Chapter Three - Voices

I stared up at the house for a moment longer.  I was going to live here?  I just could not grasp the thought.  I tore my eyes away from the monster home to look at the Pynch family; they had already begun to walk in.  I started to follow.
         Gin turned and looked at me and then ran up to grab my hand.
         “Come on slow poke!  You have to meet Damien!” he said with a large grin on his face.
         “Why is it so important that I meet him?” I questioned, but sadly got no answer than that Cheshire cat grin of his.  Gin led me up the steps of my new home and through the door.  I noticed the man that had opened my door for me was there, holding the door again.  This time when I looked at his eyes, the pupils were slits, like that of a goat’s.  His irises were yellow and as a breeze came through the door it brushed his hair back a little, revealing tiny horns.  I could not help but view him as a little evil.
         Gin tugged on my hand to hurry.  I looked around the room and a low whistle escaped my lips.  The ceiling seemed miles away.
         The room, though, was narrow, only containing a staircase on the right and a hallway on the left.  The interior was just as white and plain as the exterior.  I glanced down the hallway and saw it went just as far down as the ceiling did up.  Doors covered the walls every so often, but a pair of double doors caught my eye the most.
         “This is the foyer, Sapphire and this way is the kitchen,” Gin began pulling on my hand more and led me to the only door on the right.  He pushed it open to reveal a very homey looking kitchen.  I heard the door swing and recognized that it was a swinging door.  I knew that was going to be trouble for me, but I did not know how.
         I looked around the kitchen.  It was not exactly huge, but it was bigger than most I assumed.  It was decorated in a very modern silver and white fashion.  The fridge was right next to the swinging door with an oven next to it.  In the middle was an island with five stools on the left and nothing on the right.  On top of the island counter was a frying pan along with a clock that read 11:43am.  To the right of the island was a counter with a sink and a window above it.  To the sides of the window were multiple cupboards.
         Finally, Gin let go of my hand to scratch his head.
         “Huh, I coulda sworn they were in here,” he said.  He turned to me and shrugged.
         Just then I heard someone snicker.
         A small blonde boy as he appeared from thin air in between Gin and I and let out a loud chirp that almost sounded like a bark.  Gin let out a loud—and what I thought was very girly—scream.  The boy was facing Gin and that was the only way I noticed his tail.  It was long, dark brown and slender as it swung back and forth repetitively.  The small boy turned to face me with a disappointed look.  That was when I saw he had small round ears on top of his head that were the same colour as his tail, but he also had human ears too.  He looked me up and down and I did the same to him.
           The boy came up to about my neck; and I was informed that I was 5’8”, so he must have been about 5’5” at least.  He was dressed in rather tight, black pants, with a long sleeve shirt on that was the most outrageous colour of orange.  The end of the sleeves flared out and the bottom of the shirt did the same.  Some how he pulled it off.  His hair was shaggy as if he had just gotten out of bed, but he wore it very well; especially it’s sandy-blonde colour.    I looked down at his shoes and saw they were black with orange laces that sparkled.  His shoe laces were orange and sparkled.  I was amazed that a boy would dare to wear something like that.  Then the thought occurred to me; was he really a boy?  And then an even worse though occurred to me; was this Damien?
         “Terry!” Gin screamed as he grasped at the island with his left hand and his heart with his right, “I told you not to do that to me!  You know I scare easy!”  The boy, Terry, did not look at all sorry for scaring his friend.
         “She didn’t scream!  She didn’t even flinch, who is she Ginny?” Terry looked excited that I was there, “Is she for Damien?” He sang the name.
         “She is Ter Ter,” Gin smiled, “he name is Sapphire, she’s going to be living with us for now.  We just got her from the hospital,” he was talking as if I was a dog from the pound.
         “Well, introduce me Ginny,” Terry prompted.
         “Okay, Sapphire, Terry, Terry, Sapphire,” Gin said as Terry held out his hand.  I noted that his nails were more like claws.  I also noted that he painted them the colour of his shirt; orange.
         “It’s nice to meet you, and you can stop staring at my ears now,” Terry shook my hand and gave me a polite smile.
         “What are you?” I asked then immediately regretted it after how Kami reacted.  Fortunately, Terry did not seem at all insulted but more surprised.
         “Oh, right,” Gin said, “Sapphire has a bit of amnesia; she doesn’t know anything about Werecreatures.  I’ll find Damien, he probably ran off now that you had your fun.  Why don’t you explain to Sapphire what you are?” He then left the kitchen in search of the infamous Damien.
         Terry went and sat down on one of the stools and patted the one next to him; signalling that I sit there.  I sat where he had told me to; in front of the frying pan.
         “You know about werewolves?” he questioned.
         “Yeah, I remember that for some reason,” I replied.
         “Well, Werecreatures are like that,” he explained, “just not wolves.  For example, I’m a Wereferret.  Part human,” he hugged himself and then pointed to his human ears, “part ferret,” he pointed to his ferret ears.
         “Wicked,” I whispered as I stared at his ferret ears, “do you turn into a ferret at the full moon?”
         “No,” he laughed, “that’s just a myth, but I can turn into a ferret.  It hurts though, so I try not to do it.  I mean, you try moulding your bones, it hurts a lot!”  I imagined it would.
         “How were you invisible?  Or are you just really fast?” I question once I remembered that he had came literally from nowhere.
         “Oh, Damien can go invisible and turn others invisible too.  But he needs physical contact right now to do it, so once he let go of me, you can see me!”  I began to wonder what else this Damien could do.
I felt a presence behind me.  It was so sudden that it scared me and I began to panic.  I quickly grabbed the frying pan in front of me as Terry said, “Hi Dami—“  I swung the pan around and it collided with whoever was behind me, Terry finished his sentence with an inhuman screeching of, “EN?!”  When the pan hit the man behind me I tried to slow my breathing while also trying to stop the room from spinning.
Terry jumped from his stool to help the man I had just bludgeoned with a frying pan.  Whoops.  Once the room stopped spinning and I could breathe a little easier I tried to stand.  Bad idea.  I fell to my knees, gripping my stool for support.  Looking at Terry, I realized who I had hit; Damien.  The only way I knew this was from Terry frantically yelling his name at him.
I looked down at the infamous Damien.  He dressed a lot like the twins did; dark jeans and a black hoody.    I looked at his face and saw that he was bleeding from the corner of his forehead.  Whoops again.
Gin and Tonic came into the kitchen, obviously drawn by the screaming.
“What the hell happened here?” Tonic screamed.
“I don’t know,” Terry screamed back, “Damien was behind Sapphire and she hit him with the pan!”
Crazy, she’s nuts, we never should’ve brought her home.  I could here voices in my head, all male.
She was scared, it isn’t here fault.  Maybe we should call the doctor.
She could’ve killed Damien.  She needs to leave.  But was it her fault?
Damien’s a demon, he’ll heal.
I dropped the frying pan and put my hands over my ears to block out the voices, but they kept coming.  I closed my eyes, but the voices would not leave.
We should move him.  Move…Leave…Crazy…Sapphire…Sapphire…
“Sapphire,” Gin screamed my name, “snap out of it!  You’re okay!  You’re safe…calm down…please,” I snapped my eyes open to see he was on the floor with me, holding my shoulders.  I looked down at Damien, but he was gone.  Along with Tonic.  Terry stood behind Gin with a worried look in his eye.  Worried for me, or for Damien, or maybe for his own safety, I did not know.
“Wh-where…?”  I could not focus on anything for too long.  Then I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Come on,” Gin said as he patted under my nose with a cloth, “let’s get you to the other room.  It’s okay.”  He gave me a smile and for some reason, it made me feel a little better.
Gin and Terry led me out of the kitchen and across the foyer to a large room.  In it were two chairs and a couch.  Across from the couch was coffee table and a flat screen television while pictures hung on the walls.  The room kept the regular white décor going.  On the couch was Damien; still unconscious.  In a chair was Tonic.  When he saw that we had come in he gave me a very dirty look, I did not really blame him though, I nearly killed his friend.
Gin sat me on a chair and then kneeled down next to it, so he could see me in the eyes I assumed.
“Now that the bleeding stopped, for both you and Damien,” he said, “what happened?  Why did you hit him?”  He gave me a concerned look.  I stared down at my lap and began to play with my hands.
“I don’t know.  I just didn’t feel…safe I guess,” I could not think of a good way to explain what happened, mostly because even I did not know what happened, “I knew someone was behind me and I just…sorta…panicked I guess.  I’m so sorry.”
“How did you know he was there?” Terry asked with more curiosity than worry now.  I looked up at him, “well?  I knew he was there because I have heightened senses, but you’re human.  How did you know he was there?  You really shouldn’t have…”  His brow furrowed as he tried to solve the puzzle.
I could only shrug in response.
“You don’t know?” Tonic was speaking very calmly, but his expression said something else.  I could not look him in the eye so I looked over to the unconscious Damien. 
He was on his back with his hands folded over his stomach.  His black hair fell over the pillow and would have fallen over his eyes if it were not for the ice pack there.  I could not help but feel my heart skip a beat as I realized how attractive he was.
I went back to looking at my hands.
“We called Kami and she’s on her way here,” Gin said, “she’ll know what happened…but…” I risked a glance at him.  He was looking down at the sofa, conflicted, “Sapphire,” he said, “who were you talking to?”
“I was…talking?” I did not remember saying a word after hitting Damien.
“You don’t remember?” Terry knelt down on the other side of me, and I could only shake my head in response.
“You were screaming at someone really,” Gin said gently, “you wanted them to…stop calling you crazy and telling you to leave.”
She should leave if she’s going to randomly attack people.  I recognized Tonic’s voice.
“No!” I stood up, surprising all three boys, “I don’t want to leave Tonic, please don’t make me leave!”  Tonic’s eyes widened at me.
“I didn’t say you had to,” he said.
“You did!  You said I should leave if I was going too randomly attack people…didn’t you?”  His eyes grew wider as his mouth swung open.
“Sapphire,” Gin said as he put a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to sit down, “he didn’t say anything.”
“But I thought it,” Tonic found his voice, “I thought that.  How…just…how?”
She heard his thoughts?  I didn’t know she could do that.  It was Gin talking this time.
“I didn’t do that though Gin!  I can’t hear thoughts,” my pulse began to race faster.
“Sapphire, I didn’t say anything,” Gin looked at me with a glint in his eyes.  He did not seem worried anymore.
Ding dong.
“You all heard that right?” I asked just to be sure it was not just me.
“Yes, it’s the doorbell silly,” Terry said and then ran to answer the door.  He came back in a matter of seconds followed by Kami.  She did not have anything with her.
“What’s the emergency Sapphire?” she asked quickly.  She was in front of me and examining my face and hands.
“She hit Damien with a frying pan,” Tonic explained, “and now she’s listening in on our thoughts.”
“No I’m not!” I protested.
“Oh yeah?” he jumped out of his chair, “What number am I thinking of then?”
732.62.
“I…I don’t know,” I lied and then quickly looked away from his eyes.
“You so do know!  Tell me!”
“Sapphire,” Kami said, “if you know, then just say it.  It’s okay if you can hear people’s thoughts; it could help us recover your memory even.”  At the thought of remembering who I was I reluctantly answered.
“732.62,” I mumbled.  Tonic gasped as he realized that I got it right.
“You were yelling at us,” Terry said, “in the kitchen.  We were all thinking about if you would have to leave and if you should.  You heard us and started saying no.”
“But what about the crazy comments?” Gin asked then looked over to Tonic with a wicked glare.
“So I called her crazy in my mind, big deal.  Not like its illegal…” he crossed his arms and pouted.
“This is great,” Kami smiled and stood, “now that we know you’re telepathic we can narrow down who you are!  But I think I should come over twice a week to help you control this.  Just to be safe.”  Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.
“Hey, where’s Donny and Maria?” Terry questioned.
“They took Kay to a ballerina recital.  They’ll be gone all day probably,” Gin said, “but they want us to take Sapphire shopping.  We’ll go once Rina get’s here and Damien wakes up.”
“Well if that’s all I was needed for, I’m going back to the hospital.  I’ve got lives to save here people!” Kami began to head to the door.
I swear to God if Jall is still there, I’ll shove those roses down his throat.  Thorns and all.  Kami’s voice echoed in my mind and I was able to recognize that I was hearing her thoughts.
“He got you roses?” I asked without looked at her.  This stopped her in her tracks.
“Three times a week.  Three times will be better,” she said and then left without another word.
A groan came from the couch and we all looked to see Damien sitting up holding his head.
“What the hell happened?” he asked as he touched the gash on his head.  It was going to leave a mark.
“Sapphire hit you with a frying pan because you scared her.  Then she had an episode because she heard our thoughts.  Careful what you think man.  She might hear it,” Tonic seemed to have simmered down now that he knew I did not do anything on purpose.
“I didn’t do it on purpose though, well I did, but not because it was you,  I mean, you scared me and I panicked,” I said a little too loud, “and I’m really, really sorry!”  Damien looked at me and finished sitting up.  To my surprise he smiled at me and laughed.  I gave a small, nervous, “Heh,” and began to apologize again only to be stopped by Damien holding up his hand.
“It’s okay, really.  It was an accident,” he gave a small laugh again, “Sorry; I’m just trying to figure out how a girl knocked me unconscious.”  I did not know what to say so I looked at Gin for help.  He was beaming with joy for some odd reason.
“Damien, meet Sapphire, Sapphire, Damien!”  Gin clapped his hands together.
I looked back at Damien and he gave me a small wave, I returned the gesture.  He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle.  He removed the lid and took a small pill and then swallowed it.  He then put the bottle back into his pocket.
“So you…hear thoughts?” Damien asked me.
“Apparently,” I sighed, defeated.  He was staring at me now, and I just stared back without thinking.  My heart was racing just by him looking at me.  He blinked his eyes and I noticed they were red.
“You’re not very good, you didn’t hear what I was thinking,” he smiled and I smiled back.  Gin was probably going to burst with happiness that we were getting along.  Then a thought wriggled its way into my mind.
“What are you?” I asked.  Boy, I was saying that a lot today.
“I’m a kind of vampire,” he said, “and I also do street tricks.”
“Kind of vampire?  Street tricks?” I enquired.
“Street tricks are just magic tricks,” he put his hand behind his back and pulled out a flower I recognized as a pink hibiscus, “anyone can make things appear with magic, but I do it without magic.”  He completely ignored my vampire question, but I allowed him for now.
Damien passed the pink flower to Gin, who was overjoyed by the small gift.
“So, what are we doing today?” Damien asked, “stab me, throw me off a cliff perhaps?”
“No,” Tonic said with a laugh, “we get to take Miss Murder over here shopping for clothes, I’ll explain on the way.  We just need Rina to get here.  She’ll be better help I think.”
“I love that song,” Terry said quietly, more to himself than to us.
“Okay, can we wait outside?  I need some air,” Damien got up slowly and the others did not wait for him.  I did though.
“I really am sorry,” I said.
“I know, it’s okay though,” he smiled and my heart stopped for a moment, “just don’t do it again and I’ll be fine.”  He gestured for me to walk to the door first and I did so.
“By the way, Sapphire, you should learn to control your heartbeat; it gives away what your feeling really easily,” I felt my face turn red as I realized what he meant.  He knew I was attracted to him, and I had just met him!
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I let out a small gasp before elbowing Damien in the stomach.  He bent over holding his stomach and before I could think I elbowed him on his back causing him to fall to the ground.
“Oh God!  I’m sorry!  I’m sorry!”  I said, praying at the same time that nobody would come in to see what I had just done.
“Note to self; don’t sneak up on Sapphire,” Damien said with what sounded like a laugh.  He began to attempt to stand and I immediately helped him.  Once we were both on our feet he stood there staring at me.  Thinking, but sadly, I could not hear a word.  Then a smiled curled over his face.
“Want to make it up to me?” he asked, and I was surprised he recovered so quickly.  Must be nice to be a kind of vampire.
“Yes,” I said, but I was not sure if I really did with the look on his face.
“Be my donor, I don’t have one, and I think you’d be perfect,” he rubbed his stomach trying to ease the pain I had just inflicted.
“What’s a donor?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“You give me your blood once a month.  No biting though, we take it with a needle,” he explained, “And if you do agree to be my donor, I’ll forget this ever happened.”
I thought for a long moment.  Would it really be that bad?  It was just a needle once a month.  I was going to take a big risk.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said.
“Great!  It’ll be so much easier than buying blood all the time, and we live together so it’s easy access.”  He began walking towards the door and I followed without thinking.
“Wait, living together?  You live here?”
“Yeah,” he turned to face me, “didn’t they tell you?  I don’t really have any family, so I live with the Pynch’s.”
“They didn’t,” I stated plainly.
“Well then,” he said with a sly smile as he reached behind his back and pulled out a soft-pink flower I knew was a Gladiolus, “I hope we get to know each other a lot better during your stay.”  He handed me the Gladiolus and then walked away, just like that.