(Present Time New York, New York)
The strange figure walked toward slowly. He knew this figure well. She stopped close to him and smiled her beautiful smile that he loved to see from her so much. At that moment he had to reach out and touch her, this had to be real. He had to hold her, hug her, tell her he loved her. Just a little farther and his hand would be touching hers. He didnt even touch her fingertips before she fell back off balance, she fell so quick that there was no possible way for him to catch her from falling. Falling off a cliff? Where did that come from? Just a moment ago they were in white smoke, now they were on a cliff side. Not just any cliff side but the one that was "their spot." She screamed and it was at that time that he then awoke in panic. It was just a dream.
"Damit!" He got out of his mouth as he shook the memory from his thoughts. He had had that dream for the last month and he couldn't get rid of it. At that moment he didn't want to get rid of it. Other then a small picture lying under his clothes in the drawer, the dream was all he had left. She had been gone for two years. He didn't know where and he had no way of knowing where she had gone. As of right now she was a ghost in his dreams. Dreams he loved to have of his dear little sister.
The gym was crowded with people. Usual routine for him to walk into. But he was only looking for one person.
"Yo Mac!" He yelled going into the back office that lied to the very rear of the boxing gym.
"Hey Richie, how you doing this morning?" Duncan MacCloud answered back to his best friend and student.
"Tired," Richie Ryan responded back.
"Couldn't sleep again, eh?" He looked at him.
"Yeah well, I'll be okay," he lied. But he wouln't due to the fact of a piece of him had been missing for so long. Duncan had no idea about it, and he never would as far as Richie was concerned. The thought was killing him to go out and look for her. He really didn't know how much more he could take it.
CHAPTER 2
(Pennsylvania)
"Brek!" She heard a voice call out at her from down the hall.
"Michael," she smiled looking at the handsome figure walking towards her. She quickly grabbed her sore cheek that was bruised remembering what a horrible night she had had the night before.
"I see you and him had some fun boxing last night?" He wasn't stupid he knew the truth but Brek had always tried to hide it by saying they were practicing boxing techniques. Only her foster father, Cameron Merandez, knew of only practicing pain towards the poor child instead of techniques and skills.
"Yeah he got me with the hook, I didn't block the way I was suppose to. You know how it goes." She smiled knowing she hated talking about it and knowing she wouldn't have to put up with it for much longer.
"Did you want me to get you some ice for that before you go home?" Michael was a teacher there at the high school, he was much more then that secretly and only Brek knew what that was, it had to do with her foster father. He was something that no one could believe or explain. Brek knew of it and was thankful that she had Michael there to help her through it all.
"NO, its ok Michael I'm fine." She jerked away like she was going to get hit. "So tonight?"
There was a plan for tonight. After tonight she should be free. Free from Cameron and somewhere safe. Hopefully if she was right she was going to get to see a long time missed friend. One she hadn't seen for two years. She only hoped to God Michael's speculations were right on where he lived.
"Yeah, I'll meet you here tonight in the front at 10:30. You sure you're going to get by him alright??" He was worried for his young friend.
Brek nodded her head. "Yeah I should be okay."
"Until tonight then." Michael grabbed her hand and kissed it gently as if she were a princess he must bow to. He gave her his debonair smile and then left.
Brek just smiled, nodded and then walked away. He was too old for her, too handsome, but just right to be her only friend to have and get her out of the mess she had gotten in to. He had already gone beyond his rules. To get away from her foster father was going to be hard and Michael was the exact person Brek needed to help her away and safe in her brother's arms, which she missed too much for words.
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The night was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. It was 10pm. Brek was getting ready. She had to meet Michael in front of the school in a half an hour exactly. The train station was right near the school and her train was to leave an hour after her arrival of meeting Michael.
Her window was now open for her to climb out of. The sounds of crickets and the soft autumn breeze were the only things soothing about it. They calmed her nerves only a slight bit. She had never been so scared in her life. She was running away from a mad man. A mad man who had no identity. Not even was he a man but something totally out of the ordinary. Something that Brek discovered a short while before her plan to escape. That is why she had to leave this place. Get away before it was too late. To think Michael knew about it the whole time, and Brek came upon it accidently. It was impossible to know about it and yet she found Cameron's secret.
Funny because Cameron had been so nice to her. He took her in after she refused to stay at any other foster homes. She had been tossed around to 8 since birth and she had had enough. Cameron was different. He offered a great place to live. Basically a place where she could go in and out as she pleased. The only rule was that you couldn't butt into anything questionable about him. If he went out at 3am you didn't bother him, if you found him doing something peculiar you didn't ask.
Brek thought she had entered heaven until one day she found him hitting on a woman friend of his. One she didn't know and had never seen. But he knew her and he was angry at her. She looked in his room and found him strattled over the top of her beating the shit out of the woman, a woman he called Madeline. Hitting was one thing she didn't like seeing or having it done to her. She had been abused at a couple of her foster homes and could not stand it. Brek didn't even realize something would come out of her mouth at that point.
"Bastard," she yelled in an unfamiliar voice. What gave the courage to yell that day, she would never know.
"What?" Cameron stopped beating Madeline and looked over to her direction. He had never given such an evil look. It was a look that would put fear into any mind. Not even when he taught her how to box did he give her such a look, and the boxing led to many of bruises.
"I-I-I'm sorry Cameron. I didn't mean to--," Her stutter was cut off by him jumping up from the bed and running over to her and grabbing her by her shirt.
"No Cam, not her, she's just a child leave her alone!" The woman named Madeline got out of the bed and tried to calm him down with her voice. She had a tear stained face and her voice was at a shutter from being hit.
"Stay out of this bitch, you know the girl had no right to use such a temper towards me, towards her father." His voice had deepened into an angry roar.
"You're not my father!" Brek yelled again. What made her keep opening her mouth like that? Whatever it was she was sorry she did it in the end.
Cameron threw the tiny little girl on the end of the bed. Brek felt a hard blow to the face and then another one to her ribs. She cried out in pain, but her cries were what ailed Cameron to hit harder.
"You have a big mouth, but when it comes to facing up to it you can't cut it." He yelled at her as he grabbed her by her shirt and started beating her head against the mattress of the bed.
"Cameron please! You're going to kill her, she's human!" Madeline begged him again to let the girl go.
The next instant was a blur for Brek. Cameron was still beating her in the face and in the ribs. She was for sure every bone in her body had been broken. She had stopped crying and yelling out in pain and just took. His hands felt like dumbells were hitting her. Much stronger then any hand that had ever been laid on her. After it seemed as if she were not going to make it through it, that she could take no more of the jolts of pain on her body a shot sounded out. It was a gun shot. What the hell? Cameron looked at her and then slid off and down on the ground. Another shot rang out. This time she saw the gun holder was Madeline. Cameron had been shot in the back and in the chest. Blood was everywhere.
Brek carefully sat up. Her body felt broken, all of it. She looked at Madeline. "This is a dream right? You did not just murder a man did you?" Brek tried to laugh it off but couldn't knowing somehow that this wasn't a dream. This was real. And there would be real consequences.
"Go, go now before he wakes up!" Madeline shewed her off.
"Wakes up? The man is dead! You shot him in the back and in the chest. He is gone, there is no way he is alive. No way!" She started smiling again. Brek didn't know what she was talking about. The man was dead. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.
Madeline just shook her head, as if the child had done something wrong. "Just get out of here, ok? Go!" Her voice was angry and she pointed toward the door.
"Where am I suppose to go? I have no where to go! I need to be here when the police get here. We need to call an ambulance or something let them know what has happened. Madeline the man is dead!" Brek raised her voice.
"You mean you have lived with him and he hasn't told you what he is? Nothing at all about how odd he is or what is so different about him. Why he is so strong and wise and knows almost anything about what you ask him. Why he doesn't work but has a lot of money. You really are an uncurious person aren't you?" She looked at Brek as if she were the only person in the world who didn't know anything about how weird the guy was.
"I have learned not to ask questions. I have been an orphan all my life. You know not to speak unless spoken to, or to ask anything about personal lives of the person taking care of you. You are taught that it is rude to do so." Brek answered her.
"Well, you just wait around kiddo, you'll learn something. I'm leaving now, see ya. Oh yeah and you're welcome for me saving your life." She walked out the door.
Brek didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. She laid back down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. Her heart was still racing. It was quite a scare seeing what had just happened. She had seen a lot being an orphan and on the streets but never someone being shot. What should she do? Call the police? Call Michael? She was still sore and her nose was bleeding. She got up carefully from the bed and went into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror she saw and ugly bruised face staring back. Her eye was already beginning to swell shut and her nose and lower lip were both busted and bleeding. Brek grabbed a was wrag and ran cold water on it. She then dabbed gently on her wounds, squincing in pain as she touched each part of the lasceration.
"AAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She heard from the bedroom. What was that? Oh my God, certainly not. No it can't be. There is no possible fucking way. She heard the scream one more time before running into the bedroom. What she found was a straggling Cameron getting up from the floor. She looked at his chest, nothing but a ripped hole with a blood stain. No wound at all in site! Brek looked at him with disbelief.
"Damnit and that was a new rug too." Is all he said when he was finally able to stand. He then noticed the child standing outside the bathroom staring at him in wanderment. "Brek, my dear sweet little girl. Come here." His voice had gone back to itself. His handsome face had returned as he gave his perfect smile. Cameron only looked to be in his mid-thirties. His sparkling blue eyes were now bright as ever instead of the gray haze they were when he was angry.
Brek shook her head in a negative motion as she backed herself up against the wall. What was this night of the living dead? How in the hell did this happen? Was this a dream to scare the shit out of her or could it possibly, remotely be real at all? It can't be, her brain told her. No mortal in their right mind would ever be able to survive through two bullet wounds in the mid back and upper quadrant of the chest. Atleast not without medical care.
"Come here now!" He raised his voice. This time Brek walked toward him at his command like he had hypnotized her. "I'm not even going to get into what is going on, but I am going to tell you that whatever you saw was a figment of your imagination, you hear? You didn't see me get shot. I didn't touch you. A week home from school due to the flu will make those bruises go away and nothing went wrong. And I'm warning you, if you do tell a soul consider your own self dead. I can cover your death up so quickly no one will ever know you're gone. You will be vapor. Got all that princess?" He grabbed her face on both sides so she would look at him in the eyes. She nodded obediently. After she was let go she ran out of the room and out of the house. She had to get out of there. No way was she going to keep to herself about this. This was abnormal. No telling what the man was capable of. She just knew no matter what that she had to get the hell away from him at the moment and to see Michael.
"I mean he just got up Michael. He wasn't dead at all. If you think I'm lying then go ahead. But what I'm telling you is the truth." She had blabbed the whole story to him. From the very beginning when she had met Michael he told her that no matter what she could trust him in whatever she had to say about Cameron. Anything at all. He said he knew Cameron, had known him for a long time and that if he showed his face ever to him he would be in grave danger. Never had he said why or how he did all this, but it was just so.
Michael took a deep breath after listening to Brek's words. Shit! Was the only word that came to his mind.
"So how do you kill him. I want to know because I want him dead. He is evil I just know it. The look he gave me was something that said evil. Almost like Satan himself." Brek continued.
"You can't kill him." Michael said quietly.
"What? Why? He needs to be stopped, whatever he is. You know I can do it. I'll be like Buffy the Vampire slayer and you can be the cool librarian guy, you know." She was trying to lighten it up but knew that her point was serious.
"Brek, you can't. This is something much more then a little old vampire. There is power in these kinds of people. These people know everything there is to know. They can tell you where they were in the year 1600 if they want and have lived that long."
"So they are vampires or something to that affect?" God, could this be true. Could she one night be sleeping and Cameron come in and suck her blood?
"No, they eat, they drink, they have feelings, and they aren't all mean. Only the last two I have had have been." He finished saying words underneath his breath.
"What? What was that you said Michael, the last two? What you own them as like pets or something?" Brek was lost.
"No, I am what is called a watcher. They don't know i exist, and I hope to God they never know. I study their behavior,watch after them when they don't know I'm there. I have seen them in the shower, as they eat. I have ways of knowing every step they take or every place they go. Every time they pee." He kinda smiled. "My soul purpose is just to keep track of them. Almost like a tally. If Cameron dies I get another immortal."
"Immortal? Is that with these damn things are? So what else aren't you telling me?"
"A lot. They can only die by having their heads chopped off. It has to be fair and by another immortal. And in the end there is only suppose to be one. They have the power of every immortal then."
So stupid of her to not see it. So stupid of her to follow some damned rules of not asking questions sooner. Michael gave her a lot of information that night. That is when she knew she had to get away from Cameron and home safe with her brother. She had some word that he was in New York. Luckily that wasn't all that far from Pennsylvania. She didn't know anything else though. New York City that is all. And so her and Michael had fixed a plan on when it would be the best time to get the hell out of there. Cameron had all the sudden become the drill seargent. Brek was barely allowed anywhere after that night. And if he caught her out without him knowing it she was beaten. Only once had she been caught, he left her with a broken jaw. He also got rougher in his kickboxing he would teach her. More and more would he pound harder if she wasn't doing a hit right or a kick. He had no remorse that she wasn't as good as he was. But then again he had been a master at the sport for what she learned to be over 100 years.
Breathing slowly, but deeply, Brek grabbed her duffle bag. This is it. She had to leave now! The air was cold as she looked out the window and down at the ground. She had a ladder that went out the window in her room. It was there in case of a fire, but hell this is emergency enough in Brek's mind. Carefully climbing down the ladder her legs trembled. Though it didn't stop her determination as much as the fear did. Fear of being found out. Oh why couldn't this be over with, Brek thought. Her ribs still hurt from the night before when they were in Camerons private boxing ring. He wouldn't let her out of the ring until she got her combination right: Jab, cross, jab, shashe' fuete', round kick, cross, jab, cross, hook, uppercut, jab. She had to do it before he had a chance to get her back. She wasn't blocking correctly and he got her. Her face wasn't covered the way he wanted to be so he hit her. She worked at this for over two hours and then ended up passing out. He left her there for the night. Most of the bruises were to her ribs so school was a must no matter how sore she was. She didn't mind. She had to talk to Michael anyhow. And now she found herself climbing down a ladder.
Brek got all the way down and found that there was still no trouble. She had barely made a sound. Her luck held. Down on the ground and down the driveway she went. Still nothing. She even climbed the fencing without any trouble, and only a moment later she became free. Down the road she ran and she wasn't going to stop running until she got to through the woods and down the hill to where the school was.
"Come on Brek," Michael was waiting impatiently infront of the school on the steps. She wasn't late, but he was nervous for her. He looked down at his watch out of habit, and took a couple long breaths. He kept looking across the street where there was a huge batch of woods. Those woods lead a good 2 miles up on a hill that housed the richest homes, and at the top was where Cameron lived. Any minute now, he thought. She should be coming..... He stopped his thinking and quickly smiled as he saw a small figure emerge from the woods on the trail. It was Brek and now it was time to get the hell out of there.
A huge emotion of relief came over the both of them as they reached the train station and embraced each other one last time before Brek got on the train. They said their "I'll never forget you's" and their "I love you's" and then Brek was off. Not even a tear was shed for leaving one another because in their hearts they knew they were going to have to see one another once again after Cameron found her. But at that time Brek would hopefully be with her brother. And that would make it easier, Michael reassured her. He told her he couldn't tell her why it was going to be okay, but he promised that she would be safe with Richie.