An extra-extra-extra-EXTRA LONG chapter! Like 4 chapters in one. It didn't originally start out this long, I just got into writing and this was the result and instead of breaking it up I'm leaving it as is. Probably because once my parents get smart and ground me for the marks I got this year in school... well... let me just say I don't know when the next update will be.
DISCLAIMER: *Sitting with Melody*
Melody: But what was the point of this!
Me: What?
Melody: An entire chapter and I'm not the star! I want a chapter starring me right NOW! *Storms off the paper*
Me: Ugh, OCs. So tempermental. I don't own anything, it all belongs to Kelley Armstrong, all I own are my OCs... THAT NEED TO GET BACK HERE BEFORE THE CHAPTER STARTS.
*PLEASE READ: THIS CHAPTER, VIOLENCE, BLOOD, DRUG REFERENCES, SWEARING... DON'T COMPLAIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.*
Lilith's Point of View (9 weeks)
I sat waiting for father to finish work. I hated it when he took me with him to work, but I didn't have a choice. I had nowhere to go and I wasn't letting myself to be at our 'home' of sorts right now. We didn't even really have a home, we stayed with my dad's friend, or my dad's supplier/boss if that was better wording to use for that bastard. The bastard's name was Alex, and he had a reputation for everything and anything illegal that can get thought up, even murder, but according to him as long as it can't be proven you're safe.
"Come on you little bitch! Get up!" I heard Scott, my father's co-worker, shout at the teenager he was proceeding to beat to a bloody pulp.
The teenager, a boy named Cruz and also my friend, struggled to stand, knowing that if he couldn't stand it would just be worse because often the types of dealers around here preferred to beat people when they were down, rather than the other way around. Cruz was, as usual, late on paying for his drugs. That was what my dad and all his 'co-workers' were, dealers and pushers, the lot of them. I wanted to help Cruz, really, I did, but I wasn't stupid enough to help him. I would get beat along with him, because along with Scott was my dad and a whole lot of other drug dealers that were hyped up on whatever shit they were selling. It was easier to sell the stuff when you were on it, another one of Alex's life lessons. Even my own dad would beat me if I did something he didn't like and Cruz knew it so he held no grudges against me, but I think I held them towards myself for never helping him. I knew him well enough after all the times I've met him while he was with Alex and Alex's workers smoking up or even when we were just hanging out. Cruz was probably the only person that was never violent towards anyone unintentionally when he was high, that was as best as it got for me. Cruz was actually someone I would consider my friend, really, my only friend, everyone else labelled me as 'white trash' and I guess if I looked at it from an outsider's point of view I might actually agree with that label. A drunken mother that took off after popping the kid out and a drug user and dealer for a father.
Cruz coughed after a kick to the throat and with his cough came blood, lots of it. My eyes were glued to where he was getting pounded not even two metres away from me. I was sitting on a car, just watching this go down, it's what I always did when someone was getting beat up.
Come on! Get up Cruz! Please get up, I thought to myself.
I just sat silently while hoping that at any moment someone would decide that it was enough and they would leave him alone. Cruz payed them with interest, he even helped sell some of the stuff if he couldn't pay them well enough and that covered his debt. Cruz at this point was repeatedly getting kicked in the stomach and couldn't even make a move to protect his stomach because Cruz had to use his hands to protect his head that was also under attack. Cruz had blood gushing from his nose and a long deep cut on the left side of his cheek, along with those injuries were bruises that were forming all along the right side of his face when he had been kicked the first few times in the face before he could protect it, a swollen, busted lip, some fingers in both his hands were obviously broken by the angles at which they were bent, there were definitely ribs being broken, and I was sure that he would have some very awful bruising by the time they were through with him.
My breath caught in my throat and my heart practically dropped in my stomach when I saw what Scott was pulling out of the waistband of his pants, a gun.
They can't! They don't get to! Cruz has a little brother! A mom!
Contrary to what might be believed about the children of drug dealers, I didn't do drugs and haven't seen anyone murdered and I was okay with both those things, one a decision I decided and the other a stroke of luck, and I really didn't want that luck to end, especially if it ends with Cruz.
It wasn't slow motion, it was like it was moving at super speed, I was the one in slow motion while everyone else was on double time. Before I could even move slightly from my position Scott pointed the gun at Cruz and pulled the trigger, the sound of a gunshot splitting the air. I finally defrosted out of my frozen state and bolted forward, not even caring about everyone else, not even caring that I just pushed aside people that could, and probably would, slice my throat open.
"Cruz!" I said urgently, not so much a yell as much as it was a cry of desperation. At least I had the sense not to cry, as much as I wanted to, and believe me I did.
I felt a sharp whip to the side of my face and fell, hitting my head on the solid ground of the almost abandoned parking lot. I looked up and saw a very blurry Scott with the gun in his hand. I had just been pistol whipped and fuck, it hurt.
My dad violently jerked me up by the hair and slammed me into the fence, my head slamming into one of the fence poles.
"We're going to leave, we are going to go home," I wanted to laugh at what his opinion of a home was, "and you will say nothing about this. Do you understand me?" My dad said. I did understand what he wanted me to do, but since I'm not one for abandoning people I care about, I did the stupid thing, I spat in my father's face. My dad didn't count as someone that I cared about, Cruz did, that simple. I guess that as another person's point of view, it would be why pick a druggie over your own family, father no less, but Cruz wasn't just some druggie. There was a good side to a lot of people, and there was one to Cruz too. Cruz loves his little four-year-old brother and would never do drugs around him, he didn't want to put the kid at risk or influence him in any way. Cruz can stay up past 48 hours easily, and had done so whenever I was studying for a test or even when I was sick with the flu once and could barely get up, he took care of me. Cruz can speak four languages, drugs so called frying a person's brain be damned. Heck, he wasn't even high right now by choice.
My dad slapped me hard across the face, the exact same side that got pistol whipped, and it hurt like hell. I was going to have one hell of a shiner.
I heard heavy breathing as Cruz grew weaker and weaker with the blood loss from the bullet wound in his stomach. His natural tanned skin, the result of his mother being Spanish, was unnaturally pale, the white wife beater that he had been wearing was closer to being called a red wife beater than white, his black hair had a greasy appearance because of all the blood, dirt, and sweat that had accumulated on him during the fight, if it could even be called that, gang beating seemed more like it though slightly inaccurate term for my father and his co-workers. The worse thing was his eyes, Cruz's gray eyes were staring at me, almost like they were begging me to help him, but I couldn't, I couldn't even get to him.
I struggled, hoping that I might get out of my dad's, and now Scott's, grip. The gun was now pointed at my neck, and shockingly, I felt as if my veins were filled with burning ice, first I felt an icy cold and then a burning hot. A surge of power passed through me and then out of my body, I saw the rippled waves that the power made in the air, my dad and Scott were thrown as the waves hit them. Scott was thrown onto the front of his car, the windshield cracked and then broke under his weight, shards of glass slicing into his back, the front half of his body having fallen into the car so that he was hanging diagonally. My father was thrown several feet away and when he landed he hit his head on the ground with enough force to knock him out, or kill him, I wasn't going to check and the sound when he hit his head was loud and didn't sit well with me.
There were four others, and two of the four ran off after seeing what I had just done. Even I had no idea what I did, but it saved me and they feared it.
I ran to Cruz's side and felt a different feeling deep within me, it wasn't within my veins like before, but it was like it was all over me, this warm tingly feeling that meant everything good, I could smell warm cookies just out of the oven, I could hear music, I could taste chocolate, and I was seeing everything through a silver haze of wonderful. The cut on the side of Cruz's face disappeared as if it was never there, his lip returned to normal, his bones snapped into place and set there, but most shockingly was the place where he had been shot, through the hole it made in his shirt I could see the bullet come out and roll out onto the ground, and the hole close up as if there was nothing there to begin with.
"Cruz," I began, "Cruz, we need to leave."
Cruz looked at me like I had grown two heads and said in a voice heavy with breathing, "How did you do that Lil?"
"I don't know." I said, and for the second time that night I was jerked up by my hair again and slammed into the fence, I was really beginning to regret the choice of growing out my dark brown hair to a nice wavy waist length. It led to great pulling options for every asshole that felt the need to drag me.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU! SOME KIND OF FREAK!" One of the two remaining conscious guys screamed, having just slammed me into the fence.
"Which part gave it away? Throwing my father and Scott away without using physical force or the part where I just healed Cruz because both seem like pretty good clues. Instead of leaving you bread crumbs I left you a whole fucking loaf of bread and you didn't even pick up on it until now." I said, getting mouthy.
I took a punch to the face and tasted blood. I tried using whatever powers I had in me that made it work for me before, but nothing worked. I was about to get punched again when the guy stopped because there were the grunts and slams of a fight between Cruz and the other guy. Cruz looked physically okay, but his appearance looked awful, he needed a shower and a change of clothes. Cruz had the gun that Scott had dropped and was pistol whipping the guy, oddly enough, I felt sorry for him, that really hurt.
I took the distraction Cruz gave me and used good old fashioned violence. I punched the guy that held me up to the fence in the throat because I couldn't quite reach his face, in watching Cruz's fight he had neglected our fight and loosened his grip on me, he fell back just enough for me to get away from the fence and give him a punch in the stomach, it barely fazed him. Why the hell did the taller one have to come after me? I'm short enough as it is. Why do I have to be reminded of that fact at the worst time to be reminded of being short? I'm strong for a short girl, but really not well enough to deal with that guy. The guy punched me hard in the head and I fell to the ground. I was trying to get back up when I felt his weight on top of me as he began choking me and slamming my head into the ground every time I made the slightest move to stop him. I began seeing black spots dance across my vision when he did the stupidest move most men do when on the floor fighting a woman, they attempt to gain more balance and to do that open their legs, idiot. I bent my right knee and kneed him so hard that I really doubt he should hope about getting anything down there working right anytime soon.
"FUCKING BITCH!" I heard him curse at me as he got off me.
I ignored him and began into a coughing fit until I could finally breathe again and things stopped being so blurry, I moved my head so I could see Cruz, who had beaten the other guy into unconsciousness, I could see that he was still breathing, and Cruz went over to the guy that had been attacking me and started beating him, I didn't hold any pity for him though, I was way past that, I just wanted to run to Alex's place when he was gone, pack my stuff, run off and find out what was wrong with me, but only if Cruz came with me and went cold turkey without drugs. We did not need that shit.
I heard a car drive into the parking lot and said, "Cruz, we have to go! There's a car!" I knew it wasn't someone from this neighbourhood, with that kind of car we were looking at rich people that make great witnesses in court and we so did not need that.
Cruz wasn't paying attention. "CRUZ!" I shouted as the car drove closer to us and the guy flipped him over and the gun slipped out of Cruz's hand and I ran to get it, but when Cruz and the guy were fighting the gun slid under a car.
It was at this point that I noticed a man in the car was not who I would call a credible witness, partly because he looked half crazed and another part because he was driving with one hand because he had a gun in another. The woman next to him had a ball of energy swirling in her hand.
Before I could even get Cruz they had driven up to us, the man stopped the car, got out with his gun, and repetitively shot the guy that was on top of Cruz. The blood splattered on top of Cruz and with the dried blood he had on him from before he looked like he had gone for a swim in a blood pool.
The man then tried to give Cruz and myself what I'm sure was meant to be a reassuring smile, but in reality seemed more of a strained smile like he would rather be anywhere but here at that moment.
"My name is Marcel Davidoff, this here is Diane Enright." The man said, indicating to the woman that still had the ball of energy in her hand.
"Lilith." I said.
"Cruz." Cruz said, eyeing the energy ball in Diane's hand.
"As I understand it, you have come into your powers this evening." Marcel said to me, moving his hands as if to remind me what had transpired, like I could forget. I looked, Scott was dead. The shards that sliced into his back probably having pierced an important vein or artery or something. Scott's blood dripped down his body and into the car, coating the seats in blood. My father was indeed dead, and something in me felt really horrible about that, I guess I did care, just not enough. I knew he was because at this point I could see him clearer, I had a view of his eyes that were open and staring into nothingness. The two others were unconscious and bloody, but breathing.
"I only want to help you." Marcel continued.
I wasn't sure if they noticed, but Cruz and I snuck a look at each other. Over the years the two of us have developed something in the back of our minds, sort of like a bullshit detector and the two of us were getting strong signals from these two. Their goal wasn't to help, and we didn't know why they were here, but it wasn't for why they said they were. All Cruz and I had to do was figure out how to get out of here without getting killed. The woman, Diane, with the energy ball was scary and the way she was looking at Cruz did not sit well with me. I think that she was trying to figure out the best way to dismember him. A straight electrical saw or a circular one, one of life's harder decisions, at least for her.
"With what?" I asked carefully, hoping Cruz was coming up with an escape plan, because I had nothing.
"It's okay, we know. We have powers too." Marcel said, and proving his point, he moved his hand slightly and a shard of glass came out of Scott's back and went into Marcel's hand but slipped because of the blood. So he had telekinesis, and what power did Diane have? She could throw energy balls obviously, but was that her only power? And was telekinesis Marcel's only power?
"What are you people?" Cruz asked, and I thankfully noted that that question was only directed towards Diane and Marcel, not me.
"We will explain later, but for now it would be best if the two of you came with us." Diane said in a trying tone, still not extinguishing the energy ball, and that right there is why I had a feeling not to trust them. Diane came with energy ball at the ready, and Marcel came with gun and powers, and even now there was a minor threat that they were emitting. If their goal was to help Diane wouldn't have an energy ball in her hand, and their postures wouldn't be in an offensive stance, they would be in defensive in case Cruz and I tried to attack them or something, but they weren't, and Cruz and I wouldn't be going with them tonight because of that. Lies from the beginning are usually the only way to get a person to do something when the truth would obviously not give the person lying the same result and that was what was going on.
"We'll be fine." Cruz said.
"You do not know how to control your powers. You are a risk to others." Marcel said to me.
I had to agree with him on that point, but at the same time I wouldn't be his little pet to train and ask how high when he told me to jump, I could learn control by myself and with Cruz's help, if he ever was the same towards me after tonight that was.
"I know, but like Cruz said, we'll be fine. And if you need to explain anything to us, you can explain now." I said.
"Cruz shouldn't even be involved in what is to come and I am sorry he has to be, but it is what it is. You're a very powerful supernatural shaman. Shamans have the ability to be great healers and astral project, but as I said, you're powerful, and because of that you can project power out of yourself, power that in essence is you. You can put all your strength into these massive waves of pure, untainted power projections that can result in terrifying possibilities and it'll only get more powerful the older you get and look at what you're already able to do." Marcel said.
"Lilith can control it." Cruz snapped at him, tired of being ignored because he didn't have powers.
"She won't be able to by herself." Diane said. I noticed how when she said that to Cruz her fingers moved almost as if she was going to throw the energy ball at him, but I was sure that their goal at this point was to get me to go with them, and that included Cruz now because he knew too much, and they couldn't kill him because if they killed him I wouldn't buy the BS they were selling.
"And you just happen to know everything because of your money, powers, and self-absorption?" Cruz said in a tone that was the equivalent of saying 'How could I ever have doubted you?'
Diane gritted her teeth and smiled sickeningly sweet at him and said, "She won't. She needs guidance. Help. The only way she'll be able to get that kind of help is with people that understand her."
"You know nothing about her. Powers don't make a person and if we need to find another shaman or someone for her, we can, preferably a person that doesn't lie the second they speak." Cruz said.
"Drugs don't make a person either, but you still use them." Diane said.
I tried using the projection wave, but once again it wouldn't work. Why won't it work?
"Yeah, I'm really beginning to think that I should quit that habit." Cruz said, he was suspiciously close to me now. I hadn't realized it while we had been talking with Diane and Marcel, but he had been slowly moving closer to me.
My hands were behind my back and when I felt his right hand touch my right I almost jumped, but he started tracing letters with his finger in my hand and I struggled to pay attention.
P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N-S, R-U-N, A-F-T-E-R, he wrote.
W-H-E-N I C-A-N, I wrote back.
He gave a slight nod and Marcel noticed this, along with how close we now were and glared at the two of us, playtime was apparently over. Funny, I had actually forgotten about the gun when he raised it. I was about to panic when I felt the same burning ice in my veins and let out a breath, I felt the same familiar power leave me, only this time when the waves left my body and started rippling through the air, I felt myself loose balance. I felt as in I had been hit by a car and felt air rush past me, and then all I saw and felt was black.
Still Lilith's Point of View...
The first thing I heard when I woke up was a light drizzling rain. I opened my eyes and waited until the blurriness went away, it went away in my right eye, but my left eye must have been swollen because I was having difficulty seeing out of it. I looked around and noticed I was in what appeared to be a motel room. Two doors, one to a bathroom that I knew someone was using because I could hear the water running, and the other leading to outside. I tried sitting up, but felt as if my insides were burning and decided that laying back down was the smarter choice.
"Don't sit up. You broke some ribs." Cruz said, coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his lower half. For some reason that I didn't know he had bruises all over his back and arms, he reached for another towel that he had left out here apparently.
"How?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"You don't remember?" Cruz asked.
I shook my head and winced when the side of my face brushed against the pillow, that was how I knew that my face was really bad off.
"I remember everything up until Marcel raised his gun at us, then I don't." I said.
"Okay, you used your projection power, but when you used it, it was much more powerful than your first projection and you kind of threw us all back. Me and you didn't get it as bad as Marcel and Diane did," Cruz began explaining, his gray eyes darkening with the memories of what happened, "you have some broken ribs from when the force projection hit you and some bruising from when you flew into the fence. A possible concussion but we can't go to the hospital to check."
Really? What was it with me and that fence? What was that? The third or fourth time that evening that I hit that thing?
"I landed pretty harshly on the ground and got my bruises." Cruz said.
"And Marcel and Diane?" I asked.
Cruz looked like he really didn't want to tell me their outcome but said it anyway, "When you used your powers, Marcel sort of was thrown to the ground... on his head. The skin that covers his forehead was split open and he cracked his skull... badly. He's dead."
I felt tears spring to my eyes, I didn't know why though, he was a psychopath, but I was a murderer now, I had killed people.
"And Diane?" I asked.
"Hurt, but she'll survive. The other two guys from Alex's... organization are alright, beat up, but alright."
Cruz went back to the bathroom to get changed and then came back out in his bloody, torn jeans, minus a shirt.
"Where are we?" I asked, just to confirm my suspicions.
"A motel. It's about ten minutes away from the parking lot. You've been out of it for about an hour. We need to clear out before the cops come around asking questions about what happened back there. Questions that we can't answer, at least answer truthfully without seeming insane."
I gave another nod and asked, "Did you carry me here?"
"Yeah, duh." Cruz said.
"Once we get out of here we need to go to your place and tell your mom and brother to leave. Whatever this is puts them in danger. You pack your stuff and you go with them. I can't go back to Alex's so I'm going to have to get some money off of you, if you have any that is." I said.
"I'm coming with you. We'll tell them to leave and make sure that they're safe, but you're not leaving alone. I have money, at least enough to buy you clothes that is, but for now you can borrow something of mine." Cruz said.
I started laughing... hysterically. He had money? His lack of money was what had started all this crap in the first place and he actually had some? What the fuck was the matter with him? Some twisted fucking death wish?
"Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be for you to quit? It'll be like f'ing detox." I said.
"Okay, so you tie me to a pole if you have to or something." Cruz said, nervous about my mental health. I had to give him points for loyalty and determination.
I rolled my eyes and said, "Help me up."
He helped me and, very painfully, I managed to stand. Next problem, walking. It took a while but to my amazement we managed to get ourselves out of the room. The night manager watched us carefully, there wasn't any way that Cruz managed to get the both of us into that room all bloody and torn up the way we were without the man noticing, for one thing, he had to pay, and how he did I wasn't sure, and he also had to get the key to the room.
"Thanks." Cruz said, returning the key.
The man nodded and Cruz led me around back where the car that Diane and Marcel had been driving was there and waiting.
"You stole the car?" I asked.
"The option to leave it with Diane or ride in style for an hour or two. Hmm... let me think about that. Mine." Cruz said.
"What if she reports the car stolen?" I asked, getting in the front passenger seat. Cruz got in the front driver seat.
The both of us buckled our seat belts and Cruz started driving.
"We just drive far enough away, take a bus into the city, hang around malls, hotels, and heavily crowded areas and we should be fine, as long as you don't magically throw people through shop windows." Cruz said.
I glared at him and asked, "How the hell are we supposed to pay for it?"
He rolled his eyes and without taking his eyes off the road, reached over, and opened the glove compartment. Inside the glove compartment were 2 guns, a file, some change, and over five thousand dollars in cash, easy.
"Who the fuck keeps over five thousand dollars in their glove compartment?" I asked.
"Diane and Marcel. It's actually $11,055.37, I counted three times.
I was way off.
"Crap. Crap. Crap." I chanted over and over again.
Almost thirty minutes later, Cruz and I pulled into the driveway of his house. It was small but clean and well attended to, his mother's work, not his. Cruz's father wasn't around because he was in jail for being a drug dealer. Smell the irony yet?
Cruz got out, slamming his door closed and went around the side of the car, opened my door, and helped me out. With Cruz helping me, the two of us walked up the steps to the house and he opened the door, and almost instantly his mother was in front of us, yelling at Cruz in Spanish. Probably something about it being past one in the morning, our clothes being bloody, us looking like we had gone through a war, Cruz shirtless... the list of reasons she could be yelling at Cruz went on and on.
I looked confused between the two, no matter how many times I had seen and heard Cruz's mother yell at him in Spanish I never could understand what they said, and so I nudged Cruz and whispered, "What's she saying?"
"She wants to know what happened to us." Cruz said.
Cruz said something to his mother in Spanish and she stopped yelling and stood there fuming mad while Cruz led me to his room at the back of the house. Cruz's room was a disaster area, that's the only way possible to describe it. The walls were painted odd paint splatters of gray, white, and black. The furniture was completely unmatched and scratched. There were clothes, books, shoes, wires, DVDs, really everything that should be put away wasn't. The only room in the house that I wouldn't want to enter had to belong to the guy who I was friend's with. He couldn't have a clean room like his momma?
"What did you tell her?" I asked, moving some stuff off his bed so that I could sit down.
"I told her that I would tell her what happened after I got you some fresh clothes and got you into the bathroom to get yourself cleaned up. She wasn't happy about it, but could see that you needed it." Cruz said, looking through the last drawer in his dresser for some clothes small enough for me.
"Here. Wear this once you're done. The stains won't come out of your shirt, but some of the stains on your jeans should come out with a wash. I'll put your jeans in the washing machine before I talk to my mom and while you shower." Cruz said while handing me an old shirt of his that would probably go almost past my knees and a pair of basketball shorts.
"Thanks." I said.
Cruz helped me into the bathroom and left, leaving me to undress and shower by myself.
About thirty minutes and all the hot water later, I stepped out of the bathroom wearing Cruz's clothes and was towel drying my hair and wincing as I walked into the living room hearing the sounds of Cruz and his mom argue in Spanish.
Cruz's mother pushed past me and up the stairs to where Cruz's little brother's room, her room, and a closet was located.
"What did you tell her?" I asked, coming up behind him sitting on the couch.
"I told her that I got into some trouble with Alex, there was a fight between me and some of his guys and when one of them pulled out a gun on me and was about to shoot me, you interfered and got hurt. The gun was left behind because it slid under a car, and we stole one of the guys's car which had a lot of money in it that had been earned by drugs that had been sold and that we are both in some deep shit and all of us need to leave if we don't expect to get shot dead." Cruz said.
"Nothing about my powers?" I asked.
"Nothing about your powers. I also said that we need to separate from them for a while, just while we figure some stuff out and I get off that stuff. I don't want my bro to see me like that anyway." Cruz said.
I nodded and sat down next to him, wincing as my ribs screamed in protest.
"I'm not some great guy, and I won't ever be, but I really fucked up." Cruz said.
"We fucked up, not just you." I said.
"Cruz, move the car please. I have to back the van out of the garage so I can put some stuff into it." Cruz's mother said, carrying Cruz's sleeping little brother, Izador.
"Your clothes are in the dryer and won't be done for another half hour. Try getting some sleep while I help my mom pack up." Cruz said, making me lay down and putting a quilt over me.
It took about ten minutes, but I finally gave into the little bit of tiredness in me and fell asleep.
"Hey. Wake up." Cruz said, shaking me lightly.
"Five more minutes." I mumbled, not wanting to get up, the pain and soreness of my ribs finally setting in.
"You have to wake up. My mom and Izador left and you've been asleep for at least an hour, your clothes are done. Let's go. Up and at 'em girl." Cruz said.
I groaned but sat up anyway. Cruz had changed out of his jeans and put on a shirt. He was now wearing clean, black pants and a sweatshirt. Cruz held out my now dry jeans and I went into the bathroom and put them on, leaving the basketball shorts on the floor. I looked in the mirror for the first time since the fight, the left side of my face was completely swollen and bruised with some bad cuts. I lifted up Cruz's shirt that I was wearing and could clearly see severe bruising and swollen skin around my rib area. I really should go to a hospital, but that wasn't an option.
"How much money did you give your mom?" I asked, once I was finished and went back out.
"A little over $6,000. She said she wouldn't use it, but I think she will. She said that she'd trade in the van too, first chance she got, but to keep her cellphone and not lose it because that's the only way she can call to make sure we are okay."
"We'll just buy top-up cards on the way." I said.
"I put some stuff in the car right now, I think we'll be driving and riding buses until late tomorrow afternoon at best." Cruz said.
I just nodded and Cruz and I went out to the car and got in, it was a silent ride, neither of us wanted to bring up my so called 'projection wave' power.
We were almost to the bus station when Cruz spoke.
"Lil, what you did, what you're able to do..." Cruz started, not able to come up with the words to describe it.
"Is terrifying?" I supplied.
"Not only that, but what you can do, you healed me Lil, and not some metaphoric way or way by medicine but one minute I'm dying and the next I'm not. One minute you're about to get killed and the next you've thrown them away from you using your freaking mind." Cruz said.
"Yeah, that about sums it up." I said.
"You'll need to practice your powers." Cruz said.
"Yep." I mumbled.
"Think about the stuff that you can do." Cruz said.
Like murder...
"Cruz. Don't get your hopes up for me to do anything magnificent with these so called powers." I said.
He ran his hand through his hair, a thing he did when he was frustrated, "Will you please tell me what's so wrong? I get that you have powers and are scared and are in pain and trying to figure stuff out but what's so wrong with you that you won't even think for a moment that there might be some good to this?"
"I killed people." I said. "I killed my own father and you want me to tell you why I can't seem to find any good in this?"
"You have, but can you honestly say that any of those people were innocent, even your own father? Can you honestly say that Scott wouldn't have left me to die, that your own father wouldn't have killed you or let someone do it right in front of him? What about Marcel? If we didn't know he was lying from the beginning would we have gone with him? Do you think he's spouted that garbage about only wanting to help to just us?" Cruz said.
"Whatever." I snapped and Cruz drove the rest of the way in silence.
Before Cruz and I went into the bus station I shook my hair out so that it covered the left side of my face. I didn't want any questions and I knew that I would be easily memorable if I didn't.
"So which way should we go?" Cruz asked as the two of us looked at the schedule, the two of us were standing in the bus station, each of us with a backpack and were close to being the only ones there. So much for not being memorable. It was almost half past four in the morning and our options were severely limited as to where we could go, it was pure luck that the bus station was even open at this time, I thought for sure that it would have been closed. There were two options, one was the option of going full out into the city, which Cruz wanted to take, or the option of a city close to a lot of small towns, which I wanted to take.
"Why a city close to small towns?" Cruz asked.
"It's perfect. We can stay hidden well in both areas as long as we're smart about it." I said.
"Okay." Cruz said sleepily, I was sure that all he wanted to do was get on the bus and sleep until we reached our destination.
The two of us bought our tickets and got on the bus, the only other people on the bus were two old ladies napping, a little boy and a woman who I assumed was his mother, and three very chatty blonde women.
Cruz and I got into the last seat at the back of the bus. Almost instantly Cruz made himself comfortable against the window so he could sleep.
"What am I supposed to do while you sleep?" I asked.
"Read this. Marcel was your own personal stalker and I'm sure that Diane still is. I think they were studying you." Cruz said, handing me the same file that I saw in the glove compartment of the car that he had put in his backpack. Cruz then closed his eyes and told me to shush.
As the bus began moving, I opened the file and my eyes widened, the entire file was on me.
Name: Lilith Lezzi
Age: 16
Birthday: January 5th
Species: Shaman
Parents: Andre Lezzi (Father, human) and Misa Anders (Mother, Shaman)
Notable Powers of Lilith Lezzi:
Healing – The highest available form of healing, can heal all wounds without experiencing weakness afterwards.
- First showed symptoms of healing at the age of five, healed hurt bird outside of her home. Memory spell used.
Power Projections – Power Projections, an unknown power to shamans, takes an unspecified amount of time to recharge once used, possible recharge at a higher rate than before, a possible side effect of genesis II genetic modification. Unpredictable, dangerous, a risk.
- First showed minimal signs at age of six, small power projection against Dr. Flitz. Injection given once every few months to stop and then slow the progression of power until age nine.
Astral Projecting – Possible future power, has not showed any previous signs of having this power.
Dr. Flitz? My doctor was in on this too? Well, that makes sense. If I had to take injections to slow my power progression down, a doctor would be the best choice for that. A perfect excuse to poke and prod me too.
Progression: Possible rehabilitation, subject must be met to determine if treatment or elimination is the best course of action.
They acted as if I was a guinea pig and not even a person.
On that page was also a picture of me, my school ID photo from this year. My long, dark brown hair was pulled back into a braid, and my blue, almond shaped eyes were almost striking against the tan of my skin. Not much about me had changed since then, my hair was maybe a little longer and I grew a little, but other than that I was about the same.
I flipped the page and saw pages of reports that my doctor had made about me, so much for doctor-patient confidentiality, and some of what he wrote wasn't even important. Why would Marcel or Diane even need to know that I was hospitalized when I was two because of a really bad case of the flu? Or when I got tonsillitis at seven? It wasn't just stuff from my doctor that were in the file, school reports, summer activity reports, and even the very small record I had with the police, a simple breaking and entering, nobody got hurt. I had just been there when I was twelve while my dad stole, but I had gotten caught, not him. Point was, they wanted to know all about me, everything but who I was, only what I was and what I had done. Never me, and that would be their mistake.
I spent the next few hours reading through my file extensively. The file also had pages on the incidents that occurred when I was younger when I used my powers. I had been being watched by an organization called The Edison Group, and that wasn't the only organization out there, but The Edison Group was primarily the group that associated themselves with the genesis II project, which was, I learned, an experimental project on supernaturals, not just shamans, but witches and werewolves, and other types of supernaturals as well. The file didn't give all the details, but it had general information on what was going on.
"Cruz. Cruz!" I said, trying to wake him up. "CRUZ!"
"Huh! What? What's wrong?" Cruz almost shouted.
The old ladies that were now awake shushed us and I had the impulse to say, 'You shush', but instead I whispered so only Cruz could hear me.
"How much of this did you read?" I asked.
"Some of it. Just general information. I skimmed through most of it. I figured you would read it and tell me the highlights." Cruz said.
I rolled my eyes and said, "Stay awake. I want to get some sleep."
Cruz groaned and I knew that he wanted to go back to sleep but he agreed knowing that I needed sleep too.
When I woke up a while later, Cruz said that we were close to the last stop and near where the bus would be stopping there was a drugstore that we should buy some stuff at, just to make sure we had everything we needed. I agreed and at 11:30 A.M. that was where we found ourselves.
"Lil, should we get a first aid kit?" Cruz asked.
I gave him a look that said, 'What do you think?' and pointed to my face.
"Sorry, I'm just asking. You can heal people so I just thought I should ask." Cruz said.
"I can't heal myself, and keep your voice down." I whispered, the cashier was giving us strange looks.
The bell over the door rang and I heard a few people walk in, but since it didn't concern me I didn't look over.
Cruz got the first aid kit and got a bottle of advil. That made me smile, he either had a really bad headache from all of this or was trying to help with mine, either way, we'd need it.
"Can you get some yogurt? And not that ridiculous strawberry yogurt, the stirred blueberry yogurt." Cruz asked.
"Yeah." I said, rolling my eyes. What was it with him and his blueberry yogurt?
I walked down the aisles until got to the right one and bent over painfully to get the yogurt and when I stood back up as best I could I banged, smack, right into someone. The yogurt container fell to the floor, thankfully not cracking or breaking, and what little she had been carrying fell to the floor as well.
The two of us moved to pick our items off the floor, and it really hurt, I hoped that the first aid kit had something for broken ribs and not some instruction to see a doctor.
"I'm sorry." We said at the same time, and I finally looked at who had come in earlier. A girl probably about 14 or 15 with light blonde hair and blue eyes was trying to pick up her items. Two bags of chips, popcorn, and gummy worms. I reached over to pick up the yogurt container just as she reached over to get it for me, when my hand touched hers I felt all the good feelings well up in me, taking over my senses, and a long cut that she had on her hand healed almost instantly. She looked at me with wide eyes and I got up and began backing away and said, "Sorry. I'm–" and then just tried backing away, but she got up and what I didn't notice before was that she was pregnant, about three and a half months, maybe four months along.
I backed right into someone else and gave an involuntary jump and sharp intake of breath at the burning in my stomach, this time when I dropped the container the contents spilled onto the floor. I spun around and came face to chest with a really tall man. I tilted my head up that way I could see him better. He wasn't a man, but a teenager, I could see recent acne scars. I guessed that he was 17 or 18, he had long black hair, green eyes, and he had a very scary look to him, just in the way he held himself and the vibe he was throwing out. Not even two minutes later, another girl with whitish-blonde hair and a guy with black hair and multiple piercings were next to the girl.
I saw that Cruz had rounded the corner and he obviously didn't like what he was seeing because he walked right past the blondes and stood next to me, carefully avoiding the spilt yogurt.
"Everything alright?" He whispered to me, but before I could answer the blonde pregnant girl said, "She healed me." and she held out her now healed hand to prove it.
Dammit, how does one come up with an excuse to explain this? I either healed her or I didn't and I clearly did.
I couldn't even plead that she was insane because to say that would be to say the other three that had probably seen her cut earlier were insane too.
"Can we just go?" I whispered.
"Yeah." Cruz said.
Cruz and I made a move to pass the pregnant girl because neither of us wanted to pass the black haired, green eyed one.
As we had just passed her, the blonde girl started fidgeting but then blurted out her question, "Are you a shaman?" Cruz and I stopped and back turned around.
I thought for a moment and tried thinking of some way to find out if she was something supernatural, or at least knew about it.
"Have you met Marcel Davidoff?" Cruz asked them.
The guy with the piercings and the girl with whitish-blonde hair shook their heads but in their eyes I saw understanding, they were familiar with the name, I saw the other guy stiffen at the mention of his name, and the blonde girl said, "Yes."
All of us moved closer so we were in a circle in the middle of the aisle, luckily we weren't in the cashiers view.
"We know about the genesis project." I said.
The pregnant girl breathed out and asked, "Were you a subject that was genetically modified?"
"Shaman subject. Just found out not even 24 hours ago. What supernatural was Davidoff?" I asked.
"Half-demon. What do you mean 'was'?" The green-eyed guy asked.
"I killed him." I said calmly, wanting to test their reaction. If they freaked out, then I would know if they were with him or not.
Instead, the girl with whitish-blonde hair started clapping and she smiled, "Okay, so I'm Melody, this is Jaron, Chloe, and Derek." Melody pointed them all out and she continued, "Derek's a werewolf, Chloe's a necromancer, Jaron's a sorcerer, and I'm a witch." By the time she was finished the two boys were glaring at her, but Chloe was, if I wasn't mistaken, sniffing the air.
"So you're a shaman? What's your name? And what and who is he?" Melody asked.
My eyes were widened at her hype, but it wasn't drugs, it was all natural. I calmly said, "Yeah. I'm Lilith, Lil or Lily please. He's Cruz, and as far as I know, human."
"So how'd you eighty-six Davidoff?" She asked pleasantly.
"Melody!" Derek and Jaron almost shouted.
"What? We need her. Ends justify the means." Melody said.
"I can smell them." Chloe said.
WHAT. THE. FUCK!
Cruz was just as confused as I was, but we didn't say anything. We both knew that we were out of our league of understanding with this one.
"That means the babies trust them. Okay, so we now have supernatural guarantees that they're awesome! Can we keep them please? I'll take care of them! I promise." Melody said in a begging voice.
"They're not puppies Mel, I'm sure they can walk and clean up after themselves." Jaron said.
"Can we at least take them to the safehouse? What harm can it do as long as we observe them and make sure they aren't helping The Edison Group? The least that we can do to confirm their story is find out of Dr. Davidoff was killed or not." Melody said.
"They're hurt too, or at least she is." Chloe said, her obviously having decided to mention my obvious bruising and slight hunched over position because of my ribs.
"Why can't we just keep in contact with them? We don't need drugs around the house." Derek said in an arrogant tone. I didn't like him, he was kind of hot, but I didn't like him.
"We don't have any drugs with us." Cruz snapped.
"But you're on them." Derek snapped back, the two of them then decided to glare at each other.
Melody clapped her hands, effectively making them blink and snap out of it. "Okay, he'll be off the drugs while he's at the house. Any medical problems he has because of it Lil will heal once she learns to control everything better. The babies seem to trust them so I don't see a reason why we shouldn't."
"I can think of at least three." Derek said.
"You can think of a reason not to trust everyone and everything, Derek." Melody replied to his comment.
"Don't we get a say?" I asked.
"Okay, fine, are you coming with us or not? Our goal is to eliminate The Edison Group from the many supernatural companies of assholes, now, once that is done the option of finding other experiments or living happily ever after is up to you. So, yay or nay?" Melody asked.
I smiled, not because I was happy, but because I was amused. Melody's a very honest and to the point person, with her it seems like second guessing what she says never needs to be done because if she wasn't going to tell you something she'd probably just tell you that she wouldn't and leave it at that. Melody was a straight to the point kind of girl, and that's why I felt that going with them would be the right decision.
"Okay." Cruz and I said at the same time.
Derek didn't like having Cruz along, I could tell.
Chloe's Point of View
"I'm hungry. Can you hurry it up?" I asked as Jaron drove the four of us – Melody, Derek, himself, and myself – to the drugstore to get some food. It was the closest place that we could go that didn't have long line-ups and I was so hungry right now that I really didn't care where we went as long as we got there, got the food, and got out.
"If we get a speeding ticket it'll only slow the process you know." Jaron said.
I rolled my eyes.
"How's your hand?" Melody asked, trying to change the subject.
"It's fine. It just hurts a little." I said. I had cut my hand earlier while trying to re-organize some things in my room that didn't quite work for me anymore. I had dropped a picture frame and it broke and as I was trying to pick it up Simon came in the room and startled me, causing my hand to press into a sharp piece of glass when I jumped. He had apologized and tried to get Alexa to heal me, but she was insistent on me not getting any healing from her whatsoever, even if it wasn't baby related. It wasn't that bad, it just stung though.
"I can't believe she wouldn't heal you." Melody said. Melody wasn't getting along with Alexa very well because of this, not that they got along very well before I got pregnant.
"I can." I mumbled.
"It's completely ridiculous!" Melody continued ranting about everything that made Alexa so unbearable, including her hygiene habits, which I could have gone on happily without knowing.
I got out as soon as Jaron parked the car and would've been first inside if I didn't have issues adjusting to the baby bump problems, they easily caught up to me before we made it to the door.
We entered through the door and the bell above the door rang. I didn't realize anyone still put those up outside of small businesses of course.
When we entered I my nose was assaulted by two scents, that was weird, as the babies's powers grew so would mine, but I was still in the stage where I couldn't smell anyone outside of what the babies considered our pack. Maybe the powers were growing and I could smell everyone else? That didn't make sense though, I couldn't smell the cashier's scent.
I looked over and saw the backs of the two people who I could smell, a girl and a guy. From what I could see, the girl had dark brown, wavy hair, tanned skin, and was short, shorter than me even. The boy had black hair and a medium tan, lighter than Rae's but not by much. The boy's scent was weird, it smelled... contaminated? Like something was there that shouldn't be. Like something had forced its way in. The girl also looked hurt, the way she stood showed a slouch, but an uncomfortable one, not the kind people do to look 'cool', almost as if she had pins in her stomach.
"You okay?" Melody asked.
"Yeah." I said. "I'm going to go get some chips."
When I got to the aisle I decided to stock up on some junk food, so I selected some popcorn so that way Melody, Jaron, Derek and I could watch a movie tonight, gummy worms, and a couple bags of chips.
I could hear the girl's breathing an aisle away and it was abnormal. I was sure that she needed a doctor or something or at least some help.
I went to the aisle to check if she was okay and just as I approached her she stood up and we banged into each other.
Stupid stomach...
I went on the floor to collect my items and the both of us apologized at the same time, and the two of us looked over, the girl had striking blue eyes, but her left eye was bruised and swollen, along with most of that side of her face and I wondered what had happened. The girl looked to be in pain and I wondered what else was hurting her. I reached over with my cut hand to get her yogurt, it seems stupid, but I had this instinct to help her and protect her that I couldn't ignore. The girl reached at the same time I did, and when our hands touched my hand healed, and I didn't have the power to do that. I looked at her with what I am sure were wide eyes, just as hers were, and I knew that she had done it. She got up and backed away and was trying to make and apology but gave up and stuck to backing away. I got up, I couldn't let her leave without at least trying to help her, especially if she was a supernatural, shaman even.
The girl backed right into Derek and I heard her painful breath, and Derek scared her so bad that she jumped and dropped her yogurt and this time it spilt. The girl studied him for a few moments and I couldn't tell what she thought of him.
I wasn't sure how long it had been but soon enough Jaron and Melody were next to me, and I think that we gave her the 'surrounded, no escape' feeling.
Soon enough, the boy I had recognized standing beside her earlier rounded a corner and I knew that he was upset, it was easy to see. I looked from him to her and wondered for a moment if he was the one who beat her up so bad, but that seemed unlikely with the way he seemed so protective, not possessive.
He moved close to her and asked her if everything was okay, he obviously didn't know that there were two people here that could hear everything he said to her, no matter how quietly he whispered.
Before anyone could jump to the wrong idea I said, "She healed me." and moved my hand into plain sight to show them proof of that.
After a few moments of silence the girl whispered to the boy she was with, "Can we just go?"
NO!
"Yeah." The guy said.
They made a move to pass me, and I couldn't let them go so I blurted out as fast as I could, "Are you a shaman?" It worked. The pair of them turned around and looked at me.
"Have you met Marcel Davidoff?" The guy asked. How did they know about him? Were they part of the experiment too? What was he? They couldn't be working with Dr. Davidoff because the babies consider them pack which means that they trust the two of them.
Jaron and Melody shook their heads. All they knew were the stories they had been told, they had their own enemies from The Edison Group, but they'd never personally met Dr. Davidoff. Derek stiffened, obviously thinking the worst possible thing.
It was left up to me, "Yes."
At this point we moved closer together into a sort of circle that way we could talk without anyone overhearing, the security cameras were cheap here anyway, they wouldn't pick up anything we said, Melody knows these things.
"We know about the genesis project." The girl said.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, at least this was a way to communicate without it sounding too weird and to know what was going on with them.
"Were you a subject that was genetically modified?" I asked.
"Shaman subject. Just found out not even 24 hours ago. What supernatural was Davidoff?" The girl asked.
"Half-demon. What do you mean 'was'?" Derek asked. We all caught her use of the past tense when she was speaking about Dr. Davidoff.
"I killed him." The girl said calmly. Well, at least that explained her injuries. Dr. Davidoff came a knockin' and she put up a fight and won.
Melody made me want to laugh so bad, she start clapping, smiling and began introducing us, "Okay, so I'm Melody, this is Jaron, Chloe, and Derek." Pointing to each of us in turn, "Derek's a werewolf, Chloe's a necromancer, Jaron's a sorcerer, and I'm a witch."
I caught her scent again, and it was strange, but she had a familiar scent, almost something that I had smelled before, but couldn't quite place.
"So you're a shaman? What's your name? And what and who is he?" Melody asked her.
Her eyes widened for some reason and she calmly said, "Yeah. I'm Lilith, Lil or Lily please. He's Cruz, and as far as I know, human."
"So how'd you eighty-six Davidoff?" Melody asked, I cringed on the inside at her crudeness.
"Melody!" Derek and Jaron said, raising their voices.
"What? We need her. Ends justify the means." Melody said.
"I can smell them." I pointed out, trying to tell Jaron and Derek that the babies didn't think they were a threat and the babies had some pretty good judge of character.
The two of them were very confused, but they'd learn all about werewolf pregnancy over breakfast with Melody undoubtedly.
"That means the babies trust them. Okay, so we now have supernatural guarantees that they're awesome! Can we keep them please? I'll take care of them! I promise." Melody said, just about begging us. I didn't need convincing, I want Lilith to be around.
"They're not puppies Mel, I'm sure they can walk and clean up after themselves." Jaron said.
"Can we at least take them to the safehouse? What harm can it do as long as we observe them and make sure they aren't helping The Edison Group? The least that we can do to confirm their story is find out of Dr. Davidoff was killed or not." Melody said.
"They're hurt too, or at least she is." I said.
"Why can't we just keep in contact with them? We don't need drugs around the house." Derek said arrogantly. I frowned. I didn't like it when he acted superior to everyone else. At least now I knew what didn't belong in Cruz's scent.
"We don't have any drugs with us." Cruz snapped.
"But you're on them." Derek snapped right back at him. The two glared at each other and I was kind of worried that Derek would go wolf on him, he didn't seem to like that guy, or even the girl really.
Melody clapped her hands, and that managed to make them stop their glaring contest. "Okay, he'll be off the drugs while he's at the house. Any medical problems he has because of it Lil will heal once she learns to control everything better. The babies seem to trust them so I don't see a reason why we shouldn't."
"I can think of at least three." Derek said.
"You can think of a reason not to trust everyone and everything, Derek." Melody said in response.
"Don't we get a say?" Lilith asked.
"Okay, fine, are you coming with us or not? Our goal is to eliminate The Edison Group from the many supernatural companies of assholes, now, once that is done the option of finding other experiments or living happily ever after is up to you. So, yay or nay?" Melody asked.
I rolled my eyes at how blunt she was.
"Okay." Both Cruz and Lilith said.
It was a good thing we had taken the van today, otherwise we'd have space issues, but I was sure that issues were coming for us. For whatever reason, Derek didn't like Cruz, and I was sure that he wasn't too fond of Lilith either. Yep, this was going to get interesting.
Yep, it will get interesting. So what'd you think? I wanted to make some OCs without perfect lives, or at least without money and with some issues. That way I can do this:
Don't do drugs. You will owe the dealers money, and if you don't pay up, they will find you :D ... yeah, but seriously, no drugs.
Okay, and some people that have done drugs are normal, well kind of, there was this guy I went to school with, did drugs, but was a nice guy. He ate raw meat once... but still was a nice guy :D ... true story, but I don't plan on Cruz doing that... he'll just have been on the nice drugs that don't mess ya up too bad ;) Review! And try and guess what Derek's problem is and why Lilith seems so familiar to Chloe... I doubt you'll get it right, but try...