by SL Perrine
Me? Well, I just wanted to finish high school. I’d never been as fond of text books as my best friend, but usually, I only needed to read something once to remember it. I did have an idea about what I wanted to do after high school. I had my heart set on college, as it was my only means to get away from the confines of Cherry Valley. However, the new developments of the last year had me distracted from my goal. I’d spent more time thinking about why my bloodline was so important to the beast–who was no longer a beast–and less about Newton’s Theories. I’d even begun looking into the history of my family. Research wasn’t really my thing, but I should have been able to pull something up. Not to mention, I can’t even recall the names of any aunts, uncles, or grandparents.
My family history aside, I had also been trying to find the answers to the predicament we had been in for the last year. I had to find my mother, and to do that, I was sure I needed to talk to the enemy. I wasn't entirely sure he was still the enemy, but I knew if I was going to get any answers, they would come from him.
I had to make an excuse and get Callie to our next class without me. Telling her I had to go to my locker was the only thing I could think of. Believe it or not, it worked. Had she come with me, she would lose the only five minutes a day she had to talk with a certain football player. It was the only advanced class he’d been in with us. It was the only time, during the entire day, when he wouldn’t be surrounded by his friends and more interesting cheerleaders.
I hurried back to the cafeteria. I hoped Ty and his friends hadn’t taken off yet. I was pleased to see Ty still sitting at his table, as the rest of his group had gotten up to head to class.
“Why are you in high school?” I blurted out as he stood. He looked around, noticing a few stragglers were still in the room, but far enough away not to hear. “Well, hello to you, too.”
“Really? You're how old and you’re in high school?” I asked.
“Not sure we should discuss this here, Renee.” He spoke softly so only I could hear. I scowled at him, ready to scream, but stopped short when he scanned the room again, running a hand through his thick blond hair.
“Then where, because you’ve been here a year and we haven’t spoken at all,” I pointed out, keeping my voice low.
“You can come to me and ask whatever you’d like.”
“How was I supposed to know that?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He looked down at his feet. For a centuries-old monster, he looked more like the innocent seventeen-year-old he’d been portraying for the last year.
He kept his hair long, but not too long it would fit in a ponytail. He seemed to have a group of friends he hung out with daily, and he even joined the wrestling team. I guess I realized I’d never even thought about what his life was like on the other side. Did he even go to school for someone that old? Did he have parents he’d been separated from?
“So, after school… would you like me to walk you home? I could answer your questions then.” He shifted his books from hand to hand and uncomfortably stared me as if he could choose my answer for me.
“Sure, I’ll meet you by the old oak.” He laughed, shook his head, and walked off before I even realized what I’d done.
Chapter -5-
The old oak tree stood on the back corner of the school grounds. That’s where the hookups happened during lunch, study hall, and even after school. Ty’s laugh could have only meant he knew.
“Of course he’d known. It’s not like he just got here,” I chastised myself as I walked along the empty corridor after the bell rang, officially ending lunch period.
The founders of the town supposedly planted it there when they settled, not realizing it was an oak tree and not the cherry tree they had all thought it was. Nonetheless, the tree was massive. I would say at least ten feet wide. The usual couples hid on the side not facing the school, which didn’t matter anyway because there were no doors or windows on that side of the building. The school housed all the middle and high school students. Some would say it was much larger than it needed to be. Apparently, the town leaders had high expectations for the populous.
For the rest of the day, I kept to myself. I made it through the last few classes without incident. Since the teachers had meetings in the afternoon, there would be no afterschool programs or cheerleading practice, which was a good thing since I wasn’t in the mood for it anyway.
I made my way to the corner of the building, making sure not to get too close to the tree. My mind wandered as I waited for Ty. I thought about all the things I didn’t know about him and which ones were important enough to ask about first.
I doubted very much he’d be willing to share a whole lot with me. After all, we were supposed to be on opposing sides, even if he did tell me I could go to him with questions whenever I wanted. That didn’t mean he would be willing to answer them all. I had to play it cool. I had to find a way to ask him about something I knew he’d be more likely to talk about, then I would try to lure him into revealing more than he might want.
As soon as I saw Ty heading my way, I walked away from the school. I didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. He quickly corrected his path, as I had hoped he would, and fell in line beside me. I didn’t have to think too hard about finding a starting point. It seemed he had a few questions of his own. Still, I was surprised when he spoke first.
“Did you ever find your mother?” The question didn’t shock me as much as the sentiment behind it. I wondered if he was trying to break the ice or if he really gave a damn. I went with the latter.
“Why would that interest you?” I said with a tad too much criticism.
“Really, is that how this is going to go? All hostility right from the start?” He stopped me, grabbing my arm, and turned me to face him. “All pretenses aside, we should probably work together. Not that it matters much to you, but I want this thing fixed as much as you do…maybe even more than you.”
There we were, face to face after almost a year. We stood in the middle of the street and he had asked the one question on my mind all day; every day from the moment I stood up to protect him. Were we really enemies? Do we have to be against each other?
I took a chance and reigned in my anger. I couldn’t say I was angry with him for all that had happened. After all, it’s not like he caused the passage to close. “I don’t know. I was kind of hoping we could talk about that too.” I didn’t know if I could trust him.
“I think we should just talk. Maybe we’ll be able to sort things out as we go.” He let go of my arm and raked his fingers through his hair, a movement I’d always associated with a nervous tick. “I haven’t seen any glimpse of the worlds reconnecting. I’m starting to think this is going to be harder than I’d first thought.” He ran his fingers through his hair again and resumed walking. “I asked about your mom because, like you, I have parents. You seem to forget… I’ve been stuck here, in a world I didn’t know. I have had to learn new things every day, and all without either of my parents. So, maybe I know a little bit about how it feels to miss a parent. More specifically, a mother. I lost my mother a really long time ago, so I kind of know how that feels.” He didn’t stop walking or turn to look at me. He kept his gaze locked on the road ahead of us. I hadn’t thought of how he looked the day he regenerated in my house. I hadn’t needed to. Over the course of the last year, he’d changed. He looked more relaxed somehow, until he talked about his mother. He had the same glassy-eyed look as he’d had a year ago, standing there and staring out of the window of my home.
“Oh…” Just then, in my mind, I pictured a small white-haired boy crying out for his mother. Only, his never returned. I let out a breath, closed my eyes for a moment, and spoke with less aggravation in my voice. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. No, we haven’t found her. My father spent almost every waking hour looking for her. Since she hasn’t turned up, or even called, he stopped looking,” I explained to him.
“Really? Why?” His eyes dropped to the ground and up to look
at me.
“He figures his time is better spent on finding a way to reconnect the worlds. He thinks she’s on the other side. Once the worlds are reconnected, we will find her. At least, that’s the idea,” I told him.
“I see.” He put his hands in the front pockets of his pants. He’d slowed down considerably, and we were walking shoulder to shoulder.
“Is it different over there? Do you think she’ll be okay? That I’ll see her again?” I asked.
“She’s better protected there than any of us are in this world,” was all he said.
“I’ve had nightmares every time I’d gone to your world. Going through the tunnel reminded me of a horror movie. It was always so hot and dark that it made me dizzy.” I recalled the feeling as if I were there. There was an overwhelming heat and fog that seemed to coat the surface of the floor, ceiling, and walls. Every time I’d enter that place, my head spun. My palms grew wet with sweat and my mind fell into a haze. It was as if I were having some type of reaction to the place.
He actually smiled when he looked at me. “You really are still learning then? That’s not Pylira. That’s the tra monde, the passage between the two worlds.”
“Wow, I guess there is a lot I haven’t learned yet.” We walked for a while in silence. I had so many questions; so much I still wanted to know. I don’t know why I asked about his mother then, but I blurted it before I had a chance to stop and think. “How long ago did you lose your mother?” I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as soon as the question was asked. “I’m so sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d stepped across an invisible line. Just because he’d been willing to talk about it didn’t mean he wanted to get into it further.
“Let’s just say it was a very long time ago,” he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I lost a few women that I cared for very much.”
I have no idea why, but he took my hand and held it the rest of the way to my house. More than anything, I felt safe next to him. Although, a part of me worried I’d gotten too close. We were supposed to be on opposing sides. We could work together until we outlived each other’s usefulness.
His hand was calloused and sweaty. I could tell he concentrated hard on being gentle. His hand would squeeze mine a bit and relax again. Eventually he stopped, and we just walked.
I looked over at him a few times, but he kept his eyes still and straight ahead. Being in such close proximity, I could see his breathing was steady, and the blond hair he had on his head was also growing above his lip. His eyes were the same crystal blue I remembered. I noticed he smelled richly of aftershave.
As I studied his features, the smallest feeling of electricity buzzed through my hand, then it felt as if it were falling asleep. He let go, almost too quickly, and I let it fall to my side, closing and opening it as I waited for feeling to come back.
When we reached my house, I knew nobody would be home.
“My father should be at work for a few more hours.” I motioned for him to follow me inside.
“What about your brother? Any chance he will be around?” Ty raised an eyebrow. I knew he wasn’t asking because he worried about Xander going after him or anything. He probably didn’t want to deal with my brother’s smart-ass mouth.
“I don't think so. He’s been acting so differently since we stopped looking for mom. He’s not real happy about it.”
“I doubt you’re happy with it either.” That sad look crept back onto his face.
“I don't really know how I feel about it.” That was the truth. I hadn’t considered how I felt. My mother had been gone for a year. She wasn’t there to wake me in the morning for school. She wasn’t home when Xander and I got home each day, with dinner in the oven or fresh pastries scattered across the kitchen. We hadn’t had our mother-daughter shopping trips. She wasn’t even there for my seventeenth birthday. My dad didn’t throw a party, mainly because I asked him not to. Pizza and a movie at home was all I wanted. None of my friends bothered trying to celebrate with me. They knew she was missing, even if they didn’t know where she was or how she ended up there.
“Are you sure about that?” He pushed a little.
I headed to the kitchen to get a drink. “Well, I know I’m angry she was left behind. Other than that, I guess I’m just sad that she’s not here,” I admitted.
“So, I guess you do know how you feel about it,” he said with a smirk.
I shrugged at him. “Would you like something to drink?” It was the end to that conversation, and I couldn’t have been happier. I made a mental note not to ask him about his mother again.
“No, thank you.”
“Okay, so how about you? Who are the people you’re living with?” I questioned.
“The older men are my uncles, and as far as this world is concerned, the other two are my brothers. They were stuck here when the passages closed as well.”
“You mean since the magical power outage?” I laughed at the memory of our conversation on the subject.
“I told you, magic doesn’t simply go away. We are born with it. The passage was created by magic to allow us to go between worlds. So, magic must have been used to remove or close it,” he stated. His eyes narrowed at me, and I winced.
"How could you know that?” I moved closer to where he stood in the living room. Just having him stand in there again, he seemed to fit the entire space. His broad shoulders were always squared, like he’d been raised to be an elitist. He always seemed to have a air about him suggesting he was important, but he’d rather not be.
“I know that because in Pylira, it’s a part of our history.” He waved his US History book at me. “We are taught about these things just as you are taught your history.” He placed the book on my father’s desk.
Moving to the kitchen, I considered what he said. He went to school in the other world, just like here. How boring. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.” I cleaned the dishes left in the sink. I needed to keep my hands busy.
“I have a feeling there’s something that doesn’t.” He gave me a questioning look.
“Well, yes. What would be the purpose for crossing between the worlds? Why did you, or your uncles for that matter?” I placed the clean cups in the cupboard. As I moved about the kitchen, my thoughts came back–all the questions I thought about earlier before we discussed our lost loved ones.
“My uncles are the eldest two of our clan, besides my father. They are very powerful sorcerers. They were sent here with my brothers to find me when word spread that the passage would be closing. Plus, I had been gone longer than usual.” I could sense his hesitation before he started each sentence. He was guarding information.
“When Xander decapitated you, he had you in that box for a while,” I pointed out.
“Yes, he did.” He looked as though he remembered the entire ordeal.
“So, why were you here? What is the purpose of crossing between our worlds for you?” I asked him.
“I was looking for someone who has been lost to me for a very long time.” His eyes looked sad as he spoke. I could tell by the look in his eyes that whoever he looked for meant a great deal to him.
“One of the women you lost?” I pushed.
“Yes.” He didn’t offer any more information, so I decided not to dig any deeper. I didn’t want him to shut down and stop answering my questions. Besides, who he looked for was irrelevant unless she could help reopen the passage.
“So, your father sent the four of them here to find you? Four people who are now stuck here. You must be pretty important.”
“I suppose every parent thinks their children are important…at least to them.” If he caught my condescending tone, he made no indication of it. He stood there and answered my questions. It was as if he couldn’t stop himself.
“Why didn’t he come himself?” I wondered out loud.
“He’s not been himself since my mother…“ He trailed off and I could tell he didn’t want to talk about her either
. “He’s not been himself and is unable to travel, so he sent them.” Another sad look overtook his face. I could have sworn a storm brewed within his eyes. He blinked, and they were again a motionless sea of blue.
“Do you think they can use magic to open the passage?” I asked him, hopeful of the answer. “Your uncles?”
“I don’t know if they can, but they’ve been trying.” I sensed something wrong with him then. As if his answers were causing him to lose a little bit of energy with each one he gave me, but I pressed on.
“If my family has magic, I should be able to use it too. Do you think they can teach me?” I stepped in front of him. He reached out and grabbed both of my shoulders.
“No. Promise me you will never go there.” He shook a little, like he had been hit with a bolt of lightning. Just as quickly, he let me go. Grabbing me didn’t hurt as much as when he let go of me. Like with my hand, my arms felt as if they had fallen asleep. I had to rub them to rid myself of the feeling.
“Why?” I demanded, still rubbing my shoulders.
“Because they still believe you and your family are our enemies! They wouldn’t be okay with us being friends!” he yelled.
“Oh, so we're friends now. How presumptuous of you.” I laughed. We had gone from a civilized conversation to full blown argument in two seconds flat.
“I mean they wouldn’t be okay with us speaking to each other.” He turned from me and went into the living room. As he walked past the array of books on my father’s shelves, he stopped to look at several pictures of me and my brother from when we were little. There were a dozen or so, all taken from the time each of us was born until the year our family had been separated.
“I don’t understand any of this! My mother started teaching me about our family and then disappeared. I’m new to all of this.” Frustration flooded me.
“So, you don’t know about your history." He turned to me. “Your mother should have told you who you are. You’re a threat to my clan; to my father.”