It was an early spring morning in Florida and despite the time. The sun was already up and shinning in the cloudless sky, sparkling brightly on the restless water. Most people were still asleep in their beds, except the early morning surfers and Henri. Walking on the beach wasn't something he normally found himself doing but when his dependent didn't arrive home during the night.
Henri walked alongside the beach until he came across a young man's body. He stopped and looked down at him, his face straight though you could tell through his eyes he was thinking. He watched patiently for the boy's eyes to open and as he knew they would, they fluttered open but he remained on the ground staring outwards.
"Get up," he said leaning down towards him and grabbing his upper arm, helping him. He got up stiffly and started brushing the sand from his tan skin.
He looked up at Henri and sighed, "Number three is dead," he said quietly.
Henri nodded his head looking down at the ground briefly as if they thought brought him pain, "I know, Trisha came home this morning and told me," he looked back at him, "That's why I came to get you," he took a step away. "We're leaving."
Daniel looked down and shook his head, he knew he couldn't argue with him and he didn't want to. They could only kill the chosen nine in order and he was next, Number Four.
Walking up the white sandy beach back to the small house with the crooked palm tree, Daniel saw Trisha lugging the last of her belongings into the Jeep. He could already tell she wasn't happy, whenever she wasn't in a good mood she would always listen to angry music loudly so she wouldn't have to hear anyone, and he could hear it from where he was, thirty feet away. There was already a fire going of anything they had that could be tracked or recognized in the front of the house.
Daniel walked inside and saw most of his things were already in bags. He scoffed; they were working fast this time. He grabbed his bags and stood easily with the weight. The only thing that remained in his room was the pictures of him and his friends from Florida and his high school diploma. He pulled them down one by one remembering the story behind every photo. He could hear the horn of the Jeep honk and he quickly removed the rest of the papers down and rushed out of the house.
Henri stopped him as soon as he reached the last step and took what was in his hand, "What is this?" He asked looking down at the photo, he immediately looked displeased.
Daniel shrugged, "I just want to bring them with me," he said gripping the strap of his duffel bag.
"You don't need this shit, it will just slow you down," he said tossing it in the fire, "Let's go." He said walking over to the Jeep where Trisha had already claimed her seat in the back.
Daniel looked into the fire as the pictures color bubbled and the paper crinkled and blackened. He turned away from the fire pit, tossed his bags in the back of the Jeep, and jumped in the front seat never looking back.
Henri had informed the two that they would be moving to Paradise, Ohio because he had business he had to attend. What business? They weren't sure; he was always so vague which was always so annoying. Ever since either of them could remember all they were doing was running and hiding, even when they didn't understand why. Hell, they still didn't fully understand but it was all they knew.
It was raining in Ohio, how unpleasant.
By the looks of it, Paradise was a small town. It was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone, so it would be annoyingly obvious that Trisha and Daniel didn't belong, which would only make things hard. How were they supposed to blend in when just existing would be impossible to hide?
Trisha looked out the window and all she could see was tall grass, trees, and a dirt path that strayed away from the road and curved up to a house. She was about to avert her attention back to her iPod but they were driving up the path, she sighed, seemed like this would be their new house. Henri stopped and got out of the car removing some sign and tossing it far into the tall grass. She scoffed, that definitely confirmed her assumption.
Pulling up close to the house he parked under a large tree and stopped the car, pulling the keys from the ignition. Her music was up so loud that she couldn't hear what he was saying, just see his lips moving. She shrugged, if it was important he would turn to her and give her, 'The Henri Look' but he didn't. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the car her gray canvas shoes hitting the muddy dirt. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she shoved her iPod in her destroyed skinny jeans pocket and flipped the hood up on her purple hoodie. She moved to the back and opened it quickly, reaching in and pulling her stuff out and walking over to the front door.
Henri and Daniel were quick to join her on the front porch with all of their belongings. Henri looked through his ring of keys until he found the universal one; he slipped in the key hole and unlocked the door, pushing it open.
They followed him inside checking out the house, it wasn't bad looking. It was two stories and as soon as you walked in there was a hall that led straight into the kitchen which looped around connecting to a dining room, and then to a study which led back to the front door. A few feet in front of the door there were a set of stairs that led up to two bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft. There were also a set of stairs in the dining room, in the corner of the room that led straight to the loft.
"Go pick a room and come back down to get the rest of the stuff out of the Jeep," Henri said going to the study and setting a few cases down. Daniel veered off towards the second set of stairs and Trisha went up the main stairs. Between the two rooms Trisha found she took the smaller one closer to the loft so Henri could have the big room. She tossed her stuff on the white bed in the center of the room and she couldn't help but grin, it was fully furnished, how lucky were they?
Turning out of her room she quickly made her way downstairs feeling a quick change in her mood. Maybe it was the song she was listening to? Speaking of which, she reached up and pulled a head phone out of her ear so she could hear now. Henri was entering the house again with two more cases when she jumped from the last step and flung herself at him. The warrior in Henri reacted quickly and he dropped the cases and caught her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, to slow her momentum they spun around once and he placed her on the ground.
"What the hell," he looked at her wide-eyed, "You scared me half to death," he said looking down at her as she smiled. He was custom to her mood swings and that was only because he had known her mother before she passed and she was exactly the same way.
"Love you, Henri," she said as she ran out of the house towards the Jeep.
Henri turned back and looked at her strangely, he could sense Daniel approaching him but he didn't turn.
Daniel glanced at him then to Trisha, then back at him with a smile, "She back to normal?"
Henri laughed and picked the cases up, "As normal as she is," he said walking into the study.
Daniel made his way to the Jeep as Trisha was struggling to hold three cases and close the trunk. He laughed and reached up shutting it for her, "You always try to do too much," he said grabbing two of her three cases and walking back to the house.
She followed close behind him, "I didn't want to have to make a second trip," she laughed, "I'm not over achieving, I'm trying to be lazy," she corrected.
"Well you're bad at it," he held the door open for her and she entered letting him walk into the study first as she turned to shut and lock the door. Walking into the room, Henri had already set up his computers and had them running.
"I just need knew pictures of you both for your new I.D.'s and to erase anything that could possibly be on the internet," he said holding up his camera. He aimed it at Daniel first, "Say Paradise," he said a bit cheesy.
Daniel rolled his eyes and just kept a straight face as he took the photo and then one of Trisha who was grinning. The computer made a digital image of both of their faces and then the screen began to flicker as it went through all the websites. Only stopping on one, it was a picture of Daniel with a girl on the beach in Florida. Trisha looked over to him knowing he was about to get told off.
Henri sighed as he deleted the picture and stood up to look at Daniel, "This is why I say no pictures, you don't know who is going to see this," he said clearly disappointed.
Before Daniel could say anything there was a sudden scratching on the door that made the hairs on the back of all their necks stand. Daniel quickly shut off the lights and had his back against the wall as Henri reached into his duffel and pulled out a long dagger that had a brilliantly blue shining light at the end. Daniel seeing Trisha still standing frozen grabbed her and pulled her beside him, she shook her head to regain her composure and looked up at Daniel silently thanking him.
They peered around the corner watching Henri open the front door slowly, dagger gripped tightly in his hand. He pushed it open all the way and looked around closely but nothing was there. He relaxed his hand and Daniel and Trisha came from behind the wall and peaked outside as well, stepping out onto the porch.
"Nothing is there," Henri said, though still tense with adrenaline. "Come back inside."
Daniel walked down the steps towards a bush ignoring Henri's commands for him to come back. He knelt down seeing a small Beagle shivering and soaked; he looked at the dog with sympathy and picked him up with ease. He turned back to the house and walked up the stairs, "A little small to be a Mogadorian, don't you think?" He said walking inside with it.
Henri scoffed and shut the door.
