Break the Norm

Chapter 4

Chapter 4





I found myself slipping through shadows on the way home, which was kind of difficult at noon. It didn't matter though. I ran too fast to be seen in sun or shadows. After a few seconds of rapid eye movements, my vision focused on a house that wasn't home. We'd moved a lot, more than I could count. I walked in without a sound and paused. I focused until I could feel the presence of my mom in the living room in front of me and my dad in the study upstairs. I closed my eyes and listened upward toward the chandelier. I heard every microscopic clink of glass. I opened my eyes and looked through the arch to the living room and out the window to the backyard, over the fence, to the trees, then...blurry. I sighed. I'd just never know what was behind those trees.





The familiar exercise had taken precedence over the memories of what had happened. Now that the exercise was over, the pain rushed back. I felt my mom's concern as she felt my energy. I went up to my room. She already knew I didn't want to talk. I opened my top drawer to find my Hunter clothes. I pulled out a black shirt with one long sleeve, a short turtle neck, and a slit down the back. I also found black pants and black shoes. I tried to ignore my arm as I changed, but as soon as I pulled off my long sleeved shirt, it caught my eye. My left arm marked me for what I wasn't: a Vym. The tattoo of a Hunter snaked around my arm, across my shoulder blade and down my spine. This wouldn't be a problem if the tattoo had been on the right. Everyone else's was on their right, but I was a Hunter who wasn't a Vym. My fellow Hunters knew that, my parents knew that, my body knew that, I knew that. I just wished I didn't.





I pulled on my shirt which only showcased the tattoo. I closed my eyes to block out the sight, then I did something I swore I wouldn't. I walked over to my desk and pulled out everything in it. I removed the false bottom to find a few pictures. Pin straight blonde hair and hazel green eyes stared out at me.





Victoria.





She wasn't a Hunter. She was just a friend from school. She was in my older brother's class. The three of us were friends from the moment we all saw each other. Well, Peter and I both liked Victoria when we met her. Not that I liked her more than a friend. I was too young for any of that, but Peter and Victoria hit it off. She was my sister, in a way. And now she's gone.





I flipped to the next picture. Messy dirty brown hair and a childish smile. I didn't even want to think about that face.





I hid the photos again and went back downstairs to talk to my mom who obviously knew I'd been with Laura.





"You realize your cover is gone." Business always came first with my mom, but I could see the concern in her eyes. "Sean, did you even think before you spoke? Laura is in a fragile situation. Anything that changes might tip the scale and either way it falls, nothing good results." She sighed and let her head fall into her hands. After a second, she looked back up. "I'm just trying to protect you from-"





"From what Mom?!" Anger built up inside of me. The one they should be protecting was Laura. Not an insignificant human like me. "I'm not one of you! I don't even know why I have this tattoo! I don't want it! I don't have a side. I don't belong here. I never have." She started to interrupt me, but I knew what her argument would be. "No Mom, it's not in my blood. It's in yours. The only thing I have in my blood is the curse that keeps me from Laura and the Bloods and that's not fair to me." I let out a breath, feeling my eyelids struggling to stay open from the will it took to not react when every cell of my body was screaming to run from Laura. "I just wanted to apologize. I'll leave her alone. I'm done."





I walked back up the stairs and was in my room when I heard my mom murmur, "What if she doesn't want you to leave her alone?"





~*~ Laura





I went straight home and made the mistake of walking in through the front door. My parents ambushed me.





"What were you doing?" Their demanding tones seemed devoid of love. It pained me that they ignored me until I was in trouble. Wasn't I their daughter? Shouldn't they love me?





"I was at the park with a friend."





My mother "hmphed" and walked away to her bedroom. My father stayed. "The Hunt's called." At the mention of Sean's family, I panicked. I looked at my toes, unable to meet the cold glance. "We told you to stay away from him."





"Dad, he changed. He apologized and-"





"It's not him you need to stay away from." My voice went mute as I waited for an explanation. "His parents don't want you near him."





I froze as the world shifted around me and my whole life was put into perspective. I grew up thinking I should hate him. Maybe it was right for him to hate me. Maybe I was the bad one. "I'm going to my room." I turned down the hallway of our small one story house. I made my way to my room and changed into a new pair of pajamas I'd bought the week before.





I tried to walk back to my bed, but my head started throbbing. I mumbled one of my fake curse words. Now wasn't a good time for an attack. I got light headed and my vision faded out. I fell backwards against my wall and focused all my energy on getting my vision back. Stills of my room flickered in my sight. Finally, it steadied out only for my phone to ring.





My focus faltered and the attack surged and took over.





I looked around the already familiar place that I'd never been to. I assumed this would be an alternate future, but it seemed the same so far. "It's funny. You keep calling me Drea. I guess that's more appropriate than Victoria or Laura or any other name. It's time I grew up and accepted what I've always feared. What you've always feared, Drake." I stared into Drake's sad eyes, but mine held only fake emotion. I felt so empty. I heard my own thoughts swirling at the thought of cutting open Drake's arm. I couldn't understand most of it. Then my thoughts seemed to intensify at the thought of cutting open Sean's arm. It seemed to be a habit at this point. I cringed at myself and what I would become. "We knew this day would come." I watched as sandy blonde hair approached me. I wished to get away from Sean, but I could only watch as the scene played out. He was behind me and he held me close to him. His lips brushed my neck as he whispered my name. It sounded like he was begging me. But when he spoke, the voice wasn't Sean's. Apparently I knew this stranger more than I've known anyone and my thoughts radically changed for a moment as I relaxed at his touch. "After everything that's stopped us, you'd think we'd have known we were never supposed to be together. It's over, Hunt." This is where I got confused last time. I'd clarified it's not Sean, but why did I still call him Hunt? That's Sean's last name. "There were four different versions of this day. Two happened at this scene, with this conversation, but the end changed. I either lived or died. It was the same with the other two. Same scene but at the end of those, I either lived or died. Depending on how smart you are. If you've figured out this is an act. You think my aura is the same as the girl you've always known. You think there is something in me to salvage. You have hope in letting me keep my life. We discussed what you should do in this situation. But now that it's here, I don't want you to follow through…you don't want you to follow through." My thoughts grew excited. I knew his weak point. "I want to finish what was started." The vision changed here. Drake's hand hesitated to draw the knife he had. I realized future me figured out how to enhance her senses using energy.





I heard Drake mumble, "I can't do it."





Sean appeared next to Drake. He was panting. "Laura…Laura you can win here. Come on!"





The boy I thought was Sean spoke up from beside me. "I think we all know who won by now."





Sean mumbled a curse. "Shut up, Peter." Sean looked down and looked back up into my eyes. For the first time ever he let his wall down completely. I heard the voice of his thoughts. 'I know this is the end so this is all I can do.' I heard all his thoughts from the last few weeks. Future me was laughing, but I was stunned. 'I loved you.' His voice was weak but passionate. I didn't have time to soak it in before future me ran forward and killed both Sean and Drake with the same knife.





The boy named Peter laughed. "Two more points for the Bloods."





I snapped out of it, but didn't open my eyes. As I gained my feeling back I was surprised to notice someone was holding me tightly in their lap. I couldn't move and it was starting to hurt. "Let go."





The arms relaxed. "Thank God it's over." He shook out his arms. "I normally wouldn't have done anything, but you were thrashing and you were about to destroy your room. Not to mention if your parents had walked in."





Sean started stretching his arms. He looked tired and he kept cringing, but he was still the last person I wanted to see right now. "Sean…just now, did you see…"





He froze up and his eyes blanked out again. "Yes." Sean accidentally heard my thoughts again. "Yes. It is awkward…I'll go get Drake. Be right back."





He was gone before I could blink. I felt empty where Sean had been holding me. I stopped myself. I didn't even know this guy, not anymore at least. I thought he was evil annoying Sean, but now…now he's just Sean. He kind of seems like a stalker, but Drake doesn't seem so bothered by him. I grew angry. Drake knows everything. I'm the only one who doesn't know. I turned and saw my dresser on the floor. I guess I'd knocked it over. Then I saw the spot where I'd collapsed before the attack. It was under where the dresser would've fallen. Suddenly Sean was back in the room. "Stop doing that."





He looked confused. "Doing what?"





I shook my head. "Never mind. Where's Drake?"





Sean smiled just before I heard the door opening. Then he seemed to realized something. "I should probably…" He vanished again.





Drake walked in. His eyes looked around the messy room from where I'd knocked over my dresser. I started to wonder how I'd both knocked it over and avoided it…I mentally thanked Sean. I think he just saved my life. You're welcome.





I then got angry at him again. Really?! Again with the eavesdropping?!





I could tell he shrugged. It seems to be a lifesaver.





I ignored him when Drake started talking. "What the hell happened here?"





"I'm not really sure. I think the attack was pretty violent."





He looked worried. "Your key turned dark green. Last time, it turned burnt orange before the attack, then grey during the attack. But this time it turned green."





I couldn't figure out why until I realized he didn't remember the last attack. I assumed dark green was future and grey was past. Those were the colors that made sense to me anyway. I was about to tell Drake about how Sean had helped, but I hesitated when my legs collapsed. Drake was going to step forward but Sean appeared, "Drake, get out of here." Drake hesitated. Sean yelled "NOW!" Drake reluctantly started to leave. "Get to the tree house, I'll meet you there later."





I grew suspicious, but focused on standing up. I started stretching, but I wasn't controlling the movements. I tried to ask what was going on, but my mouth didn't move. I didn't have control of my body. "Long time no see, Son-in-law."





Sean nearly growled. "Drea. Damn it, I should've known."





I laughed, but I hadn't meant to. Why did I say that? Why did Sean call me Drea? Why is he looking at me like that? Who is Drea? Laura, this is a bad time to explain this to you, but I think I've just figured out that you have another soul living in your body. And it's a strong soul and you can't really fight back. Damn it, I'm so sorry. How did I not notice? This is all my fault.





Sean's thoughts poured into the open as he dropped the wall between me and him to focus on the one between him and Drea. I didn't even have time to look into Sean's head and figure some things out before I felt a pain I could never imagine. Sean's thoughts were scrambled. Damn it, I'm going to lose her. He nearly started crying, but not on the outside. Not again. He started to attack Drea, which was weird because it looked like he was attacking me.





I could almost hear the rip as Drea removed my soul from my body. My vision was gone as was my hearing, but I could sense my surroundings. I was shaped like a small orb. Sean was looking at me. I then realized that I was simply a soul. My life was literally in Drea's hands. I was pure energy and no walls could hold back my invasion. But once again, I was stopped by Drea's hand slamming into Sean's chest. I could see again. I was looking at what used to be my body, but Drea transformed it to hers. My mouth moved without me telling it to. "Drea, your body is dead. You can't just come and steal your daughter's." Drea's hand was still on Sean's chest and he didn't even have the energy to move away.





Drea laughed again, "Relax, it's not like I killed her. I have a feeling I can use her again. She proves to be pretty useful." Drea's clothes suddenly changed and she almost kindly left my pajamas. Then again, it's not like I would be able to wear them. She jumped out the window and escaped.





"Damn it all." Sean collapsed, so I collapsed too. "Today was not a good day for that." He tried to distract himself. He went to the bathroom mirror and tried to look at his back. He pulled up his shirt to see that a huge bruise had formed. He walked away and half heartedly kicked the dresser. "Stupid piece of wood." I was shocked when I realized he'd thrown himself over me to stop the dresser from hitting me. He was lucky it was only a bruise.





The emotions swirling through his head were still unreadable, even with his wall down. He was right about the speed of his thoughts. I couldn't follow them at this speed, but I could feel the heart break. He spoke out loud. "I'm so sorry, Laura. You didn't deserve to die."





I hesitated to answer, but figured it'd be a good idea. I don't think I'm dead.





~*~ Sean





I jumped up. "What the- ?" I scanned my surroundings as I was trained. Nothing looked, sounded, or felt out of the usual. I closed my eyes and hesitantly looked within myself. I bit my lip in order to not scream. "Oh hell."





Without warning Laura, I started running. I felt her start freaking out, but as I got into the rhythm of running, I couldn't hear anything but my breathing. It sounded like I was hyperventilating, but I was just breathing as fast as I needed to get enough oxygen as was necessary for this level of exertion. When I got to the tree house, I wasn't even winded. I climbed up slowly and realized I was dripping wet. I turned around from where I was climbing up the tree. Thunder rumbled. I didn't even realize it was raining. Drake looked confused as I walked in. I felt uncomfortable in the wet shirt so I slipped it off. Drake rolled his eyes, but I noticed he'd been working on his wall. "Nice."





"What is?" Drake was in a shocked calm after so much chaos, he didn't even know the half of it.





"Your wall. As long as I don't try to get by it, I can't hear anything." I lied down and felt the wood against my skin. I took a deep breath and felt myself calming down. Then I knew I had to face the problem. Laura?





Her frazzled thoughts repelled my calmness. True, I should also have been freaking out, but indescribable situations are easier to get through when you don't panic. I would know. I waited for her to organize her questions. She had a ton. You said Drea stole her daughter's body…





I pursed my lips, I guess saying she can't know too much isn't an excuse anymore. She's been yanked into the middle of the conflict. We can't just leave her out anymore. Drea is your mom, yes.





She stayed silent for awhile. I blocked her thoughts from mine to give her as much privacy as was possible. Are you going to tell Drake?





I sighed and sat up. I was still dripping so I opened the box where I stowed my towels for rainy days. Laura's thoughts silenced when I looked down to dry my chest. I closed my eyes and my face fell into my hand. I sighed. This is going to be harder on me than her. I kept my eyes closed and I scrubbed my hair with the towel. I could tell Laura was embarrassed so I didn't say anything to her. "Drake. You've missed a lot." Laura felt guilty, he didn't miss a lot, he conveniently forgot it all. "Laura is adopted, you figured that out, I realized." Laura got angry at Drake again. It's not his fault, Laura. Calm down. I told him not to tell you. Be mad at me. The stress was building up as I continued. "You've been in circumstances that forced us to tell you more. You walked into our house at a bad time. Long story short, it was obvious my family is made up entirely of Vyms, well except me. Now how you got in the house, I'm not sure. No one even saw you coming, which isn't possible in my family. You know there are two sides within the Vyms, two families almost. The Hunters are my family, the Bloods aren't a family, but they like to think they are. We've been at war with each other since the Bloods were formed by Erik. This is when I tell you things you didn't know. Erik had a…friend through all this. He and Drea ruled the Bloods in the same way my parents rule the Hunters. Though our side tends to be a little nicer. Erik and Drea were in a relationship. Laura is the first Vym born as a Blood. She's their child." I had chosen my words carefully. There was a little more to the story, at least I thought so, but I didn't want to say anything. I could be wrong. I've never voiced my thoughts on the matter. Besides, there was one fact that didn't add up.





Laura spoke up to only me. So your parents rule one side, my parents rule the other… Is this Romeo and Juliet or something?





I laughed in my head, Drake hadn't heard her so it'd be odd to start laughing. I spoke to Laura. That depends, do you love me?





She got quiet again. I began to feel guilty. I hadn't spoken so carelessly since I was pretending to hate her. That comment was unnecessary.





To my surprise, Laura responded. Do you love me?





It wasn't a joke. She meant it. If she combined what she saw in her vision to what she heard while Drea was there… I didn't answer her.





"Our side had a major victory three years ago. Four years ago, Drea started acting strange. She never really focused and her followers started to doubt her. That's also when Erik vanished. We had him in custody, but we're not sure how he managed to escape. Three years ago, Drea was killed in battle. Her head was sliced clean off. But I understand now. Her soul wasn't in her body at that time. Her soul was in Laura's body, but she miscalculated. She didn't realize the precedence of a soul born with the body compared to a soul forced into a body. It took her three years to build up enough strength. And she did it so stealthily, no one noticed." I paused. "Then again, that doesn't really add up anymore. Laura is perfectly able to talk to me right now…" I shook my head. What was wrong with my focus today? "Drake, Drea stole Laura's body. But Laura's not dead. Drea forced Laura's soul into me. And I kind of want to experiment now."





I lied down again and spoke to Laura. I want to see if you can gain control of my body if I relax and let you. This was going to be uncomfortable, but I just need to know how this works if I have to fix it. Laura hesitantly sat up she glanced down and I cursed silently. There's an extra shirt at the bottom of the box beside you. She slipped it on and morphed my body into hers as she'd seen Drea do. She relaxed and started crying. I tried to ignore it as I experimented with what I was dealing with. All I could do was see and hear. I couldn't feel anything she was feeling, physically at least. Her relief of having her body back was causing me to not be able to fight back at all. She even found a way to block my thoughts. This wasn't fair.





Drake looked confused. "Laura?"





She mumbled a weak "Mhm." She was crying badly now. Drake seemed to understand I was still in the same body, but he also understood that Laura was freaking out. He hesitantly pulled her into his arms. I could hear Drake's pulse from where Laura rested her head between his neck and shoulder, but I couldn't feel his touch. I could also hear them breathing. Laura had her eyes closed so I couldn't see anything but I didn't really want to. It was weird enough already.





Then I realized I could sense what was happening. And it wasn't just like eye sight where you can see in front of you, it was 360 degrees of awareness. I could see from inside my head, from any angle, at any range. This would have been an awesome discovery if I hadn't realized Drea had access to this for four years. "Drake?" I couldn't tell what Laura was thinking at all. I've been able to tell what she's been thinking and feeling all her life and this was getting on my nerves a little. It was uncomfortable. "Drake, you know how I've always liked Brad?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was this really the time to talk about a stupid crush. I should just tell her Brad likes her and they can go live happily ever after. "I don't think I've really ever liked him."





Drake said "What?" at the same time I thought it. Girls certainly had weird ideas about love.





Laura continued. "I think he was just an excuse."





Drake didn't seem to understand, but after what I'd heard from her thoughts over the years, I saw where this was going. She was about to ruin her friendship. Laura, stop. I wasn't sure if she could hear me. I focused on the wall she put up to block me out. I broke through it. She gasped quietly. Laura, stop this. Now. You've got to trust me on this one.





Another tear fell from her eye. She brushed her cheek against Drake's as she stepped out of his arms. She lied down and she morphed her body back into mine so I could reclaim it. I stretched a little then rested my forehead on my bent knees. Laura, that was ridiculous. Why would you even consider telling him that?





She hesitated to answer me, I've been keeping it from him so long it feels like I'm lying to him.





I sighed, some personal insight would probably have the best effect. I really don't like opening up. Laura, I've been down that path. You don't love him. I understand, you're young, you think you know what love is. In a few years you'll look back at yourself and ask what the hell you were thinking. There was this girl, it was awhile ago. No, I guess it was only two years. When you grow up in a warzone, you age quickly. She was a year older than me. Two years older than you. She was the enemy. She died. Even if it really is love, forget about it. Love on a battlefield means death. It's just another weakness. And if it means anything to you, when she died, you were my excuse. I was absorbed in the past. I didn't mean to share so much, but it just came out. I've lost two people. Victoria is six years older than me. She was ten when she…lost her memory. Victoria was almost a sister to me. She and my brother were really close. She's been in the hospital for most of her life. Her hair was pin straight. I'd always mess with it…





I pulled off my shirt and started running again. It didn't matter where I went, I just had to run.