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Valius is so weird.

He’s always sitting on that stoop.

He has no friends.

I don’t see why he is still around.

He’ll make a terrible ninja someday.

Those were the typical things people said about me. They didn’t care if I was listening or not. They didn’t care how much it hurt me. They didn’t care… and soon I didn’t care either. But then she came along and ruined everything. I was going to end my school career and take revenge on all those that were cruel to me when she just had to introduce herself to me. I guess I should be grateful but… having her as a friend only complicated things. She didn’t make things any better. But she wouldn’t leave me alone. I’m not cruel to women, no matter how cruel they are to me, so I wouldn’t up and tell her to leave me the hell alone. If only I were Collab at the time. I was sitting in class, waaay in the back when she walks in my direction. Every time I thought she would stop and turn into the isle to sit down she didn’t. She just kept creeping nearer to me. I wanted her to stop and sit somewhere but she wouldn’t. I watched helplessly as she sat down beside me. “Hello Valius.” She had a tiny, squeaky voice. She reminded me of a mouse. But it was cute. It still is when she’s being her typical ‘I’m worried about you’ self. Anyway, she was dressed in this cute little green summer dress with matching hair clips. Her hair wasn’t my type, short. I like girls with long flowing hair so when I glide my hands along their back I can feel their soft hair as I go. No not back hair! UGH! I’ve found a few with alpaca hair instead of back hair. That’s not what I’m getting at. It’s hard to explain but it’s a fetish of mines. Yeah so, she didn’t have that. She wasn’t as full as a lot of the women that I’ve had. She’s flat chested compared to my favorite big chested women. Oh god! But… back to her. She has this cute little button nose that I like and her lips are so voluptuous that it’s a crime. And yet I have no attraction to her. She’s not my type. She’s too sweet and innocent. I only go for the bad girls who have little respect for themselves. I would love to have a girl like her but I’m too messed up. I don’t want to have a normal woman while I’m a freak… a monster. I won’t taint her. We won’t taint her. She deserves far better than some weirdo like me… like us. She’s got this tiny athletic figure that most girls would kill for at her age. Sometimes I look her over out of habit. She hates that. Finally, I spoke to her.

“Hello…”

“Oh, it’s Anu. Call me Anu okay, Valius?”

I don’t remember. Maybe it was when we got to the first floor; perhaps on the ride there; all I know is that I hear voices all around me and open my eyes to see white, I fell asleep. I bolt upward and then grab my head when I realize where I am and why I’m there. I was in some hospital, probably Unity Hospital by the look of things, for my head injury. How bad was it? There are a bunch of people in white doctor cloaks. “All right, demonstration over. My patient has awakened and I must do my job.” They must all be interns. I count them all as they exit with groans at not being able to examine the no longer knocked out girl and see that there is only seven of them not including the approaching doctor. “Hello, you may call me Doctor Morpheus. Do you know where you are?”

“No.”

“You’re at Unity Hospital for a head injury. Does your head bother you? I wish I could provide you with some pain medication but I cannot. We have to contact your guardian in order to issue you anything.” Right, medication allergies.

“I don’t have a guardian. I’m basically a ward of the state.” This surprises him a moment before he composes his face and begins to ponder silently, mumbling now and then. He’s dressed in the normal doctor get-up: the medical gloves, the cloak with pens in every available spot and the name tag on the right side of his chest, blue medical pants and matching booties, and around his neck is a stethoscope. I look up at his face and see big square goggles of glasses and giggle in my head, he looks silly. Then again, what do I look like? I continue looking at him as I insult myself. He has cropped brown hair that barely touches his neck and behind the glasses are delicate hazel eyes. When I see his eyes I begin to remember the guy that asked for the phone. He had long black hair tied back into a ponytail with some string. He had dark brown eyes; even though his eyes were narrowed for the time in which I’d seen him I was close enough when I cracked the door to tell. He was wearing a black t-shirt with ‘kiss’ in all caps bedazzled across the chest. He was wearing tattered old black denim jeans and I don’t remember what shoes he was wearing. Suddenly, as if an impulse, I remember the boy who was also there. “Where is he?”

“Who?”

“The boy that carried me out of my house. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white button up shirt and a navy blue vest with some blue denim jeans.”

“You describe him well but I do not know who you describe. I suppose you don’t have serious or long term memory loss since you remember him so well but-”

“Long term?”

“You were unconscious for about a week now.” I couldn’t believe that. The guy had to be lying. A week; an entire week of sleeping, no way. “It’s always difficult to believe. Your injury was bad enough to cause the unconsciousness and long sleep,” I just watch him, “Your head was hit with a door made of steel and it fractured your skull a bit above your hairline. I- Perhaps we should find someone older to discuss this with.”

“I have no one so you might as well just tell me.”

“Your guardian, you must have one.”

“I have none.” I was nearly yelling at him. For some reason he wasn’t responding so I looked from the window on the right side of my bed to him at the foot when I notice him glancing towards the doorway. I tried to hold it in once I saw what he was staring at -I didn’t want to blurt anything out because it would cause conflict- but it just slipped I guess. “What are you doing here? You after more of my parent’s money? Aw, too bad. You took it all!”

“You know this man?”

“He’s my… he was my guardian.

“So you do have a guardian.”

“Legally, yes.” Once I reply he walks over to the doorway and then they both leave out. I hear the door close and snatch the pillow from behind my back. I begin to squish the pillow against my face but fear of more pain prevents me. I simply throw the pillow across the room and fold my arms across my chest while glaring out of the window.

In the end I am finally given something for the pain and am released into my “guardians’ capable hands”. My guardian is Roguf Night and he’s been my guardian since I started school at five years of age. He’s an old friend of the family, or so he says, and was the only person who knew me back then. I had a very small family since he had to be chosen but I know near to nothing about my family or Roguf. All I know is I was living a very nice life until I started elementary school. I couldn’t afford to get clothes or eat lunch even. When I grew more mature and nosy, I looked through some of his documents and found out he was swindling money from me and using it for his own gain. He finds out and ditches me and I find myself without a guardian. House to house I go trying to find someone to care for me. One place takes me for a few days another for some months. Now I am staying in this wretched apartment without paying rent for now. Eventually I’ll have to leave this place and continue being the nomad I am doomed to be. Anyway, I was supposed to be on bed rest but I just can’t catch a break. Nearly three days after my release a knock comes upon my door. I follow the same routine as before but this time I ask who it is before I crack open the door. “It’s your landlord.” I quickly unlock the door but hesitate to open it.

“Just a minute.”

“I already know about your guardian, Abby. Open the door.” With a sigh I open the door and allow him in. Abby is a nickname I like to go by because my name seems too formal for the life I lead. Anyway, the room smells like beer so much that I don’t notice it anymore but the ‘Warden’ does. With an almost sleigh gesture, he sniffs me and then shrugs. “He doesn’t bathe?”

“Was it that hard to tell it was him and not me?”

“After someone goes to a hospital for a while they let themselves go.”

“I guess. What is it?”

“I don’t mean to bother you so soon but now that your guardian has returned… Well-”

“Oh. I’m not sure if he’ll stick around. We haven’t spoken. All he does is eat and leave.”

“Is he here now?”

“No.”

“I see. By the way, if you were wondering, that nice blond boy made sure to lock that vandal out of your room and told me you’d be gone for a while and so I kept your room vacant.”

“A boy,” I hadn’t spoken a word about the boy since my release and had nearly forgotten about him, “you saw him? When?”

“The first day you went to the hospital. He told me that he’d locked your door and the scoundrel that hit you out.”

“It was an accident. So you haven’t seen him since?”

“Nope. I haven’t seen him around before; he must have been visiting a resident or something. I don’t know. I only bud into your business.” That makes me laugh. After talking a while he leaves and I head back to the couch and stare up at the ceiling -splotched with white paint and mildew. I suppose it’s safe to say that I didn’t imagine him since the ‘Warden’ saw him too but I can’t help but wonder if all of this is just a dream. He was the most gorgeous boy I’d ever seen or heard. His eyes will never leave my mind though the gleam in them lack to their actual shine. Another knock comes upon the door and I grumble under my breath as I get off of the couch.

“Hurry and open the g*****n door!” Roguf is such a grouch when he has to wait. I make it to the door and unlock it before opening it. He stumbles into the room and collapses into me. Before he’d collapsed I noticed what he was wearing and how he looked. He was wearing my red and white Tate Scholar shirt that I received in the sixth grade. He was wearing the same black leather pants that he had when he arrived and neglected to change out of. He was wearing brown cowboy boots with those spinning spikes on the outside of them. I’m sure he wasn’t trying to but he didn’t match at all. In his left hand was a paper bag wrapped around a bottle and I could guess by the smell of his hot breath that he was drinking whisky, heavily drinking whisky. His face was pale and he had a mouth full of something but I couldn’t guess what. I hear a horrible noise emerge from his chest and before I can push him out of the door I see what is in his mouth all over me and the floor. He laughs loudly as he stumbles backwards and looks at the mess he made. I was covered in his putrid vomit that was colored awful. For a while I couldn’t breath, not that I wanted to, because I couldn’t believe what had just happened. All over my white t-shirt, my red biking shorts, my red bunny slippers that I often wore around, my face, my hair, was his vomit. I slowly look down at the floor to see more of the stuff. I had to wrap my arms around my waist just to keep my own fluids in. I didn’t want to throw up like him; though, seeing him doing it was far worse than me doing it. I finally begin to scream in my chest but keep my mouth closed as I walk towards Roguf and try to help him inside. In the hall he runs from me but eventually he trips over his own feet and falls to the ground. I help him to his feet and help him inside while keeping my mind busy with images: a horse, a fish, a pie –ugh, pie. I get him to the couch and breathe evenly as I head into the kitchen and open up a cabinet under the sink beneath the draped window. I grab a big, brown rag towel and run water on it. I cling to the towel a while before I rip off a small piece and shut the water off. I dash into the living room with the cloth when I notice Roguf isn’t there. Did he know just how embarrassing it was for me to go into the hall covered in vomit? I could clean myself up first but he could be halfway to Yukai by then. I squeeze the rag in my hands as I start for the door. Once in the hall I look up and down it for him but with little gain. I go down to the second floor and look down there; I go to the first floor; I circle the block on foot; I go to the parking garage a few blocks from the place, no sign of him. By now I was getting a bit worried even though I could care less about the scum. Finally I give up and return back to my place and clean up. Once done I go to the kitchen and report him missing. I really didn’t want to go outside and face the stares of the people who’d seen me covered in vomit and looking for a drunken man because they all must have misinterpreted what happened to me but I had no choice. I again go searching for Roguf when I pass by my high school English teacher, great.

“Abigail? Why weren’t you at school?”

“I’m in a bit of a hurry so I can’t greet you formally or really explain; I’m sorry.” I tell her as I continue walking pass her when she grabs my arm.

“Explain now,” she says sniffing the air, “and why do you smell so horrid?” In my life there are a lot of things I have to do but don’t want to and explaining was one of them. It is always hard to inform an outsider on details of a portion of a long event but I guess I did a good enough job. “I hope you find him.”

“Me too,” I reply as she continues walking opposite of me and I start down the long walk towards the ale. I live in downtown Gathery and even though I just moved into the apartment I’ve traveled around here enough times to know my way around. I could walk somewhere without reading signs and find where I’m headed.

The ale station is a disgusting place that doesn’t fascinate me in the least. I hate how it smells -like bodily fluids- or how there are tons of newspapers down there hiding homeless people; I could have been one of those piles of newspapers. The worse thing about the place is it’s always crowded. It doesn’t matter if it’s rush hour or if it’s the holidays, the place is always packed with people. After waiting half an hour for a train I board –no, I don’t get a seat- and relax as much as I can before I return to the hunt. I close my eyes and lean against the door opposite of the exit door and think about how good and bad my life is when my parents pop into my head. Well, not the image of them because I don’t remember them but the idea of parent, the word, popped into my mind. I wondered who they were and how they could provide me with so much money. It wasn’t life insurance though that would be a lot. It was money they’d either worked hard to get or was given to them. I wondered if I had siblings and where my other relatives could be. I wondered how they could not know or pretend not to know that my parents passed –or whatever happened to them- and that I was forced to have a guardian like Roguf. How could they let me suffer like that? I guess I should be glad to be alive and be a normal girl. I always remind myself about how much worse things could be and that humbles me.

A month has passed and Kusso still bugs me but he doesn’t seem as mad as before; maybe because my head is back to normal. Roguf still hasn’t left and he’s never sober enough to talk to me about why he came and when he’s leaving; if he is leaving. I still wonder who the person was that threw a softball at Kusso but his happy mood makes me think that Kusso got to him. I’m back on track at school and am averaging a C+ so far. Not bad for someone who travels around a lot. School just ended and now I’m headed for the ale. When I reach the corner at the end of the school street between Wafit and Tyle I see him. The boy from so long ago that I’d nearly forgotten, the boy with the blue eyes, stands on the corner across from me looking around at signs. Before the light changes I start across the street toward him. Lucky for me the cars had already come and gone so I could cross without getting hit. I walk right up to him and look him in the eyes. I could tell it was him by his familiar feature though now they were amplified. He’s more unnaturally gorgeous than I remembered. I can’t believe my imaginative him was so far off. “Do I know you?” The question catches me off guard and I just gasp. He looks at me confused for a while and then shrugs and walks by me. I turn around and start after him with a surprised look on myself. It is composed to some extent so I don’t think he’ll notice. We reach the other side and he turns abruptly to face me. “Why are you so surprised?” Darn it, he noticed again. “Why are you following me?”

“I’m not.”

“You were going that way and now you’re going this way.”

“Hey, that’s my business you know. Don’t pretend you don’t remember me. I’m the one from the apartment; the one who got hit with the door.” A smirk lights his face and then fades too quickly for me to be sure he smirked.

“I don’t know you. I’m visiting here.”

“What? You do know me.”

“Are you insinuating that I’m lying?”

“No, just mistaken.” He begins walking again and I follow him ruminating to myself. “You can’t say you don’t remember,” I sounded almost sad when I said it and I know it affected him because he begins to slow down.

“Please, I don’t know you.”

“But you know Elli Tres, right? You called me that when you carried me to the ambulance. Stop pretending that-”

“Look, leave me alone! I don’t know you and don’t want to! Stop following me and go back to your house and stay in dream land!” His words hurt. They cut me deep and I nearly thrust myself into the street. How could he be so cruel? I stop as he continues walking. He doesn’t look back at me as he goes down the street and disappears around the corner. It shouldn’t have hurt so much but I haven’t put much thought into anyone but my family and Roguf. This boy, the one I couldn’t get out of my head, was acting like he’d never met me. He yelled at me like someone he hated.

I get home and before I can unlock my door the ‘Warden’ is right beside me. “I have some people coming in on Monday and this place is all they can afford.”

“You’re throwing me out?” I cry surprised and a bit hurt.

“Don’t put it like that. I’m sure you’ll be all right with your guardian. I did tell you that you would have to leave once I got someone who’ll pay to move in.”

“I know. I just…” I couldn’t talk straight. My throat still hurt from the episode at the school. It isn’t sore just raspy like when you try not to cry.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, War- I mean, Mr. Atkin. I’ll talk to Roguf when he gets back. So we have until Sunday?”

“At the latest. It’s Tuesday so you’ll have plenty of time to look for an apartment.”

“He doesn’t have the money anymore.”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine, I’ll figure something out. We had an agreement.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“All of this at once must be a lot to take.” He had a sorrowful look on his face and sounded sincere. Why was he acting like that? It took me a while to notice that I was crying. I guess it was a bit much to take but what the heck was I doing crying in front of my landlord? I unlock the door with my key as I shake my head side to side. I rush inside and shut the door and wait for the ‘Warden’s’ steps to fade out. Once they do I place my hands on my head and stare blankly across the room. What’s wrong with me? Why am I crying like this? Yeah, I cry all the time but never when someone’s around to see or hear it. I guess it’s because I haven’t been able to release myself since Roguf came to live here. Usually I’d just lie in my room on the floor or the bed or maybe even on the couch -whichever I get to first- and just collapse. I’d cry for however long I had to and then I’d feel better. I cried for my parents, for my loneliness, for my discoveries, for my troubles. Now I was crying because things were just moving in the wrong direction. Things just wouldn’t add up. I can’t figure things out or be certain what I say, hear, feel, see is real. School use to be the place where I could relax and not have to worry about anything -since no one knew me long enough to give me things to worry about- but now is different. Kusso always messes with my head and makes me feel bad. Roguf is always drunk and throwing up and I hate when I, or anyone else for that matter, throws up. And that boy, he acts like he doesn’t remember me. He acts like we never met. I shouldn’t care so much but he was the one thing that made me feel like things didn’t need to look real to be real. He made me feel better about who I am and now he’s turned into something horrid. He yelled at me and it hurt me bad.

It grows dark outside when Roguf comes home pounding on the door. I had fallen asleep on the door and was startled when he knocked. I hear his drunken groan and grow depressed. I get to my feet and open the door, having forgotten to lock it, to let him in. Unlike the other times, Roguf pushes me once he gets inside. I fall backward and hit the floor as he laughs at me. “Ya hungry,” he asks drunkenly with a joking tone. I stare at him and try to see why he would ask that. “Ya hungry or thirsty?”

“Neither.”

“Liar,” he hollers grabbing me by the collar and kneeling on the ground. He takes his free left hand and shakes a whiskey bottle at me. I look at it for a moment and then at him with utter disapproval. “Ya take what ya cen get.”

“I don’t drink liquor, Roguf. I’ve already had lunch so I’m not hungry or thirsty. You can have it all for yourself.”

“I wannid ta do somefin fer ya and this is…” he trails off a moment then looks into my eyes, “this is all I got ta give.”

“Thank you; now go to bed.”

“What cen I do pub?”

“You can go to sleep-”

“Stop bein so darn passive! Yer never gunna get nuffin actin like that.” He becomes more observant and honest -I think- when he drinks. I shuffle him over to the couch and sit him down. I try to stand and get him a cold rag for his head but he grabs me by the waist. “Dun leave me,” he begs, pulling me nearer to him. At first I was panicky because I’d never been held like that, spoken to like that, or requested to do what he’d asked. But after I was pulled down onto the couch with all of his strength and turned to face him I became confused. His eyes were mixed with a spur of emotions. His eyes were teary like he’d been crying, just like me. The horrible man that I wanted to hate but never could be so cruel to was becoming human. He looked like I did when I watched the boy leave, when I found out he’d left me, when I found out that he wasn’t my father, when I learned that he was stealing from me. He looked like a child struggling to understand something, and so I succumbed… I allowed him to keep me on the couch.

We talked like that for a while before we began discussing what will happen next. The outcome of that discussion was one that I didn’t like although I’d wanted it forever. He decided that we would return to the house in rural Gathery but not pay for the place. No one lived there and no one seemed to want to. I wanted to finally go home but I didn’t want to have to return to the place I was warned not to go to. I told him that we would wait until the latest date and try and figure a secondary plan. Today I go to school late; I figured I’d get scolded for it but the Literature teacher just kept on with his lesson. I sit in class and doodle on my paper like I do a lot in this period. I’m listening, it’s just that my mind is free in here so it wanders and doodling helps me think while not zoning out. “Star-Crossed Lovers,” I murmur as I look at the new images on my paper. I wasn’t drawing the usual doodles and I wasn’t drawing things based on Romeo & Juliet. I drew myself the best I could and Monty -also the best I can, he’s so gorgeous- twice. A line separates the two drawings. On the top are Monty and I close to one another. I’m on the ground with my legs to my side and he’s kneeling before me with a hand under my chin. Below I’m grabbing for Monty but he’s far away from me with an odd shaped shadow cast over him. The words on the top picture are ‘Love At First Sight Or Lust?’. The words on the bottom picture are, obviously, Star-Crossed Love. The way Monty spoke to me last night made me think of the two of us as sort of star-crossed lovers. Err, not lovers because we aren’t in love but something like that. I’m still confused about the whole thing actually. I wonder when he’ll pop up again.

At lunch I sit by the window doors at the back of the cafeteria. Usually I grab something light that I can eat on the way to the door to leave for the library -I like reading- but reading today seemed like it wouldn’t distract me at all. I didn’t eat anything and simply stared out of the window doors on my left. Just when I start to leave, I see Monty on the same corner he was at last time I saw him on the street, before the incident in rural Gathery. I watch him from the window and notice he’s just standing there staring in my direction. I stand up and start towards the door when I see he’s gone. I wanted to call out to him or chase after him and tell him about my plans but I knew better than to try and chase after him. Seeing him there reminds me of the memories that fickle me and that I want to forget. Well, not all of them. When I saw him that day it was like a dream to me. He was my hero again and I liked it, still do. I’m not as afraid as I was before because of what he told me. He said he wouldn’t let the monsters get as close to me as they had then. I believe him. I trust in his word. There’s little else I can do but trust that he’ll protect me and won’t disappear. I guess he won’t ditch me since he let me see him on the corner. He probably did it to reassure me that he was still around. I sit back down in my seat and look at the food on my plate: cheese pizza, skinny fires, a carton of chocolate milk –chocolate milk beats white milk any day to me- and a bright red apple. Seeing the apple reminds me of when Kusso got that softball thrown at him. If Monty has never left me alone completely then he wouldn’t have that day. Could he have been the assailant?

School eventually ends and I walk home slowly. Would he grace me with his presence on the walk? Will he show up and then disappear again; no, he only did it for reassurance and I don’t need more than that. What is Monty? He snarls like the monster, runs fast like it, and faintly smells like it; so could he be a monster too? Despite my slow pace, I make it to the apartment with no sign of him. Once I get up to my apartment I see the ‘Warden’ come out of a neighboring apartment. “Always complaining about something. There’s no hot water, the air won’t come on, why is there a purple and yellow stain on my ceiling,” he mocks as I quickly open my door. I’m not going to be the one for him to vent to -he likes doing that. When I enter the room I close my eyes and sigh as I lean against the door. I slowly open my eyes to see Monty standing across the room from me. I gasp and clasp my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. I wasn’t going to scream out of fear just surprise at him being there. I mean, how could a gorgeous creature like Monty be scary? I shake my head side to side as Monty slowly makes his way over to the couch.

“How’d you get in here? Why are you in here?” Monty takes a seat on the couch and watches me with peripheral vision as I watch him. Before long I start over to the couch.

“Those monsters are far faster than the fastest of humans; stronger than the strongest of humans; and more ruthless than the evilest of humans; how long do you think you can last?”

“Uh.” That’s all I can really say as I stand a few feet from Monty. I stare at him as he stares at his fumbling hands.

“Why, after you saw how dangerous it is out there, are you going to live out there in rural Gathery?” My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“How did you know that?”

“I got bored watching you draw and noticed your guardian was up at your school. I overheard him talking about you twos plan to move into that house in rural Gathery.”

“Well, our landlord said we had to be out by Monday and we can’t afford to stay anywhere else so we’re going home.”

“Home?”

“Yeah. I used to live in that little green house.”

“Right. But how do you expect to purchase the house if you can’t afford cheaper housing?”

“We don’t plan on buying it.” His hands stop fumbling a moment then start again at a slowly more calmed pace.

“You draw very nice by the way.” I take in air and he chuckles at my response. I stamp my foot and pout as his head bolts upward. “Are you angry?”

“It’s that obvious?”

“I didn’t think you were one for sarcasm.” I turn and face the kitchen as he stares after me confused. “What did I say?” I don’t look at him a while. Finally my shoulders drop and I turn back around to see him staring after me worriedly like a puppy who did wrong and didn’t know why he was being punished. I stare at him for a while. I don’t know what my expression is but his face remains as it was when I turned around. I don’t even know why I got mad at him. He didn’t mean what he said to embarrass me. I sigh and he relaxes a bit as I walk over to the couch.

“You embarrassed me.” I sit and he turns to face me with a glimmer of a smile on his face.

“That’s why you got mad,” he sighs in relief.

“What did you think I was mad about?” He simply smiles at me then turns from me and faces forward. I watch him staring at his now still hands and wonder. “So you didn’t kill the monster?” I want to keep the two of us talking.

“No. I wasn’t able to destroy THEM because they were all in groups; there were four in each of the two cults.” I thought it was just one but then again all the blurs looked the same. He fought all of them?

“Why can’t you destroy the monsters in groups?”

For a moment he examines my face then looks past me at the window in the kitchen and replies, “The monsters are called Shadow Beasts and when in a group you must kill them all at once or the last remaining beasts shriek will revive the others.” I stare at him amazed which makes him look away from the window. I walk over to the couch and sit on his right which is the center of the couch. He turns his head back in its previous direction once I cross his line of sight and settles them on the wall across from the couch.

“Why did you save me that night?” He stays quiet. “Who is Ellie Tres?” He shifts in his seat but keeps his eyes focused. “Is she the reason why you protected me; because I remind you of her? Who is she?”

“I… can’t-”

“Is she a relative of mines?” He doesn’t answer. “Is she someone I should know?”

“By now; yes.”

“I don’t remember her.”

“Would you mind if we changed the subject?” Reluctantly, I agree.

“Sure. Might I ask why they were after me?”

“The two things are connected actually.”

“Is there anything that I can ask that you won’t try and side step?”

“That,” he jokes but I don’t laugh; I don’t find it funny. “Lighten up.”

“Sorry but I’m just not in the mood for laughing with a, a, ‘Monty’ in my house and monsters after me.”

“Why did you say my name like that?”

“Because I don’t know what you are and find it difficult to believe you can give me your name and nothing else.” He laughs and then turns to face me. “Tell me SOMETHING.”

“I will try to. You asked why they came after you?” I nod. “It’s because of me.”

“How?”

“Well-” He stops abruptly and sits straight up. I watch him a moment with held breath until he relaxes again and I exhale.

“What?”

“It was nothing.”

“That wasn’t nothing but all right. Go on.”

“Well, like I said before, it all has to do with Ellie,” when he says the name his voice seems to grow softer and his shoulders lower slightly, “and the stored soul.”

“Stored soul?”

“I told you all I can tell and then some. I think that’s enough.”

“But-”

“For that question at least.” He smiles at me a moment and in that instant I realize he’s not looking at me.

“The stored soul... Is the soul stored in me? Is it Ellie’s soul? Why’s it so important?”

“You don’t let things go. I said that was all I could tell you. Ask something else.” My face grows a shade redder as I bolt upward.

“Those are the questions I have.”

“Those aren’t typical teenage questions.”

“Well, we’re not typical teenagers.”

“You are.”

“Right.”

“So you should be asking typical questions and I shouldn’t.” I screech in my chest which makes him bust out in laughter. I storm into the kitchen and begin shifting around in the cabinets.

“I want straight answers or else.”

“Or else what?” I finally find the giant steak knife I use for cooking and place it to my wrist.

“I may do something drastic.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t test…” I look down at the blade to see it had gone, “me,” I mutter as I look up, confused. I notice he has the knife in his mouth like a dog that has just fetched a bone and is smiling widely at me. I grow a little redder then search through the drawers again. Finally I stand upright with a metal fork in the hand nearest the outlet to my right. My hair blows back and I fume noticing Monty in a different position on the couch; the knife still in his mouth and the fork twirling in his left hand, still smiling. “So what if you have super speed,” I mutter rambling through the cabinet. After a few minutes of searching I sigh. I look at the yellow counter top and muse. I just wanted answers. It was the least he could do for involving me in all of this. His smile fades as my eyes get teary. Darn it, I won’t cry. I inhale a few times and then blink and stand upright. I turn my back to the counter and lean against it slightly. “Do you know how hard it is to be in the dark about things, Monty? That’s how I feel. I feel like I’m being dragged into stuff without knowing anything.” He just stares at me as the fork stops twirling and falls into his open palm. He flashes from the couch to my side but I don’t even look in his direction. I had calmed down and wasn’t angry but I was a little upset that there were so many questions that he wouldn’t answer.

“You have to believe me, Abby. I don’t want to keep secrets but if I don’t…” He trails off and looks from me as I stare at the refrigerator across from me. “You’ll figure it out on your own," he concludes as he flashes out of sight.

“Wait,” I call but he’s gone. I walk from the kitchen and take a seat on my old couch and try to gather up my thoughts. Who is Elli Tres? And what does he mean by a stored soul? Do I have Elli’s soul stored in my body? Who is she to him? I wonder and wonder before it turns dark outside.

“Any luck,” I ask as Roguf stumbles into the apartment and runs for the kitchen as I sit on the couch writing in my notebook that I had been doodling in lately. I sit up and hear water running and beg that he’s just thirsty.

“Phew, man. I haven’t had a lick to drink almost all day,” he sighs as I mimic his sigh. He stares at me a moment before taking a few strides over to the couch. “You thought I was drunk?” He asks with a sad expression.

“Sort of.”

“Aw, Abby. I’ve been sober.”

“I know, I know,” I admit quickly, “but you looked like you were drunk to me. It’ll take some getting use to is all.” He smiles then moves my feet from being stretched out over the couch.

“What’s that? Brainstorming?” I look at him and then at my notebook and blush. I quickly slide it underneath me which makes him smirk. “Love notes? Confessions? I saw a boy’s name. Are you making a love story or something? Elli Tres and Monty James,” he slides his hand through the air and gazes at it with false astonishment. I watch him but am not amused. This was real and the way he made it seem… it appeared Elli and Monty were an item. My eyes fly open which catches his attention. He lowers his hand and stares at me with a concerned expression. “Abby?”

“Elli Tres and Monty James,” I repeat, muttering sadly, my eyes drooping a bit.

“What’s the matter? Did I say something to upset you?”

“No,” I lie and he notices.

“Your voice cracked.” I bite my bottom lip and he turns his body in my direction. He shoves me a few times and I sit up to face him. “What?”

“It’s nothing. You got the story wrong.”

“That’s not something to tear up about,” he whimpers.

“It’s nothing,” I lie again and my voice cracks again. I really needed to work on that. Murlaphor is a wondrous place! I know everything about my parents! I’m an honor student!

“Abby, I was only poking fun; you know that, right?” I nod and he sighs. “You’ll tell me in time, right?” I nod, I can’t trust my voice won’t crack. If I can’t be told about these things then neither could he. He sighs and then stands from the couch. “I’m heading to bed pub.” Once he wanders into his room I lay my head on the couch. Elli Tres could be the love of Monty’s life. That could be why he said her name and reacted that way. That could be why he can care about me so fast, so soon. It wasn’t me he wanted to protect… it was Elli and her soul that is stored inside me. He doesn’t care about me at all.

I stayed up really late last night because I was afraid to go to sleep. And for good reason too. I had nightmares and woke up in a cold sweat and screaming all night. I walked slowly to school, to my classes, and home. I was a ghost the entire day. After I take a shower and get dressed in a white tank top and red and white boxer shorts, I flop onto the couch. I stare up at the ceiling with both arms flung over my head and open hands, my left leg hanging over the side of the couch, and my other leg kicked up. As soon as I get comfy, I hear muffled laughing from behind my head. I cover my eyes with my right arm but as soon as I do it flashes back at my side. “You’re not still upset because I wouldn’t tell you anything, are you?” I say nothing and roll over when he flashes me back onto my back. “What, Abby?”

“Just don’t talk to me,” I sigh. He stares down at me as I stare at the ceiling again. I had no right to be mad at him. I mean, from the start he didn’t really like me. He just protected me. Shouldn’t matter if he’s in love with the stored soul I have and not me. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt either. He must have been laughing his butt off at my pictures. I grimace when he lowers his face closer to mine. Despite me being mad at him I take in air and push myself back and off of the couch as I blush. He quickly appears behind me to catch me before I hit the floor. I wind up facing him again and in his arms again. His arms and me. He gently places me onto the couch again and I sit up. I stare at him for maybe a whole minute before I stop blushing and look away from his slightly humored and slightly concerned face. He was smiling a little but his eyes were content on me and a deep blue as if he were concentrating on me to see what bothered me. Stupid eyes.

“Abby?”

“Stop bothering me, geez. I just want to be left alone for a while. Is that too much to ask? I don’t want to talk to you right now,” my voice cracks.

“Your voice cracks when you lie. Roguf heard that defect yesterday and talked to your landlord about it earlier.”

“Stop watching me.”

“What?”

“That’s what stalkers do.”

“But-”

“End of subject.” I frown which makes his eyes go a bit glassy and he motions away from me. He wanted to speak, I could tell, but no words would come out. His jaw would loosen then clench again. His leg would lift slightly then fall back down upon the floor as if he couldn’t decide to leave or not.

“Ab-”He starts then suddenly stiffens. He wrinkles up his nose and then disappears. As soon as he stopped speaking I looked up but he was already gone. After eight long minutes, the door creeps open and Roguf makes his way inside. Is he hiding from Roguf or did he leave? How’d he know Roguf was coming anyway? Monster senses, I bet.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Nothing.” He shrugs at my blunt response and shuts the door with his left foot. He then wanders into the kitchen and places the five paper bags he carried onto the table. He slowly pulls out produce and I stand from the couch. “I’m going to my room.” He shrugs and I walk from the couch over to my room and walk inside. As you know, I don’t shut my room door because there’s nothing to hide in there.

I haven’t seen or heard from Monty since Thursday. I don’t mind not seeing him though. I was and still am not happy with him. He can protect Elli Tres from afar.