Final exams had just finished up for the year, and I was doing the last of my packing. I tossed my DVD's into a box that was already filled with my Playstation 3 and all its games. As I pulled the mattress off my bed, sliding it into the hall, I felt a pair of hands grab me around the waist, as a body pressed against my back.

"Hey babe," I said with a smile as I spun around in Scott's arms to see him face to face. "You're early."

"Disappointed?"

""Never. Quite pleased actually," I answered, stealing a kiss.

"My jeep got fixed sooner than I thought, so I called Kevin and let him know I would just drive down. You need help packing anything else?" he asked sweetly, taking the mattress from me and lifting it off the ground, to be carried under his arm.

"Umm…. I don't think so. I got everything packed, the mattress has to go downstairs to the garage, but everything else can be loaded into your jeep." I answered.

Scott did as I had said and put the mattress in the garage. My parents were going to be using it for a guest bed. I didn't need it since I would be sharing Scott's kind size bed with him once I had moved in. When he came back we took turns running boxes down to the vehicle, and within half an hour were done. I took one last look at my now empty room. The same room I had been in for the past 18 years of my life. I couldn't believe I was leaving it. I took one last long look, and took the last box down to the jeep. Scott and my parents were all waiting there.

"Ya, its only about 2 hours both ways so we'll be back in plenty of time for graduation. I figure we're just gonna get dressed at the house and drive straight from there to the school here. We'll meet you guys probably half an hour before the ceremony?" Scott was saying to my Dad. He nodded, and handed Scott a 20 dollar bill for gas money.

"Well, I'm all ready to go," I said tentatively, as my parents turned to look in my direction. my mom's eyes were already starting to fill with tears as she stepped forward to hug me. Her arms wrapped tightly around my neck, slowly cutting off my air as I could feel tears soaking into my shirt.

"Mom, its okay. its not like I'm dying. I'm only gonna be 2 hours away, I'll come home to visit I promise." I said, trying to pry her away gently. Even though we weren't related by blood, my step-mother and I had grown really close. She had always treated me like I was her own son, and I was the baby. Now I was leaving the nest, and whether she had given birth to me or not, it hurt her to see me go.

When my dad stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder she finally released me, and took a step back. Placing his hands on my shoulders my Dad looked down at me, and spoke in the most caring tone I had ever heard him adopt. "You take care of yourself, I mean it. There's a lot of…stuff in the world… stuff you need to protect yourself from… just…be careful…please. Scott can't protect you from everything…. There's some stuff your gonna have to face yourself.. he can help you…but you're gonna have to rely on yourself…so please just… be ready."

"What do you mean?" I asked, thoroughly confused by the garbled mess of a sentence my father had just shoved down my throat. A look of worry flashed across his face, but he said no more, just shook his head gently.

"I…I can't tell you… it'll just make things worse for you…" he said just as mysteriously as before. I didn't have time to dwell on his cryptic message, because Scott had already started the jeep, and leaned out the window to call for me.

"Let's go or we're gonna be late babe," I nodded and jogged over, jumping into the jeep. With a final wave we were off. It was a long time, and we just listened to music most of the way. After about an hour and a half though, Scott turned the music down. So when we get to the house, We're gonna carry you're stuff straight down to the basement. That's our room. Its actually 3 separate rooms, a bedroom living room and bathroom. it has its own entrance too. Since I'm paying the most in rent, I got to take it for us, so it'll be like our own apartment in the house."

Scott had went together with a few of his friends to get this place. It was a 5 bedroom house, and there would be a total of 7 people living there. Scott and I would get the basement, and have the most room to ourselves. The only thing we'd have to share with everyone else is the kitchen and laundry room.

"So who else is gonna be living there?" I asked.

"Well there's this girl Alyshia that I have psyche with. Her best friend Dianne. There's Daryl and Martin sharing a room. They're both geniuses and only 12 years old. And finally, its supposed to be a surprise, but Kyle's gonna be living there too, he's got the loft."

"No way!" I said, a smile spreading across my face. Kyle and I were pretty close, and I was totally excited that I would still get to see him all the time. As I let this little bit of news sink in, we pulled into the driveway and I got my first look at our new house. It was huge. It was a 1600 square foot Craftsman style home. It had a finished basement, a main floor with 3 bedrooms, a modern kitchen, laundry room, dining room, Den and living room, and a bathroom. Above that were two twin loft rooms. one was Kyle's, and the other was for storage.

"We'll go in the front door so you can meet everyone, but our door is over there," Scott said pointing to the side of the house. "We can come and go without bothering everyone else if we want." with that Scott turned the door knob and opened the door. he kicked his shoes off inside the door and called out asking if anyone was there. A soft feminine voice drifted from the room to our left (the kitchen) and was followed shortly by the girl who it belonged to. She was a short pretty girl with long scarlet hair. She wore a medium length brown skirt, a blue and white striped tank top, and blue eye shadow. She had a wide smile on her face as she gave Scott a friendly hug, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders.

"Who's this?" she asked, nodding towards me.

"This is my boyfriend Leo I told you about. The one who's moving in. Leo this is Alyshia" Scott said.

"Nice to meet you," I said extending my hand to shake. With a wide smile Alyshia took it, but the second our hands met the smile dropped from her face, and she snapped her hand away as if she had just dipped it in boiling water. A look of fear and anger spread across her face as she looked at Scott, and she took a step back from me. Scott looked at her with a look of confusion for a moment, before looking at me and seeming to understand her sudden reaction. Nice of them to let me in on the secret.

With a look of worry Scott asked me to start carrying my stuff downstairs, and to start unpacking, and told me he'd be down in a little while. As I went to leave the house I saw him move into the kitchen with Alyshia, and could hear Alyshia talking in a harsh whisper.

2 hours later I had all my stuff unpacked. Everything was set up where it needed to be, and I was relaxing on Scott's couch.. our couch… and had set up my Playstation and put in Alien already, settling in to watch. Still no sign of Scott, but I could hear muffled voices upstairs, one of which I could tell was Scott's. Once the movie was about half over, Scott finally came downstairs.

"Hey stranger, took you long enough. I'm all done already,"

"Ya, sorry," Scott said sheepishly, "There's umm… something we gotta talk about,"

The look on his face made my stomach turn to lead. Whatever he wanted to discuss clearly wasn't good.

"O…kay," I said a little worried.

"Its nothing bad… kind of… but… it is gonna make your life a lot harder…"

"What do you mean?" I asked, becoming more and more confused.

Scott let out an exasperated sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair, looking at his feet for a minute. "Alright… this is gonna sound crazy but you have to believe me… See…" He let out another deep sigh. "Have you ever seen something, or had something happen to you, that you just couldn't explain no matter what? All the phenomenon in the world that catch everyone's attention. Big foot, the Loch Ness monster. magicians and illusionists. Ghosts, spectres… well… they're all real. Very real."

It took a second before I laughed. It was definitely an odd joke he was playing, and I wasn't sure I got it just yet, but I started to laugh. oddly enough, this just elicited a deep sigh from him, as Scott stood up. "Real funny. Now where's the punchline,"

"There is no punchline. But I guess I'm gonna have to show you for you to believe me."

That's the day I watched my boyfriend burst into flames.