Lost Boy
Andre Harris is in for the surprise of his life when he learns that maybe his grandma isn't so crazy after all, and maybe, just maybe, he is something extraordinary. He's about to enter a world on the verge of a war, the world his best friends live in, and a world he will have to save or risk losing everyone.
Rated T
Chapter 4
Andre wanted to be anywhere else than in the back room of the bar surrounded by perhaps the most terrifying people he'd ever met. The man with the Birch, her husband apparently, was some sort of wolf shifter and he stood by the door looking like he'd pounce on and eat anyone that stepped out of line. The Birch herself was a succubus; he wasn't too sure what it meant only that it was some sort of sex Fae, but his grandma had told him that.
The guard who had walked in with newest arrival looked pretty terrifying, he was big, bald and tattoo'd, Andre wanted to avoid him at all costs, even if he was simply a huge human who was breathing so heavily his nostrils were flaring. The newest arrival was easy to identify by the pointed fangs protruding from his gums as he laughed. Andre's eyes bugged out of his head when the vice principal stepped into the room, his eyes landed on Andre and he grinned, Dickers is a fucking vampire.
"What a grand find, your little brat's best pal!" He grinned at the Birch with joy, "and he may be one of us." He chuckled heartily; the Birch did not find this to be at all amusing and rested her hand against his arm. He stopped instantly and took a giant step away from her like he'd been burned. Holly smirked for a fraction of a second before she started talking about the Light Fae. Twenty minutes later Dickers was finishing his little speech about the Dark Fae.
"So Andre, now we've told you about our sides and what it will mean to choose either side. In three nights we will have a ceremony where you will declare your side, you will have time to meet other fae and make your choice then, do you understand?" the Birch said in an almost sweet voice, it creeped him out more than Dickers smirking did.
"If we're done here we should get out there in a hurry. The youngest Vega is itching to start a fight and who knows how strong those wards really are." Dickers snapped.
"My daughter has perfect self control, so don't worry about her starting a fight." He snorted in response and rolled his eyes, Holly scowled for a second, nostrils flared, and then recomposed herself.
"Now we'll get you home soon, but for now go sit with some Fae around your age. Have something to drink and think about things." The Birch ordered, leading him out of the room.
When the door opened Tori had a bottle of something tipped about to drink fromit, frozen mid-sip, Beck's bottle hovered over the table, Robbie's mouth was full of liquid and he was frozen, Jade's eyes bugged out of her head, and Cat had dropped her bottle. Tori was the first to react, setting her bottle down and standing, "Andre?"
"Tori?" relief washed over him seeing her, like he was suddenly not alone in all the chaos. Tori rushed toward him, pulling him into a quick hug. She motioned for him to go to their table and turned toward her mom. Andre moved over and sat down in Tori's vacated seat while she whispered with her mother and Dickers, "All of you? And you never told me?"
Beck ran his hands through his hair, "It's not like we can just go "hey Andre we're Fae!" I don't think you'd respond well to that." Beck replied, "And we're not all Fae. It's just Cat, Tori, Trina, me and Rex."
Andre's eyes shot to the puppet, "Rex?" he eyed the puppet nervously.
"Yes, Rex." Jade replied in a bored tone, "in his real form he can control people like a puppet. As this, he can control Robbie." Robbie's cheeks puffed out in defiance. Rex's head turned toward Andre, he screamed and jumped, nearly falling out of the chair. Laughter bubbled past Jade's lips and she nearly toppled back over in her chair, Cat was giggling like a crazy person and Robbie covered his hand with his mouth.
"So you're the mystery Fae, a siren." Beck took a gulp of his bottle, which Andre noticed was root beer of some kind, "do you want a drink?" Beck asked, noticing his friends stare on the bottle. He got up when Andre nodded and headed for the bar, pausing he wrapped an arm around Tori's waist and dragging her away from Dickers and her mother who were now having a heated argument with some other Fae.
"So what's going on around here? Everyone seems so tense…" Andre said, turning back to the table. Jade glanced at Cat who was looking at her hands, and bit her lip and shook her head.
"Some people have been dying on both sides and someone tried to kill Tori's mom." Rex's hand moved without Robbie's help to point in Holly's direction.
Andre's eyes bugged out of his head, "That's Tori's mom? She's so terrifying!" Trina chuckled at the comment.
"So is Tori." Jade muttered, crossing her arms over her chest grumpily.
"What is Tori?" Tori asked. Jade jumped when Tori slammed a chair down next to her, sinking into it smiling. Beck sighed and returned to his chair.
"Terrifying, like your mom." Jade replied in a clipped tone. Tori shrugged and handed Andre a bottle sitting back in her chair and putting her arm over Jade's shoulders, "Don't touch me."
"Aww, sorry Jade." Tori grinned but didn't bother to move her arm.
"Tori here is a little sex demon who can't keep her hands to herself." Jade snapped, grabbing Tori's finger and bending it backwards until the other girl yanked her arm away and rubbed her finger soothingly and crossed her legs, turning away from Jade.
"Dickers scare you away from the Dark?" Tori asked, her eyes turning toward Dickers, he grinned at her maliciously and he noticed Tori shudder and look away, snatching her bottle from the table and taking a long gulp.
"Yeah, he's pretty intense. Sex demon?"
"Succubus. I feed off peoples sexual chi. Beck's an incubus, which is basically the male counterpart, Jade here is just mad because she thinks I used it on her t-." Jade turned and punched Tori's shoulder hard enough to tip the chair back on two legs, her green eyes were narrowed dangerously, Tori tipped her chair back down and shrugged her shoulder, "so I heard you got some siren lessons from Hale."
"Yeah, do you know him?"
"No. He's the Ash in Canada," Tori replied, taking a large gulp of her drink at his confused look, " he does what my mom does. I've never met any of them."
"Why do you know who they are?" Andre asks.
"Unaligned succubus. She was born and given away to human parents and never found out who she was until she was caught for killing a man, and when tested and asked she refused to pick a side." Beck filled in.
"Tested?"
"They don't do testing here, much to Dickers disappointment. Every year they take the seventeen year olds and gather for this huge elaborate ceremony where we pick our side and put some blood in some water. It's really symbolic and shit." Tori explained, "Though everyone usually sides with their parents, some don't, thus the elaborate unchangeable ceremony."
"Sounds like that book Divergent."
"Sort of, except as far as I know you don't have to do bat shit crazy things to be accepted. Unless you go through the Dawning and fail, but that doesn't happen until you're like super old." Beck babbles.
"Super old? What do you mean 'super old'."
"Like a thousand years usually. My mom went through hers last year, terrifying as hell she said." Tori observed, Andre felt like he was going to puke from this new development. The thought of living forever was just the cherry on top of the shit sundae his life seemed to be turning into.
"Silence!" Lenny bellowed, the magic in the bar silenced everyone, people stood up angrily, mouths opened in screams that weren't heard. Tori scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, "the Birch and the Comanche would like to speak."
Dickers and Holly stepped up in front of the bar, "as unprecedented as it is, all children thirteen and older are to attend the choosing ceremony that will be held on Friday." Holly announced, "This is mandatory for all children, please tell everyone."
"Children under the age of 13 will be assumed as the side of their guardians, that is all. Please return to your lives and be promptly at the ceremony at 6pm." Dickers ordered and walked out with his guards. The chattered filled the bar and in a rush the Dark fae emptied out, leaving just a few continuing a game of pool, they'd been around long enough that a rash announcement doesn't bother them.
"What is that about?" Andre whispered. Tori shook her head, eyes on her mother who was whispering with her father.
"Trina?"
"The fae are about to declare war." She whispered, "they're forcing you guys to choose now so we can have fighters."
"How did she…?"
"She's a wolf shifter." Beck whispers.
"We need to get out of here." Tori observed standing and pulling Robbie and Jade to their feet, "come on Cat." Everyone in the bar seemed to be tense now, more than a few had heard the whispered conversation. Robbie hustled away and Tori prodded Jade in the back to get her moving. Andre rushed after them with Beck on his heels.
Outside everyone piled into cars, Tori dragged Andre into Jade's backseat with her, Robbie tucked in on their other side and Jade crawled into the drivers seat and pulled out behind Beck, "where are we going?" Jade asked.
"My place." Tori answered. Andre tuned out the rest of the conversation his mind was spinning with all of this new information. There was a war brewing in his new world, and they're making the kids fight, and he could live forever. A hand on his knee brought him back to the car, "you're tapping your foot."
"Sorry." He whispered.
"Do you want to be dropped off at your grandmas?" She asked, "Sorry I didn't think about asking you before."
"No, it's fine. I'm not quite ready to go home yet. I have a lot of questions and my grandma can't really answer them all." Tori nodded her head to say she understood and fell silent again. Andre lapsed back into thought, his head felt like it was spinning.
In three days he'd be picking a side permanently and he could be forced to fight and what if he picked the wrong side? All of his friends were on the light, so that was the obvious choice, but his parents were dark Fae, why would they have suddenly changed? Is that why he had never met them? But it wasn't like he could just leave his grandma, who would take care of her if he wasn't around?
He was jarred back to reality when a door slammed to his left. He turned and watch Tori getting out of the car, she held Jade's door open for him, "come on, we'll get you some water and answer your questions." He got out of the car and followed her up to the door, as Trina shoved it open and waltzed inside. Jade threw herself down on the couch beside Cat, leaving a space that Robbie filled awkwardly stiff.
Andre took a seat on the other couch next to Beck and Tori closed the door and went straight to the kitchen. A few minutes later she started throwing bottles of water from the fridge in their direction. Jade managed to catch not only hers, but Robbie's and Cat's as well, and Beck caught his without really turning around to look. Tori dropped down beside Beck and handed Andre his bottle. He realized they probably did this a lot, all those times he was stuck with his grandma they'd come over here and hang out.
Part of him felt really left out and a lot of him felt really sad. For the next few hours they sat around and watched TV, Andre would randomly ask a question and somebody would answer him and he'd go silent until he thought of another one. Around 7:30 Cat, Jade and Robbie all went their separate ways.
"Do you want a ride Andre?" Beck asked standing up. Tori was stretched out on the end of her couch, Andre was pretty sure she was asleep.
"Yeah."
"Alright, let me take her up to her room and I'll drive you home." Beck stood up and tucked his arms under Tori's body, she hardly moved when he picked her up from the couch. Beck came back down in five minutes and motioned for Andre to follow him. Outside Beck stopped and locked the door while Andre continued down to his truck. They rode in silence, not saying a word until Beck called goodbye as he pulled away from the curb.
Andre sighed and smoothed out his braids with one hand before trudging up to the apartment. He stopped to get the mail from the box before he moved up the stairs and down the hall to his apartment, "Grandma? I'm home!"
"Hey Andre!" she yelled back, Andre thought it sounded like she was in her bedroom. He moved toward the kitchen after locking the door, shedding his jacket and draping it over the back of the couch. He pulled out a box of macaroni, the milk, butter and a pot. He filled the pot with water and put it on a burner to boil.
"Do you want some mac and cheese?" he called.
"With hot dogs?" she yelled back.
"Sure!" he stepped over and pulled them from the freezer, getting a second pot and filling it with water. He set it on the burner but didn't turn it on until he'd dumped the macaroni noodles into the water.
His grandma came out of her room and sat at the dining room table by the time he was done; he served up dinner and sat down across from her, eating in a rush. He'd missed lunch being at the bar, "so what did they want with you at the bar?"
"They made me sign some book and talked to me about the different sides, they're having a ceremony on Friday night for every kid 13 and older to declare a side." He told his grandma what he learned from his friends and asked her some questions, she seemed to be in a lucid state and he was happy to use it to his advantage.
She helped clean up the kitchen, kissed him on the cheek goodnight and then went back to her room. Andre shut off the lights, checked the door and went into his bathroom. He showered quickly, dried off and pulled on a pair of boxers before he crawled into his bed and laid there, staring at the ceiling.
He knew who he'd pick, he'd pick the light fae because he had to be there for his grandmother, and he'd be with his friends. He'd learned a lot today, like how Rex owned Robbie's entire family, and how Jade was 'claimed' by Cat, who in turn was claimed by Tori who was held responsible if Cat went on a rampage, which meant she was also held responsible for Jade in Cat's absence. He learned, first hand, how Tori's power worked and watched Cat teleport-she'd teleported upstairs to Tori's bathroom because she didn't feel like walking.
He learned the real reason Jade and Beck broke up was because Beck had to sleep with other girls to feed and that Jade was worried Beck would feed on her. Beck said that feeding was hard to control, but that he'd never fed on Jade no matter what she said. Tori didn't deny using her powers on Jade, but denied using them for whatever it was Jade claimed she did. Everyone was just as confused as Andre about what happened between them. His best guess was that they slept together.
By the time he felt tired it was coming up to three am and he had to get up in two hours for school. With a groan he rolled over and buried his head under his pillow to try and get what little sleep he could manage. It didn't take him to long to fall asleep and straight into a nightmare where he was being chased by some weird deformed creature through what seemed to be a sewer. He woke up screaming and covered in sweat.
Sorry it was so short this time around guys, I'll try to make the next one longer.