"So let me get this straight," Benny paused Vela's explanation to collect all of his thoughts, "Four years ago, you officially become a monster slayer-"
"A hunter." Vela corrected, giggling at his confused expression.
After narrowly escaping from the vampire nest, the group drove back to Ethan's place to quickly clean the mess, and the pair left before Ethan's parents came home. Now, walking side by side through the night, they traveled their way to Vela's home like they do everyday.
Benny looked at her with a raised eyebrow while they continued to walk in the dark, "A hunter" He conceded before resuming his previous sentence, "And you've been hiding this secret bad-ass life with a cheerleader outfit and sarcastic comments."
"Yep, pretty much." Vela admitted, feeling relieved of this secret she hid for so long. "You don't understand how hard it was keeping this away from you and Ethan." She recalls every time she so badly wanted to share her adventurous stories with her best friends.
Benny stared intently at the mesmerizing blonde as she anxiously fiddled with her messily colored nails that were painted on by Sofie after some constant begging, and tried to explain her reasoning for the lies. He reached out a hand to stop her nervous nail picking and quiet her alluring voice, "I understand: the enemies, the monsters," He shrugged his shoulders, "the risk wasn't worth it."
Vela's eyes filled with joy while glazing up at Benny, and she exhaled the anxiety through her nose, "Thank you." She lightly squeezed his hand and naturally smiled, displaying her post-braces teeth.
Benny glances between Vela's captivating eyes and her soft skin warming up his hand. Cherishing the interaction, a small smirk danced along his lips until the feeling of the familiar blush filled his cheeks which he then snapped his trance by looking into the darkness ahead of them.
"It's no problem." He mumbled, trying to keep his composure when she dropped her hand back to her side.
Benny's mind still clouded with questions about the whole event that occurred that night, "And the magic knife?" He pondered about the lost weapon that saved their lives.
She chuckled at the phrasing, "It's a hexed knife that allows for both concealment and protection from feeling my thoughts and emotions, and makes a brutal weapon for killing basically anything."
"Hexed?" Benny repeated, still processing the new information regarding his best friend, "How did you even get this knife?"
She stared off to the moon shining above them, "My dad."
He peeks over at Vela's long face as she pictures the image of her father. Wanted to cheer her up, he made the best of the situation, "Of course he would make the ultimate knife." He smiled, recalling the friendly quirks of her dad, "Remember that time he made us walkie-talkies out of scrap when the group of kids smashed ours."
Vela smiles at the memory, one of the many she can remember about her father, "Yeah, dad was a craftsman."
A classic family friendly home finally came into view. Toys littered across the lawn with a wooden picked fence wrapped around the front. The warm light looming from the house provided a path as the two approached the building.
Being the gentleman his Grandma taught him to be, Benny jogged up to the fence to open the gate for Vela, but stopped his movements when his lady continued to walk down the street.
"Um, Vela?" He called out, pointing to the house in front of him, "Your house is right here."
"You are correct."
He then realized what the girl had planned as the light barely covered her the more she walked, "You're walking me to my house, aren't you?"
She twisted around with her finger on the tip of her nose while she shuffled backwards, "Bingo."
"Vela, come on, I'm fine to walk by myself." He whined, thinking that having her waste time making sure he got home seems unnecessary, "And your house is right here."
She opens her mouth to respond, but the sudden stumble of her feet from the blind walking delayed the syllables from forming. A quick heart attack and balance regain later, she breathed out her words, "You and Ethan are now on Jesse's radar," She shook her head, "So until we get rid of him, I'm making sure both of you are safe."
"It's just-"
"You can stay here if you want, but I'm going to your house." She interrupted him, turning around again to leave him in the twilight mist.
Not believing her bluff, he crosses his arms and stands his ground, "For someone who wants me safe, you're eager about abandoning me."
Silence filled the air as any visual left of Vela disappears, creating a tense feeling within Benny.
"Vela?" He inched closer to seek through the black fog, "Now's not the time for jokes!"
He huffed when he heard nothing but the obvious absence of sound, and he trailed along the tracks Vela followed. An unexpected scream ripped through the air, stopping both his feet and his heart.
His thoughts finally reached his legs and he sprinted into the unknown, "Vela!" Shouting in the void while flashing his direction towards any sign of the blonde.
"Gotcha ya!" A force clashed against him as Vela jumped on his back, knocking the breath out him before he recognizes the voice causing him to slap his strength around her legs to secure her body.
Her laugh sang through his ears, clearing up any of his anger from the fright, and she ruffled up his carefully combed chestnut brown hair.
Vela climbed down from her giant friend, giggling the whole way, and snorted at his tangled up hair.
He clicked his tongue and tried to hide his smile, "Oh, you think this is funny?"
Slowing down her laughter, crinkling her nose while gleaming up at him, she gleefully answered, "It's hilarious."
"Oh, yeah" He challenged, leaning down closer to her face.
She nodded, biting her bottom lip, "I do, actually."
His hand shot out to her hair and messed up her wavy locks, getting his revenge, "How's this for funny?"
"Benny!" She pushed his hands away, and started running away with Benny chasing after her.
The two ran down the street, filling the quiet atmosphere with their euphoria while they lived in the moment. Acting like children, they finally felt the tension in their bones melt away and the stress of Jesse and his goons vanishing as they goofed around in the middle of the empty street (most likely waking up every house they fly by).
Racing up to Benny's mailbox, Vela slapped her hand of the metal box and cheered in victory while panting, "I win!"
"No fair!" Benny whined, weakly jogging up to her, "You tripped me."
Vela giggles at her mischievous trick and shrugs, "It's called strategy."
"No, it's called cheating."
They bantered beside his mailbox, but the chatter stopped when a male voice cut through their happiness.
"Benny!"
They both diverge their attention from each other towards Benny's father who curiously stands on the porch peering at the two. "Where have you been?" He loudly asks, stepping down the porch but keeping distance between them.
"I was at Ethan's. I, uh-" He reflects his eyes to examine his shoes, "-thought I told you that."
Benny's father, searching his memory for anything about his son mentioning Ethan that morning, shakes his head and shoves his hand inside the pockets of his robe, "It must have slip my mind." He then notices the short blonde standing beside Benny, "Hey, Vela."
She nods at him and waves her hand, "Hi, Mr. Weir."
An awkward silence follows as the three didn't know what to say next.
Benny coughs and glances down at Vela, "I'll see you tomorrow." He gives her a final nod, and walks away, leaving her by herself.
"See you later." She mumbles, barely loud enough for Benny to hear and watches him amble through the grass while fixing his hair.
. . .
"You were my new dream."
"And you were mine."
A soft whimper exploded from Belle, grabbing another tissue to whip away the tear dripping from her eyes as she watched Flynn Rider's life slowly pass away on screen. While waiting for Vela, she randomly picked out a movie from Sofie's favorite films stack which happen to be Tangled.
Just as Rapunzel's magic tear fell onto Flynn's face, the rhythmic knocks on the front door caused an immediate reaction from Belle as she paused the movie and rushed to open the door.
The sight of her sister still intact lowered her anxiety, and her face brighten up, "You're so lucky mom took the night shift today."
"Crying over a child's movie again?" She playful asks, stepping inside the house and noticing the paused movie on the TV screen.
Belle rolls her eyes, "I can't help the fact that I feel emotions." She leans over the back of the couch, moving the blanket over, to grab the remote and shuts off the TV. She makes a mental note to finish the movie later in private where the judgmental siblings won't be around.
"So, tonight was eventful." Vela started, clasping her hands together.
Before Vela could tell her story, Belle shushes her and gestures towards the stairs where light creaking noises of small feet become louder.
"Vela?" A sluggish soft voice of a little girl called out as Sofie climbed down the carpeted stairs, rubbing her eyes while hugging her favorite blanket that had her name stitched along the rim.
Vela walks up to the youngest Chester sibling and bends down to her level, "Hey, what are you doing up?" She brushes away Sofie's lock of hair that always falls in front of her eye, "Let's get you to bed, alright?"
She gently holds her hand to guide her up the stairs, and turns around to mouth to Belle, "Meet me in my room."
. . .
Once Vela, laid down Sofie on the bottom bunk of the bed without waking Bently, the second youngest sibling who slept peaceful on the top bunk, she snuck off to join Belle in her bedroom.
"Wow." Belle's month gapes open once Vela finished explain her night, "So, they know now?"
Vela nods, sitting down beside Belle on her bed, "Well, not everything, but they know the majority of the stuff."
"They don't know about-" Belle gestures towards Vela, "-the whole cursed situation."
Vela sighs, shamefully remembering her burden, and shakes her head. "But," She brings up the bright side of tonight, "I think I'm finally closing in on Jesse's plan."
Repeating the phrase in her head from Jesse's speech, she dashes over to push aside the curtains over her bed to reveal "The Murdered Board" and uses the nearest writing utensil to mark down the quote.
Belle watches with curiosity. "219, soul for soul?" She reads the quote out loud, tilting her head as she tried to figure out the meaning behind the lines.
Vela leans back to study the clues and how the new found information fits into the map, "It's almost like an exchange of souls, but for what?"
"Maybe he's building his army from the parties until he has 219 people?" Belle suggests, trying to help her sister the best she could with her not-so-smart brain.
"Maybe," Vela ponders on the idea, "But even if that was true, he wouldn't give up his gang for whatever he's wanting because then he's without any protection."
"Have you heard anything from the vampire council?" Belle asks, just now remembering Vela's deal with the council.
Vela rolls her eyes at the mention of the ruthless idiotic immortals that control her every move. "Not a word. They probably went into hiding when Jesse started his 'soul for soul movement', but I'm not wanting for their approval on this one." She declares before going back to her research.
They bounced suggestions off of each other while observing the information. Too focused on trying to find the solution, they failed to notice someone enter the room.
"What are you doing?"
Very unsubtle-like, the sisters shut the curtains, covering up their secret, and tripped over their feet to casually sit down on Vela's bed.
Jaxon, leaned up against the frame of the door in his pajamas, watched the girls in amusement as they tried to act casual.
"Nothing." Vela and Belle spoke in unison, causing Jaxon to raise an eyebrow at their unusual behavior.
"I would prefer that I get some sleep tonight so can you keep your little-" He indicated to his sisters laying on Vela's bed, "secret session quiet."
Both the girls nodded, "We will."
Jaxon existed the room, making the girls sigh with relief and relax from their tense positions.
"I should probably get to bed, too." Belle decided, getting up from the bed. She stops by the door to speak to Vela before leaving to join her twin in their shared bedroom, "Get some sleep. We will figure this out tomorrow."
Vela sat there alone in her bedroom, peering at the curtains covering her work. She steps over to lift the carpet and opens the trapdoor that holds her supplies to finally relieve her back of all the weapons stuffed in her jean jacket. She giggled when she realized that she never gave Benny back his hoodie as she proved Ethan's belief that Vela has a tendency to steal clothing.
Setting the clothing aside, she emptied her pockets into the hidden floorboard. She frowned once all the supplies were inside the trapdoor as some tears reached her eyes. 'I lost Dad's knife.' She swallowed the pain, thinking about her mistake.
Whipping her eyes, smearing her makeup that's still on her face, she tried to reassure herself, 'It's okay, the knife always finds its way back to its owner.'
Repeating the simple phrase 'It's okay' inside her head, she walked around getting ready to settle underneath the blankets of her bed.
Because of the lack of enough rooms in their home, Vela's bedroom used to be a closet/laundry room. Only capable of holding a twin-sized bed and a small desk by the foot of the bed. Besides the clothes rack built in on her wall, the space under from bed stores her clothing. Of course, Vela glammed up the room by decorating the walls with frames and adding useless yet stylish decor.
Her pajamas hangs loosely from her hips creating a comfortable environment for Vela to finally lay down and let her dreams distract for from her living nightmares.