Faye and Ruin

Two Worlds Collide

We entered the front of the house to find it fairly quiet. To the left down two small steps was a carpeted front room. Two large couches faced each other, windows draped behind the one set against the wall connected to the front door. A large piano was across from us, leading towards a split that would lead back into my father's kitchen.

A nook to our right held coats and shoes and I kicked mine off before walking forward. Past the nook was a hallway that led to bedrooms and a staircase heading up towards more rooms and a family room.

As I walked past the wall that let out into the living room, I called for my father. "Dad! Where are you?"

To the left was an arched opening that would lead to the kitchen and just as I turned to leave the carpeted room, my father's face appeared in the space. "Azora?" Relief and excitement washed over him as he crashed forward and wrapped me in his arms.

I held him tightly, squeezing him and reassuring him that I was ok. I would always be ok. After a moment, his body went still as his eyes locked onto the strange companions behind me.

Claire rushed forward, breaking the tension. "Paul! So nice to see you again!" She wrapped my father in a hug and I stepped away as he stared at the two towering men behind me. Claire broke the embrace and grinned at my dad.

"I know it's very unexpected for me to be here, but I was kind of hoping we could crash here while I um, train." I explained, or attempted to as my father's face filled with confusion. So I began slowly describing to my dad what had happened, how I had been misguided and what was necessary now.

When I finished explaining, his eyes returned to the two men behind me that I hadn't yet introduced. "Oh, and that's Deimos and Bayne." I added. With how close Bayne was standing to me, my father kept his eyes trained mostly on him. Silence filled the space between us. A long silence of intense tension.

"Your hair is so beautiful, and long." Was what he finally said.

I smiled softly, pulling my dad into another hug. This was a lot for my dad to process, I knew that, but I was also so happy to see him.

Finally, as his eyes still refused to leave the monstrous men behind me, specifically Bayne, he spoke. "Well, of course you can stay as long as you need. I am so grateful my daughter is alive and honestly, you somehow seem more like the girl I remember." Pausing, he smiled softly, finally looking at me. "It makes a dad's heart happy. Although, I need to tell you-"

He was unable to finish that sentence as a toilet flushed and a musical voice floated from the hallway we'd passed. "Paul! I was thinking we could do some roast for dinner tonight."

Everyone swung around and watched as my mother, of all people, came floating into the room. She immediately froze. I could feel the tension swirling around us, the uncertainty that spanned between my little group of people and a woman who I didn't think would ever leave that hospital.

"YOU!" She seethed out, her eyes latching onto Bayne and she threw a ball of fire at him.

He easily squelched it, and it fell to the ground as a pile of sand. She threw another ball of swirling energy to which he deflected with barely a twitch of his eye. "What-" He said, before she tossed another one at him and another. "Did-" This time she switched up her tactic and hurled several books at him from the shelves that lined the opposite wall in the family room.

They clattered to the floor with a mere wave of his hand, but he stepped backwards in the process. "I do to you?" He finally managed to blurt out before she shoved both of her hands at him and a blast of air knocked him backwards into me.

I crashed to the floor as Bayne stumbled a step back and the protective rage over me falling washed through his form. Scales flipped across his body, replacing the casual clothes that he had been in and he stood tall, menacingly tall and then threw his hands at my mom.