Chapter 2: Settling in

Hello there! My CPU is working (for the moment) and so I figured it would be smart to upload anything I could. So, I wrote this quick, edited it on paper, and then made the corrections as fast as possible. I own the storyline.
Oh, yes, Liquid Soul: Almost everyone in this story is an OC, because it is set several hundred years after Majora's Mask. However, there will be a few Zelda characters. You'll see.


Four days later, we stood in front of our new house. I'd had to say good-bye to all my best friends, including my girlfriend, Megan. Now, so far away from her, I was worried that she'd find someone else.

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a guy; I'm the fourth youngest in a group of seven kids. There's three-year-old Lilly, five-year-old Kevin, ten-year-old Beth, me, at thirteen, Alexis, Mark, and my older brother, Tyler, who's married with two kids (Sydney and Gabriella, three and six). I look more like my dad, with black hair and Mom's green-gray eyes. Mark has Dad's hair and blue eyes, Beth has red hair and eyes that are sort of a cross between green and blue, Alexis has black hair and hazel-ish eyes, Kevin is a true redhead with Dad's eye color, Lilly is a redhead with Mom's eye color.

"Yo, Jake, earth to JAAAAKE!" Alexis yelled in my ear. I winced and accepted a box full of her stuff. Mom and Dad were already inside, deciding how to have the least amount of rooms possible given to us kids.

"Beth, you're with Jake, Lilly and Kevin are together, Alexis and Mark get their own rooms," recited Dad. "And Tyler and Amanda get a room together, Sydney and Gabby stay with Kev and Lil."

I dropped the box on my foot, and Alexis yelled at me for being so clumsy with her stuff. "What?" I asked, ignoring my sister's screeches. "Tyler's gonna be here?!"

"Yes he is. They've decided to come here on a little vacation." Mom was smiling, but my heart sank through my gut into my knee somewhere.

"How long?" asked Mark warily.

"Three weeks."

Alexis, Mark, and I groaned. Sydney and Gabby were all right, but . . . hyperness . . . Oh Farore, we're gonna die.

Eventually, Mom and Dad assigned us rooms. Lilly and Kevin got the room right down the hall from mine, on the end of the upper hallway, I got the one in the middle, and the one on the end was Alexis's. Mom and Dad got the room next to the kitchen, Mark had a room in the western wing, and Tyler and Amanda were staying in another guest room in the northern upstairs wing.

The kitchen was nice enough, it had an old-world feel, with lots of dark wood and old cabinets. It was obvious there had been a few additions here and there. The room was moldy and dusty, but that made my parents all the more enthusiastic.

"Oh, wow," said Dad. "An old stove! It's made of hardened clay and stone. See that, kids, people in those times could cook food!"

Alexis and I only rolled our eyes. Mark was fixing up his room the way he liked it, the little kids were with Mom, and Tyler . . .

Was knocking on the door.

Mom sped over there to embrace him, greet Amanda, and hug the little ones. Amanda was a good-looking woman, with long, soft blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Sydney had inherited Mark's black hair and her mother's eyes, Gabby was her Mom in miniature. Speak of the devils, they stood in front of their Dad, looking around eagerly.

I groaned and slipped upstairs. The longer away from Sydney and Gabby, the better.

Mark barged into my room without a second thought. "DUDE!" I yelled at him. "Get lost!"

"Mom says dinner time," he replied. I threw a pillow at him. He grinned and tackled me. We wrestled a little, until Alexis started knocking on the wall.

"QUIT IT!" she screamed.

I knocked back. "Mom says DINNER!"

"Well then, stop thumping on my wall!"

"All right." Mark pulled away and left my room. I swore under my breath when I saw my appearance and vainly tried to fix my hair. Mom would kill me if I went to the dinner table like this.

We arrived in the kitchen shortly before Alexis, who went over to hug Tyler and help Mom with something. "Hey, squirt," said Tyler cheerfully. He was sitting at the kitchen table next to Amanda, with Kevin on his knee. His black hair was longer than it had been, and his blue eyes sparkled with the old mischievousness. I resisted the urge to hit him, until he grabbed me in a headlock.

"Boys!" Mom said, so sharp I almost bled. She was setting plates on the table, and Dad was trying to cook the last of the meat. Beth was talking with Amanda.

Fweeee! The stove suddenly caught fire under the pan of vegetables and meat. Mom shrieked with surprise and fear. Mark, Tyler, and Amanda got the little kids and Beth out of the room. I stared at the flame. Was that a . . .

A face in the fire?

It blinked and looked at me, then turned away. My legs went numb. It tried to reach out to me, and then Dad unplugged the stove. He brought out the extinguisher he'd put in the cabinet.

When the fire was out he pulled a rag from under the burner. The fire, and the face, were gone. "Should have checked this first," he chuckled. "It's okay, kids," he assured Kevin and Gabby. Lilly was still clinging to Tyler and Sydney was being held by her mother.

Alexis was frozen, staring at the place where the fire had been. I sidled up to her and muttered, "Did you see what I saw?"

"Huh?" she asked blankly.

"Sort of, like, a face in the fire?"

"What?! No! I didn't see anything!" I stood bewildered as she pushed past me and ran up to her room. The pounding of her boots and the door violently slamming echoed through the ceiling. Mom, Dad, Mark, Amanda, Beth, Tyler, and I stared at each other, wondering what could possibly have scared Alexis so badly.

After dinner, I headed up to my room, tired from the move. I put some stuff from the boxes away in the cabinets and set up my GameCube. Dad had asked me to make a list of what needed to be done maintenance wise, so I put wallpaper down on the list. But my mind kept wandering back to the face in the fire, and Alexis's reaction.

I figured some games would calm me down, so I played Pokémon Coliseum for a while. Hey, I'd actually been to Orre once, it was a great place after the real Seth beat Snagem. That's why I always called my characters Seth and Yuki. Those were their real names.

Around ten, I started to get tired of kicking Snagem butt, so I turned off the Cube and got into bed, still pondering on the face in the fire. Beth grumbled about me staying up so late, but I decided not to throw something at her. Finally, I fell asleep.

Eleven thirty. The clock said eleven thirty. I jolted awake, listening to something. Pacing outside my door. Curious as to who would be up at this time, I grabbed a flashlight and went into the hall, shutting the door softly for fear of waking Beth or the little kids up. If anyone asked, I would say I was heading for the bathroom.

Moonlight filtered in through the windows, thick with dust and grime. I stopped short. A dark shape was standing outside Lexis's room, face obscured by shadow. It slowly moved down the stairs. I followed it with my flashlight off. It turned at the foot of the stairs, past Mom and Dad's room, the bathroom, and into the kitchen. There it stood, apparently waiting for something. Heart hammering in my throat, I turned on the flashlight . . .

Me: Oooh, cliffie! I know it's a short chapter, but the good part comes later. Taki!
Taki: If anyone guesses who the shape is, then you get a cookie!
Me: Or, a guest appearance in my (or Wave's if I ask) next fic.
Taki: So . . .
Me: Please review! Anon reviews enabled for this very reason, folks! Don't be shy! At least three reviews (And you don't count, Wave) before I update again. The next chapter is a POV switch as soon as Jake starts wrestling with Mark. Until next time!