Birth Rights

Chapter 1

A knock sounded on the large wooden door.

I suppose I'll begin my tale with some relevant information about myself. My name is Regina Discors. I am 17 years old. I have blue eyes, and my blonde hair is currently plastered to my head due to rain.

I don't think I've ever lost my phone before. In fact, I'm sure of it. One time I remember my phone falling under my bed, and just as I was reaching for it my Dad called me. When I returned it was sitting on my bed, like it had never been touched. My friends at school chalked it down to orderliness and called me 'Miss OCD'. It's actually kind of weird that I lost it possibly the one time I was alone and it was raining. That knock I mentioned? Yeah, that was me knocking in our local haunted house.

It wasn't really a haunted house, it's just nobody lives in it that anybody knows of.

That's fine, houses are allowed to be vacant without automatically being dubbed haunted. Where it began to get creepy was here: the lawn in front of the house was always perfectly manicured. It was a pretty big house, and it seemed that it would be pretty hard to maintain even without the fact that nobody lived in it. I don't know why I'm knocking, but it's raining really hard. My phone is missing. There would be somebody that lived here who offered me their phone and a big cup of cocoa or so help me God I would trash the place myself.

The door opened. I barely noticed. I was more focused on who opened it. That who was a he. A young, handsome he who was currently watching words fail me.

"Can I help you?"

He had really high cheekbones, blonde hair and brown eyes. He was about a head taller than me, and looked about 25. He was wearing jeans and a button up top. He-

"Excuse me?" The man cleared his throat. I realised I had been gaping longer than I should have.

"Oh, sorry. I'm, um, just so cold. Hi, my name is Regina and I live in this town. I lost my phone and it's raining really hard, would you mind letting me use yours?" I said.

A flicker crossed his face, it looked like distress? I think I really must have been inconveniencing him. Seriously though, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen him around before.

"Sure, no problem, come in." He smiled, the picture of politeness. He opened the door, stepped aside and gestured for me to step in. As I entered the house, a shiver passed over my skin. I remembered that my clothes were soaking wet.

This house was seriously impressive. It was old fashioned, with two curved staircases leading up to join on a landing. The colour scheme was all red and gold, with a little bit of brown thrown in. The banister looked like something out of a dream, and I suddenly got the urge to run upstairs and slide down. There were doors all along the landing, as well as rooms off to my left and right. I could practically feel the plush red carpet through my shoes.

The man- I still didn't know his name- gaped. At me. I realised that I looked like the south end of a north bound horse but up until a few moments before, I thought he would have been more polite than that.

"MICHAEL!" he suddenly hollered at what seemed the top of his voice. There were two of them?

A boy with brown hair sauntered down the stairs, looking at a book. This one was wearing the same clothes as the other one, but looked only about 18 and was slighter.

"Adam, I know I didn't wash up, I'm doing it la- holy sh.." Michael trailed off. I snapped.

"Alright, I know I don't look like Kim Kardashian right now, but seriously you could be nicer than that. All I want to do is borrow a phone for like three minutes, and then I'll be out of your hair. Sorry if that inconveniences your Boo Radley asses too much," I seethed. I was wet. I don't like being wet.

"Does this mean what I think it does?" asked Michael.

"It must," said Adam.

"It can't." countered Michael. His book was dangling from his hands, forgotten. I wasn't following, but my head was turning like it was a tennis match. Adam suddenly remembered me.

"You must be freezing. I'll get a towel. Michael, will you put on the kettle?" Music to my ears.

"So, what's the deal here? Why have I never seen you around before?" I asked the two guys. There was a steaming cup of tea in front of me and a towel around my shoulders. I was sitting in the kitchen, which was equally as opulent as the hall.

There was an island in the centre at which I was currently sitting. The old fashioned décor had continued through to here- I couldn't even see a microwave.

"We don't get out much," Michael grimaced. He had the same high cheekbones as Adam, but his eyes were blue. He was leaning against the counter beside his brother.

"Yeah, but like don't you have school? And what about your parents, do you live alone?" It suddenly dawned on me that I was asking a helluva lot of questions. I shut up and hid my burning face in my tea.

Adam laughed lightly. "Michael here is just done school, and came to live with me. I work in the next town over. That's probably why you don't see me around much." He clapped Michael on the shoulder, and Michael nearly buckled.

I remembered my parents, and how they must have been worried sick about me. "Guys, do you mind if I use one of your phones to text my parents that I'm ok? They must be worried sick." I asked.

"Can't, power's out," Adam said smoothly "it must be the storm. Listen, this place is pretty far from town, and I don't have a car, so do you want to sleep here tonight? It's getting late and we have like 12 bedrooms. When the power comes back tomorrow you can call your parents."

I considered his request carefully. It was nearly too nice of him to offer. I couldn't see anything in it for him. I was, however, pretty sure he wouldn't attack me during the night as if they were going to they had had plenty of opportunity already.

"Are you sure? I've already taken you out of your way enough.." A warm bed did sound tempting.

"Are you kidding? Michael needs to meet some of the locals here anyway, I think he might have watched everything on Netflix by now." Adam laughed. It was a nice laugh. He didn't sound like he had any problem with me staying. The thought of facing the storm made my mind up for me.

"Thank you, that would be great." I accepted. Adam grinned and clapped his hands together. Michael muttered something about preparing a bed and left.

"Regina, welcome to Hotel Cognatio." Adam grinned.