked it, he called some students out to do the correction, after that he started teaching us a now topic, I was already getting sleepy midway through the lesson, I glanced at Xeric, and he was not concentrating, he seems lost, and he was massaging his temple from time to time, that’s strange, Xeric always pay attention in classes even when he already knew what the teacher was teaching, is something wrong with him, I tore a sheet of paper from my book scribbled something and threw it at him, he caught the paper before it even got to him, what how did he know?, he opened the paper and glanced at it before turning to me and mouthing “am fine” dryly, I totally don’t believe that though, I turned my head to the back to look at Angelou who was giving the teacher his full attention and saw Skylar staring at Xeric without blinking, what's up with this girl? I muttered, I tore another sheet of paper rolled it and threw it at Angelou to get his attention when…
“I guess miss Charles has something to share to the class” Mr. Stone asked, he caught me,
“no sir” I answered
“then stop disturbing the class” he said in a warning tone
“am sorry sir” I apologized, and he continued teaching us, in 20 seconds, I was asleep, “miss Charles” I heard someone call my name and I raised my head to see Mr. Stone’s face
“sir?” I said as I waited to hear the word detention, but instead I heard,
“it's either you concentrate or get out of my class”, wow that was an easy invite, I packed my books and waltzed out of the class with everybody looking at me in surprise. Sleeping in class either earn you detention or community service, but I just walked off the hook, probably because am the second-best student in school. Anyway, am happy to be out of that boring class. We had two more classes, and it was time for recess, I and Angelou went to the cafeteria to grab some burger, we finished eating and left for our classroom when I saw Xeric from the corner of my eye pressing Skylar’s neck to a wall, what did she do this time or do they know each other I thought, I wanted to go closer to them, but I decided against it and went to the classroom we soon finished all the day's activity, and it was time to go home, I picked my book and kept them in my locker and went to the parking lot were Angelou was already waiting for me,
“Where is Xeric?” I asked,
“he isn’t here yet” he replied.
I picked my phone and sent him a text message [where are you?, we are waiting for you at the parking lot] I texted,
[you and Angelou should go home first ill come later, I have something to do] he typed back,
“what is he doing” I thought,
“let's go” I told Angelou,
“he isn’t coming?” he asked,
“yeah, said he got something to do” I replied and he just Ohed, we got on our bike and rode home, when we were still riding home when Angelou’s phone rang,
“Hey mum…am on my way to Pearl’s…, you home?…oh okay”,
"sorry, Pearl moms home, and she wants to see me”,
“oh okay”, we kept riding, and he took the next turn while I head straight home, when I got home I was surprised to see mom at home,
“mom?” I called and ran to hug her, “you are home early today” I commented,
“yes baby, where is Xeric?” she asked,
“well he had something to take care of” I replied,
“I see, go freshen up and come down for cookies” mom said,
“I don’t feel like it, I’ve got no appetite for cookies” I replied, mom leaned in to me and whispered
“what if it was specially baked by me?” my eyes brightened, and I felt my appetite rushing back,
“give me a minute mom” I shouted while running to my room and mom chuckled. I had commies and chocolate ice-cream, I guess you are wondering why chocolate every time? Right, well they are my favorite, can't help it, I did my assignment and by the time I was done dad and Xeric already came home, and we had dinner, at the dining table mom told us she’d be going out of the country for work with Angelou’s mom, and they would be coming back in three days time,
“oh no wonder Angelou’s mom arrived early too and asked to see him” I thought.
Mrs. Sonia Davis, Angelou’s mom and mom best friend they are both medical doctors, and they work in the same hospital, ever since Angelou’s dad was killed by a stray bullet 10 years ago she hasn’t remarried.
Skylar Taylor, werewolf, Xeric's mate and Drake's half sister
Download MangaToon APP on App Store and Google Play