Kandice sat in the armchair furthest from her aunt—her chest tightened—knowing this would be another lecture on how she didn't live up to her aunt's expectations. It was a pipe dream to hope her aunt would leave her be.
"Kandice, I know things are tough for you, but you can't keep living your life this way."
Kandice fought the urge to roll her eyes, but couldn't stop a sigh.
Jackie continued, "You know I love you, but I can't let you keep running around at night. Your mother would want you to focus on your schooling, not out partying until god knows what hour of the morning. I have to work, so I can't watch you at night-"
"Aunt Jackie, it's okay. I knew this wouldn't last forever. I'm an adult, and can make my own choices."
"Yes, you can. But lord knows you're making the wrong ones," Jackie leaned closer toward Kandice. "I'm responsible for you and Blake."
"No, you're not," Kandice nearly yelled. "I'm an adult, and my choices are my own. If you want me out that's fine. I can use the money you've been taking as rent to find a new place."
"I spoke to Pastor Gerlock. He told me to pray to Jesus for guidance, and I would find the strength to help you through this. I was wrong to threaten to kick you out. Your mother must be furious with me for that letter."
Kandice took a deep breath, "I'll live my life the way I see fit. You, Jesus, and Doctor Gerlock can keep your judgment to yourselves. I've already spoken with an apartment finder. I'll be out of here by the end of next month."
A lie, but one Kandice felt confident she could follow through on.
"You will not! Your mother expected me to look after you, and she would want you to stay here and focus on school."
"You just don't want to lose the money you get from my trust fund." Kandice got up from the chair and walked to the stairs.
"You come back here young lady! We're not done discussing this."
"You can keep talking, but I'm going to bed. I have things to do tonight, and they don't include listening to you tell me how my ways are evil and I'm going to hell if I don't change them."
"I didn't say that."
"We both know how this conversation will end, and I've had enough lecturing for a lifetime. Good night."
Kandice slammed the bedroom door shut, tears welling up.
She can't control me like this.
Kandice's parents never tried to control her—they offered guidance and wisdom from their own experiences—but they always trusted her and Blake to make their own mistakes. They treated her with respect and trusted her to make good decisions. Jackie treated her like a five-year-old.
Her aunt's voice carried from downstairs, "I'm very disappointed in you, young lady! You're dishonoring the memory of your mother."
Kandice let out a sigh of relief that her aunt always respected the privacy of her room. Her mom often spoke of how her and Jackie's mother would hover over them and never gave them privacy. She would sneak into their room to read their diaries, and listen in on the other line to their phone calls. Kandice often wondered how her aunt and mother turned out so different, but the respect of her privacy was a constant reminder that Jackie was her mother's sister. Even Jackie refused to be like Kandice's grandmother.
Small blessings.
Tears overpowered her. The pillow absorbed her screams, only a hug from her mother could cure this pain. When Kandice first moved in with her aunt there was hope it would be like getting a small piece of her mother back, but since day one her aunt tried to change Kandice into a "proper young lady".
Jackie believed everyone in the world would go to hell, unless they took Jesus as their personal savior and attended church on Sundays. In the beginning, she required Kandice to go to church. But Jackie's pastor—Doctor Gerlock—told her it was against the Christian way to force someone to attend church. His philosophy was to use love, and he believed it would break down walls and convince people to come.
Kandice spoke with Dr. Gerlock on a few occasions about dealing with the loss of her parents. He never tried to force her into the church—they held a mutual respect for each other. He would never discuss what they spoke about with Jackie, which allowed Kandice to feel safe confiding in him.
Life was exhausting, and once classes started Kandice's schedule would need an overhaul. Moving out would relieve more stress than it would create, so that was one reason to follow through with it. Hunting, Taekwondo training, finding Lance, course work, and the everyday responsibilities, it was more than Kandice could handle. Or so she thought. She'd always managed to balance everything life threw at her, but this might be the point where it all fell apart. Training could go, but she'd miss the sparring.
Visions of Cesar's face the last time they spared flash into Kandice's mind and she let out a long laugh into her pillow. Afterwards her whole body felt loose, as if she hadn't just spent the last five-minute bawling her eyes out into her pillow.
If it comes down to it, I'll drop college in an instant.
Nothing was more important than hunting Aether Walkers, which meant finding Lance was priority number one. Not that she'd made progress!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Friday, August 26th
STREET LIGHTS ZOOMED PAST as car exited the highway. Kandice sat in the front passenger seat next to her mother, behind whom Blake sat—he looked so much younger without a beard. The familiar slate cloth and navy dashboard knotted Kandice's stomach.
They slowed down for the turn into their neighborhood, and the knot spread throughout her entire torso.
Questions, so many questions. But asking would ruin the pristine family moment.
Just hold onto this moment.
The trees in their neighborhood grew so thick that most of the city light was hidden by branches, casting long shadows across the road that danced as the tree branches swayed in the wind. Parts of the road grew so dark that it was pitch black without the headlights. Houses sat far back from the street, and many choose to turn their front porch lights off—not that the lights illuminated much outside their immediate front yards.
A deer darted in front of the car. Her mother pulled the car to the right and fishtailed out of control. Tires screeched as her mother tried to stop the car, but it wasn't enough. The car slid straight into the guardrail of the bridge.
The interior dome lights came on.
Kandice screamed—she'd been so young and naive.
A monster that looked like a walking Cthulhu emerged from beneath the small bridge. The only thing missing were wings, but it had claws and tentacles for a mouth.
"Mom! Mom, wake up! You have to wake up!"
"What?" her mom raised her head off the deflated airbag, a small cut visible above her eyebrow.
"Mom, wake up!" Kandice repeated. "Move the car! Please, you have to move the car, now! Look!"
Kandice pointed to the monster walking around the front of the car, towards the window, "Mom, please move!"
Too late.
The creature shoved its claw through the window—shattering the glass across the inside of the car—and tentacles wrapped around her mom's neck. Long black claws extended from a tentacle and ripped into her mom.
Her mom gasped, "I love y-"
With another slash of the monster's claws, blood splattered the ceiling. Kandice looked back at her brother—he was shaking all over, his face had lost all color.
The monster stalked around the hood of the car to Kandice's side and shattered her passenger window, but as the tentacle came in another car's headlights turned the corner ahead. The monster ran down the street with a speed that defied logical explanations. He seemed to pop from one spot to the next as if Kandice was watching a flip-book.
Suddenly Kandice was sitting in the back of an ambulance next to her mother's body, while a man kept asking what happened. Blake didn't move staring straight ahead—his color was still gone, and one of his eyes was red around the iris where it should have been white.
Blood dripped onto the floor of the ambulance in sync
with the seconds passing.
Kandice realized her mom was dead.
"Did you see anything come through the window?" the man asked. "There isn't anything inside the car."
"I don't fucking know!" Kandice screamed.
Blake mumbled.
The man used a flashlight to examine Blake's eyes, and he didn't move as the man checked his wrist.
"Your heart rate is low," the man said. "I think you're in shock. I'll have the doctors look at you. We're almost to the hospital."
Kandice looked at her brother, and his eyes glazed over.
Later they would come to know that Blake had experienced a dissociative experience, as the doctors like to call it. In short, he checked out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Friday, August 26th
KANDICE WOKE UP HALFWAY OUT OF BED, with her arms stretched out. The knot in her chest had returned and her whole body felt twice as heavy, like it was breaking under its own weight. Cold sweat made her clothes cling to her. She realized she'd been reliving the night her mom died in her sleep again.
The blood was clear in her mind. Tentacles of the Aether Walker shimmering in the headlights and her brother's glazed eyes, haunted her as if it had just happened moments before. Every time she dreamed of that night the soul crushing fear lingered afterward.
Can Blake see them?
Rather than lay there drenched in fear and anxiety, Kandice pushed herself up and out of bed. It was already past midnight. A light glowed at the base of her door, no doubt coming from her brother's room. Her bed was damp with sweat, and the cool air of the fan sent chills through her body. She quickly dressed to leave.
She opened her door and looked across the hall. Blake was at his desk with his headset on. At his doorway she stopped and waved.
He pulled his headset off, "Hey. I thought you were asleep. Aunt Jackie said you two had a fight?"
"Yeah." Kandice leaned against the doorframe. "It's okay, though. I'm just going to get my own place."
Blake put aside his mouse and stopped playing his game. "What? Can you do that? I thought she was our guardian until we were twenty-four."
"That's just how long she can claim us on her taxes." Kandice waved away the thought, "Do you remember the night mom died? I dreamt about it again, I had a question."
Blake's face flushed. "Yes, but can we not talk about it? My therapist says it's okay not to talk about it outside of our meetings until I'm ready."
"Yeah. Sorry, nevermind."
She turned to leave, then turned back. "Blake, I love you."
"I love you too, sis. Are you going out again tonight?"
"Yes."
"When are you going to introduce me to the guy?"
"I don't meet a guy." She smiled—her main reason for hunting had become to find Lance again rather than revenge. "I'll tell you about what I do later, but not tonight."
How can I ever explain? I've let mom down.
She left the house with thoughts of Lance and her mother filling her head. The emotional overload conflicted her—no matter how she tried to work through it, she kept drawing a blank as to what the right course of action was. She needed answers.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Friday, August 26th
KANDICE PUSHED HER MOPED TO THE LIMIT. The wind in her hair, and the bite of cold on her cheeks helped her forget about her aunt. She hadn't found Lance yet, but if he remained in town, he would be out hunting on a Friday night. The weekends brought out the crowds and the Aether Walkers.
It was just past one in the morning, peak hour for the bars on 6th street. Every Friday night, thousands of people packed into a few blocks worth of bars. Everybody trying to show how drunk they could get. Being surrounded by so many people made Kandice's skin itch. The crowded streets forced the police department to keep twenty officers patrolling the strip—to help break up fights. Even with all the cops, Aether Walkers found it easy to feed off people. 6th street became an all you can eat buffet.
Serves them right.
The appeal of getting drunk every weekend boggled her mind. Her father had done a great job disillusioning her of the notion that alcohol was a great way to have fun.
Kandice started down the side of the highway where the street wasn't blocked off. The traffic was always so congested that her slow-roll didn't stand out. It was easy to blend in when everyone else was looking for a bar at the same pace.
Halfway down the strip a woman exited a bar with a red-scaled reptilian. The woman and the reptilian were about the same height. Kandice checked him out on her phone, taking a photo to catalog it.
Did Aether Walkers find it as hard to tell humans apart as it is to tell them apart?
Her camera showed a man in his late twenties wearing a band t-shirt—his tongue lapped at the air next to the woman's cheek.
Kandice parked her moped on the opposite side of the street from them and waited. The woman was staggering drunk. After almost falling, she took her heels off. As her hand rested on the reptilian's shoulder, he ran his claw through her hair and licked it.
A shiver ran down Kandice's spine and she became determined to follow. She slow-rolled down the street following as they entered a parking lot. Once inside, there were no spaces available for her to park. This made it convenient for her to pretend to be looking while keeping an eye on the reptilian. He helped the woman into the passenger side of a pristine BMW before getting into the driver's seat.
With the packed parking lot, there were too many witnesses for Kandice to stop him here. There was no way to explain an attack on what looked to be a normal man to the public.
The blue BMW pulled out of the parking lot, with Kandice close behind. A busy street greeted them making it easy for her to keep her distance. Her moped could hide behind almost any size vehicle. He turned to head back to the highway with a car between them.
If the car got on the highway, there would be little chance of following. It sped up onto the access ramp, with Kandice close behind, but losing ground.
Fuck, I need to invest in a car. I'm tired of losing people on the highway.
Surprisingly, the car exited only a couple miles north. Kandice didn't slow down at the exit to close the gap between them. It was just enough to see the car turn right.
After the right turn, the speed limit dropped in half, but Kandice kept the moped maxed out. Ahead of her the car drove through the signal and blinkered a right turn again. Explaining her excessive speed to a cop would be laughable, 'Sorry Officer, I'm trying to catch this reptilian man that kidnapped a woman.'
When Kandice made the right turn, the BMW turned into an apartment complex ahead.
Thank goodness, for a short chase.
It was a nicer complex than most, and that was saying something for Austin. They stopped at the first building inside the entrance, and the reptilian got out of the car to open the door for the woman. Kandice slowed her approach on the complex, and couldn't believe her eyes. The reptilian walked the woman to the lobby entrance, gave her a hug and kiss, and then walked back to the car as the woman walked through the lobby doors.
Kandice sped away before the car left the parking lot.
Did that just happen?
That reptilian cared about her, but that was impossible. Aether Walkers only used humans as food—nothing more. There was no use staying out to hunt for Lance, her mind needed to rest. Her mental autopilot took over and drove her home.
Sneaking in was easy due to her mind being elsewhere. Her subconscious moved her through the house quieter than if she'd been of sound mind. She made it to her room without stopping in to say hi to her brother. Once in bed her thoughts refused to slow down long enough to work through the information.
The scene in front of the apartment kept playing over and over in her mind.
Why had the reptilian done that?
Aether Walkers fed off people, not treated them like damsels in distress.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Monday, August 29th
KANDICE'S ALARM WENT OFF, and she hit the snooze button so hard the alarm fell to the ground. At 6:40 AM—when it sounded for the second time—she tried to hit snooze, but had to get out of bed to reach the alarm.
Fuck me, I don't want to start this day.
School was the last thing in the world she wanted to be doing with her time, but it would be easier to handle than her aunt—for a semester, at least. Once she moved out there would be no need for the charade.
She turned the alarm off and began dressing. The school insisted on freshman courses being early in the morning. Her first class started at 7:15 AM.
Kandice pulled into the school parking lot later than she'd have liked. She felt assured she wouldn't be the only one late for US history 1302. When she walked into the lecture hall, a chill ran through her. She'd never sat in a room with so many people her own age—her chest tightened. Over one-hundred students filled the hall, and Dr. Lloyd stood at the front writing on the projector. It was shocking to discover the professor looked to be around the same age as the students—twenty-five at most.
The class dragged on as Dr. Lloyd explained how to contact her and their fellow group members. She recommended—or more precisely, required—that each group meet that week because on Friday they would need to turn in their first group paper, covering the first three chapters of the textbook.
Kandice sighed, fuck group work.
Kandice left school at 11:00 AM. In her 1301 English, and 1311 Math courses the professors droned on and on about the same topics Dr. Lloyd covered. Information that could have been emailed to her and saved her wasted morning.
By time Kandice drove her moped out of the school parking lot, her head ached from the bureaucracy. She still needed to train, and then she had two more classes later in the afternoon. She would have to stay until 8:30 PM because the 3312 Mesopotamian class only met once a week—to her relief. This left the rest of her evenings clear and Tuesdays and Thursdays off to focus on schoolwork.
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