Chapter 3 Kelly

I kept sending swift glares towards the guy in the passenger seat. Zeke would give me a toothy smile in return each time, which made my irritation sky rocket. That asshole knew exactly what he was doing by bringing everyone into this. I tried so hard to prevent my old world and new one from colliding so soon. I was hoping to deal with this when everyone would be in college, far away from all the humans I cared for. I cast concerned glances towards Callie, who I placed in the back with Elijah, to protect them from Zeke and the situation at hand. She’s still out of it and might be for a while. If they both could’ve fit in Lauren’s car safely, I would have gotten her to bring them with her tonight. I unfortunately had to settle for the next best thing and wait for her to stop by later, not knowing how much more damage would be caused by then. In the meantime, I blared Callie’s mix CD to help drown out the stifling quiet and in hopes it would comfort her.

I let out a sigh, already drained from tonight’s events, and it’s not even the tip of the iceberg. If my reoccurring dream was anything to go by. Everything was so vivid in these nightmares, so realistic that it was like I never even slept at all upon waking up. Houses burning to ash, innocent people running for their lives and two familiar men, who remained faceless, fighting it out. I try to stop it, but I am never quick enough to prevent the blondes sword from stabbing straight through the other mans heart. I would always be screaming no, catching him as he fell, sending us both to the ground quicker. His long brown hair always covered his face. All I know is my heart breaks each and every time without fail. I always look up at the blonde blinded by sunlight behind him, who never showed emotion, asking how he could do this, but he would look me dead in the eyes each and every time saying. “This could have all been prevented if you didn’t try stopping fate.” After that, I would just wake up, scared, heartbroken, confused, and crying. I am not sure what it means, but I plan on figuring it out.

I always knew that every story I told Al growing up was real. I kept her in the dark and pretended it was all just some dumb dream, fueled by a child’s imagination, to protect her and my sanity. On the surface, it sounded like a harmless Disney movie that little girls wished were real. Soulmates, true loves kiss, faraway lands, yaddy yaddy yada. There were too many awful, life-threatening things under the surface for it to be nothing but a horror movie. I could have proven everything was real. She would have believed me, there is no doubt in my mind, but I didn’t want to risk losing her for good. If I was being completely honest with myself, it was my selfish wish. All the nightmares, the shadows, magic. It scared me. My sister was my safe haven to get away from it all. I took great comfort when we were growing up, and I would end up crawling into her bed, crying from yet another memory, and she would hug me, saying it was all okay. I could really believe it for a while and pretend none of it ever happened. I even had myself convinced that I could ignore my old life, build a new one completely, and just be with my sister. That is, until almost a year ago when I turned seventeen and the future yet to come refused to be ignored.

I sent another glared to the person who destroyed my plan, thus far. I knew my sister well enough that she would try to come with me and help, but it’s a world that isn't safe for a human.

“You just destroyed all my hard work. You know that, right?” I whispered, yelled to Zeke, so ears in the back seat couldn’t overhear us. Luckily, the music was loud enough to drown out our voices. I had superb multitasking skills and was able to add Zeke to my ‘keep an eye on’ list, which included the road, and checking in on Callie from time to time. I didn’t trust him to keep them out of our affairs after his stunt earlier of almost ending two cars full of humans.

He just shrugged, a pleased smile crossing his face. “What can I say, I love to crash a good party. Besides, you should be happy that the cats out of the bag, sis.” He laughed at his own bad joke.

“Happy about what? Huh? What is there to be happy about exactly? You ruining my new life, or the fact that you put five plus people at risk earlier with your stupid stunt? And don’t call me sis. I am in no way your twin sister anymore. I thought that was apparent when I. I don’t know, was reborn to a human family.”

This guy, with his nonchalant attitude, was going to annoy me to no end. I can see it already. He tried to stifle his laughter. “Hate to break it to ya. We may not be twins anymore, but uh, you are still indeed my sister, just little sister now. Actually, I am the adult in this situation.” His eyes lit up at the revelation while I just rolled mine. Adult my ass. He acts like a three year old.

“Are you through with laughing at my expense yet? I’m human now, I have nothing to do with any of that stuff anymore. I have two older brothers, and neither of them are you. The most loving twin sister, a girl could ever ask for. Not you.” I said that last part in warning, telling him to try me. I promised I would never let anything bad happen to her. Though I am starting to question how bad my karma really is, for my past life to come bite me in the ass in such a way. Not only that, but it is bad enough to affect the innocent people around me, more specifically, an amazing, sweet, human girl who doesn’t deserve such bad things happening to her.

“Oh? Let me ask you something, little sis. If you’re so human, then why have you been so calm and collected this whole time, unlike the other humans who were there? Although, that boy is holding up pretty nicely.” Zeke paused, steering his attention to the back seat, “ What’s your name sweetheart? You know, you’re pretty cu-“ I slammed the breaks, cutting him off successfully. He flung forward, his head bashing into the dashboard, preventing him from getting close to Elijah. ‘Not on my watch’, I said mentally. Luckily, we were the only ones on the desolate road, and I knew he was the only one in the car not sporting a seat belt. I made sure to pull over onto the side of the road to prevent a real accident.

I masked my amusement, with mock horror. “Oh, I am so sorry, Zeke. I thought I saw a wild animal run across the road, and I didn’t want to hit it.” Man. I could make a killing being an actress. I pulled off worried and concerned quite well while trying hard not to smile in the process. “Are you okay? You know that’s why we are all using seatbelts, right? It prevents people from getting hurt, or worse, dying in car accidents if a crash happens. Or you know, heaven forbid an animal runs into the middle of the road.” I looked at him pointedly while saying that last part. I heard Elijah’s laughter from the back seat. My façade finally cracked, and I couldn’t help but join in on the laughter. I looked towards the back, knowing Al would love this one, but she was still out of it. Elijah’s laughter dwindled a bit, all the while having a comforting arm around my sister this whole time. I gave him a shrug and a small smile in return.

The last time she was like this was when she was left alone with our grandparents, and grandpa died in front of her in the house, while grandma was gardening outside . The doctor said it was how she coped with things and that we should leave her to it. So we do. To this day, though, we don’t know exactly what happened to cause his heart attack because she still couldn’t remember. It must be our twinnection (Twin Connection), but I knew she would be okay, and this time I will remember for her if needed. I mean, she will definitely get a kick out of this later.

“Maybe you should put your seatbelt on so you don’t get hurt again. Anything can happen, but especially at night.” Elijah said shyly to Zeke with a little blush to his cheeks. Oh no. No, no, no. Sorry Elijah, you might not think of me as a friend, but I do. I can’t let anything happen between them. I will have to keep a close watch on this situation because it looks like the feeling is mutual.

We waited for Zeke to figure out the seat belt. He was so confused and looking pretty dumb right now. Satisfied with this result, knowing Elijah liked smart people, I leaned in to give a helping hand. When I got him clicked into place, Zeke leaned in more. “I know what you did. This conversation is far from over.”

I stared straight into his eyes that were all pupil, with a fierce look of my own. “From where I am standing, it is.” I bit back, slowly leaning away. I returned my attention to the road as I drove back to our house in complete silence for the rest of the way. The only noise was music blaring through the stereo that I turned up, intent on keeping it that way, leaving no room for further conversation. ”This summer is gonna suck.” I said to myself under my breath as I raced down the road to our home.