(If you see these [i] things…I forgot to delete them cause these stories are also on my Mibba account, and you have to use codes on there for italicas and stuff.)
Pictures of the Past
Terrific, Klara thought as she took the trash out. Right across the street from her foster mother's home standing in the yard were three Were boys.
One of them whistled at her, "Hey cutie! Saw you at school today, lookin' good! Where ya from?"
Fighting the impulse of turning around and beating the living shit out of them, she kept walking towards the grand house that she would be living in until Claudine decided to ship her off some other place. She liked Claudine, but every foster home she'd ever been in had only taken care of her for a week or two then sent her off. She didn't want to become too attached to Claudine.
"Hey." One of the boys was suddenly by her side. He sniffed her hair and breathed heavily, "You smell so good."
"Thanks." Klara said, trying to keep a smile on her face. She was nervous and quite scared, because teenage Weres were quite strong in the younger years. She walked a bit faster to the door but the young Were stopped her. "What's your name, sweetheart?"
"Klara." She said. "What's yours?"
"Max. Since when did you move in with that hot piece of ass Claudine?"
"She's my foster mother. And I'd appreciate it if you did not talk about her like that." She was getting angry. The boy could tell because her thick European accent was coming out.
"Where are you from?" The two other Weres showed up in front of her.
"Romania."
"What the hell are you doing in Louisiana?"
"Max, she smells really good. I recognize her scent." One of Max's friends said.
Max took another sniff at her and smiled. "You smell like a fairy."
Klara nodded, "Alright. May I go now?"
"Wait just a minute—so why are you in foster care?" Max's third friend asked.
"I—"
"Klara, time for dinner!" Claudine said happily from the doorway.
"Thank God." Klara breathed and hastily made her way into the house.
"Goodnight boys." Claudine smiled and closed the door. "Max and his two goons Jacoby and Justin giving you trouble?"
Klara nodded. "They asked me why I was in foster care."
"Did you tell them?
"No. I've lived this long without facing it. I'm not ready to revisit it yet."
Claudine picked up Klara's right arm and ran her forefinger along the six tiny numbers engraved in her skin. "One day you'll have to find closure."
"I'm not ready." Klara repeated.
Claudine nodded, "I know. Now go wash up for dinner."
Klara did as she was told and ran up the long winding staircase to her room.
A few nights later, Claudine and her (Fairy God Child?), Sookie Stackhouse, Were sitting in the living room talking about something in a hushed tone when Klara arrived downstairs with an old fashioned shoebox in her hands.
"Klara, I've been telling Sookie here your story." Claudine said.
"I know, and I've decided to go through my pictures. Just pictures, though." Klara replied.
Sookie smiled, "I'm so proud of you Klara."
Klara smiled back and sat down on the floor in front of the glass coffee table. Pulling out all the old photos washed a wave of emotion over everyone in the room. There were hundreds of them; family photos of birthday parties, school pictures, family get togethers. Then there were sadder pictures; Klara and her little sister standing in front of a barbed wire fence, barefoot in the dirt with raggedy prisoner clothes, their heads shaved and tear-streaked faces with new little tattoos of numbers on their forearms.
"Oh my God…" Sookie's eyes welled up. "You were in the…"
Klara nodded.
"Which one?"
"Auschwitz. I'm the only one left."
"Of your family?"
Klara nodded again. Claudine put her hand on her shoulder and squeezed, "This is too much for you at once, isn't it?"
"I guess." Klara replied.
"Thank you for sharing." Sookie said.
"I didn't mean to make you cry—"
"Oh no! It's okay, really. I'm just an emotional person and it's hard not to cry when you're seeing pictures like these."
Klara shrugged as she started putting all the pictures back into the box.
"You know Klara that there might be some vampires who were there too." Claudine said.
"We have to stay away from vampires though, so I doubt I could talk to them." She replied.
"What about other fairies?" Sookie asked.
"Well, maybe…" Klara stared off into space thinking that maybe there was a chance some of her relatives survived, or maybe a friend or two. She shook her head, "How would I find them if they did survive?"
"You could always check records." Claudine said.
"Or just forget about it." Claudine's twin brother Claude stood at the entrance to the kitchen.
Klara hated Claude. He was rude and stupid. And it sucked that he was [i]so[/i] damn good-looking, but he was also gay.
"Claude, I didn't hear you come in." Claudine said. Klara noticed Sookie roll her eyes at the sight of Claude and giggled.
"What's so funny?" Claude's eyes darted to Klara, then turned towards Claudine. "I don't understand why you adopted this brat. She clearly hates me."
"Maybe because you're an arrogant asshole who needs to learn manners!" Klara yelled.
Claude looked taken aback, "Did you just yell at me?"
"You deserve more than getting yelled at, but you're also not worth it. Dumbshit." Klara got up in a hurry and ran upstairs with the box in her hands and slammed her door.