Hey guys. So I'm back with another chapter of ANL. I hope you enjoy it. I really am sorry for taking so long. I would come up with some amazing excuse for why it took me so long but in reality I'm just a serious procrastinator. It's a problem. But here is the next chapter of ANL. I hope you enjoy :)
"Have either of them woken up yet?" Amber asked Pete as she handed him a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch next to him and Pete shook his head.
"2 days and nothing. Freddie had another screaming fit though. It got so bad that it took Kyle, Jasper, John, Chris and Danny all to pin him down. I was holding Cassie back from attacking Romeo which was a task all in itself." Pete said and Amber sighed.
"I'm sure that he'll wake up tomorrow and all will fine. He probably just needs some time to get passed the pain. You said he was in lots of pain right before he passed out." Amber said and Pete smiled softly.
"Yeah, maybe. I just hope they wake up before his mother and friends get too curious and come looking." Pete said and Amber put her hand on his thigh, rubbing it gently with her thumb.
"I'm sure they'll be awake by the time you go around there later. Onto something else, have you noticed Michael acting kind of strange recently?" Amber asked.
"Oh yeah, he is up to something." Pete replied.
"He's been acting kind of weird the last year, but it's gotten worse in the last few weeks since the Nolan mess." Amber said and Pete sighed.
"He's probably just got some secret girlfriend that he doesn't want anyone to know about quite yet. I mean, it would make sense." Pete said and Amber smirked over her mug.
"You've given in some thought." She said and Pete rolled his eyes, putting his mug on the coffee table and then taking Amber's from her to do the same.
"I was drinking that." She said.
"And?" He wondered with a smile before leaning in to kiss her, making Amber giggle and then kiss back for a moment before Pete pulled back with a sigh.
"They'll be okay especially Freddie. I mean, he's a king right?" Amber asked.
"I am never going to get used to that title for that kid." Pete said.
"It is a weird title for him and not just because of his age. He's always just so kind." Amber said.
"That should make him a good king in the end though won't it." Pete said and Amber ran her fingers on her left hand through his hair.
"You really care about him don't you?"
"He's like a little brother. I can't even imagine how Cassie is feeling waiting though. She lost her real brother not that long ago." Pete said.
"You lost your whole family all at once remember? You're allowed to be just as upset as her with what's happening." Amber said and Pete closed his eyes and then dropped his head onto her shoulder, the two then just falling into silence as Amber stroked his hair and Pete leaned into her embrace.
Over at the cabin, Gabe was sitting outside in the shade of one of the bigger trees on his phone messaging his younger Angelo while Millie sat next to him and played with her own hair, watching him quietly as he messaged away.
"Hey. You alright You look kind of distracted." Millie said after a few minutes and Gabe looked up from his phone.
"I just want Freddie to wake up soon is all." Gabe replied and Millie gave him a look.
"You know I can read you idiot. Tell me." She said and Gabe looked over to the house.
"My brother and parents are coming down in a few days for the anniversary of me being adopted." Gabe said and Millie slapped his arm.
"That's not nothing. That's huge." Millie said.
"No. What's big is that they're bringing my birth mother Christina with them and my sister Brookelyn. I don't want to see Brookelyn." Gabe said.
"What did she do to you to make you hate her so much?" Millie asked.
"It's more what she didn't do." Gabe replied, looking down as one of his memories went through his mind.
It was 10pm and the 4 year old Gabe was standing outside of his older sister Brookelyn's room, tears filling his eyes and his entire body aching.
"Bookie." Gabe said when he knocked on the door and the door swung open to show a teen with dark makeup on and a her hair in a messy bun, her phone in her hand.
"What do you want you worm?" She said and Gabe wiped the tears out of his eyes, staring up at her in sadness.
"I have to call you back Kali. I have to take care of my dumbass brother." She said and then she threw her phone behind her onto her bed.
"What worm? I don't have time for you right now. I have places to be and I don't need you to make me late." Brookelyn said and Gabe whimpered.
"But Bookie-"
"But nothing. And how many times have I told you to stop calling me that? Just go bother someone else." Brookelyn said before she slammed the door in the young boys face and Gabe whimpered again, slowly walking away from the door and limping to his own room and going and hiding in the closet where his father couldn't reach him.
"Gabe. You spaced out. Are you alright?" Millie asked when she saw the colour fade from his face and Gabe shook his head.
"Sorry. I'm alright. Promise." He said and Millie grabbed his hand.
"You know you don't have to hide anything from me. We both had messed up lives until I went to boarding school and you were adopted." Millie said.
"I'm not hiding anything. There's just some stuff that I prefer to keep to myself." Gabe said and Millie half smiled before she looked to his phone which had gone off again.
"You should get that before Angelo has an aneurism. You know what he's like." Millie said and Gabe nodded.
"He's so needy." He said and Millie laughed.
"He has IED and abandonment issues. Be nice to him." Millie said.
"You only like him because he's eight and still has that cute factor to him." Gabe said.
"Don't mess with adorable children Gabriel. They're the ones that get you." Millie said.
"Yeah. With exploding anger fits." Gabe said and Millie socked him in the arm.
"Ow!" Gabe yelled and Millie smirked before holding his phone out to him.
"At least they can have some fun." Cassie sighed from inside where she had been watching the two through a window and Danny rubbed her back.
"Freddie is going to wake up soon. Just give him a little more time." Danny said.
"But how much more time?" Kyle asked from behind them and Yvette squeezed the hand of his she was holding.
"He's worried he'll snap and attack someone while Freddie is out of it." John said and Kyle glared at him.
"If you stay calm and just run away when you get any urges you should be alright." Danny said.
"It's easier said than done." Kyle said and Yvette kissed his cheek.
"Then think of me any time you feel like you're about to hurt someone." She said and Kyle looked to her and then rested his head on hers as the front door and Chris, Ryan and Dylan walked in, Chris holding Ryan's hand with a tired look on his face.
"Well that was a waste." Chris said as he sat down on the arm of the armchair while Ryan sat in the chair and Ryan let go of his hand to put his arm around Chris's hips.
"It wasn't a waste. We spent the last two days trying to figure out if we can find out what's happening to Freddie and Sam and why they aren't waking up and we couldn't find anything. We did find out why it's happening to both of them though." Ryan said.
"And why's that?" Lilah asked from John's side and Ryan looked up to Chris who looked down to him at the same time.
"They're mates." Dylan replied for them and the room went silent.
"Mates?" Cassie asked.
"Soul mates. When a vampire finds their one true mate, their souls combine with the others and when anything happens to the other then it literally kills them too." Dylan replied.
"Lenny told me about soul mates when I was 8, but they haven't been seen around in a long time. He told me that being soul mates doesn't necessarily mean you will date forever but you will always have each other's backs no matter what happens. I didn't get it then so I forgot about it and then I remembered earlier when I saw the term in one of Nolan's old history books." Chris said.
"So Sam nor Freddie are waking up because they are each other's soul mates and are stuck waiting for the other?" Danny asked.
"It sounds weird when you say it like that but yeah, basically." Chris replied and Ryan put his free hand on Chris's leg.
"That explains a lot actually." Danny said and Cassie nodded.
"Told you they wouldn't think you were stupid." Ryan said quietly and Chris put his hand over the one on his leg.
"Hey guys, we might have a bit of a problem." Gabe said a minute later when he walked in with Millie and Cassie raised her eyebrows.
"What kind of problem?" She asked.
"My family is going to be here in 2 hours… at the cabin. Or more a house really when you look at the size of it." Gabe said and Cassie ran her fingers through her air.
"This is a serious mess." She said and Danny pulled her into his arms, holding her as Pete and Amber walked into the room followed by Michael.
"This is like couple central right now." Michael said when he had looked around and Pete rolled his eyes, Amber going to say something when Sam stirred and let out a groan before slowly blinking awake.
"Sam! Oh my god." Cassie said and Sam looked around her and slowly sat up with a yawn.
"What?" She asked and everyone but Chris looked at her in confusion.
"You were out of it for two days and your boyfriend is still asleep." Chris said simply and Sam frowned before she suddenly got an understanding look on her face and she turned to the window were she could see her reflection and the bright red eyes.
"Red really is a nice colour on me." Sam said.
"Okay. How are you not freaking out right now?" Ryan asked and Sam turned to look at him.
"I'm dating a vampire and am friends with a bunch of others. What's the point of freaking out? I can still eat meat so I don't care." She said and Cassie just blinked.
"That works." John said in an upbeat way and everyone turned to look at him.
A few minutes later, Jasper, John, Yvette, Lilah and Jessica decided that it would be best to get Kyle's mind off of Freddie being passed out and they all left the cabin, leaving Cassie, Danny, Pete, Gabe, Millie Chris, Ryan and Sam sitting in the living room waiting for Freddie to wake up and Gabe's family to arrive, Dylan, Amber and Michael having gone to go and get some food.
"Shouldn't I like be out getting blood or something before Gabe's family get here?" Sam asked and Chris nodded, now sitting in Ryan's lap with Ryan's arms wrapped tightly around him and Chris's legs over the arm.
"That might be a good idea." He said and Pete walked over to the kitchen, disappearing for a few minutes and then coming back with a large styrofoam cup full of something.
"This is some blood that I had stored away from when Cassie had been turned. She was too weak to go hunting for a while so I brought all of the blood to her. The first night she actually went out was the night Freddie was attacked weirdly enough." Pete said and Sam straightened up.
"That smells good." Sam said and Cassie watched as Chris closed his eyes and then buried his face into Ryan's neck.
"Here. Be careful with it. Spill it and that's another fortune on carpet cleaning." Pete replied and Sam nodded, greedily eyeing the cup as Pete handed it to her and then quickly starting to drink form it once it was in her hands.
"Someone is really hungry." A husky voice said when Sam had finished just seconds later and everyone turned in shock to find Freddie laying on the couch with his eyes open.
"Oh my god. You're awake. Never do that to us again." Cassie said as she hugged him, him still laying down, and Freddie chuckled softly, waiting for her to pull away and then sitting himself up with some struggle.
"My back is killing me. So is my mouth." Freddie said when he was upright and Sam, whose eyes were back to blue for now, pulled his shirt up and then gently touched the last swirl, causing Freddie to flinch slightly and Sam to recoil her hand.
"Sorry baby. It looks all red around the edges." Sam said and Freddie pulled his shirt down.
"Probably from the fact it's a tattoo. No matter how weirdly it got there." Gabe said and Sam just stared at him.
"You really are a genius aren't you?" She said flatly and Gabe grinned at her, walking passed the couch as Freddie stood up and grazing hands with him, only to have him freeze and then grab his hand, his eyes glazing over and glowing red.
"Gabriel, where are you?" Christina called down her hallway in her house and Brookelyn stuck her head out of her bedroom door.
"What did that little worm do this time?" Brookelyn asked and Christina was about to answer when a blood curdling scream from down the hallway and the four year old Gabe ran out of his bedroom, his shirt torn.
"Get back here you little shit." His father Declyn growled as he raced out after him, his belt in his hand and his pants button undone and shirt open, his face full of rage.
"Mama." Gabe screamed and Christina picked the child up as he ran into her arms, tears streaming down his face and bruises covering the showing skin on his stomach.
"What's wrong baby?" She asked.
"Daddy hurt me. I told him no but he kept hurting me." Gabe cried and Christina looked up at her husband with a sudden fury.
"Brookelyn, take your little brother into my room and fix him up." Christina said and Brookelyn took her little brother and did just that, going into the ensuite bathroom and undressing the shaking Gabe, running a bath as she did so and gasping when she saw the bruises that covered every part of his body, finger marks where Declyn had been holding him down.
"Oh my god." She said and Gabe whimpered, shying away from the bath.
"Hey. I'm sorry. I won't look okay? Do you want me to get in with you?" She asked and when Gabe nodded with new tears in his eyes, Brookelyn stripped down to her underwear and bra and then sat Gabe and herself in the bathtub, hugging him close to her chest.
"I'm so sorry baby. I'm so sorry." Followed by loud yelling in the background was the last thing heard before everything went black.
Gasping, Freddie pulled his hand away from Gabe's like he had been on fire and stared at him in shock, Gabe's face completely pale.
"You just saw something from his past didn't you?" Chris asked and Freddie glanced at him for a second before he looked back at Gabe who now had a pleading look in his eyes.
"What did you see?" Pete asked.
"Just some stuff that guys don't normally share with other guys." Freddie slowly answered and Gabe looked visibly relieved.
"So now we know of two powers. He has the power to make his creations of such do what he wants without actually saying anything and he can see into people's past by touching their hands." Chris said.
"Actually, I think I have three. Before the museum stuff happened I was having dreams of the stuff happening. I'm pretty sure I can see the future too." Freddie said and Sam put her hand on his lower back.
"Can we have this conversation another time when my family isn't about to show up?" Gabe asked and Freddie nodded, the boys looking at each other for a moment before looking away, Freddie to Sam and Gabe to Millie.
"Do we have to stay here or can we go?" Ryan asked as they waited and Chris rolled his eyes.
"We should at least just wait until his parents get here." Chris said.
"Exactly you nub." Dylan said as he walked back into the room with the dinner and Amber.
"Michael had somewhere else he had to be." Amber said when she reached Pete's side and Pete nodded, leaning down to kiss her and smiling when he pulled back.
"Oh yeah. Just so you guys know, my little brother has IED so please try your best not to make him mad." Gabe said and Sam frowned.
"What's IED?" She asked.
"It's Intermittent Explosive Disorder and it's where you have fits of violent rage. Kind of like your uncle Carmine except a lot worse and much, much scarier. A friend I have has it and one time he went off at school. He's the reason they're doing construction in the library." Freddie said and Sam nodded.
"Okay. So just don't do anything to make the kid mad and we should be fine." She said and Gabe nodded.
"Also, my birth mother and sister are coming so just be wary. My birth mother had serious drug issues up until 4 years ago and she still has trouble with cravings sometimes. She doesn't do drugs or drink but she gets that itch you know?" Gabe asked and Millie grabbed his hand in comfort.
"I just have to ask this but are you two dating? I mean you act like friends one minute and the next you guys are acting all couple-y. If you like each other just kiss already." Dylan said and Gabe and Millie looked at each other before looking away quickly and dropped each other's hand, both having gone bright red. However no one really had time to tease them about it as a knock sounded at the front door and Danny went to go and answer it, almost getting knocked over the second the door was opened by a small boy running in.
"Gabe!" The boy screamed and Gabe pulled him into a hug as soon as he reached him.
"Hey Ang. How have you been for mum and dad? You haven't gotten angry have you?" Gabe asked and Angelo shook his head with a smile.
"I have to take medicaton." Angelo said.
"It's medication Angelo." Lisa, Gabe's adoptive mother, said and Angelo rolled his eyes and then turned to Millie with a massive smile, his little eyes sparkling.
"Hey buddy. Can I have a hug?" Millie asked and Angelo nodded, hugging her around the middle and smiling up at her.
"Somebody has a crush." Sam said in a sing-song voice and Freddie smiled, putting his arm around her shoulder while Gabe hugged Lisa and his adoptive father Lachlan and his birth mother Christina, everyone noticing the quick and cold hug he gave his sister Brookelyn.
"Well, while it is lovely to meet you, we have places to be so we're going to head out. It was an honour to meet you all." Chris said once the greetings had gone around and Lisa smiled nodding as he and Ryan walked out of the cabin.
"We should get going to. We have a wedding to plan. Have a great day." Amber said and she and Pete quickly followed after Chris and Ryan, Cassie and Danny also leaving which left Dylan, Sam, Freddie and Millie there as friendly support for Gabe.
About an hour into the meeting, Gabe went outside to get some air and Christina followed him outside, knowing by the look on his face what was on his mind.
"Hey baby. You doing alright?" Christina asked when they were by the trees and Gabe sighed, looking to the house and then down at his shoes.
"Just remembering things I wish I didn't." He replied and Christina put her hand on his arm.
"I'm so sorry that I ever let that happen. I was such a horrible mother." Christina said and Gabe looked up to her.
"Not all of the time you weren't. I remember times when you were there." Gabe said and Christina half smiled.
"You don't have to just say that to spare my feelings. I know I wasn't the best mother. The best thing I ever did was give you to Lisa and Lachlan." Christina said.
"The best thing you ever did was still coming and visiting as much as you could and then going to rehab to make sure you could still be there." Gabe said and Christina's smile grew.
"I had to make sure you were alright." She said and Gabe smiled.
"I know you still haven't spoken to your sister since that night. She still beats herself up for not comforting you when it first happened." Christina said.
"I'm not angry at her about that. She had no idea. I'm angry because she shoved me away right before I got adopted. She got really angry that I was getting adopted and she called me horrible names." Gabe said and Christina put her hand on his cheek.
"At least just talk to her about it okay? You should talk to someone about all of it. Your parents don't have to know anything and neither do any of your friends. Just talk to someone so it isn't hanging over your head anymore." She said and Gabe sighed.
"I just feel like it's something that no one else would really understand." Gabe said.
"Honey, I know what that feels like but trust me. Talking helps. It helped me and it still does help when I have bad days." Christina said and Gabe nodded, Christina pouting slightly when she saw the glossiness in his eyes and then pulling him into a hug that he returned straight away, resting his head on her shoulder.
"You'll always be my mama." He said and Christina got tears in her eyes with a huge smile.
"And you'll always be my baby. Forever ever." She said and Gabe nodded.
"Forever ever."
"Come on. Let's go back inside and enjoy the rest of the day." Christina said as they pulled back and Gabe nodded, the two both wiping their faces and then walking back to the house with their arms around each other.
Miles away from the cabin, Michael was walking through the hallways of an old apartment building that looking dingy from the outside but beautiful on the inside. Looking around him as he walked up to one of the apartment doors, Michael unlocked the door and then walked inside, closing and locking the door behind him.
"I'm back. I think my sister and Pete are getting a little curious but they have no idea what I'm up to." Michael said as he put his coat on the coat rack and he heard someone walking around in the kitchen.
"Well, it's not so much them I worry about finding out before we're ready." A woman replied and Michael just nodded before he walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get a bottle of water.
"I think Danny is finally coming around to seeing you again. He doesn't seem to be so upset anymore." Michael said and the woman sighed, turning away from the pantry to show Chelsea standing there.
"I just want him to forgive me before it gets too obvious." She said and Michael put his bottle on the bench and then wrapped his arms around her waist, Chelsea just wrapping her arms around his neck and sighing.
"I'm just surprised that no one has even seen the rings yet." Michael said and Chelsea smiled before she buried her face in his neck.
"Danny will come around soon I'm sure of it. I mean, who wouldn't want to be an uncle?" Michael asked and Chelsea pulled back enough to kiss him.
"Come on. Let's go and get something for dinner. You are eating for two now." Michael said.
"So what's your excuse?" Chelsea joked and Michael tickled her sides as he pulled back, making her squeal in laughter and making him grin at her.
"Let's go wifey." He said and Chelsea kissed him again before grabbing his hand and pulling her with him to the door.