So, if you read The Third One and were left dying to hear more about little baby Daniel, then this is the story for you! If you haven't read The Third One, I suggest you go do that now, seeing as you won't understand who Daniel is and how he ended up living with his aunts and uncles.
Basically, if you haven't read The Third One, you will be saying "WTF!" throughout this whole story. So go back and read if you have not yet!
…..
Great! Now for the actual introduction. Um…I really don't know how to introduce it. If you read The Third One, you kind of already understand Daniel's backstory, and all the other characters are introduced in this chapter. SO! I really want people to review. And review The Third One also, if you just read it.
Speaking of which, please pause for a fun virtual fanfiction party for all my loyal reviewers of The Third One!
*You wait in annoyance while loud music blares and people are dancing and eating cake, unless you reviewed. Then you are there dancing and eating cake too, laughing at all the non-reviewer losers*
I'll stop bugging you now.
The clock radio on my bedside table starts beeping, signaling me to get up for school. I slam my fist down on the snooze button, desperately wanting to NOT go to school. By then I have noticed the sunlight streaming in my window. I groan, sitting up in bed. I'm already awake by now, so I decide I might as well get dressed. A simple t-shirt and jeans. Nothing special. I am pulling on my sneakers when I hear something, a voice of some sort. Hungry, it says.
Hungry in the dark.
I shake my head. Great. Not only was I unstable and disturbed, now I heard voices, too. This was just yet another sign of my issues.
Because it is completely undisputable that I have issues. I finish tying my shoelaces and walk out of my room. The scent of waffles reaches my nose. I step down the stairs slowly and see Aunt Astrid making waffles in the kitchen. She sees me standing there and smiles. She tries to hug me. I let her for a moment, and then I shove her off me. This doesn't faze her at all, since her younger brother was autistic. I say was because he's dead. Aunt Astrid killed him. In a way.
"Happy birthday, Daniel," says Uncle Sam, yawning as he walks into the kitchen. I give a grunt to let him know I acknowledge him and then tear into my waffles. He gives my aunt a kiss and pours himself a cup of coffee. Only now do I remember that today is my birthday, my fifteenth birthday. That is why Aunt Astrid made waffles. As if the voice knows I'm eating, it repeats its phrase louder and more urgently inside my head. Hungry in the dark.
"Oh, shut up," I say back, and Uncle Sam turns to look at me strangely. He does that a lot.
My cousin Kiara walks in. We're about the same age, born just weeks apart, but now she can't gloat any more about being fifteen while I'm still fourteen. Kiara is probably my best and only friend. I don't talk to anyone at school. They steer clear of me.
Uncle Caine and Aunt Diana enter too, and I find myself suddenly overwhelmed by the number of people. I feel like I'll hurt someone if I don't get away from them all. I flee the room without greeting my other aunt and uncle. Aunt Diana probably won't care, but Uncle Caine will feel incredibly offended by my lack of respect.
I'll have to grit my teeth and apologize later. I try to stay on good terms with my uncle. He is the only person I can count on for real information in this house. He was the one to tell me that Uncle Sam and Aunt Astrid weren't really my parents. Uncle Sam was furious after he told me, and I listened at the door while they fought in the living room. I was somewhat confused when I heard crashes and bright lights shone through the crack between the door and the floor. The next morning, both of my uncles were wounded and moody, the room was covered in scorch marks, and all the furniture was tipped over. Things were shattered and broken everywhere. My aunts were furious. They had to repaint the whole room and replace all the broken things. Even the TV was broken in half. I long since stopped thinking about the strange things that happened when we lost our tempers. I figured it was all just part of us, part of our psychotic family.
Our family is big. It includes Uncle Caine, Aunt Diana, and their three children Kiara, Evelyn, and Nick, Uncle Sam, Aunt Astrid, their twin sons Charles and Peter, and me, Daniel. Kiara is the closest in age to me. She looks a lot like Aunt Diana and I know for a fact every boy I know over the age of twelve likes her. Evelyn is ten, a sweet little girl who dreams of being a princess and riding a unicorn. I can't stand her. Except for the unicorn part. That horn could be used to run through your enemies like a lance as you rode into battle. I would have wanted one if they didn't all have to be covered in flowers and happiness. A necklace of bones would look good though…
Nick is a scrawny eight year old I would beat up in a heartbeat if Uncle Caine would let me. He whines and complains and thinks he's tough. I can't stand him either. Charles and Peter are fraternal twins. Peter looks a lot like Aunt Astrid with his white blonde hair and blue eyes, while Charlie is an exact replica of Uncle Sam. They are five and stay away from me, making them my second favorite cousins, right after Kiara. And me? Well, I'm not really much, just a messed up orphan, Daniel Temple.
Of course, that isn't really my last name. Uncle Caine told me that my father's name was Merwin and that my mother didn't have a last name, but her father's name was Smith. So I was allowed to go by either, I guess. I liked the sound of Daniel Merwin, but Uncle Sam and Aunt Astrid didn't want me to say it. I never thought it was anything personal. I have sandy blonde hair and stormy gray eyes that Kiara says always look like I'm angry and want to hurt someone. I'm not always angry, though.
The latter just so happens to be true.
My aunts and uncles and cousins and I all live in this huge house that Uncle Caine's salary pays for mostly. Sam and Astrid pitch in, but working as a firefighter and calculus teacher (respectively) don't provide for feeding, clothing, and housing a family of ten. Caine works as the CEO of some big company. Aunt Diana says he wanted to rule the world when he was my age. I don't strive to rule anything. Being a leader meant I would have to work with other people, and I am beginning to realize it's people I can't bear being around.
I hear the door open and close behind me. I am on the balcony, leaning over the railing. Kiara moves to stand next to me. "Feeling claustrophobic?" She asks, and I nod without looking at her. We have a strange sort of friendship. She knows how messed up I am, and talks about it with me in a completely understanding, non-therapeutic way. Kiara has this weird knack for people. She knows how they think, how to get what she wants from them, how to outsmart them or find what their problem is. She enjoys getting to know as many people as possible. I like the exact opposite.
Kiara knows how I think. I believe the way my mind works scares her slightly. She outsmarts me in everything, no doubt about it. But my problems? There are far, far too many to tell her. Hungry in the dark, the voice murmurs.
Yes, I believe it would terrify anyone to hear all of my problems.
Sadism is probably top of the list. Kiara knows this. I revel in the pain that others go through. I like watching horror movies just for the blood and fear that I can see on the people's faces when they realize the monster is coming for them. It makes me laugh.
Next off are my anger management problems. You don't want to be around me when I'm enraged, not only because of my issues, but also because strange things seem to happen when anyone in our family gets mad. When we were little, I stole one of Kiara's little Barbie dolls and ripped out its limbs. Kiara was furious afterwards, and during our intense kiddie fight, Aunt Diana separated us. Kiara clenched her fists and glared at me, resulting in a migraine that lasted for hours on end. I felt like a knife was driving is way into my skull. It was nice for the sadistic part of me at first, but after a while it became annoying and unbearable. When I went to her to apologize, my head pain disappeared.
Gone.
Another problem of mine is ADHD. I can't sit still for too long without wanting to hurt someone. I'm also claustrophobic. If there are too many people in a room all talking and taking up space, I can't deal with it. I start to want to—you guessed it—hurt someone. And on my fifteenth birthday, I start hearing voices. It a real great birthday present. That was sarcasm. If you count excessive use of sarcasm as a problem, you can at that to my heap of troubles. The list of my issues goes on, but I think you get the picture. I'm just a bad egg. Aunt Astrid is nice to my face, but I think she's somewhat afraid of me. She often looks at my arms and then exhales in relief, like she's worried I'll grow another one. Uncle Sam doesn't trust me at all. He doesn't even act like he likes me, which is better than Aunt Astrid's treatment of me in some ways.
Kiara is still standing there silently. She is used to it. I get lost in thought a lot. She says it's because my brain is such unfamiliar territory. Then I glare at her and she shuts up. Now she speaks. "Uncle Caine wants to talk to you. Some birthday present or something." I nod and turn away from the balcony. I walk back inside and pause in the doorway to the kitchen. I hear hushed voices of my aunts and uncles.
"Caine, you can't tell him. I don't see why you want him to see this. I don't even know why the hell you preserved in the first place. It's a little disturbing. As his legal guardian, I'm not going to allow you to-" That is Uncle Sam. He sounds angry.
"Sam, he needs to know. We can't hide this from him forever! He needs to understand what happened to us. If he sees what happened, he'll want to do the opposite to stay alive." That's Caine. Next comes Astrid's voice.
"And what if he wants to follow in his father's footsteps? Besides, he shouldn't miss school. And I for one, want to hear Diana's point of view on this." All was quiet. After a few seconds, Aunt Diana speaks.
"Well," she begins, "I don't know how important school is in a scenario like this," That gets an indignant noise from Astrid. "I think he will have to find out someday, so it's better now than reading about it from a secondary source in a few years. But I'm just worried about one thing, Caine. Is it controlling you again?"
I have no idea what it is, but as if in response, the voice inside me speaks up. Hungry in the dark. I hear something crash, and Uncle Sam yells, "Dammit, Caine! When are you going to learn to stop chucking stuff around when you get annoyed!"
"Nothing is controlling me," Caine says angrily. "No one tells Caine Soren what to do!" Aunt Diana's next words sound like she's crying.
"That was what you said the last time, remember? And look what happened!" Sam grunts in agreement. What had Caine done that they were remembering? What is going on? "Caine, please," pleads Diana. "I just…what if you get there and it's a trap? I don't want you to die just to show him some dead body you've been paying to refrigerate."
Aunt Astrid speaks up. "Caine. Whenever I touch him, I get this feeling. You know how I see people's destiny as a comet? Daniel's is bright. Brighter than Sam's, even. Daniel is important somehow. What if it still is alive, what then?" Caine is silent for a second.
Hungry in the dark, says the voice.
Yes, whatever it is, I think it is very much alive.
