8- laughs and memories

We had been flying for a while and neither of us said a word to each other. I was lost in my thoughts, wondering about everything that has happened so far since the girls arrived. I knew Jimmy had awakened some of her blood but I didn't know how much and I think it was time to figure it out. I looked down to the girl in my arms. She was looking straight ahead, her mind wondering away god knows where. She looked so innocent and broken it was hard to see that she could kill someone without remorse. I knew what I had to do but I hoped she won’t kill me for it. I let go of her body, letting her drop from hundreds of feet in the air.

“Come on, come on. Show me something” I said. But she kept falling and falling. “Shit” I dove down racing after her the wind hitting me in the face. By the time I reached her, we were almost at the treeline. I grabbed her by the waist and lift her up into the air again.

“Are you crazy?” Jimmy yelled at me. “I swear you’ll regret this when get to land”

“I wanted to see what you could do”

“What?” I stopped flying, grabbed her by the neck and held her at arm’s length. Her feet were hanging down towards the ground.

“Listen, and listen well” I said slowly. I waited before I had her undivided attention. “I know that you have awakened some of your blood. I saw you sucked that guy dry the day we went to Annwn. My job is to make sure that you are not a threat to the town and school okay? I just want to know what you can do, can you show me?” As I spoke, my voice got softer and softer. Jimhaya looked at my thoughtfully for a while. Without a word, she took my hand and ripped it off her neck. I screamed of fear that she would fall but to my surprised she stayed in front of me not moving.

“Shit, you gave me a fright” I said holding my chest. Jimmy looked at me with a ghost smile on her face.

“You were afraid for me?” she asked confused.

“Ya” I said, “I was” After I said that, there was an awkward silence, just looking at each other. I cleared my throat. “So you can fly huh?” Jimmy didn’t answer; she just kept looking at me.

“If you have questions, you have to ask Jazzy. I’m not giving you any” She said quietly.

“Good to know” I said. I decided to change the subject, “How about we race back to the lake. Through the wind and through the trees, what say you?” I grinned at her and started my way back where we came from and her following close behind. I dove down into the trees flying through the branches and she followed. I was laughing, enjoying the wind through my hair and avoiding the obstacles in front of me. We continued like that for some time until I decided to go faster. I went back up above the trees and continued my way to the lake. When I looked behind me, I couldn’t see Jimmy anywhere. I laughed: nobody messes with a child of the wind. As I turned my eyes back to the front, I saw a black smoke and what looked like webs appearing in the air. I put the brakes trying to change course but I was not able to. I crashed into the figure fairly hard and we went falling out of the sky. We crashed into the lake and the water above my head took the away air in my lungs. The shock of the cold water kept me frozen for a few seconds before I managed to control my body again. I retracted my wings and swam up to the surface.

I looked around to Jimmy in the water with me. I was so mad right now for teleporting herself in front of me that it occur to me that she was laughing.

“Are you nuts? We could have gotten hurt” I screamed at her. “Stop laughing you piece of-.” I froze. She was laughing. I looked at her and noticed her features were softer. She had dimples showing with her wide smile, her smile that showed her perfect white teeth looked sincere and her eyes held life for the first time since I first met her. It’s a beautiful sight: seeing a person come back to life even if it doesn’t last long.

“What?” she asked her smile still on her face.

“You’re laughing” I simply said. She shrugged but slowly and surely she lost her smile and her eyes lost the life she had in them. But her body seemed calmer and more at ease. With a huff, I put my hands on top of the water and pulled myself up. I didn’t feel like swimming right now.

“How did you do that?” I looked down and Jimmy was looking at my with a curious face. I could only see her head as the rest was still under water.

“Come on, you know how to fly but not walk on water?” I said. She shook her head.

“Teach me” With a sigh, she took my hand and I lifted her out of the lake. I used my magic to control the density of the water underneath her feet so she could stand up. And so for the next two and a half hours, I taught Jimhaya how to walk on water. She kept falling in the lake, but she never gave up. It took a while for her to grasp the magic but she was finally able to control the element.

The sun had already set and by the time we arrived at the lake house, I was so tired I just wanted to have a nice hot bath and go to sleep. Red was sitting alone in the living room reading a book and Jimmy went directly to the sofa were her sister was. She slumped down on her stomach, the top of her head was touching Red’s leg and her right arm was gently placed on Red’s lap. Her feet were hovering over the arm chair and into the air. She sighed in content and closed her eyes.

“What did you do to my sister?” Red asked me with a hint of humor in her voice. She ran her hand through her sisters’ hair while talking. Before I answered, I went into the kitchen first to get three beers then sat in front of them on the ground. Right now, all I wanted to do was ask my questions about Jimmy but I knew I had to wait. “I taught her to walk on water and we raced in the sky” I answered. “We actually had fun. And Jimmy laughed” Red’s face turned into shock after my last statement.

“Jamie, is it true?” Jimhaya slowly kneeled in front of her sister. She had a small smile on her face.

“I remembered” she whispered. “I remembered how to laugh. Everything went away. It was calm.” Red held one of her hand to her mouth as she was trying to stop the tears from falling out of her eyes. This must have been the greatest news Red’s had ever had in her life by the look of pure joy and happiness she showed. Her other hand went to Jimmy’s cheek as she gently stroke it with her thumb like a mother would her child.

Jimmy’s smile turned into a frown. “But I forgot again” Red shook her head and gently bumped foreheads with her twin.

“It’s okay. It’s okay” she kept saying. She looked directly into Jimmy eyes and smiled. “It’s progress sweetie. One step at a time right?” Jimmy nodded her head. I couldn’t help but smile at this emotional moment. Not every siblings has this strong of bonding with each other. The relationship between these two sisters was so strong and so tight it made me want to go back in time and repair the bond I had with my brother before he died.

“Why don’t you go upstairs I’ll meet you there soon alright?” Red asked her sister. She kissed Jimmy on the forehead before letting her sister up. I was watching the brown head girl leave the living room. Red came down the sofa and cupped my cheeks before kissing lightly my cheek.

“Thank you” she simply said. I smiled at her and nodded. I was unable to form a word because I was still shaken up from all the emotions running through me. I took a deep breath, it was now or never to ask about Jimmy.

“What’s wrong with your sister?” Red’s face hardened. “I saw her drink from a human a couple of weeks ago. I confronted her about it and she said to ask you for information” With a sigh, Red sat on the ground in front of me where her back was touching the sofa.

“It’s a long story” she said.

“We have time. Where are the others?”

“They’re outside camping. Zoe went with them. Ren didn’t want to sleep under the same roof as Jamie and I tonight and frankly I’m glad they’re not here. I don’t think I could handle it. Not tonight at least. We will have to see about tomorrow, when Ren’s ego drops down a little.” Red explained.

“So we have time” I said smiling. I could see Red debating whether to tell me or not about her sister. She will have to tell me someday anyways.

“Alright” Red reluctantly said. I suddenly got nervous. I knew something happened to her sister but I have no idea how bad it was. If Red was not willing to talk about it, then it must be pretty big.

-

“Everything started when she was thirteen” Red started. I quietly drank my beer while I was listening to my friend. Her eyes were glazed and she was staring ahead. She looked like her mind was in the past and her body language held sadness. “As you know, we have three different blood lines. Jessica’s strongest bloodline is werewolf, then vampire, then witch. She has more trouble with magic than us. Because of that she will be the next Alpha of the pack. My strongest blood line is witch, then werewolf, then vampire. My blood lust is weaker than theirs which allows me to control myself better. Because of this, I’m the next witch to the throne and I am to be on the counsel once I graduate University in a couple of years. So you can figure out that Jimhaya’s strongest blood line is vampire, then witch, then werewolf. So where does that leave her in our family hierarchy? Nowhere.” Red had just confirmed my hypothesis about her and her sisters. Red continued her story.

“Mom and dad didn’t tell us about who we were because they wanted us to live a normal human life. They knew that once we discovered who we were, then it would be harder for us to live a quiet life.

Anyway, all of our strongest blood bloomed at puberty, which was when we were thirteen. I didn’t notice my powers until I accidently threw something with my mind when I was fourteen years old. My dad told Jess about her wolf a few months after I found out about my magic. She was getting stronger by the day. We assumed it was because of our daily training and puberty.

Jamie was different. Blood is a necessity amongst vampires and it was something that didn’t come to Jess and I so soon. Jamie started to notice her changes at thirteen. She started to smell the amazing sent of blood and it lured her in. That was when she started to slip away from us.

One day, when we fourteen, I knew of my powers by then, Jamie and I were walking home. I had noticed the change in her but I thought it was just her growing up. She stopped at a crossroad and told me to go home. She said she had business to attend. I didn’t know what was going on so I followed her. I heard screams in the alley and when I arrived, my sister was standing on top of a body. She heard me gasp because she turned around to look at me. Her eyes were bright red and they held a wild look in them. Before I could blink she was in front of me and yelling at me, saying that I was supposed to go home. That was the first time I snuck my sister, who was full of blood, into our house. It was the first time I burnt her clothes and the first time I lied to my parents. But it was certainly not the last. That night she told me what she had been dealing with for the past year. It was also when she told me she had her first taste of blood and her first kill a few months after our thirteen birthday.

I remember the time she came crying to me about her first innocent kill. It was one of her classmate’s in high school. As the time went by, it was getting harder and harder for her to control her thirst.”

“Why didn’t she tell her parents about it?” I asked cutting in.

“Jamie hates when people lie to her. Since everything started, she would constantly ask mum and dad ‘Is there something you wanted to talk about?’, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ and so forth. Every time they said no.

It is not a child’s place to discover the need to feed of humans and the need to kill without its parents. And I agree: mum and dad should have been straight forward with her. But they were so caught up with Jess and I that they pushed Jamie aside. Jamie slowly became more reserved. You must be asking yourself: ‘Is it not a little hypocrite of her part? Has she not been lying to her parents about her condition?’ Well, Jamie simply ignored the questions or beat around the bush. All she ever wanted was for our parents to tell her what happening. She was afraid of their reactions about her hunting and what they would do to her.  Anyway, there was a point when Jamie was no longer in control of herself. I managed to find a way to keep her blood lust to a minimum and it has been working like a charm.

Two years ago something horrible happened to her. Because of that, she had tried to kill herself a couple of times. I managed to convince her to let me show her the greatness of life. After two years, if I couldn’t convince her, I gave her the right to commit suicide without me intervening. That was the deal.  So far no luck and the deadline is in less than two months.

It’s because of what happened to her that she is who she is now: a dead girl walking. We created a game together: Every day I ask her to tell me one good thing about her day. We try to find something different each time. But sometimes she can’t find anything she says ‘coffee’” Red and I laughed a little. “My sister loves coffee and if she weren’t so badly off, then she would live just to have her morning coffee. And her mid-day coffee, her after-noon coffee and her evening coffee. It’s just like the British people and their tea” We were laughing hard now. I didn’t know Jimmy liked that so much. When we calmed down, I asked Red a question that had been bothering me.

“Is the event that happened two years ago the reason you moved here?” I asked.

“No. Not really” she replied unsure of her answer. “It’s complicated. It is not because of that specific event that made us decide to move, but it has a connection to what happened a few months ago. Although, my sister and parents have no idea that those two are connected.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened to Jimmy two years ago?” I said. Red shook her head.

“Sorry, but that is something I am not ready to talk about. Do you have any more questions?” I nodded.

“Can you guys talk to each other through mind link?” Red smiled

“Yes we can. And no one else is able to hear our thoughts. It’s our own private link” she said

“Why does Jimmy always look for you when you are near each other? And why does she like to have a physical contact with you all the time?”

“I see you notice a lot of things huh? One would think that you can’t keep your eyes off my sister” she smiled sweetly.

“It’s not like that” I defended. I could feel my face heating up with embarrassment. Red laughed at my reaction. She had no idea how hard it is to keep my eyes off her sister and how much I noticed by watching her.

“It’s alright honey. My sister is something of a mystery isn’t she? Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me” I put my face in my hands trying to hide my red face and groaned.

“Please answer the question” I mumbled in my hands.

“Let’s just say that I’m Jamie’s life vest.” Red said with a serious tone. I raised my head to look at her because that answer really didn’t say shit. “Jamie needs something to keep her mind in the real world. She needs something to reminder her that this world is the real one and not a fragment of her imagination and I’m that something. I’m also her- master- I guess. I’m the only one so far who can control her.”

“And that’s a good thing?” I asked.

“It’s a great thing. What I’m about to tell you, you have to keep to yourself, because the way things are going between you and Jamie, you are going to need all the information you can get.” I nodded. “Right now, Jamie is like a dog and I’m her master. She does not jump until I tell her to jump and she does not bite until I tell her to. What happened to her two years ago left her a slave of her own mind: unable to do anything without order. She has gotten much better since, but she still needs me every day. At first she stuck to me like glue but now she can go walk around freely.”

“It’s that bad huh?” I said in disbelief. Broken is to soft a word to describe what I’m hearing right now. How can someone be so destroyed or shattered like that. I really wanted to know what happened but I think that the only two people in the world who know won’t say a word about it. I have to be partient.

“Yes, but I’m hoping with you around her, treating her like normal girl with all your teasing, that you could help her live a little. She likes you, you know? I think you remember who she was before.”  She smiled at me.

We had changed the subject to a happier one when Jimmy came down the stairs. I couldn’t help but see her in a different way now that I know about her teen hood. It made me appreciate more of who she was by knowing part of the reason why she acts this way.

“I’m leaving” she told Red. Her sister nodded and waved her goodbye. Jimmy turned her attention to me. I think she knew that I knew about her past. She nodded once and teleported herself out of the house.

“Where is she going?” I asked Red but she didn’t answer. I looked at her and she had a blank mask covering her face. “Red?”

“You know when I told you that I found a way for her to keep her blood lust at bay? Well that’s where she is going.”

“And where’s that?” Silence was my answer. “Red, didn’t you just tell me that I needed to know as much as possible about your sister?”

“You’re not ready Siana” she told me.

“Please” I begged her. If she wanted me to help her with her sister, I had to know what to expect.

“Alright” she said as she stood up. She snapped her figures and two cloaks and a hat appeared in her hands. She gave me the tuque and told me to hide my white hair and then she gave the cloak.

“Listen carefully. Whatever I say you do, understand? You never take off the cloak and you never remove the tuque. I will do all the talking, but if someone talks to you, you can answer only with short answers. Do not get attention to yourself. You do not say your real name, and try not to look around. You stay by my side at all times, understand?” I nodded. “Good, I will explain more when we get there”

Red put her cloak on and hooked her arm with mine. I was getting a little nervous, wondering why I had to follow so many rules for my safety. “Hold on” she said and she teleported us out of the cabin.

I took a look around, where we landed.

“Holly Mother of Hell” I said.