KIRA:
“I think I’ve tried my best, Kira. I’ll be going back now to my duty post,” Bradley says as soon as we stop in front of the little building in sight. Looks like something that could only house a family of two or three. Apparently, it’s my house. And we are four living in it.
“Thanks for fetching me as usual, Brad,” I tell Bradley with a huge smile on my face. The look he gives me tells me he is not buying my act. But I still decide to play along with it. “What?” I ask him.
“Just get in. Your mom’s waiting for you,” was what he says and I give a playful nod in return as I turn to walk up the balcony into the quarters. “And don’t get yourself into any more trouble!” he calls out before I could reach the top of the mini stairway.
“Yeah, yeah,” I force the words out of my mouth, already eyeing the door in front of me. I do not bother to knock before pushing it open to get myself into the apartment.
The first thing my eyes catch sight of is a woman standing behind a table. The items on the table instantly give me an idea of what the woman is doing. Or what she is about to do. And it brings glee to my heart because mealtime is near.
“Hi, mom,” I say with my thirty-two shinning in her direction. The same dark shade of hair with a hint of grey. Yeah, that’s my older replica. But, of course, she doesn’t look pleased to see me.
“Kira, where have you been all day?” she demands as she puts down the knife she is using to chop the onions on the table.
“Uhm...” I mutter as I scratch an unlikely itch in my hair. “I was out tra—”
But I am interrupted, and not by my mother.
“Getting herself into trouble, I believe,”
An instant change of emotion floods my expression as I turn my head to the side to see a boy sitting on a sofa with his legs crossed comfortably on a stool placed in front of him. It's none other than my annoying brother who never knows how to put his nose in the right place.
“It’s none of your business, Adam. Stay out of this!” I warn him before shifting my attention back to my mother. “Mom, I was only in the woods trying to gather my thoughts,”
Mother gives me a once-over as she picks back up the knife she was using. “That’s not what Bradley made me believe,” she says as she gets back to chopping.
“And what did he tell you?”
“He mentioned you could have run off to the Night Blaze pack. Don’t tell me that’s what you did?”
Bradley, that snitch! Wait until I get my hands on him.
“Of course not, mom. I would never do that. Why would you even think I would try such a thing? It’s so dangerous out there,” I feign an act as I defend myself from the accusation. I’m actually defending myself from the truth about my whereabouts today. Such an irony.
“You tell me,” she says, her expression stating that she isn’t buying my act. “We should as well be talking about how you got your skirt ruined up to this condition,”
I look down at my skirt and the damaged state flashes back in my eyes. Well, I know about this already. “I fell over,” I tell her after being unable to get anything important to say concerning it.
“And that explains how your leg is bruised too, right?”
“Yes,” I say, emphasizing the ‘s’. “Bradley’s spouting nonsense, I promise you. I didn’t go to the Night Blaze pack. You have to believe me. I think he’s just trying to get back at me for something,”
“And what did you do that would make him try to get back at you?”
“Hmph, I don’t know,” I let out a shrug as I respond to her inquiry.
“She’s trouble, mom. I’m sure she did something really bad to warrant such,” Adam’s annoying voice is enough to fuel a wave of anger in me and so I turn, preparing to pounce at him.
“I would keep that anger in check if I were you,” Mother instantly makes me stop before I could make a move at Adam. And it brings about a creepy smirk on Adam’s face which is more of a smug. Damn, I wish I could have a go at him.
“You wait and see. I’ll get that smug off your face pretty soon.” I growl at him as I enter into the apartment fully, shutting the door behind me.
“What’s for dinner, mom?” I ask I start to make my way into the other side of the quarters. And that is my room.
“First get yourself out of those dirty clothes and wash up too before you ask me about dinner,” was the response she dishes out to me. And it is just at the same time that I get to where Adam is seated.
I use that advantage to hit him in the shoulder as I pass by and he whines in pain.
“Jerk,” I mutter after the deed has been done. “What about dad? Isn’t he back yet?” I stop at the entrance of the room as I ask my mother about my father’s whereabouts.
“Not yet. But he should be soon enough. It’s sundown already,”
“Okay, I’ll be in my room,”
“You mean our room!” Adam yells as I draw the curtains into the doorless room.
“Shut up, Adam!” I yell back at him, already frustrated with his annoying attitude.
The room is the same way I left it this morning. All messy. At least my portion of the room.
I share this not too spacious enough room with my brother and that is how it has been ever since. And I’m talking about right from when I was little. The only way to differentiate our spaces is through a piece of clothing that we used as a barricade. And that started when I began to process that I needed privacy from the douchebag.
I collapse on my mattress without a bunk, which has a few of my clothes on it. I do not even bother to push them aside before doing so. Talk about how exhausted I am at this very moment.
With my face down, I take in a deep breath and it produces a muffled sound on the mattress. The delight of the sound it produces makes me do it again and again. Damn, I can be weird at times.
I sit up eventually from the bed and then take my top off. I need to be quick about what I am doing because there is hardly any privacy in sharing a room with a boy. I should hate it but I’m kind of used to it which is why I will not complain to my parents.
I'm left with my skirt and a nude torso at the moment, revealing my developing bosoms. Nothing too much of a deal for a sixteen-year-old but I’m proud of it in my own way. At least I can boast that I am a woman now.
Just as I start to pull my skirt off as well, something strange happens. And when I say strange, it is totally something I have no explanation for.
‘If you had stayed out, you wouldn’t have gotten your skirt ruined to this extent,’
Did I just hear someone speak to me? I take a brief pause as I examine my environment. No one is in here asides from me and it feels weird that I thought I just heard someone speak. I could be imagining things for all I know, was my conclusion before I set back to take my skirt off.
But I have hardly done anything when I knew I am not just imagining things.
‘Don’t bother looking around,’
Okay, maybe it’s just me generating random thoughts. But could my thoughts have a different voice from my original? And why would I tell myself not to look around when I have done that already?
‘You think it’s weird? It’s just you being weird, you know,’
“What the hell is going on here?” I ask myself as I stand up to my feet because I do not seem to be putting two and two together anymore. This feels really strange now that I can sense how weird the happenings might be.
“Is someone here?” I ask I look around. “Adam, is that you? Are you messing with me now?”
‘It’s not Adam,’
Surprisingly I get a response and it doesn’t sound anything like Adam. Even if he were to change his voice, it wouldn’t sound this feminine.
Funny thing is that I do not feel any sense of paranoia from knowing I might be right in my room with a stranger. How did I get to this?
“Then who are you?” I ask I start to see if I could find anything useful to shield myself from any possible attack. But nothing seems useful around here.
‘It wouldn’t even be effective if you chance upon anything,’
I hear that, and I instantly know I am being watched. Okay now, who the hell is it?
“And how would you know that?”
‘Because I’m in your head, stupid,’
And that is when I stop with the movement. I take a few seconds to reflect on what I just heard. Did she or whatever it is just say she is my head?
“How can you be in my head? Damn this is crazy talking to myself,” I smack my forehead upon realizing how weird I must be right now. “I’m just imagining things. That’s what I’m doing. There is no one speaking to me. And there is certainly no way a voice other than my own can be in my head,”
‘When you’re done convincing yourself, tell me.’
Instantly I am overwhelmed because it is starting to feel real. There really is a voice in my head. A freaking voice that doesn’t belong to me.
And as I am trying to make sense out of all of these, the unexpected happens.
“Kira, mom says I should— Oh,”
For a second, I stare at Adam standing by the entrance of the room, and then down at my chest. Then I realize the situation going on here.
“Arrggh!” I scream at the top of my lungs as I make use of my hands to cover up myself.
KIRA:“Don’t you know how to knock, you moron?” I yell at Adam as I struggle to get a nearby top on. It’s a sort of body hug and the only thing I can grab quickly to cover up my naked torso.“The last time I checked, there isn’t a door at the entrance,” Adam, shielding his eyes from my view with his hands says.“Then at least you could have waited outside a little before barging in here like that. What the hell, Adam!”“It’s not my fault that this is my room too,”“And so? Can’t you respect my privacy? Would you like it if I barged in here while you’re in the middle of a jerk-off?” I counter his defense. I’m not about to let him hear the end of it yet after putting me in this situation.“That’s if you ever catch me doing one,” he says, looking all pleased with himself. He still has his hand over his face but I can tell because of the smug smile plastered on his face.“What’s going on in there?” Mother’s voice resounds from the parlor into the room.“Nothing, mom. Adam is just being a
REID:Hunter spun around the moment we step foot on the premises that we should not have entered. From the corner of my eye, I can see that he has his pistol held out but not pointed at me. And what warranted that? It’s because we were presently surrounded by several men in red who have guns pointed at us.I look at the ones directly at my front, a dry smile starting to make its way to my lips. Of course, I anticipated this so it was no surprise that they showed up.They are the warriors of the Red Legion which is where we had planned to come. Known to be deadly and quick in finishing enemies off due to their intense killing routine as training. To get past them would take a miracle, as so I heard. Fortunately, I didn’t come with my men or it would seem like I came here for an attack.“We come in peace,” I announce loud enough for all of them to hear. My hands are raised high above my head in an act of surrender just so they could get the memo that we are not here for a clash.“Yet yo
REID:As I try to settle in, I notice how the interior of the building is nothing in relation to the structure outside. The edges inside were smooth and not some oddly shaped design with no definite explanation. Feels like a roundhouse inside a square-shaped structure.Where we are now is plain. And when I say plain, it truly is. Nothing of quality to show for it as they seemed to neglect anything that would make the room stand out.I just have to overlook all that as I focus on the Elder who is comfortably seated and looking right ahead of us through those eyes that seem pretty dead. The pupils were not even part of the regulars and if I had any other conviction, I would say he is blind.I’m totally uncertain about what to do. I have no idea if I am to speak first, judging by how the settings around here were. One thing I know now is that I have got some serious explaining to do once my father finds out that I visited the Elder.‘Hunter, should I go ahead and speak?’ I mind-link Hunt
KIRA:“So, Alexia, we are here now,” I say as I take a look around the woods. Won’t lie, being in here is giving me vibes from two days ago when I was on the run away from the warriors of the Night Blaze pack, even though I am not in their territory at the moment.‘You should try using the mind-link just as I’ve taught you. It’s going to be embarrassing if someone catches you talking to yourself,’ Alexia, my newfound spirit wolf, speaks in my head which startles me a bit. I’m still not used to this whole thing about having a living entity in me. Pretty sure it would take me a while even though I have come to accept my new identity.“It’s sort of difficult,” I say as I bend to pick up a stick on the ground.‘Just shut your mind off other things and you will see it would work. Takes quite a lot of practice but in no time you’ll get used to it,’I start to consider what she says. She’s right about it being embarrassing if caught. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not used to this w
KIRA:Slowly I turn around, mustering enough courage not to reveal my emotions. “Wh– What are you talking about?” I ask.The distance between Bradley and me was a little much now due to walking out on him a few seconds ago. So what he does first is to cover up the distance a little.“I only asked a simple question,” he says, his eyes seeming like they could see through me.“That didn’t seem like a question to me,” I rebuff.“Do you have anything to hide?”Anxiously, I peel my eyes off him for a brief second before looking back at him. “Do I look like I do?”Bradley folds his arms below his chest. “You tell me,”“Well, I don’t. So stop questioning me like I’m doing something wrong,”So I turn around once again to leave. I do not even bother to listen to note if he was on my tail but I am sure he is.He proves he is directly behind me when his voice gets straight to my ears. “You could have just said ‘no’, you know? You didn’t have to be so dramatic about the whole thing,” was what he s
REID:I bend over to take a look at the slimy-looking substance on the pavement. It looked strange and possibly with no viable explanation of what it is by merely looking at it.“You said you saw what it looked like, right?” I say as I stand up to my feet and then turn around. Standing there was Hunter and Ryu, the pack head warrior that had put a link through to me during my visit to the Elder.The statement I made now was directed to him because he had been the one to inform me about the second wipeout of a household in the pack. And that is what I am trying to investigate with him.“Yes,” he responds with a nod.Briefly, I stare at the substance again on the pavement and then back at Ryu. “So what has it got to do with this?”“I think it has a lot to do with this. Because this is the only evidence that something actually happened in here. More like a remain,”“This looks like some kid made a mess of things and not like an evidence that something happened,” I say, proceeding to proc
REID:Ever since I took up the role of Alpha, my father has since moved out of the pack to go establish himself as a lone wolf. Although I won’t necessarily call it that way because the warriors and maidens around him indirectly make up a small territory. And not to forget him being with my mother and sister.The only time I ever get a visit from him is when it involves a serious issue. And I’m certain that is the reason he came around today.My best guess would be it was about the disappearances in the pack. And I hope not to be proved wrong, especially after trying to keep the other thing discreet.“To what do I owe this visit, father?” I ask him as I watch him from across the table separating us in the parlor of the main quarters.I noticed something about his expression despite him looking fascinated with his old territory. He looked distressed. Feels to me like he has been going through a lot. But I would like to doubt that because the man I know hardly has time to put too much o
KIRA:The whole atmosphere feels different now that I’m here. I wasn’t even dreading being here, but I can’t help but observe the oddity of it all. I guess being away from a place for a while changes your view about the place. But mine changes every time I do such a thing.School has always been my least favorite thing. Especially since the time I became intelligent enough to know that there were quite a few other things I could do instead of trying to be educated. Like who the hell thought it was beneficial for young ones to go through school?My dislike for school contributed a lot to my negligence. I just hate being here. Nothing about the environment gave me a feeling of satisfaction. And if it hadn’t been for my father who came back home last night and forced me to school today, I’m sure I would have begun my second consecutive week away from the educational sector. If that even makes sense.I hold on tight to the straps of my bag which I have strapped on my back. This was done a