"Box Elder? This is where you're from? This is where you fought Doctor Light", asked Raven as if confused as to why either me or Doctor Light would ever be associated with the small town.
"Kinda sorta", I said briefly. I was so excited at seeing my home that I wasn't really engaging in the conversation like I normally would.
"What do you mean "kinda"?" Upon realizing that I answered two of her questions with a douchey half-ass answer, I immediately clarify.
"Box Elder is where I am from, but it isn't where I fought Doctor Light. I arrived in Jump City from Anchorage. Alaska."
"So you're a werewolf prince, that was born in South Dakota, and then moved to Alaska, and then created a wormhole, and then ended up in California?"
"Oh, it's a bit more complex than that."
"Try me."
"Hold that thought", I said, too excited to continue with the current conversation as implied by my tail that wouldn't stop wagging even if you had paid it. It'd been years since I had been back in the Black Hills, and the only thing on my mind was my Pack. The Patriot Pack. The first wolves I had ever trained other than the Elementals themselves.
My excitement caused me to envision me in my wolf form with my Pack. My vision was of all of us in the middle of the plains of Box Elder just randomly playing and spending the day together. No reason, no purpose, no cares or worries. In other words, another movie cliche. I imagined myself looking down at my Pack from on top of a small hill as if I were Bambi's father, or Mufasa standing on top of Pride Rock. Below me were eight werewolves, three cubs, and five adult she-wolves.
The first was April, my oldest sister and Beta of the Pack, who acted as Alpha in my absence. As far as werewolves go, her upcoming as a wolf is somewhat legendary in the South Dakota community. Her appearance alone already made her stand out above other werewolves, to a point that there was no way that anybody who saw her could mistake her for a dog or just a common wolf. She had bright, pink eyes, and her fur was a dark maroonish color that kinda looked like it had hints of purple in it, at least it did to me. She was the only member of her breed I had ever met with this unique color of fur.
With her were her two cubs, Amy (age 8) and Isaac (age 5). Both had pitch-black fur, he like her father, and she like me, her uncle. Amy's eyes also burned bright yellow like mine did, while Isaac shared his mother's pink eyes. Just like their mother, they too, were exceptional as far as werewolves go. Children born with lycanthropy, like my nephew, never obtain their power to Change until the reach the age of fourteen. The only exceptions to this rule were two breeds, Elemental wolves, who obtain their powers when they are born, and a breed of Asian male wolves known as Kogitsunes, who's "human" bodies involuntarily and permanently Changed as they grew and then completed when they turned fourteen. In addition, children with lycanthropy thrust onto them, like my niece, had a very low survival rate due to a human's immune system being at its weakest during their childhood years. I imagined the hyperactive Amy running around chasing and barking at anything that moved, while Isaac, still very much the baby of the family, stayed close to his mother's side.
Wolf number four was Charlotte, the Pack's Gamma, who doubled as Beta during either me or April's absence. Though being younger than both me and April, she was relatively bigger and more muscular than the rest of the Pack. She was arguably the Pack's strongest wolf and had the look to back it up. In addition to her large size, she also had extremely scruffy, gray fur. I always theorized that her refusal to groom her fur any more than "necessary" was to give the appearance of a wolf that always found her way into a fight, making her already threatening appearance even more intimidating. This was also the reason why, after a battle, she refused to let me heal any of her wounds or scars that weren't fatal or crippling. And if that wasn't enough reason for you to fear her, then you'd flip out if you ever made eye contact with her. When she Changed from human to wolf, her usual grayish-blue eyes turned pitch-black, almost like she doesn't have pupils at all. I think the only ones of us that didn't take her intimidating stare seriously were the cubs, who were all too young to fear Aunty Char.
Wolves number five and six were my younger sister Samantha, and her son Charlie (though he's too young to Change as he is only nearly 11 months old). Sammie was a gorgeous, and stunning wolf with beautiful, blonde fur and bright blue eyes. Sammie would always go out of her way to make me feel like I was an effective Alpha. Not only was she my little sister, but she was the very first wolf I trained in the Pack. She has been a part of my Pack and has called me "Alpha" even before my first Morph. The Pack wouldn't have been as strong as it was if not for her. In fact, I probably wouldn't be the werewolf I am today if not for her. Sammie, even in her time as a human, was always one of the prettiest and more popular kids in school, well she and Alyssa, wolf number seven and another blonde blue-eyed beauty of a she-wolf that was currently blessed with a 3 1/2-month baby bump.
And finally, wolf number eight, Mikaela. Dark brown fur with bright green eyes. She was the newest member of the Patriot Pack, and also the youngest, except for the cubs. She had moved to Box Elder from Germany, leaving her old Pack behind and joining ours. Though she was the newest recruit, and therefore was with us for the shortest amount of time, she quickly earned our trust. Plus she was great with the cubs. Sadly she couldn't stay with the Pack. After high school, she left Box Elder to pursue her college education in Oklahoma, and has been a lone wolf ever since. I knew my daydream was taking too long when Raven spoke again.
"Well?"
"Huh? Did you say something", I asked as I turned back at her.
"Usually when someone says "hold that thought", it typically means they're about to do something", she responded with her arms crossed, now getting a little irritated with me.
"Whoops, my bad. Just scanning my old territory", I lied to her through my teeth, too embarassed to say that I had randomly zoned out for a moment. She's kinda cute when she's mad, I thought to myself as I looked into her eyes once again, still gorgeous as always, but now ignited by her inner fire. I turn back towards the small town as I throw my head back and howl. With Mikaela now relocated to Oklahoma, and both April and Charlotte residing in my hometown's sister city, Rapid City, I was hopeful to hear the howls of Alyssa or Sammie. When no response came, I howled again. When my second howl didn't get a response, I noticed that nothing reacted to my howling. I didn't expect a reaction from the humans, due to them either not caring or simply mistaking me for a coyote, but I expected some kind of response from the animal community.
If you were to translate my howl into human English, it would translate to something along the lines of, "I am here". The purpose of my howl was to alert anyone within range that I was nearby, and for the animal community, this usually was enough of a reason to react depending on your species. Birds and wild rodents would scatter to safety. Domesticated dogs would bark in response, usually as an attempt to show dominance or mark territory of their own, which for them was limited to the houses and yards in which they individually lived. Large game would either stampede or calmly, yet briskly trot to a safer area. Livestock would gather closer together to decrease their chances of being hunted. Coyotes and cougars would hear my alert and either leave the area, or defy my alert and remain within Pack territory at their own risk. The only animals that weren't influenced by my howls were rattlesnakes, insects, and domesticated cats, all of which had lackadaisical attitudes about most other animals in general. The bottom line, animals, whether they liked me or not, whether they respected my title or not, tended to heed or at least acknowledge my howling, not just in Box Elder, but everywhere, so it came as a bit of a shock when nobody did.
Guess everyone has gotten used to the wolves here, I reasoned to myself as I Changed to my armored form. Once I became Gizamon, I did a bit of a cat stretch. I stretched my front legs in front of me as I lowered the front half of my body and stuck my rear into the air with my tail fully erect, once again forgetting that Raven was standing right behind me as she then cleared her throat.
"Oh, uh, *clears throat", I began as I shot back up to all fours awkwardly and bashfully after pretty much presenting my ass to Raven. "Follow me", I said as I flapped my wings and took to the sky. Raven then uses her powers to levitate and join my in the air before I turned to fly down the hill. The road was a straight shot down the hill and onto the highway. A couple of miles down the road, off to the right, was the gated entrance to my old neighborhood, Creekside Estates. If we were running, we would've continued down the road and then turned right, but since we were flying, I led Raven to a bit of a diagonal path that went over the gate, cut through a few yards and houses, and brought us to the corner of Pickarts Lane and Creekside Drive. I turn down Pheasant Place and come in for a landing at the second house on the left. The house was just as you expected from any neighborhood with the word "estates" in the title, large, stone, with a decorated and/or nicely cut lawn. I then Change back to my human form and walk up to the door. Raven followed me at my side.
"Who lives here", asked Raven, curious about why we were stopping at the relatively large house.
"A member of my old Pack, Alyssa Nightingale."
"Are you sure her last name is "Nightingale"", asked Raven as I rang the doorbell.
"Sure I'm sure, why?" I then look to my right at Raven as she points to the "family name plate" that hung in between the front door and the window on the porch. Instead of "Nightingale", it read "Buck". "Oh, shit", I said hoping the people who lived at that house weren't the people I thought they were. Suddenly, as if on cue, the door opens and a large and built white male steps out. Dressed in the cliche redneck attire of extremely faded out blue jean pants with tears and holes at the knees, a large, brown belt with a comically large belt buckle that almost made him look like he was from either Texas or Tennessee rather than South Dakota, and a stained, white "wife-beater" t-shirt that was tucked into his jeans. He stepped out through the front door and immediately turned to his right towards me. "Hey, Mr. Buck", I said weakly as I waved at him awkwardly. Instead of answering me he scanned his eyes back and forth, never once making direct eye contact with me. He then turns towards the front at the street and scans the area again. "Mr. Buck", I ask again trying to get his attention. I then walk up behind him to tap him on the shoulder. Much to my surprise when my entire hand passes through Mr. Buck's shoulder blade.
"Whoa", said Raven who was just as shocked as I was. Mr. Buck then turns back towards his open door and yells at his family inside.
"Abby!"
"What", screamed his teenage daughter from somewhere inside.
"How many times have I told you not to be associatin' with them nigglets up the road?"
"I ain't!"
"Then how come they ding-dong-ditchin' my damn door?"
"'Cause don't nobody like you!"
"Better watch yo' mouth", shouts Mr. Buck as he stomps back into his house and slams the door behind him. I look over at Raven as shock washed over her face.
"Wow. The neighbors here are…. interesting."
"Yeah, I forgot how much I hated that racist dick. Wait a second", I began getting back to a more important matter. "What happened with my hand", I asked Raven as I wiggled my fingers for emphasis. "Did you do that?"
"I don't think I'm doing anything", said Raven as she looked herself over as if she was looking for something that was out of place. It was at that moment that something occurred to me.
"Follow me", I say again as I Change to my wolf form and run onto the street and up the road down Pickarts Lane.
"Ugh. Wait up", said Raven as she flew after me. "Where are we going now", she asks as she flew beside me as I ran uphill.
"The Buck family shouldn't be living there."
"I don't think that's your call."
"That's not what I meant. They left Box Elder years ago. That last time they lived in that house was when I lived….", I interrupted myself as I came to a stop in front of the last house on the left before Pickarts Lane met the corner of Fox Trail Street. "…. here", I said after a dramatic pause due to looking at the house. It was shorter than the Bucks' house, but wider. On the driveway, in between the two garage doors, was a basketball hoop. It had cracks throughout the backboard, a piece of wood nailed to the back of it for support, and the bottom was weighted down by four large sand bags. I walk over to the right and walk up the steps and onto the front porch where the front door was. The porch was painted a light purple and stretched to the left. I look at the name plate to the right of the door expecting it to say, "Ross". Instead, it said, "Adams". It was at that moment I realized what was going on. "This is all starting to make sense now."
"What is", asked Raven as she returns to my side.
"Follow me inside and I'll explain", I said as I opened another shadow portal that led inside the house.
"Um, you don't live here."
"Actually, technically I do", I said as I pointed to the name plate. "You coming?" Without another word, Raven pulls the hood to her cloak down and follows me into the portal. We emerged from the portal into the living room of the house. The carpets were tan and the kitchen which was a few feet away had a wooden floor. Down the hall to the right of the front door was the master bedroom, passing the guest bedroom on the way. The staircase that sat with the kitchen on its right, the living room on its left, and the door to the garage in front of it, led downstairs to two more bedrooms, the laundry room, and another living room. I look to Raven and notice her about to say something, when someone emerged from the master bedroom.
Raven tensed up anticipating shock and alarm from the woman as she walked down the hall towards us. She was an overweight woman with curly grayish hair. She had palish, light skin, enough for her to pass as a white woman (in fact she still occasionally got mistaken for that), and she had bright red lipstick on her lips. She wore an outfit consisting mostly of the color brown, and around her neck was a multi-colored piece of jewelry that she specifically bought for the purposes of wearing it with her current outfit. Just as Mr. Buck did, she looked right through me and Raven as she walked by. Before she passes me, she stops and looks in my general direction. I instinctively let out as loud and as angry a growl as I could as if she could hear me. The very sight of that woman made me sick to my stomach, and I was furious at her. The woman then paces closer towards me, muttering to herself as if she was going through a mental checklist and was exploiting the fact that nobody was around to judge her for talking to herself. Upon seeing her step closer to me, I got even angrier. Normally I would've backed away slowly and continued to growl. However, in that moment, if she could see and hear me, she'd be a fool to come at me. I stood my ground as if I were being challenged for the rank of Alpha and snarled at her. She moves a bit closer, and I started to bark. She moves even closer and I lose it completely. I swung my left paw at her as I attempted to claw her face. As if I was surprised and not expecting my claws to pass right through her, I get even more angry and unleash a barrage of slash attacks at her face, snarling and barking the entire time. After about a minute or so of me wilin' out, I pause at the sound of glass breaking.
The pale woman immediately turns around to locate the source of the sound. I lean to the left a bit so that I could see what had happened as well. A framed picture had "fallen" onto the floor, or so she thought. Since she couldn't see us, the woman had no idea that in actuality Raven had pushed the picture off of a shelf.
"Dammit", she said as she storms over to the mess on the floor. Raven floats out of her way as if she had any actual physical presence and returns to my side again. The woman picks up the frame and the picture that had fallen out and walks them over to the kitchen table. As she places them on the table she says, "I don't have time for this. I'll just have the boys vacuum the carpets when they get home." She then looks at her watch. "Shit, I'm late!" The woman then storms out the door leading to the garage. Once the door had closed, I turned to the large window behind me and stared outside towards the driveway. I waited until she had closed the garage door and pulled away in her red jeep before moving again. Raven, still at my side, mirrored my actions as we watched and waited in anticipation. Once the jeep was out of sight, I Change back to my human form and walk to the kitchen table.
The picture that laid there was actually two photographs that had been spliced together. It was divided down the middle, with the two separate photographs on each side of the white border that separated the two. The left photograph was of the same pale woman, but she looked younger. She sat in a rocking chair and was cradling a newborn African-American baby boy. The photograph on the right was set in the middle of a grassy field. Sitting in the center of the field was a white wolf with red eyes laying on her stomach and panting. Sitting in between her front legs and under her head was a tiny wolf cub. He had black fur and burning yellow eyes, and as he sat with the white wolf, he had the largest and most innocent smile a child could have stretched across his muzzle. As I stared at the two photographs, I started to get a gut-twisting pain in my stomach. My anger was starting to lean more towards depression. I could feel my eyes started to water up when my thoughts were interrupted by Raven.
"Are you okay?" I furiously blink my eyes and clear my throat before answering.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine", I lied.
"That woman just now, was she….", began Raven.
"Her name is Mildred, and she's my mother."
Upon finishing that sentence I immediately turned towards the nearby staircase and retreated downstairs. Once I had reached the bottom, which with the exceptions of the two bedrooms, the bathroom, and the laundry room nearby was all one additional living room, I turned left and rounded the corner. Straight in front of me, past the bookshelves, the keyboard, and two musical horns that my brother and I used for band class, was the door to my old bedroom. It was wide open. I had forgotten that my mother forbade me from closing my door for any reason.
I walked through the door and had the immediate feeling of nostalgia. My room was just as I remembered it. Posters all over the walls, toys and trinkets scattered on the shelves and countertops, pillows and stuffed animals piled on the floor in the corner because I was always too lazy to put them back on my bed every morning, everything as it was before I left South Dakota. I could feel myself becoming a bit less upset as I explored my old habitat and all of the toys I used to have.
I looked over at the dresser that sat next to the head of my bed. On the dresser was my old Curious George alarm clock. It read 7:35 am. Since Mom was home alone when we arrived, it was safe to assume that my brother and I were at school and she was running late to work. I grabbed the clock and set an alarm for 11:15 am.
Just in case we wind up sticking around for a while, I thought to myself as I returned the clock to its original spot. Right next to the clock were two deck boxes. The first one was green and had a picture of Mew on the front of it. I pick up the green box and open it to find my competitive Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) deck, with my best card "Torterra Lv.X"as the first card to be seen. I look through it briefly as it would stay exactly the same for the next several years. As expected, it was my grass/electric deck that never saw the light of an actual tournament before my retirement from the TCG. Such potential, I think to myself upon remembering how disappointing it was to have never tested that deck out.
I place the cards back in the Mew box and swap it out with the other deck box that was next to it. This one was red and simply had the words "Deck Box" written on it in black. I open it to see the signature card of my other competitive deck, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". This was my old Yu-Gi-Oh! deck that upon reflection was a stepping stone to the dragon deck I currently had in the "present". As I looked through the cards I chuckled a little to myself. Partially because I had my older consciousness and was laughing at how horribly unbalanced this deck was compared to my current one, and partially because the reason it was so unbalanced was because it was full of cards that were iconic and nostalgic, and had little to nothing to do with the actual theme or strategy of the deck itself. For example, since learning to play the game my specialty was always dragon-type monsters, so it made little sense for me to have cards like "Dark Magician", the "Ojamas", "Cyber Dragon", "Cyber Harpie Lady", and so forth in my deck. However this was probably justified because I was a naive child when I built this deck, and this was way back when Synchros were only just being introduced to the game and kids my age were still rejecting them for being so broken.
"Ah, memories", I say to myself as I look over to my right. Leaned against the dresser on the floor was what was probably my favorite toy ever. It was my old duel disk. At this point I was smiling like a child in the toy store as I picked it up and placed my amateur deck in the respective slot. I then strap the duel disk to my left arm and flip the switch underneath. It then imitates the activation motion from the anime as I make a battle stance as if I were a cosplayer at an anime convention. I had forgotten how much I loved that thing.
Eventually I take the duel disk off and continue searching through my old stuff. At some point during my stroll down Memory Lane, I sensed Raven watching me as I could once again hear her heartbeat, and my own heart staggering it. I didn't look up at her, but I knew she was there watching me, though she didn't say or do anything the entire time she stood there. Afraid that she was judging me, I try ignoring her by continuing to be a geeky nerd as I continued to rediscover my old toys. I eventually stumble across my collection of photo albums. It was at that moment that I finally work up the courage to look up at Raven, only to find that she was walking away into the living room. I wanted to say something to her, but no words came out as I hung my mouth open to try to speak. Instead I just take one of the albums and sit on my bed as I open it to a random page. The page in question caused my heart to skip a beat for a moment. It was an entire page dedicated to my ex-girlfriends, well four of them.
Whoops. I forgot about this page, I thought to myself as if I had caught myself in a lie. As I looked at the four photographs below, each taking their own corner of the page, each consisting of me standing with one of my exes with my arm around their shoulder, I could feel my torso starting to burn. My marks were reacting to seeing the faces of my old loves.
Nobody started taking my love life or my relationships seriously until after I left South Dakota. This was mostly because within the window of time of my first four relationships, I had my first girlfriend at the age of 11, and my fourth at the age of 14. Upon reflection I now completely understand why nobody took them seriously, because generally speaking, children don't fall in love that young (Hell, a lot of people don't take 18-year-olds seriously whenever they claim to have fallen in love), and they definitely shouldn't be dating at all while they're that young, at least in my opinion, though it did make me a bit of a hypocrite. However, I wasn't like other kids. My current views of dating were exactly the same as they were when I was 11, I would only date girls/women I fell in love with, and I did each time. I had the marks to prove it.
I don't know why, due to it never happening to the other Elementals, but every time I dated somebody, I knew I was in love with them because I would immediately obtain a spiral, that is a scar in the shape of a spiral on my torso, though it was only visible through the power of my aura. As I dated the woman in question, the spiral would slowly get bigger and bigger as time went on. When we broke up, the spiral would stop and be forever frozen at that given size. These spirals were confirmation that proved that I indeed fell in love with my exes, and it's what separated them from just harmless puppy love and crushes, and believe me, I had a lot of those, too. Over the course of 21 years of life, I currently had eight spirals burnt into my torso. The burning sensation that came with each spiral wasn't painful in any way, in fact I rarely could even feel it, but it was a real feeling of being burnt. As the years have passed, I've learned to live with this little weird branding, but there was one thing about it that always stood out to me, the spirals moved.
Like say you drew a sun on my torso. Now imagine there were eight black spots, all different sizes, that you drew in a circle around that sun. Now imagine that a new black spot, again a different size from the rest of them magically appeared in the circle of spots. Now imagine the previous eight spots shifting positions as they adjusted themselves to where all nine spots were equally spaced away from each other, and that they also adjusted their sizes so that they all could fit into the circle, while still keeping to scale when compared to one another. Thats basically what my spirals did every time I gained a new one, as if God felt it was imperative to make sure my weird scars due to my failed attempts at love were all aligned perfectly for His amusement. The bottom line was, I had currently fallen in love eight times, and all eight women involved, whether I made amends with them or not, were all still a part of me, and I couldn't change it or do anything about it. It was kinda like how Eragon was forever connected to Saphira for life due to that spiral-shaped burn on his hand.
Actually my scars look kinda like Dragon Rider marks now that I think about it, I thought to myself interrupting my train of thought. I looked back down at the page of four photographs.
Ex-girlfriend number one was the Princess of Light herself, Asia Hadi. After discovering that this Indian cutie was the Elemental of Light as a child, my brain and heart had assumed that we were destined to be together, and for the three months that we "dated", for a time, I thought it was true. We would soon discover that our love for each other was growing platonic as we both ended up mutually friend-zoning the other, but I never forgot how nervous I was when I walked up to her and "asked her out". Again, I was 11. In love or not, I was a child. Even if there was something between us at that age, I was way too young to know what I was doing. Upon reflection, it was probably for the best that we didn't end up together. Besides, I was content with knowing that Andre made her happy, and in return she made him happy.
Girl number two was a lovely Latina named Julia Kaluza. Looking back on her as a 21-year-old man and not a lonely 13-year-old, there wasn't much to her, at least that I can remember. I am convinced that I may have fallen for her simply because of her looks. She had long, black hair, big lips, large, brown eyes, a great smile, and a curvy waist, but that's all I remember about her, well that and the fact that she only dated me to make her previous ex-boyfriend jealous. That would permanently burn a bridge for most people, but again, I was 13, I learned to live with it, and for the most part, I ended up okay.
Girl number three was Sammie. It's always awkward when I tell people that my little sister doubles as an ex-girlfriend, especially when they've never met or seen my sister and therefore are unaware that she is white and not related to me by blood. But in any case, Sammie was one of my best friends ever since I met her, and it only seemed natural that I would develop a crush on her and ask her out. Since I had developed a scar from her, I truly thought I fell in love with her just as I did with Asia. Ironically, my relationship with her ended exactly like it did with Asia, with the only difference being that she viewed me as her brother and I her as my sister.
And finally, coming in as girl number for was a Native American heart-throb named Star Whetstone. Much like Julia, there wasn't much to her other than her looks. In fact I think the only factor that separated Star from Julia was the difference in their sex lives. To put it simply from the lowest common denominator of a teenage boy's mind (as dumb as we all were at that age), Julia was known throughout school for teasing, whereas Star was known for pleasing. I hated admitting it, but Star was basically what you would call the "school slut", and I fell for her the same way I fell for Julia, for her beauty and nothing else. Ironically, Star's beauty was about as deep as Julia's, that is to say, not at all deep. She wound up dumping me because "I couldn't keep up with her". At 15 years old, I wasn't as comfortable with sex as she was, and ultimately she got bored with me and moved on to somebody else.
But as shallow and one-dimensional as Star and Julia were, I still, for whatever reason, fell in love with them, and developed scars from it. They were and will always be, a part of me. With that said, I did eventually forgive them and added them on Facebook as I got older just so I can say that I knew they were alive and well, though as expected, we all just kinda stopped talking to one another as we got older. But all the talk of love and scars and whatnot aside, as the Prince of Darkness, I felt I was obligated to keep in contact, though extremely limited and basic contact, with them because I would soon learn that being associated with me was the equivalent of living with a bullseye on your back.
As the years went by and I grew older, I faced and fought against all kinds of villains, crooks, criminals, and evildoers, several of which challenged or wanted my powers, and came at me by targeting those close or meaningful to me. Asia was already a target for being an Elemental herself, and I was personally responsible for turning Sammie into a werewolf, but long after breaking up with them, Julia and Star both crossed into the world of the mutant community by way of abduction and experimentation, just for having dated me one time. I taught them how to control their powers just as I did with my Pack, and they went on to live their lives as respectable and educated mutants, but because of their association with me, they will always be potential targets or bait, so it was only fair that I promised them the protection of the Elementals since it was technically because of the Elementals that they were cursed with such a dangerous life.
Evil follows me wherever I go, it's not my fault, I think to myself as I remembered how I had to explain to their parents who and what I was and how it would affect their daughters' lives. I remembered how the angry humans didn't care that I couldn't help being born the way I was, or that my title I am forced to live with decreases my chances of getting close to anyone because of the danger I might present. They were just angry and wanted someone to blame. Their children were now mutants, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Star's family even went as far as to say that I "tainted their family legacy".
As I remembered the huge downside that came with associating with me, it was at that point that I started to become depressed again. What started out as reminiscing on old times, was turning into reliving old pains and heartbreaks.
Brothers, I'm sorry, I thought to myself as I began feeling sorry for myself as I felt that there was no way I could fulfill the vow I made to the other Elementals. It was at that moment I heard a familiar sound. It started off with a loud "click" sound. And then it was immediately followed by a loud sort of jingle that you'd most likely find as a default option for a cellphone ringtone. It was coming from outside my bedroom in the living room. Raven had turned on my Nintendo Wii.
My ears twitched as I waited for a moment to hear what game she was playing. The music that followed consisted of drums, a few bass horns, and a somewhat eerie sounding choir. She was playing "Super Smash Brothers Brawl".
There is a hot girl, outside of my bedroom, playing video games, yet I'm still in here. Why, I asked myself as I closed the photo album and walked out to the living room. I walk over towards the t.v. to see that Raven hadn't wasted any time setting up her game. She was playing free-for-all with three CPU's, all set at level 7. She was playing as Zelda. As I stood behind her watching her play, I found myself quickly growing out of my funk about my exes and my bitch of a mother as I found yet another reason why I was crazy about Raven. She was good, really good.
I grab myself a chair and place it off to her right so that I could see the t.v. screen from another angle, but also so I could get a look at Raven as she played. Much to my surprise when I saw her still with her monotoned look as her fingers ferociously attacked the Gamecube controller she held in her hands as she played. And then I found myself once again getting lost in her eyes. Her eyes were not only gorgeous, but they were like black holes. Once I made eye contact with her, I tended to get sucked in, unable to escape.
I think Ne-Yo said it best when he said, "and I just can't break myself away, but I don't want to escape", I thought to myself as I remembered a lyric from the R&B singer's hit song, "Closer". I snapped out of my trance when I heard the screen shout, "game", which told me that I was staring at Raven for way too long. Hopefully she didn't notice, I think to myself as I notice Raven still looking at the screen despite my gawking at her. I look back at the screen to see that Raven was victorious at her game. It was then that I decided to finally say something to break the awkward silence.
"Nicely done", I said.
"Piece of cake", she responded confidently. I chuckle in response, not knowing what to say next. "How much time do we have until the alarm goes off?" I assumed she was referring to the clock in my room. I look behind Raven at the large clock on the wall. It read 8:45 am.
"About two and a half hours", I responded.
"That'll be plenty of time for you to give me that explanation you owe me", she said as she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I could feel my face blushing again having forgotten that I promised her an explanation upon entering the house.
"Whoops. My bad", I said bashfully as I scratched the back of my neck.
"You realize you owe me, right?"
"What do you mean", I asked her with my eyebrow now raised.
"You owe me a milkshake, that is, unless you beat me", said Raven. Her eyes were as inviting as ever as a smile appeared on her face as if to say, "bring it on". I couldn't help but smile, as there was no way in Hell that I was gonna turn down her challenge. I turn the palm of my right hand up and extend my right arm towards her as if to say "pass it here". Raven then tosses me the Wii remote. Once I catch it, I then lean over to the shelf I was sitting next to and grab me a nunchuk and connect it to the remote. I then turn back to Raven, her smile and eyes still inviting me to play with her, causing my smile to grow a little bigger.
"Game on."