Eventide
Chapter XVI
Being locked inside of the apartment was nothing like I had pictured it. There were absolutely no rainbows or romantic moments with Soul, no, instead Soul was running out of the apartment as soon as his phone either buzzed or called. Sometimes I just wanted to grab his phone and throw it out of the window and continue the movie night we were going to have. Many nights were spent with Wes, he was surprisingly a very rough guy. He did have the manners and the looks of a gentleman, but as soon as you rubbed him the wrong way, oh man, he would curse even worse than a sailor.
It seemed like I spend most of my time with him than Soul. Since Soul was always out at night, I spend my nights alone in his large bed just to wake up alone.
The days went far too slowly. My homework didn't manage to keep me occupied the whole day and the TV didn't offer me much entertainment. The few books they had weren't anything readable since they were cookbooks that Wes liked to use on weekends when he got a little more time to devote his passion for food.
"Can you pass me the vanilla sugar?" Wes asks as he fills a cup of water.
"Sure." I say, getting up from my seat by the table where I had watched Wes make the cupcakes. I grab the little yellow box and hands it to him. "Here."
"Thank you." He takes the vanilla sugar and starts pouring a little into a small cup where he adds a small amount of water and a few drops of blue food coloring. He stirs it and it soon becomes blue thick frosting. "Do you want to help me decorate the cupcakes?
"I don't know how to do it. I could accidentally mess them up." It was years and years ago since I had touched baking materials. The last time I did anything close to baking, it was when my mother was still alive. She had baked cookies and then the only thing I really did was read the cartoons out loud and handed them to her. It wasn't really baking, more like an reading exercise and it was a great way of rewarding me afterward with either a lick of the batter or a cookie. Or plenty of times, both.
Wes chuckles and puts the frosting into a tube, handing it to me. "Then I will show you. These cupcakes are only to us so nobody will mind if they are a little messy." I grab the tube in my hands and Wes steps behind me, wrapping his strong arms around me and putting his hands on mine. "Hold the tube like this." He says and gently arranges my hands so one is on top and the other gently holds the tube. "And now you gently squeeze it and draw circles on the cupcake." He squeezes my hand which squeezes frosting out of the tube. He makes a very pretty pattern on the cupcake with the help of a circler motion. The cupcake looks like it deserves a seat at a window of a very fancy bakery.
"It's so pretty."
Wes smiles and pulls away from me. "It is, but it will be eaten and then it won't matter if it is pretty or not." Wes leans against the counter and moves the cupcake away to put another chocolate one in front of me. "Now you try it."
I smile and do as he says, squeezes the tube and draws circles. It doesn't come out as nice as Wes's, but it was an okay attempt for being my first time frosting cupcakes.
"You know," Wes says as he angles himself so he can look at my face, "you have been acting a little weird lately. Is something on your mind?"
Oh, something was off alright. It was a few days since my dead mother had went up to the door. My whole world had been spinning off uncontrollable and I had no clue what to do. I had absolutely no control at all over my surroundings and as soon as I thought I got used to it, something would blow up in my face and prove me wrong.
It was so unreal. Seeing my mother walking around well and healthy must have been a dream even though I could touch her and feel her warm hand against my cheek. Her voice sounds too familiar and too real to be true. She hadn't stayed long, it was almost as soon as she had come inside, and she had to leave. The only thing she had really done was cup my cheeks and told me how much she loves me and my father, then, she did something I did not expect.
"You aren't safe here." Her words ring freshly inside of my mind. "You have no idea what his gang of Meisters really do. You have never seen them in action, have you?" I didn't want to believe it, but it did peak my suspicion toward Soul and his motives. "We can be a family again, just come home and we can all go away from all of this. You won't ever have to worry about Kishins and we can all be one happy family again." She had kissed my forehead to then run out of the front door. I had regained my control over my body and followed her, but she was gone. There was absolutely no one outside and I was left alone again.
It was an intriguing offer. To have the clock turned backwards and go back to being a happy family with mother and father, it is what I had always wanted, it is my biggest and most impossible dream. A dream that could come true. She is alive and we can be a family.
But then again. If I would chose my family that would mean I would have to walk away from Soul and the gang of Meisters. They had sacrificed some of their Meisters in order to only keep the most devoted Meisters to protect me. If I walked out on them, what would they do? What would they say?
What would Soul do?
I know I wouldn't be able to get away from him. He would always find me with his Soul Perception. Wherever I would run and hide, he would always be close behind to then find me.
"You keep spacing out like this," Wes says, snapping me out of my own thoughts. "You seem to be thinking about something, something that you aren't telling us about." Wes leans closer to me. "You know you can talk to us. We are your new family. If something is on your mind, you can tell us."
There is no way I can tell him about my mother. She said they weren't safe, which mean I can't trust them as much as I had. Something is going on inside of the group that I don't know about. I need to discover it while trying to find a way to contact my mother. She should have the answer to all of my questions.
"I―"
The front door slams open and I hear Soul mutter loudly, swearing colorfully. He doesn't bother with hanging his coat on the rack, he just drops it on the ground along with his keys, successfully leaving a trail to the living room where he plants his face on the cushions of the couch.
"Soul." Wes backs away from me, walking out of the kitchen and leaving me alone. I sigh loudly and grip the tube in my hand and continue to decorate the cupcakes with frosting.
That was too close for my own liking. If Wes is onto me, that means Soul also is. They are brothers and they communicate well with each other, he might not have noticed it, but Wes will definitely share his suspicion with him. This will make it even harder for me to find my mother and get away from Soul and Wes.
Maybe, in due time, my mother will appear again. Most likely not, but I need to cling onto something in order to keep myself sane. I need to focus on my goal, which is my mother. She holds all the answers, all I have to do is find her.
It isn't a secret that Soul still keep things a secret from me. It took him way too long to tell me about Soul Perception and about these strengths in spiritual form. He still only has told me about speed, what else kind of powers can I do when I'm inside of my spiritual form?
"Oh shit!"
"Is that what I think it is?" I hear Wes and Soul yell inside of the living room.
"Mak―"
Soul's voice drowns in the sound of the window right beside me shattering. I barely manage to cover my eyes and glass shards soar through the air before they hit the ground. A loud roar fills the apartment and the same Kishin I met inside of my house stands at the window sill. Its red eyes glaring at me as it licks it mouth.
"Maka." It mutters under its breath.
"MAKA!" Soul hollers, grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him so roughly I thought he would dislocate my shoulder. His hand slips through mine as he switches into his spiritual form. Quickly he fishes up his dagger inside of the waistband of his jeans and grips it tightly as he leaps toward the Kishin.
My eyes widen because Soul's dagger didn't make contact with the armor of the Kishin, his dagger including Soul went right through the Kishin.
The Kishin gurgles and leaps toward me and Wes with its claws ready to cut us into pieces.
"RUN!" I scream and push Wes out of the way. The Kishin lands right beside me and I can tell that he is very much solid to me. His spiritual form will infect my soul if I don't get away from here right now.
Wes runs toward the front door and closes it behind him. I stand my ground as the Kishin growls and drips saliva on the ground. "Maka…" It growls, its claws tearing up the wooden floor as it takes slow steps toward me. "Maka…" The Kishin keeps repeating my name over and over again as it steps closer to me. I counter by taking a step backwards.
My back hits the wall and the Kishin growls loudly, leaps toward me as it pulls its claws inside of its palms. It roars loudly in pain, visible shuddering as it falls down on its knees. A mop of white hair catches my attention behind the Kishin. The Kishin roars loudly as it quickly turns around, going right pass Soul again before it leaps out of the window.
"Damn it!" Soul curses loudly, quickly follows the Kishin but stops at the window, looking for the Kishin. "It's gone." He says a few seconds later. He turns on his heel and looks at me. "You alright? Did it get you?"
I shake my head. "No, but what happened? The Kishin went right through you. How is that even possible?"
"It wasn't the Kishin that went through me, it was me who went through it. Somehow, that Kishin managed to switch to a physical body instead of staying locked in its spiritual form." Soul walks up to me and grabs my shoulders, his nails digging into them as he glares into my eyes. "This is serious. This Kishin can break through blood lines and easily get pass our defenses. The apartment isn't even safe. This means you will have to stay at the barn until its dead. There will always be at least two Meisters there at all time that can protect you."
"No."
"No? What do you mean no?" Soul says very ticked off.
"I have had enough of this. If that Kishin wants me, then I know it will get me one day. You can't protect me all the time. One time, it will either kill all of you or it will manage to get pass you and get to me." I point toward the window where the Kishin had disappeared through. "It will always disappear if it thinks it can't get to me. It will always go away just to return some other time. It will get me―"
"Then what the fuck do you want me to do?" Soul barks, grabbing my wrist roughly. "I'm not going to let it get to you. You can say that as much as you want, but I'm not going to back down until that thing is dead." Soul's hand traces down to my hand and entwines our fingers. "I love you and I'm damn not going to lose you, you hear me. I'm not ever going to let you go. Not now, not ever."
His eyes look at me with such intensity of love, anger and desire. He really does want me, but one day, I'm going to disappear, just like everybody else.
I don't know what to answer him, instead I release his hand and gently wrap my arms around his waist. My head rests against his chest and I listen to the sound of his heart, beating so strongly and steadily.
It doesn't take long for him to wrap his arms around me, holding me close to him.
He will try to keep my safe, but one day, he will slip up. Everybody always slip up at one point, just like I failed my mother, Soul will fail me one day.