A/N: I want to say a quick thank you to "TheRealOGMai" for giving me my first review! I was so happy to get some feedback and I would love some more, so don't be shy guys. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 2
"Aw come on! How did she get eliminated? These people are clearly trippin' on something."
Trixie laughed as she saw Jake's reaction to the show they were watching. While the two of them were waiting for Spud to come over so they could go to the skate park, they had done rock-paper-scissors over what to watch, and since Trixie won, she got to pick. Jake complained at first, but soon he was more hooked on it than she was.
"Man, that was completely rigged. Trix, turn this off I ain't watching no more." Jake took the remote and switched to Netflix. "This is what happens when you watch 'regular' T.V."
"You are so ridiculous. Just wait til your girlfriend finds out you got mad watching 'America's Next Top Model.'" They picked out a scary movie and Trixie's grandmother came into the living room, setting a plate of cookies on the table.
"What are y'all doing in here with the lights out?" She flicked the living room light on, causing the teens to groan in pain since their eyes had already adjusted to the darkness. "You know I don't allow none of that freaky stuff in this house Trixie Carter." Trixie brought her hand up to cover her face.
"For real Gigi? Why do you have to say stuff like that?" Jake chuckled and wrapped his arm around Trixie.
"Because she can read my mind. You know I'm always up for 'freaky stuff'" He looked up and quickly moved his arm from his friend when he saw the glare her grandmother was giving him. "Just playin' Gigi."
"Mmhmm." She turned to walk back to her room, but not before shooting another glare towards them and warning them that she would be right in the other room.
"She's known me since forever and she still don't trust me around you." He smirked as he took a cookie from the plate. Trixie giggled and lowered her voice seductively.
"Well, you can just blame your devilish charm, Jacob Long. A girl can't be too careful around the likes of you." He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.
"You sure you wanna play around like that? Because you know I can always do that voice." Jake eluded to a game that he and Trixie occasionally played where they determined who had the sexiest voice. Trixie laughed and shook her head quickly.
"No, no, I'm sorry, I'll be good. I won't play around no more." But he was already looking at her with that sneaky smile as he leaned close to her ear, deepening his voice.
"Are you sure about that? Because you seem to like being bad." Trixie looked at him, matching his expression.
"What's wrong with being bad?" Jake was about to reply when Trixie's cell phone rang. He blushed and looked away from her as she answered it. "Hey, Kyle." She mouthed that she would be right back and took the call into the other room.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door, Jake opened it and was greeted by Spud.
"Hey, dude. You guys ready to get our skate on?" Trixie came back into the room and grabbed her jacket once she saw Spud at the door.
"I'll be back later Gigi!"
oOoOoOo
Jake sat down on top of his skateboard in frustration. For some reason, today he was off his game. He kept messing up on tricks he had perfected years ago and fell off of his skateboard more times than he ever had before. He pushed a hand through his hair and watched a crowd gather near Spud as he moved around the ramps with ease.
"I'm surprised you can even sit after you landed on your booty 15 times in a row." Trixie sat down on her board next to him. She handed a water bottle to him before opening her own and taking a drink. Jake stared at the bottle, rolling it around between his hands.
"So did you and Kyle kiss and makeup?" She choked on her water, covering her mouth to try and contain the coughing.
"That came out of nowhere. What's up with the random subject change?" He turned his attention back to Spud, suddenly feeling bitter.
"I'm just asking a question. If you don't want to answer it then don't." Trixie was taken back by his sudden change in attitude. He had been giving her the cold shoulder since they left her house.
"Is that why you been catching an attitude with me?" He acted as if he didn't hear her and yelled out to Spud, cheering him on. Trixie huffed and waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Jakey. I said is that why-"
"Yes! Okay? That's why I have an attitude." Trixie flinched as he spat his words at her. Of course, they had been mad at each other before, but she never knew Jake to talk to her in such a harsh tone. "That guy treats you like crap Trix, and every-single-time you let him get away with it. Since middle school, I've been saying to drop him, that you could do so much better, but you don't listen."
"What are you, my father? I know you and Kyle have had problems but you don't tell me who I can and can't date!" Jake gave a mirthless laugh and shook his head.
"Fine. But just know that next time he breaks your heart, I'm not gonna be there to say 'I told you so.'" Trixie had no idea what to say. She wasn't used to Jake, or anyone for that matter, lashing out at her.
"Well, you know what that's fine! Whoever asked you to be there anyway? If that's how you've been feeling you should have said somethin' a long time ago. Because trust me baby boy, Mama Trixie don't need anybody to take care of her." She got up, tucked her board under her arm, and stormed off. She didn't get too far away when Jake's tail quickly shot out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her back towards him. "Let me go, Jake!"
"Trix, I'm sorry, don't leave ok? I didn't mean it." She crossed her arms and looked up at him.
"Let me go."
"Not until you forgive me."
"Jake someone could see." She whispered to him harshly, gesturing to his tail.
"Fine." The tail disappeared and Trixie turned to walk away again, but this time was stopped by Jake grabbing her arm. "Trixie, please, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to say that. You know I'll always be there for you."
"That's just it. You don't have to always be there for me. I'm not trying to be a burden on anyone." He let go of her arm and she turned to face him.
"I never think of you as a burden baby girl. I just hate the way that guy treats you. You have so much to offer and I don't want you to waste it on someone that doesn't even appreciate you." She sighed and put her hands in her sweater pockets. "I was wrong for what I said, and I'll never do that again. Forgive me?" He pouted his lower lip and widened his eyes, finally making her smile.
"Ok I forgive you. Don't use those puppy dog eyes on me." He wrapped his arms around her, laying his head on top of hers.
"Good. You know I can't take you being mad at me."
"Ahem..." Jake turned around, letting go of Trixie, and was face to face with his girlfriend. "Sorry I'm late, my aunt wanted me to go to the salon with her..." Jake felt his face turning red as he brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head and walked toward her.
"Yea no problem. We were getting ready to go eat anyway." Trixie greeted Rose with a smile and hopped on her skateboard to find Spud. "So uh... you hungry? We were gonna go to Gino's." Rose nodded and walked behind him as they joined his friends. She gave a slight grimace when she saw Trixie look away as they approached.
oOoOoOo
Once they left the skate park, the group walked to their favorite pizzeria. They slid into a booth and agreed on ordering a deluxe pizza to share. As soon as they ordered their drinks, Trixie and Spud ran off to the arcade. The remaining two said nothing to each other for a while before Jake broke the silence.
"Is everything ok?"
"Everything is fine. It's just that, I was hoping that we would have gotten to be alone today."
"I'm sorry Rose, I promise we'll do something together tomorrow, it's just that today I promised Spud and Trix-"
"I don't want to hear anything about her." She said with a sharpened tone. Jake sat back a little as if he had been slapped.
"Alright Rose, what's up with you lately? What's going on with you and Trixie?" She crossed her arms and turned to face him.
"I believe a better question is: What's going on with you and Trixie?" For some reason, his heart started racing. He wasn't sure why her question made him feel as if he had done something wrong.
"W-what's that supposed to mean? There's nothing 'going on' between us."
"Whatever Jake. All I know is that the last 2 weeks I've been here, the only time we spent time together is when she was there."
"Just Trixie? Spud's always there too Rose. Does that mean there's something 'going on' with me and him?" She gave a cynical laugh as she looked away.
"So did you get suspended for fighting over Spud too?" Jake's mouth opened and closed again as he tried to find what words to say. "Exactly. Just Trixie."
"I wasn't fighting over her. How did you even hear about that?"
"I had an interesting conversation with Kyle Wilkins, you know her boyfriend. I asked him why things were so tense between him and you."
"Oh so now you're checking up on me?"
"If you would tell me the truth then I wouldn't have to check! And let's not forget, she was all over you at that stupid skate park today..."
"Woah you have it completely twisted. We weren't doing anything, I'm really getting sick of you being so jealous of her." Her anger was getting the best of her. She shook her head and scooted out of the booth.
"Well if you're so sick you can go see 'Dr. Trixie' I'm sure you would just love that. You told me your feelings for me would never change Jake. But it looks like they already have."
"Rose wait." He grabbed her hand as he got out of the booth with her. "You need to relax baby. When I tell you there's nothing going on between Trix and me I mean it."
"Then why did you beat up her boyfriend?" Jake sighed and put his hand out towards the booth, gesturing for her to take a seat. She took a second but eventually sat back down, to the relief of Jake, they drew a bit of attention from a couple surrounding tables. He sat down next to her and lowered his voice.
"Kyle and Trix were arguing, worse than usual, she went to walk away and he grabbed her arm, hard. I'm not just gonna sit back and watch someone snatch on her, so I got in his face, he didn't like that, and we got into it. That's all." Rose looked at him, searching his face to see if it was the truth.
"That's all?"
"Yes. Trixie is my friend, just my friend. I don't have any romantic feelings for her at all." Rose nodded, but something bothered her about the way he said that. She just couldn't put her finger on what it was.
The mood lightened once the pizza got there and Trixie and Spud came back to the table. Jake held Rose's hand as his friends argued over who held the high score on one of their favorite games.
But as the three of them joked around and had a good time, Rose sat quietly with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Even though Jake told her there was nothing more than a friendship between the two, she couldn't help but feel there was still something he wasn't telling her. She watched as he tried to avoid looking at the girl across from him, and felt his hand begin to sweat a little anytime he did. Suddenly she realized what was bothering her, it was the fact that when he said he had no feelings for Trixie, he couldn't look her in the eyes as he said it.
oOoOoOo
Jake groaned as he got up out of bed. Between Rose nagging him on the phone until three in the morning and his father waking him up for breakfast at seven, the teen didn't get much sleep.
He dragged himself into the kitchen and yawned a good morning to his family. As soon as he sat down, his parents stood up in front of the table. His father spoke first.
"Attention family, we're thankful that all of us were able to have breakfast together this morning. We're especially thankful to have Lao Shi join us, it's always a treat for him to come over." The older man nodded to him as he drank his coffee. "And we're also thankful to have Jacob join us, it's a very rare treat for him to get out of bed before 1 pm."
Jake smirked as he grabbed a piece of bacon.
"No problemo Pops."
"The reason we asked everyone to breakfast is that we have some very exciting news." He looked over at Susan and held her hand.
Haley's face lit up as she put down her book.
"We're getting a kitten?!" A scoff came from Fu, who sat at the table, reading the newspaper.
"Cats are disgusting. Why would you want that?" Jonathan cringed as the Shar-Pei spoke. He found out about his family's magical background quite a few years ago, but he still hadn't quite gotten used to the dog being able to talk.
"Well no honey, it's not a kitten." He looked to his wife, grinning from ear to ear. "Go ahead."
"Are you sure it's not a kitten?" Haley said with a pout. Susan sighed and shook her head.
"No, Haley, we aren't getting a kitten. But, there is going to be a new addition to the family... I'm pregnant." Haley screamed and ran over to hug her mother.
"Please let it be a girl! Please, please let it be a girl!" Lao Shi and Fu both smiled and congratulated Susan and Jonathan.
"Sweet! It's about time we got another rugrat running around here. What do you think Jake?" When Fu turned around, the smile fell from his face as soon as he laid eyes on the boy. His face was as white as a sheet and he looked like he had just seen a ghost. "Jake? Are you alright buddy?" Everyone turned to look at him but the teenager ran up to his room, slamming the door behind him.
"What in the world was that about?" Susan looked at her husband who had the same confused expression on his face that she had. He took the stairs to Jake's room and knocked on the door.
"Jake? Sport?" Jake ran into his bathroom and leaned over the sink, splashing water on his face. He felt nauseous and he couldn't seem to catch his breath.
There's no way. This can't be happening. It has to be a dream.
Jake closed his eyes and sat down on the bathroom floor, his head in his hands.
"Jacob, please son, talk to me." Jake leaned his head back against the wall, willing the pounding in his head, and on his bedroom door, to stop. Eventually, his father stopped knocking on his door, but the pounding in his head remained. Jake laid down on his back, crossing his arms over his eyes.
Please just let this be a bad dream...
oOoOoOo
"Jake look out there's one behind you!" The American Dragon spun around, seeing a hobgoblin leap towards him. He quickly swatted it with his tail, sending it flying in the opposite direction.
"Thanks Spud, now let's get the hell out of here." He flew in front of his friends, letting them hop onto his back, and headed towards the rainbow-like portal that was slowly beginning to close. "Aw man, Brocamas must be having trouble keeping the portal open."
Jake flew even faster, arriving at the portal just as the last of the leprechaun clan made it through. The trio needed to get out before they were trapped inside the goblin dimension with the hideous creatures that were trying to catch up to them. They were just about to step through when he heard a familiar scream.
"JAKE! HELP ME!" He spun around toward the direction it came from, his heart raced as he recognized the voice of his little sister.
"How did Haley get back in here?"
"What are you talking about? She went out already and we need to go too." Trixie tugged on her friend's arm but he heard the scream again, his little sister crying out for help.
"She's in here Trix. You and Spud get through the portal, I have to go back and get her." His friends started to go with him, but he was already gone. They looked at each other uncertainly but they were confident that he wouldn't be long and went through.
"Haley! Hales, where are you?" He heard another scream and flew towards the sound. He made several twists and turns through the maze-like alleyway before he laid eyes on his sister, in her dragon form, curled up in the fetal position. His breath caught in his throat as he rushed to her. He gently turned her over and saw blood on her chest. Unshed tears burned his eyes as he tried to hold them back. "No no no. Haley? It's gonna be okay I'm gonna get you out of here."
Just as he was about to pick her up, she made a strange noise. At first, he thought he had hurt her, but this wasn't a sound of pain, it was... laughter. Jake let her go and slowly sat back as her face contorted into a sinister smile and she began laughing even harder. When she opened her eyes, a bright light shot out of them, blinding Jake. He cried out in pain and hunched over, slipping from his dragon form.
The creature that was pretending to be Haley went from cackling to screeching at the top of her lungs. Jake's heart filled with terror as he realized what this creature actually was. He had been tricked by a banshee.
He shut his eyes tightly and brought his hands up to cover his ears, now fully in his human form, but it did no good as the banshee's cry continued to pierce through to his ears.
A strong wind came, and the sky cracked with thunder. It went on like that for a few minutes before suddenly the wind stopped, and it was silent. He laid there for a moment before slowly opening his eyes, he was now able to see again. He slowly rose from the floor and looked around to see where he was. He was standing in a hospital. But it wasn't a regular hospital, he saw fairies with broken wings, trolls standing at the front desk, a mermaid sitting in a kiddie pool in the waiting room, but the strangest thing is, they all seemed to be frozen.
He walked towards one of the nurses, an ogre, and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Excuse me." As soon as he spoke, the hospital was buzzing with noise. Everyone was talking at once, people were running back and forth trying to find a doctor. Jake dodged out of the way narrowly avoiding a collision with a gurney.
The nurse turned to him, her face looking somber, and sighed. "I know sir it's busy tonight, the doctor will be with you as soon as he can to take a look at the little one, but honestly I don't know if there's much he can do."
"Wait, what little one?" But the nurse had already dashed off down the hall. Suddenly Jake felt a slight weight in his arms.
He looked down, and his heart clenched as he saw a little boy, no more than about 4 years old, laying in his arms, unmoving, a blood-soaked shirt clinging to his small torso. A wave of emotion swept over him, Jake had a feeling as if he knew the boy but he had never seen him before, though there was something familiar about his face. The little boy twitched and took a short breath. He looked up at Jake, his deep onyx eyes, pouring into his. The boy's eyes filled with tears as he reached a small hand up to hold onto Jake's shirt.
"I... want to go home, Jake." The tiny voice tugged at Jake's heart, he didn't know what to do or how he had gotten into this situation. He just wanted to do something, anything to help.
"Okay buddy. I'm gonna take you home. You'll be fine." The boy smiled and closed his eyes before his grip on Jake's shirt loosened and his hand swung, lifelessly to his side. Jake found it hard to breathe as he looked down at the little boy. He was dead, Jake had so many mixed emotions, he felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest but he had no idea why since he didn't even know who this boy was. Tears poured from Jake's eyes as he hugged the small boy to him. He turned to look for someone that could help, someone to tell him what to do when his eyes passed a mirror.
He stared at his reflection in horror as he saw that his face was covered in blood. He brought a hand up to his face and saw that it was in dragon form, and his claws were also covered in blood. He looked back at the small boy he was holding and saw four punctures in his shirt, across his chest.
"No. No, I didn't- I couldn't have done this." He looked back at his reflection, feeling his heart pound. "I... I killed him?"
Suddenly he felt someone shaking his arm. He turned to see who it was but saw nothing there.
"Jake!" The shaking got rougher, he held the boy tight in his arms, afraid he would drop him.
"Cut it out! He's gonna fall!"
"Jake! Wake up Jake! Jake, please wake up!" He took in a shuddering breath as his eyes snapped open. He saw his sister sitting in front of him, shaking his arm. The sight of her made him jump back, wondering if it was really her.
"Woah dude, are you ok?" Spud, who had been sitting in front of him, reached out and grabbed Jake's shoulders, trying to calm him down. Jake looked around and saw that he was sitting on a couch in his grandfather's shop, his friends, his sister, and his grandfather all around him. He exhaled in relief and leaned back against the couch.
"Yea, I'm fine bro. What happened?" Haley looked up at him, her eyes red from crying, and told him that when Trixie and Spud came through the portal and saw her, they were confused and said that Jake had gone back because he said he heard her screaming.
Haley and her grandfather immediately flew back through the portal and found a group of hobgoblins surrounding the unconscious teen, ready to attack. The duo was able to fight them off and get Jake out just seconds before the portal to the goblin dimension was closed.
"Damn. I don't even remember any of that." His grandfather stood before him, although he maintained his calm demeanor, he had been afraid for his grandson and was relieved that he was alright.
"Do you have any idea what it was that led you there?" Jake thought back to the banshee, and the dream that he had. He knew that hearing a banshee scream meant someone close to you would die and he also knew, as the dream indicated, that it would be a young boy about 4 years of age. But he didn't know of anyone close to him that had a child that age. He figured the banshee had made a mistake and didn't want to worry his family for no reason. So he told him that he didn't remember. The older man seemed to detect that it wasn't completely the truth but said nothing as he was just thankful that his grandson had recovered.
oOoOoOo
Jake had nearly forgotten that horrible night, it had been almost 2 years ago. He had been terrified when a few months after the encounter with the banshee, his Aunt Patchouli announced she was expecting a baby but, to his relief, she had a little girl. After that, Jake brushed it off as the banshee being mistaken about his identity and figured it was meant for someone else.
But now, knowing his mother was pregnant, his fears resurfaced. He was afraid that the banshee was right after all, and that the child from the dream was going to be his little brother.
It was late evening by the time Jake finally got up from the bathroom floor. He pulled himself up and walked into his bedroom. He knew he needed to talk to his family, but how could he tell them what made him act that way?
He looked towards the door but couldn't make his feet move towards it. Instead, he went to his window and leaped out, changing into his dragon form.
He was only in the air for about a minute before he landed, back in his human form, on the fire escape next to Trixie's bedroom. He couldn't face his family, not yet, but he needed to talk to someone. He knocked on the window gently and waited but got no response. He knocked a few more times, it was getting late but Trixie should have still been up.
He sighed, figuring she wasn't home and turned to leave when he heard a car door slam.
"Trixie, get over here."
"Get away from me Kyle! I told you already I'm done with you!" Jake's ears perked up when he heard his friend's voice. He didn't want to get in her business, but he couldn't help wanting to see what was going on. His wings appeared and he flew up to the roof of her house, crawling to the edge to get a better view.
Kyle walked up behind Trixie, who was digging in her purse for her house key and snatched her arm making her face him. Jake's first instinct was to drop down and pull him away from her, but he wasn't sure how Trixie would react. She had always made it known to Jake that she didn't appreciate him getting involved in her relationship and had told him countless times that she could take care of herself.
"Come on baby you said to take you home, so I'm 'bout to take you home." He laughed and slightly stumbled back, he was clearly drunk.
"Are you kidding me? I asked you to take me home from that stupid party hours ago. But you wanted to stay, so why are you here now?" She tried to pull away from him but his other hand shot up so he was holding both of her wrists. "Let me go!"
"Come on baby, didn't you say I wasn't paying attention to you? I'm just giving you what you want right?" He pushed her back against his car and roughly pressed his lips to hers. She cried out and tried to get away from him but he pushed his body against her, pinning her to the car. He let go of one of her wrists, moving his hand to lift the bottom of her skirt. "Isn't this what you wanted? My attention?"
As soon as her wrist was free, she brought her hand up and slapped him as hard as she could making his head jerk to the side. He looked at her in a way that terrified her as he pulled his hand far back. She flinched and closed her eyes, preparing to take the slap, but instead, she heard Kyle gasp. "Where the hell did you come from?"
Trixie opened her eyes and saw Jake standing next to him, holding his arm. In one swift motion, he twisted Kyle's arm behind his back and slammed him against the car next to Trixie.
"What the hell Long? Let go of me man. Trixie get him off me."
"I thought I told you never to put your hands on her again. You don't like to listen much do you?" The other boy yelled out in pain as Jake twisted his arm farther behind his back. Trixie's heart raced as she saw the look in her friend's eyes, he was pissed, she was afraid that if she didn't do something, he would snap Kyle's arm right off.
"Jakey I'm fine. Let him go, Jake I'm fine." She reached over and touched his arm. As he looked at her, the anger slowly went away, and he let go of Kyle who fell to the ground trying to get away from him.
"Whatever dude, you can have her. Maybe after she's been with a loser like you, she'll realize what a good man she had." He staggered into his car and sped off. Jake was ready to take off after him but was stopped by Trixie grabbing his hand.
"It's fine Jake, forget him."
The two of them went inside, Trixie got him a glass of water and they sat down in the living room.
"So you were spying on me again huh?" Jake rolled his eyes and set his glass down on the table.
"You're welcome. Just tell me that you're not gonna be back with him again after this." She looked down and sighed.
"Jake please don't start." He looked away angrily. Who was he kidding? Of course she would be back with him. Kyle Wilkins could do no wrong in her eyes.
"Whatever. I'll see you later." He was about to stand up when suddenly Trixie wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, her body began shaking violently as she sobbed. "Woah, Trix it's okay. Don't cry baby, I'm sorry, I'm not going anywhere." He pulled her onto his lap, stroking her hair as she cried on his shoulder.
"I'm such an idiot, Jake. I'm so stupid." He kissed the top of her head and gently rocked her back and forth.
"No you're not Trixie. He's the idiot and he's never gonna hurt you again okay? I'm gonna protect you."
Jake continued to hold her as she fell asleep. When he looked down at her sleeping in his arms, he suddenly remembered the reason he came there. He sighed and laid his head back against the couch. What if it was true? What if what happened to the boy in his dream was the fate of his unborn baby brother? He yawned as his tired eyes began to close.
"Please let it be a girl... Please, please let it be a girl."
A/N: Chapter 2 has been completed! I hope this didn't seem too rushed, it was so hard for me to write for some reason. But I think it came out pretty good, I hope you guys like it!