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

The group had taken the day off for the choosing ceremony; so many so that the school had to make up a field trip to make it seem less strange that almost half of their students were gone, according to Sikowitz. Andre was shocked that so many kids he knew and went to school with were part of this secret society. He'd gone to school with these kids most of his life, but he'd never known anything was different about them.

The group was currently back at the bar sitting around having lunch, Tori and Jade were the only ones absent from the table so far, only Andre knew that the girls were at Tori's house so Jade could practice sparring. Andre absently sipped his drink and stared off into the space between Beck and Cat. Beck and Robbie were talking about something they were going to have to do for class and Rex was being his usual creepy self with a girl a table over.

"Is Rex going to the choosing ceremony?" Cat asked around a mouthful of fries, "Cause it's not like Robbie can go."

"No, Robbie, Rex and Jade are all stay home." Beck replied, pointedly glaring at the puppet, "besides Rex has already declared himself as a light Fae, about a billion years ago."

"Jade might kill him." Cat mused, "you don't bleed right? Will you turn back into a human if she rips all of your limbs off? I don't want blood all over my house."

"Jade will be fine with them, don't worry Cat." Beck reassured her, bringing a bright smile to her face. Andre smiled at that, picking up a French fry and popping it into his mouth. It was nice to be back to normal with everyone, now that they weren't hiding from him it was almost back to normal, maybe even better than before.

"I've gotta wazz." Andre announced, standing up and heading for the bathroom, Cat mumbled an 'ew' before he was out of earshot. He turned down the hall toward the men's room, his hand was on the door, and then two people grabbed him and hauled him out the back door, tossing him into a cars backseat and shutting the door.

He grabbed at the door handles to try and open the doors, but the child lock was turned on. There was no escape. He righted himself in the seat, preparing to shatter the windows with his ability when the door opened and two faces he recognized turned in unison to look at him, "mom? Dad?" he whispered, looking between the two of them.

"Andre, my son, I'm so sorry we've had to do it this way…" his mother whispered tenderly. A sharp sound pierced his ears and he felt dizzy and nauseous and then the world tipped and his was swallowed by unconsciousness.

When Andre came too he still felt dizzy, even with his eyes closed, so he laid still, his ears picking up a whispered conversation, "We shouldn't tell him. If he knows our plans and chooses the other side he may help them." He recognized the voice as his fathers, though he wasn't sure how.

"He will be on our side, he is our son." His mother argued sternly, "He will want to stay with us. I am sure of it."

"We will not tell him." His father snapped.

When he finally opened his eyes he found he was stretched out on an old worn couch that smelled like beer and cigarettes, he made a groaning sound to let them know he was awake, but it took him a few minutes to orient himself before he could sit up and look around the strange house. It was old, shabby and looked like a place a runaway would live in.

"Have some water, son." His mother whispered, kneeling in front of him and handing him the glass. He took it and tipped the glass back, swallowing half of it quickly, "I'm sorry about what we did, your father is very secretive about where we live, I would have rather just driven you

"It's okay." Andre whispered, smoothing back his braids and trying to clear the lingering fuzzy feeling out of his head, "what is this about?" he asked once he stopped feeling like the world was spinning.

"We realize kidnapping you might not have been the best way, but we just wanted to see you again. We were worried you friends might keep you from coming with us. I've missed so much of your life because of your stupid grandmother." Andre fought to hold his tongue, "but now you're here."

Andre patted his pocket, "where's my phone? My friends are going to be worried about me." he didn't know if that was actually true, but he'd feel better if he had his phone in his pocket, or in his hand, some connection to people who could save him if this situation turned bad.

"Tori has texted you twice." His father said casually, "here." He tossed the phone toward Andre.

He caught the phone, nearly dropping it twice, and unlocked it. He had two texts from Tori, one asking if they were still at the bar and the other asking where he was. I quickly replied that he was with his parents, glancing over at his mother, "so what do you want to see me for?" Andre asked.

"To get to know you, so you can know us." His mother replied, "It's hard for a mother to be separated from her only son, and this close to the w-everything, I want you here close with us, you need to see both sides of the Fae before the ceremony tonight, that way you can make the right choice."

Andre had a feeling that the right choice to her meant the dark Fae, but the right choice to him was vastly different. He wanted to ask what she meant by everything, but had a feeling that his father wasn't a big fan of the 'kidnap our son' plan and would rather Andre not be around.

His mother showed him around their small house and talked and talked for hours. Andre listened the best he could, taking note every time his mother almost said whatever it was that they were going to do. That night they drove him, blindfolded, to a huge barn and down into a cellar.

"What is this place?" Andre whispered.

"This is the choosing site." His mother explained, "Here every Fae, light and dark, will gather to watch the children pick a side. They will simply walk up and slice their hand, dripping blood onto either the dark stones or the light." She motioned to two huge structures in the middle of the room; he could see the different colored stones.

"We must leave him, now." Andre's father ordered, dragging his mother away before she could say goodbye. Andre circled the room twice, his mind only half focused on finding his friends. Some part of him wanted to pick the dark Fae, if only to be with his family again, and another part of him knew he should pick the light Fae, to honor his grandmother who sacrificed to much to keep him safe and to be with his friends.

But even as he stood and stared at the structures, he could not decide, "Andre. There you are, come on." Beck appeared at his side, "we need to go in the back." He followed Beck without protest into a men's locker room where at least 40 guys were standing around, an older man was passing out robes, Beck snagged two and then made into an emptier part of the locker room.

"We'll be in hoods so nobody knows which kids chose which side until the end and so we don't know what our friends pick." Beck pulled the grey robe over his head, it pooled on the ground by his feet and the hood completely masked his face in darkness. He put on his own robe and they stood talking for awhile, until they were ushered into two separate lines and juggled around until Andre didn't know where Beck was or what he was supposed to be doing, but he followed the line outside.

There was a line opposite of them, clearly the girls, and between them stood the structures filled with stones, "Ladies and Gentleman." Tori's mother announced, Andre managed to locate her after a few minutes situated at a podium beside Dickers, "welcome to the choosing ceremony. Today our children will pick their sides for the rest of their life. Children, this choice is permanent, so choose wisely. Should you choose to leave your original side you will be given a safe haven on either side to live, until you can get on your feet." Her eyes swept over everyone and she stepped back so Dickers got his turn to talk.

He went over how the ceremony would work; a girl would step up, cut her hand and drop her blood into a side, and then a boy and so on. He explained that afterwards the dark Fae would exit, the children would separate into the vans and be taken to the dark Fae center, and then the light Fae would leave, and go into their own vans to head to the light Fae center.

Andre was feeling nervous, his hands were shaking and his heart was racing in his chest. He wondered absently if he make puke as he watched the light and dark Fae sides pile up with robes turning white and black respectively. Andre stared at his grey robe curiously, wondering how they were turning colors. He was up next, and watched the girl before him step up to the podium and grab the knife. She wiped it on the cloth set out and then dragged the blade across her tan palm, without any hesitation she held her hand over the light fae stones, her robe shimmered and turned white and she walked toward the others silently standing on the light Fae side. He knew that was Tori, he could tell by the way she walked, the way she had no hesitation picking her side.

The guy behind him nudged him in the back when Andre hesitated, his feet shuffled as he made his way to the podium. The knife felt heavy in his shaking hands as he wiped the blood from the knife onto the somehow clean cloth. Exhaling a shaky breath he dragged the blade across his palm, hissing in pain. He set the knife down and closed his eyes, clenching his left hand tight as the blood pooled in it, and then he thrust his hand over the light fae stones, his eyes opened and he watched the robe shimmer into white. He headed silently to the light Fae side where someone handed him a bandage, he was asked to sign a book and then he stood with everyone else.

The ceremony lasted over an hour; he was feeling tired from just standing, and wondered if it had anything to do with his hand still bleeding. He almost screamed when a slender hand slipped into his right hand and squeezed, a gold light wrapped around their intertwined hands and he felt the skin on his left hand sealing. He looked at the tan hand in his and smiled, squeezing Tori's hand in his. She chuckled softly and leaned against him, watching the current kid stepping up to the podium. He was shaking more than Andre had, and the slice he put in his hand was worse than necessary. He got blood everywhere before he finally stuck his hand out over the light Fae and rushed to the light Fae side.

Tori slipped away from Andre and over to the kid, he couldn't have been more than 12 judging from his height, but didn't they say it was kids 13 and older? Tori ended up squatting by the kid for the rest of the ceremony, talking to him quietly and occasionally reaching up and wiping the tears off of his face. Andre moved over next to her, desperate to stay beside someone he knew. After the end of the ceremony closing words were said, but he didn't listen to them, and once the dark Fae had left Tori grabbed his hand and the kids hand and walked out with them.

In the van she ended up in Andre's lap with the kid on hers, once they were inside they removed their hoods. Andre was right; the boy was just barely 13, with a mop of blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He'd originally been a dark Fae, but he was scared of his family and wanted to be safe, Tori and Andre walked with him to the room for the switching where he found a friend to sit with and wait. Tori smiled at him before closing the door on the room and walking out. Now she was searching frantically for everyone, Trina was the first to emerge, and Tori ran to her side, hugging her tightly. Andre had never seen the girls hug, ever, and it was a little shocking to see how close the sisters actually were.

"I saw Cat; she's calling Jade to check on her, I haven't seen Beck anywhere." Trina said, "and I couldn't find you and I started freaking out."

"I had to take that little kid to the switching room." Tori replied, eyes flicking around the room nervously, "Where the hell could Beck be? There's no way he'd…" she trailed off, jumping up onto a bench to look across the room, to have a good vantage point to see over everyone, but he guessed she didn't find him because she dropped down on the bench and stared at the floor.

"There's no way he changed sides, Tor." Trina whispered, sitting down beside her, "maybe he went to the bathroom or something. Andre you were with him before the ceremony, did he seem weird?"

"No, seemed normal, he just explained how the ceremony worked and then handed me a robe." Andre answered, sitting down next to Tori, "he didn't switch sides, he's probably in the bathroom."

When Cat found them she had similar thoughts, sitting down on the ground in front of Tori who was still staring off into space like she'd been betrayed by a lover. Andre knew they had been close, but he didn't know how close they were until now.

"What do you look all sad about?" Tori's head snapped up when Beck's voice reached her ears, she launched herself at him so hard he stumbled back, his arm wrapping around her back.

"We thought you'd…"

"One of the vans broke down." Beck explained, kissing the top of Tori's head, "I'm hurt that you think I'd switch sides." Eventually the small group ambled out to the cars in the parking lot, Andre got a ride home from Trina while Beck took Tori and Cat home. When he got to the apartment he was surprised to find his grandma sitting in the living room reading a book.

"Hey Andre." She greeted with a proud smile, "are you happy with your choice?"

"Yes." He answered, looking down at the white robe.

"Good, now go take that thing off. Pizza should be here soon." He blinked, his grandma was not only reading, but also ordered pizza, "don't gawk, it's not polite, change and I'll explain."

Andre did as he was ordered, changing out of the robe and the clothes under it into a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. When he got back into the living room there was a box of pizza on the table and his grandmother was already eating a slice, flipping through channels on the TV, "your siren whistle has somehow, slowly destroyed the furies brain scramble, and it's getting easier for me to be normal again."

"I'm glad." Andre grabbed a piece of pizza and a paper plate and sat down in the recliner while his grandma changed channels, "I saw mom and dad today."

"I know, they kidnapped you. Your friend Tori told me."

"When did Tori talk to you?" he asked taking a large bite out of the slice of pizza.

"She called to see if I knew who the people that took you were. Then she called back to tell me you said you were alright." Charlotte replied, "now hush, this movie looks good." She turned on some movie Andre had never heard of and they watched together silently until his grandma decided to go to bed. Andre cleaned up, shoving the pizza box into the fridge and the plates into the garbage. He pulled the bag out and tied it up, carrying it down the hall to the trash chute.

Back in his room he crawled into his bed and pushed open his window, slipping his headphones over his ears and turning up some music. His thoughts wandered to his parents, what his life would be like right now if he'd been living with his parents. Would he know everyone else? Would they all hate each other? There was a small breeze outside; he could smell the ocean as he sat there, he wanted to walk out and go sit on the beach, but he could hear a storm looming in the distance.

I hope you guys are liking the story and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!