A Broken Fate

by Cat Mann

  ****

  I stirred around dawn, blinking my sleepy eyes. Our bedroom was bathed in soft, muted, early morning hues. Rooting around in the bed, my hands searched for Ari so I could wrap myself around his warm body. My toes were cold. He wasn’t there in bed. I was still alone.

  The bedroom doorknob turned and I watched him walk quietly into our room. My eyes followed Ari to the dresser where he removed his wallet, keys and cellphone from his pants pockets. He undid the clasp on his watch and slipped it off his wrist. He undid the button on his pants and stepped out of them. He looked over at me for the first time.

  “Ah, hi there. You're up early.”

  “And you are up late.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry.” Ari looked beyond tired. He crawled into bed next to me and we instantly wrapped our bodies up tightly together. I basked in his warmth. I nuzzled my face into his chest and he did the same to my hair.

  We slept the morning away and woke in the early afternoon to Ari’s cell phone. He stumbled to the dresser and answered.

  “No, we’re home.” He yawned. He grabbed his watch off the dresser and squinted his eyes at the time. He picked his reading glasses up and slipped them on. “Calm down, we’ll be right there.”

  Ari hung up his cell and moaned. “That was my mom,” he said shaking his phone in his hand. “Everyone is at Gianna’s. Get up and start to get ready.”

  “Get ready for what?” I stretched.

  “To tell them all about No. 7.”

  Ari turned to head to the shower. I lay around a bit longer and stretched my joints, each one loosened and popped.

  “Ava!” Ari hollered. “Get up.”

  I didn’t budge.

  Ari emerged from the shower a bit later. I was still in bed, laying on my stomach, face first in a sea of pillows.

  I heard his chuckle, then I felt the swift movement of my blankets being ripped away from my behind. I peeked my eyes up and saw a mischievous grin on Ari’s face.

  “I’m up!” I jumped up. “I’m up!”

  Ari laughed, and I headed to the shower. A quick clean and a quick grab of clothes, then I met him in the kitchen so we could walk together to Gianna’s.

  Ari’s and my semi-light-hearted mood did not last long. The heaviness of the previous evening’s tragedy sank back into my psyche. The atmosphere at Gianna’s was solemn and grave. Tension was thick in the air. Gianna, herself, had red, puffy eyes and a tear-streaked face. Some people stood and some were sitting, some were crying and some stared blankly into nothingness. Nick sat alone in the empty living room. His fingers were tangled in his hair, his elbows rested on his knees. He stared straight down at the floor. Occasionally, he cried, weeping into his hands.

  “You're always late,” Aggie said sternly at the sight of us. “You should have been here with the rest of us, hours ago.”

  “You're right. I’m sorry,” Ari said to his mother.

  “He was up with me until six in the morning, Aunt Ag,” Nick spoke up, his voice throaty and deep.

  Aggie pursed her lips and then relented.

  Gianna burst into full-blown sobs and Aggie and Julia rushed over to soothe her.

  We spent the remainder of the day like this – no one really speaking, all of us just staring and crying for Nick and his loss of Misha, and the unborn child, mourning the potential they had to be a loving family.

  Misha’s funeral was set for Monday. We learned this information from Collin, who had grown up with Misha in Etna and therefore, had been a very close friend. He and August were planning to fly up for the service along with their other friends, Nigel and Rachel.

  Ari and I learned from Rory that Thais was angrier than Rory had ever seen him. He said his father felt betrayed by Nick. Not only had Nick kept his relationship with Misha a secret for three years, but he had dated a non-Greek and he had gotten her pregnant. Thais had locked himself away in his study after Nick told his parents his secrets – and hadn’t come out or spoken a word since.

  Evening set in and I began to help Aggie make an easy dinner of leftover turkey and noodles. Thais appeared from his study and pointed to Nick who was still sitting in the living room with bloodshot eyes. “Let’s have a talk.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nick stood up to join Thais.

  He walked away through the crowded kitchen and followed his dad into the study. Thais shut the door. Gianna began to cry again. They were locked away in the study for a long time and when the two reappeared, they both had red-rimmed eyes.

  “Ari, can I talk with you for a minute?” Ari looked up at Nick. He rubbed his fingertips across his scruffy, unshaven face.

  “Uh, sure.” Ari squeezed my hand and Nick took a seat next to us.

  “I can’t live there anymore – in that apartment. There are just too many… memories. Her stuff is gone, she’s gone. I am never going to see her again. Do you think you could drive up there with me tonight and help me pack up and move home?”

  Ari patted Nick on the back. “Of course.”

  “We can leave after dinner,” Nick suggested.

  “Ava and I need to take care of something first, then we will leave.”

  Nick looked at me and I smiled reassuringly then we all sat down to dinner. The table was full of awkward and uncomfortable silence.

  “Someone say something, please. Let’s try to get our minds off the grief for just a moment.” Aggie said to the quiet table.

  No one spoke.

  “Andy?” I asked.

  “Hmmm?” Andy smiled up at me.

  “When did your study catch on fire?”

  He squinted his eyes, surprised by my odd question, and tapped his fingers on his lips, thinking.

  “Oh, I don’t know, Ava; sometime in September of last year.”

  “How did it happen?”

  “The fire marshal determined that it was arson, but wasn’t able to find evidence pointing at anyone in particular. He said something about ‘teenagers with nothing better to do,’ but I don’t believe any of us, including the marshal, found that scenario a likely one.”

  “What was in your office that someone might want to destroy?” I asked, agreeing with Andy’s assessment of the fire marshal’s conclusion. I didn’t believe for a second that some Dana Point teenagers had set that fire.

  “Well, I keep most of my important documents in my safe at work; all I had in the study were some of my books, a few paintings, and some of Aggie’s earlier works. My computer was destroyed, but that’s all.”

  “You didn’t lose anything important?”

  By this time, the entire table was listening to our conversation.

  “No, Ava, the only document I keep at home is the one I had been holding for years, for you. It was in the fire safe and was unharmed.”

  I pursed my lips.

  “They never caught who started the fire then?”

  “No,” he said looking at me quizzically.

  “Huh,” I said and then dropped the subject and we all went back to eating quietly.

  Once the dinner mess had been cleaned up and the dishes put away, Lauren and Luke left for a walk on the beach. Collin and August went back home to pack. Ari and I had agreed earlier that we wouldn’t bring up No. 7 until Collin and Luke were both out of ear shot. Neither of them knew who we were – descendants of Greek deities that is, and the Alexanders worked hard at keeping family matters private. Ari turned to his family and took a deep breath.

  “I know that this is a really horrible time to do this but since everyone is here, Ava and I have something important to tell you all.” Everyone turned and looked at us. Their faces all displayed different emotions from worry and confusion to shock and concern.

  Ari waited a moment and continued once he had everyone’s attention.

  “Ava has discovered that there is a seventh member of the Kakos family.”

  Gasps and murmurs erupted throughout the kitchen. Aggie broke down in to sobs and was comforted by Rory. Andy closed his e
yes in pain and sadness. It was as though Ari had dropped a bomb on an already weakened community.

  Once everyone calmed back down, Ari started up again, “Ava has been able to remember some strange details of what happened to her while she was kidnapped and she believes that No. 7 was involved somehow.”

  “Strange things like what?” Rory asked, not unkindly.

  “Well, without going into too much detail about her experiences, she heard some phone conversations that Damien Kakos had and she has a feeling that No. 7 may have been the one to stitch up her wrist.”

  “No offense, Ava, but weren’t you pretty drugged up during that whole ordeal?” Julia asked this time.

  “Yeah, I was. But I think No. 7 was the one who had been drugging me. I can’t help but feel that he was working against No. 6 in some way. As if he wanted me to survive so that he could have me all to himself or something. I think I was given drugs so I would not feel the pain. If I hadn’t been stitched up, I wouldn’t have survived; I would have bled to death. I remember watching the blood running down my hand and pooling before I passed out, I remember thinking how quickly it was moving. No. 6 didn’t care if I lived. He wanted me to feel pain; he was so sadistic.”

  I shuddered at the memories of him and then shut my mouth, not wanting to talk about my experiences anymore.

  Ari continued, “When Ava cut Damien’s thread that night, he wasn’t alone. She didn’t get a clear look at who was there, but she’s confident that it was No. 7.

  “Then later, we met Maya, Ava’s grandmother, in Greece. Maya is Ava’s real grandmother. She and Margaux had been friends and Margaux had promised to keep Lucy safe. When she failed, Maya cut all ties with Margaux. Maya had a second daughter who was also killed by the Kakos family. Before she died, Lucy’s sister had a baby and Maya is raising him. He is Ava’s cousin and his name is Max. He shares some of her abilities, but Maya is certain that no one besides us knows about Max. She believes that No. 7 will try to kill Ava.”

  By this time, people were just gaping open mouthed at Ari and me.

  “Maya had heard stories of the seventh Kakos and told Ava to be diligent in her watchfulness. No. 7 does not show his face; rather, he possesses the body and soul of anyone he chooses. He could look like anybody.

  Ava has been doing research for the last few weeks and she has discovered that No. 7 cannot be killed. When the host body dies, No. 7 simply moves on to find someone else. Ava thinks there has to be a way to deal with No. 7, but she doesn’t know yet how to find the loophole. We’re both working on discovering a way to be safe … and we want to caution you guys to be careful, too.”

  After a few minutes, people began to close their mouths and blink again.

  “Is that why you were wondering about the fire last fall?” Andy asked after a moment, breaking the tension.

  “Yes,” I said nodding. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange that just days after my mother died, right before I moved here, someone set your study on fire and the only thing of importance that you had in there was the letter and information from my father? I mean, if that had been lost, if I had never read that letter, it is possible I would have never been warned. I would have been killed months ago.”

  “Who do you think started the fire?” Andy asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess it could have been any of the Kakos, but I have a gut feeling that it was No. 7.”

  “That’s so creepy,” Julia said, shaking a chill out of her shoulder.

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” I said, rolling my eyes in her direction.

  We all sat around and grasped at straws for a while. The conversation had certainly done a fine job at moving the attention away from Nick for a bit. But it did nothing to lighten our moods. Soon after, Nick and Ari stood up to leave.

  “Will you be okay if I leave?” Ari asked me.

  “Sure,” I said, and picked at my chipping fingernail polish.

  “I’ll only be a few hours.” Ari moved my chin to look me in the eye.

  I nodded. “K.”

  “Do you want me to walk you home first?”

  “We can take her, Ari. Just get going with Nick,” Andy said from across the room.

  Ari looked at me he raised his eyebrow.

  “I’ll be just fine. Please be safe.”

  “Of course.”

  I walked home a bit later with Andy and Aggie. “Do you want to stay with us tonight, Ava? Ari might not be home until real late. You could stay with Lauren.”

  “No, Aggie. Thanks though. I’ll be okay.” She nodded and they both walked me up all the way to my back door.

  I slid the door open and saw Aggie move her eyes back and forth between Andy and me. She kissed Andy on the cheek.

  “I would feel better, Ava, if I stayed with you.”

  I felt a rush of relief at her words. “Ok, thanks, Aggie.”