Young Writers Society

I've got to add something before anybody reads this. There's a part with a man speaking where there's going to be mistakes. That's deliberate! It's not a mistake!

And that's all I've got to say.

Enjoy

Chapter 13

Waking up the next morning was brutal. Although I had slept peacefully after I'd fallen asleep in Tony's arms, the weight of the world came crashing down the moment I opened my eyes. All I wanted to do was bury my head under my pillow and stay there forever.

I did just that.

A low chuckle sounded beside me. "Good morning to you too, Princess."

I withdrew my head and stared at Tony. He lay on his side, his blond hair a little tousled. I hadn't even taken notice of him, which was kind of hard since his arm was wrapped around me, again. "Good morning." I buried my face under the pillow again.

He laughed again. "You know, that will do absolutely nothing except push away the inevitable. Believe me, I know."

I sighed and flung the pillow off of me. I turned and looked at him, although as close as he was, I couldn't see much else. I stared into his blue eyes. They were paler than usual, which I'd deduced not too long ago only happened when he was really calm or happy. The fact that he'd just woken up, it was probably relaxed.

"I don't know what to do. That's twice now that something's been in my house. And this time, they got my parents." I let my eyes wander away from his and stared at his chest. What I would give to-

"...put up security in and out of the house" he finished.

I turned back to his face, having lost myself in my thoughts for a little. "Huh? Oh, yeah."

He sighed but smiled nonetheless. "It'll be okay, I promise."

"How can you be so sure? I've got some lunatic after me and I don't even know who it is!"

He stilled, his face losing all of its relaxation. "Frederick is my cousin"

Whoa. Hadn't expected that one. "What?" I propped myself up on my elbow, "I thought only your grandfather hadn't been killed."

He frowned. "How did you know that?"

"Uh," I felt a blush creep up my face, "I, um, asked Greg. I'm sorry. I just wanted to know."

He sighed but looked otherwise indifferent to my poking around. "It's okay." He got into a sitting position and I did the same. "Fred's part of the reason my family died. At the time, he was only a year older than me and had learned that he was a Shifter." He paused to collect his thoughts. "But he'd already been corrupted by that time. He'd been doing business with demons and warlocks and when I'd finally found out, I approached him about it."

I raised my hand to make him stop. "Something's not right. Greg told me you Shifted for the first time and that's what killed everyone."

He shook his head. "Nah, that's what he thinks. I already knew I was a Shifter. But I was inexperienced, I'd only been one for a month. Fred had been for a lot longer than me. So when I approached him, he tried to kill me." He stared blankly in the air. "I knew he was going to kill me, so I did the one thing I could think of; I pulled a Sagan."

I frowned. "A Sadran? What's a Sadran?"

"Sa-gan. It's a person. He was the first person to discover how to shape our bodies into a vessel."

I didn't like the sound of this. "What kind of vessel?"

"A Light bomb."

My eyes grew wide. "But wouldn't that-"

He nodded. "A Sagan is quite literally like being a suicide bomber. Although, it's not for the same reasons. A Shifter only pulls a Sagan if he knows he will be unable to survive. It kills him, but allows him to wipe out every demon, vampire or other Dark being in the vicinity."

I stared at him in shock. It was the ultimate sacrifice anyone could make, giving up their own life to save those of others. I doubt many ever pulled one. "How did you survive then?"

"As I said, I was inexperienced. I didn't know what I was doing. I only had the time to gather a little Light before my grandpa got there. He did the only thing he could think of; he slashed me across my leg with his knife. It literally cut me out of the trance and I was knocked unconscious for a couple of days. Unfortunately, there was enough Light gathered to kill everyone in the entire house. Fred had ran away before grandpa had even gotten there." he spoke with a sad tone.

I wanted to cheer him up, but wasn't sure how. I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me. "You couldn't have done anything; it was Frederick's fault, not your own."

He gave me a weak smile. Then he grabbed my hand with his own and entwined our fingers. Putting a warm hand to my cheek, he bent his face towards mine.

A knock sounded at the door, and Nicolas' angry voice spoke. "Mister Blair, I suggest you come out here right this instance."

He gave me a sheepish grin. "Busted" He bent and gave me a quick kiss on the nose before getting out of bed. Another knock sounded, this time much more harshly. Tony went and opened the door. All I had time to see was an arm extend from outside the door, grab Tony, and yank him into the hallway.

Then Nicolas poked his head in the bedroom and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry dear. I'm just going to need him for a moment. Would you care to take a shower in the meantime?"

I looked at him in surprise. As much as he tried to appear calm, you could see how much he wanted to rip someone to pieces. In this case, Tony.

But I knew Tony could take care of himself, so I didn't worry. "Sure, yeah."

He smiled. "Good. We will talk later." And he closed the bedroom door.

As much as it was a serious situation, I couldn't help but stifle a laugh. I got out of bed, grabbed some clothes and went to take a shower, just as I said I would.

Heading inside my personal bathroom, I got undressed and stepped into the shower bath. Turning both faucets, I listened to the usual hum of fluid going up and out of the tubes. Water rushed out in a flow, warming my suddenly chilled body. A hot bath would be nice.

Leaning down, I closed the drain and immersed myself in the increasing amount of water. I thought it would help, but it did the exact opposite. Now that Tony wasn't there to distract me, my thoughts wandered to my life in the past weeks. Mostly though, my thoughts wandered to my parents. They had died because of me, yet, that's not how I felt right then. Like Tony, Frederick was the cause for my parents' deaths. I might not have been sure of my own future, but the one thing I could guarantee was how badly I was going to torture the sucker for everything he had done to me and Tony.

All too quickly, I got out of the bath. I sat on the edge of it and opened the drain to stare at the water as it flowed out of the bathtub. I kind of felt like the water then; as much as I wanted everything to stay together, there was always this black hole that sucked everything away from me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop it.

Yet there was more to the shower than that. Every time it was empty, every time it lost, it was renewed with a single flick of a finger. It never gave up, knowing that some good would come again sooner or later.

And just like the shower, I would do the same. I couldn't stop what had already happened, so I would adjust to the loss I had suffered. As little as it was, hope began to filter into me.

I dressed myself, not taking the time to do anything else. I came out of the bathroom into my bedroom and then into the hallway. Glancing everywhere, I finally found Nicolas and Tony in the kitchen. Both were, despite how calm they tried to appear, in a heated discussion, mumbling snappy comebacks between themselves. They sat side by side on the stools of the kitchen counter yet wouldn't even look at each other, as if the other wasn't worth their attention. If they hadn't already been in a temper, I might've laughed at the way they resembled two kids arguing over a toy. Although, I think I'm the toy.

I came into the kitchen with a sigh. They focused on me and opened their mouths to speak. I cut them off with a wave of my hand. "I don't even want to know."

Surprisingly, they quieted. Yet the suffocating mood of the room remained. So I directed the conversation towards something else. "What happens if the police get their hands on the criminal?" I asked.

"They won't," Nicolas responded, "we can't even figure out what did this."

"If you'd let me do what I wanted, we could," Tony all but hissed.

"I'm not putting her through that," Nicolas snapped back.

"She's going to have to face it someday. I know that better than anyone!"

Nicolas' features turned ashamed. "I guess you are right. It is up to her to decide, however."

"I'd love to, really," sarcasm was becoming a third language to me, "if I knew what you guys wanted me to do."

They looked at each other, a silent communication going on. Finally Tony spoke up. "We need you to tell us everything that happened, in detail."

My eyebrows nit together. "Why? I already told the cops everything, and you guys were there anyways."

Nicolas nodded. "We know, but something's not making sense. When we arrived, neither of us sensed anything wrong. Nor did Abby, and animals usually sense these kinds of things."

I nodded. It was true, animals did have heightened senses. Abby had even sensed the Stone Hybrid when it had been hiding in my bedroom. Yet she hadn't given any signs to any abnormal event. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning of the day" Tony replied.

"Okay. Well I got up at like 8. Then I took a shower, got dressed, you know, those kinds of things. Abby and I went for a small walk. Um, I came back and straightened out the entire house before mother and father got home. I ate an early lunch and then headed to the mansion. I waited with you," I gestured towards Tony, "for Nicolas to arrive. We talked for a while and then went back to my place. And that's when I found the bodies."

"Nothing weird happened before that?" Tony asked.

I shook my head.

"Do you think you could recount precisely what happened when we arrived?" Nicolas asked me warily.

I nodded. "We came in the door and Abby greeted us. She was all excited, as usual. We took off our coats, I think I hung 'em up in the closet, too. Then I went looking for mother. I checked in every room, there was nothing there. So I went to their bedroom. I could hear music playing, so I thought that's why they weren't answering when I knocked, 'cause they couldn't hear me and-"

"Wait a minute," Tony cut in, "what music?"

"The radio was on"

Nicolas shook his head. "There was no music when I went into the bedroom."

"Oh, well I must've shut it off before you came in."

He shook his head again. "You hadn't even moved passed the door frame when I came. You couldn't possibly have shut off anything." He turned to Tony. "I don't imagine I have to say what I'm thinking."

"No, I know." Tony stopped for a second, having caught on to something. "You said Abby got scared of you when you tried to pat her."

"Yes, she cowered away from me."

"When was that?"

Nicolas seemed to catch on to whatever Tony was thinking. "Just before Crystal screamed, probably when she opened the door." He raked a hand over his face in frustration. "How could I not have seen this?"

"What? What is it?" I pressed.

He turned to me. "Abby wasn't afraid of me, she was cowering from the force field."

"Force field? There was no force field!"

"There was, we just didn't sense it." He regarded Tony. "He's associating with Pixies again."

"Fuck!" Tony hissed as he jumped out of his stool.

"Pixies? Are you saying some kind of fairy did this?"

"No...well yes, in a way." Nicolas glanced at Tony, who had started pacing the kitchen. "Pixies and Fairies are cousins of sorts, but the resemblance ends there. Fairies are creatures of Light, protecting the skies. Pixies are mischievous bastards," he sneered the word, "who do what they please, no matter what the consequences."

"Oookay. And how do you know it's them?"

"Pixies love to play pranks," Tony blurted out, "they love to scare and give nasty surprises to people. But to be able to surprise the person at the exact moment, they use force fields. There's only one glitch about them though; they give off little tunes. And as you heard it before you opened the door and not after, the door must've been the trigger to let down the force field. I mean, Abby only reacted then, so it makes sense, really."

"If you say so. I can't really think of anything myself as I don't know m-" I started and stopped at the sound of a knock on the door. "Who's that?"

"That should be Mister Chambrillon," Nicolas told me. I gave him a look that said I-don't-know-who-that-is. "He's your parents lawyer." He gestured for Tony to go open the door, which he did.

"Lawyer? I didn't even know they had one."

He nodded. "They did. I made a few calls last night, and was able to get him to come here today."

"Why?" I asked.

He ignored me as a business man came into the kitchen. Tony followed him, but left the room as soon as the man was near us. I focused on the man, noting his jet black hair and dark green eyes. He wasn't Caucasian, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what. Wearing an expensive grey suit, black shoes and carrying a briefcase, he had the allure of a lawyer, all right. Nicolas extended his hand to him and they shook hands. "Hello M. Chambrillon."

"Hello" the other man replied in broken English. He turned to me. "You is Miss Evans?"

I nodded and we shook hands. "Comment allez-vous?" I asked him.

He smiled, obviously happy that someone spoke French. "Bien, mademoiselle."

"Good." I turned to Nicolas. "So what's he doing here?"

"We need to make sure you are well taken care of. So I had him come to look into your parents will. So," he gestured towards the dining table, "shall we?"

I noticed that Tony hadn't come back, but pushed those thoughts aside. We settled down, the lawyer taking his time to go over his papers.

"Voulez-vous qu'il reste avec vous pour ceci?" he gestured towards Nicolas.

"Yes, he can stay," I replied.

M. Chambrillon nodded. He explained a couple of legal details to me in French. After that, he looked into his own papers to recheck them.

"They wanted to be cremated," I told Nicolas finally, "At least that'll save me from having to pay for a funeral."

He smiled at me and took my hand in his to give it a squeeze.

Another moment passed before the lawyer called me to attention. His face had gone pale, as if suddenly sick. "Ils ne vous ont rien laissés, mademoiselle" he stated.

"What?!" I jumped out of my chair.

"What did he say?" Nicolas asked.

"They left me nothing," I whispered incredulously. I fixed all my attention on the lawyer. "What about the house? Money? Property?"

He shook his head at all my suggestions, ill at the fact himself. I stared at him in disbelief. I knew my parents had hated me, but to leave me homeless and without a penny, that was beyond cruel, for anybody.

"I-I... What am I going to do? I have nowhere to go." I spoke to myself.

Nicolas got up to stand beside me. "Don't fret, Crystal. I'll take care of you." He turned to Mr Chambrillon. "If I wish to become her legal guardian, will you see to it?"

He nodded. "Yes. I can do dat today if you wishes."

"Very well. I shall contact you again, but I think that will be all for today." He extended his hand to the lawyer to shake, putting a definite end to the meeting. Afterwards the man got up and murmured an apology to me. Then he turned to Nicolas and they left the room. I just stood there, looking to where the man had been sitting.

Nicolas came back, alone. "I'm so sorry Crystal. If you-"

I let out a shout of indignation, not letting him finish as I stormed out of the dining room. I rushed to the master bedroom, ripping out of the way the tape the lab guys had put on the door.

"Where are you? Come out you bunch of lowlifes!" I belted into the empty room when I'd finally gotten in.

Nicolas came and stood in the doorway, staying silent. After a couple of seconds and still no ghostly appearance, I took action. Crossing the room, I went into the huge walk-in closet and took my father's favourite baseball bat.

I came back into the bedroom and without notice, twirled my arms - and the bat clutched in my hands - and swung at the floor length mirror. Nicolas jumped as we both watched the glass shatter and hit the carpeted floor.

I scanned the room and - just as I had predicted - the ghosts had showed up.

"How dare you break my beloved mirror?" Mother hissed. Her translucent arms came up on her hips.

"And my bat!" Father spat.

I looked at them innocently. "Oh, you want it back?" I threw it at his head. It passed right through and hit the wall behind them, making a hole in it.

Still in the doorway, Nicolas couldn't see the ghosts. Nevertheless, he obviously didn't approve of my behaviour. I couldn't have cared less right then. They were my ghosts, and I was going to take care of them the way I wanted to. I smiled. Maybe a little payback will be good.

I walked over to the picture frames hung on the wall just by the door. All three were pictures of my parents together; they had never put up any of me. I grabbed them and played Frisbee, aiming for the ghosts hearts.

Huh. Ironic how they had a heart when they were dead and hadn't when they were alive.

The frames went straight through, of course, having no effect whatsoever on the two floating figures. My personal stress-reliever however, was having the time of its life. "You heartless monsters!" I shouted. Next were the pillows, that flew across the bedroom, having aimed at their stomachs.

The ghosts - as that was all they were going to be to me from then on - started shouting nonsense at me. Mostly swearing. In English and in French. Somehow their words didn't affect me though; just like their immaterial bodies, their words went in one ear and out the other.

After having thrashed their bedroom as much as possible, I left the room with a huff. The ghosts continued on their swearing rampage. Nicolas finally moved to let me pass. I walked into the living room and let myself drop onto the leather couch.

I couldn't stay put long though; doing nothing gave me time to think. Time to think only got me sadder or madder. And that was precisely what I didn't want. Grabbing my cell phone off the side table, I dialled the first person I could think of that could keep me busy for hours on end.

"Ben? It's Crys. How fast can you prepare to do some training?"