Chapter 19 - Discovery
Submitted April 17, 2009 Updated June 22, 2009 Status Incomplete | After getting kidnapped, girl finds herself in world where the supernatural exist and to find that she's not human, but a sorceress I don't have a title for my story yet Be harsh on the comments y'all cos i'm thinking of getting this published x
Category:
Fantasy |
Chapter 19 - Discovery
Chapter 19 - Discovery
When Kerri woke up, Arik was fast asleep on his bed. Bet he didn’t get much sleep last night, she thought. After changing, brushing her teeth and washing her face, she went down to breakfast.
“Hey, K,” Drake greeted her as she sat herself beside him and Carter. “Where’s Arik?”
“Sleeping.”
“Really? He’s more of a the-early-bird-catches-the-early-worm kind of guy.”
“Yeah, um, we didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Drake waggled his eyebrows. “Ooh.”
“Oh, no, no, nothing like that,” Kerri hurried to reassure him.
“Then what is it?” Carter asked.
“Well, he went off to Mandy’s to get laid last night. Turns out somehow, someone got Mandy to put itching powder in his condom.”
Carter cringed. “Oh, not good, not good.” Then he looked at Drake. “Dude, you should be having the same reaction. You are a guy, after all.”
“Yes, but I’m also gay, and I don’t have to worry about knocking up anybody anytime soon.”
“Got it.”
“Yeah,” Kerri continued. “So he was up all night trying not to itch.”
“The poor guy,” Carter muttered.
“Oh, don’t worry, he found a solution to the itching problem.”
“How?”
“By numbing himself with ice-cold water while sitting under the tap.” They all cracked up.
“But K, you said you didn’t get that much sleep either. Were you helping him?” Drake asked her.
“Oh, hell no. I just couldn’t stop laughing.”
“Speak of the devil.” Carter grinned and slapped Arik’s back. “Morning, Rick.”
“I take it you all know?” he asked dully.
“Oh, something that good can’t possibly stay hidden,” Drake said grinning.
“I think I’ve scratched myself raw,” he said in the same dull voice.
Everybody at the table cringed. Even Joshua.
“Dude, way too much information,” Drake said, pushing away his plate of food. “I think I just lost my appetite.”
“Would you need bandages for that?” Kerri asked innocently. “You know, like wrap it up like a mummy until it recovers.”
Drake and Carter roared with laughter while Arik groaned and slowly banged his head repeatedly on the table. “I can’t even walk properly,” he moaned.
“Someone get him a wheelchair,” called Kerri cheerfully, bringing another round of laughter.
“I really pity your ex-boyfriend,” Arik said, lifting his head from the table. “How the hell he managed to put up with you for so long, I do not know.”
There was an ominous silence at the table. “If you ever talk about my ex-boyfriend in any other way again,” Kerri said in one of those sweet-but-actually-fatally-dangerous voices, “I will put you in such a bad condition you’ll have to use a wheelchair in which you’ll have to steer with your tongue.”
“Uh, Arik, I’ll take her word on that,” Drake said. “She looks really scary right now.”
“I don’t care. I may never be able to pee again—never mind about the sex—how do you expect me to care about her ex-boyfriend?”
Drake and Carter shook their heads at the same time. “Wrong answer, dude,” they answered simultaneously as Kerri threw an empty beer can at Arik’s head.
“Next time it’s a brick,” she hissed.
“Good luck finding one.”
She looked around her and picked up a chair and shrugged. “Next best thing,” she said, raising the chair.
“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Arik said, sliding away from her on the bench. “Just…put down the chair. Please.”
Kerri smiled sweetly and the chair clattered back onto the ground.
“Uh, I don’t think we’re going to have a lesson today,” Arik said. “I can’t…I really can’t do this today. Just…practise on shifting. And please don’t think of your ex-boyfriend when you’re doing it, because this time, there won’t be anybody to go and save you.”
“I’ll help,” Drake volunteered.
“Don’t you have training with Carter today?”
“Yeah, but she can watch.”
“You don’t understand how powerful she is. She may be able to do it once she’s actually seen it.”
“Then she’ll be powerful enough to fight for her own when they come for her.”
Kerri noticed Drake said “when” instead of “if”. “Is the C.E. coming?”
“Yes,” Carter said shortly.
“When?”
“We don’t know. They could come today, or they could wait a couple of years until you’re fully trained to take you, which would be harder to do.”
Kerri shivered. “They’re going to come…for me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh God.”
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you’ve learnt enough to protect yourself,” Drake reassured her.
Kerri stared at him. “Drake, the most harmful thing I can do right now is throwing a fireball.”
Drake looked at her. “Okay, forget I said anything.”
“Why don’t you have someone guard her for the day?” Carter suggested.
“Who?” Arik asked. “You’re going to have to practise a lot for your finals next week, and Drake’s going to help you. I’ll probably have to go to the medical centre to…recover.”
Carter nudged Arik gently and looked at Joshua, who was still eating silently at the table.
Understanding dawned on Arik. “Oh. That’s right. I’ve forgotten that he was here.”
Kerri stared at Arik. That bastard. Such a horrible thing to say. Weren’t they supposed to be best friends?
“Joshua, can you look after Kerri for today?” Arik asked, completely unaware of his rudeness.
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you.” Arik stood up. Then he groaned. “I can’t even freaking walk to the medical centre.” He snapped his fingers, and he was gone.
Drake and Carter stood up next. “Bye, K. Have fun.” Drake kissed her on the cheek, Carter gave her a quick hug, and they were gone as well.
Kerri looked at Joshua, who was looking at her with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. “So, I guess it’s just you and me,” she said, smiling weakly.
Joshua stood up from his table. “Do you want to go to the other realm now?”
“Uh, sure.” This guy sure didn’t waste his time, Kerri thought as she followed Joshua into the bright white room.
When they had stepped out of the blackness, Kerri noticed something different about Joshua. He was…faded. Not looking ill or sickly, just…the whole of him. His face, his hands, his clothes, his hair. It was as if someone had draped a veil on him.
“Uh, Joshua, what’s wrong with you?” she asked him.
“I’m human, and I’m in an inhuman realm. I don’t belong here. Technically, I’m not even here.”
“Oh.” Whatever that means.
“So Arik said to practise on your shifting. Shift.”
Kerri raised an eyebrow. “You really are a man of few words, aren’t you?”
“I don’t like wasting my time.”
“How did you and Arik meet?”
Joshua looked at her then, his blue eyes still piercing even though he was faded. “Why don’t you practise your shifting, and we’ll talk afterwards? It’s best to get things out of the way.”
***
An hour later, Kerri had finally mastered the art of short-distanced shifting. Well, hopefully, she had. She had concentrated extra-hard, hoping that she’d finish quickly so that she could talk to Joshua. There was so much to know about him. Every now and then, she would sneak a look at him, and he’d look emotionlessly back at her. He was quick for a human. But he was a professional ninja or something, so he had to be.
Just once, she’d looked at him when he wasn’t looking at her, and there was a longing in his eyes, as if he longed to be able to join her, to do what she was doing. But the look had disappeared immediately once he’d caught her staring.
“I’m done,” she said to Joshua, relieved. “I’m so tired.”
“Do you want to sleep it off?”
“No. I want to talk.”
“Go on, then.”
“So, how did you and Arik meet?” Kerri sat down on the grass.
“I thought you said you wanted to talk.”
“Please,” Kerri looked pleadingly up at him. “I want to know more about you. You’re always so…quiet all the time.”
Joshua looked at her with his blue eyes. “Arik found me when we were kids. I was dangerously ill, and he found me and brought me to this company in time before I died.”
“And so you two became best friends?”
“I’ll always be grateful towards to him.”
“How about Drake and Carter?” Kerri wanted to know. “Do you ever talk to them?”
Joshua shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“Why don’t you talk more?”
“There’s no need for unnecessary words.”
Riiiight. “How long have you been in this company?”
“For about a hundred years or so. A hundred and four years, to be exact.”
“But…if you’re human, and you’re…mortal, then…how? I don’t understand.”
“The scientists found or invented a medicine that would stop me from aging. As long as I take my shots once a year, I won’t get old.”
“Wow. That’s pretty great.”
“Is it?” Joshua stood up abruptly again. “Let’s go. One thing I learnt is never to stay in this realm for long.”
“That’s what Arik said as well…why?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
“How?”
“You never know what’s out there.” He murmured the password, and the blackness appeared in front of them.
“What’s the password?” Kerri asked him.
Joshua turned to look at her. “You’ll know the password once you’re fully trained.” He disappeared into the darkness and Kerri scrambled after him.
***
“Tell me more about you,” Kerri said to Joshua once they were at her place.
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything. Uh, do you have any siblings?”
“I had a younger sister.”
“How old is she?”
“She was five when she died.”
Kerri’s eyes widened a little. She should have noticed when he used past tense. “I’m sorry.”
Joshua shrugged.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…how?”
“Remember when Arik found me, I was dangerously ill? Well, I caught the disease from my sister. When Arik found me, Christine had just died and I was…I was holding her.”
“How about your parents?”
“My mom died from the same disease.”
“That’s horrible. Was it hard for you and Christine to take?”
“She was very ill but she didn’t want to die in front of us, so she made me promise to take care of Christine. She left, but she didn’t get very far. I found her in a ditch nearby two days later when I was looking for food.”
Kerri cringed. “I’m sorry.”
Joshua shrugged again and looked away, his hair falling in front of his eyes.
“I have a younger sister too, but we never talk,” Kerri admitted.
Joshua looked up at her, but didn’t say anything.
“We never got along,” Kerri continued. “It doesn’t matter now anyway, does it? I’ll probably never see her again. Anyway, why were you living out in the streets?”
“My father kicked us out when he found a girlfriend. He left us with nothing.”
“That’s…I’m sorry. I should stop asking questions like that. She shook her head. “Anyway, let’s talk about something else. Uh, any ideas?”
Joshua shrugged again and finished off the beer Kerri had offered him.
“Can you show me your place?” she asked him as he got up to throw away the empty can.
“Let’s go, then.”
Kerri followed Joshua down to the end of corridor, where he opened the door to the fire escape which led to another building. He went down a spiral of stairs and pushed open the door to a narrow, dimly lit hallway.
“What is this place?” Kerri asked him, wrinkling her nose. “It looks like a dump.”
“This is where the humans live.”
Kerri bit her lip. Her and her big mouth. “Oh. Sorry.”
Joshua led her down to the furthest room in the corridor and opened the door.
“Isn’t there a lock?”
“Yes, but it’s broken. They all are.” Joshua led her into a small bare room with only a bed, a small wardrobe, and a chair and a table. The only other room was a bathroom, which was so small and cramped Kerri wondered how he managed to shower in it.
“Wow,” Kerri said after she had looked it through. “This is certainly…cosy.”
The corners of Joshua’s mouth turned up, but Kerri couldn’t really call it a smile, because she had never seen such a bitter one. “Do you want to get back to your place now? I’m sure yours is more preferable.”
Kerri frowned. “No, actually. Would you mind if I stayed?”
Joshua shrugged. “Make yourself comfortable.” He looked around the room. “You can take the bed,” he said as he sat down on the chair back to front so that the back of the chair was in front of him. He crossed his arms and rested them on top.
“Thanks.” Kerri sat down on the bed. It creaked under her weight, and the mattress was so limp and matted that it could just as well have not been there. “So…how many humans are there at the Sterling?”
“About a hundred or so.”
“And they all live in places…like this?”
“Oh, no.” Joshua shook his head. “This is one of the best rooms. Only the humans who’ve been here the longest get one of these rooms.”
Kerri wondered whether he was being sarcastic, and Joshua raised an eyebrow at her, as if asking what, you don’t believe me?
“The humans who’ve only been here a year or so have to share a room of this size between the three of them, and their whole floor, which is about ten rooms, have to share one bathroom,” Joshua said, his eyebrow still raised.
Kerri bit her lip. Why were the humans treated so…cruelly? It was as if they didn’t matter, when they worked the hardest for the company, putting their own lives at stake. She decided to change the topic. So far, all the topics she chose had been unpleasant for him. “So, when did you and Arik first met Drake and Carter?”
“Arik met Drake about seventy years ago, and he met Carter eight years ago.”
“When did he meet Sitara?” she suddenly blurted out. Whoa. How did that question come to mind?
Surprised fleeted across Joshua’s face and he turned away. “Three, maybe four years ago.”
“How did they meet?”
“He was her trainer,” he said in a strained voice.
shoot. Did she choose the wrong topic again? Kerri wondered whether she should back off, but she really wanted to know more about this Sitara. “So…were they perfect for each other?”
Joshua looked at her, his sharp blue eyes burning with unfathomable intensity. “They were good together.”
“Did you like her?”
Joshua narrowed his eyes. “Why are you asking about Sitara?”
“Nothing, I’m just curious.”
Joshua just looked at her guardedly.
“I swear that’s the only reason I’m asking,” Kerri reassured him. “If you feel uncomfortable talking about her, we can change the topic.”
He continued to regard her warily. “Why would I feel uncomfortable talking about this topic?”
Whoa. Talk about self-defence. This guy was definitely on his guard. “I don’t know. You know what, let’s just change the topic.”
“No,” Joshua said. “You wanted to know about Sitara, so ask me about her.”
Ohhkay. “Um, did you know Sitara well?”
Joshua looked down at his arms which were still resting on the back of his chair. “Yes.”
“Did you…like her?”
He looked up abruptly then. “What do you mean?”
Kerri had a feeling that she was treading in deep water. “I mean…was she a nice person? Was she your friend?”
He looked down again. “Yes.”
“Where is she now?” Kerri asked him, although she already knew the answer, she wanted to make sure.
“She’s…at the C.E.,” he answered quietly.
“Really?” Kerri feigned surprise. “Why?”
Joshua shrugged. “She’s a werewolf,” he said simply. “Werewolves betray.” He looked at her with his cold blue eyes for a moment, and then he looked away.
A tingle ran through Kerri’s spine. She really didn’t like where this conversation was going. “Uh, so,” she said. “It’s your turn.”
“My turn to what?”
“Ask me questions.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you want to know more about me?”
“I hope I won’t offend you by saying this, but not particularly.”
“At least try to pretend.”
Joshua shifted a little in his chair. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-two. How old are you? Like, not literally, but how old do you look like? That is, if you know what I mean.”
“Late twenties, probably.”
“Same as Arik?”
“Same as any other immortal.”
“Oh, so I’ll still continue to age until I’m in my late twenties?”
“Most likely.”
“Okay.” Kerri decided to stop asking questions. “Right, next question.”
Joshua tilted his head to one side. “You and your boyfriend...what was his name again? Ty, right? Were you two good together?”
Kerri couldn’t believe he remembered Ty’s name. “Ex-boyfriend,” she corrected him. “We were...we were okay. I guess.”
“He must’ve been a hell of a boyfriend,” Joshua muttered dryly.
“It’s not like that. I mean, it was never great, and it was definitely not perfect, you know? Every relationship has its ups and downs. Our relationship…it was sort of casual, although we were living together and everything, it wasn’t very…serious, if you know what I mean.” She looked up to see Joshua’s reaction, and she was greeted with another blue-eyed gaze. “We’d been together for so long. Almost two years now. And then…well, I assumed he was going to propose on Valentine’s Day—the night Arik captured me.” She gave a short laugh. “He was probably waiting to whisk me off to the C.E.” She shook her head. “I was so blind.”
“Ty…short for Tyler?”
“Yes. Tyler Woodland.”
Joshua paled visibly. “Woodland,” he murmured, staring past her. He shook his head fiercely. “Does Arik know Tyler’s full name?”
“No. Why?”
“Nothing, nothing.” He looked around the room, and then focused on her. “Promise me you’ll never tell him that Tyler’s name. Not his last name, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Please, Kerri. I’ve answered all your questions willingly, and I haven’t asked for anything else. I’m not going to either, except for this one.”
Kerri looked at him for a moment, and then she nodded. “All right. I promise.”
“Thank you.” He looked at his watch. “Do you want lunch?”
“What time is it?”
“One thirty.”
“Yes please.”
Joshua rose from his chair and stepped over it. “Let’s go then.”
***
“K,” Drake greeted her. “How was your morning with Joshua?”
“It was pretty great, actually,” Kerri sat next to him with her plate of cheeseburger and fries. She popped a fry into her mouth.
“You know,” Carter piped up from next to Drake. “The girls usually head for the salad bar.”
“Well, I’m not your usual girl.” She turned to see Joshua heading for the far end of the table. “Joshua, do you want to sit here? I saved you a seat.”
He nodded his head once gratefully and sat down next to her and started eating silently.
Drake cocked his head to one side and shot her a look that said you actually got him to sit next to you…what have you guys been doing for the last few hours?
Kerri winked at him and bit into her burger. An upside to this place was that the food here was good. She was about to swallow when suddenly Arik appeared in front of her. She half shrieked and half choked on her burger. Drake patted her on the back.
“You’ll get used to it in time,” Drake said sympathetically.
Kerri gulped down her water, wiping away the tears that had sprung into her eyes when she choked. “That bastard’s going to make me choke to death one day.”
“You can’t die, remember?” Arik smirked and slid in next to Carter. “How’s your shifting coming?”
“Great. I can shift short distances really easily now.”
“Short distances?”
“Yeah. Like from this end of the table to the other.”
“How about long distances?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t tried yet.”
“Well, practise it after lunch. “
“Yes, sir,” Kerri saluted him mockingly. “And what are you going to do when I work my @$$ off?”
“Probably lie back, have a beer or two and wait until my…” he trailed off. “Until I recover.” Arik glared at her.
“Can I please take the rest of the day off?” she begged him. “I worked so hard this morning.”
Arik snorted. “I bet.”
“No, really. Promise. Ask Joshua if you don’t believe me?”
“Joshua?”
“Yes. He was with me this morning, remember?”
“Oh, right.” Arik waved away her question. “Of course I remember. So tell me, Joshua, is Kerri lying?”
“No, sir.” Joshua lifted his head briefly to answer Arik’s question before concentrating on his meal again.
“Hey, K,” Drake greeted her as she sat herself beside him and Carter. “Where’s Arik?”
“Sleeping.”
“Really? He’s more of a the-early-bird-catches-the-early-worm kind of guy.”
“Yeah, um, we didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Drake waggled his eyebrows. “Ooh.”
“Oh, no, no, nothing like that,” Kerri hurried to reassure him.
“Then what is it?” Carter asked.
“Well, he went off to Mandy’s to get laid last night. Turns out somehow, someone got Mandy to put itching powder in his condom.”
Carter cringed. “Oh, not good, not good.” Then he looked at Drake. “Dude, you should be having the same reaction. You are a guy, after all.”
“Yes, but I’m also gay, and I don’t have to worry about knocking up anybody anytime soon.”
“Got it.”
“Yeah,” Kerri continued. “So he was up all night trying not to itch.”
“The poor guy,” Carter muttered.
“Oh, don’t worry, he found a solution to the itching problem.”
“How?”
“By numbing himself with ice-cold water while sitting under the tap.” They all cracked up.
“But K, you said you didn’t get that much sleep either. Were you helping him?” Drake asked her.
“Oh, hell no. I just couldn’t stop laughing.”
“Speak of the devil.” Carter grinned and slapped Arik’s back. “Morning, Rick.”
“I take it you all know?” he asked dully.
“Oh, something that good can’t possibly stay hidden,” Drake said grinning.
“I think I’ve scratched myself raw,” he said in the same dull voice.
Everybody at the table cringed. Even Joshua.
“Dude, way too much information,” Drake said, pushing away his plate of food. “I think I just lost my appetite.”
“Would you need bandages for that?” Kerri asked innocently. “You know, like wrap it up like a mummy until it recovers.”
Drake and Carter roared with laughter while Arik groaned and slowly banged his head repeatedly on the table. “I can’t even walk properly,” he moaned.
“Someone get him a wheelchair,” called Kerri cheerfully, bringing another round of laughter.
“I really pity your ex-boyfriend,” Arik said, lifting his head from the table. “How the hell he managed to put up with you for so long, I do not know.”
There was an ominous silence at the table. “If you ever talk about my ex-boyfriend in any other way again,” Kerri said in one of those sweet-but-actually-fatally-dangerous voices, “I will put you in such a bad condition you’ll have to use a wheelchair in which you’ll have to steer with your tongue.”
“Uh, Arik, I’ll take her word on that,” Drake said. “She looks really scary right now.”
“I don’t care. I may never be able to pee again—never mind about the sex—how do you expect me to care about her ex-boyfriend?”
Drake and Carter shook their heads at the same time. “Wrong answer, dude,” they answered simultaneously as Kerri threw an empty beer can at Arik’s head.
“Next time it’s a brick,” she hissed.
“Good luck finding one.”
She looked around her and picked up a chair and shrugged. “Next best thing,” she said, raising the chair.
“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Arik said, sliding away from her on the bench. “Just…put down the chair. Please.”
Kerri smiled sweetly and the chair clattered back onto the ground.
“Uh, I don’t think we’re going to have a lesson today,” Arik said. “I can’t…I really can’t do this today. Just…practise on shifting. And please don’t think of your ex-boyfriend when you’re doing it, because this time, there won’t be anybody to go and save you.”
“I’ll help,” Drake volunteered.
“Don’t you have training with Carter today?”
“Yeah, but she can watch.”
“You don’t understand how powerful she is. She may be able to do it once she’s actually seen it.”
“Then she’ll be powerful enough to fight for her own when they come for her.”
Kerri noticed Drake said “when” instead of “if”. “Is the C.E. coming?”
“Yes,” Carter said shortly.
“When?”
“We don’t know. They could come today, or they could wait a couple of years until you’re fully trained to take you, which would be harder to do.”
Kerri shivered. “They’re going to come…for me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh God.”
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you’ve learnt enough to protect yourself,” Drake reassured her.
Kerri stared at him. “Drake, the most harmful thing I can do right now is throwing a fireball.”
Drake looked at her. “Okay, forget I said anything.”
“Why don’t you have someone guard her for the day?” Carter suggested.
“Who?” Arik asked. “You’re going to have to practise a lot for your finals next week, and Drake’s going to help you. I’ll probably have to go to the medical centre to…recover.”
Carter nudged Arik gently and looked at Joshua, who was still eating silently at the table.
Understanding dawned on Arik. “Oh. That’s right. I’ve forgotten that he was here.”
Kerri stared at Arik. That bastard. Such a horrible thing to say. Weren’t they supposed to be best friends?
“Joshua, can you look after Kerri for today?” Arik asked, completely unaware of his rudeness.
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you.” Arik stood up. Then he groaned. “I can’t even freaking walk to the medical centre.” He snapped his fingers, and he was gone.
Drake and Carter stood up next. “Bye, K. Have fun.” Drake kissed her on the cheek, Carter gave her a quick hug, and they were gone as well.
Kerri looked at Joshua, who was looking at her with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. “So, I guess it’s just you and me,” she said, smiling weakly.
Joshua stood up from his table. “Do you want to go to the other realm now?”
“Uh, sure.” This guy sure didn’t waste his time, Kerri thought as she followed Joshua into the bright white room.
When they had stepped out of the blackness, Kerri noticed something different about Joshua. He was…faded. Not looking ill or sickly, just…the whole of him. His face, his hands, his clothes, his hair. It was as if someone had draped a veil on him.
“Uh, Joshua, what’s wrong with you?” she asked him.
“I’m human, and I’m in an inhuman realm. I don’t belong here. Technically, I’m not even here.”
“Oh.” Whatever that means.
“So Arik said to practise on your shifting. Shift.”
Kerri raised an eyebrow. “You really are a man of few words, aren’t you?”
“I don’t like wasting my time.”
“How did you and Arik meet?”
Joshua looked at her then, his blue eyes still piercing even though he was faded. “Why don’t you practise your shifting, and we’ll talk afterwards? It’s best to get things out of the way.”
***
An hour later, Kerri had finally mastered the art of short-distanced shifting. Well, hopefully, she had. She had concentrated extra-hard, hoping that she’d finish quickly so that she could talk to Joshua. There was so much to know about him. Every now and then, she would sneak a look at him, and he’d look emotionlessly back at her. He was quick for a human. But he was a professional ninja or something, so he had to be.
Just once, she’d looked at him when he wasn’t looking at her, and there was a longing in his eyes, as if he longed to be able to join her, to do what she was doing. But the look had disappeared immediately once he’d caught her staring.
“I’m done,” she said to Joshua, relieved. “I’m so tired.”
“Do you want to sleep it off?”
“No. I want to talk.”
“Go on, then.”
“So, how did you and Arik meet?” Kerri sat down on the grass.
“I thought you said you wanted to talk.”
“Please,” Kerri looked pleadingly up at him. “I want to know more about you. You’re always so…quiet all the time.”
Joshua looked at her with his blue eyes. “Arik found me when we were kids. I was dangerously ill, and he found me and brought me to this company in time before I died.”
“And so you two became best friends?”
“I’ll always be grateful towards to him.”
“How about Drake and Carter?” Kerri wanted to know. “Do you ever talk to them?”
Joshua shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“Why don’t you talk more?”
“There’s no need for unnecessary words.”
Riiiight. “How long have you been in this company?”
“For about a hundred years or so. A hundred and four years, to be exact.”
“But…if you’re human, and you’re…mortal, then…how? I don’t understand.”
“The scientists found or invented a medicine that would stop me from aging. As long as I take my shots once a year, I won’t get old.”
“Wow. That’s pretty great.”
“Is it?” Joshua stood up abruptly again. “Let’s go. One thing I learnt is never to stay in this realm for long.”
“That’s what Arik said as well…why?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
“How?”
“You never know what’s out there.” He murmured the password, and the blackness appeared in front of them.
“What’s the password?” Kerri asked him.
Joshua turned to look at her. “You’ll know the password once you’re fully trained.” He disappeared into the darkness and Kerri scrambled after him.
***
“Tell me more about you,” Kerri said to Joshua once they were at her place.
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything. Uh, do you have any siblings?”
“I had a younger sister.”
“How old is she?”
“She was five when she died.”
Kerri’s eyes widened a little. She should have noticed when he used past tense. “I’m sorry.”
Joshua shrugged.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but…how?”
“Remember when Arik found me, I was dangerously ill? Well, I caught the disease from my sister. When Arik found me, Christine had just died and I was…I was holding her.”
“How about your parents?”
“My mom died from the same disease.”
“That’s horrible. Was it hard for you and Christine to take?”
“She was very ill but she didn’t want to die in front of us, so she made me promise to take care of Christine. She left, but she didn’t get very far. I found her in a ditch nearby two days later when I was looking for food.”
Kerri cringed. “I’m sorry.”
Joshua shrugged again and looked away, his hair falling in front of his eyes.
“I have a younger sister too, but we never talk,” Kerri admitted.
Joshua looked up at her, but didn’t say anything.
“We never got along,” Kerri continued. “It doesn’t matter now anyway, does it? I’ll probably never see her again. Anyway, why were you living out in the streets?”
“My father kicked us out when he found a girlfriend. He left us with nothing.”
“That’s…I’m sorry. I should stop asking questions like that. She shook her head. “Anyway, let’s talk about something else. Uh, any ideas?”
Joshua shrugged again and finished off the beer Kerri had offered him.
“Can you show me your place?” she asked him as he got up to throw away the empty can.
“Let’s go, then.”
Kerri followed Joshua down to the end of corridor, where he opened the door to the fire escape which led to another building. He went down a spiral of stairs and pushed open the door to a narrow, dimly lit hallway.
“What is this place?” Kerri asked him, wrinkling her nose. “It looks like a dump.”
“This is where the humans live.”
Kerri bit her lip. Her and her big mouth. “Oh. Sorry.”
Joshua led her down to the furthest room in the corridor and opened the door.
“Isn’t there a lock?”
“Yes, but it’s broken. They all are.” Joshua led her into a small bare room with only a bed, a small wardrobe, and a chair and a table. The only other room was a bathroom, which was so small and cramped Kerri wondered how he managed to shower in it.
“Wow,” Kerri said after she had looked it through. “This is certainly…cosy.”
The corners of Joshua’s mouth turned up, but Kerri couldn’t really call it a smile, because she had never seen such a bitter one. “Do you want to get back to your place now? I’m sure yours is more preferable.”
Kerri frowned. “No, actually. Would you mind if I stayed?”
Joshua shrugged. “Make yourself comfortable.” He looked around the room. “You can take the bed,” he said as he sat down on the chair back to front so that the back of the chair was in front of him. He crossed his arms and rested them on top.
“Thanks.” Kerri sat down on the bed. It creaked under her weight, and the mattress was so limp and matted that it could just as well have not been there. “So…how many humans are there at the Sterling?”
“About a hundred or so.”
“And they all live in places…like this?”
“Oh, no.” Joshua shook his head. “This is one of the best rooms. Only the humans who’ve been here the longest get one of these rooms.”
Kerri wondered whether he was being sarcastic, and Joshua raised an eyebrow at her, as if asking what, you don’t believe me?
“The humans who’ve only been here a year or so have to share a room of this size between the three of them, and their whole floor, which is about ten rooms, have to share one bathroom,” Joshua said, his eyebrow still raised.
Kerri bit her lip. Why were the humans treated so…cruelly? It was as if they didn’t matter, when they worked the hardest for the company, putting their own lives at stake. She decided to change the topic. So far, all the topics she chose had been unpleasant for him. “So, when did you and Arik first met Drake and Carter?”
“Arik met Drake about seventy years ago, and he met Carter eight years ago.”
“When did he meet Sitara?” she suddenly blurted out. Whoa. How did that question come to mind?
Surprised fleeted across Joshua’s face and he turned away. “Three, maybe four years ago.”
“How did they meet?”
“He was her trainer,” he said in a strained voice.
shoot. Did she choose the wrong topic again? Kerri wondered whether she should back off, but she really wanted to know more about this Sitara. “So…were they perfect for each other?”
Joshua looked at her, his sharp blue eyes burning with unfathomable intensity. “They were good together.”
“Did you like her?”
Joshua narrowed his eyes. “Why are you asking about Sitara?”
“Nothing, I’m just curious.”
Joshua just looked at her guardedly.
“I swear that’s the only reason I’m asking,” Kerri reassured him. “If you feel uncomfortable talking about her, we can change the topic.”
He continued to regard her warily. “Why would I feel uncomfortable talking about this topic?”
Whoa. Talk about self-defence. This guy was definitely on his guard. “I don’t know. You know what, let’s just change the topic.”
“No,” Joshua said. “You wanted to know about Sitara, so ask me about her.”
Ohhkay. “Um, did you know Sitara well?”
Joshua looked down at his arms which were still resting on the back of his chair. “Yes.”
“Did you…like her?”
He looked up abruptly then. “What do you mean?”
Kerri had a feeling that she was treading in deep water. “I mean…was she a nice person? Was she your friend?”
He looked down again. “Yes.”
“Where is she now?” Kerri asked him, although she already knew the answer, she wanted to make sure.
“She’s…at the C.E.,” he answered quietly.
“Really?” Kerri feigned surprise. “Why?”
Joshua shrugged. “She’s a werewolf,” he said simply. “Werewolves betray.” He looked at her with his cold blue eyes for a moment, and then he looked away.
A tingle ran through Kerri’s spine. She really didn’t like where this conversation was going. “Uh, so,” she said. “It’s your turn.”
“My turn to what?”
“Ask me questions.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you want to know more about me?”
“I hope I won’t offend you by saying this, but not particularly.”
“At least try to pretend.”
Joshua shifted a little in his chair. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-two. How old are you? Like, not literally, but how old do you look like? That is, if you know what I mean.”
“Late twenties, probably.”
“Same as Arik?”
“Same as any other immortal.”
“Oh, so I’ll still continue to age until I’m in my late twenties?”
“Most likely.”
“Okay.” Kerri decided to stop asking questions. “Right, next question.”
Joshua tilted his head to one side. “You and your boyfriend...what was his name again? Ty, right? Were you two good together?”
Kerri couldn’t believe he remembered Ty’s name. “Ex-boyfriend,” she corrected him. “We were...we were okay. I guess.”
“He must’ve been a hell of a boyfriend,” Joshua muttered dryly.
“It’s not like that. I mean, it was never great, and it was definitely not perfect, you know? Every relationship has its ups and downs. Our relationship…it was sort of casual, although we were living together and everything, it wasn’t very…serious, if you know what I mean.” She looked up to see Joshua’s reaction, and she was greeted with another blue-eyed gaze. “We’d been together for so long. Almost two years now. And then…well, I assumed he was going to propose on Valentine’s Day—the night Arik captured me.” She gave a short laugh. “He was probably waiting to whisk me off to the C.E.” She shook her head. “I was so blind.”
“Ty…short for Tyler?”
“Yes. Tyler Woodland.”
Joshua paled visibly. “Woodland,” he murmured, staring past her. He shook his head fiercely. “Does Arik know Tyler’s full name?”
“No. Why?”
“Nothing, nothing.” He looked around the room, and then focused on her. “Promise me you’ll never tell him that Tyler’s name. Not his last name, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Please, Kerri. I’ve answered all your questions willingly, and I haven’t asked for anything else. I’m not going to either, except for this one.”
Kerri looked at him for a moment, and then she nodded. “All right. I promise.”
“Thank you.” He looked at his watch. “Do you want lunch?”
“What time is it?”
“One thirty.”
“Yes please.”
Joshua rose from his chair and stepped over it. “Let’s go then.”
***
“K,” Drake greeted her. “How was your morning with Joshua?”
“It was pretty great, actually,” Kerri sat next to him with her plate of cheeseburger and fries. She popped a fry into her mouth.
“You know,” Carter piped up from next to Drake. “The girls usually head for the salad bar.”
“Well, I’m not your usual girl.” She turned to see Joshua heading for the far end of the table. “Joshua, do you want to sit here? I saved you a seat.”
He nodded his head once gratefully and sat down next to her and started eating silently.
Drake cocked his head to one side and shot her a look that said you actually got him to sit next to you…what have you guys been doing for the last few hours?
Kerri winked at him and bit into her burger. An upside to this place was that the food here was good. She was about to swallow when suddenly Arik appeared in front of her. She half shrieked and half choked on her burger. Drake patted her on the back.
“You’ll get used to it in time,” Drake said sympathetically.
Kerri gulped down her water, wiping away the tears that had sprung into her eyes when she choked. “That bastard’s going to make me choke to death one day.”
“You can’t die, remember?” Arik smirked and slid in next to Carter. “How’s your shifting coming?”
“Great. I can shift short distances really easily now.”
“Short distances?”
“Yeah. Like from this end of the table to the other.”
“How about long distances?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t tried yet.”
“Well, practise it after lunch. “
“Yes, sir,” Kerri saluted him mockingly. “And what are you going to do when I work my @$$ off?”
“Probably lie back, have a beer or two and wait until my…” he trailed off. “Until I recover.” Arik glared at her.
“Can I please take the rest of the day off?” she begged him. “I worked so hard this morning.”
Arik snorted. “I bet.”
“No, really. Promise. Ask Joshua if you don’t believe me?”
“Joshua?”
“Yes. He was with me this morning, remember?”
“Oh, right.” Arik waved away her question. “Of course I remember. So tell me, Joshua, is Kerri lying?”
“No, sir.” Joshua lifted his head briefly to answer Arik’s question before concentrating on his meal again.
Comments
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Toelor on December 30, 2009, 7:17:04 AM
Toelor on
u kno u keep spelling practice rong rite? srry re-reading this b4 i read kerri 2