Hidden (Hidden Series Book One)

by M. Lathan

  How am I doing? I thought you deserved some servants this morning. In case you’re wondering why I’m not me, I knew you’d convince me to sit and eat with you, and this is all about you. You’ll see me later. How’s that for anticipation?

  “I’m actually glad to see you,” I said, leaving out why. He’d given me more time.

  Emma giggled and closed the door behind her, a pitcher of orange juice in her hands. She curtsied and poured me a glass. “My lady,” she said. “This is very cute, by the way.”

  “Yeah. Oh, how was the ball?” I asked.

  She jerked her head towards the kitchen. “I didn’t dance,” she said. I frowned. Paul must have not asked her. “But I didn’t get chased out with pitchforks. I’d give it an A minus.” We laughed, and she went back into the kitchen. Nathan ran in behind her.

  I ate the pancakes quickly. None of them were exactly circles, more like lopsided splatters, but they were good. After, I realized I should’ve eaten slower and made breakfast drag. When this birthday surprise was over, I had to tell Nate about my powers and my troubled mother.

  “Dessert,” Paul said, sitting a bowl of strawberries covered in whipped cream in front of me. “Not that I ever thought Sparky was cool, but he’s lost any chance of it now. Poor guy.” He pulled another note from his pocket.

  Hey, babe. When you finish breakfast, I have something for you in your room.

  I eased each strawberry into my mouth slowly, delaying the inevitable. Emma took my dishes at the sink when I’d nibbled each one to the stem. I crept upstairs. My door was open. I searched for him, but he wasn’t there. He’d made a path to my bedroom with pink flowers leading to another note on my bed.

  Happy Birthday, Chris. I don’t have to tell you that I have no money, you know that. And here is where I resist the urge to mention that you’re far too rich to be bothered with someone like me (I just failed). A girl like you deserves the world, and I hope to be able to give it to you one day, but today I have breakfast and flowers from the garden of our next-door neighbor. Don’t worry, I grabbed them last night. No one saw.

  Thank you for being my girlfriend. I can’t believe I get to kiss you. Oh, by the way, you’re a great kisser. And I know you’re the only person I’ve ever kissed, but I can’t imagine it getting any better. (This is where you resist the urge to roll your eyes). Okay, Happy Birthday again. I’m glad you were born, and all of those people who could’ve told you Happy Birthday over the years and didn’t missed out. Now, they’ll have to fight with me for your attention on every March 2nd from now on. It’s my favorite day now. Without it, there would be no Christine to make my life perfect.

  I put the letter on the bed and wiped my face. This made it official, I was going to wake up any moment now and all of this would have been a beautiful dream.

  “Happy Birthday,” he said in my ear. I didn’t turn around, I didn’t want him to see me crying. “Do you hate your cheap gifts so much that you wanted to cry?”

  I shook my head, still caught up in his words. I didn’t even think Catherine and Raymond were glad I was born. I’d bet that March 2nd sucked for them. I didn’t fit into their love story. I was Juliet’s little complication before she stabbed herself.

  He forced me to face him, and I smiled. At least he was happy I existed. God, I needed it to stay this way. He lifted my chin and kissed me. His lips were so soft and warm, two things I’d never be able to let go.

  My heart squeezed a little. I sounded like Catherine, obsessive and dramatic.

  He chuckled against my lips. “You taste like pancakes and strawberries,” he said.

  “Did you make them?” He nodded. “They were perfect. Just like you.”

  “The fact that you are completely deluded works largely in my favor.”

  We laughed and fell naturally into another kiss, a deeper kiss, from my impossible boyfriend that I had so much in common with. We both didn’t belong in our families. His, cold and unwelcoming. Mine, full of the kind of love and passion that ends in death and leaves a child alone to worry about the enemies they left behind.

  As his lips pulled at mine, slow but electric, I remembered a feeling that seemed so distant now – a constant numbness I hadn’t been able to shake until I met him. My heart and been cold and dead, but now it felt like lava slushed inside of it. Alive and in love.

  I wanted to tell him. The words were close to spilling out, too soon, but definitely true. Just like my mother, in love way too fast.

  His lips slowed, moving to my nose then my forehead. When he gave me a moment to rest, I yawned. I’d been up all night.

  “Sleepy?” he asked. I tried to say no with a kiss. I missed his lips, and it landed awkwardly on his chin. He chuckled. “Take a nap, baby. I have three times the chores to do. Part two of your birthday will begin when you wake up.”

  “Part two? I’m up. I’m ready.” But I said that leaning against his chest with no energy at all. He picked me up, pulled off my shoes, and tucked me in bed.

  “See you later, Chris. Sweet dreams.”

  I was in the cabin built for one again in my dream. I rolled over in bed and bumped into Nathan. His beautiful eyes fluttered open.

  “Morning,” he said. I opened my mouth to say it back, but he was shirtless, and my mind went blank, forgetting everything but how to kiss him. “You know how this goes, babe. If we don’t get up now, we’ll be here all day.”

  He crawled out of bed, threw on a wrinkled white tee, and picked me up. He carried me to the table set for one. I sat in his lap as we ate breakfast in the quiet house. After, we went outside to the forest I’d crept through with the birds. He tossed a little rock at me and ran, starting a game of chase. I ran through the beams of light the sun cast through the trees. The black birds hopped around me as I tried to find him. They were chirping, laughing, so was he in the distance.

  Pure white butterflies fluttered around me. When they cleared, he was there. We kissed in that beautiful moment, and he took off again. I bumped into him seconds later. He stalled, peaking behind a tree, not at all in the mood to play anymore.

  “Shhh,” he said. He crouched in front of me. My heart pounded as he pulled a knife from his back pocket. “Come out! I dare you!” The bush ruffled in front of us. “Go inside, Chris!” he ordered.

  I ran for the door just as a huge man in black leather revealed himself. Nate charged and tackled the hunter. They wrestled in the dirt, grunting and growling, until the hunter went limp.

  “Who’s next?” Nathan yelled. “You’ll never get her as long as I’m here!” He wiped the bloody knife on his white shirt. We waited, both listening for the sounds of another hunter. We only heard the forest. For some reason, it felt like our forest, like we lived here and had been living here for years, alone and secluded and waiting for danger. Just like my parents.

  We went into the cabin and cuddled in the chair in front of the fireplace.

  “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe. It’s my job to make sure of it every day,” he said, rocking us. “I’ll kill a million hunters to protect you. All that matters is that we’re together, Catherine.”

  Nate disappeared, and I was in the chair alone. I walked through the house, looking for him, wanting to yell at him for calling me her name.

  I jumped. Two bloody bodies were lying in the hall. A woman with dark curls covered the man completely. I inched closer, crying, and kneeled so I could see her face.

  “Mom?” She didn’t answer. “CC?”

  I nudged her shoulder, and her body flipped over. I gasped. It was more than a resemblance. Her face was the mirror image of mine, and her hand was on a knife that was through her stomach.

  I looked over to see Raymond and screamed. He wasn’t my father, and that wasn’t my mother. Nate and I were bloody and dead in our little home.

  “This isn’t real. This isn’t real,” I said until my eyes opened in my room. I wasn’t relieved to be out of the dream because most of my dreams had some measure of truth in them. Just
this week alone, I’d dreamed of leaving school and I did, that same day. The night after I kissed Nathan in my sleep, we’d kissed for hours in the living room.

  I got out of bed, fighting tears. Even the beautiful parts of the dream were frightening. Nate and I lived alone and secluded. That could come true. He couldn’t have a normal life with a copy for a girlfriend. And a hunter interrupted our happiness in the dream. That could happen too. That could happen now.

  I thought of Julian with purpose then, wanting to hear something about the man who ruined my parents’ lives. I heard nothing.

  I’d slept the whole day away. The sun was setting in my room, marking the end of the day and the grace period I’d given myself.

  Truth time.

  I knocked on his door a few times. No answer. I searched the house. The living room was empty, and the doors to the dining room were closed.

  I went into the kitchen and found Remi sitting on the counter, eating an apple.

  “Hey, birthday girl,” she said, then rolled her eyes.

  “Hi.” I craned my neck to see if they were out on the patio. Empty.

  I turned to leave, but I heard something – buzzing in the house for the first time.

  “Were you in my room?” she asked. I didn’t answer or turn around. “Of course not. You're not stupid enough to steal from me. Not again anyway. I told you to stay away from him and you didn't. So I guess we'll be scrapping soon. The panther versus the witch who hates magic, should be interesting. Unless you're interested in sharing him.”

  She laughed, a cackle too close to Sienna’s. I shuddered, straining against the part of me that wanted to strangle her.

  “He's definitely interested. He told me so last night when we spent two hours in a cramped storage closet together.” I spun around. Her face lit up like I was doing exactly what she wanted me to. “No one was really interested in us, so we had time to slip away. Get to know each other a little better. I bet he didn’t tell you about that.” The clatter around her grew louder. “He has trouble keeping his hands to himself, doesn’t he?”

  I hunched my shoulders, finally giving some form of a response.

  Nate hated her. She smelled like bad milk, so I knew she was lying, but I wanted to hear for myself. Because I could now, I listened to her thoughts.

  Look at her squirm. What else could I say about Sparky? As if I’d ever let that dog touch me. I just need to get her angry.

  Get me angry? She didn’t like Nate?

  And around that noise, I heard her devising a plan to make me think they’d had sex while I was sleeping. And deeper than that, in a voice with more tenor, more seriousness, she wondered if that plan would get her what she wanted.

  What she wanted?

  Now I knew how they spotted hunters. I’d been staring at her dead on, wrapped up in her thoughts, for nearly a minute.

  She took another bite of her apple and smiled at me.

  Damn, she can really stare.

  I forced my eyes away then.

  “And his lips! Leah, I can see why you were being so slutty with him the other night. He really knows how to bring it out of you, right?” she said. I tuned that out. What she was saying without words was more interesting.

  Why is she always so calm? This is annoying. Oh, I know. I could run upstairs, grab my phone, and steal his boxers. That would do it. I’ll scare the shit out of her and get a picture of it.

  Not today. I’d been scared enough.

  I walked to the island and grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl. That wasn’t enough to show her that I wasn’t afraid. She was on to my bravery stunt. She smiled and bit into the apple, slow and dramatic.

  I’d show her dramatic. I opened the drawer like I needed a knife to peel an orange. As I grabbed it, I wondered how Catherine would handle one of these. She’d trained to be an agent for years. I assumed that meant she used to fight. I wondered if she’d made me good with a knife.

  I threw it in the air, feeling certain before I tossed it. It flipped several times then I snatched it. My hand landed perfectly on the handle. The innate hunter in me twirled the knife around my fingers, and I rammed it through the center of the orange as I stared her down.

  “I’d had enough after the hair in your soup,” I growled. “You can’t imagine how tired I am of you, Remi. If I were you, I wouldn’t tempt me.”

  She jumped from the counter and growled at me. It was way less frightening in her human voice. I smiled.

  She ran out of the kitchen before I could learn the rest of her plan or what it was that she wanted.

  I glared at the knife in my hand. “I can’t believe I did that … or said that,” I whispered. Before I could freak out about acting like a maniac or Remi plotting against me, the calming scent of the orange hit my nose. It made everything okay, peaceful, like it always did.

  Until I bled on it.

  It was a thin stream that I was fairly certain Remi hadn’t seen, but she’d still met Leah. Witnessed me acting like a copy. “Idiot,” I scolded myself.

  I pitched the orange into the trash and wiped my nose with a paper towel. I hid it under a banana peel and a crumpled cigarette pack in the trash.

  “Christine, my heart,” Sophia said, arms open with her happiest face on. I crept away from the trash, dabbing my nostril with my thumb to see if it was still clear. It was. “Here she is, everyone. I found her.”

  Emma, Paul, and my boyfriend came into the kitchen. Sophia took my hand and led me to the dining room. She opened the doors slowly, her entire face in a smile and her shoulders hiked to her ears.

  “Surprise!” they yelled.

  They’d filled the room with balloons of every color. Dinner was on the table with a birthday cake, twinkling with seventeen candles, in the center.

  “Oh my God,” I said.

  We waded through the green strings hanging from the balloons and sat around the table. Throughout the song, I kept my hands glued to my cheeks. I was at a party. My birthday party. It was unbelievable and amazing and I cried because the nuns had always assumed I wouldn’t want one of these. And later, I’d assumed since Satan made me, I didn’t deserve one. And now, I was somewhere in the middle. Not wholly Christine or Leah, good or evil, sane or crazy.

  “Make a wish, my dear,” Sophia said. I closed my eyes and made a few: to be safe, to keep him, to keep myself. I blew out the candles, and they cheered. It was almost so amazing that I could ignore the hairs standing up on my arm. Sophia was right next to me, preparing to cut the cake, and I still felt watched from afar.

  My instincts said: danger. My heart said: enjoy the party.

  Sophia put an arm around my shoulder as Nate rubbed my knee under the table. My heart won that battle.

  “Christine,” Sophia said, grabbing my hand. “Was it the best birthday you’ve ever had?”

  “Definitely,” I said. “No contest.”

  “Good. I order you to be happy and smile for the rest of this day,” she said.

  I smiled, but I wouldn’t follow that order. I assumed Nate would be upset, and I’d probably get dramatic like my mother and beg him not to leave me.

  “I second that,” Nate said. His hand moved from my knee to my thigh. I’d have to enforce a no touching rule during my confession, or I’d never get it out.

  Remi, danger in distressed jeans and a tank top, stood by the door without coming in, even when Emma offered her cake.

  When our eyes met, her mouth twisted into a wicked smile.

  I own that witch, she thought. I’ll get what I want. I’m in control here and she’ll know it soon enough.

  She wanted something from me, and I assumed it was money. I wondered if I’d let her intimidate me enough that I’d offer her some obscene amount to keep her mouth closed about me.

  I didn’t wait for my psychic powers to kick in. I knew the answer was hell no. I was done being bullied.

  Chapter Ten

  Besides the stare down with Remi, my party was fun. It was even better when So
phia went home and I could be closer to Nathan.

  “We have to go out,” Emma said. “You haven’t been. Now you’re seventeen. You have to come with us!”

  I shook my head, sensing the disaster that would be. “Sorry. One day I will. It’s too soon. My face is still on the news.”

  “You guys go ahead, and take Remi with you,” Nathan said. Paul held his hand up to high-five Nathan again. He left him hanging again.

  Nathan and I stayed in the dining room after they left, feeding each other cake and kissing, until he smudged chocolate all over my mouth. We cleaned up in the kitchen. Paul, Emma, and ugh Remi, came down in their barhopping clothes to say goodbye.

  It was hard to focus on their conversation because Remi’s thoughts were so loud. She was angry, shouting in the kitchen about her missing pictures and camera without moving her mouth. Her mind felt … chaotic and diseased, the polar opposite of what it had been earlier. She’d been plotting then, but calmly. Now, she was in the midst of a storm none of us could see. I pulled away from her clatter, fearing my nose would leak in front of them.

  “Happy Birthday,” Emma said, pulling a green gift bag from behind her back. She reached it to me then snatched it back. “Sorry. It’s more of a gift for Nathan.”

  She smiled, and Paul snapped them out of the room.

  I reached in the bag and pulled out a red bikini. He smiled.

  “Is this part two of my birthday?” I asked.

  “Nope,” he said. “Emma whipped you up a swimsuit for me, but you were sleeping so long and Sophia called about the party. So it’s part three.”

  “Isn’t it cold?”

  “Not tonight. And the pool heats up and it’s impossible to be cold around furry animals.” I laughed. “Not that I thought you’d say yes, but I have preheated it.”

  He kissed me and I folded. Of course I couldn’t turn him down.

  “Meet me down here in ten minutes,” I said.

  I ran to my bathroom to shave and stare at myself in the mirror. I needed more boobs for the top. And I was not made to wear a red bikini. Copies of suicidal women should wear black. I looked ridiculous, but I wrapped myself in a towel and went downstairs.