Kendall sat on the bank of the lake, leisurely kicking his feet back and forth, back and forth, watching the way he made the muddy water his feet rested in stir with his actions. He cursed his dad for leaving him all those years ago and his mom for dying last week. He wished for the hundredth time that his feet were resting in the crystal blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and he was sitting on the sparkling white sand that decorated the beaches of his home state. But it wasn't so. Instead his feet hung limply, barely visible in the murky, so-called water that was polluted with God only knew what and he sat resting upon the rotted wood of the sloppily built, currently crumbling deck that jutted out hazardously into the river.

In the background he heard his Aunt bellowing that dinner was ready and his cousin responding but Kendall stayed silent and still. The last few nights of sitting down to a meal with a family he'd never met before this week had been awkward enough, taking its toll on Kendall who was already close to breaking down. He wasn't exactly anxious for another night of strained conversation, uneasy silences and obvious avoidance of certain subject matters.

Kendall had decided within five minutes of getting off the plane and arriving in this town that he absolutely hated it and wanted to leave as soon as humanly possible. He wanted to be back in California, with the sun and his friends, surfing without a care in the world. Not restlessly tossing in an uncomfortable bed in a guest room in a house he didn't belong in in some dinky little cabin by the lake in some Podunk town in Pennsylvania. Hell, it was barely September and yet it was already freezing cold, making shorts an unviable option. What the hell was that about?

Kendall heaved an over-exaggerated sigh, scooping up a forgotten stone in the palm of his hand and then skipping it across the water, counting four times before it made it to the bank on the other side. He heard his Aunt holler for him a second time and he ignored her for a second time.

"Stuck in the fuckin' boonies, man," He muttered to himself, pulling his phone from his pocket where it rested heavily against his thigh. He checked it yet again for missed calls or texts, and yet again he found nothing. Same as every other time since he'd arrived in this Hell hole. He didn't know whether it was due to a lack of communication from his friends or a lack of cell reception out here in the middle of nowhere, though. He was betting on the latter, seeing as they didn't even have Wi-Fi or cable out here in this stupid, piece of shit town. It was almost as if his Aunt wanted to cut him off from everything and everyone in his old life.

With another cumbersome sigh Kendall shoved himself into a standing option, his grumbling stomach forcing him to give in and head towards the cabin for yet another uncomfortable meal.


"You have everything you need, right?" His Aunt asked for what felt like the millionth time.

"Yes," Kendall groaned, shouldering his backpack with a roll of his green eyes.

"Okay. And you remember how to get to the high school, right? Oh! And lunch money! You need lunch money!" She flitted around, grabbing her wallet out of her pursed and rifling through it.

"Aunt Jennifer, I'm seventeen, not seven. I have my own money and I can follow a simple set of directions," Kendall interrupted.

"Yes, yes, you're right. Of course. I'm sorry, Kendall, I'm used to a ten year old girl, not a practically grown boy," She smiled apologetically, putting her wallet away. "And you still don't mind dropping Katie off at school?"

"No," Kendall replied tersely. "And I'll pick her up after her practice and bring us both home."

His Aunt's body posture loosened, her face relaxing into a small smile. "Okay, okay. Hint taken. Good luck today, Kendall. Call me if you need anything," She said sweetly, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving him an awkward half hug that Kendall immediately pulled away from.

Kendall nodded mutely as his cousin came stomping down the steps, munching on an apple and yelling goodbye to her mom over her shoulder through a mouthful, running out the door and slamming it behind herself.

"That's my cue," Kendall jerked his head after Katie. "Bye," He added to his Aunt, turning on a heel to leave.

"Good luck!" She trilled out in a forced cheeriness to the already closing door.


Kendall couldn't help but feel out of place in the small town, knowing for a fact he just didn't fit in and probably never would. And try as he might, he couldn't imagine his mother here, against this dreary backdrop of cold rain, fog and miserableness. As far back as Kendall could remember his mom had been a California Girl, a beach babe, a surfer chick. Barely fifteen when she'd gotten pregnant with him she'd run away to sunny California. Kendall had fond memories of many a nights being lulled into a peaceful sleep on the porch of their beach house, that was really more of shack but was home nonetheless, overlooking the ocean and watching the tide come in as his mom quietly strummed her beat up yet prized guitar and sweetly hummed songs about peace, love and understanding, her messy curls blowing in the sea wind and whipping around her always smiling face. Kendall would do anything for just one more of those nights.

Kendall gave his head a vigorous shake, clearing the poisonous thoughts, knowing it did no good to dwell in memories and dream impossible dreams. Drawing in a deep breath, he allowed his teeth to chew on his bottom lip as he stared up the steps leading to his new school.

Other than the extra layers, the kids wandering around outside looked exactly like the one's he'd attended school with and avoided in California.

He could make out the preps in their pressed khakis and polos with the popped collars, the goths dressed all in black, the jocks in their sports jerseys and the cheerleaders in their ridiculously short skirts. He saw the nerds in glasses holding calculators, the punks with Mohawks, the hipsters who thought they were too cool for everything, especially school, and the guys who thought they were hard-asses in baggy jeans and long t-shirts. Everyone was present and accounted for. And every single one of them ignored the new kid.

Kendall's eyes roamed the masses as he trudged up the concrete steps leading to his new Hell, finally settling on a guy that he would bet his life's savings on drove the Harley Davidson he'd seen parked near his car in the student lot. The other boy was tall, possibly taller than Kendall himself, and he leaned arrogantly against the bricks near the front doors, arms crossed over his chest, scowl etched into his hardened features and eyes hidden behind unnecessary sunglasses, seeing as it was overcast out, like always. He was dressed in a faded black, worn leather jacket, with nothing but a black wife beater underneath, dark skinny jeans that couldn't have been tighter hugging his hips, outfit completed with a pair of beat up motorcycle boots that had seen better days.

Behind the sunglasses, the boy with the unkempt brown hair must have caught Kendall's stare, because he casually raised a hand, lowering the dark frames down the bridge of his nose and staring straight back at Kendall, left eyebrow raising and smirk growing, mockingly, seemingly asking 'Can I help you?'

Kendall averted his eyes quickly, embarrassed to have been caught staring and he shoved his way into the building, waiting until he was safely nestled inside to turn and look behind him. Only then did he risk a cautious glance behind himself, somewhat taken aback to find the handsome brunet still smirking at him, this time through the window, glasses still lowered as he watched Kendall knowingly, separated by nothing more than an easily penetrable glass wall.


Other than the odd encounter with Motorcycle Dude out front, Kendall's school day passed fairly uneventfully, bordering on dull, in fact. He spent the first part of every class stuttering out his name and shaking his head to the offer to share more about himself, studying his Vans intently, as if they held the secrets to all his hidden desires. His lunch hour was spent at the end of a long table, where no one else bothered to join him, three empty seats taunting him between himself and a friendly looking Latino kid who spent the entire time in a hushed conversation with a seemingly nerdy raven-haired boy catty-corner to Kendall. Both boys continuously threw conspicuous glances at Kendall, making him grow uneasy to the point that he finally couldn't take it anymore and shoved his seat back with a loud scrape of metal against tile, abruptly standing up and tossing his untouched lunch in the nearest garbage bin, hurrying to his next class.

By the time the final bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Kendall was inexplicably exhausted. He hadn't accomplished much throughout the course of the day, but somehow, pretending not to care, pretending he didn't feel so obviously out of place and alone had taken its toll on his body, leaving him tired down to his bones. Unfortunately for the blond, he had almost two hours to kill before he could pick his younger cousin up from whatever after school activities she had going on.

He lounged in his car, fiddling with the radio station, searching in vain for something that didn't completely suck, and jumped at the sound of an unexpected tap on his window.

He peered out warily and recognized the raven-haired boy from his lunch table, the one who'd ignored him and had most likely been talking about him. Sighing, Kendall pressed the appropriate button to lower his window, tilting his head and raising a thick eyebrow, asking "Yeah?" Once the barrier between them was broken.

"You're Kendall Knight, right? Jennifer Knight's nephew? Sorry to hear about your mom by the way," The boy rushed out around what appeared to be a genuine smile, his eyes crinkling at the sides in the process.

"Yeah. Um, thanks? Do I know you?" Kendall asked.

The boy shook his head quickly, causing his dark locks to swing back and forth. "Doubt it. But uh, our… parents were friends back in the day, before…well, things," He let the sentence trail off inelegantly, as if he'd been about to say something more but had stopped himself, immediately trying to cover up the weirdness with a bright, forced smile. "My, uh, mom. She heard about your mother's accident. Told me to keep an eye out for you at school," He explained in a rush, still smiling, even though it looked more forced by the second.

Kendall nodded and opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off.

"Logan! Quit flirting, we got shit to take care of!" Kendall watched Motorcycle Dude approach his car, sauntering up behind who Kendall guessed was 'Logan' and clapping a hand not entirely friendly on the shorter one's shoulders, fingers roughly squeezing.

Logan gave Kendall an apologetic look, shrugging the shoulder that wasn't under the other boy's hand. "Duty calls," He muttered out an explanation, allowing himself to be pulled away.

"Let's go, Welcoming Committee," Motorcycle Dude rolled his eyes behind his still attached sunglasses, using his hand that was resting on the other's shoulder to steer him away from the car. "I'm sure new kid can find his own way home, right?" He asked condescendingly, shooting a glare at Kendall and yanking Logan towards the other guy from the lunch table. "Carlos! Let's go!" The brunet hollered, already turned away from Kendall, ignoring him once again.

"Yeah. Sure I can." Kendall replied to empty air.


You don't always have to be such a dick, ya know," Logan commented, glaring at James and jerking his shoulder out of the taller male's grip.

"It's part of my charm," James retorted with a sneer. "Now please, enlighten me as to why you were chatting up Blondie against my very specific instructions, Logie. Cause I'd love to hear your pitiful excuses. God," He laughed sardonically. "It's almost like you forget that I'm the leader here. I can end you at any moment, and believe me when I tell you that if I think you're getting in the way of my plans and destiny I won't hesitate to do exactly that. You're nothing to me. You'd do best to remember that from now on."

Carlos fell into step with them just in time to catch James threat and he shot Logan a look, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows, hoping Logan knew that James was serious and now wasn't the time to push him and try to call his bluff.

"I told you morons to fuckin' ignore him until I figure out what we're doing this time," James continued, still glaring at Logan.

Logan rolled his eyes but gave a slight nod, pissing James off even more, the brunet stopping in his tracks suddenly and reaching out, grabbing Logan's shoulder yet again and forcing the raven haired boy to come to a standstill before him.

"I'm going to tell you this one time and one time only, Genius. Fall in line and do exactly what I tell you or I promise you will fuckin' regret it. The consequences for disobedience this cycle will surpass every other one by far, I promise you that. Don't test me. Because if we don't do things my way then you two idiots will fuck things up again and then we all lose. Again. Got it?" James seethed, shoulders rising and falling with every breath, mouth set in a thin, hard line. "Got it?" He repeated through clenched teeth when he didn't receive an immediate response. His carefully controlled temper was simmering at the top, threatening to boil over and his features had rearranged back into his semi-permanent scowl as he locked eyes with Logan and then Carlos, daring them to defy him.

"Got it," Carlos relied in a timid voice, taking a step back, having known James long enough to be aware that now was not the time to push him and fight. Now was a time to shut up and follow orders.

Logan glanced at Carlos, taking his cue from him, eventually giving a weary nod and mumbling an echo of "Got it."

"Good," James gritted out. "Because if any of you fuck things up this time around, I'll not only throw you out but I will single-handedly destroy you so fuckin' fast you're godamnded heads will spin. That's not a threat. It's a fuckin' promise. Call the others. Tell everyone to be at my house at six. Deliver my message. And don't fucking be late." And with that the tall brunet spun on a heel and stalked off without so much as a backwards glance.

Logan patiently waited until James was out of earshot before turning to Carlos and saying, "I'm getting so sick of his attitude and the way he treats us like his little minions."

Carlos stared after James, finally turning back to Logan and offering up a shrug with his reply. "Yeah, well, we don't really have a choice here do we? He is the leader. That does pretty much make us his minions. And put yourself in his shoes for even a century. I think the shit he deals with every cycle takes its toll, ya know? He may not admit it or show it, but I think he's hurting. I think he's lonely. And honestly? I have no interest in getting on his bad side. That's not a pretty place to be. Remember the last time we were there? I'm in no hurry to repeat it and I doubt you are either. And, hey. Maybe this time we can break the cycle," Carlos shrugged. "Then maybe we'd get that happy, carefree James for eternity."

Logan snorted. "I don't think there is such a thing as 'Happy James'. Just a slightly more tolerable one. And then he leaves again. And we spend the next two years with the even bigger dick head and asshole James, only to die and start this whole bullshit cycle over with yet again. It's a lose lose situation here, Carlitos. We were on the wrong side from the beginning and the punishment for that will never end. If there's one thing I've come to believe in these past few hundred years, it's that we will never break this cycle. This curse will never be broken. We're doomed to repeat history. Forever. So we should just suck it up and bide our time until this cycle is over and the next one begins. Because there's nothing else for us out there."

Carlos nodded, looking off into the distance his eyes searching out the form of the blonde who still sat in his car, eyes trained on James. "I have to believe we can end this. I have to believe there's a happily ever after for all of us in the end. It's the only thing that keeps me going. Maybe all you need is a little bit of faith."

"And maybe all you need is a little bit of a reality check."


Kendall watched as Motorcycle Dude yanked Logan away, hastily walking them in the opposite direction, not looking pleased in the slightest, the pair being joined by the Latino from his lunch table a few seconds later. Apparently something pissed the brunet off, because as quickly as he'd led him away from Kendall's car he came to a stop, still controlling Logan's movements as well as his own and stopping the raven haired boy with a hand still gripped tightly on his shoulder.

Kendall couldn't hear the exact words being spoken by the brunet, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. Judging by the rigid body posture, clenched jaw and rapid hand movements, Kendall was guessing Logan had done something to royally piss off the brunet, and he definitely wasn't envious of the other boy right then, because he was seemingly being chewed out by Motorcycle Dude.

Kendall watched as Motorcycle Dude ended his heated speech with a stern look at both Logan and the Latino and then sauntered off, heading to the Harley Davidson Kendall had seen parked in the back of the student lot on his way in that morning.

"Called it," Kendall gloated lowly to himself with a smile, shaking his head lightly. He wasn't entirely sure why he was spending so much of his time watching some boy he didn't even know and honestly had no interest in knowing. From what Kendall could tell, Motorcycle Dude seemed to be a huge asshole, completely full of himself. And Kendall had known guys like that before. It didn't really make a difference how good looking the brunet was, Kendall had had his share of bad boys and wanted nothing to do with this one. He knew their game, knew their way of thinking. They thought they were God's gift to the world, walking around like they owned the place, bullying others, doing what they wanted without a second thought of other people's feelings or the consequences that accompanied their actions. That was one territory Kendall was most certainly not entering ever again. If Motorcycle Dude was anything like the other bad boys Kendal had known, and he didn't doubt for a second he was, then Kendall knew without a second's hesitation that he wanted nothing to do with the brunet. The boy was trouble and it would be in Kendall's best interest to stay far, far away. So that was exactly what he intended to do.

What Kendall wasn't positive about was why when he'd briefly locked eyes with the other boy he'd felt like he'd been punched in the gut. His breathing had grown haggard and short, his heart pounded wildly in his chest, reverberating in his eardrums, and Kendall had gotten an curious feeling of anxiousness and had been overcome with an overwhelming sense of dread and déjà vu, pins and needles sharply pricking the back of his neck and causing his nerves to become even more shot than they'd already been., stretching tight and thin, Kendall feeling like at any moment he would snap and lose it all but unsure as to why or how.

Images flicked through his head like a slide show, unexplainable stills of him and the brunet in various time periods throughout history, always together, always touching, always smiling and looking happy. Which was the weirdest part. Because while Kendall couldn't speak for Motorcycle Dude, he could guess that a genuine smile was as rare for the brunet as it was for him. Kendall never gave anything more than a forced, fake smile these days and he was pretty sure the only type of smile Motorcycle Dude knew how to give was a condescending one.

But still Kendall couldn't shake the feeling that he'd met the other boy before. And not only that they'd known each other, but that they'd been important to each other. More than important. Direly important. That they'd been each other's reason for carrying on, been the other boy's purpose in life, each other's reason for existing. That there had been a bond and a love between them that no one and nothing could break.

Kendall gave his head a vigorous shake, attempting to rid it of the ridiculous thoughts. He laughed nervously at himself, unsure of where all that had come from and shoved his key in his ignition starting up his car, deciding that maybe the middle school parking lot would be a better place to wait after all.


James paced the wooden floor in the living room of his elegant Victorian home, muttering under his breath to himself, trying to make sense of why the blond had shown up so damned early in the cycle this time around. He'd never shown up before he was seventeen. The earliest they'd ever met had been back in the early nineteen hundreds, when the blond had been a stable boy by the name of Francis, searching for work on James' farm. He'd shown up on his seventeenth birthday and during that cycle James had gotten an entire year with him before he'd been so cruelly taken away from him yet again. And God how James had cherished every second of that entire year, relishing in every little detail of their time together, wishing that for once it wouldn't end but knowing that it would nonetheless. Because typically, James and the blond only got weeks together before he was ripped from James' arms. So getting an entire year had been like heaven. Until the moment it had all been taken from James, just like always, of course.

It had hurt even more that time. So James couldn't' even fathom what it would feel like at the end of this cycle. It seemed they would have almost two full years together this time before the blonde would flame out of the brunet's life. He couldn't even imagine how hard it would be to lose him this time and he didn't want to. Nothing hurt as much as losing him. No knife had quite as sharp a blade.

Things were different this time around, things were changing, and not in a good way, James knew this in his soul. He could feel it with every ounce of his being. The situation felt more final this time around. And he was pretty sure it wasn't a good thing. James was worried that if they didn't find a way to break the curse this cycle then they wouldn't be given another chance.

A large clap of thunder boomed outside of his house, pulling James from his thoughts as the skies opened up and began to let loose a torrential downpour, the rain pounding mercilessly on the roof of his house. He glanced out the huge bay window at the front of his house just in time to see a lightning bolt strike down upon the massive oak tree that took up the majority of his front yard. It split the trunk in half, and James watched detachedly as the wood began to smoke, tendrils of blue-grey curling up and into the sky before the entire tree burst into flames out of nowhere. The flames vanished almost as quickly as they'd appeared, devouring the tree and leaving behind nothing but a smoldering pile of ash, bark and leaves in their unnatural wake.

The smell of burnt wood and leaves lingered thick in the air around James and the lights in his house flickered once, twice, three times before they blinked out completely, leaving him standing stock still in his living room, pins and needles pricking the back of his neck and foretelling all the bad things to come in the next two years that he already feared.

James knew this wasn't a good sign, he knew without a doubt now that things were definitely different this time around. "There are bad omens afoot, my Blondie. I think this is our last chance," He said softly into the empty room, his eyes still trained on the now abandoned spot where mere moments before an enormous and magnificent Oak tree had boasted. "And I still don't know what to do to break this damned curse so we can be together."