Chapter 3
After my life-altering epiphany, I suddenly realized that I certainly did not want to go back to class. I wanted to stay with Kiorae, and never ever leave his side. Apparently, Kiorae didn't want to, either. As soon as we exited the nurse's office, he gently swooped me up and started carrying me somewhere. We were both drowning in each other's eyes, and at that point, I really did not care where we went as long as I was with him. Kiorae carried me to his car, which was a shiny and dazzling, white Honda Civic. Like I really noticed. Then I was placed in the passenger seat and he ran to the driver's seat and slammed the door. The car started when the key was placed in the ignition, and Kiorae floored it as we took off out of the student parking lot.
I then had half a mind to realize HOLY CRAP! Kiorae was going about 85mph down the highway and I didn't even know where he was taking me! And I wasn't wearing a seat belt! I snapped out of the fascinating joining of his eyes and mine, and I threw on my seatbelt. We sat in silence for about 5 minutes after I broke eye contact and I pondered on what would happen if I talked. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I asked, "Ummm… Where exactly are we going?"
Suddenly, Kiorae was avoiding eye contact with me and he replied oddly, "We are going to my parent's house, so we can explain some things to you."
I was tremendously puzzled by these facts, but I was also sorta disappointed, considering I had originally thought that he might be taking me on a date. Some irritating tears welled up in my eyes and I started to get really nervous on account of the fact that he was taking me to meet his parents. Of course Kiorae noticed the tears and looked extremely sad when he asked, "What's wrong?"
"N-n-nothing." I stuttered. Yeah, nothing.
"Really, are you okay?" Kiorae continued, still looking sad.
"S'not important." I pouted while keeping my gaze out the car window.
"Well, Anna, everything about you is important now." he stated, waiting for my reply.
I still kept my gaze out the window and didn't say anything.
"Huhhh…" He sighed, then grimaced, and we went another 10 minutes in a stony, awkward silence. Then I realized I had absolutely no clue where we were going, and all I could see was the long stretch of highway and surrounding trees. We then took a sharp turn off the road and onto what appeared to be an ancient unused path leading into the heart of the forest. Curiosity overtook me again as I wondered what his house looked like and then nervousness killed off the curiosity and left me practically pleading with Fate that Kiorae's family would like me. We finally arrived at his house, which was a colossal-sized white modern mansion with many windows and at least 3 to 5 floors. Plus, the front was directly on the beach of Lake George. It was the most breath-taking and beautiful house that I had ever seen. If it was even considered a house.
Then I realized that my mouth was wide open, which Kiorae had noticed and started chuckling. I gave him a half-hearted glare which just made him break out in laughter. Kiorae's laughter was as gorgeous as he was, and so significant that I could probably notice it from miles away. It sounded like the mix of a purring, content cat and a sweetly tinkling brook. In some-what of a trance, I started laughing, too, just because he was laughing. We calmed down a bit, (after 5 minutes of the outrageous laughter), and he got out of the car, opened my door, grabbed my exceedingly annoying crutches, and helped me get on my feet. We were still a bit giddy as he walked, (and I shuffled), to the door.
As soon as we walked in, the whole Stark family seemed to appear right out of thin air in front of us, and they appeared to be some-what angry. Oh, crap. This doesn't look good. All of a sudden, Kaylen (a.k.a. Kiorae's older brother) appeared out of nowhere and plowed Kiorae right into a wall, creating a giant hole into the next room. Then it was pure pandemonium.
While I was in total shock, a tall woman with a shock of short, pink-and-blue colored spiral hair yanked me out of the way of the fight and pushed me, (and my crutches), into a different room and locked the door. Reality hit me hard and I realized that I locked in a bathroom while Kiorae was probably getting pounded into a pulp right outside the door.
"Let me out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs while I furiously pounded on the door. Then I landed on my ankle wrong and I let out a squeal of pain as I crumpled to the ground. The hopeless tears started to run down my face again for the second time today and I looked around the room to see where I was. I was locked in a gorgeous and sparkling clean white bathroom that had luscious purple towels and both a shower and bath. There were three doors and, considering the one behind me was locked, I thought I may as well find some other route to escape and attempt to help Kiorae. "Door number one." I murmured as I opened a door leading into a orderly closet with Egyptian linens in it. Well, that was a dud. (But not really.) "Door number two." I sighed and opened the other door. It opened into a tan-colored room with a plasma flat screen, every possible gaming system available, a lot of furniture, and a foosball table. " So this is the pure definition of a man-cave." I thought and then giggled a little. Then I was reminded of the large fight occurring in the house by yet another loud crash on the opposite side of a wall. Again, I frantically started searching for a way to help Kiorae. I immediately grabbed a heavy iron stool and hobbled into another room with pale tan walls and a dining table with old-fashioned chairs. I limped through that room and had just gotten through the door-way of what appeared to be a sitting room when Kiorae and Kaylen burst through a door opposite mine. Enraged with the thought of Kaylen hurting Kiorae, I hurled the iron stool across the room, with such brutality that I didn't even know that I possessed, and hit Kaylen square in the head.
He stumbled and then crumpled to the ground with a dazed and confused look about his face. Completely oblivious to what I just did, I hurried over to Kiorae as fast as I could and tripped over a rug, and, of course, toppled to the ground. For about the third time today, I started tearing. Then harsh, cruel, reality hit me yet again and I realized what I just did. I killed Kaylen. Then I really started bawling my eyes out. This had got be the worst possible situation in which to meet a beloved's family. I was going to go to jail.
Kiorae, standing about 5 feet away from Kaylen, was watching him with a look of pure humor mixed with light wariness. My sobbing tore him away from the sight of Kaylen's limp body and he sprinted over to me. He crouched down, picked me up, and then placed me on his lap.
"I-I k-k-killed him d-didn't I." I sobbed into Kiorae's shoulder. Then Kiorae started laughing! I mean, what the heck!?!? Still sobbing uncontrollably, I attempted to get up to call the police and hand myself in, but Kiorae held me tight and continued to laugh. I was really confused now, and still sobbing.
Kiorae looked at me and, still laughing, said, "He's not dead! He's just knocked out!" Now I was really angry, overwhelmed, and so hurt by my own actions (and my ankle), that I blacked out in the middle of Stark's white, retro-style sitting room.
********
I woke up in an unfamiliar house, and in a strange bed that wasn't mine. Some can't possibly imagine why I freaked out a bit. Well, I did anyways. When I started to become conscious, my eyes fluttered wide open to the sight of an angled ceiling with white paneling. I immediately sat up and started hyperventilating and I went to roll off the bed. Instead of hitting the floor, I ended up hitting a sleeping Kiorae instead. I almost screamed, but managed not to, and I then finally realized where I was and why. I let out a deep sigh and Kiorae shifted on the bed. I froze immediately, and not wanting to wake him up, I slowly laid back down on the bed. I shifted onto my side and gazed at him while he slept.
Kiorae had such a slender face, with a slim nose and almond shaped eyes, and an aloft smile teasing along his lips. So tempting, I thought as I gazed. So tempting that perhaps I could lightly stroke his face….
Without warning, my arm raised to run the tips of my fingers down his beautifully framed face. Ever so gently, I was able to smooth the creases in his forehead, and to comb back a few stray strands of his angelic golden hair. My hand shuddered as if I was touching something forbidden, something un-human.
Suddenly, Kiorae rolled over on top of me and snuggled into my chest. Instead of flinching away as I probably should have, I curled into him in a little ball and deeply inhaled his scent. Kiorae smelled of musky vanilla with hints of a spice that sort of burnt my nose in a good way. He also had a potent lavender aroma surrounding his hair. I was about to think that was peculiar, but I really can't say that when I was the crazy person smelling his hair. Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed wicked tight. Now, not that I didn't appreciate that his arms were around me, but he was squishing me so tight that I couldn't breathe. I gently tried to push him back but that just made him hug me even tighter. Now he was strangling me, and I made another attempt to get out of his iron grasp. I threw all of my weight to the left side and we both fell off the bed. I landed on top of him and it felt like hitting a rock. But at least he wasn't constricting my airways anymore.
Kiorae woke up with a start (obviously) and I saw him wince a little from the impact of me falling on him. I immediately felt terrible, but as soon as he saw me, Kiorae smiled as bright as the sun. It was absolutely blinding and it made my face automatically light up, too.
"Well, good morning, Anna!" He said happily, hugging me closely, but nothing like the strangling hug he gave me before.
"Hey Kiorae! What's up?" I said, being extremely glad he wasn't angry with me for waking him up so rudely.
He chuckled."Well, Anna, you are."
I blushed a radiant bright red. And, of course, he noticed. I internally fought myself for a second on whether or not I should want get off of him, but I decided to be polite so I rolled off of Kiorae. I stood up, straightened my clothes and tried to maintain some of my dignity (while epically failing at that.) I offered a hand to Kiorae and he grabbed it. In a flash, I found him standing up quite close to me. A half a second later, I was in his arms and being carried out of the room. Kiorae carried me through a maze of hallways and down a flight of stairs. He then gently set me down and helped me hop into the dining room.
His whole family was sitting quietly around the dining room table. They all kept their faces blank and Kaylen was holding an ice-pack to his head. By now, I was so nervous that my smile melted off my face and I was looking for a route of escape. Instead of me jumping out a window or some other type of drastic measure, Kiorae pulled out a chair for me and I sat down. Kiorae calmly took a seat beside me and turned to talk.
"This is my family, the Starks, and this is Anna, my, uhhh, girlfriend." Kiorae introduced. At least he tried to make things a little more comfortable. If the tension of this room hadn't been as thick as pea-soup, I would have actually blushed at the thought of Kiorae mentioning that I was his girlfriend. Instead, everything just stayed in a stoic and uncomfortable silence, so Kiorae sighed and started to introduce his family.
"Anna, this is Amae, my sister." he pointed to a girl on the right. She was super-tall, super-skinny, and had super-long dirty blonde hair that almost reached her knees. She seemed pretty super. Amae leaned over the corner of the table to shake my hand and smiled encouragingly. I took her hand and received a violent shock through-out the rest of my body. I winced and immediately tugged my hand away from hers. It had felt like I had held on to one of those fake gum prank things except with the voltage of an electric fence. Ow.
"Oh, I'm sorry." said Amae, avoiding my eyes and looking terribly embarrassed.
Still a bit shocked, all I could say was, "S'okay." Kiorae sighed and the turned to bright-pink and electric-blue haired lady, who was holding hands with a tall and tanned man that had cropped dark-brown hair.
"This is Lenia, my mother, and Aremn, my father." They also held out their hands to allow me to shake them, but I was a lot more hesitant this time and I only nodded. Their hands both dropped at the same time and they nodded, too. Kiorae sighed again and turned to a petite girl with long dark brunette hair who looked like an Amazon goddess. She had gold plaits in her hair and gold bracelets lacing her arms and legs. She also appeared to have henna tattoos all over her body and face. And she looked kind of… Scary.
"Anna, this is Jayla, my sister-in-law, who's married to Kaylen, whom you've obviously met." explained Kiorae, trying not to laugh when he added Kaylen's introduction. Amae snorted. I blushed a deep red and nodded while Kaylen looked at me seeming confused, and Jayla glared angrily. My faced paled and I backed up into the chair a little more while Kiorae wrapped his arms around me and pulled me a little farther away from Jayla. She, apparently, was not very fond of me.
Meanwhile, Aremn cleared his throat and leaned onto the table. He cleared his throat again and began to speak. "Anna, do you know why you are here?"
I shook my head and replied, "No, sir."
"Well, it is because you have created a Mark with my son."
I looked at him, feeling utterly confused and completely lost.
Aremn shook his head and sighed. He gave Kiorae a disappointed look and that irritated me a bit. Five minutes of stoic silence later, I finally spoke up and heatedly exclaimed, "I think it would be a bit helpful if someone explained to me what a Mark means. Please."
Kiorae then spoke up and said, "Anna, honey, a Mark occurs when people like us find their soul mate. It means that you and I are joined both mentally and physically for the rest of our… Existence."
"What do you mean 'People like us'? And… Existence?" I asked him, being totally unprepared for the answer. Instead of Kiorae replying, Lenia spoke up for the first time, with a voice as clear and high-pitched as a bell.
"Anna, dear, we are vampires."
I never realized that I stopped breathing.
For the second time that day, I blacked out.