6. Secrets

I opened my eyes to sunlit cracks in a cave ceiling. I blinked from the brightness, and held my body still as I looked around.

I was laying on a double mattress on the ground with a pale blue sheet pulled up to my hips and a chocolate grizzly bear resting beside my left thigh. I sat up at seized it, looking around for Annessa. I didn't see her, but quickly surveyed the rest of the room.

The doorway was covered with a heavy, think forest green blanket shielding it from outside. There was maybe two feet around the edge of the bed on the left and right side with maybe an extra foot between the doorway and the bed due to the mattress being pressed up against the back wall.

I had been laying on the right side of the mattress, and that side of the room was clear except for one of my back packs resting in the corner. On the other side, there were a few worn books, and a few pairs of jeans and shirts either hanging on a pole adjusted on the wall or rolled into a pile next to the books.

Clinging to Annessa's bear, I backed out of the room and looked either side down the long hallway. Without thinking, I took off to the left and staggered when I immersed myself in a dark corridor. I felt my way along the wall, and bumped into a solid figure.

We both 'umph'ed, me crashing to the floor, of course. I rubbed my backside as I began to stand again until I felt hands wrap around my arms. I shrugged them off of me and bounded up, running back the way I came.

"WAIT!"

The voice was familiar, but that didn't calm me. I pushed my legs more rapidly as I burst into the light of the hallway and saw blurs of colours and textures while I bolted past them uncaringly; I just wanted to get away.

"Just… wait!" the voice called. "Alexia!"

I saw the room I was in fast approaching, and had half a mind to hide in their but I didn't because I knew I had no where to hide and no where to run in there. I gripped the teddy bear tighter in my hand while I drove my body faster.

I hit another wall of blackness and didn't slow. I heard footsteps echoing closer to me and felt closed in. I stopped and threw myself to the opposite wall, pressing my back against it as flat as it would get and fighting with my lungs to take quiet breaths.

The footfalls ran past me at a slow pace and stopped. I heard a sigh and a rock being launched against a wall and pressed my eyes and my lips shut. I took measured breaths in through my nose as the steps trailed back to me through the obscurity.

"Alexia…"

The voice was… heartbreaking.

"Alexia, please. I'm not going to hurt you. Just come here."

I edged myself slowly sideways back towards the hall; if I could gain enough distance from him, I could have a head start and run back to my room.

That plan was cut short.

I bit my lip and cursed under my breath as I kicked a rock and listened to it as it bumped its way across the ground.

"Alexia?"

I took off again. I didn't worry about my breathing now, letting my breaths come as the worried gasps that they were. Before too long, I heard a groan and felt strong arms wrap around my waist and drag me to the ground.

He rolled me onto my back and sat across my hips so I couldn't kick him and pinned my wrists to the ground.

"Was that so hard?" he asked.

I glared into the warm, sweet breath over me since I didn't have a face to scowl at. One of my hands was bound to have crescent marks forged in them while the poor teddy bear in my other hand copped the rest of my wrath.

"Get… off… of… me," I panted.

My chest was still heaving for air when he bowed over me and found my nose with his.

"You wouldn't be so breathless, or tired, if you waited the first time I called for you. Are you going to run off again?"

"I don't know, are you going to tackle me again?"

I heard him chuckle lightly before his warm scent got closer to my mouth, and I started taking shallower breaths.

"That depends on whether you run or not."

"Then, no."

"Then, no," he answered my question the same way I answered his and I felt a weak smile over power my lips.

One of his hands released my wrist to soon press down on it with his elbow. He did the same with my other wrist and I felt both of his hands cup my face. He stroked one of his fingers along my lips for a second before he pressed down further on me and I felt his lips bond with mine.

They were warmer and sweeter than his breath, and they were just as gentle as I'm sure he normally was. I fluttered my eyes closed in bliss for a second before he pulled away and hopped off of me. I blinked stupidly into the dark while his hands found my forearms and helped me up.

We walked in silence in a direction I was unsure of, and he held my hand, claiming that he didn't want me to trip.

"Uh huh, I managed fine while I ran through here blindly," I retorted while I gently tried to get my hand back

He laughed but didn't let my hand go. His soft whistles rebounded of the walls while we walked and soon I saw a light.

"I thought you might be hungry," he whispered as he released my hand and ducked into the room.

I took a second to catch my surroundings and stared back into the darkness wondering if I should run again. But then two things happened that changed my mind. The first was the wonderful smell of fresh bread and minestrone soup wafting from the open doorway; the second was the little angelic voice.

"Jamie! You're back! I saved you some soup," it chimed.

I stepped into the kitchen and searched it. I didn't need to look far, she was and arms reach away from me in his arms; in Jamie's arms.

"Annessa?" I breathed. "Annessa!"

"Alex! You're awake!" my little sister literally flew from Jamie arms into mine and I squeezed her tight, swinging her around and kissing her face again and again.

"Oh, baby, you're alright! You're not hurt, or anything?" I asked as I put her on the ground and dropped to my knees in front of her.

"I'm positively perfect! Mel said that I was a really big help with the dishes last night, and Wanda, oh she's nice; you'll like her. Jeb's funny, and Jamie plays hide and seek with my in the cornfield; it's so fun, and he waited for you with me, too. He's so nice." At the end of her little rave, she beamed at me so I smiled back and tried to process everything she told me.

A warm hand enclosed around my fingers and lifted them up. I followed my hand and locked my eyes with affectionate chocolate brown.

"I don't think we've officially met, I'm Jamie," he said as I switched my gaze to his lips while they pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. I felt weak, knowing how those lips felt on mine.

"I'm Alexia," I replied unthinkingly. "But everyone mostly calls me Alex."

"What do you prefer?"

I think this has to be the first time someone has actually asked me that question.

"I don't… it doesn't bother me," I answered.

"I like Alexia; it sounds prettier," he explained.

"Okay, okay. Move over, Romeo," a woman pushed Jamie's hand away and stood in front of me.

She was tall, and athletic, and her skin was a pretty tan a shade darker than Jamie's. Her was long, hanging around her waist and was a rich dark chocolate. Her eyes were a scorching hazel colour. She looked like she had too much coffee by the way she was bouncing with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Hi, I'm Melanie but everyone calls me Mel. I'm Jamie's older sister," on the word older, she stuck her tongue out at him and gave him a so-do-what-I-tell-you look.

I laughed and held my hand out to shake hers but she just pulled me onto my feet and into a hug which I returned graciously. She stood back from me and beckoned to the man on her left who had positioned his arm around her shoulders once she was beside him again.

This man was well built with darker tanned skin than either Jamie or Mel, and had sun-bleached hair and striking sienna eyes. He kissed Melanie's cheek and smiled and waved at me kindly when Mel introduced him as her husband Jared.

Melanie also beckoned around to two brothers who she introduced as Kyle and Ian. Both brothers were pale with jet black hair and striking dark blue eyes, and were equally as tall and muscular as the other.

"They also both have wives, but they're off doing some washing at the moment," Melanie told me.

"No we're not, we're here," I heard a young voice announce from behind me.

Ian and Kyle both took the baskets of laundry from the girl's arms and carried them to the table with the girl's trailing behind them. Ian picked up the tiny blonde one and kissed her sweetly before he trailed kisses down her neck to her giggles. Kyle picked up the smaller dark haired one and kissed her passionately before he set her down and laid his hand across her belly.

"Um, before you see them, there's something you have to know," Mel whispered to me.

"Oh, she'll like them even though they're some of them," Annessa said confidently.

"Some… of…" the realization pounded me in the face as I glanced up into the blonde's pretty little face and her reflective eyes. "No!"

I pulled Annessa behind me and stared at the blonde girl and the dark headed girl who had turned to face me and imitated the sunlight off her eyes as well. Ian and Kyle moved to shield their wives and stared at me warningly.

"Stay away from her. Stay away from me," I told the things as they peeked out from behind their husbands and the blonde one made a move to get around Ian.

"Wanda, no. Honey, you'll just make it worse. Baby, come on," Ian said as he made a grab for her hand.

The blonde one, Wanda, skipped forward out of his reach until she stood by Melanie's side. The two girls held hands and gazed at me compassionately.

"I know what you think of me. And I know what you think of others of my kind, of our kind," she gestured to the dark haired girl who was enclosed in Kyle's protective arms. "And I know why; they took your family, didn't they? The Seekers?"

"They broke us," I choked.

I began to cry as I backed away from her. Annessa danced free of my grip and into Wanda's side. Wanda combed her fingers through Annessa's hair lovingly, and smiled at me kindly. Jamie moved forward and clutched my hand, refusing to let go and moved closer to me to wrap his arms around my shoulders when Wanda spoke next.

"We all have secrets. We all have truths, we all have lives. Please, listen to mine."