Golden

by Leah Adams

  A feeling of jealous came over me.

  No, I needed to think about something else. I thought to myself putting more food into my mouth. It felt almost like the food kept me from screaming. If I kept thinking about the girl in the picture, I would go crazy.

  I was going to think about more important things. I told myself. Like about what they were and what I should do about it.

  Even though it seemed like they weren’t going to hurt me and had told me everything that I asked, I wasn’t sure what I should do. They were after all still sucking the life or energy or whatever from people. So, what was I to do?

  I felt like I should tell someone. Call the police or something, but then again who would believe me. If I went around and said that ‘hey, the forbidden four aren’t human and they are sucking the life from people’, who would believe me?

  No, one would.

  I felt all of their eyes on me, watching me. I think they thought I would faint or snap at any moment. I couldn’t blame them. I felt like that was what I should be doing, but for whatever reason I couldn’t.

  It was like something just wouldn’t let me give into this pain that I felt in the back of my mind. It was telling me to fight it. It was yelling, to move pass it, even when I felt like I wanted to just be weak, for just a few moments.

  That I just wanted to give in to the thing that my mind kept me fighting. All of this was crazy. Pixies that suck people lives! That was just too weird.

  Then Jay wanted to make me his pet! I didn’t want to be his pet and I wasn’t going to be.

  I stared at each of them, eating still, keeping my mouth full. That was the only reason I wasn’t yelling at Jay.

  His pet.

  If he thought for one moment I was going to be his pet, then he had lost his mind. I didn’t even like him like that. Then again they did say a pet was just someone a pixy feed off of and Damon said that it was more so for my protection.

  A thought came to my mind and I set my fork down. What would I need protection from if they were the pixies? Then the memory of what Jay was trying to tell me came to my mind.

  Jay was saying something about why a lot of people were going missing. He hadn’t finished telling me due to Damon big mouth.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Nate asked moving forward in his chair. The light caught his hair and I thought I saw some red pieces in his hair. His green eyes were staring at me fully. He wasn’t even blinking. “Jay’s, cooking isn’t that bad.”

  “What do I need to be protected from?” I asked.

  It was quiet. They all just stared at me. It was like they were debating telling me the truth or not. Jay opened his mouth, but was cut off from saying anything.

  “Jennifer.” I heard Leon say.

  My eyes turned and I looked at him. I just could not help myself. I had to look at him.

  Leon was leaning right on the door way, his eyes right on me. So intense….so beautiful. They didn’t hold any real emotion in them. I wondered what had been on his mind earlier.

  “Who’s she?” I asked. I really wanted to ask who Elizabeth was, more. I felt stupid for that. It was Jennifer he had said I needed protection from, not Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth might be their friend or more importantly, Leon’s friend. I though vainly. I shouldn’t care, but I do.

  “A girl who is pissed at Jay,” Damon began. I caught his eyes lowering on me, out of the corner of my eyes. I just looked away from him. “And pretty much that’s it.”

  “Jennifer is a pixy that is working with someone named Derrick.” Leon said pulling out a chair and sitting down.

  “Derrick is dead.” Jay said rolling his eyes. “Jennifer is working alone and she is really pissing me off.”

  “Wait, you guys are losing me.” I said. First they were talking about Jennifer and now someone named Derrick.

  “I don’t know why you guys are even telling her anything.” Damon said eyeing all of his brothers. “She is human.”

  “You know there is a possible that he is still alive.” Leon said looking right at Jay, clearly ignoring Damon. “That’s why we are here.”

  “No, we are here because of the….” Jay began saying, but was cut off by Nate.

  “Look, we don’t know for sure if he is alive or not, but we do know that Jennifer is and she is going to try to kill Bonnie.” Nate said, and then his eyes came to me. “Sorry, but that’s why you are here.” His eyes then went to Jay and Leon. He shook his head and his lips went into a small smile.

  “Why does she want to kill me?” I asked blinking.

  “Because of Jay,” Damon said. He seemed happy with this.

  “I always told you your womanizing ways would get you in trouble.” Nate smiled.

  “You are just as bad as he is.” I whispered looking down at my hands.

  This so could not be happening to me.

  I looked up briefly at Jay. I saw that he was watching me with a smile on his face. “What does that have to do with me?”

  “She’s knows that you been around us, most importantly Jay.” Nate said eyeing some flowers on the table. “So, she wants to suck the life out of you.”

  “What, I mean why?” I questioned. I wasn’t sure if my voice was shaky or not. But all of their eyes looked at me like I had nothing to worry about.

  “Because she is in love with Jay, but you know how Jay is.” Nate laughed, shaking his head.

  “What can I say, she isn’t the one.” Jay had this smirk on his face and he was eyeing me, carefully, longingly.

  I turned my eyes from him, feeling nervous. “But, I’m not even with Jay.”

  “None of the other girl where either.” Damon responded. My mind went right to Brenda.

  “She killed Brenda, didn’t she?” I asked, looking down at my plate.

  “She didn’t, but she got one of the people who are working for her too.” Jay said. “She never gets her hands dirty.”

  “The bitch is to smart. She knows if she is killing them like her little friends have, the pixy king would kill her.” Damon said.

  “Is she the reason why people have been going missing?” I asked. Not ready to look up yet.

  “We are not all together sure.” Leon said his voice slightly off. “I believe the real person behind that is Derrick.”

  “He’s dead.” Jay said almost angrily.

  “Jennifer isn’t that smart.” Leon said. “She doesn’t need all of the people she has been taking.”

  “He’s right Jay.” Nate agreed. “And not to mention there have been a lot of guys missing.”

  “That’s still does not mean he is behind this.” Jay said and I wondered about who Derrick really is.

  My eyes went to Nate and I saw that he was staring hardly at the flowers.

  “Who is Derrick?” I asked

  “Derrick was a pixy who didn’t like how things were being run.” Jay said putting more into the word, was. It was because of his brothers, I knew.

  “What do you mean?” I wanted to know more than what he was trying to tell me.

  “He wanted humans to be slaves to pixies, but of course he was going to have to get rid of the fairies first.” Damon said after it seemed like Jay didn’t want to say anything else about it. “Derrick was the king of the pixies, but his brother is the king now.”

  “See to have a fight like that would have meant blood on both sides.” Nate said his eyes still on the flowers. “And with the fairy queen willing to sign a peace treaty, well some pixies didn’t feel like they should die.”

  “So, I guess Derrick was mad.” I frowned.

  “Mad is an understatement.” Jay said shaking his head. “Anyone who wasn’t going to fight was going to die. He made sure of it. He went on a rant page, killing anyone who said they didn’t agree with him.”

  “That was when the fairy queen stepped in.” Leon spoke. I jumped slightly at his voice. I hadn’t meant to, but his words had felt so close. I wanted to talk to him, privately, but thought against it. This wa
sn’t the right time.

  “Why would she step in?” I asked, partly because I wanted to keep hearing his voice and partly because I thought it was kind of odd, for the queen of fairies, to step in for her enemies. Maybe fairies were really good.

  “Well she didn’t want a war on her hands.” Leon put a small smile on his face, as if remembering something. “If the pixies tried to make humans their slaves the fairies would have to stand up to them and kill them. But as Nate said it would mean blood on both sides. So, the queen went to Derrick younger brother and no one knows what was said, but whatever happened, Derrick was killed.”

  “So, now pixies are under a new law that states we can’t kill humans. We can only take what we need.” Damon sighed. He sounded slightly put off by that. I wasn’t too sure if he was joking or not. “If we do kill a human we will have to answer to the fairy queen or worst our king.”

  “So, there is nothing to worry about then.” I said feeling relieved.

  “Yes, Derrick is dead.” Jay replied, sweetly. He grinned widely, showing me his beautiful white teeth.

  “Dead or not, Derrick still had his followers. And all of them weren’t found or killed. So, some of them could be trying to do what he wanted to do.” Nate said. His tone didn’t sound like he was really aware of what was going on around him. “You know that Jennifer was his step child. She might be trying to keep daddy’s dream alive, even if he may not be alive.”

  “I still believe Derrick is helping her.” Leon said. His face was emotionless, and I found myself wanting to hold his hand. I wanted to tell him it was okay.

  I shook my head. I was acting so stupid.

  “The king never did found his body.” Leon continued.

  “Rule one in is war, no body, no death.” Damon laughed.

  “So, you think he is still alive.” I said putting a hand on my neck. “But, that still doesn’t explain why all of these people have been missing.”

  “Well I think the reason for that is, because of the gate.” Damon smiled then winked at me. I frowned at him and folded my arms. “Have you ever heard of The Four Gods?”

  I shook my head no and he smiled.

  “They are a part of the ancient astronomy of China, and later Korea and Japan.” Damon continued on. “Well anyway, it is said that we get our power from the four gods: Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, and Byakko. Each of them is hidden in a gateway to heaven, but also to hell.”

  I stared at him trying to follow.

  “You see only a human can open their gates and not be killed.” Damon smirked. “But if the God does not think the human is fit they turn them into a succubus or an incubus.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked not able to understand what was going on.

  “Yeah, they are kind of like us, but without the really great powers, but they can shape-shifted.” Damon replied, then off handily added. “But it does take them a long time before they are able to live with humans. All they want to do at first is f-“

  “Damon.” Jay sighed.

  Damon shook his head and smiled. “PG, right.”

  “Why do they need to open these gates?” I asked not fully understanding and wanting to ignore Damon.

  “Because Derrick knew the only way to make sure he beat the fairies was if he had the power of the four Gods.” Nate sighed under his breath. “With the power he would control their power and ours, even.”

  My head shook my head partly understanding. So, Derrick wants to make humans pixies slaves. Ok, I got that, but why was they here?

  I turned my eyes to Nate. I was about to ask him when I noticed his eyes turn gold. The flowers on the table began to slowly turn brown until they were black. The flowers wrinkled up and died.

  My eyes stared at the flowers, widely. I could not believe I had just seen him do that. I turned to him, my eyes still wide, and grabbed my chair.

  “You are really shaking,” Damon smiled and then started laughing. “Too much for you, dear?”

  I stared down at my hands and saw that I was shaking. I wondered how long I had been doing that.

  Nate took in a breath and smiled. “Sorry, about that. It’s been a minute and I’m sure those two would have hated for it to have been you.” He grinned and Leon then at Jay. “That should last me until my date.”

  “That’s what you’ve been doing to those girls, right.” I said trying to get my legs to move.

  “Sometimes,” Jay said.

  “They want die quicker or anything right? It’s not like some of their lives have been taken off or something right?” I asked hoping that the answer was no.

  “No, they will be already right. Now, if it was a succubus or an incubus, then yes.” Nate said leaning back in his chair.

  “Then how come the plant just died?” I question not fully understanding.

  “You think you have as much energy as a plant?” Damon smiled on the verge of laughing.

  I shook glared at him and understood what he meant. Humans must have more life force than a plant.

  “Well if you can take from plants and eat food, then why do you have to take from people?” I asked kind of confused.

  “Like I said,” Jay began. “It’s like water for us. You might not drink water every day, but you will have to eventually or you will die.”

  “When you’re with someone, do you have to take their energy or can you fight it?” I asked not wanting to look at Leon.

  “We can’t help it.” I heard Nate say when no one else answered.

  “Oh,” I said.

  I didn’t want to look at Leon, even more, at that moment. I would never able to kiss him, unless I was willing to let him feed off of me. I shook my head.

  Honestly, I screamed in my head. We aren’t even together, yet I am thinking about him like this. I wasn’t all together sure what I thought about him being a pixy yet.

  My eyes went to Jay. I saw he was looking at me almost sadly, but as soon as I saw that expression on his face, it was gone.

  I wanted to get off of this topic. I decided to go back to the original question I was going to ask Nate. “Why are you guys here?”

  “One of the gates is around here.” Leon smiled. “The most powerful one at that: Suzaku, God of fire.”

  “So, they want to open this gate?” I asked, looking at each of them slowly.

  “That’s what they think.” Jay said, angrily.

  “Then, what do you think?” I asked, with my arms folded. He always thought he knew it all. I thought what his brothers had said sounded like it could be true. It sounded right, with fairies and pixies in the world; this could be true as well.

  “I think Jennifer is just fucking with us.” Jay said shaking his head. “She knows that we are here on a mission, but she wants to throw us off of it.”

  I thought over what he said. I didn’t know Jennifer, so I don’t really know if she would do something so, pointless. Then again, she did want to kill me, or so they said, so if she was willing to kill me just because of Jay, maybe she could be pointless like that.

  “That could be true as well.” Nate said, and then looked at his watch. “But, I have a date and I would like to hurry this up.” He had his eyes on me.

  “I don’t want to know anything else.” I said, knowing full well tomorrow I would have a lot of questions to ask.

  “Good, well I guess I can leave.” Nate smirked. “Her husband is out of town, for the rest of the week.” He got up from his chair. I saw a small smile on his lips as I watched him walk out of the room.

  I shook my head at him. He was too weird.

  “So, you are okay with everything?” I heard Jay asked. I turned to look at him and saw that he had this grin on his lips.

  “I’m as fine as I can be.” I said.

  I stared into Jay eyes, only paying half attention to his brothers; he was looking at me like he wanted to tell me something more, but thought against it. I started to open my mouth and asked him what he wanted to say, but thought against it.

  If he
didn’t want to tell me, I wasn’t going to push it. At least not right now. I needed to go home and think about everything they had told me. I didn’t need to think about added stuff that had nothing to do with the bigger picture.

  “I think I should get going.” I said. “I am sure my parents are going to kill me when I get home.” I let out a nervous chuckle.

  “I could help you with that.” Jay beamed. “Then you could just stay here.”

  My eyes stared at him like I didn’t know who he was. He was acting weird.

  “I don’t need any help Jay.” I said. “I’ll be okay. I just want to go home.”

  “I will take you home, then.” Jay started to get up.

  “Jay, I think I should take her.” Leon said, eyeing Jay carefully.

  I felt my heart beat quicken. I wasn’t sure why, but the feeling of being in that car alone with Leon after what I had done to his picture, made me feel weird.

  “Yeah, Jay we need to get something to eat.” Damon said getting up. “Unless you rather….” He trailed off looking right at me.

  Jay frowned and shook his head. “No, I will see you tomorrow. Leon, you will watch first, I’ll be there soon okay.”

  Leon shook his head.

  “What do you mean watch first?” I asked.

  “Watch for Jennifer or her little friends.” Leon told me with a small smile.

  I didn’t have much time to think about how beautiful his smiled looked, because I started to think about my family and friends. At that moment I began to feel light headed. It was like everything they had just said was starting to come to me.

  I was in danger, so where my friends, my family and even people I did not know. I didn’t want them to get hurt because of me.

  “What about my family, friends, or everyone else?” I asked looking right at Leon.

  “They will be fine.” He responded.

  “We have to keep you safe, first.” Jay told me lightly. He reached out for my hand, as if to comfort me. I pulled my hand back and eyed him. He just sighed. “You’re not okay with all of this are you?” His voice sounded almost bitter.

  “Not really, but I will be alright. But the reason that I don’t want you to touch me is because I don’t like you, pixy or not.” I said getting up.