Flames;Sparkles...

chapter three

Chapter three

When he stepped into her room later that night, he saw that she hadn't spent a lot of time personalizing the room. The room's walls were pale and above the gray and pink bed were two photos. One captured her and a friend laughing and hugging. In the other she was with a boy, about her age. Jealousy rose up in his throat. He didn't know why he doubted her trust in him and why he was suddenly so angry at the young man in that picture. 'Hey, you actually came.' She smiled at him as she came into the door. Of course he came why would she… unless she didn't trust him enough. He just looked at her and the he asked her what he had wanted to ask her the day before. 'Alex, why are you my friend? I mean I do absolutely not mind you being my friend, but I want to know, would you still be friends with me if you really knew who I was?'  There, he had given her something to think about, now there was no way out of this mess he had created for himself. 'What are you talking about? I don't know what you have in that tight locked past of you but I'm sure if you knew me you would drag me back to those basterd yourself. I don't care what your secrets are, Bruce, but they can't be worse than mine.' She ranted, he almost smiled at her tone but then her tone made it through to him. 'What do you mean I'll drag you back, why would I do something like that?' he asked her she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. 'Because I'm bad, the only reason I'm with this family and have this name and this job is because I'm bad.' She said through teeth. 'Alex, you have no idea what bad really is. You're too young to know, and frankly, I don't care much for their ridiculous rules.' He informed her with a gentle voice. She looked up at him and he wished he could make the pain in her eyes go away. 'You wanted to know about the secrets I keep.' He stated and sat on her bed, playing absently with the teddy bear resting on one of her pillows. 'I was thirteen. My father was the strongest shape shifter alive and also the most ruthless. My mother was kind and gentle and she loved my father no matter what he was- sometimes I tell myself that that was her only flaw. One day my father comes home from a meeting with the Myth Council, he was mad and my mother told me to hide, I did as she told me but snuck back into the room after he started shouting. I heard that the council had the final vote and all dragons were to surrender or they will be "taken care of" he had refused to surrender and the guardians were on their way to "take care" of him and his family. My mother sent me to her brother in the new world and wrote him a letter; she also gave me a bottle with a silver liquid in it and told me to choose a keeper. I left as soon as I had a chance and hid on a ship, on my way to the Americas. When I got the news that my family was gone I was already settled in with my uncle, who was in fact human. I tried to hide what I was and asked a witch to bind me in one form. She did as I complied but betrayed me; she bound me but in the same breath cursed me. "by day a mortal, by night a monster, a lump of coal in the sun, a princess of the moon shall bring forth the soul hidden in the hearts room".' he paused  to take a deep breath. Before he could continue he saw felt her hand on his. She didn't say anything but he knew as soon as he told her the full tale she will run from him cursing as she does. 'She made sure I would never shift into my full form, but by night I would be reminded of who I really am, a heartless monster.' He shook his head at her protests. 'When darkness falls on me my claws come out and I blow fire out of my through even have tail' He finished cynicly. 'Bruce,' he looked away from her. The worst part was yet to come. 'your eyes change to, don't they?" he heard a smile in her voice, and turned back to see her moving closer to him. 'I think that you really should go easier on yourself.' She was cut of when he put a clawed finger over her mouth, he waited for her to turn away and shriek but she gazed at him waiting to speak. 'When I turned nineteen I courted a girl, her brother was very unhappy about it and one night he and a few of his friends cornered me on my way home. They taunted me and I got angry, I lashed out at them and burned three of them severely, her brother was killed and his best friend John mocked me when he found the silver liquid in my bag, I begged him not to drink it but as young men are, he drank half of it. That liquid was a magic concoction that made mortals immortal, he became my keeper. We ran away and for about a decade he hated me, but he stayed with me for fear of being found. When times started to change I bought a house with the money we made selling gold we stole of trains. When the government brought in a schooling system like the ones we have today, we went to school for that time and then we would skip a decade, later John stopped going to school and took on the role as my older brother who worked as a photographer and only came home once in a while. I hate myself for what I did to him, although we came to love each other like brothers, still feel guilty.' He finished looking into her eyes begging, and warning at the same time. 'What happened to the girl?' Alex asked. 'She got married to her friend's youngest brother and had eight kids. She became old and flabby, but her eyes stayed kind.' He was watching her face for some emotion but there was none. Suddenly she burst out in a fit of giggles. 'I'm sorry but you look like you wanna tie me to the bed, do you really think I would hate you?' she asked. When he just stared she shook her head. 'I don't hate you and I'm not going to run away. I just think you are a little hard on yourself. No listen, I know what it's like to regret your past, but if you let yourself be ruled by the past you can't enjoy the good you do in life. I mean you do have a heart, you buy Jordan lunch, and you used to be nice too all those boys who didn't really have a life.' His face shot up in shock, he didn't know that she could be so resourceful. 'How did you know about that?' He asked a little harsh, she just shrugged and mumbled about a Spanish girl he had English with. He nodded, and made to leave but he stopped himself and asked the one question that he had been carrying around since he first saw her. 'Where is your tattoo?' she looked at him like she thought about it for the first time. 'Uhm, my mom didn't give me a tattoo. I was an illegitimate child and she gave me away to a human family.' She shrugged and he realized that she was still deciding to trust him, it hurt but he understood that something had her doubting anyone that came in a near ten mile radius. He left her room after squeezing her hand and promising to see her at school again.

"How did it go?' John asked as Bruce came through the door. 'It went well, she didn't chant or cry or scream or-'  'fine I get it, she still had some reaction?' he cut him of. 'Well, she laughed at me…' he muttered john couldn't contain his laughter at this and was pined against the castle wall. 'What. Do. You. Think. Is. So. Funny? 'He asked his keeper in a dangerous voice. 'Well, she laughed at you because she thought what everyone else thinks. You're being too hard on yourself.' He said simply and smiled kindly at his friend. Bruce let him down and looked at him strangely. 'You think so too? After…' john nodded. 'Bruce,' he began, shocking Bruce into another dimension. John had always acted as his servant. 'I always thought that if I would tell you that I wanted to leave that you would force me to stay, but you never did, you paid for all my studies and you made sure I was safe. You taught me how to take care of myself and respect myself, but you never treated me like I was your enemy, yes what had happened scared the living daylights out of me, but I learned a valuable lesson form you, true friendship can't be bought like Markus thought. You have to earn the trust of someone before you can expect them to trust you. You have earned my trust that first night we were out in the woods, you know, when you killed that wolf that attacked our campsite?' Bruce stared at him in pure shock. 'You knew about that? Yes that's how I found out that you and I were special companions in a way.' 'Is that why you didn't leave?' John took his time to answer. 'no, I wanted to leave lots of times but I could see you blamed yourself for Markus' stupid mistakes.' Bruce felt the anger rise in his throat again, and swallowed it back. 'I killed him, John! Murdered him in cold blood! I could do it again!' he yelled at the man in front of him. 'Yes you did, but you warned him the day before that he should stay away from you, he didn't do that. He got a group of his rich friends together and provoked you. He threatened me to come to. Today, I'm kind of glad he did, or else I would have died not knowing what true happiness felt like.'  Bruce had never heard so much words come out of this mans mouth before and it scared him a little. Then he pulled himself together and threw his arms around his friend and thanked him. 'You know that I have come to love you like a brother, right?' he asked as he pulled away. 'Yes, but let's not use that term inside the house. I don't like that; it makes me feel like flames might come out of my throat soon.' They laughed at this and spent the rest of the night, sharing thoughts they would never have, and John silently thanked Alex for her kind heart and her genes. Without her Bruce would have become a monster like his father.

Dear diary.

The new girl in school gave me and Max a ride home. I can see she has a good heart. I wonder if she is the girl that grandma used to rant about every time dad would come home drunk.

You know he lost his job last week, the third one in a month. I took all of grandma's money out of the bank and stashed it with my savings so he couldn't buy booze with it again.

Back to the girl, she gave her overly expensive jacket to Jordan, the poorest girl in school, and her shoes too. She said she left money in the jacket but I know that was a lie, she was gasping for some other reason. At the end of the day I got a black eye because I kept dad from hitting Max again and I guess I'll have to lie to Lloyd tomorrow about what happened. He was eager for me to talk to Alex and I hope she would be sitting at lunch with us tomorrow so he'll be too distracted to ask about the bruise. Is it wrong to hate my dad for doing this to us? Mom killed herself because of his drinking problem and his abusive nature toward her. No wonder she cheated on him. Max doesn't know but dad isn't his father, I don't know who his father is but my mom gave me lots of papers before she died that she said I should only read if things got too tough to handle. Well I guess another day won't hurt, I'll soon be eighteen and then I'll take Max and we'll get a cheap apartment near school and I wouldn't have to worry about my father. I guess he won't even worry about us.

Ghalia put her journal under her bed in the suitcase she has already packed and shut off her light. Good night, sweetheart. She thought as she drifted off. Soon she and her brother will be okay and she wouldn't have to worry about things like, people seeing her bruises or finding the scars. She wished so many times for a protector, someone who would understand. But Lloyd was her gay friend and all that he understood was his Italian shoes and the teacher in the art class' ass he didn't know about her troubles, and she never had the courage to tell him about her pitiful excuse for a life.