AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just wanted to say that although the wonderful Madam Meyer used the name Jasper, I'm using it too. This story has been in my head since before I read Host, and then molded a bit later into a similar story. I had never really meant it as fanfic, but here it is. I hope you really love it.
"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."—Jane Austen
Chapter one:
The start, end, beginning, and retelling of my story.
"Tell me story!" Emma yelled as she sat in my lap. I didn't have to ask what story the three year old was referring to, I already knew. Her favorite story was the true one, the story of our past. I had told the story so many times to her now that I could recite the tale by heart, barely altering a word or phrase.
"They say it takes a village to raise a child; I'm not so sure how absolute that statement is, but in our case it was true. It started our parents; they bought a two story, white house, with a decent lawn, that was right across the street from a small park. It was their dream house, and was soon followed by the announcement that mom was pregnant with little me.
About two years later, when I was only a month old, a woman and her husband moved into the pale yellow house on our right. The woman was about eight months pregnant with their first child, a girl they named Kaylin-also know as Lin-when she was born.
Three and a half months after Kaylin was born another family moved into the faintly green house on our left. The family was small, a young couple and their five month old child. The baby was a young girl they called Cindy.
We were all roughly the same age, completely different, and yet we fit together like pieces of a puzzle. From the first time we met on the park play structure there was a connection that has still yet to leave us.
Our parents liked each other, and since we became close quickly they took advantage of the situation. We each spent as much time at each others homes as we did our own. Taking turns sleeping over and playing at each other's house. We even used to pick which house we would eat dinner at.
You see, our mothers were the kind of women who knew what they wanted to cook the night before they cooked it, so we would pick which one we thought sounded the best. We always picked at lunch.
We would sit at the table in the park across the street and eat pb&j, Kaylin had a classic pb&j with creamy peanut butter, grape jelly, and a single cut making it into two rectangles. My pb&j had creamy peanut butter, raspberry jam, and was cut into four triangles. Cindy had crunchy with no jelly, hers wasn't cut. While we ate, we would decide whose house we would eat dinner at." I hadn't even finished the story when she was asleep in my arms, her quiet breathing keeping my voice in rhythm. I would finish the story for her another time.
That seemed so long ago, so distant from now. Now wasn't at the park, or in our neighborhood. Now definitely wasn't at our picnic bench.
Now was when we were sixteen, and sleeping on the hard ground in the clearing. Now was when it was just us, and my three siblings, no parents. Now was when we were outcasts. Now was when I was no longer being raised by a village, I was raising a village.
Everything had changed that fateful day, when the news headline announced a new disease spreading. I could remember the sound of the woman's voice as she made the announcement. I could even remember how she kept playing with her falsely blonde hair.
According to the news, doctors were unable to determine how the disease was spread or the cause. The news announced the symptoms only days later, while announcing that the number of cases reported was growing exponentially. The symptoms were a blackened raised vein spreading from your collar bone to the back of your neck. The vein grew from a tiny blotch on your collarbone that resembled an ink stain.
As the vein grew over the course of six days your personality changed, your eyes blackened over. The personality changes were what caused fear and panic. Everyone who became ill adopted the same personality; they started to wear the same black clothes and the same hairstyles. The diseased talked monotone, and never exchanged greetings or goodbyes. People became afraid of their uniformity.
As time progressed more and more people became infected, the disease that was once looked upon as rare, an anomaly, was now viewed as an epidemic. There were more diseased than healthy.
My mother contracted the disease, changing before our eyes. We expected we would become ill soon. Cindy's mother and father both became ill, so did Lin's parents. We became afraid, the diseased were so frightening. The diseased never said a thing you could not expect, and none seemed to be unique in any way.
When we awoke and found the black in blotches upon our skin we cried, knowing we were doomed. Day passed, weeks, the vein never grew. It appeared as though my father, Cindy, Lin, my siblings, and I all fell under the same category. We were immune.
From the start of the epidemic there were people who were immune, who would be marked by the ink blot scar and nothing else. These people were young, all under seventeen until my father. No one knew what made them immune; no one knew why they were young. No one ever will. All immunes are hunted now, we are universally hated. Hatred for us is the only true emotion the diseased appear to have.
The clearing we were staying in now was simply a small meadow, one we had visited before. The redwood trees stretched high into the sky in an oval around us, leaving an ellipse opening to the sky. We slept on blankets and comforters we carried in the few packs not designated for food. Food and supplies were why we were away from our make-shift home.
This was a routine, stealing food and supplies. At first it felt wrong, now it was survival. In two years we had perfected the art of breaking into loosely guarded stores and shops, stealing what we needed. Food, clothing, toiletries, survival gear, first aide supplies, even recreation items, they were all our targets. Our "sneaks" as we started to call them became less frequent as we became stocked on items. The only supplies we regularly had to replenish the stock of were food and first aide.
I placed my sister Emma on the comforter we had laid out for her, covering her with her favorite purple blanket. We were lucky that there was grass beneath us, hard ground was uncomfortable to sleep on as we discovered early on.
I turned to Lin and Cindy, who were laughing over the fire.
"No, Tommy totally had a thing for you!" Lin giggled.
"Tommy had a thing for every girl with a pulse!" Cindy laughed. She was right Tommy, a boy from our childhood, had been the fourteen year old version of a man-whore.
"We should probably leave soon Cindy." I told her. Only Cindy and I would "sneak" tonight. Lin preferred to stay with the kids, but these past few months we hadn't had much of a choice.
Arthur was thirteen, Katie was twelve, and Emma was three. They were responsible kids and the older two had no trouble looking after Emma. We used to leave them at the cave when we went "sneaking", they were able to handle themselves for a few days on their own. These past few months we had not allowed them to stay though, and unfortunately were forced to drag them with us. In these barely protected clearings we would never leave them unprotected, therefore Lin stayed with them.
"Fine by me." Cindy answered, sounding eager.
I turned to where Arthur and Katie should have been sleeping, instead they were chatting. I already knew the fight we were about to have, Katie didn't often realize that she was only twelve years old.
"Katie, Arthur, bed. Now." I was really getting sick of having this same argument.
"I don't see why we can't come with you." Katie fought. Arthur simply kept quiet, knowing the argument was useless.
"It is out of the question. Neither of you have a clue how to 'sneak'." It was the same script each time, she wanted to come, badly, and I wanted to avoid having her come, badly.
"Neither did you at first, but you learned. We have to learn too." Katie insisted, her voice rising. Couldn't she come up with a new argument so I could use some new replies?
"We were older than you when we started." My voice was still calm.
"Not much."
"Two years." She started to argue again but I cut her off. "Go to bed Katie. I don't want to fight anymore. When Arthur is fourteen we'll take him, then we'll take you when you're old enough. That's the end of this conversation."
"Fine." She grumbled and walked away, followed by Arthur who shot me an apologetic half smile.
I turned to Cindy, who was sharpening the blade she kept in a strap around her thigh. I patted her back in a sign that it was time to go.
The kids fell asleep quickly, and when I turned back to check on them they were out cold. I could hear Arthur's snoring, Katie's faint mumbling, and the soft breaths of three year old Emma. It was strange how my hearing had sensitized to these noises, to so many noises.
"We'll be back sometime in the morning." I said to Lin.
"Don't shoot us this time, please?" Cindy said mockingly to Lin. We all chuckled; Cindy had been saying this ever since Lin nearly blew our heads off a year and a half ago. At first Linn used to get upset and make smug comments back, but now she just used her normal reply.
"I'll try, " she answered sarcastically. I started walking, Cindy followed. It was still slightly strange, leading, even after all this time.
If I hadn't taken lead we would be in a much different place now. If Cindy had taken lead, like she normally had, we would have been killed a long time ago, she likes to push limits. If Kaylin had taken lead we would have never left home and been killed, she isn't very daring, although she can be quite scary when she wants to be. So I took over, it was unexpected, but thanks to it, we're alive.
"Bye Lin," I said as I pecked her cheek.
The sunset was barely noticeable on the horizon; the faint coral faded into the darkening sky to the point were you would hardly even be aware of its presence if you had not been looking.
I had gotten used to it, the stealing to survive, the hiding, the pack at my side; even the feel of the guns at my hips, the knife strapped to my leg, my bow on my back, even those feelings had become to feel normal, not natural, but normal.
The cool night air felt wonderful against our skin as we ran. Our normal "sneak" clothing was still wet from washing them in the creek, so we had chosen to wear our v-cut sleeveless black shirts and our black pants. The shirt was fine, but the pants were unbearably hot, we usually wore them only in the winter.
Cindy was a faster runner than me, she had always been, but we had many nights of practice behind us, and our pace was even. She would slow down slightly, and I would speed up slightly. It was hard, and my body often ached after our runs, but as time has passed my body had become more conditioned, and I had become more tolerant, so the ache wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in the beginning.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She ran with such ease, an ease that I still envied. Her long legs gracefully loped with such force, and yet they looked gentle. Her breathing was even through the run; her breathing was another sound I had become sensitized to. Her shoulder length naturally blonde, straight, hair blew in the wind. It is hard to believe that she was now significantly taller than me.
We had always been the same height. The same natural body build, although my body had been softer where hers had been more sporty and defined. In the past two years she had shot up though, she now stood at five foot six, while I still stood at five foot two. I was the shortest of the group, Lin was the tallest, and she stood at five foot eight.
The run was shorter than most of our runs, we had chosen a closer place as our last "sneak" of the trip. The store was somewhat small, but it wasn't too small. It would have what we needed without drawing to much attention to a break in like a large store would.
We had been watching it for the past few days; we knew exactly when the employees left, what time the owner would drive away at. We even knew what times there was the least traffic on the nearby highway.
We knew far more than enough information, but that was my style of planning. I overdid it, and I knew it. But being over-prepared wasn't a terrible thing, maybe a slight hassle at times, but it kept us alive.
Cindy was good at picking locks, and the glass door's lock opened easily. The inside of the store was just how we knew it would be. It had five aisles, two exits, one unisex bathroom, a checkout counter on the far wall, and five large windows. Cindy stood guard as I started stuffing necessities into my bag, we needed to hurry, even though the run was shorter than most it had take us nearly an hour and a half. When my bag was full I pulled the gun from my right hip out of the leather hilt and stood guard while she began filling.
Along with the rest of the food we had stolen on previous stops, we had plenty of food to last us a while. The storage area wouldn't be full, but it'll be full enough.
The moment we were out of the store we started the run back, careful to make sure no one was following us. The ground felt nice underneath our feet, the comfort and safety of returning home brightened our outlook. We ran for nearly ten minutes when I heard a noise from the forest around us. I stopped dead in my tracks.
Cindy had also heard the noise, and stopped also. She pulled the pistols from their straps on her thigh, pointing them to the forest. I pulled the bow from my back and strung and arrow, I was just as deadly with a bow as with a gun. Cindy and I were so synced I thought I could hear her heart beating next to me, and I knew that the same thing was running through our heads. We were both terrified that it was them.
"Whoa, put down the weapons," a man, whose voice I did not recognize, called from the bushes.
Three teenage boys came out from behind the trees. The boys were obviously related, all with similar features and heights, but I couldn't distinguish their individual features due to the distance and darkness. One of them stepped forward and attempted to lower Cindy's weapons.
The close proximity triggered the instincts we had ingrained into our heads these past months and years. She turned to shoot him and to my surprise he managed to grab hold of both the guns and knock them to his brothers. He expected the rest to be easy but Cindy kicked him away hard, sending him to the ground.
Without her guns we were rather outnumbered, although I could kill them easily with my bow. At the thought my hands twitched to my bow, but I didn't want to kill people, not unless I was positive of the necessity.
"Run!" I called to her. She took off fast and I knew she had a better chance at escaping than I did. Cindy was so quick when needed, when there was nothing to slow her down. I ran off behind her and saw that the same boy who had taken the guns from her hands was chasing after her. He was fast too, and I feared for the first time that someone might actually catch her.
One of the other boys tackled me at the waist, pulling me to the ground. He probably judged from my small stature that I was easy prey. I wasn't. I turned and stabbed him in the arm with the arrow that had still been in my hand even though the bow had been knocked from my grip. He deflected it just right and I barely broke skin. He moaned in pain but managed to throw the arrow from my hand.
I wasn't the best fighter of the group, hand-to-hand was my worst, but I could use my size to an advantage. I could tell he was still underestimating me, giving me one more chance. I used the weight he was pinning me down with to flip him over, but he was quicker than I expected and pulled the knife from my thigh.
"I don't want to hurt you," he coaxed. The knife was at my throat though, a disconcerting fact that seemed to contradict his words. His voice, it calmed me. It was an unexplainable sensation, how I suddenly believed him. The sensation was unsettling.
"As you hold a knife to my jugular," I hissed. My words had the desired effect; he placed the knife in his back belt loop. Right then I elbowed him hard in the ribs, injuring myself in the process, but it allowed me to break free. My freedom was short lived. He quickly grabbed me from behind and held me to his chest. Once again I had to force myself to feel fear, his touch was even soothing. I tried to shake the clouds out of my head; I needed to think my way out of this.
"If I let go are you going to run again? Or will you please hear us out? I promise we won't hurt you." I stopped thrashing, deciding to follow the instincts that had never betrayed me before.
"I won't run." He exhaled in relief, releasing his grip on me and stepping back to give me space.
The other two guys came from behind a tree, carrying thrashing and screaming Cindy. She kicked up when the one who had run after her moved to take the knife from her thigh, hitting him directly in the jaw and causing him to fall to the ground unconscious. I turned to my pursuer, the same one who had promised they wouldn't harm us.
"Put her down," he told the boy struggling to grab ahold of Cindy again. I was thankful he was following through with his promise. "Why is it always Aidan who gets knocked out?" He asked the other boy.
"Because he usually has it coming. What was he thinking, taking her knife?" The other man commented, laughing.
"My name is Ian," the man who had held Cindy—the still conscious one—introduced himself. "And the idiot out cold is Aidan."
"My name is Jasper," my pursuer informed us. Jasper was close enough that I could make out his features. He had shaggy light brown hair, a muscular build, and a squared off jaw. His cheekbones were visible, his skin was tan, although I couldn't make out its exact hue in the dark, and he was at least six foot four—I could tell because my uncle had been that height and he was about the same angle from my head. My heart picked up pace. His eyes, they were light, even in the dark I could make out their crystal clear blue. They almost seemed to shine in the night.
"What the hell!" Cindy hissed in my ear.
"There's something about Jasper, I trust him." I couldn't explain it, maybe it was the sincerity in his voice or the look in his eyes. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever it was, it made me trust him.
Cindy looked at me. She was confused, hesitant. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." That was all she needed, she trusted my judgment more than I did myself, irrefutably. However, she was still weary of the men.
I looked at them, they were most definitely brothers. They shared the same hair color, although they kept it in different styles. Aidan kept his slightly longer than Jasper's and Ian had his buzz cut short. They all had the same visible cheekbones and the same facial structure. The only thing extremely different was the eye color, as I could note when Aidan groggily opened his eyes. Where Jasper had ice blue eyes his brothers had eyes of honey hazel.
Jasper was obviously the oldest and the leader. Aidan was the youngest. He looked about seventeen and the other boys seemed to only be separated by a year each.
They pulled Aidan to his feet; he looked as though he was suffering vertigo. Cindy was grinning at that, I nudged her to keep her from laughing. Aidan shook his head as though to clear it.
"Damn, did she knock me out?" He asked.
"Yep," Ian choked back laughs as he answered.
"I see the fighting stopped. Does that have anything to do with amazing me losing consciousness?"
"Yes, we immediately called it truce so as to nurse you back to health. The blonde even insisted on apologizing as soon as you woke up." Ian scoffed.
"To set the record straight 'the blonde' only wants to apologize for not hitting the idiot harder." Cindy's sarcasm was a bad sign; if they pissed her off too much they might regret it. Cindy was only steps from the guys, and could be quite violent at times.
"You can hit me again if you want. It would be kind of kinky." Aidan winked at her; my stomach would have lurched if I hadn't seen the intense humor in his eyes.
Cindy made a quick motion with her arm I didn't catch and then walked towards him with an intimidating swagger in her step. Behind her back she held one of my arrows. She leaned in close to him as though to whisper in his ear or kiss him, but instead she held the arrow point to his throat.
"Is this kinky enough for you?" Her voice was low and dangerous.
Before he could answer she smacked him hard across the head with the shaft of the arrow and sent him staggering back speechless. Although I would never say it aloud, Aidan was lucky to still have a head.
"Hit him all you want, it won't do a thing," Ian mused, seeming untroubled by the red mark across the side of Aidan's face. "We've been trying to knock some sense into him for years. He has a tendency of speaking without thinking."
"Talking is simple, why would I need to think about it?" Aidan laughed.
"See what I mean? The boy can walk and talk but not think and talk. Just ignore him; he's only a quarter of the ass he makes himself out to be." I could almost laugh out loud, Ian and Aidan sounded just like Cindy and Lin.
"Maybe from now on when I introduce myself I'll just say: Hi, I'm Aidan and I'm only a quarter of the ass I appear to be."
"Aidan, remember that not thinking while talking thing?"
"Yes."
"You're doing it again."
"Will you two just can it?" Cindy bellowed in frustration at the arguing boys.
"Will you join us?" Jasper said suddenly amongst the impending fight.
"Huh?" I answered.
"You know, will you join our little rebel group?" His attempted joke fell flat against his obvious nerves.
"You want us to join a group with those imbeciles in it?" Cindy pointed to Aidan and Ian. She spoke as though his question was an insult to our intelligence.
"They may be idiots, but they're harmless," he assured her. I couldn't be sure, but I thought Cindy mumbled something along the lines of "sure they are."
I turned to Cindy, and all I found was annoyance in her posture and stance. When she finally calmed down she would probably be able to admit that Jasper was right, the guys did seem harmless. Quite frankly Cindy had no place to judge their bickering. I decided to answer the question in the only way I could.
"No,"—Jasper's face dropped— "but you can join us." Ian rolled his eyes; I ignored it. Jasper smiled and nodded, I wondered if he was speechless.
I grabbed my bow from the ground. Cindy and I led the way, we only walked, not wanting to give them the idea that we were running away. Cindy and I walked far enough ahead so that we could whisper without them hearing.
"Aidan is the only one fast enough to catch me, if something goes wrong, I'll knock him out and run." I looked at her incredulously. "You said you trusted Jasper, you never said you trusted the other two." She reminded me.
"I never said I didn't trust them." She relaxed slightly. "Nothing about them worries me."
"Elle, I trust your judgment one hundred percent, we both know what happened last time I didn't,"—we both flinched—"I'm not going to be stupid though, I'm keeping a close eye on them."
"Okay." I could deal with that. I had no problem with being safe and thorough.
"But if you decide that you don't trust them, I call dibs on shooting Mr. and Mrs. Bicker."
"Stop that!" I stifled my laughter, but the guys caught the tone of our conversation and stepped forward so they could join in.
"What is she stopping?" Aidan asked.
"I'm telling her to stop planning murder!" I laughed.
"Ah, the beauty that is manslaughter. What is the current plan?" He was being extremely sarcastic and I started laughing so hard Cindy answered.
"Well currently the plan is to steal our guns back and shoot you right in the forehead." She touched her pointer finger to the spot just below his hairline. "Then we're going to just leave your body for the coyotes to rip apart and eat your guts as you rot."
"Well, that's disappointing. I was hoping for some torture and limb removal before cold death overcame us." We all started laughing except for Ian.
"Yes, that fact that you want to kill us is so funny," he muttered.
"Oh go fall off a bridge. Actually, I'll be willing to push you off if you want," Cindy countered.
"I'll help," Aidan said before being swiftly elbowed by Jasper.
"So where are we going anyway?" Ian was aggravated, most likely because of the death threats.
"Panties in a bunch? We're just going to our camp." Cindy wasn't in a good mood either.
"That's so very descriptive," he muttered, thankfully Cindy didn't hear him. He reached into his bag and grabbed out a granola bar. I looked over at the guys, they each had a backpack and a bag at their hip filled with food. I almost wanted to sigh; it was so sickening that this world had forced all of us to become thieves.
We slowed our pace so that we were slightly closer to the guys. Jasper silently came to my side. Cindy watched him carefully. It didn't worry me though, he was smiling slightly, and I couldn't feel any danger emitting from him.
"I realize that you haven't introduced yourselves, so can I ask what your names are?" Jasper asked, the question was aimed at both of us, but he looked at me while he spoke.
"Cindy," she said confidently, he looked up at her for a second and then his gaze returned to me.
"My name is Elle." I held out my hand and he shook it while the smile across his face grew. His hand felt warm and safe. My skin tingled were he had touched after he let go.
I realized that Jasper still had my knife in his belt, but it didn't bother me; I had another one tucked in my boot. Plus, it seemed to rest well at his side.
After Jasper had left to quickly discuss something with Ian, Cindy turned to whisper in my ear. Before she spoke I already didn't want to hear it. I knew that familiar gleam in her eyes. That glint was the same glint she always had before she got people into trouble; not just normal trouble, alarm ringing, running away screaming, skinny dipping in the cute neighbor's pool trouble.
"I think we should do something…"
"No." I ended the conversation quickly, before she could suggest something frighteningly horrible.
"Just listen to me!" That was even worse; she hardly ever used that sentence.
"Definitely not. The last time you had that look in you eyes we ended up running out of building that was catching fire. And the last time you told me to 'just listen to you' I was thirteen and my bra ended up hanging in the principal's office!"
"You are such a spoil sport! The fire was a month ago and the bra thing was a complete accident!" She huffed in conclusion to the conversation.
I looked up at the sky and sighed, it was almost sunrise. I silently informed Cindy of a possible change in pace and turned to Jasper, who, to my surprise, was at my side again.
"Do you guys mind running?" I asked, he turned slightly and looked at his brothers. They nodded, he turned back to me.
"Of course not," he said, his tone of voice made me wonder if he would object to anything we proposed. I was used to that behavior when I was with Cindy, guys seemed to offer up arms and legs just to watch her long and sculpted legs walk by.
"Good, we have a deadline." He looked at me in confusion, but I started running. Cindy was correct about not being stupid, I wasn't going to tell them about Lin or the kids until we got closer.
The guys kept pace with us, not nearly as well as we kept pace with each other, but still well. Jasper ran at my side, occasionally I would turn and find him looking at me. I would look away quickly, but I could still feel his gaze on me. I slowly began to worry if I was missing something; did I have something on my face?
Ian kept slightly behind us; I could tell it was done purposely. It felt nice to have someone watching our backs. I doubted Cindy felt the same. I could tell by the way she kept turning to look at him that she didn't like turning her back to him.
Aidan ran on Cindy's side. Running was as effortless for him as Cindy. He didn't notice that I was watching him, not in an infatuated way, but I was watching how he watched Cindy. Even as a child Cindy was watched, and if she wasn't in the spotlight, she put herself in it.
Aidan was taking in her full five feet six inches, her shoulder length naturally blonde hair with its silver tint that shone in the moonlight, her elegant form. She was slender, sporty and fit, with toned arms and legs. He didn't stare at her inappropriately-though he did glance at her breasts and the curve of her waist—he mostly looked at her face.
She noticed his attention but kept her eyes forward, she wasn't ignoring him; she was fighting back her urge to flirt. He wasn't aware of that, but I was. I knew her well enough to know that the slightly exasperated look and the flush in her cheeks were not from the run, although mine was.
I noticed something about the formation of us all.
They were protecting us from the sides and the rear like bodyguards, while still letting us lead. I liked the feel of it, being protected. I think what I liked most was how they let us lead, how they gave us space and kept pace to us.
They weren't pushy, or territorial of us, they didn't stand a bit too close. Differences that felt reassuring, but not as reassuring as the difference in the way they looked at us. They didn't look at us hungrily, they didn't stare too long for comfort, and when they would stare it was sweetly, as if in awe.
Jasper was still at my side, only about three feet away. He was smiling at me. I smiled back and his grin grew, his white teeth shone in the brightening light. The expression touched my soul in a strange way.
Cindy whispered quietly to me, so quietly the guys couldn't hear no mater how close they leaned in. "I think we should call dibs."
"Huh?"
"On the guys, that way we don't fight later," she said. I stared back at her with my mouth wide open.
"What?!"
"I call dibs on Mr. Bicker." I looked quickly at Ian and Aidan from the corner of my eye.
"Which one is Mr. Bicker?"
"The cute smart-ass one." I rolled my eyes; that was so descriptive. "The one who doesn't drive me up a wall."
Ah, so she had a crush on Aidan. That struck me as almost strange; of the many guys who used to trail after her in Junior High she only returned the sentiments of one or two. In truth, although she was one of the biggest flirts, Cindy had only dated a few guys and nothing was ever really serious, we had been young.
"You should call dibs on Jasper, he's very reasonable, just your type. We can leave ol' panties in a bunch there for Lin." She pointed her thumb at Ian.
So I wasn't crazy, there was obviously something happening with me and Jasper. Maybe I was crazy; judging me against Cindy wasn't a very accurate measurement of sanity.
"Dibs" I whispered.
I looked at the sky, it was early morning and the sun was rising. We would make it back soon. We were entering the forest, normally we would have kept running, but I needed time to explain a few things to the guys.
Cindy slowed down immediately as I did, the guys did the same, a confused look crossing their faces. Cindy and I made eye contact, she knew what I was about to do. The guys noticed our silent exchange and awaited an answer to their forming question.
I took a deep breath and said the words I'd been thinking over since we started running. "There is something you should be aware of." They looked at me with curiosity and apprehension. "There are four other members of our group." Their eyes lit up, but I could see that Jasper looked a little worried. "Lin, Katie, Arthur"—Jasper's face fell slightly at the possessive tone in my voice— "and Emma."
"They might freak out a little when they meet you, so I thought it would be safer to warn you." About then we heard it, the snap of the string from a bow.
Cindy didn't even flinch; it wasn't aimed at her or me. I was shoved to the ground by Jasper and Cindy was pulled down by Aidan. The ground was hard as we slammed against it unexpectedly.
The arrow hit a tree inches away from where Jasper's head had been.
"Are you all right?" Jasper whispered in my ear. I was pressed against his body and he had my head tucked down. I had to organize the thoughts in my head; they were jumbled in my mind by the pressure of his body against mine.
"I'm fine. You're lucky she doesn't have very good aim with a bow." I struggled a little to get out of his grasp before he let go and offered his hand to help me up.
His hand was warm, and my skin felt hot, his touch did strange things to my mind and my body. I knew I was probably blushing He let go when I was on my feet.
Ian was reaching for Cindy's guns—he had yet to return them—but I put my hand on his forearm to stop him. He almost flinched away from my touch, not in a disgusted way but simply in a reflex.
"I told you not to shoot us!" Cindy yelled into the trees where the arrow had emerged from. A small rock hit the side of her head and she started mumbling some foul language under her breath and a few things about murdering Lin.
Lin emerged from the trees with a gun in each hand. The guns were pointed at Jasper and Aidan, which worried me. Her aim may not be the best with a bow, but it was deadly with a gun. On a slightly brighter note, at least she wasn't nearly as trigger happy as Cindy.
Even with the murderous gaze on her face she looked beautiful in the lightening sky. She was tall, at least five foot eight, she had short auburn hair and a curve filled body. I almost gigged when I saw that Ian, too, had noticed how beautiful her brown eyes reflected off her light complexion. He was foolishly staring with his jaw on the floor.
"This is Lin," I told the guys. I motioned for her to put down the guns. "They're fine."
She slowly put the weapons down and looked at me confused. She walked over to my side and looked at Cindy; Cindy simply looked back over at her and nodded. Our silent exchanges were almost choreographed by now, and we did not need words to give reassurance. We did need words for explanations on the other hand.
"I'll explain when we get back to the clearing," I told her.
"Sometimes I wonder if we should dye your hair blonde," Cindy commented to Lin.
"Really?" Lin asked in an expectant tone.
"Yes, really. If you were going to shoot at us you should have at least made it worth the effort by actually hitting one of them."
As we walked the short distance I noticed that Jasper was walking farther away from me and that he looked slightly upset. I wondered if he was getting tired of almost getting killed, or, and I giggled at the thought, what if he was worried that Arthur was my boyfriend or something? If so then he's in for a shock.
"Are the kids asleep?" I said softly to Lin. The guys looked at me and Lin with burning curiosity, I wasn't sure but I could have sworn I saw a look of hope cross each of their eyes.
"No, Emma woke everyone up about half an hour ago," Lin sighed. I giggled.
"At least the terrible threes are almost over," I muttered. I received more confused glances.
As we stepped into the clearing Emma ran over to me and jumped into my arms. Her tiny limbs wrapping around my neck in a sincere hug.
"Elly," she said as she touched my nose. I kissed her fingers as Jasper watched with a sweet smile on his face.
Katie let out a gasp as she saw the guys, Arthur moved so that he was in front of her. I tried to reassure them with my eyes, but they didn't get the message. They both looked torn between fury and terror, as though they couldn't decide which emotion to experience solely.
"This is Katie, she's twelve; Arthur, he's thirteen; and this is Emma, she's almost four." I motioned to each of the children. The guys smiled widely with relief, I think they were all relieved to find out that that only other man in the group was thirteen.
"Hello, I'm Jasper, this is Ian, and this is Aidan." He motioned to each of them. His voice was soft and kind when he spoke. Emma waved at him and he lowered his face down to her level and waved back. She giggled and so did I.
Emma reached her hand out to him and he shook it. Cindy and Lin were tense at my side but I barely noticed. Strangely, I was positive he would not harm her.
"Is she your sister?" Jasper asked, looking away from Emma and at me.
"Yes she is!" I said as I snuggled noses with her.
"Elle, I think we need to talk," Lin said flatly, looking from Jasper to me and back again.
I put Emma down and walked over to the other side of the clearing with the girls. Arthur stood by Emma protectively as she proceeded to walk over and poke at Aidan, who laughed and played peek-a-boo with her.
"What the hell?!" Lin said in a hushed tone.
"We met them on our way back," Cindy said flatly.
"I repeat the question! What the hell?!" Lin hissed. Cindy pointed in my direction.
"Basically, they attacked us and then we attacked them. Then we stopped because they promised us they wouldn't harm us. Something about Jasper makes me want to trust him. They seem nice, and I have a good feeling about this. The end." Lin stared at me blankly when I finished. I should have given her more details, but Cindy would fill her in on anything I left out.
"You're sure?" She said. "It's up to you, but in my opinion it feels like history is repeating itself." Cindy flinched slightly; I shot a warning glance at Lin.
"Look at them, look at how they act around the kids,"—I motioned towards them, Ian and Aidan were playing with Emma and Katie while Arthur watched, Jasper had his head inclined in our direction, he was listening—"you can't tell me that's a repeat of history. They're different, trust me."
She nodded and watched them some more, Jasper was now playing with Emma's pigtails. It was cute, how they played with the kids. Ian was talking to Arthur and Aidan was talking to Katie.
"I don't like this," Lin added as she glared at the boys while they weren't looking.
"We'll be smart, keep an eye on them," I said reassuringly.
"And we'll definitely not let them do lookout alone," Cindy added flatly.
I considered telling her it was unnecessary, that they would never hurt us. But I had nothing to prove that other than intuition. If the kids weren't with us it would be different, if we didn't have previous experience with male newcomers it would also be different. We did have the kids though, and Cindy and I were still scarred.
Jasper was watching us, his expression slightly disappointed. He was still listening. I almost wanted to look at him and apologize for our mistrust, explain why we were so weary.
"We'll keep the same lookout schedule as normal. That way they are never on duty alone," I said, looking away from Jasper and towards Cindy. She nodded her head in approval and so did Lin.
"Did the kids sleep much?" Cindy turned and asked Lin.
"No, they woke up shortly after you left and were up for most of the night. They're exhausted, the only reason Emma woke up was because she had another bad dream." Lin said before she yawned for dramatic effect.
The kids did look tired. Katie was zoning out more than normal, Arthur was a zombie, and Emma was falling asleep against Jasper's leg, seated on his foot. "Sleep by day travel by night?" I suggested.
"Works," they both said in unison.
I walked over and towards the Katie and Arthur. "Bed, you're falling asleep standing." They shuffled away as I turned to grab Emma.
"Where do you want her?" Jasper said from behind me. I turned around and saw Emma asleep in his arms, and Cindy glaring at him with her "I'm going to shoot him" look.
"You can set her down over on the blanket." I pointed to the brown comforter in the center of the clearing. I walked behind him as he walked over and set her down gently.
Sleeping, she looked like a portrait. She had the same curls as me, but hers were golden blonde like my mother's hair had been. We both had the same green eyes, whereas Katie and Arthur both shared our dad's chocolate eyes. Closed eyes and rosy cheeks, she was angelic in rest.