Saved by An Anomaly
I'm woken up Saturday morning by laughter and squeals. Damn it my family must be here. Couldn't they have come later since all I want is to sleep? Last night I did not sleep well, my dreams were full of a lake of dead people and exploding toilets which made for a terrible nightmare. And now in my tired state I was going to have to play nice, my definition of fun.
Emphasis on the sarcasm there.
Figuring I still smelled of toilet water I decide it would be a good idea to go and take a quick shower. Technically the water didn't actually touch me, but it was an excuse to postpone seeing my lovely cousins. Still, I have no clue how the hell I managed to make all the water explode onto Bill. Ms. Tall did say I was going to evolve more powers but I'm not sure exactly what I did or how I did it. My best guess was that either I have telekinesis and somehow made the stuff happen or I can control water.
Or it was all my imagination but that's unlikely considering that Dylan was standing right there. Apparently I'm just that much more of a freaky Halfling now, which I still don't know what that is.
"Matthew Sean Nash get your sleepy butt down here!" Mom shouts from the kitchen, it has the biggest echo thus how I know. And must she use my whole name?
"Coming Mom I'm just getting dressed," I call back and painstakingly brush my hair and teeth to kill even more time before throwing on a pair of jeans and a Roosevelt Football tee-shirt. It was probably my favorite shirt. The front of it said Roosevelt Football Swag and the back of it said quarterbacks get it done best. Mom had a cow when I first brought it home but I convinced her it wasn't sexual even though it was. Dad just found it to be hilarious.
Finally dressed I rush down the stairs before my parents can get madder at me and almost run into my sister on the way down the stairs. Apparently she's taking her time to get downstairs too. I'm still laughing at that as I enter the kitchen and am immediately pulled into a huge hug.
"Hi Aunt Victoria," I smile as she releases me. "Hi Uncle Aidan."
"Oh my gosh you've grown so much Matt," my aunt gushes and ruffles my hair. I flip it to get it back how it was. "You must be six feet now!"
"Not quite," I laugh.
"Your rents still giving you too much artificial shit then?" Uncle Aidan shakes his head reprimanding."
I snort, "Not sure but I'm due for a growth spurt any day now with how I eat."
"Good," he nods.
"You forgot to hug me," Alice whines and stomps her foot.
Oh Alice, "How could I ever forget you Alice? Is that a new shirt?"
She smiles and looks down at her sparkly purple shirt, "You noticed! I'm wearing new shoes too. They're all the rage in my unicorn lover group."
I fight the urge to roll my eyes and laugh as I notice her sparkly rainbow high-tops with unicorns on the outside. "They're nice. Where's Lilly?"
"She's in the backyard with her boyfriend."
"I forgot she brought her new boyfriend. Is he spending the day with us too?"
My parents catch my tone and Dad chuckles at my obvious enthusiasm whereas Mom shoots me a look that screams play nice. Aunt Victoria and Uncle Aidan don't catch it however and just nod in answer of my question. Hopefully Lilly's boyfriend isn't too much like her and saves me from a horrible day. My douche friends still were refusing to spend the day with me.
For about an hour the seven of us are just hanging in the kitchen and eating the chocolate chip pancakes Sarah made. And for a little girl she was a surprisingly decent cook. Lilly is still nowhere to be seen and I'm okay with that. It's hard enough just dealing with Alice and my aunt and uncle. The three of them don't even eat the food Sarah cooks and eat the stuff they brought! Apparently they weren't made of natural and organic ingredients so were not meant to be made or ingested.
By the end of three hours I am seriously ready to kill my visiting family. And to make matters worse this is only the beginning. I'm going to have to be stuck with them for the entire weekend. Seriously I'd much rather be fighting off monsters than deal with them. But nope I obviously picked the sort straw in life.
At about noon after we decide we've had enough TV, well aunt and uncle have forbid their children from watching more than a half an hour and they aren't allowed to play video games. So now I'm stuck doing my job for the weekend and taking them around town. My aunt and uncle don't care where the twins are so it's totally up to me as long as I follow the rules I was given and contact Mom and Dad every so often so they know I'm alive. Usually I hate having to check in with them since nothing ever happens here, but given the circumstances I'm fine letting them know that I am alive and well.
Alice and me head to the backyard where I find my cousin in a vomit inducing situation. She's literally sitting on our slide with her tongue in the guy's ear and he's biting her neck. I think if it wasn't for the ridiculous way they looked with their dark colors and Lilly's insane new haircut I would have.
"Hey Lilly," I wave as an attempt to get her attention.
She looks at me and her sister and blushes, "Oh hey Matthew this is my boyfriend Nathan. Nathan this is my cousin Matthew."
"Actually it's just Matt but Lilly will call me nothing but Matthew."
He grabs Lilly's hand and comes and shakes mine, "Nice to meet you Matt. Nice shirt by the way but you do realize football is a terrible sport."
"It's my sport actually Nathan but I'll let this slide. You guys want to go eat?"
I receive three yeses and sigh in relief that at least getting some food wasn't going to be an issue. Since my breakfast was thrown away after a few bites and deemed unacceptable, Aunt Victoria's ruling, I barely ate and am literally about to faint from hunger.
They don't mind what we eat and I decide I wanted burgers so we end up in a burger joint in the middle of town. My friend's and I spend so much time here that the owner knows our names. As we walk in I'm tuning out Alice's chatter about how amazing her unicorn convention is going to be and groan with who I saw. Bill is sitting at a booth with some girl I don't know but gives me the creeps and I'm wishing that I picked somewhere else to go.
"Matt," he growls when he sees me.
"Bill," I nod. "Still a bit wet I see."
"I'll get you back," he vows and looks at the girl across from him. "This is Brianne you two will know one another very well I believe."
"I look forward to it," she gushes and her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. "Bill's told me all about you and I know that once we well let's just say get acquainted that my I'll call him our other friend won't be disappointed. Hell he'll be pleased with us more than anyone else for meeting such a nice boy."
I don't reply and just walk over to my usual booth. "What was that about?" Lilly asks pointing towards that jerk.
"Just some jackass from school."
"Seemed more than that," Nathan muses.
"We don't really like each other," I explain.
"You know peace is really the right path," Alice interjects.
"She's right," Lilly sings. "I mean if vampires get along with humans than so can humans and humans."
I hear Bill's dry laugh and he's looking at us. Knowing how my senses have improved it's no surprise that he to can heat our conversation. "So tell me about yourself Nathan."
"Well Lilly and I met in English and found we both shared the same passions. We've been inseparable since then."
"So you like vampires too," I state.
Lilly's face turns red, "It's more than that Matthew it's a love. One day Nathan and I will live forever as vampires in the forest and be able to be eternal lovers."
I choke on my soda and it goes through my nose as I laugh, "Keep believing that Lilly but saying vampires exist is like saying unicorns exist."
"They do!" Alice exclaims.
"I know," I lie, "it's an expression. What I mean is that saying vampires exist is like saying the wolf-man exists."
This pleases her but Lilly and Nathan are still fuming, "Well if you're lucky enough to ever be turned which you never will then you'd die anyway since football isn't an important skill for the immortals."
By this point I just let the conversation end and change the subject to something the three of them can ramble about for the remainder of lunch. I look over and see Bill and Brianne cracking up and shaking their heads at me. I snarl and my eyes change causing them to shut up. Pleased, I feel my eyes change back and just hope my cousins didn't notice.
They're still engrossed in their conversation and therefore don't notice me. That's good, I don't know what I'd do if they saw that. Well I guess I'd just make them forget but I don't like the idea of being in their heads.
The strangest thing about my cousins in my mind is that they're both vegan. So as Nathan and me are eating burgers, a bacon burger cooked medium rare in my case and is still to cooked, they are eating veggie burgers with no bun. It was especially weird in Lilly's case since she was obsessed with becoming a vampire. How does a vegan drink blood?
A memory of a guy with a hook for a hand pops into my head and I shake it away. Maybe my cousins were right about vampires and unicorns. If I was a nonhuman being from the past myself and Destiny had a vendetta against me than I guess it was possible.
Scratch that vampires maybe but definitely not unicorns. Dragons I could believe in more than unicorns too. Actually that makes my head hurt as if a memory is trying to come through and cannot. Weird…
After lunch we end up at the mall and split up. I was glad to get rid of Lilly and her weirdo of a boyfriend but I was now stuck alone with Alice. Since we were here I need to go buy Lindsay a birthday present saying her birthday is coming up. Mine is too actually, we have the same birthday. But as we walk towards this boutique where she buys the majority of her cheer stuff, I plan on buying her these new shoes she wanted, Alice pulls me over to some little kid store.
"What are we doing?"
"Patrice the Panda is doing pictures and I need one," she begs.
"Seriously," I groan. "We can't walk over there."
"Come on Matt we have to."
"And what get a picture snapped and put on facebook for the world to see?" I ask incredulously.
"Of course," she squeals. "My friends have to know that I'm telling the truth and actually saw her. I missed her when she was near us because of school so please please please please please."
Her pleases don't stop and I start to fume. My eyes change and I'm about to tell her what to do with herself when I stop and take a calming breath. Control, it's all about control. "Fine but make it quick."
"Yay," she cheers and grabs my hand and rushes over to the store.
It's us and about a hundred kids under than six in line to see a lame ass chick dressed as a giant cartoon panda. I mean come on I have way better things to do with my time than this, say figure out how to save the world or eat a bunch of junk food.
But nope I spend the next two hours in line with Alice listening to little kids yell and bitch and cheer and scream in their shrill voices. Why didn't I take Sarah with me like I wanted? Oh right she got out of it because of being the star and all and my friend's wouldn't bother being with me. At the front of the line Alice rushes forward and even in the suit I can tell the Panda is weirded out by a fourteen year old who seems more enthusiastic than a five year old.
By the time we're out of the store we go and make our way to the food court to meet Lilly and Nathan I've run out of time to get done with the stuff I actually came here to do. And on top of that I'm about to faint by the time we sit down. Even though I wanted to sit down Alice made me go buy her a wheatgrass smoothie. With it in hand we sit down with my other cousin.
"I saw Patrice the Panda," she gushes.
"We got our hair done," Lilly smiles through the plastic fangs she just put in.
I look at them, "It doesn't look different."
"You wouldn't be able to see it necessarily," Nathan tells me through matching fangs. "Only those who are worthy or know what they're looking for will be able to see it."
This time I look more carefully and my eyes widen when I see it, "V's? Why the hell would you get a v buzzed into your heads?"
"Us and our posse have been meaning to do it for a while now but today was the first chance we got."
"It's our first step in becoming true creatures of the night."
It's the same v as I saw in the person who ran out in front of the car and it makes me shudder. Just as before I know it means something but I'm not positive what. All I know is that now more than ever I need to stay away from them. A tingle runs up my spine and I turn around at the familiar but nonthreatening nudge and smile when I see Ms. Tall. I wave her over.
"Hi Ms. Tall," I yawn. "Sorry I'm tired."
She hands me a bottle of soda, "Here you forgot your energy drinks at home I'm guessing."
"Energy drinks are bad for you," Alice chirps.
"Actually they're all natural, this is my biology teacher who's been helping me get over my um new ailment."
"You're sick."
"Just intense allergies. Anyway Ms. Tall these are my cousins Alice and Lilly and Lilly's boyfriend Nathan."
I hear a quiet gasp come from her, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who can hear it. "Pleasure, I have to go Matt. I'll see you in class on Monday morning."
We all bid her farewell and as she walks away I swear that in my head I hear her tell me to stay away from the ones with a v. She didn't need to actually tell me, I was anyway but whatever.
"Matthew what is that drink. It looks like blood?"
I scoff, "What are you saying? It's just an energy drink. You may be obsessed with vampires but I prefer to live in the land of the living."
My tone had finality to the conversation and the three others get quiet. Apparently my strange control over people works on everyone, not the mind control I knew that but the way people follow my every words. With that we exit the mall and make our way back to the house. I change into something more appropriate for dinner before we leave meaning khakis and a polo that brings out the green in my eyes even more.
On the way to the restaurant Sarah gives us a preview of her singing, well not a preview for those of us who saw it last night. Upon arriving at the restaurant I make sure to stick close to Sarah, Mom, and Dad. There was no way I was going to stay with the strangeness of the rest of my family if I didn't need to.
Sarah leans over to me and whispers in my ear, "Why are they dressed like that?"
I shrug and laugh a little. Victoria and Aidan had changed into clothes straight out of the seventies. If it was possible Alice had put even more sparkles on. And Nathan and Lilly still had their fangs on and put on matching capes.
The waiter comes over and wrinkles her nose at the extended family. I order steak tar tar and everyone stares at me just as at my date a few weeks ago. Still I don't understand why though it was really just food. Through the entire dinner I just sit there and tune out everyone.
Dinner goes pretty quickly and so does the play. Once again Sarah does fantastic and she gets a standing ovation. I'm really proud of her and smile at the thought of having such a talented little sister. When she comes running over to us I hand her a big bouquet of flowers and I get a hug in return.
Back at home I'm stuck in my room all night. I am too scared to even go downstairs and get into another conversation with Alice or Lilly. At about midnight my chocolate craving gets to be too much and I risk going downstairs. I see Lilly and Nathan sitting in the kitchen with a guy that I don't know. Instinct takes over and I hide at the top of the stairs, trying to listen to their conversation.
"I'm in need of your service," the mystery guy says and something about him gives me a pang of guilt and scares me at the same time.
"Anything," Nathan vows. "We live to serve you and your partner."
"Good," he smiles. "I'm looking for a boy who you know very well. My partner wants him captured but I need him dead. It's your job to get him to me."
"Um my Lord," Lilly stutters. "Um well our other Lord was going to give us what we wanted after we manage to get him to him. Will you still give us what we want?"
"Don't you dare talk to me like that," he growls. "You will still have what you want. It is my mark you bear after all. Just do this one thing."
"What boy must we kill," Nathan asks.
"Not kill, bring him to me and I must be the one to kill him. His name is Matt Nash."
Lilly gulps, "As in my cousin Matthew?"
"Exactly." Wait what? Now my own cousin was out for me, what a bitch!
"This is his house," Nathan pronounces. "He's upstairs in his room."
"So this is his new scent," the guy muses. "Interesting it's more similar than I imagined. At the moment I have no more use of the two of you. Actually go bring him downstairs to me."
I don't care about what they say in return. All I know is that I need to get out of here. I run back to my room and jump out the window in order to escape.
To my amazement I land on my feet, maybe I'm half cat since I can jump like Fluffy, but cats hate me so I doubt it. Looking behind me I see a guy about my age with dark spikey hair. He sees me and smirks before chasing me. I yell and start to run to the forest. It's my territory there, not his so I should have home turf advantage. Only as soon as I start running a car also comes towards me with Lilly and Nathan in it. They jump out of the car and Nathan hold me down.
I snarl, "Get off of me."
"This isn't personal Matt, but it's the only way we can get what we want."
I hear the distinctive footsteps of Bill and he hits me on the head as everything goes black.
When I wake up I'm tied to a chair in an abandoned factory, cliché much. My head is killing me and all I want to do is fall back asleep but I won't let that happen. "Where am I?" I groan.
An evil laughter fills my ears, "You're in my hands old friend."
It's the spikey haired guy from before, "But I don't know you?"
"Yes you do," he nods.
"You're like me," I exclaim. "We were best friends before. I've remembered you a few times."
"Good so you remember ruining my life and then killing me."
"What? All I remember is seeing you in a hospital and some other times I cannot exactly make out."
"You don't? Well that just means that I have more time to torture you as it all comes back. Now what shall I start with. Personally I'm a fan of gouging eyes. That was how I made my first kill you see. But if I do that then you'll be dead all too soon."
His eyes turn from white and brown to a scarlet with no pupil and swirling black lines. Kind of like a mix of the guys who captured me in the forest and mine. "What are you?"
He laughs, "Just like you but better. You already know what I want though."
"You're Mr. Tiny's partner?"
"Smarter than before too. Yes I am but unlike him I've always wanted him dead. He's always had a blind spot for you as he's always hated me. Wait I know what I'll do first," his face lights up and he snaps his fingers. "Someone go get his sister."
"You're not going to hurt her this time," I scream as my eyes turn to the silver with swirls. "All of you are stuck where you are."
They all remain frozen and the guy looks at me appraisingly and growls, "You've always been more powerful than me but for now I am the dominant one. See I'm farther along than you and as long as I get you now you'll be gone before you surpass me."
"Then why aren't you frozen?"
"Not strong enough to control me either," he taunts. "Now I'm going to break every bone in your body."
This time he stalks over to me and breaks every finger slowly and painfully. I bite my tongue to avoid screaming even though that's all I want to do. When he finishes that he unties me, "Now let's fight."
Before I can understand what's going on he pushes me down. As he gets closer I jump up and manage to land a blow in between his legs that makes him grab himself and squeal. I start to run away before he can get up. But even though I get away he manages to get up and appear in front of me. "How'd you do that? You were over there?"
"Faster than I look," he chuckles. "Now prepare to die."
As he takes his hand with sharp nails, sharper than mine, he gets ready to slash my neck but somehow it never hits me. Instead a force field type thing is keeping his hand away from me. Only I feel it getting thinner and thinner and as I start to feel a nail on my neck the guy ends up away from me and a hand helps me up.
The new mystery guy puts me onto his back and the next thing I know I'm standing in my room with the really small guy and the guy with the green hair.
"Who are you two? I-I-I remember you."
"I guess he has to know now," the green haired guy sighs.
The small dude takes off his mask and speaks, "Finally, Matt I'm Harkat Mulds and this is Vancha March."