Louisiana

Screaming: high pitched and echoing in the stiff black night of the Louisiana bayou. A serrated knife cut through flesh like it was a raw steak. The trees shivered as the young girl's throes pierced the humidity lingering in the air. It was echoing in her ears: the sound of her flesh being ripped and forced into, torn open so the offensive air could burrow its way inside to make a new home.

"There's p'wer in the blood." Their voice was deep, wet sounding. They drug the knife into her soft brown flesh again and again, twisting it through the sinews of corded muscle. Her small hand spasmed against the bloody earth until it went still. "The offering is made."

Her brown eyes stared open and unseeing at a starless sky, tears still slowly leaking from the corners: the bayou will take them like it will take her. A crow cried and fluttered from a broken branch of a Bald Cypress tree. They looked up, eyes watching the black wings slice through the moon. Their nostrils flared, taking in the scent of nutrient-rich dirt made sweet with blood and the rot of the bayou water. White eyes turned back to the body on the ground. Long crooked fingers lifted a smear of blood from her warm cheek. They rose to them to their forehead and fingers drew a sigil long forgotten until that night.

"The Beast is ready."

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina

Aurea flung her body up right, her hand searching for the gun she kept under her pillow. The scream passed through the walls again. Cold metal stung her hand as she wrapped her long fingers around the flesh of the gun. Her bare legs swung themselves from the bed and carried her swiftly down the hall towards her sister's room. She held the gun parallel to the floor, keeping it aimed in front of her as she gripped the doorknob. Her skin was tight like drum waiting to be hit, and the anticipation made it ache. She waited a breath.

Silence.

Aurea swung the door open, letting it smack softly against the wall as she scanned the room. Nox was already sitting up on the bed, long black hair hanging like a shroud around her pale face.

"Nox?" It was whispered, tentative. Slowly, the gun lowered till it was pointing at the floor, finger still firmly pressed against the trigger. The windows were open, stirring the white curtains like ghosts in the thick of night.

"There's p'wer in the blood." Her voice was strangely deep, thick like mud.

"What?"

"The Beast is ready." Nox's head lifted, hair parting like the Red Sea. Her eyes were unfocused, catching the moonlight and reflecting it in a way they shouldn't.

Three seconds to late, Aurea registered a small creak on the stairs. Hairs in the kitchen of her neck stood like thousands of hands preforming the sieg heil. She turned, feeling hot and sticky breath slither its way over her neck and shoulders. She kept her gun aimed high and scanned the room and what she could see of the hall for a person she logically understood to not be there. The darkness crept from the corners of the room and shadows reached like fingers towards Aurea. It was colder than she remembered and her bones ached with it. As if in a fire, all the oxygen was sucked from the room and it left her gasping.

"Are we?" Softer now, sharp and painful like a child ready to cry.

The blonde turned and watched her sister fall softly to the bed. The room grew brighter, the shadows retreating to their rightful places, the smothering North Carolina heat invading the small room again.

"Nox?"

A sleepy sigh flittered into the air as Nox rolled onto her left side. After a few moments Aurea left the room carefully and shut the door. It would do neither of them any good to wake her. In the bright light of the full moon, she checked the time on her watch. Menacingly, it ticked by.

3:27 am.

She sighed and went to put her gun away. There was no point in going back to sleep. Thanks to the antics of her twin, she was wide awake. "There's power in the blood…What the hell does that even mean?"

She entered her room without turning on a light. The gun slipped silently beneath the right pillow, and Aurea grabbed a white silk-tulle robe from the floor and slipped it over her bare arms. Coffee was in order. Lots of black coffee. Hell, maybe I can sneak a cigarette before she wakes up completely.

Still, Aurea couldn't shake the feeling that something was in that room with them. Ever since she was a child, her instincts were always right. Never once did they lead her astray in anything that she did.

Don't be fucking ridiculous. Nox has had nightmares before. And hell, look where you just broke her out of. She's going to be a little creepy for a while.

Softly, her feet walked her down the stairs, avoiding the places she knew would creak under her weight. They were old stairs, softening in some places, the varnish and stain wearing off in spots. When she hit carpet, Aurea was less careful. They would have to leave the house soon. The family, a Mr. and Mrs. Austin Kitch (the names she got from the mail piled on the inside of the door), would probably be back from vacation soon. Besides, sitting in one place for so long could only end badly. No one would suspect them if they saw them in public; thanks to the news nearly everyone believed the sisters were dead. Killed while trying to escape templar custody. The templars were still searching for them, even if no one else was.

She poured in ten tablespoons of grounds and snapped the lid shut. The coffee pot hissed and sputtered to life, offended at the early hour as much as Aurea was. Silently, she hoped onto the counter and let her legs dangle off the edge. A package of kreteks was pulled from the underside of a cabinet. At the rate my life is going, I might as well smoke two at a time. The lighter flared to life in her hands and for a moment, just past the orange and blue glow of the butane flame, Aurea thought she saw a figure. She closed the lid and drew a deep puff from the cigarette. Whatever, or whoever had been there, was gone now. She felt strange: she knew the figure was not there, not really, but somehow, it was.

The nicotine did little to sooth her nerves. Nails clicked on the Tuscan tile of the kitchen floor and Aurea blew smoke out of her mouth.

"And just where have you been?" she asked slowly.

Hadar sniffed the air and huffed.

"I don't need a lecture about cigarettes from a dog." She patted the counter beside her and watched as the mabari lumbered his way up. "Go see that pretty poodle down the way? A little pretentious for you, don't you think?"

Hadar wuffed and laid his head on Aurea's thick thigh. She placed a hand on the back of his head and pet him softly.

"I'll make you a deal, Hadar. You don't tell Nox I'm still smoking and I won't tell her that you're the one that ate her pickled eggs." She scratched under his chin and he licked her fingers softly. "Good boy."

"I can't believe your sister likes pickled eggs." Alistair wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I know. She and dad both. It's like they're trying to be disgusting. Mom gets so mad because dad always tries to kiss her after he eats them and she can't even stand the smell of them. He chases her around with his lips all puckered up."

Aurea swished her ankles. Alistair had yet to remove her legs from his lap. She laid back with her head in the grass, arms relaxed at her sides. The grass tickled the back of her ankles and the tips of her ears.

"You have a bug in your hair."

"Is it a spider?"

"No."

"Then I'm fine," she said with a nod. "You sure you don't want any of this?" She raised her hand from the grass and presented the joint to him. When he shook his head she shrugged and took another drag. The clouds moved slowly over the light blue sky as the breezed moved over the friends.

Alistair's warm hands rested lightly over her thighs. She could feel them shake slightly. He was cute. Shy and dorky, but cute. She smiled lazily and rolled her head to the side. Hadar leapt up from the tall weeds and wild flowers every now and again to let them know where he was.

"One of these days, Alistair Theirin, I'm going to leave this place. And I'm not gonna look back."

The coffee had stopped brewing some time ago. Aurea shook her head to clear the memories, or perhaps will them away, and grabbed a cup from above her head. She did leave that place, just not how she thought she would. The sound of the coffee pouring into the mug was a comforting sound. The smell that mingled with the scent of cloves and vanilla was pleasant and reminded her of home.

"We need to leave here, boy."

The coffee burnt her tongue, but she kept drinking. The urge to call her cousins welled up again. It was tempting, however, templars would have tapped their phone, they would expect Aurea or Nox to call. The urge was resisted.

"I thought you told momma you were going to quit?" Nox asked quietly from the doorway.

So today is a bad day. "Are you going to tell on me?" Aurea looked up, but continued to inhale the smoke.

"I can't if she's dead, Aurea."

Good day it is then. "Sorry. I just didn't know if you…"

"Remembered that I got blamed for killing our family? I remember."