As soon as it was dark outside I ran to his room and looked under the door like James told me to do. The only thing I saw was feet and a mirror. Then a robe fall to the floor. Then Kai on the floor. I saw someone’s hands go across his hair and I almost knocked down the door when I got up to run to James’s room. I didn’t bother to knock-which was a mistake-and James was getting undressed while watching TV. We seemed to stare at each other before I quickly closed the door. It opened again and James was in front of me only half clothed.

“Are you going to come in and tell me what you saw?” He smiled and dragged me inside

“He was with a girl.” Tears started to come up

Sitting on the bed in front of me he looked down at the floor “Oh, well maybe that’s for the best?”

“How could you sit here and even say that!?”

I hit him in his chest but he didn’t seem to be effected by the punch. Instead he laid down and stared at the ceiling thinking about what he might say next. I decided to lay next to him and see if he was staring at anything particular. The only thing I could see was a gummy bear stuck to the ceiling.

“Has he been acting different around you?”

“He hasn’t been around me at all.”

“Oh.” He rolled over where he was directly above me “Maybe he just needs a break from you. A lot of people do.”

I stared at him and smiled “Are you hitting on me?”

“What would make you think that?”

“Well everybody is in love with me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

I grabbed his face and kissed him to make him feel better about not being able to date me. I felt something heavy then fell off of him. He had hit me in the stomach and looked pretty ticked off.

“Get off me you slut!”

“How rude! I was just doing you a favor.”

“Get out of my room.” He hit me again to make me get up. “Get out!”

He slammed the door on my finger causing me to scream and fall on the floor. When I was down I was able to see Sunee on Kai’s floor, smiling and most likely playing with a doll or watching Dora the Explorer. She was strangely childish and I had to remember to ask Kai about that when I was able to stop screaming in pain, which wasn’t until the next morning. When Kai opened his door he hit me in the head then picked me up and put me on his bed. Right next to Sunee. I looked at her, noticing all she had on was some hot pink lace underwear. I stared back at Kai strangely who seemed to notice what I had saw.

“She was just trying on some new underwear and fell asleep.” His eyes sort of darted to the ground though

“So what were you doing last night?”

“Just relaxing.”

“On the floor?”

“What?”

“Sorry I was kind of spying on you because I thought you were with another girl.”

“Nobody but Sunee was in here I swear.”

“Why do you look so worried?”

“I don’t know. What did you want anyway?” his eyes darted to the floor again

“I just wanted to know why your sister acts like she’s three.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“It’s just a question. I didn’t meant to offend you.”

“You didn’t offend me but I just don’t want to talk about this.”

I hugged him for a short moment before getting up and leaving. I met with Sunee later to see if Kai had lied to me but he seemed to have told the truth. She was really the only person in the room with him. I had to apologize to James and had to run his errands to make up for it. When I came to Kai he was walking out the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To a party.”

“Who’s watching your sister?”

“She’s coming with me and so are you. Moon got a house here and he threw a little party so I’m going. He’ll baby sit you two.”

The drive to the house was only about half an hour but there were so many people I got claustrophobic as soon as I walked through the door. Kai showed me to where Moon’s room was and then went to go talk to people (mostly girls). Sunee ran into Moon’s arms but I stayed away from him. His room was different shades of tans and browns but it seemed to fit him for the most part. Except for a large picture of a dragon swallowing a fish.

“It was made when people still thought the world was flat and that a large fish would swallow them up if they went to far out into the sea.”

“It doesn’t seem to fit you.”

“A lot of people say that but I’ve had it forever. An old man painted it for me when I was younger. It gave me nightmares but I still loved it.”

I smiled at his story “What is this party for?”

“It’s so Kai can make some money. I told him I would give him money for a plane ticket but he didn’t want to take money from me.”

“How is he going to get money? Is he selling drugs?”

“He’s sort of a prostitute. He’s been like that since he was three. Once people realized they would never be able to get with his father they just used Kai. Usually when he would go down to the market by himself they’d ask him to help them carry something then they would pay him afterwards. It was usually only one coin but he loved to show It off.”

“Why would he do that!?”

“I don’t know since he always seems to be upset afterwards. It pays a decent amount but he still has to steal some of the money to make a profit. After some things happened though he was perfectly fine with it and even loved to do it.”

“There is so much I don’t know about him and he never would even tell me. We’ve been dating for years and I don’t even know who he is.”

“He’s scared to get close to people so he lies to make sure they don’t know about him.”

“Hey, would you happen to know why Sunee acts like that?”

“Yes, but I would never tell you.”

“Oh, well she was in Kai’s room without her clothes on and I’m sort of worried.”

“Kai and Sunee sometimes…act…weird around each other.”

“What is weird?”

“They’ve done it since they were younger so you can’t say a thing about it! Kai knows that it’s wrong it just makes them feel better if they do it.”

“Do what?”

“You’ll have to find out yourself I’m sorry.”

After a few hours I had started to become tired and Moon let me lay in the bed with Sunee while he laid in the hammock. I was half asleep when Kai came into the room and laid his head on Moon’s stomach.

“How much did you make?”

“Two thousand. I used to make a lot more money.”

Kai handed him something. “Kai, keep your money you don’t need to split it with me.”

“Fine but I feel horrible.”

Moon played with his hair. “I think Claire is starting to catch on to you and Sunee.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was asking about it but I didn’t say a thing.”

“She can’t know that Sunee and I do that.”

I got up figuring this was my chance. “Do what?”

Sunee was half asleep when she sat up on her elbows. “Are we going to play or not?”

“Play what?” I looked back and forth between them.

“Sometimes when something bad happens we start to kiss and lay down and-”

“You mean that you do it.” I screeched at Kai “That’s nasty! You two are related do you know how gross that is. I feel like I’m going to go throw up!”

Kai grabbed my wrist “Calm down. I know that I shouldn’t do that but it’s sort of a habit we’ve been doing it since she was eight.”

“That’s even worse!”

It took a while to calm down and fall asleep but it seemed alright until I heard Sunee get out of bed. I followed them into another bedroom to see what they would do. I closed my eyes though and ran back to where I was previously. I jumped in the bed and put my arm around a bunch of pillows. I froze when something grabbed my hand then noticed I had my arm over Moon. He seemed to get up and move slowly before turning on a lamp.

“Holy! You are not Sunee.”

“Uh ya.”

“I thought you all left.”

“No they just went to go calm down.”

“I wish they wouldn’t.”

“That’s so gross how they just think that they can do that all the time it’s so nasty!”

“Yes but it will just hurt them even more if we say something.”

I glanced down for a moment “This probably looks really bad.”

“Not really.”

He turned to face me and I could see his dark brown eyes. “They love you. Almost like you are their brother or something. It just seems like your so nice and caring.”

“Thank you I guess?” He chuckled and I got closer to him

“So…” I didn’t know what to say to him “You smell like bamboo and eucalyptus.”

“Thanks?”

I kept getting closer to him until I couldn’t anymore. Playing with his hair I closed my eyes but felt something pull me away.

“What are you doing?”

“Well Kai’s pretty occupied with his sister at this moment.”

“That doesn’t mean you can cheat on him!”

“It’s not cheating it’s just playing.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“Kai can do that with his sister but he’s never asked me or tried to pull a move on me. I’m lonely and sick of it.”

“Then instead of trying to kiss me kiss him.”

I thought about what he said then laid down in bed.


We were back at home when our report cards came in. James was upset and sitting at the table. He told Kai and Sunee to go upstairs so he could talk with us.

“Why is he failing? Does he just not try to do the work?” He was messing with his hair which showed he was ticked off

Maria put a hand on his shoulder “Maybe he just doesn’t know the content of it all. The schools when he was a child probably weren’t that great.”

“Then how does Sunee have all A’s and he has all F’s?”

“Have you ever thought that he might have a learning disability.” Peter grabbed the report card from James

“You mean he might be retarded?” Clide looked up at the staircase.

“Don’t say that, it’s quite rude.” James scolded

“Well what if he is? Maybe he’s Dyslexic or Autistic.” I shrugged

“Autism has more to do with relationships and how you react with people more than a learning disability.” James corrected me quickly

“Well Moon said that he has trouble with people and with trusting them.”

“I doubt that Kai has Autism or Dyslexia.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my brother!” Sunee screamed from the staircase. She ran back up the steps and Kai just stared at us with large eyes. He eventually ran back up the steps after his sister.

“Oh God.” Logan whispered

I pulled up the dictionary on my phone. “Autism is the condition disturbing perception and relationships: a disturbance in psychological development in which use of language, reaction to stimuli, interpretation of the world, and the formation of relationships are not fully established and follow unusual patterns. Dyslexia is the impaired ability to understand written language: A learning disorder marked by a severe difficulty in recognizing and understanding written language, leading to spelling and writing problems. It is not caused by low intelligence or brain damage. All we have to do is find out which one Kai falls under and we can see what we can do. For now all we can do is get him a tutor.”




At school I asked Mrs. English to tutor Kai who happily agreed to stay after school with him a few hours to catch him up. When I told Kai he didn’t seemed to pleased but it didn’t matter as long as he got his grade up. I sat down on the couch with Clide when I got home just to wait for Kai. When he got home he ran straight to the fridge for wine, not even bothering to say hi to anyone. He grabbed Sunee and ran upstairs shaking.

Will raised an eyebrow “What’s wrong with him?”

All of us shrugged but the next day in class I could tell the tutoring paid off. Kai had gotten an C on his test. Mrs. English told him that his performance got better but he still needed to practice.

“Can you tutor him again today?” I asked

Kai started shaking again and saying no

“Sure but he will have to come to my house since I need to work on some things.”

“That’s alright I’m just thankful you are doing this.”

Kai stared at me like he was about to cry. Going home without Kai was awkward but It was alright since he called me so much. Eventually the calls ended but their was a knock on the door. A tall man was their and Maria let him inside. He had a tight grip on Kai who was screaming and shaking. The man threw him to his knees on the ground.

“Is this your boy?” He asked Maria

“Yes, but who are you?”

“I’m Mr. English. I found your kid in my wife’s room. He was raping her.”

“She raped me!” Kai screamed and Mr. English kicked him.

“I hope you all have a good lawyer cause your going to need one.”

The man left and Maria lifted Kai up. “You better be ashamed of yourself. That woman was trying to help you and you have the nerve to do that to her?”

“She raped me not the other way around!” He screamed

Everyone looked at him then left except for Sunee who whispered a small ‘I believe you’.” He stared at me but all I did was shake my head and leave. At school everyone stared at Kai also and he wasn’t allowed to be near Mrs. English which didn’t seem to bother him. At lunch the only person to talk to him was Sunee who was the only one who didn’t see through his lie. Kai had to meet with the police almost everyday and even they didn’t believe him. I met with Mrs. English at her house to apologize to her about Kai. I noticed cameras everywhere.

“Why the cameras?”

“I was just taking some photos.”

“Oh can I see them?”

“Sure they are upstairs first room to the right then the dresser to the right then the top drawer.”

“Got it.”

I went up the steps but had already forgotten her directions and looked in the dresser to the left in the middle drawer. It was just a bunch of CD’s but I still decided to play them in the TV nearby. I fell onto the bed shocked at what I saw. I could hear Kai screaming for her to stop in the video. I could see her kissing him in the video and him trying to push her off of him. I put in another one but he had apparently been drugged. I was scared to see what she was trying to do to him. Mrs. English started coming up the steps to the room and I grabbed the videos putting them in my purse.

“Aren’t they beautiful pictures?”

“Yes.”

“Which one was your favorite?”

“The first one definitely. I have to go back home though because they are probably missing me.”

I got up and ran back home since she had drove me there. Scared of showing the videos to anyone I kept them until the next morning at school when the police came in during Mrs. English’s class and arrested Kai.

“Wait! He’s innocent and I have proof.”

“What ever you got baby.” The police was a large black woman who already seemed to know Kai.

I put in the video- which happened to be the second one-and watched as the whole class stood with their eyes on Mrs. English. Kai’s jaw was opened and his face seemed pained and confused.

“Turn it off please.” I could hear him begging in my mind

“No.”

“Claire turn it off!” He screamed

I turned off the video and watched as the police let go of Kai and arrested Mrs. English. Kai ran out the room and I followed him into the hallway. He was holding himself, shaking when I touched him.

“How could you show everybody that!?”

“I’m sorry…I didn’t know which video it was going to be.”

“I hate you!”

His lip started to tremble but when I kissed him he let out a loud scream then hid his face from me. He was curled up but I still held him even when he started to panic.

“Kai, I won’t hurt you.”

“How do I know that?”

“I…I…don’t know.”

“Exactly.”

I kissed his neck and he started to tremble some more. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Just leave me alone.”

“No. I’m not just going to leave you here all alone.”

Dragging him up to his feet I led him to his car and we both climbed in the backseat. He pulled his head back allowing me to slip my head onto his lap. He tried to back up against the seat but he couldn’t. We watched as Mrs. English got pulled into a cop car and driven away. I pulled off Kai’s shirt and he froze.

“Please don’t do that.” His curved his body to get away from me but I wasn’t going to listen to him

“You need to learn to stand up for yourself.”

“Please.” He whined

“Fine but it’s not because you begged like a kid. It’s because I feel sorry for you.”

I drove him home since he didn’t feel like driving after the accident. I’m glad he didn’t drive since he did freeze up in the back seat. When I got home Maria hugged him and held him in her lap on the couch.

“Oh honey I’m so sorry we wouldn’t listen to you.”

“It’s alright-”

“No it isn’t.” James sat in front of him and messed with his hand

“Do you want to talk about it?” Maria asked

“I’m fine Maria, this has happened before so I’m used to it.”

“What!? Kai why have you never told us?”

“I was fourteen when it happened and it was just these three girls. I was only there for a few months. Besides my friend Kekee was stuck there also so it wasn’t as bad as if it was me by myself. She decided to cope with it by turning gay and I decided to cope with it with drugs and alcohol.”

“You poor babies!” Maria screamed and held his face

“You were fourteen?” I asked

“Ya, I have all these marks up my legs from Sarah but it’s alright.”

“Sarah? That’s odd.” James was still playing with his hand

“Yes Sarah was the one to do it the most , Mary Ann was the one who was nice enough to drug me first, and Jessica was the one who could have cared less.”

“Does it still bother you?” Cynthia messed with his hair a little

“Yes but I try not to think about it.” He faked a smile

“Sorry for bringing it up then.” Cynthia was still trying to distract herself

“It’s fine I guess but I just don’t really want to talk about that.”

James stopped playing with his hands “Maybe you should go to therapy and help you with some of these things.”

“What if the therapist tries to hurt him?” It was the first thing that Sunee had said all afternoon

James rolled his eyes “He can’t live his whole life scared, he just needs to be more cautious.”

Later that night Kai was already in bed when I went to lay down. As soon as I wrapped my arm around him he became immobile except for the fact he was shaking. I turned him over to see that his eyes were closed in fear.

“Please don’t be scared.”

He opened his eyes “I don’t know-”

“You can trust me, I promise.”

“That’s what they all say. They act nice and like they want to help you then they tear you apart. So how can I trust you and know that you won’t do that to me?”

“I’m trustworthy.”

“Why should I believe you!?”

He sat up and held himself while looking at the bed. I wanted to do something to comfort him but I didn’t know what. I thought about going through his phone and getting Moon’s number but didn’t think that was a bright idea. Holding him didn’t seem good either since it was most likely going to scare him to death. So I came to the final decisions which was to just put my hand on his back. It was probably the worst idea I could think of since as soon as I touched him he screamed bloody murder for Maria and jumped out of the bed. He was shaking, trying to get away from me and my “murderous” hand. I didn’t do him any harm but that wasn’t how Maria saw it.

“What did you do to him?” She growled at me

“I was trying to comfort him and he took it the wrong way.”

“Do everyone a favor and just stay away from him.”

She led Kai out of the room and into hers so he wouldn’t have to scream for her. It offended me that he felt safer with Maria then with me but I tried to not let it get to me that bad. It was hard to sleep without Kai next to me but it was even worse knowing he was sleeping next to Maria. I heard the door open but it was only Clide. I wasn’t hesitant when he asked to sleep in the bed with me. I did remember our short romance when Kai was gone though. Clide didn’t seem to notice until he saw my face.

“Are you thinking about what happened before?”

“Sort of.”

“Do you want to do it again?”

“Kai needs support right now and not heartache so of course not.”

“Your loss.”

He turned over and after a few minutes snoring was able to be heard. In the morning Kai came to wake me up with Sunee in his arms like a child.

“I wanted to ask you something.” He looked at me

“Sure go ahead.”

“Do you want to go to Thailand with me?” Sunee gave him a mean look. “Well I’m going to talk to James and see if I’d be able to live with my friends instead of go with him to where ever he plans to go. Sunee would come with me of course but I just want to visit first. I thought that maybe you would like to come with me but it’s alright if you don’t want to. I need to know now though because I sort of told you in a very short notice.”

“I would love to go but when do we need to catch the plane?”

“In three hours but the drive to the airport takes two hours.”

He helped me to hurry up and pack then say bye to everybody. He gave Sunee the longest hug and for a while I thought she wasn’t going to let go. We made it to the airport in time but the plane didn’t have a lot of people so we got to sit wherever we wanted. I tried to lean on Kai since I was scared of being in planes but he pushed me off with a rude look. He didn’t seem to be so happy about being with me and I took it to heart but as soon as the plane landed he was smiling and jittery. We got our bags and I was glad I spent three hours trying to learn Thai because Kai had to leave me alone for a few minutes and people kept asking me to buy things. We got to the beach first to look at the clear waters and then to a small little bar. I wanted to go back to the beach again so we did. Kai was oddly following me around and being nice.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Please don’t be mad and you can say whatever you want but I want to go to your house.”

He looked like he wanted to say no very badly but nodded yes and started to walk. I followed and in about an hour we were already to a large fence. I looked at a little shed wondering if that was his house but then I saw a giant brown mansion. My jaw dropped and Kai opened the large fence.

“I’m sorry about the long walk.” He seemed to be shivering

“If it makes you uncomfortable then we don’t have to be here.”

“It’s fine I guess.”

“I thought you said your family had a farm.”

“We did but we were a very wealthy family. The richest people for miles around to be exact. But please be careful when we walk inside because the house is old and I don’t know how well the staircase or the higher levels of the house have taken the aging. Also the house has a lot of trap doors and tunnels from the guy who lived here before us so be careful when you touch things. And the last thing is that the basement has a lock on it for a reason so don’t mess with it.”

“Alright those rules are simple enough.”

When he opened the door he froze in place and stared at certain part of the house. It didn’t seem like he knew I could see everything he thought of when he kept having flashbacks. When he looked at a blood stained corner I could see his father hitting him with what looked like a rusty bike chain with nails in it. When he glanced at the stairs I could see his dad chasing his mom up the steps, grabbing her foot to make her fall, then beating her. Kai physically shook his head trying to get rid of the memories. The house was old on the inside too. There was a line of pictures on the wall and one was of a boy with long straight black hair and blue eyes holding a little girl in his arms in a defensive way.

“Who is that?”


“It’s Sunee and me when we were younger.”

“You were both beautiful children.”

“Thank you.”

The picture next to it was of a man that was a spitting image of Kai except with brown eyes and was holding a girl with blonde hair and high cheek bones that had a gentle look to her. Maybe it was her caramel eyes but she seemed to be confused and curious with the painter.

“Who are they?”

“Nikko and Audrey, they are my parents.”

“You speak about them with so much respect.”

“Do you not speak about your parents with respect?”

“Not really?”

He nodded and led me up the steps with caution. There was a short hallway with three rooms. The one closest to us on the left was Kai and Sunee’s bedroom. The one farthest from us on the left was the bathroom and the one in the middle on the right was his parents bedroom. I peered into the bathroom which was very simple with a regular tub and a bucket to fill up with water. There wasn’t a sink but I didn’t think it was necessary to have one back then. When I looked in Kai and Sunee’s room there were two simple beds on each wall.

They were small beds and when I moved the covers away there were snakes hissing and trying to slither off the bed. I went into his parents room where there was a large king sized bed where the left side was black and burnt but the right side was fine. There was an end table with pictures on it and the bed was covered with broken glass. Kai moved the glass away and laid down instructing me to lay on top of him. It was already dark outside since the plane flight took most the day.

Kai turned to where I was on the hard bed and he was laying on me. He got up on his knees and started to take his clothes off. He started on mine and I was shocked to see him take off both of our underwear. I could see the scars on his legs now and was frightened of what was going to happen next. I kicked quickly and he grabbed my leg putting it on his back. We started to kiss and he grabbed my hand and put it on his stomach.

“So when did you lose it?” I already knew the story but I wanted to kill time

“I was three and a woman who lived near the market tricked me into going to her house everyday. She asked me to help her carry groceries into her house. Since she couldn’t have my father she thought that she could just use me. She paid me ten cents everyday as long as I promised not to tell a soul that I was letting her touch me like that. My father had money and therefore was very powerful so if he knew he could easily have her hung. I didn’t really know what was going on because i was so young but eventually I found out. I wouldn’t really say that she ever assaulted me but that’s just me. It was weird when we kissed and all though but I never thought of it then. I used to come home with bruises and people got suspicious and started to ask her. She told them I fell down the stairs but really I rolled off the bed.”

He kept moving my hand down and I gasped but didn’t move my hand.

“What about you?”

“This is my first time.”

“Then I should make sure to make it extra special.”

He licked my lips and throat then pulled back quickly. “It’s a natural reflex to sort of try to choke you to death so please don’t be alarmed if that happens.”

I nodded and only a few minutes later he had his arms around me lovingly then tensed up quickly causing me to choke. Somehow we ended up being on the floor and I heard a knocking on the floor.

“What was that?” I startled myself even though it was probably just because the house was so old.

“It’s the reason we keep the basement locked.” He tensed up a little the next time it knocked.

He held my neck awkwardly in his hand and nipped at the side of it for a while with his teeth. I didn’t want to ruin the moment by telling him that it was hurting me but when he grabbed my side I squealed. When he wrapped his arm around my waist he made an odd noise that sounded like a whimpering puppy. When he kissed me I could feel something sticky. I started to lick it but had to get up and cough. Kai got off of me but then grabbed me by my waist and put me on top of him. His eyes seemed wider, darker, and he was still whimpering. I held his hands above his head and he started to moan but I looked closer at his arms and saw deep cuts and scars across his wrists and veins. When I ran my thumb across them he just moaned louder. He seemed frightened though and I figured I would ask him in the morning what the cuts were. Even though they were probably where he had cut himself. I let go of his hands and he flattened me against him to kiss. I smiled and held his head in my hands listening to him whimper and moan.



I woke up to Kai being gone and broken glass in my leg. He came back in the room thankfully with clothes on. He climbed back on the bed.

“Since we just did this I want to tell you some things.”

“Like what?”

“My name isn’t Kai.”

“You know that’s the stupidest thing to lie about!”

“It’s just a short version of Kaiien. Sort of like cayenne pepper. I just tell people my name is Kai though. Also I’m suicidal sometimes and once I caught this house on fire and hid in the bathroom but only my father’s side of the bed burned. We keep a lock on the basement because there is a dead man down there and a lot of booby-traps. He’s hanging from the ceiling and holding a book of my family history. I tried to take it and a boulder fell on me. Also I’m not allowed to know my family history and people thought I was the devil’s son when I was born cause I looked nothing like my parents. I was born dead but something happened and I came back but I have this odd necklace I never take off and I don’t know why I just feel like it’s wrong to take it off. Sometimes I see these weird white animals that follow me around and my necklace has numbers that go down everyday and I don’t know why. Alright that was a mouthful.” He took a deep breath and smiled “I still have more but I don’t feel like saying it.”

“It’s alright because I’m still trying to take all of this in. How can somebody be born dead and come back like that?”

“Vampires and werewolves aren’t the only things out there.” He said it so seriously that I was scared to ask what he meant

“Oh…um like what fairies and unicorns?” I laughed nervously

“No, nothing that ridiculous.”

“So witches and dragons?”

“No, nothing that ridiculous either. Magic doesn’t exist in the world. A long time ago humans thought that vampires with gifts and people like Samantha who are taught to heal people in odd ways, were thought to be witches. They were tortured and burned which was quite a sad sight. Oh….well some people are witches but they don‘t have ‘magic’. ”

“That is sad but what else is out there?”

“Well I don’t really know but Eileen has a whole book of it. We could go by her place and see. She wouldn’t mind at all since she would get to see me and I want to be able to say hi to her before we leave.”

“Alright but first I want to take a bath.” I smiled and laid down in the old tub.

He looked at me like I was insane but then grabbed the bucket and got water from a stream somewhere. It was cold and not a lot of water but I dealt with it. There wasn’t any soap either or even a towel so I had to dry off with some of my clothes. Kai scooped the water back up in the bucket and smiled playing with the dirty liquid.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Look at the fish.”

I stared but didn’t see anything spectacular about a bunch of dirty fish. “I don’t see anything.”

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t see anything but I do. Take a shower at Eileen’s since your still dirty.”

I nodded and we started to walk but didn’t take long. I noticed Kai get extremely close to me and I had to push him away sometimes. We walked until we got to a light blue house with a pitch black fence and yellow flowers everywhere. There was a baby playing with a pony in the yard but nobody was seen to be out there with her. Kai leaned over the pointed fence to pick up the two year old girl. Her eyes were huge and dark brown and her skin was a beautiful tan color. She had almost the same styled hair as Sunee along with the same color.

They all seemed to look alike but it would probably be racist to say that. A tall, lean woman walked out on the lawn and stood right in front of us. She seemed to have a large frown on her face when she stared at me and her skin was a fine white color. She didn’t seem to get much sun and her hair was tied into a bun in the back of her head. Her face seemed to become more friendly when she looked at the baby she was probably taking care of for a human. I looked back and forth from her to the kid in Kai’s arm and smiled at the lady.

“So who does this child belong to?”

The woman looked offended “She belongs to me.” She took the kids from Kai’s arm and opened the fence. She gave Kai a hug and smiled pointing to the door. “Moon told me you were coming so I bought a lot of mangos and all of them are already here since they figured you would automatically come to my house first.”

“Thank you Eileen, I love you.” He kissed the top of her head

“Love you too.”

We walked in the house which was a lot of different shades of blue and green. Even the furniture was blue and green. I noticed a crib on the side wall with a large machine next to it. Kai took the little girl back and sat on the couch. I sat in front of him like Kekee was doing with Kendall.

“What’s her name?”

“Egypt Saudi.”

“No last name eh?”

“Not really since I don’t really know who her dad is.” She didn’t seem ashamed to say it.

“She’s not your boyfriend’s kid?”


“No we broke up when he found out I was pregnant.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that she looks oddly human.”

“That’s because she is. I had to go to a doctor in America before they were able to tell me I was pregnant with her when I was human and stayed pregnant for hundreds of years. She grows at a human rate so it’s only been two years.”

“I remember when you were pregnant.” He smiled when Egypt showed him a sock monkey. “I gave you that toy to give to her.”

Moon laughed “She still doesn’t let anybody touch it.”

“When did you get pregnant?” Kai looked at the face of the girl.

“The doctor told me I was probably thirteen. Obviously the first time was what did it.”

“I doubt it, it must have been a time after that since I was your first time.”

“Well she does look a little like you but I wouldn’t say for sure that she’s your child.”

The girl looked up at Kai and started to jump up and down excitedly but then fainted on Kai.

“Is that normal?” He asked

Eileen grabbed her daughter and put her in the crib. She hooked the machine to a mask and put the mask on Egypt.

“She just has a little problem where in order to breathe she has to manually think about doing it instead of it being natural. When she gets really excited she forgets to think about breathing and then she faints. So yes, it’s normal.”

Kai nodded and looked towards me. I went to take a shower first and was glad to have the time away from Kai. When I got back downstairs he was holding Egypt again and was smiling from ear to ear. He turned around to me and his eyes seemed to light up.

“Have you ever thought about having children?” He tilted his head like a confused dog

“No, I’m not really a child person.”

“Hmm.”

Kendall started to laugh and smiled at me. “Eventually you are going to have to have kids whether you like it or not.”

“Who told you that?”

“Well do you have a job?”

“No, but neither does Kai.”

Eileen chuckled “Men aren’t supposed to hold a job. Women go to work and have children. Then men have to take care of the children, feed them, clothe them, clean house, make sure dinner is ready, do everybody’s hair, and wait on the women like a waiter.”

“Isn’t it the other way around?”

“Not for us.” Kekee nudged her elbow into my leg, laughing

I looked at Moon. “How many children do you have?”

“I don’t have any children because I’m not allowed to touch women and besides I’m not married to my girlfriend yet. So if I wanted to have children she would have to have them with someone else.”

“That must be horrible!”

“Not really because you get used to it after a few years.”

Kekee hit him with her elbow. “Even though your whole life is supposed to be revolved around your children and wife?”

He kicked her “Don’t remind me.”

Kai left to go to the kitchen and I let out a giant sigh. “Does anybody know why he’s so clingy?”

Kendall smothered his laugh with a pillow. “It happens every time he does it with a girlfriend. The first two didn’t get out of it until they died and then it never really happened to Paige.”

“He’s going to be like that until I die!?”

“Well actually he’s about to eat so he’ll forget about you in a few seconds.”

Kai came back in the room with an orange drink in one hand and a slobbering Egypt in the other hand. He let her drink half of the drink and then he went upstairs to drink the rest.

Eileen shook her head. “He says it’s easier to throw up if it’s blended but I doubt it.”

I nodded and felt awkward about having to be around Kai’s friends. I wanted to go home and be with my friends but I doubted that I would be able to convince Kai to go back home today. I had to sit on the couch awkwardly for a few hours while Kai threw up and slept. I realized I never got the chance to ask him about his cuts but I figured maybe it was for the best if I didn’t know. When I saw Kai walk out of the bedroom I noticed he was half asleep and not really in the mood to talk to. Waiting for the right moment to ask him was probably the hardest part since he wanted to be with his friends the whole day. To keep myself occupied I played with Egypt and her sock monkey but was scared she might faint on me.

Kai decided to spend the night at Eileen’s and didn’t even want to sleep in a bed with me but instead slept in the bed with Eileen. I knew that they had grown up together but I still felt like I was being left out of their group. It made me upset and I even ended up crying during the night but felt like a child and forced myself to stop. The next morning seemed to be yesterday all over again where they just talked and caught up with each other’s life and I seemed to be getting a few awkward stares from Kendall. He didn’t seemed to be that upset when I called him his full name but I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. We mostly spent the day on the beautiful white beaches but I even felt awkward when Kai was mostly staring at other women on the beach.

“Why are you staring at everybody except me?”

“I’m not! why are you freaking out like that?”

“It feels like you’ve been staring at everybody except for me and I’m getting jealous, especially when you stare at Eileen’s a** like that!”

“I’m not staring at her f***ing a**!”

“Yes you are so don’t even start to try and lie to me!”

“I’m not lying to you so why are you freaking out!?”

“I just saw you look at her!”

“Oh my God Claire we are at the beach so can’t we just talk about this on the ride to California and try to relax while we are here?”

“I guess so.”

I wasn’t very happy when we left the beach but I was happy to be able to go home and get away from Kai’s friends. We walked to the airport in silence and my arm started to hurt when I had to carry all of my luggage there. When the airplane lifted off for California I already started to yell in a whisper to Kai.

“Why would you even lie about staring at other girls?”

“I wasn’t lying I honestly didn’t look at anybody else and even if I did why would It even matter to you?”

“I didn’t even get to look at that fancy book you were talking about.”

“We were there for three days it’s not my fault you were to afraid to ask for it.”

“I thought we were going to have a romantic vacation after that first night. I didn’t think I would have to share you with them.”

“I never get to see my friends so I thought that maybe you could suck it up but I guess you couldn’t.”

“I don’t like having to be around those people because I don’t know them and they scare me.”

“How could they scare you they are probably some of the nicest people you would ever meet.”

“You say that because you’ve known them your whole life and they don’t scare you like they do me.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I thought we could come here to not be stressed out but it did the complete opposite. I shouldn’t have even asked you if you wanted to come, I should’ve just asked my sister.”

I bit my lip and leaned my head back for the rest of the flight. We got home late at night but I wasn’t bothered by that what did bother me was that i was trying to go to sleep but my mom was calling my phone like crazy. Finally Kai answered my phone for me then handed it to me. I growled at him and he growled back even more menacing.

“What is it mom?” My voice dragged

“I just wanted to call you and tell you I met a nice man when I was on vacation.”

I had forgotten she went to Jamaica. “Is he like that one guy you met?” I had a flashback of the horrid man she sent me to live with.

“No he’s a really sweet black man and I imprinted on him. The wedding is next week and I want you to be the maid of honor.”

“I’m honored but I don’t know if I can come since I’m extremely busy with school and all of that.”

“Well just call me If you can make it because it would break my heart if you weren’t able to come to the wedding.”

Kai snatched the phone from me. “She’ll be able to make it.”

I could hear my mom screaming through the phone with excitement and giving Kai the date. He closed the phone and gave it back to me.

“You have a big day tomorrow since you obviously forgot that tomorrow is graduation.”

“I don’t want to have to meet this man.”

“Why? Are you racist?”

“No! How could you even say that!? I’m just not comfy with a my mom marrying a second time.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

The next morning at school was chaos with all of us wearing the same colored outfits and hats. It was hard to say goodbye to Catherine and not that hard with Mikayla since we were going to the same college. I knew that it would be after my mother’s wedding that would mean Kai and Sunee would go away and live with their friends and I would be alone in College with Mikayla. There were a lot of tears that day and a lot of parents. It wasn’t not that surprising that Kai was sitting next to Andrew in the audience instead of not on stage. After the celebration everyone still stuck around to talk to each other and the crowd just seemed to get bigger. Andrew gave me and Sunee a hug when we got to them.

“How does it feel to graduate?” I could tell Kai was upset but that he wasn’t going to let it get to him

“Amazing.” Sunee smiled then sat in his lap

Andrew ran his finger’s through Kai’s hair “When do you think you’ll get your diploma?”

“Never. I’m too stupid to pass high school.”

I hugged him “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

“Well it’s kind of hard not to.”

He got up and walked to the car. We continued to celebrate with Andrew who kept looking back at the parking lot. I said good bye to him and when I got to Kai’s car he was already cutting himself inside the vehicle. He looked at me to get in the car with my diploma and he stabbed the steering wheel. He drove with the hand that wasn’t injured and when we got back home he ran to his bedroom. James crossed his arms then checked to see if Kai was alright. I knew when he had saw Kai’s arm when you could here him cussing all the way from upstairs and down the hall.



The wedding kept getting closer until finally it was the day. Logan gave me a large fluffy ring and I put it on my wrist not knowing what it was. Kai came in the room laughing and took it off my wrist.

He turned to Logan “This is her mom’s wedding not hers.”

Logan laughed and nodded then came and lifted my dress up and went under it. Clide laughed at me when my cheeks turned bright red from embarrassment. Kai slipped the ring on my leg but had to make it bigger with his teeth since my legs weren’t as small as Logan’s. I could feel his lips on my thighs when he started to talk to me.

“You know that you’ll be imprinting soon since your mom just did.”

I looked at him through the top of the dress. “I hope I never do.”

“It’s not as bad as you are making it sound you know.”

“I don’t care.”

“Nice underwear.” He laughed and kissed my hello kitty underwear. I was stunned that he would do it more than once and that he would ever kiss me there. I could feel his lips moving everywhere and then I had to push him out from under my dress.

He laughed and drove me to my mother’s wedding which seemed to last all day. I was glad that she wasn’t marrying a man with children and that he was actually a very nice man who respected my mom. When Kai and I got back home I fell asleep on the couch and Kai woke me up in the middle of the night. He told me to change into something cute and I wore a pink lace dress that cut off at my thighs. He carried me to a stream with pink, yellow, and blue flowers everywhere with not a weed in sight. Across the stream was a large, white, decorative cross. We both laid on our backs and looked at the stars.

“Do you come here to pray?” I asked rolling on top of him

“I’m a Buddhist.”

“Seriously? That’s really interesting.”

“It’s very peaceful here. I come down here to get away from things that are troubling me.”

We kissed until I had to take a breath and tears started running down my face when I realized that I would never see him again. We kept kissing until I fell asleep and was woken up by bright sunlight and James kicking us in the side.

“Kai you need to get ready so we can leave. I’m the one who’s stuck with driving you to the airport. So get up before we end up missing the flight.”

“Fine but I need to take a shower first.”

“Hurry up Kai!”

Kai got up quickly and carried me all the way up to the bathroom. There was already a towel in there for him but he grabbed another one and started to take off his clothes.

“Aren’t you going to take your clothes off? We’re going to use Dakota’s shower since it’s bigger.”

“You want me to take a shower with you?”

“Yes, unless it makes you uncomfortable then you don’t have to.”

I started to take my clothes off and he started the shower. I was shocked when water came out of every wall. When we got in he shook his head and started to laugh at me when I would only look at his head. He pressed me against the cold wall and held my hands down to my sides.

“Just look.”

“No.”

“Just tilt your head down and look.”

I did what he said and then kept my head up the whole time we were in there. He laughed and seemed to be having a good time until he heard James screaming and coming up the steps. I could see him through the curtain and knew he was staring at my clothes oddly.

“Claire?”

“Yes.” My voice was shaking

He shook his head “Just hurry up.”

James left and Kai got out the shower and laid on the giant glass bed with real gold sewn into the blankets. Even though we were soaking wet Kai got on the bed and started to kiss me. I got up and he did too when James screamed at us again. I hated having to be rushed when I was trying to say goodbye forever. We put some clothes on and walked down the hallway but then Kai pushed me up against the wall and held me down. He kissed me wildly and James didn’t say a thing but put the luggage in the car. I jumped up and locked him to me with my legs but then fell back down losing the five seconds of sexy. I started crying when he whispered goodbye and walked out the door. I fell down the wall slowly and held my head In my hands to cry. I seemed to be there for hours until I finally got up to lay on the couch for a while. The next morning Mikayla was by my side with a cup of tea and a towel.

“Are you alright?” She hugged me anyway

“I guess so.”

“It’s not good to cry over boys.”

“I don’t care, he was more than just a guy.”

“Well maybe it would help if we were to make the trip to our college now instead of staying in his house. It might help with the crazy emotions and besides you might meet a nice man who isn’t crazy.”

“But I like the crazy.” I whined

“Than maybe we can get you someone just as crazy.”


Mikayla went upstairs to grab my bags and throw them in her car. I wasn’t quite ready to go back on an airplane or even leave the familiar sights and smells of the big house but Mikayla had insisted. The plane ride wasn’t long but only a few hours and the school was huge. I was happy to know that Mikayla was my roommate but not happy enough to forget about Kai. I knew Mikayla was annoyed at me but if she knew what it felt like then she wouldn’t be. I should have known this was coming but not so soon. Our room was almost like a hotel-which I was glad- but it still seemed to be empty. I didn’t even notice when Mikayla left to take a shower since I was preoccupied with my thoughts. Crying the whole night wasn’t the best way to solve my problems and I could feel every time Mikayla got up to hit me with her pillow.

Mikayla woke me up and pulled two beers out of the mini fridge. “I never drank before but I think that this is a good time.” She struggled with the lid for a bit

“I don’t think we should drink our first day here.”

“What’s going to go wrong?”

“Uh I don’t know we could probably just get drunk.” I said sarcastically

“You are really starting to become a B”

“You can’t even say it.”

She shook her head and sucked down the whole bottle in record time. I tried to do the same but choked and set down the bottle before trying again. Eventually Mikayla was asleep on her bed with bottles on her stomach. My vision blurred and I stumbled out of my room and down to the nearest beach. I didn’t know my way around yet but I managed to walk my way up a bridge. It didn’t seem that fall to jump, at least that’s what it seemed like in my drunk vision. My arms were wrapped around the bars making sure I didn’t fall when I leaned outward.

Since the fall didn’t look that bad I let go and leaned towards the water forgetting the earlier weather advisory. The first thing to hit me was the icy water and wind then the large rocks. I could feel the corral hitting my legs then giant waves crash debris into my skull. I tried to cover my head but the waves kept my hands down and rocks scraped at my legs. A voice could be heard from the beach and was recognizable as Mikayla’s I could see her running back up the beach looking back occasionally before the waves washed me under one last time.

When I opened my eyes they stung and the water seemed to be red but I touched my head and neck to feel that it wasn’t bleeding but every other part of my body was. I wondered how long I could hold my breath and get banged against the rocks and coral before water filled my lungs. I closed my eyes then felt someone’s hands lift me above the water. I wondered if it was Mikayla but I could hear her screaming on the beach.

The mystery hands brought me to dry land but I couldn’t hear the person tell Mikayla something then carry me longer. I was on grass when I was laid down and the person pumped the little bit of water out of my lungs onto the grass. Mikayla wrapped herself around me and cried into my ear then thanked the person standing above me. I rubbed then opened my eyes to see a man’s jacket being thrown over the two of us. I didn’t know why but my heart seemed to beat faster and I started to sweat and get a sick feeling in my stomach. I looked at Mikayla and shook my head.

“Something is wrong.” My voice was hoarse

“Like what.”

“You know how I have that little wolf problem? I think it has to do with that.” I whispered

She looked up at the man looming above us. “What’s your name again?” She grabbed the man’s hand

“Joshua, Josh for short.” His voice was hoarse from the water also and when I looked up at him he had that cookie-cutter look to him. Blonde short hair, blue eyes, a bit muscular but not much, not very skinny but not heavy either. He didn’t have a noticeable six pack but if you looked closely you could see it.

He wrapped his jacket around me tighter when the wind blew harder I got the weird feeling again and buried my face into the sand. I wasn’t until morning that an ambulance, police, and news crew came to the rescue. Mikayla helped me up to look into the camera and talk to the reporter. Josh was next to me and talking most of the time since he saw most of the action.

“What was it like?” The reporter jammed the microphone into my face

“It was scary and I was glad that someone was able to save me so quickly.”

“How did you find her?” The microphone was shoved in Mikayla’s face

“I heard her walk out our dorm room then followed her down to the beach but it was to late for me to get her off the bridge before she fell. I ran to get help and Josh happened to be around and luckily he used to be a lifeguard so he knew what to do.”

The reporter looked at Josh. “What was the worst part?”

“The wait to see if she would be alright or if something bad would go wrong during the night and that I might lose her.”

My heart beat got faster when he talked about me and I ran from the reporters with Mikayla. “What’s going on!?” She freaked out

“I think I’m changing!”

“How?”

“It just happened.”

“Control it.” It was obvious she was scared

My vision spotted and I seemed lower to the ground. I looked up to see Mikayla walking backwards towards the woods. Growling, I jumped on her and she screamed loudly causing the news reporters, police, and ambulance come to see what happened. I changed before they came but Mikayla was still in shock. Josh looked down at us, helped us up, then walked us back to the beach. The news died down after a bit and Josh had to leave which left me alone with Mikayla. She stared me down then wrapped herself in a blanket on the sand. I tried to hug her but she squirmed away from me. We walked in silence to our dorm room and still didn’t talk to each other the next day.

The directions to my classes seemed to be too difficult so I had to ask the first person I saw in the hallway. I didn’t know anybody so I just had to grab their hand to get their attention.

“Hey!” The person I grabbed happened to be Josh and my heart rate got faster.

“Hey do you know where Mr. Abraham’s class is?”

“It’s down the hall to your left.”

“Thanks…I didn’t know that you went to this school.”

“I’m trying to get a nice group of people and this school basically focuses on anything from clothing to architecture. I’m going here for culinary school but might switch since I don’t think I can really cook.”

I laughed nervously without meaning to. “You might have to cook for me one day. I’m going here for teaching but am thinking about changing to fashion. That’s why I need to go talk to Mr. Abraham.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting then. Oh and I might just take you up on the cooking offer.” He smiled, waved, and walked away perfectly.

I ran to Mr. Abraham’s office who was an old man-probably seventy- with an ancient gray beard. He turned the chair around like a Mafia man in an old-fashioned movie.

“Do you need something honey?” His voice was rusty

“I want to switch from teaching to fashion. It is to late to do that or to soon?”

He messed with some papers before handing me one. “Here is your new schedule and here is your pass for being late.”

The man smiled then waved me off to my class. Luckily he had given me a map of the school so I wasn’t that late to my first class. When I walked in people were sketching designs for winter clothes and mine must have been the worst since I couldn’t draw worth anything. The teacher seemed to notice but just told me to go back to my dorm after class and work on my drawing techniques. Mikayla started to talk to me a little bit but was still mad at me because I almost attacked her. There was a knock on the door which Mikayla rushed to the door to open. Josh was in the doorway in his pajama’s smiling at us both.

“Nice pj’s.” Mikayla laughed

“What? I like animals.” He messed with her hair then set a pot on the table.

“What is that?” I got up to look in the pot.

“Just some gourmet sweet potatoes since I was serious about cooking for you and your friend who’s names I still don’t really know.”

“I’m Claire and she’s Mikayla.”

He shook my hand causing me to feel light headed and have to sit on the bed. “Are you alright?”

“It’s just my…allergy’s that make me…tired.”

“It is allergy season but are you sure you are alright?”

“Yes it’s only seven at night so I can’t be that tired yet. Thank you for the food.. uh do you want to stay for a bit?”

“I doubt that is allowed but Mr. Abraham seems like a good guy.”

He sat in between me and Mikayla causing her to sometimes have to kick my legs so I wouldn’t change in front of him.

“You are an amazing cook!” Mikayla was shoving the food in her mouth like it was about to disappear.

“Thank you, it’s an old family recipe.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?” The words came out of my mouth before I thought about what I was saying

He chuckled “No, not yet at least but I still have my eyes open for the one.”

“Good because I just recently broke up with my boyfriend that I’ve been dating for a couple of years.”

“I’m sorry about that, may I ask what happened?”

“He decided to move across the world and live with his friends while I went to college. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again but I hope so, at least when you are around I don’t think of him as much. You sort of make me happier then he did.” I blushed and he did too.

“I’m glad that I make you happy like that but I don’t want you to think that we’ll ever be like that.”

“That’s not what I was thinking at all! Actually I was thinking that we could be best friends-me, you, and Mikayla.”

“Well…that sounds like it could work quite well.”

Mikayla glanced up at the clock. “Sorry to end the party but I want to get some sleep.”

Josh gave us both hugs then jumped up and walked out the door. I went to sleep but morning came too soon and I had to eventually get up so I could go to my classes. Mikayla met up with me after my designing class.

“I know you like him.”

“What? I…” I blushed and put my head down. “How did you know?”

“Almost everything you said last night pointed to it and the look on your face when the just friends thing came up.”

“It feels like I’m betraying Kai if I like him but Kai left me so that I could do this.”

“Do what makes you feel happier without having a conscious.”

“What if he’s the one? It would explain why my heart rate increases and I change in plain sight.”

“I’ll see what I can do but in the meantime try to work a way around it.”

I waited until she left before I thought of what I was going to do “Nod, walk away, call Josh. Nod, walk away, call Josh. Nod, walk away, call Josh.”

I hit something then looked up at the tan, wet thing. “Hey I was just about to call you.”

“I just got out of the pool so I guess I’ll dry off at my place then go to yours? Just so it’s not so awkward…ya know…I’m basically half-naked.”

“It’s ok because Mikayla won’t be back for a few more hours and I have towels at my place and maybe a sweatshirt you could borrow.”

He laughed then walked towards my small-apartment sized dorm room. He opened the door I forgot to lock then turned on the light staring at the mess on the floor. I hurried and picked it up so he could get to the bed to sit. He laid down and I got on top of him, smiling. He wrapped his hands around me then made a confused face. I turned to see what he was holding and realized it was my tail and that I changed without feeling it.

“I can explain that.”

“No need to explain it because I already know.”

“What!? Did Mikayla tell you?”

“No but I saw the flyers.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know! There are flyers everywhere asking people to make costumes for the grade school play of Little Red Riding Hood a few blocks down. I didn’t know you were making the wolf costume for it. This is a very realistic tail I must say I have never seen anything like it in my life.”

“Oh ya I forgot about that. Uh…I wanted to show you so I could get your opinion on it.”

I heard the door open then grocery bags drop to the floor. Mikayla cleared her throat and pointed with her eyes to my tail then to Josh.

“It’s ok he already knows it’s the costume for the grade school play.”

“Um…ya isn’t it so wonderful, Josh?”

“Very realistic.”

Josh sat up and I ran to the bathroom to get rid of the tail and noticed that my heart rate got faster. There was a knock and I opened it to see Josh walk into the bathroom and sit on the sink.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m not interested in what you wanted to do until after marriage.”

“Oh…sorry then I mean ya we just became friends yesterday but I thought it would be different and that we had a connection.”

He looked down “I felt that too but wasn’t really sure what to do.”

He grabbed my chin gently then kissed me and walked out the bathroom. I screamed for Mikayla who came just in time because I had changed after he kissed me.

“What happened!?” She shrieked

I looked up then licked the wall to show her what had happened.

“He kissed you!?”

I nodded and tried to slow my heart rate enough to go back out there and talk to him. I somehow managed to do it with Mikayla’s help but I had to face Josh who was playing with papers.

“I think I should be going now.”

“Alright.” I hoped the disappointment couldn’t be seen on my face.

Frown, eat, sleep, wake up, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, go to classes, talk to Mikayla, have awkward conversation with Josh, then run to the woods. I changed there and started to eat a dead animal when I heard a gasp and turned to see Josh with his camera out staring at me. He held out a shaking hand with food in it so I could eat.

“You’re a big wolf.” His lips quivered in fear

I walked in a circle then laid down trying to look less scary and more like an average house pet. He looked confused but bought it and took a picture of me with his camera. Picking up a stick, he poked me until I rolled over then rubbed me with the stick cautiously. The sound of footsteps made me stand guard and made Josh walk a few steps backwards. My heart grew heavy when he stepped back so I walked towards him only to frighten him more. One step closer and I heard something fall in front of me. When I looked down I recognized the object as a bullet, when I glanced upwards Josh had a hand gun pointed directly at me. I wondered if this was the time to reveal my secret but if he wasn’t my perfect match then I would be putting myself in the line of fire.

Since I wasn’t the most perfect person in the world I knew that if he was to shoot me anywhere then I would automatically change back and he would know no matter what. I looked around frantically for bushes to hid behind but they were too far away and he would pull the trigger when I started to run. If I was to change he would turn me in to the authorities though. My mind started to think of every possible outcome of the situation and I couldn’t help but see if he was still there with the gun.

He was still there and my body started to ache in pain when I thought of everything that would be lost. I remember my mom telling me how she met my dad at her friend’s wedding. How she knew he was the perfect one because it was instinct and her heart rate got faster every time she saw him. She laughed when she talked about how he was the only human at the reception and when she stood up and told him she loved him every one smiled lovingly. She had to tell him though and he didn’t care because he loved her too. I always thought she made half of it up until I watched the old tapes and wanted to tell my boyfriend I loved him the exact same way.

Looking in his eyes my heart rate got faster and I had a feeling that he was the one I would spend the rest of eternity with and have a life with. It was instinct. I looked to see that no one was around and changed right in front of him. I heard his camera drop then running footsteps. I chased after him and pulled him under a large tree to try to explain to him.

“Get away from me.” His eyes were all I needed to know he was about to have a panic attack.

“Let me explain.”

“You have five minutes to explain to me what just happened.”

I took a deep breath “I love you.”

His breathing slowed and I was finally able to loosen my grip on his hand. “I…I love you too.”

“Really?”

“It just feels right when I’m around you like that’s how it’s supposed to be. Like we are supposed to get married and have kids then grow old together. I don’t know why but it’s been like this since I first saw you on the beach.”

“Do you want to know the truth? You have to promise not to tell anyone and you can’t look at me like I’m insane.”

“Explain it then. Explain that whole scene back there.”

“Promise to get rid of the pictures?”

“I promise.”

“Alright well I’m a werewolf. My mom is a werewolf and so is my brother and grandpa and everybody on my moms side. My dad is human but he is dead sadly. My ex-boyfriend is a vampire who has about every mental disease in the book and his sister is weird and lives in a fantasy world. He lives with a bunch of other vampires but recently he went with his little sister to live in Thailand with their friends.

“Werewolves and vampires shouldn’t like each other or date so their was a big war over it and my ex-boyfriend, Kai, killed his half-brother Ace in a big battle so now Kai is basically king of the vampires I guess you could say. I came her with my friend Mikayla for college and then I got drunk and jumped off a bridge and you saved me. The exact moment I saw you I imprinted- which means I’m in love with you for life.”

“I know what imprinting is because I did animal studies when I was in high school. I don’t think your crazy at all but I just don’t want you to go all crazy one night and try to eat me in my sleep.”

“You don’t believe me do you?”

“Actually I do believe you but I just thought we should brighten the mood a bit.”

“When you were in my dorm I actually changed right in front of you and lied about the play.”

“I sort of lied to since that play was actually about a month ago.”

“How long have you’ve known about my secret!?”

“About five seconds ago but I was just messing with you back in the dorm room.”



He wrapped his arms around me then kissed me slowly trying to preserve the moment. The beautiful moon and stars in the sky with the eerie feel of being alone in the empty night but with the romantic feeling of kissing under a weeping willow. It had everything and I was glad I picked today to where a flowing sundress that moved in the light breeze.
























July



I told Josh my secret



I told Mikayla Josh knew my secret



I called mom to tell her I found the one

























August


Looked for houses in Pacifica


Mikayla talked to Derek for the first time in forever


Josh went out of town to visit family

September

Josh came back from out of town

Mikayla went to culinary school with Josh for one month

Tried to contact Pattinson family (did not work)





October


Josh and Mikayla came back with tasty food


Tried to contact Andrew at hospital (did not work)


Tried to contact Samantha (did not work)


Josh talked about marriage


Mikayla was sent to hospital (unknown reason)





November

Mikayla got out of hospital

Josh talked about kids

Josh talked about wanting to meet Kai (after a youtube video)

Looked for information from youtube video (did not work)

Josh bought plane tickets to Pacifica (even for Mikayla)





December

Kai’s birthday (new years eve)

Josh still begged to see Kai

Tried to contact other vampires (failed)

Tried contacting werewolves who heard of Kai (failed)

Tried to contact house phone (did not work)





January

Josh talked about marriage (again)

Mikayla was in hospital (again)

Josh’s birthday

We all decided to go to college in Pacifica

I had a bad dream about the Pattinsons







February

Paige’s birthday (bad day to go)

Christopher’s birthday (bad day to go)

Christopher’s death (bad day to go)

Overall bad month to visit

Mikayla out of hospital

Josh proposed (I said it was too soon he said it takes months to plan a wedding so I eventually said yes)

I got engaged

Big party that reminded me of Logan’s wedding (I miss her)





March

Started to plan for the wedding


Mikayla had an anxiety-attack (fours hours in hospital)


Mikayla had fainted in kitchen (half hour in doctors office)


Started packing for Pacifica (going to live there)


Praying Kai will return home with family














It was nice to see Mikayla run into Derek’s arms once again and happily walk into her house with her brothers. Josh and I unpacked our bags in our cozy new house. Even though it was small I still found it nice since it was the place we were going to raise a family in. It was in a peaceful neighborhood and a while away from the beach so our children couldn’t drown or get washed away by the current. The neighbors were friendly and only about in their forties so we wouldn’t need to worry about them that much. The only downfall was the small dog in their backyard that always barked at night. I fell into the bed exhausted and wondered if he would sleep in the bed with me for the first time.

“Are you awake?” He whispered

“Ya but I’m really exhausted. Why?”

“Never mind it can wait until tomorrow if your really tired. I’ll let you get your rest.”

I turned on the lights near the bed and stared at him standing in the doorway, wrapped in a towel.

“Did you just get out the shower?” He didn’t appear wet though

“No.” He spoke in a low tone

“Are you about to get in the shower?”

“No.”

“Then why do you have a towel on?”

“Your tired so it doesn’t matter.”

“Just tell me!” I whined

“You’ve been asking me almost every night now…I thought maybe tonight was the right time but your tired and you should get your rest so maybe tomorrow.”

“No, I’m not tired anymore.”

I watched as the towel dropped to his ankles and he walked over to the bed watching my expression carefully. I frantically took off my clothes and rolled on top of him.

He looked worried “I’ve never done this.”

“I’ve only done it once.”

“That makes me feel a bit better.”

He smiled and kissed me slowly unlike Kai who could care less to make it last. He put his hands on my hips and moved then slowly down to my knee. I lifted it up and put it on is hip then rolled so I was kneeling on the bed. Things got faster and I forgot that he was human and i started to think he was a vampire and that I was still with Kai. I thought he occasionally screamed because he was enjoying himself and not because my claws were scraping the skin off his bare chest. I thought that when he pulled away from me he was playing hard to get and not trying to get out of my bruising grasp. I also didn’t realize how much time had passed until he was gasping for air and too tired to move. He automatically flinched when I touched him and I started to cry and laid my head on his chest.

“I’m sorry.” I cried

“It was good for the first try, Claire so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“No it’s not! A purple body, enough blood to fill a glass , and eighteen bandages are not good.”

He wrapped his arm around my side and rocked me until I calmed down. “Five hours of tough love are not going to kill me.”

“Five hours!?”

“Shhh. You need to get your beauty sleep because we are going to your ex-boyfriends house tomorrow to see if he is there.”

“I doubt it.”

“You never know until you go and look.”

“Are you in the condition to go over there and talk to them? I don’t know if the blood will make him crazy and even if it stops bleeding the smell of blood on you could do anything to him.”

“You are just scared that he may not be there.”

I nodded and drifted to sleep having nightmares about all the ways I could possibly harm Josh.



By morning his scars were done bleeding out and he said that the bruises didn’t hurt too badly. I was scared when we got in the car that when we got there he wouldn’t be there or that he would be in his house dead but instead I got a pleasant surprise-boxes everywhere. In the yard, on the porch, and even in the Mustang. I jumped out the car and ran into the house that was being filled with classical piano music Will was playing. The music stopped and all eyes were on the staircase that Kai was descending from. He dropped the box he was holding as soon as his eyes met mine. I ran to him and jumped in his arms telling him how much I missed him in a hushed whisper. I noticed everyone’s eyes were now on Josh who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

“Who’s he?” Kai turned to me angrily

“He’s my fiancé. Guys this is Josh and Josh this is the Pattinson family.”

“Fiancé?” I could hear the rail he was holding on to break from the wall. “Congratulations Claire.” He started grinding his teeth together.

“I see you grew your fangs out.” I quickly changed the subject

“I had to kill a few people while you were gone.”

“Like who?”

“A few vampires here, a few werewolves there, a lot of humans, oh ya one was engaged.” He glared at me

“Do you have any good news?” I noticed I was holding his arms

“Paige and I are more civil with each other. We don’t hate each other as much as we used to.”

“So…anything else exciting-”

He cut me off “It’s time for me to go smoke so you can go mingle with someone else now.”

I heard the door slam harshly and I went to go sit with James and Josh.

“When exactly is the wedding?” James started to mess with the colored buttons on my jacket.

I smiled at the thought of it “June twentieth.”

“That’s probably why he’s so ticked off.”

“What does the date have to do with that?” Josh seemed lost

“That was the day that his parents got married. I don’t know why but it’s a big deal with Sunee and Kai. Nobody is allowed to have anything going on when something happened a certain day. Kai actually changed Logan’s birthday because it was the day his mom left. I guess it’s a respect thing since they are both really into that.”

“Maybe I should talk to him.” I moved James’s hands off of me



I found his clothes near a tree before I saw him swimming in a small river not far from the house. I took off my shirt, shoes, and pants then jumped in the freezing water in front of him.

“I’m sorry about the date. I’m moving it to the next day if that’s ok.”

He nodded

“Are you mad?”

He shrugged

“Do something to show you are listening to me!”

He grabbed my shoulders to pull me to him quickly and he kissed me. I pulled away from him but he managed to kiss me another time. When I pulled him away another time he got aggressive and hit me in the face.

He was shaking in the water “I love you.”

I looked at him confused and noticed the way he stood and the look in his face reminded me of the pictures of his dad.

“I’m getting married.”

“Well don’t!”

“He makes me happy.”

“I do too!”

“I don’t love you anymore though.”

“Yes you do.” He growled at me menacingly

“No I do not.”

He hit my head against some rocks and kissed me a third time. He ran his hands down my body and I kept trying to push his hands away. He ran my fingers down his body and made me touch him or else he growled at me.

“You love me, this is what people do when they love each other they hurt each other that’s what they are supposed to do.” His face reminded me of a confused kid

“No it’s not, Kai.”

“Yes it is! I’m supposed to hurt you and your supposed to scream in agony!”

“No-”

“Yes you are!”

He hit me against the rocks and I could feel the blood run down my head. “Kai calm down you don’t have to do this…”

I noticed he was staring at the bloody water and swimming away from me. He jumped out of the water growling at small bubbles that were forming. When he started shaking I got worried especially when something swam against my legs and Kai hid behind a tree. Something jumped out the water at me but Kai’s hand grabbed me out the water and covered the blood flowing out my head. He continued to growl at the water until I stood up.

“What was that?” I screamed

He shook his head “Let’s just go inside.”

We walked back to the house so I could see Josh but when we got inside he was gone. I turned to the steps and Sunee was dragging him around the house.

“Sunee let go of him please.” Kai grabbed her hand so he could walk her to the table. He turned to Josh and showed off his fangs when he smiled. “Are you two staying for dinner?”

“If you’re not going to eat me.” Josh laughed and walked to the table.

Everybody was at the table by the time I got there. I was surprised at the gourmet food Kai prepared for us. It was silent for a








moment until Josh started talking to Kai.

“What job are you currently in, Kai?”

“Um… I’m sort of a prostitute.”

“Oh so do you get a lot of money from that?”

“I got a lot more when I was younger.”

“Seriously?”

“Why the f*** are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m sorry it’s just that I always thought that was illegal.”

“Half the things I do are illegal.”

“Um Kai you said I could look at that book but I never got the chance.” I grabbed his hand to calm him down.

“Ya I don’t really think that’s a good idea now.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not really the smartest thing I could do.”

“I want to know about this stuff.”

“Most people do know about it.”

“Just tell me what was in the water.”

“Kai! I told you to stay away from that water.” James yelled

“I just went swimming for a little while then Claire came and knocked her head on a rock.”

I slammed my hand on the table. “How did this turn on me!?”

“You almost got him killed!” James hollered

“How!?” I yelled

“That thing could’ve eaten me because of your blood.” Kai was grinding his teeth


Josh held his hands in front of him to stop our arguing. “What is this thing that was in the water with you two?”

Kai rolled his eyes “Forget it.”

Paige rolled her eyes “I can’t believe you idiots spent an hour fighting over a creek.”

Kai chuckled “I can’t believe you look hotter with your clothes off then on.”

They both blushed black and looked down at their hands. I thanked them all for dinner and walked to our car.

“They seemed different.” Josh put his hand on the small of my back.

“Kai’s been through a lot in his life so you need to give him a break.”

“His sister is psycho too though, and I would like to see more of them because they seem so… odd.”

“What were you doing with her anyway?” I stared at the moving trees

“She was telling me about her past and how her brother was almost beat to death by their dad.”

“What? He’s never told me about that before.”

“She was also talking about the people. I think she might be schizophrenic or something because she seemed sort of out there.”

“I don’t know what your talking about but then again Kai doesn’t say much about her.”

He stopped the car in the driveway and gasped when he flashed the headlights on the porch. Sunee was sitting on our swing petting one of the neighborhood cats. Kai was sitting in front of the door playing with a flower from our vase.

“What are you two doing out here in the middle of the night?” Josh unlocked the door and waved them inside.

“You said you wanted to see us again so I got her dressed and brought her to your house. You weren’t home so we waited outside.”

Kai grabbed Josh by his collar and pulled him towards him. “Oh and by the way if you ever say anything is wrong with my sister I will skin you alive.” He whispered angrily.

Sunee gasped and grabbed my arm “Is this going to be a slumber party? I haven’t had one in forever!”

Kai shook his head. “No honey, your going to have a slumber party at Mikayla’s house.”

“Why are you staying there?” I asked

“I miss her and I can only take so much of Paige.” He looked at the picture of Jesus on the wall.

“So your going there to do it with her?”

“I never said that Claire and it’s very rude of you to assume that’s why I’m going over there.”

“Then why are you?”

“She’s lonely and her brothers and parents are gone for a bit.”

“What are they going to think when they see you over there?”

“I really don’t care because she’s a nice kid and I wouldn’t ever hurt her.”

“How high are these windows?” Sunee pointed over to them

“They are right over the bushes.” Josh opened the window

“Do you have any that are higher?”

Kai put her in his lap and stroked her hair until she forgot about the windows and feel asleep.

“Is that all then?” Kai glanced at the door.

“Maybe we could call you two tomorrow morning?” Josh glanced at his phone.

“Sure, we’ll probably be at Mikayla’s until noon tomorrow.”

“Alright have a good night.” I waved and kissed Sunee’s head as did Josh.

When they left we laid in bed and stared at the TV. Josh turned to face me and turned off the TV. I could hear zippers in the dark and felt him on my body. I tried not to hurt him but he still ended up bruised the next morning. At breakfast we ate our omelets in silence before Josh sighed and looked at me.

“I want you to stay away from Kai.”

“Yesterday you said you wanted to see more of him.”

“I don’t like the way he acts around you, it makes me nervous every time he touches you.”

“What about Sunee.”

“She seems…dangerous.”

“How did that innocent little girl seem dangerous to you?”

“She just looks like a murderer or something like she wants to eat you alive.”

“They are vampires I’m pretty sure the blood lust thing is natural.”

“They are crazy!”

“It runs in their family if you haven’t noticed.”

“He has a bad past do you not think that that will affect how he acts. Random outbursts aren’t good for you I don’t mean to judge but I don’t trust them.”

“Kai has barely ever hurt me, just a few times and he saved my life so I sort of owe him.”

“Just stay away from him please. I moved the wedding closer by the way because I don’t want him ruining it, it‘s at the end of the month.”

“That is only in a week! How do I prepare a wedding in a week!?”

“I already took care of everything so all you have to do is look beautiful as always and say I do.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Does he really have to stay completely out of my life though?”

“Yes, I’m really sorry but I feel like he’s going to ruin our marriage.”

“I’m never going to cheat on you if that’s what your thinking about.”

“Maybe I am paranoid but he just looks like the home wrecker type.”

Getting up, I walked out the door angrily and stormed into the car. My job at an office wasn’t what I dreamed but since I was still in school it was the best I could do. My mind was constantly on the wedding that was up soon and I couldn’t help but wish he would allow Kai to come to it. My perfect day wouldn’t be complete without my past but if he didn’t want my ex to be there because it might bring up feelings well that was fine with me. Maybe we could think it out over dinner or lunch if he’s not that busy. I could also ban him from seeing Sunee since she’s probably out to wreck our marriage for her brother’s own good. We could just shut out our family and friends and live a new life together. I looked up at the clock noting it was time to go and ran to the streets calling a taxi.

“Where to?” His deep gruff voice alarmed me at first as I pointed to a street sign.

“The best restaurant in town please. Your choice.”

“French ok with you?”

I wasn’t in the mood for small talk. “Sure, somewhere nice for me and my fiancé.”

The middle aged man shrugged and drove ten blocks, obviously taking the long way for more money. I handed him change and ran in the door reserving a seat for two then calling my future hubby. The waiter kept me occupied telling me about his husband and adopted kids at home and how is job made pretty good pay. Josh walked in more dressed up than I was but at lest he was able to get a break from work to meet me.

“How was your day sweetie?”

I thought I would explode “Good. Yours?”

“Fabulous since I got to see you.”

“I want you to come home late today because I want to surprise you.”

He put his hand on my thigh “What kind of surprise?”

“A food surprise.” I laughed as he moved his hand so it overlapped mine.

“Your cooking?”

“Baking a cake.”

“My favorite.”

The waiter came back and we shared our large house salad, talking about our future together and how well life would be. Sadly Josh had to get back to work but it gave me time to run home and call Kai.

“What up?” I could hear Paige giggling in the back ground

“I just was wondering if you wanted to come over.”

“I’m busy.”

I frowned to myself since he didn’t sound that busy “With what?”

“Paige.”

“I just needed your help baking a cake for Josh, Paige can come with you if she wants.”

“Josh doesn’t like me.”

“Josh isn’t home.”

There was a silence before he answered, “Sure I’ll be over in three.”

I watched the clock and sure enough the doorbell was ringing three minutes later. Paige was buttoning her pants by the time I got to the door while Kai was trying to fix his hair.

“We would have been here sooner but Paige distracted me.”

I nodded my head and walked Paige to the couch leading Kai to the kitchen.

“I want an orange flavored cake with orange icing and a tangerine flavored icing border with apple blossom fondant roses.”

He quietly nodded and went off to work on my cake while I stood against the refrigerator trying to think of something to say.

“How did Paige distract you.” It was the most juvenile question I could have asked

He blushed and wiped his forehead with his wrist “Oh…uh…she wanted to stop for something to eat.”

“Was that you?” I thought it was a clever comeback but apparently not.

“I don’t see how this is any of your business. Paige is my wife and we do what we please. We are simple people and don’t want that much in the world so leave us be.” It came off angrily but I only stepped back quietly and quickly.

“I’m sorry.”

He stuck the cake in the oven and stood across from me, leaning on the back door. He looked behind me at the fenced in area before crossing his arms against his chest. He seemed bothered by something but I let it pass as claustrophobia.

“So…” He tapped his fingers against the glass

I was puzzled at what he was trying to get at. He let out a large sigh and closed his eyes, looking up at the ceiling.

“Please be careful with your human. It’s not a nice feeling killing somebody you love.”

“How would you know what that felt like?” I joked at an inappropriate time

He slid down the glass to settle down on the floor. I mimicked him but sat my head on the palms of my hands and stared at him fiercely.

“Just don’t let that happen , I don’t want to see you in grief-stricken.”

“Did that happen to you?”

He nodded and looked up at the oven timer.

“Will you tell me?” I scooted closer to him

All he did was shrug and slouch back on the glass. After the timer ran he jumped up to grab the cake then set it down on the counter. I watched him in a daze as he prepared it for being iced and decorated. I turned on the radio to pass the time, humming along to “How To Love”. Kai sighed and turned his head to me, still perfectly icing the cake.

“What do you want to put on it?”

I opened a package of cake décor and pulled out baby bottles and carriages with pacifiers and teddy bears. Kai jumped back wide-eyed and gaped at me.

“Your pregnant!?” He screeched

“No. The cake is sort of just asking if he wants to try for one.”

He calmed down a little but placed his hand over his heart as though saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

“That’s a relief, you just got settled. Shouldn’t you wait a minute?”

“I want to try as soon as possible.”

Kai glanced down frowning but then chuckled a bit. “You sound like Mimi and me.”

“Who?”

He shook his head and kept smiling placing the toys on the cake. “She was my girlfriend back when I was new at being a vampire. I miss her a lot ya know but I guess if she didn’t pass away,” He got choked up at this part “then I wouldn’t of met Paige and had Christopher or met Susan and been accepted for what I was.”

I nodded “How did she pass?”

“Well Mimi lived with Andrew and me so she was always around. We were madly In love and wanted children so badly but Andrew refused to let me tell her what I was. After a long conversation he finally let me and we did try a few times. Eventually I got ahead of myself and believed that I was able to control myself if anything happened to her, so when she was sleeping one night I took a knife and sliced open her arm.

“I lasted for a while until I felt the blood soaking into the mattress and onto my hands. I went into a frenzy and tore her limb from limb then when I woke up the next day the only thing that was on the bed was torn skin, a blood soaked mattress, and some white powder. Imagine my shock when I found out I crushed her bones to dust. After that i threw up everything, went into a deep depression, cut myself, stopped eating, and then one day when Andrew had left I hung myself in the bathroom.

“I saw her in Hell of all places and I was frightened that I was going to end up there too. After that I was able to go there and see her as often as I wanted. I guess everything worked out fine but I think Andrew still worries that I’m going to go to those extremes again.”

The cake was placed on the table where he sat next to me and stared at the tablecloth.

“So please don’t get ahead of yourself like I did.” He messed with the table some more

The deadbolt was being turned when I spun around. Josh walked in and dropped the groceries gently in the front room. He seemed shocked to discover Kai and Paige in the house with me alone but I quickly gestured for him to come into the dining room. Josh looked at the cake first but then at me and Kai.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m on my way out.”

Josh glared at him the whole time he was walking out the door.

“So what do you say?”

“Why was he here? Did he hurt you any?”


“Joshua no, he was just helping me make that cake.”

He took off his shirt and walked up the steps gesturing for me to follow him into our room. I tried my best this time but it wasn’t much since he still turned up bruised the next morning. I ran off to Kai’s house where the radio was playing and piles of dust where everywhere. Sunee and her brother were elegantly dancing and laughing until Sunee pressed her lips to his. He looked worried but let It slide since he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He spotted me in the doorway and gave me a frown before turning to his sister.

“I think you should go upstairs sweetie.” He faked a smile until she left the room

“I’m sorry for how he talked to you yesterday.”

“Why can’t he apologize by himself? Why do you have to do it for him?”

“Uh-”

The door busted open and Josh grabbed my arm roughly and shook me until I was senseless.

“I said to stay away from them!” He looked down at himself and let go of me, petting my hair softly. “I was worried about you being here alone.”

I nodded, sat at there table, then gestured for a frozen Kai to come follow us.

“What’s wrong with you?” I whispered lovingly

He put his hand on my cheek to show what he was thinking. All I could see was an old kitchen then Kai’s mom and dad came in arguing. The man hit his wife and she fell to the floor screaming with a bloody nose. He took his hand away quickly then pointed to Josh and spoke a few words in Thai.

“Aw honey I’m sorry to make you feel that way.” I hugged him then swayed back and forth

He sat in the farthest chair away from me and my future husband.

“I want to know if you would like to let me borrow something. You know the old routine.”

Everyone came down the steps at once and sat at the table smoking and drinking.

Kai stared at the bridge of my nose while he talked “Logan’s blue necklace for blue. For old you could use Paige’s ankle bracelet. New could be a ring of some sorts and you could borrow my mother’s earrings if you liked.”

“Thank you so much Kai but if it’s something valuable to you then I won’t accept it.”

My mother grew up simple so when Father gave her expensive gifts she never used them. They basically have no value at all because she never laid a finger on them.”

“If you insist then.”

“Good luck at your wedding tomorrow!” Sunee grabbed Kai’s arms and pointed to something on the couch.

“Mhmm Mother saw them too honey it’s very normal for you to see people on the couch.”

She nodded and leaned on his shoulder obviously not affected by what she saw. The day was tomorrow but for some reason I didn’t want it to come.




I was driven to the church by a fancy chauffeur wearing all the garments the Pattinson “family” had given me along with a graphic tee and shorts since I wasn’t able to dress until I got to the church. I wanted to get dressed alone but called Kai to meet me in the room. He arrived quickly and apologized for not coming even though he allowed Sunee to fill his place. I asked him to zip me up and put on my shoes for me for it was hard to bend down , the dress was so tight. He noticed and loosened the straps, I tried starting a conversation to pass time.

“Are you alright with me getting married?”

“If you love something let it go and if it doesn’t come back then it wasn’t yours in the first place.”

That was the only thing he said but when he finished I turned around and kissed him. He grabbed my waist tightly and helped me onto the vanity. He climbed up with me, standing on his knees and breathing quickly while his hands cupped my face. He squeezed his knuckles together to pinch my cheeks like a grandmother and I gave out a wheezing noise of pain while he started to stick his fingers to the glass. The nails on a chalkboard sensation ran past my ears. The worst feeling of him being so close yet farther away then the time I moved away. We would still be close though won‘t we? Or will Joshua and I become like his parents? Imprisoned in pain and misery while I longed for freedom away from him. Or will nature over rule us and I kill him like Mimi, blood soaking through the mattress while I tear away his flesh. Kai gripped my sides harshly, digging his nails in me then biting and grinded his teeth together. It was easy to tell he was upset. As though he could sense he was about to lose me forever and I really wanted to cry at that moment. I started to question whether or not I really did imprint or not.

I started to realize all the feelings I still had for Kaiien and how I wanted to learn more about him, start a family, be his everything and he be mine. My head started to spin and I felt Kai lay down next to me and stare at the door waiting for them to come get me. He put his hands on my belly then place his head on my shoulder as if to comfort us both at the same time.

“Kai…I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I don’t want to marry Joshua, Kaiien.”


“Then don’t.”

I nodded and he kissed me. Fire and ice at the same time while venom ran on my tongue, numbing the pain of my insides. I heard the latch of Joshua coming the rings dropping like dynamite on the linoleum of the floor.

It was just like a bad movie I had seen “I can’t marry you Joshua…I still have feelings for Kai.”

“How can you have feelings for a dead person?”

“To me he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

“Sometimes I don’t understand you Claire but you’ll figure out soon that he has no time for a w**** especially since he’s already married to one.”

I decided to quote from one of my favorite movies “I would much rather be his w**** then your wife.”

Josh slammed the door behind him and I wrapped my arms around Kai happily. He carried me back to his home still in my wedding dress and announced the news to everyone, who all seemed happily shocked. Kai must have sent them some message since they all started to talk about a place they needed to be then left out the door. He rushed up the steps to his room and slammed shut the door.

I turned on the radio as he took off his shirt but he was interrupted by a text. He ran to the bed and leaned over me to reach the ringing object.

“I could have answered that you know.”

“Mikayla is coming over, she found a stray and is bringing it here.”

“Now?”

With a nod of the head he was flying down the steps to the big window. All I thought was going to happen was Mikayla would be a no show and we would continue as before but I was sadly mistaken. There was a knock at the door and he swung it open with such force that it cracked the wall. He looked down at the furry Husky-Chowchow
mix, who looked up at him.

He bent to look at the collar and a blank stare ran across the surface of his face. He hugged the dog who barked and wagged his tail at him. Kai wouldn’t let go of the dog until Mikayla had to get through the door.

Mikayla motioned at the collar “His name is AJ.”

Kai frowned angrily “Her name is not AJ, it stands for something you will never know.”

“It’s obviously a boy Kai. Do you not know your own parts?” I laughed at Mikayla’s comeback. “Either way do you think he could stay here for a bit? My parents won’t let me keep him, they don’t like dogs that much. I already bought food and a collar.”

“We will take her off your hands for a while. No problem!” Kai’s smile was freaking me out.

“Don’t eat him please.” She rolled her eyes and walked out the door.

“What will everyone say when they see you have a dog with you?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead.” He was on his way to the trash with the bag of dog food in his hands. “She won’t need any of this.” Kai went into the kitchen and came out with French toast on a plate. He set it on the floor for the dog. “She eats what you eat.”




Nobody had taken the dog news well but they knew they wouldn’t ever win a fight against Kai. The dog got to stay and literally ate everything I ate. She/He was given French toast for breakfast, pigs in a blanket for lunch, and escargot for dinner, all served on a silver platter. She/He slept in Kai’s bed with him at the top, it’s head resting on the pillow next to him. It watched the TV with him while he wrote things down or took a nap. He covered it with a blanket when it slept and the dog was even allowed to sit in a chair and eat at the table with us. He was getting out of control but when someone commented on this behavior he got extremely defensive and offended. The dog got to stay for a series of three weeks until a night Kai wouldn’t let it go to bed.

He stayed up with the dog the whole night working on something and when I woke up the next morning I was shocked to see a beautiful child no older than four eating in Kai’s lap. Everyone seemed to have the same reaction as I did. Kai motioned for everybody to sit down and eat before he explained what happened.

“Did you steal a child?” James’s face was put into a frown that seemed permanent nowadays.

Kai took a deep breath before he began. “When I was younger and living in London, way before Paige came along. I made a living as a fortune teller and I met this one woman who wanted to know if her child would be born healthy. It was stillborn and I said that she could go adopt children since nobody really did that back then. Well she hired me to take care of her three children, Ariel, Anastasia, and Annabelle.

“Well since you never really know what you get in adoption back then, one of them was half werewolf. Since I was extremely fond of that child and so was the mother I decided to see if I could make her human. It sort of went wrong since she turned out to turn into a full regular dog and not a wolf. The good news was that I discovered how to make werewolves immortal.

“It did come with side effects but they never really happened. She is stuck as a four and a half year old child forever but that’s ok I guess. The dog Mikayla find just happened to be Annabelle Johnson-what the AJ was for- and I found a way to turn her back so here she is.”

We were all shocked but nobody spoke their true feelings. The girl was skinny with blonde hair to her shoulder. Her face was round with big brown eyes. The little girl smiled at Kai and whispered something in his ear. He whispered back and Annabelle jumped off his lap to run to Paige.

“Can I brush your hair?”

“Uh…sure?”

Annabelle grabbed a Barbie brush and started to play in Paige’s long mane. As soon as breakfast was over Annabelle ran to Kai’s legs and held on for dear life. She looked up and smiled at him as he scooped her up in his arms. The child giggled and laughed at him while he tickled her belly and feet. He kissed her tiny toes and dipped her over the arm of the chair before picking her back up and blowing on her tummy.

I barely saw him the whole day since he was with her so much. When I eventually saw him he was making a bed on the couch in his room for her. He kissed me on my lips while laying me down on the bed with him.



I didn’t get much sleep before Annabelle was shaking the whole bed and sobbing. Kai turned on the little lamp and picked up the crying girl so he could rock her. He held her to his chest protectively yet stroked her hair as if she was made of glass.

“What’s wrong baby? Why are you crying?”

“I-I had a nightmare!” She screamed her words and choked on some sobs.

I stared at the liquid dripping off her pants legs. “Did you wet the bed?”

She nodded and clutched Kai’s hair. He stood and carried her to the bathroom to run a warm bath. Instructing me to take all the blankets and throw them in the wash while he prepared the bath. When I got back to the bathroom he was stripping her of her clothes while she held his shoulders and tried to stay awake.

He set her in the water against the corner and her head instantly rolled back and hit the wall. “You can go to sleep baby.”

She was already softly snoring though and he wet a washcloth with soapy water.

I grabbed his hands and whispered softly as to not disturb the sleeping baby “How are you so good at this?”

“I basically raised Paige, Sunee is my little sister, you were part of that, being with Annabelle and her mother.” He choked on the last word and I could see his eyes turning colors while he gripped the edge of the tub.

“You even took care of Brooke as if she was yours. I wish I could do that.”

“In my time the men were raised to breed. It was as if we were some sort of animal who’s only purpose was to multiply and care for. I always wanted children, I would pray ever night for them. I had it and I lost the only thing that ever mattered to me in the world.”

“I’m sorry.”

“This is all I ever wanted and now I have it again. You know, the only thing James was thinking about all day was ways he could get rid of her. I wanted to rip his head off his freaking body.”

“I wish I could do all of this, you are so good at it. You can tell how much you two love each other.”

He washed her off and dressed her while she slept. “Would it be alright with you if she slept in the bed with us?”

I nodded and he ran to the bedroom to put her in the middle as we laid there I could here Kai clap and pray in thanks for his child. I couldn’t help but notice how much we looked like a real family. Father on the left, Mother on the right, and baby in the middle.



The next afternoon Annabelle was running down the steps naked and wet while Kai was securely wrapped in a towel and chasing her. He caught her in a towel and dried her as she laughed and squealed like a piglet. Kai’s hair was down and to his shoulders. It looked better that way I thought and I looked better. He combed his hair as he sat on the couch but he didn’t fix it in spikes, he just left it alone. He looked mature like that, he seemed to be a business man or somebody you wouldn’t suspect to be a prostitute.

“Some girl ask you to do that?” Will laughed at his own question

“I wanted to see how much my hair had grown.”

“It looks sexy that way.” Paige blushed black as did Kai

“It looks good.” I whispered loud enough for him to hear.

“Really?” Will rolled his eyes “He looks like a girl.”

“Kekee would date me then.” Kai laughed and sat Annabelle in his lap.

His phone rang while he was brushing her hair and he put it on speaker for all to hear.

“Hey!” There was a high pitched voice on the other end.

“Hey baby. Why did you call me?”

I cleared my throat but he rolled his eyes.

“I need you to do me a favor. I want you to go to a party of one of my friend’s tomorrow.”

“Sure but in return you have to come over because I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“You just want to see me without my shirt on.”

“Actually I just wanted to talk but that’s not a bad idea either.”

“Whatever Kaiien. Bye I love you.”

“Love you too.”

He hung up and continued to brush Annabelle’s hair. My eyes stung badly. “Who was she?”

“Just a friend.”

“Just a friend?”

“She’s like a good friend that gives me money for being her best friend. I sleep with her and she pays me a lot of money. She’s like the other girl’s but she gives me gifts and pays for things that I want. She bought me a silk kimono once from her trip to Japan.”

“Mhmm.” I wasn’t convinced

“I’m serious honey.”

“Whatever.”

“I need you to stay home and watch Annabelle because I can’t take her to the party.”

“No! I had plans for tomorrow and I don’t want to spend my night babysitting. I was going to go to a friend’s house.”

“Fine I will just take her to a party filled with drugs, alcohol, and creepy adults.”

“Ok fine by me.” I smiled mockingly

He turned his head to Annabelle “Mommy wouldn’t want you to be at a party would she?”

“Nopey!”

“Mhmm mommy would have been very upset with me.”

“She would be yelling.”

“I don’t know about that, mommy never yelled at me before.”

“She yelled at daddy all the time.”

“That’s because she liked me more than she liked daddy.”

“I like you more than daddy too.”

“Will you be ok with going to a grown up party tomorrow night?”

She innocently nodded her head then got up and grabbed a Barbie doll that was on the floor.

“Is it normal that she sort of waddles when she runs?”

“Her legs are just too short and stubby for her.”

He shook his head and smiled like a proud father as he watched her play with the doll.


The next night I got a text telling me the address of the party my buddy was throwing. I drove over there quickly and sat down on the couch surrounded by people in sexy outfits and booming music. Her parents were rich and out of town for a week so she had been throwing non stop parties since Monday. She pulled all the girls into the large kitchen and started giggling insanely.

“Who all wants to have the best night of their life tonight?”

All the girls screamed and raised their glasses including me.

“Well I know this girl who knows this boy who knows everybody. He is an amazing person, or at least that is what she told me. All we have to do is give him some cash and he will do whatever we want.”

A girl in the crowd an up to my friend Katie. “Who is he?”

All the girl’s shouted in drunk agreement wanting to know who their mystery slut was.

Katie chuckled when the door bell rang. Everybody rushed to the door and my jaw dropped when I saw Kai at the door. Thankfully he wasn’t with Annabelle but he seemed shocked to see me at a wild party like this one. Katie grabbed his hand to run him to the kitchen where we all gathered in a circle around him.

“What’s your name?” A chubby brunette laying on her stomach asked.

“Manami Aiko.” Kai answered then lowered his eyes from my shocked stare.

“What does that mean?” I crossed my arms against my chest.

“Manami means love, affection, beautiful, sea, and ocean. Aiko means little loved one. I’m supposed to put them together but usually I just go by Manami.”

“Why not go by Aiko?” I was going to badger him with questions the whole night I decided.

“Aiko is the name I had when I was young then I got the name Manami.”

“Aren’t those female names?”

He blushed and gorgeously turned his head to the side to try and hide it. All of the girls blushed with him. “They sort of considered me to be a girl. I had to run around in women’s clothing.”

“You’re a prostitute, you should have been locked in the whorehouse all day right?”

“I didn’t live in a brothel I lived in an okiya. The women who taught me these things were two of the greatest geisha of all time. You could ask anybody and they would tell you.”

“If they were so great why wouldn’t they teach anyone else?”

“Well duh! They didn’t want their pupils to outshine them. If they combined taught somebody as well as they were then they wouldn’t be the greatest anymore!”

“So you are telling me that instead of a geisha teaching a geisha, your geisha taught prostitutes?”

“Yes basically.”

“Show me then.”

“Show you what?”

Katie put her hand over my mouth “Goodness Claire stop badgering him.”

I moved her hand away from me and glared at Kai who’s fingers were already down a girl’s pants. He disappeared up the steps with her then a half hour later he came back down to fetch another one. He grabbed my hand and kissed it then blushed and pulled away lovingly.

“Do you want to be my next princess?” He had his left hand behind his back and was still holding my hand.

The only thing that came out of my mouth was a breath of air and I nodded my head and began to feel hot inside. He walked me up the staircase and into and abandoned bedroom that wasn’t already occupied by other partiers. He locked it behind him and laid down on his back but I shook my head no.

“I just want to talk to you Kai.”

“You have half an hour to say what you need to say.”

“Alright mister Manami, what made you run to these geishas for help?”

“My wife sold me to a brothel but I ran the very night I arrived. They found me begging for food next door and thought I had potential. I was the only child they had ever taken in but then the girl that I wanted to marry showed up. It was an instant friendship and when someone finally cared enough to take me back home I got Moon’s father to adopt her.”

“How come your names are changed?”

“Didn’t I explain this?”

“Not thoroughly.”

“Well when I was first with them and they were showing me off they didn’t want to use my real name. They saw how much the women liked me and named me little loved one. When I was sleeping with the women at the parties they decided they should find a name that is similar to mine. Kai means ocean and so does Manami. It was a good fit and I was to use that name when I was sleeping with women but when I just talk and entertain them I use the name Aiko from the days when I observed and was only allowed to talk, pour tea, and work on my facial expressions.”

“Facial expressions?”

“You thought all that blushing was real? I learned to blush on contact and turn my head away to where they can still see my eyes a bit and think that I’m very embarrassed with what was said. I can cry on cue and make myself angry very quickly to make a stubborn and childish effect. It all depends on how the conversation is going, who you are talking to, and how you want them to react.

“For example if you said that my shirt was inside out I would open my mouth and widen my eyes then turn around and blush while taking off my shirt. I would hide my face and stumble with my shirt to make sure you got to see my chest for at least two minutes. Someone would help me with my shirt-most likely the motherly one- and I would act childish until the conversation changed.”

“I want to see you go do that.”

He chuckled, turned his shirt inside out, and slid out the room as though he was a ghost. When he got back to the group of girls Kai put his shirt on and all the girls tried hard to smother their laughs in each other’s arms. A girl from the back reached out to help Kai out the shirt. He fooled with it for a while and the girl smiled before fixing it for him. Kai faked a blush and a nervous smile that made him look self-conscious about what just happened.

“Err…thanks.” He even managed to make his voice shaky to portray the whole character. Kai quickly pecked her on the cheek before making a hastily retreat to one of the other rooms. The girl who helped him followed him into the bedroom and the last thing heard was the door being slammed and locked.

After an hour of silence between all of us Kai came back with the generous girl. I looked down at Kai’s full pockets that she most likely stuffed with cash. He waved to all the girl’s and walked out the door tiredly, as though he hadn’t slept in three days. He didn’t ask if I wanted a ride home but It didn’t bother me as much as knowing that he was going to be half asleep while driving.



When I reached the house I was able to let out a sigh of relief for he had made it home alright. Passed out on the couch, I shook him lightly and he woke but gave me an irritated look.

“Go to bed, sweetie.”

“I can’t,” he mumbled “I have to wait for Derek.”

“Why do you have to wait for Derek, baby?”

“Stop calling me that!” He snapped

“Is Mikayla going to be with you all?”

“She has to be because it’s to dangerous for her to be home alone.”

“How come?”

The bell rang and I drowsy Mikayla in full out bunny Pj’s walked through the door. She fell on the couch with Kai who could have cared less about anything but going to bed. Derek walked in dragging his feet until he about tripped on the doorstep. Mikayla suddenly got edgy but went back to her drowsy state of mind.

Kai wrapped his arm around Mikayla “How are you?”

“Sick. Scared. Unhappy. Cold. Sleepy. That’s just to name a few.”

“Why are you scared?”

“These three boys kept following me everywhere yesterday. I thought they were going to attack me but they didn’t, they just stared. People asked if I knew them but when I turned around nobody was there. It freaked me out so much that I ran home and I got there extremely fast! Then when I accidentally put my hand on the stove it didn’t hurt! The only thing that happened was the room became smoky! Is that not scary or what?”

“Well…I think we should wait to see if any other weird things happen.”

“That reminds me! Will told me to tell you that he won’t be home until tomorrow. He never said why but he was running towards the woods. He was all beat up and was holding a piece of paper in his hands.”

“Derek, we need to talk in private.”

They walked into the second sitting room before I could hear them shouting at each other.

“…Why can’t you do what you are supposed to!?”

“…So is she not allowed to have freedom anymore!?”

The was the sound of something falling to the floor “…If she gets hurt or killed I will be coming for your head.”

“…Maybe you shouldn’t have given her up!”

“…I was young and dumb and in no condition to care for a child like that!”

Mikayla’s jaw was stiff and her eyes were red by the time they came back into the room.

“What do you mean give me up?” Her voice shook and tears streamed down her eyes.

“That’s not what I meant. Nobody is going to give you up.” Kai reached for her hand but she yanked it away

“Then who did!?”

Kai took a deep breath before looking at his legs. He got up and opened a panel in the wall. He came back carrying a baby basket filled with things. He gave them to her to look at but she just gave a questioning look.

“When I was somewhat younger I ran away from Andrew. I made it all the way to the Himalayas and ran into one of Andrew’s good friends. Of course he was a vampire but he had married a werewolf. They had a kid and here you are today. Err…well you see…you were a very gifted child and many people wanted to get a hold of you. Of they did they could have been able to take Ace out of power. So your father gave you to me and said to take you as far away as I could. Of course you hated me and I got sick of you biting me and crying that I made sure to find a good family that would take care of you. I saw that the Reed family had a werewolf that would be able to care for you better than I would. I ditched you on their doorstep and watched over you quietly until Derek was grown and could do it by himself.”

“What was I able to do?”

He gestured to the basket in her hands. There was a poem, an old fashioned watch that reminded me of the White Rabbit’s, a pink blanket, and a short staff made of twisted wood, metal, and glass. The first thing she picked up was the staff.

“What does this mean?”

“Well it shows how your mother was a wood child, your father was once a glass child, but then he was a metal child.”

“The watch?”

“The power to control time.”

She looked down at the poem




There are some things in this world that you wish were real but aren’t and some things that are real but you wish weren’t. From everything that I have been through I wish that the things that are real weren’t. I wish that some of us weren’t torn between the law of life and death but were able to choose one or another. I wish that we could turn back the hands of time and go back to a happier era, where we weren’t torn between the two worlds.


My eyes widened “Wow that is…deep. Who wrote that?”

“Probably Mikayla’s parents. When she was born there was a bad war going on. Though I don’t quite know what they mean by ‘go back to a happier era’ it would be somewhere in the 60’s since we last had a war. Other than yours.”

“Maybe they are talking about the 1600’s or something.”

“We were in the Sufferance Era back then. Nobody would want to go back to that time.”

James descended from the steps sauntering over to Kai. “Maybe if they wanted to see Anderkin they would go back.”

“What kind of name is Anderkin?” I laughed

“Thomas Anderkin was a historical figure for us. He ended the Sufferance Era by actually turning himself into a vampire. He was the first to discover the snake and spider formula. He recorded everything he saw, sent it to his wife, and snuck it into the newspaper. People eventually saw how much harm they were doing to us and renounced their ways.

“After the humans came under new rule everything changed once again. The First Wars started we almost had a nuclear attack. The advanced races were ahead but evolution hadn’t hit most of us. We still burned in sunlight. Shifters, Fauxes, Sirens, and Guardians were the first of the alliances,” He grimaced “they almost wiped us out.”

Will burst through the door hair askew and shirt ripped but holding himself proudly as he wove a flyer like a surrender flag. he laid it on Kai’s lap forcefully, a burning sensation in his eyes. “Teach me how to fight.”

Kai glanced down. Smelling the paper and laughed “I don’t fight anymore. Lost the love of my life to it and I’m not setting a foot back in that arena.”

“Moon will be there. That Mr. Rummy guy told me so.”

“You get your bottom handed to you? Besides I have a baby to care for, a family to attend to, fighting isn’t in me anymore.”

Will held himself steady before throwing his feet at Kai’s temple. Kai shot his hand up like a World War II bullet, catching his fist and twisting it till it snapped. Rising up gracefully he strode out the door and onto…the snow? A chill rose up to the rafters blowing past my horror-struck face. Kaiien’s growl echoed back, red eyes like daggers burning into Mikayla.

“Don’t move.” He ran at his natural speed returning seconds later with Moon on his tail. I couldn’t help noticing the way he held his head high and his willowy body swayed as he examined each one of us.

“May I come in?” He entered without an answer, the room turned quiet in his presence. A dark aura coming off of him that turned you insides to liquid. Though you couldn’t help being attracted to him. And as he twirled his hand to reveal a flame resting in his palm it was easy to see why. He was magic. His eyes twinkled as they came to rest on myself. “You all may be wondering why it is snowing in the summer of the state of California but the answer is simple. A curse has fallen upon us because of our cross blooded friend. Our best bet would be to travel to the Himalayas and break the curse by altering time. Our darling friend shall help in this quest. I advise that you began packing light bags and weapons for the journey shall be a long one.”

A few minutes passed before anyone moved from their spot. Horrified into a statue. A shell of their inner selves that made me feel cold from the wind and emptiness that I knew we faced.