The darkness is terrifying. There's no light, no sign to where I am. Just... voices. I don't know what they're saying, where they come from or who they belong to. Wherever I am, it's not the place where others can find you. Or anything, for that matter. I don't think this is a place where living beings go; good or evil.
I want the pain to go away. My whole body feels on fire. My back feels like it can be ripped apart at any time. Or my head to explode. I don't want this, any of it. At least let me see. I just wanna see, just wanna see, just wanna see...
-
The light is blinding me. It puts a hundred diffrent needles inside my brain and it fucking hurts. A blood curling scream errupts my throat. I lose control over my entire body. Make. It. Stop.
"Hold her down!"
Who's voice is that? Who's holding me down? What are they doing to me?!
"Put the light away, it's hurting her!"
An angry voice. A strong voice. I know that voice, but I don't know who it is.
The light is gone and so does some of the pain. I let my body slump back down. My body feels drained of all it's energy. It's tired and in pain. Where am I? I just have to see my surroundings.
I try to open my eyes and am surprised when I can finally see normal light. And a room. A white one. And people. And oh my stars, I know these people. My friends. I thought I was alone. Alone in this damn world. Oh, how grateful am I to see these faces. It brings tears to my eyes.
"W-where am I-I? W-what... what happend?" I manage to get out.
"You're in the hospital," my blue haired Undine says, "You've been in here for two days. Michael and I only came in last night, though."
Another woman comes to my attention when she speaks: "I hope you're feeling better. It was a nasty accident you two little birds got in."
"Accident? What is she talking about? Wh-. Wait, where's Luke?" I ask. The sudden realisation comes to me.
"Oh, the blond cutie is sleeping in the bed next to you, see," the woman says.
She moves a little so I can look at the bed next to mine. In which my angel lays. He's sleeping, with his mouth a little open and a soft snore. His chest is slightly rising and falling down again. If he was an inch taller, he wouldn't have fit in the bed. His arms are crossed and his left leg swung over the side of the bed, like he was waiting for something and fell asleep during. It's kind of cute to see.
That's when I notice the big bump on his head.
Before I can ask, the lady answers: "The was an explosion in your appartment. You both got off easily, except for the bump on his head and the fact that you were in some sort of coma for almost two days."
Explosion? Why would anyone try to blow me up? I thought I had to decide for the balance to be corrected. Why would anybody risk that? And why can't I remember the explosion? I just remember bits of screaming and pain. Definitely the pain. Which hasn't stopped.
"Do they know who did it?"
"No," Michael suddenly says.
He's quietly sitting in one of the visiting chairs. He's been staring at the nurse lady since she walked in. It looks like his eyes are studying her. And suddenly his eyes are focused on me.
"But whoever did it, is gonna being ripped apart."
"Now, let's not get carried away by our emotions, just gives me more work and I like to watch my Netflix series," the woman says, "Oh dear, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Hayley. Nurse, singer, Netflix-enthiousiast and admirer."
"Admirer?" I ask.
"Yeah, I was kind of raised with your background story. You see, my great grandmother met Demetria when she was young and she told her all about who she was and why she was here. Great granny was so fascinated by you and what you could do for our family that it became something like a family story."
"What is it exactley that I could do for your family?"
"Seeing as we're Sylphs, one of the Elemental species, we actually deserve a high title and place in the chain of life. I find it kind of silly, but I've still been dying to meet you."
"You know what? These past couple of days I've learned alot about myself and the people in my life. One sheds fur, two can breathe underwater and the others are old enough to belong in a museum. So eventhough I don't know what a Sylph is, I'll probably find out within the up coming days. So don't bother explaining, I probably won't remember it at this stage, but what I do want is to get the Hell out of here."
A groan is coming from next to me.
"Princess has awoken," Michael jokes.
"Very funny," Luke mumbles, "Is she aw- You are."
The second he sees I'm awake, he gets up from the bed and comes over to mine to hold my hand. His eyes are examing me, seeing if I'm okay. When he doesn't find any injuries, his face lights up. His lips form into a small smile. His free hand is stroking my hair out of m face, while the other one is rubbing it's thumb over my knuckles in a calming way.
"I'm so glad you're back. I thought I lost you," he whispers, just so he and I could hear it.
The room stays silent for a while. Halsey is wandering around the room a bit, Michael is staring at a blushing Hayley and Luke and I are in our own little world. He send me little messages saying that he's trying to ease my pain a bit. But it seems harder for him than anything he's done before. It doesn't feel familiar to him. And quite frankly, it scares us a bit.
A soft knocking on the door interrupts us all. The stranger comes inside and we see that it ain't a stranger at all. It's Ashton.
"Hey, you're awake!"
"Yes, I am. Thanks for noticing," I say with a little smile, which is making Ashton blush a bit.
"Well, uhm. I'm here to take you to your new home," he says.
"What? No no, that's can't be. My house just got blown up."
Luke speaks up: "That's why you're staying with Calum and his family. Don't worry, they'll take good care of you."
"Than why isn't Calum taking her?" Halsey asks.
"Because he's investigating who tried to kill her. He'll meet us there."
"Oh, but that's easy. I saw it happen."
We all turn to Hayley, including Michael who was already looking at her. Halsey goes straight for the kill and asks why she didn't do anything to stop the criminal who did it.
"Well, you see, I'm special in my kind," she begins, "since I have an extra power, which is predicting the future. I wasn't there when it happend, but I saw bits of the person who did it. I could come along to tell this Calum guy."
"You're so awesome."
She raises an eyebrow at Michael before smiling.
"Ashton, I hope that tin can you call a car is big enough for all 6 of us, because we're all going to Calum's," Halsey announces.
-
THe hospital let me go without any trouble. Maybe because Hayley put in a good word about that she'll be helping me. I didn't know they let nurses do that. Doesn't matter, I don't even want to question it. I'm not lying when I say I'm kind of excited to see Calum's family. I wonder what they'll be like. Maybe they're all like him, or maybe he's the only one. I just hope they're at least a bit like Calum himself. I also wonder where the heck they live. Since the drive up there has been going for a while now and we're slowly entering some kind of forest. Does he live there?
"We're here!" Ashton says.
"Thank God!" Michael exclaims. "I don't even think piggs going to the butcher are this cramped inside."
"Not a bad word about my car. We would've had more space if the car you and Halsey drove in, which happens to be Louis', didn't die again the day he got it back."
We finally get out of the small car. After stretching my legs a bit, I take in the area surrounding me.
It's a beautiful forrest area. The trees are bit back from the home land. They're full and beautiful. Some small birds are flying from tree to tree. I turn around to see the house. It's simple, but big. I wonder how many people live in there. The outside is brown and what looks like some sort of outside skeleton of the house is white. It looks nice. It looks like something Calum would definitely live in.
Speaking of which, Calum's car is pulling up on the drive way. He gets out and starts walking to us. He pulls me into a hug and afterwards gives Luke a hug too.
"I'm so happy the two of you got out alive," he says.
"You think you're happy, then you obviously don't know me, brother."
Everyone turns their attention to the direction the new voice is coming from. Standing on the small porch is a female, older version of Calum. Her hair is brown and blond colored and long. Her bone structure is the same as Calum, but there's something different about her. The calmth and serenity radiating from her is soothing.
"Shut up," he mutters with a smile.
The girl seems to ignore him and just comes walking up to us and giving everyone a hug. She's saving me and Hayley for last. After she hugs me, she pulls back and studies me for a bit. She gives me a warm smile.
"I'm so happy to finally meet you, Steffi. I've been dying to meet you. I'm Mali Koa, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Mali."
Then she turns to Hayley.
"So you're the Sylph. I never met one of your kind. Ashton just told me you know who caused the explosion."
"Uhm, thank you? I'm Hayley. And yeah, I'm kind of the weird one among my species."
"Doesn't matter, you're amongst the freaks of nature here."
We turn to see a strong build, tanned, short, black haired boy coming out of the house. Along with a somewhat shorter guy. Are they in the Hood family too? They sure look like they would be.
"Taylor, Boo Boo, come out to meet our new family members," Mali calls them.
The taller one comes running towards us, while the other one just walks normally. And from up close the tall one is even bigger. Damn, he must have had a gym while he was in the womb.
"So you're the famous Stephanie. I'm Taylor, the strongest man alive," the fast, tall one introduces himself as.
"You're not the strongest man alive, Taylor. You're just large for an 18 year old," the smaller one says, "I'm Boo Boo, by the way."
He keeps staring at the ground. He looks kind of nervous. Kind of cute, actually. Unlike the silence that has fallen upon the group. And I'm glad when Mali invites us inside for something to drink and eat. Oh yes, I'm starving.
-
Everyone is pretty much settled in. It's like they're all at home here. Michael and Halsey are playing Fifa, which she is winning. Taylor and Luke are talking about someone named Ronda Rousey and how she latest fight was legendary. Ashton and Boo Boo are just kind of awkwardly talking about psychology, I think and Calum and Hayley are discussing what she saw. I don't bother to engage in any of the conversations. It's kind of nice to see everyone calmed down and just relaxing. They're enjoying themselves, which brings joy to me.
Mali is sitting down next to me on the large dinner table. And together we kind of just observe the rest.
"They would give their lives for you, you know," she suddenly says.
"What do you mean?"
"The people in this house," she replies, "They would die for you to be save and restore Good and Evil."
"Why would they do that?"
"Every culture or species has heard a version of you and Liam. About who the two of you are. And us supernatural beings, well, we're cursed. As much as some of us have beautiful and strong powers, it all has a price. We'll never be normal. We'll always have to hide."
She turns her face to me.
"In some stories, you're supposed to be our saviour. That when you return to Heaven, the hidden beings can live in peace with the Homo Sapiens, for hatred, judgement and disrespect will be gone. And that's all we want, really. It would be nice to just turn into my other self and take a walk around town, not having to worry about getting hunted and just worry about how many children wanna pet the big doggie."
I'm about to ask Mali a question about what she just said, when all of the sudden we hear a suprised voice yell: "That's the bastard who tried to kill them?!"