A/N: Thank you all for the alerts, favorites and reviews! Typically I do try to respond to each review individually through PMs, but I haven't had time to do that yet for this story, and so I apologize, but just know I really, really appreciate those of you who take the time to do so. It's always wonderful to hear your thoughts on the story and chapters and what you think is going to happen and even con-crit! Those of you wondering what they are should be able to pick it up from this chapter, even though they never come right out and say it. Also, for those of you unfamiliar with me or my writing, I do apologize in advance, but my updates tend to be sporadic and sometimes few and far between, I have a busy life, plus two other Kames stories I'm working on. However, I'm pretty excited for this story, the idea has been floating around in my mind for over a year now and I finally just decided to try and get it out and see where it goes. Please read and review if you so desire, and for updates to this and my other stories, you can always find me on Tumblr or Twitter, username is the same.
"So you want us to, what exactly? Treat him like a pariah?" Logan scoffed at James command.
James in turn focused a hardened look at the other boy, causing him to shrink back a bit. "That's exactly what I want you to do. All of you. No one tells him who he is, no one tells him who we are, no one even so much as asks him to be on their volleyball team in gym. Ignore him completely until I figure out how to go about breaking this damned curse once and for fuckin' all. This time is different. I can feel it in my bones and I know all of you can too." James flicked a look around the room, making eye contact with all of its occupants. Logan, Carlos, Jo, Camille, Lucy, Stephanie, Jett, Dak, he leveled a gaze on all of them one by one, conveying how deadly serious he was about his demands to not talk to the blond. Everyone nodded back solemnly in return because they knew James was right. They could sense the changes as well, feel the finality of this cycle just as James could.
"Good. Then it's settled. Now get the hell out of my house," James jerked his head towards his front door as he strode out of the living room, trusting that they would do as he commanded like always.
"Guess we can show ourselves out," Lucy muttered as James disappeared up his stairs without another word.
"Is it just me or has he found a way to become an even bigger douchebag in the past twenty years?" Dak asked, holding open the door for everyone to walk out of James' house ahead of him.
"What happened to the tree?" Jo ignored his question, asking one of her own and pointing at the empty spot in James' front yard.
The rest of the group followed her finger, tilting their heads in confusion.
"Looks like James burnt it to the ground," Jett shrugged, unworried.
"He wouldn't do that. Not to that tree," Countered Logan with a quick shake of his head.
James rested on his back, one arm under his head as he stared up at the bright sky, admiring the way the sun's beams streamed through the branches, illuminating the soft yellows that the leaves had changed to when fall had arrived.
The blond haired boy lying on James' chest shifted, propping himself up on his elbows and smiling down at the brunet.
"It's impossible for me to believe that we're doing anything wrong amidst a moment as perfect as this," He confessed softly.
James offered up a lazy grin in response, leaning up and pecking the boy's lips with his own. "That's because we're not. Just because the rest of the village doesn't agree that doesn't automatically mean we're in the wrong. We're right. And I know we belong together. There's just you and there's just me, Blondie. And that's all we'll ever need.
"Promise?"
"A thousand times over."
"There's also our tree," The blond haired boy smiled, laying back down next to James and linking their fingers together.
"There's also our tree," James echoed with a smile of his own, squeezing the hand that rested in his own.
"How was your first day?" Kendall's Aunt asked as he trudged in the door behind his younger cousin.
Kendall shrugged noncommittally, heading towards the kitchen, beginning to regret his earlier decision to throw out his lunch.
His Aunt followed him, refusing to be thwarted that easily. "Did you make any friends?"
"Not exactly," He muttered, an image of Motorcycle Dude appearing his mind that he immediately mentally swatted away.
"Well how did you like your classes and your teachers?" She pressed on.
"It's high school. Aunt Jen. It sucks no matter what freaking state you're in." What was it with adults always wanting to know how school was and what happened the second a kid walked in the door? It was school. Of course it sucked. The last thing a kid wanted to do after spending seven hours listening to teachers drone on and getting bullied by other students was go home and fucking discuss it. His mom used to do the same thing. Eleven years of replying with 'It was fine,' which was obviously a lie, had never once stopped her from asking.
Of course, now she'd never ask again and Kendall wished he'd been more communicative with her. He regretted all the times he'd ignored her or talked back instead of just giving her what she'd wanted and sharing a little bit about his life. He'd never have the chance to remedy that now. She'd been his mom and she'd loved him and all she'd ever asked for was to hear how his day was, but no, Kendall had to be the stereotypical bratty teenager and treat her like she didn't matter half the time.
"Kendall?" His Aunt asked softly pulling him from his thoughts.
He blinked and realized he'd been standing with the fridge door wide open staring in listlessly for quite a few minutes now. Kendall shut the door and turned around to his Aunt. "I miss my mom," He acknowledged quietly.
"Oh, sweetie," She replied, sadness tinged in her voice as she wrapped her arms around her nephew, enveloping him in a tight embrace. "I know you do. I do too. And it's okay to miss her and to be sad. Your mom was a wonderful person. Creative, intelligent, charismatic. I see so much of her in you."
"Really?" Kendall asked surprised. In his eyes, his mom had been pretty amazing so he couldn't really think of anything better than to be like her. He didn't see it himself, though. And he didn't quite believe his Aunt Jen because he didn't think he'd ever measure up to the goodness and talent his mother had possessed.
"Really. On the inside and out," She assured him, squeezing him once more before letting him go and taking a step back. "I know we don't really know each other yet, but we are family, Kendall, so I want you to know you can come talk to me anytime you need to, okay? Even if you just want to trade memories about Liz."
Kendall nodded and choked out a mumble of, "Thanks," Willing himself not to cry.
His Aunt, always the perceptive one, picked up on this adding, "It's okay to cry too." She could sense that Kendall was too embarrassed and uncomfortable to cry in front of her so she gave him an easy out. "Why don't you go watch some TV and relax and then work on some homework? I'll let you know when dinner is ready," She suggested kindly, rooting through the cupboards and producing a bag of chips and then retrieving a can of Coke from the fridge, holding them both out to Kendall.
"Okay," Kendall agreed, gratefully taking the provisions from her with a tight smile. "Thanks, Aunt Jen," He added, loping out of the kitchen and taking the stairs two at a time, waiting until he had his door firmly shut to le the tears that had been threatening to spill before finally fall.
Kendall put the snacks on his desk, appetite diminished once again and curled up on his bed, hugging his pillow close to his chest and allowing the waterworks to flow freely now that he was locked away in solitude.
It just didn't seem fair. She'd only been thirty-one. She was supposed to live a long life and be there for Kendall. His mom had always been so happy, rarely without a smile decorating her face and one of the kindest people he'd ever known. It just wasn't right that someone so good and full of life had been taken from the world so early and in such a cruel manner.
Kendall just couldn't wrap his mind around any of it. It'd been barely two weeks ago when he'd been in the kitchen making breakfast for him and his mom who was working an overnight shift at the hospital where she was a nurse.
Kendall had gotten up early for school, wanting to surprise her since he knew how hard the overnight shifts were on her and how worn out she always was when she trudged in the door after a long night just as he was leaving for school.
He was flipping the pancakes when the doorbell rang, startling him.
Who the hell is here this early? He thought to himself, turning the griddle down so breakfast wouldn't burn.
He got his answer a few seconds later when he opened the front door to reveal two police officers on his doorstep. His heart dropped instantly as he saw the grim looks on their faces. He had a sinking feeling they weren't here to question him about the cut of weed in his backpack upstairs.
"Kendall Knight?" The female police officer asked, confirming his suspicions by the overly kind tone of her voice. That tone people only used when they felt sorry for you because they were about to deliver you very, very bad news that would turn your whole world upside down and leave you heartsick.
Kendall nodded mutely, fighting the urge to cover his ears or slam the door in their faces like a two year old having a tantrum. Maybe if he didn't hear what they had to say it wouldn't be real and the world would fix its mistake.
"Your mother is Elizabeth Knight?"
Again Kendall nodded, refusing to respond verbally.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your mother was stabbed at a bus stop around three AM," She informed him, the pity evident in her voice.
Kendall shook his head. "That's not right, her shift didn't even end until six. Maybe you have the wrong person?" He asked feebly, as if he could reason his way out of this.
"I'm so sorry honey, but we don't. One of the doctors at the hospital said she was sent home early because she was sick."
"Well she's okay right? I mean, she's going to be?" Kendall asked hopefully, even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.
It was the officer's turn to shake her head softly now, turning to her partner for support.
"I'm sorry son," The policeman said gently, speaking for the first time. "She was pronounced dead on arrival. One of her co-workers identified her body."
Tears began to cloud Kendall's vision and he began to vehemently shake his head back and forth, his entire body starting to shake violently and his knees threatening to buckle and give out on him. "No," He protested weakly, grabbing the door-frame for support. "That's not right. She can't be dead, she was fine last night. This is just some type of sick joke, right?" His voice raised in pitch as he got himself more and more worked up the longer he protested.
"I'm so sorry," The female police officer repeated, placing a hand gingerly on Kendall's shoulder which he quickly brushed off, just wanting his mom to pop out from behind the bushes hollering 'Gotcha!'
But of course she didn't. Because this wasn't a prank. It was a godamn tragedy. Wordlessly, Kendall turned from the police officers lingering on his front porch and the pancakes burning in the kitchen, taking off out the back door, hurrying down the steps of the back porch before breaking into a full on sprint, not caring or noticing that he was still in his pajama pants.
The sand kicked up from his heels behind him as he ran across the beach, not stopping until he was submerged in water up to his waist, and then he began to swim for all he was worth, choking and gasping on the sea water, trying his best to run and hide from this, as if that would somehow make the situation reverse itself, make it not real. This was just a nightmare. A terrible, horrible nightmare, and any minute his mom would walk through the front door, home from work and poke her head in his room, cheerily sing-songing "Rise and shine sleepy head!" Just like she did every morning and the he would wake up from this hellish nightmare.
James could feel the familiar onslaught of an emotion that didn't belong to him breaking into his mind and overtaking his own thoughts and emotions. A heart wrenching sadness, filled with despair and longing seeped into his heart as if it was own, even though he knew the emotions actually belonged to a certain blonde haired boy who was currently experiencing them. This side effect was probably James' biggest gripe about having a soul mate, and yet at the same time he wouldn't have traded it or given it up for the world.
When Kendall got angry, James would feel himself being taken over by a sudden, irrational anger. If Kendall was sad, James was overcome with misery. If Kendall was confused, James had been known to stop in his tracks, suddenly unsure of what he was doing, where he was going and sometimes even who he was.
In the end, it didn't matter what James said he felt internally as he lived Kendall's emotions as if they were his own. Because in reality, James loved knowing exactly what his Blondie was feeling at any given time of any given day. He felt that it kept them connected even in the midst of the numerous and overwhelming years they sent apart in which James couldn't talk to or be with his love. And that was important to James, because he spent so much of his life alone, without the blond, in love and lonely because his soul mate didn't even know he existed yet.
"I wish I could be there to help you through this heart ache right now, Blondie," James said aloud to his vacant house.
He hated, absolutely despised knowing that his boy was suffering and there wasn't a godamn thing he could do about it. He couldn't rectify the situation, he couldn't hold the blond, couldn't comfort him. Couldn't even let him know he was there for him and that he cared about him. He just had to stand idly by while Kendall suffered.
"You don't know it, and you don't understand it yet, but I know you can sense in your heart that you're not alone. I'm here. I promise. I've always been here and I always will be here. I love you my beautiful yellow haired boy," James urged Kendall to feel him, to sense him, to know he wasn't alone, even though he knew it would only confuse the blond more.
Because he would do just that. He would sense James, feel a part of his heart missing, but never be able to pinpoint it. Never connect the dots. Not unless James came clean and admitted everything to him for the umpteenth time. But that was something James couldn't risk yet, not until he figured out how to end this once and for all. Not until he figured out what was different this time. Not until he had a plan. He couldn't risk putting Kendall in any more danger than he was already in until he knew what exactly it was they were up against this time.
Being with Kendall for eternity, living their lives together without the constant interruption of death and rebirth was the only thing James had ever wished for. Every birthday candle blown out, every falling star spotted in the night sky, every coin tossed in a fountain…they all ended with the same way. With James wishing, practically begging the universe to lift the damned curse already and let him and Blondie have their happily ever after that James was convinced deep within his soul they deserved. They'd surely earned it by now. Yes they'd made their mistakes all those centuries ago. But they'd learned from them. Surely they'd paid their dues by now, served their time. How much longer did they have to be punished for the mistakes of their youth? How much longer would they have to suffer?
But for the time being, James' wants and needs and wishes went ignored and unanswered by the universe. Same as always.
"You've never even realized it but I need you and your love way more than you'll ever need me and mine, Blondie," James continued to speak aloud to the boy that wasn't there. Every day he was forced to live alone, biding his time until he got those few treasured months with his love James could feel the darkness inside him, trying to take over again. Trying to make him repeat his mistakes, to fuck up again, to risk an even more severe punishment if that was possible. The blond was the only thing that kept James grounded, his love the only thing that allowed James to fight the evil that dwelled, hibernating in his soul, begging to be released again.
That was the way it'd always been, from the very first moment they'd met. They balanced each other out, they completed each other. Where James was filled with the darkness, Blondie was filled with light, where James was full of hatred and anger, his blond was peaceful and loving. He was the yin to his yang. He hadn't been able to keep the evil at bay until he'd me his boy, but once he'd laid eyes on him he not only found a way to lock it deep inside and hide it away, he'd wanted to. Before then he'd relished in the blackness of his soul, the darkness handed down to him by his ancestors. He'd enjoyed the suffering of others, enjoyed his malevolent ways and had no interest in changing.
And then, one fateful night while he'd been resting under an enormous oak tree, back resting against the trunk as he played around with a ritual he'd performed countless times, Blondie had appeared. Bathed in the white glow of the moonlight, looking like an angel and cutting straight through the shadows surrounding James' heart, piercing into them with his goodness. Soul mates were fairly rare, even back then, but everyone in the villages knew the stories. How you would look into someone's eyes and just know, the silver thread that only you and your soul mate would be able to see that connected two hearts to make them one. The burning sensation as a silver-white mark in the shape of two small circle appeared on your chest over your heart, the place where the invisible thread wound into and out of your body and that of your soul mates. An unbreakable and eternal thread, keeping you connected to each other for life, letting you know that this was the person you were meant to be with. No one else would make you happy, and if you were ever parted you would always feel incomplete.
James had never really believed in all that, chalked it up to folklore, fantasies, he'd never met anyone who knew of two actual soul mates. They made for beautiful bedtime stories, but James had always thought the idea of true soul mates was just that, stories.
Until he experienced everything he'd heard about and so much more firsthand the moment he looked up into the beautiful green eyes of a yellow haired boy.
They'd been damned from the start, though, star-crossed lovers. James coming from darkness, Blondie coming from the light, they were on opposite sides of a long history of two groups that despised each other and wanted nothing but to see the other one destroyed. Their love was forbidden and yet fated to happen at the same time.
James jumped, then shot a nasty glare towards his phone that sat on the coffee table when it gave a shrill ring, piercing into his memories and cutting off his thoughts. He ignored it at first, but finally gave in and grabbed it with an annoyed sigh when it started ringing a second time.
"What?" He growled into the phone, not at all concerned with his manners as he absent-mindedly traced the silver-white mark over his heart.
"James? It's Camille. I think I found something out that you should really be aware of."
In the midst of his self-pity and depression, Kendall was hit with an inexplicable feeling of sympathy and comfort that he couldn't make rhyme or reason of.
He was unsure as to who or what he was feeling sympathetic towards and the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he should understand everything when in actuality he understood nothing.
"Godammit!" He yelled a muffled curse into his pillow followed up with an authoritative punch to it.
A soft knock sounded at his door and he stiffened, hoping he hadn't been overheard.
"Yeah?" He mumbled, face still smooched into his pillow, not bothering to lift his head up.
"It's Katie. Can I Come in?"
"I guess," He grumbled in response, even though he really wanted to tell her to go the fuck away and leave him the fuck alone.
"Hey Cuz," Katie greeted, sidling into his bedroom and sitting tentatively on the edge of his bed.
Kendall pulled his head up from his hiding spot in the pillows and covers momentarily and mumbled back a "hey," before burying himself back in his security blanket and pillow fort.
"Do you need anything?" Katie asked hesitantly, afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing, not wanting to piss off her older cousin or cause more sadness in him.
Kendall didn't respond, and Katie took a deep breath, steeling herself for the possible chewing out she might be about to receive, but plowing ahead anyway. "I never got to meet Aunt Liz. Could you tell me about her?" She requested.
Kendall's head rose from his fortress for a second time, giving Katie a suspicious look at first but then relaxing into a sad smile. "My mom was incredible. An amazing musician," He began, his face brightening as he thought about his mother and started telling his younger cousin all about the woman she'd been that Katie would never get the pleasure of knowing now.
"All right, humor me. But this had better be worth my fucking time," James warned, still annoyed at being bothered.
"Oh it is. In fact it could just help you figure out a way to break the curse for good. If it leads to what I think it does."
James' ears pricked and he sat up, intrigued, gripping the phone tightly in his hand. "You have my attention. Continue."
"He showed up really early this cycle, right? Earlier than ever before. By quite a bit, right?"
"If you're just going to ask me rhetorical questions and rehash everything we just talked about the whole time, I'm hanging up," James informed Camille impatiently.
"Knock it off, James. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise," Camille rolled her eyes.
"Then get to it already," He demanded through clenched teeth, his knuckles turning white from the tight grip he still had on his cell phone.
"He wasn't supposed to show up any earlier than normal. Someone forced the hand of fate to cause it. Someone wanted him to show up early this time," Camille told James ominously.
"Who? And how? And why?"
"Someone close to us that we thought we could trust took it upon themselves to stab his mother to death instead of waiting and allowing her to die the more natural death she was supposed to next year."
"Quit playing games and beating around the bush Camille and tell me who the fuck it was and how the fuck this relates to ending the damned curse already!" James lost his cool, raising his voice and snapping at the curly haired brunette.
"Two weeks ago when his mom was killed what two people from our own coven were mysteriously missing? Who never did really bother to explain their absence and whereabouts?" Camille asked smugly.
James grew eerily silent on the other side of the phone before Camille heard him erupt in a "Motherfucker!" Followed by a crash and a lost call as James threw his phone across the room with all his might and then turned and punched a hole in the plaster of his living room wall.
"I think Camille suspects something," Lucy said with a sigh, turning to Jett, who rested in the bed next to her.
"She can suspect all she wants, but she has no proof. And even if she did, there's no way she knows everything. You worry too much, Luce. We've been careful, we've planned and waited and taken our time. Built up James' trust. For the past hundred years we've played the good little followers that James expects us to be and pretended to help him break the curse. Everything is set in motion. This is the year we've been waiting for, Lucy. This is the only year it can be done, the only year the stars align in just the right way to allow the ritual to be performed. We've made our sacrifices, we've paid in our own blood and we have everything we need. You'd better not be getting cold feet and planning on backing out now, because I will do this with or without you," Jett told her menacingly, lighting up a cigarette and ignoring the glare that earned him.
Lucy rolled her eyes, climbing out of the bed and grabbing her discarded clothes from the floor, beginning to get dressed.
"I'm not getting cold feet, and I'm not backing out. I'm just saying we have to be very, very careful from now until the end. Camille won't hesitate to run to James, she's a good little follower, remember? And we've worked too hard to make a mistake now and get caught. We need James to continue to think we're on his side. In case you've forgotten, he's the only one with the power to end our lives for good. There would be no coming back if he decided to kill us and you know damned well if he so much as has an inkling any of us aren't on his side or that we're getting in between him and his precious Blondie he will not hesitate to end us. For good, Jett."
Jett gave his own roll of eyes at Lucy's speech, just as she'd done to him, and reached out, snaking his hands around her waist and pulling her back to him. "He's not going to find out. By the time he realizes what's going on it will be too late to stop us. Just a few more weeks, baby. And then it's just you and me for eternity. Everyone else will be gone for good, the only person who can kill us will be dead himself, and you and I can conquer this world. So quit you're worrying, quit putting your clothes on and get that sexy ass back in bed with me," He smirked, sitting up and tugging her shirt back off.
Lucy allowed Jett to pull her back into bed, and he began to trail kisses on her neck.
"I'll just feel better when it's all done and over with. James scares me," She admitted.
"Well he doesn't scare me. He's all talk. And once he realizes we've killed his precious Blondie for good the poor sap will be so busy whining and crying about it that he won't even realize it doesn't end there," Jett promised. "Now shut about James. Worry a little bit less about him and a little bit more about me and my problem," Jett leered, moving Lucy's hand down so she could feel what 'problem' he was referring to.