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Chapter 18 - The Past, The Children Know (Kaden POV)

A/N: NOT EDITED.

Chapter 18 — The Past, The Children Know (Kaden POV) PART 1.

"Is that a nickname? Is that why you call pops Kaden?" Sawyer asked again.

"No, that's his name," Vivian replied, "But his name is Reese too," Myles continued, further baffling Sawyer and Tristan. A weird choking sound is coming from Etta who blinks, and finally just squares her shoulders. Pushing everyone into Myles 'no girls allowed' room, Etta comes to my side and sits flat on the ground pulling me down with her.

"Sawyer, Tristan... you guys know how we're different? Right?" her voice soft, her accent thick with worry, but the twins nod. "Uh huh, we can smell things and — and pops said we live in big groups so bad people can't get us," Sawyer replied sweetly her eyes wide; she tilts her head to the side.

"You have another face, Tristan's face, but — but long long long time ago," she exaggerates, her hands gesturing, "Tristan's face was on the news, and — and that name — Kaden — he was on the news too," eyes wide, smile gone, my heart racing I stared at Sawyer.

"Are you him?"

"How can he be him?" Tristan turns to her and asks.

"We'll maybe it's his family," Etta and I, our eyes dart between Tristan and Sawyer as they speak like we aren't here.

"I know it's you," Sawyer finally just turns to me, her eyes serious for her age, and her confidence much too strong for this to be just a guess.

I open my mouth but, unsure how to proceed I close it, repeating that until finally, "Why do you think that?"

Sawyer, bent her head down, shrugging her shoulders and began picking at Myles' carpet, "Just, sometimes... I dream... in the day time... and I see things... like we aren't going to go hiking tomorrow." She offered, her voice offhanded and natural.

"Yes we are! Pops you said we're going!" Tristan already disagreed.

"Why aren't we going Sawyer?" Etta asked her softly.

"Because it's going to be raining, when we waked up, and Pops says — it'll be too messy," Sawyer replied looking up at Etta pulling her legs up to her chest.  

Myles stands, going to his window, "but the suns out," he points outside, while Sawyer just shrugs. Stunned I'm not sure what happened, or when this all began, but I begin putting together things Sawyer has said over the past few months.

"Do you have these day dreams a lot? Everyday?" she shakes her head.

"Did you see Etta and I before we — before you saw us?"

"No, I just saw that we had to be at the park," she replied softly looking up at Etta and I helplessly, unsure of herself.

"You're a very special little girl then," I started, "I can't do what you can do, those day dreams, I don't have that but what I can do, is change the way I look..."

"Like a mask?" Tristan asked intrigued.

"Well, I can change my face, but I don't have to wear a mask to do it... when I change my face, I can change into Kaden, but when I look this way, my name is Reese."

"So it's still you?' I nod.

"Can we see?" Tristan asks eagerly, his eyes focused on my face, his head cocked to the side.

"Are you sure you won't be afraid?"

His eyes widened dramatically, "I'm seven! I can handle it! Have Myles and Vivian seen it? Cause if they didn't get scared I wouldn't get scared either!" his voice determined.

"What does it look like?" — "Does it hurt to change your face?" Sawyer and Tristan asked simultaneously.

"It's like his face is being molded, like pushing clay," Etta answered.

"Does it hurt?" Sawyer asked again, her bottom lip shaking already, "It doesn't hurt when I daydream," she uses her own reference comparing our abilities.

"No, it doesn't hurt."

"Are you going to show us?" glancing at Etta she gives me a slight nod, and so I turn back to the kids, closing my eyes, concentrating on making myself Kaden again, feeling the slight breaks and changes, as Sawyer and Tristan gasp, when different shapes form on my face. My eyebrows, thicker as Reese, thin out, my lips as well. My nose longer grows, my entire face shifting to make me who I am, the man I was born into.

"If you're my dad does that mean I'm going to learn to do that too? Because our insides match right?" Tristan asks with new curious tone, his face filled with shock and awe. By the time I left my family none of my siblings had children and a part of me wonders, is curious to find out if all children think the way Tristan, Sawyer, Vivian and Myles do. Because as Tristan asks his question, Sawyer turns pensive, until, "Do you have day dreams too?" she asks Etta who just nods.

"I do, it's because I'm — do you know the story of Tinkerbelle?"

"Mommas' a fairy!" Vivian blurts out, and giggles smiling, "Me too!" and for the life of me I wonder just how Vivian and Myles never once let that slip before. I know that Etta told them not to tell anyone and while we were in New York, we had kept them on point but it's like Vivian couldn't wait to let that one out.

"You're like Tinkerbelle?" Sawyer asks eyes wide, her head darting to me, "Are you like Peter Pan?" throwing my head back I laughed deeply on how this was all going at the moment.

"Can you fly?" Tristan asks Etta, who nods, and I swear my children's reactions are becoming comical. If their jaws could drop down to the ground, flat, tongue hanging out from the side, Tristan and Sawyer would be that way, eyes the size of lemons.

"Okay there's a lot more we need to talk to you guys about, and if you have questions we will answer them okay?" I start off; listening I know inside here John and Rascal are downstairs.

"Tristan do you get scents like Sawyer does?" he nodded.

"Okay what did your mom and dad smell like?"

He shakes his head, "it wasn't very strong but like metal and fire?" he has trouble explaining and I know why.

"What did Etta and I smell like?"

"Well ma smells like pine, like grass and berries, and you smell like my grandma's dog, and tree's and a bit like Rascal," Sawyer replies, looking at Tristan for agreement which he gives.

"You remember how I told you that bad people got me?" Sawyer nods, Tristan just waits. "Before they took me, I used to be able to change into something different."

"What?"

"I used to turn into a wolf," scrunching their tiny noses up, their disbelief is written all over their face. I wanted but had to fight to keep the laughter inside me when I observed their face, their reaction — two seven year olds waiting for the punch line.

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